of the Future
- Blue neon Man, with blue neon hatching on face
- A mechanism was fabricated by many able hands, to lower and raise the 50 ft. tall, 8000 lb. structure, 10 ft. up and down. The Man moved smoothly in a reliable and safe fashion and his fragile neon was not be jostled loose by sudden movements.
- Ten Installations graced the inside of the Hope and Fear Pavilion including Alex and Allyson Grey's CoSM and This Game of Hope and Fear by a plethora of artists guided by Tony Speirs and Lisa among others
- The Man's arms, as well as the Man himself, simultaneously rose and fell in accordance with gauged swings in the hopes and fears of the community.
- Al Honig's "Hope and Fear Gauge" adorned the Pavilion
- Art Deco Lanterns by Jack Haye, Noah Elias, Mark Medeiros, Jiri Jacknowitz and Mike Hollibaugh surrounded the Man base.
Theme: Hope and Fear – The Future
We take comfort in the notion that we have a past to guide us, but we reinterpret history every day according to what happens in the present. The future, too, is a projection of our hopes and fears in what is called the here and now. But even what we term the here and now is largely an imaginary place and time....
The present really narrows down into the thinnest slice of time. It is no wider than the span of a reflexive arc, that moment when the heart says to the mind: so shall it be. This year’s art theme will allow us to explore how we create futurity. Express what you most hope for in the future! Express what you most fear! The Burning Man, as heartbeat of our city, will be made to rise and fall upon this tidal flow of our emotions and imagination.
Each of us is an emitter of the future, and hope and fear are both legitimate responses to the great unknown. Confronting fear, instead of fleeing it, requires courage and cool reason. This experience can lead to struggle and to change. Expressing what we hope for can inspire faith that opens up a path where none appeared before. In 2006, as the 21st Century rushes forward, the time has come to ask ourselves: Are we merely along for the ride? We encourage all participants to contribute to some aspect of this year’s art theme.
In 2006, Burning Man continued to expand its efforts off playa and around the world.
The Burning Man Project committed to invest more time, money and resources into the dissemination of and support for Burning Man culture around the world, year-round as manifested in the enthusiastic civic-oriented volunteer activities of the Burners Without Borders crew, the art-fostering mission of the Black Rock Arts Foundation, and in the Regionals Network. Each of these brings with it a wealth of potential opportunities for initiatives and activities that foster gifting, radical expression, radical inclusion, communal effort, civic responsibility, participation, immediacy of experience, decommodification, and leave no trace principles - around the world.
Support comes in the form of guidance, experience and advice and, in some cases, support will be financial, providing tactical funding for strategically valuable and viable projects. The Burning Man Project has a history of doing just this through our Art Grant program for on-playa work, and through the grant programs of the Black Rock Arts Foundation for off-playa, community based artworks. It's our intent to continue this process in a fiscally sound manner, looking for the best investment for our cultural dollar.
Burning Man turned 21 this year… and it seems like it was just yesterday the Man was asking for the car keys….
On playa this year, nearly 40,000 participants joined in the grand celebration of Burning Man and all it represents. …
The Burning Man stood atop an Art Deco pavilion chock full of artworks and interactive installations.
After the 2005 event, we honestly wondered how the art in 2006 could ever compare, let alone eclipse, the incredible artistic outpouring we saw in 2005. … “Uchronia (Message From the Future)”, but more commonly (and fondly) known as “The Belgian Waffle”… an outstanding structure [that] formed a modernist cathedral. Its massive size and ornate construction simply overwhelmed the outer playa, and awed participants.
The Flaming Lotus Girls took their work to an all-new level of complexity and beauty, with the Serpent Mother, a stunning articulated flaming snake made of brushed steel and miles of electrical wire and gas plumbing. …
The Artery placed a record total of 300 art installations on playa, 240 of which had been pre-registered. The Burning Man Project awarded an impressive $425,000 worth of grants, divided amongst 40 separate art projects…
The weather was beautiful throughout the week, and the playa was generous enough to remind us of its power by throwing a surprise dust storm through the heart of the city, sending carports flying, and sandblasted participants scattering for cover.
Read more
Serpent Mother by the Flaming Lotus Girls
2BLEVE by Nate Smith propelled over 100 gallons of fuel into a massive fireball.
- Great weather, minimal dust, more art and smoother operations again led to what many call, "the best Burning Man ever."
- The Burning Man Project increased funding for art projects to support artists. In total, 260 registered art projects took their places on the playa.
- A group of artists from Belgium known as Uchronia created the largest art piece ever built on the playa, which subsequently was burned in the largest playa conflagration on record.
- "Art In America" magazine featured Burning Man in its June/July 2006 issue with the article, "Report From Black Rock City."
