Glasgow University Magazine // 001 - Zeitgeist

zeitgeist, n. /’zʌɪtɡʌɪst/ the defining spirit or mood of a particular period of history as shown by the ideas and beliefs of the time a

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CONTENTS features 06 /when dating goes digital /a latte love

culture 10 /wild & kind

style 16 /editorial /(a)e(s)th(et)ics

politics 26 /1-O /merkel vs. may

science 30 /brain implants

creative writing 33 /the caterpillar /affirmation

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Writers

Models

Donna Salek Lauren Hamm John Sandblom Adam Khettabi Khadija Moustafa Katie Holden Charley Williamson Nina Mdwaba Photographers

Petronis Aronis Silvia Sani Rachel Shnapp Zaynah Ahmed Marina Lovato Kati Brunk Annegret Maja Fiedler Aike Jansen Graphic Design

Kati Brunk

Cover Photo

Silvia Sani

Editor-in-Chief

Erika Koljonen

Deputy Editor

CONTRIBUTORS

Pafan Amnuaysawasdi Joanna Ashby Emily Bright Luisa Hahn Lynsey Holmes Jen Hughes Aike Jansen Morgan Laing Elspeth Macintosh Flint James McDonald Kritika Narula Gabriel Rutherford Rachel Shnapp Mรณnica Vรกzquez Hannah West

Editorial Team

Rachel Shnapp

Features Editor

Morgan Laing

Culture Editor

Emma McKie

Style Editor

Aisling Klimke

Politics Editor

Reiss McInally

Science Editor

Joanna Ashby

Creative Writing Editor

Jennifer Constable

Online Editors

Berta Kardelyte Julia Rosner

Photo Editors

Silvia Sani Kati Brunk

Copy Editor

Kritika Narula

Style Assistant

Charlotte Dean

Events Managers

Alkmini Nikopoulou Ruari MacManus

FIND US /facebook Glasgow University Magazine /twitter @gumagazine /instagram @gumagazine /email editors@glasdowuniversitymagazine.co.uk /meetings Thursdays @ 18:00 Room 208 McIntyre Building

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EDITOR’S NOTE

Erika Koljonen Editor-in-Chief

As someone with a love for language and its ties to time, clearly ‘zeitgeist’ is a word I would be fond of. Adopted into the English vernacular from the Germans, its meaning is wholly dependent upon its context, and yet paradoxically always meaning same thing. The direct translation is ‘time spirit’ or ‘time mind’ – ergo, that which defines an era. Compare the zeitgeists of, say, the 90s and 50s. The word, in itself, is the same. Context, however?

Couldn’t be further apart. Only goes to show how powerful connotations and associations are in terms of language, whether personal or collective. We (or I, at least) could go on about the meaning of words and time for as long as people will let me (not very long), so before I get too carried away: Zeitgeist, GUM, and 2017.

As overused as the term is, ‘wokeness’ is definitely something I associate with the current epoch. The past months alone have shown a stratospheric increase in political and social awareness – the most recent example being, in spite of being long, long, overdue, the Harvey Weinstein scandal and the resulting acknowledgment of the victims’ voices.

This issue attempts to address that question of what now means – from our love of coffee shops and their relation to 1920s Paris, to what it is to live in Glasgow as an artist today.

Our politics contributors explore the spectacular mess that is our current political arena, through probing the recent elections and referendums in the UK, Germany, and Catalonia.

In our style section, Lynsay Holmes discusses the environmental responsibility of fast fashion, and we look at the way in which clothes can be simultaneously timeless and iconic, with Flint James McDonald’s collection showcasing the way in which our notions of gender and dress have transformed throughout the centuries – and how the past is reinterpreted in the present.

Our science editor, Joanna Ashby, takes us to Silicon Valley to talk to Matt Angle about his work with developing chip implants that could, hopefully, be used to restore sight, speech, and movement in patients who have lost them.

In our final pages, Jen Hughes’ poem Affirmation offers an insight into what it is to be a woman – human, actually – in a society that has created an industry through the shattering of our self-esteem.

The Caterpillar, on the other hand, is a haunting reflection on militarism and uniformity. ps. a massive thank you to everyone who has helped make this issue

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when dating goes digital When I first downloaded Tinder at the age of about 17, it was a relatively new concept. At the time I treated it as a joke, thinking that the trend would never last; it never occurred to me that people could actually meet and form a relationship with someone through this medium. And yet in 2014 – only two years following its release – Tinder ‘reported that it was processing two billion swipes and generating twelve million matches a day’, according to Aziz Ansari in his book Modern Romance.

Tinder and apps like it have now become a worldwide trend in dating, and have revolutionised the entire practice in countless ways.

Upon Googling the phrase ‘modern dating online’, one can expect to find a huge number of articles and webpages explaining ‘the rules of modern dating’, or ‘the dos and don’ts of dating online’, suggesting that online dating has already become its own culture with its own set of rules and guidelines – implying that there is a ‘right’ and ‘wrong’ way to date online, which, for a relatively new phenomenon, is something truly remarkable. Furthermore, it isn’t just young people and university students who are using these dating apps; in a Guardian article titled ‘Love me Tinder’, tales were taken from those over the age of 25. This just goes to show the universality of Tinder dating.

The part that surprised me most, however, was the number of people I had heard of – within only a few years of this phenomenon taking 6

off – who had met long-term partners through apps or online dating sites.

