week #5 excerpts

Lincoln's Legal Career

Harrison:  A man from the library introduced the lecturer, Guy Fraker, and put in a lot of Lincoln humor. "Lincoln's birthday was eight score and six days ago." "Buy this postcard set, it will only set you back a Lincoln (aka $5)." I thought it was funny. Oh yes, it was also President's Day. Everyone in the room was a total Lincoln-phile. President's Day is like their Christmas.




   
 "Education Under Fire"
Film Screening and Discussion
Sponsored by Amnesty International

Alejandra:  There are at least 300,000 members of the Baha'i faith in Iran alone, so this sounds like a massive genocide that is waiting to happen (and somewhat already begun).  It is a common factor in genocides around the world.  Something bad is always around the corner when the teachers start to disappear.

  Critical Cultural Informatics:  Twitter and Black Discourse with Andre' Brock

(as part of Black Geek Week)

Hugh:  I wasn't expecting such a thorough and critical lecture when I walked in, but I'm sure glad it was. I felt smarter walking out of this one. Growing up in Chicago and in academia, these sort of multicultural, critical analysis of race in society isn't new to me but this one went a step further.  In some ways it was very academic, and Andre Brock acknowledges that in his talk: "This part is for my professors... so bear with me." And he also referenced some of the professors in the audience and what they would expect of him, tounge in cheek.

I learned that black populations use twitter more (percentage-wise of internet users by PEW) than white, and Brock claims that to be due to mobile phone ownership and use over desktop or laptop use.  Black users tend to have a more equal relationship to their followers (a 1:1 follower to following ratio).

He said, technology culturally embodies the beliefs and culture of its designers and engineers, which is interesting to me as a maker, because sometimes I battle with meaning or cultural value in my work – sometimes my work speaks for me, rather than me speaking through it – which I think is perhaps good evidence that my culture is speaking for me over any emotional voice.

He suggests, therefore that the interface of twitter, and the way that it is accessed lend itself to be adopted by those familiar with the texting format – any decent enough texting application will sort by date and user which is what twitter does as well. That being said, the twitter format introduces hashtags and @usernames, which functions as the basis for all contextualization in twitter conversation. Besides these context functions, the language of the text also offers a cultural hinting, for example, he provided "We don't eat no [food here]."  But besides this, twitter still functions on vague contexts for the most part – the hashtags tend to be short, abbreviated words referring to something very specific – which makes twitter a very private space, despite its openness.

"Race functions as the articulation of personal identities' oscillation between social structures and cultural representations."

Brock offers the word "signifyin'" as describing the way that words (in particular, idioms of ebonics) signify their context but also are playful, or acknowledging at its context at the same time. For example "Yo mama" or "ratchet," which I had never heard of before, but apparently signifies the dance "ratchet" and the dancers who dance it as well as "ratchet."

The Hashtag in use is a cultural acceptance of the idiom or signifier as performing a cultural call and response.

A guy in the audience asked a question about an online gaming platform that he (and I) frequent (League of Legends) which, like other online games was plagued with racist comments. But when the introduced a new system that allows players to reward each other for their friendliness or teamwork, the comments disappeared almost instantaneously  and was replaced by attacks on technological literacy. It is interesting then to observe that when users are suddenly responsible for their behavior as part of their public image, they are immediately self conscious or sent to the back of the conversation and become invisible.

Black Geek Week - Panel 2: Turning your Passion into a career

John Jennings, Kevin Grevioux, Terry Grant, Andre Block, LeSean Thomas

Selina: " I chose to go to this lecture for a couple of reasons... content-wise, I've always been very hopeful that I might eventually make a living out of my personal interests. What better way to get closer to that goal than to learn directly from people who have already accomplished that? "

"Overall I was very inspired by the stories of the panelists. I walked away with some advice that I'll probably keep with me forever. The things below were mentioned more than once and by more than one panelist.
Meet people that got to where you want to be.
Ask people doing what you want to do questions."   
 

Social Personality: Brown Bag Lecture with Kisha Jones.

