AA Visiting School Dubai

The AA Visiting School: Climate Cartographies is committed to exploring the longue durée of climate change at heritage sites by deploying cartographic thinking to create new maps that captured unexplored relations in our environment.

A glitch—often perceived as an error or disruption—served as an unanticipated opportunity for insight and growth. Supported by the Alserkal Arts Foundation, the AA Visiting School programme in Dubai explored the undefined and the in-between through situated spatial sonic practices that encompassed listening, translation, and transcription.

The School’s agenda in Dubai examined the intersection of climate change and heritage, considering innovative ways of representing these themes in and through the medium of sound. Alongside a cohort of 20 architects, designers, cultural practitioners, and artists, we engaged with research and artistic practices to explore the region’s complex history, paying close attention to our experience of sound and our relationship with the land.

In addition to our closed workshops with the AAVS cohort, the programme included a series of public sessions, inviting the wider community to join the conversation with experts from archaeology, museology, heritage studies, and contemporary art.

25 April
On the Medium

Together with artist Safeya Alblooshi, writer and curator Shumon Basar, and scholars Susan Schuppli and John Thabiti Willis, we explored the significance of sound as a medium for perceiving and experiencing our surroundings in new ways. The session also guided us in identifying the tools needed to detect the embedded histories within specific soundscapes, offering insight into how environmental histories can be unearthed through sound. We concluded with a live performance by ASMR artist Rusha Omran, who activated a range of tactile and auditory triggers — crushed materials, soft whispers, and rhythmic patterns — to evoke a sense of calm.

Click to view session.

26 April
Islands of Heritage

Artist Moza Almazrouei, and writer and filmmaker Alia Yunis, explored the complexities of heritage spaces, examining their environmental conditions and the challenges they face. This session investigated how these spaces both influence and are shaped by their geopolitical landscapes, as well as the methodologies used to map them.

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27 April
Imaginations of Land

Historian Salila Kulshrestha, anthropologist Rawan AlFuraih, and archaeologist and urban theorist Uzma Rizvi examined how cultural practices, environmental contexts, and critical narratives intersect to shape contemporary identities. Spanning the fields of heritage building, archaeology, and education, we explored narratives around land that challenge colonial borders and homogenised histories, paying close attention to how embodied spaces and lived experience foster meaningful social connections.

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3 May
AAVS Dubai: Cohort Presentations

These public seminars, accompanied by visits to heritage sites in Dubai and Sharjah, laid the foundation for the cohort’s field study at the Omani exclave of Madha, which served as the primary research site. Its anomalous geopolitical location invited a broader conversation around border controls, mobility, and environmental shifts.

The cohort's final presentations reflected the speculative and exploratory inquiries developed throughout the programme, with a focus on spatial-sonic practices of listening, translation, and transcription.

Click to view session.

Programme Lead

Suha Hasan

Cohort

Aakarsh Singh
Abdullah Abbas
Dheyaa Ahmed Dheyaa
Dina Barqawi
Dina Barqawi
Fatima Alsuwaidi
Fatima Zayed
Huzefah Haroon
Jitakshara Nain
Khadeeja Zayan
Marwan Mahmoud
Nihala T K
Noora Jabir
Pranav Rao
Rayana Albusaili
Salma Hani Ali
Sara Mozafari-Lorestani
Sheida Bayrami
Sreerag Jyothish
Zubayer Hossain

Site Visits & Guest Lectures

Visits to sites including the Shindagha Historic District, Mleiha Archaeological Centre, and the Omani exclave of Madha offered students valuable opportunities to engage directly with a range of heritage landscapes. We extend our heartfelt gratitude to our collaborators for their time, generosity, and support, which made it possible for us to learn not only from the sites but also from their own practices, observations, and expertise:

Adina Hempel
Farid Esmaeil
Nirmal Rajah
Sumaya Dabbagh
Mohamed Almadhani
Abdulla Alsaadi

Open Studio

An open studio was held for the students to share their projects and receive feedback from practitioners with a long-standing commitment to research that explores cartography, sound, heritage, and architecture.

We'd like to thank Jumana Abbas, Lawrence Abu Hamdan, Mahnaz Fancy, and Nadia Mounajjed for their time and their thoughtful, incisive feedback on the cohort's research-in-progress.