2004 Theme: Nonexistance

[Bob]

97 (on Hualapai Flat) was variously Mysteria or Back to the Beach.

[Bob]

Good grief, did I really start a third page?

Now there's something Zane can shoot for.

[Stormy]

Can anyone provide a year-by-year listing of previous themes?

Check this page:
http://www.burningman.com/whatisburningman/

[Stormy]

The theme is determined by the man behind the curtain.

You will not succeed.

If he didn't buy the idea of Hillbilly Vision Quest as a suggestion you can assume that any suggestion you have won't get past the castle gates.

I'm sorry.

Hee, hee. Though we could have a revolution of the people and start our own theme. Wait, why does that have a familiar sound to it? And the voices in my head keep saying something about nose violations, too.

[jaywalker]

And the voices in my head keep saying something about nose violations, too.

fuck you in the nose

ok...now I'm getting hooked on these stupid faces. Must find more in line with my...nature

[girlie]

I think the 2004 theme should be nonexistance. That way there would be no theme

Before attempting to talk to Larry about this keep in mind that the Burning Man Organization uses the theme to simplify their process for official burning man art grants. If BM didn't have a theme then all art would be eligible for grants.

So to really sell your idea you may wanna brainstorm how the org could change the art grant selection process to make it based on the merits of the art instead of the theme/branding (without adding more staff or money to the process). Or, alternately, how could the org get rid of both theme and art grants and still feel like they were supporting the artists.

[III]

>the Burning Man Organization uses the theme to simplify their process for official burning man art grants.

did you mean "justify"?

[PetsUntilEaten]

what would BMorg do if the theme is geometry?

[precipitate]

Ha! Now that's really fucking funny. Be a good way to get out of funding
art altogether.

The THEME is GEOMETRY.
Art must follow the THEME to get funding.
(We don't fund geometric art, sorry.)

[Kinetic]

Even though my Google searches are striking out due to caffeine defiency syndrome, I thought there was already a Geodesic or Goemetry based festival held somewhere out in Colorado each year? If so this is a theme that's already being done somewhere else....I don't think Larry would copy someone else's idea.

[III]

>I don't think Larry would copy someone else's idea.

never. especially not from shakespear.

the geometry thing is a joke about the capriciousness ofthe art funding system.

[girlie]

>>the Burning Man Organization uses the theme to simplify their process for official burning man art grants.

>did you mean "justify"?

Not really. Well... maybe simplify *and* justify. My take on the relationship between the theme and the grants is that the organizers think that

..... a) they simply do not have enough staff or money to consider everyone's art for grants and

..... b) they feel that paying people to participate in the theme will increase the overall participation in the theme and will increase the quality of the more centrally placed art on the playa.

But i'm not sure that i really buy into the idea that the grants were created solely to support the theme. I think that Larry & co. really do wanna support the creation of art on the playa.

But yeah, it's completely wrapped up in the theme now. And i do think that tying in the arts grants too tightly with the theme and keeping it in the control of the regular burning man management really warps the whole thing and brings an unnecessary level of politics and competition to burning man. I feel that the art grants would be much better suited to a separate foundation with separate funding and a separate board.

Then again, as with most things, i also feel that it isn't the burning man organization's responsibility to do this. I think that if people really feel the need for burning man art grants they should join together to make that happen for themselves. Then the staff of the bm llc may see that there is really no need for them to do it.

Excuse me, getting a little off-topic here, and i'm babbling...

[nym]

I think the 2004 theme should be nonexistance. That way there would be no theme

Before attempting to talk to Larry about this keep in mind that the Burning Man Organization uses the theme to simplify their process for official burning man art grants. If BM didn't have a theme then all art would be eligible for grants.

So to really sell your idea you may wanna brainstorm how the org could change the art grant selection process to make it based on the merits of the art instead of the theme/branding (without adding more staff or money to the process). Or, alternately, how could the org get rid of both theme and art grants and still feel like they were supporting the artists.

Very good point, although this is also the reason why themes are unproductive. Artists shouldn't be forced to conform to a theme that they may only have 8 months to work from. Many artists start working waaay before the theme is ever released, and then to get funding or good placement, they need to change the focus of their artwork, or in the case of this year prepend "Temple of the" to their artwork title.

I'm not sure if Larry will contact me regarding this, but I'm very hopeful.

Nym / Tom Longson

[nym]

I should make one thing clear, I pose this as a suggestion. I haven't actually read his long term plan, so I could be unduly making artistic arguments.

I do on the other hand hope someone will point him in my direction for a dialogue, and in the meantime I will read his literature. I love Burning Man, as it is a unique art venue which gives me great inspiration to create more artwork myself. I only wish the best for such a dynamic creative force.

Nice discussion in any case. I'm very pleased with the eplaya.

Nym / Tom Longson

[Badger]

Heard it this evening.

New them should be Burning Man: Unplugged.

No generators, no ice, no coffee, no rave camps....[/u]

[Stormy]

Heard it this evening.

New them should be Burning Man: Unplugged.

No generators, no ice, no coffee, no rave camps....[/u]

I like it! One year someone claimed their art for the year was going to be taking a pair of wire cutters and taking out rave camps.

[Booker]

Careful there Stormy! That sorta talk can get your in-box filled with fairly incendiary correspondence. Then again, if you LIKE that sort a thing . . .

