Star Trek Theme Camp at Burn 2006!

FortRock · Post by **FortRock** » Sat Dec 10, 2005 11:53 am

[b][color=red][/color]I am trying to find people who would love to have a Star Trek Theme Camp at Burning Man 2006, or some future year. I live in Los Angeles. I think the dream of Gene Roddenberry through Trek and Burning Man are much the same dream. It's time for the Federation to beam down to Black Rock City! Let's gather our ideas for an interactive experience![/b]

retropsycho · Post by **retropsycho** » Sat Dec 10, 2005 2:03 pm

Works as both a Hope and a Fear for THE FUTURE

Herbert! Herbert! Herbert! Herbert! Herbert! Herbert! Herbert! Herbert!

Was my reply to themecamps@ too enthusiastic? Did I scare ya?

Kinetic IV · Post by **Kinetic IV** » Sat Dec 10, 2005 2:30 pm

I go to BRC to escape Camp Reality and the ubiquitous idiot box. Now someone wants to bring Trekkies into the BRC experience?

Please tell me this is all a bad dream....

I hate being negative on this as it is someone's dream and then there's the overriding rule of "Don't fuck up someone else's experience" but this is another intrusion of camp reality onto the playa that I hope is avoided. What's next, bringing in a Mickey Mouse themed camp?

Maybe I'm way off base and am the only one feeling this way. But my base reaction to this is absolutely NO. Surely there's something more creative that can be built out there instead of trying to turn the event into the mother of all trekkie conventions in a few years time...it started as a theme camp, it spreads and introduces commercial themes into it and next thing you know....

I'll shut up now but this put me in a funk just thinking about it.

And as I hit preview I looked at my current Change is Good tagline. Most change is good, but not all. This falls into the latter category.

retropsycho · Post by **retropsycho** » Sat Dec 10, 2005 4:31 pm

The creative thing to do would be to down play the obvious trekkie characters, costumes, and gadgets and examine the utopian ideals of the future at the base of the shows, good and bad.

"The whole show was an attempt to say that humanity will reach maturity and wisdom on the day that it begins not just to tolerate, but to take a special delight in the differences in ideas and differences in life forms. We tried to say that the worst possible thing that can happen to all of us is for the future to somehow press us into a common mould, where we begin to act and talk and look and think alike. If we cannot learn to actually enjoy those small differences, take a positive delight in those small differences between our own kind, here on this planet, then we do not deserve to go out into space and meet the diversity that is almost certainly out there."
- Gene Roddenberry

www.niatu.net/transfictiontrek/ download/gene-roddenberry-st-philosophy.pdf

Shinxy · Post by **Shinxy** » Sat Dec 10, 2005 8:06 pm

I can see this idea going either really well or really badly. It could go really well if some experienced burners got together and created something that jived with the whole burning man experience. But honestly, if it was just some trekkies coming in expecting a con-like atmosphere, I think they'd be in for a rude awakening.

Have you been to Burning Man before FortRock? If not I'd suggest you just observe until you "get it." There's a definite vibration towards NEW expressions, and away from things that reference pop culture and the Default World.

Besides, I'd be hesitant to come up with a theme camp idea until this year's theme is announced, at very least.

Post by **AntiM** » Sun Dec 11, 2005 7:54 am

Although, there is nothing wrong with a full-on Trekkie costume, even without a theme camp; I LOVE a Trekkie out of context.

robotland · Post by **robotland** » Sun Dec 11, 2005 9:35 am

How about a SciFi Nerd Ghetto, with parking for all those Star Wars landspeeders and larger robots that have been roaming the playa for years? I've given some serious thought to creating some sort of tribute to Forbidden Planet, what with 2006 being its 50th anniversary....damn trippy stuff, really.
As a sculptor I have always enjoyed science fiction shows because of the necessity of creating unusual sets, props and costumes....How different from Burning Man is THAT, exactly? Sure, there are creepy scifi nerds that write themselves into sexual scenarios with characters from Star Trek or Buffy or whatever- I don't need to discover those folks in the Big Dusty. But it can be a HUGE creative catalyst as well.

Zulegoona · Post by **Zulegoona** » Sun Dec 11, 2005 5:37 pm

I’ve also seen a number of our local burners at CONvergence one of our area Sci-fi conventions , so I know there are a lot of burners with sci-fi in there pasts if not there presents . People interested in alternative realities, costuming , self expression, and have open minds , it’s a natural.

Awe gee, ah ,.. I only went as a sociological exploration of communities if interest, I’m not a Geek,... really,... I’m not.

