Slate Magazine: Twenty-five years ago, in the summer of 1986, Larry Harvey and a few friends built an 8-foot-tall man out of wood, dragged the sculpture onto a beach in San Francisco, and set it aflame. A small crowd of strangers gathered to watch. It couldn't have been more than 20 people. The wind pushed the flames in one direction, and a woman ran to the unburning side of the man to briefly hold his hand before the spreading fire engulfed it.
9 comments:
It is truly amazing the amount of press and popularity that burning man has garnered over the last decade. This festival has become a place of self exploration and expression that has brought national attention and infamy to this area of Nevada. Burning man seems to be a right of passage for young people who want to explore themselves and it also has the reputation of being a hotbed of hardcore drug use. I don't see the appeal of going and hanging out in the desert with no rules but I can see how they are still growing the numbers.
This article is absolutely fascinating. Not just the idea of a modern day Pagan ritual but the way that people come together just to express themselves and to find art and creation. An event like this doesn't occur as frequently as it used to. I feel that people are more guarded and cautious. There is more information out there and sometimes it is giving people a reason to fear life. Now, I'm not sure this is a completely safe environment, it probably isn't, but it is a great way to pay a sort of homage to the past.
The other thing that strikes me is the the origins of Burning Man. It's hard to believe that this was the result of a bad break up. I think that over time, people make it out to be significant for themselves, which is the beauty of tradition. Whatever it's cause, and whatever the intention of having the Burning Man ceremony each year, the important thing is the fact that everyone is brought together. Those that come sound like they are stimulating their lives in some way and that is important to continue.
I know very little about burning man and I can easily say that this article vastly expanded that knowledge of the event. It does not seem to surprise me that this type of event keeps expanding each year and would not surprise me if the event continues to expand. Feel like this event gives everyone at the event a chance to experience what ever physical, spiritual, and emotional experience they are looking for. I imagine at the event you properly could find someone to do anything you wanted to do with.
The personal expression and being free is a amazing thing. I would dare to agree with the gentleman who said "everyone is fake out there" (I summarize). Finding who you are and being comfortable with that is one of the greatest accomplishments you can have in life, if that includes being a straight male wearing a tutu then so be it.
The article does concern me on how they compare the event to a pagan ritual. I am for self expression and self realization but one must be very careful when you start to follow the physical desires. Physicality and chasing the desires of your flesh in my opinion can lead you down some scary roads.
I'm sorry, but I really don't understand the fascination with this article. In all honesty I find it absurd that they are making "art" into a crazy affair. The fact of the matter is that there are actual artists that make their living doing art that is far from the norm, but events such as burning man give those artist a bad rep. For the most part, the event seems to lead itself towards people who are sick of the constraints of everyday life and seem to think the best way for expressing themselves is by paying hundreds of dollars to go to the middle of the desert and act like complete idiots, while calling it art. To sum it up, the whole event is completely absurd and if people what to do it fine, but don't construe is as art.
Frankly, I find the whole idea a little far fetched. While I gladly support the arts, and human creativity and imagination especially, I don't see the necessity for the outrageous wear, obscene exposure, or excessive installations like the pirate ship. I think the notion that these people long to live in a utopia of their own, free from whatever limitations they feel the world may offer is great one. Yes, I think everyone longs for a place where they feel completely free and accepted. But I don't see why they must go to such lengths to feel that way; it's almost as if they partake in the outlandish activities just for the sake of doing so. In doing that, I think they are perhaps losing sight of why the burning happened in the first place. It started as a simple act of human expression, which is all that is required of art. No outrageous actions or rituals are needed for art's recreation.
WHO WOULDN'T WANT TO GO?! This is my opinion. i suppose I can kind if understand the comments before me. I, however, think Burning Man would be an experience that no one could ever prepare you for, in the best way. There really is no other event like this in this wonderful country we call home. Let go a little. Ride a purple fuzzy bike through the desert shouting thins like "darky darktard"! Since I first heard about Woodstock I imagined it to be the most magical event ever. I would imagine that this is pretty damn close. Perhaps that is why the inner hippie Sam longs for burning man. On the other hand, inner hippie Sam also really like running water.
The way I see it, Burning Man is not just about creating art. It is much more about giving participants a brief glimpse into a society without the innumerable social rules that plague modern society. When you look at all of the possibilities we have for self expression and then compare them to the methods of self expression that it is socially acceptable to employ, you start to realize just how unnecessarily boring our society is. For example, what is the most popular car color? White? Silver, tan, or black? Maybe red? Really? Out of all of the brilliant colors that exist in the world the most popular car colors are white, silver, and black. It is possible to question most other societal norms in a similar way. Burning Man allows people to get closer to their expressive potential than they would even consider in real life.
Burning Man is actually just an excuse for people to drop acid.
My first introduction to Burning Man was from some hippie (if hippies still exist) friends of mine who had expressed interest in this week long festival in the desert. The main draw for them - was the drugs. Because this Burning Man was a big turn-off to me. It wasn't a music festival, it wasn't an artist gather, it was just a gathering of free spirited people celebrating the human experience (and chemically enhancing it.)
But then I started seeing some of the projects that people were making to bring to burning man: Pirate ships, giant Daleks, LED costumes - I even borrowed some ideas for last semester's Arduino project from an open-source phone-booth someone built for Burning Man. If the festival was just about doing drugs these people were putting a lot of effort into compliment the psychedelic with a very cleaver gadgets and effects.
What for? I don't disagree with the author that the utopian money-less culture is virtually impossible in the real world outside the Burning Man dessert. But there's something really admirable about the desire to work, invest time and money in materials and fabrications for the greater good of the community - in this case the rest of the burners. This articles and others I've read have tripped over the price tags on some of these projects. But the project is not about the cost of it but the project itself. The love of making cool things and showing them off to your friends and strangers.
In the world outside Burning Man we get caught up too much on putting a price tag on work. It's what our current socioeconomic system is based on - we can put a pricetag on ours' and others' toil. While Burning Man hasn't been a venue for politics until recently (see the Burn Wall Street project http://burnwallstreet.net) it presents an example for what could be. Some say it may be impossible to eliminate currency - this comment is not the place to repute that - but Burning Man presents an example to the rest of the world that when you elimate the idea of a cost on work you create something pretty incredible. A utopia, at least for short time. I'm not saying that Burning Man will continue to spread and elected officials will start shirtcocking but the idea of making and sharing can certainly exist outside of Burning Man. What cool things do we have to share with other people?
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