Monday, April 21
10:00 am - 3:00 pm // R.A.C.E.S. Traveling Sexual Abuse Awareness Exhibit // Urbana Courthouse,101 E Main St, Urbana, IL 61801 // ROSHNI
12 pm // Navigating the healthcare system: Barriers for transgender people of color // Women's Resources Center // PUJA
4:00 pm - 5:00 pm // After the Revolution: Youth, Democracy and the Politics of Disappointment in Serbia // Room 123, David Kinley Hall, 1407 W Gregory Dr., Urbana // JILL
5 pm // Apache Storm - Distributed Real Time Data Processing, with BobbyEvans // EnterpriseWorks Atrium // MAGGIE
8 pm // Film: "Bidder 70" // Quad // ALEX
Tuesday, April 22
12 pm // Food for Thought: The Sikh American Experience - Challenges and Opportunities // Asian American Cultural Center // PUJA
Puja: I stayed for an hour or so to help document the
event. Sometimes, people asked me questions about Sikhism because perhaps I
looked like a member of the group. I did not say, “Oh I’m actually not Sikh”
but rather I tried to help provide them with some basic information that I had
learned. I was glad to help spread the word.
Roshni: I was talking to one of the members of the
organization and she explained her experience witnessing a homeless individual
hesitating to enter the tent and how she encouraged him to participate in this
open event. She also mentioned how he 
spent a good amount of time one of the
members served him food and witnessed him reading all the posters about their
faith. And at the end he yelled "god bless you all!" to the
volunteers serving the food and preparing this event.12pm// Noontime Scholars Lecture - “Roadlessness” and the State in Soviet Tajikistan, 1925-1935// 101 International Studies Building (910 S. Fifth Street, Champaign)// Free// Joey
2:00 pm // Lemann Lecture Series: Industrialists, economists, diplomats and congressmen: Brazil and the rise of postwar trade negotiations (1946-1967) // 101 International Studies Building, 910 S. Fifth Street, Champaign // ANNE
7:30 PM // Illinois Modern Ensemble // Krannert Center, Tyron Festival Theatre ($4-10) // BRIGITTA
6:00 pm - 7:00 pm // ISTC - Sustainability Film Festival: Living Downstream //Spurlock Museum Knight Auditorium, 600 South Gregory St. Urbana, IL // JILL
6:00 - 7:30 PM // InterConnect Workshop Series: Americanization and Reverse Culture Shock // Asian American Cultural Center // PUJA
7:00 pm // Last Lecture // Illini Union Ballroom // ANNE
Anne: She also mentioned that she got fired for being too
nice to her customers when she was a waitress. Her final job is teaching at
Illinois, this job has made her the happiest out of all 10 jobs she told us
about.
Maggie: She also discussed her pasts occupations, which
ended up being a pretty interesting list. She had worked at a juvenile
detention center, she drove a semi, and she taught middle school math. She
explained to us that teaching math to 7th graders was her least favorite job,
which I found ironic considering she teaches statistics now.
Jill: She was everything I remembered, scatterbrained,
crazy, fun, etc. She really enjoys her job and makes it fun for her students
which is why I believe she is loved so much as a professor here.
Wednesday, April 23
11 AM // Denim Day // Main Quad // BRIGITTA
Lindsey: Denim Day
has been internationally celebrated since 1999 in protest of an Italian Supreme
Court ruling that overturned a rape conviction because the victim was wearing
jeans. An 18 year old girl was raped by her driving instructor in Italy during
a driving lesson. The instructor was convicted but in 1999 the court overturned
the verdict because the girl was "wearing really tight jeans that she must
have had to help the victim remove them which made the cause no longer a
rape."
12pm-1pm// Teaching with Technology Brown Bag: The Limits to Digital Manipulation in Journalism// 23 Illini Hall// Free// Joey
Brigitte: She spoke on the validity of photographs and how
they have been manipulated way before photoshop was even invented. Photos are
often used as evidence of the real, but can be altered to produce a desired
effect. Cropping can make a difference in mood or implication. Back in the day
photographic evidence carried a lot of water, especially when contact film
prints were in use since you can not alter so many photos at once.
Chris: The problem with such editing is that it creates
blurred lines between reporting and complete fabrication. Some editing simply
focuses the viewer on pre-existing content in a photograph, while other edits
add or remove content completely, giving an image totally new meaning.
6:00pm-7:30 pm // Sustainability Film Festival: Terra Blight // Spurlock Museum Knight Auditorium // BRiAN
Joey: Secondly, the general public is almost entirely unaware
of both the scale of the problem, and the services available to them to
properly dispose of their items. But thirdly, as a woman in the film put it,
this is environmental racism. This is the First World literally dumping
their problems on the Third World.
Kelly: The documentary then immediately cut to a big box
electronics store, interviewing a chipper employee amongst aisles and aisles of
laptops. He spoke about the new features, sizes, and brands. When asked what
happened when older models were disposed of, he admitted he had no idea. It was
a really effective strategy and drove home the point in only the first five
minutes.
6:00 pm // A Screening of the Documentary: "Twice a Stranger" // Lucy Ellis Lounge (room 1080), Foreign Language Building (FLB), 707 S. Mathews Avenue, Urbana // ANNE
Thursday, April 24
9am // Sex Out Loud Fair // Illini Union Room A // ROSHNI
12pm// Director's Seminar - The Temporal Dynamics of Spoken Word Recognition; Principle and Applications of Magnetomotive Optical Coherence Tomography (MM-OCT)// 1005 Beckman Institute// Free// Joey
4pm// New Directions Lecture - Reinventing Russia: Modernist Myth-Making and National Self-Identity, 1898-1914// 101 International Studies Building (910 S. Fifth Street, Champaign)// Free// Joey
Cate: Russian
avant-garde is an open search for self-identity in the early 1900’s. It was a
search to understand what international art was and what Russian art was, as
well as what it meant to be a Russian artist at the time… (I think).
Joey: I just couldn’t fathom why anyone could care this
much about the topic. It seemed so unproductive, dedicating a life of research
to artists who were just doing their thing. Once you figure out what that
“thing” truly was, what next? What can that information do but be learned? Sure
it is impressively sophisticated, but I can’t think of any real application. I
don’t mean to trash anybody’s career, and like I said I’m somewhat surprised at
my reaction to the lecture, but I was overwhelmed with a sense of
pointlessness.
I really liked the paintings
though.
7 pm // Robert Allerton Documentary Premiere // Retreat Center Library, Allerton Park and Retreat Center // MAGGIE7 pm // Earth Week Benefit Concert // Red Herring, Urbana // ALEX
7:00pm-8PM // I-Journey Workshop: Class Privilege // Lincoln Hall 1051 // CORIE
Friday, April 25
9am-3:30pm // Entrepreneurship Day: Forum and Cozad Competition Finals // Research Park // NCSA, 1205 W. Clark, Urbana // LINDSEY
10am // CSL Spotlight Lecture Series: From Dependability to Resilience - Towards Adaptive Fault Tolerance // Coordinated Science Laboratory, Room 301 // CHRIS
6pm // Break the Silence: In the Wake of UIUC Femicide film screening // Women's Resources Center, 703 S. Wright Street, 2nd Floor, Champaign, (SW Corner Wright & Green Street) //ROSHNI
7:00pm // Compagnia T.P.O.: Bleu! The Mediterranean Sea // Krannert Center, Colwell Playhouse // $10-$30 // KELLY
7:30 // Champaign-Urbana Symphony Orchestra: A Russian Festival // Krannert Center, Foellinger Great Hall // $5-$35 // KELLY
8 pm // The Planets // Planetarium at Parkland College // recurring
Saturday, April 26
3:00PM // The Other Guys Concert // Gregory Hall // CORIE
Corie: The Other Guys finished off their concert they same
way they have done at every concert - a song about Illinois's highest value,
the Morrow Plots
All Day // Illinois Student Association of Music Scholars (ISAMS) Conference: Activist Transformations/Transforming Activism // Levis Faculty Center, 919 W Illinois St., Urbana // CHRIS
Sunday, April 27
All Day // Illinois Student Association of Music Scholars (ISAMS) Conference: Activist Transformations/Transforming Activism // Levis Faculty Center, 919 W Illinois St., Urbana // CHRIS
2-4 pm // Treasures from the Museum Attic // Paxton IL // ALEX
Alex: She told me about the "historical 31 starred
american flag" and the "historical town quilt." Apparently
everything was very important to Paxton's history. After about an hour, we were
past the arrowheads (best part in my opinion), and she started telling me about
each individual cigar box and who was responsible for creating them
Seano: The compelling and heart-breaking narratives
capable of being told through images can put us into a trance, make us forget
our reality and tie us up into feeling empathy with the characters portrayed.
