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The Curation by Nour Hassan
The Curation, formerly Radical Contemporary, is a Digital Curator and Podcast based between Cairo, Dubai & Jeddah. We curate everything from art, fashion, and design, to culture, wellness and tech to present you with only the best brands, founders, products and pioneers.
The Curation by Nour Hassan
Zaina Deesi: Exploring 'Our Future(s)' with Dubai Future Foundation
In this episode our founder Nour Hassan speaks to Zaina Deesi, Marketing at the Dubai Future Foundation, about the mesmerizing experience "Our Future(s)." Get ready to be intrigued by how this installation intertwines light, sound, and scent to pose thought-provoking questions inspired by the DFF Global 50 Report. Imagine contemplating a future where learning while you sleep becomes a reality? Our conversation delves into how this extraordinary project, showcased at Alserkal Avenue during Alserkal Art Week, challenges visitors to reflect on tomorrow's uncertainties, offering a sensorial journey that truly engages all five senses.
Zaina shares insights into the bold vision of the Dubai Future Foundation, a government entity not afraid to step outside conventional boundaries. Discover how the installation employs the signature scent from the Museum of the Future to evoke memories and deepen the immersive experience.
For more information visit Dubai Future Foundation.
Hey everyone, this is Noor, and you guys are listening to the 10th season of the Radical Contemporary podcast. The podcast has had over 100 guests so far and they have been some of the most successful, pioneering and absolutely radical individuals in the region and in the world. In this episode, I spoke to Zaina Disi, the Associate Marketing Manager at Dubai Future Foundation. We spoke about Our Futures. Our Futures is an immersive experience brought to you by Dubai Future Foundation, which was held from the 17th to the 24th of November 2024 at Al Sirq Art Week on El Circal Avenue. The experience invites visitors to contemplate our collective futures. The installation engages audience through questions about the tomorrow's uncertainties. The space transforms, adapting to the group's collective response through the interplay of light and sound and, most importantly, smell, adopting the same smell as the museum of the Future, allowing for a truly immersive experience. Having experienced our futures myself, it was an art piece in and of itself. I speak with Zaina about the vision for our futures, as well as how this project came to life.
Speaker 1:And now to my conversation with Zaina Disi from Dubai Future Foundation. Dissi from Dubai Future Foundation. All right, hi everyone. This is Noor Hassan, and right now I'm speaking with Zaina Dissi. She is the marketing at the Dubai Future Foundation, a representative, and I wanted to speak to you specifically regarding the incredible installation, public installation that you have here now at Al-Sirqal Avenue.
Speaker 2:As we speak during Al-Sirqal Art Week, I'd love for you to take us through the thought process of doing something like this that, as you said, is quite out of the box for Dubai Future Foundation. Thank you for having me, and it's really such a pleasure to be on your show. And it's really such a pleasure to be on your show. You know, our futures is a really unique experience because it's an experience that's brought to you by Dubai Future Foundation, which is a government entity, but essentially what it does is that it allows the public to reflect on our collective futures, and what that means is that it poses questions about the future and uses an interplay of light and sound that kind of reflects the public's opinion or their choices towards those questions and the questions I mean. You've experienced it for yourself, right.
Speaker 1:I mean, listen, the questions were so poignant. It was interesting because the experience itself is around 10 minutes, which is a perfect amount of time in my opinion, so it's not too much of a time investment for the viewer, but I think it lasted with me. I think it will last with me for a while. Actually, can you give us an example of maybe one of the questions that's asked, so people understand how much this was a thought-provoking experience?
Speaker 2:So the questions are actually very carefully curated and it's because it was extracted and really inspired by our annual report that we launched as a foundation called the Global 50 Report, and it talks about future opportunities or uncertainties, and it's written by scholars, researchers, future foresight experts, and so it was really important to reflect those kinds of questions, and an example would be will you learn while you sleep in the next hundred years? Would it be something that would be possible for people? And the thing is, it's actually been studied. And shout out to our researcher, dr Hebash Hadeh, who writes this whole report on an annual basis. So doing that with her really made the experience leave an effect on people.
Speaker 1:So I want to know who are you targeting or thinking of when you created this particular installation? I think it's fair to call it an installation, but it's very immersive and it's interesting because it really taps all of the five senses, maybe even six senses. Who was your dream person to enter this space? If you had one in mind?
