XYZ ATLAS
XYZ ATLAS
The Hedonic Map of Austin
ART PROJ ECT CATALOG XYZ Atlas: The Hedonic Map of Austin is interactive public art about our collective experiences. It is a crowd-sourced multimedia project that allows people to share stories and locations where they have significant experiences. Mapping our collective highs and lows creates a topographical map of emotions.
The responses from the participants and XYZ coordinates are used in GIS maps, temporary art installations, unique 2-D and 3-D artworks, and a digital platform. The XYZ Atlas records the influence that the city has on its residents, and creates a community’s identity through our shared sense of place.
photo: Michelle Atkinson
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TEA M JENNIFER CHENOWETH ARTIST & PROJECT DIRECTOR Jennifer Chenoweth makes contemporary art in any material that fits the idea. She works actively in her studio and in her community to create change through inspiration and connection.
CO LL ABO R ATO RS HART BLANTON Social Psychologist
JOHN DOLECEK Engineer
LAINE HARDY Graphic Designer
LOOKTHINKMAKE Publicist
ROBERT WHITEHURST Fabricator
EMILY PRATTE Social Activation
DAVID O'DONNELL GIS Specialist
ARIANA FREITAG Intern
CONTRIBUTORS: Eunice Garza, Tiffany Cousins, Sean Gaulager, Chris Whiteburch, Molly O'Halloran, Sewah Archer, Bryan Spear, David Lovas, Larry Vanston, Leslie Vela, Lindsey Champlin, Caryn Carson, Miriam Olivares, Cecilia Giusti, Cile Montgomery, Shane Faulkner, Laura Esparza, Oliver Franklin, Robbie Lee, Stan Pipkin, Michelle Atkinson, Dorothy Johnson, Lynn Osgood, Patrick Hagger, Henry Pitre, Stephanie Braddock, Aaron Matlock, Corolyn Holub, Matt Norris, Anne Marie Hampshire, Margaret Stenz, Blake Vest, Stephanie Rodriguez, Art in Public Places, Cultural Arts Division, Parks and Recreation Department. Many more worked on the project as well.
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HOW DO ES AUSTI N FEEL? When Jennifer Chenoweth set out to discover how people emotionally connect to Austin, she gave a voice to the city itself. After all, an emotional relationship isn’t really a relationship if it’s one-sided. Through a series of experiential surveys, nearly 500 people pinpointed places in Austin and the emotional highs and lows they felt in those places. Suddenly the city knows--definitively, visually, emotionally--the place that its body of people love far above all others. It also knows, just as clearly, the areas that really need some work-where its body of people are hurting, harming, hopeless. The city knows where betrayals have occurred, where hearts have been broken, and, in some cases, healed.
And the voice is a visual voice. The emotions have been mapped and color-coded to Plutchik’s Wheel of Emotions. We can see what the city knows. We can see what the city feels. Thus the gift that art gives us: the ability to understand how our city feels. Hats off to Jennifer Chenoweth, her project, XYZ Atlas, and our city, the great Austin, Texas. The XYZ Atlas finale is May 2016 during the West Austin Studio Tour. --Patricia Buchholtz, Austinite
photo: Lindsay Hutcheons
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EMOTIO NS Our experiences cause us to feel emotions. Psychologist Robert Plutchik developed a theory of emotion classifying general emotional responses. He considered there to be eight primary emotions—anger, fear, sadness, disgust, surprise, anticipation, trust, and joy.
Creating a more nuanced color wheel, artist Jennifer Chenoweth began using this theory to visualize acceptance as a tool for healing. Creating hand-drawn emotion flowers, she began an exploration of ways to share Plutchik's Wheel of Emotions through art.
