Well...I agree with them on this one. If it's just a car that's been painted or has a bunch of stuff attached to it then it shouldn't be driving around at burningman. I like the idea that if you can tell what kind of car it is then it shouldn't be allowed.

They would let the high heel in wouldn't they?

All of the sculptural art cars would get licenses. And all of the others could be drive through the gates and be parked for display, they just wouldn't be able to drive freely. This has been the case for years. I don't think it's feasible to try to judge whether one car-with-stuff-glued-on-it is worthy to get a license over another based on artistic merrit, and if they were all let in there would be too many cars. So the bar they've chosen is to no longer be able to recognize it as being a car.

well.... this is another classic example of what happens when big business moves in and free thinking people are forceably moved out.

The number of "licensed" vehicles is limited by the BLM from what I heard. I would guess that "public transportation" has come into play somewhat. As mentioned this trend is nothing new, party barges are in and personal transport is out. Pedal power is unlimited from what I understand, feel free to make ANY artbike ya want. I loved seeing stuff parked equally as the ones that were being driven, at time a little more since you got to notice the lil things like bent levels placed on the rear deck and funny graffiti painted small. I hope some folks still bring their rides to be appreciated even though they can no longer cruise the playa with their friends in their own personal ride for only 2 or 4.

The BLM permit stuff is here

www.nv.blm.gov/Winnemucca...ningman.htm

I saw no specific number/limit to mutant vehicles. This page may not be the complete "deal" the ORG has with BLM. From what I saw in the stips section BRC controls the vehicles. There may be liability issues with ORG direct involvement with our public transportation. The Yellow bikes were donated so I think the ORG gets an out if someone falls off one and tries to sue. Personally I think the DMV handles everything pretty well. Day permits for those with insufficient lighting so they can still roll. Sometimes people can even get help at the event to get their ride fixed up and/or safety issues resolved so they can roll a couple days into the event. I would hope that some sort of arrangement can be made so these vehicles can be displayed somewhere central at the event.

On a thread drift in case anyone DMV or ORG checks this thread...

Rather than ban art cars, how about we stop the tourists from driving ALL WEEK long. I saw 4 different vehicles ALL WEEK long being driven regularly.

I would expect that attitude at DMV is not that art cars (ie. decorated cars as seen at art car fest) are not banned at all. What's banned, it seems, is using them as personal motorized transportation. You can certainly take them and even park them out on the Playa as a work of art like any sculpture to be seen by all, just not use them for transportation.

I can see the logic in that. When driving was (mostly) banned the goal was to seriously limit the number of vehicles driving on the playa, and there are reasons for this. I think one way to see the ethic would be "you're allowed to drive if by driving you are contributing something to the community."

Is it the case that the community contribution of an art car requires it to move, or can it be appreciated just as well stationary as driving? I would have to say that for most of the "banned" cars the latter answer is true. And that's also true for some of the mutant vehicles on the playa now. For some vehicles the judgement is easy, in either direction. There are borderline cases too, however.

As such, a bus or party barge clearly only makes its contribution because it moves and carries people. A playa artist's Penske truck gets a playa pass because it helps construct art. Undecorated staff vehicles and LEO vehicles perform their function.

With this slightly different ethic, it would seem reasonable to allow a completely undecorated bus to go out driving as long as it is willing to carry any who ask until it's full. However, it's not hard to see the merit in demanding a mutation because this adds even more. We would rather have the nautilus than an ordinary bus if given the chance.

On the other hand, whatever rule is chosen to limit who drives, it is better if it's as objective as possible, and this concept isn't as good as I would like it. OMG can be appreciated just as well stopped as moving, if not moreso. Fast Furnishings Cupcakes are much cooler because they glide and swarm on the playa. The space shuttle which shoots smoke out the back can only do so while moving, but is otherwise not as heavily mutated as most.

There is another thing to consider. Many people build small mutant vehicles because they want to have motorized wheels, and view the mutation requirement effectively as the "price" of getting the licence to drive. I've certainly talked to many who have expressed their desire in approximately these lines, and indeed almost everybody on the playa has no doubt felt the desire to have an art car. No matter what set of rules are set, people who want wheels will build something to that set of rules and view it as a price.

Is this something we want to encourage or discourage? It does cause more mutants to be generated, including cool ones. It also generates lame ones. And of course there are still many who build because they want to make a cool and creative vehicle, not because it's the only way they can drive.

Please consider the following:

In 2007 the DMV Hotties contributed around 3000 volunteer hours so that mobile art would be possible.

The BLM permit for the event requires the vehicles be registered with the BRC.

Roughly speaking 300 static art pieces were placed on the open playa.

In the region of 500 mutant vehicles were licensed to operate.

47,000 people attended.

The opportunity to have your creation or art move under power is limited, and the community has high expectations for those that do.

