How Does It Feel To Burn?

I’m full. Overfull, in fact… I feel as if I contain every emotion that it’s possible to feel, all at the same time. I’ve spent a lot of the last day or so in a free hotel room, writing and journaling and moving with some concentration to make some kind of relative sense out of everything that’s happening, has happened, and is about to happen.

You know you’re a burner if…

• You start planning for Burning Man during Exodus
• The day tickets go on sale, you’re on the website repeatedly clicking “refresh” until sales opens
• You have a little vial of playa dust hung around your neck (as if you didn’t have enough of it stashed in film canisters already)
• Every time someone says “fire” or “dust” your eyes go out of focus and you sigh
• Every time someone tells you what time it is your eyes go out of focus, you sigh and mentally calculate how long it will take you to bike back to your camp from there
• You look on the web for photos taken at Burning Man hoping you’ll see a picture either of yourself or that boy/girl/ram/pixie with whom you missed a playa date
• Blinking fairy lights make you think of Burning Man before you think “Christmas”
• Your non-burner friends begin to slap you when you start telling a Burning Man story
• You’re reading this list
• You spend some time making a list like this

Burning Man 2010, part I: Principles

What is Burning Man all about…?

What if we all practice Radical Self-Reliance?

Burning Man encourages the individual to discover, exercise and rely on his or her inner resources. Participants are expected to provide for their own food, water, clothing, shelter and other needs during the week in the desert. What you pack-in, you are expected to pack-out.

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What if we all practice Radical Inclusion?

Everyone may be a part of Burning Man. We welcome and respect the stranger. No prerequisites exist for participation in our community. Participants are obliged to find a place for others who wish honestly to participate.

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What if we all hold Gifting to be the highest form of sharing?

Burning Man is devoted to acts of gift-giving. The value of a gift is unconditional. Gifting does not contemplate a return or an exchange for something of equal value. You may be offered a gift of anything by anyone at any time, and likewise may you gift anything.

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What if we all practice Decommodification?

In order to preserve the spirit of Gifting, our community seeks to create social environments that are un-mediated by commercial sponsorships, transactions, or advertising. We stand ready to protect our culture from such exploitation. We resist the substitution of consumption for participatory experience.

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What if Radical Self-Expression is encouraged?

Radical Self-Expression arises from the unique gifts of the individual. No one other than the individual or a collaborating group can determine its content; It is offered and shared as a gift to others.
In this spirit, the giver is expected to respect the rights and liberties of the recipients.

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What if we all help in the Communal Effort?

Our community values creative cooperation and collaboration. We strive to produce, promote and protect social networks, public spaces, works of art, and methods of communication that support such interaction.

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What if we all live up to our Civic Responsibility?

We value civil society. Community members who organise events should assume responsibility for public welfare and endeavour to communicate civic responsibilities to participants. They must also assume responsibility for conducting events in accordance with local, state and federal laws.

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What if we all Leave No Trace?

Our community respects and aims for a symbiotic relationship with the environment. We are committed to leaving no physical trace of our activities wherever we gather. We clean up after ourselves and endeavour, wherever possible, to steward and leave places in a better state than we found them.

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What if we all Participate?

Burning Man is about participation, not simply attendance. Our community is committed to a radically participatory ethic. We believe that transformative change, whether in the individual or in society, can occur only through the medium of deeply personal participation. We achieve being through doing. Everyone is invited to work in their own capacity. Everyone is invited to play wherever they find space. We make the world work through actions that open the heart.

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What if you didn’t hesitate? Immediacy.

Immediate and spontaneous experience is, in many ways, the most important touchstone of value in our culture. We seek to overcome barriers that stand between us and a recognition of our inner selves, the realities and perceptions of those around us, participation in society, and contact with a natural world exceeding human powers. No idea or imagining can substitute this experience.

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Sound good? See you in 2011.

Good Grief

A man walks down the street, hands in his pockets. He is aware of all the other people, his brothers and sisters, sharing with him the pavement and the oxygen and the light. He recognises his connection to all things and people and animals and plants—his connection to the whole world.

He looks ahead, his eyes instinctively navigating the sidewalk, while his concentration is far away in space and time, thinking, sensing, analysing his own feelings and responses and comparing them to the responses and apparent feelings of others, seeing how they fit together and relate to each other. Slowly, he begins to find order in the apparent chaos. He finds many possibilities and probabilities, and allows them all to have validity. He also knows that none of them may end up as the reality, and none of the outcomes he predicts may come true at all, and he accepts that, too. He simply feels better about having given things some conscious attention.

