Dubai Expo 2020

Dubai

Sector: Pavilion

Client: Dubai Expo 2020

Status: Competition entry

Budget: N/A

Team: Will Wimshurst, Chris Worsfold, Cristina Sanchez Pastor, Michael Pugh, Robert Buss

Providing a contrast to the visually cacophony of the Expo, the pavilion’s calm daytime exterior uses the bright Dubai sunlight to create a strong white opaque screen shading and providing enticing glimpses above and below of the interactive shaded world inside waiting to be discovered.  The façade as the light falls transforming to a translucent skin, expanding the visual outreach of the pavilion.

Internally being both the audience and performers the visitors’ combined kinetic energy will augment the physical suspended central structure through vibrations, movement and frequencies.  The light and sound being manipulated through the movement and gestures of the people interacting and collaborating within the space Using computer-controlled lights, each of the visitors within the core interactive area will feel physically connected to the building-structure by holding a ray of light in the air as it bounces around the building through to another person. When more visitors get connected they are together then able to generate and manipulate more complex, three-dimensional forms floating in the air above their heads.  The digital forms echoing the physical structural web of the pavilion.

The more people collaborate the more spectacular forms they can create. In this intensely collaborative experience, people interact with each other’s’ forms and spaces through their hand gestures and movements. They practice and learn about voluntary collaboration in a gestural and intuitive way.

Using a state-of-the-art technique which combines the uses of User-controlled interactive lighting and Sequencing and interactions among the light sources to give sense of ownership and a very unique experience.   By Tracking Visitors hand gestures and proximity to others using top-down Infrared (IR) cameras combined with Machine Learning Algorithm to detect visitors’ gestures the collaboration of the performers will create the illusion of light travelling and bouncing around the space, creating delicate and precise light structures and complex geometric forms. The experience being enhanced by using directional 3D sound that will follow the performer and mirror visitors’ gestures, adding to the sense of dynamism and space.