DATE: April 8, 2006.

EVENT: The Walking Project evolved from a 1999 bike ride along paths through abandoned lots in Detroit and explores the” desire lines” or paths made by people who walk across fields in South Africa and across vacant lots in Detroit and what connects the two.

On April 8, The Walking Project will present the history of walking in a cross-disciplinary talk with noted historian and University of Michigan alumnus Joseph Amato and anthropologist Laura McLatchy. Amato, author of” On Foot: A History of Walking” looks at walking as a way to understand power and human relationships, past and present.” On Foot” shows how mechanical innovations have led to a society in which walking has become obsolete.

Amato, author of 15 books and an emeritus professor of history and rural and regional studies at Southwest Minnesota State University, says bipedal walking consumes about 35 percent less energy than ape-like knuckle walking. Scientists speculate that the extra energy gave early humans increased brain functions as well as freeing human hands to be used as tools. And he says the city streets of Medieval Europe could be so dangerous that Oxford University punished students twice as harshly for night walking as for shooting an arrow at a teacher.

MacLatchey is an associate professor of anthropology at U-M and associate research scientist for U-M’s Museum of Paleontology.

In conjunction with the various walking programs, the Michigan Union has mounted a display of program activities that will be exhibited through April 30. The Union is at 530 State St. in Ann Arbor. Phone: (734) 763-5750. Admission is free.

PLACE: The discussion will be at U-M’s Museum of Natural History at 1109 Geddes Ave. in Ann Arbor. Admission is free. For more information, call: (734) 763-6085. Campus map: http://www.umich.edu/news/Maps/ccamp.html

SPONSORS: The April 8 event is co-sponsored by U-M’s Arts at Michigan and will be facilitated by Walk & Squawk artistic directors Erika Block and Hilary Ramsden. For more information about the event, visit http://www.arts.umich.edu/.

Arts @ MichiganWalk & Squawk