"The City’s gone—nought…remaining to disclose the site of this forgotten Babylon:" Ephemeral Architecture and Identity at Black Rock City. (Apologies to Horace Smith; "Ozymandias")

Summary

The temporary (at least physically) community of Black Rock City, which is constituted for one week each year in the Nevada desert at the Burning Man festival, is made up of hundreds of camps. Many of these camps create architecture, or create reference to architectural style and history, that helps cement a sense of identity to that particular camp. The architectural referents are generally not obscure, as they are intended to be read by both camp members, and others who are not members of the camps, but who pass by in the process of interacting with fellow citizens of Black Rock City. By looking at the choices that are made in creating architectural stages, such as that at the Black Rock French Quarter among others, I explore the ways in which a sense of place is created that references both real and imagined localities.

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This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 80th Annual Meeting, San Francisco, CA (2015)

Keywords

Spatial Coverage