a country boy raised by hippie back-to-the-land parents from San Francisco. It wasn’t the easiest of cultural divides to bridge. Discussing why Reagan’s trickle-down ectonomics were a failure for the middle class while tossing bales of hay with your neighbors didn’t win me any friends, and is part of the reason why I repatriated back to San Francisco.
The one thing I really do miss about my bucolic upbringing is working with my hands. In the Sierra Nevada hinterlands, if something needed fixin’ you fixed it yourself, whether it was mending a fence or reforging a support bracket for a tractor. Lately, I’d been feeling the need to get my hands dirty again and started looking around for a project to be part of. I was put in contact with the gang at Five Ton Crane, who are building their latest natural wonder: the Nautilus.
If the name Five Ton Crane doesn’t immediately ring a bell, take a stroll down Market Street and hang a right at the Embarcadero. You see that giant silver Raygun Gothic Rocketship parked there? That’s theirs, as well as the Steampunk Treehouse in Oakland. These two projects salute all that is awesome in metalworking, and were both funded by the Black Rock Arts Foundation to be enjoyed at Burning Man.
This year, while the number of projects funded by the foundation was increased, the budget for each was decreased, so massive installations like these just weren’t going to be possible. It appeared that Five Ton Crane would not have a towering piece of art on the Playa. This was until Chris and Amber Marie Bently (longtime Burners and owners of downtown’s Bently Reserve) decided it was time they had a personal land-based version of Captain Nemo’s Nautilus submarine from Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea. This was something I could get behind and put my shoulder in to.
As I come into Five Ton Crane’s industrial wasteland warehouse space, I’m immediately confronted by the hulking mass of the Nautilus. At 25 feet long, 8 feet wide and 12 feet tall, it’s striking and shining like the beached metallic crustacean that it is.
I talk to Sean Orlando, the project’s artistic lead and he places me under the care of production manager, Cate Boadway. She immediately puts me to work drilling holes for rivets, which are actually just decorative. The entire hull has a nineteenth-century appearance of being riveted together, although this magical creature is being assembled with twentieth-century welding – yes, the freakin’ laser beam kind of welding.
The smell of hot, burning metal fills the air as others work to form various parts and smooth the spot welds in the skin as I finish up my session forming two small pieces of metal for the sides.
My next trip out to the studio shows many new changes. I go up to the top deck and encounter Sean outfitted in his welding leathers, trying to use two hands on the three hand job of welding the captain’s chair in place, so I give him some help putting it. Once everything is partially set, Sean sends me back to the tail to hand sand the spot welds so that once the skin is painted, everything will have an even, lustrous yet aged glow.
After sanding for a while, I rest to rebuild my elbow grease reserves and chat with David Shulman who is in charge of operations and electrical design. He explains to me that all of the controls of the drivetrain (electronic, pneumatic, mechanical, etc.) need to be moved up top to connect with the steering components and other elements that I had just been helping Sean to put in place.
Like a kid in a candy shop, David becomes giddy as he tells me what’s going to make the Nautilus roll. In researching what to build it on, the crew came across an aircraft tow tractor. You know those four-wheeled things you see dragging jet airplanes around the airport on the tarmac? One of those.
With four-wheel drive and slow, lumbering power, the crew is of the opinion that the tractor will wheel the Nautilus around with power to spare. There’s a lot of work to be done – it’s no easy feat converting an aircraft tug into a land-based submarine.
The canopy has been built, the controls are fully moved up top, the doors and “iris” bulkheads have gone into place to get it Burning Man ready. I’m eyeing all of the progress while caulking in the welds and seams so that the Nautilus can be painted. Next, a clear coat is applied to the interior, and the exterior gets a coat of rugged gunmetal blue. We wait for the paint to dry.
With the paint set, it’s time for the interior to go in. I work with the interior designer, Bree Hylkema, who, with others, has been building the interior of the Nautilus while the metal work has been going on. The amazing work of her team becomes apparent as we mount the library, the map room, and a fully functional bar. A variety of mock gauges give it that truly submarine-y look.
The days get more and more busy. We test out the sound system, nodding in approval at the surround sound inside as well as outside the Nautilus. The lights lining the outside of the hull look as if Jules Verne and Tron got involved in an intimate relationship. I can hardly wait to see how well the periscope will work with its night vision abilities when the driver feels like going into stealth mode.
