An Emotional Map of Austin
TEOA sat down with Austin artist Jennifer Chenoweth to talk about creatively mapping the emotional highs and lows of the city in a project called the “Hedonic Map of Austin.” How … Continue reading
Familiarity in (Sub)Urban Form: The Death of Highland Mall?
Where do malls go when they die? They go to deadmalls.com, or, alternatively, Facebook. In 2009, deadmalls.com visitor “Susan” warned that Austin’s Highland Mall was one foot in the grave: … Continue reading
Austin is a Graffiti Wall
The aerosol boom of the 1980s gave rise to a new wave of street artists who commandeered the popular image of graffiti as an illicit and subversive medium and breathed … Continue reading
The Rise
The Austin skyline is punctuated by cranes and rebar and silhouettes of future buildings in every direction you look. I work downtown at 301 Congress Avenue, a building constructed in … Continue reading
Letter to the Sultan of Brunei
One thing is for certain in the hearts and minds of our little “weird” city, and that is coming to the defense of our sacred landscape! Granted, not everyone “gets” … Continue reading
Hip to the Future
I flew into Austin in 1991 for a musical vacation and spent the rest of the decade there getting a doctorate at UT-Austin in American Studies. The city was strange, … Continue reading
The Capitol Complex
Austin’s status as the capital city of Texas is both a privilege and a burden. State government employs thousands locally and is a major contributor the local economy. The State … Continue reading
Austin Seen, in progress…
I originally started documenting Austin in 2006 shortly after I relocated here from Boston. Feeling community-less and curious of my new surroundings, I hopped on my bike and started photographing. … Continue reading
Between the Windshield and the Rearview
Driving in Austin suggests a metaphor: this town always has one eye on the windshield and one on the rearview. Everywhere you look things are being built, while others … Continue reading
An End Both Slow and Urgent: Blackness in Austin
Like many grad students, I always expected a fairly definitive end to Austin, a time when I was called upon to fulfill my life’s work after years of honing my … Continue reading
Interview with Richard Parker, New York Times
Austin-based writer Richard Parker touched a nerve with his New York Times article about how Lance Armstrong’s rise and fall might reflect what could happen to the city where he … Continue reading
The Ends of Austins
For some Austin ended when the Armadillo became Threadgill’s South. For others, when S X S W started (or when wristbands began to cost three digits). Or when the warehouse … Continue reading
The End of Austin
What is the End of Austin? It is the beginning of a much-needed conversation about the identity of Austin. Bringing together writers, scholars, and artists from Texas and beyond, TEOA is … Continue reading
The End of Oz-Town
Just before the Austin housing bubble went POP! and Code Compliance hassled the Cathedral of Junk into becoming a permitted structure, the Cathedral’s creator, Vince Hannemann, brought me by his … Continue reading
Moonlight Towers
In 1895, the City of Austin acquired a novel street-lighting system from Detroit consisting of thirty-one 165-foot tower lights. Their cool glow and looming height earned them the popular moniker … Continue reading
End of Austin: West Campus
I’ve been taking photographs of graffiti on and around the University of Texas campus for six years. In that time, I’ve amassed a collection of about 600 photographs, including many … Continue reading
Downtown Real Estate and the Music Scene
Imagine two performances from the original cosmic cowboy and outlaw country musician, Willie Nelson. The first takes place in an austere concert hall that holds about 400 hundred people. Nelson … Continue reading
The End of Austin 