Kelsey:  This week I attended a lecture at the psych building, which wasn't so much of a lecture as it was a battle between the speaker and her audience. It was a bit painful to watch.
Gino: Hi my little miners! How are you doing cause I wanna know? I have no idea what a brown bag lecture is, but I went to one. For me, I brought a brown bag in case I needed to throw up in it because I was so hungover. I hid incognito in the back of the class.  

week #4: excerpts

Marxism & the Interpretation of Culture at 25: 

Theories for the New Millennium(Symposium)

Bill:  So I am inside drinking the free coffee that was offered.  And i noticed the types of people who were there.  They seemed to be in 2 groups.  A) people who cared less about what they looked like and B) people who tried to care less about what they looked like. There was a good amount of tweed, ratty hair, polar fleece, clothing tags that were hanging out for some reason, and think plastic glasses... kinda like this ass:

blending into situations is my strongest attribute 

Downtown Champaign, The Art Theater:  "Bill W."

Wes:  

A man walks down to the front of the theater.

"Hello, welcome to the Art. My name is Aaron and I am the Director here."

he is met with...

"Hello Aaron."

It was quite funny.

Franklin's Ground Squirrel in Sangamon County, IL: 

Survey, Evaluation, & Habitat Management

Selina:  I never really realized that we had so many varieties of squirrel in the midwest. I'm not quite sure which species we have here in Champaign/Urbana, but the one covered in the presentation was Franklin's Ground Squirrel, or poliocitellus franklini.               Hugh:  Having started here at UIUC as an Urban Planning major, this talk reminded me heavily of the sort of environmental planning policies and research sampling methods that were part of our curriculum.  Like most research worlds, environmental research has a specific way of sampling, of tagging and enacting field work to acquire stable data to suggest possible ways of planning and land reform to help the sustainability of these animal populations.

 

Scandinavian Studies - Troy Storfjell, Pacific Lutheran University: "until the Sun Returns: Sami Cultural Resilience"

  Christian:  Rather than the external attachments, cultural belonging and significance is held in the acknowledgement of the internal, or the interior (a la Gaston Bachelard). It is in the conception of once belonging to a spatial area, a home, that manifests the potentiality for poems and poetic images (art). And are these not the internal objects we seek to attach ourselves?

 Alejandra:  The title of the lecture refers to a quote from a Sami proverb that says "The night is not so long that the day never comes".  Storfjell's lecture spoke about how the Sami are going through a dark period, but there is hope for the future.  He spoke of past and present forms of oppression towards the Sami, an indigenous group of people from the Arctic area.  Storfjell started off the lecture informing us that he was Sami himself, claiming that since he has a connection to the culture, he bears a responsibility to it.  This reminds me of what Linda said in critique on Tuesday in Senior Studio.  She mentioned that past minority students almost had an obligation to reference their heritage in their work because UIUC mainly consists of white kids from the suburbs.

4000 years for Choice-Heather Ault

Harrison:  I have been semi-attending the Office of Inclusion and Intercultural Relations "Lunch on Us" series for the past couple of years and what I have generally found is that they are current MFA or PhD candidates giving us a proposal of a theory they have. I generally do not learn much and then end up feeling like I am stealing food from the University. I steer clear of these lunches.
But "4000 Years for Choice" was a lunch and lecture made in heaven. I was so impressed.

Improving Dark Energy Measurements through a Detailed Understanding of Supernova Physics

by: Ryan Foley (Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics)

Mike B.:  Still feeling some lingering disillusionment from an identity crisis suffered the previous day, I turned onto Gregory Street driving five under the speed limit for no reason. "Shit," I verbally thought to myself upon realizing that I was early, considering with what haste I had scrambled myself together and rushed out the door to get here. So, I sat in my running car in a parking spot while Barbara Ann played over the True Oldies Channel with my head down scribbling in my pocket notebook. In one of the brief moments that I looked up I noticed how calm and secluded Gregory Street felt despite its location. Smiling and being reminded of the expansiveness of my hometown, (where from a bristled sanctuary of some unlabeled cul-de-sac one could, while remaining socially inert, observe the splendor of the populous moving about their daily lives, or the isolated neighborhood in Southeast Urbana that I used to bike to) I continued to write in my notebook. With nine minutes till the top of the hour I thought, "Will they let me take my coffee in?"

