Burningman is a festival which takes place once a year during the last week of August out in the middle of the Nevada desert. This festival essentially revolves around the creative process, encouraging the public to become physically and socially involved in the establishment of a micro-society. A campsite in the shape of a horseshoe is laid out to accommodate the thirty thousand followers for the duration of a week. A fifteen meter tall human effigy made from wood is erected and becomes the focal point of the community's attention as well as providing a sense of orientation to the nomadic settlement. The event grows in size over the course of the week with thousands of artists collaborating in the creation of art installations, performances, musical events, and pyrotechnic shows. The vast amount of open desert space enables the artists to create work on a scale which would be unimaginable within an urban environment.
The festival culminates at the end of the week when the man is burnt initiating the burning of many other installations, symbolically giving back what Humankind has taken from nature.
 
The Pyramid
I was part of a team of 3 carpenters who designed and built a 12 meter high pyramid which was used as an initiation temple for the Burningman opera. The pyramid served as: a projection surface during the nightly rituals, a viewing platform of the surrounding desert, a shelter for the opera performers and a concert space for the musicians.