T H E O N LY S U S TA I N A B L E L I F E S T Y L E M A G F O R B O H E M I A N P E O P L E
WIN!
Exclusive Health Spa package worth £69
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Why babies aren’t ecofriendly...
CraftCouple A student carpenter and jewellery maker discuss sustainable design
TOMS Shoes Look good, feel good: the charitable plimsole...
Get Cape. Wear Cape. Fly.
AKA Sam Duckworth - musician, campigner, eco-icon
+ Exclusive interview with Eco-DJ Raffertie +
boho
EDITORIAL
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ello and welcome to the first issue of Boho magazine. First of all, let’s plunge you into the world of Boho: who we are, where we come from, and all that jazz.
people on board with us adds to the Boho mixing pot of ethics and ecology with a dash of entertainment. We’ve kicked off the first issue with an exclusive interview with Sam Duckworth, front man of the renowned and critically-acclaimed band, Get Cape. Wear Cape. Fly. At a tender age of 22, Sam holds strong opinions towards what’s wrong in the world. In an intimately inspiring interview, Sam talks of his anguish towards certain global issues, whilst also talking about his upcoming 25-track album release next month. Surrounding that, we have a vast array of articles that will allure you with an alternative way to living a lavish-lifestyle. Boho’s first issue will guide you on how to look like you’re off the latest catwalks after a trip to the charity shops, how you can change the world in a matter of minutes and why vegetarianism isn’t just about eating lettuce. I could go on all issue with what we have to intrigue you with, but I’ll leave you to delve on your own accord. So, without further a do, release yourself Deputy Editor into Boho’s secret garden – enjoy! Kevin Lee Jones
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Boho is a team of passionately devoted journalists who have a keen awareness and affinity with all things ‘green’. What makes us particularly individual, though, is our little secret that ethical or ecological living doesn’t have to be boring. We want to let you into this secret utopia and challenge the idiom, ‘it’s not easy being green’. What Boho aims to do is spice up the possibilities to ethical living and ecology. We want to give ethics a makeover and in turn provide you with a cool, refreshing and fashionable lifestyle magazine with a twist of green - not lime! What’s exciting about Boho is the big names we are attracting to our features. Boho is a people magazine and we are featuring the most inspiring people in the eco-world. Having these
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The Boho Team
- Harry Lincoln: A Paladian Business Publications designer, drawn in to help jointly design the magazine; the revered journalist has also written for many publications nationally.
“Giving ethics a makeover” Boho Magazine, University of Lincoln, MHT Building, Brayford Pool, Lincoln, LN6 7TS (01522) 882000
- Mark Bowery Boasting a mixed writing style allows for Mark to produce compelling work for Boho. We are pleased to have this award-winning broadcast/investigative journalist with us.
editor@boho.com
- Jackson Jones This flamboyant journalist has been writing and professionally illustrating since dot. If anybody can spin words and make them look pretty at the same time, it’s Jackson.
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NEWS
boho
CONTENTS 4. Ethical Auction What are celebrities auctioning off in aid of Artist for peace and justice.
5. Legal highs Examining the recent scandals surrounding legal highs.
6. Are babies eco-friendly? The implications on the planet of having kids.
GET CAPE WEAR CAPE FLY
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STYLE
8. Ten Ethical Brands Can brands change the world? We reckon so.
PEOPLE
10. Tom’s shoes 13. Raffertie
A peek into the world of ethical
An exclusive interview with the rising star discovered by Radio 1.
consumerism.
12. Mens toiletries 16. Get Cape, Wear Cape, Fly Musician, campaigner, eco-icon talks exclusively to Boho.
We pick the best toiletries for you
RAFFERTIE
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24. Craft couple
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Profile of a couple who are living a quintessential craft life.
and the planet.
HEALTH
22. Eco-health spa
ART
Competiton giveaway to win a health spa treatment voucher worth ÂŁ69.
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23.Eco-friend or Eco-foe?
19. Colin Not just an exhibition but an international project promoting craft.
Are vegetrians really destroying the planet with their diet?
HOMEOPATHY
20. Cultex
30. Spotlight on: Homeopathy
Not just an exhibition but an international project promoting craft.
Examinaning the controversies and truths behind homeopathy.
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www.boho.co.uk
boho
NEWS
Clockwise from topleft: Chan Marshall from Cat Power, Drew Barrymore, Daft Punk Kubricks models, Natalie Portmans ballet shoes, limited edition Kings of Leon print, Liv Tyler, Milla Jovovich and Patrick Carney of the Black Keys.
Crafts For A Cause Auction Brazilian musician Binki Shapiro has banded top musicians, designer, actors and artists together to lend a helping hand to raise money for the Haiti relief effort. One-of-a-kind items have been hand-crafted, painted, signed and scribbled on then auctioned off online.
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inki Shapiro, known for her part in three-piece band Little Joy, has helped to raise thousands of dollars for the Haiti relief effort through her Crafts For A Cause auction.
She’s taken time out from Little Joy with fellow band members ex-Strokes drummer Fabrizio Moretti - who she’s now dating and Rodrigo Amarante, former singer-guitarist of Los Hermanos. Thousands of dollars have been raised for the Haiti relief effort through her Crafts For A Cause auction where she rounded up a super-cool plethora of designers, musicians, artists and even the cream of Hollywood to design, hand-craft and sign, custommade one of a kind items. The total amount raised was a massive $39,481 all of which went to Artists for Peace and Justice founded by Shapiro’s close friend Paul Haggis. Amongst some of the unique items at the auction were a signed shirt with poetry written on it by Milla Jovovich, signed ballet slippers worn by Natalie Portman, 1000% Kubricks robots signed and decorated by Daft Punk and limited edition Kings of Leon silk-screen prints. Dozens more tote bags, paintings, t-shirts and prints were auctioned off as well. Contributors include director Spike Jonze, Liv Tyler, Patrick Carney of the Black Keys, The Red Hot Chili Peppers and Drew Barrymore. Words: Jackson Jones
The infinitely captivating Binki Shapiro: the woman behind the Crafts For A Cause auction
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www.boho.co.uk
The lowdown on legal highs
boho
NEWS
Increasing numbers of clubbers are using legal highs. But are they simply herbal and a safe alternative to alcohol, or lethal?
“W
ithin half an hour of taking them I began to feel the whole left side of my body go numb and then I started to panic,” says Alistair Crawford, a 24-yearold who once tried a legal high. This is becoming a common panic that comes unexpected to customers who are told that herbal highs are safe and organic. In a recent study, doctors revealed that herbal drugs can be just as dangerous as the illegal substances they are designed to safely replace. Since the revelation, numerous cases of paranoia and other health issues have occurred in young adults who dabble with legal drugs on a night out as an experimental alternative to alcohol. However, many experimenters, like Alistair Crawford of Sheffield, won’t deviate away from alcohol again: “I had ‘Happy Pills’, which is herbal ecstasy. You can buy them from a herbal
shop in the city and my friends and I thought we’d give it a go. Doctors are continually voicing the message that herbal drugs aren’t herbal at all. Phil Martin, a GP at a practice in Rotherham, South Yorkshire, said: “I think doctors would rather treat patients who take illicit drugs, as we know how to treat the side effects of those substances. “The herbal equivalents that are now on the market are unknown to our expertise, so we are constantly unsure of how to treat any problems that occur from misuse.”
“ I began to feel the whole left side of my body go numb and then I started to panic.
