When I wrote sisomo: the Future on Screen, an extraordinary part of that future must have already had its foundations laid. A Beijing shopping complex called The Place is a sisomo inspiration. This high voltage people-attractor claims the largest LED screen in the world. Hovering six stories above shoppers, it literally uses the soaring heights of the complex as a place to tell stories and showcase dreams. Designer Jeremy Railton was part of the Jerde Partnership that created the Fremont Street Experience in Las Vegas (still amazing after more than a decade). He explained what he learned about the creation of engaging mega-sisomo.
To begin with, mega-screens can’t function as a single movie screen. People can’t focus on that much at a time, and this makes cuts and dissolves a problem. People need to follow objects as they do in big stadium events and they need to move in real time. And this is the part I love: “Objects have to make an entrance and an exit just as in a live performance.” It’s wonderful that when sisomo is delivered to us on such a scale, only the rules of the real world beyond the screen help us make sense of a story. Exciting times for anyone in the imagination and ideas business.
