Last Monday (June 15), our class had a midterm review to discuss our research and start the process in developing a tangible project. The critics wanted me to focus on the role of technology in Allied Media Projects; exploring the social implementations of technology as well as the spatial impacts of the work they produce. The Allied Media Conference 2015 was taking place the following weekend, so I needed to find connections between my own agenda and the goals of Allied Media.

The following workshop, which took place on Wednesday (June 17), the critics came back to work with the class individually. Mike Hopkins worked with me to discuss my goals as an architect, which are more environmental than social, and where my focus should be to connect with an organization who is all about social movements within Detroit. Most of the ideas were sketchy and vague, but we made a lot of progress brainstorming ideas from mapping out CO2 emissions within Detroit to raise awareness within the community to creating a digital rendering of the city projected on a screen acting as a window to Detroit’s future, showing what it might look like in the future.

On Saturday, I attended the Allied Media Conference. I only stayed for a short period of time, but I was able to speak with the program manager of the conference and network with a few other people. The session I stayed for was called Speculative Cities: Becoming Place. The presentation was about the role of gentrification throughout Detroit’s history and the need for communities to break out of isolation and connect with each other, helping to re-define the city of Detroit. The presentation helped me understand the importance of social connection, and I started to readjust my thinking towards my project.

Now, I am in the process of developing a way for people from different neighborhoods within Detroit to find each other, through technology. I recalled reading about a project, which has now become a significant case study in my research, where doors were installed in random places on the street in Europe, and people would open them to see a mime performance in Milan or have their portraits painted by a sketch artist in Brussels. It was all done with big screens and cameras. The concept was to get people to visit different areas of Europe because they’re “just next door.” This project has become a huge inspiration in my own project to connect different neighborhoods within Detroit.

Here’s a link to an article and video about the European project.