The Pier

[fbcota]

Its no big deal hauling it to the man. The thing will come apart in 12ft sections as is. And we can get a driving permit from the artery to drive the pieces there.

As far as dg is concerned. Its just a base cost that must be dealt with if we burn it on sight. For any burn suggestions consider the dg a default as we are not allowed to burn on sight without it.

That said, the cost of dg will be pretty high as we will need to cover a very large area. I would love to see it burn. I know by the time it comes I will want to see it burn. I would rather haul back a bunch of ash and scraps then the whole damned thing :).

I was thinking about seeing what could be built with it to burn after we disasseble in. We could take the panels to the man and see if any of the heavy lifting guys want to stack it on the burn platform and light it up.

[Tin Halo]

Too bad... I think it'd be a great place to watch the Man burn... all night, if desired.
Probably a dumb question but I truly do not know, as I've never had reason to ask: Any chance it could be tossed on the Temple's pyre?

[theCryptofishist]

I think that it's possible. You'd just have to have it all ready to go before the burn and then toss it in when they remove the perimeter.
In some way, it might work better as part of someone else's burn. Then you could treat with them directly. Of course, that's likely to be on Friday. or maybe saturday post-man.

[Tin Halo]

I'm sure it's corny, but I keep seeing the Pier as a place to watch all your roadblocks get destroyed on Saturday, like setting all your hurdles and rites on a junket, pushing it out to sea, and watching it burn.
That's why I see a Sunday burn. The Pier having been sort of a Temple in its own right, throughout the week.

[fbcota]

If it burns its either a Sunday after the temple burn or monday burn. We were actually thinking of doing a dawn burn sunday night/ monday morning.

[gaminwench]

nice...

[Tin Halo]

I'm in favor of that.

I'm also in favor of getting some kind of wood iron that commemorates the event, branding it in each piece of plank, and gifting it on Exodus.

[Parasitoid]

CANNONBAAALLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL

[theCryptofishist]

If it burns its either a Sunday after the temple burn or monday burn. We were actually thinking of doing a dawn burn sunday night/ monday morning.

That might be extreamly cool. I do wonder how much of the schedule is up to you. If the llc doesn't want to allocate the fire personel, you're sol. Of course, you have to work with them no matter when the burn is.
But if you do the monday morning burn, expect to leave on Wednesday. YOu ahve to wait for the ashes to cool and then clean up them and the granite.

[fbcota]

Yea, I completely overlooked the fact that the org will want some professional fire people around for something like that. Blarg. That could be a major hiccup in this whole burning plan.

Guess burning on the man platform may be the way to go for now. I could talk to heavy lifting and see if they want to help make a pyramid with the 12ft frames. Then we could just burn that. We could have our big burn and not worry about the substancial costs.

I wonder if I could get a dialog going with the org about this whole thing. It would be so fun to burn, but only if the costs arn't absurd.

[theCryptofishist]

I think in a general sense you could. I think they have to. I'd start by reading things on the website and seeing if you can find some people who have done large scale art and burns just to get an idea what's going on.

[gaminwench]

You'll have to register your burn with the Pyro folks & Artery, no matter when /how it happens... some large pieces (this sounds large!) can be moved into the Man & Temple embers, but must be scheduled in advance. You are required to have legit crew at your burn, if an 'unscheduled', large burn happens, the guys with the firetrucks come and put it out (I'm sure they love the opportunity to use all that big equipment!)... then you're left with a wet, hot mess...
I don't think it costs you anything, just pre-planning & filling out paperwork; then an on-site inspection once completed... they've got trained crews to handle all of those big burns efficiently...

[fbcota]

Thanks gaminwench. I think that is what I will do. I have filled out all the burn paperwork before. But I did not know that it was needed for use on the man or temple burn platforms.

Ok, here is a thought. Is 300ft a bit of overkill? Do you guys think this thing will still be massive at say 200ft? I want it to be long. A bit of a walk.

[Tin Halo]

I was hoping you wouldn't bring that up.

Honestly, I wondered the same thing, myself, at one point. Even thought "Maybe two 150-foot piers would be better!". Dunno.

300 feet is fucking awesome. And massive. Massive in its awesomeness and awesome in its massiveness. I could see it being a bit of a space hog on the playa, believe it or not; but then, Critical Tits tends to make the entire city impassable without going way the fuck out of your way just to go 4 blocks from where you stand, so perhaps something like that isn't as big of an issue, city-wide.

Ultimately, off the top of my head my opinion is that it should stay at 300 feet, being shortened only in a case of absolute need or overwhelming practicality.

[FIGJAM]

I like the 300ft figure, but how wide?

8ft 2x4s can be found cheaper then 10s or 12s.

theres a guy here on craigs list selling pallets of plywood for $20 (25 to 30 sheets per pallet) and its recycled so its preweathered.

Hes got a yard full.

[Bob]

Ok, here is a thought. Is 300ft a bit of overkill? Do you guys think this thing will still be massive at say 200ft? I want it to be long. A bit of a walk.

Two feet is overkill for some people, ask the guy who broke his collarbone flying off Camp Carp's Ramp of Injury a few years ago.

[fbcota]

Plan right now is about 6 ft wide, at least that is how wide the frame will be. With the bit of overhang from the decking it will be about 6' 6". I keep referencing in my head the length of a football field, which is a nice distance in my head.

