Kaleidoscope Nº—4 by Kaleidoscope

KALEIDOSCOPE www.rukaleidoscope.com rukaleidoscope@gmail.com @rukaleidoscope All stories, words, photos, books, poems, and other remaining content are copyright of their respective creators as indicated herein and are reproduced here with permission. Copyright information can be found on the same page as and next to each submission featured in the anthology. Printed in Toronto, ON by Flash Reproductions.

FRO THE TEAM KALEIDOSCOPE

Dedication. Creativity. Collaboration. These are just three of the many words that can begin to describe the work that has gone into Kaleidoscope’s fourth anthology. Every year, our publication comes together with a unique group of students who work to showcase the creativity brought forth by students in Ryerson University’s Faculty of Communication and Design (FCAD). Our team is incredibly thankful for the diverse, interdisciplinary and collaborative work we have received from students across all nine schools in FCAD. Our continuous goal is to provide space for you to have your creations seen and enjoyed by a variety of readers, and we thank you for the opportunity to exhibit the creativity that defines this community. We are additionally grateful to have had the chance to collaborate with students across the faculty within our own team setting. Each of our committee members brought fresh and diverse perspectives to the team, coming from various creative backgrounds, which was integral in fostering our own sense of community this year.

To readers, after three previous years of successful issue releases, we now welcome you to explore the pages of our fourth issue, which continues to recognize and highlight the amalgamation of several creative disciplines. We hope this issue inspires you to delve deep into your passions and explore opportunities to work with other creators to attain your artistic goals. As FCAD continues to expand and welcome new talent, Kaleidoscope looks forward to developing alongside it and to continue showcasing the breadth of what student creatives have to offer. Enjoy Kaleidoscope Nº — 4, created in the 2019/2020 school year! Sincerely,

Nadia, Bailey, Aankshika, Sasha, Devi and Amelia Directors | Kaleidoscope Nº — 4

FROM THE DEA KALEIDOSCOPE

Creativity is the skill of the future. Whether you’ll be working in the creative field or beyond, the global economy is becoming increasingly dependent on creativity for growth. While valuable to have, knowledge alone is no longer the metric of success as everyone nowadays has easy access to knowledge; thanks to the internet. It’s what we do with the knowledge that now counts. Everyone expects automation and other tech advances to eliminate some jobs. But computers lack the imagination and emotional competence of humans. For this reason, futurists expect creativity to become a mandatory skill that industries beyond art and design will be embracing. Ryerson University’s 2019 Brookfield report says creativity could soon be “the most in-demand skill sought by employers across all industries.” It adds: “In order to maintain a competitive edge in innovation, all companies may expect their employees to provide creative input.” This is why here at FCAD we are building a creative ecosystem for students to learn creativity and gain creative confidence - a critical skill that will give students a competitive edge in the creative and non-creative markets. A study by Adobe and Forrester Consulting found that 82 percent of companies believe there is a strong connection between creativity and business results.

AN.

This said I congratulate the Kaleidoscope team for their commitment to creativity and their dedication to offering young talent the opportunity to collaborate on yet another impactful issue. I encourage each one of you to support creative initiatives like Kaleidoscope and to use your undergraduate experience to explore your creative side and grow your creative confidence.

Yours,

Charles Falzon Dean Ryerson FCAD

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P-IGNITION DANIELA ERAZO

SLIPPERY JOEL KIGGUNDU

R-YOU MYIAH FLUKE

FALLEN INTO DEEP PATRICIA DASZKOWSKI

TABLE OF CONT

TAVIA CHRISTINA | PERFORMANCE

GIRLS DONâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;T SKATE AMREEN KULLAR

WARMTH TESS STUBER

WE ARE NOT YOUR TOYS & I HAVE NOT DRIVEN IN A WHILE NOW CAITLIN OBERTREIS

BEST OF: INKTOBER 2019 CAMERON MADY

RACHEL ROZANSKI | IMAGE ARTS

TENNIS COURT DAMIRA RAKHMETOVA

IN:VOICE ALEXANDER LA

PRETTY GIRLS WITH ADDICTIONS NICO TRIPODI

MARIAM NOUSER | JOURNALISM

THE DISPOSABLE GLITCH SERIES TEAGAN LOPES

SUNNY PALS MICHELLE CALLEGARI

VALOUR NOAH SUAREZ

IF ONLY I COULD TURN THE CLOCK BACK SUBHANGHI ANANDARAJAH

SARA ELSADIK | PROFESSIONAL COMMUNICATION

SUBURBS CULLEN RITCHIE

INTROSPECTION FREIDA WANG

OASIS HARRISON CLARK

DANIEL GOLDMAN | CREATIVE INDUSTRIES

CUPID AND THE MACHINE RUISI LIU

RE: URBAN COMFORT ZONE CONAN CHAN

DOWNTOWN CHINATOWN MIA YAGUCHI-CHOW

AMANDA SHEKARCHI | RTA

TENTS

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WASTED LIES LUKE AVOLEDO

IN THE IN BETWEEN STAGES SAMANTHA WILLIAMS

ANOTHER TIME, ANOTHER PLACE NATASHA D’ALESSANDRO

AMY YAN | INTERIOR DESIGN

PETAL POWER SARAH PASQUINI

KAT AND KAT JM DELANTE

TABLE OF CONT 100

WHAT ONCE WAS, WILL FOREVER BE ALEXIS NARDI

103

SUMMER PAVILION EMILY VASSEV

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CLAIRE GRAY | FASHION

108

MOTHER’S SIDE SOKA LUFT-RODRIGUEZ

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SUGAR BOUNCE TANYA JORDAN

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THE ALLURE OF THE UNKNOWN PAIGE DEASLEY

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ADELE ST-PIERRE | GRAPHIC COMMUNICATIONS MANAGEMENT

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WE BUILT THIS CITY JULIA KOLBERG-ZETTEL

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ULTERIOR: THE HYBRID GENERATION JESSICA BOLA

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*INSERT TITLE HERE* EMILY SCHOLTENS

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MAKE EARTH COOL AGAIN BREN ROBINSON

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COME TO THE SHOW// JOIN THE CIRCUS DANIELLA RODRIGUES

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PEOPLE, PLACES VICKY WANG

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GOOD MORNING! EVANGELINE BROOKS

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SLIME SUBLIME ROY LUO

TENTS 142

INSPIRED? SORAYA SACHEDINA

The future is creative.

Faculty of Communication & Design

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Daniela Erazo Third-year fashion design P-Ignition Fashion Design 2019

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P-IGNITION Inspired by the Deepwater Horizon oil spill that occurred in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010, Daniela Erazo said she created P-Ignition to inform and remind people of the man-made catastrophe that held little coverage at the time.

water and accessorized the bodice with beads to symbolize the oil-covered stones and pearls in the ocean. In the context of the pictures, she added that the model wearing the gown represents a mermaid covered in oil, flaming up.

