CC Meeting 29 February 2016

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COMBUSTION CHAMBER MEETING

MONDAY, FEBRUARY 29, 2016

FACILITATOR: Notfunnyatall

STACK: Pixie

SCRIBE: Chim-Chim

ATTENDEES: Notfunnyatall, Pixie, Prost, Problem, Adam, Chim-Chim, Beth, Henry, Princess, Katrina, Anthony, Stash, Private Bear, Charlie, Zack, Breezy, Judge, Apple, Kat, Cooper, Mer, Monkey, Decibel, T-Rey, Samantha, Clovis, Bruce, Bonobo, Scott, Wrinn, Donut (in spirit)

TOPICS: Art and Consequences (Monkey); Firearms at Flipside/Warehouse (Clovis)

RESOLUTIONS AND ACTION ITEMS

MOTION: Reschedule Fall Town Hall for Sept 24, 2016; MOTION FAILED

7:53pm AAR/LLC UPDATE (Adam)

  • Ticket opening this past weekend; No lottery!
  • Houston road show this Saturday; Dallas road show the following weekend
  • Mass Gathering Permit approved

7:55pm AREA FACILITATOR UPDATE (All)

  • AF/LLC meeting on Thursday; Meetings every first Thursday of the month

7:56pm TOPIC: Art and Consequences (Monkey)

  • Context: Community that has expressed often over the years that we appreciate art; Occasionally we run into boundary issues where someone’s art runs into someone’s experience; Ends up into issues; Discussion about role of art with respect to consequences that may be offensive; Community has placed value on that sort of art than what is outside of community; As a result, we should address; To frame discussion, not looking for policy suggestion, but talking about art and consequences and its effect; Safety = emotional, physical, safety for community in having ability to have event at site or in state; No should feel harmed or injured
  • Issues: When someone has worked hard on art piece and someone comes up and tags it; How to address someone who does that
  • Philosophical things: Consequences is a curious word for the community; Ex. All local/state laws apply (theft, vandalism, etc.); When it comes to other forms of policing—that could also include things that could deem as pornography that affects sustainability of event; Beyond those things, what does consequences mean? Answer—the police of community is everyone who runs it/buys a ticket; Make sure art has certain consequences; What drives us to the point of consequences? How do consequences come about?
  • Tagging—Policy in SG that expresses not open tagging that supports actions artist may have
  • Ordinarily, the only thing open for tagging is the effigy; Personal art projects shouldn’t be considered open season; Only bring things to flipside you are prepared to lose
  • Ex. – Piece of art that would not be at Flipside; Performance artist where she set out objects on table; Audience was allowed to experience anything; One of objects was a gun; She was not sure she was going to die; Gets to issues about boundary and consent; There is inflammatory art that has drawn the lines; It’s because of potential for consequences for art; Where do we see our norms about what community accepts
  • Tend to have two kinds of art and consequences: Conflict of sound; Sound camps next to each other; Prime principle is cooperation—expect camps to get together and work it out; Physical safety issues—things with effigy that we had to deny due to safety; When do we step in? Everyone is responsible for other people’s safety
  • Does it matter if its actually art or not? Why are we discussing (as art) how consequences of your actions intersect with other people; Does inherent value of art matter? – Who owns the consequences of the art? Who owns decision that your art is out of control? Comes down to AAR member on duty, depending on input from safety teams/artists; Holistic/specific one-on-one decisions; What are the consequences of “no art”?
  • Good to know where lines are drawn; What about art that doesn’t violates someone’s safety but requires consequences; Concerns over people planning on doing something racist; What types of consequences would it illicit? Community does not dictate who we want to be; If we want to be predators or racist a-holes, can set it up if we wanted to; It’s up to find a way that values self-expression but also safety
  • Sound, in general, touches on topics; Ex. Camp set up on main field with semi-loud sound system yelling at people; Got called by Rangers; By policy laid out for event, they were not violating policies of event, but were clearly upsetting people; Raised interesting question on duty, but also raised question; Recommendation would be to just confront them; Didn’t feel right to shut them off; What if it’s a guy with a megaphone? Should that be handled by community? People with official responsibilities should be doing something about that
  • Is this specifically about art? Substitute art with self-expression; Looking at how we can maintain self-expression without trampling over it; Looking to support all three principles
  • Self-expression: Genuineness; Honesty of artist’s intent; Accountability and cooperation; If piece upsets, can take responsibility; Expect people aren’t going to cross my boundaries constantly
  • Not feeling comfortable to shut down sound; Maybe there ought to be bare minimum; Have to use individual judgment; People’s art was interacting with other people in a way they kept asking to stop; Harassment? If you’re not being cooperative with someone else’s request, that’s a problem. If community can’t handle it, then maybe people should step in – No art? Is it too safe, or not enough?
  • As performance artists, we have opportunity because of nature of art where you have to intrude; Biggest issue—Need to know when it’s time to break character and have conversation with Rangers; Can’t be in character all weekend—you’re just being an asshole; Can’t do these things without compromising
  • Racist/Sexist: When introduced to discussion, usually end of discussion; Is it the ethic of community? It’s the middle
  • Notion of offensiveness vs obnoxiousness; (CO-STACK!); Art is causing me pain; If art is keeping you up at night, where is that line? Responding to neighborly conversations; What are grounds for shutting down art?
  • Obnoxious art; music so obnoxious that it’s cock-blocked me in my tent! Notion of community enforcement; Allowed to be a critic;
  • Don’t want me to be art critic enforcer at Flipside; If art that is bugging you, view it as opportunity to do something; Big exception—theme camp over sound limit even if nobody is complaining about it, becomes threat to event’s sustainability; Everybody pays for it
  • Consequences of your art, and how do those consequences fit with the principles; Situations that might occur; How do you lubricate cooperative process that’s going to happen? Think about consequences beforehand
  • Confrontation is hard; At event, can be hard to separate; Part is growth opportunity to have discussion with artist to put in perspective; Appreciation and needs
  • Fine line: Usually, there’s not; If you bring something provocative but not capable of having conversation, will be shut down quickly; Call to arms or not arms to enable people to discuss; May take away experience
  • Have ongoing series where we are discussing respect/racism issues;
  • Opportunity—Flipside is opportunity to be out of comfort zone and deal with that; Lessons in life are born of hardship; Intentional hurt; Painful—our choice to determine how powerful that pain is; Less regulation of art; Safety—conflating safety in terms of physical with emotional; Important to distinguish between the two; Exaggerative, far out examples; What can happen if we’re not careful; Taking responsibility for your experience
  • Reasons to bring discussion up: Difficulty in talking with people in community where that’s my art/you can’t tell me what to do; That’s true; Situations to find a way to express people they are being hurtful without telling them; Want art to have consequences; Some are positive/some are negative; Want people to understand art has social/cultural consequences; Can make an art project and lose friends; Organization is not going to pretend to protect you; How can we have conversations with people who throw around excuse, and how do we get to express to allow; If you do those things, you may not be welcome; Understanding that there are subtle and far-reaching consequences
  • None of the principles live in a vacuum; Accountability; Confrontation is hard; Only way we cooperate; Depends on form; Have to step up at some point to say something; Org not here to babysit you; Rangers there to mediate conflict
  • Community—Most understand this; New artists need to be aware; Community is self-policing; City will correct itself; If out of line, city has tendency to fix problem before Rangers get involved
  • Talking to people as things go along: By time discussion ensues, several others have already discussed; Physical injury—How often does piece of art hurt someone before someone intervenes; Suggestion—Fighting art with art is best way; Art Response Team (ART); If having problem, call team, and they’ll deal with situation – More conversation—dialogue as part of culture; Very individual thing
  • Consequence of art: Supporting the artist; Concern—Artists not feeling supported/getting a project over their heads; Resent energy at event; As much a consequence for artist as for people who engage; Don’t see big enough net for those people
  • Consequences to artist; Consequences to community for art that crosses lines; If let too far, then consequence to community; If art is lighting crosses all night, that is not art, that is a threat; Harassing women as art? There are consequences that will hurt community
  • Art ends when assault begins; Cannot be mixed with art/performance art
  • Can request artist and participants have dialogue with each other; Can request artist to participate with community
  • We are all in a privileged position; Confrontations about one’s feelings have discussions; We are doing a good thing; If offensive, have conversation
  • Start up next door for theme camps!
  • Art ending where assault begins: Interaction between self-expression and cooperation; Phrasings of this construction—all miss point—you can’t create art at FS that has no impact on anything; Would be very hard; Every bit of self-expression is to express in community; Idea is being part of community; Can’t have self-expression without influencing another; Question is HOW; Impact on other people; What conversations are you having? Art should not have a ‘get out of jail free’ card; Juxtaposition—Artists and participants—Artists are not participants, just leaving it out there to absolve themselves; Fuck the binary
  • Recommendation: All laws apply; Wherever you draw that line, always someone wanting to be on this side of it; Lets engage other people’s art; Notion of racism, sexism, consent has changed because of conversation; About listening or inviting conversation; Will be powerful through initiation with theme camp

