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Lights festival debuts in Downtown Dubai
Lights festival debuts in Downtown Dubai Kelly Clarke / 21 March 2014 Walls of iconic buildings in Downtown area become the canvas A typical walk through Downtown Dubai usually exposes you to a visual array of awe-inspiring skyscrapers, with revving engines and car horns providing the perfect sound backdrop. But Dubai’s busy district has now become home to an array of all singing and dancing art. From the shores of the Milky Way, to an urban Serengeti, the city’s skies will explode with colour over the next few days and become ‘the brightest square-kilometre on earth’ thanks to the 32 installations on display at this year’s debut Dubai Festival of Lights. Passers-by will get an insight into the minds of each exhibiting artist — and whether it makes sense or not, it’s certainly going to be a feast for the eyes and ears. Lights in different shapes and colours on iconic buildings in the Downtown area as the Dubai Festival of Lights started on Wednesday evening. — KT photos by Shihab During a sneak preview of some of the finished installations on Wednesday evening, Star Fishermen by Tokyo-born artist Akira-Lisa Ichii kick-started proceedings — but hamour and salmon were not on the menu. “This is a story about fishermen trying to catch the stardust in the Milky Way, so they’re not your typical fishermen.” Composed of three fishing cabins draped in aluminous lighting, the seven-minute composition using a dynamic 360-degree lighting and sound system, sees light take on the role of dancer, and the music its composer, while hypnotically bringing spectators to the seas shore. And when asked where the inspiration for such a unique idea came from, Ichii said the UAE’s history played a big part in show piece. “When I was invited to Dubai, I knew I wanted to adapt this particular piece of mine. Not many people know this about the city, but before all the skyscrapers and highways, Dubai was a fishing village, so I thought this fit perfectly for this festival,” she told Khaleej Times. A light injection Turning Downtown Dubai’s urban surroundings into a façade of light, sound and art, the consensus among the exhibiting artists is that Dubai is a city which deserves artistic light. And French sculptor Edouard Levine, who is showcasing his illuminated geometric sculpture, Mikado, at this year’s festival, told Khaleej Times the city is a welcome platform for his pieces. “Dubai’s art scene is up and coming, so for me it’s a new discovery. It’s a new stage for my work and I am never afraid of trying new things.” With the 10-day light festival making Dubai’s famous square kilometre the ‘brightest on earth’, it could well bag the prize for ‘most entertaining car park on earth’ too, thanks to a humourous video mapping composition from French duo Mouety Batlle and David Passegand. Spread across a giant coloured wall canvas along Mohammed bin Rashid Boulevard, The Anookis throws you back to the days of the Atari computer. With simple imagery and a humourous story, the duo cleverly use lighting and sound effects to create a sense of nostalgia, and spectators are bound to fall in love with the loveable ‘Inuit’ characters too. Visually based on the two artists themselves, the Inuits take you on a wacky journey where cute cries, adorable laughter and wiggling bums are bound to raise laughs among Dubai’s old and young alike. “We originally created these two characters to animate our website, but they became so famous on the Internet, and it just spiralled from there. Now they’re on Facebook stickers and we’ve adapted them into smartphone apps too. This creation should be fun for all people,” Passegand said. Given just five weeks to produce the seven-minute show, The Anookis story is exclusive to Dubai audiences, and with the artists currently working a TV show based on the loveable Inuit characters, we could be seeing a lot more of them around the UAE soon. Time to explore A collaboration between Emaar and the Ville de Lyon’s Festival of Lights in France, Emaar’s managing director Ahmad Thani Al Matrooshi promised to continue long-term partnerships with the art organisation at Wednesday’s event, in a bid to build a cultural bridge between both Dubai and Lyon. So, as office buildings, homes and shop fronts become the canvas for these extraordinary international artists, why not get yourself down there and expose yourself to a different kind of art this month… one which tells a tale. kelly@khaleejtimes.com For more news from Khaleej Times, follow us on Facebook at facebook.com/khaleejtimes , and on Twitter at @khaleejtimes Continue reading
Mohammed bin Zayed City to come up in Fujairah
Mohammed bin Zayed City to come up in Fujairah (Wam) / 21 March 2014 The city is to be located in Al Hail area behind Fujairah International Airport, an area of about seven square kilometres. His Highness Shaikh Hamad bin Mohammed Al Sharqi, Supreme Council Member and Ruler of Fujairah, on Thursday announced to estabish Mohammed bin Zayed City near Fujairah City. This is in recognition of the efforts of General Shaikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the UAE Armed Forces, in serving the nation, acknowledging his role in raising the name of the country and strengthening its position regionally and internationally. The Ruler of Fujairah directed the authorities concerned in the emirate to begin work on the necessary plans to create the city equipped with all necessary services and facilities to meet the needs of all the citizens. The city is to be located in Al Hail area behind Fujairah International Airport, an area of about seven square kilometres. The first phase will comprise about 1,000 housing units, while the second and third phases will have 3,000 housing units. The city will have all necessary facilities such as mosques, schools, health clinics, parks and shops. Fujairah Municipality will work using the most up-to-date methods of urban planning to create a modern city infrastructure, fully integrated to serve its residents and visitors. For more news from Khaleej Times, follow us on Facebook at facebook.com/khaleejtimes , and on Twitter at @khaleejtimes Continue reading
Search planes fail to find Malaysia jet debris