I bet Kinettic has a latex Klingon forhead in his closet.

sputnik · Post by **sputnik** » Sun Dec 11, 2005 6:17 pm

This would work, but only if played completely straight. I mean as if they were actually crew members who got transported to burning man by mistake and no longer had a way to communicate back to the ship. Full costume, completely into character, visit various other camps around the playa as an 'away team'

the_iconoclast · Post by **the_iconoclast** » Sun Dec 11, 2005 6:25 pm

sputnik wrote:This would work, but only if played completely straight. I mean as if they were actually crew members who got transported to burning man by mistake and no longer had a way to communicate back to the ship. Full costume, completely into character, visit various other camps around the playa as an 'away team'

Now THAT would be great!!! People running around with tricorders taking readings... making entries into their starlogs or whatever the hell they are...

Zulegoona · Post by **Zulegoona** » Sun Dec 11, 2005 7:08 pm

comparative impact of xeno-theological icons placed on the playa,...Hmmm

diane o'thirst · Post by **diane o'thirst** » Sun Dec 11, 2005 7:08 pm

Hey, Kinetic —

How would a Star Trek theme camp differ from the Star Wars theme camp that's been on the Playa for years?

Various fandom theme camps? Sure, why not? I've been trying to figure out ways to pull off a chocolate theme camp for years...

Kinetic IV · Post by **Kinetic IV** » Sun Dec 11, 2005 8:26 pm

Diane, you got me. It's a personal bias thing. Many of the Trekkies I know take things a lot farther than the Star Wars fanatics and that's what had me concerned. I was stereotyping because those are the last kinds of people I'd want out there...they have a tendency to take over anything they get involved with and I mean literally dominate it. As for the Star Wars camp...well after 4 years of going to BRC guess what....I had no clue such a camp even existed. Seriously.

And as talented as the majority of burners seem to be, surely there are other wellsprings of creative inspiration that can be tapped besides the Trekkie stuff.

diane o'thirst · Post by **diane o'thirst** » Sun Dec 11, 2005 8:36 pm

Hey, I'm no Trekkie, at least not a hardcore. I followed ST:TNG but that's as far as I go into the fandom, it was good television and had good stories and excellent acting, like M*A*S*H*. This coming from someone who only barely tolerates the presence of network TV because it can, from time to time, justify its existence.

I think the point of bringing the Star Trek ethos to the Playa would be a good mesh. There's lots of good stuff there. Forget the slack-jawed, chinless babbling guys living in their parents' basements, ST has stuff in there that would make the neo-cons seethe in rage and poison. Bring it on!

Tell me there's never been a batt'leth fight in Thunderdome...go ahead...

dragonfly Jafe · Post by **dragonfly Jafe** » Sun Dec 11, 2005 10:03 pm

...one small antimatter reactor should supply enough power for everyone...(to say nothing of the holodeck and transporter to create whatever you want)...if I join your camp do I get a phaser?

robotland · Post by **robotland** » Mon Dec 12, 2005 7:51 am

There might be clashes between the Prime Directive and the Participant Ethic...I forsee Away Teams to to the more primitive rave cultures where we'd have to be careful not to interfere- A few carelessly-left LED lights could radically upset their glowstick-based technology. Set phasers on Light, Cooling Mist and tune your tricorder to 99.5....

theCryptofishist · Post by **theCryptofishist** » Mon Dec 12, 2005 9:14 am

Just be sure to get it cleared with Spock Mountain Research Labs.

blyslv · Post by **blyslv** » Mon Dec 12, 2005 9:37 am

diane o'thirst wrote:
Forget the slack-jawed, chinless babbling guys living in their parents' basements,

OMFG, if you knew just how close to the mark you came with that. I had to clean my monitor. Thanks!

blyslv · Post by **blyslv** » Mon Dec 12, 2005 9:40 am

Shinxy wrote:I

Besides, I'd be hesitant to come up with a theme camp idea until this year's theme is announced, at very least.

Bullfeathers. If you can't make some podunk theme camp comport with some podunk Org "Theme" in a 50 word or less statement, you've no business drafting art grants!

"Themes" are for people who read the back of cereal boxes a little too closely.

theCryptofishist · Post by **theCryptofishist** » Mon Dec 12, 2005 10:44 am

blyslv wrote:
Shinxy wrote:I

Besides, I'd be hesitant to come up with a theme camp idea until this year's theme is announced, at very least.

Bullfeathers. If you can't make some podunk theme camp comport with some podunk Org "Theme" in a 50 word or less statement, you've no business drafting art grants!

but I thought BM was for everyone, not just art history majors turned development directors!

theCryptofishist · Post by **theCryptofishist** » Mon Dec 12, 2005 10:45 am

Zulegoona wrote:I bet Kinettic has a latex Klingon forhead in his closet.

I first read this as "I bet Kinetic has a latent Klingon forehead..."

retropsycho · Post by **retropsycho** » Mon Dec 12, 2005 12:00 pm

theCryptofishist wrote:
Zulegoona wrote:I bet Kinettic has a latex Klingon forhead in his closet.
I first read this as "I bet Kinetic has a latent Klingon forehead..."

