Arts London News Portfolio - Matteo Besana by Butcher's Hook

2 NEWS

artslondonnews.com Friday 25 October 2013

Doctors and MPs came together to discuss the future of legal highs at this year’s Battle of Ideas. The public debate was one of a series held over two days at the Barbican Theatre in London, and came two weeks after 17 year-old student Matt Ford suffered a heart attack caused by a legal high. Dr Owen Bowden-Jones, lead psychiatrist at the Club Drug Clinic and a key speaker at the event, described the availability of legal highs online as “a danger in itself”. He said: “Anyone can now go online in the safety of their home, with their credit card and the next day a psychoactive drug will pop through the letterbox. The postman is your dealer.” According to a report by the UK Centre for Social Justice, 73 new legal highs were introduced in Britain in 2012 and in the same period, 52 people died after taking legal substances. In 2011 a European Commission poll reported that the largest number of users of legal highs were in the UK. A UAL student spoke to ALN about her experience with a legal high called

E-scape: “It was pretty intense and I ended up feeling a bit hot and then I was sick, but after I threw up it was great. My friend bought them from a shop in Devon, real easy. They were so much cheaper than illegal drugs.” The majority of legal highs, officially known as psychoactive substances, come with no warnings on the packaging. Baroness Molly Meacher, a member of the All Party Parliamentary Group on Drug Policy Reform and panellist at the Barbican event, believes that people need to be educated before they consider taking such risks with drugs. “There will always be people who use drugs,” she said. “It is not about eliminating them; it is about trying to make sure that if people are going to take drugs, that they take the safer drugs.” This year two substances – known as NBOMe and Benzo Fury – were made illegal in the UK. In September, the European Commission proposed a new law to ban legal highs. The current law enables member states to ban a substance within two years, rather than the ten month period that has been suggested.

Content News............................. 2-5

Reviews.................... 18-21

News feature................. 7

BFI Film Festival, Tinder and the South Place Hotel

Feature........................ 8-9

Sports feature....... 22-23

Syria in pictures, by LCC’s Anders Birger

Skaters uniting to save the South Bank Undercroft

Profile............................11

Sports reports............. 24

ALN meet rising folk singer, Joel Baker

UAL’s football team struggle to find members

Feature................. 12-13 English Disco Lovers take on the English Defence League

Lifestyle.....................14-16 Taking on the new Rules of Dating and how snobbish are we about food?

Arts London Voices....17 Page 3 girls, love them or hate them?

Keep up-to-date with the newsroom on Instagram @artslondonnews

Contact Email your comments to aln.editorial@gmail.com or write to: The Editor, Arts London News, London College of Communication, Elephant & Castle, London SE1 6SB. Published by the London College of Communication, Elephant & Castle, London SE1 6SB. Printed by News International Newspapers, London E98 1TH. Arts London News is produced by students at the London College of Communication. Any claims or views expressed within the newspaper do not necessarily represent

the views of the London College of Communication or the University of the Arts, London. All rights reserved. This publication may not be reproduced or distributed in whole or in part form or medium without prior written permission other than in accordance with the terms of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988.

Andrew Keen, Ursula Martinez and Claire Fox (left to right) talking about privacy at the Battle of Ideas at the Barbican

Comment

Time to put Machivaelli in the attic?

n recent weeks national newspapers have reported on the murky relationship between several British universities and higher institutions in Uzbekistan, a nation widely condemned for his poor human rights record. The relationship has emerged from one of the secret cables filed by the US Embassy in Tashkent, the Uzbek capital in 2006 and later leaked by Wikileaks. This initiative was organised and sponsored by the British Council, through its “Inspire Programme” which aims to “create international opportunities in less open societies”. Human rights groups such as Human Rights Watch have accused this kind of partnerships of emboldening the Uzbek authorities in cracking down on independent civil society. Uzbekistan is of strategic importance in the so-called ‘war on terror’ and more specifically it is an essential supply line to Afghanistan. One of the universities involved in the programme was the University of the Arts London, specifically the London College of Fashion, which entered into a partnership with one the Uzbek universities aimed at developing design and marketing skills. Senior staff at the college were apparently unaware of the child and forced labour used to harvest cotton in the former Soviet nation. The college has confirmed to one of our reporters that it terminated this partnership last year, but I thought it would be interesting to use this story to do a brief analysis on the relationship between human rights and economic (or political) interests.

