Final Countdown

The Man burns in 16 days and Psychophilia burns in 13 days. We are ready. Whether we like it or not. There’s a feeling of panic, excitement, anticipation, completion, incompletion, and a myriad of other emotions running through the team right now. Many of us are virgins, trying to pack everything our friends have been telling us to bring. Many of us are veterans, ensuring we have our favourite comfort items packed. All of us have been working day and night to ensure that Psychophilia is ready to be transported to the playa on Friday morning.

We threw one last fundraiser to ensure we have enough money to get the project and us down to Burning Man. Thanks to the amazing support from the community we raised $530. With this and an art grant from Kindle Arts Society we’ll have almost met our goal. We are still short money for transportation costs. If you have a few dollars jingling in your pocket, consider donating them to Psychophilia. Of course, we’ll be waiting for the ashes and dust to settle before we have a final budget. However, at this point, Psychophilia is on its final journey.

There have been a few changes to the original design. One never knows how a final project will turn out after months of work. The biggest changes to our original design is that we’ll have only one entrance point, the mouth. Yes, you need to enter a point that is normally reserved for thoughts and emotions coming out. Another wonderful addition is Psychophilia will channel the sounds only heard in our corner of the world. Those of you who have visited may recognize them: seagulls, waves, forest, and my personal favourite, BC Ferries. You can see the (mostly) final result in the pic below. For the final result, you’ll just have to show up to the event to see.

Come see and hear Psychophilia on the playa. We’re located at 6:10, 1100 ft in front of the Man. And, if the weather promises to be as interesting as we keep hearing it will be, this project will make a fantastic place to take cover in a duststorm.
Burn strong and we’ll see you in the dust!!

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Donations!

Oh my goodness! The Man burns in 52 days! Over the past few weeks, this project has become very real. We’ve thrown several build parties, thrown a big fundraiser party, workshops, and had countless meetings to bring this CORE project to life. And we could not have done it without YOU!

The Victoria CORE team would like to thank the following people for financially supporting the project:

• Tracy Kendrick
• Becky Black
• JoJo Poole
• Cam McLeod
• Carmella Cooper
• Kathryn Dunn
• Heinrich Spilker
• J Fairhead
• J Nash
• E Mitchell
• Danielle Bell
• Pat Custodio
• Stacey Ness

We would also like to thank the Victoria community for supporting this project. By volunteering your time, partying your asses off, and spreading the word this will be one of the biggest flames on the playa!

We are close to our financial goal. There are still transportation costs that still need attention. If you can, please consider donating.

Click here to donate.

Fundraiser Update

After much discussion with the CORE team we decided to stay local for fundraising. There are so many options available to a project in need of funding. These days there seems to be a Kickstarter or Indiegogo for everything. It’s a question of whether you think your project is capable to being funded through local resources or turning to a global audience. Although this is not a simple answer. And this is not a blog about the merits of online project funding.

The Psychophilia team wanted to kick it old-school so we threw a houseparty. In the spirit of the project we collaborated and pooled our resources together to throw an amazing party. Ashes lead our intrepid team; Kate ran the bar and in-person ticket sales, not to mention playing Treasurer; Mike (one of the generous home dwellers); and a variety of people helped with setup/teardown, bar, music, and Leave No Trace.

With the help of our amazing local BurnVic Community as well as the Burner Curious we raised $1376.90! We are over 80% funded! We wanted to celebrate the good news with everyone before we buckle down for the final push. Now that we know where we stand we will be applying for an art grant from Kindle Art Society, our local non-profit organization which seeks to empower and inspire everyone to nurture their inner artist.

We have an abundance of supplies to complete the project. Now we need to tackle the logistics of transporting a giant head to Burning Man.

Psychophilia also made its first appearance at Otherworld, Victoria’s Regional Burning Man event, this past weekend. After some major time and effort to complete the face in time, Kym, Matt, Liam, and their build team assembled the first 5 panels of the project at the event. They also invited participants to add their own thoughts to the project by choosing to decorate a piece. People find inspiration in everything. The idea is to capture what inspires our community. This project is ongoing so please contact us if you are interested in contributing your thoughts.

Photo courtesy of Luke Szczepanski: http://www.flickr.com/photos/lukemeup/

The First Build Party!

After much planning, prepping, and spending money we had our first build party last Sunday. We now have about one-third of the frame built.

 

Build parties will continue to be held every weekend. To accommodate schedules we’ll be alternating the days. So the next build party will be Saturday, June 2, from 12pm to 6pm. For more details, ‘like’ us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/VictoriaCOREProject

This is a community project and everyone is welcome to join, even if you have never used a power tool before. There is plenty of work to be done.

A Collaborative Mind

Victorians returned from Burning Man in 2011 and said, “Let’s do that again!” This sentiment is echoed through thousands of burners across the globe. Burning Man changes and inspires lives. While some enjoy their week in the desert, others choose to live it for the other 51 weeks of the year. In this case, local movers and shakers wanted to integrate Burning Man into their everyday lives and bring a piece of our Island to a desolate desert in 2012.

Returning from the playa, calls were sent out to the local community. One voice called out, two voices responded, three voices created a chorus, and inspired others to join the choir. While most people were still recovering from their landing into the Default World others were already plotting their re-entry to the not-so-default world. We didn’t know what we would create or how we would create it. What we did know is what we created in 2011 was an amazing, collaborative experience. Let’s do it again.

So here we are again. The playa and its temporary inhabitants have taught us lessons we won’t forget. We have forged new relationships and have a greater sense of community than ever before. We intend on integrating those lessons and relationships into Psychophilia. This project is bigger than any one of us. And we intend to burn it to the ground on August 30, 2012.