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 Burning Man is an annual event held in the Black Rock Desert, in Northern Nevada. It takes its name from the ritual burning of a large wooden effigy on Saturday evening. The event is described by many participants as an experiment in community, radical self-expression, and radical self-reliance. The event is open from the last Monday in August until Labor Day (the first Monday in September). The event is organized by Black Rock City, LLC. In 2008, 49,599 people participated in Burning Man.[1]
[edit] History[edit] 1986 to 1989The annual event now known as Burning Man began as a bonfire ritual on the summer solstice in 1986 when Larry Harvey, Jerry James, and a few friends met on Baker Beach in San Francisco and burned a 9-foot (2.7-meter) wooden man as well as a smaller wooden dog. Harvey has described his inspiration for burning these effigy figures as a spontaneous act of radical self-expression. The event did have earlier roots, though. Sculptor Mary Grauberger, a friend of Harvey's girlfriend Janet Lohr, held solstice bonfire gatherings on Baker Beach for several years prior to 1986, some of which Harvey attended. When Grauberger stopped organizing it, Harvey "picked up the torch and ran with it," so to speak. He and Jerry James built an 8-foot (2.4-meter) wooden effigy for 1986, which was much smaller and more crudely made than the neon lit figure featured in the current ritual. In 1987, the effigy grew to almost 15 feet (4.6 meters) tall, and by 1988 it had grown to around 40 feet (12 meters). Harvey swears that he did not see the movie The Wicker Man until many years later, so it played no part in his inspiration. Accordingly, rather than allow the name "Wicker Man" to become the name of the ritual, he started using the name "Burning Man".[2] [edit] 1990 to 1996In 1990, a separate event was planned by Kevin Evans and John Law on the otherworldly, remote and largely unknown playa known as Black Rock Desert, about 100 miles north of Reno.[3] Evans conceived it as a dadaist event with temporary sculpture to be burned and situationist performance art. He asked John Law, who also had experience on the playa and was a defining founder of Cacophony Society, to take on central organizing functions. In the Cacophony Society's newsletter, it was announced as Zone Trip #4, A Bad Day at Black Rock (inspired by the movie of that name). Meanwhile, the beach burn was interrupted by the park police for not having a permit. After striking a deal to raise the Man but not to burn it, event organizers disassembled the effigy and returned it to the vacant lot where it had been built. Shortly thereafter, the legs and torso of the Man were chain-sawed and the pieces removed when the lot was unexpectedly leased as a parking lot. The effigy was then reconstructed, led by Dan Miller, Harvey's then housemate of many years, just in time to take it to Zone Trip #4.[4] Michael Mikel, another active Cacophonist, realized that a group unfamiliar with the environment of the playa would be helped by knowledgeable persons to ensure they did not get lost in the deep playa and risk dehydration and death. He took the name Danger Ranger and created the Black Rock Rangers. Thus the seed of Black Rock City was germinated, first organized by Law and Mikel, based on Evans' idea, along with Harvey and James' burning man. It grew by word of mouth alone. 1991 marked the first year the event had a legal permit with the BLM (the Bureau of Land Management).[5] [edit] 1997 to present 1997 was a pivotal year for the event. The car-friendly, open playa had become over-run with 10,000 attendees and was deemed too dangerous to continue in the same way with unrestricted driving. To implement a ban on driving and re-create the event as a pedestrian/bicycle/art car only event, it was decided to move the event to private property. Fly ranch, with the adjoining Hualapai mini dry lake-bed playa was chosen. This brought Burning Man in to the jurisdiction of Washoe County permitting. To comply with the new permit requirements and to manage the increased liability load, the organizers formed Black Rock City, LLC. Since then, one of the challenges faced by the LLC has been trying to balance the freedom of participants - a defining element of the experience - with the requirements of BLM and various law-enforcement groups. Over the years, numerous restrictions have been put in place, such as:
Another notable restriction to attendees is the 7 mile (11 km) long temporary plastic fence which surrounds the event and defines the pentagon of land used by the event on the southern edge of the Black Rock playa.[14] This 4 foot (1.2 meter) high barrier is known as the "trash fence" because its initial use was to catch wind-blown debris that may escape from campsites during the event. Since 2002, the area beyond this fence has not been accessible to Burning Man participants during the week of the event.[citation needed] At 1:25 AM on August 28, 2007, at the exact moment of the Total Lunar Eclipse, Paul Addis, a well-known, longtime participant and gadfly of Burning Man, who had previously pranked the Man as early as 1997, set the Man on fire four days ahead of schedule.[15] A replacement effigy was built on site and installed in time to be burned on Saturday as planned. In June 2008, he pled guilty to the charge of destruction of property and was charged as a Felony (Destruction of Property over $5,000) — and was sentenced to 1–4 years in prison. As of July 2009, Addis remains imprisoned, however, he is reported to have been granted parole effective February 2010.[citation needed] [edit] Timeline of the event
