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W e l c o m e t o c a nV u s M a g a z i n e The name canVus represent s a blank ar tis t s canvus, and is a metaphor for your life - you are creating the content for your own canvus ever y day through your experiences in and out of school. Yo u C A N b e a n y t h i n g y o u w a n t t o b e . . . Yo u a r e n o t a l o n e o n y o u r j o u r n e y, y o u h a v e a l l o f U S b e s i d e y o u . . .
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Š Chilton Saint James School 2015
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Contents
Ye a r 9 Page 5
Ye a r 10 Digital Te c h n o l o g y Page 6
Level 1 P a g e 18
Level 2 Page 26
Ye a r 10 Visual Arts P a g e 11
Cover Story P a g e 14
Level 3 Page 32
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Introduction from the Editor I think Ashani’s article about ‘normality ’ is ver y relevant with the struggles many refugees around the world are going through dail y, in tr y ing to gain acceptance into new countries and cultures. Ashani talks about how society creates stereotypes and how we must stop making assumptions about people before we even get to know them.
This year has been huge for ‘ Chil ton pr ide ’, w i t h our @CSJPRIDE Instagram account growing and hit ting 400 likes!
This is true for many of us and it ’s a good reminder that we should take time to get to know who the real ‘Chilton’ girl is as well.
The social media sharing of things we do has shown another side to Chilton Saint James School and us, the Chilton girls.
There is no ‘normal’ in this day and age - no ‘normal’ teenager and definitely no ‘normal’ Chilton girl! They are a wonderful group of young women - take some time to get to know them through these pages.
I hope you enjoy this little book full of more of what us Chilton girls can do! #spreadthepride.
I hope more students will become involved in canVus next year and I look forward to seeing what the Chilton girls create next! Janie Tito D i g i t a l Te c h n o l o g y Te a c h e r
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Digital Media Captain
It has truely been a place for our pride to show and this is a great reason to spread it more. It has been ver y rewarding recording this years student events in little snapshots and q u i c k 10 s e co n d v i d e o s .
Shannon Wray Ye a r 13 S t u d e n t
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Contributors Anna Robertshawe
Ta t y a n a M a l a n
Elora Battah
McKenzie Skelton
Leigh Lauv
Lauren Wright
Yuwei Shen
Ashley Parkin
Amy O’Shannessy
Kiana McKinney
Zoe Keane
René Conradie
Ayshani Vallabh
Shannon Reid
G e o r g i a Ta p a r a
B r i t n e e Ta p a r a
Tilly Hoffman-Wall
Meg Brownlee
Britney Pitcher
Julia McGrath
Priya Naik
Olivia Jordan
Ashley Love
Eva Poland
Julia Shan
Lily Andrew
Lolo Owen
Chanelle Stringer
Vicki Huang
J a c i n t a To r r e s
Fiona Williams
Hannah Pou
Geneva Nightingale
Rhiannon Murkin
Holly Scotson
Gabrielle Wong
Kristy Freeman
Molly BrownellPuddick
Kate Meads Jade Bennett
Shinae McEvoy
Ashani Samarasinghe
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Year 9
Here students have explored the relationship between humans and technology through collage and digital montages.
Elora Battah
Anna Robertshawe
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.. . e r a s l r i g n o t l i Ch
e v i t a e r C Passion is one great for c e t h at u n l e a s h e s c r e a t i v i t y, b e c a u s e i f you’re p a s sionate about something, then you’re more willing to t ake r isks. Yo - y o M a
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Year 10
Leigh Lauv
I n t h e s e i m a g e s D i g i t a l Te c h n o l o g y s t u d e n t s h a v e u s e d Photoshop to design a personal montage.
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G e o r g i a Ta p a r a
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Original album covers using Photoshop layers and blending modes.
fman f o H y l l Ti
-Wall
Britne
y Pitc her
Priya Naik
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Love y e shl
Julia Shan
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Lolo Owen
In art we were asked to create a monochromatic oil painting of a scat tered placement of objects on a flat table with a limited palet te selection, which consisted of red, blue, yellow black and white. With these colours we had to create a colour theme of brown. We were able to learn different techniques to create the different browns. We focussed on the emphasis of tone and texture. By using this to paint it helped express the shadows and 3D effect. Lolo Owen
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Fiona Williams
Vicki Huang
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Geneva Nightingale
Holly Scotson
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Kristy Freeman
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Ima g i n e y o u w a l k i n t o a b a l l r o o m
filled with a thousand people. Polished, mahogany defend the floors while soft white drapes hug the glass walls. Iridescent rays of light fall seamlessl y, mir rored by the cr ystal chandelier strung up above. Sharp suits and gorgeous gowns blend together under the sof t hum of the blue jazz age. As soon as you step inside, you freeze. Sweet floral notes mingle on the tip of your nose with the thick indulgent scent of chocolate. Unbeknown to you, trays of the stuf f whizz past soon becoming faint whispers in the distance. Ins tinc ti vel y, you follow. A s you make your way through the crowd, vaguely following a flick of blonde hair and flashes of a bow tie and waist apron, you realise this place is filled with dancers. Acrobatically poised people fill your field of vision, a tall blond in a red dress to your right and a stunning brunette in midnight blue to your left. The minority in the room however were the doctors. No matter how many of them the world produced, time was never a luxur y they possessed. Impatient now, wine glass in hand, you sweep the room scoping out
ever y angle. Just as you register the overly-stressed smile and the gleam of a silver tray you bump straight into Jack; whose once white shirt is now rapidly becoming a crimson red. Embarrassed, you grab a napkin and dab the wine out of his silk woven Armani suit; mentally noting his Stanford alumni pin on the lapel. He waves your apologies aside smiling, reaching for his glasses in the breast pocket. Now seeing him in his entiret y, jaw - droppingl yhandsome is the thought that c o m e s t o m i n d , h o w e v e r, b e f o r e you can get a word out he gets a call and rushes off apologizing for his hectic work schedule.
