Walkabout Woods! An enchanted forest Playaland!!! HELP US!!

[Walkabout_Woods]

Hey there beloved burners!

We are planning on bringing a vast forest of beautiful, colorfully lit abstract trees, so that you can take walks in the woods, get lost and found, play hide and seek, etc. There will be a large climbable structure, and a ton of interactive sensory play-things hidden in the forest. But in order to make this vision a reality, we NEED YOUR HELP! Check out our kickstarter campaign to learn more!!

http://kck.st/g4Q9vo

Thank you so much for your generosity and assistance! See you at home!

Jonah and the Fishbon team!

[Bob]

Why do you need "help"?

Please be specific.

[Walkabout_Woods]

At the end of the film you will hear the variety of things that we need to make this project fly. Unfortunately we did not receive a Burning Man grant, so we had to find other creative ways to raise funds. Kickstarter.com is a good fit for us.

While money is the most important thing for us to pull together right now, there will also be calls going out to the community to think of fun happenings, events, performances, etc that you'd like to see in the forest. These types of contributions are always welcome!

I hope this answers your question Bob!

Thanks,

jonah

[Ugly Dougly]

Unfortunately we did not receive a Burning Man grant...

Something to do with the theme?

[Walkabout_Woods]

Here is a link to our Philosophical Statement in which we describe why getting lost in the woods is indeed a classic rite of passage.
http://walkaboutwoods.com/our-philosophy/

Burning man didn't fund us because we proposed a lounge space hidden in the forest, and they don't fund those sorts of things. Doh!

[oneeyeddick]

Is this supposed to be a camp or an installation?

[Walkabout_Woods]

It's going to be an installation. 160 by 160 feet. I envision it being between 10 oclock and the temple.

[Strata]

Heyo, Jonah-- I am working on a much smaller (40x40) installation called Forest of the Heart:

http://www.art.net/studios/hackers/strata/foth

The commonality is that it involves trees. I'd be happy to share my vectors with you folks if you'd like to include some of my art trees in your installation (dunno if you're cutting by hand or using a ShopBot or other CNC tool). I'd also be happy to swap a couple of the 4-foot trees with you-- you could put a "hey look for this next" pointer to your install on them.

cheers,
Strata/BearHug

[Strata]

BTW, how are you thinking about anchoring your trees to the playa?

I did half-scale models and came to the conclusion that the playa was tougher than my initial slotted construction had taken into account. I thought of 1x1 bracing along the slot, but ultimately reconfigured so that each tree is a 4x8 cutout anchored to a pair of 2x4 or 2x6 triangular braces. One, possibly two, corners of the brace will be either ziptied (with the UV-resistant ties) or bolted to a studded T fence post.

For lighting, well, I'm going with supersimple. I'm going to anchor a solar box (firmly!) and use solar LED lights, either with a top 1x1 cross brace between two trees or perhaps dangling down inside the triangular tree structure. I see the biggest issue as making the lights hard to walk off with, and non-tempting to try tugging on to take.

What y'all are doing is an order of magnitude more fun and complex! It's hard for introverts like me to form an art collective, tho I hope to gather helpers and co-creators as I get more and more done. I'll be at Maker Faire in San Mateo in May, and hope to grow a merry band of interested artists there (fingers crossed!).

cheers,
BearHug/Strata

[Walkabout_Woods]

Strata,

Very cool! You're trees are very beautiful! I think you will find that anchoring your trees will be more difficult than our trees. We have wide bases that taper up and are only three-sided. This design has a ton of structural integrity, so as long as we rebar them in, with at least two pieces of rebar per tree, they will stay in place. I see that you've made the hole cut outs in your trees to allow wind through, that's good as your four sided model basically makes a sail for the wind. What materials are you building the trees out of? Your thin trunks that then flare out into large trees might not give you the full support you need when the wind starts to really howl.

Would love to put up some post signs that direct people to and from one another's forest! Good idea. Feel free to bounce off any other ideas that you've got stirring, and good luck assembling a team! These discussion boards are good for that.

Woodsy Playa love,
jonah

[Walkabout_Woods]

Oh... and we plan to go all out on lighting. LEDs, colored floods, black light, lasers, strobes.... you name it!

[Ogdenhousedj]

Hey this sounds like a great idea as soon as i have some money i will totaly hit up the kick start

[fbcota]

I really like this idea. Like by really like I mean I'm going to promote it to everyone I talk to with the hope you guys can raise the money you need!

This idea triggers something very simple in me. A primal need, an oasis of unknown interactions. This may get me to untether from the Pier,... I'm sure it will :p.

[Walkabout_Woods]

Fbcota! We're glad you like it, and are grateful to have your promotional energy going toward trying to get this thing funded. Right now our funding efforts are just barely on track. I think I would sleep better at night if the donations were flooding in and we were way ahead of the pace we need to be at.

Jon and Jonah are actually taking some time off soon to go help Bamboo DNA with their Coachella build, so having people out there helping us promote will be big during that time!

I too am super stoked for the pier... and the trojan horse! There's gonna be some kick ass art out there this year!

[fbcota]

Yes, you have an ally in The Pier. We have been doing pretty good funds wise (for the first time ever) so I have been making a list of projects I really like and will push some people to donate in those directions. Yours in one of them. Georgie Boy is another, along with Charon.

Once I find my own money (as in some regular work) I will donate for sure.

[sksun]

Soo excited to hang out in the walkabout woods! Just made a pledge to help out. I know not everyone gets funded for art but as a burner who has to travel over 25 hours and cross a border to get to Black Rock I appreciate those who are going above and beyond to provide large scale art on behalf of the community.

Kudus, keep your optimism up on the fundraising, and see you on the playa!

p.s. I will spread the word.

[JStep]

Very kewl! I will promote your link on the Tallgrass Burners. Can't wait to get lost!

[Rilopie]

really, really cool!

Do you plan on burning the forest down at the end of BM?

[lazerfox]

I placed my pledge this weekend...so BUMP IT!

[Walkabout_Woods]

Thank you all for your support! It is so very much appreciated. We are now 2K away from our goal and we have 2 weeks left. Time to kick it up a notch. Check out these cool Boiler Room magnetic patches we are offering as rewards! Everyone can use one of these!!!

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/197 ... osts/76983

[dustyroller]

it would have to be bigger so you could actually get lost in it
and then you have to have a bunch of freaks hiding in the woods to pop out and tell you an enchanted story or scare the shit out of you. and you would have to have a kick ass tree house and other random tree based things