Fall 2019
The Forecast Issue
02
Culture &
Community speculation about swing offices and studio spaces for every conceivable major. The economical option is to keep The Can unofficially open as the “abandoned building” on campus, leaving the front door cracked for curious students to wander inside and get ambushed by ghouls. Although, if the administration wants to maximize use of the space, a better option would be to convert it into a trampoline park. Right now, the site sits almost completely vacant. “We did our last walk-through and were sad to see it [empty] after thirty years,” Kasik says, but he explains that Emerson serves as a worthy successor with a similar communal atmosphere. Every dorm room encircles a lounge and there are single-stall bathrooms on each floor. Unfortunately for misanthropes and the socially inept, it is impossible to avoid interacting with other people coming in or out of the building. In true Pratt fashion, Emerson carries on The Can’s unconventional legacy in its delayed opening, pushing incoming freshmen into other dorms for their first three days at Pratt. Students were notified of the
The Can is Canned Words — Jessica D’Ambrosio Illustration — Danielle Wilson
situation in July. “Pratt doesn’t have the same pull as, say, a Fortune 500 company,” Kasik notes, explaining that the administration was unable to obtain a Temporary Certificate of Occupancy. “We can’t pull strings the same way.” Despite the unprecedented
It’s official: The Pratt Residential Life Office and
population of hypebeasts and e-girls, Pratt lacks clout.
Cannoneer Court are not endgame. With the inception of Emerson Place, The Can is officially shut down as a
Walking around Cannoneer Court now, it seems the
dorm building. This development begs the question:
discarded aura of the adjacent, trash-littered parking
what is next for Cannoneer Court?
lot—which borders Classon and Dekalb—has finally devoured the building itself. On the first floor, each door
Currently, the second floor of the building has been
is propped open with a chair and the beds are stripped
converted into painting studios. Director of Residential
of the standard twin XL mattresses. It is skeletal:
Life, Chris Kasik, says that Pratt is “developing a
Reduced to barren wardrobes, desks and bookshelves.
strategic planning process” before moving forward
Staring through one shadowy, hollow room into another
with solid plans. Whether the painting studios are
across the hallway can be a fun Tuesday night activity
permanent is unknown, which leaves the former dorm
for the bored and nostalgic individuals here at Pratt.
building’s fate unresolved. Rumors are constantly flowing around campus about what exactly will become
Whatever becomes of The Can, it will be remembered
of The Can once it is retired as a dorm. There has been
fondly only by those who lived there.
CULTURE & COMMUNITY
03
The Future of Counterculture Words, Illustration — Toni Chadwell It’s easy to see that the world has become more commercial. Goth, a subculture built on thrifting and DIY fashion, has become more profit-oriented and instagrammable in recent years. Lolita fashion, a close neighbor to Goth, has been commercial since the 90s, with the early 2000s giving way to the popularity of over-the-top, hyper-sweet Lolita coordinates. But there are still handmade holdouts and there’s still hope for a future for those willing to share in a culture of doing it themselves. At the end of the day, there’s something rewarding about breathing new life into old fabric.
“ Goth’s sensibility of
customization and personalization has always been strong, and the hope is that the trend will start a fire in the hearts of lolitas.”
or something less expensive than Killstar will find their niche in thrift store clothes and handmade looks. On the granular side, I think berets are going to be
Many Goths, like a Cyber-Goth friend of mine, have
huge. Fortunately, florals will not be. I also predict the
always held strong to the idea of DIY. Calyn, the friend
pendulum swinging to more demure, simplistic Lolita
in question, routinely makes accessories out of old
coords and extravagant goth looks. The future is a mix
digital refuse like USB sticks and floppy disks. On this,
of built-to-last custom pieces and repurposed thrift-
Calyn notes, “I was never really able to buy everything
store finds.
