Burning Man 2005 Theme Art Project Proposal.

Ambient Armchair Dreamhunter

Sasha Malchik (sashamalchik@gmail.com)

“From where you are, you can hear their dreams…”

Dylan Thomas.

The proposed art installation is based on the one we built on the playa in 2004, called “The Ambient Armchair Encounter.” That installation consisted of 6 rotating armchairs placed in the Deep Space, each of which was decorated and mounted with a set of speakers, on which a continuous 24-hour mix of ambient music was playing. We are very happy with the results last year. We were grateful for the endless compliments about our work, and also excited to see how well-attended it was. Many people took time to relax and reflect on our chairs and many wanted to hear our soundtrack afterwards.

This year we wish to build on last year’s success. There are two key ways in which we would like to change the work. First, we are excited about this year’s art theme, and would like to make our project fit in with the idea of the Unconscious (which is very much the region where we feel the Ambient Armchairs belong), as well as making the work more collaborative and interactive in nature. This we propose to achieve by introducing the Dream Voices (described below) to the musical soundtrack of the chairs. Secondly, we wish to make a series of specific technical improvements, relating to increasing the quality of sound, decreasing the work’s vulnerability to damage and changing it’s visual impact for a whole new gig on the playa. For this, as well us to simply be able to bring the installation back for another year, we need Burning Man’s help.

Dream Voices

The soundtrack to our last year’s installation was a continuous stream of ambient music, compiled and mixed so as to match the mood and the atmosphere of a particular time of day or night on the playa. This year we also want to make our soundtrack a dream narrative. The listener will be submerged another person’s dream by hearing his/her story about it, sometimes heard clearly, as though it is being whispered in her ear, sometimes barely audible, drowning in the musical soundscapes, always quiet and always mysterious.

In more down-to-earth terms, we will create a new 24-hour soundtrack by combining ambient and experimental music with recordings of people’s voices telling us about their dreams. The voices will be electronically filtered and mixed with music so as not to be imposing. Our goal will be to find such a balance as to let visitors simply relax and enjoy the music if they choose to, yet those who will pay closer attention will also hear stories of nightmares, wet-dreams and everything in between. The desired effect is akin to that of the dream-hunters from Milorad Pavic’s “Dictionary of the Khazars”, who drift from dream to dream “like fish in water”.

We intend to invite the entire Burning Man community to participate in the creation of the piece by soliciting contributions of dream stories in advance through E-Playa, Jack Rabbit newsletter, regional contacts, as well as by word of mouth. We will ask participants to record their own voice while describing a dream they feel like sharing. The participants will send to us these recordings in whichever format is convenient for them (MP3, WAV files, CDs, etc.) We will compile and edit the dream stories, process them with sound effects and finally mix them with music to form a new 24-hour soundtrack. The contributors will also no doubt have a great time attempting to find and recognize their transformed dreams in the installation’s soundtrack. The music and the dreams together will form a cyclical narrative that will, once again, try to blend with the dream-like vision of the Black Rock Playa and Black Rock City at different hours of the day.

What do we want the money for?

Last year we did not request any grant money from Burning Man, for we believed it was within our means to produce our project by soliciting donations from our friends (in the form of money or equipment), and throwing a fundraiser event. We had to save every cent and found ourselves always choosing the cheapest alternative. We did in fact pull it off and the installation did work well, although we often felt on the verge of failure, due in part to the shortage of funds, and worked for many long hours on the playa that could’ve been saved by purchasing some additional equipment we could not afford before the event. While we are deeply grateful to all the people who donated to our cause, we had to put up approximately $3000 of our own money to make the piece happen. This year the circumstances are such that we couldn’t possibly invest so much money into the project. Although the Dream Voices side of the project will not be expensive to implement, we will require assistance to repair the armchairs from last year (a lot important parts, such as the speaker sets, will have to be replaced), buy spare parts and transport the installation to the playa. With a little more money we will be able to make our installation better yet by:

a. Creating a better-sounding and more reliable sound and power circuit,

b. Enhancing the visual impact of the piece by providing theme-oriented daytime and nighttime decorations for the chairs.

c. Making the installation less vulnerable to damage by introducing better protection for the circuit and by purchasing more back-up equipment.

Detailed budget and materials cost

Based on our last year’s experience, we believe we understand the exact needs and costs of the new installation very well. While we plan to salvage and reuse much of last year’s components, we need to in part replace and expand the installation significantly.

- We need to purchase eight matching chairs. These comfortable but low-priced IKEA Poang armchairs that are durable, easy to work with and decorate due to their wood-and-canvas construction, with some luck can be found for under $40 used. Many people attended the installation as couples, and some components mounted under a couple of chairs sustained damage due to extra weight. We would like to rebuild the new chairs into four self-made “love seats” that will match the rest of the installation, but allow two people to sit by each other and enjoy the dreamscapes together. Thematically decorated as one whole, they will form a new area of the installation next to the six chairs reused from last year. Total cost: $300.