Do you want to see the same thing year after year, with the result being the exclusion of new mutant vehicle possibilities?

In 1997, Black Rock City underwent a transformation. After a participant was severely injured in an auto accident in 1996, New rules told folks to park their cars at their campsites — and leave them there. Instead of driving, people walked or rode bicycles. Getting from one place to another in our city now became a story of immediate encounter; spontaneous social interactions multiplied, and a true community began to coalesce.

We had discovered that relying on our cars to get around had reproduced a too-familiar world. It was a world of personal convenience. Experience was ordered by discrete consumer choices. From the standpoint of a driver or a passenger, this was a very controlled and, above all, a relentlessly intentional world. People would elect to visit some attraction, and then drive there in a metal isolation booth. Experience between points A and B became a view seen through a dusty windshield, fleeting and vicarious, like a television travelogue. But pedestrians and bicyclists experienced a very uncontrolled environment. For them, our event had become, by 1996, a very dangerous place. Stretching out upon the ground to view the stars, walking on the playa without reflectors or a flashlight, even sleeping in a tent, could place a person in harm's way.

The reforms of 1997 turned Black Rock City into a more civilized community. Not only were participants made safer, they were now liberated to explore their experience of the desert, our city and one another. Burning Man organizers were justifiably proud of this change. They had triumphed over the tyranny of the automobile. This accomplishment, however, must be viewed in relation to one of the fundamental facts of modern life: people always want a ride. And Americans, in particular, always seem to want an easy ride. To live and lie reclined might be our national motto. Liberty and convenience, freedom and ease — these slogans could, with justice, be imprinted on our money. This expectation of convenience is our heritage as members of a consumer culture.

As cities evolve, so does transportation. Unlike most cities, Black Rock City’s survival depends on participants rejecting the prevailing car culture of the default world and embracing alternative transportation. Public safety concerns are reason enough for Burning Man to be a pedestrian/bicycle city. When the event first moved out to the playa in 1990, there were no rules about vehicles. By 1996,with still only 8,000 participants, the dust problems and hazards of casual and recreational driving had become extreme. In 1997, casual driving was designed out of Black Rock City transportation. According to Harley K. Dubois, Director of Community Services and Playa Safety Team, 1997 was critical in the evolution of the event not only because it was “the first year that you could bike around without worrying about getting hit by a car, ”but also because it was then that bike culture truly emerged. It was also the year that saw the formation of a regulatory body to grant driving privileges to vehicles that are truly participatory in nature… the art car or “Mutant Vehicle.” Mutant Vehicles are “sublimely beautiful movable works of art that appear to float along the playa like objects in a Miro painting,” says Larry Harvey, Founder and Director of the Burning Man project. The Department of Mutant Vehicles (DMV) was created in 1997 so that these vehicles can be integrated safely into our community. “Driving is a privilege at Burning Man, not a right,” says Jewelz Cody, aka Grits, Head of the DMV in 1997. With the survival of the event at stake the whole spectrum of vehicles are up for inspection. Some vehicles showcase the creativity and hard work necessary to create the whimsically beautiful mutant vehicles. Other vehicles, shallowly disguised convenience vehicles, evidenced the persistence of car culture in our society. The difference between convenience vehicles and true Mutant Vehicles is sometimes subtle and most clearly lies in the intention behind it. Will that golf cart with a bit of fuzzy fabric zip-tied to it really add to the community’s experience or is it really so you can make ice runs and have your own playa cruiser? However, digging deeper, perhaps an even more important consideration is: Why do you really want to drive at Burning Man?

The survival of Burning Man relies on its participants embracing the pedestrian/bicycle nature of the event and leaving the car culture in the default world. The survival of Mutant Vehicles at Burning Man relies on community ownership of this public safety issue.

Art Cars composed of cast off conjoinments, mash-ups, stripped bodies and glue and screw gun, slap it together creations start to pale in comparison to Mutant Vehicles with solid conceptual direction towards an unmistakable dominant image or idea where the base vehicle is for the most part unrecognizable. As greater numbers of people craft excellent new Mutants, fewer and fewer Art Car applicants will be invited back.

www.burningman.com/on_the_p.../dmv.html

Some art cars are Mutant Vehicles, others are not. Take a read through the linked album to get some history of vehicles at Burning Man and how the DMV and application process works.

Click on "next" to go from 2006 to the early years of playa transportation:

tribes.tribe.net/bmmv/phot...5da4898f40

I thinks that its bullshit!~ who is to say what one consider art.

WHO GIVES A FUCK!

We are gving the Dub Rocket away after BM 2007. We have decided after this year's BM fiasco that we have better places to spend our money and time. We can do more with our time, energy, and money to support local charities and others in need rather than putting more money into BMORG coffers.

