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The World’s Fair

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New York's Animation Culture

Part of the book series: Palgrave Animation ((PAANI))

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Abstract

New techniques of mechanized motion and automated display were astonishing spectators in a range of prominent animated exhibits at the New York World’s Fair, from a massive moving diorama of New York to mobile murals and sculptures created by major contemporary artists. Such exhibits engaged with the broader aims of the Fair, which celebrated industry, technology, progress and dynamism. The two most popular exhibits, designed by Walter Dorwin Teague for Ford and Norman Bel Geddes for General Motors, exemplified the turn toward motion as an exhibition technique—using intricate and complex devices to create animated spectacles of labor and transportation, their exhibits seized on animation to visualize a modern age of movement. Situating Teague’s and Bel Geddes’s exhibits alongside other animated exhibits at the Fair, this chapter explores how animation became a vital means for demonstrating, symbolizing and promoting the “World of Tomorrow.”

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Film and Television, University of Bristol, Bristol, UK

    Kristian Moen

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  1. Kristian Moen
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Correspondence to Kristian Moen .

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Moen, K. (2019). The World’s Fair. In: New York's Animation Culture. Palgrave Animation. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-27931-8_3

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