We live and die with these characters, and if they’re good we live and die
harder than they do; the character lives and dies vicariously through us
April 21 // 4:00 pm - 5:00 pm // After the Revolution: Youth, Democracy and the Politics of Disappointment in Serbia // Room 123, David Kinley Hall, 1407 W Gregory Dr., Urbana // JILL
ReplyDeleteWhat happens to student activism once mass protests have disappeared from view, and youth embody the political frustrations, rather than the hopes of a nation? After the Revolution chronicles the lives of student activists as they confront the possibilities and disappointments of democracy in the shadow of the recent political transformation in Serbia.
When student activists in Serbia helped topple dictator Slobodan Milošević on October 5, 2000, they unexpectedly found that the postrevolutionary period brought even greater problems. How do you actually live and practice democracy in the wake of war and the shadow of a recent revolution? How do young Serbians attempt to translate the energy and excitement generated by wide-scale mobilization into the slow work of building democratic institutions? Greenberg navigates through the ranks of student organizations as they transition their activism from the streets back into the halls of the university. In exploring the everyday practices of student activists—their triumphs and frustrations—After the Revolution argues that disappointment is not a failure of democracy but a fundamental feature of how people live and practice it. This fascinating book develops a critical vocabulary for the social life of disappointment with the aim of helping citizens, scholars, and policymakers worldwide escape the trap of framing new democracies as doomed to failure.
**free and open to the public
http://illinois.edu/calendar/detail/7?eventId=31721454&calMin=201404&cal=20140421&skinId=1
April 22 // 6:00 pm - 7:00 pm // ISTC - Sustainability Film Festival: Living Downstream //Spurlock Museum Knight Auditorium, 600 South Gregory St. Urbana, IL // JILL
ReplyDeleteLiving Downstream is based on the acclaimed book by ecologist and cancer survivor Sandra Steingraber, Ph.D. This poetic film follows Sandra during one pivotal year as she travels across North America, working to break the silence about cancer and its environmental links. After a routine cancer screening, Sandra receives some worrying results and is thrust into a period of medical uncertainty. Thus, we begin two journeys with Sandra: her private struggles with cancer and her public quest to bring attention to the urgent human rights issue of cancer prevention. At once Sandra's personal journey and her scientific exploration, Living Downstream is a powerful reminder of the intimate connection between the health of our bodies and the health of our air, land, and water.
http://illinois.edu/calendar/detail/7?eventId=31753178&calMin=201404&cal=20140422&skinId=1
April 22 // 7:30 PM // Illinois Modern Ensemble // Krannert Center, Tyron Festival Theatre // BRIGITTA
ReplyDelete$4-10
The experimental environment fostered by the members of the Illinois Modern Ensemble allows students to explore diverse works as well as their own creative impulses.
http://illinois.edu/calendar/detail/7?eventId=31722060&calMin=201404&cal=20140414&skinId=1
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteApril 23 // 6:00-7:30 pm // Sustainability Film Festival: Terra Blight // Spurlock Museum Knight Auditorium // BRiAN
ReplyDeleteTerra Blight (2012) Unrated, 55 minutes.
Terra Blight is a 55-minute documentary exploring America’s consumption of computers and the hazardous waste we create in pursuit of the latest technology. Terra Blight traces the life cycle of computers from creation to disposal and juxtaposes the disparate worlds that have computers as their center. From a 13-year-old Ghanaian who smashes obsolete monitors to salvage copper to a 3,000-person video game party in Texas, Terra Blight examines the unseen realities of one of the most ubiquitous toxic wastes on our planet. By the film’s end, the audience will never look at their computer the same way again.
This series of sustainability-related documentaries is presented by the Illinois Sustainable Technology Center (ISTC) as a part of the University of Illinois Earth Week festivities. Each screening is followed by audience discussion with ISTC staff members and other campus or local experts as available or appropriate. The films, Living Downstream, Terra Blight, and Waste=Food, explore the environmental consequences of human production and management strategies, and will allow university students, staff, and the general public to learn more about ISTC, important sustainability issues, relevant campus projects and local resources, and actions they can take to “green” their own lives. DVDs of the documentaries, along with downloadable resource lists and activities, will be made available after the film series at the Prairie Research Institute (of which ISTC is a division) Library for professors, students, and members of the general public to check out for use in classes, meetings, and for personal enrichment.
For further information, contact Joy Scrogum at (217) 333-8948 or jscrogum@illinois.edu (email link)
Location: Knight Auditorium, Spurlock Museum, 600 S. Gregory St., Urbana, IL
Time: 6:00 PM–7:30 PM
Cost: Free Admission
Terra Blight is a documentary about e-waste. E-waste is what we call computers, monitors, keyboards, and other technology, once they’ve been thrown away by the people using them. Think about it, what do you do with your desktop once you get your laptop? I realized that I did not know the answer to that question. As Terra Blight points out, neither do most Americans. But what usually ends up happening is that we simply throw them away. Bare in mind that almost everyone in America has a computer, a TV, a cellphone. Then remember that many of those products are made so that they will not last. One can be certain that whatever piece of technology they buy could easily be obsolete within the year. Then they buy a new one. Our desire for the latest tech, combined with our careless disposal of the old, has made the United states the largest contributor of e-waste in the world.
DeleteBut e-waste is dangerous. Computer monitors and TV screens contain very high levels of lead. LCD screens contain mercury. In fact, the list of chemicals is endless. For that reason, it is illegal to dump e-waste in most landfills in America. But wait then, what do we do with the hundreds of billions of dollars worth of technology that we buy every year? Well, we send it to Ghana. Much of the film took place in a small village in Ghana. The beautiful marshes and lagoons that used to surround the village are now mountains of broken technology. Children spend their days scavenging metals from the waste, wearing flip-flops, in order to pay for their schooling. What they don’t take just gets burned; Plastic, rubber, wiring, lead glass, everything goes up in black smoke. Simple exposure to these materials, not to mention the cuts all over their hands and feet, is incredibly dangerous. The United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has determined the amount of lead that is safe to be in soil. The soil in Ghana’s e-waste dumps contain up to 67 times that amount. What’s worst is that on those computers and monitors are stickers that read “Property of Geico”, “Property Connecticut Health Department”, even “Property of United States Environmental Protection Agency”.
Although our actions suggest otherwise, it is actually much more energy and cost efficient to recycle the materials in technology than to dump them. Although they are few and far between, e-waste recycling stations have begun to make themselves available. There they deconstruct the items safely and precisely, using lasers and goggles and gloves, compared to the flip-flops of Ghanaian children. They separate the lead from the glass and then melt it down, turning it into a commodity. They are capable of doing this with all of the parts of the technology they receive. So if it’s so easy, so efficient, and so beneficial, why don’t we move towards e-waste recycling? First off, people are just lazy, same as with all other types of waste. Secondly, the general public is almost entirely unaware of both the scale of the problem, and the services available to them to properly dispose of their items. But thirdly, as a woman in the film put it, this is environmental racism. This is the First World literally dumping their problems on the Third World.
Terra Blight showed me something I was almost completely unaware of. As I watched, I remembered the drawer full of cell phones in our basement, and the extra laptop we have sitting around. What were we going to do with those? Honestly, I don’t know. It’s shameful. But, fortunately, the film was a part of a Sustainability Festival here at UIUC. After the film, a panel came up of speakers from local organizations and municipalities that aim to better facilitate e-waste recycling. I walked out the door with information on the services and programs available to me so that I can better dispose of my own e-waste.
