This is your chance. No neighborhood associations to come down on how you choose to decorate your lawn. Remember, your ticket merely gives you access to the PortaPotties and some emergency services, and if everyone came without art the place would be pretty damned dull.
If you do end up there without having a project of your own, volunteer! You meet the coolest people that way. But if you plan ahead you can leave an impression.
I can't suggest art, this has to come from the twisted depths of your own psyche, the rest of this section is a vehicle for the pictures of some of the things we brought back.
It doesn't have to be big. Banner Man was wonderful and huge, but a squall knocked it over not long after it was set up, and it was reduced to a more abstract sculpture.
The only problem with the human car wash was that in the wind it shed parts, but it involved the people who came to see it and brought us back several times.
The Japanese garden was a fantastic refuge from the overstimulation of Black Rock City. Many people came out to sit in the shade and meditate on the false granite rocks and the patterns raked in the playa which made a great substitute for gravel.
Another favorite was the Very Large Array
, 100 poles arranged in 5 squares, two speakers atop each pole, photosensors which turned on the array as the sun went down. In the darkness each pole played different sampled sounds, bells, tones and such, wandering through this array in the moonlight was an incredible experience.
David Schlussel's sculptures
sculptures were very cool, but my pictures don't do them justice.
But anything goes, so make sure you do something.
Wednesday, December 30th, 1998 danlyke@flutterby.com