Client: The City of Austin

Overview

This project created by Jacob Villanueva and Jeff Clark is an installation that uses maps from the City of Austin translated into a vivid display of LEDs. The installation is in the shape of the Boggy Creek Watershed and is intended to engage and bring awareness to the impact of our neighborhoods on local ecosystems. This project is commissioned by the City of Austin’s Art in Public Places TEMPO Program.

Goals

The goal of the commission was to bring awareness to city parks in Austin by creating a temporary installation. Why
The park system has a great variety of terrain, ecosystems and recreational development that connect city-dwellers to nature without them having to trek outside the city. Many Austin parks were built to coincide with existing natural water systems, such as watersheds. These systems are natural links to the Colorado River and are often distorted by development and particularly manmade drainage that has stripped the ecosystem. These water systems are are often tucked away in easements and terrain not always easily accessed. The general public sees the parks as a connection to nature, but do they understand that they/we are responsible for the undoing of these connections and natural ecosystems? Extruding the Boggy Creek watershed will allow the public to explore and examine details pertaining to the ecosystem that may never have been considered.

Data as Art
We have begun to dig into the available data from the City of Austin pertaining to our watershed and will use it to derive a visual narrative, shaping the final installation.

Process

Jacob Villanueva and Jeff Clarke are inspired by Austin’s landscape and decided to bring more exposure to the park system by providing an information network through an abstract visual experience. Villanueva used his expertise with interactive software, data, video and creativity to create a visual representation of the Boggy Creek Watershed. Clarke used his expertise as an architectural and landscape architectural designer to consider scale, materials, engineering and utilizing the creek’s data to form the structure to be built. The team will combine their knowledge of construction and creativity to make an impressionable experience for the community.The team has not worked on or created a project, this challenge will allow them to push their expertise and exercise creative experimentation.