Stereotypes over-ride logic Now tell me, is Jack a doctor or a d a n c e r? Statistically speaking, i f y o u a n d a b o u t 10 0 % o f t h e population had used common sense you’d realise that there is an overwhelmingly higher c h a n c e o f J a c k b e i n g a d a n c e r. B u t Stereotypes override logic. Instead of seeing individuality we see patterns and we make rules. All you had to see was his wealth, credentials and appearance for him to visually morph into a stethoscope wielding, l a b - c o a t w e a r i n g s c h o l a r. I n s t e a d of seeing individuality we see pat terns and we make rules. The entire world functions on this principle. Be it engineering, medicine, law or even the languages, we see patterns and we make rules. The problem though is when we use this theor y on each other; when we see a minority and de f ine t he major i t y. By definition stereotypes aren’t truthful in the least. The ox ford dictionar y itself believes them to be widely held and oversimplified
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2015 views about specific groups and people. So why do we perpetuate them as infallible truths? S e n i o r s o c i o l o g y l e c t u r e r, K e v i n Dew (Victoria University) stated that it was more rudimentar y than one might think. “Stereotyping is just one aspect of the system all human beings use for making quick decisions , we all classi f y, we all categorize.” He explained that, “Life being ver y complex, we of ten need to make decisions about how to respond to each type of situation and so we classif y situations according to our experiences, cultural understanding and social upbringing.” The dangerous underlying ef fect, h o w e v e r, is that people are exposed to only a tiny fraction of societ y, upon w hich to base their assumptions. But to us personally this small fragment is our entire world so if the patterns holds onto it, then we accept our rules as fact. Neurologically our assumptionmaking-tendencies occur in the front half of the brain. Imagine you’ve just been called to board your flight when you notice ahead of you, a group of seemingly ner vous Arabic men talking in hushed tones. Initially your brain undergoes multiple rapid amygdala cognitive, fear and emotional responses. This is the ears-ona l e r t , e y e s - s h a r p e n e d , h a i r- r a i s e d feeling of knowing something is w rong bu t not w hat or w hy.
“People are exposed to only a tiny fraction of society, upon which to base their assumptions” This fear processing response t h e n t r i g g e r s t h e Te m p o r a l L o b e which busily sorts through words, concepts and experiences to b a s e j u d g e m e n t s o n . Te r r o r i s t s ,
b o m b e r s , I s l a m i c m i l i t a n t s , 9 / 11 extremists are all horrific thoughts that unfairly come to mind. These prejudice references are then transferred to the Medial and Lateral Prefrontal Cor tex where ‘working memory’ or current thoughts are used to implement b e h a v i o u r. T h i s i s y o u h a s t i l y shuffling out of the line, deciding to board a different flight. The neural pathways in the brain are extremely well connected and this entire process occurs within the split second you see stimulus and decide how to react. A n d t h a t ’ s t h e p r o b l e m . Yo u ’ v e already decided there are suicide bombers on your plane before you set another foot forward, when in realit y these men could just be on holiday. Our undeniable need to slap labels on ever yone that comes into our sights is influenced by ever y thing imaginable. In a student sur vey the vast possibilities were narrowed down to the most influential; family values, the opinions of friends and cultural beliefs. The media, h o w e v e r, is the prevailing influence since - in this
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canVus day and age - when are we exempt f rom it s ’ manipulation? W here it was once a vehicle for freedom, the media now promotes difference for a profit margin. The idea of the ‘other’ sells and the more different, frightening or weak the ‘other’ is the higher the rewards.
