courtesy Alin Constantin Photography
CNN
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“In time, we will put our eyes to this light and see that these people are the peers of nature. And forgivingly, when they appear we will lift up our song and sing, and say we cannot praise too much of any single thing.” It may read like poetry, but these lines weren’t composed by a poet – they were written by an artificial intelligence (AI) algorithm.
The phrase appeared in early December on the facade of the UK Pavilion at Expo 2020 in Dubai. It was created from a single word chosen by a visitor to the pavilion, which was then fed to an AI that had been previously trained with millions of lines of poetry. The result forms part of “Collective Message” — a constant stream of pairs of successive lines of verse, called couplets, shown in English and Arabic.
The words are displayed, via LEDs, on timber slats arranged in a circle at one end of the cone-shaped pavilion, which was designed by Es Devlin, a British artist whose previous work includes stage sets for Beyonce and Adele, as well as the London 2012 Olympic Closing Ceremony. She is the first female designer of a UK pavilion since Expo started in 1851.
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Expo 2020 Dubai is now open, revealing a spectacular array of pavilions, many designed by world-famous architects. The UAE pavilion, designed by Santiago Calatrava, is a sight to behold, shaped like a falcon -- the country's national bird -- in flight. The structure is topped by falcon-wing shapes made of carbon fiber and fitted with solar panels.
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A series of blue boxes draped in fired clay balls make up the Iran pavilion. Each box showcases different elements of the country's culture, tradition and handicrafts. Streams of water accompany visitors down walkways and into the pavilion, designed by architects Shift Process Practice.
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"Innovating for a shared future" is the theme of the UK pavilion. Designed by Es Devlin Studio, it offers to take visitors on a digital journey through the UK's role in space and artificial intelligence. The theme is reflected in the facade, which features continuously changing collective message generated by AI and visitors' contributions.
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The network of vertical aluminum panels that hangs like a cloud over timber structures is a key element of the Australia pavilion, designed by bureau^proberts. The "cloud" even lights up in the evening to mimic "the ancient and rugged landscape of Australia." Inside, the pavilion explores 60,000 years of Australian innovation, culture and creativity.
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Designed by Al Jabal Engineering, the Pakistan pavilion offers multi-sensory installations encapsulated in walls of color. The colorful façade is a "reflection of the beautiful changing seasons the country experiences, one of the most diverse on Earth," according to its designer, Rashid Rana. Inside, Pakistan's "hidden treasures" are showcased, including its spiritual traditions, history and sustainability initiatives.
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The Russia pavilion, designed by Tchoban SPEECH, is a huge dome covered by strings of giant multi-colored tubes. It's meant to symbolize the question: How do we find our place in an interconnected world? Inside, it explores scientific advancements and creative innovations past and present.
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A combination of traditional Arabesque and Japanese Asanoha patterns form the façade of the Japan pavilion, meant to symbolize the crossover of culture between Japan and the Middle East. Inside the structure, designed by Yuko Nagayama and Associates, visitors can see 3D art installations.
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The Swiss Pavilion, "Reflections," represents the country's traditions and spectacular landscapes. Designed by architects OOS, its giant interactive mirror façade reflects the red carpet that leads to it, to show the national flag. Inside, a "crystal cave" showcases technology, innovation and scientific achievements through immersive displays, before visitors are led through a "sea of fog."
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Built from reusable materials -- fabric, iron and wood -- the Spain pavilion is intended to promote sustainability. The structure, designed by Amann-Canovas-Maruri, is made of cone shaped "solar chimneys" that cool the pavilion and highlight Spain's links with the Arab world.
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Designed by Italian architect Marco Pestalozza, the Kuwait pavilion is a digital showpiece, displaying images of the country's landscapes on its façade, and showcasing a vision for the country's future. Water towers stretch upwards through each level of the structure, symbolizing Kuwait's "commitment to sustainability and water security."
