Project Megapixels

mojo · Post by **mojo** » Thu Feb 16, 2006 6:45 pm

Sput - to use latex paint on fabric and have it remain pliable and flexible, it should be mixed with fabric medium. Fabric medium is available at most craft stores and works very well - makes the painted fabric washable too (as long as it was washable before applying the paint).

sputnik · Post by **sputnik** » Thu Feb 16, 2006 6:59 pm

Thanks for the info mojo. I'm still concerned with giving folks that option. I'm trying to keep this simple, having to explain to people how to properly paint their fabric so that it doesn't flake is taking too much of a risk. Cleaning up a bunch of little paint flakes from the playa is not my idea of fun.

I'm not trying to squash creativity, I just want to reduce the number of variables.

Let me ask a question. Why would someone paint fabric when they can buy it pre-dyed or dye it themselves?

Rockdad · Post by **Rockdad** » Fri Feb 17, 2006 6:01 pm

Sputnik I gave you a link on my Blog hopefully more bloggers will do same.

Got some questions though?

1. - Have you contacted Space imaging to see if they will even take the picture and on what date?

2. - Would it be better to use Playa as a color in picture requiring many fewer pixels?

Also a stick fiqure like the Man himself would require fewer pixels and you would have the MegaMan on the Playa..

Also had trouble getting into site no confirmation e-mail sent

regionalchaos · Post by **regionalchaos** » Fri Feb 17, 2006 6:22 pm

Rockdad wrote:Also had trouble getting into site no confirmation e-mail sent

If you PM me the email you used to register with I can take a look in the db for you. If it made an account for you I can register it by hand. Otherwise you'll need to try again.

sputnik · Post by **sputnik** » Sat Feb 18, 2006 7:31 am

Rockdad wrote:Sputnik I gave you a link on my Blog hopefully more bloggers will do same.

Got some questions though?

1. - Have you contacted Space imaging to see if they will even take the picture and on what date?

2. - Would it be better to use Playa as a color in picture requiring many fewer pixels?

Also a stick fiqure like the Man himself would require fewer pixels and you would have the MegaMan on the Playa..

1) Yes, I have talked with a couple of different places about the image. It's too early to signup though. They want me to wait until June if I want a specific date.

2) Playa can be used for light colors, but I'm reserving that option should we not get enough pixels for the full image. Same with some sort of line art (ie a stick figure). The one thing I will say about the image is that it won't be 'the man'.

Thanks for the blog link.

Bob · Post by **Bob** » Sat Feb 18, 2006 4:07 pm

sputnik wrote:I'm not trying to squash creativity, I just want to reduce the number of variables....Why would someone paint fabric when they can buy it pre-dyed or dye it themselves?

Which is why I suggested pants. Same as color fields in a litho process, pants would have enough contrast with the playa to be effective, and you wouldn't end up with 5000 to 10,000 useless pieces of fabric at the conclusion, and no prospect of intrusive Earth Guardians bitching about the synthetic content and alleged toxic chemicals in your fabrics when you try to burn them.

regionalchaos · Post by **regionalchaos** » Sat Feb 18, 2006 5:24 pm

I'd like to try and find people willing to take some of the left over pieces home. I have heard that there are some groups (maybe consisting of little old ladies) that make quilts to give to charity. If people were able to find groups like this, and bring them a row of pixels, I bet they would re-use them. I should spend some time doing some research...

sputnik · Post by **sputnik** » Sat Feb 18, 2006 5:57 pm

Bob wrote:Which is why I suggested pants. Same as color fields in a litho process, pants would have enough contrast with the playa to be effective, and you wouldn't end up with 5000 to 10,000 useless pieces of fabric at the conclusion, and no prospect of intrusive Earth Guardians bitching about the synthetic content and alleged toxic chemicals in your fabrics when you try to burn them.

I could see pants working if we were doing line art. But then what do we do with them when we're done? I have no intention of collecting up thousands of pairs of pants and finding a place to send them. Just as I am not interested in doing anything but burning as much of this as necessary. If someone finds a place to send the remainders that doesn't involve me, then fine. I will not have 5 days to hang around after the event to manage a distribution campaign.

Ivy · Post by **Ivy** » Sat Feb 18, 2006 6:39 pm

I have heard that there are some groups (maybe consisting of little old ladies) that make quilts to give to charity.

Yes, there are charity groups that take fabric donations.

No, they do not consist of little old ladies.

I honestly doubt they want playafied fabric: all the carities I've worked with specify that the fabrics need to be clean, machine washable, free of any odors or toxins. A lot of charity blankets go to hospitals and people who are ill, and we all know how long playa dust and smell sticks around even after washing.

Rockdad · Post by **Rockdad** » Sat Feb 18, 2006 7:04 pm

Sniff sniff Hmm Playaaa smellllll!

sputnik · Post by **sputnik** » Sat Feb 18, 2006 7:08 pm

Thanks Ivy. Yeah, I pretty much agree that whatever we use will not be wanted by most charities after the fact. I'd be happy for anyone at the event to take whatever they want to reduce needing to burn this.

