When it rains in the desert,
all sorts of hidden seeds start to grow.
We are a group of five who believe in the power of mass scale participatory art to convey a message that written or
spoken language cannot.
Optimism, enthusiasm and love need to run daily life, and it’s the job of art to bring this in.
We build art that makes life extraordinary!
The Team
Meet the team behind
the Temple of Rain.
Trevor Wilkin
Tech
Why did you come to this planet? My goal on this planet is to be the ultimate support role class. I’m the “chaotic good” tech & tool wizard of this RPG. I love to enable other people’s inspiration, working in partnership to create whole realities that humans can live inside for a while. It’s this purpose that has shaped my career, building virtual worlds as a software engineer and in physical reality working towards forming a communal maker space. I’m capable of leading entire projects start to finish, software or hardware. I’ve been a senior engineer for Sony and Microsoft and built out core engine and graphics tech that powered AAA games across multiple new console launches. I also had the pleasure of being the Technical Director for thatgamecompany’s award-winning title “Sky (Children of the light)”—this company is known for making some of the most beautiful and artistic video games available while avoiding promoting violence and common game tropes. In terms of personal projects, I recently designed and built my own CNC using little more than a 3D printer and in 2011 I was part of the group that created the SuperConductor for Burning Man. This was a giant interactive LED display before such things became commonplace. It was a privilege to be part of the vanguard of that technology, and we got to melt many minds and expand others that year. What has been your ultimate achievement so far? I guess obtaining my US citizenship would be my ultimate achievement. I’m from Britain originally, but my true home is here. Music and movie influences depicted a “Magic America” I knew I had to be a part of. So I made my way to Utah on a work visa and met my real tribe—after that it could only be one way for me. It took 20 years to figure out how to become a citizen. The path was incredibly challenging but knowing that I am where I belong on this planet is priceless.
Hilary Burton
Project Management
Why did you come to this planet? Life is amazing. Getting to be alive is an incredible opportunity. I came here to experience and reflect the absolute beauty I see in other humans and in all that surrounds us! Tell me how your mind works. I’m an optimist and an optimizer—everywhere I look, I see connections to be made and processes to be refined, and I do these things wearing all of my different professional hats. Primarily I’m a General Contractor with expertise in large scale construction management. I’ve overseen hotel developments in Kauai, Puerto Rico and in numerous U.S. states but I’ve also managed the construction of high end custom residential homes. I keep track of everything needed in these projects gracefully and efficiently, and there’s something incredibly satisfying about seeing it all come together. One-on-one professional organizing is a particular love of mine. It’s so fun to walk into a client’s space and be able to see what needs to happen for them to feel so much happier living and working there. The before and after pictures really just make it for me! I also work and volunteer at outreach organizations. I’ve done event, workshop, and summer camp organization for Girls Go Digital!, a technology program to provide opportunities for girls ages 8 to 18 to learn more about computers, basic circuits, soldering and programming. I also work with Youth Making A Difference, a nonprofit working with young people in Salt Lake to teach leadership skills while fundraising for them to go to India for two weeks of service work. I love languages, and I’m fluent in Mandarin, Japanese, and Spanish. I dabble in French Sign Language, Nepali, Swahili, Hindi, and Greek. Burning Man 2024, my first time on the playa, was my greatest nightmare. I’m an organizer, an optimizer, and I NEED everything to be clean and neat and labeled. Night one I had a gigantic panic attack—I was convinced I’d brought way too many things, and that the dust was going to ruin everything permanently, and that coming to this event had been the biggest mistake of my life. I learned so much about friendship and trust and love that night, as my campmates gracefully held space for me to process all my emotions and come back to my center. The next day my mind had shifted. I saw so much beauty, and I was blown away by all the planning and effort I know that it took to bring it all to the playa. I was amazed at the relinquishment of control I saw as people let their art be affected by the dust, the weather, and other participants. I could not stop thanking everyone I met—I was like a kid in awe. I got permission to take so many photos of so many beautiful, wonderful, hard-core, hilarious and badass people, and I made connections that I know will last a lifetime. I cannot wait to go back next year.
