Once a year, tens of thousands of people make their way to the Nevada Desert.
To contribute to a temporary civilization called Black Rock City.
A place where they can freely be who they truly are.
Without the restrictions encountered in everyday life. 
Surrounded by all the camps is the Playa.
On this piece of desert you’ll find dozens of art pieces.
This all, forms Burning Man.  
This year, one installation drew a stark contrast with its colourful surroundings.
A black monolithic structure. 
For the duration of Burning Man, a missioncrew of three people lived inside the box. 
This box was the home to the Solipmission and inside was all they saw of the burn. 
Throughout time, philosophers, scientists, poets and many others have posed the question: What is Reality?
The Solipmission does not provide a definitive answer to that question.
It is a collaborative journey in which the Burners, the Missioncrew and the physical installation...
explore the essence of Reality and question its very definition. 
Listening is very important in capturing the story of the reality out there.
Or the reality of that specific person.
It’s really a challenge to do that in a correct way.
There’s a real sense of something here that I have never seen in the entire world. 
It really is something...  
Something interesting, that happens here that penetrates these walls. 
Somebody told me when she stands in front of the box at night, there are people interacting with this box. 
Some are really gentle and they are giving us stuff through the mailbox. While others are really aggressive.
So it seems like this black box brings out the worst and best in people. 
To prepare the burners for their journey towards the missioncrew, the visitors had to wear space-like white overalls.
At regular intervals, the Input door of the box would open, inviting groups of three Burners to join the missioncrew inside. 
Here they first remained in an airlock where they would enter virtual reality. 
This experience was the first step of focussing the visitors and transitioning them from the chaotic outside environment, into the reality of the missioncrew. 
The visitors would enter the cylindrical space beyond the airlock while still wearing the spacesuits and VR headsets. 
Here, each visitor interacted with a member of the missioncrew. 
Since it was not the goal to merely create a visual representation, no cameras or phones were allowed inside.
It was not just about sharing what they had seen. It was more about why. 
Why did the visitors want to share a certain experience?
Why was it meaningful to them? 
Based on these intimate, personal and at times emotional interactions...
the missioncrew created their representation of their reality of Burning Man. 
It does not get more real than this.
- That’s so funny, because when I come here I feel like this is not reality. 
- But I want this to be my reality.
But this is reality. Even this box, you might think this is weird we’re here.
But for us it’s reality, because it is the only thing we have seen for four days.
What’s the structure look like?
- It looks like a lamp. There is fire coming out of it. 
- Almost like a chandelier. Yes, exactly like that. Exactly like that. And there is fire coming out of here.
So what does it look like, the kidscamp? 
- They have a lot of trampolines.
Trampolines?
- And a playground.
Playground. So what’s on the playground?
- There’s no grass. It’s all sand and sculptures.
Can you play games?
- Yeah.
What kind of games do you play?
- Uhm...
Alright thank you so much! 
Are you okay?
- No no, i am crying because I’m happy.
It’s all about stories.
So now people are spreading stories, there are stories coming in the box.
I have never heard so many stories. 
But it’s not only about the amount of stories. 
But also realizing, I think that very much fits in with the concept behind the project...
...that we all indeed live in our own reality. 
I think that is what the stories are capturing.
That it’s really a diversity of realities of people and that makes it beautiful. 
So it is not really a specific story, but it is all the stories together. 
Reality is one of my favorite subjects.
I think we are all here because we enjoy sort of the mental exercise of trying to figure out what reality is.
I think that questions of reality in general are ones that stick with people. 
There seems to be this big duality between people having beautiful and emotional breakthroughs. 
Crossing boundaries and feeling what reality can be. 
And on the other side also people really struggling.
Very overwhelming, this is showing me why I came here. 
I am really glad I got to experience that. 
Her picture was like exactly it. It was just surreal, just surreal.
It took me a few seconds to process that what I was seeing in the VR was what I would be seeing if I didn’t have the headset on.
That was weird.
It will be really interesting to see how it grows I think.
Because it still has a lot of holes right now. 
I just want to stay a little longer and look at everything.
It is just a very touching experience.
I just realized I missed out on so much.
But there is no other way than to experience for yourself. 
These people had the chance to feel what the overall feeling was like.
I think that’s very interesting. 
There is so much material that came out of this experiment or art performance
I think you can work on it a couple of months to really get a sort of analysis of what is now recorded or viewed.
What I wanted to get out of the box was really capturing how people perceive reality at Burningman, and not my reality. 
So the less I was thinking about how I would like it to be. Or what I wanted to put in. 
I don't want to do it that way. I just let the people talk.
One of the reasons I did it and I am so happy that I did it was...
...because I knew there is no other possible way I could ever have that kind of experience.
There is nothing else that I could do that would come close to that in any shape or form.
This is probably the closest I will ever get to being on another planet. 
This was my third Burning man and I never had a clearer vision of Burning Man.
I knew exactly where everything was.
I knew where people were staying at which camps. 
I had so much information. I sort of had a helicopter view of the place.
But also on all these storylines. 
Also talking to Daniel and Liv about their experience.
It was like we were compiling these puzzle pieces. 
I truly experienced reality through the eyes of hundreds of others. 
That has been mindblowing. 
Because that’s where you realize that the reality that you normally perceive.
I've not seen reality. I’ve seen MY version of reality.
We heard a lot of stories, and I love stories and that was the meat of what we were doing. 
But I think the dessert was the people who really performed for us and gave us something of what was outside.
Burning Man is about beauty of interpreted differences, love and mostly connection to yourself...
...to people and a space of what you’d like to create in your life.
I had some friends, some that I hardly know...
...and we've had some times I wouldn't trade for the world. 
FOMO, fear of missing out, was a big part of this project.
People asked: “Don’t you have fear of missing out?”. I said no.
But then I wrote down FOGO, fear of going out of the box. 
I had a serious FOGO on Saturday.
But then again after painting the flames on the man, having our own burn and painting everything over. 
It didn’t feel like that beautiful reality anymore, it felt like a box again. 
You don’t want to be stuck inside a box.  
On the last evening almost everyone on the Playa gathers around the Man.
A large wooden structure, which is burned as part of the ‘leave no trace’ philosophy.
While around 70,000 burners were watching this spectacle in awe, the three-person mission crew had their own burn. 
They were getting ready for their last night in the box. 
I think visually it will be more than I expect. Based on what everyone says.
Of course it could be that thing, I’m hearing that I’m going to be in a city bigger than New York City.
We’ll go out and see if it is or not. 
But I feel like I’ve got a really good read on the emotional side of Burning Man.
Which almost everybody that has come has said that’s the most important part. 
It’s a bit like the Tibetan monks.
They make something in sand and wipe it out and say like everything is changing.
I think that you try to capture the reality. And the reality is that at one point the Playa is empty.
I think that now the art has transformed into Virtual Reality art. 
So in a way it still exists only in another form.
Burning Man 2017 is over. The mysterious Black Box, and its art, are gone. 
But people can still visit the Box through an interactive VR experience. 
They can walk around and observe the final artwork, as if they are really there. 
They can also hear stories and see images that explore the meaning behind these art-pieces. 
In other words, the Virtual Reality experience offers access to more layers of reality than the Physical experience.
Which makes us wonder...
