For many years Ian has been collecting and researching material on Expos, particularly the period 1950s-1970s, when cutting edge experimentation with film and analogue electronics was at its peak.

He 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, Ian conceived and created a 26 minute experimental audio collage, produced by fellow Brightonian Simon James, involving music, speech and sounds that capture the feel of this remarkable event.
Click here to listen to an extract: Expo 67 – a radiophonic collage.

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 sounds - 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
         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