I wanted. I never really had any clothes I wanted to wear because all my clothes were second-hand. It was all out of necessity. I barely ever went in department stores and I prefer that.” Goth’s sensibility of customization and personalization has always been strong, and the hope is that the trend will start a fire in the hearts of lolitas. Historically, “handmade lolita” is something of a rare badge of honor. Just recently, Victorian Maiden and Excentrique, OG lolita brands focused on innovative silhouettes and tailoring, have closed shop permanently over the course of last year. This is due in part to the dominance of another lolita brand, Angelic Pretty, which leaves a power vacuum in the industry. As a result, I believe that indie brands like Peppermint Fox and Lady Sloth will fill the void that Victorian Maiden left in its wake. This new focus on DIY and customization necessitates tailor-made options for those with less than stick skinny frames. Customization is opening doors for a lot of fans of lolita fashion to participate more widely. As a result, lolita may become more commercial, but in a more couture way than before. As thrifting has become trendier, what we understand as mainstream and counterculture are starting to overlap. I predict that those looking for something a bit more quality than the usual Dolls Kill clubwear
04
CULTURE & COMMUNITY
Predictions For Your Dating Life at Pratt Words — Parker Sublette Illustrations — Mugdha Duorah For all you new students here at Pratt: Welcome. To all you returning: I’m sorry. Another year at Pratt means another ten months of pining after that twink in the cafeteria, getting ghosted on Tinder and wondering if the girl with pink hair is gay or just artsy. Another calendar year of telling myself that I’ll finally go to Queer Pratt to meet new people ... and then not. I am bisexual, so my options are open, but no less confusing. Whether you’re into men, women, both,
Some people have “No Pratt” rules, and for good
neither or all of the above, you’ll likely spend your
reason, so branch out. It’s a small school, but a big
dating life at Pratt wondering how someone identifies
city. Tinder, Bumble and Hinge are your best friends,
before approaching them and being uncertain about
but be careful to not branch out too far, anything
everything except that they’re out of your league.
above 72nd street is technically long-distance.
I don’t mean to imply that everyone who attends Pratt is
It’s not all bad though. Here are a few easy steps to
gay. Architecture exists, and although we don’t support
a fulfilling romantic life at Pratt: Date outside your
their choices, we love them nonetheless. And if you are
department, be nice to fashion majors, don’t be
a straight man then you are a rare commodity here;
anyone’s third, don’t date your RA, avoid the frats,
you’re also probably a film major.
live off-campus and severely lower your expectations. Just follow these and you’ll be un-single in no time! Alright, so it’s bad, but at least you’re not dating a business major at NYU. Because to be honest, I’d rather accidentally fall in love with every lesbian at Pratt than date a man named Brent who wears a suit to class and is “really into fantasy football.” If you’re reading this and thinking: “This isn’t really hitting, I’m in a happy relationship,” then congratulations. It won’t last and everyone you’ve shared an elevator with in Willoughby hates you. But this is supposed to be about forecasts, so here’s one for the both of us: We’ll meet incredible people we have no chance with, we’ll be confused and uncertain, we’ll overthink a text or two, we’ll feel a lot of love, get our hearts broken, not learn our lesson, and maybe, just maybe, we’ll get laid. So keep your head high and your standards low, you’ll find something if you’re truly open to it.
CULTURE & COMMUNITY
05
The Vegan Next-door Words — Vivian Lee Photo — Madeline McKowen If taking 7.6 million cars off the road seems impossible, Americans eating vegan just once a week would have the same effect. Meat used to be a luxury, and perhaps even more perplexing, a shared cut. From a cultural
“ If we’re seeking serious reform, we must change the system entirely and start by dismantling the foundation in which capitalism is built.”
standpoint, the bougie lifestyle associated with healthy living can easily be proven wrong by the vegan next door.
waste—considering pollution and global gases alone—
Rice and beans are nutrient-rich and easily accessible
than our general population. If we’re seeking serious
and often available in bulk quantities. Your five dollar
reform, we must change the system entirely and start by
combo meal at McDonald’s could’ve scored you enough
dismantling the foundation in which capitalism
potatoes to last a week.
is built.
