The Tertangala: Innovation Issue by Jess Nesbitt

THE TERTANGALA THE I NN O V ATI O N I SSUE

M I S CO N CE P T I O N S T H A T S P O IL S C IE N C E

James Lidsey explores how public misconceptions of science can withhold progress.

I N N O V A T I N G S O CI A L M O V E ME N TS

Jessie Hunt describes the ‘Riot Grrrl’ punk-feminist movement.

T H E R E G UL A R S

News and opinion, The Debate, arts and culture, free stuff and much more.

I SSUE 01 V OL UME 52

WE NEED YOUR BRAINS

PHOTOGRAPHY

CO-EDITORS

CONTRIBUTORS

Belinda Quinn Brittany Carter

Lauren Barrett André Charadia Chloe Higgins Claire Johnston Jessie Hunt Mitchell Bresser Kelsey Sutor Robert Blanch Kelsey Mcintosh Rebecca Wiggins Natalie Mclaren

DESIGNER Jess Nesbitt COVER ART Jess Nesbitt / Lauren Webb-Jones

Laura Polson Gemma Mollenhauer Lauren Webb-Jones James Lidsey Lewis Aramayo Ashleigh Tullis Jamie Reynolds Adrienne Corradini Joel Ephraims James Crowe

EDITORIALS

Grace Pogonoski Mostafa Azizpour Jess Cochrane

Claire Johnston Jess Nesbitt Belinda Quinn

PRINTER Print & Mail 23-25 Meeks Road, Marrickville NSW 2204 PH: (02) 9519 8268

THE INNOVATION ISSUE

Editor’s Notes

Feature Article

President’s Report

Riot Grrl

Artist Profile

The Ic Mystery

Why Good Design Matters More Than Ever

NEWS AND OPINION Big Day Out Doomed?

Making Waves

UOW All Set For O-Week

How Misconceptions Spoil Scientific Innovation

Educating The Educators

Sustainable Success

For Innovation’s Sake

Graduate Students Escape Hecs Debt

International Feature

Powering The Future

Bringing Ekphrastic Art To Wollongong

Student Media

Vegging Out

UOW 101 Column

Wollongong’s Very Own Jamie Oliver

Your Opinion

Creative Writing

The Debate

Poems

Local Music

Album Review

ARTS AND CULTURE

DISCLOSURE

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT OF COUNTRY

DISCLAIMER

The content of this publication is made for and by the students of the University of Wollongong. Views expressed are of individual authors and do not necessarily reflect those of WUSA or the publisher.

Tertangala and WUSA acknowledge the traditional custodians of the land upon which we meet and work, that of the Dharawal people, and pay respect to their elders past, present and future, for they hold the memories, the traditions, the culture and the hopes for Indigenous Australia.

Responsibility for Tertangala is taken by the WUSA council. The University of Wollongong accepts no responsibility for this publication.

EDITOR’S NOTES

Let me start by saying that innovation is not particularly my best area. The last time I tried to make a new use of anything was when I tried to make socks out of paper. One morning during my walk into town I realised that I had failed to remember to equip my feet with socks. This inevitably led to ruthless blisters forming on my feet. In sheer desperation I sank down into the gutters of Crown Street and began ripping sheets of paper out my notebook, wrapping them around my feet —the paper simply melted into my blisters. So now you know, paper socks are probably never going to be a thing. While my own attempts at innovation often lead to more distress, there are people in our local community who use the - often minute - resources around them to improve their surroundings and the way they experience the world. They are the creatives, the scientists, the activists, even the everyday person who figures out how to make the mundane jobs at their nine-to-five just a little bit more fun. According to the Macquarie Dictionary, innovation is the act of introducing new things or methods. To me the process of

EDITORIALS

innovation is entwined in the day-to-day experiences of humanity. That said, a word could have many different definitions to different people.We’ve taken one of the University of Wollongong’s favourite terms and placed it into the hands of our students. It’s theirs to define - or to redefine. On another note, working on our first issue of the Tertangala for 2014 has been a privilege and an opportunity I won’t forget. I’d like to thank past Tert editors Claire Johnston, Chloe Higgins and Andre Charadia. Without their help, we’d have been lost. I’d also like to thank Jess Nessbit for going beyond the call of duty of a designer and to my co-editor Brittany Carter - words can’t describe how excited I am to work together this year. See you around campus!

BELINDA QUINN, CO-EDITOR

EDITOR’S NOTES

Innovation... Does anyone really know how to describe such a term without pulling out the old Cambridge Dictionary? Even using an official definition doesn’t seem right, as innovation is happening all around us, in leaps and bounds and in ways we never previously imagined. Innovation redefines itself constantly, through new developments in technology, thought, science, communication, creativity and design. With so much innovation happening, how does one use such a broad term to define the ‘new’? Who really decides what innovation is and isn’t, and who gives them the right to do so? Why is our local community so obsessed with the term? So much so, that things need to be labelled as innovative in order to catch people’s attention? All these questions and many more are raised, discussed and defined by your fellow students in the pages that follow. After noticing how frequently and loosely the word was used around Wollongong and at the uni, we decided it would be a great theme for our first issue. Why not let the young and upcoming thinkers of a society so saturated with innovation, reshape and

define what it means to be innovative? Some people laughed when we mentioned our first issue’s theme and some were worried this issue would be defined by what the University thinks innovation is. Others, like your fellow contributors, embraced the chance to really take responsibility for the word and express what they think it means to be innovative in this world. I challenge you to do something. Read this magazine, produced by your peers, friends and fellow students, from start to finish. Then find me and tell me what you think innovation means and/or what it means to be innovative. I’d love to know your thoughts. I’m humbled and excited to be able to work with the amazing minds that helped produce this bad boy before you. The Tert and what it stands for is all about collaboration and this year we hope to inspire you to become more involved with your student community. Big thanks to Bel, Jess, Claire, Chloe, Andre and everyone else that helped us put this together. Until next time...

BRITTANY CARTER, CO-EDITOR

EDITORIALS

PRESIDENT’S REPORT

Hey UOW students! Welcome back to another year at our classy institution. I hope your breaks from uni or from high school were exciting and full of great moments to pull you through the upcoming struggles of exams, assessments and building 19. If you are new to UOW this year I possibly spoke to you at enrolment week. If I didn’t get the chance to do this, let’s cover the basics.

A WUSA Membership is the best way to save money on campus. It costs $20 a year and gets you the following: • Free printing (10 sheets per a day) • Free BBQs • BookBank discounts • Free events

My name is Mitchell Bresser and I am the 2014 WUSA President as elected by the student body in 2013. I answer to a council of 15 students who were also elected last year. WUSA = Wollongong Undergraduate Students’ Association and will assist you in the following areas: • Fighting for your rights on campus • Cheap textbooks, food and drink, printing, and FREE BREAKFAST • Fun events, run by STUDENTS

Now that you know the basics, I’ll fill you in with what WUSA has been up to over the summer. The WUSA BookBank is continuing this year after a successful run in 2013.We have improved this service and students have the opportunity to win $100 to spend at the book bank by sharing our BookBank post on Facebook. The WUSA space where free breakfast is held has also been revamped, to make WUSA an even better place to come and enjoy some free food and cheap drinks. We have also decided to offer $15 membership to all returning WUSA members to thank them for their loyalty to WUSA.

The WUSA website wusa.uow.edu.au has all the minutes and agendas of this council, as well as information about your representatives. Check us out on Facebook.

WUSA PRESIDENT

Come in and meet the WUSA team! MITCHELL BRESSER, WUSA PRESIDENT

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BUY O LD TEXTBOO KS SELL OLD TEXTBOOKS RUN FOR STUDENTS BY STUDENTS G RO U N D FLOO R BU I LDI N G 1 9 fa ce boo k .co m/wusa boo kba n k

TERT NEWS

BIG DAY OUT DOOMED? BY KELSEY SUTOR

To many it’s an institution, a rite of passage, a must see. The Big Day Out has been the pinnacle of music festivals in Australia since 1992. However, dwindling crowd numbers, higher ticket costs and less appealing line-ups have meant that 2014’s BDO has struggled to meet the popularity of previous years. According to the Sydney Morning Herald, the music festival only drew half of the 2013’s BDO crowd Australia-wide, with Sydney drawing 27,000 music lovers and being forced to cancel the second day. Bands such as Arcade Fire and Pearl Jam headlined the event, but not before a lot of changes and cancellations were made to the line-up. To add further troubles, festival promoter AJ Maddah tweeted that this would “definitely the last BDO for Perth”. Perth’s BDO suffered this year due to the high costs of tickets, the high cost of accommodation on the West coast for both festival goers and performing bands, and a move of venue due to local government pressure. Maddah told triple J’s “Hack” program that compared to Sydney, Perth was a “burden”.”You’ve got two days to get there, three days to get back, all the trucking, all the production... a hotel room that you would pay $180 in Sydney is $320 a night in Perth in the same hotel chain. The price of

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hiring everything is ridiculous over there”. The outspoken festival promoter is also responsible for the heavy metal and rock festival Soundwave, and many are worried that it too could under risk of cancellation. With Perth gone and numbers down at all events, will BDO even have a future in the rest of the country? For frequent Sydney attendees, like twentyone-year old UOW student Louise Tugu, who has been to four BDO’s, this year’s event missed the benchmark. “I was quite happy to just hang out in the atmosphere of it all, but it probably wasn’t worth the money I paid for my ticket.” she said. “Ticket price goes up every year and the line-up always seems to steadily get worse. I think the line-up has been the downfall, especially when Blur pulled out… It’s a vicious cycle and something drastic needs to be done to get out of it soon or it would not surprise me in the least if the festival just faded-out, especially with festivals like Future Music Festival and Laneway doing so well.” Former UOW student Blake Foden, who attended the 2012 BDO, said he would probably not attend another event. “It was the hottest day on record in Sydney and it was a long day to be standing in a

mosh in that heat… I really only went to see The Killers.” Foden also believes the cost of admission may explain the drop in popularity. “It’s pretty expensive. I wouldn’t be doing it again unless one of my favourite bands was there.” Despite all of the issues, Tugu says the festival’s legacy has proven to attract a lot of interest from a younger audience. “The [younger people weren’t] even bothered about the line-up, they were just happy to be at the Big Day Out.” In 2015, the East coast is guaranteed a BDO, but the future of what has previously been Australia’s biggest music festival beyond then remains to be determined. Tugu believes that it will all be determined by the organiser’s ability to set up and confirm better line-ups that appeal to the general age-group of festival regulars. “The BDO has become a prevalent part of the nations summer holidays and Australia Day. I’ve found that generally people consider the late 90s to be the glory days of the Big Day Out and it’s just been going downhill since then. If they can get some more artists that are relevant to my age group and there are enough of them to fill the day then I would definitely be there”.

TERT NEWS

UOW ALL SET FOR O-WEEK BY KELSEY SUTOR Whether you’re a new or current student at the University of Wollongong, O-Week promises a fun line-up that will guarantee a great start to your semester.

to experience, starting from 12pm each day of the event. Uni Centre Entertainment Coordinator, Kayla Berry, says O-Week is becoming bigger and better every year.

Beginning Tuesday 25 February, students can look forward to three activity packed days. The festival kicks off with a pool party on the Tuesday, and the festivities continue with movies and markets “Under the Stars” at the Duck Pond Lawn Wednesday, before Uni Bar’s O-Party the Thursday night. O-Party is always a crowd pleaser, and this year should be no exception with performances lined up from bands including the Glass Towers and the Keyes.

“Students are becoming more involved in the festival. There are more giveaways, more clubs and societies to visit, unique activities such as the new rock climbing wall and new night events like Under the Stars which is UOW’s outdoor cinema experience.”

As with every year, there will be plenty of music, food and activities for UOW students

UOW student Siobhan Drury, who has attended past O-Weeks, says this year’s activities should be good fun. “The pool party sounds pretty good and I like all the stalls they have at uni… the freebies are always good too.” Various UOW clubs and societies will set up

stalls across the three days, allowing students the opportunity to find information and join up to the ones that interest them. Special interest clubs, sports, academic and political groups will all hold stalls during the event. UOW student, Sam Dixon, who will help run the Young Greens stall during O-Week, says the event gives students the chance to explore extracurricular activities. “It’s a great opportunity to talk to student run clubs and collectives about how to be more involved in social activities on campus. It’s also all free too.” Students can expect plenty of give-aways and free food such as fairy floss, snow-cones, and a BBQ. All events are free to UOW students. You can find more information at www. getstarted.uow.edu.au/orientation

EDUCATING THE EDUCATORS – EARLY ENTRY SCREW-UPS BY LAUREN BARRETT

At the end of 2013, with the HSC exams fast approaching and stress levels high, thousands of year 12 students applied for early offers into the University of Wollongong. Hundreds were met with disappointment when their offers were retracted days before their exams began. Some didn’t receive feedback at all. Justin Smith was one applicant who had high hopes of gaining early entry into the University. With the pressure of upcoming exams, and aspirations to study at his local university, Justin says that it was important to secure a place early on.“I applied because it was an opportunity to gain a position before I even sat the HSC exams,” he says. When the first email of acceptance arrived, followed by an identical email offering him entry into a different course, Justin became concerned about the offer and contacted friends.“That night my dad came home and was telling me about the screw-up and it got me worried. I ended up having to ring the University and ask them what the hell was going on.”

