The Team

Chris Airola

Chris is the CTO / Co-Founder of Static Factory Media http://staticfactory.org, an artistic services and development company in Seattle WA, and is also a Co-Founder of Red Llama Technology Group http://redllamatech.com. He received a BS in Biomedical Engineering with a minor in Chemistry from Marquette University in 1996. He then worked at the University of Washington Human Interface Technology Lab from 1996 - 2001 as a Research Engineer, where he developed and managed projects involving wearable computers, driving simulators, surgery simulators, interactive home networks, and 8 channel audio systems. He has exhibited some of his multi-modal interactive art installations in the Whitney Museum of American Art (New York City, NY), the Bellevue Art Museum (Bellevue, WA), Burningman 2002 - ZeArc and 2003 - Spheres of Transformation, Cornish College of the Arts (Seattle, WA), the University of Washington, and many Seattle area clubs. He has been a member of Pyrosutra since 2000 and has been performing with Burningman's Fire Conclave since 2000. His CV is at: http://airola.com

Nils R Christian

Nils graduated from the United World College of the Adriatic in 1988 with a degree in biology and the University of Washington in 1992 in anthropology. His career path as a builder began soon after a few mindless office jobs. From 1993-1997 we worked as the lead framer for Kajumolo, building homes around the greater Seattle area. As facilities manager of the Chihuly Inc. mock-up studio and manager of resource allocation and employee-streaming from 1997-2002, he supervised national and international installations of glass art from the Victoria and Albert Museum London, the Cerritos Library in Los Angeles, the Salt lake City Olympics, Mohegan Sun, Jerusalem Wall of Ice, to the Bellagio Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas. Nils is currently an owner in LARSNILS LLC a property holding and management company and a partner in SILA, a remodeling, house building, and restoration company. For the last 8 years, he has served as the capital improvements lead builder at the Oregon Country Fairgrounds. From 2001-2003 he was part of the Illumination Village at Burning Man and designer-builder of the "flaming spar" sculpture series.

Connor Cunliffe

Connor Cunliffe grew up in Denver, Co. where he learned the guitar and began work as a musician. Moving on with his career in the entertainment industry, he got a job as a soundboard technician for End of the Line (a U.F.O. sightings talk show) and the Ken Hamblin syndicated talk show. While actively participating in many arts organizations, he joined the Clear Channel Corporation as a soundboard technician, and remote sound broadcasting engineer for stations such as KTCL, KRFX, and KBPI. Shortly thereafter, Connor moved to Seattle, where his Performance Company, Tribalicious debuted at the University District nightclub, the Rain Dancer. Tribalicious also produced at the Fremont UNconventional Center. With the fortunate meetings with Randy Engstrom of Stronghold Collective, and Chris Airola of Pyrosutra, Connor is now involved with Static Factory and will continue his involvement in the arts around the world.

Randy Engstrom

Randy grew up outside Chicago, IL where he began his career as program director of his high school radio station, WNTH. He moved to Olympia, WA to attend TESC, where he split his time between community organizing and an academic focus on political economy and community business. Randy also served as Assistant Music Director and Program Director of KAOS. He received his B.A in promotions and public affairs in 1999 and served as Music Director for World Wide Broadcasting after moving to Seattle in 2000. Before founding Static Factory Media, he served as Program Manager of the Fremont Unconventional Centre, organizing a wide range of events for non-profit arts groups.

Tom E Hall

Tom E. Hall received his BFA in Painting from the State University of New York at New Paltz, in 1997. His interest in architectural structures was inspired by the curious beauty and confusing role of obsolete and dilapidated factories from the Binghamton region of New York, where he grew up. Since moving to Seattle in 1998, he has continued to develop work dealing with the engineered landscape. His work has been featured in many group exhibitions throughout the region. Awarded a GAP grant in 2001 and 2004 by the Artist Trust, his work is also in the collection of the City of Seattle.

