We’ve been very busy washing clothes, packing, making art, trying on new kilts, and preparing for the annual chaos that occurs 2 hours north of Reno, Nevada.  In case you don’t remember, go back and see my photos or read my blog posts from last year.

We’ve got a bunch of things going on this year.  Our main project is Particle Camp, a scientific project to measure the effect of a small city on the local environment.  For one week, the population of Black Rock City goes from zero to 60,000, and then it returns to zero once again.  We’ve been out to the site of Black Rock City twice so far to measure baseline particulate levels.  (Spoiler: they are nearly non-existent.)  Over the next two weeks we will see how that changes as 60,000 people arrive, fire up their generators, drive around on their art cars, and burn, burn, burn.

Chief Scientist Melissa Lunden will be supervising the data collection, and she has been in a dervish state for the last few months.  Engineer Lackeys Kona & Senex Rex have been building a fiendish data collection infrastructure for their Mistress of Science.  Cousin Jon has been contributing as a Geek in Waiting from afar, just landed in the Bay Area and has already built two shiny data readout disco balls. It’s all going to be beautiful and sciencey and shit.

In addition to this, Chino Loco and I will be running two different photo studio projects.  Chino will be running the Penis Van Gogh photo studio.  The studio will provide burners with the ability to war-paint their own bait-and-tackle and then record the event in a commemorative photo.  The studio combines three things that Bobby really loves… photography, cocks, and charming men out of their pants.  Penis van Gogh will be open from 2-4pm MWTh&F.  Look for the sign at 4:10 and Biggie Size.

Again this year I’ll be a staff photographer for Burning Man.  That means a lot of running around trying to capture everything that happens for posterity, and then sharing my best images with the world via the Burning Man Gallery.

I’ll also be running the Burning Cult of Bottled Thoughts, a high-concept photo studio.  The Burning Cult worships the obsessively-imagined aspects of Burners, and we worship the thoughts that emerge from Burners’ beautiful, beautiful skulls. We use twenty-first century technology to capture souls, and we also capture something as old as humanity itself… A message, set adrift on the great Black Rock sea, a message from the Burner to an unexpecting and unprepared outside world.

Each message will be set adrift on this site after the Burn. To give you an idea of what we’re doing, see the photo below.

See you in the Dust.

Coyote