New York in Dubai - here2here

On my way from one appointment to another this morning, I am suddenly confronted with an amazing sight in the middle of the Dubai Mall. Bloomingdales is sporting a New York theme and has built actual street scenes to support this. Earlier this week, I put up a post and a blurb mobile about skyscrapers. Synchronicity?

 

A whole floor above the setting, I pause, and as I stop, break dancers enter the scene. My hand flies into my handbag to grab my camera and capture some of the activities.

I have visited New York, love New York, have friends and tweeps in New York, but I live in Dubai. Or do I? 

We are closer to each other than we always imagine. We are interconnected in so many ways. What I am watching so fits in with the theme of this blog site. English and Arabic grace the same advert. Locals and visitors from all over the world mix and share the scene. 

My “here” can be brought to your “here” in so many different ways. Technology allows me to share my “here” with you both visually and audibly, in the time that it takes to press a button and hit “send”. 

The spinning figure I am watching epitomizes the speed at which this is all taking place. I marvel at it, I am in awe of it, I appreciate it.

The dance ends, the moment is over, and I move on, closer to you all.

Trend Skyscrapers

A shoe is so much more than the sum of its parts.

Originally looking more like a foot bag used for protection and warmth, the design of the shoe has evolved over time. Functionality soon made room for adornment and this in turn was dependent upon materials available and the culture in which the shoe found itself. 

Color became important as accessories on other parts of the body called for matching shoes. Status in society enabled some to wear shoes that made a statement.  

Today, your choice when buying a pair of shoes is obviously influenced by the shape and size of your feet which are part of your external attributes.  Personal taste, part of your interior being, plays a role. 

But let us not forget that each individual is also part of a collective “we” with its own interior and exterior.  There are habits that are preferred in a particular group, as well as external systems supporting that culture. What this means is that the shoes popular in the culture you find yourself in, and what is on offer because of the manufacturing possibilities of this era, also influence your choice. 

Popular trend, otherwise called fashion, is an interesting phenomenon. 

That there are trend setters of a particular fashion, I comprehend. That advertising agents assist in spreading the popularity of an item, makes sense. That we now have communication technologies offering exponential possibilities for an item to either gain or lose popularity amongst buyers in a very short period of time, is exciting. That this adds a whole new dimension which needs consideration when fashion is designed, is challenging. 

At the same time, users of products are beginning to take an interest in how a particular product influences the environment. Social issues, such as the unfair treatment of the laborers involved in the manufacture of a product can no longer be ignored. That both these factors must be addressed in fashion design, is becoming crucial.   

That there are designers who give direction as to what the fashion of a particular season will be, I understand. What intrigues me, however, is what these designers are inspired by. What for instance has led to skyscrapers dominating the autumn fashions now to be seen in window displays in the northern hemisphere? 

Skyscrapers? 

A look at the history of skyscrapers sheds light on the question at hand. 

In 1922 the discovery of the tomb of King Tutankhamen and the treasures which had been undisturbed for more than 3000 years captured the imagination of the world. The decorative art movement which began in the 1920s and which was later called Art Deco, was greatly influenced by the discovery. The fascination for ancient Egypt was expressed in the design of jewelry, furniture, clothing and architecture. 

Stories were told by ancient Egyptian art and so it became popular to put symbolic images on buildings. The Chrysler Building in New York, which for a short time was the word’s tallest building after its completion in 1930, is adorned with hubcaps and images of cars.

Art Deco skyscrapers also suggested Egyptian pyramids in their design. The Empire State Building in New York is one example of stepped design.

When we consider that the 10th anniversary of the collapse of the Twin Towers is still fresh in the memory of the collective, and that the world is still buzzing with the news of the Arab Spring which gained great momentum in Egypt, it is perhaps more understandable now why skyscrapers are influencing fashion.

Giorgio Armani, a leading designer giving direction in fashion, has a hotel in the Burj Khalifa, the world’s tallest building at the moment. Could this be influencing fashion design choices?