“Although the piece is a garment and more specifically an evening gown, the purpose in which it was developed is more into the artistic and informative side of a modern issue than for the clothing itself,” she said.

Before enrolling in Ryerson’s fashion design program, Erazo was a visual arts student. Her experience and love for both fields influenced the creation of P-Ignition.

Designed, sewed and glued together by Erazo, she explained that she chose specific coloured fabric to best parallel the oil spillage and fires. For this same reason, she also chose a material that reflects the fluidity and movement of

“I love art as much as fashion and I decided to use fabric … as my medium to express opinions, thoughts and popular culture,” she said. “Clothing is an extension of who we are … That’s what makes [it] a viable way to reach people in that personal and almost intimate level.”

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Joel Kiggundu First-year new media Slippery Non-Fiction Short Story 2018

Since he was 12 years-old, Joel Kiggundu has known he’s wanted to be a writer. He said the true story of the fall described in Slippery is just one of the many times that he has unintentionally made people laugh — a trait he owns proudly. Writing this story helped him explore and develop his voice. Kiggundu wrote Slippery in high school for a creative writing class. More recently, he has been writing screen16

plays. “I believe screenwriting is the factor that most dictates whether a show will be good or bad,” he said. “I’ve started mapping out my ideas, looking for inspiration from other shows and movies.” At the moment, Kiggundu is working on two scripts. In the Faculty of Communication and Design, he wants to continue to improve his work’s confidence, style and to just keep on writing.

The winter of 2012 wasnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t the luckiest of seasons for those that lived in Windermere. It seemed as though everyone had lost their sense of caution when it came to not slipping on ice, including me. Ice was my kryptonite. We had a rivalry that no one seemed to understand, and it all began in the driveway of my house every morning. The greasy glacier camouflaged itself on solid ground, as I rushed out the front porch door in a hurry to catch the 7:30 bus ride to school. Descending down the stairs, the glistening ground caught its prey: my slanky legs. Me and the icy ground fought for dominance over the movement of my lower body, as I struggled to reach the sidewalk like an amateur ice skater in an ice rink. I come out victorious when I make it to the non-greasy spot of the sidewalk. I was Rocky Balboa, and the ice was Ivan Drago. I had won. Running down the road in pride over what felt like my greatest achievement, I was unaware that I lost all sense of caution of the ground. My right foot slipped on a piece of ice, as I toppled off the sidewalk and my back plummeted to the concrete terrain. I was flabbergasted over what happened, as I laid there like a starfish. I was supposed to be the victor. I sense the voices of the ice mocking me with the whistling sounds of wind that sent a chill down both my cheek bones. Meanwhile, when I wasnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t looking, my father watched the whole thing go through his bedroom window - sipping his morning tea before walking away in amusement.

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r-you R-YOU by Myiah Fluke is the reconceptualization of the Ryerson Research and Graduate Studies building into the design of a wellness centre, created for her third-year interior design studio course. The design resembles one of a retreat hub, as it follows a wellness retreat itinerary, as well as soft and neutral colour schemes that inspire comfort. Fluke believes health in the body and the mind is of utmost importance and should be prioritized by every student. “I, as well as many others, often find myself feeling incredibly overwhelmed by the stressors of university life,” she said. “… I felt that a space where students could easily access the resources they needed at their own discretion was crucial to the [conceptual] redevelopment of Ryerson’s campus.”

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Fluke said the choice of medium and the skills she applied to her project were inspired by the Faculty of Communication and Design (FCAD) and her program. “FCAD, and more specifically RSID [Ryerson School of Interior Design], has taught me about designing, building, seeing, feeling, and experiencing,” she said. “I feel more connected to art and design than I ever did before I had the chance to learn through FCAD.” Myiah Fluke Fourth-year interior design R-YOU Digital Conceptual Design 2019

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FALLEN

INTO DEEP

One could argue that it’s rare for a student’s summer job to inspire a creative piece of work, but for Patricia Daszkowski, that’s exactly what happened. In summer 2018, Daszkowski’s job as a lifeguard granted her early access to a swimming pool where she experimented with the depth of water and the nostalgia of summertime through her photography piece Fallen Into Deep. Using a Sony A7r II camera equipped with cheap water housing, Daszkowski set off to capture her final summer as a teenager. “I want the audience to experience a sense of serenity and anxiety at the same time from the photo,” said Daszkowski. “Or a feeling of being stuck in a place in their life and relate it to the image.”

Patricia Daszkowski Third-year photography Fallen Into Deep Photography 2018

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tavia

WORDS JEMMA DOORELEYERS PHOTOS ANDREW MORENO

christina The staff at Dimmi Bar and Trattoria, a small Italian restaurant in Yorkville, Toronto, greeted Tavia Christina as they walked through the door and allowed their face to emerge from their scarf. The warmth flooded in and they greeted them back.

“Once you graduate there is a thing where it’s like, who is everyone? How do I get my name out? How do I collaborate? How do I find new people and talk and work together even? And I feel like FCAD is really important for that,” said Christina.

Christina comes here every week, they explained as they shook off their coat, sat down and put their elbows on the table to lean forward, their eyes wide with attention.

Christina asked themselves these questions when they co-founded NEAR&FAR Projects (NFP) in 2016 with their best friend Rachel Facchini. NFP is a dance company designed so that Christina and Facchini can fully represent themselves creatively as dancers, as they want to hone in on experimenting with what can be done and said with the body.

FEATURE | SCHOOL OF PERFORMANCE

Born and raised in Toronto, Christina’s relationship with the city did not always make sense to them until recently. “I really wanted to move away for most of my life, I’d move to New York and I lived in Israel for a year but it wasn’t until recently when I realized there is a lot of work that can be done here,” they said as they opened the menu. “I can sort of foster a community and stick it all together.” Christina is in their fifth year studying performance dance at Ryerson. This year, they were also appointed as performance director for the Ryerson Communication and Design Society, a student-led society representing all full-time undergraduate students who are a part of the Faculty of Communication and Design (FCAD). As the performance director, Christina’s goal was to foster a community for students in different disciplines throughout FCAD.

