Tag Archives: temple

Apr 21 2014

Temple of Decent Dance?

2014’s Temple will be known as “The Temple of Descendants”. They are keeping the design a secret until we all see it on the Playa, but you can catch a glimpse of the concept here (if you agree not to reproduce the image).

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these tree images by Paul Kozal inspired the longhouse design

The Honorarium Grant does not cover the construction cost of the Temple (not even close), so Burners are asked to donate to the project to make this happen. The rest of the 2014 Honorarium grants will be announced “soon”.

From temple2014.net:

Metlakatla_03My own thoughts on this year’s temple started with experiences within trees and impressions of the space made by trees…If you need a place to let something go, to consider the events of your life and move on, console friends, share your thoughts or to make a commitment to another person……this temple is for you.

An Honorarium Art Grant from Burning Man only provides for a portion of what it takes to create of the piece. Thousands of hours by volunteers form the work, but a significant amount of funds must be raised from those who understand what these temples can do. This Temple needs your help now. We are designing, engineering, building mock ups, starting the pre-build…… and quite simply, the Honorarium Art Grant is not sufficient to make this happen. This place is important, and we need your help.

Ross Asselstine is both a member of The Temple Crew and submitted the design for the Temple this year. After numerous years of supporting artists on the playa going all the way back to the Temple of Joy in 2002 by David Best, this past year and a half he attempted to design a suitable place and space for the community of Burning Man. His background is in architecture, work in the trades, high-rise construction as well as messing around with all the woodworking tools, paint and crafts materials in the basement of the home where he grew up in Minnesota.The Temple Crew has worked in support of the Temples of David Best and others both on and off the playa. They are a dedicated group of volunteers that over the course of fourteen years have worked to make a difference: both during the process of construction, during the event, at the burn of the piece, cleanup and the time between projects. It is best explained here:www.thetemplecrew.org
As you may be aware, the event each year has a theme that participants may elect to join as a way to connect with others.This year the theme at Burning Man is “Caravansary”. For this project, the connection could be:
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They had heard stories of the gatherings, the structures and other wonders over the horizon but never had more of a drawing than what could be traced with a stick in the sand. They listened to the story, took in the enthusiasm of the storyteller and became part of a caravan of adventure. It was arduous and they moved along a line, joined together, as one long string of imagination. As they traveled, they moved through lands of great people and came upon the structures they had heard about: places built for emotions.We arrive and it is here. They built it. Was this space built for their needs or did they also build it for us as their descendants?We rest, consider and mark the events of our lives and then……..we let everything go into the sky.What will become of our community’s descendants? What will we create and leave for them; are they with us now?

The idea of constructing this to consider our descendants, when we are going to burn it to nothingness after a week of partying, seems rather bizarre to me. “Consider our descendants, by building something we use only for ourselves then destroy so that they will never see”. Sure, one day our descendants might search for photos of this temporary structure on Google Images…only to find they can’t use the photos their grandparents took to commemorate the occasion, as BMOrg owns them for all time.

The essence of this year’s Temple design is a longhouse, with a line of the floor which becomes a giant altar, so many Burners can worship at once – whatever chaotic form of drug-fuelled worship that may be. The structure seems more “Vikings” than “camels”.

longhouse 2Our community is large, diverse and at times needs places to express, release and receive emotion. The temple is one location; it should attempt to provide a place for thousands of experiences. There is grieving. There is recognition. Some take the time to make a commitment to one person. Many people go to the temple to be deliberately and profoundly alone within a very crowded place; they are there not for interaction but simply to be within their community, by themselves.

This design started with the idea that a single line could be the focus for our energy. A great long altar on that line would accommodate our increasing numbers. A longhouse formed on that line and over the altar. Overhead is an element that will provide the community a neutral mental canvas as if lying on our backs and gazing at stars, clouds or under a great cover of leaves. The exterior surfaces, elements and details represent an equally important place.The longhouse is one of the earliest forms of enclosed community space. Its form was first developed by pre- and post-nomadic societies all over the world, in advance of organized religions. Some objects do not project any creed, dogma or image that represents just one view or point of reference; this piece can hold many perspectives.  long house indianI considered the simple shape of a longhouse to be a universal image of a place for a tribe to gather.
This longhouse design is scaled up to the needs of our community. Light filters into and out of the sanctuary through a permeable skin suited to the desert. A central altar approximately forty feet long runs down the axis and will accommodate a great number of emotional artifacts. There will be two long rows of internal private niches between the structural bays along the entire length of each side. These small spaces are sized for individuals to have a quiet moment by themselves, or with just a few people. A large art piece of neutral or ambient elements will hang for almost the entire length of the building while the centerline of the roof is open to the sun and stars. Outside the temple there will be places for emotional artifacts as well as two dedicated places specifically designed for commitment ceremonies. 
A perimeter fence for passage will require you to enter the space on the ground, and also provides shade for members that want to sit at a distance.

