Hand Crank Creative — Managing Team
Bay area artists Tim Bremner, Marcel Cacdac and Nick Fynn crossed paths in early 2000’s, drawn together by the loose alchemy of Burning Man, live music, a wedding, and a bottle of bourbon. One evening, after watching a giant Spanish galleon chase a 90-foot illuminated white whale through the darkness of deep playa, the idea to create La Victrola was born. They have been part of numerous creative projects at Burning Man and elsewhere. Hand Crank Creative LLC is their vehicle for collaboration.
Tim Bremner
Lead artist and creative director Tim Bremner is responsible for the overall design and aesthetic inspiration of La Victrola. He’s a lover of art history, visual culture and a collector of vintage American music. After Minitropolis, a city made with paper, cardboard and LEDs in 2010, La Victrola is Tim’s second sculpture at Burning Man.
Marcel Cacdac
An audio engineer who has toured with Lorde, Atoms for Peace, Snoop Dog, the late BB King and many others. Marcel’s in charge of stage, lighting, sound design, and producing the cabaret. He’s gluten free but not a morning guy.
Nick Fynn
Nick Fynn is managing press and fundraising as he has also done at The Crucible in West Oakland, in the labor movement, and nonprofit technology. Nick shaves his legs for cycling, but not his face.
Peter Platzgummer
Nobody has put more of their passion, humor, creativity, brains and brawn into this project. Austrian-Swiss precision, a PhD in public management ,and a true love for art make Peter the bedrock of La Victrola. Peter’s in charge of project management and operations: budget, schedules, build – you name it.
Shing Kong
An art curator with a Ph.D. in environmental engineering, Shing is responsible for volunteer coordination and managing all the big and little things everyone else forgets or ignores. Her sharp organizational skills and sweet disposition allow for cooler heads to prevail.
Featured Artists
Analy Nakat
The look of La Victrola might be highly influenced by artists such as Alphonse Mucha or Victor Horta but it’s Analy Nakat’s drawings that turn the gramophone base into a modern interpretation of classic art nouveau. Analy is a Lebanese-American with a passion for painting, drawing, tattooing, and her pitbull. In 2017, she was a finalist of East Bay Express’ Best of the East Bay 2017 ‘Best Tattoo Artist’ category.
You can view more of Analy’s work at: www.instagram.com/AnalyNakat
Ezra Livingston
Art nouveau is characterized by so-called ‘whiplash’ motifs, ‘dynamic, undulating, and flowing lines in a syncopated rhythm and asymmetrical shape’ and no one on our team knows better how to use these shapes than North Bay graphic artist Ezra Livingston. Ezra is not only creating parts of our panels and perks, one of his designs was also chosen as one of last year’s official Burning Man stickers.
You can find more of Ezra’s art at: http://www.instagram.com/ezra_livingston_art/
Engineers
David Wright & Nathan Kandus – Envelope Engineers
Crucible instructors, working artists with some of the tallest sculptures Burning Man has ever seen and straight up excellent people, David and Nathan were critical to the success of the 2016 build, and are our engineers and build leads for the second phase of La Victrola in 2017.
Eric Kneer & Mary Kretschmar – Holmes Structures
A 35-foot four-ton sculpture shaped like a sail and designed to withstand 80,000 people and extremely strong winds requires professional engineering and “calcs” to keep things safe. Eric and Mary are the ones you need. Remember Big Rig Jig or the Black Rock City Lighthouse Service? Holmes Structures worked on those too.
Sean Cusack & Lara Edge – Sheet Metal Alchemists
Award winning fabricators and artists, Sean and Lara provided professional design, engineering, and build management services to La Victrola in 2016. When they are not in the midst of some insane sprint to fabricate a fire-breathing cow smoker with LED’s and wifi in under 48 hours you can find them at almost every maker and tech festival in the U.S.
Web Mistress
Masha Oguinskaia
During the day, Masha’s superpowers keep Burningman.org up and running. By night she works code magic on this site as well, but the weekends are when her extra-special secret powers of art fabrication come into play.
The Build Team
The real art of La Victrola has been the community of more than 60 volunteer artists who have invested endless amounts of their time, energy, and money into making beautiful art for art’s sake.
Andrea Davis
Andrea Henley Heyn
Angela La Flamme
Armineh Astanbous
Ben Hanfling
Bill Witter
Brian O’Neill
Bryan Culbertson
Caner Onal
Cathryn Blum
Cheryl Fralick
Chris Adamson
Chris Dowling
Claudia Vilardy
Daniel Daniel
Dustin Selman
Ellisa Feinstein
Emily Lyerla
Emma Nation
Eric Charles
Eric Wink
Francisco Mena
Indigo McAdam
Jaemi Bremner
Jill Skinner
Joe Cross
John Warmerdam
Jonathan Devoto
Julian Huertas
June Ko
Karen Allman
Kat Hardegen
Katarina Cook
Lesa Neal
Lisa Perry
Lucie Duffort
Marcy Protteau
Marie-Hélène Poiré
Mark Evans
Marty Kesti
Mateo Ptmd
Matt Brooks
Mike Chiappetta
Mike Zelinski
Niki Butera
Norna Ross
Paul Franke
Richard Jue
Robin Tafel
Ron Vidal
Ryan Neal
Sarah Brewer
Scott Theakston
Sherry Congrave-Wilson
Sonya Schoenberger
Sterling Stubblefield
Tom Lattanand
Tom Corbolini
Trish Keefer
Vaibhav Bhandari
Wes Renzas
Wes Skinner
Advisory Council
We are deeply grateful for the passionate support and guidance of our Advisory Council:
Michael Brown
Will Chase
David Cole
Sean Orlando