Friday, September 11, 2009
Burning Man's Evolutionary Mutant Vehicles
I09: "At Burning Man, the annual arts festival, mutant vehicles plod across Nevada's Black Rock Desert. And this year's art cars include a fully-functional spider walker, a remote-controlled trilobite, and a mobile mammoth skeleton."
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8 comments:
These cars always make my day. I live in Reno Nevada, about three hours south of where Burning Man takes place, and the only substantial civilization in the area. The week before and after Burning Man, hundreds of interesting vehicles pass through Reno. All of the grocery stores stock up extra water bottles in cages in the parking lots- ten cases high. It really is an incredible event (I've unfortunately never been) that highlights some interesting art forms.
I have only ever heard a word or two about this event, but never quite knew what happened there. This little write-up is great, and the pictures of some of the vehicles that people build and showcase are incredible. It looks like a scene out of some crazy awesome science-fiction movie. I can't imagine how much time and money some people spend transforming their cars into something cool, or building something from scratch. The spider-walking vehicle is pretty incredible. I hope the owner has opportunities other than Burning Man to showcase this piece of work.
I love that Burning Man is considered hippie central and yet look what those hippies can do! These are some really impressive and artistic vehicles. I've seen pictures from previous years of existing cars or buses decorated for Burning Man but I don't think I've ever seen such architectural, moving sculptures. It's really impressive both artistically and technically. They're making my mother and all her engineer-minded hippie buddies proud.
Burning Man is always something I've tried to keep an eye on and something I'd like to go to at some point. All the art they make there have is just so originally, but as Ariel said, it's not just about the art, but also making it work from an engineering standpoint, which is kind of similar to the constraints we have to work in a theater space, so seeing all these people and there different machines is really inspiring.
I love the free spirit of burning man, as evident in these photos. It shows that people are still interested in creating new interesting things. I hope to make it out one day and maybe have some sort of vehicle, like the spider one (my favorite), that I can show off. It amazes me that people have the time and finaces to build these incredible vehicles. Love the hippie mentality of it all!
Jimmy turned me on to Burning Man last year and I've been trying to follow it ever since. It always amazes me when I hear about these kinds of festivals out in the middle of nowhere-US. Sounds like a literally awesome undergoing, I'd love to try and make it out some time. The shots of this year are a testament to the level of quality and craftsmanship that go into Burning Man every year. I wonder if there have ever been sculptures with lighting elements other than fire. Playground sounds like a great testing ground for future Burning man expositions...
While I've heard a variety of things about what's actually become of the musical aspects of Burning Man, I'd never heard of these kinds of things happening at the concert/festival. The cars, especially the spider walker one are just incredibly to look at, and (big assumption here) I'm betting that when in motion some of them are just epic to watch. I'd be really interested to see what could be done with the spider walker/car. If that really works that'd be amazing. and probably worth hiring the guy who made the car to develop some other stuff.
I would like to point out that Jeremy, our resident hippie, did not know what Burning Man was until last year. I'm ashamed of you, Jeremy. Really.
Burning Man always has incredible art and technology to come out of it. A couple years ago it featured a steampunk treehouse, also profiled on i09. I'm glad the Burning Man community continues to explore the steampunk aesthetic; the culture of Burning Man is not something necessarily compatible with high colors and brass fastenings. Of course, I may just want my own trilobite to ride. Seriously, that thing is awesome.
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