Goldlink 32

Get the Goldsmiths bigger picture with our aerial views and interactive College map at: www.gold.ac.uk/campus-map

Watch the New Academic Building take shape with our two static web-cameras, using time-lapse technology to film its construction, at: www.gold.ac.uk/newacademicbuilding/webcam

Take a tour of the campus, inside and outside, at: www.goldsmiths.ac.uk/virtual-tours

Dear friends,

The six months since the last issue of Goldlink have flown by. I hope you like the evolving look of the magazine. Your feedback on each issue would be very warmly appreciated.

I have been thrilled by the way College alumni have responded to our fundraising efforts in the past six months. With over 100 names, the donor list on page 19 is a testament to the generosity of our alumni in responding to our mission. Had we printed the list last year, it would have had less than 10 and I hope the list will grow in the years to come as we make the case for the College's need for support. A heartfelt thanks to all those who have given in the past twelve months – your support has made a difference to the College.

The big innovation in the way we communicate with our alumni in the past six months has been our new e-newsletters. We have email addresses for over 7,000 alumni and the newsletters have allowed us to let you know about news and events. If you are not receiving these then please let us know your email address. Visit the 'Update your Details' section at: www.gold.ac.uk/alumni/update.

In the next issue I look forward to reporting back on the success of the College’s first telephone fundraising campaign which is ongoing at the time of going to press.

Thanks this issue:

Keeping you in touch with Goldsmiths

Director of Development David Mungall

Senior Development Manager

Annette Bullen

Research & Database Officer Antoinette Carey Development & Alumni Assistant Angela Elderton Events & Administration Officer

Abi Thatcher

Editor David Cottrell Design Reprographics Unit Goldsmiths Development & Alumni Office Goldsmiths, University of London New Cross, London SE14 6NW

alumni@gold.ac.uk T +44 (0)20 7078 5015

Cover image of Angkor Wat by Ernest Goh. A graduate of ICCE at Goldsmiths, Ernest is currently working on two projects: drinking fountains as an alternative to bottled water in London (visit www. vimeo.com/5316371); and Altered Land, a photo-documentary about the 2004 Boxing Day Tsunami. For more, go to www.ernestgoh.com. Tessa Jowell images by Tom Cowland; Shazia Mirza image by Martin Twomey.

Rheem Al-Adhami Vicky Annand Heyam Bassam Jacqueline Cooke Sarah Empey Julian Henriques Caroline Knowles Rachel Macnicol Claire Major Mary Nixon Margaret Hall-Townley Bridget Ward Graham Young © Goldsmiths, University of London 2009 All rights reserved

Contributions to Goldlink are welcomed by email or post. We reserve the right to edit articles in the interests of brevity or clarity. The opinions expressed in the magazine are those of the writers concerned and not necessarily of Goldsmiths.

Goldlink is printed on paper accredited by the Forestry Stewardship Council.

We can supply information in alternative formats for people with a visual impairment or dyslexia. Please contact the Development & Alumni Office on +44 (0)20 7078 5015 or email alumni@gold.ac.uk

INSIDE: Goldlink 32

Warden Geoffrey Crossick reflects upon the last five years and the future for Goldsmiths

Tessa Jowell gives the annual Dean Lecture and celebrates London and her alma mater

A sneak preview of the New Academic Building, plus a brief guide to the Alexander Technique

Profiling the groundbreaking teaching and research at the Department of Media & Communications

How Goldsmiths is leading the way with its Institute for Creative & Cultural Entrepreneurship

Celebrating the superb Constance Howard Resource & Research Centre in Textiles

Rob Stringer, Sony supremo and Sociology alumnus, on booking some of the biggest acts in music

Five Goldsmiths alumni, all making great strides in their respective fields, answer three questions

A groovy collection of Goldsmiths gig posters kept in pristine condition by a current member of staff

Two alumni just embarking on their careers after College, and a look back through the archives

Alumni services and benefits

Update your details at www.gold.ac.uk/alumni so we can keep you informed of forthcoming news and events. Arrange your own reunion with our help and advice – have a look at our Alumni Event Planning Document at: www.gold.ac.uk/alumni/ events

And remember, as a graduate of Goldsmiths you are automatically a member of our alumni community and entitled to a number of benefits:

Goldlink – your free biannual alumni magazine.

Alumni reunions and events – organised throughout the year and across the country by the Development & Alumni Office.

Regular email updates – keeping you in touch with Goldsmiths and fellow alumni. Library access – alumni are welcome to use the library at Goldsmiths for free, and are allowed reference use of its books and periodicals.

Discount on postgraduate tuition fees – for all those who have successfully completed an undergraduate degree, DipHE or postgraduate taught programme at Goldsmiths, and who now wish to progress to a different postgraduate degree.

Discounted gym membership – with our state-of-the-art fitness machines and exercise stations at the purpose-built Clubpulse.

Careers advice – available for up to two years after graduating from Goldsmiths. Confirmation of Awards and Transcripts – if you require a transcript or official confirmation of your qualifications.

Discounted membership: Chatham House – home of the Royal Institute of International Affairs. Goldsmiths memorabilia – available from the Students' Union Shop, including scarves, teddy bears, mugs, T shirts and sweatshirts.

‘A VERY SPECIAL PLACE’

HOW AND WHY I CAME TO GOLDSMITHS

I’d been at the University of Essex for many years, as a Professor of History and Pro-Vice Chancellor, before becoming Chief Executive of the Arts & Humanities Research Board (AHRB) in 2002. After three years Goldsmiths came along. I knew there was a vacancy because Ben Pimlott had very sadly died in office. From my perspective at the AHRB I’d come to appreciate just what an exciting place Goldsmiths was. It had a terrific range of disciplines and was particularly strong in the creative and performing arts, design and media. But also it had strong humanities and social sciences, and I knew that the Department of Computing was a player in the creative and performing arts. I’d visited the College in May 2004, so when I was appointed Warden a year

later I dug out the report that I’d written. It described Goldsmiths as a remarkable place full of people who were extraordinarily open and doing exciting work.

