Burning Man 2016: Gates Open NOW to Black Rock City for Da Vinci’s Workshop!

“I have been impressed with the urgency of doing. Knowing is not enough; we must apply. Being willing is not enough; we must do.” – Leonardo

Illustration by Andrew Johnstone.

So the Gate is officially open and as of 6pm today, Sunday, Burning Man 2016 is now LIVE!

Not familiar with Burning Man? Go here for a history: Part 1: The Shadow Grows, Part 2: How Burning Man Integrates the Shadow, Part 3: Burning Man’s 10 Principles and the New Economy.

Artists from near and far have been busy DOING art and coming up with experiences for us to DO while living in Black Rock City.

Greg Fleischmann featured above, has made a Temple an other artworks for Burning Man as well as Lucidity, held in April in Santa Barbara. I’ve had the pleasure of sitting on his furniture while chatting with him; I’ve even sat on one his chairs to watch the Burn!

These experiences include the Ventura artwork, Carousel Candeo which will be installed afterwards in Santa Paula, the theme camp MINSTREL CrAMP members of which are involved in Ojai’s Mardi Gras and Bowlful of Blues, and the Mighty Zenith,

the mighty eye on the back of the Mighty Zenith mutant vehicle

a mutant vehicle created by sTeVe and Rosel Weedn that has a Facebook page and can be seen in this video at the 2 minute mark:

As one of the 10 Principles at Burning Man is gifting, most people have come up with something to give, whether it is a present or an experience. My friend Lava Jones makes necklaces that connect with the theme. Many of the Burning Man jewelry gifts have been collected for images in this book and here’s what Lava Jones (aka Maria Navarro) made for the 2014 Cargo Cult theme:

The theme this year is Da Vinci’s Workshop, and in the announcement of the theme, Larry Harvey quotes Leonardo da Vinci: “It had long since come to my attention that people of accomplishment rarely sat back and let things happen to them. They went out and happened to things.”

This year, this is what Lava Jones happened to things: she made 100 of these pendants to gift this year for Burning Man’s Da Vinci theme:

If you’re not in Black Rock City, there is still something you can do. You can listen to BMIR, Burning Man Information Radio here and you can watch a Live Stream from Burning Man here–and if you do both at the same time well, it’s kinda like being there:

Still curious about the theme? Burning Man offers this video:

In the conclusion the narrator states:

It may be new technologies and economic forces
that make our future possible
but it won’t happen by accident.
We need a new Declaration of Independence for artists.
Leonardo viewed art as a guide to the future;
he imagined things that did not exist so that he could build them.

At Burning Man we study the Renaissance
in order to imagine a new world–
we imagine a new one to see if we can build it
in Black Rock City and around the world
reimagining the relationship between
art and money, artists and funding…

Read a series of blog posts about the theme here or just learn more about Burning Man from the official website and blog.

Tomorrow, read about BurningMon GO! and some other fun and kid friendly activities to while away the day and night at Burning Man 2016.

Hello, babies. Welcome to Earth. It’s hot in the summer and cold in the winter. It’s round and wet and crowded. At the outside, babies, you’ve got about a hundred years here. There’s only one rule that I know of, babies — ‘God damn it, you’ve got to be kind.
-Kurt Vonnegut, God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater: A Novel