At 300ft it is a wall that prevents anything big from passing, mostly just art cars though. Considering it is 6ft high at the middle it should only block everything else from passing by it for about 150ft. It would be funny having the small art cars parked under it during the day or driving under during the night. Guess that means I need some lights on the longer supports too :S.

A friend had a great idea (that is most likely way too hard to implement) that involved making led coral and anemones to put at the base of the supports. It would be so cool, and sooooo much extra work.

Here is how the 300ft number came to being. Original idea was about 100ft. About the length of the short piers up in Tahoe (were I live). But that felt a bit puny. I wanted something massive, or at least damn long. So why not double it. So 200ft it was. So the build team for the last project looked around and tried to find a length that was 200ft. We thought the back yard of the warehouse we were working in was 200ft long and that made us happy. Well, we were wrong, it was 300 and so it became 300ft. In other words, its an arbitrary number. I don't want to go longer (its about 1500lbs per 50ft, I think) but I want it too look looooooong.

So I am thinking of making it a bit wider at the start and skinnier at the end. Creating the illusion that it is even longer.

Ohh, we have talked about making it curve a couple degrees. This one is kinda teasing my brain. How do I easily do this with pre-build 12ft frame pieces. Maybe just a couple small spacers between each section and bolt them?

[zcassidy]

You took the thought right out of my mind fbcota! Last night after some wine I thought, "how wide is this thing supposed to be?". I imagined the beginning to spread out quite wide, like a river delta, maybe 12 feet. It would quickly (over 20 feet) narrow to a thin width of around 6 feet and begin to gradually narrow until it reaches the end where the width would be about 4 feet. I suppose the river delta would be the best analogy I can give you. I liked the idea of the delta at the beginning because it would allow for a small gathering point and performance area similar to a boardwalk. This could be a social zone before you begin traveling to the end of the pier.

Maybe the bait shop could be built onto the delta area (off to one side) and we can have a pulley right next to it to hang hippie fish upside down so the fishermen can take a picture with their catch! Ok, thats just me running wild with the idea... Best of luck in planning.

[fbcota]

Hmmmm, I like that idea. I wonder if the pulley for hanging your hippie fish could be made out of a silk or some bondage gear. Ohh, would be so cool having everyone posing for pictures with their catch. This will require some brainstorming. An inversion table would work too.

I was thinking maybe 8 ft wide at the front and 4 ft wide at the end.

[Pink Daddy]

Ohh, we have talked about making it curve a couple degrees. This one is kinda teasing my brain. How do I easily do this with pre-build 12ft frame pieces. Maybe just a couple small spacers between each section and bolt them?

Well, if you wanted to make it curve, as an example, to the left... then construct your segments and cut an angle off the left side. Basically, mark an inch on the left side (or less, depending on how gradual you want the curve to be) and draw a line from that mark to the right corner. Then, cut off that small little wedge. This will make the left side one inch shorter than the right, but you won't be able to see it until the segments are stacked together. They will eventually make a slow, progressive curve to the left.

Again, I can draw my concept if I failed at explaining it...

[Shoeshine]

actually I would throw my vote out for "No" on the curve.

Straight lines have some power in environments like the playa or the ocean. You get these reallly cool effects like foreshortening and parallax.

Though I do love the idea of gradually making the thing thinner as it extends. work those visuals.

Shoe

[Snow]

hmmm I had a dream last night that I was presenting this project to Crimson in a meeting.

I talked to another artist and she is quite interested and even said she was talking about a pier at the burn. You'd be lucky to scoop her up. I'll send you an email with more details in a while.

[Fire_Moose]

You should do LED barnacles on the supports.


Put the LEDs on the poles all connected to a solar charger then make the barnacle outta hot clue.

[Snow]

...then make the barnacle outta hot clue.

Can I buy a hot clue? Good idea though I like it. As a matter of fact real barnicles should have LED's in them. Hmm I wonder what the DNA code is for that?

[fbcota]

Snow: Shoot me an email I would love to talk to your friend. I have been talking about this project since before burning man and it would be cool to chat with someone else who thought the same thing!

[Miles]

I love the idea of making it gradually narrower ! keep it straight so the illusion is more realistic

[fbcota]

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[Sic Pup]

One thing that would really complete the picture would be to somehow capture the smell of sea air, although short of letting some fish rot (and dealing with the subsequent moop) I'm not sure how one could replicate it.

BM is sensual overload as far and sights and sounds but short of dirty hippies, potties and the occsional whiff of flesh on a barbie the nose is often overlooked (albeit probably more due to logistics than anything else).

[fbcota]

Ok here is some basic pre-vis. Just wanted to give people an idea,...





Ok, I like the way the first one is consturcted and its overall look. The second once gives a bit more scale but I think it still only looks about 150-200 ft long in that picture.

Ok this next image really shows off what I would like the pier to look like.



I love the look of the wood and the haphazard construction.


This next one is my original reference and the only photo I took :P
_MG_6393

Ok, last one kinda gives me an idea of making the entrance to the pier a bit grander. Not as grand as this but it feeds the brain,...

[theCryptofishist]

That last one has that Brighton bank holiday by the sea feel to it.

The first is beautiful.

I do love some of the rough, aged wood, so lovely. Ah, it's probably smoother than the playa surface.