Ephemeropolis: Burning Man, Transformation, and Heterotopia

Michel Foucault’s concept of heterotopia is adapted to comprehend events with intentional transformational agendas. An ephemeral community installed annually in Nevada’s Black Rock Desert, Burning Man is an exemplary evental heterotopia. With the shortcomings of the romantic-utopian “transformational festival” label identified, the article considers Black Rock City as a heterogeneous threshold and contested space. This hyperliminal weave is redolent in a complex ethos known as the “Ten Principles.” Informed by Foucault’s ambiguous entry on heteroclite spatialization, the article explores the paradoxical “other space” of Burning Man in which the “default world” is simultaneously neutralized, mirrored, and resisted. If Burning Man is transformative, this is therefore an enigmatic aesthetic. Adapting Foucault’s six “principles of heterotopia” and modulating Victor Turner’s “liminality,” the article navigates the hyperliminal dynamics of Burning Man. In the process, a provisional framework is suggested for the study of transformative events.