Burning Man 2012
As ever, Burning Man was a hectic, exhilarating experience, and we all returned happy, full of wonder, and weeks behind on our regular jobs. Because of the latter, this update is coming embarrassingly late, but we’d still like to relate our story.
Our advance team set out for the desert late on Friday night. The back seat of Ben’s truck is uncomfortable for anything except sleeping, and Paul and John took full advantage of it as we drove. As the sun was rising over Reno, we ate breakfast, then noticed something peculiar about the box truck: It was tilting, subtly yet unmistakably, to the right. We decided to look inside to investigate, but when we tried to open the back door, it wouldn’t budge. As we discovered, our pallet of 200 water bottles had tilted over against the right side of the truck and the door. After about 20 minutes, we created enough of a gap to let somebody squeeze through and start restacking bottles.
The rest of our drive went smoothly and we pulled into our camp location around noon. Virna and Paul set out to place our marker flags as Jenny cooked and everyone else set up camp. By the time we finished, it was getting dark and we had to save the bulk of construction for the next day.
We woke up to a beautiful sunrise Sunday morning with the playa being quite empty still.
Early on Sunday, we arranged for an auger to come drill our postholes. For once, there was no line and the bobcat came driving up to us 20 minutes later. Our side gates were fully-assembled and they went up pretty easily. In fact, everything went smoothly until we got to the center gate. This was too big to carry up in one piece, and we still needed to drill bolt holes and drive in about a hundred screws. We planned to power our screw driver from a small inverter that was plugged into ben’s truck. That worked for about a minute before the inverter blew and refused to work again. Our battery-powered tools quickly died too, leaving the project half-finished. Completing the perfect storm, Lance and Manuel, who were driving up separately with a generator, couldn’t find our camp, and we wouldn’t run into them until days later. So we were forced to retreat to camp in low spirits as Burning Man was officially being opened.
Monday morning, we set out early to reverse our fortunes. The wonderful artists at a neighboring installation – the Alien Carousel – had a generator, and they very graciously allowed us to borrow it for a few hours. We worked as quickly as we could, and put in the last screw just as the carousel guys told us they needed their generator again. It was about this time that we had one of our first magical moments on the playa. A guy came by to look at our piece and declared that it was his second favorite on the playa – second only to the sunken ship. Exaggeration or not, he left us feeling positively elated and we put in our finishing touches with renewed energy.
Tuesday, we finally got our chance to relax and enjoy the burn, but we came back to our installation in the evening with a fresh battery. We expected this to be a simple routine, but as we sealed up the box, we noticed that the lights weren’t working. Instead, they were stuck on one, rather dim, color. As our resident engineer, John went to work with a volt meter, trying to isolate the problem. We suspected dust was blocking the battery contacts, and we tried to clean up those connections. Along the way, we bridged the battery with a wrench, sending a shower of sparks flying into the air. Luckily, the wrench fell before it was completely welded to the battery. After some time, we realized that the problem was overheating. Our circuit boards were sealed in a plastic bin, and hidden under a black stage platform. We decided to elevate the platform for more airflow, and did our best to create air channels. The project worked after that, but we had to be careful to turn it off every morning from then on.
One day, as we were coming out to the Garden, we found a group of picnickers, sitting on a blanket and tasting an assortment of vodkas. We chatted, and they invited us to share in their drinks. As honored as we were that someone would choose our piece for a picnic setting, we were entirely floored when they told us a story from earlier that day. Apparently, we just missed a group of artists that came to sketch a couple of models as they posed on our gates. (If any of those artists are reading this, we would love to see your work!)
Saturday night, we gathered at the Garden one last time for a small party. People would come by and we would offer them drinks and sit around on our main archway to chat. It was one of our very favorite moments of the week, and we left that day with a deeper appreciation for the community we were a part of.
Thanks so much to all of our workers, donors, friends, and everyone who came together to make our piece possible this year. The Garden has enabled us to reach so many people with our work, in a way that would never be possible on our own. Over the week, we heard so many positive comments from people who were touched by what we did. Some that simply enjoyed the view and chuckled at some poetic comment, and some that fully resonated with the sculpture, leaving pages of their deep thoughts in our book. As ever, we’re looking forward to the next year, and excited to see how the burn evolves, and how our camp evolves with it. Until then, treasure the connections you have, and be prepared to let go of those that are lost!
Best wishes,
The Gardeners of Missed Connections
Our advance team set out for the desert late on Friday night. The back seat of Ben’s truck is uncomfortable for anything except sleeping, and Paul and John took full advantage of it as we drove. As the sun was rising over Reno, we ate breakfast, then noticed something peculiar about the box truck: It was tilting, subtly yet unmistakably, to the right. We decided to look inside to investigate, but when we tried to open the back door, it wouldn’t budge. As we discovered, our pallet of 200 water bottles had tilted over against the right side of the truck and the door. After about 20 minutes, we created enough of a gap to let somebody squeeze through and start restacking bottles.
The rest of our drive went smoothly and we pulled into our camp location around noon. Virna and Paul set out to place our marker flags as Jenny cooked and everyone else set up camp. By the time we finished, it was getting dark and we had to save the bulk of construction for the next day.
We woke up to a beautiful sunrise Sunday morning with the playa being quite empty still.
Early on Sunday, we arranged for an auger to come drill our postholes. For once, there was no line and the bobcat came driving up to us 20 minutes later. Our side gates were fully-assembled and they went up pretty easily. In fact, everything went smoothly until we got to the center gate. This was too big to carry up in one piece, and we still needed to drill bolt holes and drive in about a hundred screws. We planned to power our screw driver from a small inverter that was plugged into ben’s truck. That worked for about a minute before the inverter blew and refused to work again. Our battery-powered tools quickly died too, leaving the project half-finished. Completing the perfect storm, Lance and Manuel, who were driving up separately with a generator, couldn’t find our camp, and we wouldn’t run into them until days later. So we were forced to retreat to camp in low spirits as Burning Man was officially being opened.
Tuesday, we finally got our chance to relax and enjoy the burn, but we came back to our installation in the evening with a fresh battery. We expected this to be a simple routine, but as we sealed up the box, we noticed that the lights weren’t working. Instead, they were stuck on one, rather dim, color. As our resident engineer, John went to work with a volt meter, trying to isolate the problem. We suspected dust was blocking the battery contacts, and we tried to clean up those connections. Along the way, we bridged the battery with a wrench, sending a shower of sparks flying into the air. Luckily, the wrench fell before it was completely welded to the battery. After some time, we realized that the problem was overheating. Our circuit boards were sealed in a plastic bin, and hidden under a black stage platform. We decided to elevate the platform for more airflow, and did our best to create air channels. The project worked after that, but we had to be careful to turn it off every morning from then on.
One day, as we were coming out to the Garden, we found a group of picnickers, sitting on a blanket and tasting an assortment of vodkas. We chatted, and they invited us to share in their drinks. As honored as we were that someone would choose our piece for a picnic setting, we were entirely floored when they told us a story from earlier that day. Apparently, we just missed a group of artists that came to sketch a couple of models as they posed on our gates. (If any of those artists are reading this, we would love to see your work!)
Saturday night, we gathered at the Garden one last time for a small party. People would come by and we would offer them drinks and sit around on our main archway to chat. It was one of our very favorite moments of the week, and we left that day with a deeper appreciation for the community we were a part of.
Best wishes,
The Gardeners of Missed Connections