Photo by Aleksanolar Nikolov

Sarah Lafer s.lafer1@arts.ac.uk

Photo by Paolina Stadler

Drug danger fuels legal high debate

This is not the first time and surely it won’t be the last one, when ALN print editor Matteo Besana academic institutions like our university or the London School of Economics are caught with their hands in the cookie jar of repressive states where democracy and human rights are not the first concern of governments, if they are concerns at all. In 1532 Niccolò Machiavelli published The Prince, his never out-of-fashion political treaty, in which he defended the use of every means, moral or immoral to achieve a political aim. It is interesting that, in the 500 years since its publication, we are still following those principles set out by Machiavelli for how we conduct our political life, both internally and in the wider world. I am not naïve and I can see how in this case Uzbekistan is an essential supply line to a conflict zone like Afghanistan and why, for this reason, the British Council and the Foreign Office wanted to forge this link with the Uzbek government, which is a major natural gas producer But it wouldn’t be nice to finally put the cynicism of Machiavelli in the attic or at least try to do it? Universities have always been the cradle of our civilisation, therefore it is from them that we should expect the lead in these situations, and for once making human rights more of a priority than political or economical interests.

Matteo Besana m.besana1@arts.ac.uk

2 NEWS

artslondonnews.com Friday 01 November 2013

Photo by Rosa Hardaker

University of the Arts London is supporting a new campaign designed to tackle eating disorders among students. The charity BEAT says that without support, students affected by eating disorders can be forced to drop out of university. A survey of more than 200 such students showed that 18 per cent had to drop out of university due to their disorders, while 39 per cent had to

UAL offers a wide range of healthy food

take a break from their studies. Ken Ewings, Head of Counselling at UAL, says the university’s services help students tackle mental health problems: “We are aware of BEAT’s campaign to raise awareness of eating disorders in universities and we are fully supportive of it. “At UAL we have a health adviser who does a lot of work with students with eating disorders and refers them to specialist care when appropriate.” A spokesperson for BEAT said: “We know there are a number of risk factors when young people go to university such as moving away from home and living independently, academic pressures, making new friends. The average age for developing an eating disorder is 12-20 so this can be a very vulnerable time for some people. “The sooner someone gets the help, support and treatment they need, the more likely they are to make a full recovery. We are contacting universities and engaging with students to raise awareness and understand of these serious mental illnesses,” they added. The survey also shows that 69 per

Content News............................. 2-5

Arts London Voices....17

ALN’s meets controversial CSM student Clayton Pettet

UAL students voice their opinions on page three girls and what advice you’d give to UAL freshers

Feature........................ 8-9

Reviews.................... 18-19

Student accomodation prices sky rocket

Tinder, McQueen’s latest directing hit and London’s most unusual exhibition

News feature................. 7

Profile............................11 ALN meet up-and-coming soul/folk singer Joel Baker

Feature................. 12-13

Previews.................... 20 Alternative Halloweens and London’s only Surf festival

The English Disco Lovers take on the English Defence League

Sports feature....... 22-23

Lifestyle.....................14-16

Sports reports............. 24

Places to visit this week, the new dating rules and checking out the Other Club

A round up of the week’s fixtures of the UAL teams

Long live South Bank’s Undercroft skating park

Contact Email your comments to alneditorial@gmail.com or write to: The Editor, Arts London News, London College of Communication, Elephant & Castle, London SE1 6SB. Published by the London College of Communication, Elephant & Castle, London SE1 6SB. Printed by News International Newspapers, London E98 1TH. Arts London News is produced by students at the London College of Communication. Any claims or views expressed within the newspaper do not necessarily represent

cent had difficulty accessing treatment and 30 per cent had to wait more than 18 weeks to begin treatment with the NHS once they had been diagnosed. One UAL student told ALN that she received no help for her eating disorder until she returned home at the end of the year: “Although I did not drop out of university, my eating disorder definitely had an effect on my studies. I only just scraped a pass in my first year. “I did not actively seek out help from the university, it wasn’t until the summer when I went back home that I got the treatment I needed,” she said. Ewings believes that UAL is meeting demands for mental health advice: “We have a team of counsellors and mental health advisers who can also be approached by any student who is concerned about their eating behaviour. “One message we want to get across is the importance of students registering with a GP and talking to a health adviser.” You can find out more about the campaign on the BEAT website: www.b-eat.co.uk

One UAL student “only just scraped a pass” because of her eating disorder

Comment Debate over performance art enters virgin territory and makes headlines

elcome dear Arts London News Readers old and new ..! The printing press have re-started after the summer break, and the editorial team of Arts London News hope that the newspaper you are holding in your hands will keep you informed and entertained. Like any news organisation these days ALN publishes and distributes its content through a variety of media. Our website (www.artslondonnews.com) is updated every day with articles, videos and photographic galleries. You can also follow us on Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr and Instagram. This week, ALN brings you stories on two issues that we’re sure will stimulate discussion with your mates tonight or in the next few days. The first being the controversial decision by a Central Saint Martins student Clayton Pettet to lose his virginity with his male partner as part of an art performance in front of a 100-strong audience. Should we consider this as performance art? Or instead should we see it as another publicity stunt carried out to secure page after page of media coverage? Is it still valid, the idea of virginity portrayed as something special that we should lose in an intimate and private way? Or is it something of the past, and at the same time has lost its emotional attachment that it carried before?