UOW informed Justin, and hundreds of other students that their first offer was invalid, and had been retracted. Fortunately for Justin, he was still able to study at UOW, but the ‘screw-up’, as students are calling it, cost some their hopes for a place at university. “I’m happy that I got into uni, but a little disappointed about the sloppiness of their performance,” Justin comments. Another HSC student Rachael Jones explains, “I was one of the people they missed informing. Everyone else was finding out about their results and I hadn’t heard yet”. After a few days, Rachael emailed the University with some enquiries, and she received an apology and confirmation that she had in fact been accepted. To her surprise, this email was then followed up by a phone call revealing she had been accepted into the wrong degree. For Rachael, and many others it wasn’t the ‘screw-up’ in itself that was concerning – it was the way it was communicated. “I think it was really bad that offers were being

retracted just days before the HSC. I think the lack of communication was the main issue. Those who had their offers retracted should have perhaps been called, not emailed. The fault wasn’t clearly explained and many were left extremely confused.” With the University Admission Centre’s policy against contacting students during the HSC, many believe that the process was rushed, and therefore unclear and confusing to students, teachers and parents. Jones says, “In the end everything worked out, but it was a pretty big mess. I think calling up would have been way easier than emailing, so the students could ask questions and properly understand the situation”. While students attending UOW in 2014 say there’s “no hard feelings”, they agree that the University needs to lift its standards for future early entry applicants. “The HSC is stressful enough as it is,” another student comments. “You want to believe that your life starts looking up when you get into uni.”

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TERT NEWS

SUSTAINABLE SUCCESS BY LAUREN BARRETT

In 2013,Team UOW won the Solar Decathlon in China – a challenge to design and build a house that is not only solar powered, but also cost effective, visually appealing, and easily reconstructed. This year, there’s hope that a team from UOW can do it all over again. Event coordinator Daniel Jones describes the Solar Decathlon as one of the best experiences of his life, but says that the road to success was not an easy one. “The process was crazy, like bush walking with no track. We had to blaze a lot of trails in the process of designing a house that can be built in less than 2 weeks, can be pulled apart and then put back together without getting destroyed and moved from country to country.” The process took more than two years to complete, and Jones admits that even making it to China where the house would be reconstructed and judged, was a far off dream. “Going to China was never promised,” he explains, “we had a couple of challenges to tackle first”. The small team of students submitted their application for the Solar Decathlon, and as ideas and designs developed, the team

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grew significantly. With this came a need for sponsorship and specific skill sets. Jones explains that many team members worked beyond their areas of study, taking on new responsibilities and helping where they could. “There was a lot of room to grow in different skills and from varied experiences,” everyone played a major part in building the house. The team began building the house in January 2013, but the house was dismantled and rebuilt at the Innovation Campus in April. After some finishing touches were made, they “packed it up and sent it off to China”. Though it seems that this would be the last stage of the process, the competition involves more than designing, building and reconstructing a house. After packaging the house, the team worked hard to plan everything from tours to menus. “We used the last 2 months before our departure to develop our communication material, the menus for our dinner parties and a hundred other things that had to be done. Then we went to China for 5 weeks.”

Although Team UOW are extremely proud of their efforts, Jones says that the win was a welcome surprise, and that the whole experience was a challenge. “The process for me as an event coordinator on the team was also challenging. We had to juggle the construction schedule, find enough people to build the house and show 1,500 people through it for a week,” he says. “I never expected to win. Being a decathlete was a huge privilege in itself ”. For now, the winning solar house has come to rest at the University of Wollongong’s Innovation campus. This year, the Solar Decathlon will be held in Versailles, France, though Team UOW are yet to plan anything certain for the challenge. Jones believes that the experience is worth the effort. “I would encourage any UOW student who is interested in design, sustainability or large teams of people from very different backgrounds to start harassing your lecturers and professors about our next Solar Decathlon team!”

TERT OPINION

FOR INNOVATION’S SAKE BY ROBERT BLANCH

Robert Blanch discusses the negative impacts that innovation can have on our society. Is innovation making us lazy? When I sat down to start writing this article I was faced with a dilemma. What could the down sides of innovation be? I mean the whole point of innovation is to make things easier right? To streamline the way that we do things, to simplify and make day-to-day activities easier for everyone? Then it dawned on me... is innovation just a euphemism for laziness? Please don’t get me wrong, I am not opposed to making things easier for society. I think innovation is fantastic. There are clearly some amazing new technological advances being developed at the Innovation Campus and the advances that are being made in medical science, such as the way that we treat cancer patients or HIV are incredible. But on a daily level I wonder if innovation is actually having a positive impact on our lives? I was quite blessed growing-up. Not because we had loads of money or anything like that, but because I have two incredible sisters and had the privilege of living in a small country town in New South Wales until I was about ten-years-old. Some of my fondest memories from back then are playing with my sisters.

You may be wondering where I’m going with this. My point is, when was the last time you saw a child playing in a treehouse? As technology has developed and we have made leaps and bounds in the way that we conduct our everyday lives, have we become lazy? I often see children playing on a tablet or listening to an MP3 player, but how often do you see children using their imagination outdoors? I’m not criticising anyone for this, it is merely an observation, but it makes me question whether innovation is having a beneficial impact on the imaginations of the next generation? It’s impacting more then play-time though. Literacy levels in Australia are declining with one-in-four year-four students unable to meet international benchmarks for reading. There has to be a cause for this. Have we replaced books with YouTube videos? It isn’t just children who are feeling the impacts of an innovative society. As adults there are repercussions for us too. The changing job market has seen countless

employees replaced with technology. Self serve groceries may seem like a novel idea now but we all forget that they have replaced people’s jobs. In manufacturing we see that machines too have replaced workers. We no longer need to leave our homes to do the groceries or go shopping. We can sit down and order everything we need online and have a coffee. We don’t even need to make a phone call to order a pizza anymore, we can do it on an app and forget the hassle of driving to pick up the pizza or the groceries - they’ll be delivered right to the door. As I’ve mentioned above, I’m not opposed to innovation or technological changes but are their impacts on society always beneficial? Are we becoming lazy and relying heavily on apps and technology to complete tasks for us that we would have done ourselves only five years ago? It makes me think of that cute children’s movie Wall-E and the disastrous way it portrayed the future of society.While I know we aren’t at that point yet, is this the path we are heading down? Are we losing our motivation, creativity and imaginations? I hope not.

One particular memory sprang to mind when I thought about the differences between my childhood and the children I know today. In our house we had a circular drive-way with a round-about type thing at the end; in this round-about stood a massive old tree that held our tree-house. It wasn’t a fancy tree-house by any means, but more of a tree-platform. But we loved this tree-house; in fact we loved our driveway. That may seem like an odd thing to say, but they were the settings for so many of our adventures. Whether it was digging in the gravel to race matchbox cars, racing each other on our bikes, or declaring battle on our parents (which often lead with our retreat to the tree-house) we always found a way to enjoy ourselves there.

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TERT NEWS

GRADUATE STUDENTS ESCAPE HECS DEBT BY KELSEY MCINTOSH

Travel opportunities and international employment are no longer the only appeals for university students seeking a life overseas after graduation. Australian tertiary students are currently provided with the opportunity to complete their higher education via a HECS (Higher Education Contribution) – HELP (Higher Education Loan Program) loan scheme. The understanding is that education is not free, but rather the loan is repaid once the student is employed post-study. Recent criticism has brought attention to graduate students, who by relocating and gaining employment overseas are no longer required to repay their student loans, in excess of $30,000 for some degrees. If the individual chooses to never return to Australia, their education debt is simply carried forward until their death when it is wiped off the national register. A 2013 ANU report estimates that both current and former tertiary students have accumulated an annual HECS-HELP debt of over $26.3 billion, an increase of $10 billion since 2007. Of this, $6.2 billion is expected to never be repaid. The Australian HECS-HELP loan and repayments are administered and collected through the nation’s tax office. It is understood that if the individual is not paying tax in Australia, they are not in a position to repay their education loan. In a $2,000 increase from the previous financial year, 2014 graduates are entitled to earn a minimum of $51,309 per annum, before annual HECS-HELP repayments are made. Taking data from the 2010 Beyond Graduation Survey, Bruce Chapman of ANU’s Crawford School of Economics and Government notes that the graduate’s ability to avoid paying their HECS-HELP debt has always been a “design fault” in the scheme since it began in 1989.The program was initiated as a means to create diversity amongst Australian university students and provide equal opportunity and access to tertiary education. Chapman, alongside co-author and ANU student Tim Higgins, concludes that 10%

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of Australian graduates have worked overseas within three years of graduation. They also point out that, whilst at present it is deemed too difficult to collect debts from graduate students earning abroad and not paying tax in Australia, other nations operate differently. Graduate students from Britain, Sweden and New Zealand are obliged by their national governments to make annual repayments of their student loans, after graduation, no matter which country they are presently earning in. “Of course I’ve considered it. It’s so hard to get ahead these days. But morally it doesn’t seem just,” current University of Sydney Medical Science student *Claire explains. “The system was created so that everyone had a decent shot at quality employment,

but now it still seems that the rich get richer. Those who can afford to settle their life overseas are already so much further ahead than everyone else.” Whilst the public sphere is continually exposed to the concept of funding cuts in many national areas (e.g. health), the dilemma of unrepaid HECS debts continues. The money lost in student loans, currently standing at $6.2 billion, if repaid, could be effectively used across these important areas. Now the Australian government faces a great dilemma – do they chase these unrepaid loans? *The average HECs-HELP debt is approximately $15,200 and repaid over 8.3 years after graduation. *Individual did not wish to be named.

THE DANGEROUS IDEA

POWERING THE FUTURE BY ASHLEIGH TULLIS

It is pretty hard to imagine a world without fossil fuel. We have become so dependent on these resources, but the fact is that we will soon run out. Now this all might seem a little doom and gloom but don’t worry, there is a little ray of light. Solar technology! It is now commonplace to hear about clean and renewable energy sources. But how advanced is this technology? What are the possibilities? The NSW State Plan’s target is that by 2020, 20 per cent of electricity consumed in NSW will be from renewable sources. In 2012, about six per cent of the state’s total electricity usage is provided from renewable energy sources. We all know a little about solar panels.With the recent government rebates, solar panel installation has boomed. But one company is taking this renewable energy technology to a whole new level. And one UOW Associate Research Fellow is helping them reach a more sustainable future. Ninan Mathew, 27, is the Chief Technology Officer at SolarSailor, “I joined the company two years back on the unmanned surface vessel project. So my work here at the university stems from there. If we need anything done from a research perspective for the firm I do it at the university and take it back to SolarSailor”.

SolarSailor is a company that supplies patented SolarSail and Hybrid Marine Power technology, for applications on tankers, commercial ferries, private yachts and unmanned ocean surveillance drones. The company started 14 years ago building hybrid marine ferries and now they are developing unmanned surface vessels and hybrid marine systems for bulk tankers. Mathew is currently completing a Masters by research into biometric flipper design and will be undertaking a PhD in biometric propulsion systems next year. “I have always been interested in sustainable energy. I have just been some sort of a ‘greeny’ I guess. SolarSailor were the only firm that was engineering based but were also trying to save the planet.You rarely find a firm that does both – pure engineering and design and being sustainable and green.” “When you think of engineering you usually think of machines and oils and smoke coming out of chimneys I guess, but this is the opposite,” says Mathew. SolarSailor has three arms. They build hybrid ferries for different markets and put solar sails onto bulk tankers, aiming to reduce the tankers’ fuel consumption. Finally, they have developed unmanned surface vessels, which is Mathew’s main

research focus. These vessels are like a drone for the water that stays on the surface. It undertakes oceanographic missions, takes temperatures and profiles of different places of the ocean, and whale and fisheries research. They can also be used for defense purposes such as deterring submarines and border protection. SolarSailor were the first company to build hybrid marine boats that use an electric and natural gas combination engine for ferries. They were one of the only companies to put fixed winged sails on bulk tankers and to develop unmanned surface vessels as well as biometric propulsion systems. These technologies and research are not only innovative but they are groundbreaking. It goes beyond just engineering, just sustainability and just solar technology. It gives us a glimpse into the possibilities of a renewable resources future. “We are going to reach peak oil in probably a decade and if we do not have strategies on improving how we use our renewable resources then we are going to be in trouble. We need to take care of the earth a little better. Climate change is [definitely] there but it is how you react to it I guess. The more we can do to be sustainable and help the planet, the more we should do,” says Mathew.

