News and Events

SHOUTOUT LA
Meet Elizabeth Monoian & Robert Ferry
August 19, 2021

Question
What should our readers know about your business??

Answer
Like most businesses, we saw a challenge that could be reframed as an opportunity. In 2008, we were witnessing obstacles to the rapid deployment of renewable energy, especially near population centers where it is most urgently needed... Read More >

Die Rheinpfalz (Mannheim, Germany)
Renewable energy can be so beautiful: US artists initiate ideas competition
By Marco Partner
July 8, 2021

Huge bird nests or pink ribbons that seem to float through the air: And yet they are not art installations but elegant power sources. The artist Elizabeth Monoian and her husband Robert Ferry from Seattle combine renewable energies and design and cause an international sensation. For the Federal Garden Show in Mannheim in 2022, the couple will also initiate an ideas competition for the best visions for a green future in the city of squares.

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Art of Dynamic Competence Podcast
July 14, 2021
Season 2 Episode 19
Land Art Generator Initiative. Co-creating a New Future.

Tune in to our chat with Susan Clark where we talk about the origins of LAGI, and the reasons why we can't afford not to engage communities and young people with the design and planning of our energy infrastructure.

Ness Magazine
Brave New World: LAGI 2020 Fly Ranch Design Challenge for a sustainable future.
April 1, 2021

As the world contends with the climate emergency, a beacon of hope emerges from the Black Rock Desert of Northern Nevada. Burning Man Project and the Land Art Generator Initiative collaborated to create the LAGI 2020 Fly Ranch design challenge, inviting innovators and creatives to propose regenerative projects for Fly Ranch, an off-grid ranch in the Great Basin. Teams were asked to integrate sustainable systems for energy, water, food, shelter, and waste management into works of art in the landscape. The aim is to build the foundational infrastructure for Fly Ranch, support Burning Man Project’s 2030 sustainability goals, engage a global audience to work together towards systemic transformation, and serve as an inspiration for the developing field of regenerative design.

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The Architect's Newspaper
Check out these ten wild proposals for a permanent Burning Man in the Nevada desert
By Audrey Wachs
March 8, 2021

Every summer, photos of otherworldly pavilions, tricked-out steampunk cars, and dusty hula-hoopers ingesting empathogens slide onto Instagram feeds worldwide thanks to Burning Man, the nine-day worldbuilding experiment in the remote Black Rock Desert of Nevada. Soon, though, burners won’t have to wait all year to meet up as Burning Man organizers have released design proposals for a permanent home near the festival site.

The proposals were gathered via an international design competition organized by the San Francisco-based nonprofit behind Burning Man in collaboration with the Land Art Generator Initiative (LAGI), an art nonprofit based in Seattle.

While the top designs were revealed to the public last week, Burning Man purchased the 3,800-acre Nevada property those designs will be tested on back in 2016. The site, dubbed Fly Ranch, is meant to be a year-round incubator for burner culture—a place where community members can create an artful settlement that vibes with desert ecology. First held in 1986 as a modest summer solstice event held at Baker Beach in San Francisco, Burning Man has since grown into a global phenomenon with attendance for the 2019 festival topping 78,000 people. The 2020 festival was canceled due to the coronavirus pandemic although a significantly smaller fête was held in San Francisco.

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Surface
At Long Last, Burning Man Is Building a Permanent City
By Ryan Waddoups
March 08, 2021

Last year, the coronavirus pandemic forced Burning Man to cancel its highly anticipated annual event near Black Rock City, Nevada. The festival, which sees more than 70,000 attendees (“burners”) build a temporary city in the sweltering desert and which culminates the burning of a large wooden effigy known as “the Man” in a symbolic act of self-expression, still faces uncertainty this year as questions about in-person gatherings remain. That hasn’t deterred the event’s organizers, who are now planning to build a sustainable city in the desert.

