XYZ Atlas: The Experience Map of Bryan & College Station

XYZ ATLAS

XYZ ATLAS The Experience Map of Bryan & College Station

ART PROJ ECT CATALOG The XYZ Atlas asks why we feel a sense of belonging to a place by mapping experiences and collecting stories that document our highs and lows.

The XYZ Atlas is an interactive public art project. We create art, maps, and activations that affect community health and well-being, urban planning, and cultural tourism with

diverse outreach strategies to reach art lovers and underserved communities of all ages.

XYZ Atlas: The Experience Map of Bryan & College Station is a collaboration with Texas A&M University to reach underserved neighbors, visitors and residents with funding from the Mid-America Arts Alliance and the National Endowment for the Arts.

photo: John Peters

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TEA M ARTIST & PROJECT DIRECTOR JENNIFER CHENOWETH 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

CECILIA GIUSTI Urban Planner

STEPHEN CAFFEY Art Historian

LOOKTHINKMAKE Publicist

ROBERT WHITEHURST Fabricator

JAIMIE HICKS MASTERSON Urban Planner

CONTRIBUTORS: John Cooper, Chris Dyer, Joseph Dunn, Sandy Farris, Kristy Petty, Dawn Jourdan, Bara Safarova, Devan Hupaya, Rafael Moreno, Margit Gitta Pap, Shannon Overby, Tazim Jamal, Jeff Wahl, Jesse Ayers, Doug Wunnebaker, Nick Erickson, Felice House, Glen Vigus, Jennifer Easterling, Srividya Ramasubramanian, Wei Li, Tiffany Cousins, Sunil Segu, Miriam Rieck, Brad Dressler, Boah Kim, Leonardo Cardoso, Saima Musharrat, Shibiya Sabu, Pranjal Dixit, Emily Majors, Gulafshan Gori, Maria Suhm, Maria Paula Perez, Jose Quintana, Joan Quintana, John Peters, Richard Nira, Gabriel Tsui, Kylee Gilstrap, Grace Lampo, and the students of RPTS 426 (Tourism Impacts), Department of Recreation, Park and Tourism Sciences, Texas A&M University. Many more contributed to the project as well.

TEXAS A&M UNIVERSITY INTERNS: Nicole Dias Sean Christopher Gopika Nair Taslima Khandaker Anna-Christine Parrish Samantha Trust Maria Chacon

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Fisterra Projects was among a select group of regional presenters in 2016 to receive a Mid-America Arts Alliance Artistic Innovations grant. This award supports the XYZ Atlas: The Experience Map of Bryan & College Station.

Funding for Fisterra Projects' M-AAA’s grant is drawn from generous underwriting by the National Endowment for the Arts, Texas Commission for the Arts, and foundations, corporations, and individuals throughout Arkansas, Missouri, Nebraska, Oklahoma, and Texas.

Mid-America Arts Alliance, the nation’s oldest regional arts organization, was founded in 1972 to foster cultural growth in heartland communities. Today, M-AAA

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primarily serves communities throughout Arkansas, Missouri, Nebraska, Oklahoma, and Texas, and it develops and delivers arts and humanities programs for a national audience. Mid-America Arts Alliance programs attract more than one million people annually in more than 300 communities.

Mary Kennedy, M-AAA’s Chief Executive Officer said, “Fisterra Projects is to be commended for their commitment to serving their community with this distinctive event.

Audiences in Bryan and College Station will have the opportunity to see the exciting work of the XYZ Atlas, many for the first time. We are proud to help support this work and artist Jennifer Chenoweth.”

National Endowment for the Arts Chairman Jane Chu has approved more than $30 million in grants as part of the NEA’s fiscal year 2017. Included in this announcement is a Challenge America grant to Fisterra Projects for the XYZ Atlas: The Experience Map of Bryan & College Station. The Challenge America category supports primarily small and mid-sized organizations for projects that extend the reach of the arts to underserved populations—those whose opportunities to experience the arts are limited by geography, ethnicity, economics, or disability.