For now, they’re keeping further details of the design under wraps:

Old_Batak_village_long_houseWe intend to hold back the design and construction images of this year’s temple until you are able to discover it, in place, on the playa.

As many of you have likely experienced on the playa, it can be much more powerful to come up on an art piece or event when you have no image of before it is in front of you. Sometimes it is staggering and sometimes it is the smallest part of a detail. Maybe you did not have a camera and had to describe it to your friends when you returned to camp; you could tell a story and draw in the dust, but no number words to really describe it, as it was an experience. As your story trails off, you pause and say: “Aurgh! I shouldn’t have even tried to explain it……you’ll just have to go experience it for yourself!”

As I sketched and modeled this temple over the last year and a half I thought constantly about the difference between my tools to develop the design and the individual participant’s experience. These are two very different processes and it needed to be carefully considered. Tools to design can easily become tools of presentation that dilute the actual experience. I recognize that some members of the community want their first impression to be on the playa such that they “stop looking at anything Burning Man” from about January of each year. Others have a strong need to know something more or have something in hand, as they are already planning to use the Temple in some special way this year. An image of a small portion of the surface is in the pdf below. If you elect to download this image we request that you respect the numerous other members of the community that have elected to save their experience until later. 

Feb 5 2014

Embrace Makes Pitch for Next Temple

Embrace is a large scale sculpture by the Pier Group. They’re proposing it as the Caravansery Temple.

What it has to do with caravans and Arabian nights, I’m not so sure, but it’s definitely a beautiful artwork:

http://embrace2014.com/the-first-image-fingers-crossed-that-we-get-chosen-for-temple/

embrace rendering

From the Reno Gazette-Journal:

embrace 3d“Most people have no realization that groups are starting on anything yet and think, ‘Oh, yeah, Burning Man. Throw it all together in a couple of weeks in July,’ ” carpenter Bill Tubman said. “We started (on Embrace) in October, and that’s true of most of the really big projects.”

…The Pier Group’s 2014 Burning Man project, called “Embrace,” is now in its third month of the building process at the Generator art and community space warehouse in Sparks. It started as a concept and drawing of two androgynous figures, an alpha and omega, wrapped in an embrace.

Before it could move into the next stage, the Pier group knew it needed the analysis of a professional because of the scope and size of the 70-foot-tall, wooden sculptures they wanted to build.

Engineer Jared Krupa of K2 Engineering and Structural Design took the project on a volunteer basis.

He said he was brought on the project when a Pier Group member brought the “Embrace” design plans to the university in hope of finding an engineer to consult with the group on it. As a timber engineering instructor at the University of Nevada, Reno, and a six-year Burning Man veteran, he was interested.

“There is a very intimate relationship in the beginning with the design process,” Krupa said. “In the beginning, we had some issues, but there is a lot of shaping in the design process. Even though there aren’t building codes at Burning Man, we have to factor in the elements, like the wind. It’s up to us to form a support system to keep it stable.” 

It will be bigger than the Trojan horse, and you’ll be able to walk through it before they burn it.

The structure will now be built with water tower engineering, posts anchored to the ground and at the elbows and guy wires, tensioned cables that add stability to a structure, from various points on the structures. There will be support platforms inside with baring supports and people can walk around on platforms via stairs.

Krupa said the alterations create a support system to keep it stable and safe. The safety of the project is his first concern.

“I will be there from the beginning until it burns,” Krupa said. “It’s construction and just like in the real world, you run into issues that need to be dealt with and solved. Out there (on playa) it will have issues and I will be doing inspections, walking the project, and if I don’t get the warm and fuzzies, I won’t be involved. My wife and mom are going to be walking through this.”

