Brainstorm of ideas for 2006

[dougnaka]

Hey all, I've been brainstorming and come up with a few ideas for art installations for the 06 burn. Wanted to spread some seeds of ideas.

So the theme, to recap, is Hope, Fears; The Future. However you write it.

Things I Hope for;
Love
Happiness
Health / Long Life
Things / Toys / Enjoyment of them

Things I'm afraid of;
Death
The unknown
Darkness
Making mistakes
Losing / having control
Spiders (fine it's just me then!)

Gifting ideas;
Fortune cookies w/custom "burnerific" fortunes (wrapper moop?)
Valentines cards either pre-filled out or for people to write (moop control)
-maybe have a board for people to post them to securely

Art installation /camp toys ideas;

Drive/Steer Your Life
Steering wheels of all kinds (ship, car, motorcycle?), maybe coming out of the playa at odd angles, maybe hooked to pulleys, signs about control, maybe the wheels do nothing, maybe they steer or move boat like rudders, or plane flaps, or models of people.

Future As The Path (Hope & Fear in context of the Future)
A long (winding?) path with stepping stones with hopes and dreams in words, phrases, or symbols on them. Maybe electronic lights? A large sign at the end that from far away seems to say FUTURE, but up close says PRESENT, and on the back side says PAST. In the fashion of Dr. Angry and Mr. Smiles ([url]http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?chanID=sa006&colID=1&articleID=00002FF7-2E2F-13A7-AE2F83414B7F0000[/url])

I've seen a sign somewhere online that was similar. Not sure how difficult it would be to do with FUTURE/PRESENT. Hopefully do-able since they're 6/7 letters so close in size.
It'd be great if the Future couldn't ever be reached, since it can't be.

Wall Of Ridicule
Confront your fears of public humliation or public speaking, or just standing on a podium in front of a crowd.
A large podium or just a raised stage. A wheel/dial/flip chart that can instruct the audience what the person on the stage/stand would like, or it could be random. Ridicule, Laughing, Praise, Clapping, Silence, It's a confrontation of many fears suitable to the participants.

Guillotine / death
Confront the final future, AND your fear of death. Have a *FAKE* but convincing guillotine and put your head in.. Yes this would be tricky and may be a little edgy, with a higher risk of injury, or death. But, I'm sure there's designs out there for fake guillotines that look convincing. This one would work as a theme camp, and maybe better with a full staff of "angels/devils/demons" that escort you after your death through a taste of the afterlife. What would be great here would be if the afterlife was super Christian, like over the top all your "burners" are wrong, oh here's jesus in heaven, look, you get to go to HELL!!!! Good ole Christian Hell too..


Well folks, that's it for me for now... feedback? Anyone want to do any of these? Want to help out? I'm going to probably be helping out with the theme camp i was with last year, but I'm interested in doing something!

[Atar]

I really like the Wall Of Ridicule idea. I fear of that a LOT (public speaking). Crowdsurfing would be cool to do there too, or falling backwards into that crowd.
I don't fear death myself. I just want to keep on living

I was thinking of making a costume that was twofold. The mask would be two faces facing sideways, one with a fearful expression, one with a hopeful expression. The rest of the costume would involve making me seem as inverted as possible As in: make it seem as if my legs, torso and arms have been turned around. Its weird (fearful?) as my elbows and knees would seem to bend the wrong way as I stride backwards or fowards across the playa.

Now to find a bodysuit.... I would need something big enough to cover my own torso and flexible enough to wear backwards (I don't think there's anything out there that will be premade with this concept in mind ). Any ideas?

[diane o'thirst]

To me, probably because it's on my mind, the theme this year is bottled up nicely in one word: Cancer.

I did hatch an idea of a tumour-ridden jack-in-the-box coming out of a box made of cigarette cartons. The jack's motley would be comprised of Cancer Awareness ribbons.