That was when it sank in: this is how people date now. John Cacioppo, a psychologist at the University of Chicago, reported that from 2005 to 2012, ‘more than a third of couples who got married in the United States met through an online dating site’ (in Modern Romance, Aziz Ansari). This is a startling number, considering Match.com – one of the earliest founded online dating sites – was only founded in 1995.

But could this be because the way we like to communicate with those around us is changing? Out of the friends I asked, the answer to how they like to meet or speak to people was overwhelmingly online, rather than being set up on a ‘blind date’

or even calling someone over the phone to talk to them. In a focus group conducted by Aziz Ansari, the comedian found that young men and women were often terrified of calling someone over the phone, and – while this would have been the predominant way to contact someone when my parents were my age – this has become a scary concept now that we have the option to hide behind the safety of our phone screens.

This offers some interesting food for thought: has the online revolution of dating changed the way we form relationships? Or are we still capable, deep down, of meeting people the good old-fashioned way? Before now, the key way to meet people outside of your immediate friends and family was through going out,

joining a team, or going to church, but now going online has become one of the most prominent ways to meet a new partner. However, this also means that, rather than having a small network of connections around you, you’re making new bonds with people you may never have met otherwise – the potential is endless.

Since actually researching this new form of dating, which I admittedly was rather dismissive of to begin with, my eyes have been opened to how many people actually use this medium as a way of forming legitimate relationships with others.

This makes me think that this way of dating in 2017 is not just a social phase, but something that has been evolving for a long time and will continue to do so. The online dating scene has truly changed the ways in which we choose to communicate with one another, and how we approach modern relationships.

by Hannah West Photos: Zaynah Ahmed Models: Adam Khettabi and Khadija Moustafa are a real couple who met on Tinder

A Latte In 2017, coffee shops are very heavily embedded in our culture. Although some would argue that this twenty-first century coffee shop ubiquity isn’t necessarily positive, but, for some of us, coffee shop culture can be a good thing. A great thing, even.

Here’s why: There is a photo of me and my brother kept somewhere between the heavy pages of a photo album. We are sitting on big chairs; white mugs in our hands, the light diffused and warm because it’s late at night. My brother is six years old, I’m eight, and we’re in a Starbucks somewhere on the West Coast of the US, where my family was living for eight months. The Starbucks – that hadn’t made its way to Europe, or at least not the Netherlands to the same degree as it has now – was always open late. There we sat together with students and businesspeople and others in need of a late night dose of caffeine. Or just a place to work or chat that was friendly and cosy.

Conventionally, a coffee shop is more a place for the daytime, and a pub or bar the place to hang out at night.

Yet a coffee shop open into the night is the best place to be.

Rather than a loud, rowdy environment where you have to raise your voice to make yourself heard and where it seems like everyone is trying to Be Someone, cafes are quiet and effortless. Maybe it’s very exemplary of our individualistic society that we’d rather connect with friends online on our laptop in a coffee shop than have conversations with strangers in a bar (or maybe it’s just for the insta-likes) but I like it.

While the Starbucks was very exciting and very American™ for me as a child - the sour taste I now associate with warmongering Land of the Free not having developed yet - my favourite places to hang out were independent coffee shops. They’re still the places I look forward to visiting most if I’m on holiday or on a day trip to a city.

Of course, museums, castles, and other monuments are exciting to see too, but the spirit of a city is, I think, best experienced in a coffee shop. Ordering a coffee and a sweet treat – especially if you’ve picked up some vocabulary and are able to do it in the country’s language – the barista could easily take you for a resident rather than a tourist. I like this pretence - imagining that I do indeed live here, 8

around the corner from this cute coffee shop in Stockholm or Dublin or Naples or Vienna.

This is especially the case in independent coffee shops, where, in my opinion, there is a personal connection between regular costumers and members of staff. Where chains like Starbucks generally feel soulless and the same wherever you are, owners from independent coffee shops have often poured their heart into them. They have personality, and can be perfect destinations for exploring neighbourhoods in the city you inhabit. Additionally, you know that the money you pay for your flat white does not end up in the pocket of some tax-dodging executive somewhere.

I once read that the café culture in France – especially Paris – developed because apartments were so tiny people had to go out on the street and into coffee shops to meet each other, chat about philosophical ideas, write, or read. Except for the need to buy something, I like coffee shops for being semipublic spaces with few rules. Everyone is welcome, and thus many different people come together – families on a day out, neighbours, students, office workers, or professors on their break. The coffee shop sits somewhere between a busy public space and the privacy of your home, and I think this is the perfect environment to work or relax. Personally, I find myself most inspired or productive when I’m in a coffee shop. Words flow easily, stimulated by the conversations around me or the people I see walking past, and essay writing is a lot less dreadful being around people, listening to excellent music, and with a good dose of caffeine nearby.

I’ll have another cappuccino please, thank you.

e Love

by Aike Jansen Photo: Kati Brunk a

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by Emily Bright Photos: Aike Jansen

I recently went to visit Megan Ansdell from the Wild and Kind Studio, and very quickly her little piece of creative heaven became my new happy place.

This could purely be due to Onk Onk, the adorable pug and official studio mascot who met me on arrival, but I like to think that the feminist artwork and the organisation’s radical ethos also had something to do with it.