Jordan Howland

Jordan Howland is dedicated to enriching peoples' lives by facilitating the production and distribution of art and committed to building strong coalitions between city agencies, arts organizations, community groups, and individual artists. For the last seven years she has worked as an arts administrator and independent curator in Seattle, WA and with multiple arts organizations including the Center on Contemporary Art (CoCA) www.cocaseattle.org, the Henry Art Gallery www.henryart.org, the Microsoft Art Collection, The Capitol Hill Arts Center www.capitolhillarts.com, Static Factory Media www.staticfactory.org, and Sand Point Arts and Cultural Exchange www.sandpointarts.org. She is a founding member of Stronghold LLC, a property acquisition company for artists, and sits on the advisory board of PSKS, a homeless youth advocacy organization. This will be her 8th consecutive year at Burning Man.

Jim Jordan

Jim Jordan has been working on large-scale art installations since his first experience at Burning Man. He has participated in building 2004's 12 o'clock installation Nova System Project, 2003's AIRFLOW territory, and 2002's bow of AIR, along with this year's Machine and Firepod. Jim is currently on a rock star tour through the southwest and will be returning to Seattle to continue his work with Stronghold Productions through the autumn of 2005. He hopes to be fully employed by industry standards by winter.

Chuck Kralovich

Chuck Kralovich is a mechanical engineer and project manager currently living in Seattle, WA. He has worked in the field for 10 years, designing automotive timing systems and food and drug manufacturing machinery. Chuck received a degree in mechanical engineering from the Rochester Institute of Technology in 1996. Chuck has been involved with the Machine project for 6 months, focusing on the mechanical design. His interest in Burning Man is centered on art that requires interaction.

Domenica Lovaglia

A small plane pilot, a housecleaner, a ferry landing attendant, a server and an aircraft charter coordinator... Domenica was one of the founding members of Pinwheel Corp., a large scale sculpture fabrication and installation company based in Seattle, Washington http://pinwheelcorp.com/. Since leaving Pinwheel, she has found an outlet for her organizational and project management skills in real estate www.domenica.mywindermere.com. Her aptitude for numbers and ability to communicate with and understand peoples' needs is what brings success to her in this field. She has been part of the Machine team since its inception and happy to, once again, meld her experience, talents, and interests in a creative project. Her motivation and inspiration for this project lies in the synergistic quality of the group, the project itself and the community at large.

Chris McMullen

Originally from Reno, Nevada, Chris moved to Seattle in 1999 with a background in graphic communication. His appreciation for three-dimensional art inspired him to work with metal, and a fascination with industrial process has led to a body of work consisting of sculpture and machine-like kinetic pieces which he has exhibited in the Seattle area for the last few years. Chris makes a living as a designer and fabricator of custom metal work, both artistic and architectural. His main influences are Marcel Duchamp, Jean Tinguely, Alexander Calder, Richard Serra and Industry. Chris? work can be seen at www.chrismcmullenproductions.com

Michele McMullen

Michele Lee McMullen has been a graphic artist and designer for ten years, based in Seattle for the last five years. She specializes in creating informational graphics, logos, and company identities and had created numerous exhibition postcards for local artists. From 1999 to 2002 she facilitated and organized large group exhibitions in the Bemis Building in south downtown Seattle. From 2003 to 2004 she served on the board to Tacoma Contemporary and was responsible for the design of their logo and identity, all promotional material (postcards, posters, and ads) and website design. Michele is currently working on the logo and website for The Machine, as well as promotional material for future art exhibitions of various artists.

Ian Page-Echols

Videographer V8 Media.

Christopher Pfeifle

Christopher Pfeifle currently lives and works in Seattle, Washington. After working on the Seattle waterfront for six years as a sailboat captain he now relies purely on his artistic endeavors www.Christopherart.com. Christopher's' art has been recognized by such institutions as The Artist Trust and P.O.N.C.H.O. as well as currently being displayed in Art Forte www.Artforte.com Gallery in Kirkland, Washington. When he is not creating art or music he most likely can be found in the ocean.