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Robert Plutchik's Wheel of Emotions, Jennifer Chenoweth's Colors
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photo: Lindsay Hutcheons
photo: Leslie Vela
photo: Lindsay Hutcheons
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SPACE AN D AFFECT: X YZ ATL AS As emotive entities, our encounters with the world and our being-in-the-world happen. They happen in spaces--spaces enclosed by material forms, spaces delineated by sensory stimuli (or marked by a conspicuous lack thereof) and, admittedly, in spaces
conceptualized and intellectualized such that we can observe and recount and classify and categorize and analyze. Sometimes--but not always--the qualities of the spaces with which we associate those encounters determine the quality of the encounter. In other instances, the
Dance of the Cosmos, solar-powered kinetic sculpture, visualizing emotional wholeness photo: Michelle Atkinson
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space is irrelevant. In others still, the space is the encounter. Our understanding of space and place have undergone a series of dramatic changes in the past two decades, as the spaces of the virtual begin to interfere with the affective richness of “real life”; devices have begun to mediate and even dominate our emotional engagements with site, space and structure. In a recent article in which he revisits Gaston Bachelard’s The Poetics of Space, architect and professor Michael Benedikt laments that mediation: “…Chances are that we spend most of our waking hours looking at a computer monitor or smartphone screen…. My point is that we are not here. We live our lives more distractedly than ever in a physical environment that seems to know it: an environment designed and built, it would almost seem, with the aim of directing our time, money and attention elsewhere. … Irony upon irony, it is the homeless who live in material space most intensely, to whom fire and nest, intimacy and shelter mean most. They are, perforce, still here.”1 Among the richest potencies of Jennifer Chenoweth’s XYZ Atlas project is its appropriation of those
very same distracting devices to help us to remember, recover and relish the events and circumstances that connect our emotional and sensory experiences to place. XYZ Atlas invites us to pay attention, to pause, to feel, to sense and--most importantly--to be present in the moment and in our bodies so that we can know who we are and where we were when that moment of presence washed over us. With XYZ Atlas, devices and technologies combine with collaborative physical mapping on a grand scale to catalyze sense of place, presence of mind and--perhaps most importantly--the importance of remembering what it was like to be there then and how that memory enriches our being here now. --Dr. Stephen Caffey, Art Historian
1 Michael Benedikt, “On The Poetics of Space Now: Introduction to ‘Nests,’ ‘Shells,’ and ‘Intimate Immensity’," CENTER 17: Space & Psyche (April, 2013).
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ATTACHMENT TO PL ACE When we think about building our cities we need to ask: What does it mean to have a sense of place? To be attached to a specific location? To feel in relationship with our physical surroundings? To call a place home? These are questions to which we want answers, but our current ways of understanding the world often make us ill-equipped to answer them.
that feels both comfortable and validated. What the XYZ Atlas shows us, however, is the fact that there are actually different ways of understanding our physical world, different ways of communicating about that understanding, and ultimately, different ways of actually being in relationship with our world.
So often when we plan our urban environments, we look to find the ideas, data, and policies that will support our vision for the future. Whether that is in the form of demographic surveys, public comments, or policy and code reviews--our aim is to establish the most logical and linear case for why we want to realize certain visions for our city, and how we can best proceed in order to make those visions a reality. But does all that data really give us a true understanding about where we’re starting from, or how we currently exist in relationship to our physical environment? To a certain extent, yes. Our empirical data helps us to identify patterns, opportunities, assets, and needs, and to communicate those understandings in a way photo: Michelle Atkinson
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First entering into the project can feel beguilingly simple, for we’re only asked to remember emotions and where we felt them within the city. Our bodies are hard-wired to enter into the world through our emotions (more so than we’d like to admit sometimes) and so we have a natural ability to bring these memories back to life. To do this on our own is revealing--revelatory even--as we begin to observe the physical form of the emotional landscapes that we so quickly internalize.
visions, and new capacities for action. The XYZ Atlas gives us much more than an orientation to our own emotions--it affirms that those emotions happen in direct relationship to our physical environment, and most importantly, in relationship with all those around us that call our city “home.” --Lynn Osgood, Urban Planner
The XYZ Atlas, however, asks us to look at these landscapes collectively, and thus our engagement doesn’t stop at the boundaries of our own selves, but rather it calls us to understand our city in relationship to the experiences of others. To see this information mapped out visually then begins to reveal the invisible, but collective, experiences of the places we call home. We suddenly begin to form a vision of a larger sense of place that we might know intuitively, but struggle to find the words to share. With the collective engagement the XYZ Atlas offers us, we are given a new way to talk about how we understand our city--and with new understandings come new ideas, new photo: Michelle Atkinson
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photo: Lindsay Hutcheons
photo: Glen Vigus
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photo: Michelle Atkinson
photo: Michelle Atkinson
photos: Michelle Atkinson
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WHERE ARE WE FEELING EMOTIONS? HOW CAN WE MAP OUR EXPERIENCES? ARE THERE COLLECTIVE PATTERNS?
