Art Director and Editor
Michael Agzarian
Designer and assistant editor
Missy Dempsey
Contributors Simon Pemberton Missy Dempsey Josh Beach
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Cover artwork and feature artist April Larivee Contributing artists Tristen Tait Isobel Chow Rosie Taprell Hannah Little Marcus Gyllander Aleksei Fateev Sara Larsson Sarah Keyes Rory Madigan April Larivee Sarah Miller Sara Ingman Phil Soliman Isabell Nilsson Wedin Kim Winderman Missy Dempsey Dilshani Jayawardene Ben Wright Samantha Mullavey Anthony Byrne Maria Harnett Sophia Hedman Asa Klaren Rhys Holland Natalie Coombes Chris Orchard Liz Aggett Kate Lewis Eugene Stadnichenko Logan Knight Ashly Matheson Stephen Babic Max Alm Dane Kirkland David Pulleine Lachlan Grant Steven Ung Ruby May Scanlon Pip Barnes
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GOfish 1 GOfish is distributed internationally through selected stockists and affiliates. In Australia, GOfish is available through selected newsagents, retailers, coffee shops, galleries, bookstores and on-line via subscription. GOfish is published quarterly by Advision. Advision accepts no responsibility for material submitted for publication. GOfish may not be produced in whole or in part without written permission of the publishers. Views expressed in GOfish do not necessarily represent the opinions of the editors or publishers. No responsibility is accepted by Advision for the accuracy of the advertisements or information within the publication.
Thank you
Alan Rowlands, David Clarke, Patrick McNamara, Trent, Carol and staff at Chambers and Whyte, Janine, Nina, Nikita, Jose, Jenny, Stasiu, David Green and to Missy for her hard work and determination (and coming up with name GOfish). To everyone who was involved with the project including AGDA, the Daily Advertiser, The Wagga Wagga City Council and Charles Sturt University. The businesses and institutions who supported with distribution and funding including Charles Sturt University, - School of Visual and Performing Arts, Lightbox Imageworks, Premium Coffee Roasters, Fine Art Supplies, Hunters, the Wagga Wagga City Art Gallery and Wagga Computer Centre. Finally a big thanks to all the artists, writers, photographers and designers without your generous contributions GOfish wouldn’t exist.
GOfish 1.
First published in November 2008 by Advision ABN 65066093023 Printed by Chambers and Whyte, Wagga Wagga
ISSN 1836-3636
Number 1000 GOfish Magazine
4 Gurwood Street Wagga Wagga NSW 2650 Australia +61 2 6921 8025 email: art@gofish.org.au web: www.gofish.org.au
dreams, ideas and realities | Michael Agzarian Editor
This magazine began as an idea a couple of years ago. Like many good ideas it quickly found itself at the bottom of my to-do list. Six weeks ago, when discussing the idea with a few friends, GOfish was born. In this, the very first issue of GOfish, we showcase work by students (both past and present) from Wagga Wagga, North America, Sweden, and the UK. I believe that this magazine gives students, passionate about being creative, a real and rare opportunity to display their skills and talent to a wider audience. When I called for submissions in October 2008, I was hoping to receive enough material for 42 pages. Instead, I was swamped with over a hundred entries - enough for two magazines. The result is an excellent mix of work from a diverse and talented group of artists. Enjoy. GOfish 2 will be out in March 2009. Issue 2 will present female artists, photographers, writers, designers and illustrators from Wagga Wagga and beyond. If you’d like to contribute to this exciting project please contact me via email - art@gofish.org.au by the end of January. I’d love to hear from you.
