Kairotic Reflections on Detroit: The Rhetorical Cartography of the Heidelberg Project

Abstract

This study illustrates how a Sophistic understanding of kairos can help develop rhetorical cartography scholarship. It does this by examining the Heidelberg Project, an open-air public art installation located on Detroit’s east side. The project forges spatial and temporal connections that make, unmake, and critique boundaries between public art and different geographic areas, communities, and time periods. By creating spatial and temporal linkages, the installation attempts to craft a kairotic revelatory experience. While the Heidelberg Project challenges dominant representations of Detroit as a non-place, it also bolsters boundaries between oppressed communities and privileged outsiders that can remarginalize groups.

Keywords:

• Detroit
• Kairos
• Public Art
• Rhetorical Cartography

Acknowledgments

The author would like to thank Damien Pfister, Robert Rowland, and the reviewers for their feedback on this project. She would also like to thank Jeffrey Horner and Joel Stone as well as Heidelberg staff and volunteers for sharing their knowledge and insight about the history of Detroit and the evolution of the Heidelberg Project.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.