We Have a Dream Petition

LadyBeeSF · Post by **LadyBeeSF** » Sat Nov 27, 2004 11:47 pm

I've been on the inside a bit and I can tell you all that administrating the creative process of building burningman anew each year is much harder that anyone outs side the process can imagine. Creating the art that drives the event is also much harder than the insiders would believe. I myself has gone into staggering debt, lost jobs and relationships, and damm near driven myself to death, just to complete some silly art installation.

I have watched many other people loose themselves in the creative process and go way beyond the call of sanity. Everything about this event is hard, and in truth, while the ORG has created a sustainable structure for maintaining the event, most of the artists have not.

Creating art for Burningman puts any artist into a burn-out role. There is not enough money in any grant process to live on, and only the independently wealthy (or chronically poor) can afford to put in the time to do interesting art every year.

The existing grant process is a bit of a teaser. Some people really think they can do a big project for a few thousand dollars, only to find costs for tools, storage, work space, rework and transport to triple the expenses. So sometimes things don't get done, or they get done badly. Many times the more exciting work represents something that no one has ever done before, and there is no way to plan for what that kind of thing costs. You do it and then you know. You pay for the extras yourself, succeed at extra fund raising, or you quit.

I've done big projects for seven years, and I'm a bit burnt out myself. I have new ideas, and much hard won skill at creating things for the playa, but I'm a bit tired of the process. This is what I hear in these messages. "We love to create art, but we can't sustain it with current process, something has to change".

Some people look at the problem and want to become "pros", getting paid full time to work on Burningman art. And/Or open the process and force more money into more hands. I think there may be a place to create a "resident artist" program, granting one or two people full time status and support as artists for a year. But this does not solve the greater problem, that doing this kind of art is really hard.

The artists that have gotten good at it are demanding some respect in the form of control and money (just as they have been trained to expect for rewarding success). There is not and cannot be enough money to reward and support all the people creating things at burningman. More "justice" will not result from more access to the limited supply of cash.

We have at this junction, created exactly what we all hate about the rest of the world. A small power base, controlling limited resources that everyone wants. And a mass of people ready to storm the palace and take the resources they imagine are just being hoarded inside. We all know that this historic approach will only lead to a big ugly fight.

Here's a much more radical idea. Stop giving away the money, and use it to build more community. Instead of providing cash, provide resources. Look at the example of the Crucible in Oakland, and support art resource centers in other locations. Make the normal burningman art process into even more of a community effort, by building art community resources.

If we pool our skills, provide tools, and organize group buys for raw material, more art gets created with less money. We need warehouse space to store materials for reuse, and much can be collected from the material stream if there is a place to sort and store it all. Burningman can provide the inspiration to create a distributed art support infrastructure.

Any solution to current complaints must be resolved by addressing the real problem, that it's real hard to do this art. More cash will not fix this. More community will.

Thanks,
Tim Black

Badger · Post by **Badger** » Sun Nov 28, 2004 3:55 am

I am *so* waiting...

...for the realization - the harmonic convergence of sorts.... where people start giving voice to to the idea that it *ain't* the fucking art (or the funding) that's wrong. It *ain't* the new folken that's ruining it. It *ain't* the size of the event (yet) and it *ain't* Larry, Mo and Curly and whoever.

It's the slipping away of the idea of community investiture for the easier albeit lamer idea that someone else is (or should) do it. Someone else is/will/should make it prettier and funner. Someone else is - or should be - tasked with making it a more pleasant experience given the price of your ticket.

Well, you know what?

Badger · Post by **Badger** » Sun Nov 28, 2004 3:55 am

Fuck that.

Simply Joel · Post by **Simply Joel** » Sun Nov 28, 2004 3:55 am

Badger wrote:The cheap shots at spelling and grammar are unfortunate - especially given that this is one of the few remaining threads on e-playa that're still worth investing ideas and opinions on. Surely retorts directed at some of the ideas that have been brought to the fore are worth investing more in than jacking on someone's writing skills.

sorry, badger, poor spelling and grammar detracts from any salient point put forth. i stand by my position and corrections.

on a personal level, i believe the thread is much ado about nothing.

Badger · Post by **Badger** » Sun Nov 28, 2004 3:59 am

Wellpersonallyithinkthatsanattitudethatspompousatthefuckingcore.

Itsdissmissveandclassistanditsbullshit.

Simply Joel · Post by **Simply Joel** » Sun Nov 28, 2004 4:00 am

DVD Burner · Post by **DVD Burner** » Sun Nov 28, 2004 4:00 am

Simply Joel · Post by **Simply Joel** » Sun Nov 28, 2004 4:06 am

DVD Burner wrote:

the eplaya court jester

samtzu · Post by **samtzu** » Sun Nov 28, 2004 9:23 am

Badger wrote:

It's the slipping away of the idea of community investiture for the easier albeit lamer idea that someone else is (or should) do it. Someone else is/will/should make it prettier and funner. Someone else is - or should be - tasked with making it a more pleasant experience given the price of your ticket.

It appears to me that the Burning Man community is slipping into the American Way of Life a little too easily. "Entertain Me!!" is the couch potato mantra, and that should have been the theme at last year's burn. Well, to quote Badger (in his following post) "Fuck That!". There is no "someone else", as Badger has put it: there is only "Us". The price of your ticket is simply your camping fee; accept it, face it, move the fuck on. The next step is: bring your own art! Everyone has an art, as we have seen.... now, let's bring it.

