[Music] [Music] [Music] we've got together find a way to compel all of us to accept our hypocrisy be kind about it and then create the solutions that allow us to move our society forward allow us to keep our beaches and our oceans and our mountains and our forests and then look to the sky and follow our dreams to travel to mars to travel to the end of the solar system to travel out to alpha centauri [Music] that all comes when we study ideas that all comes when we consider the physics of reality we stop running away from hard science like let's make the future [Music] ever since he became an adult the silent meanderings of matt schultz's imagination have been giving birth to works of monumental art [Music] he had a vision of a new creature in sculpture a titanic project a thread connecting unexplored heavenly bodies to the nevada deserts where he grew up a hump-act whale floating above the surface of the earth matt has christened it the space whale he's been exhibiting his giant sculptures in an off-the-wall event a bewitched marriage of futuristic music contemporary art and hedonism in the heart of the desert dust burning man [Music] the gestation period of the humpback whale and the depths of the abyss is 11 months but matt has given his crew only 10 to give birth to his creature [Music] wow this is insane this is [ __ ] insane why did you guys let me do this [Music] what is wrong with all of you you're supposed to be giving me good advice you're my friends you're supposed to tell me not to do this you're supposed to give me medical assistance this is a problem that i have that you guys are encouraging not okay with this anymore it's like i didn't pull a measurement off of it i just picked a number out of thin air and said let's make a whale that's that big and now that it's here i'm kind of scared jesus they're two weeks behind schedule but even so the metallic skeleton of the whale is slowly taking shape burning man begins in 20 days well we are building a full-scale humpback whale mother and calf of stained glass on steel 13 and three quarters it's a piece about our environment it's about um a respect or a reverence for nature it's meant to inspire people to uh want to preserve whales and preserve this thing that we live in this planet that that that we reside on um for future generations to come we're interested in putting a smile on people's faces and compelling a new idea or a new thought helping make the world better um but then at the most basic level it's just a bunch of friends hanging out and building a crazy thing that no one thought that we could do matt runs the generator a huge warehouse where all sorts of creations come to life paintings and sculptures as well as circus and performance arts the great carcass of the generator washed up in sparks an industrial suburb of reno nevada it's a gateway to the desert where once a year amid the dust the beating heart of burning man makes its home [Music] an undertaking like the space whale is above all a human adventure most are volunteers a few work year round at the generator others are nomads from the four corners of the usa who come several months before the event to work on the arts projects all these destinies converge here with the goal of flying their whale in the star-spangled skies of burning man followed by some serious partying in the dust of the black rock desert they're cooks midwives researchers construction workers artists delivery men students it workers all different all together this gang of art and fiesta adventurers is an amazing patchwork of the best american society has to offer [Music] andy is an artist from the nearby state of oregon [Music] we're doing half right now so we'll go through do half and then he's the head engineer in charge of designing and constructing the whale's metal framework i'm proud of this crew this is one of the best foods i've ever worked with a lot of these people working on this project they're new to working with metal you know people show up and we teach them how to run a grinder okay here we go cover cover being able to teach people how to use those tools and seeing them start thinking about what they could build and you know talking about oh i want to build this i want to build that and now that they know how to use these tools all of a sudden those ideas become possible for them and that that's really fulfilling that's the society i want to live in i'm gonna get that flown in with the forklift then we're gonna pause see where it's at and then we're gonna try to secure it in the air that would be great it's uh being incredibly tired all the time but also feeling really alive like yesterday feels like a year ago to me like i'm living so much life every single day being on a project like this the same with all these other people like we um yeah it's an incredible feeling to build something like this this whale is not making things easy and the day shift takes over from the night shift without a pause matt is getting worried not one of the eight components of his sculpture has been shipped to the burning man's site yet i'm exhausted i'm tired but we're running forward and we're making something really spectacular and amazing with our friends and this experience cannot be reproduced by doing anything else this experience of sitting on top of a [ __ ] steel whale in a giant warehouse in sparks nevada with like 20 amazing friends trying to build something to take out to a desolate desert for a week it's madness and we're at the heart of it like we sit at the heart of madness matt's artistic background is inextricably linked with burning man his space whale is not his first undertaking in 2011 and 12 he exposed his first work a 100 meter pier leading to a spanish galleon shipwrecked in the middle of the desert that was her first hit i remember sitting inside of it and watching people come in and they had this face like we had given them christmas like a little kid when they run downstairs to see the presents under the tree when you think of the european explorers they stood at the end of those piers wondering what was on the other end of the world it was like getting onto a rocket and flying into space [Music] and the captain who acquired sunglasses at this point then in the 2014 burning man