Photo by Aleksandar Nikolov

Beau Bass b.bass1@arts.ac.uk

Photo by Rosa Hardaker

UAL backs effort to BEAT student eating disorders

Here at ALN we are ALN print editor Matteo Besana sure that his views will make you reflect on these questions and on what is art or a performance art. The second ‘hot potato’ is in the pocket of Russell Brand. In his cheeky Newsnight interview with Jeremy Paxman, the comedian and actor from Essex summed up the disillusion of the younger generation towards the political parties at Westminster. He also questioned the current democratic process as a whole – he sees it as something that does not really matter, because no matter whom you vote for, you will always get the same old faces under a different party banner doing the same things. His call for a revolution, both in method and in practise is something that needs addressing, because we as the younger part of society need to find new ways of re-engaging in the political process. It is not enough just to post something on Facebook, or Twitter to change the things in the direction that we want. If we really want this revolution it must involve real action and engagement. Unfortunately most ‘revolutionaries’ that I see today always have a keyboard or a smartphone at their fingers, but don’t have the willingness to go out and change things.

Matteo Besana m.besana1@arts.ac.uk

2 NEWS

artslondonnews.com Friday 08 November 2013

St a f f a n d s t u d e nt s a t L C F a n d CSM have spoken out against Karl Lagerfeld’s recent remark s on a French chat show that “no one wants to see curvy women on the catwalk”. The Frenc h association Pretty, Curvy, Sexy and Fine With It is taking legal action against the designer, accusing him of “defamator y and discriminatory comments”. “We’re fed up. Many young girls are insecure and hearing such comments is terrible for them,” Betty Aubriere, president of the association, told Agence France Presse. It is not the first time Lagerfeld’s opinions have upset women’s groups. Last year Chanel’s creative director said singer Adele was “a little too fat”. A comment he apologised for earlier this year: “I said that she was a little roundish; a little roundish is not fat… after that she lost eight kilos so I think the message was not that bad.” “Someone should wring Karl Largerfield’s scrawny neck for his treatment of Adele,” says Lorraine Gamman, professor in design studies at CSM. “Change is a slow revolution and fashion designers have a role to play in making change happen, but how do we motivate them when they are led

by some of the most prejudiced men in the world,” she added. Alessandro Francalanci, a thirdyear BA Fashion Print student at CSM, believes that the problem in fashion stems from designers focusing more on the clothes than the women who will be wearing them. Francalanci explains that some choose to design for tall thin models “almost to make the clothes fly and make the [model] underneath transparent…this choice is made for a reason, it gives more space to the garment”. He also believe that curves have a place on the catwalk but “it’s just a bit more rare”. Zoe Greening, final-year BA Fashion Contour at LCF, thinks more curvy models are needed on catwalk s, particularly for underwear shows. When designing lingerie, contour students at LCF are taught to make for the industry standards: bust size 34B and size 12 knickers. “When we’ve been given models they are generally size eights, and don’t have the breasts or bums to fill out lingerie. “Lingerie campaigns they use a very different type of model to fashion campaigns. Curvier girls obviously sell the product better than someone who has no cleavage.” Greening says.

Content News............................. 2-5 News feature.............. 6-7 LCC lecturer, Anders Birger, talks us through his Syria profile

Feature........................ 8-9

Arts London Voices....17 Paxman vs. Brand, who won the battle? Plus a sneak peak at ALN’s online video features

Reviews.................... 18-19

The weird and wonderful jobs students do for money

Wigwam and bam, sex tips for the ugly and Art from Down Under

Profile............................11

Previews.................... 20

Cyp Roy joins 2 Boys in a Boat for their Atlantic row

Fenech-Soler’s latest album

Feature................. 12-13 Class B’s for A grades students turning to drugs for study help.

Lifestyle.....................14-16

Sports feature....... 22-23 Charity benefit from football fans and have we inspired a new generation of boxers?

