a tree of aluminum...
from the danish design magazine mobilia, a 1970 one page article on the swiss pavilion at expo '70 in japan with nice small grainy images...
"switzerland: a tree of aluminum in front of a finely-detailed, precisely formed exhibition hall. the 32,000 lamps on the branches were turned on in 10 stages. cooled air flowed in waves from the tree, making the plaza a very popular place to rest - electronic music was projected downwards from the tree - when the lamps were lit the music changed to another program and broadcast outwards from the loudspeakers at the treetop. design willi walter."
of course, one can't help but see connections between the photos of folks resting beneath this tree of lights and olafur eliasson's weather project done at the tate a few years ago. i'm much more interested in what the electronic music sounded like!
Labels: architecture, electronic music, expo 70
3 Comments:
I've a mild fascination w/the World's Fair/Expo design & concept. this mostly stems from a trip to Montreal at a young age, where I found the old Expo housing archicture hypnotic ("how do people live in those?").
immediate, "of the moment" and totally temporary sites, very creative, forward-thinking, but also with a "pop single" aesthetic to it.
and of course, who's archived all the very modern music they piped through these expos?
yeah, the architecture is pretty amazing. so many experiments and ideas that never would've flown for permanent structures. indeed it would incredible to hear a lot of this music, most of which is impossible to find any information about, much less hearing it!
Over a number of years I have been compiling info and collecting Expo/World`s Fair experimental music. See http://www.ianhelliwell.co.uk/expo.html
Click on the geodesic dome image for the works I`ve so far listed.
Post a Comment
<< Home