Yeah, really punchy and fairly on-the-spot-putting idea. Certainly no less than La Guillotine or the Shaming Wall. But I'm squeezed financially enough as it is and I'm not entirely sure how to make the mechanism work.

[Atar]

Plus you would have to smoke an awful lot to get all of those empty cig cartons I like the idea though.

[diane o'thirst]

Heh! I'd get 'em from Freecycle, hermano...

[robotland]

I'm not entirely sure how to make the mechanism work.

Same problem as some projects I'm working on....Resetting the mechanism after it "goes". If it's electric, you have to power it...And if it's mechanical, you have to entrust the resetting to the participant unless.... Wind-driven, normally freewheeling mechanical reset?
I suppose a solar-powered motorized reset could be designed to reset after a predesignated time period....

hmmmmm.

[dragonfly Jafe]

...Certainly no less than La Guillotine .... But I'm squeezed financially enough as it is and I'm not entirely sure how to make the mechanism work.

A repeating Guillotine is easy - a vertical belt on 2 pulleys with a small hook like device mounted to the belt. The belt passes right next to one side of the guillotine. The Guillotine has a slot halfway thru the bottom of the blade. As the hook on the belt comes around it catches in the slot and lifts the blade. When the hook gets to the top (as far as you want the blade to rise) the top pulley pulls the belt (and thus the hook) around for the trip back to the bottom. This disengages the blade, which freefalls to the bottom awaiting the belt and hook for another lift. Adjust the motor speed with gears and/or belts. Be sure to have a big bucket, don't want any MOOP!

[diane o'thirst]

That's really good advice, but how do I apply that to a Jack-in-the-Box?

[dougnaka]

I don't want a repeating guillotine, I want one that is manual, you pull a rope or something, the blade goes up, someone puts their head it, you let go, the blade goes down, and it's quite critical that it actually NOT work and chop their heads off. I don't think I'll be doing this one though, although I think it does fit the theme well.

[diane o'thirst]

Might want to do a search on Alice Cooper and find out who his special effects guy was. He used to guillotine himself onstage every night. As I understand it, the blade was latex.

Then again, depending on how close your audience will get, a latex blade might not cut it. Remember concerts in the '70s? The closest members of the audience were still yards away from the actual act, crazy lighting and jostling neighbours: they couldn't tell a latex blade from the real deal.

[5x5]

I had an idea the other night, trying to fall asleep...

it stems from a trip to ireland where i found this japanese garden.... there was a "path of life" throughout the garden, representing your journey from birth to death.

(unrelated side note - one of my favorite photos from my trip is from there. often the path was steep/hazardous if you are not younger and agile... so i have a sign that says "path of life" pointing right, and "easy path" pointing left.... ;o)


anyway - in the adolesence area, there was a cave you walk though and in the middle it's pitch black.

so, i got to thinking about how it would be cool to build this at BM... it could be called the "dark night of the soul". ideally, it would be one path, spiral in, and in the middle be total darkness and maybe even silence (headphones may be needed...) - and on the way out (still continuing on one path, not turning around) just before the exit have two doors - hope (leads to the outside) and fear (feeds you back into the project).

in my head it would only have one person go through at a time, so they feel alone in the middle (the darkness and silence being something you don't get often at BM!) and from the outside look like a mountain or hill.... playa colored probably (intentionally or not by the end... haha)


anyway. i have no budget and i'm from too far away, so it's impossible for me to do this year. but the idea is free for anyone to take (please just tell me so i can make sure i get to it on the playa!!!) and i'd even be willing to help design from afar, construct when i get on playa, help run it, whatever.... ;o)

katie

[Ugly Dougly]

You could have motion detectors or whatever that trigger certain automatons and music and lights when you cross a certain threshold.

