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"Gᑌᒪᖴ ᖴᑌTᑌᖇIᔕᗰ"

 

Fatima Al-Qadiri and Sophia Al-Maria find the taste of an

avant-garde culture in the Middle East that they name “Gulf Futurism.” In an article praised by Bruce Sterling , the artists describe the Gulf as

 

"a region that has been hyper-driven into a present made up of interior wastelands, municipal master plans and environmental collapse, thus making it a projection of our global future. (…) Over the last fifty years , the Arabian Gulf has given birth to a very particular brand of futurism. It is a phenomena marked by a deranged optimism about the sustainability of both oil reserves and late capitalism. Similar to early 20th century Euro-Futurism and mid-century American kitsch and retro futurism, Gulf Futurism is evident in a dominant class concerned with master-planning and world-building, while the youth culture preoccupied with fast cars, fast tech and viddying a bit of ultra-violence." [6]

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The picture is correct and applies to the whole Gulf. Still

one would do better disentangling the futurist elements from the cyberpunk ones. Master-planning (which was frantically practiced in Kuwait in the 1960s and 70s though never really implemented) is a futurist activity. But the youth culture appears to be more cyberpunk, which becomes graphically clear in the following description. The Gulf is marked by

 

"the isolation of individuals via technology, wealth and reactionary Islam, the corrosive elements of consumerism on the soul and industry on the earth, the erasure of history from our memories and our surroundings and finally, our dizzying collective arrival in a future no one was ready for."

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So much for Gulf Futurism. Let's come back to Dubai. Is Dubai,

which still radiates so much 20th century positive Futurist energy , already heading towards the cyberpunk culture of Kuwait? Dubai is built on a fragile ground and any sort of invasion similar to what happened in Kuwait in 1990 would plunge Dubai into the most authentic cyberpunk syndrome the world has ever seen.

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