Burning Man: Blunderwood Portable
2015Blunderwood Portable
I helped to design elements of the Blunderwood Portable by 2015 Burning Man honoraria grant recipient, Jason Turgeon, as part of his crew the Cat and the Cockroach Collective.
In 2015, I had just finished my second year of college studying interior architecture at the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD). Having just learned to use Autodesk’s AutoCAD and the 3D Modeling software Rhinoceros, I leapt at the opportunity to assist with CAD work planning the cuts for the return carriage, platen, and space bar sections of this giant 24:1 scale typewriter.
It was modeled after an Underwood typewriter, which we passed around to take detailed measurements of and scale up to cut at 24:1 scale. The sculpture had pressure-sensitive keys that enabled an individual to jump from key to key to type massive poetry, projected onto a screen that served as the “paper” inserted into the typewriter. This concept was based on the Don Marquis newspaper column in the 1920s, “Archy and Mehitabel”, written as if a cockroach (Archy) were jumping from key to key to write the column. With the Blunderwood Portable, we were able to shrink everyone down to the size of a cockroach.
We built it a couple of times. First, the crew built it in Blake’s backyard. Then, we deconstructed it and built it again at Boston Figment on the Greenway. Then, we broke it down and put it all in a shipping containter to sent to Burning Man (2015). I was on the build crew, so I flew out with a few other selected members of the team a week ahead of the opening day of the Festival. We worked late and long, all build surprises resolved, and then enjoyed our art with the rest of the temporary metropolis for many days before finally setting it ablaze, like so many works of art that go to a Burn.
An even smaller core group of builders was invited to recreate the sculpture at a private sculpture garden in Mexico. I was not on this team, but it’s awesome and you can see the movie here:
https://vimeo.com/408598940
