What Happened
Coming back home to Oakland, CA from Burning Man 2015, the Amphora art car’s engine overheated, seized, and cracked, so the poor bus has been held captive in the Sierra foothills until the engine can be replaced! Without a new engine, the Amphora can’t return to Burning Man in 2016 for its 5th year in Black Rock City!
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The Amphora art car, made by Love Potion Camp, is a 24’ school bus surrounded by a huge bottle of swirling love potion, made from 7200 programmable LEDs mounted to an aluminum frame and diffused with panels of Rowlux (a multi-lensed effect film). The fur-lined downstairs is a cozy lounge, while a ladder in the rear leads to the upstairs dance floor.
We miss you, Black Rock City, and we’re REALLY going to miss you if we can’t fund these repairs.
What We Need
We’re planning to get a fully-refurbished engine so we can avoid any future engine problems! At a minimum, the engine replacement will cost $10k, including parts/labor/taxes/warranty.
However, this amount ONLY covers the engine of the bus. We also want to revamp the art car to bring more glowing interactivity to BRC! Our funding goals are as follows:
+$10000: Replace the engine and bring Amphora back to Oakland. We’ll be able to bring her back to Burning Man in 2016 and share her with our local Burner community in the Bay Area.
+ $1000: STRETCH GOAL Repair “back patio”. The wood cladding on the Amphora had to be broken and torn off in order to tow the bus to the mechanic; without rebuilding, there is no way to go upstairs.
+ $300: STRETCH GOAL Fresh paint job. The faux-wood finish is faded and stained, and the rebuilt back patio will need to be painted; let’s get Amphora looking new again!
+ $700: STRETCH GOAL More lights! The neck of the bottle has space for 800 more lights; we’ll need to reconfigure our existing lights to incorporate the new ones and power them up.
+ $1500: STRETCH GOAL Extended interactivity. We can add live video, sound-driven pattern generation, and hands-free Leap Motion control!
+ $2000: STRETCH GOAL New Rowlux diffusion film. This trippy plastic looks beautiful, but breaks very easily. We've devised a new way to work with this material to last longer while still looking awesome, but at $3/sq ft, this stuff isn't cheap!
+ $$$: Anything extra from this campaign will be used to help cover the cost of storing and maintaining the Amphora
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What You Get
What do you get in return for your help? In addition to cool perks like glow-in-the-dark Amphora t-shirts, Love Potion paddles, and uv-reactive Love Potion necklaces, Love Potion is going to leverage our alternate identity as a public makerspace to offer perks like classes (see below), rental space (for meetings, events, or private parties), and membership to our shop! All mailable perks will also come with an Amphora sticker.
| UV-Glow Love Potion |
Glow-in-the-Dark T-Shirt |
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| Love Potion Paddle |
Amphora Sticker |
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Learn a Skill!
For your $150, you can learn one of the following skills at our Oakland makerspace!
| Pole fitness |
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Come on, we know what you have secretly been dreaming of... So now, don't dream it, be it! Pole-dancing is not only a joyful way to get in touch with your inner sexy goddess, it is also a fun workout to get you into great shape. Taught at LPC by our very own instructor Sam from Foxipole. Defy gravity & start to fly around the pole! (4X 90-minute classes, 0/3 claimed)
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| Acroyoga for you and up to 3 of your friends |
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The best of two worlds, acrobatics and yoga combined into one fun work-out. Each group will learn how to use flexibility and strength in a playful and physical way to give each other support. Workshop will be taught at LPC. Classes will be up to 12 people. (each group gets 2X 90-minute classes, 0/3 claimed)
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| Beginner welding |
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Learn about different welding technologies, MIG, TIG, stick. Learn how welding works, what makes a good weld, how to slice through metal with a plasma torch and use power and hand tools to finish your work. You will have time to practice welding, and finish by creating your own metal abstract sculpture! No experience necessary. (2X 3-hour classes, all claimed—really wanna learn to weld? Send us a message!)
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| Couch to 5K |
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Starting late on your resolutions? Hate running? You're not alone! Led by a former marathoner and fellow run-hater, get your booty up and running with this 8-week training program. You will train for either a April 3 or June 5 race. Meeting in Oakland for training runs, with schedule flexibility for long weekends. (8X 60- to 90-minute classes, 0/10 claimed)
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| Light up your costume |
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Does your costume need some extra glow or lights? Learn how to add lights to any costume, accessories, wigs, sword, crown or tiara. Learn how to select clothes for light or glow modification, choose light or glow technologies (LED, EL wire, fiber optics and more), power your pieces, and attach it to your clothes. Bring your own costume or accessories to work on during this workshop. (1X 2.5-hour class, 0/8 claimed)
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| Unity game programming |
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Learn to use the Unity 3D technology suite to produce high quality 3D games that run on a variety of platforms. Together we will go through the fundamentals of using the Unity Editor, GameObjects, Cameras, and Scenes and learn how to apply scripts to drive behaviors to objects in the world. At the end you will have a simple game you can show your friends. Requires: laptop computer with 4GB RAM, Intel i5 or equivalent, 3D graphics processor, and Unity 3D installed. Programming experience not required, but helpful. Unity uses C#. (2X 3-hour classes, 0/6 claimed)
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| Beginner crochet |
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Learn crocheting basics, including how to hold yarn, which size of crochet hook to choose, and how to read basic patterns. By the end of this workshop, you will have created your first chili pepper fridge magnet! (1X 3-hour class, 0/10 claimed)
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Other Perks
The Impact
Love Potion has been bringing art and art cars to the playa since 2006, providing enjoyment and rides for hundreds of participants. Without an art car permit in 2015, we were unable to do our thing at full capacity, and we miss you! We want to see you again, this time for everyone and every night! In supporting the Amphora, you are supporting the greater Burning Man community, by giving us more ways to bring art and interactivity to Black Rock City and beyond.
Back at home in Oakland, CA, Love Potion maintains a community makerspace, Love Potion Collective, where members can learn new skills and use a wide variety of tools and equipment to make their projects come to life. Love Potion also promotes year-round Burning Man community through hosting burner socials, gallery shows, and interactive art/music events.
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Other Ways You Can Help
Share this campaign on social media and get the word out! Are you a fan of LED lights and/or art cars? Let your peers in these networks know that the Amphora needs their help! The more people who share this page, the more likely we are to reach our goal.
Don’t forget to use Indiegogo’s share tools
Looking for a one-of-a-kind experience? Can't make it to the Playa this year and still wanna inhale some of the special dust... uhm flair? Treat yourself and three friends to an artisan meal especially concocted for this occasion! Whichever donor generates the most overall funding through the Indiegogo referral program will receive this super special dinner perk in the Love Potion gallery!