I’d found it one of the most engaging university visits I’d made in all my time at the AHRB. I knew that it was the right place for me, but I also knew that a fresh look was needed at how it managed itself.

THE NEED FOR CHANGE

In my first six months I spent two to three hours with every academic and administrative department, about 30 in all. But within a fortnight I knew that the door I was pushing on – to change things and make the College even stronger – had actually opened, because everyone saw the need for Goldsmiths to be taken forward. My skills, I hope, lie in strategic leadership of an academic institution, but some of the most

important changes needed were on the administrative side. So I brought the whole thing together under one Registrar, Hugh Jones, who has a marvellous ability to carry everyone with him. If at times, the scale of what we were trying to do together seemed exhausting, I knew we were going to get there because there was this tremendous enthusiasm – and it’s something that’s very special about Goldsmiths.

DON’T MENTION THE ‘Q’ WORD

There are plenty of university institutions that are each very good in their own way, but what makes Goldsmiths stand out is its special character. When my appointment was announced, I started getting messages of congratulations from friends in other universities. Every one of them said something like: ‘It’s really exciting that

you’re going to Goldsmiths, that’s a very special place’. It has a brand, a reputation for being an edgy, challenging, innovative, different institution. But the danger about thinking that you’re special is that you can become complacent. So one of the things I’ve tried to do, over the years, is position Goldsmiths as a special place at the heart of the university sector, not as some quirky institution on the periphery. In fact I stopped the word ‘quirky’ from being used. One phrase I coined early on was: ‘The world is catching up with Goldsmiths’. We’re at the leading edge of so many ideas, and we’ve been there for a long time. But what we’ve been talking about for many years is now central to society and the economy.

WHERE GOLDSMITHS LEADS…

I became very active in a range of organisations, like the 1994 Group (of smaller research-intensive universities), Universities UK and the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE). I’d bring to them a Goldsmiths view of the world – not something ‘fluffy’ from the edge of the sector but central to what universities needed to think about in the new knowledge economy. On one HEFCE committee, for example, I talked about the challenges for business-university relations in the kinds of subjects that Goldsmiths are strong in, areas like design and media. Eventually I was expected to contribute

After five proud years at the helm, Professor Geoffrey Crossick retires as Warden of Goldsmiths early in 2010. Here he reflects upon the exciting changes that have taken place at this charismatic College, and the future

a distinctive view, and people were changing their attitudes because of it.

PLUS ÇA CHANGE

Lots of Goldlink readers will be people who were here five or 10 years ago and will recognise the Goldsmiths I’m describing. But what about the people who were here 20, 30, 40 or even 50 years ago, will they recognise it? I found the answer at alumni events. A year ago I went along to a 40th year reunion to say a few words, and I described how I felt about Goldsmiths. And afterwards so many people came up to me and said, ‘That’s how it was for us, we felt Goldsmiths was a special place’. The College has repeatedly changed itself in ways that have kept this character. Partly it’s that challenging openness, partly it’s a real inclusiveness –historically students from working-class backgrounds in south-east London for whom going to university was not the norm, and today a tremendous ethnic diversity. I’d like to think that a student from 40 or so years ago, coming back here now, would walk around the place and get that sense of the buzz which they felt when they were here.

ONE NIGHT IN NEW YORK

About two years ago, I went to our first alumni event in New York. It was an exhibition of work by halfa-dozen recent Goldsmiths graduates, and we had a private viewing for 50 or so alumni. Most of them were operating in some way on the cultural scene, and

the buzz in the room was incredible. They’d come up to me and say they’d only been at Goldsmiths for a year, or even just a term as a visiting student, and it was the best time of their lives as students. And then about 25 of us went to a pub in Greenwich Village to eat fish and chips, drink beer and talk the evening away about Goldsmiths.

ALUMNI CAN INSPIRE, AND BE INSPIRED

It’s tremendous, this warmth that people have for Goldsmiths. No university ever has the resources it needs to make itself as good as it wants to be, and the fact that we’re heading into harder times financially for universities and the public sector makes it even more difficult. But it’s always been thus. What we really want is for alumni who feel such affection for Goldsmiths – whether they have become successful in business or teaching or just being interesting people –to help us to give the same experience to the students who are following them.

That might be a financial contribution, on whatever level alumni feel they can manage, or perhaps it’s advice to our current students about the kind of things they might do.

I promise you, if you come back to give inspiration to our students, you’ll be inspired by them, too. They’re extraordinary.

• Now turn to page 10 for the Warden’s views on one of Goldsmiths’ most exciting new projects, ICCE

Goldsmiths: the last five years

2005 A few weeks before Professor Crossick officially takes up his role as Warden, the new Ben Pimlott Building (named after his predecessor) opens on campus. The flagship sevenstorey structure provides purpose-built teaching space, including art studios, lecture theatres and cutting-edge psychology and digital media labs.

2006 The Main Building is renamed the Richard Hoggart Building in honour of another former Warden.

2007 Goldsmiths is announced as one of the UK’s coolest brands for the fifth year running.

2008 The various league tables of universities arising from Research Assessment Exercise (RAE) 2008 all place Goldsmiths firmly within the top 35 of research-intensive universities. When it comes to the very peak of world-leading research, shown by the top 4* grade, Goldsmiths comes an even more impressive 9th.

2009 Planning permission is granted for a new £20M building to house the Department of Media & Communications and ICCE. It’s due for completion in summer 2010.