This year I would like to see a six foot man on a telephone pole as the center of attention. I would like to see the Temple as an outhouse on stilts. I would like to see the show at the burn as a 'Bring Your Own' event, where the only fireworks and lights would be the ones we bring...

Personally, I think it would go a long way to bringing us together as a community and would improve the event. At least then we couldn't bitch about what BMORG did or didn't do, becaue then we could see that it is, truly, our responsability.

Badger · Post by **Badger** » Sun Nov 28, 2004 12:53 pm

In another post written after this one I opined;

...for the realization - the harmonic convergence of sorts.... where people start giving voice to to the idea that it *ain't* the fucking art (or the funding) that's wrong. It *ain't* the new folken that's ruining it. It *ain't* the size of the event (yet) and it *ain't* Larry, Mo and Curly and whoever.

What I wanted to say and didn't is that maybe these things really are in a collective sort of way contributors to the general dissatisfaction of what appears (or actually is) going on with the event. Focusing on one symptom and generating divisive discourse while ignoring the other parts of the patient that are atrophied, injured or rotting doesn't do much towards healing the whole being. Also, ignoring that there remains very healthy, very positive aspects of the patient certainly doesn't contribute to a quicker healing process either.

nipples · Post by **nipples** » Sun Nov 28, 2004 2:09 pm

Thanks for the word of the day, Badger!

opine

To me, it is an easy intrusion to block,
this worry of whom got what.

Why worry about 30 grants a year!

That's right, about 30 per year, & people go around
looking for "them" that "got", questioning all 30,000 with
doubt over whether or not they were one of 30?!

Seriously.

I'd say it would be nice if there was a published list beforehand of whom got a grant, and a little sign in front of each of those installations so the rest of us 29,970 of us could carry on with more important matters than getting the stink-eye from suspicious people.

nipples · Post by **nipples** » Sun Nov 28, 2004 2:13 pm

~tosses another 200 pound red-oak penis into the Pine River (two miles above the Missisippi), hoping someone down-stream gets a laugh~

Simply Joel · Post by **Simply Joel** » Sun Nov 28, 2004 2:55 pm

nipples wrote:~tosses another 200 pound red-oak penis into the Pine River (two miles above the Missisippi), hoping someone down-stream gets a laugh~

outstanding!

Rob the Wop · Post by **Rob the Wop** » Mon Nov 29, 2004 12:29 am

Y'know when I first seen the petition, I though 'typical caco bad prank'.

I realized that this was absolutely wrong.

At this point I realized it might be 'typical caco good prank'.

Seriously folks, what if they are just stirring the pot to fuck with y'alls? Are you swallowing the bait?

DVD Burner · Post by **DVD Burner** » Mon Nov 29, 2004 12:36 am

Rob the Wop wrote: Seriously folks, what if they are just stirring the pot to fuck with y'alls? Are you swallowing the bait?

I belive you have pinned the tail on the donkey.

Man you are smart Rob.

Brilliant.

Rian Jackson · Post by **Rian Jackson** » Mon Nov 29, 2004 7:57 am

jimmason wrote:sorry i didn't answer yet rian. i'm fielding something like 200 email a day. not everything gets answered. there is simply too much. i am only one. i'm trying to keep up. but i can't. i'll answer your note soon.

sorry for the delay.

j

cheers, eh? and happy monday.

stuart · Post by **stuart** » Mon Nov 29, 2004 11:42 am

cheap shots at spelling and grammar are unfortunate

I agree

it's also a typical logical fallacy

the manner in which an argument (or arguer) is presented is felt to affect the truth of the conclusion

Hawk · Post by **Hawk** » Thu Dec 16, 2004 2:00 pm

To Chicken john and others,

My biggest frustration about your petition is the lack of involvement in creating it from anyone outside of SF. Apparently you did not feel there was any reason to seek input from all the artist of burning man, just your friends. But now you want all of us to back it.

I also feel that many people in the Burning Man community don’t share your narrow definition of art and what Burning Man is really about. Art installs are not the most important part of Burning Man. There is no one part of Burning Man that must be held up higher than the rest. That is a radically exclusive opinion.

“We used to be needed. We used to be loved. We used to be treated with respect. We used to feel like a family. Now, we feel like slaves. Slaves to the man.”

Save the melodrama man, this is about funding for art projects. The event is supposed to be about radical self reliance also. What happen to that Idea? If you feel like a slave that is your own fault, Not Larry’s.

The long and short of it is everyone would like to see the event change and to see more art but I don’t see how insulting the people that you are asking to support you is the way to do it. Are you really so arrogant that you believe anyone who disagrees with you is “STUPID” or “Blind”

I feel that your petition will end up having a positive effect on the amount of art at Burning Man. I also feel it has had a negative effect on the Artist Community as a whole.

b00m3rang · Post by **b00m3rang** » Thu Dec 16, 2004 10:56 pm

I was initially excited about the prospect of shaking things up, I'm as anti-authoritarian as the next guy, but the snide and vindictive retort to Larry's IMO very valid points really put me off. To insist on such sweeping reforms and redistribution of moneys, and to give this power to people who really don't know the big picture or share the responsibility... and then to suggest that the BORG and the BM community at large have NOTHING TO LOSE is ridiculous.

My solution to improve Burning Man? I'm going to build, contribute, and think bigger than I ever have before. I highly doubt that the BORG will try to keep me from this goal.

I have more points to make, and this post was twice as long, but I'm cutting it off to avoid rambling.

We Have a Dream Petition

Multiple grant recipient speaks (Tim Black)

Re: sorry