The "We Have a Dream Petition"

SUMMARY:

We are the artists. We feel that this event which we helped to make great has gotten away from us and we would like it back. We want the art to be spectacular again and we are willing to step forward to do the work to make it so. But for this to happen, we think the "art curation" should be put in the hands of rotating "Guest Curators" and all funding decisions should be made by "Direct Vote" of the full community. The art should also be well funded (10% of the gate) and not subject to creativity squashing litmus tests for "theme compliance" and "mandatory interactivity".

The petitioners at http://tinyurl.com/6l5lh request attention to these very reasonable demands or we commit to STOP CONTRIBUTING our art to Burning Man. Repeated discussions over many years have failed to result in meaningful change, so now we are resorting to more extreme measures. TOGETHER we can change things.

FULL PROPOSAL

(A public service announcement from The Shipyard, The Odeon Bar, and fellow petitioners at http://tinyurl.com/6l5lh)

What to do about Burning Man . . . ?

If we can't have our country, we better damn well make sure our local culture is right, proper and promoting of the good things.

Unfortunately, the exit polls for Burning Man --the 10,000 lb elephant in the room of local creative work-- have not been looking too good of late. This year most of us left saying various forms of "Where-the-hell-was-all-the-insanely-great-amazing-art?",
"I'm-not-really-feeling-it-very-much anymore" and "That-was-a-great-party-but . . . ".
(Consult your local email list for the full laundry list of complaints)

It is silly to tolerate the current level of ambivalence and dissatisfaction, yet continue to pour so much of ourselves and our art into this event. It seems we would all be better served if we decided en masse that it is over and done with, and direct our efforts elsewhere. Or we decided en masse that it is still an irreplaceable combination of people and ideas and we need to fix it- that we make it strongly felt, deeply creative and unfairly fun, once again.

We propose that it is high time we ALL make a decision about this together. That is, we ALL decide to either be done with it and shut up about it already. Or we ALL decide to do it again with ambition, care, and comedy- for the benefit of ALL No more middle ground or mediocrity. LET'S DECIDE: ONCE-AND-FOR-ALL. Enough whining about the whole thing.

While the former "it's done" choice is growing in popularity, we think the later option is the better choice in service of Art and Chaos. That is, we agree en masse that there is no other gig like this anywhere, that it is the creation of ALL of us, and we can ALL agree together to fix it and make it stunning wonderful again, Borg be damned. We acknowledge that this only works and is only fun if most ALL of us agree do it together, en masse, not as a few stragglers here and there.

The fix must address many issues, but the CORE ISSUE for the fix is THE ART. Art, Art,
Art: that is what this is all about. Fix the art and make the process for doing it fair and fun again, and the rest will likely fall into place. Our solution towards this end is
simple: RADICALLY DEMOCRATIZE THE CURATION AND FUNDING OF THE ART.

So Borg, how about a deal? We, the mass of Burning Man creative agents, agree to reapply ourselves with focus to the creation of mind-blowing, I-can't-believe-someone-actually-made-that, KNOCK YOU ON YOUR ASS ART, and you agree to LET US DO IT. Simple. You GET OUT OF THE WAY. No more benevolent ART-ocracy of black box funding, crushing bureaucracy and resistance to creativity in the name of "theme compliance" or "mandatory interactivity". Release the power back to the participants.

Here's how we propose to do it. Here are our demands. You might consider them a sort of latter day Lutherian Manifesto, a list of Theses nailed to your door- the door guarding the overwrought, incestuous, indulgence dispensing, overly ritualized and bureaucratically mired Catholic Church we call Burning Man

In the end, our demands are simple: GIVE US OUR EVENT BACK OR WE LEAVE. Those who agree with these sentiments are registering their support at http://tinyurl.com/6l5lh.

We want to be able to give of ourselves fully again. And this is what is it going to take.

WE CURATE THE ART.
The Art Monarchy of Larry and Ladybee is getting boring for them as well as for us. So let's return the art curation, as much as it is needed, to the participants. We propose to do this through a combination of "Guest Curators" and "Direct Voting" in art funding decisions. Here's how it would work.

A. "Direct Voting":
In March each year, we rent out SOMARTS and have an art selection party. Kind of like the old Spring event. Invite everyone out and put all the proposals up on the wall. Everyone who wants funding has to come and promote their wares. Those too far away can have reps, videos or some other stand ins. Those who should be in the running but can't write a proposal or make a drawing to save their lives will get a little help so their brilliance is not missed. Pin the results on the walls all around SOMARTS. Walk around and meet the people. Consider the possibilities. Then put all of it on the Burning Man website.

A week later we all VOTE. That is, everyone who is in the Burning Man database by virtue of a past ticket purchase or art project gets to vote. Each person can vote for their top ten projects, ranking them in order of preference. Instant runoff balloting- just like San Francisco. A simple webform can make all this happen quickly, easily and transparently. No more nepotism and bitching at the Borg for who they choose or don't choose. No more complaints about the great projects that got tossed for X or Y reason.
Make the whole thing OUR responsibility. Make us ALL feel a stake in it again. It will be fun and make us all believers again. And it only seems fair that those who are being "taxed" to support the art get to actually vote where their money is going.