LONDON: THE WAY AHEAD

Endless possibilities and exciting opportunities. That’s alumna Tessa Jowell’s vision for the capital and the College on her return to SE14

What Tessa said

“I get a thrill from being a Londoner. The turn of the seasons, the views, the miracle that’s happening in the Olympic Park, Columbia Road Flower Market at 8 o’clock on a Sunday morning. London has a cultural richness that no other city comes close to rivalling…”

Goldsmiths can and must play an innovative role in the future of London. That was the message from alumna Tessa Jowell in the College’s 2009 Dean Lecture. Today she is the Minister for the Olympics, Cabinet Office and London. Back in 1972 she had just completed her Diploma in Applied Social Studies at Goldsmiths, remembering it as “a very happy time.”

In pondering what awaits today’s London child

when they graduate from Goldsmiths in 2030, she hailed a city that was becoming a world leader in digital and creative industries. Its centre of gravity was again shifting eastwards to feed these sectors in Hoxton, Shoreditch and Hackney Wick in the run-up to the 2012 Olympics – an event which represented a long-term investment in London’s economy, a new opportunity for people to realise their potential, and

a chance for Goldsmiths' Institute for Creative & Cultural Entrepreneurship to help shape this future.

The class of 2030, she concluded, “will have benefited from one of the best creative educations in the country…in an open, inclusive and tolerant city that’s led the way in the transition to a low-carbon economy…with the best culture of their doorstep… and a quality of life among the best in the world.”

“We are on the brink of a new global industrial revolution which is knowledgeintensive and lowcarbon. The role of government is not to stand idly by, but to do everything in its power to create the best possible conditions for businesses and people to thrive…”

“We must end the ‘two Londons’ [of wealth and poverty] and create a single, unified capital. ‘One London’ – a city without social divide. Above all, we must find innovative ways to meet people’s aspirations…”

GRAND DESIGN

How to learn to unlearn

The start of the 2009/10 academic year saw Goldsmiths students, staff and alumni from every discipline sample the Alexander Technique for free. The September drop-in sessions were led by Grace Chan, who teaches musicians and performing artists at the College. The technique teaches us how to use our body – particularly the ankles, knees, hips and AO joint (atlanto-odontoid, at the top of the neck) - in a more efficient and healthier way by releasing tension and ‘unlearning’ bad postural habits, which can also help to relieve back pain. The goal is to perform better, in whatever walk of life, with less effort. Grace is also a Visiting Lecturer at the Hong Kong Academy of Performing Arts. For more about her course that runs to May 2010, contact h.s.g.chan@gold.ac.uk.

THE LIST: Goldsmiths' alumni and the Turner Prize

Presenting cross-sectional plans of the New Academic Building which will house the Department of Media & Communications and the Institute of Creative & Cultural Entrepreneurship (see page 10). The north side of the £20M building facing the College Green provides an opportunity to showcase and promote the work contained in the building.

A key feature is a concourse where students can congregate in the café and the social spaces created on bridges across the atrium. An external terrace on the top floor will also face the Green and provide an attractive social space; and a carbon-neutral biomass boiler will provide heat and hot water.

2009 Roger Hiorns (nominee; winner to be announced on 7 December)

2008 Goshka Macuga (shortlisted)

2007 Mark Wallinger (winner)

Zarina Bhimji (shortlisted)

2006 Rebecca Warren (shortlisted)

2004 Yinka Shonibare (shortlisted)

2003 Anya Gallaccio (shortlisted)

2002 Fiona Banner (shortlisted)

Liam Gillick (shortlisted)

Catherine Yass (shortlisted)

2000 Glenn Brown (shortlisted)

Michael Raedecker (shortlisted)

Tomoko Takahashi (shortlisted)

1999 Steve McQueen (winner)

Jane and Louise Wilson (shortlisted)

1998 Sam Taylor Wood (shortlisted)

Cathy De Monchaux (shortlisted)

1997 Gillian Wearing (winner)

Angela Bulloch (shortlisted)

1996 Gary Hume (shortlisted)

Simon Patterson (shortlisted)

1995 Damien Hirst (winner)

Mark Wallinger (shortlisted)

1994 Antony Gormley (winner)

1992 Grenville Davey (winner)

Damien Hirst (shortlisted)

1991 Ian Davenport (shortlisted)

Fiona Rae (shortlisted)

If you do, you should find yourself viewing the award-winning work of alumnus David Newton, who graduated in 2004. A four-minute mini-masterpiece produced in the second year of his degree course, it uses motion graphics to scroll across the surface of the tapestry, from the appearance of Halley’s Comet to the Battle of Hastings in 1066. It’s currently within You Tube’s top 100 favourites.

The comments posted – several from history teachers – are ringing endorsements of both David’s talent and the Department’s immediate relevance. ‘It’s a fantastic resource for students, could I get a copy or buy it from you?’ asks one visitor. Another reveals that ‘Neil Gaiman [the celebrated fantasy writer] has posted a link to your clip on his website and says it’s one of the best things he’s seen on the web’.

David is one of many Media & Communications alumni whose work has been screened at film festivals worldwide – check them out at the Department’s home page – but there is much more to the Department than movie-making.

Headed by Senior Lecturer Gareth Stanton and widely considered one of the UK's best in the field of media theory and practice – with the emphasis throughout on high-quality lectures and small group work - the department attracts students from a wide range of backgrounds who have won awards from the likes of Channel 4, The Guardian newspaper and The Royal Television Society. It also boasts a thriving research and postgraduate community with over a dozen MAs in subjects such as Digital Media, Journalism and Screen Documentary.

Exciting interdisciplinary initiatives include the Goldsmiths Leverhulme Media Research Centre, which not only studies media spaces but also designs them to better understand their future potential, and the Centre for Global Media & Democracy, which addresses the connections between politics, sociology and media. The latter’s international partner, The Center for Social Media, American University, Washington DC, has just published a policy document on The Future of Public Media, building from discussions to which the Centre contributed.

