Fabrication Technologies
A Solar Sculpture for Burning Man ‘24
I had the opportunity to join Emily Nicolosi, Ian Nicolosi and the In Theory Art Studio to help build their 3rd Art Installation for the Burning Man festival in Black Rock City, Nevada. This piece titled ‚Polychroma‘ follows their previous works, 'Koro Loko' (2019) and 'The Prism of Possibilities' (2021). Like the former projects, it is committed to environmental sustainability throughout its production line and performance.
Burning Man is more than just a desert festival - it is a social experiment focused on community, art, self-expression, and self-reliance. It serves as a breeding ground for creativity and a global hub to test cutting-edge technological innovation. The events influence transcents it’s desert setting, shaping attitudes, behaviours, and cultural movements around the world. Guided by The Ten Principles, Burning Man fosters a culture of inclusion, collaboration, and a Leave No Trace ethos - which feels especially relevant in today’s world of environmental challenges (forcing increasing amounts of people to move places due to natural disasters).
Being part of the build crew, I spent overall 16 days in the desert, arriving early and staying late, able to see the full build-up and tear-down of the 70,000+ inhabitants hosting, temporary city. Knowing the influential impact our work can hold globally, our team decided to work 100% off solar energy - from powering the build site and installation's LED lights, to running our camp site. Whilst many of the festivals participants, camps and installations still rely heavily on fossil fuels, we led one of the few projects powered purely by renewable energy, advancing the conversation around regenerative design and climate conscious solutions.
'Polychroma' is a large-scale rainbow installation surrounded by interactive cloud benches, symbolizing beauty, diversity, strength, justice, and ecological health. The LED lights sync with music, creating a dynamic and immersive experience. The piece embodies the idea of polychromatism - embracing diversity of thought, people, and ecosystems -and challenges the monochromatic, conventional black and white way of thinking, that often leads to environmental harm, social injustice, weakness, domination and boredom. The sculpture celebrates diversity in all its forms: including immutable characteristics (e.g. gender, sexuality, race, ethnicity, disability status), economy (e.g. financial, work status), life (e.g. life pathways, culture, religion), our relationship with the earth (e.g. food systems, agriculture) and ways of thinking.
Our work process moved from digital 3D sketches in Blender to 2D CNC-cut 3form sheets (a local Salt Lake City company, that gave us their scraps from 3form’s production process and would have otherwise ended up in the landfill), and returned back to its 3D form, through manual assembly. Most interesting for me were the technical learnings, such as LED wirings, the installation of our solar panel and sodium vapor lamp, and to see how we powered the sculpture, our solar owl-unicorn art car (SOWLARCORN) and our campsite through the panels, relying on nothing but the sun. It was a powerful lesson in self-reliance and sustainable impact. I’m very grateful for my crew, for making this experience so unforgettable.
I had the opportunity to join Emily Nicolosi, Ian Nicolosi and the In Theory Art Studio to help build their 3rd Art Installation for the Burning Man festival in Black Rock City, Nevada. This piece titled ‚Polychroma‘ follows their previous works, 'Koro Loko' (2019) and 'The Prism of Possibilities' (2021). Like the former projects, it is committed to environmental sustainability throughout its production line and performance.
Burning Man is more than just a desert festival - it is a social experiment focused on community, art, self-expression, and self-reliance. It serves as a breeding ground for creativity and a global hub to test cutting-edge technological innovation. The events influence transcents it’s desert setting, shaping attitudes, behaviours, and cultural movements around the world. Guided by The Ten Principles, Burning Man fosters a culture of inclusion, collaboration, and a Leave No Trace ethos - which feels especially relevant in today’s world of environmental challenges (forcing increasing amounts of people to move places due to natural disasters).
Being part of the build crew, I spent overall 16 days in the desert, arriving early and staying late, able to see the full build-up and tear-down of the 70,000+ inhabitants hosting, temporary city. Knowing the influential impact our work can hold globally, our team decided to work 100% off solar energy - from powering the build site and installation's LED lights, to running our camp site. Whilst many of the festivals participants, camps and installations still rely heavily on fossil fuels, we led one of the few projects powered purely by renewable energy, advancing the conversation around regenerative design and climate conscious solutions.
'Polychroma' is a large-scale rainbow installation surrounded by interactive cloud benches, symbolizing beauty, diversity, strength, justice, and ecological health. The LED lights sync with music, creating a dynamic and immersive experience. The piece embodies the idea of polychromatism - embracing diversity of thought, people, and ecosystems -and challenges the monochromatic, conventional black and white way of thinking, that often leads to environmental harm, social injustice, weakness, domination and boredom. The sculpture celebrates diversity in all its forms: including immutable characteristics (e.g. gender, sexuality, race, ethnicity, disability status), economy (e.g. financial, work status), life (e.g. life pathways, culture, religion), our relationship with the earth (e.g. food systems, agriculture) and ways of thinking.
Our work process moved from digital 3D sketches in Blender to 2D CNC-cut 3form sheets (a local Salt Lake City company, that gave us their scraps from 3form’s production process and would have otherwise ended up in the landfill), and returned back to its 3D form, through manual assembly. Most interesting for me were the technical learnings, such as LED wirings, the installation of our solar panel and sodium vapor lamp, and to see how we powered the sculpture, our solar owl-unicorn art car (SOWLARCORN) and our campsite through the panels, relying on nothing but the sun. It was a powerful lesson in self-reliance and sustainable impact. I’m very grateful for my crew, for making this experience so unforgettable.
Collaboration with: In Theory Art Studios; Burning Man Project, Black Rock City, Nevada.
More about this project on: Instagram
More about this project on: Instagram
Photos:
see more photos by Photographer Jane Hu: BM'24 Best Photos