Burning Man has announced its theme for the 2018 edition and its something entirely unexpected.

In a move that is much more loosely defined than in recent years, the festival teased that their newest theme would play off the idea of Isaac Asimov’s 1950 collection of sci-fi shorts, I, ROBOT. Playa themes tend to be more open ended, but the newest Burning Man theme draws on futurism, cultural advancement, and the dichotomy of robot vs. human.

A few weeks ago, Burning Man announced that it could expand to 100,000 attendees.

Burning Man 2018 has also announced the design of the spiritually received temple. The temple will be called “Galaxia” and will be designed by French architect Arthur Mamou-Mani. “Galaxia is shaped of 20 timber trusses converging as a spiral towards one point in the sky,” reads the Burning Man Journal, “The triangular trusses form different paths towards a central space holding a giant 3D printed mandala, the heart of Galaxia.”

Spatially, Mani’s design is centered around geometric symmetry and circular patterns. The design provokes symbolic meaning relating to black holes, the abyss, and cosmic phenomenon drawing parallels between of space and human nature.

“Galaxia celebrates hope in the unknown, stars, planets, black holes, the movement uniting us in swirling galaxies of dreams. A superior form of Gaia in Isaac Asimov’s Foundationseries, Galaxia is the ultimate network, the fabric of the universe connecting living beings into one entity.”

Designer Arthur Mamou-Mani specializes in new-wave, digitally designed architecture. He is currently professor at the University of Westminster and owns his own digital fabrication laboratory called the Fab.Pub.

“For the past six years, he and his Masters of Architecture students at the University of Westminster in London’s WeWantToLearn studio (with Toby Burgess) have been bringing art installations to Black Rock City: Shipwreck, Fractal Cult, Hayam Sun Temple, The Infinity Tree, Reflections, Bismuth Bivouac, and Tangential Dreams, which won the prestigious Architizer A+ Award in architecture in 2016.”

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Burning Man pre-sale registration begins on January 24, 2018 at noon PST and closes on January 26 at the same time.

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