Note: The man itself has remained close to 40 feet (12 meters) tall since 1989. Changes in the height and structure of the base account for the differing heights of the overall structures.[citation needed] The statistics to the right illustrate the growth of the Burning Man event.[21] The event has gone through several changes, including growing from a small handful of people to over 49,500 people attending the event in 2008. The scale of the event has increased enormously, and Black Rock City, LLC has become more structured since its creation in 1997. Burning Man 2006 was covered extensively for television for the first time by subscription television channel Current TV which handed out cameras to participants and broadcast daily updates via satellite from the playa. "TV Free Burning Man" also provided TV viewers an hour long live feed of The Burn and was shown without commercial sponsorship. TV Free returned in 2007 and 2008; the 2007 coverage was nominated for a news Emmy Award [22] Black Rock City is not considered a Census-designated place according to the United States Census Bureau. If it were, the 2000 event attendance would have placed it between Carson City and Pahrump, making it the 7th largest city in the state of Nevada at the time. Since then, Paradise, Sunrise Manor, and Spring Valley (all suburbs of Las Vegas) experienced proportionally larger population growths than the rest of the state, pushing Black Rock City to the 10th largest city in Nevada according to 2004 census estimates (still between Carson City and Pahrump)[23] [edit] Principles Because of the variety of goals fostered by participatory attendees, known as "Burners", Burning Man does not have a single focus. Features of the event are subject to the participants and include community, artwork, absurdity, decommodification, and revelry. Participation is encouraged.[24] The Burning Man event is governed by 10 principles, which are radical inclusion, gifting, decommodification, radical self-reliance, radical self-expression, communal effort, civic responsibility, leaving no trace, participation, and immediacy.[25]
[edit] ArtArt on the playa is assisted by the Artery, which helps artists place their art in the desert and ensures lighting (to prevent accidental collisions), burn-platform (to protect the integrity of the dry lake bed), and fire-safety requirements are met.[37] Since 1995, a different theme has been created, ostensibly by Larry Harvey, for each year's event. For 2006 the theme was Hope and Fear[38] and for 2007 it was The Green Man.[39][40] It determines to some extent the design of the Man (although his design and construction, while evolutionary, has remained relatively unchanged) and especially the structure on which he stands (an Observatory for "Vault of Heaven," a Lighthouse for "The Floating World"). These themes also greatly affect the designs participants employ in their artworks, costumes, camps and vehicles.[41] Burning Man primarily features outsider art and visionary art, though a great variety of art forms are presented during the event. Creative expression through the arts and interactive art are encouraged at Burning Man. Numerous Theme Camps, registered and placed by the LLC, are created as event and residence centers by sizable sub-communities of participants and use extensive design and artistic elements to engage the greater community and meet the LLC's interactivity requirements. Music, performance, and guerrilla street theatre are art forms commonly presented within the camps and developed areas of the city. Adjacent to the city, the dry lake bed of Lake Lahontan serves as a tabula rasa for hundreds of isolated artworks, ranging from small to very large-scale art installations, often sculptures with kinetic, electronic, and fire elements. Artwork is generally viewed as a gift the artist makes to the community, although art grants are available to participants from the LLC via a system of curation and oversight, with application deadlines early in the year. Grants are intended to help artists produce work beyond the scope of their own means, and are generally intended to cover only a portion of the costs associated with creation of the pieces, usually requiring considerable reliance on an artist's community resources. Aggregate funding for all grants varies depending on the number and quality of the submissions (usually well over 100) but amounts to several percent (on the order of $500,000 in recent years) of the gross receipts from ticket sales. In 2006, 29 pieces were funded. Various standards regarding the nature of the artworks eligible for grants are set by the Art Department of the LLC, but compliance with the