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Tristan Tait | Wagga Wagga • Australia
Isobel Chow | Sydney • Australia
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Rosie Taprell | Wagga Wagga • Australia
Hannah Little | Wagga Wagga • Australia
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Marcus Gyllander | Stockholm • Sweden
Fishing for answers
Simon Pemberton | AGDA (Australian Graphic Design Association) NSW President
I’m often being asked a range of questions by students all centred around the best way to move forward once they’ve graduated. Having been involved in design education for the last few years, I also well understand the nerves students feel about getting a job and what it’ll be like… and the frustration they feel when so many of the ads for young designers ask for two or three year’s experience. Graduating is a mountain in itself and the prospect of dealing with an afterlife can seem like there’s a whole other range of mountains waiting to be climbed.
OK, so where do we start? Well there’s not much I can do to help with graduation… except to say make sure you put a book (portfolio) together that’s going to work for you…and not for what you imagine a prospective Creative Director might want. Make your book user friendly. Make it A3 and a PDF. Don’t mount anything on card. It’ll stiffen your book up, make it too heavy and environmentally unfriendly. Print everything out A3 and simply keep it in plastic sleeves. Make use of the graphic use of white space - overcrowded pages will make you seem too intense…remember your future boss is going to have to spend five (sometimes long) days a week with you - you need him to know you’re going to be easy to get on with. Only put work in your book that you’re happy with. Your enthusiasm for this work will show, plus you’ll find it much easier to talk about which in turn will help your confidence. Never put anything in your book you’re not happy with - never put yourself in a position of having to defend something you’ve done…or even worse, apologise for it. Be prepared. Being prepared means researching the company you’re going to see before you see them.
If you have to deal with the issue of needing to compete with the ‘two or three year’s experience’ thing, you can. Tell whoever it is that’s asking that you’ve just spent three years working full time at university…you’ve got nothing to lose and they’ll probably enjoy your confidence, or cheek, depending on how they view your response. We could probably write a encyclopaedia on this stuff, but get your book right and do your research and you won’t far wrong.
Won’t go far wrong? How about trying to get it dead right? OK. There’s actually no secret to this. If you’re serious about a career as a designer you’re going to have to get out and meet people. Lots of people. As with almost everything in life…it’s all about who you know, not what you know. Network, make friends, make friends, make friends, meet as many designers as you can. Go to as many interviews as you can…not necessarily simply to try and get a job, but to build up your contacts. Nearly all the best jobs are usually filled by word of mouth. And if you’re not in a capital city, use the internet, phone people, email them. One of Australia’s most successful designers now lives in Kununurra...now that’s remote…and he works for clients all around the world. He networks, he stays in contact with the world and when he goes to any design centre, he takes the time to see people. So that’s pretty much it. In a nutshell…GOfishing and you’ll be surprised with what you catch. If it’s not what you want, throw it back and GOfishing some more.
www.agda.com.au 9
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Aleksei Fateev | Wagga Wagga • Australia
Sara Larsson | Sunne • Sweden
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Sarah Keyes | Wagga Wagga • Australia
Sarah Keyes | Wagga Wagga • Australia
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Rory Madigan | Wagga Wagga • Australia
April Larivee | Long Island • North America
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feature artist | April Larivee
California State University, Long Beach
GOD Font (cover and previous page)
I designed this font to compare the creative potential of designers to God. People often associate God’s creation with a romanticized and unearthly beauty: the miraculous. My font, in contrast, is raw and ugly. However, my font also retains an unrefined beauty in its organic form, which is much more realistic to earthly creation.
ANTI violence
Stamps can be applied in a variety of places public and private. They have the potential to be used in the same way as other street art such as stenciling, posters, and graffiti. I wanted to create stamps for this purpose, as a medium for public expression by “the people”. The first issue I chose to address is domestic violence but this will be a life-long project with that will address social and political issues.
