Shaan Hurley is at Burning Man now

Shaan on the playa at Burning Man

Autodesk typically sells applications and services to design professionals; however, with the maker movement afoot, more and more non-professionals are getting their hands dirty with design. Autodesk has its Pier 9 office so employees can use our tools to design something and then actually make it. We believe that the way that things are made has an effect on the way that they are designed.

Once a year, tens of thousands of participants gather in Nevada's Black Rock Desert to create Black Rock City, dedicated to community, art, self-expression, and self-reliance. They depart one week later, having left no trace whatsoever.

In addition to getting their own hands dirty, some of our employees work on nights and weekends to participate in Burning Man. Burning Man is like the maker movement on steroids. There are hundreds of impressive displays of engineering. To be part of the experience, a team of employees designed and fabricated a replica of the lunar rover.

Above: genuine original and work in progress

It started out so humbly:

But even before it was all done, it got tricked out with lights.

Thanks to Shaan and Heather Kerrick for the photos!

In addition to feats of engineering, the self-expression part of Burning Man inspires participants to look the part. So there's Shaan donning a spacesuit in the blistering desert, bolding going where no sane individual has gone before. To see an example of the kinds of engineering things that people do for Burning Man, check out Peter Hudson's Zoetrope:

Peter Hudson designed the sculptures using Autodesk Maya and the structure using Autodesk Inventor.

Fabrication exhibitionism is alive in the lab.