After hearing many people describe their Burning Man experiences I’ve pretty much come to the conclusion that just about anything one might say about the festival is equally true. For some people it turns out to be the world’s worst camping trip with the dust storms, unrelenting heat, lack of water, etc. Other people find it to be a magical adventure on an alien planet. Both descriptions are true. The festival is extraordinary and mundane, communal and solitary, secular and cultish, beautiful and unsightly. One could even say the festival is non-commercial and very expensive! Just like visiting a big city, your experience largely depends on the particular path you take while you are there.

People often say the festival gives them a unique opportunity for self-expression because the atmosphere is so open. At Burning Man anyone can become a celebrity. Even if you have no talent whatsoever it seems that anything you do, if done with a good spirit, will be appreciated and encouraged. You’ll certainly never find a more friendly and enthusiastic audience than at Burning Man.

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Bicycle Repair
This year I was reminded that in addition to self-expression the festival also provides a unique opportunity for social interactions through volunteer work. First off, there are few events with such a high concentration of interesting people to interact with. This year I volunteered doing bicycle repair. There you are, fixing bikes in the shade. Somebody wearing nothing but green body paint and glitter walks up pushing a broken bike. Ten seconds later you’re immersed in a conversation about lasers or holography or something with this random stranger who turns out to be some ex-biologist turned trapeze artist who is having a bondage wedding ceremony at sunset and would you like to join the after-party on the flaming dragon art car…etc.

By the end of the first day I and all the other bike mechanics had become people junkies. Every random person who walked up turned out to be his or her own little vortex of eccentric entertainment. And the beauty of a participant-oriented event like Burning Man is that our customers eventually took over the whole operation. Someone showed up with a garden sprayer filled with lavender scented mist to cool people off. A woman pulled out a wooden paddle and offered free spankings. Someone else brought over a cooler of beer. A mobile DJ rolled up. People even started fixing each other’s bikes. Our “repair” station pretty much evolved into is own self-contained party. We became the guests and the guests became the hosts.

And because bikes are the primary mode of transportation out there, people were very appreciative. A bike at Burning Man is kind of like a horse to a cowboy. So it turned out that doing bike repair was also very “profitable” as well as entertaining. People sometimes say that Burning Man is based on a bartering economy. But really Burning Man has no economy. People bring more provisions with them to the desert than they can possibly use. So the normal rule of “supply and demand” just disintegrates into one big gift-giving orgy. Or at least it does if you’re fixing people’s bicycles! By the end of the day our “donations box” looked more like a supermarket complete with a gourmet food selection, toy department, liquor isle, and pharmacy!

On the topic of volunteering I should mention that although you are surrounded by thousands of people at the festival this does not mean that you automatically feel like you are part of the action. You can just as easily feel like you’re on the outside looking in. I think this is really the main obstacle newcomers face. You need to invent a purpose for yourself and volunteering is probably the fastest way to jump in and get your feet wet, or should I say dusty.

Chandelier
The art this year was spectacular as usual. One of the favorite pieces was an art installation by Rosanna Scimica and crew called “Cleavage in Space”. This installation consisted of a giant chandelier made to appear as if it had fallen from the sky, complete with broken chain attached to a fragment of an imaginary plaster ceiling. The theme of the festival this year was “Beyond Belief”. This art installation created an Alice in Wonderland effect in which size and proportion are turned upside down.

Johnny on the Spot
Here is another out of proportion installation by Saul Melman and Ani Weinstein based on an art piece originally done by Marcel Duchamp. The entire structure resembles a giant porcelain urinal. In this case the whole structure forms a kind of amphitheater that you enter or exit by crawling through a hole in the bottom (where the plumbing would connect). The walls are translucent and at night they are illuminated from the interior.

Yantra by Christopher Schardt
This installation plays on the theme “beyond belief” by presenting an array of religions and philosophical symbols suspended above small tables. This installation has the great advantage of providing people with a place to sit while they enjoy the art. Art that gives you a place to rest in the middle of the desert is always appreciated.

