Disco Coffin
One year at Burning Man I found overwhelmed by the stimulation of the whole experience: the noise, the crowds of people, the vast exposed openness. I fantasized about stepping into a quiet, sound-insulated box, the size of a phone booth with room for just me. And so the idea for the “Disco Coffin” was born as an art piece for the San Diego regional burn in 2019.
The goal was to effect a dramatic state change from the festival environment. Instead of being surrounded by people, you are alone. Instead of noise, there is quiet (relatively speaking). Instead of the wide open desert, there is compression. Instead of distractions everywhere there is just calm, soft light.
The concept ended up working well; climbing into the coffin was very transporting and instantly calming. However I learned a lot of lessons about “festival proofing” art. With lots of people interacting with the box, often applying force in unexpected places while getting in and out of it, it was quickly worse for wear. Oh well.
The lighting element consisted of a three-layer construction of Arduino-controlled LED strips, synthetic polyfill, and acrylic light panels like those that would go over fluorescent bulbs in an office.