Note: This is third in a series of entries about my experiences at Burning Man 2002. If this is new to you, please start with the first one for the full story of the adventure.
The hard, hot, dry, dusty, alkaline playa that virtually defines the experience.
The lily pond. By night this became an incredible glowy aquamarine playground of computation.
Detail of a lily. A tasty snack for a koi. A sculpture. A solar powered wireless computer on a stick.
Dust like flames, rings of rock. A shelter from the sky.
Dawn, in a very ephemeral grassy realm.
A parched Nevada landscape conjures visions of mushroom clouds.
A little burden of civilization becomes so easy.
The Man stands on his pedestal. For now.
Burning Man and the Sea.
Patri and Shannon get acrobatic in the camp shade structure.
A gunmetal pirate bus with its dance floor and flaming sails.
In theme, kites are the jellyfish of the air.
The Temple of Joy.
Note: This is second in a series of entries about my experiences at Burning Man 2002. If this is new to you, please start with the first one for the full story of the adventure.
Initial preparation. Lines had to be measured and prepared to have balloons clusters attached to them, and then anchored to the playa.
Morning approach from 300° and Midships. Nice start to the balloon stack.
Patri joins the Floating World. Gravity has only a slight grip on him anyway.
A few balloon casualties as they begin to feel the pain of the playa. Shannon goes up.
Shannon enters the Floating World. The sun blazes down.
Late afternoon. The tall stack audaciously grasps the sun.
The wind picks up and more balloons succumb. Unfortunately, it never gained enough lift to raise me, but it was enough for a few smaller people to get a great view of Black Rock City.
No more rides now. The balloons reach maximum altitude, and the death throes begin.
A spontaneous eruption of balloon art.
The theme for Burning Man 2002 was “The Floating World.” It was a fantastic burn for me–and the first of many to come.
I camped with ABL (my friend Patri Friedman’s intentional community) and Bloodletting, a combined non-theme camp in the ‘loud’ part of town (near the Large Scale Sound Art). It was a big camp and very fragmented. I didn’t understand the rhythms of the playa yet and so my participation was limited.
Night of the burn, Burning Man 2002.
As a member of the camp, I helped to create a tethered 200-foot tall stack of giant helium balloons. At the time this was the tallest structure ever built on the playa. Over the course of the week, we took many pictures, and my selection of the best is here.
Special thanks to ABL and related parties for their photographic contributions.
My photos from this burn are broken into these three posts: