By Shaima Rashed Al Suwaidi
CEO of the Arts, Design & Literature Sector at Dubai Culture and Arts Authority (Dubai Culture)
The most meaningful cultural experiences do more than bring people into museums, galleries or cultural institutions. They create opportunities for individuals to encounter ideas, creativity and one another in ways that feel relevant to everyday life.
For Dubai, this philosophy is becoming increasingly central to the future of cultural participation.
Culture should be accessible. It should be inclusive. It should create connections between communities, disciplines and perspectives, while retaining the freedom to move beyond traditional cultural spaces and become part of the very fabric of the city.
This ambition lies at the heart of DC33, Dubai Culture’s strategy for the next phase of Dubai’s cultural development. Through this vision, Dubai is working towards a cultural landscape that enriches lives, strengthens a sustainable creative ecosystem and contributes to the emirate’s growing position as a global cultural reference.
The ambition is not simply for Dubai to participate in international cultural conversations, but increasingly to help shape them.
ISEA2026: A Global Conversation Comes to Dubai
One of the most significant opportunities to translate this philosophy into practice will arrive this November.
From 6 to 15 November 2026, Dubai will host ISEA2026 — the 31st International Symposium on Electronic/Emerging Art, bringing together an international community of artists, researchers, academics, technologists, cultural institutions and creative practitioners.
ISEA has long been recognised as an important global platform at the intersection of art, science, technology and emerging forms of creative practice.
Dubai’s edition will introduce a distinctly connected approach.
ISEA2026 will be presented through a fully hybrid model. Its academic programme will unite an international community online, while its artistic programme will unfold physically across Dubai, bringing electronic and emerging art into different parts of the city.
The city itself will become part of the cultural experience.
And this is precisely what makes the 2026 edition so meaningful: its potential to create deeper connections and broaden cultural participation.
Art as a Space for Connection
At its core, ISEA2026 is about connection.
It connects artists with audiences, researchers with practitioners, global perspectives with local communities and disciplines that have traditionally occupied separate spaces.
By bringing art into conversation with science, technology and other fields of research and practice, the symposium creates an environment for experimentation, knowledge exchange and new ways of thinking.
These conversations have the potential to challenge how we understand our relationship with society, place, the environment and the future.
Electronic and emerging art is particularly powerful in this context because it is rarely confined to one discipline. It may incorporate technology, sound, architecture, artificial intelligence, performance, scientific research, moving image, digital environments and interactive experiences.
Through such intersections, culture becomes a laboratory for ideas.
Art Everywhere
The concept of art everywhere has particular relevance for a city such as Dubai.
When cultural experiences extend beyond established venues and spread across a city, they have the ability to reach people who may not ordinarily consider themselves part of a traditional cultural audience.
A familiar place can suddenly become a space for encountering an unexpected artwork.
A journey through the city can turn into an invitation to discover an immersive experience or a completely new form of creative expression.
A public environment can become a meeting point between technology, imagination and human experience.
In this way, culture becomes more than something people deliberately visit.
It becomes something they encounter.
Something they participate in.
Something they share.
Culture as Community Building
This is where cultural participation gains an even deeper significance.
The value of culture cannot be measured simply through audience numbers. Its importance also lies in the relationships it creates: between individuals, between creative communities and between people and the city they call home.
By creating more opportunities for people to engage with culture, cities can strengthen these relationships and encourage a deeper sense of shared ownership over cultural life.
This sense of belonging is fundamental.
When culture feels accessible rather than distant, people are more likely to engage with it, contribute to it and see themselves reflected within it.
A cultural city is therefore not built only through institutions.
It is built through participation.
Strengthening the Creative Ecosystem
The impact also extends beyond audiences.
Bringing together artists, academics, researchers, technologists, institutions and communities creates fertile ground for dialogue, experimentation and collaboration.
An international symposium may last only several days, but the connections formed through it can continue long after the final event has ended.
Ideas can develop into projects.
Conversations can evolve into partnerships.
New practices can emerge.
Creative networks can grow across borders.
This ability to create lasting relationships is one of the most important characteristics of a healthy cultural ecosystem.
Dubai’s role as a meeting point between cultures gives it a particularly strong foundation for such exchange.
Dubai as a Global Cultural Reference
Dubai’s strength has always come from its ability to unite people, cultures and ideas.
ISEA2026 allows the city to extend that spirit into an international conversation surrounding electronic and emerging art, while simultaneously creating an experience that remains distinctly connected to Dubai itself.
It is global in reach, yet rooted in place.
It brings international creative communities into dialogue with the city, while inviting residents and visitors to experience culture through new perspectives.
For Dubai, hosting ISEA2026 therefore represents something greater than welcoming another major international event.
It represents an opportunity to demonstrate how culture can function as an active part of urban life.
How it can travel further.
How it can bring communities closer.
How it can create new relationships between disciplines.
And how it can strengthen connections between Dubai and the wider world.
As November approaches, the significance of ISEA2026 lies not only in the artists, researchers, installations or conversations it will bring together.
Its deeper value lies in the question it invites Dubai — and perhaps every global city — to consider:
What happens when culture no longer exists only in cultural spaces, but becomes part of the city itself?
The answer may define an important part of the future of cultural participation.
Because when culture belongs to everyone, the city itself becomes a place for discovery, creativity and connection.
ISEA2026 — 31st International Symposium on Electronic/Emerging Art
Dubai, United Arab Emirates
6–15 November 2026
Article by Shaima Rashed Al Suwaidi, CEO of the Arts, Design & Literature Sector at Dubai Culture and Arts Authority (Dubai Culture).
2026.09.10 Stockholm
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