 EXHIBITOR @ EXPO 2010:
DAY TEN |
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| This video showcases the three presentation areas inside the United Arab Emirates’ Pavilion. The first is a pretty basic movie that tells the story of the UAE. The second incorporates rear projection, turning columns and cubes into talking Emiratis. And the third uses Pepper’s Ghost techniques to create holographic children who dance and interact with the video screen above them. |
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| The exterior of the Taiwan Pavilion comes alive at night, as the 720-degree LED sphere inside of the transparent lantern-shaped façade displays an ever-changing array of imagery. |
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| Inside the transparent, lantern-shaped enclosure in the Taiwan Pavilion, guests stand in front of touchscreen kiosks and select from among several paper lanterns. Each lantern is inscribed with Chinese characters representing a particular wish. When they select the lantern that represents their personal wish, its image appears to float up the spherical screen and disappear into the Shanghai sky. |
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| As attendees pass through the Slovenia Pavilion, along a path that rises and descends while snaking through the space, the walls change from brilliant blues to grassy greens to vibrant pinks and purples. |
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| Hungary’s pavilion is a forest of nearly 600 hanging wooden rods. Partially hollow, with lights inside that slowly flicker green, red, and yellow out their bottom ends, the rods respond to ambient sound by rising and falling at random. |
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| This arresting display inside the Africa Pavilion features a lifelike projection of an African face, alongside other dimensional faces that appear to be carved in stone. Various textual messages appear to flow out of the main face, meant to represent modern Africa, and weave around the other faces. |
From the 720-degree screen inside Taiwan’s Pavilion, to the ornate masks that served as video-viewers in the Mexican Pavilion, we saw a lot during day 10 — and we have the blisters to prove it! But it has been the small moments that have made the long trip worthwhile: Italy bringing in Ferragamo craftsman to demonstrate making shoes ... Window of the City re-creating live theater by erasing the line between tech and magic ... the German Balancity ball glowing and swinging like a house-size pendulum ... Estonia's "Do Not Ride the Pigs" sign ... the "snakes" that seemed to crawl under your seat at the Oil pavilion. But now that it's almost over, we're sad that that we can't say longer and see every single pavilion. But like they say here, "In Shanghai, nothing is impossible. But in Shanghai, nothing is easy."
Oman filled its stone-floored pavilion with frankincense to highlight its efforts to save the medicinal tree from destruction. The exterior is an interesting dichotomy — one half resembles a tradit
ional stone castle-like building, while the other half is a comparably modern blue-glass form designed to resemble the prow of an ancient sea-dwelling ship.
The Argentina Pavilion focused on Evita Peron and the recent efforts to recreate her silver jewelry. (We had an amazing dinner inside the Argentine restaurant there, called Obelisco. The lamb chops in 3 sauces were outstanding.)
Slovenia created a floor made to look like the pages of books to tout a famous-to-them 16th century polymath, and Botswana put an armchair-size (fake) diamond in front of its booth to show what that country is all about. Hungry is as weird as “our-calendar-loses-only-two-seconds-a-year” Serbia, with the sound-sensitive woodland of dowels moving up and down, forming and closing pathways by the minute.
As we left Expo tonight, we could hardly believe it was almost time to head home. Exhausted, part of us looks forward to sleeping in our own beds and speaking the same language as our neighbors. But Expo 2010 is magic, with an infectious energy that gives you the power to leap tall buildings — or at least walk oodles of miles from pavilion to pavilion — without realizing how tired you are, how badly your feet hurt, or how many ounces of sweat are pouring off or your brow. We came, we saw, we covered — one day left.
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| click on the images for more info |
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