“We need to get rid of the negative connotations of doing something ordinary.” Superficiality is the mantra of t h e m e d i a . T a k e M ā o r i p e o p l e for example. The media are astonishingly adept at portraying them as the jobless, tattoocovered, benef it-addic ted drunk s. Ye t j u s t i n 2 0 13 o v e r 3 6 , 0 0 0 Māori students declared having a Bachelor ’s degree, with Welling ton generating the highest propor tion. Gender stereotypes, h o w e v e r, suf fer the media’s choke hold. For decades women have evolved from household labourer to sex- objec t to the fashion fanatic while men are the infinitely strong, academically wise and emotional dormant. In an independent Welling ton s tud y, scientis t s were each gi ven applications for a position; half were headed with female names and the others with male ones. Regardless to the applications being identical, women consistently scored lower on competence and hire-abilit y and e ven got a lower s t ar t ing s alar y. This proves the immense effect of gender stereot ypes on the way society functions. The truly frightening thing though is that our kids have formulated these definite and entrenched stereot ypes by the age of five. “ Yo u c a n a s k a t o d d l e r, ” s a i d P r o f Dew, “and they ’ll tell you the things mum does and the type of things dad does.” Ever y moment of our lives exposes us to patterns in society and helps us fortif y our
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r ule s according l y. Innocent as it may be to classif y the smart, the rich and the athletic we seem to be numb to the realisation that societ y isn’t filled with replicas. Ye s , s o m e s t e r e o t y p e s c a n ‘ s o u n d ’ positive for example, Māori men are g reat at r ug by. B u t w hat happens to those that don’t fit this stereotype, the ones that can’t live up to the false expectations of who they should be and what they should do? Failure, shame, insecur it y, s adness and anger are but to name a few of the emotions that follow. One student even went as far as saying, “People make me feel ashamed of who I am.”
Kids have formulated these definite and entrenched stereotypes by the age of five Stereotypes are negative. Always. Be it the deprivation of opportunities or psychological consequences; there is nothing positive about sending people jumping off bridges, star ving t h e m s e l v e s a n d k i l l i n g o n e a n o t h e r. Stereotypes can lead to the most horrific crimes against innocents; no need to look any further than the police force in Baltimore.
2015 Classif ying is a social construct in itself, a way to deride people for being themselves, a way to insult ident i t y. Profe s s or De w e x plaine d that, “If you’re in a par ticular society being stereotypically discriminated against, you have different psycho-responses, for example, elevated aggression, a lack of self-control, the inabilit y to make rational decisions and even the fight or flight response might be more highly ac tivated.” People are undefinable. So the ver y idea of having a ‘norm’ is ridiculous. A y e a r 13 s t u d e n t s t r o n g l y a g r e e d with this exclaiming, “ We need to get rid of the negative connotations of doing s ome t hing ordinar y.”
J a c k ’ s g e n d e r, h i s e d u c a t i o n , wealth, demanding work, even his ownership of glasses put him in t he mus t- b e - a - doc tor c ategor y. We see pat terns and we make rules. It ’s inevitable, in fact it ’s biological.
Ye t w h e n h a s t h a t
ever stopped us? We need to give people the freedom to see patterns but also give them the opportunity to break the rules.
It ’s terrif ying to think imagination and ambition are slowly being sucked out of our kids, with the belief that they need to fit who they are into a box! Since when should difference be synonymous w i t h i n f e r i o r i t y? Pr o f e s s o r D e w suggested, “One way we can challenge stereot ypes is getting to know people we wouldn’t normally interact with…to push the limits of our stereot ypical assumptions.” Psychology professors at Massey Universit y also agree that selfawareness and conscious thought are important in countering the instinctive aspects. Another way we can shift the stereot ypical norms is to simply not believe the hype. People are never what they seem. We should always base any assumptions on fact and never forget to applaud the, “I didn’t expect that,” moments. We perpetuate stereot ypes and we ourselves are hurt by them. Society needs to understand that these assumptions are never a true portrayal. Our personality has vast depth and underlying qualities brains can never hope to detect at first glance.
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Level 1
I n D i g i t a l Te c h n o l o g y students programmed an original computer game. They then created marketing and adver tising for their games. Click here, or on the image, to see Kate Mead’s movie trailer for her game ‘ O c e a n R u n ’.
Ta t y a n a M a l a n
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McKenzie Skelton
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Ashley Parkin
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Kiana McKinney
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Shannon Reid
Using acr ylic and mixed media, students interpreted their own genre which had to include birds in some form.
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Lauren Wright
Kiana McKinney
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Ta t y a n a M a l a n
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B r i t n e e Ta p a r a
This is kinetic sculpture that explores the relationship between na t ure and te chnolog y. Watch the video by clicking here or on the image below.
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McKenzie Skelton
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Level 2
Meg Brownlee
Julia McGrath
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Olivia Jordan
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Eva Poland
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Lily Andrew
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Lily Andrew
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Julia McGrath
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Chanelle Stringer
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Level 3
Hannah Pou
J a c i n t a To r r e s
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These images by Rhiannon Murkin were inspired by the bombing of Hiroshima. The first image is a scene of Hiroshima af ter the bomb. The second is a bird on an operating table receiving ox ygen.
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The inspiration for my paintings was the direction of nature, how it is shaped and how humans interact with it. I want you to see the fine details of nature and its’ movement...
Gabrielle Wong
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The ‘ Smokers’ - based on my favourite movie, ‘Requiem for a Dream’. They are about the a voidance of realit y. Molly Brownell-Puddick
Level 3 Design students created a magazine spread for a f ic t ional comp any.
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Ashani Samarasinghe
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Shinae McIvoy
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