Corprew Reed

Corprew Reed is an graduate student in the MLIS program at the Information School at the University of Washington and Lead Technical Staff at Static Factory Media. He received a A.B. in History from the University of Chicago in 1992, and worked in the tech industry and computational genetics before retiring to pursue his interest in Information Science. He is helping with the technical aspects of the machine, and his interest is in the interface between computers, art, and the human mind. He is easily distracted by shiny objects and strange ideas. This will be his eighth year at Burning Man, and he has volunteered as a Ranger for seven years.www.firebirdsofparadise.com

Leslie Rosen

Leslie combines over ten years of belly dance training with fire performance to create a fusion that is sensual, powerful and beautiful. Her dance is inspired by the images and archetypes of Eastern religion as well as Middle Eastern and Classical Indian dance. After completing a BA in Medical Anthropology with a minor in Ceramics at UMass Amherst, she hit the road teaching, studying and traveling. It took three action packed years in the Far East and Southeast Asia to finish that part of life's adventure. A proud native of the great state of Maine, Leslie now makes her home in Seattle, that is, until the circus comes to town. She can be seen in performance with the fire troupe Pyrosutra www.pyrosutra.com, belly dance troupe Raqs Serpentine www.RaqsSerpentine.com and the stilt walking fire troupe Birds of Paradise www.firebirdsofparadise.com

Jeremiah ('J') Steinhebel

J has studied entomology, psychology, sociology, and political science, and computer science. He is the founder and CEO of The Olfactory, LLC a Seattle based firm specializing in olfaction delights and ahas created hundreds of unique blends that stimulate the senses and induce various neurotransmitter responses. J also founded Back2Back Cafe in Portland, OR and. He is a freelance network and software engineer; currently assisting in the implementation of the largest private VOIP network in the world.

Gabriel Joshua Stern

Gabriel J. Stern graduated from Rochester Institute of Technology in 1997 with a BFA in Interior Design, AAS in Industrial Design, and concentration in modern architecture. He moved to Seattle during the dot-com boom and started Issue Design Build http://issuedesignbuild.com, a design and general contracting company and has since built commercial and residential spaces along the West Coast. Gabe is also an owner of and partner in and All City Coffee Company LLC http://allcitycoffee.com, a retail company providing the highest level of quality with their products and environments. Both businesses are located in Seattle?s Georgetown neighborhood and have fostered community interaction and helped to spawn the areas? revitalization. He was introduced to Burning Man through his involvement with Stronghold LLC. Stronghold builds "fortresses" for the arts community through the acquisition of property and by fostering ownership of live/work space by artists. Gabe has since served as the structural engineer for "ZeArc" 2002, designer of the "Pirate Ship" at Arson Island Resort (AIR) 2002, designer of the "Sand dune frontage" at Arson Island Resort Is Dead (AIRID) 2003, and designer of the "Sand Worm" mobile vessel (AIRID) 2003.

Steven Withycombe

Steven Withycombe is currently owner and proprietor of Swithyco Furniture, a design build firm specializing in high-end furniture and cabinetry. He has been studying and working in the field for ten years. In 2002, Steven became a member of All City Coffee LLC www.allcitycoffee.com, an independent coffee shop in Seattle, WA with two locations in the city. Prior to his business ventures, Steven worked with renowned furniture artists Alphonse Mattia and Stewart Wurtz, where he assisted in the fabrication of woodworking designs. Since his graduation from The Rochester Institute of Technology and the Rhode Island School of Design, Steven has participated in many group art shows and assisted in the design and fabrication of local Seattle cafes and bars.

Thomas York

A work in progress...

"Therein lies the social significance of art: It is constantly at work educating the spirit of the age, conjuring up the forms in which the age is more lacking. The unsatisfied yearning of the artist reaches back to the primordial image in the unconscious, which is best fitted to compensate the inadequacy and one-sidedness of the present. The artist seizes on this image and, in raising it from deepest unconsciousness, he brings it into relation with conscious values, thereby transforming it until it can be accepted by the minds of his contemporaries according to their powers." - Carl Jung