Roving Repair Rabble
This project takes on the aesthetics and politics of repair in the postindustrial city, where disrepair is often read as a sign of pathology or disorder - something to be contained or policed.
Our approach will combine with in an effort to examine how power shapes our perceptions of the urban environment and consider how disrepair can invite creative improvisation. We will assemble a Roving Repair Rabble of students, practitioners, and community members, and together we will find out what happens when we reimagine weedy ditches, uneven sidewalks, and potholed streets as spaces for creative collaboration. We will ask who performs improvisational repair in our community and what we can learn from them.
And, in the process, we will question our ingrained ideas about what does (and does not) make life livable in the city. In addition to course offerings and a speaker series, the project will result in a book and exhibition. Our hope is that participants will learn to challenge pathologizing paradigms and make space for community-based alternatives.