PUSH Project
This project was designed for a company that would sell psychotropic drugs both legal and illegal. The logo was explored with an overall idea about the relationship between the human drug experience and the process of regulating drugs for use. Using the idea of an organic experience coming out of a regulation and organization I researched and created the visuals elements for this brand. The logo was created from hair cross-stitched into a girded fabric. The use of hair is significant for two reasons. One being that people use it for drug testing, but more importantly the perception of hair changes depending on its context. Hair is powerful when it is connected to somebody’s head but when hair is not attached anymore it is viewed very unfavorably. Using hair in this way forces people out of their comfort zone, it changes the way they see. This is what psychotropic drugs to people as well, it forces them into a different state of mind, however minor or major the effect.
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April Larivee | Long Island • North America
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April Larivee | Long Island • North America 18
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April Larivee | Long Island • North America
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Sarah Miller | Wagga Wagga • Australia
Sara Ingman | Sunne • Sweden
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Phil Soliman | Edinburgh • United Kingdom
Isabell Nilsson Wedin | Sunne • Sweden
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Kim Winderman | Long Island • North America
Missy Dempsey | Wagga Wagga • Australia
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Dilshani Jayawardene | Canberra • Australia
Ben Wright | Melbourne • Australia
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Charles Sturt University, Wagga Wagga
Okay so I spoke to you maybe three times in high school and now I know that “you’re watching When Harry Met Sally”. I fucking love facebook, knowing trivial crap about people is something I’ve become addicted to. I can’t figure out whether it’s a good or bad thing though. It’s taken over my life, I wake up; turn the computer on- Facebook. Go to uni; sit down in class- Facebook. Get home from uniFacebook. Weekend- Facebook! Facebook, facebook, faceboooook! If Facebook was a weight loss program I’d be Victoria Beckham’s skeletal system. 28
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It seems absolutely ridiculous to spend endless amounts of time in a virtual world, reading people’s status updates, relationship break-ups, mood swings and other personal information that you otherwise generally wouldn’t know. Do you ever take a good look at your friends list and realise that if you saw half of them in real life the full extent of your conversation would be over after hello? You may even cross the street to avoid the assured stunted conversation. And yet, you know their birthday was last week, they’re in a complicated relationship with Barry and their favorite movie is Debbie Does Dallas. Facebook would be better named Fakebook, let’s be honest, out of the 223 people on your friends list how many of them would you record the season final of The Hills for? even though you’d rather eat a bull’s testicle than even have your TV on the same station as that poor excuse for a TV show.
Photo: Michael Agzarian
fakebook | Missy Dempsey
“A person can be 100 times more interesting on the web than in real life.”
A person can be 100 times more interesting on the web than in real life. I constantly find myself readings people’s “about me” section and thinking how interesting they sound. Oooh they like kite flying in the Amazon while bare back elephant riding in Speedos, how very zany! Then you see them in the flesh and they start spieling on about the new curtains they’re making for Aunt Elma, and as your mind wanders in and out of consciousness you trust that the expression on your face doesn’t reflect that of road kill. This is where instant messaging is amazing; you don’t even need to pretend that you’re interested in whether they’re using hand painted periwinkle lace or plain dyed silk chiffon for the bay window in the family room.
While this is indeed useful it’s such an impersonal way of communicating. In a real life situation would it be acceptable if I sat in my bra and undies, eating lasagna, watching Home and Away, occasionally turning back to you and responding to a question you asked 3 minutes ago? I think not. Or if you said hello to me in the street and I really couldn’t be stuffed chatting I couldn’t just close your window and pretend I got disconnected. It’s a completely anti social “social networking”! It’s all good and well while you’re having a “Hey, how are you?”, “What have you been doing?” chat with someone you usually wouldn’t get to talk to, but when you’re chatting to someone you’re interested in it’s bad news! It is far to easy to misconstrue what is being said. Not to mention, how simple is it to tell someone how you feel via letters on a screen? You’ve got plenty of time to articulate what you want to say, you can back space, re-type, eat a whole packet of Tim Tams, pick your nose, press or don’t press enter and re-read what you are going to say before you hit the commit. This is bloody marvellous, until you’re face to face with this person in the flesh and they ask you how you feel. At least that’s what I found out a couple of weeks ago when a guy I liked returned home from overseas and we could finally talk in person again. How great I thought! Finally we can have a real chat, but as he appeared in front of me I felt strangely like a mute who had their voice box thieved during the night.
