Burning Man

Burning Man Honorarium Grant Projects and Working for Art Support Services 2004-2017

Since 2004 I’ve attended the Burning Man event in Nevada’s Black Rock Desert as a participating artist and Art Support Services crew member (2017).

As a volunteer for Art Support Services, I worked within the art department, dispatching heavy equipment & resources to artists and their build crews on-site. My duties included: radio communication between various infrastructure on-playa to facilitate heavy-equipment, water, wood and fuel delivery requests for art projects, build crews and art support camps. Attend daily meetings and visit projects in the field, log artists and teams into the database, keep track of build schedules for multiple projects and make sure artists attained requested resources. My primary job was delivering pallets of wood to projects scheduled to burn: I attended Fire Safety (F.A.S.T.) meetings and worked with their team to coordinate and personally deliver large volumes of wood to art pieces according to the burn schedule.

Honorarium projects: In addition to writing grant applications and project proposals, I over-saw various aspects of each project including management / logistics, communication with Burning Man Art Dept. leads regarding ticketing and work passes for crew, camp permits, passes and timeline / deadlines, etc. I also worked post-production, installation & break-down on each project.

Rack attack! Mutant Centipede Bike Rack

In 2011 my partner and I received an Honorarium grant to design and fabricate a large-scale bike rack for Black Rock City. The 40 ft. long multi-functional sculpture was created with criteria specific to the event: large-scale, portable, able to be assembled and disassembled in a short period of time, strong enough to hold up to thousands of burners interacting with the piece, simple enough to be reconstructed on playa and light enough to be transported in a cargo van. The piece supported an independent 12V LED lighting system. Rack designed by Mark Melnick.

rackattack1 — Rack attack! Mutant Centipede Bike Rack, 2011

eracknite — Rack Attack! Pre-event, 2011

rack-nite3 — Rack Attack! during the event, 2011

Rube Awakening Magic Bike Rack

2016 Honorarium Project created and designed for Burning Man, this 22’ high interactive sculpture incorporated light and sound while giving burners a safe place to lock their bikes. The animal head lights were animated when prompted by bike parking switches and random controller sequences. The audio effects lasted 2 to 5 seconds after parked bikes tripped the switches. Control Center and power supply were located at the center of the piece in a weather-proof circular compartment. Solar panels located on the brim recharged the batteries during the day. Rack designed by Mark Melnick.

rubecombo — Rube Awakening Magic Bike Rack, 2016

Creation of Adam (with the Tinman)

2004 Honorarium project by Mark Madel and Mark Melnick / Maya Lowry. Paint and glazes on canvas: faux stone finish with black-light paint. All production in-studio and installed on-site in the man pavilion.