NFP likes to toy with their audience and wants them to question what they are looking at. They explore how a performance can be defined, with a specific focus on the intersection of philosophical ideas and movement in a multidisciplinary way. Since the company is new, and Christina and Facchini’s choreography styles are different from each other, NFP does not have a distinct look. “If you saw a piece by us you wouldn’t say ‘Oh yeah I recognize it because of the way that they move or by the way that they are’ because we are always changing,” Christina explained. As a choreographer, Christina also explores multidisciplinary performance in her solo work. For example, in April 2019, they were commissioned by curator Virigina Eichhorn to do a performance piece about the 25

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menstrual cycle in an exhibition called Flow. Inspired by the cycle timeline, they set up a mat in the form of a calendar and danced over it with real blood. They then hung up the mat and looked at where most of the blood appeared. This made the mat look like a map and they decided to regard the piece as a topography of a period, with the aim of altering how the menstrual cycle is commonly perceived. Three years ago, Christina made a submission to Kaleidoscope about NFP and its work and since then, they have been commissioned for many more performance shows, as well as gained an artist residency at the Toronto Heliconian Club. The non-profit organization was founded in 1909 to give women in the arts and letters a place to socialize with one another, support each other and gain inspiration. Christina explained that they find inspiration for their work through many avenues including academic ideas such as phenomenology, by their novels at home and by words, phrases and participating in political action. “Sometimes it doesn’t have to be philosophical and very heady and all that. Sometimes it just has to be things coming to awareness,” they elaborated. “I like giving the public my opinion and my voice because I feel like it is important to share that.” Christina also wants to uphold a standard to their work where they can allow non-heteronormative narratives to be showcased. As a Métis, two-spirit person, they explained that this is the most important value in their art. “I would love to continue to be an ally and work towards allyship for artists like that who need space and hold that space for them,” they said. “As well as my own queer identity and Indigenous identity, I would like to uphold that in my work.” From the novels that they read or the ideas from academia that inspire them, Christina’s process always begins with “book smarts.” “I like to do a lot of physical research first, like online or in books, and refine and refine and refine. I like to figure out what I want to say first. Because I look to put things into words first, followed by music, and then followed by movement.“ The way Christina talked about their art, with their shoulders forward, their fists pounding the table in front of them for emphasis, it was apparent that there was a desire. A need to move. 26

“I think challenging narratives through the physical body is my favourite thing to do or say or how to recreate political narratives through movement, not just through choreographic aesthetics,” said Christina. But Christina’s relationship with dance is a complicated one.

FEATURE | SCHOOL OF PERFORMANCE

“I went to a competition dance studio growing up,” they said with their eyes facing downward. “That’s probably where my love and hate relationship with dance began. I loved it so much and it turns into your whole life and realizing that dance isn’t your whole life is probably very important.” When they started at Cawthra Park Secondary School’s regional arts program, they finally found somewhere to dance in a way that they identified with; through improvisation and contemporary dancing. Nevertheless, they found themselves torn between two worlds of dance; as a competition, a place to win a trophy, and as an art form, a place to express oneself. It took them two months away from competitive dancing in their Grade 12 year to realize it wasn’t their whole life. But after the time off, Christina explained they realized where they needed to be and taking that path -- to Ryerson Performance -- turned out to be the best thing they could’ve done. However, it took leaving to a different country to fully shape them as a dancer and a choreographer. In the summer after their first year at Ryerson, Christina travelled to Israel where they attended a dance exchange program at the Kibbutz Contemporary Dance Company. During the eight month exchange, they were pushed to discover themselves as a dancer and were given space to find out what they wanted to say through dance and how to say it. “It was really emotionally heavy, in a good way,” they said. “It really pushes you to be your best physical self

“I THINK CHALLENGING NARRATIVES THROUGH THE PHYSICAL BODY IS MY FAVOURITE THING TO DO” in a way that works for you and it really challenges your body and your mind in a way that you interpret movement and the way you execute the movement.” Christina said that they could talk about their time in Israel forever but took a deep breath, lowered their eyes and clasped their hands together as if to collect themselves. “If I could go back I would in a heartbeat. Since I came back, I’ve been pushing it to my friends and when they come back they go ‘This was the best thing of my life and it’s just like Neverland,’” they said. After the plates were cleared and the bill was on its way, Christina still spoke effortlessly of their work and their space in the art. Christina said they believe that dance is a gift from “whoever the heck you believe in” and that being able to move their body is a privilege. And for that, they are grateful. 27

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girls skate DON ’ T

Amreen Kullar Fourth-year film studies Girls Don’t Skate Short Documentary 2019

Freshly submerged in a new country during an FCAD (Faculty of Communication and Design) exchange, Amreen Kullar quickly discovered that the world of skateboarding was an international affair. Through her short documentary Girls Don’t Skate, Kullar uses her art to challenge stereotypes about skateboarding, following a female German skater, Sanja, who navigates the challenges of a new sport with the comfort of a supportive community. “Skateboarding has always been predominantly male-dominated,” Kullar said. “I wanted to spin those notions by looking at what it means to be a female skateboarder.” Much like skateboarding, film is another space in which women are underrepresented, and Kullar believes that using this medium will inspire others to pursue gender-imbalanced paths. “Film has never been more interesting than it is now,” she said. “Women getting to tell female stories is essential to this.”

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The sun heats my body Through the window of my home That won’t be mine much longer. Reflecting off the freshly fallen snow. The first snow.

Tess Stuber Second-year journalism Warmth Poetry 2019

A frigid season Made warmer. A droplet forms in the small of my back But I don’t dare move From this sunlit spot For my view of you is Too perfect to sacrifice. Your sleepy eyebrow twitches and the Corners of my lips curl. Grateful

Tess Stuber’s poem Warmth was written to show an appreciation for life as it is. After witnessing one of her close friends fall asleep in her residence room, Stuber created her poem to encapsulate the feeling of warmth and calm that she felt in that moment. She said Warmth is a strong reflection of her time in the Faculty of Communication and Design as she is grateful for the encouragement she has received from the faculty and her peers.

For your presence.

“Without the confidence building and the recognition of creative freedom, I would never have considered submitting this poem to any publication,” she said.

In a world that is often cold

A frigid season Made warmer. The droplet falls But my body stays motionless. Appreciate Moments of clarity

Cherish The warmth

Caitlin Obertreis’ poetry covers two themes that in her mind contrast each other: romantic experiences and struggle with mental illness. Written during the time off she took between high school before attending Ryerson for professional communication, Obertreis said that her poems are important to her because they helped her get through hard times.

“When I write I can express myself and my emotions in ways I usually cannot through talking,” she said. Although her program does not focus on poetry or creative writing, Obertreis said being a part of the Faculty of Communication and Design and a creative community encourages her to work on her passions.

do you have to break every girl you touch? were you not allowed to play with toys when you were young? are you making up for lost time? - we are not your toys

WE ARE NOT

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I HAVE NOT DRIVEN IN A WHILE NOW Caitlin Obertreis First-year professional communication we are not your toys & I have not driven in a while now Poetry 2018

some days I drive my depression around I steer it and I control it I put my foot on the break and slow it down other days I am the passenger and she is the one behind the wheel â&#x20AC;&#x153;trust me,â&#x20AC;? she says as her foot slams against the gas so hard that I am pushed against the seat and for a second I forget how to breathe - I have not driven in a while now

BEST OF : INKTOBER 2019 Cameron Mady created his graphic design pieces as part of a 31 day art challenge called Inktober. He submitted his favourites of the 31 pieces that he designed; Day 2: Mindless, Day 5: Build, Day 14: Overgrown, Day 28: Rid and Day 31: Ripe. To Mady, this project represents growth. “Inktober has always been something that has interested me, since I like both the spooky Halloween vibes and art, but I’ve never been in a place where I’ve felt committed enough to art to do a daily challenge or confident enough in my abilities to post anything I’ve made,” he said. Cameron Mady First-year graphic communications management Best of: INKTOBER 2019 Graphic Design 2019

Mady explained that Inktober was a moment to prove to himself that he had made the right decision to come to Ryerson for the graphic communications management program and that it was possible to grow and improve as a creative person.

