In Issue 4, we explore the contemporary and historical landscape of the region. Samer Yamani, designer, creates a sonic installation piece out of the many languages spoken in Abu Dhabi, Robert Kluijver, curator, creates an online Museum of Contemporary Ancient Arabia with the aim of connecting contemporary Gulf artists with their deeper heritage, and Rym Ghazal documents the history of stamps in the UAE.
We loved our time with the summer Campus Art Dubai Fellows, Suheyla Takesh and Raja’a Khalid. Suheyla began her project focusing on domestic objects in Emirati homes prior to 1971 and this led to deeper research into the history of perfume and designing a contemporary midkhana. Raja'a researched the interior built environments of malls in Dubai. Her sound maps of malls and research of scents and consumerism has changed my relationship to these interior spaces. I will never walk beneath the palm trees or listen to the call to prayer in the Dubai Mall the same way again.
This is the last Journal Issue to be designed by Sherri Wasserman. Sherri has been a seminal creative and intellectual force behind the birth and creation of FIND. Her dedication to the creative articulation of FIND in the world - whether it be our logo, business cards, design of the website, or how the Fellows’ work is distributed on-line and across different platforms - has been inspired and tireless. She has created a powerful prototype for our new design team, Mobius, to iterate upon as FIND grows and evolves in the future.
