Date: Sun, 17 Aug 2003 20:03:27 -0700 (PDT) From: Aaron Ximm Subject: Ensightment Volunteering! Hi, you lovely, lovely people, Aaron Ximm here, following up to you wonderful spirits who have expressed [possible] willingness to help build "Ensightment: a luminous prayer wheel"! Please forgive the broadcast email; it seems the best way to disseminate the big picture. Needless to say we will be deeply, deeply appreciative of everyone who can lend a hand... :) Following you will read the what, who, where, when... and how! What would help us: ------------------- If you can help, please confirm when you might be available (help is of course welcome any time!) If you have friends, campmates, etc. who you can bring along, all the better... ;) WHAT? ----- "Ensightment" is the third in a series of playa-installations that explore the creation of peaceful, contemplative space with lantern light. A webpage which lives here: http://www.quietamerican.org/bm2003.html The project this year consists of about 60 or 70 colored oil lanterns mounted in precise positions on bamboo poles. See the webpage for the full story... :) WHO? ---- It's a collaboration between Barnaby Thieme (my brother), Bronwyn Ximm (my wife) and myself.... and knock on playa, you wonderful volunteers! WHERE? ------ We're camping with the F-Space crowd. Update: we'll be between Absurd and Serious (at 3:15) in the "F" circle ("Faith"). The installation is "place on site" so we don't know where it's going to be, and won't know until I do the drive-around-in-a-golf-cart thing when we arrive -- probably on Sunday or first thing Monday morning. Sooo, the first-order plan is to leave a note at the Artery detailing where both WHERE we're camped and more importantly WHERE the installation will be -- it'll be deep playa on the same side we camp on, past the man. I'll bring something bright to mark it and describe that in the artery note, and in a follow up to this email. The Artery is the offical BM artists' resource center, it's located in Center Camp in the ring. The note will be clearly labeled ENSIGHTMENT VOLUNTEERS! WHEN? ----- Help is needed pretty much all week in one way or another, with the hardest parts being the build-in early in the week; see "how" for the various things we need help with, most of which are not grueling, some of which are. The current plan calls for: Sunday: (no volunteers needed) hopefully, site placement on the playa and info-leaving in Artery Monday: long day 1 of install, starting as early as we can manage going as long as we can stand Monday NIGHT: lamp construction! at our base camp. Easy makework! Tuesday: long day 2 of install, starting as early as we can manage, going as long as we can stand Tuesday NIGHT: lamp construction! at our basecamp. Easy makework! Wednesday: final install (if necessary), then: WED afternooon (just before dusk) THU "" FRI "" L A M P L I G H T I N G SAT "" SUN "" Monday: De-installation and clean up in the a.m. Note: Barnaby will be the contact on Friday and Saturday, when we'll be in Madison, WI, for a wedding that simply couldn't be missed. HOW? ---- Installation: We need as many people as we can get for install on Monday and Tuesday. Day-work at the installation site will involve positioning-telemetry (which needs a lot of eyeballs!), rebar driving, rope cutting and knot-tying. Some tasks -- rebar driving -- will be hard physical work, but there will be plenty of ways to contribute on-site in less demanding ways. Night-work at basecamp will be taping of gels into lanterns and possibly other lantern-preparation, all of which is sit down and chat kind of work. Lamplighting: Once the installation is complete, it needs to be lit every late afternoon just before dusk. Lamp-lighting will probably take a team of 2-3 people half an hour to an hour (depending on weather). Supplies will have to be picked up and returned to our base camp. The time for a lamp-lighting run is a bit of an unknown, as my Engineering Genius (tm) has *greatly* improved things this year, but there will be around 3 times as many lanterns this year as last... ghede@well.com http://www.quietamerican.org