More Carrot at Burning Man 2010: Our Plans

Late last night I submitted the theme camp application for the More Carrot camp at this year’s Burning Man Festival. I wanted to share the heart of the application, where we are asked to describe our philosophy, goals and interactivity plans. We are an ambitious bunch this year and it was hard to fit all our ideas into the 5,000 characters (including spaces!) allowed.If you like the sound of the below please join our Facebook page.

Now it’s a waiting game, theme camps will be announced in early May.

More Carrot 2010:

More Carrot was the name a group from Australia and the UK chose as a
label for our projects at BM 08. The name refers to the nature of
incentives: you can use a carrot or a stick. We endorse the carrot
approach, providing encouragement and rewards for people to do their
best. But we also believe strongly in the importance of eating your
vegetables in the desert—not always an easy thing!

That first year we built a tower, ran 5 EL wire PacMan bikes around
and organized a mobile prom. We were part of Deadly Muppet, a crew
from San Francisco, who some Carrots had camped with in 04 and 06.

Last year More Carrot evolved into an independent camp within the
Oasis 47 theme camp village. We built another tower and a hookah
lounge with tapestries, cushions, and, of course, hookah. We also
hosted strip glow bocce and glow table tennis and ran a Chinese
restaurant (“The Dusty Prawn”) out on the playa in a dust storm. We
dressed up for the Billion Bunny March (as carrots, naturally) and had
a lot of fun.

For Burning Man 2010 More Carrot is taking the next step in our
evolution: a stand-alone theme camp.

More Carrot is a diverse and passionate group of people from 4
countries on 3 continents. We planned our camp around two elements:
Our name: More Carrot. And the theme: Metropolis: The Life of Cities.
We talked about the kind of city we want to live in, and,
specifically, given our name, the food culture of cities.

We realized what the Black Rock Metropolis needs: a farmer’s market!

Imagine: it’s 7 a.m. and you are wandering home from the outer playa
or on your way to an early yoga class and wafting smells of grilling
corn on the cob draw you over to a roadside stall bursting with a
cornucopia of beautiful produce, including bananas, pineapples,
melons, and (of course) carrots! You stroll up to the stall, where you
receive juicy slices of chilled fruits and a citrus carrot cocktail,
served by friendly people in farmers overalls.

Yes, at Burning Man 2010 we will host an early morning farmer’s
market. We will source produce from markets in Reno and Sparks the
weekend before Burning Man and have designed a cold-storage system
which will ensure we have delicious fruit to gift all week. We are
motivated by our belief that cities should promote the selling of
local produce direct to the public—and that this should be true in our
city, Black Rock City. We also know what an amazing gift fresh fruit
is on the playa, especially later in the week, and how food
facilitates connection and community.

The Black Rock Farmers Market will run from 7-9am Tue-Fri, functioning
as both our primary gift to the citizens of BRC and as an art project.
The early birds running the market will be in character and costume,
hamming it up for citizens of BRC.

Our camp will be fun, accessible, relaxing and attractive, featuring a
striking 20ft neon carrot (affixed to the front of our tower), carrot
lanterns and a chill-out lounge in a modest geodesic dome, with rugs
and cushions on the floor, flowing fabrics for walls, and DJs playing
funky and relaxing music. Alongside will be our games area, featuring
glow-in-the-dark bocce and table tennis, complemented by our main art
project ping|pong – a large 2D array of 16×16 tricolour LEDs in ping
pong balls, creating a 256 pixel array. ping|pong (inspired by the
amazing Cubatron art by Mark Lottor) will serve as the score board for
the table tennis and a screen for 2- and 4-player games of Pong. When
not in use it will display spectacular light patterns.

Last year, true to our name, we turned up to the Billion Bunny March
dressed as carrots. We were attempting to build a bridge to the bunny
community but were instead discriminated against and refused service
at the pre-party. This year we will provide an opportunity for carrots
such as ourselves to participate in the brand-new Countless Carrots
March! Countless Carrots will express the dignity and inherent worth
of carrots in the face of hurtful, persistent bunny prejudice. All
carrots will be invited to our camp for a pre-party, where we will
serve drinks and provide sign-making equipment. Then we’ll head out to
meet the bunnies on the playa.

Members of More Carrot will also be hosting several absurdist events,
including playa cricket, Sock Wrestling championships (complete with
announcers, theme tunes and shiny belts to be won), a surreal crew of
inefficient road repairers, and back-by-popular demand the roving
Dusty Prawn Restaurant, which serves the hungry and thirsty masses out
on the playa.

Love, More Carrot xx

Join the More Carrot Facebook page.

Watch the video we made of our adventure at Burning Man 2009.