Bob · Post by **Bob** » Sat Feb 18, 2006 10:44 pm

I meant halftone, if that helps. As they say in the industry: Allow For Shrinkage.

airborne · Post by **airborne** » Mon Feb 20, 2006 10:59 am

sputnik wrote:Over in the bar we talked a bit about a camp for megapixels....

Congratulations on getting the proposal submitted! It may be a bit premature, but I'd be happy to work on organizing a theme camp for the project. I've been one of the main organizers for camp burning sky (the skydiving group) for the past two years.

If you're interested just say the word and I'll start movin and shakin.

regionalchaos · Post by **regionalchaos** » Mon Feb 20, 2006 6:15 pm

Howdy folks,

I'm back with more requests for web site help. One thing I'm trying to do, is increase our visibility from search engines. I recently tried to make more informative page titles and added some keywords to try and aid in this regard. One thing that can often help is being linked from external sites. Rockdad recently linked us from his blog (Thanks Rockdad!) and all links like these add up. So if you are able to, I'd consider any linking a generous contribution to our project!

Thanks for all your continued support.

- RC

Rockdad · Post by **Rockdad** » Tue Feb 21, 2006 12:31 am

Your welcome I actually have a few more websites as I get time I will add more links. Remember to add real information SEO is not that hard even cross link to this discussion and cut and paste some of it to pages on your site also find a volunteer to start a blog about it that links to your site and sites like blogger cost nothing but time.
I would also put a technorati tag on the site "Burning Man" could be small on the bottom probably get a few hits/links that way.

The first thing I would do is make a related links page that has links to BMORG, e-playa and any articles about your project that you find. Outgoing links have SEO value too.

Design a few standard size banners that people can put on other sites with embedded links on this page and your site and encourage them to help

After you have done this submit it to Yahoo and Google once and maybe once again in three months or so not more.

The regionals should all be willing to help

dougaldutch · Post by **dougaldutch** » Tue Feb 21, 2006 5:01 am

Feckin great idea, been following for a while and finally decided to de-lurk with a few thoughts that have pinged into my head, if this is a repeat of any ideas apologise.

1) A megapixel camp seems like a good idea, the address can be announced in advance so any queries, donations, volunteers have a specific location to focus on.

For international burners like myself or others who have to hitch/ ride share out to the playa, our luggage sometime gets seperated from us and if pixels could be delivered straight to the camp it would help. Just mark on the fabric pixel location and day you intend to pick up and place. If they fail to pick it up by a set date, get volunteers to place it, which hopefully there will be, who only found out about the project on the playa so don't have pixels of their own but want to contribute.

2) Everyone has friends that cannot make it, get them involved! They can still make a contribution to art on the playa, they will be able to see the evidence of their donation FROM SPACE and if they want, the fabric can come back to them with that playa goodness trapped inside.

All it takes is for one person who is going to the playa co-ordinating for a group who can't, to pre-assemble a set number of the pixels off site and transport and place them. This would hopefully get the pixel count up and is a great remote project for people, otherwise left twiddling their thumbs.

3) Recycling the fabric where possible sits perfectly in the BM ethos and the offer of free fabric for next years projects would hopefully interest people. Who hasn't thought "next year I could..." and where better to get the free materials to realise your fabricy project, but from another fabricy project. Pass it down the line. Hell you are leaving the playa lighter than when you arrived anyway, pick up some fabric on the way, makes the perfect souvenir. Here having the camp where people can swing by and pick it up would be a bonus.

I will do my part and beat the megapixel drum over the deep blue here, will shake the tree and see if I can get any supporters to fall out. See if I can encourage people to link into it as well, every little helps.

sputnik · Post by **sputnik** » Wed Feb 22, 2006 7:15 pm

airborne wrote:
sputnik wrote:Over in the bar we talked a bit about a camp for megapixels....
Congratulations on getting the proposal submitted! It may be a bit premature, but I'd be happy to work on organizing a theme camp for the project. I've been one of the main organizers for camp burning sky (the skydiving group) for the past two years.

If you're interested just say the word and I'll start movin and shakin.

Go for it. If folks are interested in this, then I am too. I seriously considered making camp out at the piece and using one corner as a huge shade structure and project entrance. But that was probably just a crazy idea.

Thanks Rockdad and Dougaldutch. Keep up the good work.

Currently 15 pixels shy of 700.

regionalchaos · Post by **regionalchaos** » Wed Feb 22, 2006 9:02 pm

I will definately host a Megapixel Party under my dome, where ever it may reside. Mozy invented a Megapixel Punch that sounded tasty...

Lysergic · Post by **Lysergic** » Thu Feb 23, 2006 11:40 pm

Hey guys just checkin' in, seems like everything is going great still

The clock is a tickin' and a tockin' but still we go a rockin' !! Keep up the good work!

airborne · Post by **airborne** » Sun Feb 26, 2006 8:11 pm

sputnik wrote: Go for it. If folks are interested in this, then I am too. I seriously considered making camp out at the piece and using one corner as a huge shade structure and project entrance. But that was probably just a crazy idea.

Great! I've gone through the theme camp questionaire. The only question I have is about camp membership. In my mind this would be a great project for people who want to participate but aren't part of an existing camp. The website would be a great place for people who are interested in camping with the group to signup so we could keep track of the size.

