“In order to build community, we have to come together, in real space. One of the greatest tools we have for creating community, while also building understanding, empathy, and collaboration between people, is art. Specifically, participatory art. Art that provides a forum for people of different beliefs and backgrounds to create and share and express themselves together.”
The Tower of Not Babel brings people together and provides a platform for communication.
The origin of the name of this art piece stems from a story in the Bible. The Bible explains the reason why there are so many different languages is that a unified-speaking mankind was building a tower to try to reach their God. God, fearful of what mankind could achieve by being able to communicate, reacted by magically changing peoples language so that they could not communicate and not finish their tower. The people then split off by groups and dispersed in different directions around the world.
The Tower of Not Babel does the opposite: It brings people together.
Each event the Tower visited was allowed to participate on only their one reserved side. As the Tower toured, it became a traveling timepiece, capturing the personality of the contributors at each event. It was a platform for expression in so many ways! For many, it was a vehicle to deliver their message to Burning Man, its final destination.
After the four sides were completed, The Tower was turned inside out, the top was removed, and a ladder installed which allowed you to descend down inside, essentially going back in time, into the Cave of Contemplation. This created four more external surfaces for participants.
When I submitted it for Burning Man, they were concerned with how to help someone if they were to fall down the ladder. My answer was to add seven more levels and create a door.
In total, the Tower made 11 stops in seven states, culminating in its ashes rising to the skies in the temporary city known as Black Rock City, Nevada.
(I’ll probably make another web page for all my Sheck Shenanigans. 🙂
Accumsan id imperdiet et, porttitor at sem.
