Black Rock Atlas
social science and experimental design at Burning Man 2018 in collaboration with the MIT Media Lab.
read the full story in Nautilus Magazine!
![people talking behind row of poster tubes, also known as vessels](https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/b90e34dd7e909232ad2c04b6535c90677f80d6bbc90e1881f6af7ac7a29ac2d9/burningman18_22.jpg)
![a row of poster tubes, also known as vessels, in the desert](https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/3e04abb794f2980f5a9596eebae0cb7503266710936669f7c74e0940827274fe/burningman18_15.jpg)
Together, our team designed, constructed, and deployed 15 cultural probes, or “Vessels”, consisting of the following:
![the five components of a vessel](https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/cdb3648d35c40933659c5e7e1470cd95a598cdef22d767d173c032bae453a1e9/Asset-113.jpg)
- DISPOSABLE CAMERA
participatory engagement
qualitative data
- DURABLE CONTAINER
portable & visible
- SCROLL
informed consent
project instructions
Terminus information
-
GPS TRACKER
quantitative data
support retrieval
![](https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/ed9d782c93355d7756e435c7a06b62deebd1c8d2f3bb3e62e3267d1000ca1f81/burningman18_18.jpg)
Building on Stanley Milgram’s Small World Experiment (sometimes known as Six Degrees of Seperation), each Vessel was intended to reach a final Terminus through a series of handoffs:
![an animated gif showing a handoff of the vessel from one participant to another](https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/8a1ec48c063290c4bf70adb597deaa30ce7963429aa2d3a0d6eff3bb81355d3c/handoff.gif)
The unique social systems of Burning Man, paired with the unconventional design of the Vessels, would encourage the participation that previous social search experiments have lacked - allowing for unprecedented insights into cooperation.
project site
made in collaboration with Ziv Epstein & Christian Almenar
intial costing, brainstorming engagement, re-labelling & assembling, travelling & implementing the experiment
![an animated gif showing a handoff of the vessel from one participant to another](https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/8a1ec48c063290c4bf70adb597deaa30ce7963429aa2d3a0d6eff3bb81355d3c/handoff.gif)
hypothesis
The unique social systems of Burning Man, paired with the unconventional design of the Vessels, would encourage the participation that previous social search experiments have lacked - allowing for unprecedented insights into cooperation.
![a diagram showing the process of recieving the vessel in a handoff, taking pictures, travelling through Black Rock City, and handing the vessel off again](https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/a83b4d15e50d26c7bb034c21bd88f7b239196481482e9efdcd8fbf6ac7510448/about2.png)
project site
made in collaboration with Ziv Epstein & Christian Almenar
process
intial costing, brainstorming engagement, re-labelling & assembling, travelling & implementing the experiment
![](https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/6550840437c36e57ea7c892dd0debde8c05f35c328c0166255629e013dd4720b/Artboard-110.jpg)
![](https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/80bcc64174147696ba74aea30b5f70dffc8b9f5f0bfd0ad859bab99187ceb19f/Artboard-1-copy10.jpg)
![](https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/a53fb54fb9cfae51bca4e973d7c0efe5864a6ada03a797fe8344adefe01525ed/unnamed-4.jpg)
![](https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/918c0b8637e5061eba66c6fa4a752795b17167f482779ca4e94e68567734b70e/unnamed-5.jpg)
![](https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/e33f6afea045b5f71a46f0e7459b97513b076941c4cf801f6955461042f4e2e6/unnamed-2.jpg)
![](https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/495186f4f6c6d001fcf4a524dc3567754a9cbf85e785bc42ef7f3fc8ec29cb92/unnamed.jpg)
![](https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/da97606164022a142fe801f4eb66def39171e806b3897118d9b5b99a872f7fe1/unnamed-3.jpg)
![](https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/888af9582194caa480e4e15a46e5f29c83fe03ce572a83add6e36ad9c68d32cb/burningman18_12.jpg)
![](https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/c9d01d7f5912da18cb52d3d71ade18b9930cf1941c2a5113a738078c5a740079/burningman18_17.jpg)
![](https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/abfcd263ef8ea10c4f2a0fa0f40544c1dc13122aa6e5b7cd824d85682c4be2ee/unnamed-6-copy.jpg)
~fin~