Ad Hoc Trash is a research-based visualization seminar.
Ad Hoc Trash considers trash in all forms, from material waste to cultural neglect. Trash is an open word, available for investigation and innovation. The class studies, through research, experimentation, visualization, and production, interpretations of the word through historic and contemporary readings, art, practice, and precedent. Early in the semester, we consider the nature of trash collectively, generating a shared body of thought. Later in the semester, each student focuses on individual close study of a typology, process, material, or method of understanding trash. The selected areas of focus, and methods of representation, are governed by individual interests discovered through the introductory exercises.
All work is realized in the form of visualizations that collect and re-present discoveries. This work is completed independently and spans from writing to drawing, model making, proto-typing, and fabrication. Given the nature of the research, visualizations or productions push the boundaries of traditional and contemporary architectural drawings and imagery by incorporating process, time, and material life into the presentation of spatial language.
The seminar allows for in-depth individual research, practice in the transformation of ideas into form, and informed understanding of the material nature of occupied space through the study of waste. Students have access to both specialists in topics associated with the subject matter as well as specialists in representation technologies and methods of production to strengthen and facilitate representational ambitions. The research further allows for an expanded understanding of alternate building practices and methodologies.
Field trips include visits to the Peabody Collection, Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Collection, a waste sorting facility, and an aneorobic treatment facility.