Heidelberg Project Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Heidelberg Project - Research Paper ExampleThe Heidelberg Project has persisted despite this flavor. Hope Among the Ruins 3 Hope Among the Ruins The Heidelberg Project and Urban Renewal Detroit belongs to the phantom bequest of American cities whose best days become always seemed to lay ahead. From its earliest days, Detroit has been a city of the future that n incessantly quite got there, starting with the imposition of the storage-battery grid system in the 18th century to the near-mania for urban renewal of the 20th century. In a sense, Detroits renewal has been just around the corner ever since the Depression era, from which David Sheridan claims the city has never fully recovered (Sheridan, 1999). Economic disparity and the blight that accompanies it are part and parcel of this lamentable phenomenon, symptoms of a seemingly impossible future. In this reality, all thats left to those who live in poor and forgotten neighborhoods is a form of aesthetic protest that makes itself felt by decorating the spoiled landscape, by reminding those in power that giving over rundown buildings to artistic expression can, in a real sense, bring about urban renewal. A sardonic comment The persistence and popularity of Tyree Guytons Heidelberg Project is a spectacular manifestation of what has been called an angry artistic expression of frustration over willful civic neglect. Guytons organic creation is what Robert Zecker has called a sardonic comment on the poverty existing in the parts of postindustrial cities that have all yet been abandoned by cash-starved civic governments (Zecker, 2008). The art that was created from abandoned houses and refuse were often harsh critiques of the abandonment many Detroiters felt, facing vacant 4 houses weedy handle overgrown with discarded refrigerators and baby buggies and a city administration incapable of offering city services (Ibid, 2008). But the Heidelberg Project is more than just confrontation, it is a revolutionary gestu re that says the future is not a thing that mayors, city councils and chambers of commerce bestow on a city. Guyton and those who have followed his example have reserved for themselves the power to effect changeeven if change comes via the imposition of polka dots. Evidently, the city of Detroit, which dismembered the project on two occasions came to agree, if only in a tacit way. The city gave up on its original goal of bulldozing the Heidelberg Project houses and finally started marketing (Guytons) artistic creations as tourist destinations (Ibid, 2008). Art as urban renewal In a very real sense, the Heidelberg Project became art as urban renewal, though it didnt start out that way. The notion of art and architecture sanctioned by the city was turned inside-out in Detroit. If it wasnt bulldozed or razed and rebuilt as part of an ambitious governmental initiative, renewal couldnt be considered legitimate if it didnt come out of an urban planners computer. This was the way Detroit had always planned for progress. But the throngs of locals and out-of-town tourists that experienced Guytons creations, and the newspaper and journal articles that chronicled the project, could hardly be ignored. And when the Detroit Institute of Art accepted some samples of the project as exhibits, there was no denying that tralatitious concepts of urban renewal and civic identity had been