About a year ago, Megan joined her childhood friend Trudi Lang to work on creating a space where they could work collaboratively and help local artists to affordably display and sell their work. Teaming up with the Glasgow Collective, they established Wild and Kind – an ethical, creative studio where people can come together to collaborate and empower one another. Ordinarily, establishing yourself as an artist requires extensive amounts of time and money, with the majority of professionals not receiving the recognition or payment they deserve. The ladies at Wild and Kind were determined to break this industry standard by ensuring that everyone who works on a product receives a fair cut of the profit. They also run a pop-up shop at the front of their store; it is free for artists, bakers, dancers, hat makers, any creatives under the sun, to use this space to display and sell their work.

The art Wild and Kind produces is geared at promoting intersectional feminism, body positivity and mental health awareness – if you couldn’t tell, their goal is to empower everyone and anyone, and as much as possible. Megan, or as she is better known in the world of embroidery, ‘eversoevergreen’, specialises in creating patches. She fondly refers

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to the first patch she ever made as ‘Sassy Sally’ – Sally being a skeleton with the words: ‘My body, my choice’ emblazoned beside her. From this point on, Megan has been involved in the creation of everything from ‘you got your first period’ cards to ‘not your babe’ t-shirts, all of which can be found on their online store.

Wild and Kind is focused upon giving back to their community, and one way they do this is by running fortnightly crafting workshops. These meetings are female only, sober, and completely free, with recent projects including making zines, stickers, and cards. Megan aptly describes them as ‘alternative nights out in a group where there is unspoken acceptance.’

This laid-back atmosphere particularly attracts young women suffering from social anxiety, or those who are simply looking for a non-intensive welcoming place to socialise and be creative.

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This focus on empowerment and inclusion extends beyond the studio’s artists and members of their community to all living things involved in their creation process.

They have gone to great lengths to ensure that all the materials they use are cruelty free, whether this means blacklisting a company that uses factories in developing countries for cheap labour, or not using an art supply because it is tested on animals.

So, how does this non-commercial, ethically focused, communityempowering art studio reflect the zeitgeist of our time? I’ll admit, I was cynical; surely the reason I was writing about Wild and Kind is because they are an anomalistic oasis of independent artistic bliss in an otherwise commercialised world, right? When I asked Megan whether her studio represented ‘the spirit of the now’ she didn’t skip a beat before saying yes, stating that her little corner of creative freedom could not have existed a few years ago. ‘‘Now is the uprising, people are coming together and saying: ‘this person did it, I can do it too.” She believes that in this day and age people are at long last redefining what it means to succeed: “success doesn’t mean having a nine-to-five job, being married, and owning a house anymore. I think success is now defined by how much you’re able to be yourself.’’

So there you have it folks, I have officially found the coolest art studio in Glasgow. If you want to be part of this ultimate all-girl crafting group, have a read of the Safe Space Policy on their website, and get involved!

Wild & Kind Studios website where you can view their artwork and workshop info: https://wild-and-kind.myshopify.com Instagram @wildandkindstudios Trudi Lang @halfstitchbitch Megan Ansdell @eversoevergreen Onk Onk @whatsonkonkdoingtoday

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Can you imagine how prosperous Glasgow was during the industrial revolution?

Claiming itself as ‘the Second City of the British Empire’, at that time Glasgow was the centre of the coal and iron industries – namely railway locomotives and shipbuilding. The city was crowded with thousands of Scottish and immigrant labourers who headed to Glasgow in search of a higher salary and a better life. All this, thanks in part to the invention of the steam engine, helped increase productivity and revolutionised Glasgow, transforming it from an agricultural society into one of the most important industrial cities in the world.

In Autumn 2016, I had the chance to meet Supapong, a student at GSA doing a Masters in Fine Art, and assisted his alternative painting. Supapong, with a large black portfolio in his hand, walked along Clydeside to Glasgow Green every morning for a month to dip thirty pieces of paper into the river. “[The] River Clyde has played a potential role on the city’s economic growth. As in the wellknown Glaswegian saying, 'Glasgow made the Clyde and the Clyde made Glasgow.' However, after World War Two, the industries collapsed due to cheaper labour and lower manufacturing costs offered among new economic superpower countries such as Japan. The river Clyde was highly polluted and largely forgotten since then. Therefore, I want my artwork to capture a moment of the river, which could represent a period in Glasgow’s history when the city flourished and [subsequently] degenerated like the river flow that had passed and never returned.”

We arrived at Glasgow Green, a public park located close to the river bank, which is presumed to be the place where James Watt had a 'eureka' moment for his steam engine. Supapong picked a piece of drawing paper from his portfolio and used his hand-made tool to lower it into the water. The paper started to absorb some colours and stained, as if it was painted in watercolour by the river. Supapong informed me that some of his papers were dirty and bent because of strong tides and wind; however, he retained them because they are impermanent materials that could reflect the temporal uncertainty of the city.

“I have been growing up in Thailand, a country where Buddhism is the national religion.

Thai people including me are always reminded by the Buddhist principle to think about ‘the impermanence’ in every step of our lives. We are taught that nothing in the world lasts forever; they have their own cycle of rise and fall. This principle came to my mind when I researched on Glasgow history and discovered that once the river Clyde was one of the world’s most powerful commercial sites. I could not even imagine there were many shipyards and hundreds of thousands of workers who used to walk along both sides of it. As a consequence, my artwork will be a memorial of Glasgow and River Clyde. Glasgow’s past has passed and the tide of River Clyde today is not the same tide of the past anymore. All different stained patterns on my painted papers will repeatedly remind the audiences that ʻOne cannot step twice in the same river.ʼ” After completing the mission, Supapong and I walked up from the riverbank, passing piles of yellow leaves, to the main street of the park. Glasgow Green itself has its own history: it was the place for washing clothes during the industrial period. Now it has become a public space for everyone to meet and attend numerous events organised throughout the year. We could not imagine people using steam-driven washing machines or hanging clothes around the park anymore, like many other places in Glasgow, it has become unrecognisable with time.