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Products like ‘Happy Pills’ are legal and can be ought freely from herbal stores in High Streets or online. ‘Potseeds’, an online herbal drug store, cater far and wide for the pill-popping reveller. ‘Doves’, ‘Head Candy’ and ‘Neuro Blast’ are a few of a catalogue of legal highs you can buy from the site. Astonishingly, the online store attach a disclaimer to their web pages which states: ‘All seeds are sold as souvenirs or bird feed or fishing bait only.’ It’s a loophole in the legal system that companies like ‘Potseeds’ manipulate and take advantage of. Steve Roberts, 26, from London, sampled a herbal product called ‘Doves’ one night. “On the packet it said that the pills should be used to aid plant growth!” he said. Steve trusted the seller’s advice and took the drug. Later on in the night he found himself hallucinating in a toilet. “I felt as though the mirror in the toilet was sucking me in. I have never felt so unsafe,” he said. Sellers of these products know full well why consumers are buying them. Come the health inspection, though, they explain – through a disclaimer – that they sell the products for alternate uses. Any unsuspecting buyer could risk their life through the deceptions and ambiguities these products bear on health and warning. The government need to eliminate the loopholes in the laws governing the use of these substances. By Kevin Lee Jones
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boho
NEWS
Babies: What’s the impact on the planet? Photo: Anneka James
Meet the woman who’s not having kids because the planet can’t cope with the spiraling population.
“I don’t
want babies, H because they’re not ” eco-friendly!
aving children and raising a family is one of the most natural instincts for most young women, but what makes someone give up that dream for the good of the planet? At 26 years old, Laura admits that the natural desire to have children is extremely strong but she feels that the bigger issue of protecting the environment is more important: “Over the last couple of years I’ve had a feeling that I want more from life or something meaningful and that’s probably my body’s cue to have kids. People would call it a mothering instinct but I’m interpreting it as something else, to find some other meaning in my life.” Laura explains that she feels extremely fortunate that her boyfriend of nearly ten years feels the same way on the issue: “My boyfriend would like kids, but he knows there’s bigger reasons
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than, he just wants kids. We’re both lucky that we’re together and we both feel the same way on the issue.” Interestingly, Laura says that as well as support from her partner, she also feels reassured and justified by organisations like the Voluntary Human Extinction Movement (VHEMT) and the Optimum Population Trust (OPT). Both organisations campaign to raise awareness on the issues surrounding overpopulation and its impact on the environment. The VHEMT want a gradual extinction of the human race through non-reproduction. The group argue on their website: “The hopeful alternative to the extinction of millions of species of plants and animals is the voluntary extinction of one species: Homo sapiens… us.” The OPT, which Sir David Attenborough is patron of, aim to raise awareness of the problems and implications of overpopulation in the UK, and suggest that while the population in the UK currently stands at 61 million and is due to rise to 77 million by 2050, a population of only 30 million is sustainable on a long term basis. This argument they say is replicated on a worldwide scale too, claiming that while the current global population stands at nearly seven billion people, in terms of food, water and fuel for long term survival and prosperity this figure needs to be significantly reduced. The group advocates population control policies implemented by governments. The argument that growing population damages the environment is supported by a recent report by Oregon State University. The study concluded that having a child was twenty times more important than taking other environmentally friendly actions like recycling or driving a low emission car. “Sometimes I think it’s not worth me explaining to people because either they won’t understand my reasons, they tell me I’ll change my mind or you’ll insult them because you’re effectively challenging their world view.” She goes on to say: “ Once you say that you don’t want kids, they think maybe you can’t have kids and the conversation ends through embarrassment”. The decision to never have children, has taken Laura a long time, which she began considering when she was around the age of 12 or 13. Due to events that happened in her family, as she grew up she realised that life wasn’t all positive and events such as her parents divorcing made her think about traditional families. This made her aware that life didn’t have to run a pre-determined path in-
Current global population is 6.9 Billion. Estimated 2050 global population is 9.2 Billion. Global population has more than doubled in the last 50 years. Nappies are the 3rd most common item in UK landfill. Average household waste rises by up to 70% on the arrival of a new baby. Families with a new baby can see their household’s power consumption rise by as much as 60%. volving children. She feels that many people almost sleep walk into marriage and children without considering the ramifications and wider implications, just because its what is expected for young adults to do. Laura also admits that her conviction not to have children was shaken in her early twenties when one of her best teenage friends fell pregnant. During their school years Laura and her friend
enough. Laura says that people often come up with the same point that if there’s not enough children then who is going to pay for the older generations pensions and fuel the economy if the population took a drastic drop as Laura is proposing. However, Laura questions this logic and says that there are more pressing issues than the state of the economy, she says: “You can’t have more and more people,
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You can’t just have more and more people, there’s not enough resources on the planet as it is. Pensions will be the least of our problems if we don’t have food, water and other vital resources. had both shared the same belief that having children was not for them. Her friends’ pregnancy made Laura think that she might change her mind too. She now insists this is not an option and her desires are of secondary concern to the needs of society at large. Laura has come up against one recurring argument again and again over the years since coming to her decision. She explains that a number of people have tried to argue the point that rather than too many people in the world, there’s not
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there’s not enough resources on the planet as it is. Pensions will be the least of our problems if we don’t have food, water and other vital resources.” Laura argues that people see her as selfish, but really the opposite is true: “At the end of the day who’s more selfish, someone who’s giving in to their natural urges, wanting to have a baby so you’ve got someone to love you and look after you when you’re old, or me who’s sacrificing all of that, for the good of the Earth and mankind?”
Grenada chocolate boho
STYLE
The boho Top 10 ethical brands Here are the brands that we at Boho think will change the world over the next 12 months.
Whole earth 2
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An organic cocoa growers and chocolate makers co-operative, Grenada chocolate company is almost a unique operation. It links the two main skills involved in the chocolate production process to ensure that no one link in the production chain is exploited and the profits are shared equally.
After over forty years of trading, Whole earth foods are still making waves with their range of organic everyday foods. Their ethos is that organic food should not be the sole preserve of luxury and treat products, but all normal foods like tomato ketchup and beans should be too.
TOMS Shoes
Magno wooden radio 7
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A hybrid between a charity and a profit making company, TOMS shoes is the epitomy of capitalism with a conscience. The concept is that when someone buys a pair of shoes from TOMS, a pair is donated to a person who can’t afford shoes and is therefore threatened by infection or death.
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A concept dreamt up by two sociologists, Magno wooden radio is a company that provides the opportunity for people living in an area of the world, in Indonesia, wher production skills are often exploited, to make a superbly crafted product for a fair wage and safe working conditions.
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Plamil chocolate 3
M&S 5
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As well as being organic, gluten and dairy free, Plamil chocolate has a number of strings to their ethical bow. They use 100% renewable energy to produce its products. Further to this an Ethical consumer report scored plamil highly forhuman rights, animal right and eco record.
Renault 8
The French car manufacturer will be the first, in 2011 to launch a range of cars that when driven emit zero greenhouse gases. All the cars in the “eco2” range will run on electricity, but they’re not completely carbon neutral, because of production and recharging, it’s a massive step forward.
Ben & Jerry’s
An environmental sustainability programme started in 2007 and updated earlier this year has already seen M&S provide a fair living wage for its clothes suppliers in Bangladesh. Now the company announced 80 targets to make its clothes and food both ethical and sustainable by 2015.
The worlds most famous ice-cream making company has always had an eye on the ethical side of the business, since its foundation in Vermont in the 1970’s. The company is taking the ethical thread to the next level, vowing to make all their ice-cream using fair trade produce by 2013.
Cause and effect 9
Ecover 10
The fashion industry is notorious for its lack of ethics, but this company has truly bucked the trend. Not only are all the clothes made from fair trade cotton, they use organic ink and even more importantly the clothes are produced by people in great working conditions, on fair wages.
