Jul 18 2015

Is This The New New Thing?

Larry's expression when Kucinich asks "what about your humanity?"

Larry’s expression when Kucinich asks “what about your humanity?”

 

I have just stumbled across youtube.com/burningman. Sure, there have always been plenty of YouTube videos about Burning Man – earning revenue for Google whenever they play. This seems to be something more co-ordinated, though. Many of the videos have an intro that says “From the Burning Man Archives”. This is accompanied by old fashioned World War 2 propaganda film music, a thematic resonance with Caveat Magister’s “not official” Burning Man Minute series…

24 videos have been added in the past week, showcasing Regionals as well as ancient history. Another 6 were added a month ago from the 2015 Global Leadership Conference.

Some of the videos on the channel are showing ads. We may never know whether this revenue is being donated to the Burning Man Project, or channelled into Decommodification, LLC. Whoever gets it, someone is Commodifying Burning Man here:

Screenshot 2015-07-18 16.57.19

Is this return to the old being simultaneously accompanied by an attack on the new?

And is the “really really BIG RAD thing” we were promised was “coming soon” last November? A bunch of video content released from the archives, and a bunch more created from the Founders’ philosophical discussions?

They seem to be kicking off with Larry Harvey interviewing Denis Kucinich at this year’s Global Leadership Conference.

Here’s the full interview from YTBM, if time is limited skip down to the next clip which is the main highlight I want to discuss.

DK: “What I saw at Burning Man is, there’s a new matrix being built“…

DK: “What Burning Man does is to create a space, that no other organization has created in quite this way, to creatively explore the human potential for an evolutionary response to the challenges of our times. The world today is beset by so much conflict, people are yearning for an opportunity to get past it and find a way to come together”

Larry: “Meaningful political dialogue is in many ways increasingly inhibited by both money and aspects of the media. I’m not anti media, books are media , media implies communication and that’s a good thing“

DK: “The politics that you describe…Burning Man creates a platform for a whole new discussion about everything, for a whole new relationship we have with each other, with our government, and that’s what I think is so valuable. When I see a space for a new discussion, I’m exhilirated. I think wow! We can actually have a real discussion about what the implications are without anybody worried about “well, what’s the party going to think about this” or “what are my supporters going to think about it”. Burning Man is in a position to go very deep in the implications of the current system and to have a discussion which has the potential to produce solutions that otherwise couldn’t be brought forward because existing structures are so hidebound, in tradition and in political practice, that there’s a limitation in the dialogue that occurs and they can’t really get to any kind of a synthesis outside the box that they’re in. Burning Man begins outside…Burning Man is not in a box, and that’s the beauty of it”.

So Larry’s a talk show host now?

While the politicians are being inspired by the creativity of Burning Man, BMOrg themselves seem to keep coming up with rules, bans, and punishments – all things notorious for stifling creativity.

Although only 45 seconds long, the clip above may give us some insight into the collective Borg mindset these days. It is interesting that they chose to create this as a highlight of the entire interview.

“We don’t prescribe content, we design context”.

Perhaps this philosophy explains some of the recent EDM war battles like Dancetronauts, Opulent Temple, and now Mayan Warrior.

Mayan Warrior, a popular art car with more than 22,000 Likes, said “we’re bringing these DJs”:

mayanwarrior2015

…then got publicly slammed (and threatened) in the wee hours of Friday morning by the Burning Man CEO.

Screenshot 2015-07-18 10.53.17

Why did they get slammed? Because of the content they published. Of course, Burning man doesn’t prescribe content.

