Black Rock tech: gear for Burning Man

Lindsey Turrentine, Executive Editor August 23, 2006

If a week of dust, experimental art, heat, and nudity sounds like heaven, you might be one of the 35,000-or-so souls packing up to head to Nevada's Black Rock desert for Burning Man. Part art installation, part survivalist mission, part rave, the "experiment in temporary community dedicated to radical self-expression and radical self-reliance" runs on a growing undercurrent of technology.

There's no cell phone service on the Playa, as burners call the desert floor, but scrappy event veterans set up a Wi-Fi cloud for all your desperate Net surfing needs. Paired with a nearly indestructible ToughBook laptop and Skype, you could even place a call to Mom and Pop between bonfires and siestas. Or with phones such as the Nextel Motorola i580, you can communicate with friends on the desert who also have push-to-talk.

To document the wild week and the burning of the man, you'll need to spend some serious cash on a camera that can withstand heat and dust and shoots well in low light. The EOS-1D Mark II N will do the trick, but make sure you're vigilant that sand doesn't infiltrate the camera while you're changing lenses or memory cards. And finally, if your part in the shared experience includes music, consider bringing some travel speakers and consider the Burning Man sound policy.

Finally, and of course, don't forget your batteries.

More Resources

Burning Man official site,

Burning Man technology teams,

Burning Man phone booth