0900H GMT, Sol System, 3rd Planet
The Raygun Gothic Rocketship crew is pleased to announce our joint collaboration with Dr. Wade Enright and Dr. Alan Rorie, with support from Nathaniel Taylor. Dr. Enright is a leading high voltage researcher at the Department of Electrical Engineering, University of Canterbury, Christchurch, New Zealand, and Dr. Rorie, a high voltage artist working under the name Almost Scientific. Nathaniel Taylor is an artist and fabricator working under the name of Radio Robot Labs.

The result of their collaboration with the Raygun Gothic Rocketship is the the Uira Engine, a kinetic, high voltage sculpture serving as the power source and engine for the Raygun Gothic Rocketship. The word uira means lightning in Maori, the language spoken by the indigenous Polynesian people of New Zealand. The high potential of this collaboration will undoubtedly extend beyond the Uira Engine, and serve as a model for how aesthetic and scientific inquiry inform each other.

The Uira engines will be tested throughout the week at Burning Man, with an initial test launch planned for Friday, September 4th, 2009 at 10 PM PST.