Cue WWI. The FDA scrambles for a policy aiming to
In the meantime, would it hurt to source from
reduce consumption of staple foods like meat and grains
sustainable carriers and eat ethically? As a former
under the guise of patriotism. Rationing food meant less
vegan with perspective from both ends of the spectrum,
waste, which ultimately helped war efforts. 13 million
my support for vegan practices hasn’t died out. To
enthusiastic families signed pledges devoting to national
declare veganism as an ideal solution for everyone
food-conservation days. Thus, Meatless Mondays
is outlandish and ignorant of cultural and economic
were born. The movement made a comeback in 2003
politics. That’s not to say we should sit and watch the
by Sid Lerner, founder of The Monday Campaigns.
world burn—that’s what CEOs are good at, it’s included
By addressing the influx of illnesses associated with
in their job description.
excessive meat consumption, he encourages Americans to “cut out meat one day a week.”
Sacrifice sushi on Saturdays. Substitute steak for soy. If that’s not your thing, spaghetti is family-friendly. No
So why isn’t the government encouraging us to do
commitment, no pressure. Rather than investing in an
our part anymore? It only makes sense that we direct
extreme change overnight, the vegan next door suggests
blame at massive corporations sacrificing ethics for
you take it slow, one step at a time. Avoid premature
profit. Few rules are implemented but many are ignored.
death from diet-related causes and help reverse climate
The top hundred companies alone contribute more
change by going plant-based. It’s a win-win situation.
06
THE FORECAST FEATURE
Protect Your Mother Words — Veronica Ashworth Photos — Katie Bishop temperature hovers around 50 degrees Fahrenheit. So, upon moving back to the East Coast, I was excited to return to the ocean. Recently, I visited the iconic Coney Island with hopes of submerging my body in temperate Atlantic ocean waters. My expectations were neutral; I had seen the turquoise waters of Hawaii, Florida and the Bahamas. As I walked down the pier, I was not surprised by the price of the food venues or having to cough up ten dollars to take the Wonder Wheel. I wasn’t there for that. My gaze was excitedly fixed on the horizon of blue to the left of me. On my excursion into the sand, I spotted the regular pieces of stray glass or an item of plastic, but overall the beach seemed pretty clean. My feet sank into the warm grains of sand and left a dusty layer on my feet like socks. My body, warmed from the hot sun, was shocked by the initial touch of the ocean as a crashing wave hit my feet. Regardless, I got in and felt the embrace of the ocean once again. As I made my way farther out, my knees beginning to submerge, I noticed pieces of floating plastic: a lid, a wrapper and a bottle. My heart sank a little as I watched them float away. While the children played by the shore, they paid no mind to the lifeless occupants accompanying them. I didn’t remember seeing plastics in the ocean from my childhood. I wondered if my children would pick up and collect trash on the beach instead of seashells. I wondered if the beach I grew up loving would be uninhabitable to my future children, no longer a spiritual place, but a landfill where the ebb and As a child growing up in Virginia, Virginia Beach was one of my favorite places to go. Even though I had sand everywhere and an inevitable sunburn on my pale skin, I loved the sandy beach and being in the salty sea. As a child, I was entranced by it and would obediently watch as the waves receded and emerged once again. After living in Northern California for about seven years, I had only visited the coast on rare occasions and rarely dropped a foot in. The Pacific Ocean carries cold water from the Arctic down to the Southern Ocean of Antarctica. Off the coast of San Francisco, the water’s
flow were restricted by gargantuan heaps of garbage. I swam out in the murky waters until I was neck-deep. I floated and jumped through waves, feeling the fluxing embrace of the ocean. Its touch was intimate like the pulse of two bodies in embrace, but her touch reached so much wider than the simple length of two arms. I felt at peace, but also an urgent need to remember and cherish the ocean as it was and as it is now. I didn’t know how many more years I would be able to enjoy the ocean with the imminent threat of climate change and plastic pollu-
THE FORECAST FEATURE
07
tion. This deeply spiritual place that had brought me joy and peace throughout my life was changing. Its lifeline was dwindling. I floated in the salty water among other swimmers, the children closer to the shore, their voices muffled by the breath of the sea. I vowed to go back soon because the feeling of the ocean was too good to squander away. I have thought about the ocean many times since I went to Coney Island over the summer. While reading “Black Wave” by Michelle Tea, I was met by words that sculpted an image of my worst fear that day when I saw the floating garbage meet me by the shore. In Tea’s dystopian fiction set in 1999, she describes the state of Ocean Beach in San Francisco, a beach I used to drive to often just to hear the crashing waves. “The trash pile evokes the shores of Ocean Beach, where the tide brought industrial wreckage on the sand with the blind generosity of a pet cat leaving a kill on your pillow. The ocean wanted only to give and had been wrecked of its ability to bring anything but regurgitated garbage.”