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rachel

WORDS PELLY SHAW PHOTOS MILES CLARKE

rozanski Tucked behind the Ryerson Balzac’s coffee shop, in a studio in the Image Arts Building on campus, one young artist is grappling with some of the greatest questions of our time. Rachel Rozanski is documenting the Anthropocene Era with her sketchbook and camera in hand.

FEATURE | SCHOOL OF IMAGE ARTS

Anthropocene refers to a proposed geological era that a growing number of scientists say the Earth has entered. According to National Geographic, scientists propose that the era began around the 1950s and can be characterized by humans significant impact on the geological state of the planet. Drawings and photographs covered the surface of a large table in Rozanski’s studio. Pencil sketches depicted strange and twisted shapes with vivid textures and patterns. Vague animal-like forms could be made out, but they were warped and disfigured. In her photographs, deep shadows were interspersed with bright pin-points of colour. The images appeared mystical and ethereal, as though they had been taken from another world — which, in a way, they have been. Over the past few years, Rozanski has spent a lot of time in northern countries. There, she recorded the changing climate, collaborating with locals and scientists to inspire her art. Rozanski is in her second year of graduate school studying documentary media at Ryerson’s School of Image Arts (IMA). Although she has significant drawing experience, she

chose the program because she wanted to try something new. “It’s given me a lot of film experience,” she said, adding that documentary is a medium she has always wanted to explore. “I have always kind of done documentary in my head,” said the artist. Rozanski is currently working on compiling footage, interviews, sketches and photographs from the north to create a multimedia art piece called Perma. The exhibit will be on display at the IMA Doc Now Festival in June, an event showcasing the works of master’s students in documentary media. Rozanski’s fascination with northern areas started back in 2017, with her first trip north. Travelling to Skagaströnd, Iceland, she spent the winter at the Nes Artist Residency. Skagaströnd is a tiny town perched on the north-western coast, hemmed by flat plains that quickly give way to snowy mountain ranges. At Nes, inspired by her natural surroundings, Rozanski sketched and took photographs. “I was drawing things that were a combination of organic and manmade materials,” said Rozanski, which explains the figures in her sketchbook. In Iceland, she said, “I wasn’t expecting to find what I did, which was pollution from all over the world.” Rozanski used various materials and objects carried into Skagaströnd by the sea to inspire her work. She

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also worked closely with scientists studying adaptations, extinctions and mutations caused by humans. “I got really interested in the idea of the Anthropocene, and what it means to be living in this era,” said Rozanski. Since her trip to Iceland, she has returned north on more than one occasion. “I’m really interested in collaborative work and looking at how to visualize scientific concepts,” said Rozanski. Although isolated, northern environments are some of the most affected by climate change and pollution. Rozanski witnessed the changing climate first hand as she travelled aboard the Canada C3 in 2018, an ice-breaker ship that hosted artists, scientists and researchers as it navigated the Northwest Passage. Rozanski spent 10 days on the boat, journeying from Cambridge Bay to Kugluktuk, Nunavut. Onboard, she worked on sketches, photographs and digital scans, collaborating regularly with her shipmates. Rozanski said it is an exciting time to be working across disciplines, “because for so long science has been the truth,” but she believes people are not treating it that way anymore. She said scientists, “want to get their ideas across to people, but climate change and pollution are hard to conceptualize.” Rozanski wants to help people visualize the results of scientific data in her artwork. Research and critical thinking drive her to create. Working on a large sketch, Rozanski was slow and meticulous, her grey-blue eyes taking in every detail.

“THERE, SHE EMBARKED ON A MISSION TO CAPTURE THE CHANGING LANDSCAPE WITH FILM.” 36

The artist returned to Northern Canada last summer, which is where the conception of Perma began. From her home city of Vancouver, she drove up the coast to Dawson City, Yukon and then on to Whitehorse, where she found inspiration at the Yukon Research Centre. Scientists at the centre were studying the permafrost, which is undergoing a massive thaw. “We all kind of have an idea of permafrost, but I didn’t really know what it was or that it covers half of Canada,” said Rozanski. According to the Yukon Research Centre, permafrost is ground that remains frozen for at least two years, but in Canada some of the underground ice has been frozen for hundreds of thousands of years. After gathering maps, scans and research, Rozanski travelled on to Tuktoyaktuk, on the northern shores of the Northwest Territories. There, she embarked on a mission to capture the changing landscape with film. Rozanski said she felt that film was the only way

to show the rapid changes in the permafrost. “In this video you can actually see the permafrost melting, when I’m filming, these big ice chunks are constantly falling,” she explained, watching a raw clip of her footage from Tuktoyaktuk. An incessant dripping sound could be heard as the ice receded from the land, releasing an array of chemicals that were previously trapped beneath the frozen ground. Rozanski spoke extensively with the Tuktoyaktuk locals, attempting to understand the vast scope of the changes happening there. In particular, she connected with a young mother named Sarah. “Sarah lived in a house that is now gone, and her current house is falling into the ocean. When a storm comes, waves hit her window,” said Rozanski, grimacing at the memory. As Perma comes together, Rozanski has taken on another project closer to home. Where she used to live, in the Toronto Portlands, Rozanski has had some strange encounters. “I was noticing dead stuff everywhere; tons of dead animals — a weird amount — so I started looking into it,” she said. Death and decay fascinate the artist. “It’s a good teller of what is going on in nature,” she said. Rozanski thought the death she had been seeing might be a sign of greater issues in the area.

After some digging, Rozanski said she found research indicating that the land near Cherry Beach could be filled with toxins and sewage. As Toronto continues to expand, they are re-building the area, “turning it into a really, really fancy, ritzy condo area and naturalizing it,” said Rozanski, raising her eyebrows. Her plan is to document the transformation, creating a piece that will analyze the differences between how we think of nature versus the state of the land around us. “To me, the idea of nature is dead,” said Rozanski. “It just doesn’t make sense anymore. It’s not true anywhere, plastic is part of every ecosystem and inside all of us.” How will the Earth look in 100 years? What will human life be like then? “Nobody knows. The scientists don’t even know,” she explained. With her work, Rozanski said, “I’d really like to have people look at how they see the environment differently. I’m not sure what people should be doing, but to me anyway, the first step is looking at nature differently.” She would also like to raise awareness and support for ecological research, and see more people take an interest in research happening in their communities. As humanity faces the implications of the proposed Anthropocene Era, Rozanski said her work is increasingly essential to understanding and navigating the changing world.