By summer 2010, all of DMC’s staff and teaching facilities will be concentrated in a new building – part of the College strategy to grow and enhance its known areas of academic excellence –with a departmental reunion also under consideration. Stay posted at www. gold.ac.uk/media-communications.

How good is the Department of Media & Communications at Goldsmiths? Go to You Tube, key in ‘Bayeux Tapestry’ and ‘animation’ and see for yourself…

The Olive Till Memorial Bursary

Olive Till worked in the Department of Sociology at Goldsmiths and every year her son Stewart, a former Chairman of the UK Film Council (left in the picture with 2007/08 recipient Jacqueline Haigh and Danny Boyle, director of Slumdog Millionaire) sponsors a Memorial Debate and a bursary for one of the female students on the MA Script Writing course. This bursary entitles the selected student to have their fees paid and have Stewart as their mentor while on the course. Current recipient Corrie-Anne Burton, who hopes to become a development executive for a production company, says it’s been “a life-saver. It lifted a huge weight financially and emotionally. Stewart Till is genuinely interested in what you’re going to produce and offers his perspective on what you write and whether it has a place in the industry.”

People

Yemisi Blake, Sociology alumnus (2008) and Artist in Residence (200910) at the Southbank Centre, is one of a group of artists currently collaborating with Sadler’s Wells to design a series of workshops focused on the future of everyday life for young people in Islington in North London. Find out lots more at www.blog.yemisiblake.co.uk

Congratulations to Russell Profitt, former President of the Students’ Union, who has received an MBE for services to the community in Southwark.

Did you spot Dr Yulia Kovas on BBC1’s The Secret Life of Twins programme? Yulia, also a Psychology Lecturer at Goldsmiths who specialises in Behavioural Genetics, was interviewed about her research and a show-case study into the origins of mathematical abilities during the twin event at St Thomas’ Hospital, filmed by the BBC.

May saw the launch of the Angus Fairhurst Collection at Goldsmiths. Angus graduated with a BA in Art in 1989 and died in 2008. His collection of books was donated to the College by his mother Sally and brother Charles.

YEMISI BLAKE

RUSSELL PROFITT

DR YULIA KOVAS

ANGUS FAIRHURST

The new ICCE age

How Goldsmiths is breaking new ground in higher education by delivering enterprise training to the creative and cultural sectors

London is where it’s at, creatively, and Goldsmiths has always played an outstanding part. Where better, then, to apply much-needed entrepreneurial skills to this important sector, which accounts for 9% of the country’s GDP, than SE14?

As recently as the 1980s, though, ‘business’ was a dirty word in academic circles. Even today, according to a study by Durham University, 2% of students associate the term ‘enterprise’ with Star Trek!

Upon her visit to the College, government minister Tessa Jowell declared herself delighted that Goldsmiths had taken the lead in

addressing this situation to develop “a culture of innovation and enterprise.” It’s called the Institute for Creative & Cultural Entrepreneurship – ICCE for short – and it aims to create business-ready graduates with entrepreneurial skills.

Led by Dr Gerald Lidstone, the Director, and Sian Prime, MA Course Director (left and right respectively above), it takes the view that entrepreneurship is the creation of value, that this value could be social, aesthetic or financial, and that these three strands are interwoven.

The MA in Creative Cultural Entrepreneurship runs across four

Departments: Design, Drama, Music, and Media & Communications. There are profiles of its graduates – including Ernest Goh, a ‘photodirector of multimedia platforms’ who provided the image for this issue’s cover – on its homepage.

“It’s different from business skills,” says Lidstone. “We’re not an MBA, which tends to concentrate on the business plan. We’re developing entrepreneurial attributes and mindsets which go beyond that. Moreover we’re dealing with a range of subjects – sociology and computing, for example – in which people are just as creative, with innovative designs and processes.

“Many of our students are interested in social entrepreneurship, driven by a passion to change society in the health and education sectors.”

The Institute, which will relocate to the top floor of the New Academic Building next year, is also developing short courses for organisations and professionals worldwide, from Tate Britain to the Korea Arts & Culture Education Service. Back at Goldsmiths, the strategy is to develop a culture of innovation and enterprise amongst both staff and students at the College.

“To come and do our Masters programme, you’ve got to be creative as well as having entrepreneurial ambitions,” says Warden Geoffrey Crossick. “We pride ourselves in being ahead of the game. I think it’s because we’re not just an imaginative institution, we’re a cutting-edge research institution. We bring in people excited by the buzz of the place.”

• ICCE would love to hear from more alumni with their own businesses. Please go to www.gold.ac.uk/icce.

Material world

The Constance Howard Resource and Research Centre in Textiles is based in the Deptford Town Hall Building.

The 2009 Christine Risley Award, named after a key original member of the department, went to Susie Vickery, a graduate of the Julia Caprara School of Textile Art (the first time the prize has been offered outside Goldsmiths). Her work will be exhibited at the Centre next year. Meanwhile Narrative Threads, a box-set of eight DVDs featuring oral history interviews with leading British textile artists, is now available to purchase from connitex@gold.ac.uk

The Centre’s material archive remains an eclectic, international treasure trove of textiles which are extraordinarily rich in breadth and diversity, ranging from full-scale quilts to tiny fragments of embroidery and lace. Alumni are welcome to use the facilities on Tuesdays and Thursdays by appointment – as are educational groups, independent researchers, academic staff and anyone passionate about textiles.

