Want to see a city on “speed” grow? This time lapse video captures Doha as it expands rapidly for the 2022 World Cup in soccer.
Doha is getting exactly what it wanted when it made its bid for various international events: a lot of exposure. Most people will struggle to place Qatar’s capital on a map, but compelling time lapse videos like this and other marketing campaigns leading up to the 2022 World Cup will eventually make the emirate a household name.
Michael Shainblum has done a remarkable job of making Doha look like the world’s most enticing city with and for Zoom Arts.
A pulsing soundtrack adds dimension to a dynamic survey of such fixtures as souqs and mosques and ancient forts, while sublime footage of modern life in the oil-rich city makes traffic look incredibly glamorous.
It really is quite intoxicating – the city skyline somehow exudes more sophistication than its cousin of excess Dubai, which has forever sealed its fate as an oversized novelty store with developments such as the curious ‘Aladdin City’ complex currently underway in Dubai Creek.
Related: local architect questions the logic of Qatar’s 2020 World Cup
Shainblum impressively resists the impulse to only represent stereotypical Doha by showing less glamorous parts of the city – such as its mammoth oil refineries, but he does pull off what amounts to a moving monument to globalization and “progress.”
The glittering towers demonstrate great wealth, while construction zones remind the viewer of what an extraordinary metamorphosis the city must undergo in order to prepare for the huge influx of soccer fans that are expected in 2022.
While it is clear to anyone who reads the news that we need to make some very real societal changes, that the rapid growth development model based on more consumption of finite resources is simply unsustainable, this time-lapse is professional, exciting and deserves to widely celebrated.
An expert blend of old and new Doha, Welcome to Doha is a reminder that the Arabian Peninsula has its finger on the pulse of the world’s most cutting edge technology, ideas and marketing savvy.
If you have any doubt, check out what happens after 2:20.
Author: Tafline Laylin
As a tour leader who led “eco-friendly” camping trips throughout North America, Tafline soon realized that she was instead leaving behind a trail of gas fumes, plastic bottles and Pringles. In fact, wherever she traveled – whether it was Viet Nam or South Africa or England – it became clear how inefficiently the mandate to re-think our consumer culture is reaching the general public. Born in Iran, raised in South Africa and the United States, she currently splits her time between Africa and the Middle East. Tafline can be reached at tafline (at) greenprophet (dot) com.
As long as most people are addicted to short-term thinking, they will continue to blunder into various disasters, ecocide and extinction the final self-inflicted catastrophe.