On The New Cosmopolitan

On The New Cosmopolitan is an exploration of cosmopolitanism and its 21st-century manifestation in Dubai. “What do I see? Neon contours of a building at night. A near-empty walkway with a flashing monitor that reads: “Dubai Digital Park”; in the morning I see a concrete expanse of flat apartment rooftops amidst a humid, sand-infused horizon, the steaming heat of the desert temperature in August. Plasma screens along a walkway show various scenes of people eating, exercising, shopping, the only people I see. I am in an area called Silicon Oasis. Dubai, a city where 70% of the world is within an 8-hour plane flight from its airport, was built to represent the geographical factuality of its being a crossroads between East and West. A contemporary city of spectacle and the spectacular, it caters to all manner of the gaze.