Stuart Mangrum and Dicky Davies talk with three temple builders of Black Rock City. What does “temple” mean in the context of Burning Man, a secular culture based on humanist principles, where ritual is a vector for culture, not really a religious thing?

Lawrence “Renzo” Verbeck is an architect, contractor, and sculptor.

Sylvia Adrienne Lisse collaborates on large-scale, interactive art teams at Black Rock City, Regional events, and festivals.

For Black Rock City, they worked together on the Temple of Direction (2019) and are co-creating the Empyrean, the 2020 temple, now being developed in virtual space, to be unveiled in real life in 2021.

Arthur Mamou-Mani is an architect and director specializing in digitally designed and fabricated architecture. He was the Temple builder for Galaxia in 2018 and designed the Catharsis project for the next Black Rock City.

Empyrean: Meet Your 2020 Temple Artists

Galaxia: The 2018 Temple

VR tour of Arthur Mamou-Mani’s Catharsis amphitheatre

Simon of the Playa shares his story of how a little girl grieving her mother, and burning embers raining down, taught him how to be human again.

Caveat Magister shares about the principle of Gifting, and teddy bear profanities.

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