ANTICIPATION
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JOY
TRUST
FEAR
HOW DO WE FORM ATTACHMENTS TO PLACES? WHAT GIVES US A SENSE OF BELONGING? WHY DO WE CALL AUSTIN HOME?
SURPRISE
SADNESS
DISGUST
ANGER
photo: Marshall Tidrick
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Barton Springs Conservancy is working to honor, preserve, and enhance the experience at Barton Springs by focusing on facility improvement and enhanced education and outreach about the environmental values and history of Barton Springs. BartonSpringsConservancy.org
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WHERE IS ONE PLACE YOU FEEL ALIVE AND EXCITED?
photo: Jenny Sathngam
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"Town Lake. When I go for a run, I feel nervous and excited for some reason. Every time. Like, I'm nervous that I won't run as far as I want to, but excited to see how far I go. It makes me feel alive."
"Since I have grown up in Austin, it is truly in my blood to connect with music of all kinds! I definitely feel my most alive and excited during a live concert, anywhere in the world, but especially in my hometown. I would have to say my favorite music venue in Austin would be Saxon Pub because of the venue capacity and the southern comfort charm. I love live music and the experience and journey it takes me on!"
"Studio 6A, the former home of Austin City Limits tapings. There is nothing that could derail the mood in that space. Nothing that a couple beers and some exclusive music couldn't cure. Still isn't."
"Barton Springs Pool: Sitting on the hillside warming your body in the sun after an icy dip in the pool is the best way to live. I love to think about the history of the location, the biology and geology of the natural landscape, and the colorful diversity of people who enjoy this pool."
"The Alamo Drafthouse Theater on Slaughter Lane--I live in the neighborhood adjacent to it, so I can walk there when the weather allows it. I have never undergone a movie experience quite like the one at Alamo." photo: Katherine Harte
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WHERE HAVE YOU LAUGHED THE HARDEST?
photo: Kate Bush
"Alamo Drafthouse after watching my dad do his own stunts."
"With girlfriends at night swim at Barton Springs. We'd swim to flat rocks and claim them as our own territory, float around, shiver, and laugh about love interests & school loans."
"At my Granny and PawPaw’s house. Every year at Thanksgiving, all 12 cousins on my father’s side of the family play in a friendly game of wiffle ball in the backyard. My twin sister, who hasn’t played a recreational sport in years, decides she wants to bat next. After much griping and nagging we finally said ok. She was wearing a flowy short black cotton dress as she gets up to bat. She swings the bat, hits the ball and starts running FULL SPEED to first base. After two steps towards first base, she does a superman dive because she was overcompensating on her run and her entire dress came flying over her head! Let’s just say she wasn’t wearing underwear and we all have a full moon view! It took us hours to stop laughing and will never forget the face my grandparents made when my sister fell! My granny goes inside and to our amazement holds up a pair of her underwear and tells my sister, now you have to literally wear “Granny Pannys!” My sister put them on and continued playing the baseball game…"
"Austin Java at Austin City Hall in downtown Austin: I think I was laughing so hard I blew gingerbread pancakes outta my nose."
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WHERE DID YOU FALL IN LOVE?
photo: Katherine Harte
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"Anderson High School. The first time I fell in love was at my high school band camp. I was a freshman. He was the junior drum major. Love at first sight."
"Where don't I fall in love? Most memorable place is probably Zilker Park in downtown Austin, on a quilt in the middle of the park. With snacks. Snacks help love happen."
"We were in love before we moved here, but we fell in love with Austin at Eden East Restaurant on Springdale Road."
"At Stubb's, watching a band I didn't know with a boy I wanted to."
"At Urban Outfitters on the Drag! It sounds totally stupid but the second time my best friend and I ever hung out was during South By four years ago. Our first stop was for the Backlot Performances and we've been inseparable ever since."