- We need to purchase six new patio umbrellas for shade over each chair. Two of these will replace the umbrellas torn on the playa last year, and the rest will be used over the new part of the installation. Cost is under $30 used or new on end-of-summer reduction sales, plus $35 for umbrella bases. Total cost: $380.

- One of the biggest obstacles to enjoying the installation at any time of the day, as it was intended, was the night’s cold. Low-voltage, safe and cheap 12V heating blankets meant to be used in the cars sell for about $20 on E-bay. Ideally, we would like to attach these to each chair/loveseat. Total cost: $200.

- The night visual/lighting aspect of the installation definitely needs to be completely revamped and improved upon. Our plan is to install a number of Luminglas lamps – blue changing plasma displays sensitive in their patterns to the sound – right on the playa floor, in enclosures we will build for them. They will surround the installation at some distance facing inward, toward the chairs. Together, they will create soft blue glow on the playa floor around the installation, yet will be spaced apart enough for people to have a choice of enjoying an unobstructed view of the night desert or Black Rock city lights, or looking at the lamps’ patterns. The large “circle of blue” out in the open desert will also serve as the attractive beacon for our installation. We will reuse all the lamps we purchased last year, and need to purchase five more (price: $55.) Total cost: $270.

- The hardware costs for the project amounted to $1100 last year. We built the installation independently, and unfortunately do not have any free access to shops, cheap construction materials, professional tools, or friends with access to such, so despite seeking cheapest materials and using all possible sales, we had to pay retail prices. (In fact, our friends didn’t believe we would be able to pull it off until they actually saw it work on the playa.) Hardware costs include turntables and wood platforms that make these chairs rotate; light enclosures, wires and wire conduits; brackets, ropes, speaker supports, tools, and miscellaneous hardware like bolts. Our best estimate is that after reusing all our last year’s tools, parts, and chairs, the new hardware cost (new platforms for new chairs; entirely new wiring and conduits; replacement for damaged rotating/conduit axis; new enclosures for the lighting) will amount to at least $800.

- Electrical/Sound/Wiring costs, after reusing all working components from last year, include: purchasing an MP3 player; six more used powered 3-piece computer speaker systems (about $20 each); entirely new wiring fitted with pre-soldered connectors ($5 x 40) to make the assembly of the installation far easier, faster and error-free on the playa; a replacement for one of last year’s busted, and additional two 4-port distributors-amplifiers for the sound ($50 x 3); six small and cheap subwoofers or powered speakers to be placed into Luminglas light enclosures for the lamps to work in sync with music (estimated $15 each), and, for the power – this decision is to be made later, when we know what kind of on-playa transportation support we can have from our friends, but the prices are similar – either purchasing six accumulators we will recharge in our camp ($65 each) and a couple of power inverters ($20 each), or renting a quiet generator and running the installation on gasoline. Total costs: $1190.

- Decoration costs for the chairs and umbrellas include paints, fabrics, portable black lights and el-wiring for night time, for the total cost of $200.

- Truck rental is necessary to bring this installation to the playa. Cost with fuel: $900.

Total expected budget: $4,240.

Project timeline

We plan to collect the Dream Voices Audio submissions starting in March and until July. During the same time period we will edit the dreams and assign them, along with musical pieces, to particular 2-, 3-, or 4-hour-long “chapters”, into which we divide the day. Finally, the dreams and musical tracks will be mixed together from June to mid-August, creating a series of sound-files whose total time length will be 24 hours exactly.

Work on scouting for and purchasing additional used chairs, umbrellas, and speaker sets, and on replacing currently mounted but broken speakers will begin as soon as we get a word of a successful resolution to our grant proposal - i.e. in March and April.

Hardware construction that includes taking apart and cleaning existing platforms and building several new ones will be finished by May 31^st.

Next, wiring, including pre-cutting wire conduits and fitting the chairs with connector plugs, is to be finished by June 30^th.

Next, building lighting enclosures and decorating the chairs and umbrellas will progress in parallel and is to be finished by July 31^st.

During August, we will purchase an MP3 player, load it with the complete soundtrack, purchase (in case of accumulators) or rent (in case of generator) the power system, and test the installation before taking it to the playa.

The playa installation time is estimated to be 2 days (Sunday and Monday). We believe it will be much easier than last year if we can afford more amplifiers instead of doubling-up a single one, more accumulators for power, and pre-soldered plugs and pre-cut wire conduits for all of our wiring. The removal and cleanup, based on last year’s experience, is expected to take half a day (Monday morning).

Leave no trace

With help of our friends, we completely and fully cleaned up our project site last year. We intend to remove from the playa and take home with us all the objects involved in our installation. Our installation will have no fly-away parts and will produce no burn scars. We will only need small holes in the ground for rebar and wiring, not more than one would need for a small personal camp. We will use no flame or combustibles of any kind, nor do we intend to burn any part of our installation.

New installation diagram and last year’s installation photo

The first diagram displays a schematic top view of the proposed new installation layout.

The second picture is one of the photos of our previous installation at Burning Man 2004.