5 minutes
Dubai in visual memory
Abdullah Al Qamzi
Abdulla.AlQamzi@emaratalyoum.com
June 13, 2022
Visual memory is the association of an image with a specific name in your mind. If you go to a shopping center to do a certain thing on a daily basis, the image of this activity that you do will appear in your brain when you mention the name of the shopping center.
Visual memory is either a personal experience or consists of your readings about a particular thing or arises with you as you grow;
If you had a verbal or physical fight with someone and then that person became your best friend, the image of the battle is often the one that will stick in your brain when you mention the person's name.
Visual memory is the strongest type of memory and the most influential on humans, and it is not surprising that films affect us strongly because they consist of a group of images.
Cities are associated with visual memory for many people, and the iconic architecture of cities is often associated with memory.
The city of London, for example, is linked to the “Big Ben” and Paris with its iconic “Eiffel” tower. If you type the names of the two cities into the Google search engine, these images will appear to you.
The city of Cairo is linked to its pyramids and the Sphinx or the Nile, and New York City is linked to the Empire State Building more than the Statue of Liberty or any other architectural icon, even if you look at many movie posters that take place in New York or bear the name of New York or one of its areas in the movie title, you will find the Empire Building Steet in the background, regardless of the quality of the movie.
Our beautiful city, Dubai, also has a visual memory that varies from person to person, unlike the other mentioned cities. The reason is that cities such as London, Paris and New York prefer to remain in its classic image, while Dubai is renewed and racing with time and even ahead of it.
Dubai for those born in the forties, fifties and sixties is Dubai Creek and its surroundings, and for those who grew up in the seventies and eighties it is the Clock Roundabout and the Dubai World Trade Center building (Rashid Tower, which was named after the late Sheikh Rashid bin Saeed Al Maktoum), as for the nineties generation, it is a building Etisalat with a huge white ball above it and the ship hull-shaped NBD building that we thought was the letter D from Dubai in English when we were kids.
For the decade of the first millennium Dubai is in visual memory the iconic Burj Al Arab, Emirates Towers and Sheikh Zayed Road, and in the following decade Dubai is the tallest Burj Khalifa in the world and the surrounding area.
I know that Dubai contains other iconic architectural masterpieces, but again I am talking here about visual memory or what is the image of Dubai that appears in the mind of one who thinks of it when mentioning the name of the city or when typing its name in the search engine «Google».
Attitude
When a city renews itself, it is a sign of self-confidence and a desire for change and renewal, embracing the future and conquering its challenges, and this is a characteristic of its honorable Al Maktoum rulers.
Continuous renewal is one of the hallmarks of success, and successful people in life are the great leaders, and this is the secret of Dubai's superiority over the world's cities.
Abdulla.AlQamzi@emaratalyoum.com
To read the previous articles of the writer please click on its name.
Abdulla.AlQamzi@emaratalyoum.com