FEATURE | SCHOOL OF IMAGE ARTS

Illustration By Rachel Rozanski

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Damira Rakhmetova Second-year creative industries Tennis Court Photography 2019

Damira Rakhmetova’s personal photography series, Tennis Court, aims to portray the complex nature of human relationships and the struggle with accepting when they come to an end. The chosen tennis court setting represents a metaphor for how Rakhmetova perceives relationships. “It’s a constant movement of passing the ball back and forth between the opponents with struggles, wins, and losses that come with it,” she said. The quirkiness represented by seemingly out of place elements in the

photos distract audiences from the heavier, underlying emotions that can exist in relationships. Rakhmetova credits the Faculty of Communication and Design (FCAD) for encouraging her to convey her emotions through her creative projects without fear. “FCAD fosters a certain culture where openly showing hard emotions and feelings in your work is normal, which is what I love about it,” she explained.

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INVOICE NO. #AHAAHA

FROM @IMALEXLA

DELIVERED @LATEASALWAYS

QTY

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UNIT PRICE

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“10 mins away.”

TOTAL

SUBTOTAL

1,650.00

SALES TAX

214.50

ADMIN FEE

200.00

TOTAL DUE

2,064.50

Alexander La Third-year graphic communications management in:voice Graphic Design 2019 41

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Alexander La created his graphic design collection in:voice to convey his frustrations with the “hustle culture” — which he defines as a “culture [supporting] being overworked” — as well as the digital era, through the concept of time. The form of an invoice was specifically picked in order to best portray time as a tangible concept to maximize the public’s comprehension of his message.

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While he respects the hustle in the public’s desire to grow, La underlines the repercussions this culture can generate, as he believes it encourages one to be busy at all times.

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“While I believe creative growth is important, resetting and taking a step away from your practice shapes our maximum creative functions while it prevents us from being overworked,” he said.

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“In:voice is a casual … reminder to be precious with time, a finite resource, and conscious of the misuse of it,” said La.

La explained that his experience in the Faculty of Communication and Design inspired in:voice, as the context of school gave him a front-row seat to the pressures of the creative world and taught him the importance of a balanced schedule and time management skills.

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P R E T T Y G I R L S W I T H A

D C I N D I T O S

"Pretty Girls With Addictions" is a song Nico Tripodi wrote when he was in search of clarity after moving away from his home to begin his university career. Entirely self-produced, "Pretty Girls With Addictions" is an exploration of the addicted mind. After the song was written in the fall of Tripodi’s first year at Ryerson, he kept finding ways to showcase his vision through multimedia — a music video being one of them. The cross-faculty production was worked on by graduates of the RTA media production and new media programs as well as students in the creative industries and interior design programs. Through the video, Tripodi wanted to portray the concept of addiction without disrespecting his audience by using images conveying drug addiction. To accomplish this, he chose to focus his visuals on portraying addiction to social media by projecting videos onto a wall of models smiling and dancing, while he sang in front of the projection, visibly upset. According to Tripodi, this imagery conveys how he feels while scrolling through 44

Instagram, which he describes as “an endless stream of people who look happier than I am,” but nevertheless expresses that he finds his own self “[checking]the app compulsively.” With his video, Tripodi hopes students and other creatives will “reassess their relationship with social media with a newfound sense of clarity.” Along with the song and music video, a string quartet from Glasgow, Scotland also produced a cover of the song. The cover is an international collaboration with composer Evan Dim and classical musicians in Glasgow, created over Facebook messenger and video chats and inspired by Tripodi's time in CRI 815: Global Campus Supercourse at Ryerson. The students in the class collaborated on projects remotely with students from London South Bank University in England. “It was an empowering experience that challenged me to approach my personal creative collaboration unobstructed by tractional boundaries of distance,” said Tripodi.

Nico Tripodi Second-year creative industries Pretty Girls With Addictions Song, Music Video 2018

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mariam

WORDS ELIZABETH SARGEANT PHOTOS ANDREW MORENO

nouser Mariam Nouser arrived at Oakham Cafe in a flurry. Just rushing from a meeting, she was breathless, wearing no makeup and craving an orange juice.

products cater to their customers, but so do the shades of their lipsticks that Nouser described as “universally beautiful on everyone.”

“I’m usually wearing my products but I’m doing a video for [The Eyeopener] on my business after this and I have to do a full face of makeup on camera,” she explained excitedly, regarding a project for one of Ryerson’s student newspapers.

“I don’t want [the shades] to be too warm or too cold. I’m very neutral in skin tone, so if I go too yellow it’s too yellow, if it’s too pink it’s too pink. I can’t ever find my thing,” she explained.

While many people are proud to show off their perfected beauty routine, Nouser’s case is slightly different. When she says “my products,” she means it, because she designed every single one of them.

FEATURE | SCHOOL OF JOURNALISM

At 24 years-old, Nouser is the founder, CDO, and designer behind her own beauty brand Infinitely Classic; a business created and run by Muslim women for all. As a smile spread across her face, revealing her evident joy for business, Nouser explained that she has completely immersed herself in the step-by-step development of her products. “I’m there for the whole process,” she said. “Selecting the formula, picking the pigments.” Using vegan, halal, and alcohol-free products, Nouser’s brand caters to the religious needs of a vast group of women who are often looked over in the beauty industry. “Infinitely Classic is aimed to reclaim the Muslim narrative in beauty,” said Nouser. Not only do the ingredients in Infinitely Classic's

She proceeded to scroll through the collection on her phone, which was busy pinging with notifications of emails, texts and likes on her company’s Instagram page. The soft browns, reds, pinks and purples of the lipsticks illuminated her phone screen. The products are sealed neatly in eco-friendly packaging, with names such as “Mantra”, “Chit Chat”, “Unbutton”, and “Fighter". As well as the lipsticks, Infinitely Classic has also released an eyeshadow palette and original T-shirts for the brand, which were designed by Nouser. “I do all the designs by myself … I go through severe imposter syndrome,” she said. “I’m learning to pat myself on the back a little bit to think I actually did this work.” Nouser now has an all-female team of Muslim women helping to expand the business, one that she said is growing rapidly. But despite Nouser’s growth within her company, she has decided to not keep a single penny from her sales for herself. 47