Sports reports............. 24 UAL’s shock early cup exit

Discover the lost music venues of London

Contact Email your comments to editor@artslondonnews.co.uk or write to: The Editor, Arts London News, London College of Communication, Elephant & Castle, London SE1 6SB. Published by the London College of Communication, Elephant & Castle, London SE1 6SB. Printed by News International Newspapers, London E98 1TH. Arts London News is produced by students at the London College of Communication. Any claims or views expressed within the newspaper do not necessarily represent

BA Fashion Contour gives students the opportunity to include plus-size designs in their final collection by offering extra tutorials on specialist techniques. “If we wanted to do a DD+ range for our final collection then [tutors] would give the extra lessons and help with pattern cutting,” says Greening. Design students at LCF and CSM are already beginning to change the shape of future fashion by including curvy models in BA end-of-year shows. A spokesperson for LCF said: “We believe diversity on the catwalks is a must and we know our students, as the future of the fashion industry, can be the force behind the necessary change. “We have had plus-sized models walk in our BA end-of-year show and we are currently in talks with a larger size retailer to launch a collaborative student project. These steps move us closer to a truly diverse and representative fashion industry.” Minister for Women and Equalities, Jo Swinson, thinks students using cur vy models in their BA and MA shows is a “great idea” adding “diversity makes fashion sense.” “The images we see in the world of fashion are all pretty much the same — it’s as if there’s only one way of being beautiful,” Swinson said.

Equalities Minister, Jo Swinson, with one of Debenhams’ new size 16 mannequins

Comment The dangers of reporting a war

elcome dear Arts London News readers to our second edition..! Before introducing our second edition, just allow me to thank you for your daily visits to our website (www.artslondonnews.com). Since the beginning of term, the number of page views has doubled compared to the same period last term and we in the newsroom are immensely proud. LCC’s Anders Birger and his photo reporting on the havoc caused by the Syrian conflict is our news feature this week. It is in the rubble of destroyed buildings, in the aftermath of bomb explosions that shatter entire neighbourhoods and tear apart entire communities, that a war correspondent operates. It is in these situations, in which it is often impossible to have clear cut ‘good guys’ and ‘bad guys’, that war correspondents gather the information that make their reports. The media coverage of war has been revolutionised by new technologies and the speed at which they operate. If the Arab Spring showed us the power of Twitter in organising a mass demonstration in a few hours, the Syrian conflict has shown us how, with a smartphone, the constant flow of video uploads now makes war more public than ever before. But with great possibilities come great responsibilities and great dangers. In the 70s, journalists would struggle to file a story to their newsroom in the heat of the battle, nowadays the real challenge is carefully selecting from this stream of videos and pictures the material that is most trustworthy. The Syrian conflict has been one of the first in which both sides have been active in creating a propaganda machine aimed at building up a certain narrative through the web, using various online platforms, creating a new ‘virtual’ battlefield. Despite more instruments available, several war correspondents have acknowledged the increasing risk compared to before, of walking into a battlefield and being chosen as a legitimate

Photo by Aleksandar Nikolov

Hollie Bracciale h.bracciale1@arts.ac.uk

Photo by Mary Clarke

Karl’s ‘curvy’ criticism condemned by LCF and CSM

target by those who consider journalists to be undermining their war effort (sometimes telling the truth is enough to do that). On the other hand, ALN print editor Matteo Besana several journalists who were ‘embedded’ with western armies in Afghanistan or Iraq, have questioned the validity of this technique as being ‘too cosy’ or ‘too close’ to be able to report impartially without the risk of breaking the sort of friendships that only risking your life shoulder-toshoulder can create. It is already nearly two years since the Sunday Times’ reporter Marie Colvin was killed while covering the battle in the Syrian city of Homs. Since her death, more than one hundred of her colleagues have met the same unfortunate fate. Often journalists report from areas that, even if not considered war zones, are as dangerous and deadly as real battlefields. The murder of Anna Politkovskaya, after her articles made uncomfortable reading for the elites in Moscow, is just one example of how journalists are often in danger despite them being in a democratic (or nearly democratic) state. These are sad and stark reminders of how, despite the dangers, their role is still essential in writing a true ‘first draft of history’ by filtering through the sea of information, videos and pictures and giving us the ones which do not serve a particular agenda. As Birger says to our reporter Laura Zapasnikaite: “You have to be as vulnerable as the people you are taking pictures of in order to produce good work. You can’t be in a healthier place than them, you have to be equal.”

Matteo Besana m.besana1@arts.ac.uk

2 NEWS

artslondonnews.com Friday 15 November 2013

Enterprise employment week for UAL LCC grad Rankin directs Miley Cyrus’ new video

Creative Enterprise Week helps students starting a career with job fairs and talks College of Fashion student shortlisted in the Creative Enterprise’s digital category. “ I think the Creative Enterprise week at UAL is incredibly important. It allows UAL students of different colleges to come together to discuss and critique each others ideas,” she said. “The guidance and teaching I have gained so far from industry professionals during Creative Enterprise week has been invaluable to my business.” A host of external creative companies will be on hand to suppor t the programme and give talks including The Design Trust, Art Wednesday and NatWest. Patricia van den Akker, director of The Design Trust, spoke positively of the event partnership: ”UAL and SEE

Content News............................. 2-5

Arts London Voices....17

News feature................. 7

Internships, do you love them or hate them?

