I’m starting to get excited about Burning Man…This story is just a part of why…cd
The Seattle Times: Local News: Seattle’s “Machine” a metaphor in motion for Burning Man fest
The work inside the aging, red-brick warehouse in Seattle’s Georgetown neighborhood is the picture of incongruity: A trapeze artist practices between two pieces of black fabric that hang from ceiling to floor; a dozen feet away, a man hammers nails into wood planks; in another room, a blizzard of sawdust hails the creation of more planks.
Within these walls, amid industrial banging and clanging and air crackling with creative energy, “The Machine” is taking shape.
Birthed by a volunteer force of artists and artisans, The Machine is a five-story wood-and-steel structure that will incorporate motion, sound, lights, smells and performance into a mammoth kinetic sculpture. Its ultimate destination will be a windswept Nevada desert where it will become — if all goes according to plan — the most elaborate art piece in the 20-year history of the cultural festival known as Burning Man.
For some of the 60 Seattle-area residents helping piece together The Machine, the work represents years of attending Burning Man, making friends and bringing the event’s “ethos” back to their hometown.
“I think that for a lot of us, if not all of us, that are on this project, it’s kind of a life mission,” said Gabe Stern, 31, who helped organize The Machine project. “It’s like, let’s work with people that we love and are very talented and let’s work as a group.”
Builders and designers have already spent more than a year on The Machine. But once complete, it will only “live” for five days.
