For many years Ian has been collecting and researching material on Expos, particularly the 1950s-1970s period, when cutting edge experimentation with film and analogue electronics was at its peak.
Check the special Tone Generation episodes - Programme 11: Expo 58 and Programme 16: Electronics for Expos.

Expo 67 - An Audio Visual Collage - the first 10 minute section of Ian's 2010 film is now available on his film channel. Expo67Collage

Ian has assembled an evolving programme of World’s Fair films, slides and electronic music under the title Expo Worlds, and has composed new soundtracks to silent Expo films. Click here to listen to Man and his world.
To celebrate the 40th anniversary of Expo 67, he conceived and created a complex experimental audio collage, produced by fellow Brightonian Simon James, involving music, speech and electronic sounds..
In 2010 Ian created a widescreen visual component to fit the audio, made up exclusively of stills. Hundreds of scans of archive slides, brochures, photos, books and magazines make up Expo 67 - An Audio Visual Collage, which takes the viewer on an impressionistic 21 minute journey through some of the stunning features of that fascinating and hugely popular event.

World’s Fairs first came into existence with the Great Exhibition held in the Crystal Palace, London in 1851, and have been held on a semi-regular basis throughout the last 150 years.  
Despite their theme park trappings and corporate propaganda, Expos have a rich heritage of experimentation and innovation, and introduced to a mass audience, work by the most celebrated and radical designers, architects, composers, artists and filmmakers of the day.
In the 1950s and 60s in particular, behind many of the eye-catching pavilions, there could be heard exciting explorations into the new realms of electronic sound. Click on the Geodesic Dome above for an evolving list of Expo experimental music.

Many pavilions and futuristic structures that should have been preserved for future generations have been neglected or demolished. Through film and music however, it is possible to look back at some of the quintessential World’s Fair ingredients - geodesic domes, multi-screen movies, monorails and electronic music - providing not just nostalgia for a bygone age, but a window into the past and a possible future.

Expos held since World War 2
1958 - Brussels World’s Fair - Brussels, Belgium
1962 - Century 21 Exposition - Seattle, USA
1964 - New York World’s Fair - New York, USA
1967 - Expo 67 - Montreal, Canada
1968 - Hemisfair 68 - San Antonio, USA
1970 - Expo 70 - Osaka, Japan
1974 - Expo 74 - Spokane, USA
1975 - Expo 75 - Okinawa, Japan
1982 - 1982 World’s Fair - Knoxville, USA
1984 - Louisiana World Exposition - New Orleans, USA
1985 - Expo 85 - Tsukuba, Japan
1986 - Expo 86 – Vancouver, Canada
1988 - World Expo 88 - Brisbane, Australia
1992 - Expo 92 – Seville, Spain
1992 - Genoa Expo 92 – Genoa, Italy
1993 - Expo 93 – Taejon, South Korea
1998 - Expo 98 – Lisbon, Portugal
2000 - Expo 2000 – Hannover, Germany
2005 - Expo 2005 – Nagoya, Japan
2008 - Expo 2008 – Zaragoza, Spain
2010 - Expo 2010 - Shanghai, China