This week, I went back to the Spurlock Museum to view a documentary called 'Terra Blight' as part of the Sustainability Film Festival. At the beginning of the semester, one of my studio projects for graphic design involved designing sustainable headphone packaging out of chipboard. During that assignment, I learned a lot about sustainable practices and waste in terms of materials such as plastic, but I really had no idea what happened to old laptops and cellphones. I knew you couldn't just throw a laptop in the trash, (Back at home, we have a big box full of old electronics in the attic. I'm sure we're not the only ones.) but I always figured that our country would have had some kind of recycling program to deal with the toxic materials. Why else would we have to dispose of electronics separately from normal trash?
DeleteWell, as the film 'Terra Blight' so clearly showed, our country does not have a recycling program for electronic waste, or e-waste. Instead, we simply take all of our e-waste and ship it to third world countries. Imagine a garbage dump composed of early computer monitors, ancient televisions, smashed glass, broken plastic, shards of metal, and stripped wires. Now imagine little kids (some without shoes) digging through the piles of toxic materials looking for copper. These same kids would smash monitors with rocks, releasing the dangerous lead within, all to salvage precious metal. It was absolutely awful. The documentary then immediately cut to a big box electronics store, interviewing a chipper employee amongst aisles and aisles of laptops. He spoke about the new features, sizes, and brands. When asked what happened when older models were disposed of, he admitted he had no idea. It was a really effective strategy and drove home the point in only the first five minutes.
As a graphic design student, computers are essential to my future career goals. As a young person living away from home, I'm very attached to my phone as well. It's hard to admit that these items I deem so important to my day-to-day life will probably end up contributing to this massive problem some day. I'm also surprised that despite the recent interest in sustainability from society as a whole, we are still very unaware of the impact of e-waste. According to the film, e-waste is the largest form of dumping waste produced by the United States and also that the United States produces more e-waste than any country in the world. With these facts in mind, it's crazy to me that the issue of e-waste is not in the headlines.
Overall, I'm really glad that I went to this film. It was an uncomfortable yet enlightening experience. I wish more people were made aware of this documentary because the problem is only going to get worse if nothing changes.
April 23 // 11 AM // Denim Day // Main Quad // BRIGITTA
ReplyDeleteCome see us on the Quad to view our wonderful denim quilt made by UIUC students! Learn more about the sexual assault case Denim Day is based upon and help raise awareness of sexual assault. #SAAM #Istand Facebook
http://illinois.edu/calendar/detail/500?eventId=31771851&calMin=201404&cal=20140414&skinId=1
I went to Denim Day this morning on the Main Quad. I couldn't find the set up at first and so I started walking back to my car when I ran into this girl carrying a huge denim blanket. I stopped to talk to her for a little bit and she explained her story to me and how she started to raise awareness for Denim Day at U of I. The mission is to raise awareness of victim blaming and the sexual assault case Demin Day is based upon. Denim Day has been internationally celebrated since 1999 in protest of an Italian Supreme Court ruling that overturned a rape conviction because the victim was wearing jeans. An 18 year old girl was raped by her driving instructor in Italy during a driving lesson. The instructor was convicted but in 1999 the court overturned the verdict because the girl was "wearing really tight jeans that she must have had to help the victim remove them which made the cause no longer a rape."
DeleteTo raise awareness of this tragic story women of the Italian Legislature protested the decision by wearing jeans to work. The news spread and LA established Denim Day. The student I was talking to raised awareness by giving each sorority/club a square of demin and told them to write on it and express themselves relating to this particular case. She then sowed all of the pieces together and made a large blanket. She was presenting that blanket today on the quad and passing out flyers to raise awareness of this day and of the story. It was very interesting to to be able to talk the girl who created the blanket and was also very interesting to be able to see and touch the blanket in person. Overall this was a great experience and I am happy that I attended it today.
April 22// 12pm-1pm// StartUp Cafe: Arpan Shah// EnterpriseWorks Atrium, 60 Hazelwood Drive Champaign, IL 61820// Free// Joey
ReplyDeleteJoin us for a presentation by Arpan Shah the Chief Executive Officer of PrintEco. After founding a profitable Web design business in college, Arpan fell in love with entrepreneurship. Toward the end of college, Arpan saw how large of a problem wasteful printing was. After being dissatisfied by other solutions, Arpan asked himself, "How can we use simple technology to solve the problem of wasteful printing?" The result, of course, was PrintEco! Lunch will be served. More details to come!
April 22// 12pm// Noontime Scholars Lecture - “Roadlessness” and the State in Soviet Tajikistan, 1925-1935// 101 International Studies Building (910 S. Fifth Street, Champaign)// Free// Joey
ReplyDeleteWhen the Soviet republic of Tajikistan was established in 1924, officials saw it as little more than an idea. It had had borders and a government, but it had never hosted a car or a train or any industrial economic activity. This lecture will explore the ways that the Communists worked to overcome what they saw as the isolation and “roadlessness” (bezdorozhnost’) of the territory in order to fulfill political geography through economic development. Efforts to establish land transportation were meant to support the foundation of large-scale cotton agriculture in southern regions of the new republic as the basis of a new economy. More fundamentally, they were a way of physically altering the natural landscape to create a built environment for the state. This lecture will show that Tajikistan’s almost entirely mountainous terrain persistently interrupted and interfered with road projects, and frequently influenced the routes they could follow. The impact of the natural environment on early work plans demonstrated the weakness of the Soviet state, and the instability of its geography. Because planners, engineers, laborers, and others often found themselves compromising with the natural environment on behalf of the state, through efforts they saw as extraordinary and unanticipated, the process of developing Soviet mobility in southern Central Asia frequently determined the pace and scale of efforts to realize Communist ambitions and planning in Tajikistan.
Patryk Reid is a Ph.D. Candidate in the Department of History at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He is writing a dissertation entitled “Managing Nature, Constructing the State: The Material Foundation of Soviet Empire in Tajikistan, 1917-37.”
April 23// 12pm-1pm// Teaching with Technology Brown Bag: The Limits to Digital Manipulation in Journalism// 23 Illini Hall// Free// Joey
ReplyDeleteCan digital photographs be used as evidence for anything? Join us for a fascinating discussion on the implications of audience tolerance for the alteration of digital images in the news.
This lecture was hosted by Lulu Rodriguez. She was very cute and threw in several jokes that made me laugh, like photoshopping herself in with Brad Pitt.
DeleteShe spoke on the validity of photographs and how they have been manipulated way before photoshop was even invented. Photos are often used as evidence of the real, but can be altered to produce a desired effect. Cropping can make a difference in mood or implication. Back in the day photographic evidence carried a lot of water, especially when contact film prints were in use since you can not alter so many photos at once. Cutting and pasting images started out as a crude form of manipulation. If people had falling outs they would be removed from a picture, but shadows still remained and grey masses overcame the image.
A controversial manipulation was the placement of Oprah's head onto Anne Margaret's body for the cover of a magazine. When we went digital, pixels made editing easily and ready. Softwares have been created for slimming and enhancing certain parts of the body. Most magazine models have been edited to the point where they are either too thin or bulky to be real.
Coverups, fakes, and changes to physical attractiveness have all been used to benefit any kind of cause. Combining two different images into one composite is often a technique used to send a specific message.
Editing seems to know assault the integrity of journalism. To what extent is this okay, Lulu asked us. She handed out a list of editing techniques and asked us to rate them. People were more unaccepting of techniques that completely distorted people or an image's context.
Lulu also gave some tips: to not do alterations if possible, to identify them if you do, to consider people's perceptions of truth, and to try and not alter hard news, human beings, or photo meanings.
Being an art major I found this talk compelling. Often times in my artistic photography post-editing is the fun, interesting part that I can use to express myself. Looking at it from a journalistic standpoint completely change my perspective on the editing process. It was also kind of funny because Chris and I were the only students...all the other people in attendance were teachers!