“The arts are for all of us, and by supporting organizations such as XYZ Atlas, the National Endowment for the Arts is providing more opportunities for the public to engage with the arts,” said NEA Chairman Jane Chu. “Whether in a theater, a town

square, a museum, or a hospital, the arts are everywhere and make our lives richer.”

The XYZ Atlas will create a public art project in the cities of Bryan and College Station in partnership with Texas A&M University's Department of Architecture's Diversity Council, the Texas Target Communities, and the Arts Council of Brazos Valley to reach underserved audiences and minority communities. The grant will be used to fund multimedia, interactive, community-based art works that geo-locate people's emotions and memories about their community.

Participants anonymously answer survey questions about strong emotional experiences in particular locations. The data is transformed into a variety of maps and artworks that reveal a collective sense of belonging and attachment to place.

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WHY H ERE? In February 2015, artist Jennifer Chenoweth was invited to have a solo show at the Texas A&M University College of Architecture's Wright Gallery. While producing the exhibit, Jennifer made the acquaintence of Dr. Cecilia Giusti, the Dean of Diversity for the College of Architecture and professor of Urban Planning who served on the gallery committee.

After the conversation began about the XYZ Atlas project, Dr. Giusti invited the artist to bring the project to Bryan and College Station. She wanted Jennifer to explore the ways emotional mapping can be used in the field of Urban Planning to include all the

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different people who call the same place home.

Activities included talks on campus, mapping the Quad outside Langford for GIS Day, participating in a Build Day challenge by the Diversity Council of the College of Architecture, and giving presentations in Texas A&M University classrooms and throughout the communities.

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 Color Wheel

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BIG PEO PLE, N OT DATA Psychologists study data, not people. I have said this over and again in my methods courses as a strategy of drawing attention to a seeming contradiction at the heart of scientific discovery. Empirical research relies on passionate and creative inquisitors, who are willing to employ a cold and methodical approach to inquisition. It is this tension – between spontaneity and constraint – that animates any healthy science, and it is this tension that drew me to XYZ.

project revolves around an online survey that generates data that can be plugged into statistical algorithms to mathematically model the links between time, place and emotion. It is a geek’s paradise, a virtual playground that can make the most dispassionate among us giggle. But, the XYZ Atlas is something more.

Through the considerable talents of Jennifer Chenoweth, it finds ways of bridging divides that separate geeks from non-geeks – such that we all might get along.

The XYZ Atlas is art, openness and expression, and the XYZ Atlas is science, order and analysis. I suppose it was the scientific qualities that first pulled me in. This

Jennifer Chenoweth is a visual artist who has built a career creating public art that challenges assumptions and stimulates dialogues. Her new mapping project engages our passions by providing answers to questions we hadn’t thought to ask. These answers promote self-discovery, they promote conversations and they inevitably lead to the asking of more questions.

Are her maps generated from data, or people?

-Hart Blanton, Ph.D. Social Psychologist, Department of Communication, Texas A&M University

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COM MU N IT Y: EN GAGEMENT If we are shaped by our environment and our community, then it is prudent to understand the people and experiences within it (Habermas, 1984). Community engagement is a fundamental principle of participatory planning. In fact, citizens offer a unique perspective on the community and “without them, planning is a barren externalism” (Mumford, 1938, p. 386). But what is community? Is there one community voice? Understanding the communities within your community reveals a complex web of places, experiences, and inequities.

For instance, “primary goods”— such as choice of housing, access to transportation, and access to recreation— are not evenly distributed throughout space (Beatley, 1984) (Rawls, 1971). Seeking access to resources and justice for under-served populations, specifically ethnic minorities, builds a community’s capacity (Lebel, et al., 2006). If done right, city planners can learn from these human experiences and inject fairness and seek justice through the distribution of land uses, services, and resources.

What experiences do you have that are different from mine?

There is value in local knowledge (Innes & Booher, 2004). By embracing the diversity of people and thoughts and encouraging redundancy of ideas and discussion we can better understand the richness of the place we live in. Through listening and authentic dialogue we can shift paradigms… even transform places.

