World’s Fair–MCNY Reflection

I wanted to focus on the World’s Fair that happened twice, once in 1964 and then in 1965. It allowed a variety of individuals to come to NYC and share some insight on their products and to showcase their innovations. The 60s version of the World’s Fair is actually the second iteration of the fair as the first one occurred in 1939 when a group of businessmen attempted to lift the country out of its economic state.  Robert Moses, shaper of the modern  New York City metropolis contributed greatly to the foundation of the event.

For me, I really like the imagery that the Unisphere provides, unity and interdependence between all countries. For my autobiography, the idea of homogeneity amongst beings on an individual and even internal level plays a major role in establishing the motives and desires of my character. Therefore, having united countries seems like a very tall task in retrospect when individuals themselves find it difficult to bond with each other.

The 1939 World’s Fair had a section by the General Motors Pavilion which presented possible vehicles twenty years into the future. Then, the 1964 and 1965 versions of the Fair updated the section titled “Futurama” where people could view the innovations done 20 years prior. I feel like we do this a lot now where we look at possible innovations only to have reality set in that these innovations will either never get created, they’ll be invented passed our timeline, or they already have been created but because of the market, only small ideas and inventions are getting released to the public.

The Fair itself isn’t that remarkable in my eye. It comes off as a big amusement park rather than a proper showcase of innovation.