BRITISH Aerospace is to showcase the latest British artwork and technology in the company's section of the Millennium Dome.

The industry giant, together with GEC, will showcase new technology and art in the Mind Zone, which is designed to make visitors think about the mind and what we call intelligence.

Most of the 36 exhibits in the zone will work on two different levels - providing fun on one and posing serious philosophical questions on the other.

British Aerospace's Millennium project director Richard Ellis said: "We want to give people more of an understanding of what we do and how we contribute to the economy.

"We need to explain to people what engineering is all about. We hope the exhibits will inspire today's young people to become the engineers of tomorrow."

The Mind Zone will have an artificial nervous system made from Smart Fibres - technology which will continuously monitor the number of people standing in certain areas and the weight of them on parts of the structure.

Martin Newman, editor of content at the Dome, said: "The Mind Zone is about creativity - the amazing creative thing we call the mind.

"In one display, there will be around half a million South American Leaf Cutter Ants.

"On the one hand it's funny to see them crawling all over the place, but it is a serious scientific exhibit because the colony of ants is like a big collective mind - they are the neurons running around the brain."

One of the main exhibits will be computers which can change people's age, sex and race on screen.

Martin continued: "It will be fun to see Aunty Flo as a young man of a different race - but it also gets people thinking about being someone very different.

"It should help create tolerance and make people think about their sense of self."

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.