2008 - The Romanian pavilion Expo Zaragoza
Expo 2008 was an international exposition held in Zaragoza, Spain, with the theme of "Water and Sustainable Development". The exposition was placed in ameander of the river Ebro.
Sub-theme of Romanian pavilion - Danube Delta
Dimensions of space - 30m x15m x height = 8m
The site in January 2007
Opposite the atomism, holism believes that the whole is more than the mere sum of its parts. In terms of holistic analysis of individual components can not provide complete information about the state of the whole, because that whole is in turn part of a system whose parts are in permanent relationship of mutual determination with each of the remaining components .
This phenomenon is made possible by a network of connections invisible to the human eye or observation equipment and it accomplishes what religions understood a very long time ago - connection of all that exists. In other words, beings, objects, events and everything else - are connected with each other and influence each other as parts of a supreme unity.
More specifically, punctual manifestations of this phenomenon - of course available to us as perception - exists even if modern science can only be a witness of telepathy, direct knowledge, premonition, word power as information vehicle and more.
Insisting a little bit on this latter example, very spectacular are dr. Masaru Emoto’s investigations. Taking pictures of the manner in which the water crystallizes during the freezing process, dr. Emoto has noticed that in presence of a certain word water crystallizes in different ways: regularly and harmoniously in the case of a word with positive content - and upheld broken in that of a word with negative content:
The site in February 2007
Water crystallised under the message "Love and gratitude"
Water crystallised under the message "You disgust me"
Beyond the pure feeling of curiosity imposed by this phenomenon, it is a clear proof of the existence of the connections of the above-mentioned, in this case between the final form of the crystal of water and energy load of the word written on the water sample.
Let us imagine an amount of persons, objects and disparate events schematically represented as a system of dots:
According to the Theory of Universal Unity these elements are linked together by direct connections:
In addition to the internal connections of the system we can imagine its connections with the exterior:
This diagram - in fact a possible graphic interpretation of the Theory of Universal Unity of everything that exists - can be expressed in a visual metaphor:
This network will be used in the following both as treatment element of the interior and exterior areas of the pavilion and as an identification visual element used wherever this is possible (for example as background of the official prints issued by the pavilion staff or for promotional materials etc).
As vertical decorative elements inside the pavilion three curved surfaces are used as a quote of the modeler role of water.
Three such elements are sufficient to create rhythm and to remind both the shaping role of the water at the interior and level curves of land relief. On the other hand the sensation of fluidity and a strong hint of the natural cycle of the water is achieved, feeling completed by the dome that closes the space.
This Barisol dome gets - according to the nature of the videoprojections - symbol of the sky or of the water surface.
Barisol dome.
Curved surfaces
Fog screen unit
Restaurant
Image captured by the dome camera - sent to a real time video mixer
The floor – carrier of the central theme-Danube Delta - is at the same time metaphor of the Earth and real map (on touch-screen monitors). At the entrance of the pavilion and while visiting it the floor is unlikely perceived as a map. As it happens in reality, we can’t perceive objects or phenomena too different of the size of our so called "human scale".
Interactive touch screens interface - image captured by the dome camera after the real time video mixing
The revelation of the floor’s “map attribute” occurs only when the visitor looks the touch-screen monitors. He will see himself as a downward perspective image, captured by a camera located in the center of the dome, with entire floor that is live mixed with video explanatory graphics.
Sides "arena" thus obtained are limited to three screenings totaling 22 meters long assigned on 3 sides. The support of these projections is a curtain of vapor - produced by 9 FogScreens – offering three advantages over the traditional supports: it is fluid conferring to the projection typical water dynamics and it can be traversed by visitors anywhere lacking material consistency, property absolutely necessary to accomplish it’s dual role - the metaphor of terrestrial atmosphere and suggestion of " illusory" status of the reality in which human beings live.
Atmosphere #1 - under water
Touch screen on the steam curtain
Atmosphere #2 - fly over a landscape
A technical feature of this projection system opens a remarkable opportunity for visitors - interaction.
The steam curtain can function as a touch-screen, sending some commands to a receiver. In our case, these commands will be directed to the video server responsible for turnover of video projection on those screens.
Any visitor can change the whole atmosphere in the pavilion, passing for example through a tap from a projection of a sunny and peaceful landscape to one in full storm, this time a visual and auditory spectacle of unleashed nature. Order launched on touch-screen will affect equally video projection, lighting and sound system.
Access to the pavilion is through a vortex space of approximately 15m long and a section about 2.7x2.7 m. This space is distorted – the interior extremity of the access hall is rotated 90 degrees compared to the exterior extremity. So crossing over this twisted space the side wall of the entrance "becomes" the floor.
Each of us has tried at least once in a lifetime the feeling that he perceive something beyond physical reality. Fragments of outlines, black spots or bright filaments are just a few examples. Generally judged as optical illusions, the vast majority are actually a moment glances thrown in a coexistant reality.
The space between the curtains of steam and side walls of the pavilion is intended for reproducing "the invisible world" through texts and graphics drawn on the pavilion wall using a paint only visible in ultraviolet spectrum, revealed by short "flashes" of ultraviolet light sources arranged along the perimeter.
The main message coming from this mechanism goes beyond outstanding technological achievements, the Romanian's relationship with water or the place of this element in our culture. The simplicity of this message makes it universally valid:
as a species we are living the few last moments available to understand our stance on remaining resources provided by Earth.