Santa Barbara-based Burner Alicia has contacted us to help support their art installation, the Serendipity Outpost. What do they mean by serendipity?

“Serendipity: the faculty or phenomenon of finding valuable or agreeable things not sought for” – Merriam Webster Dictionary

The idea is you stumble across this outpost in the middle of the Playa. You turn the crank, and it determines what your gift should be, when you should give it, and to whom. The Burners behind it created the “Walkabout Woods” and “Galaxy on a stick” art projects, and “Jimmy dies of dysentry”, a 30-foot covered wagon.

The Serendipity Outpost celebrates the Burning Man culture of Gifting. It’s an interactive gift giving experience. 

Quite often at Burning Man gifting occurs serendipitously. Someone unknowingly offers the very thing needed at that moment. This is so prevalent on The Playa, that it’s affectionately called “Playadipity”.

The Serendipity Outpost houses the whimsical Gifting Machine, with a “What Wheel” loaded full of quirky, fun, outrageous ways to gift someone. The “When Wheel” narrows down a window of time and the “Who Ball” determines who will receive the gift. All this done randomly with the turn of a crank. 

Somewhere on The Playa all three will align to create a new episode of serendipity. You just add your own creativity to the experience. You can be funny, profound, endearing, witty or downright silly. It’s Burning Man, after all!

It certainly sounds whimsical and quirky. We wonder if “give drugs to self” is a potential result of the spin. Join the 34 people who are funding their Kickstarter project to create the largest interactive gift-giving experience on the Playa.