TAAST 2020

TAAST, The Annual All-College Spring Thing, is a week-long event organized and led by students that features lectures, workshops, a banner drop, a kickball tournament, a ball and more. All students in the college are invited and encouraged to participate in this fun and educational break from studies.

The full 2020 TAAST schedule is shown here and includes these activities:

• Feb. 29: Annual Kickball Tournament
• Mar. 2: Banner Drop, t-shirt screenprinting, Andrew Kudless lecture
• Mar. 3: Workshops
• Mar. 4: Diversity + Inclusion Round Table, Workshop, Lecture
• Mar. 5: Workshops, Freedom by Design concrete casting
• Mar. 6: Round Table, Art Crawl, Pub Crawl
• Mar. 7: Service Day at Odd Fellows Cemetery, Beaux Arts Ball

Workshops

Paul Bamson: YDIW Workshop Tuesday 6:30-8pm, Wednesday 2-3pm

YOU’RE DOING IT WRONG is a tutorial series created by Paul Bamson to help designers at all skill levels work smarter by optimizing and integrating their software workflows. Paul will be offering TWO workshops this week! The Tuesday night workshop will focus on the workflow between Rhino and Revit, and the Wednesday afternoon session is concerned with the integration between Photoshop and Illustrator.

Mindfulness Workshop: DARE TO BE DIM Tuesday and Thursday 6:30-8pm

Dare to be Dim: a peek into you own interior

Prof Mark DeKay and Susanne Bennett

Turn down the lights. Close your eyes. Dive deep. Learn to access the well of creativity within. Access your inner designer. Breathe. Intentionally. Chill. Learn to generate your heartfelt intention for your work—your reason to get out of bed—or stay up late. You will learn simple practices that you can use throughout the semester to manage stress and chart your course. Come to one session or, better, come to both and develop your practice. Invest in empowering your essential self.

Biobound: Adhesives and Composites Thursday, 2-3pm

Dire climatic conditions demand more sustainable modes of binding materials together, a shift from assemblies laminated with synthetic resins and formaldehyde-based adhesives to techniques of bioadhesion, bioforming, and biowelding. Many of these techniques, based on plant and animal products—casein milk protein, corn and potato starch, mycelium, etc.—have been developed and used by humans as far back as ancient Egypt.

The workshop will consist of a short talk introducing current advancements in bioadhesives and composites, followed by a hands-on working session in which students will produce biocomposite vessels using a selection of adhesives and plant-based materials using a specific process developed by the workshop faculty. Materials will be provided, but additional natural materials are welcome (leaves, wood, fibers, hair, fabrics, etc.).

FBD Concrete Pouring Thursday 6-8pm

Freedom by Design is a student organization focused on design for accessibility in all aspects of the built world. The goal of this workshop is to explore how plastic containers that would typically be thrown away can be reused to create unique planters for the leftover flowers from Career day! Come out to the courtyard outside the reading room on Thursday for a little sunset concrete pouring and scratch your maker-itch while diverting some waste!

Lectures

Andrew Kudless Lecture Monday, 5:30pm

Andrew Kudless is the founder of Matsys, a design studio exploring the emergent and integral relationships between form, growth, and behavior in material systems. His design philosophy unites the biologic, geologic, and synthetic domains through their inherent matter and energy. Matsys works across all scales and pursues a material practice that blends art, design, architecture, and engineering.

Diversity + Inclusion Round Table Wednesday, 12:15pm

What does it mean to be a diverse and inclusive academic culture? Our college has been asking this question a lot recently with the appointment of 12 representatives of the college with the goal of developing a Diversity Action Plan. This round table is an effort to bring together the newly appointed Diversity + Inclusion Council directly in dialogue with students to initiate a conversation about how they will continue to develop and execute this plan.

Mind of the Maker: Paul Bamson Wednesday, 6pm

Paul  is a UTCoAD alumni and one of the first graduates of the Landscape Architecture program. He is currently employed at SOM in Chicago and presented his YOU’RE DOING IT WRONG tutorial series at the national NOMA conference in 2019. Paul was a beloved presence in our building and we are very excited to welcome him back to speak about his own making process and professional endeavors.

Authorship & the Anthropocene: Round Table Discussion Friday, 12:15-2pm

Panelists: Jessica Colangelo & Charles Sharpless Somewhere Studio//University of Arkansas | Edward Becker VÖR//Virginia Tech | Ryan Roark Georgia Tech. Moderators: Katie MacDonald & Kyle Schumann After Architecture// University of Tennessee

In this roundtable, framed and moderated by the Tennessee Architecture Fellows (Katie MacDonald and Kyle Schumann), four emerging designers (Edward Becker, Jessica Colangelo, Ryan Roark, and Charles Sharpless) will share their approaches at the intersection of biology, technology, and design intent and speculate on new models of authorship that establish symbiotic relationships between designer and environment.

Service Day

Odd Fellows Cemetery Saturday, March 7,  9 am

Since 2009, we along with the Knoxville ReAnimation Coalition and the City of Knoxville have collaborated with community and student volunteers to bring about change in the cemetery. Led by KRC founder Stephen Scruggs and our own Katherine Ambroziak, the reclamation project is a community-oriented outreach initiative that seeks to restore community memory and pride by engaging participants in a process of restoration and design of a memorial landscape. Sign up to help with Odd Fellows Cemetery service day.