Burning Man 2005

From crispyneurons

Every year, after I return from Burning Man, I have posted a gallery of photographs on crispyneurons. Yet there must be hundreds, if not thousands, of photo galleries created by burners every year. Many of them are created by artists and professional photographers possessing great skill. If I express my experience of the burn online, I don't want it to just be a drop in that ocean. Anyway, it's become boring to simply take photos of wonderful things and then post them here.

So I've chosen to do something different. There are so many ways to tell the experience. In this case, I want to tell a story about a creation of mine, about my artistic project for Burning Man 2005.

[edit] The Symbol

Those of us who came together to form the phenomenon known as Purple Turtle each had something unique to contribute. Some are involved in creating, decorating, storing, raising and striking the Purple Turtle Catnip Lounge. Others spin fire poi or flags. Others provide the sound; some phenomenal DJs have spun in the Turtle.

In my case, I am a manipulator of symbols by trade. I work with intellectual abstractions; it's my fundamental ability. So I have created a symbol for the Purple Turtle:

The Purple Turtle symbol.

[edit] Its Origins

I conceived of the symbol in tribal terms. For me, Purple Turtle is a tribe. A tribe needs a sense of identity, something that uniquely identifies it. The Lounge itself can have that function, but it is a physical structure, one that is simply a pile of vinyl tarps and poles lying on the ground when not in use, which is most of the time. The Purple Turtle endures the absence of the Lounge. An abstract identity was needed.

The symbol I created is abstract. It has no intrinsic meaning. It means whatever the Purple Turtle means. Some see it as a tribe; some see it as a chill lounge on the playa; and there must be many other perceptions. The symbol is any and all of that. Visually, it is inspired by the indigenous art of Australia and Central America. The expression on the face is inscrutable, intentionally defying easy category and transcending the mood of the moment.

I want to stress that I did not create the symbol alone. It began with a crude line drawing, which I then scanned into my computer as a huge bitmap image. This was Draft 1. My intention was to turn Draft 1 into vector art using Illustrator or something similar, and in the process, rationalize the design. I didn't know Illustrator very well, but I figured this project would give me an excuse to improve my skill.

That turned out not to be necessary. Plaid offered to take the rough scan and make it into a vector illustration for me! At my request she even cleaned up a lot of the asymmetry in the original hand drawing. This became Draft 2, which due to demands on my time leading up to the 2005 burn, became the basis of a number of the implementations of the symbol for the burn, as seen below.

After I returned I created a Draft 3, one that improved the proportions of the elements of the design, particularly the head and legs of the turtle. This draft, the one displayed above, is likely to be the final official draft of the symbol, though there are endless possible expressions of the core abstract design. I've discussed with Dag the notion of creating a simplified version of the design as well, essentially the same but lacking some of the complicated detail, an adaptation which wouldn't be difficult to do.

[edit] Symbol Implementations

After I released the symbol design, I was blown away by how people ran with it! Check out this amazing creativity.

Magnus, a skilled blacksmith, took it upon himself to create small metal Purple Turtle necklace pendants. Jingles then made necklaces for each of the pendants and gave them to all the Turtles to wear. They were beautiful.

Jingles, Magnus and Brutus. Magnus wore his metal Purple Turtle on his cowboy hat.

Jonah took the symbol and turned it into an electroluminescent wardrobe upgrade.

Jonah's use of the symbol: a glowing Turtle on his fireman's coat.

Here's what it looks like when it's glowing at night.

Ric, the great provider of delicious chai to the rest of the Turtles while on the playa, introduced the rest of us to his friend Mario Torero. Mario is an artist and political activist involved in the Chicano Park Art Movement. He discovered my symbol and decided to paint it onto the Purple Turtle Catnip Lounge!

Mario painted the symbol on the Purple Turtle Catnip Lounge.

To have such a skilled artist take the symbol in such an amazing direction was a great honor! When I came back to the PTCL in the afternoon as he finished it, I really was overcome with gratitude. It was profoundly validating to see a professional artist build upon what I had created. And now it was part of the PTCL!

Then, a couple days later, he painted another purple turtle, this time on Heather's white dress.

The Purple Turtle symbol on Heather's dress, courtesy of Mario.

One of Heather's contributions to Purple Turtle for the 2005 burn was to create bike flags for all the Turtles. She took the basic design and created visual solidity within it, so that it was no longer simple line art. This adaptation made it a better mask against the glow-in-the-dark material that it was printed on.

Heather used the symbol to create bike flags for all the Turtles. This is the one that was on my bike.

I'm very proud of the symbol. I am honored that it has been extended artistically by so many talented people. I'm glad I could contribute something of value to the experience.