Interviews

An interview with Quest Skinner Photo and Art Courtesy of Quest Skinner Part of the Burning Man Series A Washington, D.C. local and an acclaimed artist, Quest Skinner has learned to not only incorporate the environment in her creations, but to work with it. “As an artist,” she says, “ learning to build for nature has been one of my things the last couple years. I can pretty much build almost anything, but if it's not gonna work for the land, it’s not going to work.”  Skinner utilizes non-invasives and sustainable alternatives in her artwork wherever she can. She believes that when it comes to art, “We can do all of these great things, but we don't have to be invasive. We don't have to be damaging, or hurtful.”   Skinner carries these beliefs beyond her...

Interview with Will Yudis Photo Courtesy of Timothy Johnson Part of the Burning Man Series “Basically, like, you step in the mud with your boot and you'll get like a circle of mud around your boot. So now you've got like 10 more pounds on each of your feet with that circle of mud. But every time you step, it gets exponentially bigger until you're stepping with two bird feet, or huge mud clunkers.” Will Yudis, a junior at San Diego State, says that of all the weather extremes he’s seen in the desert, a hurricane was the first. Yudis had been attending Burning Man for many years, commonly experiencing waves of extreme heat in the daytime and serious cold during the night. But this year was different.  Yudis remembers the calm before the storm.“The first day was g...

An interview with Jonathan Yudis Photo Courtesy of Jonathan Yudis Part of the Burning Man Series Jonathan Yudis, Will’s father, is the co-founder and lead of Camp Mystic, and he has been attending Burning Man for over 20 years. While he typically prepares for sandstorms, wind, extreme heat, and cold, the one thing he wasn’t expecting was rain. Nevertheless, throughout the chaos, he remained unfazed. “One of the things that has always made Burning Man unique and appealing is its emphasis on radical self-reliance. It’s about entering this adverse environment and dealing with the conditions. Traditionally, it's a desert, so it's extremely hot. And that's challenging in and of itself. You've got to create shade,” he explains. Beyond self-reliance, Yudis had a unique role...

An interview with Bill Stierle Photo Courtesy of Bill Stier Part of the Burning Man Series Having years of experience in interpersonal crisis management, Bill Stierle observed reactions to the storm that hit Burning Man through a psychological lens. “I would talk to different people at different levels of anxiety,” he said. Eventually people’s tents started flooding, and mass chaos ensued. However, not everyone was terrified. “Some people were feeling calm,” Stierle noted. “They were adapting just fine.”  To Stierle, although the rain was bad, it was manageable. “Most people had a modest to low impact from the water. Two thirds of the population didn't leave. One third, were the ones that got too scared thinking to themselves, I'm gonna get stuck. I need to get out...

An interview with Timothy Johnson Photo Courtesy of Timothy Johnson Part of the Burning Man Series With an influx of people, Burning Man’s infrastructure has changed over time. Notably,  the festival has created a sustainability initiative. “The design initiative was to create sustainable architecture that utilized solar, geothermal or things that were regenerative.”  Johnson says that this initiative “probably hasn't moved as fast as it could….We have a couple of 48-foot semi-trailers that that we could put solar panels on.” Smaller camps are even discussing solar generators, or hydrogen generators without emissions. In regards to the problem of heat in past events,  “how we've adapted is to create shade structures and then with power systems, we have ai...