B. "Guest Curators:"
Each year we also elect a group of likely suspects to be "Guest Curators". The Guest Curators would prepare and organize the above SOMARTS event, decide the theme, cultivate art projects and people, and generally scheme new stuff. They gather the creative forces each year and frame the event with new ideas, narratives and general urban planning. They make sure the event stays fresh and we are surprised by new things, year after year. They do the event framing work that has to date only been done by Larry. Larry seems tired of doing it, so let's rotate who gets to sit in the high chair and paint the big picture for Burning Man each year. New things will surely happen. The Guest Curators would also form an independent "art council" with Larry, Ladybee and several other artists to work out the details of funding decisions and general art logistics.

We elect the Guest Curators in a similar manner to the Direct Voting for the art funding.
In November of each year, the groups that want to be the Guest Curators for the coming year put together proposals with their vision and plans for the event, theme ideas, and potential new site layouts. These proposals are posted to the JRS as well as the Burning Man website. And then we all VOTE. ALL of us. Again, everyone in the Burning Man database gets to vote, one vote per person.

Who are the likely suspects for Guest Curators? Many come to mind. They might be regional Burning Man groups or various local arts organizations; established theme camps or general problems-about-town. This might become the vehicle for bringing successful regional groups back to the center event to show their stuff. Imagine the difference in the event from year to year if some of the below groups each had their turn at the wheel:

- Madagascar Institute (NYC)
- Austin regional
- London regional
- Portland regional
- Robodock (netherlands)
- Flaming Lotus Girls
- Spock Mountain Research Laboratories
- The Shipyard
- Odeon Bar
- BoxShop/Qbox
- SFMOMA
- Camp Carp
- The Cataclysmic Megashear Ranch
- Death Guild
- The Crucible
- David Best Temple Crew
- The DPW
- Houston Art Car Gang
- Cyclecide Bike Rodeo
- etc etc.etc.

2. TEN PERCENT FOR ART.
Yes, it is the art, stupid. The party is nice, but what makes this event work is wildly ambitious, quietly clever, loudly obnoxious or just generally unlikely creative work of all forms. We have tolerated the liabilities of population growth for years. Now the art should reap some reward in the form of increased financial support so more and better is possible. Less than 4% of current total ticket income goes to directly fund art. It seems a small gesture that 10% of ticket revenues are dedicated to the direct and exclusive support of artists to make art.

3. NO THEMEATIC FUNDAMENTALISM.
Ok, we'll agree to tolerate the themes each year. But there is no need to make them regimes of absolutism.

Can we finally admit in broad daylight that most of the art has little or no relationship to the theme? We just do what we want and dress it in appropriate words so the Borg will consider funding it or place us where we want to be. Have a great idea to make something spectacular and a hundred people lined up to do it, but it is not "thematic"? Sorry, no funding. No DPW help. No general support. No good real estate. You are banished to the "non-theme art" bin. Have a stupid idea that reads as an obvious stage prop for the theme? Well step right up- the Borg would love to write you a big check to pollute the playa with more poorly considered theme decoration projects.

In short, theme compliance is not a good predictor of good art or successful community.
So let's toss the "theme compliance" litmus test. It is not serving us well.

4. BURNING MAN ART IS "RADICALLY COLLABORATIVE"
The "interactivity requirement" for funded Burning Man art has run its course to an unimpressive end. Good Burning Man art is nearly always radically collaborative and tilted towards the apparently impossible- interactivity may or may not be a side effect. The "community forming" function of Burning Man art is in the broad gathering of people to make it, not in some form of simple interactivity via the pushing buttons, spinning of things, writing of graffiti, or being able to climb on the finished product. Many of the historic best and most remembered projects did not have any form of "interactivity" in their finished manifestation. Likewise many successful communities emerged from projects with absolutely no interactivity. So let's allow people to make what they want, irrespective of interactivity, but encourage projects founded on radical collaboration.

Chaos will provide . . .

Sound reasonable? Sound possible? Sound right, honest and true? We think so. Rarely do humans get to play with the glorious joys of a conflagration as unlikely as this one. We ALL created and nourished it together. We don't want to lose it. We can't lose it. We can't not care.

So let's be responsible for our creation. Let's not give up on it. Let's come together again. Let's fix it. Let's make it amazing great.

Let's once again scare our very selves with the extreme dimension of our desire and creativity.

There is so much beauty. Let's demand to have it again and again.

And if we can't have it here again, we are ALL going to go have it somewhere else.

The Shipyard and Odeon Bar thank you for reading.

PS- If you agree with the above, we invite you to join us and sign our petition at http://www.odeonbar.com/petition/1/petition.php?do=do_sign. Together we can change this.