Every year, thousands of people travel to the Black Rock Desert in Nevada to celebrate creativity and escape reality. This year some techie burners are taking it one step further.

Virtual reality enthusiast Shannon Norrell, along with camp co-founder and VR developer Dara Bonakdar, are bringing the first-ever VR camp to Black Rock City. The production will consist of a 30-foot by 20 foot screen to display VR projections, and two expo tents running eight demo stations with VR hardware and software.

VRCamp Founder Shannon Norrell. Photo via Facebook/BurningManVR
VRCamp Founder Shannon Norrell. Photo via Facebook/BurningManVR

Performers will wear “motion-capture suits tied to a giant Godzilla and a Mechanoid who dance together along with the crowd,” explained Norrell in an interview with .

Camp visitors will have the opportunity to try out a variety of new VR technologies, including Google’s Tilt Brush and HTC Vive.

“Imagine dipping your paint brush in a bucket of paint and just painting in the air all around you,” said Norrell. “You do a twirl and there’s this trail of paint that surrounds your body.”

Norrell is a software engineer for HP. Although he doesn’t work directly in VR, he acknowledged the company’s interest in the field. “We’re exploring, shall we say.”

His VR interest and network stems mainly from a group of enthusiasts known as Silicon Valley Virtual Reality (SVVR). It was at an SVVR meeting that he first tried Oculus Rift. From that point, he knew he had one mission — bringing VR to The Playa.

“I took it off and I was like, ‘Dude we have to take this to Burning Man. This is totally going to fit with Burning Man culture. They are going to get this.'”

VRCamp is currently running a Kickstarter campaign, seeking support for what will amount to a very expensive project. Norrell estimates the camp will cost $35,000 to produce. So far the campaign has raised $2,833, but won’t receive the funds unless the project reaches its $10,000 goal by Aug.16.

To supplement costs, VRCamp received donated headsets and graphics cards. Norrell knows it’s a sensitive line to walk — balancing Burning Man’s commerce-free principles with the costs of such a large scale production.

“It’s kind of sensitive, but basically Google contacted us — they own tilt brush — and they were like, ‘Is there anything you need help with?'”

Google provided some of the hardware needed, as well as at least 1,000 Google Cardboard headsets that Norrell plans to give to visitors of the camp. VRCamp has taken steps to remove branding from all products and has a papier maché artist turning the headsets into tribal masks. VRCamp is also borrowing 10 high-end PCs from Nvidia.

Other features of VRCamp include meditation guides written for VR, 360 video, and moving galleries featuring work from artists as they create it.

“Burning Man is about idealism and believing in your ability to build whatever you can imagine,” said Norrell. “Like if I want to build a 60-foot praying mantis that picks up cars and throws them. Whatever. Whatever you can dream of, you can set your mind to building. And that’s the way I look at VR.”

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