ABSTRACT
Parisite (Paris + site) is a Do It Yourself (DIY) skate park in the City of New Orleans, ca. 2015. Parisite’s existence represents social media’s two-fold impact on leisure communities. First, the park encourages skaters to be on stage and perform routines of tricks, while being recorded by onlookers. A collective identity benefits from instantaneous feedback and behavioural loops through the planet-wide stage. Second, local individuals employed the same networks to crowd-source and crowd-fund the DIY build. Parisite’s social production reflects a social utopia intent on proceeding without permission. However, after initially losing their “rights to the city” via demolition, the community splintered to build a legitimate public space. The lens of social media aids interpretation of the rise and fall of Parisite – from a semi-public oasis to a public leisure space – against the grain. I contend that social media is a legitimizing force in creating a heterotopic, public space.