Alice Bain Toler
Vision
Why did you come to this planet? I’m here to build gigantic art that connects people with love. Love is so, so important. I’m here to build art that expands the concept of the possible—art that lasts 10,000 years and art that’s visible from space! Art that inspires people to create the future they want. Long term thinking is vital, and my art reaches to inspire that in people in a process that’s both joyful and easy to connect with. I love humans. I love creating conversations with all sorts of human minds. Can you give an example of this kind of art? One of my proudest accomplishments recently is the design and building of the Byrd Draw Labyrinth [link these three words to https://www.tolerarts.com/byrd-draw-labyrinth/] in Dubois, Wyoming. It’s both a classical seven-circuit labyrinth and a geoglyph in the shape of a bird, 200’ from wingtip to wingtip with a path of about 1/3 of a mile from tail to heart center. Almost all labyrinths you can find are circular or square or some other regular polygon—but the land in Dubois asked for a bird, and got one. It’s a deep meditation to walk the path, but it’s also a lot of fun to figure out where you are in the bird as you walk it. At the size it is, it won’t be visible from space, but it’ll show up on Google Maps the next time they do a flyover. On a more intimate scale, I conceptualized and built out the Roots Network [link those two words to https://www.tolerarts.com/rootsnetwork/] for Dreamscapes, Salt Lake’s answer to MeowWolf. I asked participants to add to the installation by writing their inspiration, their happy place, and their legacy on recycled cardboard tags and hanging them on the structures I had built. Over nine months I gathered over 60,000 tags, some of them full of the most amazing cosmic wisdom I’ve ever encountered. Others just had dicks drawn on them! I still have all the tags, and sometimes I go through them and am re-inspired by humans and what our minds are capable of. In the past I’ve done a bit of everything: bartending, sign painting, street dog rescue, newspaper reporting, office admin, business writing for an investment bank, life insurance sales, and feature writing for Catalyst Magazine in Salt Lake City. Currently I’m an independent artist under Toler Arts. Burning Man profoundly changed me and enabled me to begin thinking on a larger and larger scale for my work. My resume for the event and for our regional event, Element 11, is extensive: I took placed playa art (The Green Duck) my very first year at Burning Man in 2007. I designed and built this art independently with no prior experience, gathering support from an online community with members around the globe. 2008: I returned to the playa with The $hrine, again as the solo designer and builder. 2011: Lighting lead for the Utah entry into the Circle of Regional Effigies (CORE), 2012: Design lead for the Secret Of The Bees, again Utah’s CORE entry. 2013: Design and build consultant for the Psychedelicate Arch CORE entry. 2014: Designed two different sizes of the Coontie Pod for Burning Man’s Souk and Utah’s Element 11 regional event, and also took the larger effigy to the Das Energi festival. 2015: Design lead for Element 11’s Twelvefold Temple Of The Cosmos 2016: Design lead for the Temple Of Awakening for Element 11. 2017: Design lead for Utah’s Temple of Awareness that went to Burning Man. Subsequently I had to take several years off to cope with dying-mom stuff, but in 2024 attended Burning Man once again to see what I had been missing, and I got my mojo back. The Temple of Rain is my day job, and I am the luckiest human on the planet.
