A herd of unicorns galloping around a vortex of blinky cubes. Random strangers stopping, attracted by music, fire, light and dance. The outline, seen from a distance, of a strange sprawling rendering come to life. The sound spider. The otherworldly tube thing with arms. You know, that blinky vortex thing, over there, with those space-age looking touchscreens and the crazy people in hard hats? That thing!

And as people gathered closer, the would suddenly realize "Wait, I'm allowed to play with it?" Not just poke at it, but they were allowed to compose entire symphonies, which were translated into light and fire! And all thanks to your help. We couldn't have built this without you!

The official story was that the early arrival team spent build week in Bourbondome (two bottles enter, no bottles leave!), recovering from the previous weeks of hard work on Syzygryd and various misadventures getting to the playa. Also, photoshopping Heavy Equipment onto pre-rendered pictures to give everyone the impression that they were working. Syzygryd was brought to playa, in all its (magically) completed glory, by helicopter airlift.

In truth, of course, there was many a occasion where you could hear the three Ys of Syzygryd echoing across the playa: Why?! Why?! WHY?!!!! [1]

And yes, it worked in the end. All of it.
Music? Check.
Lights? Check.
Flame Effects? Check.
Huge Central Fire Tornado? Oh yes.

Even Cube 28 fit!(Don't ask.)

Not only did the Syzygryd crew create a sculpture that was widely mentioned as "this year's favorite" (but that might just be confirmation bias talking), we also brought knowledge, and were eager to share: at The Phage, we taught two well-attended classes about fire tornado design and various methods of propane flame ignition.

If you want to know more about the technology behind our flame effects, feel free to get in touch - we happily share what we've figured out!

Right now, we're working on cleaning and tuning up Syzygryd for storage, and great plans are in the works for where it should be installed next. Got any ideas? Let us know!

Also, expect your pledge awards to be on their way soon - we had an epic envelope-stuffing party last night, and this afternoon a huge batch of envelopes were shipped out to addresses all over the world. The CNC laptop vinyl coverings and the 3" commemorative cubes are still in process, but patches, t-shirts, hangtags, stickers and a few special surprises are en route to about 90% of our supporters.

If you haven't filled out the pledge info form, please do so now by logging in to Kickstarter. We need your address and color choices to ship out your stylin' schwag!

Please stay tuned for information about where Syzygryd is going to show up - with a little luck, the next event will be a little more accessible than, err, the middle of the desert.

Again, thank you so much for your financial support!

[1] http://twitter.com/yerdua/status/24431816993

Howdy all!

Thanks to your generous pledges, we fulfilled our goal, which means we'll be teaching you all about world domina... err.. ignition systems and fire vortexes!

If you're interested in hearing about the myriad ignition systems we've tested and how we've designed Syzygryd's flame effects, come to the ignition class. We'll cover the basic methods of lighting propane and discuss the pros & cons of various technologies. Our Fire Vortex salon will give you the information you need to design, fabricate and operate a fire vortex.

We've done a great deal of research and testing so you don't have to! Take advantage of our years of experience and meet us in person by jotting down this handy-dandy class information:

Fire Tornadoes, Tuesday August 31, 1-2:30pm
Ignition, Wednesday September 1, 1-2pm

Both classes will be held at The Phage, which will be located in The Institute at Esplanade/4:30, alongside False Profit and Relaxomatic. We hope to see you there!

Whoa! You must really want to see Syzygryd on fire!

Well, you've got it! With your generous contribution, we managed to blast past our original Kickstarter goal and raise more than $10,900!

All of us on the Syzygryd crew are humbled and grateful for your support. We couldn't have done this without you, and you came through like gangbusters when we asked for your help.

Take a look at this beauty of an arm, as photographed by Dan Garcia. Can you imagine walking underneath this curve of steel, cubes spitting sequenced flame above your head as you watch the fire tornado roaring up from the central cube tornado?

Thanks to you, not only will Syzygryd be able to feature a fire tornado and sequenced flame effects along each arm, we'll be able to finance the fuel to keep Syzygryd burning longer each night.

Now that your pledge dollars are hitting our bank account, everybody on the fire crew is busy at work turning the prototyped fire tornado and designed flame effects into reality. Just this week we have purchased metal and fittings for the fire tornado, hot surface ignitors, aluminum for machining valve brackets, solenoid valves, and nozzle parts. Oh, and regulators (yes, shhhh, we do need the ability to turn the fire *down*, sorry to say..!)

Here are sneak peeks of what is to come:

Variable height super-reliable-ignition flames!

CAD-based cardboard fire tornado prototype!

Cardboard + fan + flamethrower now, soon to be metal + accumulators + plumbing + fan + propane!

In addition to helping our flame effects become real objects, you've made it possible for us to release detailed designs, documentation, and templates for our flame effects and fuel systems. This is in addition to our planned release of the grid sequencer in Processing and CC-licensed sounds for Syzygryd in Ableton Live. We will also be teaching workshops on ignition systems and the fire vortex at Burning Man 2010.