Project carpenters Tubman and Bernie Beauchamp said they have already run into some snags in the building process.

The build began with the heads of the figures and Tubman said there were some miscalculations with the first head, the omega. He said there could be various issues because they are working with square wood and trying to make a head.

“This will be the biggest thing I’ve worked on,” Tubman said. “Another Burning Man project, the Trojan Horse, was a pretty complex, with a lot of geometric stuff, but this is even much more so. Big is not a problem; you can build a skyscraper out of wood. The issue with this is that there is nothing straight, square, flat or vertical.”

The project build is a giant undertaking and will require as many hands as possible. Tubman said that currently there are five to six people who can look at plans and know what needs to be done versus volunteers who are showing up saying, “Yes, I will help you do anything.”

Beauchamp said volunteers are welcome and it doesn’t depend on what they might know or what skills they have. He said they take time to try and train them to mark and cut or drive a forklift, and then they can be counted on to assist in more skilled areas as time goes on.

What do you think, Burners?

About the Pier Crew

In 2012, The Pier Crew worked for months to bring you La Llarona, an 88ft Spanish Galleon crashed into a 130ft pier.

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It was created with love, passion, and talent by a team of friends with a single goal: to bring this gift to you.

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Now that same team will be building another, even larger and greater creation. Please help us by being a part of bringing our latest gift, Embrace, to Black Rock City

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If you’re in Reno, come and support their fund raiser on February 15

  • Artist contact: Ryan Ostler, salvageryryano@gmail.com
    Event contact: Lindsay Schaefer, lindsay.schaefer@gmail.com

    BUY IT OR BURN IT: A FUNDRAISER FOR EMBRACE

    Reno, Nev. — Join some of Northern Nevada’s premiere artists on Feb. 15 for a night of music, food, performance art and an art auction at The Generator Gallery at 1240 Icehouse Ave. in Sparks.

    Buy it or Burn it will feature many local artists’ works for auction, in which the bidder will decide the fate of the piece: to keep it or to burn it. Doors will open at 7 p.m. and the community burn will take place at approximately 10 p.m. All funds raised from the auction will benefit Embrace, a 70-foot tall people sculpture for Burning Man 2014.

    The Pier Group, led by Matt Schultz, commenced construction on Embrace in October 2013 at The Generator, Inc. in Sparks. The cathedral like sculpture will depict two people embracing from the waist up, an allusion to the relationships we encounter in our lives that help shape the way we live. Currently, The Pier Group has submitted an application as a contender for The Temple at Burning Man 2014.

    The evening will include aerial silks performances by Lina Maria from The Siren Society as well as independent artist Alexa Ray. Fondue will be donated by Wedge – A Cheese Shop in Reno, and sound will be provided from South Lake Tahoe based music collective Mindful Massive.

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    The Pier Group out of Reno, Nev. previous Burning Man projects include The Pier, Pier 2 and The Ichthyosaur Puppet Project. Embrace will require over 100 people for on-playa site construction. The Generator, Inc., is a decommodified community arts and builder’s space in Reno.
Jan 9 2014

“The Temple”: Mini-documentary Shot in 2013

The Huffington Post brings us news of “The Temple”, the latest in a seemingly never-ending series of documentaries about Burning Man. It’s only 5 minutes long, and highlights the Solemn Side of the event.

Outsiders to the Burning Man community may only know the arts festival as a giant party in the Nevada desert, but a newly released short film from last year’s event celebrates one of the things that makes the gathering so much more than that: the Temple.

already alive the templeReleased Tuesday by Already Alive — the studio founded by the film’s director, composer and cinematographer, Michael Marantz — “The Temple” is an homage to the sacred structure that attendees fill with photos, messages, trinkets and thoughts as a symbol of closure. At the end of the week, the Temple is burned to the ground.

“Now that many in our society have moved beyond traditional religion, how do we move past tragedy? How do we mark the exciting events in our lives and how do we deal with life’s inevitable trials?” the filmmakers ask. “Some people who face these questions find the answer in the most unlikely of places, Burning Man.”

The Temple burns on Sunday night, and is the total opposite of the Man burn. Quiet, and still. Worth a look, if you can handle being in the desert that long.