British set designer Es Devlin has been chosen to create the UK Pavilion at the Dubai Expo 2020, with a performative structure that will use artificial intelligence to write poems.
Called the Poem Pavilion, the structure will feature an illuminated "message to space" made up of numerous AI-generated poems, which the Expo's anticipated 25 million visitors will be invited to contribute to.
The 20-metre-high, cone-shaped pavilion will be made up of rows of protruding slats that extend outwards from one central point to form a circular facade. Poems lit up in LEDs will scroll across the facade.
Visitors will enter the building from below the cone through an "illuminated maze", featuring augmented reality-enhanced exhibitions that will explore Britain's advances in artificial intelligence and space technology.
The pavilion will be filled with a collective choral soundtrack, including choirs from every continent.
According to the Devlin, the concept was inspired by one of physicist Stephen Hawking's final projects from 2015 called Breakthrough Message. This was a global competition that invited people to create digital messages that would represent humanity, if we ever encounter other advanced civilisations.
This will be the first time since its inauguration that a female designer has been chosen to create the UK Pavilion, and Devlin will be leading a predominantly female team of experts in artificial intelligence and space technology.
"We urgently need to address the underrepresentation of women in science, technology, engineering, art and maths (STEAM) occupations," said Devlin.
"I've learned from my collaboration with the theoretical physicist Carlo Rovelli, that the evolution of scientific thought is often through the contribution of artists, musicians and philosophers as well as physicists."
"My hope is that the fusion of architecture, poetry, music and science in this female-led project will attract and inspire girls and young women to investigate areas of science and technology that they might otherwise have felt weren’t for them," she continued.
The project will be produced by London and Dubai-based brand agency Avantgarde, while Manchester-based structural engineer Atelier One and sustainability engineer Atelier Ten will help to deliver the complex sculptural architecture of the pavilion, which aims to forefront innovative and sustainable building techniques and materials.
Devlin employed a similar technique with her fluorescent red lion sculpture that was recently installed in Trafalgar Square during London Design Festival. The open-mouthed lion featured an LED screen embedded in its mouth that spouted out lines of machine-generated poetry.
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