It’s the middle of the night on the playa, when suddenly, you have to crap.

Your choices:

Brave the swampy  playa porta potties

Try to hold it till dawn when they come and clean the toilets (good luck).

Find some random container to do your business in.

Shit your pants (if you are wearing any).

or………Go back to your own private padlocked porta potty, and take care of business in comfort!

That’s right! Nexus is raffling off a private porta potty !  The winner will get the porta potty delivered to his or her location of choice, pumped out  and removed at the end of the burn. All you have to do is use it!

Raffle tickets are $10 a piece, anyone can enter- playa wide, and all proceeds go to the Pyrosphere project. The drawing will take place July 27th.

This weekend we put together the sphere.  Nathan, Julie, Robert, Chris, Mike, Megan, Nate, Vaughn, and Erin B got together under the hot sun in a big grassy field and assembled the 23′ geodesic sphere.

We started at the top.

Which happened to be on

the ground.

Donate $50 or more and get a Nexus Hoodie!

Hit the paypal button and donate at least $50 (the more the merrier!)

The new Nexus hoodie design

Click on the images below for PyroSphere info and updates

Donate $50 or more and get a Nexus Hoodie!

Hit the paypal button and donate at least $50 (the more the merrier!)

The new Nexus hoodie design

So… If you like massive, mind-blowing fire art front and center at Nexus, and don’t mind looking cool at the same time,
buy a freakin’ hoodie!

So here’s how it works:

• Hit the paypal button and donate at least $50 (the more the merrier!)
• Fill out the mailing address section
• Choose your color, and size.   Colors: Black on Red, Red on Black, Brown on Green, Black on Yellow, Black on Orange, Black on Blue, Red on Blue

Wait for your sweet ass hoodie. (6 to 8 weeks or so…….maybe less)

Coming to a Burning Man 2010 near you…

The Nexus PyroSphere

The PyroSphere is a 22 ft diameter geodesic sphere, elevated on five 15 ft legs for a total hieght of  37 ft. The sphere itself has 92 flame effect valves, each located at one of the sphere’s 92 vertices. Each flame effect valve is an 1/8 inch solenoid (electronic) valve, which emits a small, 3 to 4 ft fire ball. Each of the 92 valves is controlled individually by a microcontroller, creating a “persistence of vision” illusion similiar to the Burninator installation of 2009, only spread out over the surface of a sphere, creating 3 dimensional fire animations. Directly below the sphere, sits a 6 ft diameter clear bowl full of water. LEDs light up the water from below, as  it bubbles fire, creating a camp fire style gathering area.
In it’s essence, the PyroSphere is a gathering place. A place of warmth, and conversation. The PyroSphere’s dramatic silhouette combined with hundreds of elaborate, rapid fire patterns, will be visible from far across the playa.
Interactivity:
The PyroSphere’s patterns will be designed by the masses! Mark Pauley aka: Pauley Unsaturated , who works for Apple, programming Safari among other things, is finishing up the “PyroSphere Editor”: a simple program hosted on the web that allows the user to make patterns for the PyroSphere. The user selects which flame effect valves fire off, and in what order, etc with a simple, visual, point-and-click interface. When the user is finished with their pattern, the Editor outputs a 3d animation which is viewable by anyone visiting the site. People view the pattern animations, and rate them from 1 to 10. The most popular patterns will be assigned a pattern number and used on the playa, and the creators of these patterns will be emailed the number of their pattern so they can request it from the PyroSphere Operator at any time during operation on the playa. The PyroSphere editor will be widely publicized well before the event, to allow as many people as possible an opportunity to contribute.

Click on the images below for PyroSphere Updates

Donate $50 or more and get a Nexus Hoodie!

The Pyrosphere Crew:

Erin Banwell: Artist/creator, design, management, R&D, flame effect expert, electronics, junior programmer, foreman, etc.

Steve Cronburg: Lead programmer, R&D, electronics, design

Nathan Crane: Flame effect expert, Fuel plumbing, design

Robert Cordtz: Sphere construction manager, visionary

Vaughn Parsons: Expert brainstormer, resident wise guy, any job that entails bloody knuckles….

Mark Pauley: iPhone App programmer

Josh Silverstein: Organizer, motivator, crew management

Chris Nowak: Base design and construction

Chris Pomodoro: Architectural design

Donate to Help Our Crew Build the Pyrosphere 2010!

Every little bit helps…