Having a hard time rapping my mind around Metropolis theme.

[SFbrothermichael]

Consider this from the website theme description:

"Black Rock City's grid, with its plazas, promenades and public monuments, was once described by the London Observer as a, "beautifully zoned tentopolis designed with a precision of which the Renaissance city state idealists or Haussmann would approve." Furthermore, over a span of 20 years, we have innovated cultural solutions for specific urban problems. Cars are not allowed to dominate our city's thoroughfares, and citizens are held responsible for managing their share of the consumption stream - they leave no trace.

Yet this is only half the story. If central planning furnishes a general social context, participants supply the substance and the soul of our community. Hundreds of theme camps and interactive artworks are contributed to Burning Man each year. These diverse, unpredictable and uniquely personal creations are gifts, available to every citizen of Black Rock City. They generate belonging on a civic scale. This is the ecumenical achievement of all great cities: They transcend the narrow bounds of tribe and caste, allowing us to glimpse the deep humanity in others."


For me, the theme invites us to examine the Metropolis of Black Rock City itself.

[SFbrothermichael]

From the website:

"The most efficient and obvious solution was a circle, but that was unworkable in that it lacked straight lines of sight for security. A triangle or square, while requiring the minimum number of vantages for sight lines, enclosed too much unused space in its angles and created an unnecessarily large perimeter. Six sides or more required too many security points, so the present shape was determined by default.

Aesthetics:
The aesthetics were not a large criteria, but were primarily born out of objective process. Oddly, we often found we could judge the practicality of a solution by whether it seemed to "fit". Angles and distances took on significance; the divisions of space were comprised of sequential round numbered radii and 15° angles, true North ended up 45° off the city's main axis, and so on. Given the gate approach and the Man's location, the city's bi-lateral symmetry provided optimum distribution for vehicular traffic.

As mentioned previously, large artworks were placed in a zone outside the precincts of our city. This was meant to lure participants away from our settlement and into the great silence and open space. Similarly, the open side to the circular scheme of the city takes on spiritual and psychological importance. Instead of completely circling the wagons, we invite the natural world to intrude. We will never further close that arc, as it is humbling to have the vast desert and sky intrude into our self-styled small world. Our hope is that by glimpsing the minute place we occupy in the infinite, we will also sense our unity with it.

[CapSmashy]

Two words. Steampunk.

One word:

Apocalypse.

[Marscrumbs]

Stranglely Bond, James Bond.

ON ACID!

Ian Fleming's Chitty,Chitty, Bang Bang. another Albert Broccoli film if you didn't know. As if the flying gadget car didn't give it away.

[Finnegan]

Or these are the near drunken ramblings of a sad artist that doubts he will be able to contribute this year...

You just did!

[bobotinks]

[quote="CapSmashy"][quote="Captain Goddammit"]Two words. Steampunk.[/quote]

One word:

Apocalypse.[/quote]

Half a word:

Apoca

[geospyder]

[Palesun]

Consider the movie "Blade Runner"...futuristic metropolis with all the expected interminglings of our world today thrown in a blender and trying to survive...great cast of characters too...just like the playa!

[Simon of the Playa]

i hear they're knocking down John Law's house first...


http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100308/ap_ ... ng_detroit

[Roberto Dobbisano]

[Simon of the Playa]

we build it up
then burn it down
what was desert
now a town
once a town
and then no more
leave no trace
on playa floor.

[Donna Matrix]

my reply is oddly this

without foundations there is no city...

or a city built on sand is soon forgotten...

or what comes... goes...

or I just wish we could burn the real cities...

or what kind of crap am I going to get for posting this?

[ygmir]

Donna? Donna Matrix?

is that you?

[Oso]

Could it be this? >>
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9vpZnT_unZs[/youtube]

[theCryptofishist]

I have just thought of the best thing:

Monstro City

[Elorrum]

[Elorrum]

oops double

[Simon of the Playa]

I have just thought of the best thing:

Monstro City

fishy, you forgot something VERY important...


Monstro City (tm)

[theCryptofishist]

Thanks for watching my back, Simon.

[Simon of the Playa]

just doing my job...

[Bling]

MonstroCity--love it!

[Bling]

MonstroCity--love it!

[illy dilly]

MonstroCity--love it!

BLACK ROCK MonstroCITY

[transientdance]

the aesthetic of "crash" 1996 might be useful, not to be confused with the more recent movie of the same name: [url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crash_%281996_film%29[/url]

The theme also reminds me of cyberpunk: Ghost in the Shell, Neuromancer, etc.

There should probably be a horde of paupers and cripples but I dunno if that is PC.

it would prolly be easy to make something of a prop cyber prosthetic attachment using empty detergent bottles or whatever.

[Simon of the Playa]

There should probably be a horde of paupers and cripples but I dunno if that is PC.

M2 just lost three fingers for the sake of his Art, is that crippled enough for ya'?

[Bling]

Oh my gosh, what happened?

[bluesbob]

I posted this on another thread also, maybe you can wrap your mind around this...

The word comes from the Greek μήτηÏ

[Gwydeon]

(Disclaimer: Newbie here)

Metropolis - Initial Thoughts:

A city having reached a certain level of grandeur, not a town, not a city, not a village...

Black Rock city, I mean come on, a good number of people are already thinking that this theme effectively means Burning Man is the theme for Burning Man; Though we might want to save that for "Utopia" ;)

Comic books: This one sorta scares me. This will be my first burn, and I'm slightly afraid of seeing a lot of Batmen, and supermen roaming around or (temporarily) immortalized in plaster of Paris.

Tall Buildings, a city that has been well established and is reaching the pinnacle of its essence before its edges are partitioned off to become suburbs and smaller offshoots.

Communication, in any vision I've ever seen of a 'metropolis' has been one where everyone is connected easily to one another from financial tower to the lowliest hovel. In any 'metropolis' the separate parts must communicate to function.

Grand Architecture (no big step there) in the form of buildings that have gone beyond function to form, of statues that are beyond the individual and are only possible on a public scale.

Sadly I think of business suits, and schedules and drone like people scuttling about as part of the grand machine that holds up the roof. Most any congregation of people in the modern world that could be labeled with such a moniker is run at a backbreaking pace to keep up with supply and demand of its residence. Large cities seam to have a tipping point where they have to expand to survive, but can never again balance, so they keep expanding and eventually begin to fall to a central decay as their outlying edges are so far from the infrastructure that either the center or the circumference fails due to support.

Transportation, Mass (trains, planes, buses, boats, monorails) and personal (planes, cars, bicycles, helicopters, teleporters...)

Sewers... Alleyways...

OK running out of steam, I'm just trying to throw thought's into the communal soup :)

[Ugly Dougly]

Oh my gosh, what happened?

Accident with a circular saw. He has all his appendages; it will justg be a while before he can use all of them again.

[Bling]

Glad to hear he isn't permanently missing anything! When I was in art school (that lasted a year), they made us watch safety films before we were allowed to use the power tools. They pretty much scared me away from circular saws.