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UNDERGRADUATE LIBRARY

217.333.3477 | 1402 West Gregory | Urbana, IL 61801

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March 28, 2006

Rain Forest Visions

The Rainforest Visions Exhibit at the University's Spurlock Museum will go on until August 20, 2006.

In conjunction with this exhibit, a talk will be held on April 8th:
Soundscaping the World: The Cultural Poetics of Power and Meaning in Wakuénai Flute Music
by Jonathan Hill of Southern Illinois University

The talk will document and analyze two complementary processes of creating musical soundscapes among the Arawak-speaking Wakuénai of the Upper Rio Negro region in Venezuela. The first of these can be called ‘cultural soundscaping’ and is concerned with the creation of local identities through employing the power of mythic ancestors and primordial human beings to socialize animal nature. The second musical process of ‘natural soundscaping’ is a naturalizing of social being, or a production of ‘otherness,’ through movements of flute and trumpet players away from the socializing space of mythic ancestral power into more naturalized places of animals, deceased humans, and ‘other people.’

I will illustrate the first process, or ‘cultural soundscaping,’ through exploring ritual performances of the molitu flute in which men ‘speak’ to women in semi-lexical patterns of intonation and rhythm. The second process, or ‘natural soundscaping,’ will be demonstrated through attention to sacred rituals in which molitu flute players and groups of men playing waliaduwa flutes move into a more naturalized social space. I will also explore the use of flutes and trumpets played in pudali exchange ceremonies at the beginning of the long wet seasons as a collective movement of men and women into a naturalized social space. The talk will conclude by considering how these twin processes of ‘soundscaping’ are at the center of a recursive relation between the ecology of riverine fishing and horticultural peoples and forms of cultural creativity that supported the pre-contact expansions of long-distance trade relations and political alliances among Arawak-speaking peoples across vast areas of Lowland South America. These same processes of cultural creativity and ecological adaptability are at work in the ways that contemporary indigenous peoples are struggling to create new social identities with deep historical roots in contexts of modernity and globalizing national states of South America.

The Rain Forest Visions exhibition features the art and imagery of three indigenous peoples from the tropical rain forests of Central and South America: the Waounam of Panama and Colombia, the Canelos Quichua of Ecuador, and the Shipibo-Conibo of Peru. In addition to over 100 ceramic, wood, and vegetable-nut objects, the exhibition features song texts, rain forest photographs, photographs of native people at work, and more.

Sponsors: The Rain Forest Vision exhibit is curated by Dorothea S. Whitten and Norman Whitten and co-sponsored by The Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies through the auspices of the United States Department of Education Title VI Program. The exhibit is also supported by the Illinois Arts Council, a state agency.

For further information, contact Kim Sheahan at (217) 244-3355

For more information about Central & South American Rain Forests, check out these library materials:

"Women's voices from the rainforest"
by Janet Gabriel Townsend
location: Education Library 305.42098 T664w

"Green fires : assault on Eden : a novel of the Ecuadorian rainforest"
by Marnie Mueller
location: Main Stacks 813 M8872G

South America [map]
produced by the Cartographic Division, National Geographic Society
location: Map & Geography Library G5200 1992 .N3

El manejo indígena de la selva pluvial tropical : orientaciones para un desarrollo sostenido
by Benhur Cerón Solarte
location: Main Stacks 333.75098 C335M

Vanishing paradise : the tropical rainforest
photographed by Stephen Dalton and George Bernard ; written by Andrew Mitchell
location: Undergraduate Library Q. 574.52642098 D174V (has 2 copies)

Information about working groups, possible sites and available background information for the development of a Tropical Forest Biome study within the Analysis of Ecosystems Program of the US IBP
by Helmut Lieth
location: Natural History Library 574.98072 L536I

Die Wälder Südamerikas : Ökologie, Zusammensetzung und wirtschaftliche Bedeutung
by Kurt Hueck
location: Biology Library 582.16098 H87W (has 2 copies)

A matter of protecting and preserving tropical rain forests : Bonn advocates environment-friendly solutions
[Wolf-Dieter Michaeli]
location: Main Stacks Q. 333.7516 M582M

An introduction to tropical rain forests
by T. C. Whitmore
location: ACES Funk Library 574.52642 W599I

Posted by undergrad at 10:47 AM

March 16, 2006

Extreme Makeover in Progress

We're getting a facelift! In preparation for the new Learning Commons that is coming this Fall to the UGL, we are beginning to remodel the lower level of the Undergrad Library. You will notice many carrels being taken out to make room for our multimedia viewing booths and other things being done as the spring semester progresses.

We apologize in advance for any inconvenience this may cause - but we think you'll like the look of the new Learning Commons @ the Undergraduate Library when we're done.

Posted by undergrad at 2:16 PM

March 13, 2006

Mars Exploration Rover Mission

Mars Exploration Rover

In January of 2004, twin robotic explorers named Spirit and Opportunity landed on Mars. Expected to last for 90 days, the two rovers have now been exploring the martian surface for more than a year and a half. Their objective is to search for evidence of past water on Mars, and to determine if Mars ever had conditions that would have been suitable for life.

For more information about Mars Exploration, look for these library materials:

Located in the Undergrad Library

Mapping Mars : science, imagination and the birth of a world; by Oliver Morton
Call #: 523.43 M846m

The red planet Mars [videorecording].
Call #: DVD 523.43 R245 (located in the Media Closed Stacks collection)

The search for life on Mars; by Malcolm Walter
Call #: 574.999 W171s

Uncovering the secrets of the red planet : Mars; by Paul Raeburn
Call #: Q.523.43 R12u

Mission to Mars [videorecording] / Touchstone Pictures presents ; a Jacobson Company production ; a Brian de Palma film ; produced by Tom Jacobson ; story by Lowell Cannon and Jim Thomas & John Thomas ; screenplay by Jim Thomas & John Thomas and Graham Yost ; directed by Brian De Palma.
Call #: DVD 791.43615 M6912t (located in the Media Browsing collection)

Materials found in other libraries:

Mars : a tour of the human imagination; by Eric S. Rabkin
Location: Physics/Astronomy Library
Call #: 523.43 R113m

Marswalk One : first steps on a new planet; David J. Shayler, Andrew Salmon and Michael D. Shayler
Location: Grainger Engineering Library
Call #: 629.4553 Sh29m

Expedition Mars / Martin J.L. Turner
Location: Grainger Engineering Library
Call #: 629.4553 T855e

Martian expedition planning : proceedings of the Martian Expedition Planning Symposium of the British Interplanetary Society : held February 24, 2003, London, England, plus additional invited papers
Location: Grainger Engineering Library
Call #: 629.4 AA11A

Mapping Mars : science, imagination, and the birth of a world; by Oliver Morton
Location: Map & Geography Library
Call #: 523.43 M846m2002

Posted by undergrad at 7:26 PM