Chinese business community interest in Expo Zaragoza 2008

As you know, the International Exhibitions Bureau (IEB) Zaragoza Expo in 2008 is part of a series that includes the World Expo 2005 in Aichi, Japan and World Expo 2010 in Shanghai, China. See to the right the impressive Shanghai TV tower seen from the Huangpu River). What you maybe dont know is the expectations created by the Expo in Aragon by the Chinese biz community.

Virginia Seoane, a Consultant based in Barcelona explains the benefits of the Expo 2008 in Zaragoza for Hong Kong suppliers of consumer electronics and parts and components for the auto industry in an article for the Hong Kong Trade Development Office the benefits of the Expo 2008 in Zaragoza for Hong Kong suppliers of consumer electronics and parts and components for the auto industry.
She sees “real opportunities for developing new business through the city, particularly if contacts become evident as the exhibition and seminar business gets a boost due the Expo”. She adds that a recent study have shown that the city has a comparable base to European cities such as Amsterdam and Munich…I am loving it!

Programmable Water for Expo Zaragoza 2008 and beyond: MIT digital mille project

Can you programe water? Yes, you can... Read this: “Two kids take a running leap at the curtain of water, but it parts before they can get wet. Landing in a puddle on the other side, the sound starts a wave down the curtain that ripples along and fades in the distance. Jump twice and you get a bigger wave; jump in synco­pation and you get the biggest waves of all”. What’s is this? Science fiction? No. This is part of the presentation made last November by Dennis Frenchman and Francisca Rojas of what you can experience at the Water Wall (see below). You can find more info on this MIT project at http://cities.media.mit.edu/projects/zaragoza.html

Let’s joint the train of interactive gadgets (see my previous post on the Sonic Forest) that will populate Zaragoza in 2008 in an around the Expo premises in the river meander of Ranillas.
Curious gadgets where design of the software is as important as the “hardware” (ie. in this case the fountain)...

Urban musical instruments at Expo Zaragoza 2008

Performance architect Christopher Janney is what I would call a multidisciplinary guy…who studied architecture at Princeton and jazz in New York. The result: he believes is possible to create a piece of acoustic architecture…what? able to imagine trees with high tech inside…well, not yet there… so in fact the “trees” look more like giant chupa-chups sticks…each of them containing audio speakers, photo sensors and lights that intend to make music touchable & visible in addition to audible…

…making the public to play?…a recipe for disaster?. No worries. It is all under control. People will trigger sounds and melodies that evoke rain forest, classic music, etc out of a laptop hard disk which will be also in charge of keeping a minimum of harmony. Mr. Janney explains it as follows: “it can never sound like monkeys jumping on a piano — we can keep a certain mix of acoustical and environmental sounds working together”….it is called Sonic Forest, and it is currently touring around Europe…and will be at the Expo Zaragoza 2008.