shiny metal bug
plastic eating miracle
we love you, fire freak

could be israeli
bloemfontein? get outta here!
unicorns are strange

rabbit out the hole
round the tree and… lost in space
where’d mission man go?

clean cut action man
parties and works till dawn with
marshmallow queen bitch

hey, what time is love?
between 11ish and 4ish
at sunrise no doubt

no going to bed
party phoenix rises hot
sun needs more cowbell

cool gravel, warm face
silent connected in smoke
humans can ring true

as a child in love
creation was so easy
dead skills blow away

great fucking job man
really a great fucking job
and now the next thing

The post Decompression Haiku’s appeared first on The Dung Beetle Project.

Sina, a friend from the festival, described it as an applied utopia, the most accurate definition that I have found so far.

My first perception is that of a great party, music, costumes, and drugs. Or simply thousands of hippies camping. That would be the most superficial observation. In the first 24 hours, I understand that behind that there is a whole system: the first thing I discover is that collaborating and helping is essential to be a part of the experience. From washing dishes or building a shower to collaborating on the piece of art (that’s a short description) that my camp contributed to the community.

We created a steel structure in the shape of a beetle that transforms plastic into fuel, and which is also a professional stage for DJs. That’s just one of the hundreds of works that people build for the event.

Then I come to understand that solidarity and generosity have no limits. Interaction with others shows their good vibes. Constant smiles with strangers and even hugs and sometimes kisses before exchanging a word. We all help each other, we are all connected, and as hokey as it sounds, we are all one.

Several days of feeling that almost everyone is kind, and there is no violence or fear, we discover the magic of our species.

On Wednesday, my first morning, I go for a walk with Victor, an 11-year-old boy who is staying in my camp, where there are about 20 people. This is the fourth time that Victor has been to a burn. He already knows what happens here, he knows the themes of most of the camps and it is perfectly oriented (it is very easy to get lost).

Neil, his father, told me that Victor “is a kid with his eyes wide open”. I thought it was a great description.

Victor struck me because this place seems like an incredible place to be a child. It seems many adults come here to be children again. A simplistic comparison would be to say that this is a kind of playground, both entertaining and surprising.

Here, as I said, we forget about money and exchanges based on material value. The people range from those who spent thousands of dollars to build a structure to burn it at the end, to those who distribute hugs or drawings or just dance. There is an overall feeling that no one is more than anyone else.

I find a coffee shop called Aliens, with sofas where they give away coffee in exchange for compliments. I meet K, a blonde from my camp who had already caught my attention. The erotic connection is immediate; here there is space for lust, unbridled and fantastic.

Night comes and we eat at the camp with the others and go out again to explore this alternate world. The electronic music is perhaps the best in I have heard, and even though I am not a fan I felt the greatest musical euphoria here. We are going to see Victor’s dance presentation in one of the theme camps. This kid amazes me more and more.

After the show, I continue the journey with K, who makes it clear to me that it is better to take advantage of the night by separately exploring. At first, I feel the sting in the ego, but then I understand the great favor she did for me. It’s a lesson in independence, what is freedom but the freedom to walk away with only kindness in our hearts.

Dependence coming from fear does not fit here. I walk alone, I reflect, I observe my sensations and I learn. I find a movie theater where they’re showing Pulp Fiction and I lie there for a while. I am grateful for everything, again.

On Thursday I start the day with my first shower. Then I go out to help build and move our art to a new location, thousands of kilos of experimental metal requires a lot of work. We loaded generators, steel sheets, all kinds of tools and relocated the structure to make a party that night.

I notice the fragility of my hands compared to others like Pops, a man around 60 who invented our beetle-shaped machine. Watching others work so that I can enjoy our party later is rather embarrassing. I work The women in our camp have impressive physical strength, doing the heavy lifting, assembling, welding. I finish my job and feel satisfied. No one is more than anyone. Everyone collaborates.

That night walking with my Canadian friend Jason with whom I came here we met Sina, a German with whom I spent most of the time from there on. I think this relationship is the most difficult to describe, the most sublime, the most surreal. If soulmates exist, that would be the closest thing to describe it.