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“I choose to pay everyone else,” said Nouser. “I feel like the growth would be inhibited if I took some dividends or a salary so it’s what I prefer, just for now.” Initially, Nouser’s desire to empower others was the reason why she enrolled in Ryerson’s journalism program in 2019. “I started [at Ryerson] in 2013 … I was the kind of kid in school who did well in everything and I’m very, very grateful for that, but being the jack-of-all-trades is kind of a bad thing because I had no idea what I wanted to do,” said Nouser. “I ended up enrolling in engineering.” After five years of shifting from different streams of engineering, dealing with health struggles and feeling like an outsider in her own program, Nouser finally took the leap, leaving industrial engineering behind and transferring into a program that she felt truly suited her passion. “I’ve always had the desire to help others … and I love writing,” she said. “Journalism is kind of the perfect combination of the two.” As the vice president equity for the Journalism Course Union, a podcast editor for Ryerson Folio Magazine and a contributing writer for The Eyeopener, Nouser’s desire to 48

connect with others doesn’t stop there. Her wide smile dimmed as she described a reality she didn’t want any of her new peers to experience going into the program. “As a visibly racialized person, being half Egyptian, I have been attacked for being Muslim many times and I always felt like an outsider in my own program and I never wanted people to feel like that when I started journalism,” said Nouser. The summer before Nouser began the program, she knew she wanted a safe space for journalists of colour to work, connect and feel a sense of belonging when the fall semester began. Joining forces with fellow journalism student Tyler Griffin, the two met over the summer and by September, they formed a student group called Ryerson Journalists of Colour (RJOC). “RJOC is aimed for racialized journalists to have a space for themselves because we really are quite a minority in our program,” Nouser explained. “We just want to be able to have a safe space where we can learn, have socials and share each other’s work.” RJOC is now working on partnering with the Canadian Journalists of Colour, a group dedicated to creating a network of

BIPOC journalists across Canada, to provide mentorship between students and racialized journalists in the field. Nouser said she believes it’s important to have spaces like these on campus to facilitate community and growth among her peers. Nouser’s desire to represent racialized students not only extends to her involvement in academic groups but her perspective on the world of business. “I want people to see a Muslim woman succeeding and going after her goals,” she said. At the beginning of the 2019 fall semester, Nouser’s brand was selected to represent Ryerson’s Creative Innovation Studio Fashion Zone. As a space designed to support creators at Ryerson, the Creative Innovation Studio provides mentorship, resources and a place for students to design and create. Fashion is one of the key four hubs. Nouser’s selection to represent this portion of the studio was a feat that made her reflect on both the growth of her company as well as her personal growth.

“THERE’S NOTHING ELSE I’D RATHER BE DOING,”

“When the founders picked me and my brand and another out of a hundred different brands to represent them, somebody from Ryerson said ‘What made you want to do this?’ and I just flashed back to the time I was severely bullied in middle school,” said Nouser. “I was well developed, I was taller than everybody, curvier than everybody, and I told myself that I want to be that person that 11-year-old Mariam would be really proud of. I had never imagined in a million years that I would be doing what I do.” Although Nouser is busy with her business and academic ventures, she isn’t intimidated by all the work that it takes. “There’s nothing else I’d rather be doing,” she said.

FEATURE | SCHOOL OF JOURNALISM

As her phone screen continued to illuminate with notifications, Nouser switched it off, took a sip of her orange juice and flew off to her next meeting.

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Teagan Lopes is an experimental artist. She created The Disposable Glitch Series by loading digital scans of her favourite disposable film camera photos from summer 2019 into audio editing software. She then recorded herself telling the stories behind each image and placed the audio file over the raw photo file. “It’s like data moshing,” she explained. “It will distort the layers of the photographs.” A peer in the School of Image Arts, who was working with photos in audio software, inspired her to give this fringe editing technique a try. For Lopes, the resulting series symbolizes her struggles with a poor memory. She said many of the images are from nights or days that she can’t recollect with absolute clarity. The distortions on the images represent the ways that our memories can paint a warped reality. Lopes explained that the honest feedback from her peers during critique sessions in Ryerson’s photography program helped her choose her strongest photos and encouraged her to see the project through to its completion.

Teagan Lopes Third-year photography The Disposable Glitch Series Film Photography, Glitch Art 2019

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y n n u pals s Originally, Sunny Pals was created as a way for Michelle Callegari to break through a creative block. However, what started off with a secondary purpose became a true passion project. Inspired by a photograph she had taken on a rainy day, Sunny Pals evolved into a personal piece. “This design represents me finally designing for myself based on colours, ideas, and themes that I enjoy, rather than shaping these aspects around what I think is trendy and desired by everyone else,” she said. She recalled her style of design was inspired by classes in the graphic communications management program at Ryerson. “The courses I have taken on flexography and design inspire the way I design,” she said. “I love the way old prints look and I try to allow my design to reflect a retro look.” Callegari said that Sunny Pals was also largely influenced by what her life resembled at the time. “Every piece of this design; colour, font, the picture it was based off, the time in which I made it — it is all purposeful, nothing is random or by mistake,” she explained.

Michelle Callegari Third-year graphic communications management Sunny Pals Graphic Design 2019

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Noah Suarez Fourth-year film studies Valour Short Film 2019

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With a team of dedicated film students, Noah Suarez wrote and directed the short police drama, Valour, for a third-year fiction project created in the Ryerson film studies program. Extra Credits: Ashvin Anandarajah, Jared Wallace, Jann Aristorenas, Amar Chhina, Adam Bartley, Onna Pluciennik, Maresha Noel, David Brock, Serena Thompson, Julia Haslett, Jacqueline Ambrosia, Indy Saluja, Julia Demola, Armand Ursomarzo, Danilo Rayes, Akis Wickham

Valour is the story of two officers who receive an alert about a violent situation and decide to investigate. A tense drama ensues. Suarez said he was inspired to create a police drama largely because he has family members serving in the police and military. “Risk and loss are important elements in the line of duty, so I felt it was important to tell a

story that shows it,” he said. The film, he explained, was funded out of pocket, with the equipment supplied by the Faculty of Communication and Design. Class peer critiques were also a crucial part of the editing process. Suarez said colleagues helped him clean up the plot to make the story as clear as possible. According to Suarez, one of his favourite moments was the first time they rolled the cameras. “It signalled the end of the very stressful pre-production stage and was the moment it all came together,” he said.

IF ONLY I COULD TURN THE CLOCK BACK Subhanghi Anandarajah Fourth-year journalism If Only I Could Turn the Clock Back Poetry 2019

If only I could turn the clock back-before things went south. Grab those pesky words that carelessly flew out of my mouth. Their expressions that day etched into my memory now, I find myself haunted by the pain I caused, so I vow Never to trust the lies I may be fed through word of mouth. Always abandoning family to go and have fun, I never thought that one day I’d be surrounded by none. Bitter regret hardens my heart and turns it into stone. If only I could turn the clock back-before things went south. My dear mother always warned me that time would soon run out, But I simply laughed her off and remained in my hideout. Looking back, I wonder why I took loved ones for granted, Never viewing the gift of family as enchanted. Forgive me for marking our dear relationship with doubt. If only I could turn the clock back-before things went south.

