I immediately interrupted whatever deep philosophical conversation I was having "We can totally do that and I know just the place for it!"
The final plan seems to be a yurt-like frame. The wall ring is basically a metal fence with round pickets; the rafters connect a compression ring that is also the track from which the central, moving gear is suspended. The teeth on the gear engage with the pickets on the fence and the track is sized so that the gear hangs against the fence; the diameter of the compression ring of the yurt will be one diameter of the gear smaller than the diameter of the wall. (It will probably be a few inches bigger so that gravity actually pushes the gear slightly against the wall. This will keep those fucking burners from using it as a swing.)
There will be a dark colored floor which will show the tracks of people who enter and grab the handle-bars on the gear. In order to appreciate the patterns of tracks on the floor some of the rafters will also be ladders and their will be a catwalk around the top. (The catwalk is built into the guard that keeps people from losing their fingers to the trolley which the gear hangs from.)
LeChatNoir has convinced me to make it out of aluminum, better stiffness-to-weight ratio and easier to transport across the country. Earlier discussions of accessibility here on eplaya prompted me to include a gate in the perimeter so that people don't have to climb the fence to participate.
I like the idea of someone in a haz-mat suit showing up a couple of times a day to clear the dust off the floor with a leaf-blower. I figure that when the floor is clean the tracks will show up as light colored dirt and when the floor is dusty the tracks will show up as dark spots. It's a win-win.
I am thinking of either outlining the frame in 5mm el-wire for night-time or putting ccf tubes on the underside of the rafters so the interior is lit. I am having some trouble finding info on the power consumption of the ccfs but I plan on charging the batteries during the day and swapping them out at night, but I'd like to have a little cushion. I don't want to get distracted one day and have my lovely creation squished by an MV.
Waiting to hear back from a few people to see how big it is going to be and them I am gonna try and do the math and see how many burners can sit on top before it collapses.
I am calling it the HPHMGM for short, but I know everyone else is going to call it The Spirograph(tm)
