Disorient

A message from The Eminent Front (20220113)

Strange times. Yet Art lives on and Art continues to give hope. Time to make our art.

The Good Wasabi LLC will create a new Mobile Art Project (MAP) to complement the enTity, which carries the letters e-n-T: the enhanced Sign On Wheels will be ready to ride again in 2022 (when “riding” is allowed...). We are now building the mobile Disco Dock.

The Sign on Wheels as it is shines brightly. But a new home is needed for the letters D-i-s and O-r-i: This will be the Disco Dock. DiSCO will be on a hydraulic lift—the Disco Lift!

With Burning Man looming on the horizon, this New Sign will rise up and be a beacon—of hope, of direction, of a nearby shore. We believe that this Sign will help us rise above.

What we try to do (and do) is make art that works. Our art itself becomes a Sign—which signifies, inter alia, that We’re Still Here. And we want others to see and find and join us.

Thank you for joining us again, helping us make art, this Sign on Wheels roll. Disco Dock. See attached Flyer.

The Eminent Front collective now includes myself (Bacchus), Peter, and Jeff Schomberg formally joins us as well—he creates a lot of art, a lot of Signs, and fashioned the Dang Gang and the current enT). We welcome back Alien (Adele) and Mt. Tam Matt (the Space Hippy, these are our tech crew who made the lights go on—and now dance to the DiSCO beats, as we mount the new and old letters). We are going to make the Disco Dock rise, in Reno; indeed, we have begun.

Gonna make ‘em shine—Disco!! We will be working with Jeff to weld and saw—to make the Sign shine bright. Disco Dock will be a polyclonal antidote to hard times.

However far away the Light may seem, in difficult moments, the future is still imminent. We are the Eminent Front. We are going to Put On the Disco Dock. #ArtGivesUsHope!

The Disco Dock, using its lift, will enable the alter-abled to rise above the desert floor.

The Sign is video-quality, with programming by Leo Villareal and other video artists.

The Good Wasabi, LLC operates for the public good; we work with and are fiscally-sponsored by the Flux Foundation.

We respair! The enTity is now battle-tested and ready for (heavy) duty. The Disco Dock rises. Respair!

PB&J (PETER, BACCHUS, and JEFF)

P.S. We are going to bring the love back, in the form of the bright rising lights of Disco!

Disorient is a camp at Burning Man

Disorient has been a camp at Burning Man since 2001.

Highlights from the last physical BM (2019)

In 2019 Disorient was at 2:15 & Esplanade. Camp was 200 ft. wide by 400 ft. long.

We debuted the Club House, our new pentagon-shaped multi-story pallet rack frontage structure complete with Pornj velvet couches and GlamTech decor. By day, the Club House served as a performance space for our Dry Lakebed Synchronized Swimming Team and shaded haven for AMP’D yogis, who were treated to Frozen Minty Towels after their invigorating practice.

At night, the Club House transformed into an illuminated beacon, featuring glimmering LEDs on the DISORIENT sign and Helios bars, incandescent Pornj lighting, and a sky-high laser programmed to spell out D-I-S-O-R-I-E-N-T in Morse code. DISORIENT music played all week long through a pristine sound system, with the Wayward Teahouse offering a peaceful respite from the revelry during three late-night parties.

Across the Esplanade, our Art Car Dock was the home base for the D’enT and the Dang Gang, which together made up the Sign On Wheels. These spectacular Mutant Vehicles transported both participants and the D19ORIENT Video Sign — 1.2 million pixels of LEDs programmed with mesmerizing video art — on unforgettable journeys across the playa.

The immersive Fire Defractor installation served as a lighthouse of sorts, where participants could enjoy ambient sound and holographic sculptures in a plush lounge space. Fire and flow artists from DISORIENT and the Ministry of Flow teamed up for two special performances: the full dress rehearsal for the Fire Conclave and an open fire jam set to a special musical lineup.

Within camp, a regulation shuttlecock court encouraged 24/7 sleizure play with Pornj racquets and LED-illuminated birdies.

During daily DISORIENT-it-Yourself workshops in the Dis|Co Lounge, special guest artists taught participants to make resin jewelry, illuminated headwear, LED blinkie pendants, holographic sculptures, and silk-screened t-shirts. This was also the site of the Pornj Costume Swap on Monday night, where camp exchanged hundreds of Pornj and Glam Tech costume items and accessories.

On Tuesday, DISORIENT hosted the Cultural Collaborators Cocktail Party, a celebration of those who help spread Burning Man culture around the world. DISORIENT was the first Theme Camp ever to host this special event, which is a reflection of the extraordinary contributions our collective makes in Black Rock City and beyond.

We followed this up with another legendary iteration of the Tuesday night BBQ, a multi-meat feast (and family reunion) that was not to be missed. Our beloved speakeasy Duke’s returned once again, serving up freshly made cocktails, late-night jams from the Morning Fucking Dews and some very special guests, and its incomparable brand of playa magic.

Members of the DISORIENT community built art beyond the borders of camp, including the large-scale interactive Archaeopteryx installation and whimsical Deep Tea cart.

In deep playa, the Temple of Brad Pitt — this year’s iteration of the Geodesic Temple — invited participants to briefly experience what it is to be the famous Hollywood actor. Thanks to a top-notch burn crew and tight perimeter of 70+ DISORIENTers, TOBRIT burned late on Friday night, leaving behind only the steel Ark and memories of brattpitizations past. This was the perfect lead-in to two very special burns: the explosive Man burn on Saturday night, and the visually stunning Temple of Direction burn on Sunday night.

Disorient is a collective

Disorient is a sound, visual and performance art collective. We create art projects and art installations with hardware including wood, scaffolding, palette rack, containers, recycled materials, your body, Raspberry Pi, geodesic domes, inflatable structures, video, repurposed objects, black lights and vehicles. We develop software for our installations. Our guiding principles are outlined in the Disorient Model and in the Political Economy of Disorient. Disorient is an open creative platform powered by love.

Our contribution to the vernacular includes Pornj and GlamTech.

Disorient ecosystem

When we are not on the Playa, we organize events, retreats and happenings to raise funds for our art projects on and off playa and support Burning Man. 100% of profit is reinvested in Disorient.
Those include Country Club (since 2011) upstate New York, Bedouin Tech (2014-2018) in the desert of Dubai and Fun Tsang (since 2016) on the beach of a tiny uninhabited tropical island of Hong Kong. Those outdoor camping retreats last several days and are aligned with the Burning Man ethos. In September 2021 we organized the first Burning Mantap in Bali, Indonesia.

Our first fundraisers outside the US happened in 2009 in Brazil and Argentina

Thousands of DOers (DisOrienters) have camped with Disorient at Burning Man since 2001. About half of those campers are in the US. The other half is distributed in dozens of other countries. We use social networks to stay connected.

Too Much Is Rarely Enough.