theme and interactivity are important considerations. This funding has fostered artistic communities, most notably in the Bay Area of California, the region that has historically provided a majority of the event's participants. There are active and successful outreach efforts to enlarge the regional scope of the event and the grant program. Among these is the Black Rock Arts Foundation (BRAF). While BRAF does not fund any installations for the event itself, it relies on the donations from the LLC for a significant portion of its funding, and does facilitate presentation of work created for the event in outside venues as well as offering its own grants for artworks that typify interactivity and other principles and traditions the event. [edit] Mutant vehiclesA Mutant Vehicle, sometimes called an Art Car, often motorized, are purpose-built or creatively altered cars and trucks. Participants who wish to bring motorized art cars must submit their designs in advance to the event's own DMV or "Department of Mutant Vehicles” for approval and for physical inspection at the time of the event. Vehicles that are unsafe, minimally altered, and/or whose primary function is to transport participants are discouraged or rejected. Some particularly interesting vehicles include: giant motorized muffins, an 8 legged mechanical spider and a Beatles style Yellow Submarine.[42] [edit] BikesBicycles and tricycles are extremely popular for getting around on the playa. Fat tires are generally preferred over skinny tires for driving on the dried silt, which is normally hard but becomes loose with traffic. Participants often decorate their bikes to make them unique. Since lighting on the bikes is critically important for safety at night, many participants incorporate the lighting into their decorations, using Electroluminescent wire (a thin, flexible tube that glows with a neon-like effect when energized with electricity) to create intricate patterns over the frame of the bike. On the night the Man burns (Saturday), thousands of bikes and art cars drive around, creating a visual display similar to Las Vegas at night, except that the lights are mobile. [edit] Temple of ForgivenessIn addition to the burning of the Man, the burning of a temple, The Temple of Forgiveness, has become an activity at the event. David Best's temple projects were ritually burned from 2000 to 2004.[43] In 2005, Best stepped aside to allow for another artist, Mark Grieve, to build his own interpretation of a temple.[44] Grieve's temples were seen in both 2005 and 2006. However, in 2007 David Best took over the temple building duties for one last time. Best has stated that it is time to hand the temple over to the community, and in 2008 the "Basura Sagrada" temple was a collaboration of Shrine and Tucker Teutsch 3.0, built with the extensive help of their friends and the greater Burning Man community.[45] In 2009, the Temple for Burning Man was built in Austin, TX [46] [edit] Black Rock City Black Rock City, often abbreviated to BRC, is the name of the temporary city created by Burning Man participants. Much of the layout and general city infrastructure is constructed by Department of Public Works (DPW) volunteers who often reside in Black Rock City for several weeks before and after the event[47][48]. The remainder of the city including theme camps, villages, art installations and individual camping are all created by participants. [edit] City planningThe developed part of the city is currently arranged as series of concentric streets in an arc composing, since 1999, two-thirds of a 1.5 mile (2.4 km) diameter circle with the Man Sculpture and his supporting complex at the very center (40°46′9.48″N 119°13′12.36″W / 40.7693°N 119.2201°W in 2007). Radial streets, sometimes called Avenues, extend from the Man to the outermost circle. The outlines of these streets are visible on aerial photographs. The innermost street is named the Esplanade, and the remaining streets are given names to coincide with the overall theme of the burn, and ordered in ways such as alphabetical order or stem to stern, to make them easier to recall. For example, in 1999, for the "Wheel of Time" theme, and again in 2004 for the "The Vault of Heaven" theme, the streets were named after the planets of the solar system. The radial streets are usually given a clock designation, for example, 6:00 or 6:15, in which the Man is at the center of the clock face and 12:00 is in the middle of the third of the arc lacking streets (usually at a bearing of 60° true from the Man). These avenues have been identified in other ways, notably in the 2002, in accordance with "The Floating World" theme as the degrees of a compass, for example, 180, 175 degrees. and in 2003 as part of the Beyond Belief theme as adjectives ("Rational, Absurd") that caused every intersection with a concentric street (named after concepts of belief such as "Authority, Creed") to form a phrase such as "Absurd Authority" or "Rational Creed". However, these proved unpopular with participants due to difficulty in navigating the city without the familiar clock layout. The Black Rock City Airport is constructed adjacent to the city, typically on its southern side. The airport serves a variety of aviation traffic, including private airplanes, helicopters, hot air balloons, ultralights, gliders, and skydivers.