Sunday, March 18, 2012

March 24 Bathrooms are Gross

"Bathrooms are Gross, So We’re Redesigning Them" is a talk this evening by biowaste activists Molly Danielsson and Matthew Lippincott of The Cloacina Project. Indoor waste plumbing is about 4000-6000 years old. But what happens to that waste followed "the solution to pollution is dilution" philosophy until only about 150 years ago. In many places in the world today, and even in the US, that is the state of the art. That we deal with it at all is attributed to the first epidemiologist, Dr. John Snow. He traced a cholera outbreak in 1854 Soho (London) to a water pump contaminated by human waste (map). The episode and its importance has been popularized by noted information graphics proponent, Edward Tufte.

Cloacina provides a poetic summary: "combining inevitability, intimacy, and ecological value, the problem of excrement is situated directly between our artificial boundaries of human and natural environments." Tonight they present bathrooms they have built, their evolving theories, and new research directions on toilets, sinks and urinals of the future.
At Project Grow at the Port City Development Center. 2156 N Williams Ave at Tillamook. 6PM-9 Free/donation