He runs again through his shopping list to see if there is anything he may have forgotten. There is a momentary turn of fear in his belly as he imagines forgetting a key ingredient for tomorrow’s dinner. Then he reminds himself that if he forgets something, then he is creative enough to cover it up. In fact, it may just turn out to be an opportunity to create something new and interesting. He comforts himself by this coverage of all the possibilities.

He turns a corner onto a busier street with a wider sidewalk, and a strong wind catches his breath in his mouth, making him swallow. He thinks about things he has done in the past, and what he has learned from those experiences, and what he will do better in future. He thinks about neglected opportunities and poor choices, and he chides himself for his moments of meandering stupidity or laziness. Momentarily, he frowns at himself. On the street, perhaps someone sees him and wonders at the frown; perhaps not.

He remembers that his mistakes and neglected chances are not just his; they are everyone’s. The opportunities he misses to create and give something to the world are a net-loss. There is a pang of shame and guilt at this thought, and a resultant fear of future chances being missed due to his oversight, distraction or inaction. Really, he fears not having the courage to recognise good opportunities when they present themselves, and to act decisively upon them. This is a fear that dogs him, and has done for his whole life, despite that life being filled with many decisive actions and boundless creativity. And somehow he believes it is not enough; that he is not good enough. He feels as if he has lacked any solid direction, and even as he has done and seen and been part of many wonderous things, that he has not yet Mastered anything and created something Worthy of that. He demands more from himself, and steels his resolve to take more chances; to be alert to more opportunities; to give more to the world… and to feel worthy. Worthy of what? Worthy of love, of course. Worthy of recognition, and acceptance.

Speed of Sound: Mach III – Debrief

SoS: Mach 3 was BEYOND EPIC. It’s 1:30pm the next day and I am still buzzzzzzzing… The punters loved us; we had a queue outside at 1:30am while Marshall Law was playing; Mike the owner was there most of the night despite saying he was going to leave early; and he is dead-keen to have SoS back again soon. The vibe was so indescribably positive… Loads of punters thanked us for our sets and we had a full dancefloor from about 11pm until 3am. We knew we had the concept sold when there were whoops, whistles and cheers during the breakdowns…!

The concept? “Participatory, Interactive Rave.” This is our vision of Rave Culture upgraded for the 21st Century.

The S.o.S. CyberBuddha

I’ve worked in bars & restaurants for almost 15 years, so I think I can say with some authority that I know what people are looking for when we go out on the weekend: We’re looking for a sense of community—a sense of belonging. We spend hours of our time and dollars of our money on disinhibiting liquors in order to be around and make contact with other human beings in a social setting. What we’re doing with S.o.S. is overtly encouraging people to make those connections.

We sought to bring some of the founding principles of Burning Man / Kiwiburn to the rave scene of Wellington, such as participation, inclusion, radical self-expression, gifting, etc. Generally we were just looking for the kind of party we’d all like to go to, yet weren’t finding available. So we did it ourselves. We put on a free gig, and got some really friendly points of difference put into play. We sought to implement some of the Good Things that we experienced at various burns into our mainstream, “default” world; and, we sought to demonstrate that it could be done without the need for a lot of money, or fake hype, or big-name artists—just by doing what we love. This is our Sense of Community… and we invite you to be a part of it.

More photos from the night can be viewed here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/50163262@N04/sets/72157624087417905/

Mixing My Perceptions, Part V: Speed of Sound Sampler

Electro-Breakbeat Sampler 01, for Speed of Sound: Mach 3 (mixed by PerCeption)

Speed of Sound: Mach 3 — Breakbeat Sampler 01 by Maddock

This is possibly my best mix yet. There is actual mixing happening, and I’m starting to play around with mixing loops from the tune playing in, into the tune playing out. Having four decks on Traktor Scratch Pro is also pretty choice, because I can then set up three different loops and start mixing those in on the playing track at various points. While I haven’t attempted that on this mix, I will be on upcoming ones.

I recorded this as a sampler for the upcoming Speed of Sound: Mach 3 interactive music night, to be held by a bunch of friends and I at San Francisco Bath House here in Wellington, on 17 June…  wOOt!

SoS: Mach 3 will be a hugely interactive music experience, and as much as possible we’ll be integrating social networking applications, crowd-interactive visuals, and whatever else we can come up with. The décor will also get a lot of effort put into it. There were some utterly cool ideas being bandied around last night at our first planning/mixing meeting, and it’s really stoking me out.

Basically, it will be a geek’s paradise – with extra added doof-doof bliss!

We even have a Lindy Hop DJ opening for us at 7pm!

Keep your ears open for the sonic BOOM!