The project was conceived by Michael Langer, a native New Yorker, and Eiran Gazit, an Israeli who launched a similar project in 2002 called Mini-Israel. Mini-Israel was a bit larger than Gulliver’s Gate; the project was installed in a 14-acre park and contained scale models of various sites in Israel. When Langer and Gazit met, they decided to collaborate on a project that was both bigger and smaller. The buildings, people and natural landscapes of Gulliver’s Gate are built at a 1:87 scale, meaning that a six-foot-tall person would be reduced to 0.8 inches high.
Not every single city in the world is included, obviously – that would be a monumental task – but the planet is well-represented with areas depicting New York City itself, Asia, the Middle East, Latin America, Russia, and Europe, plus some fantastical cities. The artists who created the exhibition hail from all over the world, with each of them crafting elements of their own countries of origin (except for, of course, the fantasy areas).
“I did not want an American to build Jerusalem, I did not want an Italian to build Manhattan,” Gazit told the New York Post. “The reason was to keep it authentic, to keep the flavor, the sound, the humor even. Russian humor is very different from Italian humor.”
3D printing played a large role in the construction of the exhibit, along with more traditional art forms. In fact, for $50, you can have yourself 3D scanned, 3D printed in miniature, and made into a citizen of the Gulliver’s Gate world. That option is limited to early visitors and supporters, at the moment, but the creators plan to continually expand the miniature world every year, populating its new areas with new people. Visitors will also have the option to take their 3D printed mini-selves home with them.
Gulliver’s Gate, so named for Jonathan Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels, in which a man stumbles into a world of tiny people among his other adventures, is showing previews from now until May 8. Tickets are $36 for adults and $27 for children and seniors, with special discounts available if you order online. Walking among the minuscule world in Times Square, one might expect to feel quite large in comparison – but, conversely, the scope of the depicted world, and everything happening within it, is also likely to serve the purpose of making us realize just how big our own world really is, and how small we actually are. Discuss in the Gulliver’s Gate forum at 3DPB.com.