Do those experiences reveal inequities? photo: Haotian Zhong

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People either love their place or people hate their place. There are the places you “must go” as a visitor and there are the places where you just “don’t go”. I have found that there is very little ambivalence when it comes to the place where people live. Let us have “an appreciation for the complexity of urban

life” and the people who live their lives within it (Teaford, 2000, p. 463). Let us learn from others in order to make the place we live more fair, more whole, more fully “community”.

-Jaimie Hicks Masterson Associate Director, Texas Target Communities

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CREATI N G BETTER PL ACES, AS I F PEO PLE M ATTER How do we create places? Who lives in our communities? How do citizens feel about their cities? Planners and policy makers are constantly looking for tools, policies, and regulations that aim to create livable, affordable, just, and welcoming places.

However, it is not always easy to get things right. How do citizens interact with their surroundings? How much do we know about how people feel about their city? To be honest, not that much.

their city and the planning trends. This was novel as it started from the dialogue at the most local level. And these conversations aimed at setting the platform for a national agenda for planning in increasingly more diverse communities.

To add to our lack of knowledge, we need to be aware that our communities are constantly changing and diversifying, yet still we have not adjusted our way of planning to reflect such changes.

An example of a creative response to this reality comes from the Latinos and Planning Division of the American Planning Association.

They proposed “dialogos” (Spanish for conversation) and went to communities all over the United States, asking planners and involved citizens directly how they feel about photo: Maria Chacon

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However, the XYZ Atlas, also known as “emotional mapping,” brings the conversation to a higher level. Through a very short number of very personal questions-–informed by a solid theory of emotions--the XYZ Atlas aims at learning how citizens see themselves in their communities. This exercise gets to the core of what a city should be: a place “where drama happens” as Murdoch would say; and this “drama” engages a variety of feelings, positive and negative, as love and anger, trust and fear. Further, due to current technologies, we are now even able to pinpoint the exact place where these

photo: Margit Gitta Pap

emotions happen.

Basic notions of feelings combined with high-tech tools translate the XYZ Atlas results to the level where planners and policy makers can actually intervene in the cities. People’s feeling about their place should be at the core of our work. We have one tool that should assist in the search for more livable and-–why not-- happier places.

-Cecilia H. Giusti, Ph.D. Associate Dean, College of Architecture Texas A&M University

photo: John Peters

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WHERE ARE WE FEELING EMOTIONS? HOW CAN WE MAP OUR EXPERIENCES? ARE THERE COLLECTIVE PATTERNS?

JOY

TRUST

FEAR

SURPRISE

LOVE

SUBMISSION

AWE

DISAPPROVAL

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HOW DO WE FORM ATTACHMENTS TO PLACES? WHAT GIVES US A SENSE OF BELONGING? WHY DOES A PLACE FEEL LIKE HOME?

SADNESS

DISGUST

ANGER

ANTICIPATION

REMORSE

CONTEMPT

AGGRESSION

OPTIMISM

photo: John Peters

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WHERE DO YOU FEEL ALIVE AND EXCITED?

¿En qué lugar te sientes vivo y emocionado? photo: Samantha Trust

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I feel most alive when I am all together with my family and friends. It brings me joy and happiness to be able to have everyone together and be surrounded by all the people you love and that have an impact on your life.

JOY Alegria

Just lying out in Simpson Drill Field with the clock tower over yonder and the sky up above and just clear space all around and soft grass beneath you. The world is there, the problems are still there, but while you're here you're just alive with the same sky above you as everyone else and you're living this life and making your way, taking things at your own pace and deciding where life takes you.

I chose Lake Bryan because I feel most alive when I'm out in the country. I grew up in a small town and my grandparents own a farm so I am most calm when I'm away from the noise of a city. I believe you experience God when you experience nature. It's important to get away from the "hustle and bustle" of everyday life and recenter. At the risk of sounding cliche, it helps you get back in touch with yourself so that you can be your best self. photo: Gopika Nair

photo: Margit Gitta Pap

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WHERE WERE YOU STRUCK BY LOVE?

