Burning Man — a temporary desert city built on principles of radical self-expression, decommodification, gifting, and participation — has functioned as both model and engine for the global tech economy. The event and Silicon Valley have fueled each other's rise, drawing from a shared inheritance of 1960s counterculture, cybernetic utopianism, and global commodity production. As a cultural infrastructure of the tech industry and its most spectacular arena for elite social networking, Burning Man's gift economy ethos has paradoxically accelerated the very wealth disparity and resource conflict it appeared to transcend — helping birth the gig economy it seemed to oppose. As the event globalized, it also attracted growing interest from Chinese elites, making it an unexpected lens onto geoeconomic collaboration and rivalry as performed through festival culture. Drawing on long-term action research as scholar, artist, and organizational insider, this talk traces how a remote and ephemeral desert experiment became a generative site for the contradictory world we now inhabit.

12:10 – 12:15　Introduction
Associate Professor, Fumihiko YOKOTA (Q-AOS Coordinator)

12:15 – 12:40　Seminar
Title: Gifts and Gigs: Burning Man and the Paradoxes of the Tech Economy
Speaker: Associate Professor, Ian ROWEN (Institute for Advanced Study)

12:40 – 12:50　Q&A

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