There is only the river Clyde that has been constant, witnessing all the changes of the city.

Glasgow today has been regenerated, becoming the city of culture and design. A number of uniquely shaped buildings such as Riverside Museum, SSE Hydro, and SEC Armadillo are built to help rehabilitate the environment and economy in the area of the city beside the river. However, the slogan ‘the Clyde made Glasgow’ appears to have been replaced by ‘People Make Glasgow’ in this era. It is the descendants of Glaswegian inventors, our young generation, who can make Glasgow flourish again.

by Pafan Amnuaysawasdi

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Clyde, 2016

Think of the 18th century. What’s the first thing that pops to mind?

For me, personally, it’s court intrigue, massive pale blue dresses, and powdered wigs. While your imagination may be less swayed

by Sophia Coppola films than mine is, I imagine that the fashion of the era play a role in how you picture the century as a whole. A generation’s zeitgeist is not only defined through people’s ideas and attitudes, but also through the clothes they choose to wear. The French Revolution, for example, was a time in which people stopped wearing the pompous, inconvenient clothing of the previous decades, opting for simpler garments which were not only easier to wear, but also a clear move away from the mindless spending of the then-abolished aristocracy.

Defining our current ‘zeitgeist’ is, admittedly, a bit tricky. After all, how can we know what has captured our time before living through all of it? Nonetheless, it is a fairly safe bet that our generation’s love for social media will be seen as influential on our actions. With the internet and its multitude of social media platforms has come the power to broadcast our every move to a worldwide audience. Our feeds are constantly updating with newer products and cooler outfits – we’re fed on a diet of fast fashion and incessantly evolving trends.

As such, it should come as no surprise that in a world that loves a constant stream of new, designers have begun to reinvent the old. In the last five years alone, fashion has taken inspiration over 50 years’ worth of trends. Three years ago, I was obsessed with dressing like I was living in the 60s. Now Britney and Justin’s iconic 2001 double denim ensemble is looking more wearable by the day. In order to stay relevant, fashion houses have to constantly reinvent themselves.

With this comes a new generation of designers, feeding off social media and pop culture trends as much as they are inspired by the house’s archives.

For this shoot we decided to photograph Flint James McDonald’s collection. His pieces manage to strike the perfect balance of referencing 15th, 16th, and 17th century clothes while being new and contemporary. All in all, a great example of fashion reinvention gone right. The collection aims “to challenge the distinction between gendered dress” and in a culture that has never felt closer to abolishing stereotypes surrounding gender, unisex clothing is more relevant than ever (this being said, there’s obviously a lot of work and societal reshaping that needs to happen before we abolish gender as the French did their aristocracy). And yet, there seems to be an increasing cultural acceptance of the idea that we should stop putting people into boxes and let them make up their own minds about who they are or want to be. Flint manages to hit the metaphorical zeitgeist nail on the head by showing that clothes should not be gender-oriented – let people choose what to wear based on preference instead of societal pressure.

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“ For this collection I began with reference to 80s New

Romanticism where I considered the notion of wearing historical dress, referencing similarities between male and female attire as well as the exploration found in the art of ‘getting ready’ and better one’s self with delusions of opulence. With this in mind I researched poignant individuals throughout history whose delusions and lifestyles accounted to their fame (i.e. Beau Brummel, Anita Berber, and Kitty Winter), and wanted to convey a sense of debauchery within my collection whilst capturing the ritualistic nature that comes with the performative gesture of preparing oneself for an occasion. Exploration of gender is a reoccurring theme within my work when looking to antiquated dress codes of androgynous costume. Looking closely to the 15th, 16th, and 17th centuries I attempt to challenge the distinction between gendered dress, which was once less prevalent, and also toy with delusions of grandeur and living outwith our means. “ /Flint James Mcdonald

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Designer

Flint James Mcdonald

Models

Lauren Hamm John Sandblom

Photographer

Petros Aronis

Style Editor

Aisling Klimke

Style Assistant Charlotte Dean

Make-up Artist Gemma Korn

editors’ pick // film

I was thirteen when I first read Emma: Jane Austen’s classic tale of matchmaking gone slightly awry. I had reached sixteen before I finally settled down to watch Clueless (1995) – the whip-smart feat of nineties cinema loosely based on the aforementioned Austen novel. Straight up, I prefer the version with the plaid skirts and the loqued-out jeeps and the Beverly Hills mansions. Paul Rudd does not appear in Emma, after all.

Clueless isn’t exactly a snapshot of a universal experience (how many teens in ’95 had a computer programme select their outfit?), but it does have a quintessentially nineties feel about it, which few other films have succeeded in capturing. There are brilliant, self-aware references to nineties culture: “so, okay, I don’t want to be a traitor to my generation and all…” Cher Horowitz proclaims before denouncing backwards baseball caps and baggy pants.

Then there’s the quotable slang, which was probably used far less than the film would have us believe, but which still makes us nostalgic for the time *NYSNC were on the scene and butterfly clips were popular.

Clueless is influencing culture even to this day.