No matter that the policy hasn’t even been created yet. Nobody has been told the rules, all we have is a story in BRC Weekly from last year, publicly shaming White Ocean:

sound camp lineup ban

They’re doing it for the Burners. So we can all have more chance to win tickets in the OMG sale. Right. 80,000 Burners missed out on the general sale. The majority of Burners who tried to get tickets, didn’t. There don’t seem to be many STEP successes. So we already have 79,000 Burners who are going to miss out on the remaining 1,000 tickets. There is already a 99% chance you’re not going to get a ticket in the OMG. So what if more people hear about Burning Man and want to go? And on that point, what about Grover, Denis, Diddy, and all the other celebs who have been commodifying Burning Man by talking about it to non-Burner audiences? Is their crowd OK, but Mayan Warrior’s isn’t? Whatever happened to radical inclusion?

For the sin of publishing unprescribed content, Mayan Warrior couldn’t just get a personal message alerting them that they’d broken an unwritten rule, asking kindly if they could please make it right. No, they had to get a public statement against them, a shaming. Then, even when they fixed the problem and apologized, the statement remains. And, 2 days later, there is still no policy or description of what rules were broken.

Prescribing content is just fine in this post from BMOrg telling us which art projects they selected to receive our money this year. Decommodification is no problem when it comes to soliciting money for a select few of those (I wonder if BMOrg get a percentage?).

“Music is not art, and people dancing to a DJ are not interacting with the music” seems to be the new party line.

The vision behind the Mayan Warrior is amazing. A crew from Mexico, passionate about music, wanted to make an art car and bring it to Burning Man with local DJs playing. They could showcase the modern day sounds of Mexico to Burners from all around the world! They could share their culture with us as a gift.

mayan warriorThe Mayan Warrior art car has just released some of the first names who will play at Black Rock City this year. The Mayan Warrior was originally created to showcase the music of Mexican electronic artists at Burning Man. Pablo Gonzalez Vargas, the executive producer of the interactive mobile and sound system since 2011, explained that the car was inspired by the playa’s limitless creativity, and the Mayan visual concept comes from ancient Mayan culture, crop circles, and principles of sacred geometry.

[Source: Dancing Astronaut]

Of course, if the Mayan Warrior didn’t tell us that their vision was to bring Mexican DJs, we would not get a fundamental point of the gift. The first time I saw the art car, I didn’t even realize that its face was Mayan. Sometimes, to get the context of art, you need some sort of description of the content. I would much rather they let us know which DJs will be playing in a flyer, than by getting on the mic every 10 minutes to say “this is DJ So and So, how you feeling BURRRRNNNNNINNNNNGGGG MANNNNNNNNN!!!!”

This year's Man design. Image: Burning Man

This year’s Man design. Image: Burning Man

Meanwhile, the geniuses at Burning Man HQ spend decades in the lab “designing context” – that is to say:

  • “CARgo Cult”, “CARavansary”, and “CARnival of Mirrors”
  • A UFO with the Man on top, a plain Man but giant on top of a market, a plain Man but giant on top of a circus.
  • Words from A-L that are supposed to be connected with the theme (like “geek” and “carnival”).

What Larry’s saying is that’s what made Burning Man great and brought the population up to 70,000: those 3 designs (which did what the 17 themes before them couldn’t) and the street names. Not the content: the music, the dancing, the art, the Burners, the beautiful people and the sex and drugs: no, the themes. The “context” for “our” self-expression. Because of the inspiration designed into these themes, we now have Google, Tesla, SpaceX, and Solar City.

(Side note: in 1998, when Google famously launched themselves with Burning Man’s logo on their home page, the theme was Nebulous Entity. Given the revelations that have since come out of Google’s relationship with spy agencies, hey, perhaps this theme did actually inspire them!)

Or am I missing something: does BMOrg “design context” and socially engineer us in other ways?

Personally, I think Larry has it all wrong. Burning Man takes place in the desert in Nevada, not an ivory tower in the Mission. Burners supply the creativity and inspiration. Burners have the ideas. Most Burner art and activities have nothing to do with the themes – many Burners don’t even know (or care) what the theme is. We give money to artists to create the art. We give money to Burning Man’s charity – they take most of it for their own expenses, and pass a small percentage of it on to the artists to create the art. All the art projects they choose to redistribute our money to still need further support from the community to make it out to the temporary city and back. We give money to BMOrg to buy our tickets. They use it to rent portapotties and pay the cops and buy ice creams for the Federales.