I attended this lecture with Brigitta. We were the only undergraduates in this small classroom at Illini Hall. Everyone else in attendance was older than us, most of them seemed to be staff members.
DeleteThe speaker was quite charismatic and knowledgable. She spoke about how photo editing is impacting the integrity of journalism, and the way people receive information. Photo were editing photos long before the days of photoshop. In the early days people would literally cut and paste images together. This made for rough images that weren't very credible. Today, however, the ability that people have with new technology to alter images allows for people to skew the public's perception of reality. She showed examples of political figures being edited into or out of photographs, North Korea's use of photoshop of missiles to embellish their nuclear abilities, and even a rather funny image of Obama smoking a cigarette.
The problem with such editing is that it creates blurred lines between reporting and complete fabrication. Some editing simply focuses the viewer on pre-existing content in a photograph, while other edits add or remove content completely, giving an image totally new meaning. These highly edited images are sometimes justified as "digital illustrations". However, as the speaker pointed out, even if the altered images are not meant to be taken literally, once the viewer has seen the image, the idea is planted in their head.
This lecture was really interesting and relevant to me, as I hope to be a graphic designer, which would make me involved with photo editing quite often. It was very useful for me to learn that, based on our presenters research, people don't seem to mind small edits to inanimate objects, but they do feel misled by images where people have been altered, edited, or removed.
All in all, this was one of the most interesting lectures I have been to, and my favorite so far.
April 24th// 4pm// New Directions Lecture - Reinventing Russia: Modernist Myth-Making and National Self-Identity, 1898-1914// 101 International Studies Building (910 S. Fifth Street, Champaign)// Free// Joey
ReplyDeleteThis presentation frames the immanent impact the cultural tradition and innovation in Russia had on the development of national self-identity as well as on the shaping of Russian Modernist aesthetics in the early 20th century, from Diaghilev's Ballets Russes to the Futurist art and poetry.
Nina Gurianova (Gourianova) is Associate Professor and Director of Graduate Studies at the Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures, Northwestern University. Her scholarship in the fields of literature and art history encompasses both Russian and European modernist and avant-garde movements, with a specific emphasis on the interrelation and mutual influence of aesthetics and politics. Gourianova served as the primary curatorial consultant to the Museum of Modern Art (MOMA) on the exhibition of Russian Futurist and Constructivist books in 2002, and participated in the organization of many exhibitions, including "Amazons of the Avant-garde" and "Kazimir Malevich" at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York, and “Cubisti e Cubismo” in Rome (2013). She has published extensively in Europe, the United States and Russia. Her most recent book, The Aesthetics of Anarchy (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2012), won the 2013 AATSEEL (American Association of Teachers of Slavic and East European Languages) Best Book in Literary/Cultural Studies annual award. It explores the question of art and ideology in the pre-revolutionary Russian avant-garde.
Maybe (and most likely.. I really hope) I’m just a bratty little freshman and I’ll grow out of this, but it seems like every time I listen to someone with an accent, I am entranced with the formation of the words being spoken rather than the sentences that are sharing ideas (not talking about being a giddy little girl and swooning over the English exchange students boyish and charming accent.. eww, no thank you). Perhaps this is why I can really feel connected and moved by a strong vocalist but have never been emotionally connected to lyrics. I’m very fixated and sometimes limited to this means of delivery. So when this probably very intelligent woman was speaking about Russian art in a very thick Russian accent began her presentation.. it became more about the presentation than the facts. I listened to her entire lecture and the words she was speaking were very interesting to hear... but I wasn’t necessarily moved by her ideas. I ended up sketching a few of the images she presented to us and wrote down a few thoughts that were provoked by the people that were in the room with me… both my art history professor and art history TA attended the lecture (maybe not important but something that caught my eye). As for a little blurb to put next to the picture… Russian avant-garde is an open search for self-identity in the early 1900’s. It was a search to understand what international art was and what Russian art was, as well as what it meant to be a Russian artist at the time… (I think).
DeleteThe topic was Pre-Soviet Early Russian Avant Garde, presented by a speaker from East European and Eurasian Studies at Northwestern. Her first name was Nina, that much I know. But I guess you could say her last name marked the commencement of an hour and a half of unintelligible Russian-sounding words. I must say, Nina’s accent was incredibly satisfying to the ears. Stuff like, “Te uhrlier maentioning of te skaetching of Petdrustchzka.” Go on, try it yourself. I know you want to. I’ve been saying it under me breath all day. And if you’d like someone to compare her to, try Gretchen Mankusser from Malcolm in the Middle.
DeleteBut despite it’s finger-licking goodness, Nina’s accent was ultimately too hard to try and decipher for an hour and a half. It didn’t help that her entire presentation was read from a prepared paper. The combination of her poor presenting skills, and her distracting accent, rendered the lecture quite inaccessible for me. I understand some of that is really not something to blame on her, but it is what it is. Furthermore, beyond her delivery, the content of her presentation did not quite click with me. In fact, I unfortunately feel obligated to express to you that this was one of the most lip-biting, pen-clicking, claustrophobically boring experiences I can remember ever having. I’ll give a brief summary (of what I understood), and then I’ll explain why I now know that I don’t want to be an Art History Major.
The official title of the lecture was “Reinventing Russia: Modernist Myth-Making and National Self-Identity, 1898-1914”. The idea is that at the turn of the 20th century, Russian artists, specifically painters, rejected the influences of the western world. Instead, they took from old, traditional eastern artwork, often times even that of children. This influence resulted in eccentrically colorful, impressionistic paintings of buildings and people. Honestly, they did look like a kid may have painted them. But I found the slides of the paintings to be the highlight of the presentation. I wish I could have understood some of the names of the painters and paintings, because some of them were really fantastic. This new style, dedicated to traditional eastern influences, was referred to as neo-primitivism.
However it was not just a disinterest in western artistic influence. This generation of artists sought to distance themselves from imposed Eurocentric values altogether. In this sense, it was an expansion of their own culture, and to that extent, a reinvention of national identity.
As I anxiously shifted in my chair, I couldn’t help but question the importance of the discussion at hand. Basically, Nina’s presentation was an interpretation of the thoughts and motivations of a group of artist one hundred years ago. The questions asked by the audience were essentially just asking if maybe the artists had been thinking this as opposed to that. I sat there, screaming inside my head, “WHO. THE HELL. CARES.” This kind of surprised me, because usually I don’t mind the indulgence of topics like this. A year ago I spent months doing essentially the exact same thing, analyzing in depth what I believed to be the thoughts and motivations of Jack Kerouac as a member of the Beats. Maybe it was just a culmination of discomfort, hunger, and having just finished classes for the week; or maybe I’ve just changed since Jack Kerouac; but I just couldn’t fathom why anyone could care this much about the topic. It seemed so unproductive, dedicating a life of research to artists who were just doing their thing. Once you figure out what that “thing” truly was, what next? What can that information do but be learned? Sure it is impressively sophisticated, but I can’t think of any real application. I don’t mean to trash anybody’s career, and like I said I’m somewhat surprised at my reaction to the lecture, but I was overwhelmed with a sense of pointlessness.
I really liked the paintings though.
