Retrocausality: The Story of Our Burning Man Poster

Retrocausality- a 36 inch by 48 inch art poster. It was made as part of the Carnival Of Space & Time installation for our Eridu Society camp at Burning Man in 2015. This was years before we became Atomic Octopus. The event’s theme that year was Carnival Of Mirrors. We wanted to play on that, but ultimately decided to use it for our own art theme. Eridu Society often worked elements of steampunk and time travel into its installations. The premise was that members of the camp had traveled to future Burning Man events. Then we brought back the art theme posters to delight and inspire.

A Long Time Coming

The concept for Retrocausality took a long time to come together. Trilo had been having conversations and Burning Man co-founder Larry Harvey about art themes. Larry shared a few insights, and that sent Trilo on a search for unusual words. Along the way, Trilo discovered the amazing word Retrocausality. The concept of the future helping to determine the past. This poster explores that. In addition, it lets us riff on retro-futurism in a big way.

Eridu in ancient Sumer was established around 5300BCE. It was fitting that an Eridu Society installation would feature at Burning Man 5300. This played perfectly into Eridu Society’s time travel theme, as a result the piece featured a 3D rendering of the Ziggurati installation that was making its final appearance in 2015.

I was art director on the project, Pani and I collaborated on this particular piece. We also need to give a shout-out to dear-departed photographer Chayna Girling. She was a friend of Pani and Trilo’s in the San Francisco underground and Burning Man communities who graciously allowed us to use her amazing photo of fire dancers in the piece.

Exhibition

Trilo and Pani felt honored to exhibit their art theme posters at Burning Man headquarters in San Francisco during the weeks leading up to Burning Man 2015. The exhibition gave friends and staff members a chance to experience the artwork before it made its playa debut. At the same time, it playfully reflected Eridu Society’s theme of time travel by presenting the pieces weeks before the event itself.

After Burning Man 2015, the story continued. Several works from the series joined the permanent collection at Burning Man headquarters. As a result, the exhibition became both a memorable milestone and a lasting contribution to the Burning Man community. Click on the images below to see in higher resolution.