As Dubai builds unprecedented realms of new luxury, other parts of the Middle East grapple with physical and symbolic histories. Relics come up against re-invention and revolution. And micro-mutations in Middle Eastern politics or economics have become part of our shared "local" news around the globe.
Brought to us by the publishers of "Bidoun," the critically acclaimed quarterly, "With/Without" is an anthology that casts an eye across the broader swathes of the Middle East today. Featuring an intriguing, mock-archival design, this equally text- and image-heavy publication is divided into 14 chapters, each of which takes on an architectural or institutional typology--the museum, the villa, the street, the skyscraper, etc.--and illustrates it with essays, interviews and documentary photographs. Featuring more than 30 contributions from writers, artists, designers and architects including Rem Koolhaas, Armin Linke and Keller Easterling, it takes on subjects as diverse as the redevelopment of Martyr's Square in Beirut; gated communities in Istanbul; Dubai's mall culture; bridge building in Mecca; and the creation of a new Iraqi flag in the post-Saddam era. The underlying question in all of these inquiries is: How do spaces and territories form fundamental ideas about individuals, communities, and worlds?

Planet Earth needs a self-help book, and this is it The future is happening to us far faster than we thought it would and this book explains why Fifty years after Marshall McLuhan's ground breaking book on the influence of technology on culture The Medium is the Massage, Shumon Basar, Douglas Coupland and Hans Ulrich Obrist extend the analysis to today, touring the world that's redefined by the Internet, decoding and explaining what they call the 'extreme present'. The Age of Earthquakes is a quick-fire paperback, harnessing the images, language and perceptions of our unfurling digital lives. The authors invent a glossary of new words to describe how we are truly feeling today; and 'mindsource' images and illustrations from over 30 contemporary artists. Wayne Daly's striking graphic design imports the surreal, juxtaposed, mashed mannerisms of screen to page. It's like a culturally prescient, all-knowing email to the reader: possibly the best email they will ever read. Welcome to The Age of Earthquakes, a paper portrait of Now, where the Internet hasn't just changed the structure of our brains these past few years, it's also changing the structure of the planet. This is a new history of the world that fits perfectly in your back pocket.