A big part of American worlds fair history is the geodesic dome, the creation of a wildly brilliant engineer / inventor named Buckminster Fuller.
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The show currently open at the
Whitney museum is a brilliant portrayal of two creator's interpretations of how we experience space --- and domes. Buckminster's dome was featured prominently in the Montreal 1967 worlds fair.
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In addition to Fuller's drawings, models, photographs, and other such paraphernelia, there was also an exhibition of
Paul McCarthy's work. Instead of the performance art involving condiments and cooks
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which most people are so familiar with, this was
installations examining how we understand space. One piece involved standing in the middle of a small, square room which slowly rotated. Each wall had one door in the center. As it slowly rotated---viewers standing inside and spinning along with it---each wall started slowly opening up, the door opening slowly and then slamming shut violently. It was disorienting and an interesting examination of our perception of structure as a solid and non-moving entity.
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