[49] [edit] Center CampCenter Camp is located along the mid line of Black Rock City, facing the Man at the 6:00 position on the Esplanade. This area serves as a central meeting place for the entire city as well as contains the Center Camp Cafe, Camp Arctica and a number of other city institutions. [edit] Villages and theme campsVillages and theme camps are located along the innermost streets of Black Rock City, often offering entertainment or a service to participants.[50]. Theme camps are usually a collective of people representing themselves under a single identity. Villages are usually a collection of smaller theme camps which have banded together in order to share resources and vie for better placement. Theme camps and villages often form to create an atmosphere in the Black Rock City that their group envisioned. As Burning Man grows every year and attracts an even more diverse crowd theme camps are Black Rock City's own subcultures similar to what can be found in every other city. [edit] VolunteeringThe Burning Man event is heavily dependent on a large number of volunteers. Many of these participants donate their time and energy to the event[51] [edit] Safety, policing and regulationsBlack Rock City is patrolled by various local and state law enforcement agencies as well as the Bureau of Land Management Rangers. Burning Man also has its own in-house group of volunteers, the Black Rock Rangers, who act as informal mediators when disputes arise between participants and between participants and law enforcement. Firefighting, emergency medical services (EMS), mental health and communications support is provided by the volunteer Black Rock City Emergency Services Department (ESD). [edit] Transportation[edit] Commercial airportsThe airport with regular commercial service closest to the event is the Reno-Tahoe International Airport in Reno, Nevada, approximately a 3-hour drive. An airport spokesperson said in 2009 that 15,000 burners arrive to the event via the airport annually, making it the second-busiest time for them. In 2008 and 2009, an information desk for burners was organized in Reno airport. San Francisco, seven hours away by car, is the nearest airport with a high volume of international service [edit] Temporary airstripA section of the Playa is used for a non-permanent airport, which is set up before each event and completely erased afterward. Pilots began camping there randomly about 1995, and once compelled to add structure, it was established in a form acceptable to the BLM in 1999 through the efforts of Tiger Tiger (Lissa Shoun) and LLC board member Mr. Klean (Will Roger). Though it receives logistical support from BMORG and operates an event gate and box office for them, it is technically an independent entity (theme camp). It is found on the Klamath Falls Sectional, using a CTAF of 122.9 MHz. The Black Rock Unicom is operational on that frequency during daylight hours. The runway is simply a compacted strip of playa, and is not lighted.[52] Because of the unique air traffic and safety issues associated with the airport, pilots are strongly encouraged to familiarize themselves with the published information and procedures.[53][54] Advantage Flight Solutions operates an air charter service that flies to and from the Reno airport.[55] [edit] ShuttlesThere are prepaid shuttles, originating in Reno and San Francisco, that move participants to and from the event. During the event there is also a paid shuttle between the event and the nearby towns of Gerlach and Empire. Exiting and reentering the event requires an additional fee, and is highly discouraged. [edit] OtherParticipants also share rides and hitchike. [edit] Criticism[edit] Concerns regarding the "Leave No Trace" policyBurning Man takes place in the middle of a large playa and while not inhabited by humans itself, the area around the playa is home to many animal, plant, and insect species.[56] Supporters of Burning Man point out that participants are encouraged to leave no trace (LNT) of their visit to Black Rock City and not to contaminate the area with litter, commonly known as MOOP (Matter Out Of Place). Despite the BLM and LLC insistence on the practice of LNT, the amount of residual trash at the site has increased over the years.[57] [edit] Damage to the PlayaWhile fire is a primary component of many art exhibits and events, materials must be burned on a burn platform.[10] At one time, burning was allowed to take place directly on the ground of the playa, but this practice allowed burn scars to form and was discontinued. On the last day, public shared burn areas are prepared for participants to use. While Burning Man does provide instructions on how to build a Burn Platform and what not to burn, there are concerns on whether some participants do not follow these instructions to the detriment of the environment and the participants.