The problem
You're biking through the playa on Friday night when suddenly a shape appears directly in front of you. Whoa, a darkwad! You swerve and eat dust in an attempt to avoid a collision. You yell at them but they don't hear you through the thumping bass and light show of a passing art car.
We, the fairies of light and magic, have invented a magical machine to solve this problem.
The vision - light up the night
In the distance the burner sees a form she is familiar with: a gumball machine. But unlike those delight-dispensing fixtures of her past, this one glows with magical lights. Upon closer approach she reads a sign on top - “Get Lit”, it commands.
Rather than take your money, this machine has a different purpose - to give the much needed resource of light to illumination-starved burners, AKA “darkwads”. For the meager price of a kind thought, the machine dispenses a personal illumination device in an iconic plastic egg. A spiral chute sits on the side to collect the empty eggs.
This piece is an oasis of light in the darkness. From it, individuals carry sparks of light out to the rest of the playa. Be the light you wish to see in the world, and help others shine too!
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The backstory
Last year, we dressed up as the Fairies of Light and Magic, and we wandered through the playa gifting blinky rings to darkwads, helping their fellow burners see them in the dark, dusty night.
This year, we want to scale that effort beyond what we mere tutu-adorned mortals could do, by recycling a giant gumball machine into a blinky ring machine.
The perks
Help us bring light to the darkwads of the playa and you could receive one of these exciting perks! ba Bum BUM....
The budget
Here's a basic breakdown of where we'll spend the funds:
- $200: Cost of the used gumball machine.
- $100: Costs for the egg receptacle parts.
- $50: Costs to decorate pieces with CD mosaic and/or reflective paint.
- $75: Supplies for securing pieces to the ground - anchors, bolts.
- $600: Supplies for lighting - SLA batteries, control board, LED strips.
- $225: Costs for campaign rewards.
The big wildcard is the rings that are dispensed. Our machine fits around 1000 rings at a time. The highly illuminating blinky rings cost $.25 each.
That puts the total at $1,500 for a completely filled machine. We're aiming for $3,000 so that we can keep the machine stocked throughout the week (6 refillings). The more we get, the more we can give. (At $36,000, we could gift illumination to every person at Burning Man!)
We are Jacob & Pamela, two makers from the bay area.
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We'll be joined by Erin and Howard...
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...And Liz and Janardyn!
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...Plus LED wizard Jason Trager!
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Thank you
We'd like to thank the Burning Man community for your support. Together, we can make the world a brighter place!
