23B/ Burning Man 2020 - When Private Behavior Goes Quite Public
Burning Man 2020 - When Private Behavior Goes Quite Public
Thursday 23B
Convener: Jeff Orgel
Notes-taker(s):
Discussion notes, key understandings, outstanding questions, observations, and, if appropriate to this discussion: action items, next steps:
The virtualization of a 70,000-attendee event that has manifested in the Black Rock Desert of Nevada threw the ceremony’s ethics, boundaries, limits and norms into a reconfiguration. For the first time, the event came out to its community in their personal spaces.
How did the displacement of a real event fall into the helping hands of technology so this community could gather like never before. Physically, monetarily and time and distanced challenged could now hop over those obstacles for a somewhat realistic – but not real – version of the experience.
Specs:
I spent 80-90 hours on “the playa”.
Visited 107 venues (not all populated upon my visit with…anyone or thing… 20% empty)
Blocked all normal media feeds and radio and only listened to the BMIR station and/or Shoutingfire.com, both directly associated with the immersion of the event.
there are observations as to how a space of behavior which holds sacred the “off line” (literally no internet for 9 days when it really happens in the desert)
What translated well?
Being together at all
Sharing stories and smiles and music
art installations
Tracking the experience via medallions and leaving messages in chats
…etc., etc., …
What did not translate well?
Gifting and sharing between individuals
Feeding each other
1st person experiences at music,
Physical intimacy with strangers
The discomfort, life was too easy comparatively
Noted by Kyle (I believe) roughly: Things born of Real World translate rather well sometimes. Do things born of digital translate into Real World well?
