Art of Burning Man 2013 Art of Burning Man 2013 The playa is a tabula rasa, a blank canvas upon which many a fantastic vision has been realized. Submarines, gigantic ducks, swimmers, fire-breathing thistles, serpents, chan- deliers, grandfather clocks and balsa wood temples have emerged from the playa. The projects featured in this guide were selected as Honorarium projects for 2013. Ev- ery year Burning Man allocates a percentage of its revenue from ticket sales to funding select art projects that are collaborative, community-oriented and interactive. We do this in order to support the Burning Man art community, and to facilitate the creation of outstanding art for Black Rock City. The vast majority of art installations on the pla- ya, however, are not funded. In 2013, a percentage of your hard-earned ticket money BLACK ROCK CITY helped to fund the following art installations, for all Burning Man participants to enjoy. GO CU This guide was put together using availble information on the web and references ma- CAR LT terials that origninate from the artists’ websites, fundraising projects and press. Photos used are also from these sources and may not credit the original photographer (please forgive us for that!). We hope this guide will illuminate the artists’ vision, and illustrate the immense amount of work that goes into bringing their magic cargo to the playa. 2013 Come visit the Artery in BRC at 6:30 and Esplanade to pick up self-guided tour maps that make a great companion to this guide. Cover and design by LoopyLou. Guide compiled by the ARTery. 2 Honorarium Overview / Art of Burning Man 2013 Art of Burning Man 2013 Table of Contents What is a Cargo Cult? .......................................... 4 Ibis Maximus ......................................................75 Ancient Intelligence ............................................. 5 iPhone Cult .........................................................76 Aux Folles ............................................................ 6 Light Mandala .....................................................78 Bat Country ......................................................... 7 Like 4 Real ......................................................... 80 Bathroom Beacons .............................................10 Matahari Riset ................................................... 83 BELIEVE ..............................................................13 Mens Amplio ..................................................... 84 BIG BULLY .........................................................15 MerKaBa ............................................................ 90 A Chaotic Affair ..................................................17 MIZARU .............................................................93 Cathedral of Celestial Mathgic .......................... 20 Neverwas Haul .................................................. 95 Charcade ........................................................... 23 Penrose Triangle .................................................97 Chatty Interactive Robot Rupert ........................ 27 Photo Chapel ..................................................... 99 Char Wash ......................................................... 28 Pimpsnaxx: The Door to Another Dimension ...101 Church Trap ...................................................... 30 Project Insanity ................................................102 City of Lights ..................................................... 34 Psychokinetic Child ..........................................103 Claude the Dragon .............................................35 The Racken! ......................................................107 Coyote ................................................................37 RVFMTV2 .........................................................109 Cradle of “Mir” ................................................ 40 The Serpent Twins ............................................ 111 Cult of the Can Opener ..................................... 44 Shipwreck ......................................................... 113 Crash Site_Alpha-13 .......................................... 45 Sparky’s Wheel of Tesla! ................................... 116 D.E.M. ................................................................. 46 Star Stuff .......................................................... 119 Desert Spirits ..................................................... 49 The Temple of Whollyness ................................120 Dragon Smelter ..................................................51 Tesseract 2.0 .....................................................124 Drifts ..................................................................53 Totem, Notem, Tonem ......................................126 Dust City Diner ..................................................55 Truth is Beauty .................................................128 The Experience Vending Machine ...................... 58 Universe Revolves ............................................131 Fractal Cult ........................................................ 59 VLAM I STOF ...................................................134 Galileo’s Uvula .................................................. 62 What Came First? Your Tribute Or Your Gift? ..136 Guardian Of Dawn ............................................ 64 Xylophage .........................................................137 Hands .................................................................67 Y.E.S.Project...Cargo Youth Spacecraft .............142 Helicopter Dragonfly on Mechanical Plant ........ 69 You Are The Key ...............................................144 HELIX .................................................................70 Zonotopia and the Quasicrystalline Conjunction .146 Homouroboros, Tantalus ................................... 73 3 Table of Contents / Art of Burning Man 2013 What is a Cargo Cult? A cargo cult is a religious practice that has appeared in many traditional pre-indus- trial tribal societies in the wake of interactions with technologically advanced cul- tures. The cults focus on obtaining the material wealth (the ‘cargo’) of the advanced culture through magic and religious rituals and practices. Cult members believe that the wealth was intended for them by their deities and ancestors. Cargo cults devel- oped primarily in remote parts of New Guinea and other Melanesian and Micro- nesian societies in the southwest Pacific Ocean, beginning with the first significant arrivals of Westerners in the 19th century. Similar behaviors have, however, also appeared elsewhere in the world. The primary association in cargo cults is between the divine nature of ‘cargo’ (man- ufactured goods) and the advanced, non-native behavior, clothing and equipment of the recipients of the ‘cargo.’ Since the modern manufacturing process is unknown to them, members, leaders, and prophets of the cults maintain that the manufac- tured goods of the non-native culture have been created by spiritual means, such as through their deities and ancestors, and are intended for the local indigenous people, but that the foreigners have unfairly gained control of these objects through malice or mistake. Thus, a characteristic feature of cargo cults is the belief that spiritual agents will, at some future time, give much valuable cargo and desirable manufactured products to the cult members. Symbols associated with Christianity and modern Western societies tend to be incorporated into their rituals as magical artifacts, for example the use of cross-shaped grave markers. Cargo cults thus focus on efforts to overcome what they perceive as the undue influence of the others attracting the goods, by conducting rituals imitating behavior they have observed among the holders of the desired wealth and presuming that their deities and ancestors will, at last, recognize their own people and send the cargo to them instead. Notable examples of cargo cult activity include the setting up of mock airstrips, airports, offices, and dining rooms, as well as the fetish-ization and attempted construction of Western goods, such as radios made of coconuts and straw. Believers may stage ‘drills’ and ‘marches’ with sticks for rifles and use mili- tary-style insignia and national insignia painted on their bodies to make them look like soldiers, thereby treating the activities of Western military personnel as rituals to be performed for the purpose of attracting the cargo. The term ‘cargo cult’ has been used metaphorically to describe an attempt to recre- ate successful outcomes by replicating circumstances associated with those out- comes, although those circumstances are either unrelated to the causes of outcomes or insufficient to produce them by themselves. In the former case, this is an instance of the ‘post hoc ergo propter hoc’ fallacy (‘after this, therefore because of this’). Excerpted from The Daily Omnivore 2012 4 What is a Cargo Cult? / Art of Burning Man Ancient Intelligence honorarium by Erica Halpern | West Hollywood, CA About the project: Ancient Intelligence is a sound interactive Lighting Installation Sculpture that stands 8’x’8’x8’. This dynamic piece has around 2,700 intelligent LEDs and was inspired by the beautiful re- peating lines and angles of circuitry, the majesty of trees, and the beauty of ancient temples. Technology is a manifestation of the intelligence of the organic and how technology is a manifestation of this. About the artist: With two mechanical engi- neering