I’m still on the hunt for Cher’s fluffy-trim cardigan, and I still make sure to pepper my sentences – on occasion – with some Clueless vocab. As if! /Morgan Laing

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(A)e(s)th(et)ics Fast fashion: ‘an approach to the design, creation, and marketing of clothing fashions that emphasizes making fashion trends quickly and cheaply available to consumers.’ This business model is utilised by all of the largest retail giants.

The rapid pace of clothing production and low prices allow consumers to think of clothing as cheap and disposable, leading to landfills bursting at the seams with unwanted clothes.

While reviewing H&M’s annual reports, I discovered that in 2016 sales (including VAT) increased to SEK 223 billion, which is the H&M group’s highest annual turnover to date. In August 2017, the total number of stores in the group amounted to 4,553, and as CEO Karl Johan Persson was proud to confirm: ‘the new target for 2017, and going forward, is for the H&M group’s sales to increase by 10 to 15 percent in local currencies per year.’

A major issue with H&M’s production is their reliance on cotton, the cultivation of which degrades soil. Once land is no longer workable, cultivation must move and thus the destruction of natural habitats is inevitable. However, cotton’s most severe environmental effects are from agrochemicals. Pesticides contaminate soil and nearby water sources and, as exposed in documentaries like The True Cost, this can result in mental and physical illnesses amongst farm workers and nearby populations.

Monki (owned by the H&M group) have initiated a recycling programme where, no matter what the brand or the condition, they will recycle your old clothes and home textiles. H&M Foundation has partnered with The Hong Kong Research Institute of Textiles and Apparel to turn said donated textiles

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into new clothes. Although steps are being taken in the right direction, textile technology is not yet advanced enough to make a cyclical system viable. Currently only 20% of recycled cotton can be used in a new garment without compromising on quality.

Even if we did achieve a system where the clothes on the high street were solely composed of recycled materials, we would still not have found a solution to the problem. H&M will never be sustainable because fast fashion is inherently unsustainable. Even if your clothes are made from recycled materials, resources were still

expended to make them. If they end up in a landfill, then what was the point in the first place?

To quote Quartz fashion reporter Marc Bain: ‘A landfill overflowing with organic cotton is still an overflowing landfill.’

We need to ease the pedal off consumer rates and focus on creating quality clothing with lifespans of years, not months. As Greenpeace stated, fashion retailers must incorporate ‘better quality, classic styling, reparability, durability, guarantees and emotional longevity’ into their products to combat the novelty (literally) wearing off.

Additionally, it is not just what to wear, but the how to care that matters: on an average 26% of the environmental impact in a garment’s life happens after it has left the store. Washing machines consume a large amount of energy and water

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resources. So, unless your clothes are developing tangible stink lines, do not use the wash. Eco settings and short cycles are also our best friends.

Furthermore, re-explore the explored: there are multiple ways to infuse your seemingly ‘past it’ garments with new life. Add badges, patches, paint them, cut them up, sew new things on- go wild.

As the 2017 Copenhagen Fashion Summit pointed out: by 2030, there will be 8.5 billion people on this planet – all needing to be clothed; ‘the case for change is indisputable’. Our ethics are in our clothes: fashion and beliefs are not two separate entities engaged in a conflict of interest. It is not the case that in order to be ethical you must ‘go without’ and sacrifice your sense of style. It is empowering to realise that one is beautifully embedded in the other. Fashion is a political vehicle and we hold the key: your purchase is an investment, so invest in the right companies. H&M may never be sustainable, but at least they’re trying (unlike their biggest competitor, Zara). The pen has always received praise, but now the time has come to see the might of the needle. Wear the change: be conscious of your (a)e(s)th(et)ic.

by Lynsey Holmes Photos: Zaynah Ahmed Model: Nina Mdwaba a

/Rachel Shnapp

editors’ pick // music

A friend once told me your memory doesn’t work at full capacity until you’re 18 years old. Before that, you don’t remember full sequences of events with as much clarity or detail as you do afterwards. Maybe this is why, to me, Lana Del Rey is the musician who best captures now.

I listen to ‘Video Games’, and it feels like every summers day you can’t explain. A song about the honey-thick lull of early love, when every day is heavenly, and it feels like the world was made just for the two of you.

There’s no song in the world that epitomises sitting in the back of a taxi driving on the M8 over the Clyde and the whole of Glasgow is laid out, shining for you quite like West Coast. The icy Scottish wind tearing up your eyes and you know everything is exciting and fresh and there’s nothing more you need the world to give you.

Maybe the last four years of my life aren’t enshrined like a series of videos in my memory. Maybe they are the feeling of him holding my hand for the first time, or the sound of your friends crying with laughter somewhere in the dark, or running through the streets with the sun setting behind your eyes. Maybe you don’t need to remember the memories fully, but as long as when that song comes on that takes you back to that time, you feel what you felt then.

The millennial generation meets mushrooming debts, impending singularity, and a range of other snags every step of the way.

So, where does a crushed soul seek its musical refuge? It is easy to imagine us tapping off to happy soul music to charge up with possibilities. A while back, I asked all my Instagram followers to tell me their happy songs.

I had a brief moment of whammy as I imagined what crooked definitions they had for happiness, going by their music choices.

That ordeal put aside, these are the richest recommendations that came from the exercise: ‘Anything Can Happen’ by Ellie Goulding, ‘Unwritten’

by Natasha Bedingfield, ‘Havana’ by Camila Cabello, ‘In the Aeroplane Over the Sea’ by Neutral Milk Hotel, ‘I Always Knew’ by The Vaccines. Self-care doesn’t always have to be pretty or hygge, but it can be melodious, if nothing else.

