Tuesday, September 06, 2011
Awesome Art Cars at Burning Man: Steampunk Octopus, and Playa Dalek
Boing Boing: Video director and funny guy Mark Day shares two wonderful short films from Burning Man 2011. First, artist Duane Flatmo's steampunk-styled El Pulpo Mechanico, which Mark describes as "One of the most impressive mutant vehicles on show at Burning Man in 2011." And below, Dalek Invasion Playa 2011!
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8 comments:
I always love the weird art that comes along with Burning Man, and I'm really glad to see that this year it actually looks safe. Historically it's seemed that the cooler looking the piece, the more it looked like it was constructed out of hot glue at tape. I am not sure I will ever be able to think of a giant fire spewing octopus as safe, but based on the lack of wiggle in the motion it looks at least structurally sound.
I thought Burning Man was an excuse to get together, do a lot of drugs, and have a lot of sex. I'm sure those things are alive and well but I've been hearing and seeing a lot of DIY and Maker things coming out of Burning Man. The Geek / Tech combination of cultures is nothing new or surprising. It makes sense that people who are interested in technology are also interested in fantastical technology. Makes me happy to see that these cultures are embracing a DIY mentality. Creativity fueling innovation and personal politics feuling creative just makes a lot of sense to me.
Seeing this, and loving steampunk and Doctor Who passionately, I now want to go to Burning Man. Fan-girl aside, I am really impressed with the functionality of these two projects. Having been to numerous conventions, I've seen some pretty rickety daleks that make me worry about the safety of the person inside as well as of those nearby. They usually end up bumping into people and have trouble with stairs. Then again, so did the original daleks.
I've wanted to go to this for a long time. I think there's an interesting challenge in doing a load-in without access to anything from the outside. The level of planning and preparation involved has to be significant, but the art we see is still imaginative, creative, and seemingly uninhibited. Folks who can make things so true to their design intention, even in such difficult production environments clearly have something to teach us.
What really catches my eye is the level of engineering in the things seen in the video. If a designer came in and asked a scene shop to build a 30ft tall fire breathing octopus that moves all its limbs seemingly independently, it would be a very large to-do. While its not something that would usually be seen onstage, its not outside the realm of possibilities. I am fascinated by the machines in the videos, and I can only imagine the thought and building that went into them. I applaud their creators.
I love Steampunk work. Especially on such a grand scale as this, with so many moving parts and special effects. It's great to see the image that one associates with steam driven contraptions combined with the out there nature of Burning Man art, wrapped up in some well done (if potentially hazardous) technical work. Just as everyone else brought up earlier, the machinery behind it seems pretty sound and the machine looks like it does what it is supposed to do. That's just cool in itself!
All of the art and innovation that comes along with something like burning man is continuously awesome. I am happy to see more technology being integrated into it, as that is what society is moving toward. As stated in previous comments, the steampunk nature of it is a huge turn on to fans of Dr. Who - but this is not all it brings to the table. The way these pieces work both separately and together in creating the festival as a whole is something that has yet to be rivaled by any other event. I would love to go to Burning Man!
This seems like a pretty awesome event that they are doing by bringing people that do all of this weird art to a place in the desert and showcase the weird work that they are doing. After seeing the two videos that where on the article I wanted to know more about this event and where and when it will happen. I would like to go and see this event in a desert in Nevada. First I thought that this event happened in some other country since other countries have healthier art communities then the US. After finding out that it is in Nevada I would like to go and see it. I hope that we could start to have an event like this somewhere on the east coast so that it could be easier to get to.
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