Super Street Fire is designed to be more than just an awesomely fun game. Part of our goal in designing this interactive installation is to create a thrilling spectacle to entrance the denizens of Black Rock City. Fire performers will dazzle the crowd with performances every night, and overseeing the madness will be the evening’s Master of Games (MG). Equipped with a tablet and gloves which control the ring’s flame effects, the MG will officiate the matches and provide commentary as the show unfolds. Here’s a pic of me as Master of Games with an early Super Street Fire prototype at Firefly 2011:

Aspiring MGs will be meeting for a series of workshops between now and the Burn for training. On the technical side, we’ll be learning how to use the tablet to oversee each fight and to make flames with the brush of a fingertip, and how to use the gloves to accent our gestures with fire. On the performance side, we’ll be working on character development and stage presence and how to create a carnival-like atmosphere which captures the thrill of the classic game. We’re lucky enough to have the talented Dave McKay, Toronto’s infamous Sketchy the Clown, helping us with the performance aspect of the workshops.

Things I have learned so far working on the Super Street Fire project:

First of all, coffee is important. It’s 2nd after oxygen, and before safety equipment. If you can combine safety equipment and coffee, say by creating safety goggles with cold coffee inside them, then you will become wealthy and loved.

In Project Management school, they always taught us that as good PMs, we CAN manage any project, but… we shouldn’t. That is, if you’re completely new to the subject matter, you’re at a distinct disadvantage.

This is why I would be ill advised to manage a high fashion shoe show, a tractor pull, or building a giant death ray to repel an alien invasion. I’m not an expert in those areas.

With Super Street Fire, I sort of had some experience in the subject matter… sort of… in that I had managed software projects before, although they were not [awesome] real-time motion detecting games, and I was asked politely with a geniune smile by the project sponsor, so I jumped in.

The result has been a thrill akin to the type you feel when you’re in the last car of the roller coaster and you fall out as it’s climbing the first hill, and have to hang on the back with your bare hands the whole time.

Hyperbolic similies aside, it has been exciting to work with wearable electronics designers, builders of every sort, and software designers who seem cooler than most. It’s been a learning experience, but more than that it’s been great to see that the special spirit of enterprise that is BurningMan has found new adherents and a new army of makers to keep the dream going, and to make it bigger.

I want to take this time to heartily thank the Super Street Fire team for continuing to support me (i.e. carry me) and to keep pushing the project to be bigger and better.

THANK YOU.

If you have ever attend a burner related event you likely have heard someone utter the phrase “safety third”, typically in conjunction with some type of a crash, death defying act or unexpectedly large ball of flame. Yes, going to the desert and lighting things on fire is an inherently dangerous activity but the organizers take participant’s safety very seriously. If safety were truly third Burning Man likely would not have grown to what it is today.

Below is an excerpt from a flame effect workshop courtesy of Flux Foundation about “Safety Third” that was brought to my attention by our friend and fellow artist Rawhide:

Safety is critically important and we take it very seriously. However, it is not our only concern.

 If safety was exclusively first, we would be without many of the tools, toys and adventures that make life worth living. There would be no progress, no learning and no growth. We would lose the joy of discovering or creating something new, joyous or useful.

 While we will not needlessly put ourselves at risk, ‘Safety Third’ affirms that creativity, curiosity and experimentation will forever guide our continued growth and evolution.

This is one of the most meaningful perspectives I have seen on the subject and believe it is spot on. Just because you are making some cool flame effect or grinding a weld on an out-of-this-world sculpture, there is no reason why you cannot wear safety glasses. You can be an expressive and spontaneous artist and have a clean studio free of obstructions.

Safety is the new sexy.

Flux Foundation- http://fluxfoundation.org/

My name is Sara and I love wood. I want to run around yelling it at the top of my lungs, but it might not go over very well, or worse it might go over too well.

Until a week ago, my knowledge of woodworking was limited to hand sawing firewood, sharpening pencils, and whittling marshmallow twigs with a pathetically dull blade. Aside from my great appreciation of finely crafted wood stuffs, I had no idea this love even existed. All it took was one afternoon working on the Super Street Fire stage build and I was hooked.

After a thorough safety tutorial with 4Ward, complete with tips, tricks and a short vocabulary lesson, it was time to start. My first task? Cut some 2x4s down to the right size and chamfer the edges for a clean and über-professional finish. I set to work on the sliding mitre saw, hesitant at first to have so much power at my fingertips, and my fingertips so close to that much power. It was like cutting butter and it was ridiculously satisfying. I wanted to cut butter all day. That is, until I was smitten with the handheld chamfering tool.

With every cut, tool and technique, I could see my confidence grow. It didn’t take long before each tool became an extension of myself—the superior cybernetic limbs I kind of wish I had. I was so floored that I barely noticed how chilly it was outside, and even if I had, it wouldn’t have mattered.

Over that first weekend and the one that followed, I learned how to set up and create pocket holes, mastered the handheld chamfering tool, helped build two sets of steps and turned a ton of raw wood into a functional, sturdy and admittedly good-looking set of stages. Not bad for a newb.

I can now honestly say, “I love wood” and mean it… in every possible sense of the phrase.

1. Two players face each other on the stage.

2. Player 1 jabs with a left. Ball of flame advances on “up stage rail”.

3. Flame shoots towards Player 2.

4. Flame hits Player 2. Point to Player 1.