The University of Trash

a project by Michael Cataldi and Nils Norman Exhibition: May 10 – August 3, 2009

The University of Trash is an experiment in alternative architecture, urbanism, and pedagogy produced through Sculpture Center’s artist-in-residence program. Drawing from utopian ideals and radical urban projects undertaken since the 1960s, the artists will create an installation that functions as a temporary, makeshift University - hosting courses, lectures, presentations, and workshops. A Free Skool program will operate within the University, offering the public the opportunity to propose their own courses - open and free for all sign up and attend throughout the duration of the exhibition. To see all events or to make a proposal for an event, please visit www.universityoftrash.org.

Working collaboratively with students, local organizations, activists, and academics, the artists have been gathering and researching material related to activities of the 1960s countercultural Appropriate Technology movement, experimental pedagogy, adventure playgrounds, Non-plan, emergency and low-impact design, the vernacular of informal housing, and historical sites of activism.

The University of Trash partly stems from Norman's research of Adventure Playgrounds. A popular movement that began in the late 1930s, Adventure Playgrounds reclaimed bombed out or otherwise derelict urban spaces as spaces for play as open ended ground for experimentation. Building on Cataldi’s research on New York’s Lower East Side, the artists will construct a functional model of the Tompkins Square Park Bandshell in collaboration with Just Seeds/Visual Resistance Artists’ Cooperative.

High School students from City-As-School have been working with the artists to create The Skool of Refuse and Appropriation, a vernacular living/working node as part of the installation.

Research, discussion, drawing, and model making determine the form and function of the structures. The University of Trash is also hosting the House Magic: Bureau of Foreign Correspondence, a working research office dedicated to squatted social center movements throughout Europe, containing images, documents, and videos collected by Alan W. Moore and members of ABC No Rio visual arts collective in New York.

Throughout the exhibition there will be a mix of workshops, screenings, and presentations focusing on grass roots, self-organized urbanism, DIY architecture and the evolving aesthetics and politics of public space. Scheduled programs include low-power radio transmitter building workshops, and presentations and film programs by collaborators including free103point9, Prometheus Radio, neuroTransmitter, CUP (Center for Urban Pedagogy), Build it Green, NYC, and Alastair Gordon. Max Goldfarb’s M49 mobile radio truck will broadcast Summer Sessions, a series of outdoor concerts on weekend evenings in June and July.

A schedule of events will be released in a separate press release and updated regularly on SculptureCenter’s website. The University of Trash runs concurrently with Red Lines Housing Crisis Learning Center, an exhibition by Damon Rich at the Queens Museum of Art. These two exhibitions are collaborating to co-host public programs, in addition, each exhibition will include one element from the other.

U’y of Trash calendar is at: http://www.sculpture-center.org/exhibitionsExhibition.htm?id=11909

about Red Lines HCL Center: http://www.queensmuseum.org/exhibitions/redlines.htm

The Free Skool at The University of Trash May 11 - August 3, 2009, Thursday - Monday, 11-6

The Free Skool at the University of Trash is an informal educational program that invites the public to become transient professors and students by proposing and participating in workshops, classes, meetings and more. Running during all open hours from May 11th- August 3rd, the University of Trash will host workshops ranging from weekly reading groups, book making workshops, to physical education intensives. A schedule of events will be updated regularly on SculptureCenter's website. The full schedule can be found on the Facebook page for University of Trash.

To propose a project or event for the Free Skool, email freeskool@universityoftrash.org.

Majorly scheduled projects so far, are described at: http://www.sculpture-center.org/exhibitionsExhibitionEvents.htm?id=11909

The University of Trash hosts: Capital Reading Group Thursdays, May 14 - July 30, 6:00 PM - 8:00 PM Following David Harvey's video lectures on Marx's Capital Volume 1. Bring Capital Volume 1, Penguin classics edition.

Space for Revolution Saturday, May 16, 2009, 4:00 PM - 9:00 PM School of Walls and Space (Copenhagen); Community Development Cooperative, Participation Park, the Baltimore Indyreader, and organizers from the City from Below Conference. Music performance by Japanther.

FINGERS Sunday, May 17, 2009, 3:00 PM - 6:00 PM A tour into the back room gay vaudeville of yesteryear, shadow games, palmistry and carpal feelings.

Not your Typical PE Class with Athena Kokoronis Thursday, May 21 - Monday, May 25, 2009, 2:30 PM - 4:00 PM Project with artist and choreographer Athena Kokoronis

Right to the Airwaves Saturday, June 6, 2009, 1:00 PM - 9:00 PM A daylong workshop with free103point9 exploring the radical potential of analog airwaves. After 5pm, DJs from free 103.9, Prometheus Radio and neurotransmitter.

Architectures of Crisis/ Architectures of Resistance Saturday, July 18, 2009, 4:00 PM - 7:00 PM Center for Urban Pedagogy presents Teddy Cruz and CUP's founder Damon Rich discussing the Red Lines Housing Crisis Learning Center at the Queens Museum, and Cruz's work trans-border urbanisms.

a project by Michael Cataldi and Nils Norman Exhibition: May 10 – August 3, 2009 Thurs., 11am-8pm; Fri.-Mon., 11am-6pm $5 suggested donation