I am not convinced by this “Burning Man TV” 2.0 philosophy. Burners can change the world, and the first step to do this is banning things and making more rules. Err, what?

I’m still on the side of the Burners. Burning Man is awesome because of everything all of us contribute to it, not the theme or the First Camp guest list.

BMOrg are Commodifying the culture we create for each other, when they use it to promote the politicians they want to curry favor with, the commercial tour package vendors that are their mates, the artists they choose to receive the funds we’ve given them, and the vendors that they choose to give monopolies to. We’re supposed to just accept that all of that is fine, but if your camp wants to bring musicians, and tell people who you’re bringing? You must be punished. We’re gonna ban your art car and shame you to the community. Because, Decommodification – the alleged Principle, not the ironically named LLC.

They are trying to create a gravitas around themselves. “We mingle with politicians! The Google guys and Elon Musk go and get technology ideas there! VCs network and do deals!” They want to re-shape the event in their own image, to support their importance in cultural history.

Meanwhile, many Burners love music, and appreciate it as art just as much – maybe even more – than taint washes and polyamory workshops. These Burners want to lose it on the dancefloor to their favorite DJs. They want to hear amazing new music that draws them in from a distance and keeps them for hours, in a crowd who are all sharing a special moment together, united by the beats. They want to discover new artists to become fans of. Camps who are gifting those DJs are getting excited about it, and want to share the good news so Burners can get excited too.

They must be banned. All that fun is getting in the way of a pie-in-the-sky vision for “what Burning Man could become”, that politicians who went once and went to bed early are now espousing. Crack down on doof. Implement more rules, more policies, more restrictions on Burners’ freedom. Jack ticket prices sky high, to price out the dirty hippie freaks. Bring in more cops so you can try to promote it as family friendly. Favor rich new tourists over hard-working veterans. Promote it in the mainstream media, Wall Street Journal, Forbes, Inc, The Simpsons. Bring politicians who will recruit more politicians, maybe they can get this apathetic disillusioned bloc of Burners escaping from the Default World to get off their disgruntled asses and vote – for them, natch.

How will human potential evolve, by banning more and more cool stuff that Burners gift? If communication is a good thing, why can’t BMOrg communicate what the rules are to everyone at the same time? Why can’t camps communicate what art they’re bringing? Because, scalpers? Because, EDM fans are bad but politicians are desirable?

art car sharkIs this the new new thing? Is this what we jumped over the shark for?

 

There’s some fierce debate on the Interwebz already about this issue, with some who are not EDM fans saying “good riddance” and wishing for a return to the past. You can’t go backwards, people. I don’t like seeing so many people on smart phones on the Playa, but the answer isn’t “ban smartphones”.

Last year a camp (White Ocean) and this year an art car (Mayan Warrior) were publicly scolded by Burning Man, despite not breaking any actual rules. They committed pre-crime, like in Minority Report. The policy is still, as I write this, unwritten and “coming soon”. How hard can it be to write a paragraph? Is this some holocracy thing we’re waiting on, establishing consensus within BMHQ?

The BMOrg supporters echo Maid Marian’s argument that publishing your events in advance might lead to people wanting to come to Burning Man who we don’t want there. These people might think that the whole thing is a festival, because there are certain events on at pre-set times.

Well, take a look at this, Burners. Here are some of the 2015 Burning Man events that have already been published. Apparently every single one of these is fine, including those that feature named stars, because this is at burningman.org. It is just EDM events they have a problem with. #radicalinclusion #gratitude

Note: these are just the events on Monday August 31.

From burningman.org:

Scheduled Events

See also:

PulseRadio.Net: Burning Man vs EDM – Is The Hammer Starting To Drop?

 

55 comments on “Is This The New New Thing?”