Had I have had a keyboard in front of me I could have typed a page, yet as I stared back at him blankly I couldn’t find the words to save my life. Facebook is ruining my real life social skills! It’s not that I didn’t know what I wanted to say but I didn’t know how to say it, what if the reaction was not so good? I would actually have had to witness it, rather than imagining how it looked at the other end of an underground cable. We’re slowly but surely becoming ridiculously anti social, imagine if we conducted all conversations via instant chat messengers. With our keyboards strapped to our sides, we peruse the streets typing to each other as we pass. You walk into Woolies and the lady at the checkout has “Hey, how are you going” ready to paste into you’re conversation while you fumble to type “good thanks” as you unpack the fabric softener, it just doesn’t seem right! Or how about a first date, you’re sitting at the dinner table tapping away at your keyboard enjoying what seems to be an intriguing conversation when out of no where old mate cracks a joke, do you reach for the “lol” or maybe it deserves a “rotfl” shit perhaps it’s good enough for a “lmfao” you can’t hesitate! You have to commit to one of the above acronyms before things get awkward, after all he can see whether you are in fact loling and/or rotfling. Internet chat short hand and ridiculous shortening of words is the bane of my existence! I refuse to chat to people who tlk lyk dis da whole ti/\/\e ur chattin n stuf, lyk ya kno\/\/. ARGHHH!! Just typing that then almost made me want to skewer my eyeball with the ball point pen beside me. I think the exceptions are lol and lmao, that’s it! Any more and my brain would self destruct. It’s not like you would actually speak to someone like that out loud. If I had the balls I would delete my Facebook account and use all that extra time in the real world saving orphans. Ahh who am I kidding, facebook is fucking brilliant. Where else can you stalk around in the comfort of your own home without having special intelligence satellite dish on your roof? Brilliant. 29
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Samantha Mullavey | Wagga Wagga • Australia
Samantha Mullavey | Wagga Wagga • Australia
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Anthony Byrne | Wagga Wagga • Australia
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Maria Harnett | Sydney • Australia
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Sofia Hedman | Sunne • Sweden
Asa Klaren | Sunne • Sweden
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Rhys Holland | London • United Kingdom
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Natalie Coombes | Wagga Wagga • Australia
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Chris Orchard | Wagga Wagga • Australia
Liz Aggett | Wagga Wagga • Australia
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going to college? | welcome to the circus
J.M. Beach | University of California • Riverside
The 20th century has seen a dramatic expansion of access to higher education, but what have been the benefits, and for whom? And education for what ends? Why do you need a college degree? For centuries the prospect of a college education was reserved for the children of the rich and powerful. Traditionally, the purpose of higher education was to train young, white men for entry into the church, the law, or the state bureaucracy. The United States was the first democracy to initiate free public schools in the 19th century.
