Academics from everywhere experiment, collaborate, and even interpret our stories of "This one time at Burning Man."

In this episode, Stuart talks with people from Burning Nerds, an annual gathering of academics in Black Rock City. They keep it light, though; not too many unnecessarily fancy words.

Dr Jukka-Pekka Heikkilä describes the technique used by the Burning Man Project that gives more power to the people.

Bryan Yazell and Patricia Wolf of the University of Southern Denmark use Flash Fiction in BRC to develop a new subgenre of sci-fi called climate fiction (‘cli-fi’), stories that are less dystopian, even less utopian, more protopian (fancy word) — not good or bad, but progress.

Professor Matt Zook of the University of Kentucky extols Black Rock City's unique aspects, from temporality to being a place apart. He and Stuart explore the interplay between digital and physical spaces, and what about community actually makes it good.

Then Jukka-Pekka Heikkilä returns with how the Burning Stories project, now in its 6th year of tracking tales, is a cultural repository and is training a gifted AI on how Burners be Burning.

jukkapekka.com

sdu.dk/en/persons/yazell

sdu.dk/en/persons/pawo

geography.as.uky.edu/users/zook

burningman.org/programs/philosophical-center/academics

regionals.burningman.org/european-leadership-summit

burning-stories.com

kk.org/thetechnium/protopia

sdu.dk/en/publications/enacting-hopeful-climate-futures-at-burning-man-2024

Bjørn S. Cience - Founding Board Member at Institute of Performative Inquiry

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