Utilikilts
Here’s a different type of panorama featuring people. Historically panoramas were often used for group photos in which there are too many people to fit into an ordinary picture. This type of circular arrangement of people is a lot more interesting than the usual group photo in which everybody is crunched together. The people in this particular image are Rangers. The Rangers are all civilians who work the festival as volunteers. I guess you might think of them as the “designated drivers” of the event. They volunteer to keep things organized and prevent overly enthusiastic participants from winning the Darwin Awards. Here’s a group of Rangers all wearing their kilts.

JPC 04
Here’s a picture of our bike repair shade structure. On the left is a homespun art car created by campmate Andrew Birklid.

Art Cars
Apart from bicycles, art cars are the second most popular form of transportation at the festival. I like to think of art cars as the Public Transportation System. An art car might be in the shape of a dragon, a fish, a Spanish Galleon, flying carpet, you name it. The art car transportation system is unique, however, in that there are no schedules and, in fact, no destinations. When you jump on an art car to get somewhere you usually end up someplace other than where you intended to be. Fortunately, where you end up is often more interesting than where you wanted to go in the first place. In fact, this happens so often you begin to wonder if there is any advantage to planning at all. The whole experience of jumping on random art cars to arrive at random destinations, which coincidentally turn out to be where you needed to be, reminds me a lot of those Hitch hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy books by Douglas Adams. That’s about the closest analogy I can think of.

Fatality
This year an unfortunate event brought art cars into a new perspective. A woman was tragically killed after being run over by an art car. Who can imagine what this meant to the woman’s family and friends? I spoke with one art car owner who said she would no longer bring her art car to the event because the risk is too great. In such a large event there are bound to be some injuries. But certainly a community as proud of its creativity as the Burning Man community can figure out a way to prevent such accidents. Anyway, the whole thing was very sad. So when you hear people like myself waxing eloquent about how great Burning Man is keep in mind that the festival is not a fantasyland where everything is wonderful. It is also part of reality. It can be harsh and very un-magical.

The Burn
As is well known, the climax of the festival is the burning of a large wooden effigy called “The Man”, which each year seems to become larger and more elaborate. From its humble beginnings on a stack of hay bales it has grown into a towering neon figure sitting atop a structure seemingly built for a Pharaoh. And the whole thing is wired with enough pyrotechnics for a New York 4th of July. The effigy is in danger of becoming known as the “Pretentious Burning Man” if you ask me. But people seem to love it. And the elevated height now makes the spectacle visible to everyone, not just the fanatics in the front row. This year much of our camp avoided the mob of 20,000 people surrounding The Man and we watched the burn comfortably seated on a couch strapped to the roof of an art car. And actually I think we enjoyed the event more this way. It turns out that the best show is not necessarily the burn itself. The best show I think is the crowd watching the show. This is consistent with a lot of Burning Man experiences and I often think to myself, “You know you are in the right place when the audience becomes the entertainment and the performers sit down to watch!”

There are of course a million other stories to tell about Burning Man 2003 and at least a million pictures to go with those stories. Anyone who wants more should check out the official Burning Man site: burningman.com

Software:
Charles Evans used Photoshop, Panorama Tools plug-in (lens distortion) REALViZ Stitcher. His website was created with Macromedia Dreamweaver.

Equipment:
Bogen/Manfrotto 3444 (440) Carbon One 4-Section Tripod, Canon D60 digital camera w/ 17mm lens, Kaidan QuickPan Spherical panorama head.

Visit Charles Evans’ websitewww.digitalpanos.com for more Burning Man panoramas.

Another interesting Burning Man website : Eight years of stereoscopic photographs from the Burning Man festival.
Visit Charles Evans’ website www.digitalpanos.com for more Burning Man panoramas.

Email: charles@digitalpanos.com