Navigating the Sea of Generica: Towards Abolitionist Land Use Activism
August 2022 - May 2023
If you find yourself in Brooklyn, NY, a physical copy of my thesis booklet lives at Interference Archive.
A sea of generica is forming in New York City, as neighborhood redevelopment prioritizes profit over neighborhood character and resident input. Sameness is easy to reproduce; sameness is profitable. Governmental land use change is a predatory process that works hand in hand with real estate developers to transform neighborhoods into a unified vision of modernity and conformity. This tension between residents and profit creates friction within communities.
Land use activism presents an alternative to the ever-increasing capitalist logic, where people can collectively exercise control and self-determination over shared land. In this project, I examine two strategies of land use activism in New York City to elucidate the ways that fighting back can take form. I counterpose the two strategies: 1) the racial equity report, recently-passed, city-wide legislation that requires a report on the demographic effects of land use change during a rezoning’s land use review process, and 2) the Land Use Intervention Library, a performance art piece that demonstrated collectivism and autonomy through the ephemeral take-over of a public street end. To deconstruct these examples, I introduce abolition as a guiding framework for activism that encourages configuring new methods for change and collectively taking control of our communities. I uncover the ways that both policy reform and experimental performance art are essential to push forward land use activism. While they work in different realms, they act symbiotically. One day perhaps residents will matter more than that profit. Until that day, abolitionist land use activism will guide us forward.
For this project, I printed 30 copies of my thesis (6x9) and used a Japanese bookbinding technique, stab binding, to hand-bind them. I wanted my thesis to feel hand-made and incorporate my own embodied experience into the final product. I additionally use my own handwriting as the header font to accentuate the manual process.