¿Dónde fuiste conquistado por el amor? photo: Kylee Gilstrap

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In my apartment in College Station. My friend brought a kitten over, and he had just been given back to her from the previous owner who didn’t have the time to take care of him. When I met him, I fell in love. His name is Theodore.

My family had come in town for a football game and we were at Kyle field and I looked around at my family and all the aggie fans cheering and realized how much I loved my family and this school.

LOVE Amor

I have been friends with my current boyfriend since our freshman year of college. I've been interested in him on and off but we've always just been really good friends.

Now, we are both seniors and about two months ago another guy asked me on a date. It brought up the topic of dating between the two of us (my boyfriend and me) and that's how we figured out that we actually liked each other. We haven't been dating long but it sure is fun dating your best friend! photo: Gabriel Tsui

photo: Anna-Christine Parrish

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WHERE WAS YOUR FAITH IN HUMANITY RESTORED?

¿Dónde se restauró tu fe en la humanidad? photo: Gabriel Tsui

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I go running through Bee Creek Park, and when I go there is a group of parents with their children. It always makes me feel like happiness is everywhere whenever you look for it.

There is just something about a child scream in pure joy as they play with something as simple as a little rock.

At my daughter's school.

Her teachers, her friends, the whole group shows emotion and positivity. They all get along no matter color, economics, etc. We should all be more like them when we grow up.

TRUST Confianza

When Mrs. Helen's Cafe was burglarized multiple times last year, the community rallied around Ray Arrington and contributed supplies to get him back in business. Seeing the community response, and having the privilege to meet the gracious and eloquent Mr. Arrington made quite an impact on me.

photo: Margit Gitta Pap

photo: Gopika Nair

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WHERE WERE YOU WHEN YOU YIELDED TO A STRONGER POWER?

¿Dónde estabas cuando cediste a un poder más fuerte?

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My girlfriend has an incurable condition that causes her pain. There is nothing I can do to help except be encouraging and be with her.

SUBMISSION Rendicion

The place marked on the map is the location of one of the ministries of my church. It is very freeing to stop trying to make things work for yourself and yielding to God's will for your life. Church and this ministry have made me stop and realize that I don't need to try to control so much.

photo: Anna-Christine Parrish

photo: Maria Chacon

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WHERE HAVE YOU FACED YOUR OWN MORTALITY?

¿Dónde experimentaste tu propia mortalidad? photo: Gabriel Tsui

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Que sera sera. I got my cancer diagnosis there. As it happened, there was a treatment, I had a chance, and so far so good 8 years later.

One of my friends from elementary school got in a car crash here and was killed my senior year of high school. It made me understand how fast things can end.

Sully Statue. People endorse a confederate general. It makes me live in fear that my skin color was once enslaved by this man.

FEAR Miedo

Intersection of Wellborn and George Bush -I almost got hit by a train.

I fell of my bike and wrecked my body going to campus. It was scary, but as I saw myself falling to the ground, I knew it was inevitable and all I could do was try to soften the blow by accepting my own mortality. photo: Maria Chacon

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WHERE HAVE YOU FELT APPRECIATION AND WONDER?

¿Dónde estabas cuando sentiste aprecio y maravilla? photo: Gabriel Tsui

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On top of some fire escape near RX Pizza in Downtown Bryan. There were no tables, so my friends and I took our pizza up to a fire escape and had dinner there. Nothing compares to that moment. Six of the people I love most in this world crammed on top of a fire escape, overlooking the night-time beauty of Downtown Bryan, eating delicious pizza.

AWE Sobrecogmiento Sometimes when I'm on campus I realize how blessed I actually am. Not in a cheap, "#blessed" way, but in a truly awestruck way. I'm a first generation college student. My parents are busting their rear ends to put me through college, I'm receiving a degree from a highly-ranked research university, and I live in a country where I am free to be whoever or whatever I want to be. I've done nothing to deserve or earn the things that I have so there is nothing I can do but be thankful. As far as wonder goes, have you ever watched a sunset or seen a flower in full bloom? Do you realize that you'll never see two of those that are exactly alike and that you got to witness a once-in-a-lifetime beauty? We should all experience wonder everyday. There is beauty all around us. photo: Grace Lampo

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WHERE DID YOU HAVE AN EPIPHANY?

