London Olympics 2012 - Architecture at the Summer Olympics part II

Hello and welcome to my second post in my Architecture at the London Games series. Today, I will review the Opening ceremony of the London Games. While the opening ceremony is more of a general art than architecture, I believe it is an integral component when covering the Olympic games. Therefore I picked some of my favorite pictures from the Games and analyze them.

This post is going to focus on what I call the highlights of the opening ceremony - I have excluded some aspects of the opening ceremony.

This is the glimpse of the Olympic hill which hosted the flags as well as serve as the stage for a celebration of Britain's pastoral culture which kicked off the opening ceremony as well as a brilliant transformation of the pastoral England to a more industrialized England which was represented by smokestacks and the joining of the Olympic rings which is depicted in pictures below. 

This would be the Olympic Stadium area which is well illuminated by fireworks and lights - which was a great thing because London is known for not being very bright and this allows London to shine as a city - it is a wonderful sight as the red and blue make an great contrast.

 More fireworks inside make this one of the most spectacular and creative forms of fireworks to date - most fireworks are launched upwards rather than into the center, but this allows the entire arena to be illuminate by the brilliant lights of the fireworks.Again the red and blue are in direct reference to the colors of the British flag.

 More of the same fireworks here as the Opening ceremony really kicks off with brilliant fireworks.

 This was the industrial era scene in the Olympics which demonstrated Britain's pride for being the first industrialized country in history, but the opening ceremony is very distinctively British, celebrating rock music which Paul McCartney of the Beatles fame, children's literature as well as the nation's benevolent healthcare system and of course, Mr. Atkinson below who plays Mr. Bean in the famous British comedy. I love his act because he attempted to play the same note over and over but got bored from it - doing things like checking his cell phone and using an umbrella to play the piano when he needed to get a tissue paper. But perhaps most hilarious was when he dreamed of winning a race in the Olympics by cheating his way only to realize his still playing the same note when the orchestra has stopped.

 The Olympic cauldron was one of the highlights of the opening ceremony, celebrating it with a very unique pedals that line up to produce the Olympic flame. These flames were ignited by seven young athletes who lighted seven of these flames which each pedal represents each of the 204 nations participating in the Olympics - however this particular configuration has made taking shots of the cauldron impossible from the outside, leaving many spectators and visitors upset. This particular concept is also very reminiscent of the Seed Cathedral of which the British have created for the 2010 Shanghai expo.

In retrospect, the London opening ceremony was successful and uniquely British that I believe again, that the British have done their best to put their best aspects to the world in a very dramatic yet chaotic sequence which I believe merits a strong consideration as among the most original ceremonies in the modern era.