Russians in London protest agains Putin’s anti-gay rule

Reviews.................... 18-19

Feature........................ 8-9 Grayson Perry

Whale abduction, Vienna’s darkside and Kill Your Darlings

Profile............................11

Previews.................... 20

CSM graduate, Kate Annis’, Great British Wool Campaign

Hot Tub Cinema dating, Flirtology and artist Kate Tempest

Feature................. 12-13

Sports feature....... 22-23

Cookisto - ordering homemade food from your neighbourhood

Snow special: Are you a skier or a skater?

Lifestyle.....................14-16 Detox; this week Arts List of things to do, plus where to go in Notting Hill

Sports reports............. 24 Who won what this week for UAL’s sport societies

offer so much more to both students and alumni on this front than many of the others. “This Creative Enterprise week is a great example with such a variety of speakers and topics. It is absolutely inspiring and will offer so much for those who want to learn. “For students it is a great way to dream and plan ahead. For alumni and others it’s a great way to stay in touch, network with other professionals, top up your learning and get inspired to do even better.” Creative Enterprise week is free to all UAL students, alumni and staff, and runs from November 18-22. The full week’s event schedule and where to booking can be found at: creativeenterpriseweek.com

Hollie Bracciale h.bracciale1@arts.ac.uk Former LCC graduate Rankin, has directed the new video for hip-hop artist Future, featuring a ‘naked’ Miley Cyrus. Rankin, who founded the monthly magazine Da zed & Confused wit h Jefferson Hack in 1992, directed the sci-fi romance video for Future’s song Real and True. Set in space, the video features Mr. Hudson and Future as astronauts landing on an unknown planet and finding life. Cyr us, first appears wearing a spacesuit that is soon shed, she lies on a clinical examination couch wearing nothing but glittering silver paint. Rankin is no stranger to photographing exposed body parts and creating provocative shoots, making him an ideal match to work with the ever–provocative Cyrus. The video shows a forbidden romance between alien Cyr us and Future, which is a focus in the song lyrics. “Trust me, you need this song in your life,” tweeted Rankin. “Real and True is the most beautiful song. Very proud to have worked on it with you [Future].” The fashion photographer has

previously worked with many artists including Nelly Furtado and Kelis, who appeared in her Rankin-directed video for Acapella wearing little more than gold body paint. In 2011 Rankin launched Collabor8te, a scheme to encourage creatives by working with film-makers to produce a range of films which feature on Rankin’s book , Da zed Digital, and website HungerTV.com He said: “Collabor8te creates opportunities for new talent to be discovered and helps those who may not otherwise have the chance to develop their ideas.” The video premiered online on Sunday on MT V America, af ter Miley Cyrus caused controversy by apparently smoking cannabis on stage at the MTV European Music Awards.

Cyrus plays a provocative alien

Comment

Missing the privacy point

LN this week tackles an issue that is with us every Remembrance Day: wearing a red poppy or not wearing it? This year the debate has been reignited after The University of London Union, the biggest s t u d e n t u n i o n i n E u ro p e , b a n n e d t h e i r o f f i c i a l s f ro m attending Sunday’s memorial service in an official capacity. The problem with the poppy is what we associate it to, and how we define our position by wearing one or not: Does wearing a poppy mean you side with those on the right who keep repeating the mantra that “honouring our war dead is part of our Britishness”, or vice versa that “wearing it makes you a war monger”? In what Jon Snow defined as “Poppy Fascism”, I think we see too much political correctness, in the sense that politicians and broadcasters wear poppies for weeks before Remembrance Day, but as Ian Birrell said in a recent column for The Guardian “it is much easier to wear a poppy than that to tackle the issues and problems of the armed forces” It is a similar story on the internet, where many people are ignoring the real issues raised by The Guardian, who, with the help of whistle-blower Edward Snowden, started to reveal the extent and power of the mass surveillance of the web by the American agency NSA and GCHQ, its British counterpart. From backdoor access to t he data stored by major US technological companies such as Google and Facebook, to the interception of data directly from fibre-optic cables that form the spine of the web, to the breach of the encryption code of our emails, the ‘Snowden spring’ keeps giving us more and more detail on the ability of the state to monitor the world’s major medium of communication. As part of the recognition of this role, in 2012, the United Nations’ Human Rights Council, recognised access to the web as a basic human right fundamental for individuals to “exercise

