The improvised construction of a schoolhouse built from scrap materials is at the heart of Red76’s three-week Open Field project called Surplus Seminar. Designed and built in an experiential, collaborative way, using the hands and minds of whoever wants to help, the Anywhere/Anyplace Academy (A/AA) becomes a living metaphor for the project’s exploration of the ways we repurpose knowledge and materials.
The mirroring of these two ideas, surplus knowledge and excess materials, refers to the notion that each of us is a consumer and creator of knowledge in much the same way that we are receivers and producers of materials goods. We live in a world where we throw so much away: plastic bottles, working electronics, out-of-fashion clothes, and even ideas. When this surplus goes underutilized, it is to the detriment of the whole. Surplus Seminar is comprised of many components, including: A/AA, a series of book-making workshops, discussions on the notion of counterculture as pedagogy, underground concerts, and film screenings. Together these activities act as a laboratory to experiment with what the future can look like by reusing and sharing ideas.
Beginning in Portland, Oregon, in 2000, Red76 is now a nationwide network of artists, musicians, and activists who create projects that focus on ways that knowledge is produced and the myriad forms it takes. The collective’s endeavors, ranging from the operation of a month-long free clothing store and potluck restaurant on a loading dock in Portland (Ghosttown, 2006) to the episodic publishing a journal on radical histories (Journal of Radical Shimming), are designed to foster—and provoke—discussion and actions in public space.
For the project at Open Field, Red76 will occupy the FlatPak House in the Minneapolis Sculpture Garden as a makeshift office, used bookstore, and program space. Stop by for more information and to get involved.
Week 1: July 19-25
Tuesday July 20
6pm: Red76 Surplus Seminar Kickoff Barbeque
Wednesday July 21
10am-4pm: Anywhere/Anyplace Academy (A/AA)
7pm in the FlatPak House: Pop-up Book Academy with Bill Daniel on MicroCinemas
Thursday July 22
10am-4pm: Anywhere/Anyplace Academy (A/AA)
7pm in the Lecture Room: Film Screening of Who is Bozo Texino? with Bill Daniel
Friday July 23
10am-4pm: Anywhere/Anyplace Academy (A/AA)
7pm in the FlatPak House: Pop-Up Book Academy with Gabriel Saloman on Magical Activism
Saturday July 24
10am-4pm: Anywhere/Anyplace Academy (A/AA)
1pm: House Show as School House picnic near A/AA
7pm in the FlatPak House: YouTube School for Social Politics with Courtney Dailey
Sunday July 25
10am-4pm: Anywhere/Anyplace Academy (A/AA)
Week 2: July 26-31
Wednesday July 28th
10am-4pm: Anywhere/Anyplace Academy (A/AA)
7pm in the FlatPak House: Pop-Up Book Academy with Dan S. Wang on Paul Wellstone and Rural Labor Organizing
Thursday July 29
10am-4pm: Anywhere/Anyplace Academy (A/AA)
7pm in the Cinema: Utopia is No Place, a lecture with Stephen Duncombe
Friday July 30th
10am-4pm: Anywhere/Anyplace Academy (A/AA)
7pm in the FlatPak House: Pop-Up Book Academy with Stephen Duncombe on Utopian Theory
Saturday July 31
10am-4pm: Anywhere/Anyplace Academy (A/AA)
1pm: House Show as School House picnic discussion near A/AA
7pm in the FlatPak House: YouTube School for Social Politics with Juana Berrio
Sunday August 1
10am-4pm: Anywhere/Anyplace Academy (A/AA)
Week 3: August 2-8
Wednesday August 4
10am-4pm: Anywhere/Anyplace Academy (A/AA)
7pm in the FlatPak House: Pop-Up Book Academy with Unsettling Minnesota on the Decolonization Movement
Thursday August 5
10am-4pm: Anywhere/Anyplace Academy (A/AA)
3pm-6pm at the Walker Art Center: Perfect Bound Surplus Books
7pm in Lecture Room: Film Screening from the WAC archive curated by Jeremy Rossen of Cinema Project around the idea of Counter-Culture as Pedagogy
Friday August 6
10am-4pm: Anywhere/Anyplace Academy (A/AA)
7pm in the FlatPak House: Pop-Up Book Academy CANCELLED. Sorry.
Saturday August 7
10am-4pm: Anywhere/Anyplace Academy (A/AA)
1pm: House Show as School House picnic discussion near A/AA
7pm in FlatPak: YouTube School for Social Politics cancelled, instead, join us for a Pop-Up Book Academy Review! We’ll discuss all the ideas that have come up in the seminar’s PBA’s. Everyone is welcome, whether or not you have attended previously.
Sunday August 8
Lake of the Isles, 1 pm
Celebrate the end of Surplus Seminar and Anywhere/Anyplace Academy as we set sail on the floating academy. Meet at the northern canoe launch on Lake of the Isles, near the intersection of Penn Ave S and Lake of the Isles Parkway.
Dial the project’s toll-free hotline at 1.888.339.4496 to find out what is going on daily.
FlatPak in the Garden is sponsored by:
Furnishings generously provided by Blu Dot.
