Tenth International Conference on The Constructed Environment

Abstract

Place-based artists respond to constructed environments and provide subjective yet critical perspective on a variety of aspects that constitute particular genius loci. This paper presents ongoing documentary project that focuses on the tangled relationships between new housing developments in the Flint Hills, the surrounding prairie landscape. Questions central to this project are: what are the predominant aesthetic values of new housing developments? What visual relationships these new constructions establish with their natural surroundings? How natural spaces are manufactured and commodified for restricted access? And how ecological consequences of uneven developments are borne unevenly? Through interviews and visual documentary, the project analyses the nature of uneven development, and uneven distribution of environmental burdens caused by such developments. This paper also presents how photographic practice can be a unique tool for understanding spatial relationships and creating qualitative data that reflects the experience of constructed environments. Further it proposes ways in which such documentary projects, and the element of storytelling their core, can affect policymaking.