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Burning Man to hold up power lines!
Have you ever wondered how the Burning Man organization can afford all that elaborate, commissioned artwork out on the playa? You know, all that stupid Seven Ages of Whatever crap? Somebody has to pay for that stuff, and our ticket costs barely cover the BLM fees and porta-potty rentals. So where do they get the money to do it? Why, by licensing out the Burning Man logo and design to architecture firms, of course! Check out this power lines tower, which was designed by Foster and Partners, an international architecture and design practice based in London. Obviously, somebody in this company has been to Burning Man. This design won first prize in a competition held by ENEL, the Italian National Electricity Company, which is the world's third largest electrical utility. The goal was to design an environmentally-sensitive high-voltage power pylon. This particular design, which... hmmm... looks eerily familiar, will be put into production and installed throughout Italy this year. ENEL organised the design competition in response to criticism that its existing high-voltage pylons were insensitive to suburban and rural environments. According to the Foster and Partners web site, "This pylon design is meant to be less crude and conventional than the traditional 'Christmas tree' configurations. The minimal structure is more 'agricultural,' organic and sympathetic to the landscape." Blah blah blah. Whatever, it's a total rip-off of the Burning Man. If someone in the BMorg was smart, they would have already sued these people and gotten a big fat chunk of cash. Then maybe we could have had nice, clean porta-potties all this week. Or who knows? Maybe the BMorg already got paid a hefty licensing fee for this design, and that's why Larry Harvey and Maid Marian paid cash for the two dozen mobile homes the Burning Man staff are using this year. Oh, you mean you haven't heard? |
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