APRIL
MAY
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American urban photography is the subject of today’s Cities in Focus, a free symposium at Northwestern University. Five half-hour lectures on the history, sociology, technology, and practice of urban photography will be followed by open discussions. On the program are UIC professor Peter Bacon Hales; Northwestern lecturer Pamela Bannos; James Sanders, director of New York’s Center for Urban Experience; former Art Institute photography curator Colin Westerbeck; and Cooper Union professor Maren Stange, who’ll talk about photography and sociology on Chicago’s south side. It runs from 9:30 to 4:30 at the Block Museum of Art, 40 Arts Circle Dr. on the Evanston campus; call 847-491-4000 for more information.
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The availability of WiFi bandwidth downtown varies widely–several private companies and even public agencies charge for access, but hot spots in some plazas and parks are free. Some believe WiFi should be considered a public good–like streetlights–and thus always be available gratis. Today Jimm Dispensa of Friends of Downtown, Stelios Valavanis, of the IT company onShore, and Spiro Papadopoulos of ePrairie.com will have a conversation about how other cities have offered WiFi access for free, give some estimates of the costs involved, and discuss other ways Chicago could integrate the technology into city services. WiFi in Downtown Chicago runs from 12:15 to 1:15 PM in the Claudia Cassidy Theater at the Chicago Cultural Center, 78 E. Washington in Chicago. It’s free; call 773-744-6630.
