DragonWings

email?:

One significant aspect of burningman is that “radical self expression” is highly encouraged. People do this in bunches of ways, but one is what they wear - apparently if you go in your normal civies, you’ll tend feel quite self-consciously out of place.

I’ve no idea yet what I’ll do in the way of costumy “stuff”, but I’ve heard that wings of various kinds are popular (mostly fairy-type wings I think). Personally, I’m partial to dragons, so I could imagine wearing something like dragon or bat wings, especially if I can come up with something pretty different and/or interesting, so I’m playing with the idea of making retractable dragon wings I can wear on my back (e.g. mounted on a light pack frame or harness I can put on). Being able to retract them to get around easily and extend them both out (to the sides) and/or vertically is the eventual goal, although making them really dextrous would probably also make them more prone to break and harder to repair -- high winds and dust storms are relatively common on the playa.

In the ideal case, the wings would be able to be lit on fire (relatively safely :-) using the same type of fuel used for fire poi and/or staff, but big, light, fireproof material is probably pretty pricey and that seems like it’d be good for a “later” stage prototype :-P. I can always dream though. :-)

So far, I’ve only tooled around with a few simple prototype pieces and tossed ideas around with friends (thanks Eric! :-). I’ll try to post pics sometime soon. I also dropped a line to Rob Cockerham, who makes very cool costumes (among many other interesting endeavours) to see if he might have some suggestions, but haven’t heard back so far. Check out his site though, he’s done a bunch of cool stuff! His site was part of what motivated me to start putting some of my little bits of my own online. (thanks for pointing me to it Reimar! :-)

I also discovered two interesting mechanical wing projects by Meico and piratebrian. Both are pretty cool! I dropped Meico a line just before Burning Man but haven’t heard back... I’m hoping he’s just been a little busy getting ready for the burn. Bummer that I didn’t make it this year after all -- it would have been cool to meet him & gab a bit..

Just after Halloween, 2006, I came across another great set of mechanical wings someone has designed here. These, like most of the others I’m aware of aren’t what I’d call “dextrous”, which is the goal for mine, but they seem like a nice simple and robust mechanism. Very cool!

Early November ’06, I finally dropped piratebrian an email (I intended to looong ago but didn’t get to it for some reason) and actually heard back from him! I’m currently busy like crazy, but I can’t wait to follow up on his suggested avenues the first chance I get (thanks man, you kick ass! .. or .. wing! or whatever! :-).

Fired up by that, I added a few more pics, among them two recent wing-related sketches, including a quick visualization of one of the possibilities I’ve had in my head for the bicycle-mounted version of the wings when I eventually get there. Since it’s a “static” sketch, the drive-train-powered wing flapping, dragon head snaking and serpentine tail-weaving profile I hope to provide isn’t very apparent yet ... it will be :-).

[ for reference, the movies and pics are in separate groups, each in time order ].

Retractable Dragon Wings