¿Dónde tuviste una experiencia que hizo que tu percepción cambiara? photo: Samantha Trust

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I was sitting by the fountain contemplating my life. I was missing home and the rivers and lakes. At first I admired the fountain and was thankful to have water in such a dry and less-lush environment. (and I still am thankful) but then I realized that all the water that shoots up out of the fountain just returns to the same location. Rivers give life, they flow and bring sustenance to the areas around them and that's why they're beautiful.

That's why we love them.

Fountains are beautiful but they are a sham of a true reality. And that's when I knew. I had been living my life for myself. All my efforts returning into just me. I want to be like a river, pouring out, giving everything to give life.

SURPRISE Sopresa

On 9/11, as I watched the Twin Towers fall on television, I felt despair, fear, uncertainty and that life as I knew it was over.

But it was not because of what I saw on television, although that certainly played a part. It was more that I knew that what I was seeing on the TV was an allegory for what was going on in my marriage.

It had been under attack, and that was the day, the moment, that I knew it was collapsing and would not survive.

I realized while I was in my geology class that I did not want to be a geologist.

I realized that most of my life I have been involved in construction and I enjoy it for many reasons. photos: Maria Chacon and Kai Wu

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WHERE DID YOU REALIZE YOU WERE BEING JUDGMENTAL?

¿Dónde estabas cuando te percataste de ser critico, o tener prejuicios, hacia los demás? photo: Kylee Gilstrap

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Courthouse = divorce and the never-ending custody-related hearings. While in love with Downtown Bryan, I hate the courthouse. I wish it wasn't there because I can see it every time I go to Downtown for fun, and it brings up very sad memories.

Kyle Field Kitchen- when we threw food away at the end when we could have fed 20 homeless people.

DISAPPROVAL Desaprobacion

Blackwater Draw, nothing against the place, I love Blackwater, but this is where I found out over brunch that one of my dear friends had called me the "N word" behind my back. It was more than sadness it was just reality setting in that no matter how much I achieve in life, no matter how good of a friend or person I am, to some people - all I will ever be is black. That realization will hit you real hard.

I saw a girl on campus with several piercings on her face and tattoos on her whole body and I thought to myself, "Why did she do that?"

photo: Anna-Christine Parrish

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WHERE DID YOU EXPERIENCE DEEP SADNESS?

Dónde sentiste tristeza profunda? photo: Gabriel Tsui

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Silver Taps, a ceremony used to honor current Aggie students who have passed away in the previous month.

This is where I felt empty inside. Day after day I tried to fill the void. With drugs, with alcohol, with video games, with violence, with meditation, with learning new skills, with exercise, with study.

Nothing worked. I still cried myself to sleep every night.

A month into my freshman year my mom called me to tell me that she had left my dad. There was no sign of this trouble when I moved off to school. They literally waited until the last kid moved out and decided to split up. It was hard to know that they had been faking a happy marriage for many years. I was living at Normandy Square apartments.

SADNESS Tristesa

photo: Maria Chacon

photo: Glen Vigus

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WHERE WERE YOU WHEN YOU WERE MOST DISAPPOINTED IN YOURSELF?

¿Dónde estabas cuando te sentiste decepcionado de ti mismo? photo: Gabriel Tsui

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815 Harvey Rd the tap - drove home drunk and got pulled over and later charged with a DWI. My dad came and bailed me out of jail and for the first time ever I saw him cry. I can't really say it's the worst day of my life because it changed me forever... but I can say that of all the choices I've made in life that was the most disappointing one.

REMORSE Remordimiento I was disappointed in myself after I procrastinated on the biggest exam of my life. For months I put studying off to hang out with friends or sleep, in the end, I could not have been more disappointed in myself.