For more, go to: www.goldsmiths.ac.uk/ constance-howard

Blue Head by Constance Howard, 1968

MUSIC, MAESTRO

It’s an awfully long way from New Cross to New York, but for Rob Stringer the journey seems to have taken no time at all. Back in the early 1980s he was Social Secretary for Goldsmiths Students' Union, booking debut London gigs for bands like Simply Red and Lloyd Cole and the Commotions, and hanging out at Raymont Hall (of residence) in Brockley.

Today he’s Chair of Sony Music Group in the US, with a 32nd-floor office

on Madison Avenue looking out onto Central Park through one window and the Chrysler Building through another. The Telegraph has described him as ‘one of the most powerful men in the music business’.

Those intervening 25 years have “absolutely flown by,” he says. “I’m just an ordinary British bloke from a housing estate in Aylesbury [in Buckinghamshire] and I do sometimes think, wow –how did I get here?”

Simple – he’s just very good at what he does. Upon Stringer’s graduation in 1984, the Students' Union was described by Time Out London as having ‘an excellent policy of being the place where you see the big bands first’. High praise indeed.

“It was the post-punk era and we put on loads of good bands,” he recalls. “We had big Christmas parties and Summer Balls which were like mini Live Aids! It was so much fun.

“I was into bands like Orange Juice and Aztec Camera, and This Charming Man by The Smiths was the Students' Union disco anthem. We’d get our clothes from shops on the King’s Road and Kensington Market. A place called FLIP! in Covent Garden sold second-hand baseball jackets, Levis and Doc Martens.

“Looking back now, a lot of trust was put in me, a 21-year-old bloke, putting all these great bands on.

Goldsmiths gave me a year’s free apprenticeship in the music business…

Rob Stringer heads up a mighty global media organisation, mingles with entertainment megastars, and says he owes it all to Goldsmiths

1984 and all that… Research news

At the end of Rob’s final year there was a change of Warden from Richard Hoggart to Andrew Rutherford, under whom Goldsmiths resisted a merger with Thames Polytechnic and instead became an autonomous college within London University.

Among the No1 tunes in the Students' Union bar (possibly) were 99 Red Balloons (by Nena), Wake Me Up Before You Go Go (Wham!), Two Tribes (Frankie Goes To Hollywood) and The Reflex (Duran Duran).

Goldsmiths expressed its concern at the ‘continuing erosion in the real value of the student grant’ as the Government proposed greatly increased parental contributions and even (whisper it) loans.

Just completing his Master’s at Goldsmiths was artist Mark Wallinger, now famous for his 170ft 'Angel of the South’ horse in Ebbsfleet.

Among those born were Prince Harry, musician and producer Calvin Harris, footballer Fernando Torres and actress Scarlett Johansson.

The Students' Union Handbook described Raymont Hall, where Rob first lived at Goldsmiths, as ‘firmly established as the centre of the universe, having a lively bar and committee and a pleasant garden in keeping with the district in which it is situated’.

Making their debuts were the Apple Macintosh, Virgin Atlantic and Thomas the Tank Engine on TV.

Just started at Goldsmiths is a three-year examination of how faith impacts upon becoming literate, in particular when families move to a new country and learn a new language. Professor Eve Gregory and her team from the Department of Educational Studies have been awarded £620,000 by the Economic & Social Research Council to study children’s development in 12 London families from four faiths: West African Pentecostalist, Tamil Hindu, Bangladeshi Muslim and Polish Catholic.

Keeping an ‘open mind’ is the key to being able to solve problems, according to Goldsmiths' researchers. Joydeep Bhattacharya, from the Department of Psychology, and his graduate student Simone Sandkuhler from the University of Vienna, used electroencephalography (EEG) to monitor the brains of volunteers while giving them verbal problems to solve. Mental blocks were linked to strong gamma rhythms (a brain wave associated with focused attention) while a relaxed brain-state was facilitated by alpha rhythms and often the right answer.

Can you tell who might be about to phone you? This question of telepathy is being investigated by Goldsmiths Professor Chris French, from the Department of Psychology, and Dr Rupert Sheldrake, Director of the Perrott-Warrick Project which is administered by Trinity College, Cambridge. Early research, in which participants had to guess which of four nominated friends was calling, has already demonstrated significantly higher levels of success than completely random guesswork.

Goldsmiths continues to pioneer research into the cultural origins of the West End musical. Following a major conference in 2008, hosted by the Centre for Lifelong Learning & Community Engagement, part of Professional & Community Education (PACE), there are plans to digitise the play texts of early musical comedy and review, almost all of which remain unpublished.

Goldsmiths Research Online is a repository of research conducted by academic staff during the course of their work at the College. It also contains doctoral theses, bibliographic information, full and sample text, and digital art works. Visit http://eprints-gro.gold.ac.uk

My academic course was great, but I also got a year’s free apprenticeship in the music business.”

As Rob was nearing the end of his Sociology degree, he saw an advert in the NUS newspaper for ‘graduates with university entertainment experience’, and CBS duly took him on. Within a year he was with Sony, and soon he was signing acts like the Manic Street Preachers (with whom he’s since become very close) and The

Lightning Seeds for Epic Records, a subsidiary label.

By 2000 he’d become CEO of Sony Music UK, repositioning it as a giant multimedia player and implementing partnerships between leading brands and the company’s impressive roster of talent (Jennifer Lopez, Beyonce, Bruce Springsteen, Bob Dylan etc). In 2006 he moved to Manhattan and he currently lives on East 51st Street, just a few blocks from Sony’s offices.

Not that he’s ever forgotten his roots, or the debt he feels he owes to his old College. In March 2009, Rob returned to Goldsmiths for the first time, revisiting the Students' Union and meeting his modern-day counterparts (one of them, Fine Arts graduate Holly Bott, is now working for Sony in digital marketing).

