HISTORY—A bit of gratitude
During the setup week for FIGMENT NYC 2010, the team was challenged by a number of artists and volunteers not behaving appropriately during set-up: not listening to Governors Island Security staff, trying to sneak onto ferries they weren’t supposed to be on, setting up in the wrong spot and creating friction with other artists, driving on grass they weren’t supposed to be driving on, etc. David immediately wrote a blast email to all 400 or so artists reminding them that FIGMENT is a gift, not something that was automatic or that they were necessarily entitled to, and not to take it for granted, and encouraging them to approach this event and all of the people involved from a place of gratitude. After that, there were no more incidents.
The FIGMENT team started looking at the 10 principles that FIGMENT had adopted from Burning Man to see if there was something in there about gratitude to point to, and there really wasn’t. The team realized that Gratitude isn’t the opposite or corollary of Gifting. A gift is something given freely, and gratitude is an attitude of respect for what has come before. They’re related, but not really the same… at least, not in environment without obligation (you can be grateful for a gift, but you don’t HAVE to be). So the meme of Gratitude, as the 11th principle, started over the FIGMENT NYC weekend, and it kept percolating, people kept talking about it, etc. It was sort of a joke at first, but it didn’t go away.
Then in the fall, the team working on the NYC Burning Man Decompression event ran into a snag when they couldn’t find an appropriate legal event that would be big enough for an expected 3,000 person event. They still wanted to throw a party, but it couldn’t be 100% legal, so the event they were planning couldn’t use the names “Burning Man” or “Decompression,” and they needed a new name for the event. They selected the name “Gratitude: A Village of Light” for their event in recognition of the emerging 11th Principle. It was a spectacular event, and in recognition of the origin of the name, all the profits from the event were donated to FIGMENT and the Black Rock Arts Foundation.
After that, “Gratitude” was added to the FIGMENT website as the 11th principle, and became solidly a part of the FIGMENT ethos.