There is nothing worse then going from doing really good in one place and having such high standards for yourself, to doing really awful, making some bad choices, and having to look back at the hole, and mess you made, and fix it.

photos: Glen Vigus

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photo: John Peters

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11

WHERE DID YOU FEEL DISGUST?

¿Dónde sentiste disgusto total? photo: Gabriel Tsui

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I taught classes at many local schools during my time at A&M, and I was always exceedingly impressed by their quality and beauty. However after attending Sam Rayburn in Bryan, I was struck and dismayed by the stark inequality and wide gulf between this and the other schools in the county. It reminded me of my own hometown school, small, impoverished, and isolated. I had thought this city different, and I wished they would do more to give all their students the kind of quality educations they give those lucky enough to attend College Station schools.

DISGUST Disgusto

While watching an intramural soccer game, I saw how a team was playing: slide tackling, pushing, and bad-mouthing.

I hate seeing teams do that sort of thing and it disgusted me.

My brother allowed his friends to humiliate me for being gay at Texas A&M.

photos: Glen Vigus

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12

WHERE WERE YOU WHEN YOU REALZED THE INTENSITY OF YOUR OWN CRUELTY?

NEED THE RIGHT PHOTO, CANNOT FIND A GOOD ONE

¿Dónde estabas cuando sentiste la intensidad de tu propia crueldad? photo: Glen Vigus

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I am extremely competitive.

I hate losing, especially in volleyball. So when my intramural team lost our game last week; I was furious. I didn't do anything to anyone (thank goodness) but I definitely wasn't in the mood to show good sportsmanship or any form of basic human decency.

CONTEMPT Desprecio

I told a small child Santa and God weren’t real here.

And I knew it was mean but I also needed to do it.

Kids can’t grow up with lies.

During my bike ride commute to campus, I was going over different scenarios in my head of times I have been cruel to myself and others. The extent of my cruelty ranges from complete indifference to how others feel, and of manipulation I have been guilty of committing in the past with friends, my roommates, and my family members. It wasn't a good feeling, and has made me question the alignment of my moral compass and my claim to be a passive and neutral individual, when in reality I have veered into something much darker over time.

photo: Margit Gitta Pap and Jennifer Ramos

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13

WHERE DID YOU LEARN YOUR TRUST HAD BEEN BETRAYED?

¿Dónde estabas cuando descubriste que tu confianza había sido traicionada?

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I thought I had trusted one of my friends with a secret of mine, but roughly a week after telling them my secret I found out they had told someone else. It made me upset because it was personal and I didn't want anyone else to know.

I was at Chick Fil A on Texas A&M campus when I found out that my "best friend" had been going over to my boyfriend's house and getting drunk with him, staying the night there, showering there, etc.

When I yell at people from my car when they stop at this intersection and don't go in the open lane that they have to drive.

ANGER Ira

I felt like my parents didn't understand why school was so difficult and what kind of anxiety and depression I was going through.

Administration Building.

President Young needs to take direct action on defending minority groups on campus.

I had recently been elected an officer of a student organization and following the election another officer revised the constitution to remove my position and delegate the powers of the position to another officer who was a close friend of his.

photo: Maria Chacon

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photo: Anna-Christine Parrish

503 East Pruitt Street, Bryan, Texas 77803

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WHERE WERE YOU WHEN YOU UNLEASHED ANGER?

¿Dónde estabas cuando desencadenaste tu ira? photo: Anna-Christine Parrish

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I was in the library when I went off at one of my team members for not doing his part. I grabbed my stapler and threw it across the room. My buddy held me back until I regained my composure.

I've always been taught that there are two types of angry people: turtles and skunks. I'm the turtle; when I am angry I retreat into my room and I don't want to talk or be around anyone. So whenever I'm mad I just stay on my bed until I've sulked enough that I feel better.