>>already a Geodesic or Goemetry based festival in Colorado

Some of the folks around here have done Geodesika the last coupla years as a regional pre-burn burn sometime in July. (Of course, fire bans in the forests will typically put the kibosh on any actual burning most summers.) I woulda linked the site, but it appears to be 404 at the moment. If interested you might google the name sometime in late spring to see if it's happening again. (It might also be mentioned on <a href="http://denver.cacophony.org/index.html">this site</a>, although updates there are, um, not frequent. Or watch for messages <a href="http://groups.yahoo.com/group/colorado-bm/">here</a>.

I haven't attended, what with one thing & another, but I confidently expect plenty of nongeometric, antigeometric, ageometric, and just plain "other" art, despite the name.

WFT? Damn board doesn't appear to be linking my links. Oh, well. You got the URLs if desired. Fuggin' board.

[Kinetic]

Burning Man Unplugged? Ok I knew people were getting scared about the Rave Act but when you go pulling the power sources for everyone it's a bit much

I happen to like most of the rave camps, but if you pull power we'd also lose places like HOTD which is a damn nice establishment with good people. We don't wanna lost places like that.

And besides the deep rolling bass helps put me into a nice trance-like sleep sometimes.

[Spokes]

We were half way between Space Cowboys and Love Project. I can sleep through music just fine. Bad karaoke is another story and fortunately not an every night contribution from Love Project or there might have been a commando raid with wire cutters.

[TestesInSac]

If theme is "Nonexistance," don't bother building anything--the ultimate representation of the theme would be for BM to disappear--for it to no longest exist.

(that's sarcasm)

Actually, there are an arbitrarily large number of representations of non-existence. There's the empty set that you describe, and then there's all the sets where the sum of the set is 0, e.g. [...,-2,-1,0,1,2,...]. In terms of the cosmos, that would be sets of objects and anti-objects that reduce to zero when combined.

Practically speaking, you could have an art piece and an anti-art piece on opposite sides of the city, camps and anti-camps, etc.

[Stormy]

Careful there Stormy! That sorta talk can get your in-box filled with fairly incendiary correspondence. Then again, if you LIKE that sort a thing . . .

Yes, don't need more mail for the trashcan. Well folks, please read that I've never played with wire cutters at BM, just relaying an amusing story.

I try to live and let live. I do try and be responsible and wear earplugs when I have to get up at 5am to work, but unfortunately earplugs don't stop the ground from shaking at 4am. I do wish people would think about their neighbors just a wee bit.

[Immersed]

Heard it this evening.

New them should be Burning Man: Unplugged.

No generators, no ice, no coffee, no rave camps....[/u]

Depending on how far you took it (banning alternate power sources too) Burning Man unplugged would also include no lights, even on the Man. That would kind of suck.

For those who were bothered by the tunes, there was plenty of space to camp all week out by Literal and Theory. I never had to wear earplugs because we weren't disturbed by one sound sytem when we slept...although there was some really bad top 40 being played down the street from us during the day. Come out to Burning Man and play the same stuff you hear all the time in every club, on every radio station, and on TV. *Shakes his head*

[Badger]

Burning Man Unplugged? Ok I knew people were getting scared about the Rave Act but when you go pulling the power sources for everyone it's a bit much

Rave Act has absolutely nothing to do with it and I don't think the suggestion implied a complete lack of electricity. Just the idea that the community has the where with all to intuitively know what would be expected if such an idea were to take hold. Without pulling a good old days rant I'll say I do remember when a generator was almost an anomalous thing to see on the playa. There was (I believe) a level of intimacy between camps/neighbors that is sorely lacking these days.

[debkakes]

The idea of unplugged is interesting, but it's next to impossible I think to get the population to take a step backwards, even if it is a revolutionary idea. i'm thinking of walk-in camping next year, or at least on the outermost circle. last year it didn't bother me, but the all-nite music was louder and coming from more directions this year.

Restricting the number of so-called rave camps seems impossible, and actually not desireable; but perhaps they could agree in principal to shutting their systems off if there are no - or just a handful of - people. The stragglers can move on to an active camp. Perhaps then, by predawn, there would be fewer sources of oomf oomf.

I dunno. Could be just a SOA we have to deal with.

BTW, I like the idea of a theme. Free to follow it or ignore it, but it gives a nice focus, esp for a large population; more people may be inclined to participate.

[nymphgonebad]

new idea: moblile acappella radio. go around from camp to camp and sing songs for people. we can even dress up in cute neo-military outfits; i'm thinking a cross between brc rangers and the andrews sisters.

[Sobretta Franjipan]

Themes are made to be broken.

[nymphgonebad]

how about " it takes a village, people!" all we need are a cowboy, an indian, a construction worker, a cop and, what's the fifth one?

[Sobretta Franjipan]

how about " it takes a village, people!" all we need are a cowboy, an indian, a construction worker, a cop and, what's the fifth one?
__

The fifth one is the hunky mime.

[nymphgonebad]

excuse me while i expel gatorade thru my nose!

the hunky mime - you rule!!!!!

[diane o'thirst]

I've been looking for an excuse to build this funky small space ship idea I've had since I was a kid...theme or no theme I think I might build it anyway and bring it to BM for 04.

Bingo-rama, brother. Do it! Can't wait to see it.

I look forward to the theme announcement every year, whether or not my particular project jibes up with it isn't something I lose sleep over. If I hit on an idea to do something for the next Burn, by golly I'll DO it!

If it's contextual, horrorshow. If not, so what!?!