[Ferro-Alloys.com] For the first time, the annual Beijing Science and Technology Week launched a section dedicated to sci-fi-themed events, which ran from May 22 to 28 in a regenerated steel plant in western Beijing.

 

The weeklong sci-fi-themed events took place at Shougang Industrial Park, a former steelworks complex located in Beijing's Shijingshan district. The events included the Sci-Ficene Art and Science Concept Exhibition, a sci-fi night, more than 10 livestream sessions hosted by sci-fi influencers and five sci-fi forums and salons, attracting experts on science and technology, sci-fi enthusiasts, techies and students.

 

As the centerpiece event of the sci-fi section, the Sci-Ficene Art and Science Concept Exhibition created a futuristic world using audio, lighting and technologies such as virtual reality, augmented reality and mixed reality, according to The Beijing News newspaper.

 

One of the exhibits was Cosmusica, an installation that plays music made from electromagnetic waves collected from space using satellites.

 

Another exhibit was an interactive installation that is able to create a sci-fi-style avatar of a person by capturing his or her facial features. The avatar can talk to people utilizing artificial intelligence technologies and a WeChat miniprogram.

 

According to its creator, the exhibit attempts to highlight the issue of the digitization of people's identities and spur a rethink of the relationship between real-world identities and virtual-world ones.

 

"The Sci-Ficene Art and Science Concept Exhibition spans more than 3,000 square meters and is an artistic expression of the combination of new technologies and old industrial heritage like the furnaces," Wang Zhigang, director of the Department of Information Art & Design at the Academy of Arts & Design of Tsinghua University and curator of the exhibition, told China Central Television.

 

He recommended the light show to visitors, which "features performances by the most popular virtual idols", The Beijing News reported.

 

Shijingshan is gearing up to be a sci-fi industry cluster, and has rolled out 16 policies and set aside 50 million yuan ($7.8 million) to support its sci-fi industry, according to the district government.

 

Beijing has placed the development of the sci-fi industry on its agenda and announced plans to build a 160,000-sq-m "sci-fi city" in Shougang Industrial Park.

 

Formerly a production site of Chinese steel-maker Shougang Group, the park has been transformed into a new site for exhibitions, fairs and winter sports events after the group began moving production to Caofeidian in North China's Hebei province in 2005.

 

Source: China Daily