AA Visiting School Dubai

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

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

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

Apart from our closed workshops with the AAVS cohort, the programme includes a series of public sessions where we invite you to join the conversation with experts from the fields of archaeology, museology, heritage studies, and contemporary art:


- On the Medium
25 April • 6.30_9PM

With artist Safeya Alblooshi, writer and curator Shumon Basar, and scholars Susan Schuppli and John Thabiti Willis, we explore the importance of the medium of sound as a way to see and experience our surroundings differently. Ultimately, we gain a deeper appreciation for how sound shapes our experiences and the stories within our spaces. The session also helps us understand the embedded histories within specific soundscapes, giving us insight into how we can unearth histories of the environment through sound. We conclude with a live performance by ASMR artist Rusha Omran that explores a range of tactile and auditory triggers - crushed materials, soft whispers, and rhythmic patterns - to evoke a sense of calm.

Click here to RSVP.


- Islands of Heritage
26 April • 11AM_1PM

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

Click here to RSVP.


- Imaginations of Land
27 April • 5_8PM

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

Click here to RSVP.