Hot Topics Dialogues
"Race, Gender, and Body Image in the Media"

Brianne:  the topic itself is something everyone has an opinion on but i feel like in order for this lecture to be more successful then they needed to go beyond what has already been talked about or encourage a healthier lifestyle to ensure a healthier you and outlook on life.Anne:   This event hit a somewhat personal level, I know people who have struggled with their own body image and I can’t really name anyone who hasn’t had an issue with their own body so recognizing that this was a very common thing was insightful.  Kelsey:  I arrived at this talk with high hopes for a god discussion on body image, but was sorely disappointed and quite frankly intimidated by the discussion.  The one redeeming quality of this lecture was when they briefly talked about body image in ways that i hadn't thought about before; i.e. how race affects body image.  Alex:  I went into the discussion thinking i would only be listening, not being able to have much input. To my surprise, there were many occasions that i was able to speak up and voice an opinion or share an experience  Monica:  I was drawn to this lecture because last year, I took a gender and women studies class, and it made me very aware of women in the media. As for my take on the situation, it seemed like a lot of Baloney Sausage  (BS!) to me! They never really discussed how to deal with this issues. Roshni:   It was a wonderful experience because everyone there seemed so welcoming and supportive when people were speaking about sensitive topics. Overall the discussion was highly informative, relevant and interesting.  

Molly:  Also, who gives a shit if someone wants to get plastic surgery, color their hair, wear makeup, change their gender, what have you. That's their decision and those decisions aren't always made because of the media. This seemed to be something these ladies were judgmental on. Maybe if people worried about themselves and not others so much, some of these issues wouldn't be such a big deal.   Side note, this ^^^ relates very much to the Boykin lecture I attended last week.... One oppressed group isn't any more oppressed than the next. We are all in the same boat, to an extent. So why not help each other rather than "one-up" our problems...  Carolina:  For the most part much of what was said was a bit of stating the obvious, but I do feel like sometimes reiterating something that one might assume is known by all can be useful in reassuring people in their own thoughts. I think that although we may hear about the body constantly, it should still be talked about because we are all struggling with this one way or another.  
 

Is it a man? 

Is it a woman?

... Do you care? 

See you next week!

MWUAH <3

Gino:  Body image is more than just people with an eating disorder. There are much more complex issues with body image, especially for transgendered folk. How can you tell someone to love their body when they feel they are born in the wrong one? This topic interests me because I try to change what society thinks is beautiful with my fashion and beauty photography. I don't exactly fit society's mold of a man and everything he needs to be. However, I am a man, and I like being a man. I don not want a sex change. Nonetheless, I do wear makeup and I do fashion. In the gay community, there are different categories of gays. Transexuals are individuals who have had the sex change. Transvestites are men who dress in women's clothing for sexual pleasure/fetish reasons. Drag queens are men who dress in women's clothes for performance purposes. I don't fit any of these categories. I'm a man who just likes to wear makeup and fashion. With my photography, I push the androgyny because I want to create a category for us men who like to dress this way just because that's how we want to dress/feel ourselves in. I know there are a lot of gays like me out there, and I know they are just as confused and don't know what to call themselves either. And if you don't have anyone to compare yourself to or call yourself to make your feel more "normal", that can lead to an identity crisis. If nobody creates this category, then I will!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Week #3: excerpts

"An Evening With Keith Boykin: A Celebration of Black LGBT History Month"

Harrison:  I recalled my work from junior year in which I questioned myself as a white man in the realm of 'diversity.' Was I allowed at this table of diversity if I had privilege in 3 or 4 realms? Was my sexuality enough to bump me enough to be "diverse?" This thought has continued to mold my work over the past couple of years and will probably always influence my work and everything I do. But I really connected with Boykin on this statement and how he thought it was relevant in today's society. We like to one-up each other by acting like we are worse-off, but if we are suffering, does it matter how much? 
Molly:  I think by taking a risk and doing what I wanted to do, not knowing what my future would hold (and still don't), I've learned a lot about myself and have found out I have the power to make my own decisions and don't have to listen to anyone else if I don't want to.   
Oh, and I just remembered, towards the end of his lecture he mentioned something that if you're doing something because you believe it's right, and a morally correct thing to do, it will make you feel good no matter what, and even if you're afraid that doesn't matter because the outcome will outweigh your fears. I found that to be pretty inspiring. 

Cameroon, Zimbabwe, Kuwait: 

The Transnational Trajectory of an African Literary Classic"

Bill:  It was a lecture about a book written in the former French colony Cameroon in 1952.  This book, "Une Vie de Boy" was written in French, and had some native African languages to illustrate the different levels of class that the characters occupy.  
This book was then translated into a play for an outdoor theater in Zambia by an Englishman.  The book then was changed to accommodate an audience, as well as get translated into English.  And then from there, the english play was then translated into a book written in Arabic by the Kuwaiti Department of Culture.   
   

