What was the deal with the Eye stage in deep playa?

markfromson.com | @autobiographica

2) “It looks like Big Money/ Turn Key Camp” [True & False]​

This was a massive project. Professional equipment of this caliber is expensive. The investment was sizable. We took no art grant money from the org. All funding came from the founders who just wanted to do something EPIC. And this is the art that we do. Is it a little aesthetically different from other art at burning man? Of course. I love the creativity and resourcefulness of burners making really fun stuff out of really interesting elements. But, nothing I saw out here (and I’m fairly confident ever) has been this big. We are professional riggers and stage designers and techs and artists. This is our art. Something this big needs to be done professionally to be safe. This piece was engineer stamped to withstand 150mph wind gusts. We wanted to go big AND we wanted it to be safe. This is what we love and what we do.

We are NOT a turn key camp. We had a home base support camp with half of our crew being Eye techs, and the other half handling support camp, making sure we were all housed and fed and showered and loved. Everyone here (only about 60 ppl) worked their fucking asses off. I personally arrived on Tuesday the 20th. We worked for a solid 8 days straight day and night. In truth, we needed at least double the amount of techs and riggers. Everyone we did have was extremely talented and knowledgeable in their respective disciplines. And everyone gave it their all. Unfortunately we were not able to accomplish the complete realization of the eye. At some point we collectively decided to stop Working Man and start Burning Man.

The Eye Lashes and Iris were installed with LED tape that we weren’t able to finish. There was going to be a podium out front with the interactive portion of the art piece where users were going to be able to talk to the eye via a snarky version of ChatGPT as well as a touch display to interact with the visuals and pyro and LED. Unfortunately we were not able to complete that execution. But that just means it will be more fun next time we deploy it.

Part of the reason we were behind was the weather. It was a difficult build week. Another reason was that the org took a while to approve us which delayed the start of fabrication. The teams were working tirelessly before we got out here creating custom control interfaces, fabricating the lashes, fabricating the custom rigging pieces we needed to execute the construction. We were doing additional fabrication on playa. Welding aluminum at the trash fence. Wiring the LED tape. Working out the kinks in the pyro control system.

These are some of the most talented individuals I have ever worked with. Everyone gave their all.

3) “The sound system was awful” [Get Absolutely Fucked]

Were there some audio difficulties during the Monolink set? Yes. Shit happens. It happens on tour, it happens at every level and scale of live events. That’s life.
But when it was working, that shit was BANGING. we had a PK Trinity rig on the eye. And when art cars came to link up, we tied everyone’s sound systems together.
IMO Friday night with Ice Berg and Long Feng sounded immaculate. The bass was full but I didn’t feel the need to wear my ear plugs.

4) “DPW was pissed and everyone hated it” [True / False]

It seemed that there was a bit of miscommunication between the ppl at the top and the ppl in the middle. There were ppl from artery DPW that came out to tell us that we were violating open playa sound rules. But when pressed, those rules are really quite vague. The only thing I could think of as a good reason was the possibility of sound bleed going towards the city and disrupting the Temple. However, it was not that loud. When I got to the deep playa portos, you could barely hear it. There was more sound pollution from the other art cars roving closer to the city than there was from us.
We received direct and positive affirmation of our art from many people. Apart from the crowds at the events, many individuals personally came by to share how amazed and thankful they were for our contribution. Literal actual words were “This is exactly what burning man needed” a fresh contribution that challenges the rules in the name of epic art.

Love it or hate it, we came to give it our all. And after all that physical labor and work, I still gave it my all on the dance floor, ours and others.
This has been a life changing experience for me and i am looking forward to bring my new found presence and confidence into the default world to continue spreading my light.

You have to give the magic to receive the magic.

Fuck your burn.

Love, Almost

reddit.com/user/kclarkmusic