Themes of the 2022 symposium:

1. ‘Unbuilt Visions’: What Could Have Been

Throughout the history of international expositions organizers and designers have envisioned  fair pavilions and even whole expositions that were never realized. This includes fairs planned for Miami in 1941, Rome in 1942, and Chicago in 1992. Unrealized pavilions resulted from both changing political and economic conditions in the years leading up to the events and architects and other designers using the expositions as venues through which to present their ideas on paper. This theme will bring together papers that explore the designs and underlying reasons for exposition visions to remain unrealized and reflect on their lasting significance. 

​

2. Traces: Re-evaluating the Exposition City

In the excitement to play host to an exposition many cities have turned a blind eye to the long-term impacts, both physical and invisible, these events can have on the metropolis and more specifically on the area of the former fairgrounds. Papers presented under this theme will explore various aspects of the vast physical, economic, social, and cultural impacts of a world’s fair on its host city, including on local identity and popular memory. 

3. Expositions as Geo-political Spaces

The Paris Expo of 1937 stands out for its dramatic representation of a world on the brink of war with the famous ‘stand-off’ between the USSR and German pavilions. But what of more subtle geo-politics played out at other expositions? And what of their role in 19th and early 20th-century colonialist agendas?​

4. Visions of the Future

Since the construction of the massive iron and glass Crystal Palace in 1851, international expositions have served as venues in which to display and celebrate new innovations in technology and design. An even more conscious emphasis on presenting how advances in technology could make possible an exciting and better future for mankind began permeating expositions beginning in the 1930s and continues to this day. This theme will bring together papers that explore how technological advances have been used by fair organizers, governments, and corporations to market exciting popular visions of the future to the masses.

​​

5. Digital Preservation and Reconstruction

Virtual Reality, Augmented Reality and Mixed Reality technologies can play a crucial role in both reconstructing and representing expositions within the realm of digital cultural heritage practices. This session is interested in papers that explore how virtual reality and other digitization techniques can improve our overall understanding of world’s fairs, including their pavilions and spaces. ​

6. Yes, They Are Still Held!

This theme engages with the role and changing values of expositions in the 21st century. It provides space to reflect upon the design and impact of expositions, past

and future, since Expo 2000 held in Germany introduced the Hannover Principles of Sustainability to the world. 

This symposium has been made possible thanks to the generous support from the College of Architecture, Planning, and Landscape Architecture at the University of Arizona and the Centre for Transformative Media Technologies at Swinburne University, Australia.