At the center of each manifestation of Surplus Seminar lies Anywhere/Anyplace Academy. AAA serves as a hub to bring people together and dream up the myriad possibilities inherent in the repurposing of knowledge.

AAA exists through the shared skills, know-how, and collaboration of each person who chooses to help construct it. Taking different forms depending on the location in which it is built a AAA schoolhouse is constructed through the utilization of excess, cast-off materials from the area wherein that manifestation of Surplus Seminar takes place. In this regard each AAA bears the visual markings of its area, its economy, and its residents skill-sets and interests. A AAA schoolhouse in Columbus, Ohio may predominantly be constructed through the retro-fitting of a disused shipping container, while a school in Portland, Oregon may, for instance, resemble a early twentieth century single room school by having its primary building material be that of a torn-down barn constructed from old growth timber. No matter the structure, or the materials with which it was built, all manifestations of AAA promote active thinking, improvisation, and collaborative action, creating an anarchic center for generative thought. AAA promotes the notion that learning and knowledge exists all around us, like surplus goods looking to be retrofitted and utilized rather than seen as trash, useless, a forgotten commodity, ready to be thrown in the dump.