Glistering on the horizon, stellar bodies seem to rise from the Playa and yet have landed from elsewhere. A rippling skin of convex mirrors is multiplied across the star’s surface like a network of cells, with every viewer held at the nucleus .. framed in the vision and creations of community- fractal portraits of fractal organisms
Unique connections and self-similarity on all scales of magnification reflect the fractal nature of living organisms – galaxies, constellations, trees, the historical metropolis, the human brain, bacteria. Shared dreams magnetically draw us to gather, compress, and radiate out again; the historical metropolis arose organically, as a fractal, living web of small (pedestrian) and large-scale interactions and networks. Town squares/plazas, trees, the public telephone, small businesses- the places of human connection – disappeared as the planned cities of the 20th century erased the small-scale aspect to give rise to the car city, a place of large-scale movement and function..a de-humanizationThrough cycles of history, we have exteriorized the small – our living nature – into the large – our living environments. Housed in a fractal body and embedded in a fractal universe, the return to the polis of the personal seems marked on our maps .
Curvilinear, round, symmetrical yet organic- the budding forms of the spherical mirrors hint at the promise of creative ripening and, perhaps, a re-emergence of the organic, fractal city.
Coming closer, we admire the star’s undulating, continuous skin of convex mirrors. Large and small, in self-repeating patterns – our own reflection catches us first, but looking just beyond our own likeness, we see ourselves embedded in the background of the desert, sky, neighbors, Black Rock City… The act of seeing generates a unique fractal portrait, as every viewer is framed within the living organism that is Burning Man..self-similarity and replication on all scales, yet with unique perspectives and hints of chaos..
As the tips of the geometric forms rise through the surface of the desert, we sense the strength of the triangle as it reaches up from a broadening base. Yet, its reach is through a delicate point of connection, tips that merge easily, gracefully, into their surroundings, a contrast to the thrusting form of the rectangle that dominates our daily visual experience of structure. A balance of form with surrounding is underscored as the strong symmetry complements the fractal curves of the undulating mirrors.
An irregularity in the skin of mirrors catches our eye..one of the mirrors, in place of one large mirror, there are multiple lenses, like a compound eye We lift this hatch to enter a constellated, glittering shrine of reflection.It is a pyramidal chamber, gently-illuminated, with shining facets and a kaleidoscopic apex. It is as if we are the central star in a glittering constellation, with glints of light held in orbit of our every movement. Here, we hold space for ‘reflection’ in its different senses, as scintilla echo the ephemeral, fragmented plays of light and chaos of personal existence.