Rage is another millennial emotion that deserves musical expression.

My personal favourite artists that serve this purpose include Blink-182, Halsey, Lorde, Florence + The Machine, and Nothing But Thieves. Millennials are blessed with an unfettered access to musical archives, too.

Don’t let the bipolarity of composure and angst fool you: we won’t ever let anyone forget Prince, R.E.M, or Elvis Presley.

/Kritika Narula

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Merkel vs May: Relationships with Right-wing Populism

by Luisa Hahn & Elspeth Macintosh Photo: Rachel Shnapp a

Writing as German and UK citizens, respectively, we believe there is a lot to be learned from our countries’ recent elections.

If it wasn’t clear before that an increasing amount of right-wing populist parties are finding their place in European politics, it is now. Following the German elections on September 24th, we felt it necessary to take a closer look at what has prompted the rise of right-wing populism in Germany, as well as its incredible parallels with what has happened in British politics this year.

In Germany, Angela Merkel and the CDU/CSU won September’s election with 33% of the vote. There are two things to be noted about this result: first, after twelve years of being chancellor, Merkel still enjoys great approval ratings with the German public and has gained a commanding international reputation.

Second, the people approving of her politics today are not the standard, right leaning conservatives who had previously voted for the CDU. Instead, she is now attracting more moderate and progressive members of the electorate.

Merkel’s most discussed decisions include the nuclear phase-out; the commitment to rescuing the Euro; the temporary opening of German borders during the European migrant crisis; and, most recently, the permission of a vote in favour of gay marriage. While these decisions increased her appeal with younger and atypical CDU voters, they enraged her more conservative base.

In the aftermath of the election, political commentators began to raise their voices, arguing that it was partly due to these decisions that over 5 million Germans turned out to vote for Alternative für Deutschland. After winning 12.6% of the vote, the AfD are the first right-wing party to enter the Bundestag since its establishment in 1949. They present themselves as anti-Merkel, anti-establishment, anti-everything they call “social experiments”, and pride themselves on a homophobic, xenophobic and anti-feminist program – program based on nationalistic economics, anti-EU rhetoric, and a nostalgia for a past Germany. A Germany that never actually existed.

Meanwhile in the UK, we have been observing our leadership’s relationship with right-wing populist parties. This past June, aided by an agreement struck with Northern Ireland’s Democratic Unionist Party to prop up their government, the Conservatives retained their place in No. 10. The DUP are a highly divisive party and proprietors of fundamentalist propaganda. They are strongly against same sex marriage and abortion rights.

Of course, getting the DUP’s support did not come cheap, with the Conservatives promising them at least £1 billion in a bid to smooth negotiations.

On paper, May and Merkel may appear similar: they are both the leaders of centre-right “catch-all” parties.

However, their decisions on how to interact with rightwing populist parties are in stark contrast to one another.

Merkel eliminated any chance of forming a coalition with the AfD and vowed to take a stand against them wherever possible. Contrastingly, as May frantically scrambled to gain allies in the wreckage of an unsuccessful campaign, she welcomed her new partners with open arms.

A wobbly minority government was not what May was anticipating when she called for a snap election, nor was it the result many others had expected to come from it.

However, while the loss of their majority may have left the Conservatives embarrassed, that does not excuse May’s self-serving decision to associate with the DUP. Crucially, her decision endangers the progress our country has made, particularly in terms of LGBTQ and women’s rights in the recent years.

The cracks in her premiership began to widen in the wake of this deal – May’s satisfaction rating following the election was dismal. It left her overtaken by the leader of the opposition in the polls and with the worst rating of any modern Prime Minister immediately after an election.

Since then, her cabinet has become a mess and her party is in open revolt against her.

Time will tell whether her actions will have any long-term effects. Not only was it expensive, but this coalition was a reckless choice on May’s part. Reckless, for both the country and for her Party. After all, you are the company you keep.

No one can deny that populism has risen in Europe. In our opinion, now is not the time to leave politics to those who scream the loudest. Established parties and politicians, not just in Germany and the UK, but everywhere, need to work hard to prove that they take everyone’s concerns seriously.

They need to show that alt-right demands do not provide viable solutions to real issues, and that democracies cannot be built upon foundations of hateful rhetoric.

At this moment, only a few are proving themselves up to this task. a

1-O

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by Mónica Vázquez Photo: Marina Lovato

When the 1st of October (1-O) knocked on our door, nobody was ready for it. Nothing prepares you for the inexplicable, for the objectification of freedom or the dehumanisation of the misunderstood.

It always starts with simple choices. You wake up in the morning and you decide whether you want coffee or tea, cereal or toast. You might scroll through some news whilst you eat, wanting to know what’s going on in the world. Do this regularly and you might think that you have a fair understanding of current affairs. But you don’t.

Depending on who you listen to, 1-O was an attempted coup by radicalised Catalans against Spain and its democratic constitution. Or it was the opposite: a legitimate attempt to express the Catalonian desire to become an independent country, thwarted by the state-ordered brutality of Spanish police.

We are all so used to listening to what we already think. We forget to make the effort to read what other people are reading, or to try feeling what other people are feeling. How can we learn the truth if we already think we know it?

