〽️ax krieger's big moves

In 1994, the Tory government established the Millennium Commission, with the purpose of funding new museums, exhibitions, and spaces to ring in the new millennium. The commission, which dissolved in 2006, would obtain its funds via payouts from the UK National Lottery.pic.twitter.com/VI0tgP6khM

Th Commission's primary purpose was to showcase "Britain's third millennium" on the world stage via an exposition. Come 1997, Tony Blair's New Labour government - known for its "third way" political ideology - was tasked with its creation. (this will be important later).pic.twitter.com/UIg94VVWLx

Blair placed Peter Mandelson, then Secretary of State for Trade and Industry, as the public-facing chief of the dome project (this is also important). In actuality, the dome's construction and design was left to a private entity called the New Millennium Experience Company.pic.twitter.com/mT0WRaWv7u

With an initial budget of £399 million GBP (£714 million), the Dome's construction began in 1998. Before diving into its contents, let's talk about the dome itself - often overshadowed by its history, the structure is a modern marvel in its own right.pic.twitter.com/Fa4cvDzVj3

The dome itself - then the largest structure of its kind - is not a true "dome", but a freestanding tent, held up by 100m support towers. With no internal walls, the dome holds a massive 2.2 million cubic meters - built at an INCREDIBLY cost-effective £43m (£74m / $97m in 2018).pic.twitter.com/pmDka4PnzV

The dome's structure itself serves as a monument to time. Held up by its 12 supports, it reaches 52m high, and has a diameter of 365m - the months, weeks, and days of the year Most importantly, it stands directly over the Greenwich Meridian Line - the place where GMT time beginspic.twitter.com/BPYz37LmCP

The true focus of the project, though, was what lay inside the dome: the Millennium Experience, a HUGE expo featuring pavilions in the style of a World's Fair The Millennium Experience was GARGANTUAN, the most ambitious - and controversial - artificial space ever publicly fundedpic.twitter.com/pzzjsBeiOp

The Millennium Experience was designed to talk about all corners of British life as the year 2000 approached. Faith, the body, transportation, work, learning, the environment, and more were represented - all tied together by a central stage show. Let's walk through it together.pic.twitter.com/1alcSE0Dqq

And we're back! Visitors arrived at the dome from the newly constructed North Greenwich tube station (which required a line extension specifically for the dome). They'd pass various art installations, some kinetic, including the looming Quantum Cloud by Antony Gormley.pic.twitter.com/lTIrxeGK5b

Around the dome's exterior were the Millennium Pier - one massive steel pontoon w/ a recycled plastic deck - and Watercycle, a water reclamation system. 50% of the dome's water use was reclaimed, and the dome served as a notable testbed for research into water-efficient washroomspic.twitter.com/J69PRHlnLP

Then, there was Skyscape, a massive outdoor cinema + stage meant to serve as a venue. Despite housing the largest screen in London, it only ever showed a short film followup to 80's BBC comedy Blackadder. The queue here is VERY y2k/gen x - I particularly love the TV blobjects.pic.twitter.com/fpPF7TRqzo

Inside, sixteen (!!) pavilions surrounded the dome's central theater. In between them, an elevated "highway", linked by washroom/dining areas, allowed for quick transport from one side to another. We'll head clockwise on our journey, heading first to Work/Learning.pic.twitter.com/WT6ihZpZQZ

Work/Learning is an excellent starting point for addressing some of the dome's controversy. For starters, almost all of the dome's "zones" had corporate sponsors - despite its enormous public funding. These twin zones were sponsored by temp agency Manpower and grocery chain Tescopic.twitter.com/w196TCh1tL

Within the Work Zone's image-shifting exterior walls (think shutter billboards), the sponsor's influence quickly became apparent. Guests were greeted by robotic hamsters on wheels, and various displays declaring what guests would need to do to "stay employable". Fun.pic.twitter.com/fsWXtfiKil

Other features included a "Skills Workshop" (complete w a patronizing "Skills Passport"), an arithmetic game (meant for /children/) to judge their competency for work, and the world's largest breakroom foosball table Needless to say, guest reception to this zone was... negative.pic.twitter.com/kBEjGp25On