FRENCH -- Dr. Samir Meghelli, Chancellor's Postdoctoral Fellow, Department of African American Studies: "Paris Is Still Burning: Rap, Race, and Riots in Postcolonial France"

Christian:  A short lecture, but worth while, a final point Dr. Meghelli made was the action of hip-hop in respect to change. Hip-hop is not the means to an end, it is merely the mediation, the representative of a culture signified. True action and change happens through policy-making for the immigrants of the Parisian ghettos, reintegration is not made through music videos, cunning lyricism does not provide sustenance. But it is through the attempt to rectify policy, distribute equality, question identity that hip-hop stirs change. "Does your picture taking feed the homeless?"

Dance at UIUC, Colwell Playhouse, KCPA

Metro: The other part of me is interested as an artist working in multiple media. I am extremely excited by what is going on with other creative art forms, especially on my campus. In addition to dance performances — and of course as many visual art galleries as I can get to — I attend many plays, engineering exhibitions, and just last week the Piano and Electronics music performance. I'm hoping to find even more creative events to attend to be inspired by and/or even start creative collaborations.

Miniature Mobile Robots Down to the Micron Scale

By: Professor Metin Sitti (Carnegie Mellon University) 

mike b.:  Before getting down to the micro/nano scale Sitti showed us some larger (but still small scale) robots that he and his colleagues had recently worked on. The first was a small, two actuator bot that contained a special synthesized material on its 'feet' allowing it to mimic the climbing ability of a gecko. In addition to being able to climb up walls, ceilings, and move laterally across them, the bot was able to carry a 100g payload in addition to its own body weight. The second robot was inspired by the Basilisk lizard and was able to move across the surface of water using static lift (repulsive surface tension). Finally the third bot was a flapping wing based flying robot, which conquered challenges of unsteady aerodynamic forces at high frequencies. 

Selina:  I just wanted to note that this was the first lecture I've attended for this course that the speaker had a laser pointer.

Annie Sprinkle, Ph.D.
EcoSexologist, Multi-media Artist, & Sex Worker Rights Activist

Seano:  This past week I attended a talk given by Annie Sprinkle, a sex educator, former pornographic actress, and ecosex pioneer. So I'm not holding you on the edge of your seat while you skim this entire post, I'll disclose now that she did in fact pull out her boobs at the end of the talk.

This may be the strangest thing I've ever blogged about...

Researching Companies

Courtney:  This week, I went to a Researching Companies workshop. I went into this workshop realizing I needed to learn how to learn more about companies other than looking at their website. At the business career fair, which I also attended, the goal was to talk t recruiters and make an impression on them so they would give you an interview for a future internship or job.

"Hi! I'm back this week in a pretty scarf. do you like it?  Great."

Gino:

 

Week #2: excerpts

 Men Engaging Feminism: Standing in Solidarity

Durell Callier, Doctoral Candidate

Educational Policy, Organization and Leadership

Animah:

I walked into this lecture thinking a speaker would give a general talk about men's involvement within feminism. However, I walked into an imitate space and witnessed a gay black male open his talk with a long poem that described his struggles as a black gay male and his up bringing that consisted of being surrounded by strong black women. 

Kelsey:

I've never really explored activist centered feminism, aside from attending the SlutWalk in Milwaukee and being a vocal pro-choice advocate. A lot of my lady friends are bra-burning feminists and we share a lot of dialogue about the subject, but I was curious to hear a male's opinion on what it means to be a feminist......

I'm glad I attended the lecture. I got more out of it than I expected to. 

Eurochannel Short Films Tour: Laugh in Europe

Six Short films

Molly:

It was actually started in Hungary, and the dance "hipi hopi" was a forbidden dance but there is footage of people performing the dance after they worked in the hemp fields harvesting, and were... well... they were high while doing this dance. The makers of this film compared the dance moves of the hipi hopi to hip hop dance moves that are currently being done, and they were basically identical.  They also presented the popular song by Sugar Hill Gang "Rapper's Delight" as the first hip hop song for the US. 

