D O N ’T T O UC H ME
N O / C O N TAC T Issue No. 1
Photography: Shen Tan
CONTENTS...
Page 12 - Black holes to Buffalo by Charlie Floyd
Page 14 - Gilly Fewins explores the consequences of Subcultures
Page 24 - A comment on 21st century British dress by Gilly Fewins
Page 34 - ‘Why I can’t go to the bar with you for your birthday’ - a short story by By Lucille Rhys
Page 38 - Recollections of Alice Lander
NO/ C O N TAC T No Contact is a Biannual Journal - A product of London based, young creative souls www.nocontactmagazine.tumblr.com
Editor-In-Chief Gilly Fewins Editorial Assistant Charles Floyd Creative Director Gilly Fewins Graphic Designer Tessa Simpson Editorial Designer Gilly Fewins Picture Editors Shen Tan & Gilly Fewins Web Manager Gilly Fewins
Publisher The Printers Telephone: 01634 826687 The Printers 10 High Street Chatham Kent ME4 4EP
CONTRIBUTORS.... Shen Tan is a London born Graphic Design student at the University of Northampton. A talented photographer, he is rarely seen without his camera, taking particular interest in small, natural occurrences in everyday life. He regularly travels to different parts of England in search of new and interesting moments to photograph. His ability to capture interesting and thought provoking imagery is complemented by his talent to make his subjects appear in the most flattering light possible. Almost all his photography is naturally captured, displaying his keen eye for beauty and form. These images were taken in Newcastle and London during the early months of 2012. www.flickr.com/photos/shentan
Charlie Floyd is an Oxford born student of Fine Art at Central Saint Martins College of Arts and Design in London. With a particular interest in music and film, his multimedia artwork is intelligent and insightful, if not a little humorous at times (for example, a political spectrum of fruits). His writing is thoughtful, passionate, and his talent for pushing the reader to explore the topic at hand is undeniable. In his latest project he is designing a 3D London Tube map. www.charliefloyd.co.uk
Tessa Simpson is a Cheshire born, Graphic Design student at The Edinburgh College of Art. A talented illustrator, she always carries a moleskin and pen to draw when the mood strikes her. Her graphic design work is not only extremely diverse, but aesthetically stunning to look at. She enjoys photography in her spare time and is constantly on the look out for new inspiration. www.cargocollective.com/tessasimpson
Alice Lander is a Nottingham Born Creative Writer and Poet who currently lives in South London. She studied English and Creative Writing at Falmouth University, and enjoys writing about her personal experiences and emotions. She portrays love and lust with painful clarity due to her blunt and often heatbreaking words. Not one to hide away from matters of the heart, she writes about her daily turmoil, turning sometimes mundane activities into heart rendering, relatable experiences. www.strangetimeinmylife.blogspot.com
P h o t o g r a p hy : Gilly Fewins
Welcome to No Contact, a new biannual magazine devoted to young creative people with an interest in absolutely everything. Not one for limiting itself, No Contact aims to instill knowledge that provokes the reader to ponder and ultimately challenge the topics discussed, we incorporate thought provoking articles [MXL EVXMWXMG ÂEMV 4LSXSKVETL] GVIEXMZI [VMXMRK fashion and art are just a few of the artistic outlets we exhibit and illustrate throughout this publication. This launch issue, we focus on Subcultures as a whole: Are they good or bad? What is their relevance? Are they a contradiction of themselves? We’re looking at the everyday lives of millions of people across not only London, but also the whole of the U.K., and we’re asking, where do you belong? In the 21st century, capitalism is a huge part of our lives. We are becoming more and more material concerned. We all need the latest Iphone, the latest fashion, and a Starbucks to kick start our day; we cannot live without these items that are deemed necessities. It seems we cannot live any kind of wellinformed, active life without the use of the Internet. Social media has only recently taken SJJ MR XLI PEWX ÁZI ]IEVW ERH XLMW ]IEV *EGIFSSO With the intention of bringing the whole world is set to reach one billion users: a seventh of together, we are compromising the concept the world’s population. of the subculture. It doesn’t exist in the way it used to. They aren’t as well documented, or followed, as they were 40 years ago, everything moves too fast to grasp onto a concept and live your life by its rules. But then again, living your life by a set of rules doesn’t sound too appealing does it? It’s a question we all must ask ourselves, am I the type of person who is happy to take inspiration from a group of people because their life appeals to me, or am I the type of person who is going to like what I like, do what I want, and not concern myself with such trivial matters? You could ofcourse take that one step JYVXLIV ERH WE] ZIV] HIÁERXP] - VIJYWI XS HVIWW in that coat because that person wears it, or I refuse to buy a computer when its unnecessary, everything I need is out there in the world for me to explore, I’m not going to sit on my laptop and be told what that was like, I’m going to experience it myself.
