Our camp at Burning Man, created to welcome passersby and make new friends on the playa. We first built a lounge in the summer of 2002 out of four 20-foot metal Xs that we pivoted and joined to form a desert structure that looks like origami. We made sails out of orange tarps that attached between the metal beams for shade, protection, color, and structural support. The thing holds itself together and weathers wind, rain, and sun beautifully. It took two months to design and build the pieces; two tall men can erect it in two hours on the playa. We were enormously gratified by the friends we made when our neighbors came by to check it out and wound up drifting in and out all week. XOthermia even hosted an impromptu potluck dinner party that drew people from our entire block, who brought cannelloni, seafood pasta, enchiladas, and heaps of other hot, homemade food. Everything tastes fantastic on the playa.

More to come soon...