Rio Wimmer
Community Outreach
Why did you come to this planet? I came here to play, bring joy, and cause a little chaos. What’s your proudest achievement so far? Haha, it’s gotta be my cockroach-esque ability to survive and thrive amongst the challenges and adversity of life. As Kesha sang, “don’t let the bastards get you down” [link https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jQyMMvFjUbQ] You are an elegant cockroach for sure. Thank you. So what makes you thrive? Being uninhibitedly free and feral, deep in connection with nature. I love going over the mountains, through the canyons, and down the rivers, really challenging my body and my spirit, exploring and expanding my limits but not surpassing them. It’s so beautiful out here—the mountains, the desert, the landscape is so healing. In terms of work, I love “nailing it.” I love taking a concept, an idea, and bringing it to life, turning it from fantasy into fact. Getting a perfect 10. This comes from a combo of my skills, experience, talent, determination, and “fuck it, we ride” attitude. I’ve been herding cats and building and organizing events since 2008, and nothing intimidates me any more. In terms of building, I’ve built stages for diverse events, from stadium rock concerts to Ballet West and I’ve got hands-on experience in all aspects of production: equipment handling, transportation, packing, logistics, inventory management, lighting and sound. I work extremely well with hard deadlines, and my cockroach mojo means I’m flexible and resilient under pressure. At one point I took over last minute responsibilities for the Utah Arts Alliance’s White Party fundraiser in Salt Lake City—I maintained the budget, recruited volunteers, booked talent and secured sponsors and made the party a success. For the same organization I established and developed an HR department from the ground up, creating comprehensive policies and ensuring compliance with law. I’m great at calendar management. But my key experience has been working with Utah’s regional Burning Man event, Element 11. E11 is, to put it mildly, a dynamic and unpredictable environment, and I’ve seen it all. I’ve been Center Camp lead multiple years, I’ve orchestrated many successful art fundraisers, and I’ve been Utah Fire Tribe Shin where I directed a team of 50 performers and safety personnel through rigorous auditions for the Great Circle at Burning Man, and made sure we were on budget and had completed and submitted all the requirements beforehand. Hard work is fun. Harder work is funner!
Tedo Tedesco
Builder
Why did you come to this planet? I came here to build cool shit. And building cool shit keeps me motivated and makes me happy. What qualifies as cool shit? Building memories, building friendships, building love, and building things that other people can’t comprehend being able to make with their hands. I want to help people see past the black and white, the daily groove that they get stuck in, passing by and missing so many fun and exciting things that make us who we are and shape our lives. We aren’t little robots just roaming around the landscape. Burning Man is a great venue for getting to build this kind of stuff, but I want to build it everywhere. I’ve built, worked on, and maintained almost every class of project brought to Burning Man. I fabricated, transported, and installed “Koro Loko” with Emily Nicolosi in 2019, that same year supported the Cloud Car for Sean Mann with on-playa wrenching, and was key to the setup, teardown, and management of the Pink Spot theme camp. I was build lead for the Coontie Pod 2014 Utah entry into the Souk at Burning Man and also a much larger version for the Element 11 regional that we later took to the Das Energi festival. I was build foreman and on-playa construction supervisor for the Psychedelicate Arch, Utah’s entry for Burning Man’s Circle of Regional Effigies in 2013 and was on Man Crew on playa that year also. I’ve been attending Burning Man since 2009. Building is my life. In 2016 I started Dreambuilt Homes General Contracting. I’m the owner-operator, problem solver, and delegator-in-charge. Building inspiration—this is the concept behind Dreambuilt. It’s creating dream spaces for people, which is what I love. I have extensive hands-on experience with structural carpentry, structural and decorative metalwork, tile, concrete and more, and I use these skills daily. Metalwork is what I love best, and it’s even better if it’s both structural and fun to look at. I fabricated steel parts for the Seattle Space Needle renovation that wrapped up in 2019, and designed and built a 30,000 square foot mezzanine for the MedQuest Pharmacy building in North Salt Lake in 2018. I established Deviant Offroad, my specialty automotive redesign shop, in 2009. We do chassis and suspension redesign and fabrication, everything from new axles and hydraulic steering to putting in all new pivot points. I used to race—in 2017 we took 4th place in class in the Baja 1000 in a car I redesigned and rebuilt. Now I go rock crawling. I love the combo of getting out into the wilderness and solving three dimensional problems with a piece of machinery I made, machinery that came through my mind and my hands.