Graham St John — Artopia: Art, Drama & Redress in Burner Culture

The presentation will explore how the culture of Burning Man evolves and mutates at home and abroad. It will address the way its principles have been challenged in recent times, and the artful means arising to redress the discord. How the “sherpagate” controversy of recent years highlights the tension between artists and tourists (insiders and outsiders) in Black Rock City and regional events is given specific attention. I turn to Victor Turner’s “social drama” to help explain this process and explore how an artistic heterotopia — an artopia? — enables the dissolution of complex differences in-situ. Various art projects demonstrate that collaborative and interactive art is the redressive weapon in the Burner arsenal.