Free public education lead many students to demand more advanced academic and vocational education. This lead to the development of the public high school, and later, the junior college. Both of these institutions were designed to prepare students for higher education. By the end of the 19th century, universities were becoming the only venue for training and certification in the modern professions, like medicine, law, engineering, social work, and teaching. If one wanted social status and entry into the middle class then going to college was becoming a necessity. But only five percent of the 19 to 22 year old white, male population in the United States was enrolled in an institution of higher education by 1910. This number was much lower for all of Europe and Australia. However, access to college steadily increased throughout 20th century. By the 21st century, most European countries, the United States, Canada, Australia, and Japan had drastically expanded their systems of higher education. As of 2006, about 30 percent (on average) of the adult population in these countries had at least a twoyear college degree. The United States ranks near the top of those countries with the most educated citizens. About 38 percent of adult Americans have at least a two-year college degree, and about 28 percent have a four-year bachelors degree. While these numbers are quite impressive, a majority of all citizens in every developed country still lack access to college. Only some citizens, at the expense of others, have been positioned to take advantage of a college education. Long-standing discrimination against women, racialized minorities, the working class, and immigrants in the developed world has caused both uneven rates of participation in higher education, and also uneven rates of economic return for a college credential. The United States offers one of the best case studies for this phenomenon. In America only 40 percent of the poorest 1/5 of the population make it to college, and only 12 percent of these students will graduate with a bachelors degree. The richest 1/5 of the population, however, have a college-going rate of 70 percent, of which 40 percent of these students will earn their bachelors degree. Only 2.5 percent of rich white students in America drop out of high school, compared to 24.5 percent of poor African Americans and 41.3 percent of poor Latinos. Compared to African Americans, Latinos, Puerto Ricans, and Native American Indians, White students are two to three times more likely to graduate from college with a bachelors degree.
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Once in the labor market, these markers of social discrimination still have a corrosive effect. In 2000 the average women with a bachelors degree earned almost half as much as the average man with a bachelors degree. The average African American or Latino man with a bachelors degree earned about $13,000 less a year than the average white man. Gender, class, and race are not the only factors determining the value of a college degree. Another important factor is a student’s choice of major. Professions with a high demand in the labor market, often accompanied by the highest salaries, are those in health care, technology, engineering, physical sciences, law, and business. Professions in the arts, humanities, social services, and teaching are near the bottom. Many young professionals, even in lucrative fields, have also been increasingly subject to contingent contract, as more and more globalized companies outsource important jobs to cheaper, adjunct professionals who are willing to work longer hours for less pay. Those students with degrees in the arts and humanities have been hit the hardest in the 21st century labor market, as most of these professionals cannot find steady work in their field. Increasingly these people are forced into the low-paid service sector, which has been the fastest growing sector in many developed economies. By 2006, the average American with only a high school diploma was earning less than half of the salary of the average American with a bachelors degree. This wage gap is expected to increase.
Many influential economists have noted that a college degree will be the essential ticket to the middle class in the 21st century, and those who fail to earn a college degree will find themselves more and more impoverished. With such a burden, students across the developed world are clamoring for a college education, but demand is eclipsing capacity, and junior colleges, community colleges, technical colleges, and for-profit colleges are springing up to grab a piece of the lucrative higher education pie. Students increasingly choose majors based not on interest or ideals, but on cold, hard cash dollars - banking on a future career. Some have likened higher education in the 21st century to a frenzied circus, where students and teachers perform a wide variety of staged acts, and for what? What is the purpose of this circus? Most students never catch a glimpse of what lies behind the curtain. Most students faithfully continue to perform the tricks of their trade, accept whatever coins are thrown their way, and sometimes dream of life beyond the big tent. But poets and artists are rare breed today, starved by the economy. I hope your not one of them, such poor creatures! Do you really want a college degree? The answer seems obvious. Most are eager to jump through the hoops. But are you able to pay? Do you know what it costs? Just your soul and 30 pieces of silver. Welcome, the circus awaits.
Beach has published articles and books on higher education, ideology, culture and poetry. 41
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Kate Lewis | Wagga Wagga • Australia
Eugene Stadnichenko | Wagga Wagga • Australia
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Logan Knight | Canberra • Australia
Ashly Matheson | Wagga Wagga • Australia
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Stephen Babic | Sydney • Australia
Max Alm | Sunne • Sweden
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Dane Kirkland | Wagga Wagga • Australia
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David Pulleine | Wagga Wagga • Australia
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Lachlan Grant | Kochi • Japan
Lachlan Grant | Kochi • Japan
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Steven Ung | Wagga Wagga • Australia
Ruby May Scanlon | Wagga Wagga • Australia
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Pip Barnes | Wagga Wagga • Australia
Extensive Range of Art Supplies
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