“It was lovely to go back,” he says. “From being a bit of an underachiever in a suburban town, the Goldsmiths experience told

me I could do something more – and I’m forever grateful. The best advice I can give to someone thinking of going into the same business? Be a cultural sponge, soak it all up, and remember that passion and excitement are just as important as focus and discipline.

“I just grew up at Goldsmiths, I blossomed at the place. I did a ‘life course’ and it’s the reason I’ve got to where I am today.”

In which we put five Goldsmiths alumni, all of whom have gone on to enjoy great success, on the spot with three burning questions

VICKI PSARIAS

An award-winning filmmaker, Vicki graduated from Goldsmiths with a distinction in MA Screen Drama & Direction in 2003, having also completed her BA in Media & Communications at the College.

Much more than one thing. My BA and MA taught me to believe in myself and gave me the framework to find my voice as a filmmaker. Not only did they educate and inform me but they nurtured my individuality and taught me that anything is possible. You can’t ask for more than that! I loved Goldsmiths and still do and always count my time there as why today I can call myself a filmmaker.

My MA lecturer, John Beacham, who sadly passed away a few years ago. He took a chance on me and offered me a place on the MA course when I was very inexperienced and young – and he offered me support, stimulation and many laughs. He was a true hero to me. I dedicated my Channel 4 Talent award-winning short film Broken to him along with my grandparents.

Without the arts, the soul cannot be nourished. I think filmmakers need to be resourceful, though, and not wait for funding. We are in an age where cameras are cheap, and ultimately it’s the storytelling that counts. Throughout time there are always limitations on artists and often it’s these restrictions which help create the most amazing endproducts as artists find ways to tell their stories regardless.

Fine Arts alumnus Jeremy (graduated 1987) is a theatre director whose work has taken him to the fringes of society in Warsaw, Edinburgh, Sao Paolo, Belfast and Gaza. His first feature film, Limboland, is being produced by Danish company Zentropa.

It was to take risks. Goldsmiths gave me the encouragement and help with the idea that a person’s creativity was absolutely sovereign, that you should trust this and always take chances. Ultimately it created a climate of experimentation.

My tutor Richard Wentworth. Psychologically he worked with you to encourage you to explore your own potential. He’d say, ‘You’re all artists, wherever you’re from, and as a community you encourage each other’. I wasn’t a particularly easy student. I didn’t understand the point of college – I just did my art, a free spirit. He got me to see the point.

You can judge a society by its attitude to culture. Also, there is a business case that the arts supply so much revenue in terms of tourism, TV and film. The problem is, British society tends to separate arts and sciences. People won’t have read Da Vinci the artist and the scientist, or Charles Dodgson [Lewis Carroll] the mathematician and writer. When you read both, there is less distinction.

If there’s one thing that Goldsmiths taught me…

One person at the College who truly inspired me was…

The way I see it, this whole arts v sciences debate…

JEREMY WELLER

Stand-up comedian Shazia took a PGCE in Education with Science at Goldsmiths in 1995/96. In September 2009 she returned to the College to perform at the Students’ Union as part of Freshers’ Week.

It’s to do what you want to do, no matter how wacky or crazy and even if people don’t get you at first. Goldsmiths taught me to keep doing what I believed in.

FRANK BOND

Frank Bond (PhD in Psychology 1995 and MSc in Occupational Psychology 1997) enjoyed his student life at Goldsmiths so much that he refused to leave and is now a Professor of Psychology and Head of Department.

It was to seek out, appreciate, and learn from differences, whether they are different interests, theories, world views, or people from different backgrounds. Learning to be comfortable with differences has allowed me to conduct research in distinct areas of psychology and find common underlying mechanisms that link them together in novel ways. This has been key to my career.

I studied Drama alongside my postgraduate Education course.

The Drama course was taught by a man called Steven Dykes and he was brilliant. We put on some great theatre productions, and that was the first time I thought that I would love to do this all the time.

He taught me a lot. I loved my time at Goldsmiths and it was here that I really started to develop and become who I am.

My first degree was in Biochemistry and then I became a teacher and now a stand-up comedian. Art is just as important as science.

I couldn’t tell you anything about peptides now and yet I spent years studying it.

A Lecturer on my MSc in Occupational Psychology, Professor David Bunce. He not only inspired me to pursue a particular avenue of research, but he also inspired my love of research and my ability to write for a scientific audience. I believe entirely that my research career would have gone in a different direction had it not been for him.

Having completed her PGCE at Goldsmiths in 1980, Althea taught and worked with young people before joining the London Borough of Lewisham. She’s now an Executive Director at Arts Council England and a member of Goldsmiths’ Council.

It was to be bold and fearless but at the same time disciplined, structured and organised. Even though I only spent one year at Goldsmiths, I really enjoyed it. The College was and still is a foremost institution for education degrees. Also I got to spend many lunchtimes with a favourite aunt who lived in Lewisham.

It’s hard to name just one. The tutors who led the social studies side of my course (the others being theory of education and learning) were very passionate about their subject, and passionate about us as student teachers trying to ensure the best life-chances for young people, and getting them to open their eyes and change the world.

Is a nonsense. I believe that both art and science are attempts to better understand ourselves and the world in which we live. They have different perspectives, different ways to understand, and different uses, but each contributes greatly to a more enriched and vital life.

Other revenue streams for the arts – such as trusts, foundations, corporate sponsors and income from things like cafes and programmes – are under threat. From my perspective at Arts Council England, it is of the utmost importance that there isn’t a reduction in public-sector funding. It accounts for one third of the whole.

SHAZIA MIRZA

ALTHEA EFUNSHILE

AYNSLEY DUNBAR’S WHAT?

Aynsley Dunbar's Blue Whale, of course. Spot the famous and not-so-famous bands in this fabulous collection of Goldsmiths gig posters from the late 60s

Feast your eyes on just a sample of Goldsmiths gig posters from the late 1960s owned by Dave Riddle, now Media Services Manager at the College and once (like Rob Stringer, see page 12) Social Secretary of the Students' Union.

