2005 Theme

Discosybil · Post by **Discosybil** » Sat Dec 04, 2004 8:08 am

"Psyche: the Conscous, the Subconscous and the Unconscous"

I was thinking last week, I hope the theme comes out early so we have more time to work on art work and deja vu, low and behold, hallelujiah, yeeowza, I LOVE IT!!!!!

I have a feeling it's going to be one of the BEST years yet!!!!

stuart · Post by **stuart** » Sat Dec 04, 2004 3:56 pm

wonderful, another visually impossible theme to work with. I miss you vault of heaven.

Discosybil · Post by **Discosybil** » Sat Dec 04, 2004 4:33 pm

Growing up in the 60's and 70's I see a lot more prospect with this theme than last years.

Zulegoona · Post by **Zulegoona** » Sat Dec 04, 2004 4:38 pm

I can imagine all sorts of imagery with the theme from dark Freudian dream scrapes, Fears, Joys, Wet dreams, God all sorts of things in the subconscious realms. Or chose the Conscious realms, perceptions, thought structures, organization / disorganization. The physical world face informed or manipulated by the subconscious imperatives. I tend to lean towards darker imagery, but ecstatic, works too. Hasn't all of the Art ever produced been a view of or threw the id, ego, or super ego.

Discosybil · Post by **Discosybil** » Sat Dec 04, 2004 4:46 pm

I want to hear more about your dark imagery.

geekster · Post by **geekster** » Sat Dec 04, 2004 5:58 pm

Lots of opportunity for subliminal stuff, things that aren't really obvious in all kinds of things including visual art. A great theme for opitcal illusion, smells, sounds, messing with people's minds in lots of different ways.

The unconscious is kinda cool, if you think about it. Think of dreams. Everyone dreams but people rarely remember them. Why? Because they are not awakened during a period of active draming. At 5am, do something that wakes people up ... and give them the give of the dream they were having but might have otherwise missed if you hadn't.

Or maybe just get a face full of playa dust.

Discosybil · Post by **Discosybil** » Sat Dec 04, 2004 7:08 pm

I want to figure out how to share my best trip without having to explain it on acid and visually share it through art. I guess somehow messing with minds.

Hopefully the dream part won't sneak in where I'm falling and wake before I hit the ground.

diane o'thirst · Post by **diane o'thirst** » Sat Dec 04, 2004 10:01 pm

It's going to be interesting...I guess I should play more Bach and Mozart, then. According to researchers, Baroque music and Mozart actually optimize your synapses so that they perform better. Sort of a sonic Norton Utilities Disk Doctor for the brain...

Heard tell that Alex Grey is working on something for this year's Burn. Can't wait to see what he comes up with...heck, can't wait to see him!

Discosybil · Post by **Discosybil** » Sun Dec 05, 2004 12:28 am

Alex Grey's work is amazing. Just checked out his web page, WOW, that's what I'm talking about, his work plays with your mind.

buckethead alien · Post by **buckethead alien** » Sun Dec 05, 2004 2:20 am

geekster wrote:The unconscious is kinda cool, if you think about it. Think of dreams. Everyone dreams but people rarely remember them. Why? Because they are not awakened during a period of active draming. At 5am, do something that wakes people up ... and give them the give of the dream they were having but might have otherwise missed if you hadn't.

I have been meaning to post to say that I think you are onto something very good--the subliminal snatches of sound that become recognizable as the week goes on.

But in regard to the above, there's an island I have visited in the middle of the Atlantic where everybody who comes there has nightmares. This is because of a certain seabird with a voice like a crying baby that soars above the villages at night--only you don't figure out that this is why you are having blood-drenched dreams until someone explains it to you.

It's a very strange experience to be in the pub and have the subject come up among a group of travellers : "I had a nightmare last night."

"What? I did, too"

"I've been having them every night since I got here."

Discosybil · Post by **Discosybil** » Sun Dec 05, 2004 8:20 am

that sort of reminded me a my only playa dream. Our camp was laying around the camp trying to get a nap due to 104 degrees and all of a sudden the greatest art vehicle came flying above us. It was an art helicopter that had a ten over it's body and wings on the side. But the wings ended up in the blade and the helicopter started flying uncontrollably over the camps. The pilot actually worked it away from the camps and crashed near the airport. It was totally weird but the art helicopter was amazing.

I tried to figure out the dream and I think it's my fear of a plane doing the same but not near the airport.
True fear when I hear the engines.

diane o'thirst · Post by **diane o'thirst** » Sun Dec 05, 2004 11:27 am

The "lucid dreaming" idea has merit, but there's a factor that would limit it:

Number one, at 5AM, a large number of people will be awake. Depending on the weather, of course. If we get a cold year, there'll be lots of sleepers.

