Burningman 2015:

Carnival of Mirrors

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"The spectacle is not a collection of images; it is a social relation that is mediated by images."

- Guy Debord, Society of the Spectacle

This year's theme is about mirrors and masks, mazes and merger. It will be a kind of magic show that takes the form of an old-fashioned carnival. This Carnival of Mirrors asks three essential questions: within our media-saturated world, where products and people, consumption and communion morph into an endlessly diverting spectacle, who is the trickster, who is being tricked, and how might we discover who we really are?

Classic carnivals, as theaters of illusion, upheld a very strict dividing line that separated carnies, cast as showmen, from members of a naive public who were labeled chumps and suckers, marks and rubes. Our carnival, however, will perform an even more subversive trick - its motto is Include the Rube. The wall dividing the observer from observed will disappear, as by an act of magic; through the alchemy of interaction, everyone at once can be the carny and the fool.

Wizzard's Photos

Pre_event Models | PDFs

At Burning Man: wizzard 1 | wizzard 2 | wizzard 3 | wizzard 4 | wizzard 5 | wizzard 6 | wizzard 7 | wizzard 8 | wizzard 9 | wizzard 10 ||
Sun Tower | The Man and Midway | The Temple | Viper's Memorial to U2

Atta Girl's Photos

Pre_event: Build days | Indiegogo Perks

At Burning Man: Gwen 1 | Gwen 2 | Gwen 3 | Gwen 4 | Gwen 5 | Gwen 6 | Gwen 7 | Gwen 8 | Gwen 9 | Gwen 10 | Gwen 11 | Gwen 12 | Gwen 13 ||
Sun Tower | The Man and Midway | The Temple |

Hare Today Gone Tomorrow Photos

Pre_event: Build days | On Playa - wizzard

Asundry other project Photos

Projects

the Sun Tower

2228 year or so after Archimedes is said to have destroyed an attacking Roman naval fleet using mirrors, we will bring the Sun Tower to the playa and try to set it on fire the same way.

This 32' tall climbable tower will have an 8' sun shaped mandala at the top. On Friday around 1pm, hundreds of participants around the perimeter will be given mirrors to reflect sunlight at the center of the mandal where a target wad of cannon fuse will catch fire and set the rest of the tower alight.

Results: We tried for about 20 minutes to use sunlight to catch it on fire unsuccessfully. Then I pulled a couple road flares out of my back pocket and approached the crowd and asked "How about plan B?", to which the crowd cheered and I lit the tower from the bottom.

Sun Tower 2015 from Ravi Shankar on Vimeo.

Hare Today Gone Tomorrow

South Bay is building a 20' diameter top hat sitting upside down on the playa with huge rabbit ears sticking out of the top, ala a Magician's trick hat. Gwen and I are helping out a little at the build days, and will help as much time as we can when we get to the playa.