At Temple, a 'house' built on art and ideas

Temple University's latest art installation is drawing quite a few quizzical stares from students taking lunch breaks at the food trucks lining Norris Street. Against the crisp lines and white facade of the Tyler School of Art, a hut of mismatched wood and Plexiglas has become a gathering place for the university's most creative.

Fortunately for the student who called it "ugly," the hut will be dismantled Saturday. For the students who've embraced its eccentric design, this week has meant an effort to keep it standing beyond the weekend, starting with a petition attached to the outside.

The "house," as its creators, senior Elisa Mosley and junior Amy Borch, call it, is the final project for their two-year community arts class. Their assignment: "activate a space."

The project intends to help open new avenues of discussion, filling the gaps that traditional education leaves behind, according to Pepon Osorio, the Temple professor who has been teaching the class for six years.

"Students are developing ideas out of what they think they are not receiving from our institutionalized North American education," Osorio said.

Informal classes and poetry readings have been on the agenda for Alternative Knowledge Access - the house's formal name - since it was built on March 11 with the help of nearly a dozen Temple students.

Wednesday afternoon's discussion on alternative education drew about 30 students and professors. The lucky ones were able to find blue tires or folding chairs to sit on; the rest stood outside, leaning in to participate.

The house's rectangular shape didn't match the circular conversation going on inside. Beginning with criticisms of traditional education, then moving on to yoga, physics, structure, and institutional power, the discussion returned to what model of art school is really best.

"This is an entirely relative place. Who's ever in it is the boss," said junior painting major Nigel Hieronymus, critiquing the strong opinions coming from all sides of the debate.

Larkin Dugan, a sophomore sculpture major, agreed the house should not be seen against the Tyler School right next to it.

"Why do we have to be going perpendicular?" he said.

Mosley and Borch took the idea from a previous installation they built outside City Hall as part of Occupy Philly. They made a giant tent - nicknamed the "turtle" - that served as an art-filled "respite" from the otherwise aggressive atmosphere.

"It was so different from all the other camps around Occupy," Mosley said. "Everyone was so politically active and angry."

The turtle met its fate when an intoxicated person tore it down in the middle of the night as the City Hall encampment was being moved in November.

For those who can figure out what it is, the Temple version of the Occupy structure gives students a chance to complement - or counter - their Tyler School classes within a totally free environment.

Most of the materials for the house were trash-picked from discarded Tyler materials, but students have slowly been adding anonymous drawings and paintings to the structure.

For junior Tyler Buchinski, building the house gave him the opportunity to work in the exact opposite manner of his architecture classes. In architecture, Buchinski said, he has to plan every detail first. With the house, he just adapted as he went.

"There's no time to think about an idea," he said.

It's that type of mixing up of tradition that has encouraged Mosley and Borch to start lobbying for the house and the alternative workplace it represents.

"Why can't I have my own agency in an institution I pay so much money toward?" Borch asked Wednesday over the rustling of the plastic flags lining the roof of the house.

Like most of the questions discussed that day, no one had an answer.

To see a video from the Alternative Knowledge Access on Temple's campus, go to www.philly.com/knowledgeEndText