Dubai’s Satellite Urbanism
by George Katodrytis
Dubai and the UAE Ministry of Labour will use the Swiss-based firm Informap to use high-resolution satellite technology to monitor construction sites and projects. Using high-resolution photography a team will be able to monitor minute details on construction sites beamed back to the ministry by Digital Globe satellite technology also used by the US military. The Ministry of Labour says it will now be compulsory for companies to pay fees for the satellite inspection services.
There is a new type of urbanism: designing islands and coastlines visible from the sky, recorded by satellites and transmitted across the Internet as jpeg attachments. Technologies that are used to monitor wildlife development, hydrography and land drought is now a tool for global transmission of projects under construction. Post-card GIS and reconnaissance technologies turn into spectacle and telegenic fantasy addressing mass tourism. Dubai’s suburbs are rising from the water, in the form of artificial and prosthetic islands, imitating Venice. Dubai is turning into a postcard portrait city of the future. Satellite imagery of unfinished projects gives rise to the exciting promise of fantasy.
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