The end of Cacaphony

[some seeing eye]

The Mission, Oakland are diminishing as culturally diverse experimentation communities and repositories of slow culture. The Cacophony Society, the mother of Burning Man, creates and throws off cultural experiments like the sun throws off solar flares. Now the in Portland Oregon there is a safe commercial Santacon. http://www.oregonlive.com/entertainment ... _2015.html

Of course this could never happen to Burning Man, right?

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[Simon of the Playa]

we are the rasputin of art movements.



fuck your obituary.

[forty_eight]

Is that Further Future thing a commercial rip off of BM?

cause if so ... there you go.

[Simon of the Playa]

Is that Further Future thing

that was a tragedy, in so many ways...and, like 99% of the wannabe burnyMans but dont want the whole smorgasbjord of burning man, but a curated "slice" that they prefer, or more importantly, can afford, they will always be the equivalent of a red headed bastard step-child...


i'll just leave it at that.


and for the sake of clarity and transparency, it should be noted that i do not speak for Cacaphony....no one does.

everyone does.

I am the Leader of a local CLENCH of Dobbsian based Salesmen known as the Bob-a-Lous.

we are an affiliated organization, somewhat akin to the very odd fellows.

[some seeing eye]

we are the rasputin of art movements.
fuck your obituary.

Yep. I'm all for fuck it all up performance-participation at the event - except sound limits in the mapped city/art cars, MOOP, sexual assault/bad club behavior/involuntary dosing or burning others art without permission.

I hate megaphones, but 100% vote for them and even DPW fuckery when it is deserved.

Burning Man is not a middle-upper class suburb.


BTW, if you are not a logged in viewer, the link at the start of the thread is about a commercial business registering a (Cacaphony - originated) Santacon web domain to sell costumes. We are somewhat protected from that so far by the BMORG IP team, which is solid and responsive.

[Token]

Santacon was once a pimple on the butt cheek of Cacophony popped a long time ago. An insignificant event in the grand scheme of things.

Sewer crawls is what its all about these days.

[trilobyte]

What's basically happened there is that the founders all basically walked away from the event without taking any steps to preserve the original idea. With nobody there to keep the faith, it got turned into a bad excuse for a bar crawl more than a decade ago, and has only continued to go down hill from there.

Of course, the same could happen to either Burning Man or any other organization. All it takes is for the founders to walk away without giving a damn about what happens next. One of the Burning Man founders did that a while back (like he did with the Santa event too), but fortunately for all of us, the others did not.

If you're truly interested (and not just trolling the philosophy board), you could find out more about that by reading numerous JRS articles and posts on the Burning Blog Burning Man Journal over the years. That was kind of the point of Burning Man evolving and forming Burning Man Project. The remaining founders and board members have been putting a lot of energy into building the kind of organization that can carry the event and the culture into future generations.

So while it is possible, that kind of long-term planning and level of care seems to suggest it's not very likely.

[Simon of the Playa]

STEAL THIS BOOK!!!

[some seeing eye]

Trillo, I generally agree with your observation which I would guess is SF.
I am more familiar with Santacon up North.

As for the event in the desert, we are fortunate the founders are still involved. Personally I think they are too hands off and reluctant to act until changes in the wrong direction become harder to redirect or reverse. Based on conversations I have had, they are realistic that some course corrections can take several years. I believe they need an ongoing ethnographic team advising them.

The point of my post is that I believe absurdity, playfulness and opportunities for experiential risk is a strong component of the BRC BM.

I believe an all-beauty and all-Disney experience dance party is boring. I believe that in our entrepreneurial society, there is a common tendency in that direction as demonstrated by the article.

[Ugly Dougly]

Sand castles get washed away by the tide.
Build another freaking sand castle.

[some seeing eye]

Here are the terms of use for the commercial Santacon:

"By attending this event, you grant to [organizer corp], its representatives and employees the right to take photographs of you and your property in connection with the above-identified subject. You authorize [organizer corp], its assigns and transferees to copyright, use and publish the same in print and/or electronically.

You further agree that [organizer corp] may use such photographs with or without your name and for any lawful purpose, including for example such purposes as publicity, illustration, advertising, and Web content".

Yep, commercial Santacon owns you, and for a very small admission price.

[trilobyte]

The old "if we see you and take your picture we can do anything we want without any notification or compensation" scam, eh? I would question the legality of something like that. I know that theme camps who do that (Black Rock Yearbook) have to put up signs all over their camp (though their use is largely non-commercial), as do any kind of movie and tv productions that are shooting on location.

[some seeing eye]

Trillo, 100% agree with your critique.

The intent of this thread from the beginning is to give examples of other for or not profit companies adopting BM ethos. Even nonprofits pay their leaders.

The last post - they steal participant identities to support their business model and marketing. Not OK.

Contract of adhesion.