The Shanghai Lightshow for the World Artificial Intelligence Conference 2026

The skyline of modern Shanghai is something of a wonder – it’s like a mix of Bladerunner, Ghost in the Shell and The Fifth Element combined, even though that fairly lazy simile doesn’t do it justice (I shouldn’t really imagine the present using yesterday’s science fiction – it’s there in front of me).  Yet although this is one of the most striking cityscapes on the planet by day, when the sun sets the city comes to iridescent life, with lights reflecting across the Huangpu river.

For visitors to this year’s World Artificial Intelligence Conference (WAIC), the nightly light show that the city offers to inhabitants and visitors alike was given a further boost with a sequence of dazzling synchronised projections and animations which were designed to celebrate and showcase innovation and technology.  So, there is an extra layer of spectacle on top of what is already seen each evening.  The phrase that kept coming into my mind as I watched this film of the lightshow by LaLin Photography was effortlessly elegant.  Take a look below – it’s quite dazzling on film – it must have been something special to have been there.

Shanghai: the last new aerial footage of the city you will ever see

Authorities in Shanghai have introduced a 120m height restriction for drones.  That means that no one will ever again be able to film the city from that height or above.  Why? It is considered controlled airspace by the authorities – the new restriction is to stop any possible interference with any other aircraft such as helicopters but also because it is close to commercial flight paths and they simply don’t want to take that risk.   Although this is understandable, it’s something of a shame (and apparently the police have been cracking down on it massively).  If Shanghai looks spectacular (any time of day, but especially at night) then it looks like something out of a science fiction movie once the sun has set. 

In something of a homage, lalin photography (a cooperative of five photographers) shot this remarkable footage recently.  Apart from a few frames which explain the current situation, this is a flight without words through the city in the nighttime.  The work is stitched together from drone footage from the last few years which has never been released before. As such, this is probably the last new aerial footage of Shanghai you will ever see.  So, sit back and take in the sites – Nanpu Bridge, The Bund, Huangpu river skyline, Pu Xi, Shiliupu Pier and a host of other places in the city.  This is wonderful work.

If You Have Never Wanted to Visit Shanghai, You Will After You Watch This

Shanghai is the most populous city (proper) in the world and has seen remarkable growth over the last few decades.  This superlative time-lapse by Brian Hawkins was filmed in the Huangpu and Pudong areas of the city.  Thanks to a knowledgeable fixer he managed to get access to some roof-tops enabling him to produce this timelapse showing Shanghai from some rare angles.  Remarkable.

This is Shanghai

Shanghai is one of the most fascinating of world cities in terms of its history and also what it represents today.  Although we may associate today’s skyline with skyscrapers the first was not built until 1980.  The city juxtaposes grasping capitalism within a communist hierarchy with ultra-modern buildings towering about its citizens, many of whom still live fairly traditional existences.  It is a place of contrast to say the very least.

The video was created by photographer Rob Whitworth and urban identity expert JT Singh.  It is Shanghai as it has never been seen before. Yet watching this you are left in no mind why some say that this is China’s century.

Moments in China

Moments in China is a collection of vivid sights and sounds photographer and visual artist Ryan Emond experienced while traveling around China last month. The piece flows from Hong Kong to Beijing, and visits Guilin, Shanghai, and Guangzhou. Some moments are more significant than others, but he has a personal connection with each. The video was particularly special to Emond because he did have time for personal projects over the past months.

This certainly makes up for it. I don’t think the Chinese government could have gotten a better advert for the country had they paid for it. Shot on a Nikon D700 and a 5D Mark III, I particularly enjoyed the spectacle of time lapse of the city of Shanghai slipping in to that something more comfortable known generally as the evening.

Q Confucius

This giant head and shoulders, representing the famous thinker and social philosopher of the 5th century BC is part of a new exhibition at the Rockbund Art Museum in Shanghai. Created by world renowned artist Zhang Huan, Q Confucius is part of a series of the artist’s thoughts on art and society.

The enormous sculpture has been planned by the artist and museum for over two years.  It is Huan’s response to a series of question he posed himself, such as China’s place in the modern world and the responsibilities with its emergence as a global superpower, economically, socially, militarily and scientifically. Is there room for a sense of Chinese spirituality in the twenty first century?

The museum is now in its second year and the RAM as it is known has previously hosted three major exhibitions with Q Confucius and its associated works making the fourth.  Made especially for the museum, Q Confucius almost reaches the ceiling of the spacious room in which it is housed.

It was created from carbon fiber and acrylic over a steel frame and is hyper realistic to say the very least.  You can see each and every detail of Confucius’ face and upper body down to the pores and wrinkles of age. Huan lives in both Shanghai and New York and it is expected that the latter city will be the next port of call for this immense sculpture – sometime in 2013.

Image Credit Flickr User Around the world in unknown days

All other images courtesy of Rockbund Art Museum, Shanghai

Cisco Pavilion @ Shanghai World Expo

The Cisco Pavilion at Expo 2010 Shanghai was centred around a theatrette that presented a large, wide screen film, that worked as the high point for the entire pavilion experience.  You may find you cannot see the subtitles unless you go wide screen - but do, as this is well worth taking in!

The brief for the film was : to show how technology is going to be a seamless part of all our lives in 2030. The response was a fully dramatized film featuring characters in an extended family in a future Shanghai. Individual stories are followed through a typical day as the networked city around them eases them through a major storm crisis and into their happy family reunion.


Altogether, very, very cool!


Whistleblower lawsuit

Amazing Dance of Nao by Aldebaran Robotics (video)

You may have heard of Nao - he is the robotic creation of European company Aldebaran.  This, though, is simply brilliant.  The company, founded by Bruno Maisonnier who has had a dream for over twenty five years that robotics could become an everyday reality, is currently marketing their Nao robot like crazy - and you can see why here.

Perhaps we are one step closer with Nao, who we see here performing en masse in the French Pavillion at the Shanghai Expo, to realising the dream of robots in our lives.We may not be in the full realm of Spielbergian Artifical Intelligence but certainly a few steps closer thanks to Nao and his dancing feet.

Nao possesses four microphones which fitted into his head and a voice recognition and analysis system. You can supplement the words he already knows with words and expressions you want to add. These words can trigger any behaviour you choose. He has full bluetooth capacity and you can send him your music to play back to you later!

He can also read out any files that you store on (in?) him which can even be from an RSS flow so you can catch up with your favorite blogger (cough, cough!) through him.  He has speakers on either side of his head and he can even be configured to allow for voice alterations. Nao is also capable of detecting the source of a sound or voice to deal with that source and start interacting.

This is worth watching to the end just to see the really cute way he bows.

World Expo Opens in Shanghai

Yesterday saw the opening of the World Expo in the historic Chinese city of Shanghai. The Big Picture, which is probably the best photographic blog in the world, has an amazing array of photographs which will leave you gasping and wishing that you could get there to see it all. True, there are going to be an estimated one hundred million visitors to the event - buy 95% of those are going to be Chinese which means the rest of the world will only be sending a paltry five million.

So, if you can't make it yourself and want to see what your country and others have contributed to this mind blowing exposition, take a look at these fascinating pictures HERE.