Blake Stimson: Love Anger Depression Abstraction

 
Bill:

So im in this tiny room, with a bunch of people that i think i know, but then think that they could jsut look like people i know because they were dressed so art uniform. (I am sure they were thinking the same about me.) And this weird smell is starting to congrigate with all the people.  Again, i am at an art lecture, on a wet winters day, and in a tiny room.  The room was a mixture of coffee, cigarettes, lentils, and dog... with some smug floating around too.  

"Flirting, Desire, and Masculinity"
Prof. Scott Kiesling, Dept. of Linguistics, Univ. of Pittsburgh

Allison:
The whole concept of a "bromance" is interesting, 

Alejandra:

Professor Kiesling has spent much of his time researching language and masculinity in a college fraternity (someone mentioned that he has some great writing on the word "dude" that he didn't talk about in this lecture).  
http://www.hulu.com/watch/309560  

 

Google@Illinois - Lightning Tech Talks & Luncheon/Dinner

Wes:  Today I went to the Google Tech Talk. I was given free pens, shirts, and pizza. And I deserve it all and more for sitting through what could only be described as a glorified show and tell of how awesome Google is and why we should all strive to work there.

I'm going to make a greater effort to find events that I really want to go to.

Monica:  At the end of the presentation, I go up to the first presenter, Peter, and talk to him about how he went through art to get to Google,

Elizabeth Ashford (St. Andrews)

limitations and potentiality of institutionalized moral duties

Christian:

The traditional model of general human rights violation identifies a singular agent or perpetrator and victim. A violation to any general positive duty (remember this is a duty that calls for action) can point fingers and place the blame on the perpetrator (that scumbag piece of shit). However, this relies on the premise of general positive duties as perfect (one that is universally acknowledged, as opposed to an imperfect duty which is one that is desired or subjective partially, Kantian duties) but they are not! General positive duties (universally acknowledged duties which a good person should act upon) are imperfect, it is dehumanizing to believe in perfect positive duties as "GENUINE" when a violation to these rights would constitute that one person owed another person anything.

GUEST ARTIST RECITAL: Jeri-Mae Astolfi, piano with electronics

Roshni:  She played 7 sound pieces that incorporated some outside media. Each music piece had different rhythms and exterior sounds. She had an assistant playing the electronic sounds that seemed to be prerecorded from other instances in time. The fixed media included sounds of burning wood, rushing water, colliding bamboo sticks, ribbiting frogs, and rapid rain drops. 
Metro:  It’s so interesting to think that music that sounds so disjointed is very deliberately scored.

Seano:  Video

Numinous flesh
Live electroacoustic music compositions by barry monroe, chris vaisvil

Hugh:

I attended two different electroacoustic concerts this week, thinking it would be interesting to compare these sort of events.

"The Iceman Cometh: Forgotten Pioneers of British Arctic Exploration

Selina:

During his lecture, Gillen Wood briefly mentioned two separate explorers who had histories with polar bears. I took note of their names so that I could look them up later.

Mike b:

Wood outlined how in the 1810's, more specifically 1815-1818, the coldest decade of the past millennium, that mysteriously a large portion of the northern pack ice of the continental ice shelf melted, opening up the prospects of finding the northwest passage.

Sikh Student Association (SSA) invites you to LOHRI NIGHT 2013! 

Puja:  Lohri is dedicated to the end of the winter season, and the ripening of harvested crops such as wheat and barley.

Courtney:  video 

                                         

Maxime Foerster, PhD French University of Michigan 2012: 

                                    "French Romanticism and the Rewriting of the Sexual Contract" 

Harrison:  It makes sense that revolution must be intimate, but devastatingly intimate?! The way Maxime talked about it he basically made it sound like you must throw away your life, possibly even die for revolution. I guess it makes sense after more thought but still... is the only way to have revolution by giving your entire self away to the cause?

Alejandra:  The actual lecture was about gender and power in French Romantic writings.  All the writings seemed to view the female mind as inferior, even the women.  Instead of finding power in being a woman, they claimed to have minds of men or have a separate gender which rejects femininity.  This bothered me since it did not come off as an attempt at feminism, but rather just women looking to find power by simply hating other women.  

"Monsters, Marijuana, and Milk" at the College of Veterinary Medicine.

 



Alex

We left feeling better about marijuana, worse about our red bull vodkas, indifferent towards cell phones, and apathetic towards plastic.