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The Living Experiment

A group of us will be living together at Burning Man, collaborating on making the dance spaces happen and committing as our artistic gift to the Burning Man world to making the art of contact improvisation accessible to those who are interested in exploring it. The Living experiment of the camp is for people who feel a clear draw towards the idea of promoting people's discovery of contact.

For 2007, our third year, we will be returning to a bit of a smaller camp... aiming for about 60 people in camp as opposed to last year's 110. We'll feel it out as we go along.

We aim for a mix of personal autonomy and organic collaboration. We come to camp relatively prepared and happy to be autonomous - both materially and socially- and allow community to arise organically, based around affinity of interest, rather than purely out of preconceived plans.

We contribute together as a group to the construction of the dance spaces, a group kitchen and food supply, shade structures/chill space, showers, composting system, etc.. From there, we each contribute what and as we can and feel inspired to make our space together a pleasurable one

We'll have group meals at dinnertime (be there or not, as you like). Outside of dinners, we look to find organic collaboration on meals as the winds are favorable. There will be fairly thorough vegetarian food stock provided, shaped partially by group suggestions before we head out to the playa.

We come together because we are excited to do contact, but at the same time, we will likely be a diverse collection of people with interests outside of camp... the activities of camp are there to inspire and support us and not to bind us. While we will each commit to being there for a few of the classes/jams to help make them happen, we are not expected by any means to be there for all of them.

We aim to create a space that supports all of our explorations and independence, rather than create a binding schedule…

Everyone will need to be autonomous in terms of sleeping gear/tents. Our camp will aim to have a distinction between "public area" (our dance spaces…a 28 foot diameter dance dome and a 60 foot diameter parachute tent ... floors made from vinyl over carpet) and "private area" (our living space – kitchen/pantry dome, two more 60 foot diameter parachutes for gathering and chill space, shower facilities, tent and car zones, etc).

The general vibe of camp will be quiet-ish… a kind of oasis in the sonic wilds of burning man.

If this interests you, read on ...

If you haven't done contact before, we invite you to come to classes and jams, but the living experiment is likely not appropriate, unless you already have a strong link to the practice. The living experiment is specifically for people who already have an investment in practicing contact. Goto Links for other interesting open camps that may have a related vibe.

If you have never gone to Burning Man before, spend some time with the Burning Man web page! 'much will be answered there.

for more information and to get involved in the Living experiment of Burning Man, goto Connect