Dutch Mill – CORE 2013 project

Dutch Mill – Burning Man CORE 2013 project

Sova was the lead artist and designer for the Netherlands CORE project for the Dutch Burners.  The Dutch Burners are a group of Burning Man and Nowhere attendees and people the believe in the 10 principals of Burning Man and hold local events and are a quickly growing community.

Although Sova was not able to attend Burning Man in 2013 and work to see the project through completion the design carried on with the work of the Dutch Burners and was successfully installed at Burning Man and burned as part of the CORE project.  The final design was largely unchanged from Sova’s initial design and concept and was covered in fabric and lighting as described in the initial design below.

Finished project and installation done by Dutch Burners:

Historical Design and Project Information below:

Philosophical Statement
When people think of the Netherlands one of the most frequent symbols of the country is the
windmill. The Dutch people have been embracing the concepts of Radical Inclusion, Community/Civic Responsibility, and Immediacy through working together to reclaim their country from the sea for hundreds of years. We feel that a Dutch Mill is the perfect representation of the Dutch Burners and a perfect symbol for our first (of hopefully many) CORE projects. The project will be designed and built through a collaboration of local Burners and Artists. The actual construction will be done in the US and will use donated recycled wood as much as possible. The outside surfaces will be decorated by art through a innovative manner to allow the art to be done locally and then added to the piece during assembly. Artists will paint on large sheets of cloth and these sheets will be stretched across the panels of the base of the mill as well as the geodesic dome top.

The inside will be open with a couple of benches so that people can sit and relax with local music played through a very small sound system. This music would include classical (Willem Pijper), traditional Dutch (folk) music, Jazz (Han Bennink), as well as modern dance music from our world famous DJs such as DJ Tiesto, Paul Van Dyke, etc.

Additional interactivity will be possible in that the top of the mill will be rotatable by people working together to lift and spin the arms at the back of the mill (similar to real mills here) and the blades can be spun by hand. (Note- the blades will be designed to NOT catch wind and will be merely aesthetic.)

Physical Description
The Dutch Mill will look like a traditional Dutch Windmill that will stand about 3m tall. The base and “head” will be brightly colored with art on each side, while lit with a combination of low powered flood lights and rope lights around edges and blades. The piece should be unique in that it will be wrapped in cloth pieces that will look different from traditional all wood constructions. This cloth will be tightly stretched and attached to the piece so it cannot flap in the wind or come off the structure.

Inside will be two places to sit while music is played at low volume from hidden speakers. Decorations on the inside will be in National colors of Blue, White, and Red, as well as highlights in Orange. More local art will be included with a hope that some Dutch history can be explained through it. (We will ask artists working on the inner pieces to focus on their representations of Dutch History)

The piece has NO FIRE elements and will be firmly anchored into the playa with rebar at least 36″ deep. Lighting will be removed (obviously) prior to the Burn. There will be no easy way to climb the piece and efforts will be made in the design to discourage it (tall sloping sides with no hand/foot holds). If people are interacting with the piece then it will be easy to see it being rotated or spun from a good distance away.

Urban Planning for Art Sound Component
Sound is fairly intrinsic as we want to be able to share Dutch culture and music
through the piece. However, we hope that the sounds will only be able to be
heard when inside the structure (or very close to it if it is quiet). Total output
should be easy to talk over while standing outside the piece.
If sound is a problem we would consider removing it from the design.

Illumination
The base / sides will be lit with small low powered flood lights. Probably LED based and mounted on the top shining down. Rope lights will be on the edges and blades in Dutch colors and make the piece easily seen at night. Guy wires should not be required due to the wide base and rebar integrated into the base structure.

Lighting inside the structure will be similar low powered LED floods.

Interactivity
The inside will be open with a couple of benches so that people can sit and relax with local music played through a very small sound system. This music would include classical (Willem Pijper), traditional Dutch (folk) music, Jazz (Han Bennink), as well as modern dance music from our world famous DJs such as DJ Tiesto, Paul Van Dyke, etc.

Additional interactivity will be possible in that the top of the mill will be rotatable by people working together to lift and spin the arms at the back of the mill (similar to real mills here) and the blades can be spun by hand. (Note- the blades will be designed to NOT catch wind and will be merely aesthetic.)

Dimensions
Height 15 feet Length 10 feet Width 10 feet

Materials
– 4×8 sheets of plywood
– 2×4 boards
– Cloth sheeting
– lag bolts
– screws
Note- all wood will attempt to be from unwanted / recycled sources (already have possible donations from Portland, Oregon)