News

By Erica Casareto

What if you could step into a World’s Fair that disappeared more than a century ago? On 16 October 2026, visitors to the Night of Research and Creative Activities at the University of California San Diego had the chance to get a glimpse of what this experience might look like.

Organised by UC San Diego’s School of Arts and Humanities, the event transformed the Arts and Humanities Building into a lively space where research, creativity, and discovery came together. Through interactive displays, demonstrations, and short presentations, researchers and students shared their work with the university community and the wider public, inviting visitors to explore research in unexpected and engaging ways.

Turin1911 was among the projects featured during the event. Cristina Della Coletta, Filiberto Chiabrando, and Erica Casareto introduced the project and its work, taking visitors on a journey through the history of the 1911 International Exhibition in Turin and the different ways in which its lost architecture can be rediscovered today.

Visitors could learn how the project brings together historical research and digital technologies to reconstruct the exhibition's vanished pavilions. Images and examples showed how the team works with historical documents and surviving buildings to bring the past back into view. The project website was also presented, offering visitors a chance to discover the exhibition through its stories, archival materials, and reconstructed architecture.

But the experience went beyond screens and images. A selection of 3D-printed pavilion models gave visitors the opportunity to see and appreciate these buildings in a completely different way. Small-scale reproductions made it possible to look closely at their shapes and details, turning digital reconstructions into objects that could be seen and explored up close.

One of the highlights was the new virtual reality experience. Wearing a Meta headset, visitors could enter a virtual environment where all the pavilions reconstructed so far have been brought together. Instead of simply looking at individual models, they could explore them within the same space, getting a sense of the variety and scale of the architecture that once filled the 1911 Exhibition grounds. It was a first step towards experiencing the lost exhibition in a more immediate and immersive way.

The event also offered a first preview of a new collaboration with the Italian artists of NOVA Studio. A video combining artistic imagery with the project's technical data showed how research materials can be transformed into something unexpected. By bringing art and digital documentation together, the collaboration opens up new ways of looking at the past and sharing it with audiences beyond the academic world.

From printed models to virtual reality, from historical documents to artistic experimentation, the Turin1911 presentation offered different ways to encounter a world that no longer exists. Each experience revealed a different piece of the story, showing how research can become something to see, explore, and even step inside.

Taking part in the Night of Research and Creative Activities was an opportunity to share the project with a wider audience and, above all, to invite visitors to imagine what Turin looked like in 1911. More than a century later, digital technologies and creative collaborations are helping this forgotten World’s Fair find new ways to be seen, experienced, and remembered.