[Chimp]

How about a twelve sided flip coin dice davis like blue moon in your sky made from plastic nin ubik co-operative slink dudes in broken sunshine magazines feeling on image silver screens in homo- erotic crazed dropping of general blair and the chrome sitar player with human ex-machina blues coming on blues in a jack in the boxer pounding green uraniuim deposit tidal wave bomb test akin to jesus walking for forty days in a blue ratafarian rastafarian desert gang revolution revolution revolution revolution.


xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Who shot Lennon huh,

JR?

the fuckers.

[diane o'thirst]

Arrrr-uhh?
Wha'd he just say?

[Ugly Dougly]

It's been done before.

And better.

[dougnaka]

AND I got the t-shirt

[Kinetic IV]

AND I got the t-shirt

Yeah but you don't have the bumper sticker, the souvenir commerative pieces, the commemorative shot glasses....

Sorry....I couldn't resist.

[dougnaka]

But the t-shirt got me laid ;)

[diane o'thirst]

Yeah, you bought everything in the souvenir shop, but have you given 'em away on Freecycle and/or sold them at a rummage sale yet?

[robotland]

Yeah, you bought everything in the souvenir shop, but have you given 'em away on Freecycle and/or sold them at a rummage sale yet?

Some of my favorite vacation keepsakes are from local thrift stores- Got some great t-shirts from the Honolulu Goodwill!

[Desert Duck]

I like the stage idea, could be done pretty simply. Have a back wall with a wheel of audience responses on it, people walk up to the back and change what the audience is supposed to do, but not knowing what the performer is doing, or what the new response is.

[Dustbuddy]

Guillotine / death
Confront the final future, AND your fear of death. Have a *FAKE* but convincing guillotine and put your head in.. Yes this would be tricky and may be a little edgy, with a higher risk of injury, or death. But, I'm sure there's designs out there for fake guillotines that look convincing. This one would work as a theme camp, and maybe better with a full staff of "angels/devils/demons" that escort you after your death through a taste of the afterlife. What would be great here would be if the afterlife was super Christian, like over the top all your "burners" are wrong, oh here's jesus in heaven, look, you get to go to HELL!!!! Good ole Christian Hell too..

Been done. Jack Chick cartoons.

How about subverting those cartoons and creating a fictive reality in which the Pagans are right and the gods are pissed? Prior to their executions, you encourage the participants to loudly witness now that the end is near, and if they agree, they get escorted down to Tartarus where they find Jesus and the apostles suffering endless torment?

I bet the fundamentalists would love it.

[Ugly Dougly]

Face it. B-Man is a weirdness competition.

So why not stage a Weirdest Crap In BRC contest. You have 3 minute and 42 seconds on stage to explain why you're the weirdest thing on the playa.

Free kudos to the winner.

[Desert Duck]

Drink food dye and take a technicolor crap. But don't forget the 8x10 color glossy photo s with circles and arrows and a paragraph on the back of each one.

[mojo]

Wow - reference to Alice's Restaurant. You must be my age!

[Desert Duck]

You can get anything you want at the BlackRock Pancake House

[mojo]

It was a case of American blind justice.

[Ugly Dougly]

Back when I was knee high to a brontosaurus, we went to the State Fair, and there was a sort of Dark Ride attraction, supposed to be a recreation of a mine. All I rememer is hearing someone's rendition of "I Owe My Soul To the Company Store" playing over and over.

The interesting bit was we got into a small room together, it was a suspended box. The ride operator pulled a lever and I guess they had a small window with what looked like a sanding belt that started moving like we were going down, down. Finally the belt stopped and I guess were in the mine, so they opened a door, the other door, the one we didn't come in through, and there was recreated a mine display of some sort.

It's an old dark ride, haunted house trick. Hey, it's like this:
http://www.laffinthedark.com/
KEEP YOU HANDS INSIDE THE CAR AT ALL TIMES

Dark Ride Catalog:
http://theimaginaryworld.com/darkride.html

[Ink_Burn]

that guillotine camp idea sounds pretty slick. fake death, then an escort to your final future. I would like to see that there this year.

[Ugly Dougly]

are we ready for this one yet?
Playa Cliche Camp