Well… who are you? Gilly Fewins
Editor In Chief
FROM BLACK HOLES TO BUFFALO by Charlie Floyd
Subcultures are something we’re so used to in contemporary society. They help us deal with our lives, and act as a way of and coping with the crushing depression that is the human condition, by connecting us with a random group of people with which we somehow feel connected due to a list of arbitrary ‘shared interests’. 8LMW [ERX XS ÁX MR [MXL SXLIVW HVMZIW XLI general principle behind subcultures and countercultures. In this way the concept of a counter culture is intrinsically ironic. It represents the want to break away from society and be an ‘individual’ by forming a group of likeminded ‘individuals’ who are exactly the same as you. It is with this point that we begin our journey, this subcultural voyage if you will. So sit back, relax and prepare to have your values shaken to the very core... Why we do it no one seems to know but it has been endlessly speculated on; do what I hear you ask, why do we
form subcultures I respond - now this time keep up. The most rational answer may seem to be an evolutionary one; [I ÁRH TISTPI [MXL GSQQSR KSEPW MR order to better survive. The formation of subcultures being equated to a herd of buffalo congregating to save themselves from predators may seem perhaps incongruous. Let me remind you, dear reader, that the word niche exists in both an anthropological and ecological sense; something to ponder mayhap. Often these subcultural groups don’t explicitly exist until enough people with a common goal ‘huddle like buffalo’. Once these few people start this counter culture ball rolling and if it’s gathered enough people it becomes a self generative force. After a certain point, let’s call this the subculture event horizon, people are naturally sucked into this subculture. The group is big enough that people JIIP XLI RIIH XS ÁX MR XLI RSVQEXMZI WSGMEP MRÂYIRGI SJ XLI WYFGYPXYVI KEMRW the ability to overwhelm the individual. If the formed counterculture does not reach this point it will implode; of course
a subculture is not perpetually sustainable, as time moves on the culture stagnates and collapses regardless - we’ll call this subcultural singularity in keeping with the general relativity analogies previously used. The Tunnel Snakes are a perfect example of conformity within these subcultures. The Tunnel Snakes are an underground counterculture formed in the late 60s by Butch DeLoria. They all wore nearly identical personalised leather jackets and were known primarily for their invention of the catch-prhase “Tunnel Snakes Rule”. The sub-culture was relatively short lived, dying out soon after its creation in ’77 but in the short time it was active it had a massive impact on vault culture as a whole. 8LMW YRMÁIH GEXGL TLVEWI ERH VITIEXIH insignia seen on the identical jackets of Tunnel Snakes members showed conformity and homogeneity within subculture at its TIEO 8LMW [ERX XS ÁX MR HVSZI QER] TISTPI to join the Snakes and Butch DeLoria attempted to actively convert From Black Holes to Buffalo people, unlike most passive subcultures. The previous mention of Buffalo bring us nicely onto my next point on the origins of contemporary subcultures. Tribal cultures, such as the Native Americans (who hunted said buffalo), often painted themselves in a WTIGMÁG GSPSYV SJ [EVTEMRX [MXL EHHMXMSREP WTIGMÁG HIWMKRW MR XLIMV GPSXLMRK LIEHKIEV and totems to mark out which tribe they belonged to. In Medieval Europe, this use of clothing HIWMKRW ERH W]QFSPMWQ MRXIRWMÁIH because as armour became more and more encompassing of the body and more and more troops took part in chaotic and crowded battles; heraldic coats- of-arms, shield patterns, and banners became important W]QFSPMG MHIRXMÁIVW SJ [LMGL JIYHEP PSVH you served and represented and so whose WMHI ]SY [IVI SR MR XLI FEXXPIÁIPH /RMKLX errants and mercenaries in comparison wore no such symbols or colours, signifying their ‘up-for-grabs’ nature. This is the direct ancestor of the individual clothing stylisms of subcultures today;