Subhanghi Anandarajah may be a journalism major, but poetry is her favourite form of writing used to express her emotions. Her poem If Only I Could Turn the Clock Back is an honest portrayal of the rocky relationships many people experience within their families. “I am someone who doesn’t necessarily like to talk about my emotions, and sometimes it’s hard for me to open up,” said Anandarajah. “So I find poetry is a very helpful way to do that.” After being prompted to write a poem about her past, present or future in a creative writing class at Ryerson, Anandarajah’s mind immediately went to her family. Her poem, she explained, is “almost like an apology letter from me to them.” 57

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sara

WORDS PELLY SHAW PHOTOS RENEE FOY

elsadik FEATURE | SCHOOL OF PROFESSIONAL COMMUNICATION

It was a Monday evening when the Layton Room in the Ryerson Student Cetnre came alive with energetic discussions, laughter and rigorous debate. Seated at a bright red table in the middle of the room, Sara Elsadik smiled at the students gathered around her. Elsadik leads a dicsussion group called Ryerson University Table Talk, where students explore topics including community, growth and relationships. The goal of Table Talk is to ensure that at Ryerson, the art of conversation is alive and well. In her fourth and final year in the professional communication (ProCom) program, Elsadik decided she wanted to create a student group that focused on fostering community. “A space where you can share your experiences, thoughts and ideas, and listen to other people’s, and be able to learn, that’s what I wanted to create,” she said. “In university, it can be hard to find your people, but having a supportive network is so important. That’s why Table Talk exists, and is open to all students.” Walking in the door to a meeting, students were immediately greeted and welcomed by the group. As members shared their ideas, Elsadik and her team of organizers listened attentively. Leading by example, they strive to create an environment of supportive, engaged conversation. “This is a safe, judgement free space,” Elsadik reminded students gathered at the red table. Elsadik didn’t start out studying communications.

In her first year at Ryerson, she studied political science. “I found that it wasn’t really for me,” she said. “I wanted a program where I was more able to be creative.” In the Faculty of Communication and Design (FCAD), Elsadik really hit her stride. She liked the wide range of industries in which a ProCom degree could be used. “You have that freedom to choose where you want to go and what you are interested in,” she explained. Soon after joining FCAD, Elsadik landed a job at the faculty’s research centre, The Catalyst. On their website, The Catalyst is described as bringing “brilliant minds together from across the creative industries to explore, innovate, and impact the world we live in.” As a special projects and administrative assistant, Elsadik gained a lot of marketing experience. Her duties included helping to organize events, design posters, work on The Catalyst newsletter and update their website. When Elsadik was ready to move on and start a group of her own, staff at The Catalyst helped her launch Table Talk. “My manager, Jacky Au Duong, allowed me to use one of their event rooms for free to host our open house,” said Elsadik. The club was inspired by the popular talk show, Red Table Talk, where hosts Jada Pinkett Smith and her daughter Willow Smith discuss a wide variety of topics. “I thought it would be cool to have something 59

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like that on campus,” said Elsadik. “I’ve learned a lot from watching these talk shows, listening to podcasts, just hearing other people’s experiences and different perspectives.” Table Talk provides students with opportunities to share their own life stories and hear those of their peers. In a safe space, members get to talk through their thoughts and bounce ideas off of each other. “It’s eye-opening knowing that you’re not alone in a certain experience,” said Elsadik.

She further explained that Table Talk is all about building relationships and connecting with peers. She wanted to create a space “where you keep coming back and you feel welcome, where you feel like you are a part of something.” Since starting the group in September 2019, it has been a learning process for the entire executive team, which is made up of FCAD students and one business major. “It’s definitely a work in progress,” she said, laughing, but “leading a student group is a great opportunity.” Elsadik said she has gained leadership experience and has been able to further develop her public speaking skills. Leading the conversations at Table Talk is not Elsadik’s first experience with speaking in front of a crowd. In the 2018-2019 school year, she joined Ryerson Toastmasters, an international non-profit organization that teaches public speaking and leadership skills through their network of clubs. As a member, Elsadik participated in Ryerson’s Next Top Speaker, a public speaking competition. “It was one of my favourite experiences in university,” said Elsadik, who advanced to the top eight speakers in the tournament. She explained that anyone who likes public speaking can audition. Competitors participate in several rounds of speeches before a panel of judges, leading to the eventual selection of the best eight speakers. Then, those students get to work with speaking coaches as they prepare for the final showdown. Elsadik said the audience consisted of about 200 people. Although she is experienced, she said she always gets nervous before speaking to a crowd. “I had to repeat to myself that it’s just people watching me, they’re not gods, they’re just people,” she said.

FEATURE | SCHOOL OF PROFESSIONAL COMMUNICATION

“WE ARE GOING TO KEEP FINDING OUR GROOVE”

Despite her nerves, the experience was incredibly positive for her. “I just love that it pushes you to realize what you can do, regardless of how nervous you are. When it’s done you feel so great.”

am better able to step into the work world.”

Elsadik said she loved her experience with Toastmasters so much that she accepted the role of vice president for the 2019-2020 school year and helped organize the public speaking competition. She furthermore explained that the event is a great opportunity for students, “especially for anyone who is in professional communication and anyone who wants to work on their public speaking skills.”

“I used to think I knew what my dream job was, but I don’t,” she admitted. “I want to do more public speaking, I want it to come more naturally.”

Elsadik said that these clubs and the ProCom program have helped shape her into the woman she is today. “I’ve gained confidence, independence and I feel like I’ve grown as a person,” she said, “Now I

After she graduates, Elsadik said she’s not sure exactly what’s next for her.

Whether or not she will continue with Table Talk after graduating, Elsadik isn’t sure, but she is open to “however the future unfolds.” Regardless, she said Ryerson students should be watching for a club that keeps getting bigger and better. “We are going to keep finding our groove,” she said, flashing a smile. “I believe it’s very important to find a community on campus of good people.”

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Cullen Ritchie First-year film studies Suburbs Photography 2019

SUB U R BS Cullen Ritchie began creating his photography series Suburbs as a way to learn how to use the camera he had inherited from his grandfather after he had passed away. “I was quite possibly the first person to use the camera since his passing so that lead me to form a connection that I never had before,” said Ritchie, adding that because of this, the photos hold extra sentimental value. The photos in the series also show the growth that Ritchie has gone through as a photographer since he

began taking them in July 2019. He feels as though the most interesting aspects of the pieces are how normal the subject matter is. “Everyone has their neighbourhood where they grew up and made memories. I chose to document mine and now I have a body of work that represents my progression and reminds me of home,” he said. According to Ritchie, the Faculty of Communication and Design has provided him with a supportive group of peers that were willing and able to give feedback on his work.

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INTROSPECTION

Freida Wang Second-year photography Introspection Photography, Digital Collage 2019

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To Freida Wang, the creation of her self-portrait series Introspection was an opportunity to reflect on the parts of her life that have shaped the person she is today. “The series is about my own relationship with my identity. There’s aspects of my past that I have a disconnect with that play heavily into who I am today that I haven’t reflected upon until now,” said Wang. “The series is based on my experience with finding my own truth.”

Wang’s images exhibit memories she holds of her past compared to her present and her visions of her future self. She shaped Introspection by overlaying her initial self-portrait images with scans of items that matter to her identity, old photographs she had taken and painted text to increase the richness of her work. “I love exploring with multimedia and I think there’s layers to it that add something unique and with depth that’s not found in images themselves,” she said.