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STUDENT MEDIA

NEW STUDENT MEDIA COLLECTIVE EFFORT ON CAMPUS BY BRITTANY CARTER

This year, we hope to represent the Tert in a collaborative light. Anyone can contribute their ideas, opinions, creative work and news stories to the Tertangala. We value UOW student’s voices, opinions and needs, because we believe, essentially, that the student magazine can only become what we, as students, make it. This year, we hope to connect with the many clubs, societies and groups on campus. This also means becoming more involved with other forms of UOW student journalism and collaborative media. Below you’ll find some more info on two forms of UOW media sources produced by your fellow students. You don’t have to be a journalism, creative writing or communications student to become involved. You know the old people that always tell you that your university years will be some of the best of your life? The ones that you awkwardly respond to while thinking – ‘yeah if I ever finish the hundred assignments I have due?’ Well,

STUDENT MEDIA

I’m about to become one of them. Get involved with what’s going on at campus! Your uni years will be so much more memorable if you do. UOWTV MULTIMEDIA

UOWTV, was founded in 2009 by UOW journalism lecturer Shawn Burns. The student-based media outlet is committed to showcasing all UOW creativity, storytelling and journalism. You’ll become familiar with their Short Cuts reports that screen around campus and give you the short, sharp version of UOW events, issues and news. With this year marking their fifth birthday, UOWTV has decided to make some changes, beginning with their publication name. “It’s an exciting time to be part of the evolution of online and mobile media,” Burns said. “Five years have

flown by, and UOWTV has managed to carve out something of a place for itself in the university and local media. But we have always wanted to showcase multimedia content produced by UOW students across many fields of interest. This is our chance.” UOWTV Multimedia is determined to become bigger and better than ever this year, hoping that their new name will attract interest for participation from all students. “If you’re a photographer, a feature writer, a musician, a poet, a graphic designer, an audio storyteller, a videographer, a would-be social media coordinator, or someone who just wants to get involved – drop us a line,” Burns said. The UOWTV Multimedia team hold meetings every Monday at 12:30pm during session. Follow them on Facebook (facebok.com/ UOWTV) and Twitter (@UOWTV)

STUDENT MEDIA

for more information, or subscribe to the YouTube channel. Shawn Burns can be contacted on shawn@uow.edu.au or 0242215995 POPUP

PopUp is an online series that focuses on representing the thoughts and opinions of UOW students. The project was founded in August 2013 by four innovative (yeah I just dropped our buzz word) Media and Communications students, who were brainstorming ideas for a Digital Media assignment one afternoon at UniBar and decided to do something a little different. Sean O’Gorman, Ed Abbott, Gretel Tutt and Lyndsay Thomas-Laycock came together to create multiple series of vox-pop videos that sought after and inspired UOW student’s to express their thoughts and opinions. The team interviewed random

students on campus each week and then combined the vox-pops clips to create light-hearted videos that represented in a neat nutshell, a portion of UOW students’ general attitudes and ideals. “The collection and thoughts and opinions we gathered over four months left us astounded: we heard heart-wrenching stories, brilliant theories, controversial statements [and] quirky ideas,” says Sean O’Gorman. “We found ourselves so involved in the thoughts we were hearing [that] we became genuinely excited to start each new week and find out what the people of UOW had to offer.” This year the group are planning on doing things a little differently, posing a single question rather than a theme each week. Sean says that their weekly videos will ask “one zinger of a question that will immediately

get you thinking, hypothesising, debating and conversing! We’ll post this question up on our social media, where we’ll be asking for your opinions”. To check out some of the funny and quirky videos PopUp created last year head to youtube.com/popuptalk There you’ll find ‘The PopUp Story’, a short clip that introduces you to each of the masterminds behind the group; some of their 2013 material and their 2014 teaser. Like their page on Facebook (facebook.com/popuptalk) or hashtag #popuptalk and mention @popup_talk in your tweets to add your own two cents to their weekly zingers.

STUDENT MEDIA

TERT COLUMN

EXPLORING THE INS AND OUTS OF A GREAT LOOKING CAMPUS

Rebecca Wiggins is in her 3rd year of a Bachelor of Communications and Media studies and Bachelor of Arts double degree. She majors in Journalism/Professional Writing & Sociology and enjoys spending most of her time blogging. She is co-founder and writer for the popular Uni themed blog UOW101, found at www.uow101.wordpress.com

UOW 101

I’m not an expert on our campus and if I was, I’d probably only use my amazing knowledge to help me locate free computers. However, here’s my own very brief evaluation of some of UOW’s more popular hangouts and a guide to enjoying them. It’s generally agreed at UOW that we have one fine looking campus. I think that whether you’re new here (welcome! We’re psyched to meet you!) or still here (it’s ok, take your time.We want you here forever.) it’s worth taking a moment to enjoy UOW’s awesome scenery. The most obvious places for any sensible student to be are anywhere there’s alcohol and gaming. Unfortunately, while the UniBar (only vendor of alcohol on campus) and the UniCentre (has a bunch of gaming devices) are awesome, they’re also super popular and can become really crowded. That’s why many students prefer to hang out on one of the lawns scattered throughout UOW Campus. You’ll often see societies hosting meetings or stalls here and they’ll often cook up sausage sandwiches or veggie burgers. Really the only downside to enjoying a picnic on the lawns is the sun (if you’ve got fair

U O W 10 1

skin) which I have fallen prey to more times then I care to admit.

inside voice then you should probably sit elsewhere.

The Uni’s picturesque and peaceful duck ponds offer some shade. However, beware of the ducks.

Also, food is forbidden in the Library so I’d opt for a café instead. Here are some of the many cafés on campus:

I once made the mistake of underestimating the world’s tiniest bullies. I had just sat down when I was surrounded! Despite my attempts at doing things that scare regular, nondemonic birds (flapping my arms, screaming, etc.) the ducks kept advancing and I was overrun in a flurry of beaks, feathers and villainy.

1. 2.

What’s usually regarded as the better course of action is to immediately assert your dominance by making yourself seem big and threatening before you sit down. When the weather’s cooler you’ll probably be looking to sit indoors and the Library can look pretty appealing… if you like sitting in complete silence and pretending that you don’t exist. Don’t be offended if you go up there to hang out and are hushed, in fact, expect it. It’s happened to all of us. It’s a great place to study, nap and chat quietly, but if you don’t want to use your

3. 4. 5. 6. 7.

Rush (67-G) Rush 2 (because apparently you can never have enough Rushs) (11-G) Out For Lunch (17-G) Picasso (35-G) 67 Dinning (67-1) Panizzi Café (16-G)

The cafés make great food and coffee and the baristas usually enjoy making friendly small talk (not to mention they’re pretty easy on the eyes). This makes the cafés better in my eyes than the Food Court in terms of comfort and service - the Food Court is gross, and cold, and kind of lame. This is just a rough guide to UOW so I’d definitely encourage you all to get out there and explore our campus for yourselves. Find new and cool places to relax… and then tell me about them because I just revealed all my hidey holes. Uni’s about more than just an education, so take some time to enjoy the whole experience.

VOX POPS

HAS THE TERM INNOVATION BECOME A BUZZWORD? YOUR OPINION

“I believe so. The term is used across research, teaching, manufacturing and is used to describe something new.” Gabriel Garcia

“I don’t think so. My whole discipline (engineering) is based on innovation – so taking something and making it better. I don’t think it has lost its meaning at all.” Charlie Prior

YOUR OPINION

“I don’t think so. I haven’t heard people talk about it except in the context of the Innovation Campus.” Emlyn McLaughlin

VOX POPS

“There is a constant wheel to innovate everything we create to the degree that we stop paying attention to various skills such as argumentation in ethics and politics. These are the skills we need as citizens. We do not need innovation, but an understanding of old skills and concepts. Just because something is new, doesn’t mean it is better.”

“Yes. It connotes new positive improvements and different ways to advance and go forward.”

“Yeah, definitely. Everyone says it.” Dean Naylor

Ivana Zaric

Luis Gómez Romero

YOUR OPINION

THE DEBATE

WHY WE NEED TO BE MORE INNOVATIVE WITH THE TERM INNOVATION BY NATALIE MCLAREN

Q: HAS THE TERM INNOVATION BECOME A BUZZWORD? A: YES! The English language is a funny thing. It is an extremely difficult language to master for those learning it as a second language due to our strange silent letters and ridiculous grammar rules. It’s not the construction of our language that is our main problem though; it is the way in which we use it. This article will point out exactly why overusing words or using them in the wrong context devalues the meaning and leaves us left with nothing but a buzzword. Innovation - the term itself seems almost inspiring.The Cambridge dictionary defines the word as “to introduce changes and new ideas”, particularly through the means of an already existing product or idea. So has innovation become a buzzword? Absolutely.Throw the word innovative around and you are bound to receive interest no matter what you are presenting. One of the reasons it seems so inspiring is that it connotes a breakthrough, a case of never giving up, and disregarding rules. Lisa Kay Solomon wrote in Forbes Magazine this month that innovation cannot be taught in schools because it goes against all that education is. She argues that there is no right answer or proved method with innovation, you learn through trial and error. Fantastic! Never give up and you just may become a master of innovation. The types of inventions or ideas that are labelled as innovative are problematic though. In the several hours I spend online each day (too many), I have obtained a really bad habit of getting side tracked and looking at lists.Yes, lists. Anything from the ‘Top 20 song lyrics you sing incorrectly’ to ‘Top 10 life hacks’ - if it’s a countdown list you can bet I’ve read it. For those of you who are unaware, a life hack is handy tip which makes ordinary daily activities that little bit easier. A lot of these life hack lists also feature ‘innovative’ DIY projects. I always plan to attempt these fantastic ideas but instead continue to waste time online.

T H E D E B AT E

One of my personal favourite life hacks is turning an old plastic soft drink bottle into a fly trap. It matches the definition perfectly. Taking an existing product and coming up with a completely different use. Yes, it is very cheap and effective but can it still be called innovative? My mum has been using this old trick for as long as I can remember. Can something still be deemed innovative decades on? Enter universities, science centres, and world class researchers into the discussion, and this is where things get really complicated. Our own University, UOW, has the Innovation Campus in North Wollongong which is affiliated with BHP Billiton, US mining engineering company Joy Global, Australian government organisations and an Innovation Campus in China. Research teams at Innovation Campus work in the fields of sustainable buildings, pharmaceuticals and the generation of energy. These things will serve the world on a large scale in the future and potentially change our world as we know it. Above all, these things are deemed innovative. So you can now see the dilemma. The word innovation (and its various forms, innovative, innovator etc.) has become a buzzword. A word that is used to excite and intrigue the audience. Using a soft drink bottle as a fly trap or a bread tag to fix broken thongs is in no way comparable to adapting existing medicines to treat different diseases. I read something once, amongst my list reading, that has really stuck with me ever since. We are lazy with our words. We use the word awesome to describe the parties we attend or the song we just heard, but was it really awesome? Did it leave you there standing in absolute awe? What will we say when we see something truly awe inspiring? Surely we can’t call the Grand Canyon awesome if that’s how we describe house parties - because they are in no way comparable. Innovation is a wonderful thing, but we need to learn when it is appropriate to use the word and we need to do it now before it no longer holds value.

THE DEBATE

IS INNOVATION A BUZZWORD THAT’S BEEN SO OVERUSED IT NOW LACKS MEANING? BY LAURA POLSON

Q: HAS THE TERM INNOVATION BECOME A BUZZWORD? A: NO! Flying cars… power shoelaces… hover boards!? Is it sad that my first association with the word innovation is Back to the Future 2? You know, the movie where they introduce 2015 and all its crazy inventions, before most of us were even born. Is innovation just another word used to describe a crazy invention? To wrap my head around the concept I turned to the fountain of all thoughts of knowledge discussed in Ted Talks. Carl Bass, a leader in 3D design engineering and entertainment software, believes that innovations are the process in which we change the world. In his Ted talk, ‘The New Rules of Innovation’, he states that in order to make things better we must solve problems in creative and meaningful ways. It’s not easy, but it’s not impossible. It’s about taking risks. But does this word buzz, i.e. is it fashionable? If I were to ask someone to solve a problem, say someone that wasn’t from the three quarters of the UOW student population studying engineering, I highly doubt the notions of innovation and what the word itself means would even occur to them. We don’t often realise innovation can be created at an individual level. Bass states that innovation isn’t just for special minds in glass rooms at Google or someone on stage at Apple. Imagination and the drive to solve problems can be found in any person. Why is it not fashionable for individuals to be innovative alone? Shouldn’t we aspire to innovate more?

