This won’t be where I ramble on and on about the magic of the playa and the epic sound car DJ sunrise vibes and the radical self-reliance and the leave no trace principles and all that. I’m not going to launch into a long rant about actually how amazing this burn’s mudpocalypse, eco protests, trashing of Reno and the Ebola outbreak were and how they were a beneficial bonding experience for all burners. You just go and you get it or you don’t go and you don’t.
But I can’t help but share a few thoughts on one thing that was unique to a few of us that were privileged enough to work with
@colin_odonnell on a project.
This was my first time to work on a truly epic piece of art with a team, as part of the team.
First off - ambient conditions were set right. This cube thing could have not been built and shared anywhere else on Earth. Lawyers, safety protocols over enforced (the BM tickets, after all, lay out in not-so-fine print that *you could die*). I’m thankful to the burning man org (and the BLM) for giving the bit cube a shot at existing.
The Bit Cube’s (
@bitcube.playa ) building, existence, and memory gave rise to a sense of meaning, joy, and belonging that was overwhelming to a point of tears. To have been part of a team that manifested this 30’ glowing cube of 222 individual recycled IBC totes - from a plot of dust - to become what was a piece that thousands climbed up (and most of them down), projecting art for miles across the desert night and then to watch that art disappear into the dust and ashes from which it rose - it was intense and awe inspiring unlike anything I’ve experienced. In fact, as I shared with my friend and fellow startup founder - the lead artist, visionary, and the guy who assembled the funding and team -
@colin_odonnell - that the project was only a fraction of the pain yet multiples of the joy experienced in total during my two startups over the past 8 years … packed into 13 days. That’s pretty hard to imagine and swallow.
In the end, all of this came and then it all swept away in such a fever dream that I’m not even sure how much of it was even real. As such is life.
