Green Glass Man 2007 Proposal

Email us
or call 206-283-3164

	Green Glass Man 2007 Grant Proposal
	Rodman G, Miller 2929 Mayfair Ave. N Seattle, WA 98109 206-283-3164 rodman@rodmanstudio.com Gina Karaba 206-650-3755 ginakaraba@hotmail.com click here to see our FURNACE SKETCH click here to see our PROPANE SKETCH click here to see our INSTALLATION SKETCH Our proposal: Walking the dusty desolation of the playa, you come to a set of wrought-iron gates reaching high above your head. They are prickled with bits of glass made into swirling & fantastical shapes, Walk thru them & you come to an open area with the head of the Green Man mounding up out of the earth, nearly as tall as you are. He is festooned with gleaming green glass leaves & other odd shapes. He has glowing eyes & as his mouth opens, you see it is filled with the fiery honey of molten glass. Glass blowers throw green glass bottles into the glowing mouth of the furnaces. The glass blends with the ever-present playa dust & it is all transmuted to fiery, glowing plasma. Audience members are encouraged to come forward & press a coin in the image of th Green Man. This is a living art project. We want to make a fully functional glass furnace similar to the old tech furnaces Afghani glassblowers have been using for uncounted centuries. We will be using certain modern components & structural supports to enhance usability, safety, & reliability, but those will be hidden beneath the structure of the furnace. We have in mind a mechanically simple project. Ours is a deeply interactive project. We will ask people to bring us their green glass to recycle (we will bring some of our own so we won't be completely dependent on donations). Burners will be able to press their own coin, with the Green Man image, from the molten green glass, which they can then keep as their reminder of the lessons of Burningman 2007. Performances: Glass blowing will be done every night. The glass blowing will commence at dusk & go on until the furnace pot is empty (100 pounds of glass) or as least into the wee hours. For the final night, we'll have a consecration of our Green Man. The glass blowers will host a Maypole ritual for all to come & experience. Our finale will include members of Cirque de Flame, with whom the glass blowers at Black Rock City have traditionally (2003 & 2004) been associated. The Cirque has expressed an interest in augmenting the finale with fireworks & fire performances. Green Man Theme We have this one covered!! We manifest the Green Man in our creation of a Green Glass Man, which utilizes the furnace mouth as the Man’s mouth and green glass finials in the shape of leaves for the rest of the head. All of the glass being blown this year will be recycled as much as possible from glass refuse collected on the Playa. Blowing with bottle glass is a little more difficult, but we have the talent, and we have the tools! We are returning to a simpler form of a glass blowing studio this year, a studio that by being more primitive suggests a greener and simpler time. Simply put, the glass will be green, green, and green. It will be green in color; we are recycling it; and the overall process of recycling green glass into green-colored coins echoes the overall philosophical idea of green that is so much of this year’s theme. Physical Description: including dimensions, materials, and sound component (if any). People will walk thru the 14 ft tall and 23 ft wide Gates of Eden (formerly, the Pearly Gates). These were on the playa for the Burningman in 2004. The Gates will be substantially altered by replacing many of the previously seen finials with freshly made leaf-like and various fertility finials, designed to echo the Green Man theme. All finials will be created ahead of time, in Seattle. Once thru the gates, people will enter a defined but open area in the shape of a pentagon, about 40 ft in diameter. The glass furnace and glowing head of the Green Man will be located opposite the Gates. The pentagonal area will act as a stage and observation area, from which to see the glass blowing performances. (See Fig. B). The pentagon will be defined by placing poles into the ground and stringing them with lights, which will be attention catching in the dark of night and entice people to come investigate our area. Although we will have the gates as an entrance, people can of course walk into the area from any direction. The entire area is designed to be open and inviting. The dimensions of the furnace will be approx 5 ft tall and 5 ft in diameter. The materials used to build the furnace will be earth, mud, silica, concrete, vermiculite and playa, all cast and dried in the desert sun, It is to be used for the event and then broken down back into small pieces, which will turn into clean landfill. (We will break it apart but it’s also more of a metaphor; the destruction of the furnace will be controlled and we will remove all residue from the playa.) The exterior of the furnace will appear to be made of dirt and will seem to grow from the playa around it, and will contain a buried armature which will accept finials. (See sketch.) The medium used this year will be recycled green bottle glass. Bottle glass has a shorter working time, making it more difficult to use, but we can and will do it. Philosophical Statement: What the art means to you and what you are trying to communicate to participants. We hope to inspire participants with the process of blowing glass. Glass blowing is a magical sort of art, perched at a temperature that the glass, normally seen as a solid, is a flowing liquid. It moves on its own, under the influence of gravity and surface tension and at the same time is controllable and moldable. From this perch the blowing process stands at the boundary between liquid chaos and solid stability. At this juncture is the possibility to create art, to transform the glass into meaningful objects. This could be seen as a metaphor for life/free-will itself, but doesn’t have to go there: the process is compelling enough to stand on its own. Our motto: blow glass: blow minds. Do you have an adequate crew to build, install and clean up your project? Please describe your support team as it relates to the creation of the art, playa support and dismantling/cleanup. Describe the roles and skills needed even if you do not have a complete crew at this time. We will have a core crew of 7 people, and