Her name is the M/V Trouble and she is a modern 1000 foot Great Lakes ore freighter, although at this point the vast front hull is completely submerged leaving only the bridge and stern visible. The name comes from the Red Dwarf of Detroit, "Nain Rouge", who appears to presage terrible events in that city, such as the great fire of 1805, the war of 1812, and the riot of 1967. This ship is a warning to all that carefully laid plans are not enough when “the harbinger of doom” shows up.
The intention is to bring a mutant vehicle that resembles large scale art by day and doesn’t look like a drivable piece of art. When parked out in deep playa by day, the passing traveler will walk across the bottom of the dried out lake bed and see in the distance what’s left of this mighty ship. Maybe they will be the only one climbing on the decks of this ghostly apparition, or perhaps it will be cocktail hour. Didn’t they see it sinking the night before? It looks like it’s been in the same spot for decades.
Approaching the ship up close by day, you can imagine yourself 500 years in the future, when the Great Lakes are no more and the shipwrecks of centuries past become visible due to global warming. Perhaps everyone will have moved to California and pumped the Great Lakes dry? This vehicle allows you to explore your own reactions. In the same way a good disaster movie lets you vicariously live through difficult times and prepare you for adversity in your real life, this piece will force you to ponder nuclear war, global warming, post-apocalyptic life, the temporary existence of humans. You will experience echoes of the Exxon Valdez, Costa Concordia, or Edmund Fitzgerald.
By night, the M/V Nain Rouge is in the process of sinking, and is no longer the wreck at the bottom. When faced with absolute calamity, what will you do? What is your reaction going to be when the ship goes down? Will you abandon ship? Get out the violin and play along with the string quartet?
The ship comes alive with a dance party on the back decks. Glowing blue cold-cathode tubes illuminate the ground underneath, white LED rope lights outline the superstructure and red LED lights outline the hull. With three levels of platforms and a ramp down the side, participants can rehearse the correct reaction to impending doom: to dance with joy with their community, then eventually abandon ship and face a harsh reality. It’s a metaphor for life: show up, burn brightly, leave.
Regarding the theme of Fertility 2.0: This vehicle is a symbolic counter-argument for fertility. The opposite of fertility is death and destruction. This needs to be contemplated at the same time as fertility.
Sound System:
The sound system is intended to be enjoyed only by the people physically on the decks of the vehicle, and will not blast outward. Speakers will be placed under the forward dance deck on the bed of the truck, and the system will be powered by a combination of a small portable generator and the vehicle’s 12V system.
The sound system is intended to be enjoyed only by the people physically on the decks of the vehicle, and will not blast outward. Speakers will be placed under the forward dance deck on the bed of the truck, and the system will be powered by a combination of a small portable generator and the vehicle’s 12V system.
Equipment currently available: Infinity home speakers powered by a Kenwood 600 W home receiver, 200 w home subwoofer. Car audio equipment includes a Pioneer 600 w mono sub amplifier driving a single 12" car audio subwoofer.
Max db output: 90 db at 30 feet.
The speakers will be aimed to the back of the truck towards the people dancing. When parked on the playa driving with sound system at maximum, the front of the vehicle will be facing the city. This also is the best perspective to approach the vehicle and be surprised by a dance party going on inside.
Safety Considerations:
I am a mechanical engineer with 17 years experience designing car and truck chassies and powertrains for auto manufacturers in Detroit and Southern California. I am bringing all my experience to this project. The base vehicle will be a used, high mileage flat bed commercial truck with a high Gross Vehicle Weight (GVW) to ensure the weight of 20- 30 people can be safely handled. The target base vehicle is a Isuzu FTR or GMC T6500 diesel with 26,000 lb GVW and automatic transmission so it can still be driven without a commercial driver’s license. A slightly scaled-down version would start from an Isuzu NPR diesel with a 14,000 lb GVW to handle 15 passengers. Budget and truck availability will determine the final scale chosen.
The cosmetic structure will be lightweight steel with thin veneer skin of either 1/8” plywood or fabric, and the platforms on the bed of the truck will be similar to outdoor decks made of wood like you would find at a residential house. No one will be allowed to climb or sit on the cosmetic frame enclosing the cab. The cab will have a fold-down screen to enable unobstructed view forward while driving, but will be folded up by day to completely obscure the windshield all resemblance to a truck.
Railings will be built into the cosmetic structure surrounding the platforms on the bed of the truck. Entry and exit will be via a wooden ramp along the side of the truck supported by steel beams bolted to the frame at the bottom and bed of the truck at the top. The ramp will have a door in the false hull at the bottom which must be opened to enter the vehicle, and entry from the front is not possible. At this point, the plan is to have one ramp to minimize the number of crew required to operate. There’s a design possibility to have ramps on both sides of the vehicle: one for entry and exit. Railings will be provided by the hull shape, and the front and rear wheels will be blocked off by the design to keep passengers away. Ideally, the ramp would be wide enough to handle a wheelchair but this is not decided, and may be added for future returns to BRC.
The build crew and budget is extremely small for such a large and ambitious mutant vehicle, so the design is being kept as simple as possible. The Orange County, San Jose, and Detroit members of our camp do not all have tickets to go so this is our major challenge. So far, only four people in our camp have tickets. Finishing touches for the vehicle will be done at Big Art Labs in LA. I would like this vehicle to be far more detailed and with multimedia lighting and sound, but with a skeleton crew, the design is very squared off and easy to build while meeting the intent described above.
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