ABSTRACT
[D]Urbanism:
The Revelation of Repressed Transgression
Detroit lays stunned as the product of abusive parenting. The loyal workhorse
of the American Dream wallows in the dedicated obsolescence of an economic
monoculture and fiends for the opiate of capitalism. Yet despite the neglect, a
new vitality is brewing amongst the shadows of post-fordist residue. Within the
labeled obsolescence breeds a new existence which emerges out of the devi-
ance from the skeletal remains of modern urbanism. A city branded as devas-
tated is actually the epitome of owning the margin.
This thesis amalgamates disenfranchised city islands by accelerating Detroit's
underlying and inherent urbanism Oftransgressive circulation and communica-
tion pathways through such techniques as urban scarring, blanketing, disruption,
and smoothing. The development does not erase the contemporary attempts at
reconciling the norm of the city image but in turn fortifies the inventions spurred
by its shortcomings. By reframing a city's legibility, [D]Urbanism engenders a new
urban ideology attentive to the local collective.
Donald Hickey
January 2010
[ii]