[TheForge] Sacred cows are better eaten than catered to.

[Ben Barrett]

I'll put a "3rd" on the Burning Man festival model... I think it is
their Arts Foundation (BRAF, black rock...) as a component of that
community that we would clearly have to substitute multiple sources
for, to have any nearly-matching model.  Maybe between vendors (food &
tool), and possibly some artists with commisioned pieces that they're
willing to share/show, and some donors, it could work.

I've been talking to a friend about having a small forge, possibly
somewhat mobile, at burning man... I've not been to any *BA
conferences, but have been truly inspired by most of the metal art
I've seen out in that desert.  Kinda harsh conditions there, just as a
warning to anyone interested, but that is also part of their event.

Here are just a few neat items from BRC (black rock city, AKA burning
man's "locale")...
http://images.burningman.com/index.cgi?image=2126
http://www.mccullagh.org/photo/1ds-10/burning-man-fire-organ
http://www.mccullagh.org/photo/1ds-10/burning-man-mondo-spider
http://www.therm.biz/firepage.html
...there's so much more, I'll stop at

For anyone interested in burning man, their official site starts here:
http://burningman.com/
and I found this neat & well-done writeup here:
http://struggle.net/ben/2004/bm_low_bw.htm?cco

More appropriately to this thread, the 10 principles for their Regional Network
might be a good read:  http://regionals.burningman.com/network_principles.html
And prolly covers a nice swath of discussion points.

thanks y'all,

ben


On 3/16/07, ries <ries at riesniemi.com> wrote:
>
> On Mar 15, 2007, at 11:37 PM, Peter Fels And Phoebe Palmer wrote:
>
> . A conf more after the SCA model or, better, Burning Man, would be
> just fine with me....pete f
>
>
> Now youre talking!
> Burning Man, Yeah!
> Lots of Scantily Clad young people, free booze and other
> entertainments, things blowing up and burning, and no capitalism!
>
> Well, except for the multi-million dollar budget. Burning Man is the
> largest funder of the arts in California, and California is the 5th
> largest economy in the world. They spend several million on grants
> for sculptures that will either be burned, or just shown, or driven,
> for that few days each year.
>
> Maybe we should just piggyback on Burning Man. We can have the fat
> white guy in overalls camp.
> Personally, I have always thought of dressing up like a blacksmith as
> just another form of drag.
>
>
> Ries Niemi
> Industrial Artist
> http://www.riesniemi.com/
>