Isolation and Recovery… Art as a Catalyst for Social Change
My motivation for this project is personal, but not unique. After 13 years of attending this event, and many great years with Vertical Camp, I took a 10 year break. I had moved out of SF, divorced, changed my career, remarried, built a small business, saw my kids off to college and moved to Nevada City, CA. And then the pandemic struck us all and we retreated from each other to an extent not previously imagined possible.
I had lost touch with my friends and connections. I’d lost touch until Josh & Kirk called me in to help build the tower. Yes, it could work. I’m free and want to come… excited again to work in the blazing sun and choking dust, to see my friends, to play fun jokes with people, to cook them surprise lunches in the A-frame, to just sit and talk and get to know each other.
The week together affected me deeply. My own sense of isolation became clear and I saw what I had been missing: being a member of the group; participating in a community effort; making playful art; meeting new people; building and creating; sharing and listening; and playing in the mud.
This realization was the first step in recovering from the isolation I’d felt during the pandemic and the previous years. Vertical Camp created a supportive space for its community to grow and flourish. The personal impact was felt by all who lived there and visited. The camp community inspired me to create my own work, to engage with, and to contribute back to, the group during this next year… to help others find what I’d just found!
So, I started a project to explore what I’d experienced, The Archeon: (See Slide Show below)
My experience is not unique. Humans tend to isolate to protect themselves. They isolate for so long that they become comfortable… it becomes the new normal. The pandemic forced us to isolate like never before. It scarred us! We have to awaken and recover. We need to rebuild our social fabric, to reconnect. This project is a catalyst for that awakening and it challenges us to take specific actions to reconnect… to rebuild their communities.
The Archeon Project is a metaphor for that emotional awakening and transformation. The spirit we created during the week went into hyperdrive the day it rained. Instead of whining about missing so-n-so DJ at blah-de-blah camp, the group turned to each other in support and threw a raging party! The moment of discovering that the real beauty in this world are the people right in front of us; at that moment, the Archeon awakened and emerged from deep in the mud.
The Archeon responds to the communal spirit it detects in the life forms, rises from the ground and broadcasts its message to distant celestial objects. The symbolism is of each of us rising up, reaching outwards, sending our message, and connecting with others in the group.
The sculpture requires coordinated action by participants. It responds by opening physically and beaming a message to the stars. The physical opening, removal of protective shields from around the delicate communication organ symbolizes the vulnerability required to initiate authentic communication, to establish a true connection.
True Connection = shared experience + empathy + vulnerability
The project’s overarching goal: For the team, the project is the shared experience. Creative action requires empathy & vulnerability and there will be many hours spent building it. For the participants (at Burning Man) the sculpture calls attention to our recent isolation, builds self awareness and challenges all to take specific actions to reconnect.
What if we changed the minds of just 2 people in this process, and they changed 4 the next year, and they changed 8, and so on and so on… We have enough scary viruses out there; let’s create a few good ones!
The answer is right in front of us - let’s create a catalyst for social change.
We will propose specific actions that participants can take home with them and put them to use. It takes time and effort, but it’s worth it.
