Ruba Saqr writes excitedly about INCOGNITO a recently launched website that seeks to promote alternative arts in the Middle East. I applaud the initiative but am amazed that the site still seems to be focused on pedaling CDs and books rather than streaming music, selling downloads, building a community etc. This seems especially pointless in the Middle East where both e-commerce and physical content sales have never amounted to much.

I am sure it will develop in that direction and it’s certainly a good starting point. The artists featured do represent the exiting sub-surface Middle Eastern creative movements taking place. What I envision is a diverse but tightly edited site constantly featuring new content, reviews and news etc with social-networking / forum / review functionality built-in, launched in partnership with major brands targeting the Middle East youth. Think RCRDLBL or Viceland.

In related news, I launched an MP3 blog at radio.misuc.com exactly 6 years to the day from the first mis presents Bidoun event in Dubai (an awesome multi-media joining the dots extravaganza feauring music, dancers, art, film that took place at Kasbar Sep 13 2002).

Image by shehab.hamad via Flickr