Speaker 2:You know, when you say all of this, it's funny because we really wanted to make it a very sensorial experience, and to do that you needed to create an olfactory element, for example, and we did that through getting the scent that we use at the museum of the future, and so that kind of merges everything together and reminds the person that oh hey, I know the smell before, and then it takes them to this kind of moment that they were at the museum and they had a wow factor.
Speaker 2:So for us I'll tell you the ultimate goal out of the experience as a whole and it's that we really wanted to push the message of the future is human and our shared choices is what will reflect in the future, and so we wanted to get the public sentiment and really understand where they stand on the future, because at the foundation, we can be very focused on certain initiatives and strategies, and to get that public sentiment and their thoughts and shared decisions allows us to share more informed decisions and strategies and initiatives that will make it a more resilient world. Have you heard?
Speaker 1:any feedback, because I think that this was kind of a not a risk, but an out-of-the-box kind of move for Dubai Future Foundation. So what has been the feedback so far and how do you feel about this type of installation, interactive within such a, you know, buzzing avenue? Will there be more?
Speaker 2:Al-Serkal Avenue was the perfect place to do this installation at.
Speaker 2:I'll call it an experience, because it really is an experience.
Speaker 2:When there was the Al-Serkal Art Week, we really wanted to participate because it just it's where artists and futurists meet and so, um, doing this whole experience is quite interesting because each person it's very subjective, you know it's, it really is an art piece, and so it's. Some people leave and they were saying, actually, the first person that we had enter was a guy and his wife, and they left and saying, wow, I didn't expect that I was going to wake up this morning and have to think about my future and all of these things that are going to happen, and so it's very subjective as well. But it makes people reflect because it's ironic, because in this very buzzing square, you enter a space where you're like, wait a second, let me tone it down and really think about what's happening here. And the intro mentions that we're living in a world where things are unknown. There are things that are coming about that sometimes it's good news, sometimes it's bad news, you really don't know, and so you only have to look at the positive, brighter aspect of things.
Speaker 1:Amazing. And my last question for you is that this was honestly a meditative experience and I think it was one of very few times I can remember where, for a second, people, I think, really put down their phones. Yes, we took pictures, of course, because it's visually incredible and really exciting, but I think there was a moment where everyone, just for a second, put down their phones and really thought about what was happening and looked around in community and it is very powerful. So was this an intention for you to get people to be introspective or was it just sort of an experiment, in the sense of like what would happen if we asked a very thought-provoking question?
Speaker 2:So with that we actually had people that wanted to come back for a second round because they realized that the first time they were there they were just taking pictures and didn't really think in the moment.
Speaker 2:And so they queued up in line and waited for a second try and that time their phone was totally down. So they wanted to experience it for what it is the thought provoking. I think that was a message that we wanted to send, and it's because it's nice to read about what your future opportunities would be, and which is why we really got inspired by our flagship report, the Global 50, and wanted to do it as an experience, because a report would be mostly read by people who are interested in that future foresight. But for a public to really reflect on those questions was an important aspect from a marketing standpoint at least. We wanted to get people's opinions about how they feel about the future and then end it throughout the whole week, end it with kind of a combination of what people actually thought about each kind of question. In total there were 15 questions and we kind of segment them as five questions per experience, and so all of that would really feed into the next annual report.
Speaker 1:Amazing. I think this is such interesting information and for sure we will be waiting for this report, Me personally extremely curious about it. Thank you so much for taking the time, Zaina, and hopefully that we get to speak to you again soon and see how things pan out.
Speaker 2:Thank you. Thank you so much for having me, noor, and yes, it was really a pleasure to meet you a pleasure to meet you.
Speaker 1:Thank you for listening and make sure to follow at Dubai Future as well as at Museum of the Future to stay updated with everything future related. I got to visit the Museum of the Future last time I was in Dubai, with great thanks to Zaina Disi and the incredible Dubai Future and Museum of the Future team, and I would highly recommend this visit, especially if you have children and young adults, because it is an incredibly eye-opening experience and I look forward to many more installations and experiences with Dubai Future Foundation. See you all on the next episode.