April 22 // 2:00 pm // Lemann Lecture Series: Industrialists, economists, diplomats and congressmen: Brazil and the rise of postwar trade negotiations (1946-1967) // 101 International Studies Building, 910 S. Fifth Street, Champaign // ANNE
ReplyDeleteTrade is part of our daily life. From the clothes we wear to the gadgets we use, most products of everyday life result from complex global supply chains, logistics innovation, better communications and trade agreements. The first three aspects corresponded to changes in the private sector, but the last one was primarily shaped by government actors. The creation and functioning of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) in 1947 was, in this respect, one of the great achievements in postwar multilateral diplomacy. This presentation will investigate the role Brazil had in GATT's first six rounds. The focus will be on two aspects. First, how the country perceived, shaped and complied with the constraints created by the international trading order. Second, how domestic actors in Brazil sought to influence the country's position in international trade negotiations. Rogério de Souza Farias worked until 2010 in the Ministry of Industry, Trade and Development. His Ph.D. dissertation (Universidade de Brasília) won the prize of best thesis of 2012 by the Brazilian Association of International Relations. His academic interests lie on Brazilian foreign policy, international trade negotiations and the history of the Brazilian diplomatic service.
http://illinois.edu/calendar/detail/7?eventId=31608701&calMin=201404&cal=20140421&skinId=1
April 23 // 6:00 pm // A Screening of the Documentary: "Twice a Stranger" // Lucy Ellis Lounge (room 1080), Foreign Language Building (FLB), 707 S. Mathews Avenue, Urbana // ANNE
ReplyDeleteDescription: The 20th century is often called the century of expulsions. From the collapse and break up of multi-ethnic European empires after World War I, to the creation of independent post-colonial states in the second half of the century, and finally, the demise of communist states in the last decade of the century, nation building has been a violent process. Millions of people around the globe have been forced to leave their homelands, many of them never to return again. The human cost of refugee displacement is reflected in the testimonies of those who lived to tell the tale. These stories - whether from Greece, Turkey, Germany, Poland, India, Pakistan or Cyprus - reveal a common human experience of lost homelands and communities ripped apart: the experience of being “Twice a Stranger”.
What is Twice a Stranger?
‘Twice a Stranger’ is a cross media project about the greatest forced migrations of the 20thcentury, when millions of people were uprooted and moved to new homelands. Based on oral video testimonies, rare film archives and photos this project brings visitors face-to-face with the survivors of these traumatic events. From the Greek-Turkish exchange in 1922-24, ‘Twice a Stranger’ travels to the German-Polish forced migration at the end of WW II, to the Partition of India, and to the Cyprus crisis' in the 1960's and 70's.
‘Twice a Stranger’ is distributed online and via a multi-media exhibition, hosted at the Benaki Museum in Athens, the Leventis Municipal Museum in Nicosia and the Istanbul Bilgi University.
English subtitled!!
Free pizza and beverages
http://illinois.edu/calendar/detail/7?eventId=31522434&calMin=201404&cal=20140421&skinId=1
April 25 // 10am // CSL Spotlight Lecture Series: From Dependability to Resilience - Towards Adaptive Fault Tolerance // Coordinated Science Laboratory, Room 301 // CHRIS
ReplyDeleteResilience is defined as the persistence of dependability when facing changes and thus relates to the evolution of dependable systems during their operational life. Indeed, evolution during service life of computer-based systems is mandatory today for many technical and economic reasons. Dependable systems, particularly long-lived systems, which continuously deliver trustworthy services, must evolve to accommodate changes regarding new threats, application updates or variations in available resources. The addition of this evolutionary dimension to dependability leads to the notion of resilient computing.
In this talk, we present an approach taking advantage of Component-Based Software Engineering technologies for tackling a crucial aspect of resilient computing, namely the on-line adaptation of fault tolerance mechanisms. We propose a development process that relies on two key factors: designing fault tolerance mechanisms for adaptation and leveraging a reflective component-based middleware that enables the fine-grained control and modification of the software architecture at runtime. We thoroughly describe the methodology, the development of a library of adaptive fault tolerance mechanisms and evaluate the approach in terms of performance and agility.
We denote this ability as agile adaptation, as opposed to the preprogrammed one. In this work, we develop flexible fault tolerance mechanisms (FTMs) as a LEGO System. FTMs can be defined and adapted at runtime, after the system has been put in operation, in an agile manner through finegrained modifications for minimizing impact on the initial architecture. Some implementation details will be discussed together with a case study.
http://illinois.edu/calendar/detail/500?eventId=31781131&calMin=201404&cal=20140415&skinId=1
April 26-27 // All Day // Illinois Student Association of Music Scholars (ISAMS) Conference: Activist Transformations/Transforming Activism // Levis Faculty Center, 919 W Illinois St., Urbana // CHRIS
ReplyDelete“Activist Transformations/Transforming Activism” is an interdisciplinary conference that will explore how creative mediums engage in social and political activism.
Papers to be presented include:
-“'I want to be normal': representations of gender and sexuality in the music of the former Yugoslavia"
-"Feminism as Nationalism?: A Critical Perspective on Dame Ethel Smyth"
-"Variation with a Point: Social Critique in Frederic Rzewski’s Polytonal Works"
-"Staging the Revolution: Live Music and Social Change in “Post”-Revolutionary Egypt"
-"(En)voicing Pluralism: Janelle Monáe’s Cyber-vocalities"
The conference will be held over a day and a half in Levis Faculty Center and will include a keynote address by Dr. Adriana Helbig (University of Pittsburgh) in Smith Hall.
http://illinois.edu/calendar/detail/500?eventId=31516421&calMin=201404&cal=20140415&skinId=1
April 24th// 12pm// Director's Seminar - The Temporal Dynamics of Spoken Word Recognition; Principle and Applications of Magnetomotive Optical Coherence Tomography (MM-OCT)// 1005 Beckman Institute// Free// Joey
ReplyDeleteDiscussing the use of Magnetomotive Optical Coherence Tomography in spoken word recognition.
April 25 // 7:30 // Champaign-Urbana Symphony Orchestra: A Russian Festival // Krannert Center, Foellinger Great Hall // $5-$35 // KELLY
ReplyDelete"Russian Easter Overture" by Rimsky-Korsakov features soulful melodies. Soloist Wendy Warner displays the full range of the highly expressive cello on works by Glazunov and Tchaikovsky. Tchaikovsky's "Symphony No. 4" reveals the composer's intense feelings, fears, and aspirations.
http://illinois.edu/calendar/detail/7?eventId=28554547&calMin=201404&cal=20140415&skinId=1
April 25 // 7:00pm // Compagnia T.P.O.: Bleu! The Mediterranean Sea // Krannert Center, Colwell Playhouse // $10-$30 // KELLY
ReplyDeleteThe undulating azure waves of the Mediterranean are the latest inspiration for Compagnia T.P.O. Through immersive tricks of technology and with spectator interactions, the Colwell Playhouse stage becomes an enchanted world of falling stars, far-away islands, and journeying underwater creatures.
http://illinois.edu/calendar/detail/7?eventId=28563529&calMin=201404&cal=20140415&skinId=1
April 21 // 5 pm // Apache Storm - Distributed Real Time Data Processing, with BobbyEvans // EnterpriseWorks Atrium // MAGGIE
ReplyDeleteRegistration: RSVP!!
Please join us in the Atrium of EnterpriseWorks where Bobby Evans will present Apache Storm from a beginners perspective. It will include a brief overview of Storm and how to get started using it. Apache Storm is a distributed real-time computation system for processing fast, large streams of data. Robert (Bobby) Evans is an Apache Storm committer and PPMC member. Bobby is the Storm project lead at Yahoo and has helped to bring secure hosted low latency processing through Storm to numerous Yahoo groups including Flikr, Search, E-commerce, and Advertising. Bobby also has extensive experience in other Big Data projects including being Committer/PMC member of Apache Hadoop, Spark, and Tez.
http://illinois.edu/calendar/detail/7?eventId=31781715&calMin=201404&cal=20140415&skinId=1
April 24 // 7 pm // Robert Allerton Documentary Premiere // Retreat Center Library, Allerton Park and Retreat Center // MAGGIE
ReplyDeleteAllerton Park & Retreat Center is pleased to host the premiere of Land of Plenty: Robert Allerton and His Gift to Illinois on Thursday, April 24, 2014. Doors will open at 6:00 p.m. and the movie will show at 7:00 p.m. in the Retreat Center Library, 515 Old Timber Road, Monticello, IL. Enjoy an intimate evening at Allerton as Yeoman Filmer Productions presents this original documentary, followed by an exclusive presentation and Q & A with the film’s Writer and Director, Tory Dahlhoff.
A cash bar and popcorn will be available.