And all of that is thanks to your financial support!

We are trying to get as much of your hard-earned schwag to you before our departure for Burning Man. However, we have a lot going on at the shop! Right now, every person on the build crew is busy pulling Syzygryd together from various piles of metal, wire, LEDs, and acrylic. Please be patient with us if you don't get your pledge-level items right away. Look for a form requesting your address and pledge item preferences in the very near future.

(And, hey, if you'd like to lend a hand at the shop, drop us a line at volunteers@syzygryd.com!)

Again, all of us at Syzygryd are deeply grateful for your support in making this happen. Thank you so much for your contribution. We can't wait to present Syzygryd to you!

Now let's get her out to the Black Rock Desert!

The Syzygryd team has been hard at work in the shop fabricating the central support structure and the arms. Check out Dan Garcia's gorgeous high-speed time lapse video of the first arm-raising, below!

Also check out time-lapse videos of Saturday's central structure prep, and the full 4-minute first arm raising over on Vimeo.

Syzygryd's Kickstarter has just three days left - we're aiming to cross the $10,000 line before we finish. That's just $737 to go! With your generous help we've already funded our original fire budget, but remember that every additional dollar will go to MORE fuel, MORE lighting, MORE beautiful sound equipment, and MORE awesome computers to transform your button-presses into amazing musical creations.

Please spread the word and help us hit $10k in the next three days!

Photo by Audrey Penven

For those that couldn't make it to the worknights, they could follow along at home as some of the work was livestreamed and of course people snapped pictures of the process. You can check out the full galleries here, here, and here as well as check out some of the highlights below.

Photo by Cubes (with Simon's camera)

Photo by Dan Garcia

Photo by Ian Baker

Our good friend Lee Dotson has created a gorgeous desktop background from CAD renderings of Syzygryd. The background is available in 1280×800, 1920×1200, and 2560×1600 sizes. Hopefully this will help satisfy your glowing cubey desires until we’ve built the real thing!

UPDATE: The Syzygryd Kickstarter has crossed the 100% line!

A huge thanks to everyone who pledged to fund Syzygryd's FIRE! Because of you we will build twenty-four flame effects along Syzygryd's arm, a large central propane "poofer", and of course the fire vortex that will twist its way out of the central cube tornado. This also means that we're releasing a whole bunch of designs, documentation, and diagrams for how various parts of Syzygryd are being built.

But we don't want to stop there! Even though we've passed our pledge goal, you can still contribute money to this project, and you can still get awesome pledge rewards. There is no upper limit to the amount we can raise on Kickstarter.

- For each additional $83 we can double the output of our flame effects for one hour at Burning Man 2010. Our current propane budget covers 4 hours per night for 6 nights with infrequent firing. Only $332 to double the fire every night!

- For every additional $250 pledged, we can purchase a locally sourced, Burner-created controller board to sequence the light and fire. We need 15 of these controllers (total of $3750) for full computerized control over the lights and fire.

Thanks again for everyone's contributions! If you'd like to be even more involved in this project, contact volunteers@syzygryd.com to find out how!

Thanks to everyone who's pledged in the past few days - we're now over 75% of the way towards our goal! Remember: anything above $8224 will go to pay for additional fuel at Burning Man and making Syzygryd more overwhelmingly excellent.

With our graphic designer back from a well-deserved vacation, we've got some great t-shirt and patch designs to share with you. Post a comment and let us know what you think!

Hot off the presses, here are some photos of the laser-cut acrylic hangtags. They measure approximately 1.75" x 1". We're still finalizing the etching design and color choices, but here's a preview. Have we mentioned how much we love the laser cutter?

Thanks to everyone who has pledged so far, and to David Glasser for becoming our 100th backer! Apologies for the lack of updates and information here on Kickstarter - we've been hard at work in the shop building the beast! Our fabrication team has finished the ground anchor and is moving full steam ahead constructing the central support structure for the "cube tornado" and our fire team has been refining hot surface ignition design and fire tornado design.

Check out this teaser video of recent fire tornado testing - we've got reliable vortex shaped fire! And the best part? This test tornado was constructed out of CNC'd posterboard! This early demo involves using a propane flamethrower to feed fuel into the vortex - the final design will be automated, of course, and thirteen feet up in the air.

You can see longer fire tornado test videos on Vimeo here and here.

Thanks for all your support thus far - Syzygryd is truly a community effort, and we can't make it happen without the help of musicians, artists and pyros like YOU. Keep an eye out later this week for photos of some of our backer rewards!

We interrupt your normally scheduled kickstarter browsing to bring you a picture of fire:

Yes indeedy, that's what you get if you donate to this project. Fire, joy and more fire. Donors at the $1500 level will get their very own one of these gadgets. Ideal for flambe, s'mores and really exciting tree trimming.