"I fell in love at House Park watching my boyfriend at the time play lacrosse. After scoring a goal, he would point to me in the crowd, letting me know that he had scored the goal for me."
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WHERE DO YOU GO FOR THE MOST FREQUENT EXPERIENCE OF PLAYFULNESS?
photo: Jenny Sathngam
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photo: Katherine Harte
"Barton Springs: Perfecting cannon ball while feeling like a peppermint."
"I play everywhere."
"Rumi's Tavern. Our group of friends meet there every Wednesday to share drinks and stories, some of which are lies."
"I found that even into my adult years, I would always go to Amy's ice cream if I was feeling childish and playful. The workers there are always full of energy and their spirit is contagious. Plus, ice cream!!"
"Bookpeople - There isn't a story that can't inspire playfulness, flights of fancy and joy. Of course, if they fail, there are cubbies that you can crawl into with a book or a creative puzzle and manage playfulness in that manner."
"Up and down South Congress Ave between Academy and Annie Street. Murals and coffee and pizza by the slice and panhandling and windowshopping and it's all good."
photo: Katherine Harte
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WHERE DO YOU GO TO RECONNECT WITH NATURE?
photo: Jenny Sathngam
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photo: Katherine Harte
"Mayfield Park--watching the Peacocks and walking along the lake where Laguna Gloria Art Museum is located."
"My home is nature. I make a place for it and here it is."
"McKinney Falls State Park. First place I ran more than 2 miles. I've run 30 marathons since then."
"The rise, headed toward Lake Austin Boulevard on Redbud Trail, turning from Westlake Drive. It surveys the entire Austin landscape and reminds one of how great the world is and how small our concerns are within it."
"The woods. There are many empty wooded lots around Lago Vista, Texas (Texas Hill Country). I love disappearing in the hills and woods. I find treasures that nature has left for me. The silence is bliss. I can communicate with the deer and other wildlife in the woods and the best is that no one knows where I am."
"31st and Lamar: There is a hidden trailhead to a particularly lovely and quiet hiking path along Shoal Creek here. The rock face overhangs and frog-filled creek offer a nice break from urban life without the inconvenience of a long drive."
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WHERE DO YOU GO TO GET YOUR CREATIVITY INSPIRED?
photo: Katherine Harte
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"The East Side. No one place in particular. Maybe Cesar Chavez? I like the energy and light over there."
"I get my inspiration by just paying attention and finding beauty and pain in ordinary things that are always there, but sometimes you happen to see them in a different light."
"7th and Congress: Seeing films at the Paramount Theatre is my favorite diversion in Austin, TX. I love attending film fests held there, which really gets the creative ether swirling around me."
"Punk rock show at Hole in the Wall--the Hickoids are my faves."
"I love the graffiti on the Lamar underpass just before 5th street."
"Mrs. Piper's room at Covington Middle School."
"Riding the bus or train--looking around I see all the Austin creativity in murals, street art, buildings; Red Line: Routes 19, 17."
"SXSW interactive sessions at Austin Convention Center."
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WHERE WAS YOUR FAITH IN HUMANITY RESTORED?
photo: Christopher Sherman, Over Austin
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"When someone stopped on a country road and took me, my husband and three kids to the next town to get a tire and brought us all the way back to our car so we could change the split tire."
"Just below the Barton Springs Pool dam, where dogs and every kind of person on Earth hangs out for free."
"Lady Bird Lake under Mopac Bridge, Mother's Day: Looked down to see hundreds of drifting petals. Talked to a couple nearby women-they were in a mom’s group that tossed the flowers in remembrance of children that they had lost. A beautiful, poignant community supporting each other."
"Walking down Whitis Ave. I saw a young woman walk past a man digging cans out of the trash. Then she stopped, turned back, gave the man a large bottle of tea from her purse, and continued on her way. They never spoke a word to each other."
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WHERE HAVE YOU FELT THE MOST COMPETENT?
photo: Katherine Harte
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"Birthing my babies at the Austin Area Birthing Center."