With her I walked around the burn for hours, I think we traveled more than 60 kilometers in 3 days. We explored the sculptures, discovered an immense red thread network with a large mattress that is far in the middle of the desert, a water bed with a view to the stars, huge spiders, phosphorescent globes, and many other things.

I try again to describe what she was to me: a kind of fulfillment, a guide, and in all the time I was with her I think she did not say a single word that was superfluous. Her intelligence was clear, her comments seemed to read my mind. We walked and talked for hours that first day, then we went to sleep, each to our own camp.

We agreed to meet on Friday at 11 am or 3 pm at the pizza where we first met. If someone didn’t show up, no problem.

She was there and we went for a communal bath together. We took our clothes off and we lined up naked with dozens of people. Then we lathered and bathed with raised arms, literally like a car wash with those huge sponges.

The weather was spectacular, the energy of the whole place rose markedly as the week went by.

Crazy outfits on, we went out to walk. At one point we reached a camp where about 30 people passed a microphone to talk about polyamory. We went in and listened to a piece of the conversation about the challenges of this relationship model, how difficult it is to let go and allow us to love without attachments, in different ways, and with different people. I learned new things.

The importance of honesty and communication. The challenge of redefining love. The concept kept spinning in my head. So many paradigms are broken here that it’s necessary to have this type of space.

Sina and I went exploring. Jason stayed there facing the situation with a former partner and they worked through past wrongs. He managed to take a load off. Everyone seems to get their lessons here if they listen.

Sina and I continue, and I am still amazed by my partner, I do not know what it is but there something very special: it could be the best version of myself, or a version of myself in another life, or as if she knew everything that I have still to learn… I do not know but it’s awesome. Everything is easy, relaxed, comfortable, and at the same time surprising and absurd. As if we had met on another planet. One really feels on another planet a good deal of the time.

At night we see the burning of the clan, the most imposing structure. Flames of 40 meters rise in the air. The act transmutes to me some of the spirit of the festival: a structure that could take months to build, that required money and effort, collapses in flames. At the most intense moment of the burning, we are intercepted by a guy with a black cape, a movie character who surprises me with his inspired speech.

He asks us where we are from, Sina says Germany and the man gives an impeccable discourse on Germany’s greatness. After the speech, she describes it as epic, the exact word. I still have his face and his voice in my head. We travel more structures and camps. We ended the day on a marshmallow cushion bed.

In the morning I take a shower, fix the camp and at 2 pm I meet Sina after a fiery and passionate meeting with K back at our camp. This is all new to me. I arrived to find her just in time. Sina, K, -I have thoughts that confuse what’s “right”, what’s moral, etc, but it seems OK too. Here I understand that it’s not necessarily wrong to have two loving relationships.

In most of the wider world, we have created a system that routinely punishes sharing love, but it does not have to be that way. There are other possible rules. With honesty, guilt cannot exist in the mind. Sina is my companion, my soulmate. K is passion, fire… I can not explain this. I’m still digesting it.

I spend the day again with Sina, the exploration is endless, the sunset epic. We see it from a wooden structure with the best reggae in the background and with Victor there jumping around and dancing. We walk through the whole festival in rhythm and flow.

We all take care of each other. We do what we want, with all the creativity of the world and we end up together here. We are one. We see the cabaret, we go to the coffee shop, and we walk through the camps a lot more. We ended the night in the waterbed under the stars. Maximum fulfillment. Sunday morning I get up to breakfast and pack.

Everything during this week that I asked for was given to me. The most basic principles of happy human relationships resonated strong in me: love and respect, generosity, solidarity. I felt like a discoverer of the infinite ways of loving.

One young man who I chatted to echoed my thoughts: “the first time I came to this festival I saw what can happen if humans are given freedom”.

I also remember the Israeli with shiny eyes who told me that here he understood the power of being good to others, the power of treating others as we treat ourselves.

Like a desert flower’s short but striking life this social experiment reveals all its beauty for a week and then disappears without a trace. Soon this desert will be empty, clean and silent as if nothing happened here at all.

