InPark Magazine: For over 150 years, world’s fairs were where the future made its debut. The Eiffel Tower rose for Paris 1889. The television age began at New York 1939. Touchscreens appeared at Knoxville 1982. These events were once the world’s most ambitious stage for national identity, technological optimism, and architectural spectacle.
2 comments:
Reading this article was interesting because I was under the impression that world’s fairs were basically a thing lost in the 20th century. I have heard wonderful stories of t=ways that previous world’s fairs were able to push the whole world together in unity. I also am very pleased to hear that the US is actually planning on having a pavilion at the 2027 fair, because in recent years it has seemed like the US is interacting less and less with other nations.
One thing that is interesting about world fairs, is just how many new people and events are being brought into a single place. This requires a massive build-up of infrastructure and in a part of the world that has not historically had this huge number of people. I am curious how this will work in the 21st century. Will that manufacturing and construction needed to do all this construction happen in place, or will vast amounts of material be shipped in from overseas?
I was aware of the continued World’s Fairs, but I was under the impression that they were on a much smaller and less prestigious stage than the legendary fairs of the last century. It seems that the Expos in Belgrade and Riyadh are on a large scale, but are not really talked about or acknowledged. Also, it seems like the purpose of the World’s Fairs might be fading into irrelevance due to the advent of new digital technologies. The World’s Fairs in the 1900s served as a nexus point for different nations to showcase their technologies and cultures, and the internet has allowed for that to happen at a far more rapid pace and in digital spaces, rather than physical ones. Information can now be transmitted around the world at the speed of light, and it has dramatically changed our culture and connectedness as a planet. Though perhaps they are obsolete, the fact that nations are still investing in World’s Fairs is certainly positive.
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