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The Tech Connection (Gallery 206)
The spirit of maker culture is very much alive in Silicon Valley and elsewhere at companies that have identified the link between play and innovation. Burning Man offers remarkably fertile ground for this kind of creative thinking. Moreover, the "Wild West" mentality inspired by this expanse of lawless desert parallels the thinking often found at internet startups. Burners, like tech entrepreneurs, are skeptical of the status quo: just because something has been done in a certain way doesn't mean that's how it should be done. An overwhelming sense of freedom pervades both environments.
In a now-famous interview from 2014, Tesla and Space-X founder Elon Musk equated Burning Man to Silicon Valley, adding, "If you haven't been, you just don't get it..." With Burning Man's Bay Area roots, there has always been a strong connection to and overlap with the tech community. The first Google doodle, appearing in 1998, starred the Man as a "comical message" to Google users that its founders were "out of office" for the week; Musk brought an early version of a Tesla to the playa in 2007 in honor of Burning Man's "Green Man" art theme that year; and many celebrities and titans of American business and industry from Silicon Valley and beyond have attended regularly for well over a decade. Burning Man is where many go to recharge.
Given this longstanding relationship, it's not surprising that Burning Man has always embraced technology. But while LEDs have largely replaced fire on playa and outside entities occasionally attempt to put up cell-phone towers to service the city, attendees are still strongly encouraged to cast off the technological leashes that connect them to the outside world and immerse themselves in firsthand face-to-face connection during the event.
Indeed, much has changed since Burning Man's founding in response to the growing pains of a city increasingly in the public eye and in need of civic order. The pursuit of danger has been toned down in favor of a kinder, gentler culture and, while the community still extolls the virtues of self-reliance, some participants opt for caravans of luxury RVs that pack in creature comforts from generators to cooking staff, making the event not quite the survival experience it once was. In classic Burning Man style, a constant tongue-in-cheek refrain of "Burning Man was better last year" finally even stimulated a "Museum of It Was Better Last Year" installation on playa. But for the many who venture to the desert annually, and maybe especially those who surround themselves with ones and zeros in their daily lives, unplugging to seek authentic experience can be an awakening, the ideal foil to an increasingly digital world. |