When the world experiences a crisis it is not uncommon for creative people to find opportunity. Skyscraper fashion encourages individuals to stand tall despite the current economic crisis. Super-high heels were also in vogue during the Depression that followed the 1929 Wall Street Crash. Could designers be cashing in on our insecurities? Can we blame them for this? 

Would it not be better to be mindful of all these influences?

These are my perspectives, influenced perhaps by the fact that I live close to the foot of the Burj Khalifa. 

The shoe depicted at the start of this blog has skyscraper heels and sequin adornment. 

 Hopefully, you will now view it with slightly different eyes.

Your Door

This weekend I explored a site just off Sheikh Zayed Road in Dubai. It is a small residential area behind the Burj Khalifa, but no high rise buildings grace its streets of desert sand. A reminder of another era, it will probably disappear with time, but until then its architecture and in particular its doors, have stories to tell. 

What  struck me in this area was the use of color.  The desert sand was offset by shades of yellow, pink, blue, green and purple, making bold statements to all who cared to notice. Children, with big red ice lollies in hand, ran barefoot as they played in the heat of the late afternoon sun, making sure they got out of the way of approaching cars when necessary.

One scene in particular captured my attention as well as my imagination. 

What lay behind the pink doors with the green arches? The mats outside them did not appear to be there to wipe one’s feet on, but seemed to me to be ideal for sitting on and sliding down the heap of sand against the wall. Was the old cushion at the top of the heap there for the king/queen of the castle, and if children had been playing there, where were they now? Had they run inside to watch a favorite TV program? The many satellite dishes on the rooftop looked promising. If one knocked, who would open the door?

Despite the barrenness all around, I suspected that someone lived nearby who enjoyed gardening. The tiny little flowers in the clearly demarcated area around the bush spoke of tenderness and care.

This was someone’s “here”. It was very different to mine, but in the taking of the photograph our worlds met for a brief moment. 

Wherever I go, I enjoy photographing doors. This time was no exception. Doors speak of history and culture and allude to the inhabitants behind them. They are the point of transition from one space to another. Many people use thresholds of doors to remind them to be mindful. The pause between each breath is a threshold too, an exit and an entrance. 

The portal here2here is not only a call to acknowledge and invite the other in, but also a call to acknowledge the self.  The doors that shut the other out also keep us enclosed and prevent us from discovering who we truly are.  

Derek Walcott, in his poem, “Love After Love”, speaks of meeting yourself at your own door: 

The time will come
when, with elation,
you will greet yourself arriving
at your own door, in your own mirror,
and each will smile at the other's welcome
and say, sit here. Eat.
You will love again the stranger who was your self.
Give wine. Give bread. Give back your heart
to itself, to the stranger who has loved you
all your life, whom you have ignored
for another, who knows you by heart.
Take down the love letters from the bookshelf,
the photographs, the desperate notes,
peel your own image from the mirror.
Sit. Feast on your life. 

(I have put up a reading of the first part of this blog on Blurb Mobile )

Green Line. Speed and Stillness.

The Green Line of the Dubai Metro opened on 9 September, exactly 2 years after the metro first opened on 09.09.09. This was a special date which will not occur for another thousand years. Today I looked back at the blog which I wrote for the occasion and reflected on all the changes that have taken place, not only in my own life, but in the world at large, since then.

Much has changed in the world of travel. Nowadays when we hear "travel", we probably think of aeroplanes, but let us take a look at trains.

In March, the blue line of Japan’s bullet train opened, now making it possible to travel across all of Japan in a day.

With the opening of the Green Line, (I have put up a gallery of photos here), Dubai Metro entered The Guinness Book of World Records as the longest automated driverless system in the world. Here is a timelapse video of travel on this route which aptly illustrates how train travel today is an indicator of speed and change.

There have been many changes in the past two years. There will always be change. However, what is interesting to note, is the almost exponential rate at which change is taking place.