It’s a natural, human, response to support the underdog. We feel the need to protect the oppressed, the endangered. We give in to our emotions. Even when we are opposed to their cause, we can’t stop thinking that those who bled, screamed and cried must be right. We contort reality and turn it into a sympathetic story.

In the case of Catalonia, the argument for independence is now validated by the violence pro-independence supporters suffered at the hands of the police. Those that watch these events from a distance see the Catalonian dilemma through an emotional lens, one which distorts the true issues, showing instead a grotesque and heartbreaking display of oppression by the Spanish government.

However, the fact remains that the Catalonian referendum on independence was illegal. It compromised everything that Europe, Spain and democracy stands for. And it didn’t just happen in a day.

Carles Puigdemont reimagined Catalonia and sensationalised the region’s desire to enrich their culture and identity. His campaigners used (and still use) emotional propaganda, turning this desire into a weapon. Like Don Quixote they are lost in their own fantasy, rallying against giants of the Central Government, blindly tilting at windmills.

Pro-independence campaigners sustain mindless arguments. They believe that Catalans are “genetically different from the rest of Spain”. This is an elitist, racial argument. It is insulting. It is nonsense.

The truth is that Spain is a melting pot of diverse races, cultures, languages, and religions. We have conquered and have been conquered. We’ve married our kingdoms and shared most of our history.

Just as “People make Glasgow”, the same can be said about Spain. We are a multicultural country, built in the union of very different ways of living. We have not one, but five official languages (and another five non-official ones). We have so many traditions that it’s hard to keep track of them. Our country is a big house of seventeen siblings. Each one of us with our own room, and the independence to do as we please within it – as long as it doesn’t compromise the safety of the rest of the family, or the structure of the house.

Extraordinary, nationalistic lengths are being taken in order to justify the push for independence. But no matter how messy things might get, or how twisted a political message can become, I believe that Spain has the ability to overcome. I believe that we have the openness to listen and the willingness to understand.

On 1-O every Spaniard around the world bled, screamed and cried. We all wanted to be there with our Catalonian siblings, to feel their pain, to help, to talk, to stop the paranoia and the panic sparked by political propaganda. By politicians blinded by personal agendas. Because what we saw that day wasn’t about freedom, but about power and the abuse of it by a radical faction within the Catalonian government.

As they chose between coffee and tea, the majority watched in stunned silence as their illusion of Spanish democracy crumpled. A democracy that they never had to learn how to protect. Until now.

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30

from moldova to silicon valley

brain implants

Research into Brain-Computer Interface (BCI) technology is one of the most exciting and rapidly-advancing frontiers in Bioengineering – ranging from efforts to reverse blindness, deafness, and paralysis, to detecting consciousness in patients suffering from ‘lockedin’ syndrome, where they are unable to move or communicate in any normal way. The brain will always capture the attention of the scientific community – and it is in Silicon Valley, a centre of innovation, entrepreneurship and technology, where Dr Matt Angle is conducting his research in the field.

In July 2017, the U.S. Department of Defence selected Angle’s San Jose-based start-up, Paradromics Inc., to lead one of the six consortia it is backing with $65 million to develop technology to simultaneously record one million neurones in the brain. The Pentagon contract, handed out by the Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), offers a peek into the cutting-edge technology behind the new Neural Engineering Systems Design program. Vaulted to the top ranks of Silicon Valley companies surging into the field of brain-computer interfaces, Angle joins tech giants such as Facebook and Elon Musk’s Neuralink, a company developing brain implants to blend human with artificial intelligence. Some of these groups are set on implanting chips into healthy people’s brains, while others plan to optically read brain activity from outside of the skull. Paradromics’ hopes to create ‘a modem for the brain’ - letting the blind see and patients with ALS speak, the latter being Paradromics’ initial focus.

Their two-way device would be planted inside the skull, recording from the superior temporal gyrus, a brain area involved in audio processing that decodes speech in sound units called ‘phonemes’. In an environment where many start-ups are devoted to the easy opportunities and short-term results of social-networking or dating apps, Paradromics is set on working towards improving some of the most debilitating conditions in the medical field.

Dr Angle has a background in nanotechnology and neuroscience. As a graduate student at the Max Planck Institute for Medical Research at the University of Heidelberg and a post-doctoral researcher at Stanford University, he was immersed in the development and study of neural recording technology. As CEO of Paradromics Inc., founded in 2015, Angle has assembled a team of physicists, electrical, software, and mechanical engineers to develop high-bandwidth neural interfaces for these advanced prosthetic therapies.

BCI in a nutshell?

We have developed a small computer chip that can be implanted into the brain to restore sight, speech and movement. Our device is called the Neural InputOutput Bus (NIOB) and uses bundles of microwire electrodes to interface with neurones where four bundles, containing 200,000 microwires, would record from or stimulate one million neurones.

The people who would benefit the most from this technology include those who suffer from ‘connectivity disorders’ like blindness and paralysis, where we would implant the device in the visual cortex for blindness, or the motor cortex for paralysis.

The two-way device reads neuronal signals and then conveys sights, sounds or sensations back to the brain.

An interview with Dr. Matt Angle

by Joanna Ashby

Is it all new technology?

The microwire electrodes we use have been around since the 1960s, they were just un-scalable to the human brain. I first heard about them through the father of an old college friend who mentioned a small company called Eliri developing microwire technology in Moldova.

The company developed a way to stretch hot metal and mass-produce coils of extremely thin insulated wires that were 20 microns thick. We have sharpened and calibrated those wires, scaling them up, allowing for a greater contact between the chip and neurones in the brain.

