Burning Man 2013 theme announced

And the theme is....

"Cargo Cult."

* Image: Theme by Larry Harvey, text by Larry Harvey and Stuart Mangrum, illustration by "DA" Dominic Tinio

• [Christopher]

  So if you can’t make it to Micronesia going to Burning Man is the next best thing.

• [franko]

  larry’s ideas for themes almost always make me do a double-take, and this is no exception. it seems like he had someone help wrangle his explanation into something coherent this time, though, because the more i read, the more i was thinking: ….YES!
  tl;dr: great idea for a theme. love it.

• [tristan eldritch]

  Won’t a good half of Burning Man’s core audience have ascended to a higher dimensional frequency by the end of the year?

• [kartwaffles]

  John Frum is a pretender. Every serious person knows Tom Navy is where it’s really at.

• [Gendun]

  How many Heaven’s Gate theme camps do we predict? 

• [jgs]

  The artist missed an opportunity to draw everyone in cargo pants.

• [sigismund]

  here’s the soundtrack : http://youtu.be/v8myiPb233E

• [ZA_SF]

  OMG, that’s awesome! Too bad I won’t be joining TTITD in 2013. I hope someone organizes a Tanna Drill Team (it’d be acceptable inverted cultural appropriation), and shirtless marching is already so Playa. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YfSC6RDyVA0

• [taras]

  Here’s a documentary about the cult that worships Prince Phillip – when they were brought to England (and did eventually meet their God): http://www.veoh.com/watch/v15812370mFfCWssb?h1=Meet+The+Natives+Part+1

• [webstu]

  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dlnxPOeyTbk

• [orwell]

  headlining this year’s burning man will be the unknown comic orchestra

• [mack]

  We are already striving to build the world we would prefer out of snips, scraps, chewing gum and baling wire. This is DEAD ON. 

• [Felix Hoenikker]

  I lost it when I saw the theme, been a Richard Feynman groupie since I was little. I send everyone his 1974 Caltech commencement speech titled “Cargo Cult Science.” Read it if you haven’t had the chance.

  http://www.lhup.edu/~DSIMANEK/cargocul.htm
  I’m planning on doing a large Feynman tribute piece for Burning Man 2013, if anyone is interested please email me. <3

• [pjcamp]

  Usually, when people wear bags on their heads, they stick them through the open end.

• [speleothem]

  It’s Mitt Romney’s nightmare!  Shopping bag headed people expecting “things” with Obama as John Frum.

• [Allison Moon]

  Shall I be the first Burner to cry “PROBLEMATIC”?

  While the story of Frum sounds all cute and Maker-inspirational, its existence is due to European colonialism and American militarism combining to destroy an indigenous culture. Why on the Playa’s brown clay should we be honoring that? Especially, since, y’know, Burning Man is mostly white, mostly middle class, and happens adjacent to tribal lands?

  • [Nils Lobie Weedøn]

    Because the theme was also once The American Dream (EDIT: also The Green Man, a year which featured an enormous crude oil explosion) and isn’t always necessarily something to be revered as much as something to spark artists’ inspiration.

  • [wysinwyg]

    Let’s change the theme to “politically correct”.  I’m sure that will make for much better artwork and hotter parties.

    More seriously, “cargo cult” is a perfect burner theme — a religion formed when a primitive culture encounters futuristic (to them) technology and tries to make sense of it.  I don’t see how this denigrates the original cargo cults in any way.

  • [wrybread]

    As the graffiti in the porta potty so nicely put it, “taking a shit on acid was better last year”.

• [Antonio Carrasco]

  How can you tell if someone goes to Burning Man?

  Don’t worry… THEY WILL TELL YOU