April 22 // 12 pm // Food for Thought: The Sikh American Experience - Challenges and Opportunities // Asian American Cultural Center // PUJA
ReplyDeleteSpeaker: Jasjit Singh, Sikh American Legal Defense & Education Fund & U of I Alum
Food for Thought, part of the Office of Inclusion and Intercultural Relation's Lunch on Us series, is a weekly noontime discussion focused on topics relevant to the Asian American community. Past discussions include topics such as nutrition, mental health, sexual health, and issues of queer Asian Americans.
http://illinois.edu/calendar/detail/2769?eventId=31460734&calMin=201404&cal=20140416&skinId=3926
April 21 // 12 pm // Navigating the healthcare system: Barriers for transgender people of color // Women's Resources Center // PUJA
ReplyDeleteSpeaker: Dr. Margo Bell, MD, Director of Inpatient Pediatrics, Cook County Health & Hospital System
Quench is part of the Office of Inclusion and Intercultural Relation’s Lunch on Us noontime discussion series. Each semester we work to collaborate with other campus groups to focus on the intersection of diverse social and LGBT issues. We also present a range of topics on facets of LGBT identity, culture, and history relevant to the LGBT and Ally communities.
All programs are from noon-1 p.m. at the Women’s Resources Center, 703 S. Wright St., 2nd Floor, SW corner of Green and Wright, unless otherwise noted. Lunch is provided.
****I highly encourage everyone to stop by and have this free meal! Great opportunity to learn about one of the lesser-known faiths, Sikhism*****
ReplyDeleteApril 24 // 10AM - 4PM // Langar on Campus 2014 // Between Everitt Lab and Engineering Hal // PUJA
The Sikh Student Association Presents Langar on Campus 2014:
Last year’s Langar had over 1,500 attendees and we hope to make this year’s Langar even better!
But wait.. what's Langar?
Langar, or the free kitchen, which is conducted in all Gurudwaras (Sikh places of worship) around the world, was founded by the first Sikh Guru, Guru Nanak Dev Ji. It was created to uphold the tenets of equality between all people regardless of religion, caste, colour, creed, age, gender or social status. Additionally, langar, which is generally conducted while sitting on the floor to further emphasize one's equality before others, reinforces the ideals of sharing and community. Everyone is welcome to partake in Langar and no one is turned away.
The Langar will take place in a large framed tent where FREE traditional INDIAN FOOD will be served to all attendees from 10:00 am – 4:00 pm.
The goal of this Langar is to promote interfaith acceptance and awareness of the Sikh faith and of course to enjoy some great home-cooked food ☺
WHAT: Langar on Campus
WHERE: In front of the Union on Green Street
Between Everitt Lab and Engineering Hall
(LOOK FOR A HUGE WHITE TENT!)
WHEN: Thursday, April 24, 2014
From 10:00 AM to 4:00 PM
Come enjoy some FREE DELICIOUS FOOD with SSA!
Invite your friends! Everyone is welcome!
FUNDED BY SCPF AND CHICAGO AND DANVILLE SIKH COMMUNITIES
Facebook event: https://www.facebook.com/events/1518643625029339
DeleteThis week I attended the second annual Langar on campus, which was an event hosted by the Sikh Student Association, or SSA. In more ways than one, this was an ideal week for the organization to host Langar. On Monday, last year’s Langar won an award for “Outstanding Asian American event” at the 2014 Asian American Leadership Awards ceremony. This was truly a celebration of all the noteworthy efforts made by the Asian & Asian American community during the past year. My roommates—the co-presidents of SSA—were elated with joy when Langar was announced as one of the winners. I had also been invited to attend the ceremony, and I too shared their enthusiasm. For some time now, I have felt like an honorary member of their group, and it’s been wonderful to see the dedication and hard work that goes into their programs. Jasjit Singh, who was recognized as an Outstanding Alumni at the ceremony, was actually one of the founders of SSA. It was incredible to see how his efforts 10 years ago have played a huge role in the lives of my own roommates and many others.
DeleteThis year’s Langar was highly successful, perhaps even more so than last year’s. Members of the Sikh community (both local and from afar) came together to serve hot, homemade Indian food to 2,000 people on our campus. I stayed for an hour or so to help document the event. Sometimes, people asked me questions about Sikhism because perhaps I looked like a member of the group. I did not say, “Oh I’m actually not Sikh” but rather I tried to help provide them with some basic information that I had learned. I was glad to help spread the word.
This week I was lucky enough to attend the Langar on campus for the first time. This experience along with last week's Holi event really brought people together and emphasized unity. This event was held and organized entirely by the Sikh Student Association as a way to raise awareness about the Sikh way of life. In Sikhism, the beauty of being human is that we all have a source of energy within us, but we all are a part of this larger energy that makes us all equally beautiful. I felt so connected to this way of life because Jainism, which is the faith I practice, has a similar explanation regarding the human presence.
DeleteWaiting in line and witnessing the thousands of people cycling through the tent and agreeing to take off their shoes and wear scarves on their heads, was so amazing to see. People not only were intrigued by the free food, but were genuinely grateful and more importantly curious to learn about Sikhism. There were volunteers handing out flyers about the purpose of Langar and how this sort of act of treating everyone equally through the means of food is something that is occurring on a daily basis at the gurdwara, their place of worship. I was talking to one of the members of the organization and she explained her experience witnessing a homeless individual hesitating to enter the tent and how she encouraged him to participate in this open event. She also mentioned how he spent a good amount of time one of the members served him food and witnessed him reading all the posters about their faith. And at the end he yelled "god bless you all!" to the volunteers serving the food and preparing this event. She said this brought tears to her eyes. It was amazing to see the level of dedication and passion the volunteers had when interacting with everyone that decided to participate in the event.
I loved seeing how much culture was emphasized and expressed throughout the tent from the music to the decorations to the food. Even though the campus is missing an Indian temple, the Langar evoked the same feeling of peace and love that my temple evokes back at home. I appreciated the fact that everyone was from the volunteers to participants level of dedication to such a large event. It was so refreshing witnessing the kindness within the volunteers and how that started to translate to the individuals being served. I am happy I was able to witness such an impactful event on campus!
April 25th // 9am-3:30pm // Entrepreneurship Day: Forum and Cozad Competition Finals // Research Park // NCSA, 1205 W. Clark, Urbana // LINDSEY
ReplyDeletehttp://illinois.edu/calendar/detail/3462?eventId=31737307&calMin=201404&cal=20140416&skinId=6594
About the Entrepreneurship Forum: Please join us for the second annual Entrepreneurship Forum, geared toward campus entrepreneurs.The day will kick-off with Bill King the academic lead of the newly unveiled UI Labs Digital Manufacturing lab in Chicago, which was announced 2 weeks ago by the White House: http://manufacturing.gov/dmdi.html . The entrepreneur sessions in the morning will include topics for Lean Startup methodology along with startups in I-Corps, funding choices for startups, and social entrepreneurship. Speakers during the day will also include the founder (UI student) of MalwareBytes, a young alum who was one of the founding employees of YouTube, and the founder of Answers.com who now does a lot of startup work in Chicago. About the Cozad Finals: The Cozad semifinal round will run simultaneously to the Entrepreneurship Forum, and the finals will take place in the afternoon after the forum is over. The Cozad oral pitch presentations by each teams are limited to 10 minutes each and will run in the afternoon. There are $180,000 in prizes at stake. Come see the best entrepreneurs on campus pitch their ideas and take them to the next level.
April 22 // 12pm // StartUp Cafe: Arpan Shah // EnterpriseWorks Atrium, 60 Hazelwood Drive Champaign, IL 61820 // LINDSEY
ReplyDeletehttp://illinois.edu/calendar/detail/3462?eventId=31713787&calMin=201404&cal=20140416&skinId=6594
Join us for a presentation by Arpan Shah the Chief Executive Officer of PrintEco. After founding a profitable Web design business in college, Arpan fell in love with entrepreneurship. Toward the end of college, Arpan saw how large of a problem wasteful printing was. After being dissatisfied by other solutions, Arpan asked himself, "How can we use simple technology to solve the problem of wasteful printing?" The result, of course, was PrintEco! Lunch will be served. More details to come!