"Anywhere where things that needed fixing involved drawing people together."
at a park climbing trees
"Pace Bend Park: I did my first triathlon here. It was exhilarating to discover that I had a knack for physical training. Also, a few years before that, my friend and I saved a man from dying of heat exhaustion here. He had collapsed in a ditch on the side of the road, was covered in ants, and literally blind from dehydration."
"When working with the soil and laying out new garden space."
photo: Jenny Sathngam
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WHERE DID YOU HAVE AN EXPERIENCE THAT CAUSED YOUR AWARENESS TO CHANGE?
photo: Jennifer Ramos
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"I was driving to Dallas to attend the funeral of my college sweetheart. Just as I was leaving the city, I ran out of gas and realized that I had left my wallet 40 minutes away and had no way to get to Dallas in time. I called my mother. She left work and drove out to meet me and gave me $200 in cash so that I could make it to the memorial service. It was the day that I realized that I will always need my mother and that if I have a kid, I will always be a parent, even when he or she is in her thirties."
"I think when I was 14 tucked away reading Stranger in a Strange Land and I realized that I was part of God."
"Hogg Auditorium UT campus, photography presentation of the book, American Pictures, by Jakob Holdt."
"After integration the quality of courtesy at school improved."
"The Rosedale School, because I experienced these kids that I never knew had such difficult lives; these kids changed my whole perspective on everything."
"At the Westgate Movie Theater watching Slumdog Millionaire. I had no idea how much poverty and hardship exists in India. It really opened my eyes. I cried at the movie and then spent hours researching India on the internet." photo: Katherine Harte
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WHERE WAS THE BEST NIGHT OF YOUR LIFE IN AUSTIN?
photo: Studio Uma
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"Being with my son and grandchildren under the metal pole turned into a Christmas tree with diagonal lights stretching out from its top."
"Dallas Nightclub south of Anderson Lane on Burnet. Late night dancing followed by breakfast at Kirby Lane on 183."
"March 20th, 1999. Tom Waits secret show at the Paramount Theatre. My expensive SXSW badge got me access without much problem, but my future-wife had to correctly guess the location for the tiny number of tickets available to the public. My drummer graciously sold his badge-acquired ticket to a friend for $350, and he took my future-wife's seat so she and I could sit together for that unprecedented night of pure joy."
"Mother Earth at 10th and Lamar, visiting from San Antonio when I was in high school (1969)."
"Martin Pool by the water in my truck with my girl."
"The Blue Starlite Drive-In which we rented out for my 40th Birthday Party. We watched 16 Candles & everyone dressed up in John Hughes/80s costumes!"
"This took place at the Capitol during the conclusion of the 1st special session called by Governor Perry at the conclusion of the 2013 regular legislative session. It was the night of Senator Davis' 13-hour filibuster."
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WHERE WAS THE WORST NIGHT OF YOUR LIFE IN AUSTIN?
photo: Ariana Freitag
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"At home, when our child found some magic mushrooms and shared them with a friend."
"At Dell Children's Hospital, getting my first round of chemo."
"Dirty Six on Halloween 2006- Sixth and Trinity. Someone put something in my drink and I ended up in the hospital. I couldn't talk or stand. It was incredibly scary."
"West Lynn Street, doing laundry there in 2002 when I received a phone call that a dear friend and the best freaking drummer I've ever had the pleasure to perform with had passed away by hanging himself over a doomed relationship with a local singer starlet."
"Wethersfield Road off Enfield Road. The house I was renting burned down toward the end of a graduation-birthday party. It was in May. A young woman died. Some folks had been celebrating their college graduations while I was celebrating my 25th birthday. "
"At home when my son didn't come home for 3 nights."
"First night in my (then new to me, since remodeled) house. No furniture, no job, had just run into an ex who doesn't even live here in Austin! Slept on wood the floor--can't remember the last time (if ever) I cried myself to sleep."
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WHERE DO YOU EXPERIENCE YOUR OWN MORTALITY?
"Turning left on my bike on Lamar."
"Burnet Road and Greenlawn, where I was hit by a car while riding my scooter."
