Guinness World Records Gamer's Edition

Dance Dance Immolation is officially in the Guinness Book of World Records: Gamer’s Edition for the “Hottest Video Game”. You can check out our full color spread online, complete with photo (original photo by Kristen Ankiewicz) of a player getting blasted with fire.

Interpretive Arson can now proudly say that we are an international, award winning, record setting fire art group.

There was quite a bit of photos and video taken of Dance Dance Immolation while we were in Denmark for Smukfest earlier this year.
Allan, the Skanderborg Festival Photographer, got some great shots of DDI during our run in Denmark at Smukfest. I highly recommend viewing the panorama shots on a wide screen monitor:

[View with PicLens]

There’s also pictures of DDI and Interpretive Arson’s Danish adventures from Ian:

As well as Ed:

The Denmark crew has arrived at Smukfest and we spent a jet-lagged day setting up Dance Dance Immolation on a raft. Yes, a raft! Ian setup his camera to take an awesome time-lapse video of the setup process:

DDI Smukfest Setup Timelapse from Interpretive Arson on Vimeo.

The break in the middle where everyone disappears is lunch (though you can see Nicole coming back to check on it while we’re all gone, because she’s like that). The blue tarps went on when it began to drizzle. The video ends just as Ian and Jonathan are walking the inspectors from the Danish Technological Institute through the system (with their 12 year old daughter!) They approved us, though they tell us they need to see our test run Tuesday night. Just to be sure, you understand.

BEST FLAMIN’ FUN

Kids, really, don’t try this at home. Don’t hook up your two-player Dance Dance Revolution game to a row of flamethrowers. Don’t rig said game to blast your dance competitior with a faceful of fire in front of an adoring crowd if they miss a step. Don’t invest in enough propane to fuel a small jet, a flaming movie screen for projecting all those awkward dance moves onto, and a booming sound system to play all the Japanese bubblegum techno you could ever hope to hear. Leave the setup to Interpretive Arson, whose Dance Dance Immolation game has wowed participants and spectators alike from Black Rock City to Oaktown — and will scorch Denmark’s footsies this fall. Do, however, seek out these intrepid firestarters, and don a giant silver fireproof suit with a Robby the Robot hood. Do the hippie shake to the mellifluous tones of Fatboy Slim and Smile.dk, and prepare yourself to get flamed, both figuratively and literally.

This is as real as it gets! Right now DDI is on a boat sailing across the Atlantic ocean on its way to Denmark for Smukfest. In fact it’s that boat you see above! Our container is enjoying the luxuries of the Sealand Eagle during this journey. Here’s some info on the boat:

Vessel Name: SEA LAND EAGLE
Call Sign: WKAE
Year Built: 1997
Ship Builder: Ishikawajima-Harima Heavy Industries Co. (aka IHI) (Official Site)
Length: 900.3ft

Fun fact: IHI developed the world’s largest floating LPG production, storage, and offloading facility: Sanha LPG-FPSO.

Want to track the boat across the ocean? Sailwx.info has a cool ship tracker. Here’s the Sealand Eagle

Sealand Eagle photo by braniffelectra

Since this will be Interpretive Arson’s first oversea voyage, the container had to be christened. Jonathan had the honor of smashing the ceremonial champagne (a bottle from 1995 celebrating the release of Adobe Pagemaker 6) across the “bow”.

DDI is Going to Smukfest - photo by Ed

This fall, Dance Dance Immolation will be having a special run. While we’re very used to running DDI on the desert, this August we’ll actually be running on water for the first time! In addition, we’ll also be running on the other side of the ocean! Dance Dance Immolation is getting a passport and is going to Denmark for Smukfest in our first international run.

Smukfest is a 5 day music festival set in the woods of Skanderborg, Denmark with headliners such as Kylie Minogue, Fatboy Slim, The Streets, Aqua, etc. The multi-stage festival is set amongst trees, so at the request of fire officials we will be running away from such flammable objects. The best place to run fire art? On a raft in a lake.  We’re looking forward to this unique run, and even moreso to the chance to convince Kylie Minogue to give the game a try so we can shoot her with fire while she dances to her own songs.