AGGRESSION Agresion

The neighbor's dog attacked and killed my little sister's cat. My brothers and I found it very hard not to take matters into our own hands.

photo: Margit Gitta Pap

photo: John Peters

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WHERE DID YOU BECOME ABSORBED IN THE UNCERTAINITY OF WHAT HAPPENS NEXT?

¿Dónde te encontraste absorto en la incertidumbre de lo que sucederá después? photo: Anna-Christine Parrish

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KYLE FIELD- During the football game earlier this year where we won in double overtime, I was very unsure if we were going to win.

I had just joined the Marines... I left for bootcamp with no idea what to expect, except that it would be very difficult. This was when the recruiting station was still in Post Oak Mall.

ANTICIPATION Anticipacion

I'm about to graduate, and I don't know what comes next. It felt awful, and made me sad for not having a plan together. I have a plan for mostly every scenario I may find myself in, just not this. Not for not seeing my friends again, for leaving. photo: Maria Chacon

photo: Anna-Christine Parrish

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WHERE HAVE YOU FELT HOPE FOR THE FUTURE?

¿Dónde estabas cuando sentiste esperanza sobre el futuro? photo: Gabriel Tsui

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While trying to decide on some cancer treatment options, a co-worker pulled up a lot of good search info that showed some positive results and she encouraged me to go with the most aggressive plan and said she knew I could handle whatever the doctors threw at me.

My first ever bonfire remembrance ceremony.

2:42 and thousands of people gathered to remember a tragedy from 1999. It was truly moving and I felt the love, sadness, and hope of everyone around me.

OPTIMISM Optimismo

730 Olsen Blvd Reed Arena - My graduation ceremony I remember trying to make myself understand the magnitude of what was happening.

It was an amazing feeling of accomplishment, anxiety, hope, sadness, and happiness all mixed into one. I might call that optimism acknowledgement and appreciation of the past + hopeful excitement for the future.

This is where I got my Aggie ring. It is where I knew all my hard work and countless nights at the library paid off and that there was hope for my future because of everything that ring stood for. photo: Alayna Giddiens

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photo: Samantha Trust and Anna-Christine Parrish

THE IMPACT OF THE ARTS IN TEXAS $5.5 B Is generated by Texas’ Arts and Culture Industry each year www.txculturaltrust.org TexasCulturalTrust

TXCulturalTrust

Texas Cultural Trust’s mission is to be the leading voice for the arts in education, advocacy, and economic impact in Texas, spotlighting the artistic excellence of our state.

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$343.7 M Is generated by sales tax revenue annually

BRYAN & CO LLEGE STATIO N M APS These maps are created through geographic data gathered from people's responses and transform individual experience into collective patterns.

Through an interactive question and answer series, 1,500+ participants answered a written 16-question survey about their life experiences and where they occurred.

Hundreds more participated in scalemapping events.

The locations were captured in a GIS (geographic information system) mapping system and coded to an emotional color chart. When emotion is connected to location, location is no longer space, but place.

2017 Experience Map of Bryan & College Station created by Sean Christopher

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JOY

TRUST

FEAR

SURPRISE

LOVE

SUBMISSION

AWE

DISAPPROVAL

2017 Bryan & College Station Emotion Maps Created by Sean Christopher

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SADNESS

REMORSE

DISGUST

CONTEMPT

ANGER

ANTICIPATION

AGGRESSION

OPTIMISM

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2017 Bryan & College Station Experience Maps Created by Sean Christopher

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Fisterra Projects is a 501(c)(3) micro arts nonprofit. We love your support and collaboration.

Fisterra Projects’ mission is to explore how visual art can help people make deep and transformational insights into their lives. Art can be a powerful tool for change.

ARTIST & EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR: Jennifer Chenoweth BOARD MEMBERS: Hart Blanton, Stephen Caffey, Ricardo Guerrero, Cile Montgomery, Emily Pratte, Carlotta Vann, Larry Vanston

photo: Maria Chacon

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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 Vertex 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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PARTNERS: We are grateful for the collaboration and support of our Bryan and College Station partners. This project would not have been possible without their enthusiasm, time and energy. We appreciate their sage advice and open hearts.

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