In September 2013, I was lucky enough to attend the Foundation of Youth Australia’s Unleashed Festival. I chose to attend the innovation stream where we heard from two speakers representing The Australian Centre for Social Innovation (TACSI).The company aims to find innovative solutions to Australia’s toughest social challenges. One such example is the Family-by-Family program first developed by TASCI to combat the alarming statistic that 1 in every 4.5 children in Australia is notified to child protection services by the age of 15. The program aims to connect families that have dealt with the stress of similar issues like domestic violence and family breakdowns. These types of issues typically make families want to hide and withdraw from the community, but the Family-by-Family program encourages families to reconnect and build support networks with each other. The results? 90% of families reaching their goals with a cost benefit ratio of 1:7 (TACSI 2013). If I could hear more important innovations like these, I’d be thrilled. To conclude, I do not believe that innovation is a buzzword. Its meaning stands strong, as a way for companies and individuals to find answers to problems in creative and unconventional ways. It is important we aspire to be innovative as it is an essential part in building a better future. Perhaps that future may even include hover boards.

I would be worried if the word innovation was used throughout society any less. There are many major problems in the world that need creative solutions. Issues such as climate change, poverty and disease, need to be thought about constantly in a different way so that we can find new ways to improve their situations.

T H E D E B AT E

HOW TO BE A TIGHT ARSE ON A STUDENT BUDGET BY BELINDA QUINN

t wasn’t until a year-and-a-half ago when I moved out of home that it hit me; living at home with my parents was easy. I had no concept what it meant to be poor. My parents had always indulged me as a child, stacking our cupboards full of Tim Tams, Shapes and pretty much everything I ever wanted. I’d sneak the packets into my den and binge while watching back-to-back episodes of teen-trash into the early hours of the morning. When I hit 19 years of age I – albeit reluctantly - decided it was time to leave my beloved den. A week after I moved out of home, I also managed to lose my casual job due to what my 70-year-old boss describes as “a staff restructure” – otherwise implying that nineteen is far too old an age (or more likely expensive) to supervise a rural cinema. I had moved from having an excess of money at my fingertips to spend on whatever I liked, to having to spend my left over $70 a week on groceries, petrol, bills, alcohol and not a lot else. This isn’t a unique experience, in 2012 University Australia’s report stated that two out of three students are living below the

poverty line. A lot of degrees and majors at UOW require students to work unpaid internships (some internships you even have to pay for yourself), so trying to make money, intern and study can be a stress-induced hell. Trying to create a stable balance of work, study and leisure has been difficult (to put it lightly). However, moving out of home doesn’t have to suck your savings account dry. When I reveal to other students that I’m attempting to live on $70 a week after rent I usually get one of two responses; from those who live at home it’s often a surprised “that’s fucked, how do you do it?” response, but from those who have achieved the tightarse techniques of student living, the response will more likely be “you can definitely live off that!”. I asked a bunch of UOW students what they do to survive financially whilst studying. Luckily for us, this is the time in our lives where people don’t judge us for being cheapskates about absolutely everything...

HOW TO

BUY YOUR ALCOHOL FROM ALDI LIQUOR

STREET FURNITURE IS FREE FURNITURE

GET AQUAINTED WITH LEISURE COAST

My parents often say to me “if you want to save money, stop buying alcohol”. It’s probably a good point, but we all know it’s not going to happen. Luckily, Aldi Liquor provides six-packs of cervasas for around $11, as well as $2.70 bottles of Semillion Chardonnay Chenin Blanc. By adding more words this makes it fancier than buying a goonie, right? Who are we kidding? If you’re living below the poverty line you shouldn’t have to worry about being sophisticated.

I recently watched my roommate lug four old wooden chairs and a massive table from the side of the street up to our apartment in North Wollongong. There is free furniture everywhere on the streets of Wollongong. High turnover of students in the area means there is almost always decent furniture around – and you’re poor, so you can get away with decorating your house with furniture from all different eras. Also, I saw six mattresses on one block in North Gong; the potential for street forts is ridiculous, which also means free fun.

Leisure Coast is a local grocery market in Fairy Meadow easily accessible by jumping on one of Wollongong’s free shuttle buses. The meat and vegetables are fresh, incredibly cheap and produced by local farmers. Aim to buy veggies that are long lasting like carrots, onions and potatoes. It’s a good idea to buy cans of diced tomatoes, chickpeas and lentils in bulk, as well as plenty of spices (Leisure Coast’s Menora spices sell for around a dollar per packet), so you can make pasta sauces and curries from scratch. This will save you a fair bit in the long run. Make sure you freeze all excess food after you cook so you don’t waste what you buy - and as one student told me, “best-before dates are merely a recommendation”.

HOW TO

GROW YOUR OWN VEGGIES

DUMPSTER DIVE.

GET TO KNOW A GIRL CALLED JACK

Believe it or not, you can grow your own veggies for free at UOW. The UOW environmental collective can provide help with the process and UOW club Happy Bellies, give away free seeds and advice with growing your own veggies. If you live in an apartment, you can make your own garden bed with old cardboard crates from fruit and vegetable markets.

This mauver is a little more risky, but it can definitely be pulled off. One anonymous student diver says “I used to dumpster dive at least once a week in Wollongong”. It’s a good idea to bring some rubber gloves, old clothes, hand sanitiser, a stool, heavy-duty trash bags to carry away your free food, a headlamp if you have one lying around and a couple of friends –but not a crowd; you don’t want to draw attention to yourself. Aldi is a good place to try because it’s easily accessible and “Woolworths in Fairy Meadow has an access cakes bin where they throw out the cakes baked each day”. The best time to look is just after closing time. Canned foods are your best bet, as they stay fresh for years after being sealed. And don’t forget about dumpster diving etiquette; avoid taking more than you need and try to leave the area tidier than when you found it.

A Girl Called Jack is a blog that was started by Jack Monroe, who managed to feed both herself and her son on 10 pounds a week. Her blog is great for finding recipe ideas from left over ingredients you have around your cupboards.

HOW TO

SHOP AT OP SHOPS

BUY RECYCLED TEXTBOOKS

FREEBIES ARE EVERYWHERE; YOU JUST HAVE TO FIND THEM.

Like salvos in town – people will probably make fun of you for being a hipster or dressing like your granny/ grandpa, but salvos actually has many brand new clothes. Bellambi Mission Australia is one of the best in the area. And it’s recycling. Another way I’ve saved a ton of money is by going home every two months and claiming all the clothes my mother has deemed “too young for her”. Seriously, that has probably saved me hundreds of dollars. I went an entire year without buying a single piece of clothing. The trick is to convince people that you’re going for a “hobo-chic” kind of look. Fortunately, most people at uni think that that’s a thing anyway.

You actually don’t have to get your textbooks from the UniShop.You could get your books from WUSA’s Book Bank, which are often way below half the price of the books you can get from the UniShop. There’s also the option of borrowing and renewing your books from the library.

The University has plenty of freebies lying in wait to be snatched up by poor students. WUSA provides free breakfasts and printing for members. If you go to meetings around the uni you can usually get free sandwiches, which are payed for with your student amenities fees - those sandwiches basically belong to you anyway. Seriously, go to these meetings; eat as many sandwiches as you can. The lecturers usually don’t care or are too busy getting deep in their own sandwiches to notice you. The environmental collective has conveniently placed vegetable gardens around the university for students. Maccas can provide you with all the salt, pepper, jam and tomato sauce you need. North Wollongong beach has dog-poo liners attached to their bins, that’s your bin liners sorted. Also, using the showers at North beach and at URAC can cut chunks out of your water bills. If you’re desperate, you can always take toilet paper from public toilets… or uni toilets. #sorrynotsorry.

HOW TO

RENT OUT THE THINGS YOU DON’T USE.

GIVE UP THE ‘ESSENTIALS’

ACQUIRE A TASTE FOR EEL

I’m renting out the car space of my apartment to a guy who needs it for $50 a month. That’s internet bills and alcohol sorted for the next year. If you can rent out any gear (i.e. photography equipment, musical instruments you don’t use anymore) to friends, do it!

Try and set a coffee limit to two per week (exam week being an exception). Pick a day a week to eat out and choose a place that has a cheap uni night. Consider giving up things like haircuts. I’ve cut down to 2 haircuts a year. Lets face it, paying someone to cut little strings off of your head is a pretty weird concept anyway. Also, if you have to pay for electricity, give up the dryer. It’s a massive energy waster. If you need clothes to dry, hang them out or invest in a rack you can use in the house. A friend of mine refers to deodorant as “shower in-a-can,” it can always double up as ‘washing machine-in-a-can’ if you’re desperate.

Yes… eel. I have heard rumours about a completely sober (ha) dude who managed to catch and cook an eel from the uni pond. On passing the pond, I’ve noticed that there is a lot of meat on those eels. Just saying.

HOW TO

PHOTOGRAPH

S O L A R D E C AT H L O N 2 0 1 3 W I N N I N G T E A M : U O W I L L A W A R R A F L A M E

THE INNOVATION ISSUE

PHOTO CREDITS: GRACE POGONOSKI

WHY RIOT GRRRL IS THE MOST INNOVATIVE SOCIAL MOVEMENT EVER BY JESSIE HUNT

t’s difficult to live in Wollongong and not hear the word innovation. We have an Innovation Campus, there are innovation grants, and innovation is generally one of the three words in our university’s all-important three-word mottos. Wollongong City has even been labeled by Wollongong City Council as the City of Innovation. As easy as it is to find the word used in Wollongong, it’s almost equally difficult to see innovation in practice. Innovation Campus looks like any other campus built in the late 2000s; unless I am very much mistaken, the things that happen there are mostly referred to as “classes”, led by some kind of “teacher”, and involve between four and forty “students”. Wollongong Mall is pretty much exactly what it looks like, a fairly depressing mall in a rapidly deindustrializing city, a place without enough viable employment to cater for the increasing number of residents. Unless it counts as innovative to use the word innovation to refer to things that are pretty much the same (which I guess it could), I’m not totally seeing where the innovation bit comes in. When universities or local governments talk about innovation, they are generally imagining a guy at a computer, typing really really fast and making innovations happen. He’s inventing something, or building something, or 3D printing something, or trading stocks. He’s making pots of money. He’s the “wave of the future”. For institutions, governments and corporations to consider something innovative, it must be: (a) quiet and (b) profitable. The problem with their vision of innovation is that it is, in fact, a polite fiction designed to satisfy organisations that need to maintain social order. These guys like money, and they like quiet. Our friend building a stock-trading robot in a bright, modern office somewhere fulfills both of those desires. What happens, though, when innovation is loud? What happens when innovation is colorful and bright and uses cusswords and happens in squats and dirty share-houses and peoples’ garages and music venues? What happens when innovation not only challenges social order, but also talks openly about wrecking it? Riot Grrrl is all of those things. It is loud. It is messy and unrehearsed (Courtney Love herself once said, “The music just wasn’t that good”). It took place in “non-space”—in grrrls’

bedrooms and in garages and in car parks. It challenged social ideas about boys and grrrls, about who could make noise and take up space. The Riot Grrrl battle cry - “Revolution Grrrl Style Now” - is a call to battle, an inducement to break a culture that hates us. The word ‘riot grrrl’ emerged sometime in 1991, through letters and conversations between members of bands like Bikini Kill, Bratmobile and Team Dresch. The ‘grrrl’ part is an attempt to reclaim the patronizing and derogatory connotations of girl, making the word sound like an angry growl. The ‘riot’ part comes from a response to the intense violence of the Mount Pleasant Race Riots in Washington, D.C; when Bratmbobile member Jen Smith wrote to her band mate Allison Wolfe, “We need to start a girl riot”. At this point in the 1990s, both punk scenes and the rest of Western society were pretty shitty places to be women. The backlash against feminism was in full swing. Women who reported sexual assault or harassment were mocked, women who identified as feminists incurred homophobic and/or sexist slurs, and extremely invasive anti-abortion trials were taking place in both Australia and the US. Today, little has changed. In alternative punk scenes, things were not a whole lot better. One English riot grrrl argued, “Those guys can say ‘it’s all about music’, but when you’re getting kicked around and punched by hundreds of fuckin’ blokes, it’s not just about music... I’m sick to death of going to gigs and comin’ home with bruises and broken ribs, because some fuckin’ arsehole is pushing. Lads get fuckin’ everything. They’re allowed to do whatever they want, and we’re expected to stand in the background”. Today, little has changed. This ‘girl riot’ had three main strategies: grrrls produced homemade, do-it-yourself magazines (zines), grrrls formed bands, and grrrls held autonomous (wom*n only) meetings in different cities across the world. Riot Grrrl was a viscous cocktail of unmitigated, unbridled and completely warranted female teen anger and outrage, and foundational feminist thinking - namely, that women can and should do anything men can do, that men hitting women just because they’re women is wrong, that women are socialized to feel unsafe in public space and that that is wrong, too.