Photo by Aleksander Nikolov

A week-long programme of industry showcases and talks has been set up to equip University of the Arts London student s wit h t he skills needed to get ahead in the creative industries. Creative Enterprise week, starting on November 18, features more than 30 different talks across all colleges, including advice on how to juggle a day job and a creative career, selling pieces and how to start a career as an entrepreneur. Victoria Fabbri, events showcasing manager at Student Enter prise & Employability (SEE), told ALN: ”The event has attracted thousands of UAL students and alumni each year and features inspiring entrepreneurs, creative businesses and experts who share their stories and insider tips. “A l t h o u g h m a n y o f t e n t h i n k business and creative skills don’t go hand in hand, a higher proportion of people who have studied a creative discipline go on to start their own business or work for themselves.” UAL’s Creative Enterprise Awards ceremony will be attended by all student and staff candidates who were shortlisted. Natalie Grogan is a former Central Saint Martin’s and current London

Photo sourced by Aleksander Nikolov

Lauren Bridgeman l.bridgeman1@arts.ac.uk

their right to freedom and expression”. We are the first generation to be web native. We do our research on the web, we buy on the web, we read news on the web ALN print editor Matteo Besana and most impor tant ly everyone of us has a social media presence which, as the years go by, can only increase as the number of platforms increase. What we often do not consider is how our data, despite being nominally private, is, most of the time, in reality public. The embarrassing pictures that we shared when we were still at high school can, for example, end up on the screen of a potential employer with a simple Google search. What the whistleblowing stories of the web age are telling us is we really need to be part of the discussion. That was the primary objective of Snowden: just because the state has the capability to track and collect our data, emails or internet traffic it is right for it to do so? Or it would be better to limit that capability for the sake of what is now considered a basic human right? In the last week, I spoke with a veteran from Fleet Street and a classmate. Strikingly, despite a 40-odd year age difference they gave me the same reply in regard to this argument: “You wouldn’t expect privacy on the web would you?” Maybe is just naivety, but I think that instead of sharing on Instagram the latest scrambled eggs made on a lazy Sunday morning, we should be an active part of this discussion on which kind of web do we want, and which kind of privacy we would expect whilst using it. This ‘keyboard sleepwalking’ needs to change.

Matteo Besana m.besana1@arts.ac.uk

2 NEWS

artslondonnews.com Friday 22 November 2013

Johnson under pressure after sixth cyclist dies in two weeks

Children watch the scene where a cyclist was hit and killed on Nov 18

Content News............................. 2-5

Arts London Voices....17

News feature................. 7

Your opinions on lowering the age of consent

UAL alumni help out on the 50th anniversary of Doctor Who

Feature........................ 8-9 ALN catches up with LCC graduates to see what they’re getting up to

Reviews.................... 18-19 Syria exhibition, Barking in Essex play, I am Malala, plus Oscar Murillo

Previews.................... 20

Profile............................11

Institute of Contemporary Art exhibits British youth work

Holly Gilbert meets singer Gabrielle Aplin

Sports feature....... 22-23

Explore your mind with the use of lights

Taking on America: what happens when a British student goes state-side to play ‘soccer’.

Lifestyle.....................14-16

Sports reports............. 24

Changing Peckham - what happens when the money moves in?

A round up of this week’s sports results

Feature................. 12-13

sent an open letter to Boris Johnson calling on an urgent review of HGV safetly, including a suggestion that lorries be banned during peak periods. Hannah Roberts, education officer at the Student’s Union, said that students cycling close to the LCC and CSM campuses should be extra careful. “ Both Elephant and Castle and King’s Cross are awful places to cycle. Stay out of the way of lorries, buses and generally any vehicles turning left,” Roberts said. “Get yourself a decent pair of bike lights, some form of high-visibility and helmet, there is no harm in being extra vigilant, especially in times like these.” Valerie Shawcross, Chair of London’s Transport Committee, said: “I think we’ve heard a lot of speeches from Boris Johnson and what we need is action. Before he does anything which is eye-catchy, press-releasey, gimmicky and interesting. “He should do the bread and butter thing of making CS safe enough, because they are not at the moment.” You can consult the London Cycling Campaign website for further information on cycling events or e-mail cyclingprojects@lcc.org.uk

Photo by Paolina Stadler

Photo by Aleksandar Nikolov

UAL and London Cycling Campaign are advising student cyclists on safety after a sixth cyclist died on London’s roads in the space of two weeks. The deaths were named as ‘the worst cycling death toll in recent memory’ by campaigners who organised a Space for Cycling protest at Bow roundabout last week. Hundreds of outraged cyclists gathered to pay their respects to recent victims and to urge Boris Johnson to speed up temporary safety solutions. London by Cycle student events were announced on the day same day by the cycling campaign group; they will take the form of pop-up cafe style events on

