Zonotopia and the Quasicrystalline Conjunction

It is both strange and wonderful 

that what is so limited and so small, 

the tiled interior of a zonohedron, can be unleashed 

to become an infinite quasicrystalline space filling.

-Russell Towle

We are happy as peaches to announce that Burning Man 2013 has awarded Zonotopia Honorarium for our Art proposal 

Zonotopia and the Quasicrystalline Conjunction

Zonotopia and the What say what?  You ask...

Zonotopia and the Quasicrystalline Conjunction....

To explain, let's back up and talk a little about this years Burning Man theme "Cargo Cult"

Every year Burning Man has a theme to guide, focus or in some fashion lead artists to creatively express themselves in a coherent fashion that will give the entire event a certain continuity. Artists are not obliged to follow the theme but it is encouraged. Usually the theme is grand and sweeping in its scope. This year's theme is a bit of an outlier in that regard.  Cargo Cult is a somewhat bizarre cultural phenomenon that has appeared in many traditional pre-industrial tribal societies in the wake of interaction with other technologically advanced cultures. Namely those societies of the Pacific Islands after World War II where cult leaders led efforts to bring back the material wealth of the Americans and Japanese. Not having a proper context to understand the source of the material goods nor the means of manufacturing they thought to built crude airplanes, runways and even control towers out of local materials in an effort to re-attract the cargo they now missed.

A Cargo Cult 'airplane'

A real airplane

It's an interesting theme and much else has been said about it here...Cargo Cult Theme

The wooden Cargo Cult airplane is simultaneously impressive and absurd. It certainly took skill and effort to realize the structure and no doubt when it was finished it's builders were happy and proud . They likely looked forward to the return of the other airplanes with great excitement and anticipation. Time goes by, even generations pass and the myth of the return of the plane persists along with the totem facsimiles. 

And thus the cult is born.

It's interesting to conjecture what would happen if the airplane did come back because of the totems. What if it did actually work? What if a Boeing 747 landed right there next to those wooden planes? The peoples of the cult would no doubt be shocked, amazed and no doubt, super excited.

Imagine the peoples of the cult touched the exterior of the plane. The would feel the otherworldly smooth metallic skin. Imagine they climbed aboard and explored the many mysterious and amazing wonders contained within. What would they make of all of that? What would they understand? No matter how long they explored, examined and thought about what they saw would they have more answers or questions? 

I think the latter.

The Zomes of Zonotopia

The Zomes of Zonotopia

For four years now we've brought the Zomes of Zonotopia to the playa. These simple wooden pavilions evoke a nostalgia for the primordial together with a meditated vision of the future; a vision of an architecture and technology perhaps long forgotten; an echo of another world.  As Zonotopia has continued to grow and blossom it does seem to be calling out. The Zomes seem to be simultaneously there and yet not as if fading in and out of existence from another dimension....and that is not far from the truth.

Zomes are Zonohedral Domes and the fact that they resemble jewels is no coincidence. The crystalline natural beauty of many gems and stones is a direct, one and the same, result of the properties of matter and space itself. There are many types of crystals and they are of the inanimate world some of the most interesting, beautiful and useful artifacts known to exist. The space filling structures upon which crystals align are some of the same structures that guide the design and formation of the Zomes. They are crystals realized in wood with human hands, sweat, persistence and love along with a dash of thinking. 

The Miracula Mirabilis Crystallizing

The Zomes of Zonotopia are much like those Cargo Cult airplanes built in the Pacific Islands. They are built calling out to a higher aspiration of something that could be, something that should be. Something that were it to enter our dimension would befuddle and amaze us as much as the Boeing 747 would the peoples of the Cargo Cult.

And if so then, what would happen if the 'real Zome' returned. What would that be like? Would it be like a spaceship landing on earth? Or would it be like an inter-dimensional crystalline craft which waxes then wanes in place as it passes through our world? When we touch it what will we feel? When we enter it what will we see? What will we understand? Would we ever be the same from the experience?

So buckle your britches and prepare to be perplexed. The Zomes of Zonotopia these years gone by have aligned their geometries in a perfect conjunction of form into a seed which is precipitating a hyper-dimensional chain reaction that cannot be stopped. 

The Quasicrystalline Zome is coming!

-Rob Bell

zome mani padme zome

The Aspirational Tadpole

The tadpole in a shrinking puddle asks,

will my legs grow in time? 

