This Giant NASA Blanket May Be Burning Man’s Coolest Installation

Every year since its creation, Burning Man has been featuring some amazing art installations in Nevada’s Black Rock Desert. This year is no different, but one project stands out; an artist is proposing covering a section of the desert with a 10,000-square-foot piece of polyester film made from 3,350 NASA space blankets. Predictably enough, the project is simply called, The Blanket.

Conceived by Russian architect Alex Shtanuk, The Blanket was inspired by the Black Rock Desert’s previous lifetime as a giant, ancient lake. Shtanuk told Lonely Planet that, “the waves on the surface of the installation will remind people of the waves of the ancient lake.” The silver topside would reflect 97 percent of the radiated heat, and double as a comfortable area where festivalgoers can take refuge from the desert sun.

Last year, the architect created a similar installation for the Russian land art festival, Archstoyanie. “The blanket looked absolutely alien among the fields and trees,” he said, adding that the blanket “affected people in a very specific way. They started smiling, running on it, and interacting with it just like children.”

To fund the project, Shtanuk is launching a crowdfunding campaign on Indiegogo. He needs $17,500 to make The Blanket a reality, but as of right now, he’s only raised $820.

Burning Man 2018 kicks off on August 26th, so Shtanuk has very little time left to make his cool project happen.

H/T: Lonely Planet