December 3 at CSM, and later at LCF’s Mare Street campus. Students can take their bikes for maintenance check-ups; students considering cycling can try a free cycle run under supervision. The events will also include cycle talk, route planning and safety tips. Fourteen cyclists have died so far this year, the number of fatalities as in 2012. Three died on the Barclays Cycle Superhighway (CS), nine died in collisions with buses or heavy goods vehicles (HGV) which were identified as “killing machines” by Metropolitan Police in a message that warned cyclists to think carefully on London’s roads. Olympic goal medallist and world cycling champion Chris Boardman

A protest for Space for Cycling was staged at Bow last week

Comment

The broken ladder

n his essay The Lion and the Unicorn (1941) George Orwell expressed an intrinsic British obsession: “England is the most class-ridden country under the sun.” Social mobility is just one of the myriad ways in which our society expresses its concern for how our social classes are treated, which privileges do they have, how they compare to others and so on. In a nutshell, social mobility is the opportunity of having your education and occupation not decided by that of your parents. Often the more a society is able to offer its members the chance to climb the social ladder, the more it is equal. The latest headlines have been sparked by Sir John Major, who declared he is shocked by how: “Every single sphere of British influence, the upper echelons of power in 2013, are held overwhelmingly by the privately-educated or the affluent middle class.” David Cameron has praised the debate rekindled by the former Prime Minister and has confirmed his support for the cause: “We need a far more socially mobile country,” he said. Unfortunately, it seems to me that a series of decisions by his government have broken steps on the ladder instead of making it shorter. The first and the most important was the increase of university fees from £3,000 annually to £9,000, which had the direct consequence of trebling the amount of debt of many students who started their courses during or after 2012. Students who finish their degree in 2015 will find themselves stuck between a rock of more debt than their predecessors, and a hard place of knowing the better job opportunities are offered after a Masters degree. But will it be impossible to start one of these courses because of the high debt incurred as an undergraduate? The second broken step is connected with the previous point

Photo by Aleksandar Nikolov

Laura Zapasnikaite l.zapasnikaite1@arts.ac.uk

and it is t he lack of postgraduate financial support. I would like to see the government more bold and truthful in its plan to “help people get ALN Print Editor Matteo Besana up the social ladder” with financial plans modelled on the Student Finance system to help poorer students financing their Masters degree and as a direct help to get a better job. The final point is internships, and in particular unpaid internships. We welcome the crackdown by HMRC on employers who pay less than the minimum wage or nothing at all (as reported by our correspondent Talal Alhumaid in our edition of November 15). But as with the financing of postgraduate studies, they should go further with their proposals on how to make our work experience something that allows us to receive a decent wage even if it is just for a couple of weeks during the summer break. Otherwise, most of us will find ourselves having to choose between paying our rent or improving our CVs. We are entering the last 18 months of this Parliament and as always when the political parties smell a general election they start to make promises that will be almost impossible to fulfil. As student and recent graduates we will judge them on the basis of their policies in relation to our fees, our postgraduate financing and the crackdown on unpaid internships. It is not enough for politicians to just speak of “getting up the social ladder”, if their actions point to a complete different direction.

Matteo Besana m.besana1@arts.ac.uk

Arts London News | Jude Cowan Montague: Music, printing and prizes

14/07/2017, 11:09

Published on March 3, 2014 | by Matteo Besana

Jude Cowan Montague: Music, printing and prizes Arts London News meet Jude Cowan Montague, an artist who, after having completed her MA in Printmaking at Camberwell College of Arts in 2013, has just been awarded with the Gwen May RE Prize from the Royal Society of Painter-Printmakers.

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The Gwen May RE Prize is an award instituted by The Royal Society of PainterPrintmakers which funds two student winners £500 annually in order to support their development in the art of printmaking. The prize also gives the winners the possibility to showcase their art pieces at Bankside Gallery and at the Royal Academy London Original Print Fair, as a member of The Royal Society. As I begin to talk with Montague over a hot cup of tea, I’m struck by the amount of things in which she is interested in, from politics to music, to art and her love of animals, Montague is as eclectic as an artist

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Or click here to see the print archive. With interests ranging politics to music, to art and her love of animals, Montague is as eclectic as an artist gets. [Tom Setterﬁeld]

gets. Whilst we talk about the printmaking process, she pets her active Bedlington Terrier, Solly, which has been used as both an inspiration and a subject itself of Montague’s work, as she is keen to point out as soon as he comes to the kitchen door.

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“I’m fascinated by movements and I like to work quickly and capture manually animals in movement. I can stare for hours at animals looking at things and moving, I just ﬁnd it compelling,” she says. Improvisation Her living room is ﬁlled with music equipment that her and her boyfriend have amassed, as both are practising musicians. Montague cites playing the synthesisers and musical improvisation as being fundamental pillars of her work while in the workshop: “I am improvising to create my work, something that I do also when I play music.”