Search planes fail to find Malaysia jet debris (AP) / 21 March 2014 The planes are part of an international effort to solve the nearly 2-week-old aviation mystery by locating two large objects a satellite detected floating off the southwest coast of Australia about halfway to the desolate islands of the Antarctic. Search planes sent to find objects in the south Indian Ocean that may be from the missing Malaysia Airlines jet began returning without success on Friday, and an Australian official said the hunt would be extended again for another day. The planes are part of an international effort to solve the nearly 2-week-old aviation mystery by locating two large objects a satellite detected floating off the southwest coast of Australia about halfway to the desolate islands of the Antarctic. The area in the southern Indian Ocean is so remote is takes aircraft four hours to fly there and four hours back, and leaves them only about two hours to search. The satellite discovery raised new hope of finding the vanished jet and sent another emotional jolt to the families of the 239 people aboard. But like the first day of searching on Thursday, efforts so far Friday have been fruitless, said John Young, manager of the Australian Maritime Safety Authority’s emergency response division. “Although this search area is much smaller than we started with, it nonetheless is a big area when you’re looking out the window and trying to see something by eye,” Young said. “So we may have to do this a few times to be confident about the coverage of that search area,” he said. Five planes were sent out, with the last expected to head back to Perth in western Australia about 1100 GMT, he said. Young said that although the weather improved from Thursday, there was still some low cloud cover over the search area 2,300 kilometers (1,400 miles) from western Australia. Given that radar did not pick up anything on Thursday, searchers were using their eyes instead of equipment to try and spot the objects, forcing the planes to fly very low over the water. The aircrafts are planning to head back to the search zone on Saturday, but the search area will change slightly depending on water movements overnight, Young said. AMSA officials are also looking to see if there is any new satellite imagery that can help provide searchers with new or more information, he said. Speaking at a news conference in Papua New Guinea, Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott said, “We’ve been throwing everything we’ve got at that area to try to learn more about what this debris might be.” He said that the objects “could just be a container that’s fallen off a ship — we just don’t know.” Abbott spoke with Chinese President Xi Jinping, whom he described as “devastated.” Of the 227 passengers on the missing flight, 154 were from China. “It’s about the most inaccessible spot that you could imagine on the face of the earth, but if there is anything down there we will find it. We owe it to the families of those people to do no less,” Abbott said. The development also marked a new phase for the anguished relatives of the passengers, who have been critical of Malaysian officials for what the relatives say has been the slow release of timely information. In Beijing, relatives met on Friday with Malaysian officials at the Lido Hotel, where most have been staying awaiting the latest news. Those who spoke said they had a two-hour briefing about the search but that nothing new was said. Wang Zhen, son of artist Wang Linshi, said the meeting went smoothly but that there were questions on why Malaysian authorities had provided so much seemingly contradictory information. Wang said he has hopes his father can be found alive and was praying that the Australian reports turn out to be false. He said he and other relatives are suspicious about what they were being told by the Malaysian side, but are at a loss as to what to do next. “We feel they’re hiding something from us,” said Wang, who was filling his days attending briefings and watching the news for updates. One of the objects on the satellite image was 24 meters (almost 80 feet) long — which is longer than a standard container — and the other was 5 meters (15 feet). The Norwegian cargo vessel Hoegh St. Petersburg is also in the area and its crew of 20 Filipinos is helping with the search. The ship, which transports cars, was on its way from South Africa to Australia, he said. The Australian Maritime Safety Authority said another commercial ship and an Australian navy vessel were also en route to the search area. Three Chinese naval ships were heading to the area, along with the icebreaker Snow Dragon, China’s state television reported. The icebreaker was in Perth following a voyage to the Antarctica in January, but it wasn’t clear when the other ships would get there. The combination the planes are using of radar to detect objects coupled with low passes over the ocean to identify them visually is crucial because when “radar blips come back it’s not always clear what the object is,” said Michael Smart, an aerospace engineering professor at Australia’s University of Queensland. “They use the radar to focus and then they go and visually look to see what it is,” he said. “The high technology and the low technology are equally important.” The biggest challenges for the searchers are weather conditions in an area known for its storms, he said, though rainy and cloudy weather appeared to be clearing up Friday afternoon. And if the objects are partially submerged as they bob in the ocean that could also affect the planes’ radar detection capabilities. Smart predicted that “it will be just a matter of time before they are found. If they were going to sink they would have already.” The hunt has encountered other false leads. Oil slicks that were seen did not contain jet fuel. A yellow object thought to be from the plane turned out to be sea trash. Chinese satellite images showed possible debris, but nothing was found. Malaysian authorities have not ruled out any possible explanation for what happened to the jet, but have said the evidence so far suggests it was deliberately turned back across Malaysia to the Strait of Malacca, with its communications systems disabled. They are unsure what happened next. Police are considering the possibility of hijacking, sabotage, terrorism or issues related to the mental health of the pilots or anyone else on board. For more news from Khaleej Times, follow us on Facebook at facebook.com/khaleejtimes , and on Twitter at @khaleejtimes Continue reading
