Burning Man is an event which takes places every year. Burning takes place in Nevada’s Black Rock Desert. The place created for the event is called Black Rock City, it is a temporary city created from all parts by volunteers. The space allows people to create whatever they want, as big as they want with no space limit. It allows the construction of huge woods statues that people put fire to at the end of Burning man. The space allows the creation of a lot of different camps, district, this brings diversity and so everyone can find his place. Also, Since the camps are spaced one from another people struggle to go there, sometimes trapped in sand storms so once they have reached their destination they are even more happier of being there.
There, everyone can be the way he wants to be.
It focuses on generosity, for example there is no money involved, the food districts are free, people exchange goods: It is all about giving.
This event is described as a temporary utopia where everyone fits in. It is described as an experience which is life changing.
“You belong here and you participate. You’re not the weirdest kid in the classroom »
« You’re here to create. Since nobody at Burning Man is a spectator, you’re here to build your own new world»
I got so interested by this event that to my eyes, is really unique, that I chose to do my research, my interview on it. I wanted to hear about people’s experience, to know a little bit more about this extraordinary event.
For this interview, I got in contact with the Burning Man head office so that they could send me more :ore informations, which they did 10 minutes later, and two days later they sent me more. The reason why I am evoking this, is because it shows how much they have real values and that they really respect this idea of generosity and giving.
I interviewed two people: Alijan, who is Turkish who lives between Boston and New York. He is still studying but is also a DJ. He has been a burner for 2 years Now and is hoping on going back to Burning man next year.
And Souraya, She is from Lebanon, and last year was her first year at burning man.
I also included in the video the part of a music set that was played at the Robot Heart Camp in Burning during the sunrise, which is called Above & Beyond – Robot Heart Yoga – Burning Man 2014. I chose this music to show the atmosphere of Burning Man.
They both say how life changing this experience was, how they learned about themselves and about the world.
With this interview, I am still dealing with some challenges: I interviewed Alijan at a party in Brooklyn, so even thought we tried to go somewhere without noise, we could still here in the background, which I find kind of disturbing. Also, my whole interview is a bit too long but I am still not sure of what I want to delete because I find every information important.
When I compare This interview and the research paper, I see a little difference concerning the freedom. In the research paper, we have to mainly focus on the relation ship between the place and the event, whereas in the interview I could invite to describe their experience. I think it is a good thing that in seminar we have to focus on only a thing, because it helps us have a little organization and talking at the place of people would be hard, you can’t write the experience of someone else as well as they would describe it. And for the interview, I like the fact That we can extend a bit the subject because, we get the opportunity to interview people who experienced the event and so we can give them the possibility to actually their experience. There is nothing as strong as hearing people sharing their experiences because you v-can actually hear their feelings, the intonations they put in they voices.