A "latent Klingon forhead"? Maybe THAT explains the difference in their appearance: 60's original series vs later appearances.

Post by **AntiM** » Mon Dec 12, 2005 12:22 pm

As Worf says, "We don't like to talk about it."

Of course if you were nerdy enough to watch Enterprise, you'd know the answer to the Klingon forehead question.

retropsycho · Post by **retropsycho** » Mon Dec 12, 2005 12:54 pm

Enterprise series cured me of trekdom, a bit. I stopped watching it before the cancellation. The producer was doing a lot of blow, and it showed. Missed opportunity to art design the world of pre-original series. Always wondered what "look" led up to the red mini dress?

"Nemesis" Next Generation movie was the coup de grâce of my Trek suffering.

Wired magazine has some recent coverage of this ultimate original Trek series devotion: newvoyages.com

robotland · Post by **robotland** » Tue Dec 13, 2005 5:43 am

Sorry, Trekkies.....With the announcement of the Art Theme I'm forced to conclude that Future Plus Art Deco Equals.....Metropolis.

That is, IF you're glued to the theme.

blyslv · Post by **blyslv** » Tue Dec 13, 2005 11:46 am

Just the excuse I needed to dress up in my futuristic fetish garb. In the future we will all wear latex.

dragonfly Jafe · Post by **dragonfly Jafe** » Tue Dec 13, 2005 12:06 pm

Uhura in latex I can understand, but Bones???? Surely there will be an exemption of some kind....

Post by **Eric** » Tue Dec 13, 2005 10:30 pm

dragonfly Jafe wrote:Uhura in latex I can understand, but Bones???? Surely there will be an exemption of some kind....

Have you ever been to a Sci-Fi convention?

Bones is waaaaay more likely to be the one in latex. Uhuru would be wearing something loose and flowing, that shows nothing.

Flon · Post by **Flon** » Wed Dec 14, 2005 10:31 am

Kinetic IV wrote:I go to BRC to escape Camp Reality and the ubiquitous idiot box. Now someone wants to bring Trekkies into the BRC experience?

Please tell me this is all a bad dream....

I hate being negative on this as it is someone's dream and then there's the overriding rule of "Don't fuck up someone else's experience" but this is another intrusion of camp reality onto the playa that I hope is avoided. What's next, bringing in a Mickey Mouse themed camp?

...<cut>...

... and one of the things I try to avoid in real life is the seemingly omnipresent electronic music which, besides being dull to begin with, is used commercially to sell everything from candy to cars, but I wouldn't dream of trying to discourage anyone from doing it at BM if that is their bag and they are considerate of others.

Everything done at Burning Man develops out of the culture of "camp reality" or there would be no framework in which to understand it, and, like it or not (and I don't), our culture is firmly based in commercialism. We do what we can to try to make something different, but our symbols are based in sales and it does no one any harm to use those symbols in a less commercial venue to possibly try to alter their meaning.

FortRock · Post by **FortRock** » Sat Dec 17, 2005 12:24 pm

[b][i]I really liked all of your thoughts and suggestions. I even appreciate the cautionary notes as well. Let me tell you something about my background which brings me to this Theme Camp idea. I am the Commander of the USS Gene Roddenberry, the International Federation of Trekkers fan group in Los Angeles. However I'm working on other forums to bring Gene Roddenberry's dream to life. Much of the default world fandom is caught up in being horribly mainstream and conformist! Gene was anything BUT a conformist. To Retropsycho, I read your quote as a challenge to make it focus on the philosophies and doctrines of Mr. Roddenberry. I attended two speaches in my native Oregon where he laid out his personal doctrine of the future. I'm not a uniform wearing Trekker, my only Trek default bricbrac is a UFP insignia shotglass which I use as a toothpick holder at my dinner table! I focus on philosophy and doctrine, not on acting out Trek. But that said, if the person who particpates wished to run around doing Tricorder readings in uniform, that would be part of the interactive experience! It would be fun to look at Trekkers in Classic Trek Movie uniforms sweating into a little pool of goo on the Playa deck! LOL!! We could even have a mock Star Trek Convention at the camp. The Trekkers out there know about how in classic Trek the guy on the "Away Mission" in the Red Shirt always dies. How about a Con with the Dead Generic Guy In Red as the convention guest celebrity? I've tried and failed to find any contact info on the Spock Mountain Research Labs group, can any burner help me? Those who would love to particpate, please email me at [email protected], thank you![/i][/b]

Star Trek Theme Camp at Burn 2006!

Star Trek Theme Camp at Burn 2006!

Star Trek Theme Camp

"latent Klingon forhead"

Let's Work Togather!