The post This is my summary of an experience that has given me real faith in humanity. appeared first on The Dung Beetle Project.

You have not heard from me as I was hiding in my cocoon of safety between warm baths, soft sheets and the Unicorn’s arms. My eldest wolfie, dearest Granny has passed away and I took some time to remember her by.

Now the dust has settled… I’m finally remembering: A difficult first morning after arriving to nothingness. My bestie, my beauty, Miss G sees the hellfire that I am without coffee.. (think I scared her away for good) the angel puts a warm cup of coffee in my hands. We have coffee! It’s going to be alright!

A team working hard in the harshest sun. How will we survive this heat? We create shade. We will be alright. We setup a kitchen, the mother of all mothers has prepared a cooked meal for each day, we will not be hungry, I love her already. We will be alright.

Those mad scientists pulled together and setup a plastic eating bug! Those mad scientists actually did it! We are going to be great! We setup a stage with sound so clear and deep thanks to a Beer-Munching-Bear, we are going to be the party! We forgot the shower ? Oh wait! What??!! We beg and borrow and build a shower, we are going to be alright! A dust storm nearly blows us away, we work together and then continue taking in our neighbors, helping where we can… We are those kinds of people!

I go volunteer; now that we are good others need help too! Another angel appears; Sasha and I mission, above and beyond duties to make sure all the workers have all they need: “we are getting dust blown and have no masks”; “we are thirsty and have no water” We listen to their complaints and decide there’s only one thing to do; return to base camp and get supplies; 15 Masks: Check, Biiiig bottle filled with Ice cold water: Check. Lots of sweets: Check. Sasha: “ I can share my lunch” Me: “Dammit child why are you so kind? Must run in the family… fine I can share my lunch too”: Check, Check, Check how happy they all are as we return with every request fulfilled. We’re working overtime, our legs tired, our hearts full of energy. In the evening the report comes in: “Best fluffers ever!”

Music for Monday at our home. Victor wants to learn; “how does this all work?” I explain, he listens carefully, he tries, he gets it! He’s an artist inside! We explore and talk about everything and anything for the next couple of days. He can’t be 11, he feels like my best new buddy, my ageless friend.

For the next week I experience heaven, an amazing community, that shares, teaches and helps anyone, anytime. I get to share my art, it takes me to another place when I sing, I feel light headed, euphoria as I sing into the open. I see beautiful creations. I witness from afar the entire burn at the clan. It’s like a rural ritual. So beautiful how we all howl into sky above, together. I kiss the unicorn. I travel far and see many interesting things built with two hands and a creative mind. Timeless souls. I feel the wind, the sun, the love all around us.

But eventually we have to come back to earth and on my worst day, 8 days in, nothing can cheer me up.
I’m overwhelmed: “I’m a girl dammit, with soft sensitive skin and I need warm baths and soft sheets and I want my nails to sparkle and I’m a girl dammit! I need my perfume and my hair done and I need my champagne in a sparkly clean glass, I’m a girl dammit!!!” Victor calmly wraps his arms around me; “It’s going to be ok Polar Bear. We love you, don’t worry, it’s going to be ok” … Aaaah that’s right, in this world I am a Polar Bear, I am strong. And with those words I am better, ready to do more, to carry on, to help more. “Don’t show your weakness, fight if you must, you’re the Polar Bear!”

Simon, David and the Unicorn! My sidekicks of sound! Cables, cables, cables. Speakers, speakers, speakers. Knobs, lights and buttons. Knobs, lights and buttons. Setup and take it down. Wake up: Setup and take it down. Wake up: Setup and take it down. What would I do without you? In between the sound we roam, explore, hug and dance the nights away. We meet hundreds of like-minded souls. Flashes of beautiful memories sneak into my mind. Too many to mention.

I had the best experience of my life, I realized why I’m so in love with the Unicorn. And on the one night I was scared, he was there, physically carrying me. He’ll always be near and his broad shoulders protect me. Nothing can harm me. I am safe. I am loved. Thank you Universe/Mother Earth/ God for sending the Unicorn my way!

