UAE ministry uses artificial intelligence to suggest future of Islamic design

The UAE’s Ministry of Culture and Knowledge Development has launched the Al Burda Endowment to benefit Islamic design and craftsmanship. The idea for the funding scheme arose in a novel way: it was the result of Swarm AI, a form of artificial intelligence that the Ministry deployed in order to analyse the results of a […]

The UAE’s Ministry of Culture and Knowledge Development has launched the Al Burda Endowment to benefit Islamic design and craftsmanship.

The idea for the funding scheme arose in a novel way: it was the result of Swarm AI, a form of artificial intelligence that the Ministry deployed in order to analyse the results of a survey among Islamic arts experts that it conducted last November around the Al Burda Festival.

“We have achieved important results that will shape the future of the Islamic art and cultural sector, including but not limited to allocating appropriate funds for art programmes that will help develop the technical skills of creative individuals,” Noura Al Kaabi, Minister of Culture and Knowledge Development, said in a statement.

“The study also predicted that performance and visual arts sectors will witness substantial growth over the next five years, and through partnerships with the government we will be able to create a more intellectually aware audience of Islamic arts.”

The results suggested that the major challenges for artists working in Islamic design are the lack of funding and public understanding of what Islamic art means.

The Al Burda festival itself addressed the former concern in November, when the Ministry of Culture and Knowledge Development transformed its decade-long Al Burda prize for Islamic art into a full-day symposium on the future and possibilities for Islamic art.

Key figures in the Islamic art world, from Shaikha Mai Bint Mohammed Al Khalifa, the Director General of the Bahrain Authority for Culture to British Museum curator Venetia Porter and Saudi artist Ahmed Mater, met at Warehouse421 in Mina Zayed to debate the definition and future of Islamic art in a global context. Headed by Noura Al Kaabi, it was a remarkably successful event, conducive to open discussion, and grounded by an exhibition of the work that Al Burda had supported over its first decade.