The Lost City of Arabesque

Nuqat is an organisation based in Kuwait that provides a platform of communication that connects and educates creatives in the Gulf and Middle East, allowing them to explore and tackle creative change in the region.

Their mission is to "strengthen the creative industry by cultivating a culture of growth, through reinforcing creative dialogue and inspiration".

Nuqat organised their first consortium in May 2009 with a focus on arabic branding and copywriting. The 2010 edition focused on Visual Pollution, where they integrated several graphic design and architecture disciplines together in the aim to move the bar one level up.

For the 2012 edition, they will host a conference in Dubai under the theme of The Lost City of Arabesque.

Past, present, and future are arbitrary time periods. Under the theme of 'The Lost City of Arabesque', Nuqat design conference 2012 attempts to tackle the schism between heritage and crafts and the contemporary creative industries. The border between those realms is less clear and one is effectively derived from the other. Hence, designers and participants will further explore this notion in addition to the relation and impact their work has on defining contemporary arab identity.

The conference will run from 17th-19th March at DIFC and will be followed by a series of workshops from 20th-22nd March at Tashkeel.

It's good to see an initiative like this and I really hope it has a positive impact on this region. The line up of speakers is impressive and I hope I get a chance to attend some of the talks.

Here's the schedule of events: