Fire in the sky
Rocket Science
If there was one piece of artwork that dominated conversation this year it was “Raygun Gothic Rocketship,” a kitschy, retro-futuristic 40-foot rocket that looked like something out of a Jules Verne movie adaptation circa 1957. The excitement about the piece was centered on its scheduled “launch” set for Friday night. Debate about this “rocket launch” raged throughout BRC:
“It’s a joke. There’s no way they’re getting that thing off the ground.”
“I heard they’re only hoping to get it up four or five feet.”
“If they actually try to launch that thing, I’m sure it’ll fail miserably.”
“They’re probably just going to blow it up.”
“Well, whatever happens, I’m sure it’ll be cool.”
Read the rest of the article here: http://www.newsreview.com/reno/content?oid=1211038
Raygun Gothic Rocketship Launch — Burning Man 2009
Link to Vimeo page: http://vimeo.com/6528197
Burning Man 2009 Photo Gallery
See entire photo gallery here: SFGate.com
Artists riding rocket to Burning Man
Boadway is part of a more than 60-person team of artists, scientists, engineers, and builders creating a sculpture resembling a rocket ship that will premiere at this year’s Burning Man Project, the annual gathering in Nevada’s Black Rock Desert that focuses on radical self reliance and large-scale installation art.
This year’s festival will begin Monday and run through Sept. 7, with the Oakland artists unveiling their creation in a 15-minute spectacle Sept. 4.
Led by Orlando and fellow artists Nathaniel Taylor and David Shulman, the rocket ship idea was conceived in napkin drawings and has a retro aesthetic meant to conjure a time when space travel was still a fantasy.
The artists wanted to “focus on a time of pre-space travel, when humans still imagined themselves living and traveling through space “… the future of the human species was very romanticized,” Orlando said.
Read article here: http://www.insidebayarea.com/ci_13208664?IADID
All’s quiet at Burning Man–for now
“But it was clearly worth a quick bike ride to see what’s up already, and two of the most obvious pieces are the Man–the centerpiece of the festival, this year built atop a forest of wooden sculptures of trees–and the Raygun Gothic Rocket, a 1940s-era spaceship gracing the desert with its stylized presence.”
Read entire article here: http://news.cnet.com/8301-13772_3-10320149-52.html
Safe landing and preparing for lift-off
Sean Orlando and the Raygun Gothic Rocketship had a safe landing in the desert early Monday morning. Two semis and an accompanying truck hauled the gleaming piece up from the Bay Area, and it was assembled in the beautiful light of the late afternoon.
It’s a massive thing, weighing close to 5,000 pounds, and there isn’t a more unlikely object to be found on the playa. The rocket is covered with a gleaming silver metal skin, which was stretched on an English wheel and pressed into place by hand.
Read article here: http://blog.burningman.com/?p=5037
Raygun Gothic Rocketship counts down to its launch
“As I write, the countdown timer on its web site tells me that less than 13 days remain till the arrival of the Raygun Gothic Rocketship at its destination, which is either Burning Man or someplace a bit more interstellar.
If you’ve missed it, this is an impressive feat of construction – at forty feet tall! – by the same group of demented designers that brought us the Steampunk Treehouse.”
Read entire post here: Webomator
Retro Raygun Rocket To Take “Flight” At Burning Man
Not your father’s retro rocket. On second thought maybe it is.
“Do you yearn to relive the glory days of space travel, back when the space industry was run by scientists and engineers rather than hindered by politicians and the Military-Industrial Complex? Do you drool at the prospect of riding in one of those oh-so-very-cool retro rococo-style rockets popularly portrayed in the media during the 1930s, 40s, and 50s?
Well, then you better get your Earth-bound behind out to the Black Rock Desert in Nevada for the Burning Man Festival starting at the end of this month. This year, the annual counter-culture festival will feature a full-sized cigar-shaped Raygun Gothic Rockethip being constructed right now in a warehouse in Oakland, California.”
More here: Science Buzz