Thank you my new found friends. Thank you for a journey. Thank you for letting me be ME (Marshmallow Queen Bitch much? ???) Thank you for opening up to me and sharing your stories. I found the beauty in each DungBeetle camp friend. Every single one of you has a beautiful heart and cares. In the women I found my wolf pack (Who’s ready for an art piece 2019?) Shhh too soon.

We return home, Miss G and I meet on Tuesdays to do Burn things. “See you on Tuesday?” “Yes, we have so much catching up to do” “Can’t wait to share”. Ah she’s back! (with coffee)!

The post Notes from a Polar Bear: appeared first on The Dung Beetle Project.

Getting the system to the festival was a massive endeavor that required renting a a huge trailer, mounting the Beetle and stage on it, then finding a powerful enough truck to pull 2200 Kilograms of unique technology on a 3300 Kilometer round trip on some rough roads.

Everywhere we went people looked at our system encircled by a steel earth like some sort of alien marvel. In the desert town of Calvinia children followed the trailer, taking pictures on their cellphones and asking questions.

Once at the festival a winter wind kicked up and prevented us from shredding plastic into the appropriate micro-size, since of course what worked in the workshop is completely different in practice in the desert, but that is what an early rollout gives us… the chance to correct early mistakes and make it work.

But the elements could not stop the show, and we played Tuesday night at the main clan sculpture with some of our own DJs like Andrew the DJ and Che, both from Johannesburg. If I remember correctly a good time was had by all.

The festival goes on for a week. The wind ended on Thursday (for two days) so by Friday we were ready to start operations and had hundreds of people visit the system. Pierre (pops) and Jeff gave talks during the day and brought in more folks through local Tankwa radio interviews. Our amazing resident Beetle DJs, Bells and Che, did full music sets for the ten thousand or so folks over the airwaves as well as live shows at the Beetle stage in the evening along with some serious

The awesome Luke Atkinson from Camp Anvil helped Gadija Daniels and Pops rig the flame-thrower for the rear end of the Beetle and we hosted fiery and fabulous talks and music for the last few days.

The system is back in Johannesburg now safe and sound and everyone has taken the last week off to pull ourselves towards ourselves and plot our next mission. There is work to do to get the Beetle’s gasification system up and running regularly, and lots of meetings, planning and other more mundane stuff.

We are extremely honored for this exciting debut to have been financially supported by both Afrikaburn and Burning Man in the USA. Our Beetle camp was nothing short of amazing, and everyone pulled together with little sleep and some tough environmental conditions to make this a success.

As we get the system refined in the next few weeks stay tuned for Beetle stage mixes, more amazing imagery like the picture here by myself, and our first liquid fuels production!

A special thanks to all our supporters, our incredible team of new friends from far and wide, our amazing musicians, and the Afrikaburn community who supported us even when one of us (maybe me -ahem) burst the main fan assembly unit while starting it up in the desert last Friday. Oopsy daisy!

We will be back and running next week.

The post With a fabulous fiery burst the Dung Beetle Project made it’s debut at the AfrikaBurn arts festival in South Africa’s Karoo desert in late April to early May. appeared first on The Dung Beetle Project.

It started with a small discussion in camp between others, about a fantasy that probably would never be able to be materialized. I overheard the discussion and was confronted with my own limiting beliefs.

I recall telling my kids so often, looking at the toys they eyed at in the shop, well you’ll never get that, so you may as well move on and dream about something we can afford / agree on… crushing the fantasy.

And how often do we tell ourselves… you’ll never be able to achieve this as a person… you are never able to pull that off… you cannot do that because those you care about will be affected… you won’t have the time or money…

Why not fantasize about things that we know may not happen? Why not indulge in fantasies maybe out of reach? Why not imagine being at happenings, even though logistically its virtually a no-no, or even things that ethically would not go down at all?

Dream big. Fantasize freely. Your mind is yours and you can still enjoy the ride!

(Massive thank you Pops and Jeff for dreaming big. It’s just the beginning!)

photo: Jeff Barbee
Suzan McCreadie is owner of INKFISH digital marketing

The post This is what I wrote the day I arrived home… appeared first on The Dung Beetle Project.