On my last day at the studio, I walk around and take in the nearly finished Nautilus that is just about to be loaded onto a trailer that was bought specifically for terrestrial submarine transportation. What a glorious beast this is going to be as it cruises across the Playa in search of adventure, ready to take on the world, or at least the desert outside of Reno. The Captain is in.
For those ditching San Francisco to get in a week of partying on the alkali sands of Burning Man, you will most definitely see this bad boy cruising around. And if not, stay tuned, because in the third week of October, Sean Orlando will be giving a talk at Landor & Associates at 1001 Front Street with the Nautilus parked out front.
Fear not if you’ve missed out on being part of this project. Once the decompression parties are over, the planning for the next Burn gets underway. Talk to the Black Rock Arts Foundation if you want to lend a hand to some fun art project bound for Nevada in 2012. Making crazy ideas a reality is what gives Burning Man its pulse.
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Hawadventeur
It's nice reading the details leading up to the showcase of beastly playa machines. The details had a mostly personal connection to the writer, and what I'm left wondering as a reader is the significance of these works of art in the grand scheme of things.
How did these projects start and what do they mean for the Black Rock Arts Foundation?
secretagent
Read the 4th paragraph.
Brady F
Excellent article - I forwarded it along to Chris and Amber Marie, I'm sure they'll enjoy seeing their baby written up!
modeleer
The Vulcania Volunteers salute this build & the outstanding craftsmanship involved!
Well Done All!
Bon Voyage Chris & Amber!!!
We will be talking about this for the rest of the year & well into next...
http://www.vulcaniavolunteers.com/
maggiej
i've always been a fan of the five ton crane, this is very cool
has anyone ever seen les machines de l'ile de Nantes in france?? i highly recommend checking those out—totally trippy but hella cool
Hawadventeur
Hmm, 4th paragraph still doesn't answer my questions.
Bon Voyage, Nautilus
Miquel H
@Hawadventeur, The Nautilus was a project for a private individual so there is no "grand scheme" of things. Chris Bently had wanted this for a long time (he has a tattoo of the Nautilus on this arm even) and so he decided he wanted to make it possible.
It doesn't have any association with the Black Rock Arts Foundation. The previous two projects by Five Tone Crane did and it's just a process of submitting your proposal to them and they decide what to fund. Pretty standard really. As to what their criteria are or their overall goals, you'd have to ask the selection committee on that and they're probably all getting sunburned on the Playa right now.
Hawadventeur
Hey @Miquel, thanks for those personal details...I think that's more of what I was looking for when reading the article. Hearing about the tattoo and the building of the project is a powerful image/story.
charmp
Actually, the Black Rock Arts Foundation only funds art in cities/the "default world". Burning Man/Black Rock City LLC funds art that goes to Burning Man. So, for example, the Raygun Gothic Rocketship may have received a grant to initially build it/bring it to Burning Man, but it was later placed on the Embarcadero via the Black Rock Arts Foundation. Facts and Research are Important, and your ideas about Burning Man funding are hazy and ....wrong.
Miquel H
@charmp, what I wrote was based upon when I was told and wasn't just made up out of thin air.
You have me at a disadvantage as I've written under my name and stand behind what's there. If you're actually a representative of the BRAF, then you should should state as much instead of making anonymous accusations, especially given how much criticism has been leveled at Burning Man this year.
josie_schimke
Hi Miquel and readers,
Miquel, thanks for bringing attention to this wonderful art piece!
I'm the Program Development Associate at the Black Rock Arts Foundation and wanted to clarify for your readers what our role is with these artists. Charmp is correct; BRAF only funds off-playa projects. Burning Man / Black Rock City LLC has it's own granting process to fund on-playa art. It's an incredibly common confusion - these organizations share Board members and work closely together in many endeavors. We're all in the same community.
BRAF funded the installation of Five Ton Crane's Raygun Gothic Rocketship on Pier 14 in San Francisco, but did not fund the Steampunk Treehouse. Not that we don't love the Treehouse or the Nautilus! All fantastic works of art! We hope to work with Five Ton Crane again in the future on a BRAF project.
CaptainNemo
From one captain to another I salute your very fine exquisite craft. May she always dive through the toughest currents and provide the calmest ride.
Mobilis In Mobili
Captain Nemo
Nautilus X
Miquel H
Thanks much for the clarification, Josie and I was more than happy to write all I could about this latest wonder from 5TC which was just at the Handcar Regatta in Santa Rosa today.
Run Your Mouth