Aspen Peak - Niche Media - Aspen living at its peak
Issue link: http://digital.greengale.com/i/681153
PHOTOGRAPHY BY JENNY SATHNGAM. OPPOSITE PAGE: COURTESY OF THE ARTIST (LOST IN MY LIFE SERIES); IAN TRAVIS BARNARD (STUDIO) Jennifer Chenoweth jokes that she feels like "a dinosaur" because she can use power tools and has classical training, but she is learning the computer graphics program Rhino in order to do 3-D design. "Digital prints help art be more affordable for more people," she notes. Her XYZ Atlas project also includes small sculptures (TOP) based on the flowerlike color wheel of emotions that's also at the heart of The Hedonic Map of Austin (2015; RIGHT). J E N N I F E R C H E N OW E T H NO ONE UNDERSTANDS THE TEXAS CAPITAL'S PASSION FOR PLACE LIKE CHENOWETH, WHOSE SIGNATURE WORK IS MAPPING WHERE AUSTINITES HAVE EXPERIENCED THEIR HIGHS AND LOWS. BY KATHY BLACKWELL This spring, artist Jennifer Chenoweth unveiled the final installment in her collaborative multimedia project XYZ Atlas, which employs art, technology, and psy- chology to illustrate how Austinites feel about places around their city. Over a three-year period, 500 people responded to her surveys, which asked questions like "Where did you fall in love?" and "Where did you have your worst night?" Inspired by Robert Plutchik's color wheel of emotions (lemon yellow for joy, dark green for terror, and so on) and using geospatial information sys- tems technology, Chenoweth created The Hedonic Map of Austin, which depicts where residents have felt their highs and lows. The happiest point is a lemon-yellow peak right over Barton Springs and Zilker Park, the urban oasis in this outdoors-obsessed city. "I thought people would just answer with two-word locations, but they told these rich stories," says Chenoweth, 47, who was also surprised by how the sur- veys tracked Austin's rapid growth. She has expanded XYZ Atlas to include temporary art installations, a cata- log, and a large solar-powered steel sculpture of a lotus flower called Dance of the Cosmos. Chenoweth is now applying for grants to help her fund the digital platform of XYZ Atlas so she can take it to other cities. "The pos- sibilities of art have completely changed through technology," she says. Artwork from XYZ Atlas is on display through August at the Beverly S. Sheffield Education Center at Barton Springs Pool Bathhouse, 2201 Barton Springs Road; bartonspringsconservancy.org. fisterrastudio.com AUSTIN