Back in September the beloved Burning Man festival closed their gates for another successful year of dancing and creating in the dust. Although the event only came to a close just last month, their hardworking team of organizers have already conquered one of the most difficult tasks of the festival for the next year: choosing a theme. That said, 2018 is already looking to be quite the memorable year.
The annual gathering in Nevada at its temporary desert home of Black Rock City explores various forms of artistic self-reflection created in celebration for the pleasure of its attendees. Its experiment in art and community can only be describes as one-of-a-kind. Their symbolic and creative themes have always been the center point of their event and uniquely guide the art direction and creative mindset for each year. This week, the nonprofit organization announced the theme for the next event in 2018: I, Robot.Â
Their timing is impeccable as Halloween is quickly approaching, although their theme was inspired by the short story collection with the same title published in 1950. The concept focuses specifically on the vast degrees of artificial intelligence in the human life – and as a result, the creative opportunities are endless.
The artistic process is rapidly flowing for many artists as they will have the chance to showcase their large-scale installations and sculptures with I, Robot in mind. However, creators will be relieves to know that the festival will also be displaying other pieces that does not necessarily fit the theme.
Everything, it seems, depends on HMI, the Human-Machine Interface. In a world increasingly controlled by smart machines, who will be master and who will be the slave?
 – Burning Man’s official blog post
The well-chosen theme is one that impacts people across the globe as they plan and prepare for the festival throughout the course of the year. The concept is an intriguing one at that, as so many of us spend our days with our faces buried in our devices instead of talking to one another and send texts instead of making plans to meet up in person. It will be interesting to see how the event will display this simple yet impactful concepts.