  1. Pingback: The Techno Ghetto – the History of Dance Music at Burning Man | Burners.Me: Me, Burners and The Man

  2. Since Burnersxxx has yet to implement the comprehensive burn listing web site, let me offer this example of the right way to do it: the New York Festival of Light http://nyfol.org/

    http://nyfol.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/NYFOL-2015-Web-Banners-3.jpg

    First of all,it’s free. Second, they are soliciting installations. If it is like the previous NYC Bring to Light events, it is better, minute-for-minute, than Burning Man. Great lighting installations. Last year, “The festival was held free and open to the public to the delight of the over 60,000 people of all ages who attended.” Eat that, BOrg.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f6QtfYJ1pSU

    Sorry, but pretty sure there will be no EDM events and DJ lists. But you can check it out. If that’s your thing, I am sure you can find that just a subway ride away.

    Reply

  3. “Meanwhile, many Burners love music, and appreciate it as art just as much – maybe even more – than taint washes and polyamory workshops.”

    ^^^ Haha! Gold!

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  4. As far as the YouTube channel goes, I think it’s little more than BMorg finally getting round to putting some archival stuff online (like the many Profiles in Dust mini-docs) that were previously unavailable, or only on Vimeo. The ads are almost certainly being triggered by music copyrights and any revenue going to the music rights holders. And anyone who knows anything about online video knows you’re talking pocket-change, at best, unless one of these videos goes viral. Just some online video perspective for ya.

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    • People are making serious money from online videos. Many Burning Man videos have gone viral, including Oh The Places You’ll Go (3.16 million views) and Hula Cam (5.5 million views) and Big Wheel Bike (2.75m).

      I’m not sure that the ad revenue is going to someone other than BMOrg, what evidence do you have of that? Don’t you choose whether you want ads on your video or not when you upload it to YouTube?

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      • No you don’t. If your video features copyrighted material, the rights holders can contact Youtube and have ads enabled on that video, with all revenue going to the rights holders. The rights holders can also choose to have your video taken down, or have the audio muted. This is all beyond the control of the person who uploaded the video.

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        • Seems unlikely that the rights holders contacted BMOrg and got the ads put on within a week of the video going up. Seems much more likely that someone at BMOrg enabled the ads.

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          • All the major rights holders run algorithms searching for audio imprints of their intellectual property. Ads can be enabled literally within minutes of a video being posted.

          • I was a bit off in my understanding. When a video is uploaded on YouTube, it’s run against a database of copyrighted material and automatically flagged if there is a match. The copyright holders are also automatically notified. The three choices (ads, muted audio or take down) are instantly available.

          • Have not tried it recently, but same used to happen with FB and MySpace, except there were no options – it would just not upload. (Of course you could edit it to remove the audio.) That’s one reason I like to use classical music when I do a music video thing – you can usually find public domain recordings.

            As to, “Why would BMOrg be ripping off intellectual property in the first place?” My guess is because they like music videos… as long as they are not played so loud as to interfere with people trying to talk nearby.

            BTW, Burning Man is not a music video. Those that think that represents even a slice of it are only going to the NV burn.

          • You can enable ads or not, but if you use copyrighted music and they system recognizes it ads will be “forced” onto your video, with no option of turning them off (as another commenter described).

            I would guess that some of those Profiles in Dust videos were originally made by volunteers who unwittingly slapped copyright music on them, and posted to Vimeo which has a less sophisticated content ID system and does not run ads anyway.

            If BMorg were intent on monetizing those vids, I’d expect they’d all have ads on them, not just a random one or two. As for other people’s videos, a few burners have probably made a few bucks here and there, like the ones you noted, but ad CPMs on YouTube are so low that the average burner who choses to run ads on their “running about with a GoPro” videos and gets (at a guess) 10K views might see $10 back if they’re lucky.

