Placement
Making our city a wonderful place to live is a complex and involved
process. The city planning committee oversees changes to the city design.
The theme camp team communicates with villages and theme camps and finds
them their home. The placement team locates everyone as they enter our
city. In 2002, we plan to add a map committee that will produce all maps
for our city layout.
Maps
and Design
Like any large architectural endeavor, creating the maps for Burning
Man involves many overlays. Each focuses on a different aspect of the
city. In January of 2001 the planning committee began with one simple
plan based on the year before. From this we began reviewing the successes
and weaknesses of the previous year. We added more living space for camps
located in the Center Camp. We took out part of a road in the middle of
the city to create living space for larger groups. We also added a grid
system to assist the layout of theme camps and ease the process of going
from planning to real playa placement. Every other placement concern fell
into a timeline based on need and inspiration after this initial meeting.
Porta-potties and districts were defined next. Loud and quiet areas,
family and late night party camps needed to be properly distanced. Traffic
routes for service providers affect road widths and the placement of internal
services and theme camps. Ingress and egress patterns, prevailing winds,
non-Burning Man vehicular use on the Black Rock desert and the rising
and setting of the sun were all considered before we began placing villages
and theme camps.
Well over two-hundred hours of work between two people were spent strategizing
with and on placement of registered camps alone. Upon completion of these
placements, a second layer of plans were produced. These were the plans
that we passed onto the DPW crews who place the survey flags that define
boundaries for theme camps and villages on the playa surface. Only then
did we begin to produce the detailed plans needed for various other crews
and our sign shop. Plans for buildings, land/sea containers, shade structures,
and power grid placement were drawn up with only weeks to spare before
our event began.
Finally, a map for our participants was completed and sent to press
on August 10, in time to meet the deadline for print production with the
Black Rock Gazette (link to page F4) and the What Where When, the materials
we give to participants as they enter our city. We were then two weeks
away from our departure date for the desert.
Theme
Camps and Villages
Theme camp
mapping can be seen as a practical application of cultural geography.
The goal is to create neighborhoods in which projects either complement
each other, or create diversity. Many things are considered when mapping
theme camps, including past project history, the present project proposal,
size, particular placement requests, interactivity, and bets on whether
the project will actually be completed. These factors help determine our
geography. Our city is intentionally changed from year to year. Streets
receive new names and some locations are reshuffled in order to discourage
feelings of ownership and unmindful familiarities such as we are accustomed
to at home.
In 2001, Black Rock City housed 466 theme camps, including 16 villages.
A total of 70 camps were placed on the Esplanade, 38 in Center Camp, and
29 in Large-Scale Sound-Art (2:00 and 10:00). The other 329 camps were
located in non-Esplanade spaces. Approximately 1/4 of the Large-Scale
Sound-Art camps were no-shows or relocated without telling us.
The importance of our online
Theme Camp Questionnaire cannot be overemphasized. Along with our
theme camp database, this is our primary tool. We began work to improve
our database, produce new content for the website, and finish the mapping
program (BRC Map) in January. The theme camp/village questionnaire was
made available in February. By March we were well into conversations with
camps about placement and special needs. The Large Scale Sound Art areas
were full by March 15. In mid-June the theme art theme camps (camps designated
to stamp passports for the 2001's theme) were selected. After all of the
information from each camp was compiled, we shut down access to the questionnaire,
took our phones off the hook and "power mapping", as we like to call it,
began. By August 1 the city was laid out.
At this time the Theme Camp Placement crew kicked into gear. The city
was divided into sections and each of these was assigned to a Placer.
Placers made contact with the camps in their area of city before the event
to answer questions and get people excited. Any last minute changes or
updates were sent out on our announcement list.
The Earth Guardians and other groups sent out special tips on this list
as well. The last email announcement gave specific instructions on how
theme camps would find their home. Once on the playa, the Placers worked
hand in hand with the Greeters to make contact with each registered camp.
They had a dedicated radio channel and worked as much as 16 hours a day
until Wednesday when all camps had arrived The Placers continued to help
solve problems for their camps and were always available as a resource.
Some members of this team were also assigned to other tasks. These included
assisting incoming traffic so that no one section of the city would became
too packed, looking for unsafe structures, and making sure that Playa
Information had the most updated information on which camps were placed.
Everything is fluid on the playa, even after an entire year of planning.
Future
In 2002 this team will grow to include a person in charge of the plazas
to make sure they become the social centers they deserve to be, with lanterns
and spires, a fire pit, and a sense of community. We also look forward
to more involvement with camps that wish to participate in next year's
art theme. These camps will have a dedicated contact person on the Placement
team.
We will increase the efficiency of map production and attempt to streamline
the placement process so that Placers are not left holding spots for camps
that have no intention of camping where they are placed, but fail to contact
us to let us know (this is a very time consuming and unpleasant task).
We also intend to look for ways to further develop our use of the space
dedicated to large-scale sound art.
As always, the planning committee will begin by looking at our city plan
in January in order to make improvements for Black Rock City 2002. 