Burning Man in Pictures 2015 VI: First Day of Construction and a Slight Case of Sideways

Photos, Puns, Things We've Built, Travel

After arriving the previous evening, it was time to start construction on Mirror Blaze!

Looking around our campsite, you can see all the empty space, soon to be filled by campers, art, and activities. Note that we were camped on the ‘Esplanade’ this year, the main ring road. This is the layout of our camp[0], which may help in understanding the next couple of pics:

'The Hive' placement plan, giving you an idea of how much pre-planning goes into building even a small part of this city.
‘The Hive’ placement plan, giving you an idea of how much pre-planning goes into building even a small part of this city.

All the space you see in this picture will be filled, even moreso than the rest of the festival:

Empty Campsites...but not for long...
Empty Campsites…but not for long…

You can also see the beginnings of (I think)[1] the metal and cloth ‘Kaos Maze’ being put together by our neighbours:

The beginnings of a metal-and-cloth maze put up by our neighbours.
The beginnings of a metal-and-cloth maze put up by our neighbours.

Here in the foreground, you can see part of the space which will become Mirror Blaze, in the background, you can see an example of the ‘anti-logo’ art prevalent here. (One of the ten principles is ‘de-commodification’, implemented here by covering or otherwise altering all visible logos on-site.):

In the foreground, some of the space which will become Mirror Blaze. In the background, an example of the 'anti-logo' art prevalent here.
In the foreground, some of the space which will become Mirror Blaze. In the background, an example of the ‘anti-logo’ art prevalent here.

As we were still waiting for other members of the Charnival to assemble so we could finalize the overall layout, we decided to assemble the lifeguard chair[2] from the parts that Rob had kindly built for us. To do so, we consulted the picture that I had taken during construction and testing:

To construct a lifeguard chair, you must first invent the photograph.
To construct a lifeguard chair, you must first invent the photograph.

However, during construction, we noticed that even though we had assembled all of the pieces in order (including our intrepid heroine!), we had somehow developed a severe case of sideways:

A slight case of sideways.
A slight case of sideways.

We gathered some of our best experts to try to debug the slight case of sideways:

Debugging the slight case of sideways.
Debugging the slight case of sideways.

While pondering this problem, we were looking around the Charnival grounds, and saw the Man in the distance:

The Man, in the distance, as seen from the Charnival grounds.
The Man, in the distance, as seen from the Charnival grounds.

Thinking that visiting and communing might help us solve the problem, we decided to venture forth:

We bravely venture forth, in search of answers to sideways...
We bravely venture forth, in search of answers to sideways…

Along the way, we saw a variable forklift, and decided (using the Dirk Gently Navigation Method) that we should follow them:

A variable forklift? Complete with chase group?
A variable forklift? Complete with chase group?

What happened next? Tune in tomorrow!

[0]Would you believe it wasn’t until after the event, when I was looking at this picture that I finally put together ‘The Hive’ and ‘Full of Bees’?

[1]Sadly, we never fully investigated it, being too busy doing setup and running our installation.

[2]It sits outside Mirror Blaze so we can sit up top and see inside to make sure everyone is okay.

One thought on “Burning Man in Pictures 2015 VI: First Day of Construction and a Slight Case of Sideways”

  1. Pingback: Burning Man in Pictures 2015 VII: A Chorus of Anvil | Sometimes Egregious, Always Gregarious

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