enter in mumbai taxis do not know where you are asking them to go. postal addresses do not have street names or numbers. the systems for recognizing and organizing the city as well as finding one's way are more elastic, relying on common knowledge of different scales. there will be places that everybody knows, and others that are only known locally; navigation therefore works in incremental points of recognition, from the large urban landmark where local knowledge will be found, to the next closest item, and from then on until the final destination. taxi_onomy seeks alternative versions of the tools and systems for ordering space in order to allow a reappropriation of the territory of the city. a participatory design of a possible model was developed in Mumbai in December and January 2004/5. everyday for a week, a temporary basecamp was set-up in a different public space of the city; participating inhabitants were sent out to ask for directions, then come back to the temporary office where these were recorded and transcribed. the resulting collections of local navigational items were then ordered and classified on site into a possible dictionary of the city. outputs: mumbai city dictionary: publication and online database