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteapril 24 // 7 pm // Earth Week Benefit Concert // Red Herring, Urbana // ALEX
ReplyDeleteAs part of Earth Week, the Students for Environmental Concerns Benefit Concert, featuring local bands Illini Contraband, Ashland, The Ars Nova, Justin Rondon, Alec’s Band and We The Animals, is set for 7:30 p.m. Thursday, April 24, at Red Herring, 1209 W. Oregon St., U. A $5 donation is suggested; proceeds will benefit the University YMCA and their funding of SECS projects toward a more sustainable Earth. For more information on the event or Earth Week 2014 events on the University of Illinois campus, visit http://sustainability.illinois.edu/earthweek2014.html.
april 21 // 8 pm // Film: "Bidder 70" // Quad // ALEX
ReplyDeleteStart Date: Apr. 21, 2014
End Date: Apr. 21, 2014
Time: 8:00 PM
At 8 p.m. on Earth Day (Tuesday, April 22), join the Students for Environmental Concerns for an outdoor screening of "Bidder 70" on the main University of Illinois Quad near Anniversary Plaza. You won’t want to miss this compelling story of one student’s act of civil disobedience toward climate justice. We’ll watch on the big screen near the Illini Union. Bring a blanket and some buddies! Stay updated on Facebook in case of rainy backup location. For more on Earth Week events, see http://sustainability.illinois.edu/earthweek2014.html
April 21 // 10:00 am - 3:00 pm // R.A.C.E.S. Traveling Sexual Abuse Awareness Exhibit // Urbana Courthouse,101 E Main St, Urbana, IL 61801 // ROSHNI
ReplyDeleteR.A.C.E.S. Traveling Sexual Abuse Awareness Exhibit
Date Apr 21, 2014
Time 10:00 am - 3:00 pm
Location Urbana Courthouse,101 E Main St, Urbana, IL 61801
Cost FREE
Sponsor Rape Advocacy, Counseling & Education Services (RACES)
Contact Adrienne Spires
E-Mail spires@cu-races.org
Event type SAAM
Views 4
Originating Calendar Women's Resources Center
Rape Advocacy, Counseling & Education Services (RACES) will be sponsoring a Community Awareness Project during the week of Monday, April 9-12th and April 21-22 in recognition of National Crimes Victim’s Rights Week (NCVRW), Prevent Child Abuse and Sexual Assault Awareness Month (SAAM). The Community Awareness Project is a traveling exhibit of stuffed animal characters to promote community public awareness about sexual violence against women, girls and children. The exhibit would be divided into three sections and provide local, state and federal data about victimization. We will display the roving art at various locations throughout the community.
April 24 // 9am // Sex Out Loud Fair // Illini Union Room A // ROSHNI
ReplyDeleteSex Out Loud Fair
Date Apr 24, 2014
Time 9:00 am
Location Illini Union Room A
Cost FREE
Sponsor UIUC NOW and Women's Resources Center
Contact Amarin Young
E-Mail ayoung40@illinois.edu
Event type SAAM
Views 18
Originating Calendar Women's Resources Center
Join us for a day of all things sexual health! Sex Out Loud is a sexual health resource fair free and open to students, faculty, community members, and you! Tablers will be sharing their expertise on everything from birth control and safe sex to consent and pleasure! Be sure to stop by and bring your friends! If you can't make it to Sex Out Loud, you can still participate in our anonymous sex survey open until April 14th! Be sure to take the survey and share it with friends! Facebook
April 25 // 6pm // Break the Silence: In the Wake of UIUC Femicide film screening // Women's Resources Center, 703 S. Wright Street, 2nd Floor, Champaign, (SW Corner Wright & Green Street) //ROSHNI
ReplyDeleteBreak the Silence: In the Wake of UIUC Femicide film screening
Date Apr 25, 2014
Time 6:00 pm
Location Women's Resources Center, 703 S. Wright Street, 2nd Floor, Champaign, (SW Corner Wright & Green Street)
Cost FREE
Sponsor Women’s Resources Center, the Counseling Center, Chinese Independent Film Society (CIFS) and Sigma Psi Zeta
Event type SAAM
Views 4
Originating Calendar Women's Resources Center
Stop silence and fear Stop violence against women and girls Stand with us In September 2013, the murder of a female graduate student deeply shocked the UIUC campus and local communities. Break the Silence: in the Wake of UIUC Femicide (2013) is a documentary film which tries to understand gender-based violence and culture with a focus on international students.
April 21 // 4:30PM // Happy Hour on the Quad // Main Quad // CORIE
ReplyDeleteJoin IUB and Coca-Cola for a picnic packed with free food, giveaways, picnic blankets and Coke products!
April 24 // &:00-8PM // I-Journey Workshop: Class Privilege // Lincoln Hall 1051 // CORIE
ReplyDeleteClass Privilege covers the issue of privilege and considers how it applies to our everyday lives through activities that examine these concepts, and how they play out in society.
All workshops are on Thursdays at 7 pm in Lincoln hall Room 1051. I-Journey workshops are one-hour peer developed, peer led workshops that explore issues of social identity, exclusion/inclusion, and being an ally
April 26 // 3:00PM // The Other Guys Concert // Gregory Hall // CORIE
ReplyDeleteThe Other Guys are the University of Illinois’ premiere men’s a cappella group known for their impeccable musicality and comedic spontaneity. The concert will feature arrangements from the musical tastes of John Legend, One Direction, Stevie Wonder, Hunter Hayes, Phillip Phillips, and more!
The concert will take place in Gregory Hall on Saturday, April 26th at 3:00pm. Doors will open at 2:30pm. Seats are general admission: first come, first serve.
Tickets will be sold on the Quad from April 21st-April 25th from 9am-4pm. Tickets will also be available online at http://otherguys.org/wp/tickets and at the door the day of our concert.
This week, I was able to cross off a hot item off of my college bucket list - attend an Other Guy concert. The Other Guys have been a part of University of Illinois tradition for years - they uphold the same values and ideas today that were created from the beginning. An acapella group, with a side of humor. They boys performed a variety of songs from today's hits to popular classics - personally my favorite were Phillip Phillis and West Side story.
DeleteThe Other Guys finished off their concert they same way they have done at every concert - a song about Illinois's highest value, the Morrow Plots. A song based off of how we created our underground library underground so the sun's rays could still reach the plots, because you can't throw shade on the corn - making the Morrow Plots the oldest experimental plots on the western hemisphere (that's half of the world).
Being the Other Guys's last concert of the Spring semester, they had to say goodbye to two of their senior members - who will be moving on to bigger and better things.
I am glad I was able to see a show before my time at Illinois. A concert I have always wanted to go to - just never had the final push to actually go. I highly suggest for anyone to go and see them for over an hour of music and laughs.
April 22 // 6:00 - 7:30 PM // InterConnect Workshop Series: Americanization and Reverse Culture Shock // Asian American Cultural Center // PUJA
ReplyDeleteCollege is a time when most students undergo an incredible amount of personal growth and change. New friends and new experiences reshape who you are. Going home can bring challenges as you readjust to your home culture, family, and friends. This workshop will talk about what it's like to go home as a different person than when you first left.
Cost Free!
Sponsor ISSS, Counseling Center, Asian American Cultural Center, McKinley Health Center, New Student Programs
http://illinois.edu/calendar/detail/4193?eventId=31291481&calMin=201404&cal=20140421&skinId=6594
Apr 22 // 7:00 pm // Last Lecture // Illini Union Ballroom // ANNE
ReplyDeleteA reception with light refreshments follows Illinois Professor Ellen Fireman. One of the most beloved teachers on the campus, Statistics Professor Fireman was voted by the students as the one they would like to hear from one last time before graduating.
http://illinois.edu/calendar/detail/7?eventId=31793217&calMin=201404&cal=20140421&skinId=1
With the year coming to a close and the thought that I will be a senior next year, I was feeling a little bit nostalgic about my first years here at UIUC. Nothing better to cure my stress and anxiety about moving on and getting old then seeing Ellen Fireman lecture at the Illini Union. First semester of sophomore year I took Ellen Fireman’s class, Stat 100. I was never good at stats, math, or numbers in general so I was a little apprehensive about the course, but everyone raved about Fireman that I had to experience it firsthand. Going to Ellen Fireman’s Lecture on Tuesday made me feel like a younger version of myself. She was everything I remembered, scatterbrained, crazy, fun, etc. She really enjoys her job and makes it fun for her students which is why I believe she is loved so much as a professor here.