T H E I N N O VAT I O N I S S U E

“

There is something completely exhausting and depressing about listening to yet another all-dude cardigan band, singing long and boring hetero-love songs

“

The creation of zines, which were nothing more or less fabulous than teenage girls, alone, in their bedrooms, cutting and pasting and writing in order to create their own personal magazines - is surely one of the most innovative acts possible. Zine writing takes old things such as old wrapping paper, old picture books and ideas, and makes them into new things. Zines take feminist thought and throw it in a blender with the everyday experiences of young wom*n and grrrls. Zines are then distributed, they are sent to friends and strangers and lovers and Kathleen Hanna. They are sometimes sold (though rarely for more than $5), more often, they are traded. In this way, riot grrrls are able to share their thoughts and opinions, to develop feminist ideas and to create links between grrrls who live seven or seventy thousand kilometers away and might never meet. When you live in a world that hates women in general and feminists in particular, any links to people like you are treasured beyond belief. Women forming bands is innovative in itself, but women forming bands with other women, in order to use punk to talk about feminism, is a pretty fucking new and interesting method of sharing feminist thought. There is something completely exhausting and depressing about listening to yet another alldude cardigan band, singing long and boring hetero love songs, whilst trying to ignore the fact that some total dude-bro is hoping you won’t notice his hands all over your butt. There’s something equally depressing about getting totally battered and crushed in every mosh pit, about watching guys take their shirts off and know that you can’t or shouldn’t do the same thing. And it makes me want to cry when friends confide that they have been assaulted at shows. In contrast, Bikini Kill would distribute flyers before their show, asking all the men in the audience to step back, and to encourage all the grrrls in the audience to come to the front. L7 would perform songs with lyrics like this: “Her glance hits me like lightning / I heard that girl is fast and frightening / Dirty hair and a laugh that’s mean / Her neighbors call her an evil machine / She’s fast, she’s lean She’s frightening / She’s fast, she’s lean / She’s frightening / Popping wheelies on her motorbike / Straight girls wish they were dykes / She’ll do anything on a dare / Mom and Daddy’s worst nightmare / Down at the creek smoking pot / She eats the roach so she don’t get caught / Throws her mini off in the halls / Got so much clit she don’t need no balls” (L7, “Fast & Frightening”)

T H E I N N O VAT I O N I S S U E

These lyrics and these actions and this kind of dialogue between wom*n and grrrls changed the nature of the space. Music venues went from being places where women had particular roles to play, where they had to be afraid of experiencing physical or sexual assault, to where women could do whatever they wanted. Riot Grrrl didn’t exactly fix all of these (or any of these) problems. But then, Riot Grrrl is not over. Grrrls across the country still make, trade and sell zines. Some members of Bikini Kill still make feminist music in The Julie Ruin. New bands, like Russian anarchist collective Pussy Riot or Sydney feminist punk band Palmar Grasp, continue the grrrl riot. Riot Grrrl would not be taught at the Innovation Campus. Given Wollongong City’s approach to live music in general and loud live music in particular (see the closure of Good Jelly or The Patch for examples), it is unlikely that Riot Grrrl would be particularly welcome in the City of Innovation. There is no guy at a computer trading stocks or building a robot or whatever. Riot Grrrl smashes into tiny pieces those two criteria for innovation: it is decidedly neither (a) quiet nor (b) profitable. But Riot Grrrl is innovation in the true sense of the word: it does something new, and in doing so it changes peoples’ lives. Riot Grrrl has not only found new ways of communicating feminist ideology, but also brought the boy-dominated, violent, sexist, heterosexist nature of punk scenes in particular and music scenes in general under feminist scrutiny. Too loud to be ignored, too impatient to speak politely, Riot Grrrl used new and interesting strategies to effect change and to make people listen. To find out more about Riot Grrrl, check out: • Bikini Kill in the UK, a 1993 film about English Riot Grrrls. https://vimeo.com/11737681 • grrrlzines.tumblr.com - a pretty solid record of feminist grrrl zines in circulation at present. • Brown Recluse Zine Distro, who distribute zines made by People of Colour. http://brownreclusezinedistro.bigcartel. com/product/always-was-always-will-be-aboriginal-land • Any music by bands mentioned above. If you want to be involved in revolution grrrl style now, join UOW Feminist Society. We can be found at https:// www.facebook.com/UOWFemSoc The asterix in “wom*n” is used to make the term trans- and queer-inclusive: it means anyone who identifies as a wom*n, not just people born with vaginas.

T H E I N N O VAT I O N I S S U E

AN INTERVIEW WITH LOCAL CREATIVE JESS COCHRANE BY BRITTANY CARTER

ARTIST PROFILE

f there was ever a poignant example of an upcoming creative who knew what it meant to be innovative as an artist, it would have to be Jess Cochrane. Originally from Canberra, the Creative Arts student and founder of popular blog Once Twice, transferred to the University of Wollongong in 2013 so she could fulfil her love of design and visual art in one degree.

ARTIST PROFILE

a rtist: jess coch ra ne

www.once-twice.com

@oncetwiceblog

Blogging, illustration, graphic design, painting and photography are all her strong points; and if she’s not working on a freelance project then you’ll find her consuming “unreasonably large amounts of coffee while reading a stack of different fashion and design publications”. Her creative practice usually takes place at the desk in her room, with her laptop or visual diary at a cafe “soaking up the good vibes”, or on her balcony, overlooking the ocean and mountains. Of materials she says, “I like illustrating with either a fine pacer pencil or a biro pen. The rough texture gives a flawed and slightly grotesque appearance to the subject.” The idea for Once Twice, a blog that combines style with creative flair, originally began as the Tumblr account I, Flaneur, an experiment that aimed to showcase the growing presence of culture and style in Canberra. After moving to Wollongong and realising that they were onto something good, Jess and her friend Leon Shore, another then studying UOW student, changed the blog’s name to Once Twice and decided to expand its intent towards Men and Women’s style.

With 1000+ followers on Instagram, 1000+ followers on Tumblr and a growing number of likes on the Once Twice Facebook page, the blogs popularity continues to grow. “I [originally] started a Tumblr account for an assignment at the University of Canberra that looked at city spaces and street style, and kept it... because I found it to be a satisfying way of flexing certain creative muscles. As my skills developed and opportunities arose it just kind of escalated and fashion labels started approaching me, wanting to work or collaborate with the blog.” She attributes the easy accessibility of artistic means in Canberra and her father’s painting skills and passion as major influences to her creative practice, and remembers being one of the only children not complaining when she was taken to The National Gallery of Australia. “The National Portrait gallery is somewhere that has definitely influenced and inspired me as an artist, because the calibre of work is impressive and very accessible; and the branding and use of graphic design is fucking excellent. It’s probably the place where I first

ARTIST PROFILE

discovered how cool it is when both art and design dance with each other.” She searches for inspiration in various articles and books, by exploring different cities and spaces, peoplewatching, daydreaming and surrounding herself with things she finds visually pleasing. “If I had to summarise, I find fashion and popular culture to be the greatest influences of my work. I’ll appropriate editorial and beauty images out of any pop culture and/or fashion publication that I can get my paws on, and I love taking note of all the different elements of an editorial shoot or specific stylised article. I find these are a great influence on my photographic work for the blog.” Jess usually thinks about the way in which the size of her creative works will affect how personal it is to the viewer, and says she never really listens to what people have to say about her work. “I often think about whether or not the viewer may see something of themselves in my work... but I never really listen. It is free for people to describe as they please. Everyone will see something different.” She believes it is important for a community to understand, appreciate, criticise and question its local creatives, and has found the Wollongong art community to be pretty accommodating. “I think that there are loads of opportunities to be recognised and to exhibit work here and in surrounding areas. I would say the only thing that needs to improve is the ability for creatives to network and seek out opportunities... [as] building a network is one of the most important skills of an artist or creative type.” Her future holds plans to push herself as a painter and graphic designer, and to pursue the blogosphere, as she continues to develop Once Twice. “Once Twice no longer runs off Tumblr as it has grown out of it, but I still keep the account as a way to curate and archive images and designs that inspire me. I think it’s interesting to think about how you curate images on the site, like how individuals make sense of millions of images and tell a visually pleasing story about themselves through the internet.” You can find other fantastic examples of Jess’ work, just as awesome as the poster in this mag, at www.one twice.com and www.oncetwiceblog.tumblr.com You can follow her creative practice through her Facebook page ‘ONCE TWICE’ and Instagram account @oncetwiceblog.

ARTIST PROFILE

PHOTO: GEMMA MOLLENHAUER

THE IC MYSTERY BY GEMMA MOLLENHAUER

By day it’s littered with rooms and science research labs, by night it’s a starry array of office lights and empty car parks. Yet, although I’m about to embark upon my second year at University, I have little to no knowledge of the Innovation Campus, more commonly known as IC. What happens in this mysterious cluster of buildings and offices? It’s common knowledge that the place has a café, gym and a planetarium but what is its purpose and what research does IC accommodate for? With my imagination running rampant with thoughts of zombie and ‘classified’ research happening at IC, I decided to do a little investigating. According to their website, IC is a “world-class, award-winning research and commercial precinct developed by the University of Wollongong”. With some of UOW’s leading research occurring at this elusive place, the IC website also claims to have the “potential to regenerate damaged human nerves”. Wow, who knew the Illawarra housed such sci-fi potential? Offering conference and function facilities, a café, restaurant and gym, as well as research labs and offices, IC is also home to UOW’s Graduate School of Business (also known as the Sydney School of Business), offering a wide range of courses from doctorates and masters in business to philosophy. Although offering a compact gym, IC offers students discounts and group work-out options that aim to encourage fitness and

wellbeing. Despite its miniscule size, the IC Gym has housed many a fundraising event including the Movember Treadmill Challenge, and the Le Tour De France fundraiser where teams were required to ride from 9 o’clock until 3 o’clock! Innovation Campus is capable of facilitating and catering for the needs of any event, holding anywhere between 50-360 people for weddings, international conferences and corporate events. Receiving a certificate of excellence from Trip Adviser, IC is also house to the Science Centre & Planetarium. Offering hands on displays and educational talk shows the planetarium caters to the keen interest of young and old minds alike, and has been described by guests as “surprisingly engrossing” and a must-see destination in Wollongong. Although Innovation Campus still remains somewhat of a mystery to me, it’s clear there is a lot of thought incorporated into this cluster of architecturally beautiful buildings. From its gym offering ‘mum and bub boot camp’, to award winning research into solar power and the fabrication of silicone, IC is definitely proving to be something that students should keep an eye on and look at getting involved with. Who knows, maybe one day the mystery of what happens at the research labs at IC will turn out to be the fountain of youth… with UOW students being recruited as test subjects.

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WHY GOOD DESIGN MATTERS MORE THAN EVER BY ANDRÉ CHARADIA

If there was ever a phrase that sums up contemporary technology and appliances, it’s ‘consumer goods’. Everything from pens to thousand dollar phones, are made, if not designed, to be chucked out once they’re broken – or more accurately, when one element of their designs are broken. Never mind the financial cost, as we become more aware of our impact on the planet, it’s getting harder not to notice what the environmental cost of this model is. Much of these goods are made with carbon-intensive energy, using raw materials that aren’t exactly enviro-friendly. Some companies, like Apple and Nokia, have moved away from PVC plastic and are using more recycled goods in their products. The 18th Greenpeace Guide to Greener Electronics ranks the two companies relatively highly for best environmental practice; but Greenpeace notes that even then, these companies use harmful chemicals when making their products. Even more importantly, the life cycles of their products, and those of the other ranked companies, scored low. In Nokia’s case, it was zero. When contrasted to the longevity of relatively simple items like watches (you can buy working antique pocket watches from the late 1700’s), the short lifespan of $1,300 laptops and $700 phones looks a little ridiculous. I’m not an expert when it comes to computers by any means, but you’d have to agree that something as fundamental to their function like a motherboard would last longer than twelve months. My nearly one-year-old MacBook Pro’s motherboard unceremoniously carked it in the middle of a big (and very late)

assignment just before the end of last semester. Luckily, Pages saves documents automatically and regularly to the cloud, so I was able to hand in that assignment. Even more luckily, there were three more days on the warranty, and I was able to have it repaired quickly. But I must say, it’s disappointing to spend that amount of money on a computer that isn’t as durable compared to previous models. Thankfully, there are a large number of small companies that are working to move away from this consumer model to more sustainable technology. One of these companies is Phonebloks, which is developing a modular mobile phone. Lego-like ‘phonebloks’ with varying features plug into a touch screen, meaning that users can decide what kind of mobile phone they want or need. Importantly, from an environmental point of view, once an element of the phone breaks down or wears out, this can either be repaired or replaced with a new and improved ‘blok’, rather than replacing the whole handset. If we’re going to meet the challenge of scarcer and scarcer resources in the future, it is better designed goods that are going to help us get there. At the moment, the most ‘innovative’ products on the market are fridges that have dinner-plate sized touch screens and mobile phones with similar sized interfaces. Real innovation will be the introduction of fridges that last twenty-plus years and mobile phones that are easily and inexpensively repaired. Granted, these items will probably be more expensive, and lord knows there will be companies that will resist the change, but I know I don’t mind parting with a few extra dollars to reduce the impact I have on the planet.