So that I can become something 

I imagine but cannot conceive.

What is it?

I do not know.

But I would like it to build a mirror

so the Universe can gaze upon itself 

and feel beautiful

like me.

-Rob Bell

Burning Man 2012 - Zonotopia and the Two Trees

Zonotopia and the Two Trees glowing under the full moon

(photo by Joe Azure)

2012 was our fourth year to bring the Zomes of Zonotopia to Black Rock City. And it was our largest and most ambitious design to date. Whereas in 2011 we had three Zomes, this year there were five Zomes forming a pentagonal courtyard around the Two Trees.

 The evening of Wednesday, August 29th 2012 we managed to get to the Artery just in time to get the last Art placement of the day.

As the sun sets shortly after our placement the base hubs of the Two Trees sit on the playa like giant tinker toys. Let the unloading of the truck begin!

Day 1

On the next morning, Thursday, I'm doing my best impression of a motivational speaker. It was already very hot and dusty. Luckily I have the best build crew on the playa.

 This year, Surrender, the High Priestess of Zonotopia, cared for the crew by cooking us delicious, healthy meals with food grown in her garden.

 We began by building the base ring of each Zome.

 It didn't take long to see what kind of weather we were in for.

 Once the base rings of the Zomes were build I directed their final placement.

 A little to the left...back to the right....perfect!

 Once the positioning was finalized the crew broke up into groups and all the Zomes began springing up at once.

 In many ways our infrastructure took a great leap forward this year...a lift gate! We're never going back.

 As the Zomes get assembled we begin constructing the Two Trees. Many of these parts were meeting each other for the first time.

 Yeah, we rock like that!

 Even MadDog stopped by to do some constructive crushing.

 Earl, master builder, showing us how it's done.

 Dust, what dust!?

 The original Bodhisattva Zome graces the playa for the fourth consecutive year.

 One by one all twenty of the 11' tall pedestal parts lock into their slot.

 Everything is looking very good. But will the top hubs fit and function as planned?

 Sometimes Zome building is a spectator sport.

 By late afternoon all the Zomes were finishing up and both of the Tree pedestal base structures were complete.

Day 2

 

 On Friday morning we eat breakfast between the Two Trees. That's the assembly table from my shop. It is the anvil upon which every Zome I've ever made has been forged.

 

 Food from the Algarden...with bacon!

 It was a magical and beautiful experience to camp and build on the playa.

 As usual, Sergio garnishes extra style points.

 Annie aka Little Birdie placed the summit star onto the Zonotopia Zome! Yay!

 Moment of truth...and the hubs fit!
And perfectly at that!

 Everyone got to take a turn "standing" atop the pedestal.

 Star Tiger and Sunshine take a turn surfing the Star Ship.

 Lizzie Strata sees a future in Zome based burlesque.

 And then Surrender, the High Priestess of Zonotopia shows us all how it's done.

 Alex gets the honor of inserting the core support shaft.

It's still Day 2. Jeff and I build as high as we can reach before the boom lift arrives tomorrow.

 From here on up we knew it would work as all of these parts had been pre-assembled in the studio. This is the most sophisticated four valence connector system I've yet designed and it performed like a dream.

Day 3

 Amazing sunrise over the Temple on Saturday. Even though we left the Bay Area 16 hours late we've made great progress and we are on schedule. One more night camping on the playa. Tomorrow is Sunday and that's when we are supposed to be done.

 And every morning Val taught yoga...funny thing though, this is the only pose I ever saw them do.

 

Audacity, the Zonotopia project manager, explores her hydration options.

 

 I thank the Sun, the Moon and the Earth itself for good coffee!

 Our boom lift arrived! And Jay the same operator we had last year is driving!

 

Many of us get to go up and participate in the assembly of the Tree from the boom lift.

Meanwhile the Gold Tree is being constructed from the scaffolding.

 Jeff Starr in the Zome.

 Audacity and PacMan take a turn.

 

 To finish the top of the Silver Tree sub structure Patricia comes up and we do it together.

 We did it! On the afternoon of the third day all of the primary sub-structures are complete. 

It was three years prior to the day more or less that Patricia and I built the Bodhisattva Zome out in the deep playa...the spark that ignited this flame.

And they already looked so beautiful no one wanted to cover them.

 A major milestone was reached; one worthy of a celebratory break!

 And a team photo! Long live Zonotopia!