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As well as teaming up with Wateraid to help provide clean drinking water to people in Ethiopia, Ecover has an ethical streak running right through the business. The company produce ecologically friendly alternatives to the everyday products we all use, meaning a cleaner environment.
boho
STYLE
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TOMS Shoes: “The Shoes for Tomorrow” I’
m sure we’re all glad to finally put away our muddied wellies for a few months as summer finally descends on us. Out come the flip-flops, plimsoles and espadrilles to grace our thankful feet who can now breathe in some fresh, benevolent weather. If you’re lacking in the latter footwear department and looking to splash some cash, may Boho introduce to you: TOMS shoes. TOMS is an American based shoe company, founded in 2006 by entrepreneur, Blake Mycoskie. Mycoskie has revolutionised an Argentinian design of shoe called the ‘Alpargata’. Catering for both men and women, TOMS offer an array of designs that are perfect for the summer season. They are lightweight, durable and extremely fashionable. TOMS is more than a shoer for the fashion conscious, though. TOMS have a remarkable subtext to their objective, which makes them an advocate for ethical living: for every pair of shoes purchased, Mycoskie and his team put a corresponding pair on a child in need in third-world countries. Mycoskie’s idea began when he visited some of the most deprived areas of Argentina during a personal expedition in January, 2006. It was here he had an epiphany and spawned his plan. “I was sitting on a farm pondering life, and it occurred to me, 'I'm going to start a shoe company, and for every pair that we sell, I'll give a pair to someone who needs them.’ I said, ‘They’ll be shoes for tomorrow; I will call them TOMS," he says. Since his revelation back in 2006, he has given away over 150,000 pairs of shoes to underprivileged children, which
makes TOMS one of the main contributors to the aid for thirdworld poverty. The design of the shoes are basic and simple, but look great. “They’re incredibly comfortable, they’re perfect for travelling, and you know, the giving back is a great message that everyone understands,” says Blake. TOMS shoes have attracted the attention of well known celebrities who are currently wearing them on their own pampered feet this season - and probably for summer seasons to come. Sienna Miller and Karl Lagerfield can’t take them off, if pictures of them about town are anything to go by. They come in a range of colours and prints and all bear a durable sole with a comfortable, leather inner sole. The shoes that are donated to the children contain a much more durable sole-material as Mycoskie states: “We want them to last a long time.” Because of their unique and admirable objective, multiple stores across the country and online are stocking the footwear phenomenon. Schuh are the UK’s main stockists, offering a wide variety of designs and colours for men and women. So why not buy a pair at an affordable price of around £30, and feel good about yourself for every step you take? “It makes you smile. No one buys a pair of TOMS without feeling good about it,” says the remarkable man, Blake Mycoskie. We take our shoes off to him at Boho.
The ‘Vegan’ design
Words: Kevin Lee Jones
The ‘Classic’ TOMS
The ‘Vegan’ is one of the latest styles that TOMS have released on to the market. A slight variation from the ‘Classic’ with regard to design, but the main emphasis is on addedpattern, detail and colour. They look great with linen trousers or tapered jeans.
Based on the indigenous footwear in Argentina, the ‘Alpargata’ design is the most distinctive of the TOMS brand. They are a unisex design and are available in a variety of colours. Sleek, simple and lightweight, these shoes are practical, comfortable and fashionable for the summer months.
£35; available from the TOMS website or at TOMS main seller - Schuh
£30; available from the TOMS website or at TOMS main seller - Schuh
“With every pair you purchase, TOMS will give a new pair of shoes to a child in need. One for One.” 11
www.boho.co.uk
boho
STYLE
Ethical Toiletries For Men Cheap eco-friendly and ethical products for skin, hair and teeth
Red Clay Shaving Cream from
Hair Sculpting Wax from Simply
Neal’s Yard, £12.60
Soaps, £7.95
Dental Floss (with tea tree oil)
Natural Basics Bio Olive & Ginger Body Lotion from Sante, £6.50
from Desert Essence, £3.45
Organic Homme Stay Cool Deodorant 75ml from Green People, £6.99
Organic Cold Pressed 'Sweet Almond' Base Oil from Vital Touch 60ml, £4.00
'Vanilla & Tangerine' Hair Texturiser
Lip Repair Butter (with organic oils)
Organic Cotton Wool Pleat (Vegan)
from John Masters, £21.00
from Suki 15ml, £10.30
from Simply Gentle, £1.99
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boho PEOPLE
Raffertie Radio 1 acknowledged DJ + A pioneering approach to the industry = Ethically savvy spinner
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irmingham based DJ and Radio 1 golden-boy "Raffertie" has been on the Dubstep/ Experimental scene for over a year now. Getting initial exposure through Radio 1 DJ Mary Anne Hobbs and collaborating with artists such as Akira Kiteshi and Kanji Kinetic, margin for error seems innately minimal. Harry Lincoln caught up with the 21 year old in Birmingham, where he currently lives and studies: 1. Explain your genre-setting. How would you class your music to someone who had never heard you before? It's hard to describe the whole genre thing, because I don't really think that it exists anymore. People who ask me this are asking all these questions and are just trying to quantify it. Raffertie is very bass-heavy but I have loads of influences. I study down the road at the Conservatoire in Birmingham and so I get a lot of contemporary music influences from that, whether it be experimental electronics or contemporary orchestral music and chamber ensembles. So yeah, everything from the more traditional arrangements right up to the more avantgarde, but obviously it's all based in the electronic world. I think it's much better if people make up their own minds.
2. How did you make it on to the dubstep/electronica scene as well as Radio 1 claims that you have? [chuckles] I suppose that once I got picked up by Mary Anne Hobbs from Radio 1 and got the initial plays that I did, that basically gave me a massive platform to go from. I was then signed up to an agency and got some other support from some other Radio 1 DJs at the time. I sometimes forget that her show is so late-night, and when I flick on I think, 'who is listening at this hour?' Literally her show reaches so many thousands of people, it's fantastic to be featured in something like that. I've also been mentioned on Nick Grimshaw's show The Record of the Week. I still don't really feel that I've made it yet, on to 'that' scene as it were. But at the
Above: A Techincs turntable - coupled with (facing page right) low power
ect since September has been the Raffertie album and it is an ongoing project. Even when you've got to the end, there is so much more to do: mixing and mastering and actually finding a record label.
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5. Because samples make up an intrinsic part of your mixes, have you ever had a problem with copyright? Well, no I haven't. The very nature that my industry is based on, the use of sampling has always carried this
For every five flights that agency ‘talent’ take, they plant a spinney somewhere in Surrey...
same time, I'm getting some real good play time and playing with some big, renowned DJs. I feel very privileged to do that. 3. What's your stance on work versus play? You're still a student, right? I've really started to feel the strain in the last month or so, with all these deadlines lingering. But my main proj-
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The course that I'm on is a very linear thing. It very much has a start, a middle and an end and it's proving difficult to try and get everything to coincide with that hand-in date. I'm still talking to labels as the album is nearing completion now and come May time or even a month after, things will take off I'm hoping.
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usage of samples. Back in the late 70's and early 80's there wasn't a hip hop DJ who wouldn't make entire mixes out of other tracks.It hasn't been a problem so far - touch wood! 6. Do you have any musical pet peeves? Are there elements to live sets you see when you just think 'amateur'? I think for a while I haven't
seen anything that ticks me off. A while ago, rewinds were a pet peeve. Certain kinds of genres of music have kind of built the rewind as a way of building up the hype in the music. In Grime music there are certain things that the MC's say, signalling to the DJ to rewind it, or pull it up and it's really effective in those instances. But sometimes when a DJ's playing a set and there's no MC, they'll pull up every track, again and again. I just thought to myself, 'what are you doing? What's going on?'
vinyls. It’s the cheap way to employ classic methods. But then I moved over to Mac about four years ago. Mainly because Macs are tailored for this kind of work but more because of how they’re structured. We have to be able to trust our electronics not to overheat and to have power-surges. The lesser the production power, generally the more efficient it is.