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MAKING WAVES BY CLAIRE JOHNSTON

AN INTERVIEW WITH A MARINE ENGINEER ABOUT OCEAN WAVE RENEWABLE ENERGY.

Next time you’re taking a dip at Wollongong City Beach, glance south, down to the Port Kembla break wall. If you concentrate and lean forward into an intense squint, you may spot a halfsunken, rusted machine-washed up near the wall. That’s the Mk1PC, the first full-scale wave energy converter prototype to be tested in the world. This 500 tonne energy generator was the first of three renewable energy devices using ocean waves to be tested at Port Kembla by the company Oceanlinx. Its sister, the Mk3, which was only a third of the size of the Mk1, was the first wave energy converter ever to be connected to the grid. While the Mk3 was still a prototype, it operated for three months providing grid quality power to Integral Energy. According to the Oceanlinx website, “[the project] validated the ability of the full scale blueWAVE design to be rated at 2.5MW”. That basically translates into the ability to power 500,000 households on average – pretty cool, right? When I ask if I’ve got the details correct, Jean-Roch Nader, who was writing his PhD on wave energy at UOW during the Mk1’s relatively short life-span, he lets out a loud, distinctive laugh. When I ask about his reaction, he simply says, “Well, it’s still there, rusting!” And apparently it’s not only rust the Mk1 is collecting on the port wall, it’s also collecting a considerable law suit for Oceanlinx, who have angered the port authority and locals by not cleaning up their mess. I met Jean-Roch last year, just after he’d submitted his PhD, titled ‘Interaction of Ocean Waves with Oceating Water Column (OWC) Wave Energy Converters (WECs)’. After taking some time off study last year, I decided to travel with him to Launceston, Tasmania, where he has taken up a post-doctoral position at the Maritime College of Australia (MCA, now part of the University of Tasmania), to continue researching ocean wave renewable energy.

The 31-year-old French-Australian, who likes to go by ‘Rocky’, “because it’s easier for the Aussies to say than Jean-Roch”, has spent the last nine years living, studying and working between Australia and France. His first trip to Australia in 2005 was to intern in Canberra with a research laboratory jointly run by the University of New South Wales and the Australian Defence Force. He also interned with the Australian Institute of Marine Science and Bureau of Meteorology before finishing his masters at engineering school in Toulon, France; and then receiving a scholarship, partly funded by Oceanlinx, to complete a PhD at the University of Wollongong. “I guess I got interested in my field at engineering school. I was interested in physical oceanography and coastal management, and [at] my school I really got interested in research and renewable energy” he says, slunk back casually on an armchair in our living room in the house we share. He looks more like your regular surfer from his hometown Biarritz (the French city and surfing capital of Europe) than a marine engineer with a PhD in applied mathematics. The collection of surfboards on display throughout our place suggests he doesn’t just study the waves for the purposes of renewable energy devices. When I ask him to explain the technology he’s working on, he rolls his eyes. “You’re kidding, right?!” He’s explained this to me many times; I’ve even seen it explained at parties using beer bottles to demonstrate the ‘oceanic chamber’. “Just one more time, for the article – pleeeeaaaasse!” He picks up my glass of water, “So, how it works is that you’ve got a chamber, which is surface piercing. So, let’s say a part is underwater and a part is above the water. And so, when a wave arrives, it makes the water oceate inside the chamber, compressing and depressing the air inside the chamber. It then drives the turbine; which creates a flow and a change in air pressure that makes the turbine turn, creating electricity”.

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“

I’m an environmental person, and I feel that I’m trying to work in a field that I believe in. I’m trying to help find a solution to current and future issues...

“

It seems simple enough when it’s explained like that. This is just one of several ocean wave renewable technologies being developed right now, and trust me, it’s all pretty high-tech, complicated stuff once you get beyond the water glass and beer bottle explanations. Such as, the ‘Sea Snake’ (a very grownup name for such serious, complicated technology), which is basically a bunch of tubes connected in a long line (hence the name) that bends with the waves. The movement is converted into electricity via hydraulic power take-offs housed inside the joints of the machine tubes. Another explanation, also with an excellent name, is the ‘Wave Dragon’, which channels waves into a large reservoir and then leaves the reservoir through hydro turbines, which is where the energy comes from. “We think of ocean waves as what wind research was 30 years ago,” he says after we chat about the various technologies and their names. “The main issue with what we’re working on is the very harsh environment. First there’s oxidation (rust), but one of the main issues is survivability.” This is exactly the problem faced by the Mk1 at Port Kembla. “After a while, there was a big storm – we call them a fifty years storm, that is, the storm is so big that it only happens every fifty years. So, they decided to bring it [the Mk1] back closer to the shore where the energy is dissipated, but the bad luck was they stuck it in the breaking zone… the waves just destroyed the hell out of it.” He lets out another loud laugh. “What is important to know is that, when we are looking at the development of wave renewable energy, one of the key points is that I’m only working on one of the many different types of wave energy. We don’t yet know which one is the best in terms of efficiency and survivability etc.” “We know we can survive because petrol companies have survived for a long time… You know, offshore drilling etc. But they hold a lot of information about that and it’s still very expensive to get devices to survive. It would be good if the petrol companies could think about helping develop the wave energy sector because they have a lot of the research.” I point out the commercial advantage oil companies have in withholding that information from their competitors, who are developing technology that will inevitably be cheaper and more sustainable.

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“But if they’re smart they would!” He has a point. With the onset of peak oil and the move away from climate change inducing fossil fuels, perhaps the big offshore oil drilling companies would be best to start developing other technologies. With a smirk I say, “I think they’ll keep going until the boat runs on just the smell of an oily rag”. Our conversation continues into controversial waters, such as the renewable energy sector and Australian politics. In particular, I ask if his research has or will be impacted by the decisions of the new Abbott government to axe the Clean Energy Finance Corporate. The organisation was set up under the previous government and gives grants and other funds to research, develop and commercialise Australian-based renewable, low emission technologies. Luckily, one of the Oceanlinx projects he and other colleagues have been working on that is aiming to install and generating power at Port McDonnell in South Australia by the end of the year, managed to receive its $4million in funding before Abbott’s election. “But the main problem in Australia is the mining lobby and the influence they have on politics,” Jean-Roch adds. “The main difficulty the company has is competing with the electricity sector. From the minute coal is subsidised it makes it really difficult for us to compete.” According to Fairfax, Australia’s post-tax subsidies for the fossil-fuel industry (petroleum, natural gas and coal) amounted to 1.79 of gross domestic product, or about $20 billion in 2011. According to the International Monetary Fund (IMF), worldwide nations spent $US1.9 trillion in subsidies in 2011. The IMF, who is certainly no environmentally-focus-bleedingheart-lefty organisation (although I’m sure they drink lattes and flat whites), has called for an end to the handouts. Facetiously, Jean-Roch exclaims, “I’m working in my industry because I’m here for the money!” We both have a laugh. It quiets down and he seriously reflects, saying, “I’m an environmental person, and I feel that I’m trying to work in a field that I believe in. I’m trying to help find a solution to current and future issues... Otherwise I would be working in petrol and make a lot of money out of it!”

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HOW MISCONCEPTIONS SPOIL SCIENTIFIC INNOVATION BY JAMES LIDSEY

Lightening never strikes twice in the same place, being stuck in the cold can cause you to get the flu, microwave ovens are bad for your health and the idea that human blood without oxygen turns blue, are all excellent examples of scientific misconceptions. Science and how it is communicated to the public has always been difficult. Explaining a scientific breakthrough that has taken years of research can be tough. Due to this, misconceptions can arise through personal experience, lack of background knowledge, media representation and general errors in logic and textbooks. Lightening has been recorded by NASA in Arizona to strike within the same area over 100 times in a single storm, and while being cold won’t help you fight off the flu, its actual cause leads from viruses passed on between people. Microwaves use less energy than visible light to heat your food, meaning that micro-waved food does not lack anymore essential vitamins and minerals than the same food cooked any another way . And finally, your veins look blue but are actually a deep red or maroon colour; deoxygenated blood loses its colour and looks blue due to the refraction and absorption of light through the skin. A lot of these misconceptions are harmless and most can be cracked with common sense and a bit of background knowledge. But when a misconception escalates and general confusion around an issue becomes more common, entire innovative projects can be heavily impacted due to lack of public support and thus lack of government funding. Ever heard of herbal treatments for cancer? Maybe you’ve even heard that vaccinations do more harm than good? Both are examples of how innovation can be restricted by public misconceptions which lead to fear and misguided decisions. Steve Jobs a prominent figure in society recently passed away on October 5th 2011, after he was diagnosed in 2003 with a less aggressive form of pancreatic cancer. Jobs decided to undergo a number of alternative treatments for 9 months before turning to conventional methods of treatment, and many people today including his doctors stand by the theory that Jobs would have survived if he undertook these conventional treatments earlier. The issues surrounding the correct treatment method for Jobs’ cancer in particular is controversial, but a number of major issues surrounding the misconceptions about alternative cancer treatments were clearly defined during the ordeal. The rift between alternative and conventional treatments has created a myth that doctors are against alternative methods of cancer treatment. Prof. Ray Lowenthal an oncologist at the University of Tasmania identifies in an article on The Cancer Council website that “one of the most misleading myths of modern medicine is that conventional cancer doctors reject ‘natural’ therapies in favour of artificial or ‘unnatural’ treatments”. The truth being, that a large majority of cancer specialists support the use of alternative treatments, although this is defined by whether the treatment has

been tested and whether the evidence shows reliable results. Here is where the misconception resides. The scientific community relies upon a series of steps called the ‘scientific method’, for something to be accepted among specialists in the area. Whereas the public, who are easily swayed using a number of key words, favour ‘natural treatment’ to ‘artificial’ or ‘unnatural’ scientifically supported methods. The massive support the public has for alternative methods of cancer treatment, has resulted in a number of bizarre methods, ranging from substances such as the herb Comfrey (actually known to cause cancer), to strange myths like sharks are immune to cancer and thus millions of dollars are invested in the production of shark cartilage pills that ‘cure’ cancer (the truth being that sharks - like most multi-cellular organisms do get cancer). In general, cancer has always been and will continue to be a controversial issue, and this can cause a number of arguments regarding the most effective treatments for the many different varieties of it. But an effective treatment of cancer requires evidence showing its reliability, and although the ‘artificial’ treatments may seem ‘unnatural’ they have the most supporting evidence of patients actually surviving the ordeal. Vaccinations were first introduced in 1796 on smallpox and since then have become a major part of society. But as always, the public began to derive their own conclusions as to what vaccinations are and how they can harm you. Today there are a number of major misconceptions that alter the public’s view about vaccinations, to the point where a number of people will not accept them. The idea that vaccinations can cause a number of sicknesses and even death has become a common idea among the public and yet it is completely false.Vaccinations undergo rigorous testing before they are approved, and continue to be tested while in use within society. The natural way of becoming immune to diseases may last longer, however the increasing global population means we are closer and closer together and therefore it is much easier for a virus to spread rapidly. The risks of infection far out-weigh the risks of immunization. These conflicting views can cause pressure on government bodies to resist funding into conventional scientifically supported methods of treatment and research. This in turn, can restrict new research developments into innovative areas. Education, support for projects that identify major misconceptions and providing the public with an answer to their questions surrounding such topics are some of the increasingly important ways that we can manage scientific misconceptions. All in all though these misconceptions are caused by the spread of inaccurate information and as Cardinal Wolsey (a cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church in 1515) said “be careful what you put into that head, because you will never, ever get it out.”

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PHOTO CREDIT: JESS NESBITT

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PHOTOGRAPHY: ZED NELSON

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STUDYING ABROADSUNSHINE, POSTCARDS AND FIREARMS BY LEWIS ARAMAYO

alking into the Big 5 sporting goods store in Long Beach, you are greeted with warm smiles and friendly customer service. Kickboards and pool noodles live together in aisle one, and create a colourful nostalgia of summer afternoons spent with friends and family by the pool. Aisle two houses outdoors equipment like sleeping bags and tents, taking you back to that first camping weekend you spent with your dad, roasting fireside s’mores, nestled among the evergreens. Upon entering aisle three, the stores cheerfulness suddenly takes a sinister turn. Piled across the walls on black, metal racks sit an array of semiautomatic rifles, varying in lengths and sizes. Some of these long, diabolically crafted instruments, price as cheaply as $139 - almost the same price as a one-day-pass to Disneyland. Underneath stands a glowing, white glass cabinet, displaying metallic-black hand guns as if they are works of art. For many years, the patent presence of guns has been a contentious issue among American citizens. A recent shooting at Los Angeles airport has sparked further debate, when an everyday civilian began firing shots at airport staff, killing one and injuring three others. Another incident back in August 2013, caused worldwide controversy when Australian baseball college student Christopher Lane, was gunned down mercilessly by a group of bored teenagers while he went for a jog. Foreign exchange students from California State University, Long Beach are particularly mindful of America’s ominous gun presence. Asher Taccori, an exchange student from Australia, felt the emotional impact of Christopher Lane’s death on his family. “Although it was a sad shock to see an Australian involved in a shooting in America, the shooting itself was not a surprise, as it seems so many take place with the lenient gun laws. The shooting got my Mum really worried because the Australian was also a college student” said Taccori.