“River Hills Road… Ride my bike down Cuernavaca, turn and go up River Hills. Hard workout up that hill back to 360. A fellow cyclist (who suffered from high blood pressure like I do) passed away a few years ago from a heart attack going up that hill. Every time, I think about her--and my mortality-while going up that hill.”
"On any of the flyovers around Austin--Ben White and IH35, 183 & IH35, 183 & Mopac, etc."
"MLK & I-35--city cemetery walking in the city of the dead."
"When the awesomely powerful thunderstorms roll into town."
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WHERE DID YOU FEEL UTTER DISGUST?
photo: Ariana Freitag
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"When I met a man I was pretty sure was abusing children in his care at the State School."
"When I see the family of homeless people under the 183 overpass. Not disgust at them, but just in the inequality in the experiences of humanity."
"Hospital, when I see the dozens of uninsured patients suffering through preventable diseases that the insured never have to deal with."
"During a recent drive going east on 290... the amount of trash is disgusting. The amount of trash in many places in Austin recently is a heartbreaker."
"Brackenridge Hospital --they threw me out with broken ribs, collarbone, and ankle fractures because they thought I didn't have insurance!!! Scum of Austin!"
"Watching a man strike his child."
"Parts of West 6th Street...I lose my faith in people there...it's like people throwing their money at alcohol in the most inauthentic place in town. At least Dirty 6th is proud of what it is!"
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WHERE WERE YOU TERRIBLY AFRAID? photo: Jenny Sathngam
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"At my home trying to find out where my daughter was after school and the school bus had broken down and the driver let her leave with an unknown man."
"Windsor Road--Sitting in my apartment after getting a phone call from a friend who was inebriated and wasn't sure where her friends were taking her, but she didn't want to go, especially with the guy whom she didn't trust--waiting on a phone call for the entire night."
"Assaulted at Drury Inn by police." "When a woman ran a red light and I knew we were about to hit." "Right before I went on stage the first time."
"I was very afraid when I was followed at night by a car on IH-35, when driving from my apartment on Riverside to visit my sister at Dobie. I exited and reentered the freeway a couple of times, and he continued to follow, speeding up when I sped up and slowing down when I slowed down. I eventually spotted a group of students gathered in front of Dobie, pulled up there, and the person finally drove on."
"Everywhere, after Esme was killed on New Years, 2012. In my house, in my yard at 32nd & Chestnut."
photo: Katherine Harte
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WHERE WERE YOU WHEN YOU FOUND OUT YOUR TRUST HAD BEEN BETRAYED?
photo: Ariana Freitag
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photo: Katherine Harte
"2500 S. Lamar Blvd, with co-workers I thought I could trust."
"Scholtz Beer Garden, when a blogger scooped me with info that the lead singer of my longtime band had made a new recording without me."
"Home, when I heard my aunts and uncles broke the family over my grandfather's estate when he passed."
"15th St at N Congress Ave. 2000 Presidential election. Waited in the rain for the results and in some ways feel that I'm still waiting."
"I was in the James Bowie High School courtyard when I figured out that my best friend had been bad-mouthing me to all of our other friends behind my back. I transferred schools shortly after losing all of my friends."
"Being violated by my stepfather was my first most profound betrayal."
"The Highball, South Lamar--Invited my gal to my birthday party, where all of my friends were slated to meet her for the first time. She showed with five men, one of whom she'd been dating for months."
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WHERE WAS IT THAT YOU WERE INJURED OR ASSAULTED?
photo: Ariana Freitag
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"Cesar Chavez and Sandra Muraida way. Hit by a car on my bike. I was on the Lance Armstrong Bikeway, ironically."
"Running the trail around 38th Street hospital with a group. I ran really fast and fell down injuring my shoulder and ankle."
"Jumping roof to roof on 6th Street and Waller Street."
"Eggs thrown at me out of cars by students at UT when I was a prof walking on Guadalupe."
"On a front step over a beer, some change and a slice of pizza."
"North Loop and Lamar. The driver ran a red light and slammed into my car so hard I fractured my neck. They had to cut the door off my car to get me out."
photo: Katherine Harte
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WHERE DID YOU ACT LIKE A JACKASS ACCORDING TO YOUR OWN STANDARDS?
photo: Ariana Freitag
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photo: Katherine Harte
"That day I started a fight on the street and ended paying for a car's window I broke."
