Portal Power

Ignite.me has an interview with Harlan Emil Gruber, the artist behind the Portal spaces at Burning Man and other festivals.

Harlan Emil Gruber truly is the futuristic version of a Renaissance man. The visionary, philosopher, environmental designer, and student of physics and electrical engineering is a Burning Man icon.

Since 1999, Harlan has used his considerable talents to actualize some of Burning Man’s most memorable creations – the Playacycles, and his series of Portals.

Harlan may be a fixture at Burning Man, but his work is appreciated by art and design lovers across America. He has exhibited his work at prestigious galleries such as Art et Industrie, in New York. Harlan has received many accolades for his innovative furniture design, sculpture, and interior retail design.

Harlan considers his work be a form of sacred technology. His Portals are a coalescence of science and spirituality. He describes his structures as “interactive environments intended to evolve consciousness”.

Harlan considers his work to be Sacred Technology, not just art.

Science has completely excluded any form of spirituality for hundreds of years. I just saw Rupert Sheldrake speak at the Electric Universe conference in Albuquerque. He gave an excellent talk on how and when spirituality was excluded from science historically, and presented his views on how spirituality needs to be reintegrated into all aspects of science.

Anyone who has studied art history knows that spirituality is at the core of all historic art, as evidenced by the focus of religious subjects in art throughout history. Modern art has departed from this by becoming more conceptual, philosophical and social commentary, but there still is an undercurrent of spirituality in the essence of much art.

I consider the work I do to be a form of sacred technology and not “art” as seen in most galleries and museums. I don’t consider them sculptures. They are interactive environments intended to evolve consciousness. I also see them as tools or instruments that people can use. Just as any tool or instrument in the hands of an artisan or artist can be used to varying levels of talent, so too can the Portals be employed. They are not only a way to align participants’ energy bodies to the evolution of the Earth’s energy body; they can also be used by sufficiently evolved people to upload their evolution into the Earth’s grid for the rest of the world to access.