Culture Labs at Burning Man 2009

Playing Exquisite Corpse at the Culture Labs on the Playa.

The microscope and petri dish were great fun, and there is Freddy Hahne, the President of our Board hanging out with some visitor!

And there we all were!

There was information everywhere!

A poster of the "American Dream Temple" in Detroit

The campers who made the "Culture Lab" run this year.

And our own Executive Director, Tomas McCabe, early one day, waiting for you to stop by and say hello.

Haven't you always wanted to know more about the outreach groups of Burning Man? You hear they are placing art in China, and solar in Nevada, are creating community activists everywhere, and have events hosted locally as far away as Spain and as close as Silicon Valley.

Well, if you do, I hope you got a chance to stop by the Culture Labs and play Exquisite Corpse, or check out our Microscope, or put your feet up and experience the symbiosis of the Black Rock Arts Foundation, Burners Without Borders, The Regional Network and Black Rock Solar.

I have a special place in my heart for these outreach groups, I love the idea of creating our culture and making a difference the other 51 weeks of the year. So here was a chance, just like 2008, to meet them all in one place as they teamed up once more to create a unified presence on the playa, known as… The Culture Labs!

The Culture Labs, housed under one large pavilion (which might have looked familiar… it’s one of the pavilions that surrounded the Man in 2007 and 2008!) hosted interactive activities, art projects, events and gatherings (which were listed in the What Where When guide). The goal was to breed and propagate our culture to be carried into the default world. Friendly 'lab assistants' were available to talk about their various programs and projects.

The center of the Culture Labs held a giant petri dish and microscope (containing a video camera)! You were invited (but not required) to lie underneath the microscope and tell the story of YOUR personal evolution. At night, hopefully, those recordings were projected on a 50 foot rear-projected screen. Of course there were some technical issues, that is how you know it's Burning Man.

photos: Jewel, affinity, Extramatic