Injuries Near the Crude Awakening or elsewhere

[AntiM]

Ha, we don't wish things into the cornfield around here without seriously good reason. Your words are fine, don't worry about the perception of negativity, let others learn from it.

[Valkyrie]

Well, yeah, I think what you stumbled upon also unfortunately reaches into political. Some people have been using this, that or the other negative implication of art installations to fuel their political motivations. I happen to have had the opportunity to get to know a number of folks who worked on the Crude Awakening piece, and got an understanding that there was a whole lot of politics they had to contend with. (To the extent that a significant part of their exhibit was not allowed to happen - yep, if you can believe it, they had even more planned!) When someone comes up and points out that something else bad was associated with the installation, it can seem very much like indignation against the art itself, or the responsibility of the artists or whatnot.

When you raise the question, even if you're taking responsibility, you raise visibility for people who may be well-intentioned, but can't help but correlate the artists to the injury. It's tough enough to get something like that incredible performance together, but to have to look after all the folks that might wander into it afterwards is enough more of a burden that many fear may ultimately result in losing the truly great art we see out there. (Do a search on 'disneyfication' or just 'disneyland'... a lot of 'old school' burners have voiced concerns that it's already happened or is happening.) As an art fan, I'd really rather not see people seeking to burden the artists any more than they already are, so... even though you might have meant well, such a discussion isn't particularly well received out of fear it will become an unfortunate political bludgeon.

[scootert]

Thanks, Anti-M! I meant to try to come meet you this year, and see the wayward art. Hope you had a great burn, and maybe I'll get to meet you next year.

And thanks, Valkrie. You make a great point, similar to Vertigo. I don't expect to ever again start a thread that might in any way contribute to the creeping disneyland, liabilityland factor that people have discussed elsewhere. I didn't know it was already a sore spot for some people and I completely agree we don't want that at BRC.

Words fail to describe how amazing Crude Awakening was. The time and money that went into it...Wow! Considering that incredible gift, and the personal responsibility of bike riders who took a spill anywhere on the playa, I regret starting this thread.

But thanks to everyone who posted. I got some education out of it.

[Finnegan]

I had a lot more trouble with the little patches deep dust than anything man-made this year. The first time i hit one of those at speed on the bike at night kind of clued me in. They should light those..

[TheFunkHole]

Some kids left their unlit bikes in the open and walked out to deep playa. I was sitting on a piece of art nearby and watched another dude, with only a small purple glowstick in his pocket, plow into the bikes and flip over onto the playa. He got all pissed off and rode off towards the crude awakening burn. I moved the bikes closer towards the art, so no repeats of that.

Normally I woulda laughed it off, but earlier that night I saw a biker momentarily fuse his face with a metal pole, once again, no lights at all on him or his bike. Of course after he crashed, the first thing he did was pull a glowstick out of his pocket, crack it, shake it and stick it in his mouth so nobody ran over him. I think he was ok, but it looked REALLY painful.

Sucks to get hurt on the playa, when it's actually pretty easy not to by doing the obvious and wearing lights. It's called The Survival Guide for a reason, read it.

This was my first year, and it took a few of those occurrences to not get tense. I'm all for spreading the word to use lights at night. However, it is Burning Man, and it's up to each person to make themselves safe or not, right. I like the fact that you can get seriously hurt if you want to, part of the appeal.

I like that there isn't a "they". It's just all of "us". If you want better lighting on shit, bring extra lights and go around and fix the problems yourself. Some potential broken face or arm might thank you.

We all have ability to choose.

[theCryptofishist]

I have nothing against learning things the hard way, but I guess I do have a problem with making others you teachers without consent. I bet the train engineer in Austria has nightmares about cutting off my legs, for instance...

[NeonBunny]

I was camped across the street from the "ramp of death" one year.

5 inches, i told them. You can't have a bike jump as big as yours, people will get hurt, make it small, like 5 inches.

And they made it huge. So tall, that every other person that attempted to jump it crashed hard. This year, a woman even had to be helicoptered out to Reno from her injuries.

All because they made that huge bike jump six inches tall.