Journey Home

A Chicago artist reaches out for pARTicipation. read on…

Journey Home Project

Hello my fellow Burner brothers and sisters,

Are you going to Burning Man this year? If so, do you want to make art with several hundred burners as you*journey to the playa* this year?

I am an artist and burner from Chicago who is planning to visualize the mass convergence to Burning Man and I need your help. I’m looking for several hundred burners to participate in the Journey Home project.

The Journey Home project is a multi-media art project based on data that will visualize the emotional and physical journey to Burning Man this year. It is a massive collaboration that will weave participant’s stories, pictures, videos and GPS data into one collective story. It will take the form of a coffee table book, hand screen printed and digital posters, a curated live feed, and a film.

We are everywhere. I’m hoping to have all the regions represented in the final works of art. We love LA and San Fran but I want to see the burners from Louisiana, Indiana, Florida, Ohio, Maine, New York….you get the idea.  This is an opportunity for all of us to make art together regardless of location! Each person who participates will affect the final outcome of the visualization and ultimately the story of “going home”. This is quite possibly *the most futuristic group portrait ever created*.

I just launched a Kickstarter to fund the technology development, materials and the team required to pull this epic feat off. I’ve been visualizing communities for a few years by self funding the development but I’ve recently quite my day job to pursue my art full time (yay!) and I  can no longer self fund so I’m asking people who are interested in participating to donate to the kickstarter in order to make this project a reality. I don’t want money to get in the way of someone participating so I’m also offering 10 “scholarship journeys”. And any unused invitations (ie people who donate to the project but aren’t going to Burning Man) will be added to the scholarship journeys.

How does it work requirements: You’re going to Burning Man and you have an Android or iphone. It doesn’t matter how you plan to get to Burning Man.

We’ll be collecting data from August 17th to August 28th. As you head out to the playa this year you’ll turn on an app which will visualize your movement. There will be a live, curated feed so you can see the pictures and stories that people are submitting as they’re happening. We’ll be collecting several forms of media; GPS data, pictures, stories, video and voice memos. Any media submitted will qualify to be in the final works of art; a coffee table book, a curated feed, wearable art (GPS data visualized and silk screened onto shirts), hand screened and digital posters of the data visualization and a film.

To learn more about the project and to sign up: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1918283894/journey-home-a-collaborative-multi-media-art-proje

To apply for a scholarship journey: Journeyhome2012.com

If you have any questions please feel free to reach out to me, Maria Scileppi at MariaScileppi@gmail.com

Thanks! See you on the playa!