DeleteFireman started off her lecture by reading tweets about herself from students here at the University. One of the tweets stated, “Legends are real, Ellen is cray!”. After she read this aloud, Fireman went on to talk about how she had to look up the definition of “cray” in urban dictionary. Just from this she displays that she can laugh at herself. Not only did she read tweets, but she went onto Rate My Professor as well. After the laughs filled the room she moved on to talk about her schooling and her career path. She distinguished them as her top five deal breakers and her top five deal breakers. One of my favorites was her number 5 deal makers (15 minute ice cream break every hour). This was a job she had at an ice cream store, where every hour she got a 15-minute free ice cream break. Once she was finished with her career path she began to focus on statistics.
Fireman displayed a graph detailing if the amount of money you have actually makes you happier. It showed that the more money you have does not necessarily give/make your mood any better, but what it does heighten is how satisfied you are with life. She concluded that we measure our worth with money; which I believe is true. Having an excess of money will not affect your mood from day to day because we all worry and stress everyday, but it does allow you to travel and go places that you may not be able to if you were tight on money. I concluded that i personally don’t like doing the mathematical work behind the statistics, but the results are very interesting. Fireman displayed a few more statistics that she polled from her current stat 100 class, then ended the lecture with a brief Q&A.
This has been one of, if not my favorite lecture from this semester.
This week, Anne and I attended Ellen Fireman's lecture at the Union. The Illini Union Board voted on who they would like to hear speak, and Ellen got the most votes. Her speech first focused on tweets that had mentioned her, and they were all hilarious! Ellen attended Harvard for her undergrad, and someone tweeted that he/she did not believe this. Ellen then went on to tell us funny stories about her years at Harvard, and how she was the most "normal" of her friends. She also discussed her pasts occupations, which ended up being a pretty interesting list. She had worked at a juvenile detention center, she drove a semi, and she taught middle school math. She explained to us that teaching math to 7th graders was her least favorite job, which I found ironic considering she teaches statistics now. I took Fireman's STATS 100 class my sophomore, which I skipped a majority of. After attending this lecture, I regret skipping her class so often because she seems pretty entertaining! Overall, I really enjoyed this lecture. It allowed me to learn about a popular professor on campus. I learned about her life and personality, and not just about her as a teacher.
DeleteFor my event this week I attended Last Lecture, which was given by Ellen Fireman. I have heard so many stories about Professor Fireman that I was quite interested in finding out what all the hype was about. I was first shocked when Professor Fireman walked on stage, she looked too young and she was wearing a stylish outfit. She started out her introduction and she already had the room laughing, she is very entertaining. She was so enthusiastic and excited, her hands were swaying all over the place while she was talking and she was walking all over the stage. I found it funny that for this lecture, Professor Fireman had searched Twitter for her name and she found a few tweets that were about her and they were hysterical. One stated “The legends are real.. Ellen Fireman is cray” Ellen had such an interesting past, she mentioned some of the past jobs she had and why she had left them/was fired from them and each story was so unique and fun to listen to. She used to teach 7th grade math and she said she hated it because the kids hated it no matter how fun/excited she was about teaching them. She also mentioned that she got fired for being too nice to her customers when she was a waitress. Her final job is teaching at Illinois, this job has made her the happiest out of all 10 jobs she told us about. She has taught STAT 100 at Illinois since 2000, she is well known on this campus and I am so happy I finally got the chance to meet her and listen to one of her lectures.
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ReplyDeleteapril 27(reoccurring) // 2-4 pm // Treasures from the Museum Attic // Paxton IL // ALEX
ReplyDeleteThe display features items that have been in storage and some that date to the mid-19th century. April 13 through July 6. Summer hours: open 2 to 4 p.m. every Sunday.
Location:
Ford County Historical Society Water Tower Museum, Located in the remodeled city water tower and pump house, corner of Market and Center streets
City:
Paxton
This week, I made the short road trip to Paxton to check out the Ford County Historical Society Water Tower Museum exhibit, "Treasures from the Museum Attic." When I got there, the only address information I was provided with was a cross street. I had to go in to the bar (the only open business) to ask where the museum was. The bartender had absolutely no idea what i was talking about, but a pretty drunk man at the bar pointed me in the right direction. The entrance was through a small, unimpressive park, ironically named "Majestic Park." When I walked in, a little old lady was sweeping up dead flies from the corners of the small museum rooms, but she stopped to show me everything (and i mean everything). She was absolutely delighted that I came to Paxton specifically for the exhibit, so she took it on herself to tell me everything i could possibly want to know about the artifacts in the museum. It was kind of cool to have a personal tour, even if the museum only consisted of 2 rooms. She told me about the "historical 31 starred american flag" and the "historical town quilt." Apparently everything was very important to Paxton's history. After about an hour, we were past the arrowheads (best part in my opinion), and she started telling me about each individual cigar box and who was responsible for creating them. This was when i planned my escape. I "took a phone call" and headed out, thanking her for her time. It was actually pretty cute, and i think she was probably happy to have the company for a little bit as well.
DeleteThis week, my time outside of class was spent entirely on renovating our show space and PAing on the music video shoot with Chris Strong and co. Monday-Wednesday. So if it’s alright, I would like to write about that experience because I learned a lot and had a bit of a moment of clarity whilst doing it. Things started off Monday night for a house party scene and some makeout shots on the porch.
ReplyDeleteIt’s worth mentioning the song I guess real quick (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OV0LJ0Dnl7A&feature=kp) Never Meant by American Football. What’s really cool is that they are getting together for a much anticipated reunion this summer and playing Pygmalion in Urbana, and this is kind of their best song so hopefully the video get’s viewed a bunch and I earn some much needed street cred.
Ok, party/makeout shots. The first thing I learned is to know your equipment/have it prepared and ready to go before arriving to set. It took a while to get this rig together, that’s all I’m sayin’. I was dancin’ around as an extra during the party scene, it was weird how hard I found it at first to not look at the camera. It was one thing this week that contributed to my appreciation for actors. Trying to act convincible and express authentic emotion is kind of impossible when you’ve got a guy with a big bulky camera 6 inches away from your face. Our main protagonist actor had some trouble with this at some times when I was shooting. In the record store, I tried to come in on him slowly and lower, blending in more with the tables and shelves of records. Another time I was alone in a bedroom with the two main actors shooting a delicate and romantic shot of them in bed. I was practically holding my breath, trying to disappear in order to allow their full authenticity. The need for direction and leadership on set is definitely important in this regard. Chris gave a lot of acting instructions and basically told the actors the narrative of what was going on in their characters’ lives. But he also knew when to not say anything to them and just let them discover the scene and work it out on their own, much like the bedroom scene. However, there is another bedroom scene where they are sitting on the floor going through 7 inch records in which Chris was giving direction the whole time whilst filming as well as telling me to move a candle or lighter slightly closer to Melody’s face (Their names were Max and Melody fwiw, I’m glad I remembered everyone’s name on set) to light her “perfectly”.
I have come to a sort of conclusion after this experience. I feel now like I have more direction and focus on what kind of photography I want to do than I did prior to the shoot. I rediscovered what made me fall in love with photography in the first place around seven year ago. The compelling and heart-breaking narratives capable of being told through images can put us into a trance, make us forget our reality and tie us up into feeling empathy with the characters portrayed. We live and die with these characters, and if they’re good we live and die harder than they do; the character lives and dies vicariously through us. An image can make you feel, despite the face that it’s just an image. Even from looking through the camera, I was already falling in love with the characters and projecting myself on to the protagonist. I was tied up in the humanity of it.