Are you guys comfortable with making the camp an open invitation for people who want to work on the project?

sputnik · Post by **sputnik** » Mon Feb 27, 2006 5:41 am

airborne wrote:Are you guys comfortable with making the camp an open invitation for people who want to work on the project?

I have no problem with it.

Mozy bonz · Post by **Mozy bonz** » Mon Feb 27, 2006 6:08 am

I have no problem with it.

me too! we need lots of people!

regionalchaos · Post by **regionalchaos** » Mon Feb 27, 2006 11:14 am

airborne wrote:The website would be a great place for people who are interested in camping with the group to signup so we could keep track of the size.

Would you imagine the website as tracking all interested in camping, displaying people that are interested in camping, letting interested people sign up to camp with the number of campers they will be bringing with themselves? Would there be a warning along the lines of "If you sign up to camp with us please be serious about it" or "Please don't back out at the last minute, we need to know how many people will be there", etc...

OR

I could add a link and form that lets people say how many they will bring to camp, and it could just email you. Then you could organize the camp however you wanted.

I'm game for either way, we can add a "Camp" tab to the site easy enough, and can display camp info / layout / etc as well...

Basically, let me know what you want from the web site, the more specific the better!

regionalchaos · Post by **regionalchaos** » Mon Feb 27, 2006 11:24 am

Also, My friends and I have been camping together for a while, there is easily a dozen of us. We are growing infrastructure wise, and will have a 24' dome and a 20'x50' military mess tent in our camp (probably used as shade for sleeping tents). Monday night (my b-day) I'm having people over to my house for a potluck and movie night (gonna show the malcom in the middle episode, the discovery times piece and maybe some friends home movies). I can ask how people feel about the project and if they would want to camp in a theme camp or camp near the theme camp.

They might be totally into it.

Mozy bonz · Post by **Mozy bonz** » Mon Feb 27, 2006 2:43 pm

regionalchaos THANK YOU FOR the work on the web site.

regionalchaos · Post by **regionalchaos** » Mon Feb 27, 2006 3:07 pm

Mozy bonz wrote:regionalchaos THANK YOU FOR the work on the web site.

You're Welcome

airborne · Post by **airborne** » Tue Feb 28, 2006 7:30 pm

regionalchaos wrote: Basically, let me know what you want from the web site, the more specific the better!

You rock regionalchaos! For the last several years Burning Sky has used a simple signup form to keep track of who's going to be camping with us. It works really well since the camp is made up of people from all over the country.

I think the easiest way to handle this would be to add a tab to the website with information about the camp and a link to email me if they're interested in being part of the group. Once we get a bit closer to the event we can switch to an online signup form. I think having people formally sign up six months in advance is a bit too early.

I'll whip up the info for the camp tab tomorrow.

Mozy bonz · Post by **Mozy bonz** » Wed Mar 01, 2006 4:50 am

bump!

regionalchaos · Post by **regionalchaos** » Wed Mar 01, 2006 8:03 am

airborne wrote:
regionalchaos wrote: Basically, let me know what you want from the web site, the more specific the better!
You rock regionalchaos! For the last several years Burning Sky has used a simple signup form to keep track of who's going to be camping with us. It works really well since the camp is made up of people from all over the country.

I think the easiest way to handle this would be to add a tab to the website with information about the camp and a link to email me if they're interested in being part of the group. Once we get a bit closer to the event we can switch to an online signup form. I think having people formally sign up six months in advance is a bit too early.

I'll whip up the info for the camp tab tomorrow.

Cool info and thanks for the kind words

I'm actually home tonight with some free time. So I was planning on potentially working on the site a bit. I'll add the "Camp" or "Theme Camp" tab. If you can get some basic content to me I can get it hosted. I like the idea of people emailing you for now, and then waiting until we are a bit closer to do anything more involved. Makes good sense.

airborne · Post by **airborne** » Wed Mar 01, 2006 7:07 pm

How's this for a quick and simple blurb:

----
Participate!!!

The MegaPixels project will be one of the largest art installations in the history of Burning Man and will require the help of hundreds if not thousands of burners. We're organizing a theme camp that will be open to anyone and everyone who wants to take part in the project.

If you're interested send Airborne an email at [email protected] with a bit about yourself (how many year's you've been to the burn, where you're coming from, favorite color, etc). There's a lot of time between now and the burn so we'll be formalizing everything around May. In the meantime be sure that you've signed up with your name and number of pixels, and feel free to introduce yourself over on the eplaya thread (link to eplaya thread).
-----------

Also, the skydiving camp used an email list hosted through yahoo groups as an easy, no fuss way to keep people in touch. You can sign up to the group by sending an email to the group's subscribe address and it's really easy to manage. Using something like that rather than having people email me directly would probably be a lot better from a community-building point of view. Instead of introducing themselves to me they can introduce themselves to everyone who's interested.

I'm not sure if something like this is already in the works or not, just wanted to throw it out there.

Project Megapixels

Would you participate?

Got some questions

Re: Got some questions

Re: Got some questions

Website Help

yo