We Welcome All Participants To Create Art At Burning Man

Art Questionnaire is available online from February 15, 2008 until July 15, 2008, after which you will need to register your project at the ARTery on playa.

Now, before you go filling out our lovely new questionnaire, please consider this:

• This is not where you register: mutant vehicles, performances, or art inside your camp, only physical art installations on the open playa which require mapping.


• If you are creating a performance or playa event without a mapped art installation, go to the Playa Calendar


• If you are creating a mutant vehicle or mobile stage go to DMV


• If you are creating an art installation inside your Theme Camp, you don't need to register it.


• Every year Burning Man issues a small number of grants for the purpose of partially funding specific art projects. See our Grants Guidelines for instructions on how to apply.

ART INSTALLATION GUIDELINES

• Artwork must be sufficiently secured against high winds and intense weather conditions that often arise on the playa. If there are guy wires that are necessary to the construction they must be flagged. Please read about securing structures.
• Artwork must be sufficiently illuminated at night, including rebar, guy wires and any other part of the installation that somebody could crash into. Viable lighting solutions include LEDs, blinky lights, glow sticks (these would need to be replenished as necessary), reflective tape and the like. Note that it's a darn good idea to use something that cannot be stolen or removed. Read more on lighting your art.
• To prevent irreparable environmental damage, no large holes may be dug in the playa floor. If you need help securing your structure, please contact the Artery, and we can help you with alternative solutions.
• Camping is not allowed at any art installation on the open playa.

Communication
After you fill out the art installation questionnaire, someone from our Art Team will be contacting you, ready to help and assist you. We need as much information as you can possibly give us, including a description and diagrams of your piece. Starting a dialogue with you about your artwork will enable us to help make your Burning Man experience the best it can be.

Challenge
Creating art on the playa of Black Rock City is like no canvas or gallery that you may have ever experienced before. The challenges are many. You must consider the extreme physical conditions of the desert, the logistics of transporting props, building materials and equipment to this remote desert site, and the difficulty of maintaining tools and equipment in a place that has no service grid or ready market of resources.

You must also consider the inherently chaotic nature of Black Rock City itself. All of these challenges are aspects of the medium in which you are working, so plan carefully and be patient. Your creation may not happen in precisely the way you envision it, but that's OK. The struggle to adapt and to survive is an essential part of this experience and can lead to unexpected discoveries.

Interactivity
We challenge you to create something that will inspire, engage, question, puzzle, amuse, seduce and otherwise influence the citizens of Black Rock City. Interactive art is our particular obsession. Interactive work convenes society around itself. It generates roles. It provokes actions. It transforms participants into active contributors to a creative process.

Sound
Large scale sound art is confined to the 10:00 and 2:00 edges of our city. Art installations on the open playa may contain ambient sound elements that are integral to the installation, but we do not allow dj's, sound systems, dj booths, or any kind of amplified dance music in the art area. Why not? Electronic music permeates our city, and the art area is one place that is free of it. Some installations require a quiet area, and amplified music makes that impossible. If you are creating an art installation that contains amplified music, it must be located on or in front of the 10:00 or 2:00 edge of our city. See our Sound Policy

Cleanup Accountability - To Burn Or Not To Burn
You arrive on a clean blank canvas - The Playa. And that is the way you should leave it. Everything you bring to live, create and burn MUST BE REMOVED. Nothing, absolutely nothing, should be left at your art site or camp when you leave. Cleaning up and Leaving No Trace are paramount. As citizens of Black Rock City we are held to a higher standard.

Everything you always wanted to know about Burning Man Grants
Every year Burning Man issues a small number of grants for the purpose of partially funding specific art projects. These grants are awarded primarily for interactive art that is based on our annual art theme, although a proportion of our grant budget is given to non-theme art. We look for work that stands on its own as sculptural installation independent of performances or activities, although these may accompany the installation. We don’t usually fund domes, tents or stages and ask that if your project must be contained in a structure, it be handmade and related to its contents. We do not fund theme camps. To read more about the process go here

Important: Fire and Flame Effects