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“

Australia has only had 59 related deaths from firearms in the last year, which on a population percentage scale works out 158 times less than the United States

“

On December 14, 2012, 20-year-old Adam Lanza entered Sandy Hook Elementary school in Newtown, Connecticut. Armed with his mother’s guns, he murdered 20 children and six adult members of staff. The public reacted dramatically, voicing their demands for stricter gun laws. After the incident President Obama promised to do his best to prevent gun violence stating “We’re not doing enough and we will have to change”. Since then however, there have been at least 9,901 gun related deaths. In comparison, Australia has only had 59 related deaths from firearms in the last year, which on a population percentage scale works out 158 times less than the United States. The United Kingdom and Canada reported 51 and 200 gun related deaths last year respectively, whereas America reported 83 a day. However, gun possession among criminals and young people isn’t the only pressing concern for foreign students or their parents. Mathieu Nassar, a French exchange student, was warned by his parents to be careful of the police. ”My parents told me stories suggesting American police aren’t always friendly. They warned me never to provoke or runway from them” he said. Gun responsibility and law enforcement made headlines on June 27, 2013, when Los Angeles police killed Eugene Mallory, an innocent 80-year-old man in his bed, after wrongly claiming his house smelled like crystal meth. The enforcement agents entered the man’s home in the early morning when Eugene allegedly picked up a pistol to defend himself. The presence of Eugene’s gun was the grounds the police team gave for shooting the elderly man, professing they were only defending themselves. If civilian possession of firearms was illegal, the death of an innocent man could have been prevented. Luis Ramirez, who works behind the firearms counter at Big 5 sporting goods, believes that America has a lot of catching up to do, “The attitude towards gun ownership here is definitely behind compared to countries like Canada and Australia” he says. ‘’I don’t have such a problem with the hunting rifles we sell here because they aren’t likely to be used on the streets, but handguns need to be heavily regulated and enforced.” On the other end of the spectrum Professor Roger Mcgrath from California State University Northridge, an expert on criminology and history, believes that school and other mass

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shootings could be prevented if more Americans were allowed to carry guns. “Law abiding criminals are able to use their guns to chase off a criminal and prevent more people from being killed” he says. Chilean exchange student Danielle Parada, also supports the presence of guns as a means of self-defence and protection, “I think it is important to have guns inside houses. Possessing a gun may scare criminals from entering your home and make you feel safer” she says. However Daniel Webster, co-editor and director of the John Hopkin’s Centre for gun policy, Baltimore, maintains that reducing violence and homicides in American society starts with reducing the accessibility of guns. He proposes several strategies that he believes will make this happen. “The bulk of our recommendations focus on policies designed to keep all firearms from high-risk groups like criminals, perpetrators of domestic violence, substance abusers, adolescents and individuals whose mental illness is so severe that they are a danger to others and/or to themselves.” His strategies include conducting universal background checks on all people looking to purchasing a firearm – including private and internet based sales. These strategies are encouraging as they represent a clear plan for reducing America’s current gun problems, especially among dangerous groups in society where gun violence is more prevalent. Although there is still support for gun presence among members of the public and political sectors, the majority of exchange students agree that a high presence of firearms can create an intimidating and insecure environment to live in. For most exchange students, America’s firearm laws have played a significant role in the culture shock commonly experienced by foreigners, upon living in the United States. While students from Australia, France and Americans themselves believe that a change is needed, concerningly there is still strong support among Republicans for the right to bear arms, which will prolong and continue US gun law debates. In light of the destruction firearms can cause, witnessed at Los Angeles airport, Oklahoma, Columbine and Connecticut, it is becoming publically and politically clearer that the firearm should be fired for good. Not with gunpowder, but with political action!

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BRINGING EKPHRASTIC ART TO WOLLONGONG BY CHLOE HIGGINS

In the 8th or 9th century BC (the exact time is unknown), Homer described the Shield of Archilles (of the Trojan War) in Book 18 of the Illiad. The descriptive poem begins at the shield’s centre and moves outwards to capture each layer, circle by circle, of the shield’s imagery. 1.

The Earth, sky and sea, the sun, the moon and the constellations (484–89)

“Two beautiful cities full of people”: in one a wedding and a law case are taking place (490–508); the other city is besieged by one feuding army and the shield shows an ambush and a battle (509–40).

A field being ploughed for the third time (541–49).

A king’s estate where the harvest is being reaped (550–60).

A vineyard with grape pickers (561–72).

A “herd of straight-horned cattle”; the lead bull has been attacked by a pair of savage lions which the herdsmen and their dogs are trying to beat off (573–86).

A picture of a sheep farm (587–89).

A dancing-floor where young men and women are dancing (590–606).

The great stream of Ocean (607–609).

This is perhaps the earliest known example of ekphrastic art. According to the Ekphrastic Arts Festival, “Ekphrastic art is now understood to be art from one medium that responds to art from another medium: a poem that is written in reaction to a piece of music, or a musical score replying to a work of visual art. Ekphrastic art offers an interpretation of sorts.” In 2012, writer, visual artist and South Coast Writers Centre Director, Friederike Krishnabhakdi-Vasilakis, together with Vivian Vidulich from the Wollongong Art Gallery, established a series of ekphrastic readings as part of the Wollongong Art Gallery’s annual program. In these ekphrastic events, local writers responded to an exhibition theme and selected artworks in a particular exhibition. One of these events used the idea of home as the theme. Writers were invited to “pick one or several images from that exhibition and then … tease the essence out of the image and write about their own concept of home,” Krishnabhakdi-Vasilakis said. Then, in July 2012 at Wollongong University, as part of the Faculty of Creative Arts’ Zwischenräume - Spaces of Convergence art exhibition, South Coast Writers Centre poets were invited to respond to charcoal and graphite drawings by international artist Gela Samsonidse and local artist Garry Jones.

ARTS & CULTURE

The event drew a crowd of almost 100 people on opening day. From there, the Nan Tien Institute invited KrishnabhakdiVasilakis (as a representative of the Illawarra Association for the Visual Arts) to curate an ekphrastic event that saw writers reposed to image-based works around the theme of the Asian Century. For Krishnabhakdi-Vasilakis, ekphrastic art is a form of commentary. Art making is “an extension to philosophical thinking. And writing, responding to that process, is a personal interpretation of the image. It’s kind of like adding another level of understanding to it,” she said. Ekphrastic art is not a new thing. But having an arts program with a focus on merging two art forms was an innovative act, through which Krishnabhakdi-Vasilakis is changing and expanding Wollongong’s arts and culture scene. “In Wollongong, to my knowledge, it [hadn’t] been done before. There may have been other events that kind of catered for it, but now we are actually having a proper series, as part of the Wollongong Art Gallery and South Coast Writers Centre programs.” “We now have the partnership with Nan Tien Institute, and the … innovative part with the Nan Tien was they never actually had any writers responding to imagery in such a fashion and it was also only the second art exhibition with its unique community outreach.” Nan Tien Institute showed great support for this kind of ‘artistic dialogue’ and the move from solely image-based exhibitions to ekphrastic ones seemed a natural progression for KrishnabhakdiVasilakis. “They started with the visual arts thing and then when I was invited to curate their show, I suggested to them we have an ekphrastic thing. They really loved it because as a cultural and Buddhist centre where … the idea of Buddhist thinking is to take in what you’re presented with in the moment … they felt it was a great idea.” These partnerships with the Wollongong Art Gallery, the University of Wollongong and the Nan Tien Institute have provided a stepping stone to a larger audience, and consequently, increased community dialogue. “It is audience building, but it’s also kind of opening up the discussion to a wider realm, because I think both forms are an extension to philosophical thinking.”

For those who have not been exposed to ekphrastic art before, it often raises questions of the benefit of responding to an image created by another. Krishnabhakdi-Vasilakis argues the form offers people a way of interacting with an art form they may not have otherwise. It allows writers a way of interacting with image, and artists a way of interacting with the written word. The result is a two-way dialogue, rather than a work of art that communicates in one way only. “The beauty of having this cross arts activity is that you expand your horizon, because you tend to break out of the more familiar way of thinking about things.” “Usually people say, ‘Oh I’m more of a writer than a visual artist’ or ‘I can’t paint but I can write’, and that becomes their way of engaging with the world. Whereas when you invite them to look at these sort of things in different ways, people might actually see it’s not that black and white with their creativity, that they actually can understand an artwork or they can understand a poem if there is a link to what they find is their point of entrance into a concept or into the unfamiliar.”

In the future, Friederike Krishnabhakdi-Vasilakis hopes to take the idea of ekphrastic art one step further. “For the book launch of Ephemeral, which will be coming up some time in September, with Greer Taylor—she’s a sculptor and will be publishing it at the Wollongong Art Gallery—I wanted to invite an established writer and performer to perform their nature-based play and make it kind of respond to [Taylor’s] images because the images in that book, or most of the sculptures [Taylor does] are in nature or near a river bed. That would be nice to have performance responding to image,” Krishnabhakdi-Vasilakis said. The South Coast Writers Centre is currently offering free membership to all UOW students. To become a member and find out about upcoming events, visit http://southcoastwriters. org.au/ and download the membership form (put your student number where it asks for payment details). You can also find the centre at: @SCWCentre www.facebook.com/SCWCentre.

ARTS & CULTURE

T H E I N N O VAT I O N I S S U E

VEGGING OUT BY JAMIE REYNOLDS

Greg king had to make a choice as a young teen, continue his vegetarian lifestyle, or pursue his passion for cooking. “You know what option I took, hence why I’m here today, still a chef ”, said King, a teacher of commercial cookery at Illawarra TAFE. “My boss sort of pulled me aside and said ‘Greg it’s like this, if this is what you really want to do and this is your passion [which it was] unfortunately you’re going to have to taste food products that you do make, which will involve meat.” But that was in the past.Vegetarian eating is now of higher profile than ever before, with more and more people swapping their steaks for substitutes. As the trend grows, so does the need for access to healthy, nutritious and delicious vegetarian foods. Fifty-eight per cent of young adult Australians (18-24 year olds) believe it’s difficult to get a variety of vegetarian meals when eating out, but Greg said that there is no excuse for any restaurant or chef to not cater to everybody. “My philosophy is what I teach to my students, I really don’t care whether you’re making a sandwich in the local café or you’re doing a 12 course meal, you put your heart and soul into it, and that applies to whether somebody is a vegetarian or whether they’re a celiac.” Although some restaurants and chefs like King support this growing lifestyle, others are more behind the times. Shoalhaven based uni student Nicolas Ozolins, has been vegetarian for almost three years since moving out of home to pursue a Bachelor of Commerce at the University of Wollongong. “There’s not really a lot of variety in the eating out department around here. Some restaurants have a few options, but they’re usually more expensive” said Ozolins. “At times I’ve found myself eating a bowl of chips because the vegetarian options were out of my price range. The other

option is asking for a meal and then saying all the things you don’t want in it because they come from animals, but sometimes that feels a little tedious and I’ve had bad experiences with that.” Eating out vegetarian may be expensive or lack variety, but both King and Ozolins agree that the lifestyle in general is quite affordable. “There’s a bit of a misconception about how much it costs to give up meat and other animal products,” said the university student. “Sometimes I found myself spending less on food than my non-vego friends, because fruits and vegetables are usually not too expensive.” King agreed. “I would say, and could tell you for a fact that food cost is in protein foods, beef, pork, seafood, poultry and other meat products, it’s as simple as that” he said. “There are obviously expensive vegetables out there but if you’re a smart purchaser you go with seasonal availability.” As for the expense of meat substitutes such as tofu and other soy bean products, the chef had this to deliver, “They may be dear per kilo, but as opposed to somebody who eats a full protein meal... I mean you’re not going to put 300 grams of tofu on a plate like you would a 300gram sirloin”. If you think about our lifestyle now, it’s all about promoting health, no matter where you go. Even McDonald’s promote health in some way, the option is always out there. “I say to my students, that if I were to open up a restaurant now, because of current trends a lot of customers will be vegetarian, some are because it’s dictated to them, but most are because they choose to be” said King. “I’d put it on the same level of importance as any other food.”

