**I wrote this post about Robodock and failed to post it here, so this is from 10/5/2006. Sorry about that!**
We had a great time. GREAT! Lots of hard work + lots of goofing off = a tired and content Keely.

I find it hard to fully describe the event. For those of you who’ve been to Burning Man, take that but remove the heat and dust, cut the population to under a thousand artists (and then maybe up to 7000 viewers during the event), add in more technology and a higher amazing art to WTF ratio and remove all people who think that putting on a crazy costume cobbled together at goodwill, downing lots of hallucinogens and having public sex is creative participation and you may have a sense of it. Oh, and take into consideration that if you are an invited artist (or artistic crew) you get in free, and are provided with camping, showers, toilets, food and beverages the whole time you are there. And internet access. And you don’t have to haul your garbage out.

Downsides to the week: garbage everywhere. TONS of waste (disposable cups, plates, etc. Our crew seemed to be among the only people who thought to bring their own coffee mugs along.) A rampant theft problem. SO MUCH RAIN (though, rain on concrete and grass is fine compared to rain on the playa, so we weren’t complaining too much).

There were some incredible art pieces that I saw there, and I didn’t see nearly all of it. Some of my favorites were:

This Robot Drummer

Serpent Mother (by the Flaming Lotus Girls. They have brought Serpent Mother to Burning Man in the past)

The Large Hot Pipe Organ

The Robot Band

These Human Powered Amusement Rides

And, of course, The Powertool Races. Here’s a photo of a tool about to jump through the flaming hoop:

On top of Robodock, I managed to steal a few hours by myself in Amsterdam. I didn’t do anything special, just wandered around aimlessly, stopped for food and yummy beer in a tiny Belgian pub, wandered through the Red Light District, and went back. It was lovely to get away from the crew for a moment (we were almost all sleeping in a yurt together, which was both fun and overwhelming at times), and the loudness the work going on in the warehouses at Robodock.

Also, my last night at Robodock, we wandered over to the Stubnitz. The Stubnitz is a former “freeze and transport” vessel from a fishing fleet. It has been converted into a traveling music and performance venue/bar. It was in port at NDSM-Werf (Robodock’s location) while we were there. It was wild, we wandered down on Thursday night after the festival was over. From our camping area it was difficult to get to because so much of the space between us was fenced off for the festival. We had to shimmy around the edges of fences, walk along the sea-wall, slip between more fences, and generally weave ourselves along the festival area until we could reach the ship.

The Stubnitz is huge:

And the inside is a trip. As one would imagine it has a very old, industrial feel. The best description I’ve heard so far is from one of my companions that night: “this is like something from a William Gibson novel.”

It’s dark, with deep colored lights (blues, purples, reds), with strange welded art pieces and benches for tables that are simple large pipes with a little padding wrapped around them. There’s an opening in the center that looks down into the hull, where there is seating and a stage.

There’s a photoset of our trip over on flickr.