9:13pm REGIONAL UPDATE (Clovis)

  • BM meet and greet 6-8pm Sunday afternoon; Sekret Theater
  • Art fundraiser?
  • Semi-official Flipside function tagging to this?
  • Art project: Uni-tea
  • Facebook event for UNI-TEA: Starts at 8pm
  • Tomorrow is deadline for submission
  • Low income tickets for BM March 3
  • Regional event coming up March 17-20 in Houston
  • Burning Man Global Leadership Conference coming up; in San Francisco

9:17pm TOPIC: Firearms at Flipside/Warehouse (Clovis)

  • Current policy at warehouse is don’t be a dumbass; Conversation with community
  • Both event and here are private property; Gives right to determine who is trespassing; No signage needed
  • Weapons at the event: No firearms or firearm analogs
  • Members active in making other spaces not open carry spaces; If we said no guns at warehouse, some people would be upset;
  • 3 P’s: Problem, Princess, and Prost

9:23pm OLD BUSINESS

  • REVIEWING CC ANNOUNCEMENT (all)
    • Put agenda on top
    • Date, Agenda
    • Discussion over wording and placement of CC announcement
    • You’re invited to a Combustion Chamber Meeting [date]
    • FAQ link to website
    • Link to Combustion Chamber
    • Link to AAR/LLC

9:51pm OLD BUSINESS from Trello

  • Fall Town Hall: Sept 24 vs Oct 1; Discussed Oct 1 conflict with ACL and Myschevia work weekend; Also question of having Town Hall too early

MOTION: Reschedule Fall Town Hall for Sept 24; No second – MOTION FAILED

  • Start Scribe nomination process
  • Picture day: Doodle poorly responded to; CC members need to answer Doodle; Resend and put deadline for Friday; Please respond by then
  • Have conversation over streaming CC meetings—calendar discussion

9:48pm NEW BUSINESS

  • Streaming for CC meetings (dovetail into that; put on topic description)

NEXT MEETING: MONDAY, MARCH 28, 2016

FACILITATOR: Cooper

STACK: Kat

SCRIBE: Chim-Chim

TOPICS: Review CC nominations messages (all); CC communication with the community (Beth)

10:12pm MEETING ADJOURNED