Technoccult

A co-founder of Burning Man, the annual six-day festival of self-expression that culminates in the torching of a 40-foot effigy on the salt flats of northern Nevada, has sued his ex-partners to strip them of ownership of the event’s name and logo and to place the rights to their trademarks in the public domain.

John Law, who helped transform a series of small bonfire parties on a San Francisco beach into a phenomenon that drew more than 39,000 last year, sued Burning Man board members Larry Harvey and Michael Mikel in federal court Tuesday.

Full Story: AP.

Wired News interviews Burning Man founder Larry Harvey:

Harvey: Ultimately, yes. I think that our event is necessary and will be for a while yet. Because as we come to see it, it’s an initiation into a larger world. I’ll take a risk by comparing it to the hajj. It is part of Muslim religion. It doesn’t imply terrorism, but people have an obligation to go to Mecca once in their lives and to be inspired. And they march around a big rock. Well, you gotta put something at the center, and they’ve got a big rock, left over from pre-Muslim days. That’s why they go.

Or, it’s like, let’s say, Paris. Go to Paris, see what can be done, not because it will dwarf you, make you feel futile, but because if you have the wit to look — and I think the majority of our people do have that ability, to look beyond the spectacle, and say, “Well, how did you do this?” It’s true, someone just coming for the first time for two days won’t ask that, might not. But if they come the second, the third time, they’ll be asking it, because they themselves are going to have to organize communally with others, to get something done.

Full Story: Wired News: Burning Man’s Founder Looks Ahead