Science and Burning Man

Burning Man has interested academics since its early days. There are numerous scientific articles and books about Burning Man. We at Burning Stories want to learn from all this work. From our side, we are bringing a few new disciplines to this beautiful sandbox of scientific approaches that study Burning Man.

If you are interested to learn the science behind Burning Man, a there’s a brilliant academic database of this research and, of course, our friends at Black Rock City Census are doing an amazing and important job collecting unique data sets. Census has a fascinating yearly survey (since 2005) on Black Rock City participants and the evolution of Burning Man. The BRC Census survey comes out right after the event, and we hope you find the time to answer it!

What does Burning Man mean to academics? Here is one example: “Burning Man is a meta-transformational contact zone of unprecedented proportions that derives its unique logic of possibility from its location in an absolute desert playa that forms a blank canvas for the imagination. I always try to expect the unexpected.” Graham St. John (PhD), from the Burning Progeny project.

You can find more academic work on the Academics section of the Burning Man website.