Overview

We are raising money to build project DIPTOWN for Burning Man 2022.

DIPTOWN is a sprawling landscape installation of a ghost town buried in the dust, with only a few roofs seen on the surface. This is the project where each and every member of Burning Man community can participate in, returning home in their thoughts, enriching DIPTOWN with their stories, memories, or maybe leaving there a piece of themselves like a favorite scarf. The ghost town is meant to evoke feelings of nostalgia for the place and time that has never existed in the real world.

The idea of DIPTOWN was conceived back in 2019 as a premonition of big changes. Ghost towns often appear because of big and drastic changes. For instance, when a mining / industrial town, or a town on Route 66 becomes unnecessary due to an upcoming progress, an abrupt regress, or some incident. Though the majority of ghost towns in the United States usually became famous from the times of the Wild West, we continue witnessing new ghost towns appear every now and then, due to either wars, or wildfires, or any other reasons that force people to leave their homes.

As the largest part of DIPTOWN hidden underground, the same way as the largest part of its history is hidden from people's eyes, for each visitor this ghost town will be unique, everyone can imagine, feel and find something special of their own. As you visit DIPTOWN, we invite you to share your ideas, stories, and memories.

The creators of DIPTOWN is an international team, with people spread across multiple countries in both hemispheres of the world. Our team members took part in different local and Burning Man Projects, and we also have some newbies who will attend Burning Man for the first time.

Budget

In 2020 we won a Honoraria grant. Since then we have been constantly reassessing our budget as the prices continue increasing all the time. In addition to the grant, we collected $19k in direct donations. Today, in order for us to move forward with our project we need another $20k, therefore we are asking for help from the Burners community.  

We are trying to cut our budget as much as we can. Where possible, we will use recycled construction materials and decorations, building everything on our own. Our art project leads will be arriving in the United States, flying across the world, ahead of time in order to build all art pieces here at the spot, instead of delivering them pre-built, so we can save on delivery fees.

Our budget includes:

• Wooden beams 
• Building materials, such as plywood, slate, decoration materials
• Fasteners
• Paint
• Anchors
• Short-term space and storage in Gerlach
• Delivery costs to bring disassembled art from Gerlach to Playa, and back to Reno at the end

Our budget does not include:

• Pay to the artists, architects and builder
• Expenses on transportation and accommodations for our team members
• Tickets
• Food and water
• Camp supplies

Please get involved! Share this campaign! Spread the word about our art project! We need your participation!

We are not offering any T-shirts, stickers or postcards for your participation. As we mentioned, we have tried to cut our budget as much as possible, and it doesn’t have room for the costs of souvenirs. All the collected funds will be invested in our art project, to make it the most inspiring and powerful experience for everyone who will participate and witness it at Burning Man 2022. Our art project is our genuine gift to the community. 

Participate

Founded on the 10 principles, our goal is to have as many people participate in our project as possible. And we want to provide an opportunity to everyone to be able to express themselves in our project and to make a difference. Beside your financial contribution, we would love to hear your ideas to enhance our project.

- you can suggest paint colors on the walls, prints for the wallpaper, you can draw a sticker, a poster, or a graffiti; you can send us a picture or an image which we will frame and hang on the wall as a poster;

- or you can come up with some facts about the town, names for the streets and squares, some local spots and even the names of the citizens.

We will turn wishes into reality and create the DIPTOWN puzzle out of separate, unique pieces.

A little bit about us

Here are some prior projects on Burning Man or local events, in which members of our team have participated in:

Slonik, 2019

Glorywall, 2018

Holoquarium, 2018

LANTERN, 2021

The power plant, 2021

The party that doesn’t exist #2 (winter), 2020

The party that doesn’t exist #1 (summer), 2020

Timeline

June 22 - August 22: Crowdfunding

July 25 - August 1: Finalization of mock-up models and drawings

August 1 - August 22: The main phase of construction

August 22 - August 27: Assembly on Playa

August 28 - September 5: Burning Man!

September 5 - September 7: Disassembly, delivery to Reno

September 10 - September 20: Documentation and sharing a report with participants and donors along with sharing all the ideas collected

Thanks a lot!

This project is very important to us. The idea emerged in 2019, and we won the Honoraria grant in 2020. In the past two years lots of things have happened in the world, and have changed it tremendously. Burning Man was not held for two years and we were uncertain if we would ever come back to the Black Rock City. 

During all that time we were not giving up on our goal, and we believed that as soon as Burning Man is announced to happen again, we will be back to Black Rock City and build the DIPTOWN there. 

Today we need your help for the realization of the project, which we have been trying to make happen for so long!

Only thanks to your donations and ideas, the DIPTOWN will appear in the shape and form which we have envisioned it - a magical, mysterious, impressive, meaningful, unique place, which has never existed but will always be remembered. 

Please join and help us bring our project into reality!