What I'd like to explore is a concept called the Brahmin Hour. According to lore, it's the hour between 3 and 4AM where whoever is sleeping totally disincorporates — their animating force leaves the body completely, and the body runs under momentum for about five minutes. The "soul" returns to Divinity for cleansing and healing, and returns in that five minutes if they're destined or choose to continue living. If they don't, the body dies. What I was thinking of doing was to remix some sacred music — a requiem, perhaps a nocturne, chanting, AUM (an East Meets West motif), et alia, and finish it out with Danse Macabre in honour of those who...didn't come back

On visual themes...the common intelligence maintains that surrealism is the language the brain uses to converse with itself. There's a whole body of visuals there...

Wind_Borne · Post by **Wind_Borne** » Sun Dec 05, 2004 12:34 pm

diane o'thirst wrote: On visual themes...the common intelligence maintains that surrealism is the language the brain uses to converse with itself. There's a whole body of visuals there...

Better still, there's unbounded potential for new visuals (and sounds) there.

The surrealists thought that the power of the goal-driven waking mind overwhelmed sublter thoughts floating through the mind. Sort of like driving to Sacramento at 80 MPH and not noticing the fields in bloom along the way. To better appreciate these sublter thoughts the surrealist advocated non-directed activities, like taking long walks to no particular place, or quickly writing words that came to mind without telling a story. The hope was to enhance serendipity -- to give opportunity to the unexpected.

These techniques do work. And they can lead you beyond stereotypical and cultural images into something deeper and more profound.

Discosybil · Post by **Discosybil** » Sun Dec 05, 2004 3:34 pm

My mind is working overtime trying to decipher that. :oops:

geekster · Post by **geekster** » Sun Dec 05, 2004 3:47 pm

Well, now that I think more about it, there will likely be more people sleeping at 8:32 than at 5

So I just had another idea ... ever think "damn, its a {good thing/shame} that the people on TV can't see us"? Well, imagine a dome or a tent with a mock-up TV set but the glass is a window to the outside world. People could come by and look in and maybe interact a little, or not.

Discosybil · Post by **Discosybil** » Sun Dec 05, 2004 3:58 pm

Could they put that on TV? Oh, I guess lately they can.

diane o'thirst · Post by **diane o'thirst** » Sun Dec 05, 2004 4:15 pm

Windborne — I'm driving to Portland tonight, which is a comparable distance (assuming you're talking about coming from San Francisco). I'll try that. Take a journal along, see what comes to mind.

So how would something like that translate to the Playa? A game? Say, have the participants come to a camp, give them a journal, and show them how to do that cobra-crawl thingie that Shaivites on yatra do — clap, clap, prostrate, slide? Or maybe give them the Lotus Walk option if they don't want to scrape their undersides on the Playa for a couple hours. Have them walk from one end of the city to the other — or maybe out to the Man — and write down what came to mind.

H'mm. This could have some possibilities...

Wind_Borne · Post by **Wind_Borne** » Sun Dec 05, 2004 5:39 pm

Wow, diane o'thirst, like some space probe slingshoting around Saturn, you pivoted around my thoughts and took them to a whole new place. That's so cooI.

I was writing about surrealist techniques as a step to creating art work for the playa.

You made a link between surrealist techniques and older ways of meditation and worship. That opens up into the creative work as worship, the dream as enlightment, the boundary of self and other... whew!

I was thinking about making art for the playa. You extended that to encouraging the surrealist process and the dreamwork on the playa. Nice.

On my first day of my first burn I arrived during a whiteout, became lost on the playa that night, took refuge in a friendly camp when the rain started, met a bunch of interesting people, and fell asleep in my tent as snow fell and trance music rumbled. It was so unworldly, so dreamlike, so perfect.

So, how about the playa as surrealist dreamwork in progress.

diane o'thirst · Post by **diane o'thirst** » Sun Dec 05, 2004 11:42 pm

I did the cobra-crawl yatra technique once when I was researching a story. It's a simply movement but the implications are incredibly focusing, centring and at the same time expanding, much like most active meditation.

You're active, you're focused, but at the same time you're in no-mind because all you see is the featureless road. You don't see ahead, around or behind, just under you, and the exercise is quite strenuous. You feel it mostly in the muscles and work up a panting sweat in short order. Or at least I did. The lactic acid kicks in quickly, but so do the endorphins. I had to stop doing it after a few minutes because the body just quit.

So I'm thinking I'll do that as a personal thing one day, Cobra Crawl from my camp to the Man, and Lotus-Walk back.

Another realm of possibility to explore? No-Mind? Barmecide Feast?