[58][59] Even water is not to be dumped on the playa, and used shower water must be captured and either evaporate off, or collected and carried home with each participant. Methods used for evaporating water normally include a plastic sheet with a wood frame. The playa dust often blows into these catch basins and some participants end up with a muddy mess to take home. Careful design of small scale evaporating ponds has become an engineering competition, to see what works best. The Bureau of Land Management, which maintains the desert, has very strict requirements for the event. These stipulations include trash cleanup, removal of burn scars, dust abatement, and capture of fluid drippings from participant vehicles. For four weeks after the event has ended, the Black Rock City Department of Public Works (BRC - DPW) Playa Restoration Crew remains in the desert, cleaning up after the temporary city and making sure that no evidence of the event remains.[60] [edit] Burning Man and its effect on global warmingA group of San Francisco scientists are calculating how much the event will contribute to global warming.[61] They have created the CoolingMan organization[62] and have implemented a system that will calculate how much greenhouse gases Burning Man participants will create. The project has inspired many to look for positive ways to get involved in the global warming and climate change movements by seeking out solutions. The CoolingMan website suggests ways that Burners may offset the damage by planting trees or investing in alternative energy solutions.[63] However, in 2007 Burning Man's "Green Man" theme received criticism for Crude Awakening, the 99-foot oil derrick that consumed 900 gallons of jet fuel and 2,000 gallons of liquid propane to blast a mushroom cloud 300 feet high into the sky.[64] In an attempt to offset some of the event's carbon footprint, 30- and 50-kilowatt solar arrays were constructed in 2007 as permanent artifacts, providing an estimated annual carbon offset of 559 tons.[40] [edit] On-site photography restrictionsDespite presenting itself as an event promoting self-expression, the terms of the Burning Man ticket require that participants wishing to use video-recording equipment (including, in practice, most digital cameras) sign over copyright in their images to Black Rock City, and forbid them from using their images for anything other than personal and private use. This has been criticized by many, including the Electronic Frontier Foundation.[65][66] A Burning Man spokeswoman replied that the policies are not new, were written by a former head of the EFF, were used when suing to block pornographic videos and ultimately arose from participant concerns: "We’re proud that Black Rock City (a private event held on public land) is widely acknowledged as a bastion of creative freedom. [B]ut that protection [of participant's freedoms] does necessitate the acceptance of some general terms of engagement when it comes to cameras... EFF seems to think that anyone attending any event somehow has an absolute right to take photographs, and then to do whatever they want with those images without any effective restriction or manner of enforcement. While we believe that such rights do make sense for any of us taking pictures in purely public spaces, this is not true in the private space of Burning Man — if it were it would mean that Burning Man couldn’t protect participant privacy or prevent commercialization of imagery." [67] [edit] CostWhile originally free, since 1995 the event has been charged for, with tickets rising in price each year. A financial report and detail of expenditures is posted on the event's website.[68] [edit] Regional eventsSee also: List of regional Burning Man events The popularity of Burning Man has encouraged other groups and organizations to hold events similar to Burning Man. In recent years, burners wishing to experience Burning Man more frequently than once per year have banded together to create local regional events such as SOAK[5] in Oregon; InterFuse in Missouri; Lakes of Fire in Utah; Element 11 in Michigan, Xara Dulzura and Fuego de los Muertos in San Diego; Apogaea in Colorado; Playa del Fuego in Delaware; Firefly in New England; Burning Flipside in Texas; AuraMan in Indiana; Recompression near Vancouver, British Columbia; Kiwiburn in Whakamaru, New Zealand; Rebirth in Hawaii; Source in Maui; Transformus in North Carolina; Toast in Arizona; Freezer Burn between Edmonton and Calgary, Alberta, Canada; AfrikaBurn in South Africa and NoWhere near Zaragoza in Spain. Some of the events are officially affiliated with the Burning Man organization via the Burning Man Regional Network. This official affiliation usually requires the event to conform to certain standards outlined by the Burning Man organization, and to be substantially coordinated by a "Burning Man Regional Contact," a volunteer organizer with an official relationship to the Burning Man Project via a legal Letter of Agreement. In exchange for conforming to these standards, the event is granted permission to officially advertise as a Burning Man Regional Event. [edit] See also
[edit] References
[edit] Further reading
[edit] External links
Coordinates: 40°46′09″N 119°13′12″W / 40.7692°N 119.2200°W |
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