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Diriyah Art Futures Announces February Program Alongside ‘of the Earth’ Exhibition

The program opens on Thursday, February 12 - SPA
The program opens on Thursday, February 12 - SPA
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Diriyah Art Futures Announces February Program Alongside ‘of the Earth’ Exhibition

The program opens on Thursday, February 12 - SPA
The program opens on Thursday, February 12 - SPA

Diriyah Art Futures (DAF), the MENA region’s first center dedicated to new media arts, announced the launch of its February public program at its headquarters in Diriyah, Riyadh.

The program aims to deepen dialogue on the relationship between art, technology, and the environment, while offering educational and interactive platforms that explore creative approaches to sustainability and contemporary ecological thinking, SPA reported.

The program is presented alongside “Of the Earth: Earthly Technologies to Computational Biologies,” DAF’s fourth major exhibition, featuring works by more than 30 artists from Saudi Arabia and around the world. The exhibition showcases multidisciplinary artistic practices that examine the material and environmental dimensions of digital technologies, their impact on natural resources, and the evolving relationships between humans, machines, and nature.

The February program includes a series of panel discussions, hands-on workshops, and advanced professional courses designed to engage artists, practitioners, and the wider public. These practical learning experiences explore sustainability concepts from multiple creative perspectives, reflecting DAF’s ongoing commitment to expanding discourse around new media arts and fostering critical and creative thinking at the intersection of art, technology, and ecology, contributing to the enrichment of the local and international cultural landscape.

The program opens on Thursday, February 12, with a panel discussion titled “Living Systems, Living Practices.” The session brings together multidisciplinary artist Mohammed Alfaraj, multimedia conceptual artist Moza Almatrooshi, and senior architect Wiam Kafyah for an in-depth discussion on the relationship between humans, land, and food systems through preservation, sustainability, and creative experimentation.

The discussion is moderated by culinary storyteller and writer Marya Kayyal, who presents ancestral, contemporary, and experimental perspectives that highlight the role of art and design in addressing environmental challenges, promoting cultural knowledge, bio-design, and the care of living systems that sustain life.

The program concludes with a two-day professional masterclass titled “Designing with Mycelium,” held on Friday and Saturday, February 27–28, and delivered in English. The masterclass explores the potential of mycelium in sustainable design and bio-innovation.

Led by Saudi architect Kafyah, founder of a bio-design lab and studio specializing in sustainable construction technologies, the masterclass introduces participants to the fundamentals of mycelium production and its role in contemporary design practices.

The course combines theoretical knowledge with hands-on experimentation, allowing participants to design and create their own mycelium-based forms within a framework that connects innovation, sustainability, and responsible engagement with living materials.

Through this program, DAF reaffirms its commitment to advancing contemporary dialogue around new media arts and expanding research and experimentation at the intersection of art, technology, and the environment. It also strengthens the role of culture as a dynamic space for critical thinking, knowledge production, and the development of responsible creative practices that reimagine sustainable visions for a shared human future.

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Varieties

Fontainebleau: French Forest of Kings, Painters and Hikers

A drone view from Milly-la-Foret shows smoke rising from a wildfire in the Fontainebleau forest near Paris during a heatwave affecting large parts of France, July 13, 2026. (Reuters)
A drone view from Milly-la-Foret shows smoke rising from a wildfire in the Fontainebleau forest near Paris during a heatwave affecting large parts of France, July 13, 2026. (Reuters)
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Fontainebleau: French Forest of Kings, Painters and Hikers

A drone view from Milly-la-Foret shows smoke rising from a wildfire in the Fontainebleau forest near Paris during a heatwave affecting large parts of France, July 13, 2026. (Reuters)
A drone view from Milly-la-Foret shows smoke rising from a wildfire in the Fontainebleau forest near Paris during a heatwave affecting large parts of France, July 13, 2026. (Reuters)

A massive wildfire near Paris has torched swathes of a forest that has lured admirers for centuries, from royal hunting parties to impressionist painters, rock climbers and nature lovers.

Fontainebleau is no stranger to fire but this inferno -- fanned by strong winds and heatwave conditions -- is among the worst in decades, destroying nearly five percent of the 25,000-hectare (61,800 acre) forest.

- Prehistory and royalty -

Fontainebleau attracts between 15 and 18 million visitors a year -- nearly twice as many as the Louvre museum in Paris.

Most travel from the French capital 60 kilometers (40 miles) away but 30 percent come from outside France.

Rock art dating back to prehistoric times has been discovered in its caves.

Fontainebleau became a royal estate around the year 1000 under Robert II "the Pious" of France. Later, a grand palace was built to host hunting parties.

The hunting paths are still used today by firefighters to access the forest, said Sophie David, an archaeologist who heads the environment and visitor services department at the state-run National Forestry Office.

- Blank canvas -

Around 200 years ago, swathes of the forest had been cleared for agriculture, reducing it to roughly one-third of its current size.

"In the 19th century, trees were planted to fill in the gaps. Pines were chosen, trees with shallow roots" capable of growing in Fontainebleau's sandy soil, said David.

The character of this new, more open forest was captured by the painters of the Barbizon Impressionist school.

The invention of the paint tube, and rise of leisure travel among France's growing bourgeoisie, helped make Fontainebleau attractive for walkers and artists.

"The railway arrived in 1849 and the world's first signposted (hiking) trails were created" in Fontainebleau shortly after, said David.

Rosa Bonheur, a renowned French artist of this era, painted her iconic "Fairy Pond" in Fontainebleau.

