Oscars Express: Hollywood's Power Structure on a Train
‘Oscars Express’ is a 4-day train ride specially designed for Oscars ceremony 2023, running from Los Angeles, the home of Hollywood, to New York, where movie making originated. As Oscars slowly loses its attraction to the audience, the train ride is proposed by the commitee to rejuvenate the production and propagation of Hollywood image production.
The project designs a train structure which not only adapts to the program of the ceremony but also encourages drama to happen and hook viewer’s attention. Through line drawings as well as vignette produced by unreal engine, it also imagines the the relationship between the train and the landscape and neighbourhoods as it passes through.
In 2021, Hollywood used Union Station Los Angeles as Oscars ceremony venue. Hollywood asserts its presence over the space, filling it with equipment and luxurious furnishing that direct towards its image propagation agenda.
The boundary of the station between being represented in image production industry, and it being a functioning transportation junction in the city center.
Union Station during Oscars 2021
Plan of Union Station Converted Ceremony Hall during Oscars 2021
I proposed to expand the space and duration of the Oscars ceremony, and push its sphere of influence to an extreme. Oscars ceremony in this year takes place on a train travelling across US landscape from Los Angeles, the home to Hollywood, to New York, where movie making originated. It travels on a carefully curated railway amongst the existing US railway network, which allows the creation of the most photogenic or dramatic moments between the program and the landscape.
train section: boarding carriages at LA.
train section: red carpet carriages featuring an assembly line of celebrity production, as well as carriages with transmitting belt carrying stars across different photoshoot stations against landscape in Texas
train section: ceremony carriages. a linear and hierachical series where trophy is passed down from the front control room through the rail on a long table-- those sitting at the front would be on air for much more time
train section: afterparty glass carriages as the joy of winning Oscars is celebrated by people inside the train and citizens outside the train
train section: arrival of passengers and their personal belongings to New York
Accidents are expected during this long journey.. such as rail congestion occurred again in Chicago and festive afterparty of Oscars Express is stuck in between
But who knows if the tough complaint of Jennifer and her funny photo of brunch under dust are just to divert people's attention from an even more serious incidence...
Controversies, scandals, conspiracies appear from time to time --- just to bring even more attention to Oscars Express
Let's not forget the sponsors for the journey, who made the grand event possible.