just as adorning a certain symbol and colour back then marked you out as loyal to a certain group and leader, wearing the uniform associated with your subculture marks you out as a representative and a ‘loyal member’ of that subculture against all others, not be attempted to be recruited or messed with by another. -R XLMW [E] XLI VIMRZIRXMSR SJ XLI /IJÁ]IL as a hipster scarf is the proud and ultimate evolution of our ancestors spiritual facepaint and the paint on shields that would face forward courageously into war. So this fashion can clearly be seen to evolve from Medieval tradition in most respects, and the formation of a subculture itself seems to be an evolutionary one. Where though does that leave us, there is no way we can change our being. We are inherently social beings and care about what others think enough to form these cultures: will these subcultures continue to form? I don’t know. Where will we be in 50 years time? I don’t know that either, but if global warming’s got anything to do with it then we’ll probably be dead now won’t we. The future is something we cannot know, all I know is that subcultures exist today and don’t look as if they’re going anywhere. I think the moral of the story here is if you feel alone in the world then change your clothing, follow the examples of some TISTPI ]SY HSR¸X ORS[ XV] HIWTIVEXIP] XS ÁX in and remember above all that you are an individual, there is no one in the world like you, apart from all those other people who are exactly the same as you. After all this, we should take a brief moment to consider the purpose of a subculture and look back to those famous words that all subcultures are at their hearts trying to say for themselves: “Tunnel Snakes Rule!”
WE ARE Y O UNG By Gilly Fewins Over time, we as a nation are changing, but how is this affecting the younger generation? Photography By Shen Tan
The year is 1940, the Second World War is just starting, fathers
are at war, and mothers are working in factories. Families are surviving on rations. Children are educated until 14, and sent straight to work. There is the constant worry at hearing the air raid siren: it’s a dark time in the British economy, and real danger is only moments away. Yet still children run and play freely, as and when they want. Children as young as four, walk alone on the streets to get to school on a daily basis. Today the risk of war affecting us, the general public directly, is extremely low, in fact almost non-existent. But if you were to see a four year old walking alone on their way to school, the concern EQSRKWX QER] TEVIRXW [SYPH FI WMKRMÁGERX )ZIR EJXIV XLI [SVPH war, when my mother was aged 6, she would get the train from Oxshott, in Surrey, to Wimbledon everyday alone. That was 1959. It seems that as a nation, we have become more of a danger to ourselves. Of course you must take in to account the economic growth over the last 60 years, for example it is normal for a family to have 2 cars parked in their garage today, where very few families had such a luxury back then. Everything was much slower 60 years ago. But if you were to strip back the amount of cars in the country that are readily used, would you still send you’re four year old off to walk to school everyday with a kiss? I’m sure the majority of you would say no. The danger is no longer technology, its people. We are more guarded, more suspicious of each other, and many older members of the public, are either outraged at the younger generation, or they are scared of them. It has widely been publicised that the youth of today are rude and complacent with very few manners. Why is it that young people today are so disregarding of their elders? Did the end of the world war signal a rebellion?
