The UAE's Ministry of Culture and Knowledge Development has launched the Al Burda Endowment to benefit Islamic design and craftsmanship.
The idea for the funding scheme arose in a novel way: it was the result of Swarm AI, a form of artificial intelligence that the Ministry deployed in order to analyse the results of a survey among Islamic arts experts that it conducted last November around the Al Burda Festival.
“We have achieved important results that will shape the future of the Islamic art and cultural sector, including but not limited to allocating appropriate funds for art programmes that will help develop the technical skills of creative individuals,” Noura Al Kaabi, Minister of Culture and Knowledge Development, said in a statement.
“The study also predicted that performance and visual arts sectors will witness substantial growth over the next five years, and through partnerships with the government we will be able to create a more intellectually aware audience of Islamic arts.”
The results suggested that the major challenges for artists working in Islamic design are the lack of funding and public understanding of what Islamic art means.
The Al Burda festival itself addressed the former concern in November, when the Ministry of Culture and Knowledge Development transformed its decade-long Al Burda prize for Islamic art into a full-day symposium on the future and possibilities for Islamic art.
Key figures in the Islamic art world, from Shaikha Mai Bint Mohammed Al Khalifa, the Director General of the Bahrain Authority for Culture to British Museum curator Venetia Porter and Saudi artist Ahmed Mater, met at Warehouse421 in Mina Zayed to debate the definition and future of Islamic art in a global context. Headed by Noura Al Kaabi, it was a remarkably successful event, conducive to open discussion, and grounded by an exhibition of the work that Al Burda had supported over its first decade.
As part of the events that day, participants and guests were asked for their perspective on Islamic art, with questions on exemplary practitioners and difficulties facing the discipline. These were then analysed using Swarm AI.
The term Swarm AI refers back to the capacity — displayed by some animals, insects and fish — to function as a collective identity, while moving across terrain, hunting, or in flight. Humans lack this kind of ability: as frequent stampedes at concerts and other events with large numbers of people attest, we lack the ability to communicate as a group. If there is a mob at a concert, for instance, those in the front might get crushed because of the amount of people crowding from the back. Ants, by contrast, communicate along the length of their swarms to tell — in this same analogy — those at the back of the swarm to slow down.
The Ministry of Culture and Knowledge Development’s use of Swarm AI shows its commitment to new forms of technology — even in a sector, such as Islamic art, that would not seem an obvious fit, with its labour-intensive, hand-made origins and religious significance.
Indeed, this is the overall message of Al Burda, which continues to honour artists working in Islamic idioms as it becomes a higher-profile arena of debate around the discipline: in what ways can the UAE support the making of Islamic art in a new century?
Juliet, Naked
Dir: Jesse Peretz
Starring: Chris O'Dowd, Rose Byrne, Ethan Hawke
Two stars
F1 The Movie
Starring: Brad Pitt, Damson Idris, Kerry Condon, Javier Bardem
Director: Joseph Kosinski
Rating: 4/5
Profile
Company: Justmop.com
Date started: December 2015
Founders: Kerem Kuyucu and Cagatay Ozcan
Sector: Technology and home services
Based: Jumeirah Lake Towers, Dubai
Size: 55 employees and 100,000 cleaning requests a month
Funding: The company’s investors include Collective Spark, Faith Capital Holding, Oak Capital, VentureFriends, and 500 Startups.
Earth under attack: Cosmic impacts throughout history
- 4.5 billion years ago: Mars-sized object smashes into the newly-formed Earth, creating debris that coalesces to form the Moon
- 66 million years ago: 10km-wide asteroid crashes into the Gulf of Mexico, wiping out over 70 per cent of living species – including the dinosaurs.
- 50,000 years ago: 50m-wide iron meteor crashes in Arizona with the violence of 10 megatonne hydrogen bomb, creating the famous 1.2km-wide Barringer Crater
- 1490: Meteor storm over Shansi Province, north-east China when large stones “fell like rain”, reportedly leading to thousands of deaths.
- 1908: 100-metre meteor from the Taurid Complex explodes near the Tunguska river in Siberia with the force of 1,000 Hiroshima-type bombs, devastating 2,000 square kilometres of forest.
- 1998: Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 breaks apart and crashes into Jupiter in series of impacts that would have annihilated life on Earth.
-2013: 10,000-tonne meteor burns up over the southern Urals region of Russia, releasing a pressure blast and flash that left over 1600 people injured.