BTW, loved the invocation of Saturn...got the photo of Saturn's rings hanging up next to my desk and it's also my sun's ruler

Mister Jellyfish Mister · Post by **Mister Jellyfish Mister** » Mon Dec 06, 2004 8:01 am

Wind_Borne wrote:
diane o'thirst wrote: On visual themes...the common intelligence maintains that surrealism is the language the brain uses to converse with itself. There's a whole body of visuals there...

The hope was to enhance serendipity -- to give opportunity to the unexpected.
quote]

I think this theme is going to save me some money on updating the Mutant Vehicle. Last year I kept trying to explain to the passengers that it was not a taxi for hire and completely driven by the "Space Time Serendipty Drive". "If your concise mind commands you to go someplace in particular, this art car is not the right choice for you". Some people got it and loved it, others would reply with "Yeah, but I wanna go to...".

With the exception of turning it into a roaving leather couch and piloting it with a freudian beard, please click the link below for the project website and let me know any thoughts you all have about adapting the "time" theme. I simply can't do nothing to it as I am happier with a project. I'd say the front mini tractor drive is the most open to... er... suggestion.

Wind_Borne · Post by **Wind_Borne** » Mon Dec 06, 2004 11:07 am

I was looking at your website last night, noticed your Space Time Serendipty Drive, and thought "How apropos to this year."

Please don't do anything in reference to Freud! Aside from his theories being largely debunked, this year Freudian images will be as commonplace and trite as guys in bras.

You could install a Dimensional Absurdity Drive Augmenter (DADA); that might do the trick.

Diane o'thirst, a cobra-crawl / lotus walk to the man and back would be awesome. May I suggest you take the journey at dawn, before the heat of the day sets in. And, so that you can focus on the experience, ask a friend to walk along to lookout for mutant vehicles and your health.

theCryptofishist · Post by **theCryptofishist** » Mon Dec 06, 2004 11:55 am

Expect to see oooooooooooooooodles of these:

ad nauseum even.

Although this may be more valid:

And this could be the beginning of a great art car:

and plug this into Epalya camp

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theCryptofishist · Post by **theCryptofishist** » Mon Dec 06, 2004 2:27 pm

Actually, I'm thinking of Oliver Sacks camp. of course that's hats, not socks.

How would you design an interactive experience about what it's like to be aphasic from a stroke?

(Don't laugh--the e-ticket from some psychieatrict convention here a couple of years ago was the "what a bus ride is like for a schitzophrenic")

stuart · Post by **stuart** » Mon Dec 06, 2004 2:31 pm

I would develop a matrix of linked words, colors, sounds and images. Have the guest type or say something or play some music and have it displayed back using this AV matrix.

stuart · Post by **stuart** » Mon Dec 06, 2004 2:32 pm

oh wait,

ITYM synaethesiac

stuart · Post by **stuart** » Mon Dec 06, 2004 2:33 pm

for aphasia I would make a game of telephone of sorts. You will be given a concept you need to communicate to a partner. Then you will be given a limited vocabulary in which to communicate the idea. I guess you'd just have them play scattergories.

theCryptofishist · Post by **theCryptofishist** » Mon Dec 06, 2004 2:35 pm

Hm.

I;m just dreading the cut the lobes apart so we can stop the epileptic seizures experience.

theCryptofishist · Post by **theCryptofishist** » Mon Dec 06, 2004 2:36 pm

Of course, we could always do "Forced Lobotomy Camp."
I think my mother has a couple of old icepicks.

diane o'thirst · Post by **diane o'thirst** » Mon Dec 06, 2004 3:43 pm

Windborne — The thought was to do the Brahmin Hour set, wind that up at 4AM, don lights and take off on the Cobra-Crawl to the Man.

If we're on the Esplanade again, the Man is a solid half-mile away and I'd probably arrive there at sunrise. If we're deeper in the City or even on the Promenade, it'll be more like a mile and a half to the Man.

And of course, the Lotus Walk would take even longer, so I'd probably get back to camp at noon (for reference: Lotus Walk is a simple heel-to-toe step with no space in between — you can see it being done by the chanting monk with the bell and begging bowl in the movie Baraka).

That lookout friend who came with me would have to be patient, indeed

I'd of course welcome anyone who wished to come and participate with me. Shall we say, meet at Wolf Camp's yurt in Opera Camp at 3AM Wednesday morning? Bring a full hydropack of water and a journal.

Rian Jackson · Post by **Rian Jackson** » Mon Dec 06, 2004 3:56 pm

theCryptofishist wrote:Of course, we could always do "Forced Lobotomy Camp."
I think my mother has a couple of old icepicks.

all you need is a wire, honey. i remember poking at brains when i took neuroscience. jeebuz, those were the days.

2005 Theme

2005 Theme

Mutant Vehicle Theme Adjustment