John Law (born November 17, 1958) is an American artist, culture-jammer, and a primary member of the

Cacophony Society The Cacophony Society is "a randomly gathered network of free spirits united in the pursuit of experiences beyond the pale of mainstream society." It was started in 1986 by surviving members of the now defunct Suicide Club of San Francisco. C ...

and a member of the Suicide Club. He is also a co-founder of Burning Man (a.k.a. Zone Trip #4, a.k.a. Black Rock City) which evolved out of the spirit of the Cacophony Society when a precursor solstice party was banned from San Francisco's Baker Beach and merged with another Cacophony event on the Black Rock desert in

Nevada Nevada ( ; ) is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, Western region of the United States. It is bordered by Oregon to the northwest, Idaho to the northeast, California to the west, Arizona to the southeast, and Utah to the east. N ...

. Originally from Michigan, Law has lived in San Francisco, California since 1976.

Art projects

Law has worked for many years as a commercial neon contractor. His neon artistic projects have included re-configuring the neon of a Camel cigarette billboard to say "Am I dead yet" as part of the

Billboard Liberation Front The Billboard Liberation Front practices culture jamming via altering billboards by changing key words to radically alter the message, often to an anti-corporate message. It started in San Francisco in 1977. Advertising executives informed Jil ...

, underwater neon art as part of

Desert Siteworks Desert Siteworks was an event held on the Black Rock Desert for three years (1992-1994). Participants built art and participated in self-directed performances. History In 1992, Desert Siteworks was conceived and directed by William Binzen. De ...

Trego Hot Springs Trego Hot Springs is located in the Black Rock Desert at the location of Trego, Nevada, a former station on the Western Pacific Railroad. The name "Trego" dates from the 1910s, just after the railroad was built. Previously, the springs had name ...

in the

Black Rock Desert __NOTOC__ The Black Rock Desert is a semi-arid region (in the Great Basin shrub steppe eco-region) of lava beds and playa, or alkali flats, situated in the Black Rock Desert–High Rock Canyon Emigrant Trails National Conservation Area, a si ...

, neon illumination of the man at Burning Man through 1996. He has also been responsible for maintaining the neon of the

Tribune Tower The Tribune Tower is a , 36-floor neo-Gothic skyscraper located at 435 North Michigan Avenue in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Built between 1923 and 1925, the international design competition for the tower became a historic event in 20th-cen ...

in Oakland, CA. Law owns and maintains three of the 12 remaining Doggie Diner heads, which were located above the restaurants of a small fast food chain in San Francisco and Oakland. The dog heads were featured in a 2003 movie called "Head Trip" that featured a cross-country trip with the Doggie Diner heads, ending in a show by

Cyclecide Cyclecide is an American bicycle club based in San Francisco, California, composed of clowns, altered bikes, and a traveling show called "The Bike Rodeo", which is a public performance, and not a bicycle rodeo, a children's bicycle safety clinic ...

CBGB CBGB was a New York City music club opened in 1973 by Hilly Kristal in Manhattan's East Village. The club was previously a biker bar and before that was a dive bar. The letters ''CBGB'' were for '' Country'', '' BlueGrass'', and '' Blues'', Kri ...

in New York City.

Urban exploration

Law has participated in

urban exploration Urban exploration (often shortened as UE, urbex and sometimes known as roof and tunnel hacking) is the exploration of manmade structures, usually abandoned ruins or hidden components of the manmade environment. Photography and historical inter ...

for over three decades, starting with the Suicide Club (1977–1982). He has climbed the

Golden Gate Bridge The Golden Gate Bridge is a suspension bridge spanning the Golden Gate, the strait connecting San Francisco Bay and the Pacific Ocean. The structure links the U.S. city of San Francisco, California—the northern tip of the San Francisco Pen ...

many times and explored underground bunkers.

Cacophony Society

John Law is one of the early members of the

, a

Culture jamming Culture jamming (sometimes also guerrilla communication) is a form of protest used by many anti-consumerist social movements to disrupt or subvert media culture and its mainstream cultural institutions, including corporate advertising. It atte ...

group with open membership, inspired in part by his earlier participation in the Suicide Club, which was in turn influenced by

dadaists Dada () or Dadaism was an art movement of the European avant-garde in the early 20th century, with early centres in Zürich, Switzerland, at the Cabaret Voltaire (in 1916). New York Dada began c. 1915, and after 1920 Dada flourished in Pari ...

and

situationists The Situationist International (SI) was an international organization of social revolutionaries made up of avant-garde artists, intellectuals, and political theorists. It was prominent in Europe from its formation in 1957 to its dissolution ...

began in San Francisco, California, but eventually spread to most major cities in the United States and some outside the US. Claims have been made that

no longer exists, although some chapters are still active. In 2013 John Law, along with Kevin Evans and Carrie Galbraith, co-authored "Tales of the San Francisco Cacophony Society", a book published by

Last Gasp Last Gasp or The Last Gasp may refer to * Last Gasp (publisher) * ''Last Gasp'' (''Inside No. 9''), a TV episode * '' The Last Gasp'', a 2007 album by Impaled * ''The Last Gasp'' (novel) * "Last Gasp" (song) {{dab ...

documenting the San Francisco Cacophony Society.

Burning Man

Burning Man began as a

bonfire A bonfire is a large and controlled outdoor fire, used either for informal disposal of burnable waste material or as part of a celebration. Etymology The earliest recorded uses of the word date back to the late 15th century, with the Catho ...

ritual on the summer

solstice A solstice is an event that occurs when the Sun appears to reach its most northerly or southerly excursion relative to the celestial equator on the celestial sphere. Two solstices occur annually, around June 21 and December 21. In many countr ...

in 1986 when

Larry Harvey Larry Harvey (January 11, 1948 – April 28, 2018) was an American artist, philanthropist and activist. He was the main co-founder of the Burning Man event, along with his friend Jerry James. Early life Born in San Francisco, Harvey grew up in ...

