In 2023, our camp (OKNOTOK) brought a deep sensory experience to the “Animalia” theme of Burning Man that I coproduced. 

We configured our structure (shade tarps stretched across 12-by-12-by-8-foot cubes made of 4×4″ wood beams) into an array of six cubes in a row that we called “the Longhouse.” I sewed the banner for the tower announcing The Sensorium.

We devoted one room to each of the five senses, and the sixth to that most universal animal force, Instinct:

SIGHT (we started light)

  • Some trippy-hippie image tapestries
  • A campmate created an expert inverse-perspective painting
  • She also built a brain-churning Ames Window suspended spinning from a wire.

SOUND

  • I built a sound-swap headset that sent sounds from your left into your right ear and vice versa
  • I built a Chladni plate operated by a campmate who drove various sound frequencies through it to reshape the salt he sprinkled onto its surface; another campmate performed a sound bath with crystal and metal singing bowls and a shruti box for blissed-out visitors lounging in a cuddle puddle of dusty pillows.

SMELL

  • We collected pungent substances into unlabeled jars and uncapped them one by one for visitors to inhale and wonder at: pine needles, fresh dirt, pencil shavings, brownies, cannabis, wolf urine (the last of which always snapped the visitor’s head back in shock and alarm.

TASTE

  • Our camp co-lead, an herbalist, concocted a tasting session of tinctures such as Dragon’s Breath (a mix of cinnamon and other sharp flavors) and Blowjob Juice (which tasted like bubble gum and made you salivate copiously).

TOUCH

  • Relax in a camp chair before a huge painting of a beach with your feet in a tray of sand, your ears in headphones playing surf sounds, and your skin caressed by a misty breeze
  • Dance barefoot on a bed of loose Legos
  • Then, recover with an invigorating massage from a pair of heavy-duty car buffers.

INSTINCT

A series of role-playing mind games: 

  • Answer increasingly invasive questions while solving a puzzle that explodes when the timer runs out
  • Get into an argument acting like your emotional opposite
  • Talk your way out of a jam with the police
  • Act like your favorite animal for 2 minutes straight

When all was said and done, most participants thanked us profusely for shaking their senses – and more than a few said the Sensorium was their favorite experience on the playa that summer.