 And lunch!

Happy Zonotopians! Stephanie, Megan and Soleil.

 

 Sergio, Jay and Rob.

 There is still work to be done. The trees need to be skinned and the electrical needs to be put into place. We need to be done and gone from the playa by this time tomorrow.

 The trencher came to help with our electrical grid.

And some trenching was done old school.

 All of the LED light domes were installed into the panels onsite and ready to be attached to the trees.

Day 4

 Sunrise on Sunday, weather-wise this was to be one of our more epic days.

 I, Zomadicus Robustus aka "Rob", test reclining under the Tree for the first time.

 Some touch up painting prior to hooking up the internal lighting.

 Winning!

 One panel was left off for access. Little Birdie and I entered the orifice to hook up the lighting.

 ...and a dust storm starts up..a strong one. We ultimately had to abort this attempt for safety and try again with more success later.

 The Two Trees lite for a brief period during the day when they first came on.

And Finally Done!

 Here we see the setting Sun illuminating the sky as we inaugurate Zonotopia during our fourth annual Zome party Wednesday evening with our camp hosts Mission Country Club. 

(photo by Jay Hubler)

 Each of the five Zomes had it's own RGB color shifting chauvet which gave the impression of being lit by fire from within. These beautiful Zome lighting effects designed by Zonotopian Stephanie.

 And as each of the Two Trees shifted thru the color spectrum the effect was otherworldly and magical.

Painted white and gold, each of the Trees were full ten frequency polar zonohedra sitting atop 11' tall pedestals. At the center of each of the rhombic panels were individually addressed LEDs. 

 By day Zonotopia rose from the playa like an oasis in the desert.

One of the new Zomes with slumbering Zonotopian inside.

This year, two new Zomes made their Burning Man debut. They are referred to as the Twins since except for color they are identical. One is yellow and one is white and while they've together been built over a half dozen times they've never been put together the same way twice. This time we mixed the yellow and white panels up to illustrate the helical nature of the rhombic bands, called zones. That's the "zone" in zonohedron.

 The Gold Tree of Zonotopia

While the Gold Tree looked stunning and was well appreciated by everyone it was heartbreaking that shortly before leaving San Francisco I decided to reduce the design from the spectacular mirrored double helical polar zonohedron to a smaller, simpler single polar zonohedron design. This was a tough call, especially since 99% of the parts required to fulfill the original design existed and were ready to go, and so much work had gone into it, but it was the right call. The components which didn't properly make the deadline were structurally critical and didn't meet my standards required to complete the original design safely. The good news is that, like the Zomes, the Trees are designed  to be built and rebuilt many times...no we didn't burn them...so next time soon, at a festival near you! ;-)

The Silver Tree of Zonotopia

The Silver Tree rose to it's full glory from the playa. As is to be expected with anything never built in it's entirety before there were a few gotchas but none were irrecoverable. In the end it was majestic, beautiful and proud; a fine manifestation of the vision. The exterior panel system which we hadn't had time to test worked wonderfully. The lighting was beautiful and at times the reclining seating was 100% filled with people.

 This is Zonotopia and the Two Trees.

 The Zonotopia Crew 2012

 To Stephanie Miller for her lighting design, fortitude and sheer stamina and to Earl for his friendship and mad skills with tools, Thank you, both.

 To Megan and Sergio, for being wellsprings of love and positivity. Thank you!

 To Jesse and Soleil, for all your love, support and infectious silly behavior. Thank you!

 To Alex, for believing in the dream. Thank you and see you in Thunderdome!

 To Jeff and Val, in addition to your never ending supply of beverages and vitamins, Thank you for being awesome, solid and strong. Thank you both.

 Thanks goes out to the breakdown crew. Zonotopians Tanya and Jesper. And to Tanya for her mad shop skillz on the table router. Thank you!

And also on the breakdown crew Zonotopian Willow. I couldn't have done it without you. Thank you!

 To Audrey and Ian, For all of your help before the beginning and up to the end. Thank you!

To Annie for the many hours in the studio of precision cutting and crimping wiring so that the LED lights worked. Stellar job, Thank you!

And to Patricia, the High Priestess of Zonotopia for caring for all of us with love and thoughtfulness, Thank you!

 

Thank you all!

-Rob Bell

 zome mani padme zome

Special Thanks to:

all my good friends at

LED lighting support from

the support of

and