John Law (Burning Man)

John Law (Burning Man)

John Law is an American artist, culture-jammer, and co-founder of the Cacophony Society and Burning Man Festival (AKA Black Rock City, AKA Zone Trip #4} which evolved out of the spirit of the Cacophony Society when a precursor solstice party was banned from San Francisco's Ocean beach and merged with another Cacophony event on the Black Rock desert in Nevada. He is from San Francisco, California.

Cacophony Society

John Law is one of the co-founders of the Cacophony Society, a Culture jamming group inspired in part by his earlier participation in the Suicide Club, which was in turn influenced by dadaists and situationists.

Burning Man

Law is one of the five co-founders of two events that merged to form what became known as the Burning Man Festival, AKA Black Rock City.The three most well-known founders and present partners in ownership of its name and trademark (Law, Michael Mikel, and Larry Harvey) were known as "The Temple of Three Guys" according to the Brian Doherty book, "This is Burning Man" (Little, Brown, 2004).

Artistic contributions

Law originated the concept and design of installing neon on the Man at Burning Man, an act which at once created an invaluable navigation aid and an indelible, omnipresent symbol. At an event which, at that time had no streets, street signs, fences, or any other artificially imposed boundaries, and which took place in the virtually featureless deep playa, on which it was very easy to lose one's bearings or misjudge distances and wind up stranded alone in the desert, this navigation aid certainly saved a lot of people a lot of trouble, and may well have saved lives. The symbol of the Burning Man, which had been added to the desert event later and was not part of its initial inception, became more and more identified with the event, in part because with the addition of the neon it was always universally visible, becoming the single unchanging reference point psychologically as well as physically.

Founders' conflict

As of 2007, the three partners are currently engaged in a legal struggle initiated by Harvey over control of the name and symbol of Burning Man. John Law's response to this struggle was to sue to dissolve the controlling partnership and release the name and symbol into the public domain.

External links

* [http://cacophony.org/ Cacophony Society main website (includes links to local chapters)]
* [http://laughingsquid.com/tag/cacophony-society/ History of Black Rock City, perspective of Cacophony Society]
* [http://www.burningman.com/whatisburningman/1986_1996/firstyears.html History of Black Rock City, perspective of Burning Man Organization,(AKA BMorg)]
* [http://abcnews.go.com/US/LegalCenter/wireStory?id=2786125 news article: Burning Man Founders Mired in Dispute]
* [http://johnlawspeaks.wordpress.com/ John Law speaks: Is Burning Man a Brand or a Movement?]


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