Burning Man!!

Here's a synopsis of Burning Man. If it wasn't in the middle of nowhere, I'd so be there!! (wish we could do our gallery review on this!)

I've copied, paraphrased and put to together the concept/ideology of Burning Man. Hope it's clear and helpful. I'll put some photos up too but it's worth looking at the galleries. Amazing stuff in such an increible setting! Go large scale installations!

http://www.burningman.com/

Burning man takes place once a year for one week, it started in 1986 on a small San Francisco beach. Now, Burning Man has evolved into a massive event turning the Black Rock Desert in the northwest of Nevada, into a dessert city harbouring over 48, 000 people. Additionally, Burning Man has over two thousand volunteers who work before, during and after the event (many who work year-round) to make the event a reality. Providing people with the experience to be a part of an experimental community, which challenges its members to express themselves and rely on themselves to a degree that is not normally encountered in one's day-to-day life dedicated to radical self-expression and radical self-reliance. Their mission statements claim:

"Our intention is to generate society that connects each individual to his or her creative powers, to participation in community, to the larger realm of civic life, and to the even greater world of nature that exists beyond society. We believe that the experience of Burning Man can produce positive spiritual change in the world. To this end, it is equally important that we communicate with one another, with the citizens of Black Rock City and with the community of Burning Man wherever it may arise. Burning Man is radically inclusive, and its meaning is potentially accessible to anyone. The touchstone of value in our culture will always be immediacy: experience before theory, moral relationships before politics, survival before services, roles before jobs, embodied ritual before symbolism, work before vested interest, participant support before sponsorship. Finally, in order to accomplish these ends, Burning Man must endure as a self-supporting enterprise that is capable of sustaining the lives of those who dedicate themselves to its work. From this devotion spring those duties that we owe to one another. We will always burn the Man."

Strong in its ideology, Burning Man has successfully created an artistic community where installation art is at its best. The cultual and social ideologies are:

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  Radical Inculsion (Anyone can be part of Burning Man)
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  Gifting (Gifting is unconditional, does not contemplate a return an exchange for something)
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  Decommodification (The resisting the substitution of consumption for participatory experience in order to preserve the spirit of gifting)
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  Radical Self-Reliance (They encourage the individual to discover, exercise and rely on his or her inner resources.)
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  Radical Self-Expression (Arises from the unique gifts of the individual. No one other than the individual or a collaborating group can determine it’s content, the giver should respect the rights and liberties of the recipient.)
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  Communal Effort (The community values creative co-operation and collaboration. They strive to produce, promote and protect social networks, public spaces, works of art, and methods of communication that support such interaction.)
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  Civic Responsibility (Valuing a civil society)
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  Leaving No Trace (The commitment to leaving no physical trace of our activities wherever we gather.)
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  Participation (Our community is committed to a radically participatory ethic. We believe that transformative change, whether in the individual or in society, can occur only through the medium of deeply personal participation. "We achieve being through doing".)
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  Immediacy ("Immediate experience is, in many ways, the most important touchstone of value in our culture. We seek to overcome barriers that stand between us and a recognition of our inner selves, the reality of those around us, participation in society, and contact with a natural world exceeding human powers. No idea can substitute for this experience.")

These are values to guide behavioural change on the individual, small group, and communal level. From a social movement perspective, that’s a key ingredient to achieving a successful event juggling a new movement, an artistic doctrine under harsh physical conditions. In other words, "The giving of yourself is the greatest gift you can give to the Burning Man community, and is imperative to the survival of this unique experiment".

I suppose what should be extracted and what our interests were the - materialism, the burning of the man (their celebration of 'duties we owe to one another'), format of artisy (installtions), interactivity (in the literal and communal sense).

Any feedback?

laterz...