Provided/Johnson Museum

The student-curated Johnson Museum exhibition “Materiality in Motion: The Vibrant Lives of Southeast Asian Textiles” highlights the social, cultural and historical information shown in works such as this rattan lampit, a ceremonial mat from South Sumatra.

Winds concert

Cornell’s wind ensembles, CU Winds, perform a free Senior Week outdoor concert Saturday, May 25, at 3 p.m. on the Arts Quad. Free and open to the public.

The concert features international and American music and Cornell songs from the ensembles and conductor Cynthia Johnston Turner.

Following a recent CU Winds tradition, an audience member will be invited to conduct the band.

In case of rain, the concert will take place in Barton Hall. Information: http://cuwinds.com

Paddle, zip away

Commencement is a beginning and a time to take a last look at your surroundings – paddle around Beebe Lake, for instance, or glide over the water at the Sackett Foot Bridge on a zip line.

Cornell Outdoor Education offers both activities Saturday, May 25. Instructors will be on hand, all equipment is provided and no experience is necessary. Space is limited; call 607-255-6183 to register.

Canoeists can book one-hour slots available on the hour from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.; the cost is $17 per person with advance registration, $20 on site.

Half-hour spots for the zip line are available from 11 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. The minimum age is 4 years old; the cost is $10 per person with advance registration, $12 on site.

Chorus capper

The Cornell University Chorus and Glee Club perform their annual Senior Week Concert under the direction of conductor John Rowehl, Saturday, May 25, at 8 p.m. in Bailey Hall.

In addition to selections from this year’s repertoire and Cornell songs, the program features the premiere of two pieces by Cornell composers Niccolo Athens and Zachary Wadsworth, commissioned by the choirs for Cornell’s 145th commencement and convocation ceremonies.

Tickets are $10, available at http://BaileyTickets.com and at the door. Information: 607-255-3396, http://www.gleeclub.com

Textile studies

Students in associate professor Kaja McGowan’s spring 2013 history of art seminar “Threads of Consequence” helped curate the current Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art exhibition “Materiality of Motion: The Vibrant Lives of Southeast Asian Textiles.”

The students selected textiles from South and Southeast Asia from the Johnson Museum’s permanent collection and other Cornell and privately held collections, under the supervision of McGowan and Ellen Avril, the museum’s chief curator and curator of Asian art.

The textiles in the exhibition, on display through Aug. 11, reflect themes of trade, movement and cosmology. Arab, Chinese, European and Indian design elements, culturally distinct motifs and exchange, transport and communication between earthly and spiritual domains are expressed in the region’s varied textile traditions – as well as the movement of people and things along the former silk and spice trade routes through mainland and island Southeast Asia.

The God Particle

Learn about the God Particle, also known as Higgs Boson, with Cornell physicist Peter Wittich at Science Cabaret, Tuesday, May 28, 7-8:30 p.m. at Lot 10, 112 S. Cayuga St., Ithaca. Free admission.

Wittich, an associate professor of physics in Cornell’s Laboratory for Elementary Particle Physics, was part of an international collaboration on the Compact Muon Solenoid experiment at the CERN Large Hadron Collider in Geneva, Switzerland, that announced the Higgs Boson discovery last July.

He will talk about his research, the importance of the discovery, and what, if anything, the particle can tell us about the fate of the universe.

Information: http://www.sciencecabaret.org/


Kant Society meeting

Cornell will host the biennial meeting of the North American Kant Society May 31-June 2, with sessions on all aspects of Kant’s philosophy; panels with authors and critics; keynote addresses and other events.

The meeting is co-sponsored by the Departments of Philosophy and German Studies, with support from the Institute for German Cultural Studies, the Program on Ethics and Public Life, the College of Arts and Sciences and the Central New York Humanities Corridor.

All sessions are free and open to the public. Information: www.kantpapers.org/naks