I'll be playing back to back with Kanji Kinetic in the Braindrop section. There are something like 500 DJs playing there over the weekend. Should be pretty intense! The weekend beginning the 20th March I'll be in Helsinki. I've never been to Finland before so really looking forward to that. - To listen to more from Raffertie you can visit:
8. You travel a lot. You’ve played gigs in Milan and Tokyo. Do you not feel a bit bad, travelling that far and
Myspace
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as frequently as you do? 7. What system do you use? Some use a hybrid of formats, like Traktor vs. Vinyl. How do you work? Has it always been that way? Oh no. Years and years ago when I was first making music, I used this music producing software called Cakewalk Sonar - a retro PC program. As far as formats go though, I use a combination of turntables and software. This allows me to use just two
http://www.myspace.com/ raffertie
Oh yeah, but I don’t have to worry about feeling bad. [pause] For every five flights that agency ‘talent’ take, they plant a spinney somewhere in Surrey. And do you know what, it’s incredibly satisfying to see it. You get a huge sense of wellbeing and I would encourage similar companies to do the same.
The DJ ’s iPod
1. James Blake - I Never Learnt To Share 2. Reso (remix) The Qemists, Qemical
Last FM
> http://www.last.fm/music/Raffertie
3. Akira Kiteshi vs. Raffertie Graveyard Monopoly
SoundCloud
4. Raffertie vs. Kanji Kinetic - Brokened
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9. When and where are your next up and coming shows? Bloc Festival this weekend!
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http://www.soundcloud.com /raffertieproductions
5. Slugabed - Sligabed Sez
Get Cape. Wear Cape. - no longer just a bohemian teenager...
H
e is to some people a quixotic fellow. But to many, he is an exceptional inspiration in the current alternative music scene not only for his music, but his noble involvement in all things ethical. After signing to Atlantic Records in 2006, ‘Get Cape. Wear Cape. Fly.’ (or Sam Duckworth, as his mother calls him) has been given a platform to showcase his musical talents, but also to lament on a wide scale about his grievances of what’s wrong with the world. During his live shows, he not only puts on a blissfully sterling performance musically, he creates awareness of the egregious goings on around the world. He’s an intro-
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spective campaigner for a commendable amount of causes – notably, Love Music Hate Racism. Many people are deeming the man with the unwieldy stage name as a political performer - likening him to one of his idols, Billy Bragg. He sure is going about it the right way after releasing two critically acclaimed albums, ‘Chronicles of a Bohemian Teenager’ and ‘Searching for the Hows and Whys,’ in the space of three years. I caught up with him during a secret show in Frome, Somerset, to talk about his upcoming album and to delve a little deeper into the psyche of this remarkable young man.
. Fly.
boho PEOPLE
Sam invited me down to a ‘living room’ show that he’d organised for friends and family to celebrate the finish of his latest mammoth 25-track album. Now, let me explain: 24-year-old Sam Duckworth is a platinum-album selling artist. Most people who achieve this feat immerse themselves in the glitz and glamour of the big time. As I entered the venue, which was a small pub two dogs short of being an old man’s watering hole, I instantly got a feel of who Sam Duckworth still is. He isn’t tarred with the same showbiz brush that smears fellow big name recording artists. He greeted me at the door during a small scale sound check, which from what I gathered involved the minor operation of turning on his laptop. Sam is renowned for his unique and superlative duo with the tones of a humble Macbook. I expected my meet with him to be centred round the release of his forthcoming album to be relinquished to GCWCF addicts this summer. I was mistaken. Sam couldn’t wait to hear about all things Boho. “Your magazine has got me by the balls,” he exclaimed, “Tell me all about it.” Suddenly I was the interviewee. As enthused as a kid hearing a bedtime story, Sam seemed invigorated by Boho, which is testament to his passion for anything that strives to make the world a better place. Before the interview became totally one-sided, I cut myself off from the ramblings on the mag and asked him a question about the premise of tonight’s show. “I can’t do gigs like this all the time. As much as I love touring around the biggest venues in the country, it’s nice to diversify – which is just going back to my roots, really,” says Sam. “The people here tonight helped me during the early days – they are my friends – so it’s nice to show my appreciation for all they’ve done for me in this way.” Sam is now in his fourth year of being a signed and critically acclaimed artist. In that time he has established himself on the alternative music scene as a ‘bohemian teenager,’ which he labelled himself as in his first album. His records are filled with an eclectic blend of happy-go-lucky sing-a-longs and vehement, lamenting tracks that speak a serious message about the earnest of issues around the world. “Some people think I’m incredibly idealistic and egocentric. I’m far from that. I’m Burmese and in this country I see such neglect for immigrants for example - I have experienced it myself. “Music is my outlet to making people aware of
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these issues in the hope of making a difference,” he states. His ‘experience’ relates to a run-in he had a few years ago with a member of the British National Party in a club where he had performed. “A song on my first record called ‘Glasshouses’ was spawned after an altercation I had with a BNP person. He preached that immigrants
GCWCF: artist/politcal icon
were ruining this country and its economy,” he said. “I was so indignant about his fascist views that it spurred me on to get involved with campaigns such as Love Music Hate Racism and use my fortunate platform that the music industry has given me to communicate about relevant issues. “Billy Bragg is an idol of mine. When I first saw him live I was inspired. He doesn’t preach, he uses music as a tool Astonishing: facts that Sam reveals during his show
Similarly to Bragg, Sam’s live performances are twofold. His act comprises of wowing the fans with live performances of their favourite tracks, but as a political backdrop, astounding videos and images are played to enlighten the crowd with messages of economic corruption, inequality and racism. As Sam said, it’s not designated to preach; it’s using his talents to convey an effective message. “I go out on the road not only to induce record sales, but to be a catalyst for political and social change,” he says. “We live our lives blinkered to the real goings on: the coffee we drink comes from underpaid, underprivileged workers in Africa, the clothes we wear are made to benefit the companies that sell them at the pitiful expense of the exploited people who provide the materials. “I’m here to prolong my music career, but to also create awareness and put a stop to our sometimes deplorable world.” Before we made plans for a social revolution, I lightened the mood slightly by moving on to the subject of his new album. “I’ve been in solitary confinement for around two years now producing this album – it was a massive project. I worked with some incredible producers that I haven’t worked with before and it’s evoked a slightly alternate style to what I’m known for. “It feels so rewarding to have it finished and I can’t wait to get back on the road and show the GCWCF following what I’ve been getting up to during my lengthy isolation from them.”
