Alchemy 2013

Emergent themes that I am exploring through my participation in the "Transformational" festival culture. 

NOTE: This not at all an academic article. It's just the seed thinking for a number of possible articles not to mention some semi-metaphysical musings and rambling thrown in.

Theme #1: Creativity in relation to organization and labor.

Creativity is, inherently within its unfolding processes, self-organizing.  The organizing aspects are integral and emerge from within the creative process itself.  Cultures are primarily self-sustaining not through the emergence of organizational social structures, nor by designated divisions of "work" and labor, but by the creative process that brings both organization and labor into being.  With the manifestation of organization and labor, sustainability is made feasible as an inevitable by-product of the creative process.  

Faces in Motion: Rootwire 2013

For me, there is a lot to think about here. These transformational festivals are, I think, creating something important within American popular culture. But it might be more accurate to say that they have been creating something important within American popular culture over the past 40 something years really. Through music, ritual, art, and self organized sub-communities, these festivals have been generating lifestyles, aesthetics, and values...quietly under the national radar. Culture, but rooted in what? 

Euphoria 2013; The Advantages of Smaller

was my first Burning Man  regional. It was so small compared to Burning  Man itself, but I was surprised at how much I got out of it in terms of my thinking and in meeting interesting people. The size was actually an advantage even if the event was far less "spectacular".

Commerce and Transformation: Interesting Approach

At present I have two basic sets of destinations for my IFP program that fall under two fundamental categories: Transformational Festivals, and Immigrant Musical Sub-Cultures.

The above is obviously of the former. What intrigues me about this festival, like many others outside the Burning Man and it's Regionals proliferation, is that commerce is not frowned upon. I found the explanation given within the 2nd installment of the Bloom series to be really enlightening: make the festivals a way of life, a true subculture. 

Test Videos From the Road: Discussions on Burning Man and my Society for Music, Ritual, and the Ecstatic Experience

[Two ruff videos that pose some basic questions; they are not scholar-level presentations at all, but they each serve more as note-taking to myself.]

Here is an Introductory video to my Society for Music, Ritual, and the Ecstatic Experience website
https://www.smree.org/