"When I accused the neighbor kid of stealing a box of jewelry, then found out I had hid it." "Pretty much all of college."
"6th and Pressler--Ug, I lived with a good friend here when I was 20 and 21. I learned a lot of hard lessons about social rules the hard way at this time. I still feel shame when I think of all the mistakes I made."
"After my mother died, I cussed out a workman viciously and threateningly when he did a terrible job on my mother's kitchen. It was over the top and totally uncalled for and I still blush when I think about it. My reaction had to be part of the grief reaction but even that was no excuse."
photo: Katherine Harte
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WHERE WERE YOU WHEN YOU LOST SOMETHING OR SOMEONE IRREPLACEABLE?
photo: Katherine Harte
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photo: Michelle Atkinson
"Wink Restaurant--A friend confessed their betrayal of me; and, though I thought I could forgive, I never could."
"At home in Clarksville, when my beloved cat died."
"Campbell's Hole, Barton Creek, 78704, lost my father's silver and turquoise wedding ring from his second marriage."
"In my kitchen, when I heard that my dad died. Hardly a week goes by when I don't wish he was still around to share my life with."
"Las Manitas on Congress."
"A dear friend of mine in undergraduate school had been complaining of headaches for some time, and none of us thought of it as being anything serious. She was ultimately diagnosed with a brain tumor that was advanced, and she died soon after, without my having a chance to say goodbye."
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WHERE DID YOU FEEL THE INTENSITY OF YOUR OWN CRUELTY?
photo: Katherine Harte
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photo: Katherine Harte
"In my home when I didn't kiss my husband goodbye for the last time."
"Intersection of Oltorf and the 35 feeder road, or any major intersection where there are folks begging for money."
"290 and I-35--Said things I can't ever take back. Said things that echo forever."
"At work after spreading false gossip on a coworker who turned out to be wonderfully supportive of me when I was going through a rough time in my life. I try VERY hard to not gossip any longer."
"When I don't honor a person or respect where they have come from and diminish what they have done. It feels unconscious but I've been thinking about that lately."
"26th/Guadalupe-Seeing an ex-girlfriend out of gas, stuck in the middle of the intersection and ignoring her."
"1204 Garner Ave--I lost control of my anger and hurt my younger brother. He eventually forgave me, but not without him losing a tooth."
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WHERE DID YOU FEEL A DEEP SADNESS? photo: Marshall Tidrick
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photo: Katherine Harte
"I-35 North, when I was forced by salary requirements to move away from Austin for a time. There is nothing sadder I've ever had to do."
"Whatever place I'm in that I think about love. Lonely ain't easy."
"At home in Cedar Park, Texas, missing my son and his family. They are in the Air Force and stationed in a country far away. The sadness comes and goes. I look forward to them coming back to the USA."
"When I was in school and didn't have friends."
"Green Gate Farms, when we realized a developer was going to knock down tnis historic farm and pave the fields."
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M APPI N G EXPERI EN CES This map is the first iteration of the Hedonic Map of Austin from 2013, a map of the collective emotional highs and lows of people living in and visiting our city. Artist Jennifer Chenoweth and Geographer David O’Donnell collaborated to create it using ArcScene and 60 responses. Hundreds of participants answered a 20question survey about their life experiences and where they occurred. The locations were captured in a GIS mapping system and
coded to an emotional color chart. A positive experience is lifted on the map, and a negative experience is lowered. What is the peak? Barton Springs at Zilker Park. It is multicolored, as it was the repeated answer to several “up” emotion questions, such as, “Where do you go to reconnect with nature?” and “Where is one place you feel alive and excited?” When emotion is connected to location, location is no longer space, but place.