You can trace such behaviour back to the end of the Second World War. Many children didn’t know who their fathers [IVI JSV XLI ÁVWX JI[ ]IEVW SJ XLIMV PMZIW MX MW YRHIVWXERHEFPI that having a stranger come into your home that you were told was your father, but you have no real connection to was a little disconcerting. Alas, children rejected such an idea ERH JSVKIH XLIMV S[R PMZIW [MXL PMXXPI MRÂYIRGI JVSQ XLIMV JEQMPMIW VEXLIV GLSSWMRK XS FI MRÂYIRGIH F] XLIMV TIIVW &YX MW XEOMRK MRÂYIRGI ERH EHZMGI JVSQ TISTPI ]SYV S[R age really advisable? They do not have the life experience to say how you should go about your life and how you will be successful. Grouping together with your friend’s sparked subcultures. Subcultures who were so adamant in their ways that any other forms of living could be seen as a threat. Making someone uncomfortable with rivalry in sub cultural forms leads to disagreements, which depending on LS[ HIÁERX MR ]SYV [E]W ]SY [IVI GSYPH PIEH XS ZMSPIRGI This form of behaviour has trickled through our children and children’s children, intensifying as we go. It wouldn’t be out of place to say that we are scared of subcultures. They are intimidating in many different ways. Urban gangs where knife culture is high risk and dangerous, for obvious reasons. But more mellow subcultures such as indie and punk are not thought of as violent. But none the less, they EVI MRXMQMHEXMRK 8LI] EVI KVSYTW XLEX EVI HIÁRIH F] WX]PI
There is a certain amount of pressure to dress a certain way to be accepted in such a society. They claim that style is about self-expression, but I think that’s absolutely false. It is about pressure to conform in a ‘non-conformist’ regime. If you were to dress in a hot pink rah-rah skirt to go to an indie gig, people would look at you as if you didn’t belong. What is rebellious about such behaviour? If you were to go out onto busy main high street today, you would see people from all walks of life, and you would notice, that the older generation do not feel the pressures that the younger generation do. You can genuinely see that they dress for themselves; there are no two people from the older generation that dress in almost exactly the same way. And although some may not consider what they wear stylish in anyway, they are the true individuals, they aren’t concerned with how to dress to impress others, they dress purely for themselves. That is due to the way they were FVSYKLX YT XLIMV TVIWWYVIW [IVI HMJJIVIRX XS SYVW MR WSQI [E]W XLIMV GSRGIVRW [IVI E PSX PIWW ÁGOPI In the younger generation if your hair isn’t right, you’re not someone to look up to. We are so focused on vanity, and vanity is such a powerful thing that it can have very dangerous consequences. It can spark eating disorders such as obesity and anorexia, self-harming, suicide, loss of jobs or family. The impact of vanity is hugely underestimated. You could blame it on magazines forging an idealistic view of men and women; you could blame it on the fashion industry itself for their views. But I do not think they are to blame. How could someone be made to feel inadequate by people they have never met, who they don’t know at all? They will never know you, so why would you feel intimidated? No, I believe the blame is much closer to home, it is our peers, our families, our employers, our enemies who put pressure on each other to dress a certain way, or act a certain way. When that pressure is put upon us so forcefully so close to LSQI MX GER FIGSQI SZIV[LIPQMRK MJ ]SY HSR¸X ÁX XLI FMPP 7YGL GSRWIUYIRGIW GER PIEH XS bitterness and antisocial behaviour, which is constantly manifesting itself in dangerous ways. We act out and enforce fear in others. Arming your children in the future with such qualities, does not protect them, it endangers them further. It’s a dangerous cycle, but who is going to end it?