FOOD CULTURE

WOLLONGONG’S VERY OWN JAMIE OLIVER BY GEMMA MOLLENHAUER

Growing on inspiration from Jamie Oliver, Azarak Experimental Kitchen’s Founder and Head Chef, Shane Debnam has plans to educate over 6,000 students this year about sustainable living and cooking. So far 2014 will host around 20 Azarak visits to local primary, secondary and tertiary schools with Debnam teaching kids about how easy healthy eating, food cultivation and sustainable living can be. Debnam and his team of chefs plan to volunteer in local primary and secondary school kitchens and gardens. With Azarak set to become Wollongong’s latest culinary educator to the littlest of chef ’s, Debnam’s work can easily be compared to that of Jamie Oliver in UK schools. From humble beginnings, with Debnam wanting a record of all of the experimental dishes he cooked for his wife and children at home, Azarak has grown into in innovative reality, educating the littlest of kitchen helpers to those with a taste for fine, experimental dining. With around four sold-out events per month, over 600 new Facebook followers and around 20 visits to Illawarra schools, Debnam and his team really have their work cut out for them this year. The Azarak Experimental Kitchen uses organic fruits, vegetables and herbs from grown in Debnam’s garden and partakes in recycling and compost practices, proving sustainable living is not as labour intensive and time consuming as it may seem. Debnam states, “kids don’t need to have a full vegetable garden

in their backyard, but they can grow a couple of tomatoes and bean plants; they’ll love the taste of fresh vegetables and that they are helping reduce their carbon footprint. Every little bit helps, so why not start with the littlest helpers?” Not only educating children, but also parents, Debnam hopes to inspire people to cook delicious, nutritious, and healthy meals rather than eating processed fatty foods, so often targeted towards kids and busy parents. With six kids of his own, Debnam knows the importance of making healthy food fun for children, often involving his kids in the cultivation at Azarak Experimental Kitchen Garden. He believes that home grown food such as cherry-tomatoes can be used in children’s lunchboxes and that teaching kids to be patient and persistent while growing and foraging for their food is a long- lasting and valuable skill to develop at a young age. Debnam will be hosting the first Azarak Experimental Kitchen auditory and visual sensation on the February 28. I will be there reviewing the night and taking many cultivated pictures that will appear in the next issue of the Tertangala. To attend future Azarak 14 course degustation experiences and wine pairings simply email azarakexperimentalkitchen@outlook.com or inbox Azarak Experimental Kitchen directly via Facebook, I can guarantee you’ll be left wanting more.

FOOD CULTURE

TOP 3 WAYS TO GET SMOKEY EYES BY LAUREN WEBB-JONES

It is a popular trend at the moment and interested parties everywhere are asking how to get the perfect ‘smokey eye’ look. As such, I have decided to detail the three most effective ways one can accomplish this perfection. First and foremost, in terms of the price range of your eye makeup, you’re going to be looking at the cheaper end of the spectrum. The more expensive, the less effective the described methods will be. I recommend sticking with black, non-waterproof mascara and eyeliner for the best results. Now, this first method is for your basic smokey eye. Put on non-waterproof mascara, a liberal amount but don’t go crazy. Do so with the assumption that you’re going out with your friends, or family, do so because you want to. Now, as you stare into the mirror, notice your flaws, try to hide them, spend a lot of the morning trying to hide them until you notice the time. Notice it is late. Decide it is far too late to justify going out and that most of the shops will be closing by the time you get into town. Tell yourself that you simply don’t have the money this week to truly enjoy yourself. Use any excuse to demotivate yourself. Think less of yourself. Resolve to stay in and neglect to remove your makeup when you inevitably fall asleep swathed in your own misery. The next day when you awaken to a day tainted by yesterday’s misfortune, forget about reapplying and go out without looking into a mirror, checking your watch or your phone. Get things done but make sure not to feel too good about yourself or accomplish anything great. This second one has somewhat varying results but can be relied on from time to time to produce some excellent outcomes. Here’s how you do it: put on non-waterproof mascara, a liberal amount (don’t overdo it), but this time also apply eyeliner. Now, get into an argument with your partner about something trivial at first but then argue about what you’re really angry about. Get properly angry. Continue to argue long and hard until you feel the first strangled sob and don’t stop until you’re crying.

Cry whilst your partner holds you and apologises, embrace the feeling of utter hopelessness. Tell yourself you don’t deserve the apology. Apologise for starting it. Blame yourself. Accept their forgiveness but don’t forgive yourself. Don’t worry, when you’re exhausted, the crying will stop and your partner should offer a tissue if s/he hasn’t already. With this, it’s time to wipe away the excess black - but not all of it. When the redness of your skin fades and the glassiness of your eyes is no longer immediately recognisable as upset, have a sombre night out. Pretend to love each other. Now, if you don’t have a partner, this third method merely requires a good friend. It helps if this friend is of the opposite sex because heteronormative situations are where all the fun is at. Apply mascara and eyeliner just as before. Now, suggest hanging out with your friend, suggest hanging out but be oblivious to the amount of times you’re suggesting it. Allow this guy to tell you that you aren’t spending too much time together. Grow closer.Very close. Wonder why but never question it. Give this guy a lot. Watch him take it. Watch as the returns begin to dwindle. Watch yourself try their patience with your anxieties and insecurities. Do this until your friend kicks you out of their place a day or so before a major holiday, after the buses have stopped running and the sun has started to set. Keep your gaze down and away from passer-by’s to hide your shame and embarrassment. Sit in the gutter and cry. Use the rough corner of your sleeve or the tattered hem of your ankle length skirt to scratch away the excess black. Perfect. If you want smokier eyes than what these scenarios can provide you, you might want to apply more mascara or eyeliner before attempting these situations again. If this simply isn’t working for you, then I recommend adding grey to dark grey eye shadow. Now that you know how to create the perfect smokey eye look, you can show yourself off as the confident woman you’re always told to be, want to be but are never allowed to be.

C R E AT I V E W R I T I N G

WOMB INNOVATION BY ADRIENNE CORRADINI i. across the bench, she enforces gravity on the dough using thick fingers to curl it in on itself and then knead it out with the heels of her flour-dusted hands. there are six and a half eggs in this mandala, drying into something more insistent than their slippery albumen. she thinks the pasta in the shop is convenient, but it does not taste right. the gel of the other half egg lies in a crystal bowl on the sink, behind her shoulder, under the window, growing a skin in the sun – globular desultory chrysalis. the pasta in the shop, she says, they never have egg – not a single egg. ii. this woman and me, bound together over the steel gauze that crosses itself over the rind of the man who came from her womb and sent me thatched into another, she is the first to step forward after the casket has landed. plunging flower, downcast face, downward, she whimpers words sprung up from the cove of her ovary, “oh il mio figlio.” i stand at the crossroads of two elbows curled around my back, two hands clutching tissues on either side of my waist the sun beating burial tan into the Milan melanin of my arms. later, around the dinner table, cousins and aunts laugh about epidurals. she seizes my eyes and whispers: “do not ever have a baby.” iii. all week my own mother makes pasta, promises broth in winter – to cook like nonna in someone’s honour. she still has faith in the innovation of her womb: sunburnt, muscles moulded out of flour and egg, i am still standing.

POEMS

A LARGER WOMAN BY JOEL EPHRAIMS See her, there just by that blot of beach that juts out like a dusty paw under the quick origami reflections of those million-and-something-dollar playboy yachts, a larger woman See her, there perspiring in that lane of candid spoon harp musicians and evangelical Christian statue mimes shopping bags weaving through the hem of her warped Cat Woman insigniaed dress feet like carp fleeing but tied invisibly to the circular shade of her soda brand hat, a larger woman See her, there miraculous offspring of star death enormous in that crowd under those glassy towers watching the yachts gnaw the harbourâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s horizon her secret solace for this wide night of June a Marilyn Monroe blu-ray tucked in its plastic sheath amongst loudly coloured greeting cards in her two-dollar-fifty Aldi bag, a larger woman See her, there born in that city of all night dance raves melancholy junk food raider of fridges through childhood because she never saw her solarium tycoon father kiss sobber behind Heralds in fast food joints because of distasteful looks she gets vagina like an abandoned frog pond where the wreckages of lilies rust in the backyard of a ghoul hijacked house, a larger woman

POEMS

LOCAL MUSIC

UOWMS - THE VOICE OF LOCAL MUSIC BY JAMES CROWE

JAMES CROWE SITS DOWN WITH THE GONG’S VERY OWN MR MUSIC TO CHAT ABOUT ALL THINGS UOWMS AND THEIR BIG PLANS FOR 2014. “It’s not just a society for musicians or people who want to play gigs in town; it’s a society for everybody who loves music.” For most UOW students the summer break is a time for travel, relaxation, and a much needed break from assignments. But for Broden Tadros it has meant working a nine-to-five day internship in Sydney, working nights and weekends at the North Wollongong Hotel and organising and running the University of Wollongong Music Society (UOWMS). Despite today being one of his rare days off he has agreed to come and chat with me about the past, present and extremely exciting future of the UOWMS. It was founded by Ben Abraham of Bear Media and Em Lonsdale in Spring semester last year, with the idea of promoting local talent and hosting events. Although this is only the societies second semester, Mr Tadros is determined to step things up, “It’s going to be the single biggest musical movement that Wollongong has ever seen,” he says excitedly, taking another long drag of his sun-kissed beer. Last semester the UOWMS broke onto the scene with their acoustic nights and music competitions at the Uni Bar, raising $500 for Beyond Blue at their highly successful acoustic competition. While Tadros describes this as the highlight of his tenure as president he admits that the society didn’t reach the levels of exposure that they were aiming for, adding solemnly: “It’s hard when you realise that you didn’t achieve what you set out to [do], but as president I’ve got to take that responsibility and move forward”.

This semester, UOWMS is armed with fresh vigour and determination. Over the course of the summer break they have managed to set up relationships with several of Wollongong’s top live music venues. They now have exclusive music promotion rights at a number of local venues including the North Wollongong Hotel, which will be their main stage for future music events. Other venues that have agreed to showcase talent the UOWMS finds include The Den, The Brewery, Dicey Riley’s and the Howling Wolf. With their help the society hopes to “take over the Wollongong music scene,” and ultimately become “the voice of local music”. By obtaining a high level of exposure this semester, UOWMS hope to help move local musicians into the limelight through monthly acoustic and band nights. They’ll kick off the semester with an unofficial launch party during O-week, and although a venue is yet to be confirmed they have announced via their Facebook page a list of several bands performing on the night, including The Vanns, who will headline the event. The final event of the semester, aptly named The Takeover, will showcase a day long musical extravaganza at the North Gong hotel featuring several local and national bands. It will be streamed live on the web, with the intention of being covered by Triple J (confirmation pending). The event will also feature an after party at either the Hotel Illawarra or Onefiveone Nightclub. This coming semester promises to deliver UOW students with a smorgasbord of live music at some of the best venues in town. If you’re a local band, an individual interested in participating in acoustic and band nights, or just a music-lover in general, get involved with UOWMS and check out their Facebook page. There you’ll find information about upcoming events; and a friendly forum to discuss all things local music

LOCAL MUSIC

ALBUM REVIEW: BAD BAD HATS BY BELINDA QUINN

Simple, smart and sweet - that’s the Bad Bad Hats for ya’. The indie-pop trio from Minnesota are made up of Kerry Alexander on lead vocals and guitar, drummer and back-up vocalist Chris Hoge, and bassist Noah Boswell. If you like semiheartbreak-inspired lyrics that swing to a carefree beat, then the five-track album ‘It Hurts’ is going to be your jam. Kerry Alexander has a smooth voice that crackles on low notes and a light style of singing that will make your heart melt. They’ve perfected basic baselines, modest rhythm guitar and slightly distorted drums, making them a breath of fresh air from your typical indie band – in that they’re not trying to do too many things at once. This allows for the simple, yet catchy summery tunes to stick with you. They also managed to squeeze a 24-second kazoo solo at the end of the track ‘It Hurts’ – a grainy tone that perfectly contrasts Alexander’s soothing voice. The Bad Bad Hats’ lyrics take a light-hearted approach to expressing feelings about shitty romantic experiences, going for

ALBUM REVIEW

short, relatable lyrics like “I could live without you, just don’t want to”. Alexander told the Minnesota Daily, “As I’ve gotten older, I’ve eased up on the epic poetry of my lyrics. I’m trying to find a middle ground between lyrics that are unique and interesting, fitting something smarter into a simple structure”. As you get to the end of the album you can see Alexander has moved on from feeling emotionally tied down to frustration in the song ‘Super America’ with lyrics like “it’s not my fault that you can’t sleep alone”. And once you hit forth track ‘9AM’, you really get the feeling of indifference in the chorus, “I hate to steal a kiss… I got to get going ‘cause it’s 9am, and I don’t feel a thing”. The album finishes on a cool note with the folky acoustic song ‘A Bout’. The Bad Bad Hats are currently living and breathing their craft with plans to release a full-length album and tour America in 2014. The indie-rock trio have made their ‘It Hurts’ single free to download on their Bandcamp page – http://badbadhats. bandcamp.com/ – it’s definitely worth a listen.