Facing page: The 2013 Hedonic Map of Austin created by David Michael O'Donnell in ArcScene
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2016 Map Visualizations of Austin created by Tiffany A. Cousins 72 路 XYZ ATLAS
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2016 Maps created by David Michael O'Donnell in ArcGIS 74 路 XYZ ATLAS
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X YZ ATL AS AN D COM MU N IT Y This art project, which began as a small way to collaborate with my smart and fun friends, has evolved into a giant way to collaborate with my community, in Austin and beyond. It has been a great way to meet new friends, and to get right to connecting about the important parts of our lives. I am delighted that the XYZ Atlas has its very own day in Austin, celebrated by an official proclamation by Mayor Steve Adler. At the Ney Day community event, the Typewriter Rodeo produced an on-thespot poem about the Dance of the Cosmos sculpture. Thank you for inspiring me, my smart and fun friends, old and new. -Jennifer Chenoweth
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photos: Jennifer Ramos
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SM ALL ART AN D PROTOT YPES Looking to establish a more palpable connection to the XYZ Atlas project for your home or to gift to friends and other loved ones? Individual maps and prints are available to download or order for your enjoyment. Many of the 3-D artworks were prototyped using 3-D printing, including the X Vortex linear shape depicting the “You are here” location marker. The Dance of the Cosmos small sculptures are kinetic, and open and close. One version is 3-D printed, and is a collaboration with engineer John Dolecek. The 5-inch brass version, which is also kinetic, is a collaboration with artist Matt Norris. There are still limited editions available online at XYZatlas.org. We also have puzzles, shirts and many other ways to play with getting right to the heart of our experiences and how they create meaning in our lives. Visit XYZatlas.org to order and for more information.
photo: Jennifer Ramos
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photo: Ariana Freitag
A sincere thank you to everyone who supported and worked on this project, who trusted us with their most intimate experiences, who allowed us to photograph them, and who showed up to connect through our mutual love of Austin.
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THANK YOU KICKSTARTER SUPPORTERS: Aaron Weiss, Adriane Askins, Alicia Bogart, Amy Scofield, Andee Kinzy, Anne Ebert, Anne Marie Hampshire, Barbara Rodgers, BB Renee & Darrell David, Bill Lee, Brad Carlin, Brett J. Barnes, Carrie Vanston, Casey Miller, Cathy and Earle O'Donnell, Cecilia H. Giusti, Cherish Schaffer, Cile Montgomery, Conan Witzel, Cornelia Clay, David Gallagher, Deanna Bounds, Deanna Miesch, Della Badart, Denise Betesh, Desmond Ng, Elaine Barber, Elisa Sumner, Elizabeth McQueen, Ellie Balk, Emily E. Pratte, Emmy Laursen, Eric Bonilla, Erica Gordon, Erik Olsen, Erika Bsumek, Erika Propst, Eunice Garza, Frank Schaefer, Gail Vittori, George Reynolds, Hart Blanton, Helen Mary Marek, Holly Day, Holly Fisher, Jade Walker, Jason Webb, Jennifer Balkan, Jennifer Hill, Jennifer Martin, Jennifer Nezzer, Jessica Wood, John Dolecek, John Vanston, Judy Gordon, Judy Paul, Katie Robinson Edwards, Katy O'Connor, Kelsey Kemper, Kerry Kittrell, Kirsten Siegfried, Larry Graeber, Laura Toups, Laurie Frick, Lawrence Vanston, Leann Henderson, Ledia Carroll, Lee Valkenaar, Marcela Billig, Mary Morse, Mateo Gutierrez, Meg Moore, Melissa Miller, Michael Garcia, Michelle Atkinson, Mishell Kneeland, Molly O’Halloran, Monique Capanelli, Morgan Zator, Murph Willcott, Mysti Easterwood, Oliver Franklin, Paige Blanton, Patience Worrel, Patricia Buchholtz, Philip Keil, Randy Garst, Rebekah Whitehurst, Reetu Jain, Renee Nunez, Ric Lum, Robert Whitehurst, Sarah Andre, Saundra Goldman, Shawn Camp, Shawna hills, Shea Little, Sonia Santana, Stephanie Braddock, Susan Jasper, Suzee Brooks, Teruko Nimura, Thomas Jagger, Todd Campbell, Tom Clarke, Tom Collier, Torie Hilton Camp, Valerie Chaussonnet, Virginia Fleck, Zoë Charlton
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photo: Ariana Freitag
This project is supported in part by the Cultural Arts Division of the City of Austin's Economic Development Department.
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