- Nature hotspot -

The forest is home to oak and beech woods as well as coniferous forests, open heathland, fossil dunes, ponds and wetlands.

Thirty million years ago, the forest was an ocean. As the sea receded, it left behind sand which, over millennia, formed the sandstone blocks that now attract rock climbers.

"What makes the Fontainebleau massif unique is the diversity of its landscapes and the richness of its biodiversity," said David.

It hosts more than 6,500 known animal species -- hares and deer to birds like warblers and tawny owls and rare insects, such as the stag beetle.

UNESCO designated Fontainebleau a "biosphere reserve" in 1998.

Around 1,000 hectares are designated strict nature reserves, with no human intervention. One of those reserves has been among the hardest hit by the fire.

- Old foe -

Fire was first recorded in Fontainebleau in the 13th century.

David said detailed records had been kept since 1863 and the current blaze -- which has burned some 1,000 hectares already -- was among the largest in the history books.

In the early 20th century, surveillance towers were erected to address the problem, helping reduce the area burned.

More recently, six 10,000-litre (2,650-gallon) water tanks have been installed in the forest to enable a more rapid response to fires.

Around 30 fires break out each year, most often caused by cigarette butts or unauthorized campfires.

For the past two years, the fire service has been testing an AI surveillance system which can detect smoke and quickly locate the source to notify the fire department.

Varieties

In a Sweet Discovery, Astronomers Find Sugar Lurking in the Space Between Stars

A long exposure photo shows the Milky Way galaxy star cluster from Tuban village in Badung, Bali, Indonesia, March 23, 2023. (AFP)
A long exposure photo shows the Milky Way galaxy star cluster from Tuban village in Badung, Bali, Indonesia, March 23, 2023. (AFP)
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In a Sweet Discovery, Astronomers Find Sugar Lurking in the Space Between Stars

A long exposure photo shows the Milky Way galaxy star cluster from Tuban village in Badung, Bali, Indonesia, March 23, 2023. (AFP)
A long exposure photo shows the Milky Way galaxy star cluster from Tuban village in Badung, Bali, Indonesia, March 23, 2023. (AFP)

The space between stars just got a little sweeter.

Astronomers have detected a type of sugar in space that's also found in raspberries and self-tanners. The sugar, called erythrulose, lurks in what's called the interstellar medium: thin clouds of gas and dust littered between stars.

Sugar does more than sweeten tea and powder doughnuts. Different varieties fuel our cells and even make up DNA. Scientists are itching to know how sugars form because they're a key ingredient for life as we know it.

Using two dish-shaped radio telescopes in Spain, researchers collected data from a large gas cloud near the center of the Milky Way. They identified the sugar in gas form by comparing telescope signals to samples in the lab. It's the latest kind of sugar detected in space — in a region crossed by NASA's twin Voyager, the farthest spacecraft to ever travel from Earth.

The results were published Monday in the journal Nature Astronomy.

Scientists have found interesting chemistry in our galaxy, including building blocks for genetic material and parts of the cell. They spotted a cousin to table sugar near the center of the Milky Way about 25 years ago, and black grains from asteroid Bennu retrieved by NASA’s Osiris-Rex spacecraft yielded other sugars, including a key DNA ingredient.

The latest sugar isn’t essential for life, but can easily convert to a form that’s thought to be crucial to kick-starting life on Earth. And it’s one of the most complex sugars spotted so far, said astrophysicist Erika Hamden with the University of Arizona.

It's “a pristine example of the stuff that’s just floating out in the galaxy,” said Hamden, who had no role in the new research.

Researchers want to look for more sugars in space and learn about how they convert to different forms.

Finding them in one spot means they're likely also hiding in distant corners of the galaxy along with other important bits, said study author Izaskun Jiménez-Serra, an astrophysicist at the Center for Astrobiology in Spain.

“The key ingredients for the origin of life could be present in other regions across the galaxy, opening the possibility for life to develop elsewhere in the universe,” Jiménez-Serra said.

Varieties

Two Romanian Mountain Climbers Found Dead in Italian Alps

A rescue helicopter hovers over the Punta Rocca glacier near Canazei, in the Italian Alps in northern Italy, July 4, 2022 - File photo/AP news
A rescue helicopter hovers over the Punta Rocca glacier near Canazei, in the Italian Alps in northern Italy, July 4, 2022 - File photo/AP news
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Two Romanian Mountain Climbers Found Dead in Italian Alps

A rescue helicopter hovers over the Punta Rocca glacier near Canazei, in the Italian Alps in northern Italy, July 4, 2022 - File photo/AP news
A rescue helicopter hovers over the Punta Rocca glacier near Canazei, in the Italian Alps in northern Italy, July 4, 2022 - File photo/AP news

The bodies of two Romanian climbers missing since last week were found Monday in the Gran Paradiso massif in the Italian Alps, authorities told AFP.

The two Romanian nationals whose ages have not been disclosed had not made contact since leaving a mountain refuge on July 9, according to authorities in the Aosta Valley, a northern region bordering Switzerland and France.

After several days of helicopter searches, their bodies were found Monday morning at the bottom of a crevasse about 20 metres deep, regional authorities said.

Gran Paradiso rises to 4,061 metres within Italy's oldest national park.

Mountain accidents are common in Italy: in 2025, they caused 528 deaths, an increase of 13 percent compared with the 466 fatalities recorded in 2024, according to the Italian National Alpine and Speleological Rescue Corps (CNSAS).