In 2016, Burning Man organizers bought Fly Ranch, a 3,800-acre compound near Black Rock City with the idea of creating a year-round sustainable space. They soon partnered with the Land Art Generator Initiative (LAGI) and launched a global competition for burners to share their own visions for Fly Ranch. Teams were asked to integrate sustainable systems for energy, water, food, shelter, and waste management into what the organizers deem “works of art in the landscape” that support the event’s 2030 sustainability goals.

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dezeen
Top ten designs for Burning Man's off-grid desert outpost Fly Ranch revealed
By India Block
March 17, 2021

The top 10 designs for Fly Ranch, a permanent outpost of the Burning Man festival, include an orchard planted in a rammed earth spiral and thatched composting toilets.

LAGI 2020 Fly Ranch is a collaboration between Burning Man and the Land Art Generator Initiative (LAGI), which plans to build sustainable structures on a 3,800-acre ranch in Nevada's Black Rock Desert.

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STIRworld
LAGI 2020 Fly Ranch unveils top 10 proposals for the design competition
March 6, 2021
By Devanshi Shah

Meticulously planned, the overall layout is set up as a sundial, with the effigy as the gnomon. The radial streets indicate times of the day while all the annular streets are named. Since its foundation, the Burner Community has had a few core values - listed by Larry Harvey, the artist that began all of this and the main co-founder of the event, along with Jerry James - such as that of ‘radical self-reliance’. These principles laid the foundation for the design challenge launched by the Land Art Generator Initiative and Burning Man Project, titled LAGI 2020 Fly Ranch.

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Hypebeast
Futuristic Designs for Burning Man’s Permanent Event Space Released
March 5, 2021
By Rosie Perper

The top design proposals for Burning Man‘s permanent art and event space were released on Wednesday.

Multidisciplinary creatives from around the world were invited to design mockups as part of the LAGI 2020 Fly Ranch design challenge. The competition was a collaboration between the Burning Man Project and the Land Art Generator Initiative to create the foundational infrastructure at a Nevada nature site that hosts Burning Man Project events.

Designers were tasked with integrating sustainable systems for food, energy, water and shelter into their artistic designs. Nearly 200 teams submitted proposals, and 10 were chosen by a panel of local indigenous community communities and experts in the fields of art, science, architecture, landscape design, conservation and engineering.

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designboom
burning man is planning a sustainable, permanent space called fly ranch
March 5, 2021
By Juliana Heira

Last year, the COVID-19 pandemic required burning man to cancel their annual event in black rock city nevada. the gathering, which sees 70,000 burners erect a city in the middle of the desert and explore various forms of artistic self-expression, is still uncertain about its luck this year. the good news is that its organizers have been working on a new permanent space — the fly ranch.

Back in 2016, the burning man project bought fly ranch, a 3,800-acre ranch a few miles away from black rock city with the idea of creating a year-round sustainable and awe-inspiring space. in 2020, they partnered with the land art generator initiative (LAGI) and launched a competition asking the burning man community to join in co-creating this space.

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Reno Gazette Journal
Future of Fly Ranch: Burning Man releases top development proposals for wetland property
By Jenny Kane
March 4, 2021

The mystery surrounding the future of Fly Ranch is starting to peel away after Burning Man Project released details of its top development proposals on Wednesday.

The 3,800-acre wetland property has been marketed as a future, year-round rural incubator for Burning Man culture. It will also ideally be a zero-emissions oasis where creativity and sustainability intersect by way of on-site architecture, art and activity.

"Burning Man Project mobilized the desert-tested ingenuity of the Burning Man community and the inspiration of a greater creative culture," stated a Burning Man press release Wednesday.

The San Francisco-based arts nonprofit, best known for the 80,000-person arts festival held annually on the nearby Black Rock Desert playa, is partnering with the Land Art Generator Initiative in Seattle. The initiative specializes in sustainable art and architecture.

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The Land Art Generator is thrilled to be included in Centerpoint Now publication.

