| United
Nations National Day : October 24, 1988 Agreement to Participate : 4 September 1988 Commissioner - General : Mr Gilberto Rizzo Pavilion : 552 square metres |
 |
The façade of the United Nations Pavilion at World Expo '88 is partially visible in this colour photograph
Image Kind Courtesy of the Damian McGreevy Collection of Foundation Expo '88
| The
United Nations Pavilion, near the Melbourne Street entrance of the
Exposition and just behind the Australian and Queensland
Pavilions, was one of the more bright expo
pavilions, with a huge 30m x 10m mural of children from all over the
world by internationally reknowned Australian
designer/artist Ken Done adorning the pavilion outside wall.
Visit
Ken
Done's web-site
Further
information on the UN Pavilion can be found by visiting:
Inside,
profits from the Pavilion shop benefited UNICEF, and guests were taken
on a trip around the world on a multi-visual
presentation entitled "Island in Space" narrated by Sir Peter Ustinov,
with music composed by Michael Conway
Baker (note below). A multi-screen audio-visual 'Worldwatch 2020' - a
fantasy view of Earth from an alien perspective also
featured. MUSIC
FOR
THE UNITED NATIONS PAVILION AT
EXPO '86, VANCOUVER, B.C., CANADA WORLD
EXPO '88, BRISBANE, AUSTRALIA
By
Michael Conway Baker, O.B.C. Order of British Columbia As
is
typical of film music, I was asked to write and produce the score for
the U.N. pavilion at the 1986 World Exposition in
Vancouver, B.C. about two weeks before the opening.
Needless to say, I had to get a "handle" on what the music was to
characterize in a very short time. There was a
good deal of talking and debating about the music mainly because the visuals
had not been set. The narrative, by Peter
Ustinov, had already been done, but not edited. The budget
for
the music
was
very low and had to be performed on MIDI (synthesizers) by myself.
There was one defining moment that came,
just before we were all going to take a lunch break, when I suddenly
knew what was needed musically. I jumped up
and said I was going home to write down a major portion of
the score and that I would return in a couple of hours. When
I returned and played my musical "solution", everyone
applauded and agreed that, yes, this was the way to go. The
whole music track was completed the next day. The
pictures and narrative were then edited to the music, something rarely
done in film making. The producer explained that the
music was the "spine" of the whole show and that, up until the
moment the music was completed, he had been uncertain
about how to edit the pictures and narrative. The whole procedure
was a revelation to me. This same score and
audio-visual was used for the U.N. Pavilion at Brisbane's
World Expo
'88. Michael
Conway Baker later was asked to compose the music for the Canada
Pavilion at Taejon Expo '93 (South Korea.) LISTEN to the theme song Dial-Up Connection 90 Seconds - Broadband Connection 5 seconds Available
on "The
Greater Vancouver Music Album" |
