Raygun Gothic Rocketship

Craft & Design
Raygun Gothic Rocketship
raygun_gothic_rocket_sketchl.jpg

The Raygun Gothic Rocketship is an impressive large-scale installation piece in the works by the same fine crew that created the Steampunk Treehouse. The rough sketch above gives a general sense of perspective (plus it just looks cool); the highest point of the structure is 40 feet. From the site:

The Raygun Gothic Rocketship is an immersive rocket base environment consisting of a tall metal rocket connected via walkway to a taller gantry with a well-defined lighted perimeter. Participants can interactively explore the rocket’s three interior chambers accessible through the bottom of the rocket and the top of the rocket via the gantry. Aesthetically the project will be done in a rococo retro-futurist vernacular between yesterday’s tomorrow and the future that never was, a critical kitsch somewhere between The Moons of Mongo & Manga Nouveau.

Inside, the three circular rooms have windows and are connected by ladders. There is a control room, a bio lab and observatory, and an engine room. All of the project’s specs are listed in detail on the site. Naturally, the piece is headed to Black Rock City, NV, for this year’s Burning Man.

Here are some fun video highlights of the Rocketship:

If you’re in the Bay Area, hurry on over to the Desert Arts Preview going on as we speak (6:30 – 10 p.m.) at 1590 Bryant Street in San Francisco. Sean Orlando, Nathaniel Taylor, and David Shulman will speak on the past, present, and future exploits of the Raygun Gothic Rocketship. “Questions will be answered. Death rays will be autographed. Mysteries will be revealed. Surprises will be had. All are most heartily invited.”

8 thoughts on “Raygun Gothic Rocketship

  1. SKR says:

    Firstly, Gothic and Rococo are not even close to the same thing. Secondly, I don’t see any Gothic or Rococo attributes to the design only space-age retro. But I like space-age retro so it should be interesting to see what happens.

    1. Nathaniel Taylor says:

      ‘Gothic’ is misleading if you think of it in a architectural framwork. For us its been a source of inspiration into a period of time that for the most part is confusing and often mixed between so many styles and factors. This has been coined Raygun Gothic. William Gibson I believe first coined the term, and if you do a quick search for wiki information the reasoning for our title becomes fairly clear.

      -Nathaniel Taylor
      Raygun Gothic Rocketship

  2. janie says:

    rococo??? moons of mongo and mango nouveau? what does that even mean? the project sounds cool but get rid of that copywriter!

  3. Anonymous says:

    Why, God, oh why do they get to play with so much awesome equipment and material for a piece of art?!?! I wish I had access to the equivalent. Your project may not be useful, but its still pretty sweet.

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I'm a word nerd who loves to geek out on how emerging technology affects the lexicon. I was an editor on the first 40 volumes of MAKE, and I love shining light on the incredible makers in our community. In particular, covering art is my passion — after all, art is the first thing most of us ever made. When not fawning over perfect word choices, I can be found on the nearest mountain, looking for untouched powder fields and ideal alpine lakes.

Contact me at snowgoli@gmail.com or via @snowgoli.

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Craft & Design
Raygun Gothic Rocketship

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http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2010/06/a_look_inside_the_raygun_gothic_roc.html

A tour of the very awesome Raygun Gothic Rocketship at Maker Faire Bay Area 2010

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