mattbell

Balsa Man turned out to be a good bit of fun -- if delivers a slice of the Burning Man experience in a compact and easily accessible morsel. There were a lot of Burning Man in-jokes to go around.

- Many of the attendees are Burning Man veterans who were very involved in big projects there. I met a woman who did a little tiny Center Camp -- she worked on the big one's build crew for six years.

- The guy who used to do the Piss Clear underground magazine at Burning Man did a Dress Warm underground magazine at Balsa Man.

- Someone else brought a mini Crude Awakening too. He gave me a fuel-air contraption to help my structure burn more impressively.

- Small, unpredictable fires and fireworks shows close-up are more intense and impressive than big predictable ones far away.

All in all, it was fun, though I do miss going to the full-size Burning Man and will definitely go next year.

Paul Addis wannabes try to burn the man early

Also, it's actually really gratifying to set your own work on fire:

See everyone's photos on flickr

I have completed my projects for Balsa Man. They are the culmination of more than four hours of work (which, at the 1/16 scale of Balsa Man, is equivalent to over 64 hours of work on an actual burningman project!)

The first project is the epic 24 inch construction, Cruder Awakening.

Coincidentally, it bears a certain resemblance to the most impressive project anyone ever did at Burning Man:

My second project, Infinite City, is meant to explore the nature of human existence in a world that is very finite yet infinite at the same time.
Technological possibilities offer an unbound dream of future progress, yet all-too-real resource constraints force us to confront our own limitations. In addition, as we navigate this mirror-like maze of possibilities and limitations, we often go on long journeys and travel to distant places, both physical and conceptual, only to find a reflection of ourselves. Ultimately, can humanity escape from our increasingly self-created hypercomplex fractured prison of self-reflective function? Only time will tell. Don't believe everything you read in an art blurb.

Come to Balsa Man! It'll be fun! It's this evening pre-sunset at an unnamed beach in San Francisco! Call me for exact location.

Not going to Burning Man?

Come check out the tiny parody event that takes place on Ocean Beach at the site of the original Burning Man. There's a tiny Man, tiny port-a-potties, tiny sound stages, tiny art, and tiny art grants to support the tiny art. Getting there takes mere minutes, and the whole event only lasts a couple of hours.

It's this saturday afternoon!

Here are some tiny pictures: