Burning Man 2009 - Monolith 2.0

This was my eighth year in a row. The last time I did a playa installation was in 2004, so I was overdue. About 6 months before the event I started working on Monolith 2.0, an 11-foot high monolith (as in Kubrick's 2001 Space Odyssey). Special thanks go to Kent Sezen for structural engineering estimates, Dinko Matkovic for invaluable construction ideas and help, and Claudine Naganuma and Leah Chubb for installation help on the playa.

The monolith had a fairly complex interactive musical instrument on one side, and a simple blackboard on the other side. The instrument controls were designed for two people to play - each person had an independent five-track looper with lots of control over the sounds and looping. Colored chalk was provided so people could draw things on the blackboard - not surprisingly, the entire monolith was quickly covered in drawings. Here it is in my backyard.

On the playa.

Check out this video to see it being used.

Details of the monolith's design

Pictures during contruction

Pictures during the event

Slides from a LoveTech talk