chronicles out west
a critical iconography of the american town
“I travel not to go anywhere but to go. I travel for travel’s sake. The great affair is to move.” -- Robert Louis Stevenson
Hailing from rural northeast Texas, I grew up in a place of deep history and even deeper narrations. The Piney Woods is a place, dismally mundane yet amazing -- pine trees tower like cathedrals, pumpjacks methodically bow down to the land, and colorful barns pattern fields like terrazzo. The place I call home provided me with a unique set of experiences which have continuously formed and fueled my creativity.
My innate curiosity, love of place, and desire to find poetics in the world I occupy inspired chronicles out west. Through humble photographs, an ongoing catalog of blue highways and the towns they string together, crude sketches, and simple line drawings, this independent project was conceived as a method to document my travels through university. As this process continued, I found that it exists as much more
I began my travels across west Texas -- to experience raw vernacular architecture and to see desert landscapes unfold in front of me -- During my initial trip, I discovered my love for the open road and the innate desire to push west -- so I did. Driving from Austin to Las Vegas and back again via state highways would seem absurd to most. However, by going off the beaten path, a deeper understanding of people and the places they inhabit was formed.
this project serves not only as a personal documentation tool but also as a way to catalog non-canonical architecture; a way to bring attention and life to the architecture of the overlooked. By looking at select buildings removed from their original context, either as objects in a landscape or within a new fabricated site, one gets a greater appreciation for place, originality, and detail.
Hailing from rural northeast Texas, I grew up in a place of deep history and even deeper narrations. The Piney Woods is a place, dismally mundane yet amazing -- pine trees tower like cathedrals, pumpjacks methodically bow down to the land, and colorful barns pattern fields like terrazzo. The place I call home provided me with a unique set of experiences which have continuously formed and fueled my creativity.
My innate curiosity, love of place, and desire to find poetics in the world I occupy inspired chronicles out west. Through humble photographs, an ongoing catalog of blue highways and the towns they string together, crude sketches, and simple line drawings, this independent project was conceived as a method to document my travels through university. As this process continued, I found that it exists as much more
I began my travels across west Texas -- to experience raw vernacular architecture and to see desert landscapes unfold in front of me -- During my initial trip, I discovered my love for the open road and the innate desire to push west -- so I did. Driving from Austin to Las Vegas and back again via state highways would seem absurd to most. However, by going off the beaten path, a deeper understanding of people and the places they inhabit was formed.
this project serves not only as a personal documentation tool but also as a way to catalog non-canonical architecture; a way to bring attention and life to the architecture of the overlooked. By looking at select buildings removed from their original context, either as objects in a landscape or within a new fabricated site, one gets a greater appreciation for place, originality, and detail.
project information
location: anywhere, usa
date: ongoing
type: research, independent inquiry
credits
project team: jacob t. middleton
follow on instagram for more
location: anywhere, usa
date: ongoing
type: research, independent inquiry
credits
project team: jacob t. middleton
follow on instagram for more
map of travels; blue and subsequent highways.
