Chico Urban Artists Collective

Inter-galactic Transporter (IGT)

The Chico Urban Artists Collective built a 28' steampunk-style Inter-galactic Transporter using a retired 1981 firetruck as the platform vehicle. June 2011 we launched an on-line fundraiser using Kickstarter as a platform to complete this year's concept art piece (Mutant Vehicle) in time to debut late August 2011. We successfully raised more than our $7500 goal within our designated 45 day window.

The Transporter has two floors providing two very different interactive experiences. The top floor is an open-aired dance floor complete with stereo system and DJ. The lower floor is an intimate conversational room with convex and concave windows to take in the outside world, and for it to take you in from the outside.

The nebulous vortex cylindrical collar has yet to be developed and built. In the meantime, we’re utilizing the original firetruck lights mounted behind the cab.

Yes, there are wings and extensive and dazzling lighting! External seating and bike storage for inter-galactic travelers were up for grabs on the dropped wings.

How did we create this interactive participatory conceptual art experience?

The Inter-galactic Transporter is a piece of technology created by our collective genius which has incorporated a vortex behind the cabin which allows all inter-dimensional and inter-galactic beings to travel through time and space. Over the last year, Chico Urban Artists Collective worked exceptionally hard to organize as a group to develop a concept, find a warehouse and a vehicle and build the Intergalactic Transporter and develop its crew. Not to mention getting us and Vaughn LaMont back "Home," as well as transporting folks around the Playa.

The creation of this conceptual art piece is symbolic of Rites of Passage, the theme for Burning Man 2011. Our intention is to co-create and participate in community-building through art. (You know, keeping one foot in each world and sustaining the good work in our day-to-day lives.) We came across many challenges and many opportunities for creative problem solving and to grow individually as well as a group . Us simply organizing, having meetings, brainstorming, disseminating information, integrating everyone’s ideas and actually acting on it and making it made manifest in the physical world . . . This very action of moving forward as a team was clearly demonstrated in the success of our Kickstarter project.

By learning about the IGT, you have become an integral part of our community. The Chico Urban Artists Collective invites you to participate with and contribute to the intensification of this community and its projects through following the updates on our website, and contacting us with your comments, anecdotes, input and inquiries. Drop by to say hello, lend a hand, start a project and find ways to get involved.

For those whom helped us on our Kickstarter project to meet our big financial goal in a small period of time, you acted as our facilitators; therefore assisted and allowed us to support others to become the inter-dimensional creatures we are all born to be. And you became part of our inter-galactic team!

Thank you,
The Inter-galactic Transporter Crew
Chico Urban Artists Collective
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