Burning Man '04: Beacon

Beacon is based on the same skeleton as our Ascension project last year. This is a 30' tall aluminum tetrahedron, which has a base of about 32'x32'. This year we are leaving off the platform and instead equiping the upper space with six black light fixtures, which will illuminate large panels (three triangles about 10' x 8') of white fabric, which will glow white/blue and be visible at a great distance. Lower down, parabolic string art created with blacklight reactive mason line will frame a central pillar, also black light reactive. Swings hanging from the tetra's crossbeams will provide seats for people to stare up into the tetra, or lean back a little and look up at the sky.

A picture is worth a thousand words, so here's some photos of the project when we set it up at Reflections, a party on memorial day weekend '04 in Ojai, CA.


The whole thing, by day. Ignore all the speakers etc down on the ground, those won't be on the playa. There are two components we didn't use at the party: porch swings, which will hang from the horizontal segments, and the black-light reflective central pillar reaching up to the fabric at top.


Darkness starting to fall, you can see the string art in the middle section and the glow of the cloth on top.


A closer shot of the string art.


Nighttime is what the project is actually all about. The blue/white glow of the fabric above can be seen from quite a distance.