Junk/Treasure

I can't enough of rust and decay, especially on a sunny day. But I won't stand in anyones way who wishes to do something other than building a strip mall over it.

I ran across this thorough collection of documented ruin from posters around the world.http://community.livejournal.com/urban_decay/
which was in itself a find. The abandoned theater in an insane asylum stood out at first glance.

I also learned of a group called "the Heidelburg Project" that has been transforming a street of abandoned homes and outdoor areas on Heidelburg street in Detroit into colorful weirdness, turning desolation into a surreal carnival with a positive message. It seems a perfect thing to do with an inner city in the heart of the rust belt , a city of endless abandonment, rotting factories, and high unemployment. They have existed for 20 years, but somehow I've not heard of them before.














The group has had it's skirmishes with the city government, and has had more than a few houses/installations torn down, but they continue, while expanding their scope to include helping children of the area stay occupied. They have purchased more property, ensuring that the mission to give magic mushrooms to rundown buildings will live on. They have also expanded into other cities.

A current project includes covering an entire house in pennies, and using it as a youth center. Kids from all over Michigan are helping out. Just a positive idea, nice to read about.http://www.heidelberg.org/

It's not the LSD in your drink, it's just the Heidelburg project.

Tyree Guyton works on The Heidelberg Project every day with the children on the block. He and director, Jenenne Whitfield, give lectures and workshops around the country, but the main goal is to develop The Heidelberg Project into the city's first indoor and outdoor museum; complete with an artist colony, creative art center, community garden, amphitheater, and more.

Drive the full length of Heidelberg Street and you'll see what the future holds without the Heidelberg Project. At one end it's burned out houses, lots with waist-high weeds, rubble, rubbish, no people in sight. Drive on. Suddenly, there's color and energy.





(Fun House, pictured left, was torn down in 1991)





The Heidelberg Project has transformed a hard-core inner city neighborhood where people were afraid to walk, even in daytime, into one in which neighbors take pride and where visitors are many and welcome. The success of the Project continues to provide hope and inspiration.

A 1988 Interview with founder Tyree Guyton about the first installation, on the street he grew up on:

"See that house over there? That was a crack house...After the first three police raids, it opened right up again. After the fourth raid we couldn't stand it anymore. So we went over and painted the place. Pink, blue, yellow, white and purple dots and squared all over it. Up there on the roof we stuck a baby doll and that bright blue inner tube, and on the porch we put a doghouse with a watchdog inside...Now all day long people drive by and stop to stare at the place...Believe me, in front of an audience like that, nobody's going to sell crack out of that house anymore.".