![\"\"](\"http:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/musicalurbanism\/files\/2011\/02\/Robocop-Statue-Detroit-300-x-231.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\nFirst a Facebook group was set up with a name that couldn\u2019t miss:\u00a0Build a statue of RoboCop in Detroit<\/a>.\u00a0 Then a local\u00a0art\/technology community group<\/a>\u00a0donated a site on Roosevelt Park, in front of the derelict Michigan Central Station. A\u00a0sculptor<\/a>\u00a0with experience in producing massive iron works for artists like Matthew Barney offered to oversee the statue\u2019s creation.\u00a0 The project would require money, an estimated $50,000, so an\u00a0online fundraising effort<\/a>\u00a0was launched. In just eight days it raised about half its target; in one more day, it went over the top.<\/p>\n Here, then, is a glimpse of what arts-based urban revitalization may look like in\u00a0the age of the internet meme<\/a>.\u00a0 I\u2019m of at least three minds on this topic.<\/p>\n Why not!<\/strong>\u00a0A 1987 sci-fi action movie directed by Paul Verhoeven, \u201cRoboCop\u201d is loved by many for its mix of robots-on-steroids FX, social commentary, extreme violence, and cop-movie clich\u00e9s.\u00a0 If the film lacked the prophetic vision of \u201cBlade Runner\u201d or edge-of-your-seat pacing of \u201cThe Terminator\u201d (both I and II), it compensated with its B-movie sensibility, trashy dialogue, and the cheesy-but-I-like-it look of its titular protagonist, played with just the right level of humor by Peter Weller. Gen Xers and Yers are likely to have seen the movie at least a half-dozen times in bits and parts; many a quote (\u201cWell, give the man a hand!\u201d) has been recited over bonghits and text messages. \u201cRoboCop\u201d puts Detroit on the map in a world where the culture of basic cable TV comprises the common frame of reference.\u00a0 Sure, it\u2019s not Detroit in its best light, but that\u2019s not the film\u2019s fault.<\/p>\n More to the point:\u00a0a statue of RoboCop would be awesome!<\/em>\u00a0Yes, it takes a sense of humor to see that\u2014but shouldn\u2019t Detroit have pride in its willingness to laugh at itself? Imagine all the people who would travel just to see it! (As\u00a0one funder<\/a>\u00a0wrote, \u201cI will pilgrimage from Australia to see this statue, it will be one of the proudest moments of my life.\u201d)<\/p>\n Why not?<\/strong>\u00a0Because have you watched \u201cRoboCop\u201d? Closely? Does a city where police suppresion has had a hand in urban revolts since 1863 need another memorial to a cop, much less a fictional cyborg cop? Sure, the movie purports to take the little guy\u2019s side with its story of a dedicated public servant besieged by a corrupt local power structure, but its drama\u2014indeed, the emotional charge delivered by entire\u00a0dystopian city<\/em>\u00a0genre of that era\u2014draws upon a fucked-up conventional wisdom in which America\u2019s urban crisis stems from the deterioration of social order and decency among the urban population. The fearful gaze that frames the viewer\u2019s perspective in \u201cRoboCop\u201d is deracialized in some respects (for instance, the ruthless criminal boss is played by the white dad from That \u201870s Show), but in the real world its object is unquestionably a black face. In this sense, \u201cRoboCop\u201d hates Detroit\u2019s majority population as much as the racist cops who started the 1967 riots did.<\/p>\n And $50,000 for a statue?! How many hungry people could be fed, how many after-school programs could be funded, how many small businesses could stay afloat with that kind of money?<\/p>\n Why this isn\u2019t really about Detroit at all.<\/strong>\u00a0In truth, I don\u2019t know enough about the people behind the RoboCop statue or their opponents to assign them these contrasting viewpoints. I confess that whenever I read about community development via \u201cthe creative use of digital technology and the arts,\u201d I\u2019m tempted to project the gentrification framework on them: they are the outsiders, dispossessing the locals of their own cultural representations (if not their actual homes, which were probably taken from them long before). But in this case, I don\u2019t know who is newcomer and who is old-timer. The statue\u2019s proponents hail from the creative class, hardly the principled opponents of gentrification, but they advocate an uplift of and upgrading for Detroit that\u2019s desperately needed. Maybe the statue will really set in motion the virtuous circle that\u00a0one organizer envisioned<\/a>:<\/p>\n Beyond the statue even, there’s every chance that this crowd funding experience will go on to kickstart the kickstarting of other amazing things in Detroit. Imagine that? Your kickstarting of a RoboCop statue cascades into greater positivity and more connections coming into Detroit…<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Personally, I don\u2019t find the joke made by the RoboCop statue to a particularly mean-spirited one. It\u2019s kind of funny, and I\u2019ve had a few good chuckles sharing the story of the RoboCop statue with friends and colleagues.\u00a0 It is, however, not a joke being told by Detroiters. That is, the background of experiences and worldviews its humor draws upon isn\u2019t Detroit. It\u2019s the teenage world of late-night TV, beer and bonghits, and B-movie sci-fi\/action fandom.<\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n