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Apart from being an artist, a musician and hosting a radio show on Resonance FM called The News Agent, where ‘news meets arts’, Montague also has a job as an archivist at the

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Arts London News | Jude Cowan Montague: Music, printing and prizes

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14/07/2017, 11:09

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As I look at a black piece of art work which won Montague this year’s prize, I ask her if she uses black to describe a feeling or a situation of sadness. “I wouldn’t say the black is dark, I would say it is more interesting. I’m sort of getting inside the feeling of the story, I just look at black and white as most people do. There is something very attractive about these opposites,” she replies. “I think it does set up an imaginative space, black and white, slightly far away, a bit diﬀerent from your normal world because our normal world is so full of colours and shades. The black and white seems to set up a bit of an alternative state for me,” Montague adds.

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Learning We live in an austerity economy, in which university and its higher costs have become a commodity, a luxury which often people cannot aﬀord anymore, so I ask her if it is worth doing a MA degree and whether it is something she would recommend.

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Her reply is quite reassuring: “I always wanted to go back to college and develop printmaking in particular, because I felt I had really unfinished business there. “I wouldn’t have done what I always wanted to do if I hadn’t done a master’s. I would never have the confidence to go into the studio and build my own style and way of working. It is not copying someone else; it might be influenced but it’s going to be my thing.” Montague added.

“I wouldn’t have done what I always wanted to do if I hadn’t done a master’s. I would never have the conﬁdence to go into the studio and build my own style and way of working.” Jude Cowan Montague

In the art world, there has always been the debate between explaining a piece whilst showcasing or giving less information to the people that come and see your work, so they can visually decide what the artwork may be.

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Interpretations Montague prefers for viewers to take a look at the art pieces and decide its meaning for themselves: “I like people to come at them [the works] and see what they want because there are hinted narratives in it and they are quite immersive. I like people to immerse in the sense of narrative and make up their own stories, which I think you do even if you don’t make a full story in the sense of beginning, middle and end. You still see a story and you have feeling about that.” The prize winning artworks are resting against the wall in elegant frames, which Montague tells me were handmade by herself and her boyfriend, becoming a part of the artwork itself. The glass functions as a mirror, for the buyer to see their reflection in, which also becomes a part of the piece and follows the tradition of Francis Bacon. As I prepare to leave after an extended chat with Montague, she becomes quite nostalgic in describing how radical London was when she first moved here in the early ’90s. She briefly explained how this community – which was so essential to her development as an artist, has been reduced to small groups across London which “will be very difficult to maintain”.

Tags: art, Award, Camberwell Colege of Arts, Gwen Mat RE Prize, Jude Cowan Montague

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Arts London News | The Growlers at the Macbeth

14/07/2017, 11:08

Published on November 13, 2013 | by Matteo Besana

The Growlers at the Macbeth

As I walk towards the Macbeth in Hoxton under classic London weather, in which the autumn is already showing some winter under its clothes, I ask myself why, why did I decide to leave the warm and comfort of my sofa?

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Why did I decide to leave it and go out on the day of the dead – or as the Mexicans call it ‘Dia de Muertos’ – to see the Growlers in this last-minute gig, organised by Bad Vibrations in collaboration with The Island. I mumble these questions to myself as I enter the venue with the wind blowing in my ears. The Growlers are the creators of a genre that they love to call “Beach Goth”; a mixture of ’60s music with heavy inﬂuence from western movies’ soundtracks and psychedelic sounds that make you feel in a spaghetti western reaching for your gun instead of your iPhone.

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The Growlers [ﬂickr: Kati Jenson]

As soon as I enter the venue I realise that I made the right choice: The Growlers are on ﬁre! You can feel the electricity they are spreading as you walk in, the crowd amassed around the stage. The singer is wearing a hat that makes him looks like a medieval magician, and I feel that we, as the crowd are part of this one-hour long drunk and happy sabbath that reaches its peak when they start playing the song Someday – the ﬁrst single from their latest album Hung at Heart that came out earlier this year. There are two types of bands. There are those whose sound is perfect on record, and that you cannot wait to go and see them live; but once you do they disappoint you with a performance that pales in comparison with what they you heard with your headphones on.

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And then there are those bands who sounds OK on record, and you go to see them live more out of curiosity and because you recognise a certain quality in the writing of the songs than because the album was ﬂawless. And when you are there you are blown away by the show they put on and the atmosphere that they are able to create live.

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Luckily for The Growlers they belong in the second category, so don’t miss the opportunity to go and see them when they are back in town again; whatever stands between you and their spaghetti western charm.

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Arts London News | The Growlers at the Macbeth

14/07/2017, 11:08

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The Growlers - "Someday" (O=cial Video)

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