Random Pizza Experience

Death’s (short) Story

I have been going to Burning Man annually since 1998. My first burning man was 1992, before there was a gate and a fence.

Returning randomly in 1998 at the suggestion of a friend I spent my first few years at Burning Man as a nomad – generally unassociated with a camp of any “theme.” Dressed almost always in black robe (a Moroccan Jellaba), I earned the nickname Death. One year, with my Swedish cousin we declared our camp the Kindom of Nothingness and with myself as King we began adding neighbors as dukes and duschesses to our ever expanding kingdom. This continued until 2003 when I decided I wanted to expand my contribution to the playa and create an interactive theme camp. That next year was the first Random Pizza Experience.

I started by consider what I wanted the experience to be. I wanted it to be interactive, to bring people together. I wanted to tangibly demonstrate the power of gifting. I wanted the experience to only be possible by the communal will of individuals. I wanted people to reflect on the nature of the randomness of our encounters and how we are all interconnected. Finally, I wanted to affect as many people within “reasonable” constraints of cost and logistics.

As I mulled and mulled and mulled about things I might help instigate on the playa, from somewhere pizza came to mind. “Pizza is affordable,” I thought. Could you make a pizza on the playa? Could you deliver pizzas…randomly…without all the effort of a giant camp? On a small budget?

Since 2004 the answer has been yes.

Since my early experiences at Burning Man I wanted to find a way to contribute a theme camp appropriate to my experiences at Burning Man. Somehow, randomly I suppose, Random Pizza Experience is that way.