  5. Personally, I would really welcome a zero tolerance stance on these kinds of promotions. Although a lot of times they are used in an effort to make a better event, some people really take it to the next level. I found this newly formed facebook group about a millionaire camp that happened to get esplanade placement, and I’m horrified. Someone needs to stop these people! https://www.facebook.com/groups/millionairecamp/

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    • Does not look like a real camp, but worth following. Burnersxxx is a member of the FB group, so maybe he can keep up posted.

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      • All I can say is that I really hope this isn’t a legit camp. The people running it seem pretty cool from their FB photos, but it is so easy to get lured in by cash and ruin the experience for all of us. Burnersxxx please keep us updated!

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        • If they really were placed, I would suspect that it is a parody – a hack – to diffuse the animosity. Sadly, this would really be the ultimate insult to the peasant burners, turning their discontent into comedy. Don’t see a positive spin to this.

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  6. Alright friends, I’m putting my queer shoulder to the wheel. Now after 10 burns, specific events kinda blur together, after 15 I started to blur together, and so at 17, let’s just say the distance between self & other may not be altogether clear at times. I know, long set up, but trust in the punchline, because I do remember a year way back when that virtually no “rave music” (as we called it back in those days) was audible across the playa. Now, ecstatic dance as an active, kinetic form of meditation, has brought communities together for centuries- the dancers are not a “commodity” because they are an impermanent, reactive set of nervous systems responding to stimuli, but each individual dancer makes their own unique contributions to the expressed musical equation as it was evoked in that moment. That dimly recalled year with out “raver noise” was jarring, a silence amplified by the lack of new input. You don’t like DJ line ups Orgg? Then say so- I’m mad as a march hare, but if DMV asks me to rope my trailer hitch, consider it done.
    Consider also that an advance line up listed in the What/Where/When might serve just as well to prevent both moopy fliers and fill in fans in advance who are already ticketed participants.

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    • “…kinetic form of meditation, has brought communities together for centuries…” But in those cultures, there was no other choice. You either joined the dance, or did not, possibly with catastrophic consequences. The dance took many and formed them into one, one mind, like for a war dance.

      Bad precedent to cite. Today we need diversity and creativity, not unity to a single purpose, which is the opposite.

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    • “… an advance line up listed in the What/Where/When might serve just as well to prevent both moopy fliers and fill in fans in advance who are already ticketed participants.” That is an interesting reverse logic, as if the moopers came because there was not a lineup, and that they would be displaced by people who would come because of the lineup? Somehow I think the moopers would still be there, and might be reinforced by more who come for the same musical purpose, accustomed to events where LNT is replaced by garbage cans.

      Sure, let people do what they want, just don’t give advanced placement, advanced access and DS tix to anyone who is not offering something new and unique. And certainly if they do their thing elsewhere, their fans and followers can see them elsewhere.

      I love Laurie Anderson, and I think seeing her engage Burning Man would be great, but I don’t have to have to see her there. But you know what would be fantastically cool? For a bunch of us, after getting tickets, to get her to come, and organize something, ad hoc, that would be great to have others experience, That’s Burning Man.

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  7. Give me non-consensual puppet karaoke over canned EDM any day. Seriously, man, we get you’re a fan of EDM, but you can get that at any number of festivals. There is a qualitative difference between dancing to a DJ and participating in a camp’s planned shenanigans. DJing ain’t all that interactive, hence all those DJs playing to nobody you see all over the playa.

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  8. You know I’m totally fine with that, I’ve been to BM every one of the last 15 years and it _has_ become much more about I’ve Got A Big Sound System and less about interactivity and art. IMHO it’s _not_ artistic to play other people’s prerecorded music off a laptop, and it’s not very interactive standing in front of a giant speaker system. I’m with the BMOrg on this; it’s not about banning stuff but it’s about pulling the event back from being just another place you go to watch ‘name’ DJs and the gilded few dance around up an expensive art car, and not create/participate/meet/etc.
    FWIW I have always really enjoyed some of the music @ BM – and I don’t hold it against people playing music I personally don’t like – but the DJ/spectator/big-sound-system thing is really getting out of hand and ultimately it’s just not very INTERESTING. All of the events you list above are not readily found in the ‘real’ world and most of them you’d be able to have an actual conversation at. BM has always had music playing everywhere, but it doesn’t need to be the primary focus; it’s got too loud and too boring.