Dave (right) kindly picked out some of his favourites for us to photograph – featuring acts like Yes, The Moody Blues and Muddy Waters – and as we shot them against a blank wall by the College Green on an unusually warm autumn day, we couldn’t help but notice how many current students paused for a closer look.

Dave studied Botany & Zoology from 1966 to 1969 before taking a year-long Postgraduate Teachers Certificate. As part of his Union duties, he rigged up a speaker system which was hired out to halls of residence when it wasn’t being fitted to his Ford Anglia 105e!

“Looking back on the bands that played Goldsmiths in those days, it’s amazing how many are familiar names even today, and how it was possible that the ‘College Circuit’ (as it was known) permitted the booking of top acts by even relatively small institutions,” he says.

“The posters were often designed by fellow students and screen-printed in the Art School, as it was then. They are relatively pristine since they’ve spent the best part of 40 years inside an architect’s drawing table that an old colleague, Sandy Evans, made as part of his Design Education course.

“The collection has never been exhibited, but I produced a movie of over 200 items for a 40th year reunion in 2008 and there’s been interest ever since.”

• View the collection at www.gallery. me.com/dpreeyore/100041.

Blur back

The live music tradition at the College continued in June when Blur came back to Goldsmiths to play the Students' Union. The concert won rave reviews in the press - 'a night of pure joy' said the Daily Telegraph. Alumnus David Rose (BA English, 1996) won two tickets for the sold out gig in a prize draw in one of our new email newsletters. Make sure we have your email address for future offers.

Campo de Batalla is the title of the first feature film by Goldsmiths MA Feature Film graduate Amancay Tapia. Shot on location in La Paz, Bolivia, it tells the story of a group of women trapped in a beauty salon in the city during a revolt by coca farmers. Londonbased Amancay, who wrote, directed and appeared in the movie, contacted Goldlink because “I thought the story could encourage other students doing this MA. When I first started the course, we all wanted to know about film makers who’d been on it, too.”

Goldsmiths spinoff company i2 media research, headed by Dr Jonathan Freeman, is helping blind and partiallysighted people choose digital radios which suit them best. “We noted what caused them difficulty and generated a checklist of design features that made digital radio equipment easier to use,” says Dr Freeman, who is a Senior Research Fellow in Psychology. “The Royal National Institute of Blind People will now use the findings to work with manufacturers, challenging them to meet the needs of blind and partially sighted customers.”

For more, visit www.gold.ac.uk/i2.

Media & Communications alumnus Jaimie Hodgson has been appointed New Music Editor at the NME. “Jaimie is one of the most exciting young music journalists in the country,” says the revered music mag’s Editor, Conor McNicholas. “He’s already a great writer, fizzing with ideas, and he’s very well respected across the industry. We’re delighted to have him on board.” In 2005, his graduation year, Hodgson campaigned, along with the Students' Union, to get Blur band member Graham Coxon made an Honorary Fellow of the College.

AMANCAY TAPIA

DR JONATHAN FREEMAN JAIMIE HODGSON

LIFE AFTER GOLDSMITHS

There were no bureaucratic barriers. My tutors, Lucia Boldrini and Chris Baldick, always encouraged me to do further study, and at the moment I’m doing the MA Writing in the Modern Age at Queen Mary while working at The Poetry Society part-time.”

Rebecka: “I graduated in English in 2007, and by then I was already writing my own poetry. Nutshell, which is the brainchild of Faye Fornasier (whom I’ve known for years), publishes a lot of poetry and my task is to select from the submissions.

Helena and I didn’t know each other when we were at Goldsmiths, so it’s quite odd to think that we might well have been passing each other on the stairs. The best thing about Goldsmiths was that it made you feel that you could write about anything.

Helena: “I took the MA in Creative & Life Writing in 2004/05. Since completing the course I’ve been working as a freelance writer and a tutor of Maths and English. Now I’m also training as a psychodynamic counsellor. For me, the disciplines of writing and therapy seem to have many fruitful links. I wasn’t lucky enough to meet Rebecka while I was at Goldsmiths – we were

introduced by our mutual friend Faye, who is the editor of Nutshell Magazine and the powerhouse behind it. We were very pleased to include an interview with Blake Morrison [Professor of Creative & Life Writing] in the first issue of the magazine and hope that we can continue to have a good relationship with the staff and students at Goldsmiths, many of whom have submitted their creative work to us already.”

• Nutshell is a newlylaunched free magazine with everything from ‘sweet illustrations to cryptic artwork, sticky short stories and a bundle of poetry’. The team welcome submissions (poetry, illustration, prose) and support for future issues. Visit www.nutshellmagazine.com.

THAT WAS THEN: THROUGH THE COLLEGE ARCHIVES

1949

Here’s one of the first postwar group photographs of female Goldsmiths students. During World War Two, the College buildings were severely damaged by bombing and full activities were not restored until 1947, when Goldsmiths became a Department of the London University Institute of Education. These firstyear students of 1949 are arranged in alphabetical order, from left to right.

Top row: RM Beckford, B Bridgland, G Dunkley, JM Ellis. Middle: CM Ferguson, BJ Harrington, B Jordan, G Lloyd. Bottom: M Malt, A Martin, DB Newman, BV Pipes, DM Thorogood.

1955

The Goldsmiths Jubilee celebrated 50 years since

the College’s foundation in 1905. There was a pageant and a book entitled The Forge: the History of Goldsmiths College, which featured the College Hymn. Here’s the first verse:

In the vapour of the furnace he must wrestle with his work, Where amid the unwrought metal countless forms of beauty lurk, To shape them and adorn them is the task he may not shirk, The smith is working on.

