Fall 2016 | The College

Situated on the eastern edge of Texas Hill Country, Austin has long been a beacon to artists, musicians, and other creative individuals.

Jennifer Chenoweth (SF95) is among those lured to this changing and growing city. A visual artist and entrepreneur, she is intrigued by what connects people to place—a subject she explores in her recent exhibition XYZ Atlas: The Hedonic Map of Austin.

For the past three years, as part of her XYZ Atlas project, she documented and visualized the hyperlocal experiences of people living in and visiting Austin. The result is a large-scale exhibition of a multi-media art experience that features a series of immersive and interactive pieces ranging from original maps to sculptures to photography.

“XYZ Atlas began as an investigation about why people love and feel so attached to the city of Austin and how emotional experiences affect our experience of belonging in particular places,” Chenoweth says. “Since humans everywhere have emotional experiences that make a place become ‘home,’ I want to take XYZ Atlas to other cities to see how and where people engage uniquely in their towns.”