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  11. I can’t help thinking that burnersxxx is missing the whole point. The published events listed above have one thing in common: they bring people together to interact, not simply to be entertained. Burning Man is not like popular music festivals that feature staggering drunk spectators and tons of trash. Burning Man is an experience that is created by what Burners bring to it, the way they interact with one another. It is not yet another venue for commerce and commodification. The camps that have been scolded had moved too far away from the concept of gifting and came too close to self-promotion for profit off Playa.

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      • Dancing to a DJ (or live music) is kinda interacting. The music will happen regardless of whether anyone is paying attention.

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        • Dancing is reacting. I would need to hear details to the argument that it is meaningful interacting, As I see it, the “interaction” is generic, and the dancers are replaceable. They are commodified. The dance event is not materially changed or a function of the dancers as individuals.

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        • there is something magic that happens sometimes on a dancefloor, when the crowd connects to the DJ and each other via the music. If you’ve never fully experienced it, it’s hard to explain.

          Perhaps you may have felt, when dancing, a difference between moving your feet and arms consciously, versus the music just flowing through your body and coming out as movement. There is a mental state where “the dancing just happens”, it is similar to the general state of Flow that many experience, for example martial artists.

          It’s a wonderful feeling to be in this state of flow, the more you can do it, the better your life will be. On a dancefloor, you can experience it in a group sense – back in the old days, when The Man burned down and everyone danced around the fire in a circle, that was a similar feeling. You’re in the zone, and so is every other person around you. You’re all linked together in the same zone, the same moment. On the right dance floor, that feeling of one-ness, same-ness, together-ness can last for hours. This is the U of PLUR.

          A good DJ doesn’t play to the crowd, they become part of the crowd. And a good crowd doesn’t respond to the DJ, they become one with the DJ and the music. At this point, a super-organism is created, multiple humans linked together in a positive and ecstatic state, harmonized to a fixed rhythm (most EDM is 4:4) .

          If you think the sort of stuff Denis Kucinich talks about in this video has any relevance – humanity learning something from Burning Man, new ways to come together – this technology to let us bond on the dance floor is a vital part of it. Burnier-Than-Thous sneering at ravers and saying “it’s not a music festival” have probably never experienced this before – and maybe never will, they’re too closed-minded.

          I get that it’s not for everyone…just like most of the things at Burning Man. However, dancing to DJs is by far THE most popular activity there, probably even more people are doing it than bicycling or fucking.

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          • Following that line of reasoning, we should have multiple camps that have large-screen TV of shows, and films. Oh, and some that travel around, showing everything from old Monty Python to Black Mirror.

          • BTW, I have done that sort of dancing. And it holds no interactive comparison to milonga dancing to a live orchestra.

            The EDM/DJ thing is for that loss-of-self immersion rave experience, not unlike tribal dancing mentioned before. It is a unifying more than a creative experience. Any 20 minutes is interchangeable with any other 20 minutes. It is repetitive and hypnotic, and something you can find any night in any large city, like a good TV lineup.

          • I get what you’re saying about music and dancing and the joy it brings. But the thing you don’t seem to get, is EDM (unlike TED or yoga), is the one thing that is forced upon every person that attends Burnig Man. It’s brought to the event and forced upon every citizen of BRC with or without their consent. Whether you force your morals, your religion or your music upon people and you’ll get pushback.

          • No, not the same. Naked people and kids don’t prohibit basic verbal communication. And if your theme camp, or sanity depend on this, the sound camps take this away, blocking you from doing your thing.