THE 21 CENTURY st
. . . h ave yo u been keep in g up ? By Gilly Fewins Photography By Gilly Fewins
Photography By Gilly Fewins
T
o the outside world, the British population is known as very reserved and self-disciplined. But we are also known for our sense of humour, and we like to express it in many different ways: In the way we act, speak, dress, there are no limits to our eccentricity. That ofcourse has only increased over the years. From the 60’s MOD, the psychedellic 70’s to the punk 80’s, Britain embraces different cultures with a sense of humour and we do it in a very cult-like fashion. It is comparable to the massive following there is today for television shows such as the X Factor. =SY GER HIÁRI HMJJIVIRX HIGEHIW SJ the past with a particular subculture, as previously stated: 60’s was MOD, 70’s Hippy, 80’s Punk, 90’s Indie/Grunge. But after the millennium came, where did the subculture KS# ,S[ HS [I HIÁRI XLI REYKLXMIW# The last decade was dominated by technology. It was the era of the geek in many ways, (Although that didn’t exactly emulate throughout the fashion set). In the last decade alone we’ve seen the rise of the mobile phone, the internet, HD television, 3D movies and 3D live television, the MP3 player, MP4 player, the Ipad, a skateboard you can control with your mind, and even, a spray- on t shirt. But in this HIGEHI XLI SRI - WTIGMÁGEPP] KVI[ YT MR - WE[ no cult trend that lasted more than 2 seasons. Did the end of the 90’s signify the end of the notion of subculture? With all this growing technology speeding up our lives, have we become too fast to stick to one lifestyle?
That is exactly what I witness happening now. I see many people ‘culture-hopping’. Young people today are in a race against each other to succeed. We need to impress the right people in whatever way we can. Those people may be friends, family, potential employers, teachers. And each of those groups of people require different behaviour ERH WX]PI SJ HVIWW -R E [SVPH [LIVI E ÁVWX impression is crucial to success, we have to dress the part. In a woman’s wardrobe today, its not uncommon to have different pieces relating to a subculture from the past. A girl needs a ‘staple leather jacket’ to impress her friends with. She also needs a power suit to look professional in work. In a world where technology is speeding up our lives, we have to adjust to different circumstances. We no longer live a lifestyle where we dress for selfexpression. We dress to suit our lifestyle. We are our own chameleons, living in a post subculture world. Some of the things we [IEV QE] RSX XVYP] VIÂIGX [LS [I EVI EW people, but they are part of the life we have chosen for ourselves. We have prioritized a career or a family, and we dress for that purpose. And what’s wrong with that? Our dress is merely our costume, and in our own lives we all have many parts to play.
CREATIVE
WRITING
WHY I CAN’T GO TO THAT BAR WITH YOU FOR YOUR BIRTHDAY By Lucille Rhys
F
irst and foremost I have nothing to wear. Not a thing. All my clothes cling to me in the wrong places and I have thought before ‘if I wasn’t so grotesquely overweight then maybe these clothes might not be so YRÂEXXIVMRK¸ WS XLEX MW Q] ÁVWX LYVHPI - have nothing to wear. Secondly, I don’t really like any of the other people that are going to that bar for your birthday. There are maybe one or two I could XEPO XS MJ - LEH XS FYX - HIÁRMXIP] HS RSX want to speak to any of the others that are going. Unless Amy comes, then it might be okay. But I doubt she would be coming. So I don’t want to come because I hate your friends. Also, the bar itself. You know I like drinking and having fun, but that bar would never be a place I would choose to go on a Saturday night. It’s not that great. The drinks aren’t that delicious. The girls aren’t my type of girls. So I think I’d be better off if I stayed in and watched the RI[ WIVMIW SJ 8LI < *EGXSV %RH ÁREPP] the last time I went there I got told that I was in the ladies toilets (i.e., get out, you’re a man), and a stranger said my friend Michael ‘must be gay’. Plus, I kissed the most beautiful woman the last time I was there and I think if I went back I’d just be thinking about her, and want to leave. So this is why I can’t come to that bar with you for your birthday. I’m sorry, but I’m not coming.
