ABSTRACT
This chapter presents an initial investigation of Dubai's smart geo-addressing application, Makani, as a new line of inquiry for critical toponymy and the study of spatial inscription practices more generally. It examines Makani, and offers a preliminary analysis of digital geo-coding systems as "key technologies" that automatically produce urban space. Makani functions much like other geo-addressing platforms: it presents a satellite map, which is framed by a search bar equipped with a drop-down menu for advanced searches, an address book icon near the top of the screen, and a toolbar near the bottom left. The new Makani e-map application has many benefits, and will provide new names for streets, simplify the address system and coordinate location databases for government and private bodies. Makani's de-commemorative capacity becomes all the more apparent as one scrutinizes its implementation alongside other way finding projects underway. Like other geo-addressing systems, Makani transforms difficult-to-identify-or-find places into "locatable addresses".