FUCK LARRY, THE AIR HE BREATHS, AND THE HORSE HE ROAD IN ON

Glue and screw "obsessive collection" Art Cars have become so common in everyday life that they are fodder for internet parody.

Playazon DIY Art Car Kits

Take one junker car, add a few gallons of industrial adhesive and several hundred (or thousand) of just about any similar items, and you have one of the coolest types of mutant vehicle on the playa; The "obsessive collection" art car. Why not make this the year you make the transition from spectator to spectated? Since you probably already have a suitable vehicle in your garage, all you need is a couple of free weekends and one of our Do-It-Yourself Art Car Kits. So if you think you have what it takes to get one of these collections on the road, E-mail our auto parts specialist at acparts at playazon . com to check prices, availability and shipping options.

www.playazon.com/transport/ac_kit.html

I drive an art car as my daily driver. I'll be the first to admit that not all art cars are mutant vehicles. Mine isn't, it's more of a moving sculpture.

The BM site says "The only Mutant Vehicles to receive licenses will be radical works of art, or vehicles with a high participation factor. "

So my art car will have a place at BM 2008, happily staying parked at the campsite where it doubles as a kitchen, and I will enjoy seeing the "giant atomic uber steampunk party vehicles" roaming about that really deserve to.

-g

Many folks planning to make the sojourn to Black Rock are asking lots of questions and seeking clarification around the myriad issues that make coming to the event both challenging and rewarding. One of the most repeated requests for clarification has to do with issues related to mutant vehicles and the current policies regarding registration and approval of them.

In response to the growing number of safety problems of vehicles being operated in an unsafe manner during the event and the complaints generated as a result, the driving regulations are strictly enforced. Note that these regulations do not reflect a mandate imposed by LEOs (law enforcement organizations). Nor do they represent collaboration with LEOs by the Black Rock Rangers. The decision to place a greater emphasis on long standing regulations is in response to the innumerable complaints expressed by participants both during the event as well as input submitted throughout the year around issues of safety. We're appealing to a higher instinct here folks. Simply put the rules for driving on the playa have not changed. The amount of emphasis being placed on those regulations has. It is about taking responsibility for ourselves when we need to.

In their purest form mutant vehicles serve as a form of mobile interaction with a great number of participants and contribute dramatically to the surreal experience which many of us experience each year during the event. They are "A thread that binds Black Rock City together. They are 'visual sculpture on wheels': radically, stunningly beautiful... and are core to the culture and community of Burning Man."

tribes.tribe.net/bmmv/phot...2e725f39ed

Why don't they apply stricter rules to the night time licenses, when there's more danger and stupid car (and pedestrian) behavior?

I have never witnessed serious problems with mutant vehicles during the day. It's only at night that things get sketchy.

Black Rock City has triumphed over the tyranny of the automobile. This accomplishment, however, must be viewed in relation to one of the fundamental facts of modern life: people always want a ride. And Americans, in particular, always seem to want an easy ride. To live and lie reclined might be our national motto. Liberty and convenience, freedom and ease—these slogans could, with justice, be imprinted on our money.

Couch Safari

www.flickr.com/photos/pla.../2539196702

ShuttleBug

www.flickr.com/photos/238.../2267513567

Tub-A-Hurl

www.tubahurl.org/

The Money Mobile

www.themoneymobile2008.com/blank.html

Peach's Verdant Box

www.flickr.com/photos/peachpapa/

State Mobile Observation Unit #17

bp2.blogger.com/_YdtTy7yAt...+Action.jpg

The Flaming Comet

i57.photobucket.com/albums/g...oo005.jpg

luna cat car

gypsymonkeys.com/gallery/b...7/DSC00900

TheContraption

img.photobucket.com/albums/v...10437.jpg

Moebius Omnibus

mindfart.com/pic/

Toxic Rose

www.youtube.com/watch

Cosmic Couch

images.burningman.com/index.cgi

Lawnmower III

www.flickr.com/photos/allaroundpainters

Magic Flying Carpet

magicflyingcarpet.com/

Margaritavillejetski

www.margaritavillejetski.com/

Drarktor

www.flickr.com/search/

Omnipresent Tsunami

img360.imageshack.us/img360/...ydd4.jpg

Cubatron Ship

nw.com/nw/projects/ship/

Boatyota

www.flickr.com/photos/8505709@N08/

Overcompensation

s286.photobucket.com/albums/...igload3/

2008 DEPARTMENT OF MUTANT VEHICLES

tribes.tribe.net/bmmv/phot...98f8d58161

With over 500 Mutant Vehicles cruising the playa of Black Rock City, Burning Man needs to ensure that all those wheeled vehicles conform to city standards. This duty falls to the Black Rock City DMV, or Department of Mutant Vehicles

current.com/items/770640..._vehicles.htm