Burning Man, 2017

Burning Man is currently ongoing.

Lots of photos such as the above will emerge in the coming days. It also reminds me that the SL version of Burning Man, called Burn2 will be on, in SL, in October. Last year we were lucky enough to get press passes to the event and blogged from there over several days and ‘happenings’. I hope we’ll be able to repeat this again this year.

THE TEN PRINCIPLES OF BURNING MAN 

Radical Inclusion 

Anyone may be a part of Burning Man. We welcome and respect the stranger. No prerequisites exist for participation in our community.

Gifting

Burning Man is devoted to acts of gift giving. The value of a gift is unconditional. Gifting does not contemplate a return or an exchange for something of equal value.

Decommodification

In order to preserve the spirit of gifting, our community seeks to create social environments that are unmediated by commercial sponsorships, transactions, or advertising. We stand ready to protect our culture from such exploitation. We resist the substitution of consumption for participatory experience.

Radical Self-reliance

Burning Man encourages the individual to discover, exercise and rely on his or her inner resources.

Radical Self-expression

Radical self-expression arises from the unique gifts of the individual. No one other than the individual or a collaborating group can determine its content. It is offered as a gift to others. In this spirit, the giver should respect the rights and liberties of the recipient.

Communal Effort

Our community values creative cooperation and collaboration. We strive to produce, promote and protect social networks, public spaces, works of art, and methods of communication that support such interaction.

Civic Responsibility

We value civil society. Community members who organize events should assume responsibility for public welfare and endeavor to communicate civic responsibilities to participants. They must also assume responsibility for conducting events in accordance with local, state and federal laws.

Leaving No Trace

Our community respects the environment. We are committed to leaving no physical trace of our activities wherever we gather. We clean up after ourselves and endeavor, whenever possible, to leave such places in a better state than when we found them.

Participation

Our community is committed to a radically participatory ethic. We believe that transformative change, whether in the individual or in society, can occur only through the medium of deeply personal participation. We achieve being through doing. Everyone is invited to work. Everyone is invited to play. We make the world real through actions that open the heart.

Immediacy

Immediate experience is, in many ways, the most important touchstone of value in our culture. We seek to overcome barriers that stand between us and a recognition of our inner selves, the reality of those around us, participation in society, and contact with a natural world exceeding human powers. No idea can substitute for this experience. 

We live in a divided world. The values of Burning Man, and similar events, can help to heal our fractured earth.

Ella

Unbecalmed at North

Imaginative topography

Harry takes a break from being the photographer, to being the subject

Sometimes, I’ve written about this before, SL just doesn’t ‘grab’ me. I flick around the clothes blogs and think ‘these items don’t cut the mustard even for a naturist wardrobe’. A slight feeling of boredom hits me, then ‘bam!’ something new comes up and off I go, my SL reinvigorated.

Often, as I don’t feel a need for a huge lot of clothes buying, it’ll be a pose that reinvigorates my SL. Or a place.

North is an exceptionally photogenic sim with many, many, cute poses in its various corners. Ideal for photography, nude or textile. I particularly liked the cliffside geography of the place, as opposed to beach after beach after beach.

I liked, too, completely new poses to me, such as skateboarding and throwing a few baskets.

It’s not naturist, but hey! I’m reaching the conclusion that all of SL is fair game for naked activity -just as the real world is. It’s just a case of exercising discretion.

If you like your SL photography, I thoroughly recommend this delightful sim.

Ella