The story is told of a chinese emperor who wished to reward the inventor of the chess board. The man asked that he be given one grain of rice for inventing the first square of the chessboard, two grains for the second square, four grains for the third square, eight grains for the fourth and so on. The emperor readily agreed thinking that he had not much to lose. It was only when his treasurer was asked to calculate the total number of grains owing to the inventor that the emperor realized he had a major problem. Continuing this principle until the 64th square of the chessboard had been reached would mean that the emperor owed approximately 18 quintillion grains of rice! To produce this would require a rice field twice the size of the surface of the planet, oceans included! The power of exponential growth is mind-blowing.

We live in a world where linear thought is the norm, but much in the world is in fact changing at an exponential rate.

Technology is a prime example. Why, two years ago I had never even heard of an iPad (it was only released in April 2010) and today I watch toddlers at shop displays standing on their tiptoes while they play games on tablets!

Wi-fi was only invented in 1991.

Its yin-yang logo indicates interoperability, the ability of diverse systems and organizations to work together i.e. to inter-operate. Hence wi-fi access enables my device to inter-operate with another.

The term inter-operate could perhaps be applied to all areas of our being.

We as individuals, have an interior and an exterior. At the same time we belong to a collective. This collective also has an interior, namely culture, and an exterior, the systems that support culture. Changes in one area effect the others. Human beings are also endowed with the ability to choose, and so the choice can be made to develop all aspects of our being. This in turn will allow interoperability to affect maximum positive growth not only for oneself but for the collective.

I am of the opinion that as the systems around us develop exponentially, and as individuals and cultures are brought ever closer to each other, we will need to find the stillpoint at the centre of a fastly turning world.

"Except for the point, the still point, There would be no dance, and there is only the dance". T.S. Eliot.

Yang activity in the exterior quadrants requires yin stillness in the interior of the individual and the collective. From this stillpoint we will be able to observe events as though from the motionless centre of a rotating cyclone, spinning top or wheel. With time and practice, we will become as it were, the stillness and the spaciousness in which all can occur.

The call to stillness is a call to peace, to inter-operation, to the realization of Oneness.

We need this reference point right now as travel and technology bring us ever closer to each other here2here.

Kiyamah

Travelling back to Dubai last week, I put on my headphones to listen to some music I had recently downloaded. The pieces were relaxing, when suddenly one track had an incredible impact on me.  About a minute into the piece, my insides moved and it felt as if something was rising within me. At one stage tears filled my eyes, not accompanied by a feeling of sadness, but rather of awe.

I have been home for a week now and listened to the piece on numerous occasions. And still..... it has the same effect.

Annie Syed in her latest Still Sundays post tells of visiting a museum and being ”mesmerized by this amazing sculpture.” 

I recall too an incident on Twitter when a video of Louis Kahn’s Phillips Exeter Academy Library was being shared amongst us. One response to a tweet I sent out was, “Made me cry. This is what architecture is about.” 

The overwhelming responses to the video indicated that something was happening not only on an individual level, but on a collective level as well. Technology had made it possible for all of us from different parts of the world and in different time zones to not only view a place many of us might never visit, but also to experience simultaneously a feeling of awe.

What is it about some works of art that have the power to move us so?

Attempts to share such an experience often fail, as words can only attempt to hint at the actual experience itself. They are really only a finger pointing at the moon.

But they are a finger, nevertheless, and those who have had the same or a similar experience will know what is being pointed at.

Ken Wilber, in “The Eye of Spirit” writes,

“Let me return to what art is finally all about. When I directly view, say, a great Van Gogh, I am reminded what all superior art has in common: the capacity to simply take your breath away. To literally, actually, make you inwardly gasp, at least for that second or two when the art first hits you, or more accurately, first enters your being: you swoon a little bit, you are slightly stunned, you are open to perceptions that you had not seen before. Sometimes, of course, it is much quieter than that: the work seeps into your pores gently, and yet you are changed somehow, maybe just a little, maybe a lot; but you are changed.”

This extract is part of a piece entitled “Contemplating Art”. It is one my favorite pieces of writing by Ken Wilber and is, in my opinion, a work of art in itself. You can read the whole piece here. It is to be found on the last few pages of the pdf.

My piece of music, Kiyamah, has changed me.

Which works of art have touched you? Let's share them here2here.