Two consecutive Burns · Black Rock City

Burning Man

Two years on the Playa · BiPolar Express / Singularity Tree

For two consecutive years, Clear Visionary has gone to Burning Man with one large mission: launch the two BiPolar Express trains and build Singularity Tree with Choo Choo Camp — then make an improbable network of light, video and control systems survive the Playa.

The two BiPolar Express trains facing each other across the open Playa

Brief
Bring the BiPolar Express trains and Singularity Tree to life in Black Rock City — mobile stages and a monumental installation built to serve the city rather than simply appear in it.
Approach
Integrate, install and program a volumetric screen, video pixel bars, LED systems, neon and control hardware — much of it never designed for desert wind, dust or temperature swings — as one resilient show system.
Outcome
Two roaming stages with a custom Funktion-One sound system, a luminous tree and a shared technical language capable of connecting with major art cars and installations across the Playa.
Challenges
Weather, dust, unstable conditions and a moving architecture. Every electronic device had to be protected, routed, tested and made field-repairable before it could contribute to Black Rock City.
Result
BiPolar Express hosted artists including Monolink and RÜFÜS DU SOL, and linked up with Mayan Warrior, MAXA and Apotheneum — turning separate landmarks into temporary, city-scale encounters.

Singularity Tree illuminated between the two BiPolar Express trains beneath a field of lasers at Burning Man — Fig. 01BiPolar Express / Singularity Tree · The tree between the trains

For two consecutive years, we have returned to Burning Man with Choo Choo Camp to launch the BiPolar Express trains and build Singularity Tree. The work begins long before the first night: assembling a moving ecosystem of screens, light, electronics and control, then teaching it to endure the Playa.

I · Make the impossible desert-ready

The system brings together a volumetric screen, video pixel bars, multiple LED systems, neon, networking and control devices — including equipment fundamentally unsuited to open desert conditions.

Wind, dust, heat and sudden weather become part of the engineering brief. We connect, protect, install, program and test every layer until many fragile devices behave as one instrument for Black Rock City.

Singularity Tree under construction on the Playa at sunset, with crew and lifting equipment at its base — Fig. 02Singularity Tree · Work in progress

A Clear Visionary crew member with a radio beneath the unfinished Singularity Tree structure — Fig. 03On Playa · Work in progress

Aleks connecting and arranging the suspended LED strands of the Singularity Tree volumetric screen — Fig. 04Aleks setting up the volumetric screen

II · A city that moves

BiPolar Express is not a fixed stage. The two trains travel through the city, carrying sound, light and people with them. Before they can roam, both vehicles go through DMV inspection — one more threshold where fabrication, electronics and performance infrastructure have to operate as a single machine.

Once licensed, the trains become connective tissue across the Playa: a platform that can arrive, dock, perform and move again.

The two BiPolar Express train art cars crossing the open Playa on their way to DMV inspection — Fig. 05BiPolar Express · Trains going to DMV

BiPolar Express in its full night configuration — lasers, searchlights and the illuminated train body on the Playa — Fig. 06BiPolar Express · Full sound-and-light configuration

III · Sound with physical force

The trains were built around a custom Funktion-One setup developed in collaboration with Nomad Production. Its triple-kick technology was engineered to carry defined, physical low end across open desert — giving BiPolar Express one of the most powerful sound systems on the Playa.

Without walls to contain it, every part of the system has to work harder: coverage, phase, pressure and musical detail. The result is not simply volume. It is a moving field of sound with enough precision to hold a performance in the middle of Black Rock City.

IV · Linkups across the Playa

Artists including Monolink and RÜFÜS DU SOL have performed on our stages. The trains have also linked with Mayan Warrior and MAXA — two of the Playa's most powerful art cars — and with Apotheneum, one of its brightest immersive installations.

These meetings are temporary by design. Independent machines, crews and audiences converge for a few hours, share sound and light, then separate back into the city. The technology matters because it makes that collective moment possible.

Apotheneum

Monolink performing before the illuminated strands of the Singularity Tree at dusk — Monolink playing beneath Singularity Tree

Monolink performing live beside Singularity Tree, with BiPolar Express behind him — Monolink playing beneath Singularity Tree

Singularity Tree, BiPolar Express and MAXA surrounded by blue lasers during their Playa linkup — BiPolar Express / Singularity Tree / MAXA

BiPolar Express linked with MAXA during a daytime gathering on the Playa — BiPolar Express / Singularity Tree / MAXA

BiPolar Express and Mayan Warrior linked under violet light and blue lasers — Mayan Warrior

BiPolar Express and Mayan Warrior during a daytime Playa linkup, with Singularity Tree nearby — Mayan Warrior

Build it in the dust. Make it move. Give it back to the city.

Project facts

Year: Two consecutive years
Location: Black Rock City, Nevada
Role: Multimedia systems integration · Installation & commissioning · Show control programming · Sound system integration · Art-car linkups · On-Playa technical operation
With: Choo Choo Camp (BiPolar Express / Singularity Tree) · Nomad Production (Funktion-One · Triple-kick sound system)

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