Michelle Zhang/Shanghai Daily news

Many people look but don't really see. The innovative exhibition "Fabrica: Open Eyes" features startling projects that help us see the wider world through the eyes of others.

Immersed in our routines day after day, we often neglect the world around us. To encourage people to really see what is really going on around the world - not just the smaller world around them - the Pompidou Center in Paris has brought to Shanghai "Fabrica: Les Yeux Ouverts," ("Fabrica: Open Eyes").

The innovative exhibition at the Shanghai Art Museum features years of art projects by Fabrica, the communication research center of Italy's leading fashion group Benetton. It is part of the ongoing Shanghai eArts 2007 festival.

One project flows into another, underscoring the interdisciplinary nature of the research activities ranging from photography to publishing, graphics to films.

Visitors can explore "Colors Notebook," a project giving expression to those whose voice is seldom heard, including South African children, astronauts and disabled persons. They expressed themselves in words and drawings in a notebook of blank pages. More than 1,000 copies were returned to Fabrica, which published the major notebook collection in April 2006.

"I See" is a group report by six young photographers. Each of them chose a story - be it a life story of an ordinary person or stories taking place in a certain area - to represent one of six regions: North America, South America, the East, the Far East, Africa and Europe.

These realistic documentaries are followed by interactive installations and high-tech art pieces designed and developed by the Fabrica teams.

"Flipbook!" (http://www.fabrica.it/flipbook/) is an interactive animation project that enables anyone to draw an animated story in five pictures, then upload it and share it online. The result is a community of hundreds of thousands of short animations. The Website has had more than 15 million visitors since it was launched two years ago.

"Get in Touch" is a sensory wall that uses graphic signs to connect the visitors' hands that touch it, creating a visual and audio reproduction. It is inspired by the spirit of technological interactivity and an ideological dialogue among different cultures.

Visionary American director Godfrey Reggio observes children's relationship with television in the short film "Evidence," while a group of European artists created the installation "We Are the Time. We Are the Famous" that explores two ways of portrayal in a time span: a fixed photo image or a filmed sequence.

Fabrica was set up in 1994 by Benetton founder Luciano Benetton and Oliviero Toscani with the aim of combining culture and industry. Fabrica has been sponsoring and supporting young creative artists worldwide in graphics, film, industrial design, publishing and new media - guided by an international team of experts.

The exhibition opened in Paris a year ago and went on to the Milan Triennale this summer. Shanghai is the third stop.

Date: through November 11, 9am-5pm
Venue: Shanghai Art Museum, 325 Nanjing Rd W.
Tel: 6327-2829