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The German pavilion, themed as "Campus Germany," invites visitors to explore a "curriculum" covering energy, cities of the future and biodiversity within its "labs." The Graduation Hall features swinging seats and during a "graduation ceremony," visitors are encouraged to swing in unison to reflect how great achievements come from working together. The building, a vertical ensemble of cuboids, was designed by Facts And Fiction and LAVA.
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Baden-Württemberg is a state in southwest Germany, and is the only national state to have its own pavilion in Dubai. Built by NÜSSLI Adunic, with a distinctive timber frame, visitors can activate digital flowers in the landscape using their smartphones and explore different topics through augmented reality.
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Egypt's ancient civilization meets its vision for the future in its pavilion. Designed by Egyptian Hazem Hamada, the pavilion is decorated in hieroglyphs, while inside, giant screens explore the country's legacy and progress. The Great Pyramid of Giza is represented by the triangular gate through which visitors enter. Once inside, visitors are met with archaeological artifacts and interactive displays.
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The six-story Saudi Arabia Pavilion, designed by Boris Micka, is the second-largest pavilion after that of the UAE, and has a sloping, rectangular structure. The "Heritage" escalator takes visitors up to experience the country's history and culture, while the "Future" escalator takes them down to explore modern Saudi Arabia through an LED mirror screen and an interactive water feature. The pavilion has been awarded the LEED Platinum Certificate for sustainability.
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Not a pavilion, but a remarkable design nonetheless, the Al Wasl Plaza is the heart of Expo 2020, connecting the three thematic districts, Sustainability, Mobility and Opportunity. Al Wasl is the historic name for Dubai and also means "connection." The plaza holds the world's largest 360-degree projection dome. Made of 13.6 kilometers of steel, and designed by Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill Architecture, the trellis steelwork forms the Expo logo.
Devlin’s inspiration to create Collective Message came from famed British scientist Stephen Hawking. In 2015, three years before his death, he endorsed a competition in which people were invited to submit a potential message for an advanced alien civilization, with the goal of meaningfully representing mankind and our planet.
In a similar way, visitors to the pavilion are asked to participate in Collective Message to send a message to the universe and acknowledge the role that algorithms play in our lives. “We didn’t want this thing just to be like a museum with lots of different exhibits, we wanted to actually have something that visitors can engage with,” says Stuart Bradbury of creative agency Avantgarde, which led the development of the Collective Message project.
“The algorithm was created specifically for this project, with a series of AI experts but also working very closely with a number of societies,” he adds. These include the Poetry Archive, The Poetry Society and the Scottish Poetry Library, which collaborated with developers to train and refine the output of the AI over a period of six months. “We’ve been feeding it over 15,000 poems from 100 different British poets, so it has received more than a million lines of poetry. It got better and better during the training period, and we think we’ve created something really special,” says Bradbury.
courtesy Alin Constantin Photography
Inside the UK Pavilion.
Visitors to the pavilion first encounter a maze-like area that leads them to the entrance, while using augmented reality to showcase the UK’s contributions to AI and space exploration. “We wanted to start the journey from the moment someone takes a step into our world,” says Bradbury, comparing the experience to the queues at Disney parks, which pioneered the idea of integrating the wait into the ride itself. The maze, he adds, can serve as an inspiration for the word the visitor chooses to donate to Collective Message, which is submitted via mobile phone.
Upon entering the building, visitors are engulfed in a soundscape featuring voices and sounds from all over the world. The seven-minute-long composition was created with submissions from the public that were collected towards the end of 2020, when many countries were experiencing lockdowns due to the pandemic.
Inside, the pavilion offers interactive exhibitions about topics like robotics and climate change, as well as a restaurant called “1851” after the year of the first Expo, which was held in London. Finally, upon exiting, visitors receive the couplet created from their donated word on their mobile phone, for them to keep.
They can also hope to catch a glimpse of it on the timber facade, which refreshes with newly formed couplets every 60 seconds.
Expo Dubai 2020 runs until the end of March 2022.