Zama will offer Mayan Temple and Spa this year at Transformus. Mayan Spa will be a relaxing atmosphere where Mysterians may come for massage, cleansing, and good vibes. We are organizing a women's chanting and trance dance afternoon to encourage sisters to come together for healing and growth. We will build an altar to sacrifice virgins of Transformus. This is meant to facilitate the psychic change that occurs with sacrificing our mundane selves and allowing our creative minds to be born into the atmosphere of Mysteria.
Envision a top lying on its side, how it would spin slowly on its center point around its circumference. Now add fire and participant input. The Twirlin Flames installation will provide an interactive fire activity in each quadrant around the Bamboozler throughout the weekend for those new to fire arts and those not so new to play with and enjoy.
Subversive media in 2 acts, Little Shiva and crew will once again be issuing the Mysterious Enquirer at News Stands near you. What will the theme be this year? You decide. All content to be community written by random volunteers. In the second act, 4 oversized heads with puppet hands representing the 4 earth signs: water, earth, air, and ether will be unleashed upon the community to dance, sing, and become an interactive part of the Transformus experience.
Striving to create a place where there is no separation between the art of the participants and the art of the structure which together create a passionate beauty, artist Tony Garcia will create a multi-chambered interactive temple for Transformus 2006 that is reflective of his 2005 candle and canvas installation. This year's temple will include moveable art altars for participants to place art objects, memories, and mementos, a locked box with a small opening for personal offerings, prayers, remembrances, and large moveable stepping boxes to allow participants to reach the roof with brushes. Each of the 4 outer chambers will represent an earth element encircling an inner chamber, the heart, where participants will be invited to look beyond themselves into the heart of the community and their fellow man.
The ultimate gift is the gift you create with your own hands. A 10 year Burning Man Veteren, Tiger will offer workshops where participants can learn to make beautiful meditation/dance flags by day, and then dance with them by night. Participants will be instructed in how to tie-dye the flags, sew weights into them, and then how to dance & cast intention. Beyond the surface beauty of these flags, the hidden gem is that spinning flags produces a profound meditative experience. One has to be totally present & let go of thinking in order to get it, a kind of a spinning zazen. Each participant who makes a flag will then be able to take their creations & the creative energy of Transformus back into the default world with them, bringing beauty, intention, and transformation into the world...
ARGGH SSSSHIVER ME TIMBERS! A group project, the Pirate Ship has crashed into the banks of the lower lake while scouting for booty, releasing a cacaphany of cantankerous beasts. A gathering place with a PA for raucous pirate entertainment, the ships deck will be open for sunbathing, walking the plank, making someone you know walk the plank, or other creative chaos such as painting graffiti on the ships hull. The ships steering wheel will be fashioned into a "wheel of shame". Each spoke on the wheel will have some funny activity or prank on it. When the wheel is spun you must either do what it lands on or walk the plank. Activities on each spoke have yet to be finalized but some ideas are: "Dance the truffle shuffle", "Show your tits", "Funnel a beer", "sing a song on the P.A.", "pick a card from a deck of 1-10 and receive that many spankings/floggings while tied to the mast", etc.
Mary and the Austin crew did such a good job with this proposal that we will let them tell you about it in their own words. We don't dare summarize it for fear of being Lobotomized?
Do you wonder if there is Big
Brother with a bigger brain out there controlling us all?
What if it's been yourself all along that's been stopping you from pursuing your
dreams?
What if you could change that?
Ever wanted to pick someone's brain?
Now is the chance?Welcome to the Lobotomy Project, where your wildest notions become reality. Imagine yourself at Mysteria taking a mid-afternoon swim and sun in the creek. As your fingers release the rope swing and your body at heroic speeds ascends thru the air towards the water below, you notice out of the corner of your eye something strange in the distance. You can't help but notice it when you are up this high in the air. It's clearly there, to the right of the stage. As soon as your body hits the cool water, your mind swiftly wanders back to your newfound vision and you swim to the shore immediately to swing again, in hopes of catching one more glimpse.
Your calloused fingers once again wrap around that coarse rope and your heart skips a beat when your toes depart the ground. You peer again. 'What is that thing? Is it a?is it a?'
Splash! The water rushes up around you. Suddenly, you have an epiphany underwater, 'is it a giant brain?!'
Upon closer examination, you notice a 3-dimensional brain (the size of a mid-size car) completely made out of sculptured balloon art. The structure is mounted on a wood frame, raising the brain up off the ground by at least three feet and laying on top of a giant tarp. You find yourself awe-struck not only by its sheer size but also it inherent delicateness since the entire sculpture is constructed out of balloons of all shapes and sizes. At night, the brain glows an eerie shade of red and orange.
