Portal of Collective Imagination
A 16-foot arch of light, voice, and shared wonder — where every presence leaves a trace, and the future is something we imagine together.
A Threshold Between Worlds
The Portal of Collective Imagination is a 16-foot circular arch built on prefab truss — a luminous geometric halo rising from the playa, clad entirely in programmable LED panels that transform the structure itself into a living canvas.
By Day
A quietly monumental threshold: open, inviting, ancient and futuristic at once. The prefab truss ring stands bold against the sky — a perfect circle of industrial steel dressed in light.
By Night
The Portal comes alive. Light ripples across the arch, generative visuals bloom across its LED displays, and a soundscape shifts with every human presence that enters its field.
The Structure Is Taking Shape
The current build direction is a 16-foot circular arch made from prefab truss, with the inner face clad in LED display surfaces rather than projection panels.
This render reflects the current engineering and design direction. More drawings are on the way, and the site will continue to evolve as the structural package, detailing, and fabrication planning advance.
What Happens When You Step Through
Inside the Portal, every movement, voice, and breath becomes part of the artwork. The installation's AI system listens, reflects, and responds — not to extract data, but to honor presence.
- 01 Motion awakens light. Embedded sensors detect your approach. LED arrays respond in real time, tracing your path through the arch with rippling light.
- 02 Voice becomes poetry. Directional microphones capture whispered words, breath, and tone — transforming them into flowing poetic text and generative visuals that bloom directly across the LED panels lining the arch.
- 03 Sound wraps around you. Ambient, directional speakers create an intimate sonic environment contained within the arch's footprint — not broadcast outward, but held inward like a conversation.
- 04 The Portal remembers. Every interaction contributes to a cumulative memory field that evolves across the full week of Burning Man, shaped by the collective imagination of Black Rock City.
- 05 Nothing is transmitted. The AI runs entirely on local edge hardware — no internet, no cloud, no data leaving the playa. What happens in the Portal stays in the Portal.
Technology as Mirror, Not Machine
The Portal reframes artificial intelligence as a modern storytelling companion — inspired by ancient traditions where knowledge was shared through ritual, rhythm, and participation.
In a world increasingly driven by automation and isolation, the Portal offers a space to remember our shared creative intelligence. It is not designed for efficiency. It is designed for reflection, empathy, and wonder.
Every participant leaves a trace — not as data to be extracted, but as presence to be honored. Subtle interactions are weighted as meaningfully as bold ones. The system does not privilege volume, speed, or dominance. It listens equally.
This piece is an invitation: to step through the threshold of the known, to co-create meaning with strangers, and to remember that the future is something we imagine together.
Built to Last, Designed to Leave No Trace
The Portal is engineered for the extremes of the playa — and built to be kind to it.
Structure
- Prefab truss — industry-standard aluminum box truss, precision engineered for structural integrity in high-wind desert conditions
- LED panels cladding the full interior of the arch — addressable, programmable, weather-rated
- 16 ft diameter · 16 ft height
Power & Technology
- 100% solar photovoltaic with lithium battery storage — no generator
- Programmable RGBW LED strip lighting, weatherproof
- LED TV screens, low wattage, high output
- Local edge AI — no internet connection required
Designed for Every Body, Every Voice
The Portal requires no technical literacy, language fluency, or prior art experience to participate. Movement, sound, silence, and curiosity are all valid forms of contribution.
- Physically accessible — designed for varied mobility needs and multiple sensory entry points
- No prior art or tech experience required — the body is the interface
- AI that doesn't privilege volume or speed — quiet presence matters as much as bold engagement
- A direct counter-narrative to the idea that AI belongs only to the technically fluent
- Collective authorship made visible — the installation evolves with everyone who passes through
Kim Carson
Founder of Kim's AI Imaginarium. Artist, technologist, and Burning Man Honorarium recipient working at the intersection of artificial intelligence, embodied experience, and collective imagination.
Kim's practice centers AI as a tool for reflection, empathy, and shared authorship — not extraction. The Portal of Collective Imagination is her first major public installation, and a direct expression of her belief that creative and technological futures must be shaped by many voices, not just a few.
As a Black woman working in AI and art, Kim brings a practice rooted in multidimensional inclusion: cultural, cognitive, emotional, and embodied. Her work is built to be entered, felt, and co-created by everyone.
“The Portal of Collective Imagination began as something I conceived alone, in the dark, with AI as my collaborator. But it was never meant to stay there. It is designed for the entire playa — not a sculpture you walk past, but one you walk through. A threshold between worlds, both ancient and futuristic. It only comes alive in community. That’s the whole point.”
Help Build the Threshold
The Portal is made possible by the Burning Man Honorarium grant — and by a community of people who believe imagination is worth investing in.
Support the Portal
The Honorarium grant of $18,000 covers an important portion of the build, but it does not carry the entire piece to the playa. To bring the full vision to life — prefab truss, 65-inch display surfaces, sensing hardware, power, transport, engineering, and installation — we are raising the remaining support through community donations.
The build will take place at Shulgin Farm, beginning with a cleanup and kickoff weekend on May 30. If you'd like to help shape the piece by hand, join the build crew through the volunteer signup below. If you'd rather support financially, the live Five Ton Crane donation campaign is now active.
Five Ton Crane is serving as fiscal sponsor for the project. Donations made through this campaign help fund materials, fabrication, transport, and installation.
Donate Through Five Ton Crane
Scan the QR code or use the signup link to join the build crew for cleanup, fabrication, and on-site support.
Volunteer SignupQuestions about major gifts, sponsorship, or in-kind support can still go directly to Kim at kim@portalofcollectiveimagination.com.
Step Through.
The future is not something that happens to us. It is something we imagine together — one threshold, one voice, one presence at a time.