42°N 82°W – Belle Isle Projections
Project Team:
El Hadi Jazairy
Yuxuan Jiang, James Brewster Joslin, Samuel Kim, Ying Li, Jie Liu, Paul McBride, Luis Orozco, Carol Sheung Chui Nung, Timothy Sutherland, Yinglin Wu, Bin Zhang
The research explores visions of Detroit by negotiating the boundary zone between the USA and Canada as it marks the space of the Detroit River. Much has been said about the thickening of the border – and of reconceptualizing the river as a body of water that simultaneously separates and connects. Belle Isle provides an ideal site for rethinking borderlands and their implications on ecologies and economies across. Such task is an opportunity to explore: 1] Conceptualizations of extraterritorial zones, whether green zones, city-states, checkpoint urbanism, ecological reserves, or global extrastatecraft; 2] Relationships between geographies, urban environments, and enclaves; 3] Spatial technologies of exception; 4] Connection of the island to its hinterlands; 5] Urban margins.