Author: Katherine

While volunteering at Media Mecca, I met fellow New Yorker Craig Duff, who is the Director of Multimedia for Time. He produced this thoughtful clip, “5 Things Cities Can Learn from Burning Man.”

One additional unmentioned lesson from Burning Man is the capacity for individuals to forge new connections or sustain old connections, whether it’s through attending an art performance, a celebratory bonfire, volunteering, or casual conversation. I find this a striking contrast with conventional cities, where most exchanges are funneled through monetary exchanges. I’m not saying that monetary exchanges are bad, but these provide limited opportunities for individuals to interact. The chance to sit down and have an extended, enjoyable conversation with someone is priceless.

I’m in the “clubhouse” at Orgtheory.net as a guest blogger – see my first guest blog entry here. I’ll continue to geek out with entries at Orgtheory during the next few weeks.

Like previous years, while at Burning Man this year, I volunteered at Media Mecca, where the press check-in to sign paperwork outlining their responsibilities, get their cameras tagged, and socialize. Each year that I volunteer, I learn a new routine, new policies, and make new acquaintances. I find these changes refreshing and reinvigorating – the ability to forget old routines or rules that no longer apply and learn new ones tailored to current circumstances is easier to do at the Burning Man event since it only meets once a year. In other words, the temptation to ritualistically follow outdated routines is diminished for a yearly event, as people don’t practice these routines everyday.

Moreover, chance meetings with people often lead to wonderful discoveries. For example, while volunteering at Media Mecca, I finally met Sunny Minedew, the filmmaker whose documentary I referenced on p. 139 in the paperback version of Enabling Creative Chaos. In addition, I got the chance to chat with Bill Talen, the performance artist more popularly known as Reverend Billy. I was especially tickled to meet Rev. Billy, as I’ve used Starbucks’ memo about how their employees should act when visited by Rev. Billy and his Church of Stop Shopping as an exam question about routinization for my sociology of organizations class. Rev. Billy was gracious enough to gift me with his documentary and music. I look forward to finding out what happens when Rev. Billy and his group descend upon the Disney amusement park.

One of the most interesting post scripts to my research is that Burning Man volunteers have learned to establish and run their own formal organizations. For instance, when I studied the Burning Man organization, one of its departments included the Black Rock Gazette, which published a daily newspaper. (I published an article in the “Decompression” edition back in 2003, which you can access here.) Not only did Black Rock Gazette volunteers work on late-breaking news on the playa under primitive conditions, but they also drove to Reno to pick up the papers from the printers and rushed them back to Black Rock City each day. In 2005, organizers decided to eliminate the Black Rock Gazette.

However, Black Rock City still has a newspaper! Former Black Rock Gazette volunteers formed their own organization and newspaper, the Black Rock Beacon. If you’re interested in volunteering for them, you can find out more about their activities here.

My first book-signing and “thank you, Burners and Burning Man” party will be 6-8pm, Fri., Sept. 4, 2009 at Media Mecca, Center Camp, Black Rock City. Bring your own beverage container!

Around the same time that I was doing my research, Susan Barron made an in-depth documentary about the efforts of the Dept. of Public Works (DPW), which builds and takes down the temporary infrastructure for Burning Man. You can find out more about her documentary here and here.

John Curley is blogging about the building of the 2009 Black Rock City here.

During the time that I studied Burning Man, artists built large pieces for the event but then could not find a permanent place for them. Adequate storage space is a problem, and museums and other institutions may not have the capacity or desire to properly care for items. Nevertheless, some of the artworks that debuted at Burning Man have now found more permanent homes, where they can be appreciated by even more persons.
I’m very pleased to report that one of the artworks featured in a black and white photo in my book now resides in Toronto, Canada. For Flickr images of Michael Christian’s sculpture Koilos in a mainstream, urban setting, click here.

Regarding a recent blog post about where one can purchase books, this WSJ article indicates that Target and Amazon will soon part ways, with Target handling its own online distribution.

Update 8/14/09: it seems that many books, including mine, that were available on Target via Amazon are no longer available at Target. Click here for alternative distributors.

My summer 2009 Contexts article “Authenticity at Burning Man” is now available under my “about author” webpage.