On a positive note I left Sam to put the finishing touches to his miniscule sound check and get readied for what was to be a night of reunion for him and his friends. Such an admirable man like Sam Duckworth can be considered a friend of Boho, too. Words: Kevin Lee Jones
SAM’S SECRET SHOW FROME, SOMERSET Top: Intimacy Left: Heartfelt lyrics Right: The trusty laptop
Love Music Hate Racism: Passionate Sam doing his bit for the cause
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Director Mark Price (left) and Colin played by Alastair Kirton at a DVD signing in HMV
ART
// film // Marc Price and Alastair Kirton COLIN is one of the first ever zombie films told from the perspective of a zombie. It’s won awards and put production company Nowhere Fast firmly on the map. Oh and they made it all for just £45! From new Welsh director Marc Price comes Colin, one of the first zombie movies told entirely from a zombie’s perspective. Our hero Colin (Alistair) is bitten by a zombie; he dies and returns from the dead. The film charts his new life as he wanders through suburbia during the throes of a cadaverous apocalypse. Shot at locations in both Wales and London, Colin has more than its fair share of gore, along with several ambitious set pieces including a broad daylight zombie vs. human street battle and an epic housebound siege. It is also an exploration of who Colin was when he was alive through the objects, places and people he becomes attached to. It won the 2008 Revenant Film Festival Special Jury Prize and is a quality first feature length film from Nowhere Fast Productions who have shaken the zombie genre up for good. Without funding it was the Marc’s goal to make a feature length production fuelled by the creativity and inventiveness of those involved that would not be restricted in any way by the lack of funding. The crew were all volunteers working for nothing more than cups of tea, free bicuits and moral duty to helping a friend in need, Words: Jackson Jones
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LEFT: Colin (Alastair Kirton) prezombie, just before he turns ABOVE-LEFT: Mid zombification ABOVE: Colin, post-zombie transformation
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ART
University of Lincoln’s School of Art and Design, based at Thomas Parker House, played host to a flying visit by three international designers this week. Yuka Kawai from Tokyo, Gabrielle Goransson and Eva Schjolberg from Norway currently have their collaborative exhibit on at the Hub Gallery in Sleaford, running until the 18th April. The exhibit is called “Cultex: Textile as a Cross Cultural Language”, where the three fibre designers have been working closely with Professor Leslie Millar from the University of Creative Arts. The exhibition was first opened on 4th April 2009 by Japan’s Ambassador to Norway, H.E Hisao Yamaguchi at Gallery F15, Jeløya. During this matinee exhibition in Norway, it attracted over 5,000 visitors. The exhibit has
since come to the UK and will go on to tour Japan in the latter half of 2010 and through into 2011. Jane Linsmore, the Learning Officer at the Hub has been thrilled by responses to the trio’s visit: ”On the private viewing night alone we had some fantastic feedback from members of the public and students. They actually said that this was one of the best exhibitions that we’ve had so far. This is really promising because we’ve held some real corkers in the past, but this one has been hot on feedback.
knowledge,” she said. We caught up with the three designers when they visited the third-year Art and Design students at Thomas Parker House: 1. Why this medium? Do you
a collaborative effort from not only myself but also my department at the Tama Art University where I teach, in Tokyo. “After the harvest of bananas, usually the stem is
“We see that our link that we are forging with the university is really starting to help this department, and also the learning department. We aim to support all the schools, colleges and universities in our area. We hope that this will be the start of a really good partnership for us to share our understanding and Left to right: Gabriella Goransson,Yuka Kawai & Eva Schjolberg.
A piece from Norwegians Eva Schjolberg and Gabriella Goransson.
think that it communicates more effectively to a wider range of audience, than say another type of art-form? Yuka: “Maybe the answer is that you can feel and experience. Seeing is no longer the most dominant factor. We hope that when you go, you can just experience it. You can even walk inside the installations.” 2. How important is it, to you all, that the material that you source for your exhibitions, are eco-friendly? Yuka: “Very important, actually. We have a project, like this, that we’re working on –
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abandoned but that is all we are using in the project. We use the extracting fibre, from the West Indies where they come from and make a beautiful yarn, in a wool fabric. “People in South America too, where a lot of the material comes from, are in poverty. So it’s just the garbage that we used and no other material. “The uses and functions of the final product are very diverse. It can be used as furnishings and clothing too.”
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プロジェクトのバナナ (Project Banana): A Yuka Kawai Interview
During a group interview at Lincoln University's Thomas Parker House, we discovered that along with Yuka's project with Cultex, there was something else going on 10,000km away in Rio de Janeiro. Project Banana is a project currently in place in the poorest slums of Brazil's capital city. With a grant from Unicef and about 30 dedicated aid workers to the scheme, Yuka and her students at the Tama Art University in Tokyo, Japan have found a way to make 'home installations' and even clothes from the skins and fibre of bananas an inherently abundant waste-product throughout the whole of Brazil. She told Boho about how the idea came about, and how she developed it:
Gabriella Goransson’s installation, ‘Out of Darkness’.
3. How long does it take to make the pieces that you three are exhibiting at the Hub? Gabrielle: “We started our collaboration in 2008 but it would be perhaps a year since things have taken off. The technical part and thinking behind this takes the most time. The overall process takes a long time. We had to make everything by hand with no machines.” 4. Why should people come to see your exhibitions at the Hub? Gabrielle: “Because it is fantastic!” Senior lecturer at the Lincoln School of Art and Design, Maria Manning added: “And it is inspiring from the students’ perspectives as well. They are all creative individuals and they can learn a lot from it. “It’s not frequent enough that we have an opportunity like this. We are very lucky and pleased that we not only have an internationally acclaimed artist visiting us, but
three. We feel very lucky indeed.” Eva: “Every exhibition that artists make is a kind of offer. It is an opportunity for other people to experience something. You have to ask yourself after, whether it was worth it and whether or not you can take something away from it.
"Well it was simple. A student of mine came up to me
“It is like something I saw the other day on British TV. It was a Spanish opera singer saying that the emotion that one gets from witnessing an art form, is a lot like that of a snow-globe. Everyday life is represented by the a still globe – the snow, sitting at the bottom and doing nothing. But when you see art, everything gets shaken up! You must go and see for yourself.” If you want to find out more about the artists, read their project journals or anything about the Cultex: Textile as a Cross Cultural Language exhibition, visit the dedicated website. Or... read an exclusive interview with Yuka Kawai (right)>
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at Tama, to ask if anything could be taken from bananas. I thought, well, if we can dry the fibre out then we might have something that we can weave with. "It progressed very quickly. With the idea coming from a student, of course they wanted to utilise this and build on it in class, to maximise marks. Only after that initial period of about two months, did I then approach this student to ask if I might take it further. She agreed and we sent off an outline of Project Banana to Unicef." Since the project started up early January, there has been international recognition on the arts and humanitarian scene - getting initial exposure in Japan Design Magazine the very same month Unicef accepted the project. Yuka adds: "Of course, since we cannot stay over there and oversee the project ourselves, there was the small question of how we would teach them, through these Unicef delegates stationed over there. Myself and a handful of students travelled to Rio to teach these delegates how to teach poorer communities to weave the fibre into clothes, bulk them together to make furnishings and even weave the skin to temporarily waterproof things." Since this interview was conducted, Yuka tells Boho that the Project has helped more than 20,000 slumdwellers in Rio de Janeiro. Words: Harry Lincoln
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HEALTH
Eden Hall ‘Relaxed Day’ Giveaway
- Photos courtesy of Eden Hall
Win a health treatment package worth £69
To win, simply answer this question: What village is the Nottinghamshire health resort situated in? A. Elston B. Otley C. Vence
A Soothing Zen -Eden Hall’s Day Spa
Eden Hall health resort has kindly offered its ‘Relaxed Day’ package for the lucky winner of the compeition Boho are running this issue.
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Details: Full use of salt-water vitality pool; sauna; saunarium; steam room; therapy area; gymnasium plus more...
Email your answer to: comps@boho.com Winner will be notified via email. You must be over 16 to apply.
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HEALTH
Eco friend or Eco foe?
Are vegetarian diets doing harm to the environment? Photo: Stock
Are the vegetarian green credentials all they’re cracked up to be?
