After browsing through images of past Burning Man artworks, watching Nora Atkinson’s (2018) TedTalk, and reading the first chapter of Cory Doctorow’s novel Homeland (2014), I was prompted to make something that incorporated an interactive element, light, sand, and color. I started by using a mirror as the base of my project. Inspired by Robert Smithson’s Spiral Jetty (Great Salt Lake, UT, 1970) and the shape of the map of Burning Man, I wanted people to be able to circumnavigate the piece.
Along with the mirror, I chose to use kinetic sand, translucent colored shot glasses, glass beads from an old fish tank, and paper to form a central sculpture.
When I began constructing my piece, I wasn’t totally sure what I wanted to put as the center sculpture other than the fact I wanted to cut negative space in a paper form for light to pass through. Ideally, this would be the element of the piece that would be set on fire during the festival. I started laying out the copper tape in a spiral on the mirror, spacing out LEDs that I would cover with the shot glasses and glass beads.
Once I had my lights working and the layout set up, I roughly measured the surface area of the center and searched Google for more examples of Burning Man artwork. I found inspiration in the following images.
The idea was to incorporate elements of nature and man-made objects. I found a template online for a geometric form, printed it, made a few adjustments, and started cutting out organic lines and shapes.
Finally, I added sand around the perimeter of the spiral and continued a sandy pathway through the piece, imagining that it could act as a pathway for festival-goers of Burning Man. I would like to imagine that the mirror in the inner spiral would actually be water to reflect the light and the night sky. And lastly, the center sculpture would be set ablaze while people stood on the spiral, watching it burn.
Resources:
Atkinson, N. (2018). Nora Atkinson: Why Art Thrives at Burning Man [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.ted.com/talks/nora_atkinson_why_art_thrives_at_burning_man?utm_campaign=tedspread&utm_medium=referral&utm_source=tedcomshare
Doctorow, C. (2014). Homeland. St Martins Pr.