Sometimes, you may even hear the brain whisper?
"Creativity is allowing
yourself to make mistakes. Art is knowing which ones to keep."
or
"Be daring, be different, be impractical, be anything that will assert
integrity of purpose and imaginative vision against the play-it-safers, the
creatures of the commonplace, the slaves of the ordinary."
or
"All the art of living lies in a fine mingling of letting go and holding
on."
or even
"Go on?go on?what's stopping you?"
These are the voices of wisdom inside your head. Sometimes you listen, other times you don't.
On burn night Sunday evening, the brain seems to be glowing extra bright, flashing lights like a quick moving picture show of life happening right before your eyes. The whispers seemed to be more chaotic and multiple voices are speaking at once. The nodes are swaying in the cool breeze, wrapping and tapping upon each other.
It must be thinking.
As soon as the Man burns and the revelry begins to die down around the main fire pit, you begin to notice a team of doctors in starched white lab coats beginning to surround the giant brain. By now, the whispers have grown so loud, you can hear them within twenty feet of the structure. Something is about to happen, but you're not quite sure what, really.
The friendly doctors approach the curious crowd with giant bags over their shoulders. As they come closer, you notice the lead doctor with a bull-horn:
"Welcome to the Lobotomy Project, where your wildest notions become reality! You may have noticed the giant brain in your Transforms. Do not be alarmed, it will not hurt you?unless you let it, of course," the doctor winks at the crowd.
"If you hear something in your head long enough, you may start to believe it true, right? And sometimes that can be downright deadly?deadly to your creativity, to your true passions, to your life's work!" The doctor paces back and forth in front of the brain in an inquisitive way.
"What if you could change all of that? What if you could scoop out the bad bits in your brain, and replace it with unstoppable optimism?" The crowd grows in curiosity and steps closer to the structure.
"Or with undying creativity?"
"Or with fierce passion for all things you set your mind to?"
A dramatic pause.
"Or with simple love for yourself and others?"
"Well friends, now is the time?if you are ready. The Lobotomy Project is accepting volunteers to change their life FOREVER!" The doctors immersed within the crowd begin to open their sacks. A still silence and nervous giggle falls upon the audience as they realize they are now suddenly participants rather than spectators. No one knows what's going to happen next?what's in the bag?
The doctors each begin to pull out something that resembles a tiny ice-pick from their bag.
Someone yells, "What's that for? I'm not getting a lobotomy! No way!!"
"Yes sir?not today, sir. You won't be getting a lobotomy today?but someone here is!" She turns around and looks at the giant brain
"?That's right. Now is the time for the brain's lobotomy?but we need your help." The crowd sighs a wave of relief, thanking their lucky stars that the waiver they signed at the front gate wouldn't have to be challenged by this art installation, after all.
"Step right up! If and only IF you are ready to change your life dramatically from this point forward, speak with one of my doctors and they will give you an ice-pick for you to perform an individual lobotomy on our giant brain."
The brave approach the doctors immediately with eager enthusiasm. As the courageous begin to grow, the crowd ascends around the brain with plastic ice-picks in hand.
"Now wait! This is a very delicate operation that takes concentration and skill. One wrong move and you could KILL this brain!" the doctor stresses dramatically.
From there, the doctor explains to the crowd that they must use the ice-pick to pop one of the balloons on the brain. When they pop it, they will find a small piece of paper inside tied to a string (to avoid MOOP). When they unfold the piece of paper, they will notice a small mission written especially for them inside:
Find someone from Florida and tell them about your biggest fear.
Meet someone whose name starts with M and ask them about their latest dream.
Go to the main stage area and dance with someone you met earlier that weekend.
Lie on your back in the grass and peer up to the stars with a friend. Tell them your true passions in life. Ask them theirs.
You realize that this mission is the starting point for a whole new adventurous life ahead. This is the beginning?symbolically, you've made the decision to "scoop out the negative energies" in your own brain to open up a whole new way of thinking for yourself. You feel refreshed and free and excited about your mission ahead for the evening.
This is only the beginning.
The Lobotomy Project?helping others reach their full potential one ice-pick at a time.
Supplemental Research and other
Brainy Stuff:
This is the first inspiration to create this art installation out of balloon
sculpture art:
http://www.3delavnica.com/portfolio/balonmania/slika8.jpg