I
walked down the road alone as I had often done before. No one had taken me down this road; I had always walked down it alone. I wondered why that was. I think because we had always been on the bus, LETT] MR XLI X[S WIEXW SR XLI XST ÂSSV SV GVEQTIH XSKIXLIV SR XLI FSXXSQ ÂSSV [MXL ]SYV LERH MR Q] hand and us whispering into each others necks things we had plucked up the courage to say the night before JSV XLI ÁVWX XMQI ERH XLIR EPPS[IH XS WE] SZIV ERH over again. We had only ever been down this road in the bus. But now I was walking down this road on my own, as always. I passed all of the things I had seen from our high up seats, us like the queens of the universe, again hand in hand on the top deck, Nas barber shop. The electric ballroom. Or whatever it is called. That huge, huge building which I think is a church but I am not sure, the big one with the pillars at the junction at the bottom of Brixton Hill and at the top of Brixton High Street. I saw it all new this time with my eyes, like I had before the last time I walked this journey alone. I wasn’t ashamed to say that the big building reminded me of the other one; with the crimson hair and the very striking eyes, and I didn’t feel bad for being reminded of her whilst simultaneously being reminded of the one that I had travelled in the bus with. It’s what happens, isn’t it? Things more on and things remind you of people. I can’t control the fact that whenever I arrive at Victoria station on the train from suburbia where I used to live that I think of the one that came from Lebanon, who had the ten day affair with me in front of everyone’s eyes but under all of their glares, a secret. No. We can’t help what we are reminded of. We are just reminded of things. I was on my way to collect something from the charity shop on the high-street, the big one next to the academy, so perfectly placed in Brixton. It wasn’t a trinket or an item of clothing; but part of my premier collection number one, the others I will tell you about later. I needed this piece of bone china from decades ago with la reine on it, le king - what’s French for king anyway? He was a king, old George. So I should know. But my collection has only just started to venture into that, all of those other royals. I had just started with the queen and then HRH the Duke of Cambridge, or Wills as everyone else calls him. Anyway, I was on my way there, to do that.
My walk was obviously staccatoed by all of the things I had mentioned before, what is French for king?, and how many times had we actually said I love you in that morning and how many times have we said it now and what does it really mean, and is it wrong to ask her how she loves me? Even though if she asked me the same question I wouldn’t have an answer. Other things, the crimson hair, the striking eyes, bloody frustration having to sit there next to her every day, wishing that they didn’t extend my notice period at work so I would be free to go off with my lovely, on car adventures to the coast or public transport adventures to the serpentine or the riverbanks further down the river than I usually go (Southbank), what about Big Ben or even further, Wandsworth Bridge Road, or that nice one near Chelsea that my dad used to live on in his houseboat where we saw Mary Portas at the pub and my dad said she was a horrible woman, you could tell from just looking at her. I was listening to Florence and the Machine as well, which probably isn’t some great feat of my personality, and blah blah blah, mainstream bullshit. But I don’t think so. She sings nice songs and they’re arranged nicely and they make me feel really happy but sad at the same time, like once I tried to explain to someone that happy feeling you get sometimes when you’re really sad. Anyway, she makes me feel like that, her songs I mean. I was listening to all of that and it wasn’t bad, it was the good kind of sad. And it made me happy because of everything that I related it to in my brain; going to see her with Lucie in the not to distant future, and the time I listened to it in my bedroom with the one from the beginning of all of this the bus one with the I love you’s. I picked up my trinket from the shop and thanked the lady inside; thank you for holding this for me, thank you for keeping it for me, thank you for the discount I saw you give me, mainly because the money I gave you didn’t match with the price on the ticket, and thank you for wishing me a nice day because I honestly wished you a nice day, you were a nice lady. Then I was off again, off on my merry way, delicately holding the mug in the newspaper in the plastic bag. It was my prize, almost, a prize for doing well and being good and a memento of having a happy day and a signal for the future despite it being from the past, but a view none the less of what was to come. I went off down the road, back towards my house, again walking the walk I had only ever walked on my own. And it was okay, it was a nice walk and as I climbed the hill again I thought of all the nice things; the cups of tea the two of us would share with that mug, and I was glad for all of it. By Alice Lander
March 2012