his reputation was established when he exposed his monumental embrace [Music] okay [Music] it was a big giant a bit like a cathedral but instead of thinking about the power of god i wanted people to think about how strong they were together [Music] and the whole structure was built to look like it grew there like these were giant tree people that twisted out of the ground and and grew into these amazing creatures as they slowly hugged maybe they had been growing there for 500 years in another 500 years they would finally fully embrace each other [Music] and we lit it on fire [Music] and watched the whole thing burn until there was nothing left black rock desert at the end of the event they burned the works made of wood and the man the giant that is the emblem of burning man and who gave it its name having completed its voyage from the outer reaches of the universe the space whale will soon be ready to touch down work work work and more work in spite of the fatigue and the apparent disorder matt is right there coordinating the efforts of the entire crew he's the only one who can make the link between his project designed on the computer and the reality of the construction each piece of the whale is unique y'all gonna make me dance [Music] i really prefer building i've been on a computer for most of my life and i understand why suicide rates in america are so high we're just we're builders we use the computer as a tool and let's use all the tools we have to make amazing things together and [ __ ] the computer matt's crew has another challenge facing them just as complex as the structure the whale's skin [Music] each stained glass panel that goes into covering the sculpture is a unique work of art the colored glass arrives at the generator in large sheets that are then cut up assembled and glued onto metal triangles forming a huge psychedelic mosaic [Music] kristin is cataloging every piece there are 1200 glass panels each destined for its specific place on the sculpture initially i came on just to do general building and to learn how to weld and get my hands on things and ultimately i ended up helping in a lot of different areas and one of my strengths is organization and so this giant puzzle has time to become my baby [Music] burning man will open in 10 days and the first component of the whale skeleton finally leaves the womb steve is in charge of the convoy he knows this mythical road leading to burning man like the back of his hand this will be my 17th time to go to birmingham and i've helped on other large art projects including the embrace two years ago the ichthyosaur um so it's a nice thing to do and i think we have a piece here it's it's it's birth has been a challenge but i think it's gonna have a wow factor i'll be excited when it's all out there i look forward to that when they uh there's so much still to do once the whale's up and we're getting glass on it that's when they'll start getting excited right right now there's just too much that can go wrong lowboy i would love to use that truck out in the black rock desert there are a few scouts who have come early to prepare for the arrival of their respective tribes in the four quarters of the desert as day fades tonight another landscape emerges steve is glad to get back to his beloved desert the playa as the veteran burners call it we are here we are back on the playa we are happier rocked by the music of the stars the vanguard of the space whale crew begins to set up house in the dust the fragile ephemeral encampment born from the void is open to shooting stars and the charms of the night we have a couch which i'm pretty excited about and we have lights which i'm also excited about because i love to work at night and now we have shade we have part of a shower we're going to finish um what else we got a generator generator we have some power where you can put down yeah every day the camp will be more and more finished and the whale will be more and more built at the generator michelle a local artist is finishing her latest creation i've been to burning man for six or seven years and i never thought my classical art fit in until they announced that this year's theme was da vinci and that's when i really started the clock thoughts and the ideas in my mind of wow da vinci he's like michelangelo and rodin the classics i've studied the theme of the piece is inside the mind of da vinci and i thought let's do a large classical sculpture that's like emerging out of the desert old from renaissance past coming out eroded and then when you walk around to the side of this big face and you can walk inside his mind and you see his sketches his thoughts so yeah it was definitely my year to say i'm going for it we finished structural last night we finished every single bar on the wheel everyone is done and if you guys are feeling a little overwhelmed if if you're feeling a little scared come talk to me let's give each other hugs let's lift each other up and let's make a [ __ ] whale and all i have to say is you guys are amazing like we are inches away from this we've ran an amazing marathon the whale is ready to fly it stands there's plates on the ground everyone's excited to see us and so yeah and [ __ ] it's still just a burning man [Music] project [Music] [Music] so we originally had planned 14 days to install we are starting our install 11 days after we intended and we so we have five days to install this whale for a nine-day festival seven day festival really i'm happy to see my friends in the desert i'm happy to give people big hugs i'm happy to see what everyone else has built as the big day approaches you can see burning man is beginning to emerge from the dust you can hear the faint cries of the ephemeral horizontal city babylon situated right at the favorable conjunction of the stars matt finally gets back to the playa what the seasoned burners call in a way it does feel like we've been chased here i mean sometimes i wonder if if maybe burning man is part of the problem of why people don't stand up to their governments it's like you know there's a lot of people who work for 51 weeks a year and they work doing [ __ ] terrible jobs that make the system work they work as bankers they work in insurance industries they work as investors and they