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

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.