“This deeply spiritual place that had brought me joy and peace throughout my life was changing. Its lifeline was dwindling.” Tea’s 2016 novel eerily describes what the future of the planet may look like before 2050. There are no plants, trees or fruits. Michelle, the main character, daydreams about carrots at a sushi restaurant as she observes the fish on the wall with X’s through them to show that they had gone extinct. While the characters in Tea’s novel treat their apocalyptic circumstances as almost normal, I wondered what my life would be like without nature. It seems, however, that I don’t have to imagine because that reality is coming faster than previously anticipated. According to Jonathan Frazen’s article in the New Yorker, “What If We Stopped Pretending?,” “If you’re younger than sixty, you have a good chance of witnessing the radical destabilization of life on earth ... If you’re
under thirty, you’re all but guaranteed to witness it.” The future state of Earth isn’t just a hypothesis or a made-up scenario in a dystopian novel, it is knocking at our doorsteps. The ocean makes up 70 percent of the planet and phytoplankton in the sea account for a vital 50 to 85 percent of the Earth’s oxygen. The ocean, including our planet at large, meticulously nurtures life itself. As we advanced, human beings came along with the intelligence to understand nature more than any other known living organism. Yet, humanity turned against our mother. Our mother who fed us, sheltered us, moved us to imagine and made us pause in awe. I don’t have to imagine a future for our planet because I am already confronted by its beginnings. Its imminence is all too real.
08
Thoughts Georgia: The Next Gilead Words — Lindsay Lopp Illustrations — Josh Weinstein The sun is still hot. The grass is still green. The houses are still the same pattern of brick stucco. It still rains. A new old folks home is being built down the road, but other than that, Dunwoody, Georgia sits untouched. I think people expect there to be a difference after something big happens, myself included. But change is subtle until it smacks you in the face. One day you wake up and realize that your clothes don’t fit, your hair is long and the rights you thought you had have been stripped away. Lately, many people have been talking about a new law that’s been passed in Southern states like Alabama and Georgia. The Heartbeat Bill. Signed in May 2019 by Georgia Governor, Brian Kemp, the bill makes abortion illegal after six weeks of pregnancy. We’ve seen laws like this in dystopian novels such as Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale. Atwood’s novel takes place in the fictional country of Gilead, a misogynistic society where all women’s rights are outlawed, including abortions. Georgia is starting to look a lot like Gilead. 16.9 percent of Georgia citizens are in poverty. That is
“One day you wake up and realize that your clothes don’t fit, your hair is long and the rights you thought you had have been stripped away.” right, my cousin is a moderate mansplainer and I
one in every 5.9 residents. Many women go through
identify as liberal. To say the least, we never reached
abortions because they are unable to support children
a verdict on whether this law is just or not. No one ever
at that time. Others are too young, not in the right
reaches a conclusion in the South. We let change settle
place in their lives or are in other situations that aren’t
in until it is stuck. We let our world change right before
anybody’s business. Abortion gives women a chance to
our eyes until our societies turn into Gilead. We let
walk away. It gives them a choice.
ourselves become a part of the dystopia.
In Georgia, there have been protests, but
I wish I could say things in Georgia have changed, that
no conversations save for in the city. The
people all over the state are banning together, but that
suburbs sit untouched. When I first got
just isn’t true. People talk about being angry, but they
home from my sophomore year, with the Heartbeat Bill freshly passed, my family and I went out to brunch. My mother doesn’t follow politics, my sister leans
decide to do nothing. Trump bumper stickers are still stuck to cars while the Hillary supporters have peeled theirs off. The sun is still hot, the grass is still green and everyone is drinking sweet tea.