just take money from people and then they come out here and pretend like this is their one week a year that they're the real person i think if you're if you're a country that needs people to do crappy stuff that they don't want to do what better way than give them a pretend town to play in where they feel like they're free before they go back to their zombie lifestyle um and so it's weird i don't know how to take it like for me i feel like the seeds of the revolution are at burning man for me i feel like a new society is built from here one that's equitable to everyone and one that helps a huge number of people one that we can all succeed with like burning man is a place where everyone can lift each other up and take those skills lift everyone up when they get home we're by a club for the first event in 1986 there were only 35 friends on a san francisco beach they quickly decided to move the event to the blackrock desert now they are seventy thousand each participant must respect the ten founding principles of the event like in a utopian dream one everyone is welcome two giving without expecting a return three no commercial transactions are advertising four self-reliance five self-expression six communal effort seven civic responsibility for the welfare of the public eight leaving no trace of the event in the desert nine active participation and ten immediate experience of prime importance there goes tater where is he going what's up [Music] the use of still and video cameras is strictly regulated to protect the private life of the participants [Music] [Music] [Music] hey holy [ __ ] man this is the [ __ ] michelle is fulfilling her dream resuscitating the spirit of her master on the playa it's unreal i just can't believe it it's been a lot of hard work with a lot of help from a lot of people and i just it's just really nice to have it here and it really happened it's it's it really happened water perfect okay take d4 and then d3 and then g goes like one two three four and then left g comes in one two three yep exactly wow this piece is [ __ ] magic thickness this is three and four and i'm gonna give you two okay the crew feels pretty good i think morale's moderately high um i think you know as it is with a project that's this hard and this challenging is um some people are kind of getting a little tired and starting to understand that these are not easy things to do these these projects are not not not a not a walk in the park but i think most people are having a lot of fun and they're laughing and playing and enjoying themselves we'll see kind of how this goes over the next day and a half two days and um see where we're at right when uh when sunday comes and the festival opens [Music] [Music] follow me [Music] so [Music] [Laughter] [Music] [Music] [Music] nice [Music] so uh this is my favorite panel on the space whale it's very beautiful it is the eye of the lady we're gonna not break it don't break it it's my favorite boom [Music] [Music] every year 70 000 people come for the burning man experience causing a huge traffic jam at the entrance to the black rock desert [Music] the space whale clan is beginning to relax they are nearing the finish line i am an [ __ ] it's one of the best thing to do on the player driving in the car with friends on the back [Music] i don't know it's hard to speak about the whale without sounding kind of self-congratulatory um but and it's been amazing watching people who have been moved to tears who have spoken of their close kinship with whales or natures um and and and they've spoken about the way in which the whale reminds them that the land's dying the way in which the whale reminds them that everything's changing the way in which the whale plays with their imagination the way she floats and flies [Music] some people come to the whale and they see just joy they see optimism and hope they see this this this piece of art that's flying through the sky like this creature visiting um from space others see sadness they hear the whales calls and for them it's like they're screaming out for something we got a cotton candy sunset cotton candy in the sky space whale over here it's this big giant steel piece but it just feels like it's just floating there man 2016 at the space whale section especially at the keyhole but it's fun it just feels like it's just kind of taking a quick visit and it will be off [Music] matt and his crew have met the challenge the whale is alive and well hovering above the desert and burning man opens this evening [Music] the best way to explore the playa is in an art car like this one that andy built fruit of a childhood dream this one-of-a-kind magic contraption exists only for burning man [Music] is [Music] to venture out into the night totally free with no other goal but to meet people explore the immensity of the playa curious to see what others have invented to go in quest of the sun rising out of the ends of the desert [Music] some of my campmates brought uh stuff to make pancakes so we're gonna make pancakes and give people pancakes [Music] one of the burning man's star attractions this year is the lighthouses a fantastic creation that illuminates the desert there's friends i only see out here and they're the people that do really big projects but when we see each other we all know what we've put into them we all know how much work you know something like the lighthouses take and there's there's a closeness that comes from that from knowing how hard it is to create this thing and so when we see each other it's like you know best friends even though we only see each other once a year we always joke that we missed what was on tv [Music] [Music] i'm an artist i'm not an inventor i'm not a scientist and i don't know how to communicate to people that we're killing our [ __ ] planet we're killing it like we're killing it we're actively destroying our own environment we're actively destroying our ecosystems that feed us we're actively pursuing a future that will be miserable for all of us and so i built a whale as a symbolism for a positive future for a brighter future this whale is about much more than just a beautiful piece this whale is about a a beautiful world and an optimistic view of the future that's created by all of us together doing good