Into the Burning Man Multiverse

Life is a Festival #78: Damian Madray (PRESENCE)

Today’s episode of Life is a Festival unfolds through two different audio experiences and much like Burning Man’s Multiverse, I invite you, dear listener to enjoy one or both of these diverging moments.

The first podcast takes place in the traditional Life is a Festival format, the second is a conversation recorded from the new audio social network Clubhouse (currently in beta).

My guest for both experiences is my friend Damian Madray, the founder of PRESENCE, which is part of the infrastructure behind Infinite Playa, one of Burning Man’s multiverses.

Damian is passionate about scaling human connection. An alum of Singularity University, and long time congregator through his Glint Salons in San Francisco, Damian is the perfect person to speak of the power of Burning Man’s Multiverse as a portal to the broader metaverse that is unfolding in digital space everywhere at once. He founded PRESENCE to help creators to bring people into experiences that connect in meaningful ways. His work has been featured in the New York Times, The Bold Italic, Huffington Post, Slate, WSJ, and the Financial Times.

Through Burning Man’s Multiverse, we will witness human connection unfolding in the virtual through time and space, but it’s up to us to participate in this unfolding. As you step into any of the 8 official multiverse realms, we invite you, “Ask not what burn the multiverse can give to you, but how you can burn in the Multiverse.”

Life is a Festival Edition

In this iteration we we get to know Damian, from his parties and salons in San Francisco to his recent naturalization as a US citizen. We go deep on the distinction between multiverse and metaverse, we chat about type 1 and type 2 fun, and Damian provides a preview of what we can expect from Infinite Playa.

TIMESTAMPS

:15 - Damian’s background and recent naturalization as a US citizen
:20 - Experience is how consciousness unfolds through space and time
:22 - From throwing underground parties, to attending Singularity University, Damian’s background in experience design
:29 - The multiverse and the metaverse
:35 - Talking about Infinite Playa
:42 - How do we navigate the difference realms of the Multiverse?
:49 - Can people still participate as creators?
:53 - The biggest challenges facing Burning Man’s Multiverse
:59 - Type 1 and Type 2 Fun
1:06 - How will connecting with Burning Man’s multiverse impact the broader metaverse?

Clubhouse Recording

In this iteration, Damian and I attend to our Clubhouse audience and seek to inspire real participation in the Multiverse as an acculturation tool to Burning Man’s values. We speak of co-creating rather than consuming experiences and how to be a vibe creator in this new world of visual Burning.

TIMESTAMPS

:05 - Framing a digital experience to create the possibility for intimacy
:11 - The acculturation of a pilgrimage
:16 - Damian explores some of the different multiverses including Build-a-Burn (Youtopia), The Bridge Experience (Metaburn), and Infinite Playa
:27 - Co-creating an experience rather than consuming an experience
:34 - Don’t come to the multiverse to get a burn, come to give a burn
:37 - Damian describes his platform PRESENCE
:42 - The onboarding process for multiverse is decentralized
:50 - See yourself as a vibe creator and an embodiment of the principles