[PROPOSITIONS] ARCH 562 + MUD 722

PROFESSORS

“River [Hi]stories: Entanglements and Multiplicities”

Rivers are [hi]stories. They connect us through space and time, carry our elusive memories of the past, contingent presents and many imagined futures. Often confined to the traces of permanent lines in cartographic representations, rivers resist conventional delineation and instigate the consideration of the unexpected and mutable. Contemporary debates around water accessibility and commodification, management and control facing climate uncertainty, the impact of extractive processes and the legacies of pollution, urban renaturalization and green and blue gentrification, all speak about the cultural and material significance of rivers in our cities today. The Detroit River, too, is soaked with stories. Homelands of three Anishinaabe nations of the Council of Three Fires, the region was colonized through the river waters. Situated at the heart of the Great Lakes system, the Detroit River has witnessed wars and wonders, prosperity and disaster, and decline and recovery. By examining the Detroit River as an agent of urban transformation, this propositions studio engages with the cultural, environmental, and socio-political discourses that have shaped our knowledge of the region over time. What narratives about the Detroit River are well represented, and which ones are missing? Whose voices are not being heard? What stories are hidden in the river landscapes and what is life along the river like today? How do we situate our agency as designers stewarding the imagination of a multiplicity of possible futures?