          • No, nudity and children aren’t forced on us. I can look away if I want. I can turn and ride down another street. If I’m in my tent or RV, I can’t see kids or nudity. But, I can hear EDM to the point I can’t converse with the person three feet from me without raising my voice. If I’m on the playa at night, I can lay on my back and look at only the stars, no kids, no nudists. But I can’t escape EDM. It truly is the only thing brought there that is forced upon everyone without their consent.

    • There are several jazz performances and hiphop, eighties and nineties dance parties listed above, so there ARE listings that are simply to entertain, and it seems if you are a jazz or bluegrass band you can totally advertise the name of the band and any guest performers. I don’t think it’s for the BOrg to decide for us what entertainment we should get to experience. The events that are allowed to do so make me think Larry must be a huge jazz fan. LOL.

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      • “I don’t think it’s for the BOrg to decide for us what entertainment we should get to experience.” – They are not deciding what you can experience, only what to reserve space for and give DS tix.

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  12. The events listed so thoughtfully, are they driven by wealthy people standing on a pulpit above the throng? Who use the event for personal commodification off playa? When those other DJs were shouting out advertisements on their sound system, you defended that, now you use that as an example of how advertising in advance is better, but then why did you think that the DJs shouting ads at the Alien Siege Machine was cool?

    The fact you somehow think inviting people to dye their own sarong is the same as DJs setting up clients and name buzz using the Burn is very telling.

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    • Really, Brian? What does it tell you, that my 1500 blog posts didn’t?

      The fact that you think that Cocktalks with Dr. Cox Hosted by GlamCocks is perfectly fine but Love Fingers at Mayan Warrior is against Burning Man tells me a great deal about you.

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    • Brian, Burnersxxx tends to tie his arguments in knots (nots?) because he fundamentally believes that there is a commercial/money angle that can be supported in the NV burn within the Tin Principles. He believes in Christmas but does not believe in Santa Clause.

      Some of us, like me, do believe in Santa Clause. We believe that Burning Man is a special space where commerce and money need to be carefully excluded, and all interactions should be one-way gifts. It is the rare NV burner that actually understands a “gift economy.” You ALWAYS bring without any thought of any return, and what you may bring back must always be a surprise and never a pro-quo. If it IS pro-quo, you are doing it wrong, and missing a whole and major aspect to Burning Man. (I really need to write that Gifting post.)

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      • Or simply: The extent that the NV burn is financially sustainable, is the extend to which it is not Burning Man.

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      • Your ‘ALWAYS’ gift economy is as real as Santa Claus. I’ve brought three high design art cars (not personal transport). Worked on two giant builds (Trojan Horse and Alien Siege Machine and participated in theme camps. And what I’ve learned is that gifting is a two way street. If I gift something and the recipient enjoys my gift I get appreciation in return. But if I work all year on a project and don’t feel appreciated for my efforts and money spent (either by the general pop or the BORG), If I feel taken advantage of by these same groups, then I’m less likely to gift again. That is how humans learn.

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        • Yes, and that’s why Gratitude is Figment’s 11th Principle, highlighting what the BOrg has ignored. Santa Claus is not real, but that is not the point; the point is believing in her/him. And you are right, if gratitude and appreciation is not there, then the gifts will disappear.

          Can you think of one thing that the BOrg has done to show Gratitude for all of us who made the event happen, that made it a success? I am sure they have, but that finding it is a research project tells the story. We make the event, as they personally profit, while deluded that they have some magic.

          plumblove, I can’t speak for you, but the BOrg played no part in inspiring me to come to Burning Man, or in the theme camps I have worked. It all came from other burners that I personally met. And at not time was Larry LLC mentioned in any context of planning or creating our camps, or even on the playa.

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          • Agreed. I cannot think of a single thing the BOrg has done to support or encourage me to bring art. It was always fellow artists/burners. The theme is irrelevant. The Trojan horse didn’t get a dime in funding from the BOrg. We’ve self funded all of our art cars with just 4 people. This year we are bringing NOTHING.

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