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Words: Mark Bowery
onventional wisdom has it, that being vegetarian is eco-friendly and more ethical than eating meat. However, this conventional wisdom has recently been shaken by reports that vegetarian diets are causing the destruction of the rainforest. Recently the debate has raised its head in the national press over the validity of vegetarian diets and their impact on the environment. A lot of the coverage in the press has focused on one particular study that condemns vegetarian diets as more harmful than those of meat eaters. The study by Cranfield University and widely reported on, in the national press, found that if people switched from Britishbred meat to products made from Quorn and tofu, that had been imported from abroad, more land and indeed rainforest would be destroyed, therefore rendering the efforts of those practicing vegetarianism for ecological reasons, futile. However, the Cranfield study makes a number of assumptions and omissions. Firstly, it’s not a given that all vegetarians will switch their protein intake from meat and fish and directly replace it with highly processed meat substitutes, like Quorn and Tofu. Many vegetarians and vegans often get their protein from other sources, especially as many Quorn products contain milk and it is therefore unfair to assume that all vegetarian diets constitute large amounts of soybean products. Secondly the study compares the amount of land needed to
raise sheep and cows and the land to grow soya, the study doesn’t account for the fact that around 760m tonnes of grain is used to feed farmed animals annually, it’s estimated that 10g of vegetable protein is needed to produce 1g of animal protein. What’s more, of all the soybean crop produced, around 90% is used to feed livestock. As well as this, the UN claim that, to produce 1kg of beef requires 100,000 litres of water, while to produce the equivalent amount of potatoes uses just 500 litres. Also, livestock produce between 14-18% of all the global greenhouse gas emissions. Further to this, soybean is not the sole preserve of the vegetarian or vegan diet, some studies estimate that around 70% of the products we buy in the supermarket contain some soya, which is used to bulk out processed food. As well as this the study also assumes that meat eaters from the UK only eat patriotically British-bred meat, another unfounded assumption. The truth is, that a vegetarian diet has clear environmental benefits, but meat production and consumption in moderation is fine. What’s more, highly processed meat alternative products have a negative impact on the environment too, but it’s too easy to condemn a group of people who are aiming to do the right thing as hypocrites and charlatans on the basis of one extremely flawed study. What this issue really needs is a serious discussion and examination of all the available evidence and a search for a viable compromise.
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Sebastian
boho PEOPLE
Craft Couple A carpenter and a jewellery maker talk sustainable design, and living a considered lifestyle 24
Cox and Emily Margaret Hill Sebastian and Emily rent a small kooky Victorian house, up a steep little hill in Lincoln just shy of the hustle and bustle of the city centre. They live as sustainable a lifestyle as their modest budget allows but apart from their lifestyle choice, they’re just a normal couple open to the typical little tiff (of which I amusingly bare witness to in the interview). Their house is scattered with fascinating vintage artefacts and works of art that all beckon you to take closer inspection. This couldn’t be more reflective of Seb’s carpentry and Emily’s jewellery. Admiring the details and personality of their crafts is something they work hard to achieve and it’s this concept-driven talent that separates their work from the replaceable, hum-drum eco design that we are bombarded with today. Rather than looking at a wooden chair as merely something to sit on, or a shiny silver necklace as a fancy piece of jewellery, this couple craft work that you engage with and respect on a whole new level. According to Emily and Sebastian, this is where the aesthetic interest lies; this is the essence of sustainable design, making something that will last. Emily quotes the eminent John Keats maxim to perfectly pitch the notion behind their work: “A thing of beauty is a joy forever.” It’s also reminiscent of our 30-minute interview that actually lasted over two hours. But then, that should be typical of a chat about sustainability… Boho: So what attracted you both to your chosen areas went away with a bit of a headache and read a few books and basically I realised that actually sustainability of craft? Seb: To be honest I haven’t really ever thought about isn’t just about using ‘eco’ materials. You know, it’s not that. I suppose I’ve always been interested in hands on about making cars out of paper (at which point Emily stuff. When I was little I used to play with Lego and Mec- looks at Seb confused). OK, that would be really imcano and I thought I was going to be, probably, I don’t practical but you get it. know, a farmer? - I liked being outside. But then I found Emily: Yea, I was just thinking in my head, where is he this course at the University of Lincoln in Furniture. It going with this?! was just a natural progression into a practical course, Seb: You know it’s not about that. It’s about making but I good hooked on the academic and creative side products that last. It doesn’t matter how ‘eco’ friendly your product is, if it ends up in a landfill site in 6 months too. Emily: A lot of people say ‘oh I used to make pasta neck- it’s not a fully sustainable product. laces for my friends then I started making jewellery’ and Emily: I think you should quote what John Keats said. for me it just has not been that way at all. Jewellery Seb: No that was John Ruskin. wasn’t a main interest of mine. I went to London Col- Emily: No Ruskin used it but Keats said it first. lege of Fashion before I came to Lincoln, intending to Seb: Oh right, really? become a fashion designer. I then came here (Univer- Emily: Yes. A thing of beauty is a joy forever. sity of Lincoln) to take a more fine art route; with ideas Seb: If you make something beautiful it will want to be of making clothing become art. I had a quite a small kept. But don’t get me wrong there are loads of other space based at Uni funnily enough so I thought, right, considerations than it just being beautiful. So my anOK, I haven’t got much room, what can I work with? swer to the question he posed is that we’re on a long Everything I was doing was really petite; all my samples road to finding out what a sustainable lifestyle is, we were really small. I wanted to start encapsulating and don’t know what it, or the products in it, will look like trapping objects, placing things in things. All of my tu- but if we make products with the right ideas and the tors were asking, ‘why don’t you just play around with right reasons, we’ll get there eventually. So for my projthat on the body?’ And at the same time I started get- ect, I’m using an ‘eco’ material but I now realise that ting really inspired by these museums that I was visiting. doesn’t matter as much as the way consumers consume From that it just kind of all came together and led me to my products. Fashion and style are the biggest enemies thinking, why don’t I try a form of art jewellery? I took of a sustainable lifestyle. Take mobile phones. People a silver-smithing pathway in one part of my course and throw mobile phones away before they’re actually broit all just took off from there. I kind of took a really ken just because it looks old. My interpretation of this bizarre route but it works because I know exactly why project is all about making pieces of furniture quite unimposing and lightweight from a renewable material, I’m doing it now. Boho: Seb, in your furniture, sustainability is a big at- with a high level of craftsmanship to give detail and solid construction. So the consumer can engage with it, tribute in your work. Seb: Yes. I had a recent meeting with my MA tutor and and appreciate it for its simple form and craftsmanship he posed this question to me: Seb, if you really care for, hopefully, a lifetime. The original idea for the MA about sustainability, why would you make anything at came from a focus on a sustainable material. I went to all in a full material world? i.e. if you make anything else an exhibition in London called ‘Grassworks’. The deIt’s just going to force something else into landfill. And signer exhibited bamboo furniture. His arguments were I just thought, ‘oh my god! Oh my God!’ You’re asking that bamboo was an eco-friendly material because it’s me that question half way through my Masters?! So I really fast growing and it’s a grass so when you cut it
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down it just re-sprouts. I thought okay that’s a nice idea to serve Asia with a renewable resource but it doesn’t add up, ecologically, to ship it to Europe. I drew parallels to coppicing, which has been done in England for centuries. You manage a fast growing crop of wood, which you harvest it and it’ll just re-sprout, providing you with more wood a few years later. Coppiced woods are everywhere in the UK but I challenge you to find products made of Hazel in our high street
shops! Boho: Emily you incorporate insects into your work, where do you find them? Emily: Well, since I started using them in my work, everyone’s bringing me them to me! I was at home over Easter last year, so I was making my final collection and my mum’s friends kept coming round with things in pots like, ‘Do you want this it’s dead?’ all I could say was thanks! Cheers! I’ve ended up with some really beautiful specimens though. Quite a few people
