Clearly not an advertisement
It seems that last year’s Burn Wall Street‘s “ironic” use of Bank of “un”America logos, has set the tone for future Burning Mans to come.
Earlier in the year, we brought you news of the giant iPhone advertisement – which the artist assures us is just an ironic homage.
Now, Facebook is getting on the scene too. There’s gonna be a great big LIKE Thumbs Up out there on the Playa, for all of us to see. We go to the desert, to be reminded of our iPhones and Social Media – in an ironic way, of course. Ah, the Brave New World.
From the Huffington Post:
If Facebook were to disappear tomorrow, what would happen to all the precious “likes” accrued over the years?
This might seem like a trivial question, but Dutch group Dadara would disagree. The art collective has launched an Indiegogo campaign, titled “Like4Real,” that asks precisely this: “What happens if Facebook vanishes into the digital ether, or the Spring of Eternal Likes dries up one day… will we go bankrupt because of our investments in accumulating Likes?”
Dadara isn’t really attempting to answer the lofty question. Instead it is planning on constructing a massive effigy acknowledging our shared obsession with social network “liking” in the best way possible — a fiery art project at Burning Man. The giant installation — a golden thumbs-up symbol erected on a black altar — would allow playa visitors to “worship” at the foot of Facebook IRL, before the oversized sculpture is set aflame in Nevada’s Black Rock Desert.
Dadara, the group credited with constructing the Burning Greymen, theExchanghibition Bank and the Transformoney Tree, has already raised over $4,000 for its ode to “Like” culture, and has 31 days to go before its opportunity to raise its intended $10,000 expires. The lowest possible donation is $1, a contribution that earns backers their very own “virtual like.” The most expensive? A $1,000 donation that gets you to “Enlikement.”
So, if this project comes to fruition, what will happen to “Like4Real” after Burning Man? “After [the] burn, as a Phoenix emerging from hot ashes, Like4Real will rise to become an ongoing project in the real world,” the group explains on Indiegogo, “where we aim to explore the various facets of our real and virtual relationships.”
The symbol represented here, dates back to the Roman days in the Coliseum. It’s to do with giving the overlords the power of life and death over the population who serve them (slaves didn’t even get invited to the Games). When gladiators fought to the death, before dealing the killing blow to their brutally savaged victim, they would turn to Caesar. Caesar would survey the crowd, then signal “thumbs up” (they get to live and fight again, in servitude to their Master) or “thumbs down” (murder the other guy). It’s wonderful that we celebrate this symbol of authority’s control over life and death without understanding it, just like in an actual Cargo Cult.
[Update: there’s another Facebook project this year. This seems more clever and arty though…STATUS UPDATE]
No word yet on if the Google “Chrome Zones” will be popping up this year in Center Camp. Or perhaps we will all drink free “blue Bull”, or “Coke”…in an ironic fashion, of course.