a secondary crew of 6 people. The core crew will include 4 professional glassblowers, and 3 apprentice glassblowers who are additionally possessed of other support talents useful to the project. Most of the crew was involved with the Burning Earth projects of 2003 or 2004, when a portable furnace was brought to the playa and glass was blown every night for an enthusiastic audience. In particular, Chico, the lead of the Burning Earth projects will be coming to the playa with us and will be making available some of the materials which were used in that project. The secondary crew will consist of 3 professional glassblowers and 3 experienced student glassblowers. The core crew is defined as the group of people who will being doing the majority of the prep work here in Seattle, who will be arriving early to set up and leaving late after tear-down, and who will be responsible for all cleanup. The secondary crew is defined as those who, because of schedule constraints, may not be able to attend Burning Man for the entire span of time the playa is open to the artists. These people, for the time they are there, will share in the gifting/performance of glassblowing, and will use their professional skills in maintaining the health and safety of the furnace, their fellow crew members, and BM participants. The crews will grow in size, because this is just the kind of thing many glassblowers would love to be a part of. We do not anticipate either crew being smaller than as stated. If someone does need to drop out, you can bet we won’t have any problem finding an enthusiastic, responsible and qualified glassblower to fill the gap. Unforeseen changes in the size of the crews will not affect the grant request amount. Lastly, 90% of the people now planning to be a part of this are returning Burners. Our group knows how to handle various hazardous fuels, electrical quandaries, and the life of Burning Man. They have experienced the stresses and strains of the playa, they well know the credo of ‘leave no trace.’ Timeline - Creation/Construction, Playa Activity and Clean Up: which reflects your budget e.g., when materials will be purchased, when stages of construction will be completed, etc. Grants are distributed in installments, which will relate to your schedule. Seattle timeline March • Awarding of grant April • Start regular meetings of crew • Start of acquisition of parts • Plan fundraiser May • Fundraiser on or about Mayday, the traditional holiday for the Green Man • Begin furnace and design of armature* June • More construction and gathering • Testing the covering and mudding of armature We will discover problems in Seattle and not for the first time on the Playa • Start construction of armature for furnace finials July • Finish armature • Start making finials in Seattle August • Finish making finials for furnace and Gates *"armature” = the head of the Green Man furnace Burning Man timeline Sun Aug 19th • Arrival on the playa. Chill out. Monday Aug 20th • Hardibacker • Build furnace: • Crucibles set in place with spacer stilts • Pack crucibles with castable (needs a day to set up) Tuesday Aug 21st • Pack furnace with more insulation of mud and clay • Set in anchors for armature • Start warming furnace to 200˚F Wednesday Aug 22nd • More packing to finish outside surface • Final anchorage of armature • Continue warming furnace to 250-350˚F Thursday Aug 23rd • Ramp up furnace to 900˚F • Work on pentagonal borders of area. Set posts. • Trench for electrical and propane • Trench for gates Friday Aug 24th • Ramp up furnace to 2000˚F • String lights • Charge furnace for the first time that night • Complete perimeter • Set up glass studio Sat Aug 25th • Day 7. See that it is good. Then and only then, rest. Sun. Aug 26th Sat Sept 1st • Blow glass for the masses every evening at dusk until the pot is empty • At the end of every evening, recharge the pot Sat Sept 1st • Finale – time to be coordinated with other events Sunday Sept 2nd • Furnace cools down Monday Sept 3rd • Break down studio • Sweep Hardiboard of all Green Man head (furnace) pieces Tuesday Sept 4th • Finish break down and packing • Moop patrol: NO TRACE SHALL BE LEFT BEHIND • Pack vehicles and move out. Leave No Trace: A well thought out clean-up plan. YOU MAY NOT LEAVE ANYTHING ON THE PLAYA. A performance deposit will be withheld from your grant until after the event. If your site is not clean, or if you do not complete the checkout process, this amount will be withheld. During setup, we will have laid down, as our first layer, a fireproofed cloth. This will be under the furnace & work area. On top of that will be 1/4” Hardibacker (a fireproof, impermeable barrier). For cleanup, we’ll dismantle the furnace, sweep off the Hardibacker, lift that up, then simply roll up our fireproof cloth, which we will dispose of back in Seattle. And the desert has never been touched by a piece of glass! This elegantly simple plan, combined with our crew’s pre-exodus MOOP patrol, will erase our trace from the playa. Burning Artwork: If your artwork utilizes OPEN FIRE such as candles, torches, fire barrels, or raised containers, please describe in detail. If artwork is to be engulfed in flames, please describe your playa protection. Include a detailed drawing showing how the art will be situated on it. The furnace and glory hole have flames, which are contained, and shall be used and supervised by glass blowers who are familiar with their use. We will take all of the obvious precautionary measures which we, as professional glassblowers, are used to. DPW/Safety may look over our shoulder/advise should that be desired. There is a possibility that for the finale, some fireworks may be used. If this is the case, it will be under the guidance of members of the Cirque de Flambé who have demonstrated their knowledge and safety concerns to the BM organization. If your artwork utilizes FLAME EFFECTS, flames that are automated, switched, pressurized or having any other action than simply being lit on fire, including propane or liquid fuels, describe in detail. Include a detailed drawing of fuel lines and tanks. There will be propane fuel lines to the glory hole and furnace. The longer line to the glory hole will be pressurized only when there is someone using the studio. The furnace will be attended for all of the time in the initial phases and most of the time thereafter. No high-pressure hoses are used.