Place and Space in Detroit

I found this video on a friend's blog, and while I guess the birth of techno hasn't been one of the themes we've pursued in class, the presentation of the video made me think about the nature of place and space in a city that is considered by some to be "a dead city." How do we perceive these concepts in a place that apparently lacks some of the aspects that we usually use to define a city?

A good, thought-provoking example of this is when they talk about "warehouse parties" (around 8 minutes in). Warehouse parties consist of "500 to 1,000 people" filling up a large abandoned building for a music show (in this case, electronic music). What I find interesting about this is that it takes a place--a derelict building, considered by most to have little to no value in and of its own--and turns it into a space, filled with meaning, relationships, and shared experiences.

In a place of which the only representation we are given by the media is that of abandoned, falling down buildings, high homelessness, and unemployment rates, it is interesting to see another perspective on finding meaning in the city.

Rebecca Willett