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EPCOT Old School
Sep. 1st, 2006 02:30 pmI want this t-shirt based on the old logos for the pavilions of EPCOT Center's Future World.
Fortunately I'm a graphic designer, so I can make my own.
Fortunately I'm a graphic designer, so I can make my own.
The Most Beautiful Place In The World
May. 24th, 2006 10:43 am
I was inspired to post this by a blog post on EPCOT Central about whether the Future World section is becoming too visually cluttered.
My grandfather is with me. I step out of the darkness of a virtual reality lab-- back when nobody even knew what VR stood for-- having just experienced one of the first consumer playtests. At that moment I realize this medium will fuse all of my most passionate childhood interests (animation, theme park rides, puppetry, games, computers) into a single art form. My imagination is primed.
The entire wall opens up, and we emerge, squinting, into the bright sunshine of the most beautiful place in the world: the central plaza of Epcot Center between Communicores East and West. The architecture evokes being a gnome in the toy chest of a colossal demigod of dreams. Geospheres and languid curls have been painted and lit in brave but carefully-measured color combinations. We shade our eyes under fronds of plants imported from all over the planet. A gigantic concentric-staged fountain dances its 10,000 spouts in computer synchronization to the theme from The Rocketeer. Colorful metal banners spin their screw-driven spiral shape in the wind, as if they were submarine propellers somehow made of ice cream. Flocks of light whirl and bank on the tips of fiber optics in the pastel concrete, bursting their emergent complexity and dying in fractal singularities. A group of dancers dressed like a red version of Blue Man Group form some kind of contortionist version of a cheerleading pyramid. The Monorail approaches and is reflected in the lagoon. It glides silently overhead.
Fixing EPCOT
Apr. 3rd, 2006 04:22 pmFor those who may not know, EPCOT (formerly known as Epcot Center) is part of the Walt Disney World resort complex in Florida. The "giant golf ball", as it is sometimes known from its flagship globe, is the only permanent World's Fair of human knowledge, technology, art and travel. This was where I first saw computers, videophones, cell phones, hydroponics and Segways. Under the username "epkat" I've been posting a lot to EPCOT Central, a blog for fans of the Disney park to post their dissatisfaction with the management direction in the past ten years, and who have high hopes that John Lasseter of Pixar will fix it now that he's in charge of the parks.
EPCOT is still great, despite the efforts of the current management to strip it of all that it was ever meant to accomplish. The blog keeps reminding me of little details, like the way they artificially pumped a musty museum smell into the leg of the globe as the ride cars ascend the steep slope in darkness, traveling into the past. I recall the laser display projecting the map of the earth spinning on the exterior of the globe when the park closes.
It is a park for geeks. In the way that it's perceived in the culture, there is a sense there just aren't enough people interested in the wonders of science, technology, history and geography to sustain it. Supposedly the money is all to be found in thrill rides and cartoon characters, which is why Disney started replacing everything with that ever since the mid 90's. ( Read more... )
EPCOT is still great, despite the efforts of the current management to strip it of all that it was ever meant to accomplish. The blog keeps reminding me of little details, like the way they artificially pumped a musty museum smell into the leg of the globe as the ride cars ascend the steep slope in darkness, traveling into the past. I recall the laser display projecting the map of the earth spinning on the exterior of the globe when the park closes.
It is a park for geeks. In the way that it's perceived in the culture, there is a sense there just aren't enough people interested in the wonders of science, technology, history and geography to sustain it. Supposedly the money is all to be found in thrill rides and cartoon characters, which is why Disney started replacing everything with that ever since the mid 90's. ( Read more... )
World's Fair
Mar. 29th, 2005 09:19 amThe 2005 World Fair in Aichi Japan has a wonderful website. Check out the pavilions. This World Fair is incredibly robotized, by the way. I'm not talking about Disney's Audio-Animatronics. I mean white plastic robots that walk around and see their environment and interact with it, offering to guide visitors to their destination or just sweeping up the trash. I want one.
I really need to not look at this so much-- it's threatening to my finances. Last week I got out my gigantic Disney Imagineering coffee table book and looked at concept art of Epcot Center for hours. Do any of you love World Fairs (or "Global Expositions" as they are called now)? Do you know what I'm talking about? The apex of the technology, philosophy, and creativity of the human species come together in a meeting of cultures. With each expo, the confusion of tongues is defeated at the hands of mortals, and we glorify the successful completion of the Tower of Babel. This is secular humanism at its most beautiful expression, and I am grateful.
I really need to not look at this so much-- it's threatening to my finances. Last week I got out my gigantic Disney Imagineering coffee table book and looked at concept art of Epcot Center for hours. Do any of you love World Fairs (or "Global Expositions" as they are called now)? Do you know what I'm talking about? The apex of the technology, philosophy, and creativity of the human species come together in a meeting of cultures. With each expo, the confusion of tongues is defeated at the hands of mortals, and we glorify the successful completion of the Tower of Babel. This is secular humanism at its most beautiful expression, and I am grateful.
Impression 5
Feb. 9th, 2005 09:31 amThe first time I instant-messaged was around 1986, when I was about twelve or so. My grandfather frequently took me and my siblings to Impression 5 Science Center in the eighties. It was great. One time I got a compliment from an employee there because I was the only one remaining in the film room all the way to the end of Dr. Seuss' environmentalist cartoon The Lorax, because everybody else had got up and left and she felt that was impolite. There already existed totally automated museum videos at that time, so I don't think they even knew she was there.
One of their exhibits was two computer terminals set up across a room from each other. I typed into one of them, walked over and typed a response, and conversed with myself a few times in this way. I loved it. My dad had done it with my uncle with their Commodore 64s for a few minutes, but it seemed stratospherically high-tech, and this connection was faster, more stable, and free.
As I sat at one of the terminals, someone came and sat down at the other one. It was a girl. She just sat there and read the screen, at first. I typed encouraging messages instructing how to use it. We chatted for a while over the connection. Eventually I got up the nerve to communicate that I was the boy sitting on the other side of the room, and we waved and smiled.
She thought I was quite smart, and funny. I was twelve and this was possibly the first friendly conversation I had with a girl or other socially desirable person, so I didn't know at the time how I was supposed to respond to such a statement. I still wish I'd gotten her contact info or something, but I never saw her again. It's been a few years since the memory of this event was recalled, and I like it, so I'm glad to be writing it down.
One of their exhibits was two computer terminals set up across a room from each other. I typed into one of them, walked over and typed a response, and conversed with myself a few times in this way. I loved it. My dad had done it with my uncle with their Commodore 64s for a few minutes, but it seemed stratospherically high-tech, and this connection was faster, more stable, and free.
As I sat at one of the terminals, someone came and sat down at the other one. It was a girl. She just sat there and read the screen, at first. I typed encouraging messages instructing how to use it. We chatted for a while over the connection. Eventually I got up the nerve to communicate that I was the boy sitting on the other side of the room, and we waved and smiled.
She thought I was quite smart, and funny. I was twelve and this was possibly the first friendly conversation I had with a girl or other socially desirable person, so I didn't know at the time how I was supposed to respond to such a statement. I still wish I'd gotten her contact info or something, but I never saw her again. It's been a few years since the memory of this event was recalled, and I like it, so I'm glad to be writing it down.