- A major city redesign that began in 2005 proved even more effective in 2006 by distributing Theme Camps radially into the city, thereby integrating more interactive camps throughout Black Rock City.
- Black Rock City's FAA-approved airport landed 123 planes (including one jet) and a hot air balloon with no problems or accidents.
- In 2006 the Regional Network numbered over 100 Regional Contacts at 85 locations worldwide. The Regional Information Center was located in Center Camp for the third year in a row. Burning Man hosted a regional celebration in First Camp during the event for the sixth year in a row, welcoming almost all its regionals together in one place for one moment in time.
- A delegation of officials from the Department of Interior and BLM in Washington, D.C. visited Black Rock City to observe the largest Special Recreation Permit in the United States. The delegation met with event organizers and toured Black Rock City on a mutant vehicle.
- Black Rock City, LLC completed a Five-Year Operations Plan as part of the application for a multi-year Special Recreation Permit (SRP) from the Bureau of Land Management (BLM). The BLM granted a Five-Year SRP to operate the Burning Man event in the Black Rock Desert.
- For the first time since 2000 Black Rock City was relocated to a new site about one mile northeast of the previous site in order for the BLM to continue researching whether there are any significant long-term effect of the event. So far, the BLM has found none.
- The number of arrests and citations reduced while population increased, demonstrating that the Black Rock City demographic is maturing and becoming better educated at what is acceptable.
- A group of volunteers from the Black Label Bike Club in Reno introduced a pilot Yellow Bike program in Black Rock city. The program provided free community bikes and is refurbishing lost and stolen bikes to have an even larger program in 2007.
- The Black Rock Arts Foundation created an interactive community garden known as Scrap Eden in Black Rock City, where participants contributed to the garden by creating art onsite from scrap materials.
- Google Earth added a satellite image of Black Rock City to its free online imagery of the Black Rock Desert.
- Current TV, founded by Al Gore, created TV Free Burning Man - Black Rock City's first TV station. The station produced onsite news clips, including full coverage of the Burn, that were beamed back to the default world via the Internet.
- By forging a new relationship with the City of San Francisco, the Special Events Team put on the first annual Fire Arts Expo at Monster Park.
- The theme for 2007 was rolled out earlier than ever before. On burn night, the Green Man theme was announced on the Burning Man website.
- Greening activities had already begun at Burning Man 2006 with efforts of "Cooling Man" and Burners Without Borders (BWB). The Cooling Man project raised carbon credits that offset the burning of the Man. BWB collected unused lumber from participants in Black Rock City and in turn gave the largest donation of lumber ever received by Habitat for Humanity in Reno.
- Burners Without Borders also rallied in the spring of 2006 when the Golden Gate National Recreation Area declared that it would no longer allow fires on Ocean Beach in San Francisco. In an effort to keep community fires alive (much like the very first Burning Man on Baker Beach in 1986), BWB began a grassroots effort, which resulted in beach cleanups, Park Service and artist collaboration, community burn platforms designed and executed by artists, and consensus approving of community fires on Ocean Beach.
ART ON FIRE!: The 2006 San Francisco Fire Arts Expo
May 18-20, 2006
In May of 2006 Burning Man brought the fire home to San Francisco with the Fire Arts Exposition at Candlestick Park. The Burning Man Project and PST members worked closely with the San Francisco Fire Department for months prior to the exposition to create a unique local showcase comprised of the best fire artists and the result was a new understanding, respect, and cooperation between Burning Man fire artists and the SFFD.
The Expo was a curated exhibition featuring fire sculpture and choreographed performances by exciting and cutting-edge fire artists and creative collaborators. It included: Xeno, Vau De Vire Society, THERM, The Flaming Lotus Girls, Nate Smith, Jack Schroll, Christopher Schardt, SaDa Fuego, Pyro Spectaculars, Linda Robertson, Pyronauts, Primal Fire, Meghan Pike, Nocturnal Sunshine, The Nekyia, Los Sueños del Fuego, Roger Lai, Laird, Marisa Lenhardt, Karl Nettmann, mN8Fx, Alan Macy, Loyd Family Players, Robert Kilpatrick, Scot Jenerik, InterKonnected, Hunter, Bob Hofmann, Flame Gypsy & Sexy Bitch, Justin Gray, Wally Glenn, Gamelan X, Charles A. Gadeken, Orion Fredericks, Liquid Fire, Richard Friedberg, Fire Arts Collective, The Crucible, Coven Fire Troupe, Controlled Burn, Bill Codding, Paul Cesewski, Carpetbag Brigade, Dan Cantrell, BomTribe, Bad Kitties, members of the Burning Man Fire Conclave, and more.
Read more
- One of many Monkey Chants to continue over the years
- Jazz Cafe
- The Big Black Man Show
- BurningBand