, Jerry James and a few friends met on Baker Beach in San Francisco and burned an tall wooden man as well as a smaller wooden dog. In 1990, a separate event was planned by Kevin Evans and John Law on the remote and largely unknown

dry lake A dry lake bed, also known as a playa, is a basin or depression that formerly contained a standing surface water body, which disappears when evaporation processes exceeds recharge. If the floor of a dry lake is covered by deposits of alkaline c ...

known as

, about 110 miles north of

Reno Reno ( ) is a city in the northwest section of the U.S. state of Nevada, along the Nevada-California border, about north from Lake Tahoe, known as "The Biggest Little City in the World". Known for its casino and tourism industry, Reno is the c ...

, Nevada. Evans conceived it as a

dadaist Dada () or Dadaism was an art movement of the European avant-garde in the early 20th century, with early centres in Zürich, Switzerland, at the Cabaret Voltaire (in 1916). New York Dada began c. 1915, and after 1920 Dada flourished in Paris ...

temporary autonomous zone ''T.A.Z.: The Temporary Autonomous Zone'' is a book by the anarchist writer and poet Hakim Bey (Peter Lamborn Wilson) published in 1991 by Autonomedia and in 2011 by Pacific Publishing Studio (). It is composed of three sections, "Chaos: The Bro ...

with sculpture to be burned and

situationist The Situationist International (SI) was an Proletarian internationalism, international organization of social revolutionaries made up of avant-garde artists, intellectuals, and Political philosophy, political theorists. It was prominent in Eu ...

performance art. He asked John Law, who also had experience on the dry lake and was a defining founder of

, to take on central organizing functions. In the Cacophony Society's newsletter, it was announced as Zone No. 4, A Bad Day at Black Rock (inspired by the 1955 film of the same name). Meanwhile, the beach burn was interrupted by the park police for not having a permit. After striking a deal to raise the Man but not to burn it, event organizers disassembled the effigy and returned it to the vacant lot where it had been built. Shortly thereafter, the legs and torso of the Man were chain-sawed and the pieces removed when the lot was unexpectedly leased as a parking lot. The effigy was reconstructed, led by Dan Miller, Harvey's then-housemate of many years, just in time to take it to Zone Trip No. 4. Michael Mikel, another active Cacophonist, realized that a group unfamiliar with the environment of the dry lake would be helped by knowledgeable persons to ensure they did not get lost in the deep dry lake and risk dehydration and death. He took the name Danger Ranger and created the Black Rock Rangers. Thus the seed of Black Rock City was germinated, as a fellowship, organized by Law and Mikel, based on Evans' idea, along with Harvey and James' symbolic man. The three most well-known founders and present partners in ownership of its name and trademark (Law, Michael Mikel, and Larry Harvey) were known as "The Temple of the Three Guys". John Law Night School Endgames Improv

Artistic contributions

Law, a neon sculptor and artist, originated the concept and design of installing neon on the Man at Burning Man , an act which at once created an invaluable navigation aid and an indelible, omnipresent symbol. At that time, Burning Man had no streets, street signs, fences, or any other artificially imposed boundaries, and it took place in the virtually featureless deep playa (on which it may be easy to lose one's bearings or misjudge distances and wind up stranded alone in the desert). The decision to implement neon into the Man may have added to the safety of the event. The early years of the festival allowed driving throughout the city but eventually curbed the practice back to only

art car An art car is a vehicle that has had its appearance modified as an act of personal artistic expression. Art cars are often driven and owned by their creators, who are sometimes referred to as "Cartists". Most car artists are ordinary people with ...

s. The symbol of the Burning Man, which had been added to the desert event later and was not part of its initial inception, became more and more identified with the event, in part because with the addition of the neon it was always universally visible, becoming the single unchanging reference point psychologically as well as physically.

Founders' conflict

The last year John Law attended Burning Man was in 1996 when his friend, Michael Furey died in a motorcycle crash while setting up the event and a couple were run over in a tent by an inattentive driver attempting to get to the distant rave camp. After Law and Larry Harvey had fierce disagreements about these incidents and other issues, he left in disgust proclaiming that the event should not continue. In 2007, the three partners were engaged in a legal struggle over control of the name and symbol of Burning Man. Law's response to this struggle was to take legal action to dissolve the controlling partnership and release the name and symbol into the public domain. The final outcome was settled out of court in 2008 with Law's interest being bought out by the current organizers which also ended the "Temple of the Three Guys" partnership.

Publications

* "The Space Between" (2009, Furnace Press; ). Three short stories about bridges. * "Tales of the San Francisco Cacophony Society" by Carrie Galbraith (author), John Law (author), Kevin Evans (editor) (2013,

; ).

References

External links

*
John Law live at The Influencers 2013 1/6

John Law live at The Influencers 2013 2/6

John Law live at The Influencers 2013 3/6

John Law live at The Influencers 2013 4/6

John Law live at The Influencers 2013 5/6

John Law live at The Influencers 2013 6/6

Cacophony Society main website (includes links to local chapters)

History of Black Rock City, perspective of Cacophony Society

* ttp://johnlawspeaks.wordpress.com/ John Law speaks: Is Burning Man a Brand or a Movement? {{DEFAULTSORT:Law, John Living people Cacophony Society Burning Man Artists from San Francisco 1958 births