things so the next generation can have a home [Music] at the heart of this short-lived village is the center camp meeting place for jugglers acrobats poets and painters you're the man behind the camera i got a question if you have any questions i'll maybe give you an answer [Music] how do we do to be happy how do we do to be happy well we gotta get him together get her dancing and get her finger snappy remember that we're all in one family get together we get it we do this with unity and yes we're standing free moving together this is the freestyle we get together remember that you're all a free child living a free aisle on a free earth you bring it together brother man he's just got three verses yeah how do we be happy [Music] someone left a decent and generous sum of money attached to our our coffee sign as a means to give away with a little sign that said no money no problem and this is uh it's a first for the coffee shop to have ever happened [Music] [Applause] this is my favorite instrument this is the electric cello my dad got it from me when i was in high school it was one of those gifts where you're like i don't need that i'm gonna be rebellious and then like three years later it's my favorite thing in the world and he changed my life by giving me this gift [Music] that was the box cello suite number one i put the heavy distortion on because a it sounds like [ __ ] rock and roll and b you can't hear the out of two notes so here we go [Music] [Music] burning man is a dream it's it's it's and it's like any dream it could turn on you it can get really weird it can be really scary and you can die out here um for me burning man's a salvador dali painting come to life burning man is is a surreal landscape full of strange encounters it feels like you're on mars a lot of the time and then you stumble upon things like a like a giant african temple or or or a dragon floating through the dust and as the dust kicks up and you lose your ability to see people come and go like they're coming out of your imagination and it's amazing [Music] you'll you'll walk with friends and they'll all disappear and you'll feel like you're all alone in the middle of nothing you can only see four or five feet in any direction and the wind's ripping and tearing through you and there's this terrifying noise coming from all directions when you think this is where i'm going to die they must this must be the end of my existence here and you think you're alone and then the dust clears and you realize you're in the middle of a party there's there's people everywhere and they're all sitting down having the same experience wondering what the [ __ ] is happening and then it just goes and your friends are right there they never went anywhere they were only 10 feet away and it's so strange [Music] [Music] how to carry out a gigantic artistic project in a desert of dust even with a talented motivated crew of friends and considerable technical resources some projects fail by just a few days the builders of catacomba veils decided to halt construction due to a lack of time [Music] they did however open their unfinished monumental work to the public three days before the end they set the catacomb aflame in the pure burning man tradition [Music] [Applause] when people see media or images about burning man it's always a beautiful girl with their arms up in the wind and some giant art projects in the background and that's not burning man like that never has been burning man burning man's kind of dirty it's kind of punk rock there's a lot of people who are in their 60s and 70s just exploring and playing and having fun um there's a bunch of hippies there's a bunch of rebels there's a bunch of a bunch of bikers there's a bunch of people who want to party and i think the core of this place is the people take me [Music] this is [Music] let me give you how we bring the good pieces of burning man home how do we bring the kindness and the sharing how do we create a space where those who have more give more like how do we how do we break capitalism and make a better model we don't want to live here as much as everyone loves this place this would [ __ ] suck to be at for a year no one wants to live in this dust every day they may lie to themselves and say yeah let's go live in the dust we'll play mad max all day long but i don't want to live in that movie it sounds [ __ ] terrible [Music] and so let's see all this beauty that we create here and nothing and let's take that beauty home with us and let's reinvent our cities let's reinvent our government governments let's reinvent the way that we interact with each other so that the great things that are here can happen next to a lake or a river can happen in the middle of paris or london [Music] [Music] so you're here in the best party on earth [Music] [Music] at night the playa becomes the scene of a huge extravagant party there's music everywhere pulsing from dozens of sound systems that project the raw sonic power into the desert and transcend the crowd holy [ __ ] the world's top djs are there riding on art cars that crisscross burning man or working their turntables at outsized fiestas emitting their decibels to the face of the moon so [Music] on the eve of the last day the crowd gathers around the man the huge wooden statue that is the symbol of the festival it is time to burn him and let the black rock desert return to its peace and quiet [Music] [Music] matt has decided to watch the celebration of the burning man nestled safely in the hollow of his whale [Music] um [Music] i think we burn art for the same reason that we burden the dead but there's a there's a deeper reality to why art gets burnt out here and it's it's really hard for a lot of people to hear but we don't have a place to put this stuff it's time that we as a civilization say we're putting art here that's it period and our governments our states our cities the people on the property going to have to deal with it and we don't ask anymore we tell this is the world that we will create it will have art it will be equitable it'll be kind and [ __ ] you if you're in the way [Music] just to know that everything my dad's now [Music] to know that it makes all the changes gazing and preaching and better even alone [Music] know you
2021-01-28