THOUGHTS
09
Electability Won’t Beat Trump Words — Lawrence Scotti Illustration — Ronan Madden To better understand Joe Biden’s campaign for the 2020 Democratic presidential candidacy, look no further than what his wife, Jill Biden, had to say to voters while campaigning in New Hampshire. On an August afternoon, she stated, “Your candidate might be better on ... healthcare than Joe is, but you’ve got to look at who’s going to win the election.” She continued, “your bottom line has to be that we have to beat Trump.” For those of us who remember the failures of the 2016 election, it is difficult to believe that compromising on which candidate to vote for will lead to the best candidate. Popular voices in politics and on television, through professional punditry, are claiming we must make concessions on what they actually desire in a candidate in favor of the ultimate intangible known as “electability.” Electability denotes a politician that can sway the middle-of-the-road voter. Somebody who looks and governs like the politicians of recent memory. The term actively excludes candidates that have ideas that are not of the mainstream. Cable news networks like CNN, Fox News and MSNBC have huddled around this term like a fire pit, chanting away, growing its flame. The networks also provide cover for Biden, referring to his intentional misremembering of important events and mental degradation as “gaffes.” This absolves him of wrongdoing and makes the lying and aging seem less important. Biden fits the fake narrative of electability, but that in no way means he is the most viable candidate to be the Democratic nominee. Biden won’t be able to pull together the support he will need from people in swing states like Pennsylvania and Wisconsin and this comes directly from the way he views Donald Trump. In Biden’s presidential campaign announcement video he said, “History will look back on ... this president and all he embraces as an aberrant moment in time.” These comments are a general thesis of the Biden
2020 campaign. He sees Trump as a blip in American history and that we ought to get back to the normalcy of a president who dismantles the working class but at least puts a happy face on it. Biden doesn’t care about Trump’s policies, mainly because he isn’t running on any himself. He specifically cares about the personality of Trump. Running against the character of the current President will be a mistake once Biden realizes the only thing people actually like about this President is his bully-like behavior. Abhorrent as it is, his supporters have clearly latched onto it, and are preparing to go down with it like the Titanic. Biden is not ready for that fight.
10
VISUAL
Illustration — Calyn Pickens-Rich
VISUAL
Behind the Cover Designed by Alyx Colleran
The cover for The Forecast Issue, created by Communications Design and Illustration major Alyx Colleran, is a surrealist multimedia illustration. Drawing influence from Tarot, Hieronymus Bosch’s “The Garden of Earthly Delights” and the music of Bon Iver, Colleran’s piece depicts a post-apocalyptic world impacted by the effects of climate change. Using old wash, cardboard and newspaper, Colleran channels sustainability found in recycle and reuse culture. Themes found in tarot, such as the nuclear chimney standing in for the tower card, reflect a largescale disruptive event like the inevitability of climate change and imminent environmental collapse.
In Colleran’s dystopia, the sun is melting, the head of the central figure is swapped for a bushel rhododendrons and the burning of agricultural life symbolizes the consumptive greed of capitalism. The solitary tower begs the question, “It’s too late now, what are you going to do about it?”
11
A Letter From Us Prattlers, With every new school year comes change. Look at The Prattler, for instance. We have a brand new look, new staff and of course, a new issue. With change, however, comes speculation. What will a new year of The Prattler be like? What does Pratt Institute have in store for the 2019-2020 school year? What does the future hold? For this issue, we asked our club and class members for predictions. To make forecasts about the future of our school, the future of the city, the future of our world. What we were met with was at times bleak, other times hilarious and more often than not, all too true. This is the nature of the world we live in today. We are in a constant state of looking ahead, wondering what great, or not so great, phenomenon will come bounding around the corner next. We hope this issue gives you some insight into what the future may look like. But most of all, we hope it leaves you wondering. Our predictions, you might ask? Partly cloudy. With a chance of sunshine to come. Looking forward, Aliza Pelto Editor-in-Chief
Prattler Staff Creative Directors
Madeline McKowen Josh Weinstein
Editor-In-Chief
Aliza Pelto
Web Designer Noah Semus
Advisors
Christopher Calderhead Eric Rosenblum
Managing Editor
Lexi Anderson
Archivist
Aaron Cohen Cover: Alyx Colleran prattleronline.com Instagram: @prattler theprattler@gmail.com