Your thoughts on using brain implants for cognitive enhancement?

There are two considerations here – one is technical, the other is regulatory on a societal level. Technically, we are quite some way away from implanting prosthetics for higher cognitive function, memory, and mental health. With regard to regulation, it would be a question of deciding how serious a medical condition would need to be to warrant the risks of the brain surgery that would be required to implant the device. The first milestone is safely and effectively using brain implants to treat serious medical conditions. Further technical challenges ahead include safety, privacy, and ethical considerations. We are going slow and playing it safe, aiming to begin clinical trials in 2021.

Working in Silicon Valley?

As a really small field, we benefit a lot from Elon Musk’s Neuralink and Bryan Johnson’s Kernel. After working in Europe for four years, there was a stark culture shift that came with the ultra-high confidence environment. Balancing that external messaging with the deeply self-critical nature required to do good work in research has been one of the more interesting human aspects of living here.

Career advice for students?

For students interested in having a career in innovation, research, or start-up technology, I would encourage them to follow their interest. I have seen people waste a lot of time by not prioritizing their interests. Think of lightning bugs. You can keep chasing each bug you see that lights up. Or you can pick a bug against the night sky and focus your effort on following that single one.

If you want to have a career that is meaningful, I think that following your interest is an effective approach.

31

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by Jen Hughes

I am not some swollen sex toy, Push buttons for pleasure.

I’m no-one’s to discard or destroy.

When you look into my eyes They sparkle. Can’t see it?

You are the one who is deprived.

My body is imperfect, nourishing, soft.

Don’t want to touch me anymore?

I guess that’s your loss.

My mind is sharp, aware, wise Want a chat?

Or are you scared I’ll cut you to size?

You’ve knocked my ego, but I Can pick it up again.

All I need to do is repeat this affirmation;

Affirmation

I am not a black sheep.

I am not everybody’s girl.

I am not anybody’s to keep.

33

They walk in silence. A line, miles long, winding and stretching over the country, through forests and marshes and fields. They wear different shades but always green - light, dark, camouflage, olive tunics and fir-tree trousers. It’s one shape, one mass, one form. They make no sound. They walk in line, shuffling, their boots rustling over the leaves that have lain undisturbed on that forest floor for years. They can be heard for miles away, but not seen unless one looked very, very hard at the countryside.

They would simply see a giant caterpillar, writhing and sliding over the forest floor. The autumnal air pierces the noses of the marching men, and the limitless flight of birds taunts them, mocks them.

But the caterpillar isn’t all green. It has grey specks on its side, intermittent, rare but prominent. These men walk with strong backs, imperious, yet their eyes appear just as tired and their hands shaking just as much as their bound companions. The caterpillar shuffles through the dank, grim wood, eating it up but never stopping, never halting. Its head is grey too, leading on the body, almost dragging it through the depths of the forest.

The head makes the same crunch as the tail does, but the body makes a different echo through the trees. The grey, stiff head has a prominent nose, with an iron bone, watery green eyes, and plump lips. On its cap there is a single badge, a skull. And it leads the caterpillar on its march.

All around it, there is life. The century-old trees, the birds that multiply and disappear, substituted and replaced constantly by nature, the squirrels, the badgers that keep their distance and observe this monster that imposes itself upon the forest.

The caterpillar is teeming but empty, grey and green, both parts appearing tired and lost. But it drags on in a procession, a parade. Upon closer inspection, the grey spots also have black specks to them. These specks jump up and down along with their individual spots, frantically, like dogs urging to be walked.

by Gabriel Rutherford Photo: Annegret Maja Fiedler

The caterpillar comes to a clearing in these woods. It continues its existence up until the old oak, midway through the clearing.

It seems to bathe itself in the light and the damp air churned up by the forest in this clearing. Logs lie on leaves that have become emaciated and rotted away for the most part. The green core of the caterpillar shivers and shakes, swaying in the sunlight. Some of it collapses in on itself, falling away to reveal the floor, making holes in the caterpillar. The grey spots reinforce the shape, pushing the green back into the empty spaces.

The head detaches itself. It detaches and walks in a circle, strolling round the clearing, inspecting. It faces the oak, then faces the rest of the body it has departed from. Its thin, short mouth framed by fat lips moves itself, as a small tongue streaks over the lips. The head of the caterpillar gives commands. Its the brain. It receives, perceives and can even deceive. The mouth gives a single command, in barked tones, in a harsh voice that bombs the silence of the clearing.

th e c a t e r pil lar

The body disseminates. It undergoes a sudden mitosis, dividing itself. The spots, those stark grey spots move away from their host, then urge the host into lines. The grey spots are all barking now, barking at the body, throwing shovels.

The body, that mottled green body, begins to dig. It digs and digs under the watery eyes of the detached head and the watchful eyes of the detached spots. It digs and digs. Then the head nods, and a spot barks again. The spots sort out the body. The caterpillar is split totally now, the green body now a series of ordered lines. They stand to the side. The head nods, and a first line comes forward and stands in front of the pit. The black specks come up, the head nods. Another grey spot barks, and the black specks bark back. The green line falls into the pit. And so it goes, until the body is outweighed numerically by its own spots, until the whole body lies in the pit. And the caterpillar twitches for one last time, as the spots cover it in soil.

35

glasgow university magazine

issue #001 zeitgeist

autumn 2017