The adjoining Learning zone wasn't much less tone-deaf. Guests started in an oversized school hall, with theater "classrooms" that showed a film about learning in the 21st century. To evoke childhood memories, scents like boiled cabbage were pumped into the room.pic.twitter.com/XrOfeuDzSa

To contrast to the stuffy school halls of yesterday, guests were then transported to the "digital orchard", a visually stunning area filled with table computers that demoed concepts of future interactive learning. (as you may have noticed, photos of much of the dome are scarce.)pic.twitter.com/KTd9JUN3VB

Outside, guests could browse Tesco Schoolnet 2000, an early effort to make educational webpages available to schools around the UK. The Learn zone, while better received than Work, showcased another glaring issue - computer-based sections of the zones were often out of order.pic.twitter.com/JomfQpdVZI

Next, we reach the Money Zone, sponsored by the Corporation of London. Guests entered via a glass hallway lined with £1 million in £50 notes (sadly not pictured). This zone's design is deliciously of the era, w graphic design that would be right at home on a big beat album coverpic.twitter.com/9wZP0lMPPz

Guests could invest in play stock (calculated via real time index values), or play a game on shopping cart-shaped PCs to see how quickly they could spend £1 million. To the dome's critics, many of whom saw it as an extravagant New Labour pet project, this was /not/ a good look.pic.twitter.com/J0IjBe3mQO

Adjacent to the Money zone was the Millennium Jewels exhibition, sponsored by DeBeers. Featured was one of their most perfect diamonds, the Millennium Star. This area gained notoriety after a botched jewel theft in 2000 that involved a JCB digger smashing through the dome.pic.twitter.com/Z5dqs0ZYkd

Next was Our Town Stage, one of the more favorably reviewed zones of the dome by guests. This stage and exhibition area featured performances, art, writing, etc. by children from every local education authority across the UK, featuring what they liked best about their hometown.pic.twitter.com/sQIp9Le4i1

Onwards was Rest Zone, dedicated entirely to giving guests a relaxing place to rest. Through a rainbow gate, guests would enter a huge white expanse filled with light and ambient music - a composition called 'Longplayer' by Jem Finer designed to take 1,000 years to fully play.pic.twitter.com/w8zF6VujVT

Next is Mind Zone, another tragic example of the dome's issues. Designed by the legendary Zaha Hadid, guests would enter (passing by a very out of place and very large boy) to find interactive exhibits on self-awareness, perception, and collective thinking. When they worked.pic.twitter.com/GXZvKuhppW

Mind Zone's first area, the "robot zoo", starred working robots that represented milestones in autonomous intelligence (including Grey Walter's famous 1940s-era "tortoise") Within months, due to constant breakdowns, the zoo was replaced entirely by static optical illusions (3rd)pic.twitter.com/qY0mvmND8L

Other installations were prone to malfunction - live "brain scans" (done with motion tracking) often gave guests a black screen, and a sculpture called "Smokey Joe" (designed to make a figure visible via infrared camera in a box of smoke) was often devoid of any smoke at all.pic.twitter.com/8qNwbS764g

A colony of leaf-cutter ants, as well as a large semi-interactive wrap-around screen called "Plan-It", presented live scenarios showcasing collective thinking, alongside a real-time mapping of the early web. A "neural net creature" showcased early Kinect-like depth camera tech.pic.twitter.com/x5VfDiRYIV

some graphics displayed on the Plan-It screens embody the sort of nebulous, substanceless speculation at the future which left many dome visitors unsatisfied, or even cynical (this will be touched upon later in the thread).pic.twitter.com/YkuV9rWG8t

A last notable detail about the Mind Zone - its sponsors were GEC, British Aerospace, and Marconi, which are all arms manufacturers. By this point in their trip, some guests felt unease about the sponsors of these zones, and how much sway they had over their content.pic.twitter.com/l5BsIEaLc2

These concerns might continue to mount as guests reach the Talk Zone, sponsored by British telecom BT. This zone, dedicated to the future of digital communication in the 21st century and beyond, had some of the most bizarre corporate content yet.pic.twitter.com/1krGNMzyYf