CENTERPOINT NOW, “Are we there yet?” publication presents an unexpected take on the United Nations’ 75th anniversary, reflecting on the immense scope of the UN’s mandate through topics as diverse as the implications of space exploration, ethics for human health, the impact of peacekeeping, women and finance, traditional medicine, global migration, gender and climate change, architecture and energy solutions for the future, AI and humanism, the neuroscience of bias, overcoming the challenges of multilateralism, and more. The strong emphasis on art invites the reader to engage with the subjects on various levels. Centerpoint Now is a publication of World Council of Peoples for the United Nations. This special issue was produced in collaboration with Streaming Museum.

Foreword In Pursuit of Peace: A Call to Action

The United Nations’ 75th anniversary occurs at a time of polarization and struggle when multilateralism is being tested to its core. The more interconnected the world becomes, the more we witness efforts to counter this tendency and promote discourses of “us versus them.” It is therefore the responsibility of all who believe in multilateralism to prove that the path chosen in 1945, with the signing of the UN Charter, was indeed the right one to take.

Milestone anniversaries beckon us to review the experiences of the past, draw lessons, and apply them, where possible, to prevent new crises from occurring. However, defending the values of the United Nations does not imply remaining trapped in a bygone era. As UN reform processes have shown, the UN as an organization must–and can–evolve with the times. This is evidenced in the transition from a purely military understanding of Peace and Security, to a much more holistic vision recognizing that many of today’s challenges–such as pandemics, or the existential threat caused by climate change–cannot be solved by force. It is now urgent that budgetary considerations reflect this recognition, and that nations allocate the necessary resources to Development and Human Rights.

New thinking, brought about by the increased participation of women and young people in the UN, gives me great hope and should grow in influence. Further, as technology enables ever more transparency and accountability, it is critical that leadership embrace the principle of “Responsibility to Protect” and put an end to the indefensible humanitarian crises that continue to hold entire populations in their grip.

Lest we should cower before these daunting tasks, it is useful to recall the words of UN Secretary General Dag Hammarskjöld, who said that “The pursuit of peace and progress cannot end in a few years in either victory or defeat. The pursuit of peace and progress, with its trials and its errors, its successes and its setbacks, can never be relaxed and never abandoned.” This commitment to persist in our efforts is a promise to the people of the world and a call to action for everyone who is convinced that international cooperation is inseparable from national interest. I invite you to heed this call.

— Jan Eliasson

Read the entire issue >

Carnegie Mellon University
School of Art
Friday, February 5, 2021
Interview between Andy Ptaschinski and LAGI Co-Director Elizabeth Monoian

“5 Questions” is an ongoing series by the School of Art that asks alumni who are transforming art, culture, and technology about their current work and time at Carnegie Mellon.

Why is it important to incorporate artists and creatives in designing renewable energy infrastructure, an area that is typically thought of as belonging to the realm of engineering and technology?

Last year the United States broke records by installing 19 gigawatts of solar power. In order to win the war on anthropogenic climate change, organizations like the International Renewable Energy Agency estimate that we will require tens of thousands of gigawatts of solar capacity installed over the coming decades. Meeting that challenge will radically transform our cities and landscapes and it is critically important that we engage creative minds to imagine how this transformation can occur in the most equitable, aesthetic, cultural, and resilient ways that provide opportunities for everyone.

There are lessons to be learned from past infrastructure implementations—from the interstate highways and the failures of mid-century “urban renewal” to the WPA era projects that left a beautiful legacy of public art and historic architecture. While it is important that we don’t repeat past mistakes, we also have an opportunity this decade to create new landmarks of infrastructure art that future generations can visit and remember this important time when we acted collectively to right the balance of Earth’s natural systems.

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MAP Radio Hour
Art and Renewable Energy: A Conversation with Land Art Generator
January 2021

Janeil Engelstad talks with Elizabeth Monoian and Robert Ferry, founders of Land Art Generator about the social impact, politics and aesthetics of renewable energy, and the role of art in providing solutions to climate change.

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