A dream, kept swinging

Joe Beal dreamed the Dream Swing: 36 feet tall, 54 feet wide, powder-coated steel and wood, a spinning beacon, and more than 9,000 LEDs. I helped him maintain it, then adopted it when he was done. This is the story of the rebuild.

The Dream Swing at night, fully lit — arcs of pink light rising to a neon heart over swing chairs on the open playa

The stuck thing

Joe conceived and built the Dream Swing in 2012, and it became a Burning Man landmark: a lit gathering place with a swinging hoop chair and benches under a canopy of light. I crewed for him starting in 2013 and took the piece over in 2015. Then, that winter, a storm hit the storage yard in Empire, Nevada, and wrecked it. Its creator was ready to retire it.

The diagnosis

A total loss on paper; component-level damage in fact. Broken structure, ruined wood, failed coatings, dead LED runs, electrical faults — and a beacon that had never worked right. Every system needed opening up, but nothing about the piece’s bones was finished being loved. It earned a rebuild, not a retirement.

Made it go

I hauled it out of storage to Reno on its custom-built 20-foot trailer and spent six months as a resident artist at The Generator, a 34,000-square-foot makerspace, rehabilitating it end to end: stripped, repaired, and repainted the steel and wood, replaced all 9,000+ LEDs, rewired the electrical, and finally solved the beacon. Terri Mintz was my primary helper; around us I organized a rotating crew of Reno volunteers and campmates, while doing a great deal of it with my own hands.

Then two more seasons of operations at Black Rock City: transport, heavy equipment, erection, teardown, and field repair under conditions that test a plan: soldering broken LED strips in a dust whiteout, 50-mph winds stripping the heat off the iron. Burning Man is an off-grid build site with no second trips to the store; everything the piece needed had to be anticipated, packed, and made to work there.

The Dream Swing silhouetted at daybreak, heart-topped mast and lantern arms against an orange sky — constructions of light: the piece at daybreak (photo: Aaron Glassman)

Wide view of The Generator makerspace in Reno — 34,000 square feet of art builds in progress — The Generator, Reno: 34,000 square feet of makerspace, home for six months of rehabilitation

Hand-drawn graffiti on an orange wall: it’s not art unless you’re bleeding — shop humor, found on a wall at The Generator

Dream Swing rebuild — shop photo — the rehabilitation, tile by tile: wood, steel, coatings, hardware, wiring, light

Mixing epoxy resin on a digital scale in the shop — mixing epoxy resin, weighed to the gram

In a Tyvek suit, respirator, and goggles, recoating the arcs outside The Generator — recoating days

Grinding a stainless hoop chair in the shop, sparks flying — shop work is soul craft

A crew of campmates raising the Dream Swing’s mast on the playa — friendship-made: raising support poles at Black Rock City

A 4x4 boom lift on the open playa beside a swing chair frame, dust on the horizon — with heavy equipment

Working over the top of the Dream Swing from a boom lift basket, pink arcs running to the ground below — minor peril for major reward (yes, that’s me over the top, harness used)

Dusk on the playa: a friend with a bike chats with two riders seated in a Dream Swing hoop chair — The theme of the camp: a lighthouse for mind, body, and soul

“Everyone must leave something behind when he dies… Something your hand touched some way so your soul has somewhere to go when you die… It doesn’t matter what you do, so long as you change something from the way it was before you touched it into something that’s like you after you take your hands away.”
— Ray Bradbury

fabrication & metal repair · electrical & LED systems · field operations & logistics · crew organization · heavy equipment

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