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Benefits of first-time home buyers' scheme
- Priority access to new homes from participating developers
- Discounts on sales price of off-plan units
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- Mortgages with better interest rates, faster approval times and reduced fees
- DLD registration fee can be paid through banks or credit cards at zero interest rates
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Company profile
Company name: Suraasa
Started: 2018
Founders: Rishabh Khanna, Ankit Khanna and Sahil Makker
Based: India, UAE and the UK
Industry: EdTech
Initial investment: More than $200,000 in seed funding
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Job: CEO JCDecaux Middle East
In the role: Since January 2015
Lives: In the UAE
Background: M&A, investment banking
Studied: Corporate finance
The Bio
Favourite place in UAE: Al Rams pearling village
What one book should everyone read: Any book written before electricity was invented. When a writer willingly worked under candlelight, you know he/she had a real passion for their craft
Your favourite type of pearl: All of them. No pearl looks the same and each carries its own unique characteristics, like humans
Best time to swim in the sea: When there is enough light to see beneath the surface
PAKISTAN v SRI LANKA
Twenty20 International series
Thu Oct 26, 1st T20I, Abu Dhabi
Fri Oct 27, 2nd T20I, Abu Dhabi
Sun Oct 29, 3rd T20I, Lahore
Tickets are available at www.q-tickets.com
Key facilities
- Olympic-size swimming pool with a split bulkhead for multi-use configurations, including water polo and 50m/25m training lanes
- Premier League-standard football pitch
- 400m Olympic running track
- NBA-spec basketball court with auditorium
- 600-seat auditorium
- Spaces for historical and cultural exploration
- An elevated football field that doubles as a helipad
- Specialist robotics and science laboratories
- AR and VR-enabled learning centres
- Disruption Lab and Research Centre for developing entrepreneurial skills
Meydan racecard:
6.30pm: Handicap | US$135,000 (Dirt) | 1,400 metres
7.05pm: Handicap | $135,000 (Turf) | 1,200m
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9.20pm: Handicap | $135,000 (T) | 1,600m
Our family matters legal consultant
Name: Hassan Mohsen Elhais
Position: legal consultant with Al Rowaad Advocates and Legal Consultants.
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The Perfect Couple
Starring: Nicole Kidman, Liev Schreiber, Jack Reynor
Creator: Jenna Lamia
Rating: 3/5
if you go
The flights
Emirates have direct flights from Dubai to Glasgow from Dh3,115. Alternatively, if you want to see a bit of Edinburgh first, then you can fly there direct with Etihad from Abu Dhabi.
The hotel
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Located in the heart of Mackintosh's Glasgow, the Dakota Deluxe is perhaps the most refined hotel anywhere in the city. Doubles from Dh850
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Events and tours
There are various Mackintosh specific events throughout 2018 – for more details and to see a map of his surviving designs see glasgowmackintosh.com
For walking tours focussing on the Glasgow Style, see the website of the Glasgow School of Art.
More information
For ideas on planning a trip to Scotland, visit www.visitscotland.com
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
NYBL PROFILE
Company name: Nybl
Date started: November 2018
Founder: Noor Alnahhas, Michael LeTan, Hafsa Yazdni, Sufyaan Abdul Haseeb, Waleed Rifaat, Mohammed Shono
Based: Dubai, UAE
Sector: Software Technology / Artificial Intelligence
Initial investment: $500,000
Funding round: Series B (raising $5m)
Partners/Incubators: Dubai Future Accelerators Cohort 4, Dubai Future Accelerators Cohort 6, AI Venture Labs Cohort 1, Microsoft Scale-up
WIDE%20VIEW
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Simran
Director Hansal Mehta
Stars: Kangana Ranaut, Soham Shah, Esha Tiwari Pandey
Three stars
SNAPSHOT
While Huawei did launch the first smartphone with a 50MP image sensor in its P40 series in 2020, Oppo in 2014 introduced the Find 7, which was capable of taking 50MP images: this was done using a combination of a 13MP sensor and software that resulted in shots seemingly taken from a 50MP camera.
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Global state-owned investor ranking by size
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United States
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China
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UAE
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Japan
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5
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Norway
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Canada
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Singapore
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Australia
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Saudi Arabia
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South Korea
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Zayed Sustainability Prize
Company%C2%A0profile
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Ain Dubai in numbers
126: The length in metres of the legs supporting the structure
1 football pitch: The length of each permanent spoke is longer than a professional soccer pitch
16 A380 Airbuses: The equivalent weight of the wheel rim.
9,000 tonnes: The amount of steel used to construct the project.
5 tonnes: The weight of each permanent spoke that is holding the wheel rim in place
192: The amount of cable wires used to create the wheel. They measure a distance of 2,4000km in total, the equivalent of the distance between Dubai and Cairo.
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
