Analysis of Dubai public space at A4 Space

UAEU professor Dr Yasser Elsheshtawy delivered a presentation, "Slow Space", at the A4 Space in Al Serkal Avenue today, describing the methodology of and data from his studies on the usage of urban spaces in the Middle East.

He began the Campus Art Dubai talk with an introduction of his earlier Cairo project and mentioned his Abu Dhabi project with FIND, but the bulk of the presentation was about his work on public space usage patterns in Dubai -- specifically, of a street in Hor al Anz and a square in Deira, both in "old Dubai".

I thought the long-ish time lapse videos were kind of unnecessary, but I liked his data maps, his descriptions of the process of acquiring the data, information about the histories and functions of the areas, and various anecdotes from the study, some of which were also revealed during the Q&A session that followed.

STREETCON urban art fest and the new Al Ghurair Centre

Al Ghurair Centre seems determined to not disappear amid the deluge of new malls that has flooded Dubai in the last couple of decades. While geographic factors ensure that it will not be able to compete with Dubai Mall and the planned Mall of Arabia, its latest expansion is extremely bold, and is also timed to coincide with a re-branding that includes a new positioning, new marketing, a new logo, and community activities like the STREETCON urban art festival. If the momentum is sustained, it could result in a new lease of life for Dubai's first mall, and a revitalization of what used to be Dubai's high street.

Most of STREETCON is not actually on the street, except for a couple of murals painted along the road that runs through the mall's premises. One of them is a collaborative mural, to be completed by numerous artists over the ten days of the festival.

A small multi-artist gallery and studio called "The Mash-Up" was packed into a vacant space at the Spinneys block, in which customization toys were being worked on by artists, and urban/alternative art works, ranging from tin art to glass art to graffiti, were displayed.

The AGC expansion itself is actually quite revolutionary. It's a three-level complex with two large atria and many more shops and cafes, connected to the old mall, but with a brighter, swankier look. An expanded food court and entertainment centre have been added. AGC has also launched a magazine that, despite being an obvious promotion for the mall, actually has some low-spiel, interesting content.

A study of Union Square with tasmena

It's been quite a while since I've been on a tasmena urban mapping walk. The last couple of walks I attended were pretty long, taking hours to complete. The group has been doing some shorter workshops recently, and I happened to find one for Union Square in Deira listed in my feed on Saturday afternoon, fitting neatly into my late afternoon. Signing up for this almost immediately, and barely an hour before start time, was my most spontaneous sign-up in recent memory. But, after all, this part of town used to be my 'hood.

As usual for a tasmena project, it was not a willy-nilly stroll; everything was planned and executed methodically. We started with a briefing of the extant work on the mapping of the location. We looked at satellite photos of the old Union Square (pre-metro), when it was a large, almost uninterrupted, star-patterned public park. Then we looked at how the square changed with the arrival of the metro stations, with much of what used to be public space cut off for a construction site and metro station facilities buildings, and much planted space converted into walkways for metro users. For both of these, we used tracing sheet overlays of earlier mapping work to study the layout and use of the area. Finally, we looked at future plans for construction of towers that will cut across the square, enclosing a good deal of the part of it closer to the intersection.

I and a teammate were given satellite photos of the square and tracing sheet overlays on which to map the spaces in the square and the human use of these spaces. We walked around the perimeter of the square, noting the types of spaces and their boundaries, and the movement or presence of people.

I focused mainly on the former, noting the visual fences, the locations of unused interstitial hard space, the economic environment and its interconnections, automobile and pedestrian access/barrier lines, and various other observations. We discussed our findings with the others, and brainstormed for ways to enrich the place, such as uses for the interstitial spaces, and the introduction of public games.

After we were done, I succumbed to nostalgia and went to the still-standing Vrindhavan Restaurant bordering the square, and enjoyed a hearty idly-rasam.

NYUAD introduces FIND cultural platform for artists and scholars

If you are interested in UAE life beyond working and partying, NYU Abu Dhabi's cultural dialogue and mapping platform FIND might interest you. I attended the public event at which the university introduced the initiative and hosted UAEU professor Yasser Elsheshtawy and Cuadro Gallery director Roberto Lopardo to discuss their work as fellows.

Yasser Elsheshtawy (L) and Roberto Lopardo (R)

The speakers talked about their projects for mapping Abu Dhabi. Dr Elsheshtawy's academic approach focused on the hidden-in-plain-sight world within the "super-blocks" of the city, observing and analyzing the human dynamics and public culture of "interstitial spaces", such as the bustling "square with a tree" in the middle of a block between Hamdan and Electra. Lopardo, on the other hand, extended his 24-hour picture-a-minute trek modus operandi, successfully executed in a number of other major cities (including Dubai, the result of which I remember seeing at Cuadro a long time ago), to 20 second video clips, and played a few of those clips for discussion. The third fellow, Reem Falaknaz, was unable to make it to the talk; too bad, as she was studying the mountain communities in the Northern Emirates, and would have added a rural perspective to what was otherwise an interesting, but very urban-set discussion.