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who are interested have come to my workshop and been wowed by some of the finds. I’ve got a huge, perfect dragonfly. It’s amazing but I think it would be too big for a piece of jewellery. Boho: So how do you go about creating these things, do you find a moth and give it a home or do you make a home and find the insect after? Emily: Usually it’s the second way round. I make a home then find the creature. The thing is, if I just go round and find one thing and create a form around it that’s not going to lead to too much of a collection. They’ll all be one off. I’d like to have a range, this is probably because of my fashion education. I will put things in one of my containers for you but you, as the customer, could put whatever you choose in there. So it’s a little bit more standardised. Boho: Tell me about your collections then. What’s the thought behind your exhibitions? Emily: I really like the idea of inspecting and exploring and I sort of wanted this idea of this child, you know when you’re little and you’re in the garden and you’re finding things, you’re putting them in pots and showing you’re parents with a big grin. I think that’s a really strong feeling I have that I wanted people to get when they looked at my jewellery. But also it’s just the idea of preserving something so you can look at it closer as curators do in a museum environment. I want people to look at objects and creatures that are not obviously beautiful, that are seen every day, much closer. Taxidermy is step further and this is something I want my work to lead towards, I need to complete a course though so I am stuck with insects at the moment. Polly Morgan, the contemporary taxidermist has totally inspired that aspect. Boho: Seb, what attracts you to using wood? Why not metals? Seb: Wood’s a warm material. I think that people like wood. Obviously metal’s nice but there’s something about crafting a plant that really appeals to me. Emily: There are no processes are there. Everything else requires a process. Seb: Exactly. Everything else needs to be extracted or refined like Emily says and then moulded into a shape but with wood you can cut it, season it, then just shape it. Boho: And why coppiced wood? Seb: I like the way that its a totally re-
newable resource, almost inexhaustible. I also like the way the old woodmen spent their lives learning the skills involved in coppicing, and their lives were spent managing the woods. Boho: What are your other principal influences within your work? Seb: I would say the Arts and Crafts movement of the late 19th century is my biggest inspiration. It was arguably one of the first design movements. John Ruskin (a very influential art critic), William Morris (famous for his textiles) and Charles Robert Ashbee (designer and entrepreneur) were major players in the Arts and Crafts movement and their legacies are all very inspirational to me. They used traditional jointing techniques and made the ornamentation in details within the construction. It was all a reaction to the industrial revolution. They idolised old bodgers and craftsmen rather than mass made furniture. Boho: You’re very much an old fashioned carpenter in that way then. Seb: Yea, my inspiration comes from that but I also like a lot of contemporary design and I’m interested in modernism. One of my massive inspirations at the moment is Gio Ponti. He was actually an architect but he designed my favourite chair, which I’ll show you a picture of later (which he does) the chair was designed in 1957 and hasn’t gone out of production since. It’s, in my mind a totally sustainable piece of furniture because consumers still want it, it’s not disposable or heavily stylised. So yeah I like contemporary stuff too. Emily: That’s been of late though hasn’t it? You were pretty much an old man until about a year ago. He still is an old man but with some slightly more contemporary ideas. Seb: Yes I still want to have that connection to my materials. I want to be taken more seriously as a designer, not just as a beardy old man in a shed churning out chairs. Boho: What about you Emily, what inspires your exhibitions and jewelleries? Emily: Well it’s really broad ranging. A lot of the time my work is inspired by personal collections. If I hear someone has got a really amazing collection of something, could be anything, I’ll go and see it because I love the categorising, the way people put things in size or colour order. The reasons they’ve chosen to collect that
thing is fascinating. Also museums, such as the Grant Museum in London are of major inspiration. The Victorian fascination with death and mourning has really inspired my need to capture a moment and a memory in my work too. And films are always a massive inspiration. I just watched Coraline. At the beginning there’re these spindly arms sewing buttons on the dolls and it got me thinking well, ‘Ooh I can have a hinge here..,’ and an idea just took off from there! So yes anything dark or dead (laughs). Oh that makes me sound a bit weird. Emily: Julia DeVille makes a form of taxidermy jewellery and she’s amazing. She did this white mouse with rubies for eyes that’s adorning a hat pin, which I love and a wing broach that’s absolutely beautiful (that I really want). I never realised until I
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saw her work that you could combine taxidermy and jewellery. I’d seen locks of hair in jewellery before but I didn’t realise you could put an animal in anything and make it so delicate and beautiful. Also Melanie Bilenker makes scenes and pictures out of her own hair, this is really interesting. She captures small fragments of time and the mundane, things like getting into the bath. It’s like a window into her life and she uses her hair to draw the scenes, as if a part of her is going into each of these pieces. Erm, Sebastian Buescher uses a lot of dead things in his work and it’s about capturing a moment and capturing a scene and preserving it for people to see. He creates jewellery collages really. Boho: You both try to lead a sustainable lifestyle. Why is it important to you to be
eco-friendly? Seb: First of all I don’t think we lead the perfect ‘eco’-lifestyle. Emily: Not by a mile. No-one does I don’t think. Seb: You will always be open to criticism. But, I think rather than not bothering because we don’t want to be criticised, we do what we can, where we can. Obviously, we’re not rich, were broke! Not as a result of our lifestyle but we have to fit in our ethical considerations with all we can afford. Where it started for me was when I met Emily. Where did it come from for you? Emily: My step-dad forced Ethical Consumer magazine under my nose when I was younger. I skimmed over it all the time and found it really dull and statistic based. I remember thinking, why are you giving this to me? But then one day I read an article, it was probably fashion-related and it really, really shocked me. It was criticising these companies, I can’t remember the specific article but it obviously shocked me to the core because I did literally change overnight. For me, I started thinking about why all products weren’t fair trade and how we could change the demand for this.
Seb: Yes, your interest was initially in human rights and workers pay. Emily: Yes, I just couldn’t believe workers weren’t getting paid fair amounts for what they were producing and I found that really shocking. And I just think as well, we’ve got such an amazing country here, we can produce so much. Seb: I’ve always been a lover of nature and I was always interested in forestry and conservation etcetera. Then I met Emily and her Ethical Consumer magazine and I started getting really into it. But then I realised that actually the things they were asking us to do were taking things a bit too far. Life is for living and I’m not prepared to completely remove the things that I enjoy. I believe we do have an impact on the Earth. I don’t necessarily go by the statistics, more I think it’s a fact that we waste too much energy and too many products. We just cut our lifestyle down to using less or using stuff that has a low impact. I think the life we lead should be normal! We don’t think of ourselves as radical movement leaders you know. Emily: We have a real love of old things because ideally what we want to do is a live a life that is based around what
we can produce in our country which is what would have happened 50 to 70 years ago, you couldn’t get anything else. Effectively were just old people who want to live an old-fashioned life! Seb: It does literally come down to, every single thing we do and consume and use, we think about it, where it’s from, how it got here, where will it go. I think everybody should do that. Everybody has a responsibility to look at where the things they use come from. Even Emily and I argue about it now. She’s always pulling me up and I’m always pulling her up about things. Emily: The bloody raspberries yesterday! Seb: The raspberries caused a huge argument, because they were from Spain. But this is my point, what’s the point in sacrificing everything if you don’t enjoy the way your living? My reasoning was that we’ll use them because we’re having a cocktail party and everybody will enjoy them. Emily: That’s the thing, it’s a treat. It was for a birthday. Rather than just throwing them in the shopping basket every time and that being the norm, it was a treat. Seb: At New Year we set ourselves a new partially vegetarian diet. It’s not that we don’t want to kill animals, which is why a lot of people become vegetarians, I have
Anti-clockwise from top left: Seb’s Shrunken Slat Chair; Emily’s Scissor Necklace; Super Light Weave Chair; Tree Chair used as a hat stand and antique Vitorian wardrobe; Map-etched Locket