The Yearbook of the Old Student Association, meanwhile, opened with a Letter from the President, Freda V Kirk: ‘Dear Fellow Smiths, those of us who were privileged to be in the Great Hall for the Fiftieth Jubilee celebrations will never forget the splendour of the occasion… Unfortunately as so often happens, great occasions can so easily be marred; we were unfortunate in that a rail strike should take place during ‘that week’. I do hope that most people who expected to attend did eventually manage to reach New Cross in spite of the roundabout bus routes and consequent delays on the way…’

• Thanks to Library & Special Collections

Alumni Rebecka Mustajarvi and Helena Michaelson have now become friends and colleagues on Nutshell magazine

Giving to Goldsmiths

The Worshipful Company of Goldsmiths set up its Technical & Recreative Institute in 1891 to provide education for the people of South London. Since that time we have continued in our commitment to encourage unique and creative ways to examine subjects by basing this on the highest standards of teaching and research. Increasingly we cannot realise our full potential with government funding alone and so the purpose of our fundraising is simple – to provide a better College than the state could otherwise afford. We already have a number of committed supporters, including many alumni.

MATCHED FUNDING SCHEME

There has never been a better time to give to Goldsmiths as the Government’s Matched Funding scheme for higher education adds extra money to almost all donations to universities. The scheme will run until 2011 and until then Goldsmiths will receive an extra £1 from the government for every £2 donated, including overseas gifts. And, if you are a UK taxpayer, your gift plus Gift Aid will be matched under the scheme. So a donation of £100 is worth £187 to the College.

AREAS YOU CAN SUPPORT

Annual Fund – where the need is greatest, seeking support each and every year to serve students and the wider College community, through teaching innovations, extra-curricular activities and bursaries. A regular gift, of whatever amount, will really make a difference.

Library – help us to continue to provide a library that is worthy of Goldsmiths. Each of our full-time students borrowed on average 83 books last year, whereas in similar universities the average was just 64! We spend well above average on our library, but with your help we could improve it even more.

You can download a gift form at www.gold.ac.uk/media/ goldsmiths-gift-form.pdf. And if you have a question, please contact us at alumni@gold.ac.uk or +44 (0)20 7078 5015

Whatever you can give would be very much appreciated by everyone at the College, none more so than the students of today and future years.

"We've been delighted by the support shown from our alumni to the Library, their donations will really help us provide extra copies of books in high demand."

Mary Nixon, College Librarian

Without whom…

This list warmly acknowledges donations received by the Development and Alumni Office between 1 August 2008 and 30 September 2009.

We are honoured to recognise these organisations and individuals who have given £1000 or more:

Chelsea Arts Club Trust

Compass Services Ltd Professor Geoffrey Crossick Ebb & Flow Charitable Trust

The Revd Professor Peter Galloway OBE

Sir Paul Girolami

The Goldsmiths’ Company

The Huntercombe Group London Borough of Lewisham Stewart Till CBE

Alumni, staff and other friends of the College:

Gabriel Ajeigbe

Tina Agrell Herbert Anderson * Lynne Andrews Vicky Annand * Zonia Bateman Shazia Begum Susan Brady Annette Bullen *

Sir Steve Bullock Antoinette Carey * Ruth Chaplin

Richard Chapman

Patricia Delaney Craig Edwards

Alan Evans John Farrow Suzanne Fernando Rachel Fulcher Rose Frain

IN BRIEF

Were you at Goldsmiths during 1956-58? If so, make a note of 23 October 2010 when Al Barclay is organising a reunion.

The annual rugby match between alumni and current students takes place on 6 December at Loring Fields. Anyone interested should contact David Newton (he of the Bayeux Tapestry on page 8) on 07960 781599

Our thoughts go to the family and friends of Mark James, PE Lecturer for 22 years spanning the 1950s to the 70s, who died on 13 October aged 93.

Goldsmiths Students' Union is looking to appoint External Trustee Board members and actively seeking applications from women (the College is over 65% female), black and minority ethnic individuals, LGBT and disabled people. Please email g.gaskell@gold.ac.uk

Into A. Goudsmit Mary Green Mike Griffiths Meredith Gunderson Hanako Tomita Kathleen Harvey Ian Heath Malcolm Henson Hing-Hoo Chong Dr Sally Hunt Kate Hunter * Jill Hutton Shirley Hyde Nazia Idries * Margery Ismail Liz Ivory * Julia and Nicholas James

Hugh Jones * Ziyad Khan

William Kiang * Victor Langley

Ian La Riviere

Aaron Lefkovitz

Dr Sarah Li

Dr Gerald Lidstone * Doreen Leadley

David Lock

Jennifer Lopez

Dr David Male

Clare McConkey

Professor Simon McVeigh * Michael Metelits * Roger Mintey

Joe Minns * Catherine Moore

David Mungall * Natwest Bank (Goldsmiths Branch)

Adele Nevill Mary Nixon * Marion Panzetta Bernard Parris Sindhuja Parathasangary Chris Pearson * Jake Phelan

Dr Andrew Pink * Sarah Potter

Anthony Powell

Professor Jane Powell * Jennifer Price Tina Price-Johnson * Neal Rattee

Janet Rennie * John Richardson Wejdan Salem Almannai Kaori Shiota

Myra Slater

Arthur Sparrow

Frank Spencer Derek Sykes

Dr Michail Syrris

Andrew Taylor * Marion Taylor

Ivan Tennent

Abigail Thatcher * Graham Thomas Julia Trow

Viet Anh To Hilary Wheeler

Joan Wheeler OBE Yuri Yoshino Yutaka Nagano Mirjana Zivanovic

And those who preferred to remain anonymous.

An asterisk [*] indicates those who have given more than once in the past year.