Burning Life 2007

Burners come to virtual Black Rock Desert

by Surfdaddy Orca and Dreamingen Writer

The first thing you notice are the tire tracks in the playa. A playa is a dry lake bed consisting of fine-grain sediments, smooth in the summer months, but wet and very soft in the winter months. Then you hear the music—largely hypnotic psytrance—providing a soundtrack for the colorful sculpties, hallucinogenic swing sets, fire-breathing dragons, flaming avatars, and kinetic artwork that surround you.

This year, for the fifth-straight year, Linden Lab created a virtual playa, a homage to Burning Man. Second Life’s 22-sim “Burning Life” playa echoes the spirit of Burning Man’s Black Rock Desert without the Nevada heat and the bitterly cold nights. See Jeska Linden’s blog to get a sense what it’s like to walk around at Burning Life.

What is Burning Man? According to the Burning Man web site, “Trying to explain what Burning Man is to someone who has never been to the event is a bit like trying to explain what a particular color looks like to someone who is blind.” It is art, it is community, it is an experience. It is a place to create your own world.

As with the real-life Burning Man, SL’s virtual event culminates in the the burning of “the man,” a symbolic reference to the ephemeral nature of the human condition. All things must pass, after all.

“The man” at Burning Man is an oversized man-shaped structure in wood and other flammables, usually standing atop a structure made of similar materials. The ceremonial burning of the man on Saturday night follows rituals that include dances by torchbearers ringing the pyre.

Burning Man was founded by San Francisco Artist Larry Harvey in the early 1990s. It is held every Labor Day weekend in the Black Rock Desert 117 miles north of Reno, Nevada. It is characterized by a variety of art performances, happenings, and spontaneous celebrations. Nearly 800 people attended the event during 1993, and they camped in a large circle in the middle of the vast dry playa. Attendance is now in the tens of thousands—a small city.

Legend has it that Philip (Rosedale) Linden visited the real Red Rock Desert prior to 2002 and came away thinking Burning Man could be the template for an online world—a place “where people could be whatever they wanted to be.” Sound familiar?

According to Wikipedia, real-life burners are overwhelmingly white, college-educated, middle class Americans from urban or suburban communities. The vast majority (67%) are between the ages of 21 and 40, with a smaller percentage (27%) between the ages of 41 and 60.

SL’s Burning Life magically materialized September 24th—October 1st. It ended with the “solemn Temple Burn” on Monday, October 1st, at 3 pm. The actual temple burn fizzled due to a visit by the "lag monster." After the festival, according to the official blog, the sims were taken offline “leaving participants and visitors with a lingering suspicion that it was all just a wonderful dream.”

Burning Life is about collaborative art and expression, not commerce. No sales (or other money transactions) or advertisements were allowed. Registration was required for one of the 62 available Burning Life parcels.

Burning Life was not without controversy. The official blog records an incident where Burning Life Director Vicero Lambert put large, black boxes over the breasts and hips of Cheen Pitney’s statue of a showering woman, saying it violated the Terms of Service. The boxes read “Censored. This is a PG Sim.” Amid cries of “censorship,” Lambert worked with Iridium Linden to move the statue to a mature Burning Life sim.

The event appeared to be quite well orchestrated overall, particularly given 22 sims to administer. Lizabeth Buchanan, Entertainment Coordinator, talks about the organization: “The entertainment committee consisted of four volunteers, myself as organizer, LaPiscean Liberty our Stage Technition. Mojo Mathys, our performers’liason and special effects technician. And Rekka Franchot, program specialist.”

“Each night at 7:30 pm, most of the staff from all departments would gather at The Temple. Bearing lanterns and donning white robes, we would march through the playa, ending the procession in Center Camp. To the sound of drums beating, we would light the fires and drive away the night. Then with thanks to many various SL artists, we’d party till the wee hours of the morning,” says Lizabeth.

She continues, “Standing in center camp at night... flames glowing... lasers filling the night sky... happy people dancing all around, laughing, cheering and celebrating... it was a celebration of Life. That is what I will remember when this is done, our unity as humans, in our virtual world.”

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