Contemporary Archaeology and the City: Creativity, Ruination, and Political Action

299 Pages·2017·3.886 MB·English

by  Laura McAtackney, Krysta Ryzewski

CONTEMPORARY ARCHAEOLOGY AND THE CITY

Contemporary
Archaeology
and the City
Creativity, Ruination, and Political Action
Editedby
LAURA MCATACKNEY AND KRYSTA RYZEWSKI
1
3
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Acknowledgements
First, we would like to thank the Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropo-
logical Research for providing us with the generous funding to support the
international Archaeologies of the Present: Critical Engagements with Post-
industrial Transformations workshop, held in August of 2014 at Wayne
StateUniversityinDetroit.Itwasthemotivationforthisvolume.Thepapers
thattheparticipantspreparedinadvancefortheworkshop,themultipledays
spent touring contemporary archaeological landscapes around Detroit, and
theemergentdiscussionsinspiredthevisionforandorganizationofthisbook.
We are particularly thankful for the enthusiasm of our workshop grant
administratorLaurieObbinkattheWenner-GrenFoundation.
Ourmotivationtopursuetheworkshopfundingwasinspiredbythetenth
anniversary of the UK-based Contemporary and Historical Archaeology in
Theorygroup(CHAT).BothofusservedontheCHATStandingCommittee
atthetimeofthefundingproposalandhaveattendedthemajorityofannual
CHAT conferences since the first meeting in Bristol, 2003. We are especially
thankful to our colleagues on the CHAT Standing Committees, past and
present, for their encouragement of our ideas for this workshop and book,
and more so for establishing the momentum for the approaches to contem-
poraryarchaeologythatappearsinthefollowingcontributions.Ourthoughts
about the intersections between anthropology, archaeology, and post-
industrialcitieswereenrichedduringtheworkshopbyextendedconversations
between the contributors and our urban anthropology colleagues in Detroit,
including Andrew Newman, Julia Yezbick, and John Chenoweth. We also
thank the anonymous reviewers, who provided excellent feedback on earlier
versionsofthechapters,andoureditorsatOxfordUniversityPressCharlotte
Loveridge and Tom Perridge for their support, advice, and encouragement.
WeareindebtedtotheWayneStateUniversityDepartmentofAnthropology,
theSchoolofSocialJusticeatUniversityCollegeDublin,andArchaeologyand
Heritage Studies at Aarhus Universitet, as well as our graduate students,
for their assistance during the workshop and publication processes. Krysta
would also like to thank Kaitlin for her continued support, and Kazimir, for
enlivening the publication process with his arrival in 2015. Laura would like
to thank her family—especially her much-missed father, Alex—for their
unwavering(ifreassuringlydisinterested)supportandJonforbeingawilling
(andmuchappreciated)trailingspouse.
viii Acknowledgements
We are most grateful to all of our contributing authors for their inspiring
contributions,collegialdialogue,andenthusiasticwillingnesstoparticipatein
the process of asserting innovative and daring new directions for urban
contemporary archaeology, from the inception of the workshop through to
thefinalpublicationofthevolume.
KrystaRyzewski
LauraMcAtackney
Detroit,Sept2016
Aarhus,Sept2016
Table of Contents
ListofFiguresandTable xi
ListofColourPlates xv
NotesonContributors xvii
Introduction—ContemporaryArchaeologyandtheCity:
Creativity,Ruination,andPoliticalAction 1
LauraMcAtackneyandKrystaRyzewski
SECTION I CREATIVITY
1. ArtistSpacesinBerlin:DefiningandRedefiningaCitythrough
ContemporaryArchaeology 31
CarolynL.WhiteandStevenSeidenberg
2. CulturalHeritageandPoliticalEcology:AModestProposal
fromIstanbulviaDetroit 51
IanAldenRussell
3. MakingMusicinDetroit:Archaeology,PopularMusic,
andPost-industrialHeritage 69
KrystaRyzewski
SECTION II RUINATION
4. EmbersfromtheHouseofBlazes:Fragments,Relics,
RuinsofChicago 91
RebeccaS.Graff
5. CommemoratingMelbourne’sPast:Constructingand
ContestingSpace,Time,andPublicMemoryin
ContemporaryParkscapes 111
MadelineShanahanandBrianShanahan
6. RuinedbytheThirstforUrbanProsperity:Contemporary
ArchaeologyofCityWaterSystems 132
AprilM.Beisaw
7. RuinsoftheSouth 149
AlfredoGonzález-Ruibal