ABSTRACT
Dubai is like a replica city, an outcome of graphical representation. When one fly over its coastline, a new type of twenty-first century urbanism is evident, which is both diagrammatic and prosthetic in the form of islands. Dubai's development comes in the age of the digital technology of reproduction and simulation. The panoramic imagery of artificial coastlines is broadcasted around the world as a new type of satellite urbanism. Global Information Systems (GIS) and reconnaissance technologies turn into a spectacle and telegenic imagery for mass tourism. The same images of satellite photography can be digitally attached as postcards, to be transmitted around the globe. The consumption of the image, the fabrication of speculative urbanism and the speed of construction inevitably capture the imagination of tourists ready to tour distant and Oriental regions. The Orientalist approach is one way to generate an appealing identity.
