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The Andromeda Strain

Less faithful to the original text than Robert Wise’s 1971 film, the current version, whose executive producers include Tony and Ridley Scott, retains the essential elements of the plot: a government satellite on an intergalactic germ-related fact-finding mission crashes into a small town out West, emitting a deadly pathogen that kills everyone nearby save for an unhealthy older man and a baby whose survival is an epidemiological mystery. The military is called in to contain the disaster, and a team of high-status scientific researchers is assembled to determine the capacities of whatever is causing this plague and thus forestall the end of civilization.

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Meiro Koizumi

Prometheus Bound
In Greek Mythology, Prometheus stole fire (technology) from Zeus and gave it to humans, and for this, he got crucified on a mountaintop, and had to endure the eternal pain as a punishment. Since the beginning of our civilization, technology has been the source of prosperity and development. But also it has been the cause of great tragedies such as war sand nuclear accidents. Setting the Aeschylus Greek tragedy “Prometheus Bound” as a starting point, Koizumi created VR (Virtual Reality) theater which deals with this age-old tension between humanity and technology, through collaboration with a person who is desperately longing for the technological advancement – a person who is suffering from ALS (Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis- the deadly neurological disease that make a person paralyzed). Through the dialogues with the man about his personal life and his visions of the future, they created a sci-fi vision in which past and future, self and others, humans and machines are all merged into one sequence of abstract VR theatrical experience.

Es Devlin

UK Pavillion
THE POEM PAVILION FEATURES A BREATHTAKING ILLUMINATED ‘MESSAGE TO SPACE’ TO WHICH EACH OF THE EXPO’S ANTICIPATED 25 MILLION VISITORS WILL BE INVITED TO CONTRIBUTE. “THE IDEA DRAWS DIRECTLY ON ONE OF STEPHEN HAWKING’S FINAL PROJECTS, ‘BREAKTHROUGH MESSAGE’, A GLOBAL COMPETITION THAT HAWKING AND HIS COLLEAGUES CONCEIVED IN 2015 INVITING PEOPLE WORLDWIDE TO CONSIDER WHAT MESSAGE WE WOULD COMMUNICATE TO EXPRESS OURSELVES AS A PLANET, SHOULD WE ONE DAY ENCOUNTER OTHER ADVANCED CIVILIZATIONS IN SPACE. WHAT IF THE UK PAVILION AT EXPO 2020 BECOMES A PLACE WHERE VISITORS FROM ALL OVER THE WORLD TAKE PART IN A COLLECTIVE GLOBAL PROJECT THAT SHOWCASES BRITISH EXPERTISE IN A.I. TECHNOLOGIES AND POETRY WHILE TRANSCENDING NATIONAL IDENTITIES?” Es Devlin