Exit to Tomorrow also features many great essays about the rise of World’s Fairs as popular spectacles through their heyday and finally chronicling their eventual demise due to economic and technological obstacles. Each essay gives great insight into these once popular events, one that I particularly liked was “Of Imaginary and Concrete Fantasies” by Paola Antonelli, wherein she gives great perspective, including this little nugget describing the underlying philosophy of a World’s Fair:
A great World’s fair, just like a good sci-fi movie, is a plausible fantasy based on the impact of science and technology on society. But while the world portrayed by the movies can be on the verge of a dark catastrophe — or just emerging from it — the dream invoked by a world’s fair nearly always a gleaming utopia within arm’s reach.”
— Paola Antoneilli from the essay “Of Imaginary and Concrete Fantasies”
It’s a great book, especially for anyone interested in the intersection of culture, architecture, science and visions of the future. Reading the almost naive optimism of these World’s Fairs is quite infectious, in fact I’ve put on my rose tinted space aged glasses and I see it’s a great big beautiful tomorrow!
Finally, I thought I’d end with a few clips from YouTube with footage from one of my favorite World’s Fair’s… The Century 21 Exposition or The 1962 Seattle World’s Fair. A World’s Fair that promoted space travel and man’s future exploration of space. I am partial to this World’s Fair for three important reasons:
- It was the setting for a delightfully tacky Elvis movie.
- The Space Needle is awesome… mid-century architecture at it’s finest!
- I live in Seattle!