no problem killing and eating animals. It’s not about that, we eat meat only three times a week because of the amount of energy and land used in producing meat for our food 7 days a week. Emily: Three times or less! It’s not regimented. Seb: Anything we do eat that is meat is always an off cut. We have pork belly, or chicken thighs and things like that - and it’s a really cheap! Pork belly is really tasty and you get loads for very little money. We don’t eat prime cuts like chicken breast and pork loin. It’s not a massive lifestyle change really it’s just thinking before we buy. Emily: Also, for me, not necessarily for Seb, I started asking what I put on my skin. There are so many chemicals and stuff we put on our skin and in our hair products and washing products. Seb: So we asked what we were pouring down the sink after we did the washing up and what damage that is doing to our water. Emily: We do refill as much as we can as well. There’s a place down the road where we can refill washing up liquid, fabric conditioner and all that. Erm, what else do we do? Pretty much everything we have is second hand. If we have something new, it’s new because it needs to be new, like pants! Seb: We do a bit but we don’t really think about it and we don’t boast about it, it’s just the norm for us now. It’s the way people should behave. Emily: I wouldn’t wear fur or leather, only in shoes for purely practical reasons. Seb: Why wouldn’t you do that? Why wouldn’t you wear leather? Emily: I wouldn’t wear leather clothes. Seb: Why not?! Emily: I don’t think there’s any need to adorn yourself in an animal… Seb: Yea, but it’s a hard wearing material. Emily: Let me finish thank you very much. I… Seb: This happens all the time. Emily: Honestly! And this could blow up into something. You should use the leather for something it actually needs to be used for i.e. a pair of shoes or some sort of bag, you know, something structurally you need that can help you. Whereas, if you wear a leather skirt or jacket it’s purely for the look of it. Seb: Okay, I hear what you’re saying but surely if there was more of a demand for
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leather, then cow skins could be used more and maybe hard-wearing leather would replace and plastic products with a much more hard-wearing material that will last. (This conversation/argument goes on for another 5 minutes and Seb concluded he was arguing for the sake of it.) Emily: …And Seb can shoot as well. He’s good at skinning and preparing animals. Boho: A good hunter gatherer. Seb: Yes definitely. It’s good to engage with the food you’re eating, you value it more rather than a chicken breast you find in a shop and just cook and eat every other day of the week. Emily: It was weird going and watching him shoot because I didn’t want any of the animals to die but that was really hypocritical because I love eating meat. Seb: To be honest I don’t think too much about the animals’ emotions. Emily: Whereas I’m like ‘oh it’s got a family and grandparents!’ Seb: (Laughs) She imagines them to have pictures on the wall and walk around wearing aprons and baking cakes and having tea with each other whereas I just see it as good food. Boho: How did you both meet? Seb: I was doing a furniture course and Emily was doing a crafts course and we shared lectures. Emily: That was the first day of Uni. Boho: So you weren’t aware of each others backgrounds then? Emily: No no no. We did start talking and… Seb: Emily didn’t like me. Emily: (Laughs) I didn’t like him at all! I was like ‘oh he’s so annoying. He’s such a country bumpkin!’ And I think he probably just thought ‘oh she’s just weird’… Seb: No I really liked you. Emily: Oh noooo. (Lets out a very guilty whine). Boho: Sorry I asked. Seb: It’s okay. I’m fine. Emily: So, we might seem like we hate each other but we really do love each other. We’ve sorted each other out. We're stuck together now!
If you want to find out more about Seb or Emily just visit www.sebastiancox.co.uk or www.emilymargarethill.co.uk Emily will be exhibiting at The Gallery, Lincoln from May 3rd.
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HEALTH
What’s the truth about homeopathy? Photo: Stock
Spotlight on: Homeopathy I It’s a 200-yearold therapy that millions around the world believe can cure illnesses from asthma to malaria. But does it actually work? Mark Bowery investigates.
n recent months homeopathy has come under increase scrutiny and pressure, but why is the medicine, used by millions of people around the world coming into question now? Thealternative treatment has recently been investigated by the UK House of Commons Science and Technology Committee, who are aiming to investigate just how effective and good value for money the homeopathic traetments on offer exaxtly are the NHS. Homeopathy has been part of the range of treatments on offer on the NHS for a number of years and the service currently receives around £4 million of funding from the taxpayer. The fact that this money is equivalent to the yearly salary of around 200 nurses wages has caused outrage amongst sceptics of the therapy and since the beginning of the year a number of high profile protests have taken place across the country. Even more recently homeopathy was dealt another hammer blow when the House of Commons Science and Tech-
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nology Committee declared that it believed that funding of the therapy should be withdrawn from the NHS. This decision came after months of deliberation from the committee and an examination of the evidence of homeopathy’s effectiveness, the findings were damning, they recommended rescinding any NHS funding for homeopathy and also not renewing the licence for the only licensed homeopathic treatment Nelsons Arnicare Arnica 30c pills. Here we take a closer look at what homeopathy is and why it’s caused such a storm of controversy.
What is homeopathy? According to the British Homeopathic Association’s (BHA), homeopathy works on the principle of “like cures like”. What this means is that a tiny amount of a substance will cure the symptoms of what a large amount of that substance would cause.
In effect this means that in homeopathic practice water dilutes the “active ingredient” until there is little or none of it left. The BHA explain that the more dilute the solution, the more “potent” the treatment. The therapy was developed over two
homeopathy features heavily. Dawkins explains that homeopaths aren’t getting positive results because the treatment works but more likely because, significant time is spent with patients and the patients want to believe that homeopathy works. He also cites the fact that you
KEY HOMEOPATHY FACTS - Invented in 1796 by German physician Samuel
Hahnemann.
- Homeopaths claim that the treatment works
like a vaccine, treating the patient with a tiny amount of a substance that causes the illness.
- £4m is spent by the NHS on
homeopathy treatment every year.
- Some pills are diluted so much that there is
only one molecule of the active ingredient per 7 million billion billion billion billion pills.
- There are currently over 4,000 different home-
opathy treatments on the market for a wide range of ailments.
hundred years ago by German physician Samuel Hahnemann in 1796. At the time Hahnemann saw homeopathy as a way of treating people in a less aggressive way than the medicine of the time that included treatments such as blood letting. He believed that such treatments did more harm than good to the body, whereas homeopathy offered a more measured and holistic solution.
What do the sceptics think? In recent years the practice of homeopathy has come under heavy criticism from a number of quarters. In 2007 the high profile Oxford University professor and evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins made a program for channel 4 called ‘The enemies of reason’ of which
require no training to prescribe homeopathy, a sign that National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) the organisation that advises the NHS don’t take the treatment seriously. Further to this a number of respected doctors and scientists wrote an open letter to the World Health Organisation imploring them to condemn the promotion and use of homeopathy in the treatment of serious disease in the developing world, for diseases like malaria and HIV. Another strong critic is Professor of surgery at University College London Michael Baum who has described homeopathy as a “cruel deception” and called for it to be banned along with other unproven alternative medicines on the NHS. Finally, there is the group of sceptics who took to the streets in protest in February to protest against Boots selling
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homeopathy under the banner of the 10.23 group. Martin Robbins, a spokesman for the group, says that homeopathy and the fact it is stocked in respected retailers like Boots and provided on the NHS is dangerous, he says: “The pills themselves may be harmless, but there is a real indirect danger to public health. For a major registered pharmacy like Boots to sell the products alongside real medicine suggests to the public that homeopathy is somehow equivalent to medicine, or an acceptable alternative. This may result in people delaying proper treatment, or receiving poor or even fatal advice from homeopaths without medical training.”
Is there evidence that it works? There are studies that suggest that homeopathy may have a positive effect, however the problem with many of the positive studies is that they are carried out by homeopaths themselves and there is speculation in the scientific community that positive results are published, while negative results of studies aren’t. In fact the most compelling evidence suggests that homeopathy is about as effective as any other placebo. Metaanalysis studies by both Oxford University and The Lancet concluded that homeopathy was not an effective treatment. The Oxford University study concluded: “None of these systematic reviews provided any convincing evidence that homeopathy was effective for any condition.” [1] Another study by homeopaths themselves also came to the conclusion: “Homeopathy should not be substituted for proven therapies.” [2] The conclusions by the two metaanalyses both also concluded that the better the quality of the research methodology the more likely those homeopathic treatments were not effective, at least no more than placebo.
References:
1. E Ernst. A systematic review of systematic reviews of homeopathy. British Journal of Clinical Pharmacology 2002 54: 577-582. 2. WB Jonas et al. A critical overview of homeopathy. Annals of Internal Medicine 2003 138: 393-399.
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