Harrison Clark created his glitch art piece Oasis by corrupting and pixel sorting an original photograph of a hiker in orange apparel surrounded by green spruce trees. Pixel sorting is the act of reorganizing the pixels in an image based on criteria such as luminosity and saturation. The alteration of the initial image allowed the formation of a new one composed of an orange desert and a blue ocean, hence the title "Oasis." This project, like many of Clark’s glitch art pieces, does not focus on a specific meaning, but is rather meant to convey the idea that there can be beauty discovered in chaos and corruption. “Even something that was pure, but then destroyed, can still be as beautiful as it was before,” Clark explained. Glitch art is an activity that Clark enjoys beyond the context of school, though he credits his experience in the Faculty of Communication and Design for allowing him to improve his skills in this technique.

Harrison Clark Third-year film studies Oasis Glitch Art 2019

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daniel

WORDS DAPHNÉE LACROIX PHOTOS ANDREW MORENO

goldman Nearly a decade ago, Daniel Goldman was introduced to the world of musical theatre and has not wanted to let go ever since.

FEATURE | SCHOOL OF CREATIVE INDUSTRIES

“I always loved movies and so I always, by extension, loved theatre or musical movies. But it was around [age] 10 that I really started taking it seriously,” said Goldman. “It’s musicals like Rent and Les Misérables that get you into it from a young age and get you hooked.” A few years later, enrolled in an arts high school and specializing in drama, he began exploring the various dimensions of musical theatre, such as acting, directing, writing and producing. His exploration of this field also took place beyond his school work. “In high school, my group of friends and I just staged musicals we liked in our basement and people would come and see it. This is what we loved to do,” Goldman explained. Every element of building a musical show stimulates his creative senses. “I really value new ideas, I value good collaboration, I value the energy of musical theatre and the way that it feels to be in a song versus a scene,” he said. He also draws inspiration from the way the whole crew is able to lead the audience through a rollercoaster of events. “I like to understand the path that

the audience needs to get on to get to the end, and understand how we can get them there, and make sure that the actors understand the journey so that the audience can follow,” Goldman added. Currently a second-year creative industries student at Ryerson, Goldman picked this program in order to strengthen his creative background with the addition of useful business qualities. The creative industries program combines artistic, media, communication, cultural and business studies in order to bring forth both artistic and entrepreneurial abilities. “I would love to eventually be producing musical theatre, possibly as a career, or producing film. So I love just having an overview of the arts world, [including] the business aspect of it,” he explained. Within the school community, Goldman found his niche with the Ryerson Musical Theatre Company (RMTC), an organization providing opportunities for students across Ryerson to explore extracurricular musical production. After participating in the cast of the RMTC’s 2019 production of Newsies, Goldman decided to step it up by applying to direct the 2020 show. “I had to pitch three shows that I thought would be right for the RMTC, and then I had to do an audition where I had to direct a scene with a group 69

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of people. They wanted to see how I worked with people and what ideas I had for the company,” Goldman explained. Following the relatively demanding process, the company went with his vision of the popular drama Big Fish, and Goldman was officially appointed director of its production. “I was really lucky to move up to director,” said Goldman. “I’m very excited about it.” His eagerness was especially visible during a Sunday rehearsal with his team and cast. Goldman was in constant movement, attending to cast members and observing the progress they were making. The only time he’d resolve to stillness was when he listened, for his whole body became attentive. In contrast, when he spoke, his body moved to the rhythm of his speech, hands and legs in sync with his voice, his thrill evident. “Musical theatre is an art that just speaks to me. I’m just really glad that it exists,” he said. “I think intrinsically, it’s got an energy to it, it’s got a rhythm, it’s funny, it’s all over the place, it’s big yet it can be intimate. The form is so creative and it’s so adaptable and it’s never boring to me. So I want to continue to do it for my whole life.” But Goldman’s natural ease in musical theatre did not exempt the arduous responsibilities his role entailed. Despite his talent in this field, he admitted he had encountered some challenges. “The casting process was difficult because we’re a tight knit community,” said Goldman. “When you’re working with a group of 27 actors, it’s always hard to be [considerate] of everyone’s feelings and try to work your best as a manager of everyone and try to please everyone. But some people, due to the size of their roles, get a little bit more attention than others.”

Moreover, Goldman didn’t lead the whole cast by himself. Directing the show challenged his ability to collaborate with choreographer Zoe Choptain and music director Kevin Yue. Together, Goldman and his peers brought their visions for the show to life. “We discuss together what we want each number to look like, sound like, how we want it to dance, how it’s going to contribute to the overall story which we’ve spent a lot of time really understanding,” Goldman explained. “And stylistically, we then have to put it on a stage and make it work and hope that the audience gets what we’re trying to say about the show.” Not only did the montage of the show require the

“MUSICAL THEATRE IS AN ART THAT JUST SPEAKS TO ME”

FEATURE | SCHOOL OF CREATIVE INDUSTRIES

creative team to work tightly together, but it also involved a collaborative effort with the actors. “It’s a lot of collaboration with each other and collaboration with our actors. Giving them guidance but also allowing them to be free to create their own characters they feel [are] authentic to them,” he explained. Goldman was excited about his work with the RMTC which allowed him to further increase his ability to direct a large group. But as much as he perceived this as an amazing opportunity, and as much as he values all of the dimensions of musical theatre, he said his true passion is being on stage. “[The dimensions of musical theatre] all have their different joys, but I think my heart is always with acting,” he admitted. In the midst of his work with the RMTC show, Goldman did not forget his principal interest for acting. In

fact, during that time, he was cast in the University of Toronto’s musical productions of Sweeney Todd and The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee. Today, he has participated in over 55 shows, and the number keeps growing. With the experience and skills he’s collecting and developing in the Faculty of Communication and Design, Goldman is trying to put all of the odds on his side to fulfill his dream of producing shows professionally. However, he knows better than to build all of his hopes up. “The theatre world is unpredictable so I always want to be realistic about a career in it,” said Goldman. “But I always joke with people that we should open up a theatre company because maybe that’s something I actually want to do.” Regardless of the direction life leads him in, Goldman affirmed that musical theatre will always remain an important part of his life.

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THE MACHINE

CUPID AND

A depiction of both fantasy and reality within the developing world is expressed within Ruisi Liu’s digital artwork Cupid and the Machine. Using the Procreate Digital Art app, Liu created her project with the aim of portraying society’s changed values over the decades, from religious entities to ruling science and technologies. She exhibits this through the symbolism of the cupid and the looming machine. Liu described that the two entities possess tension around the other, just as modern-day and traditional values remain in tension. “Both cupid and the machine are creations of the man. Perhaps humans and technology can co-exist together, if they learn to see past their differences,” she said.

Ruisi Liu First-year film studies Cupid and the Machine Digital Art 2019

According to Liu, the medium of digital art inspires her as it allows her to showcase her work to larger audience groups online. She explained it is also easier to make changes on digital mediums compared to traditional ones and believes it connects to her theme of the presence of manmade technologies in today’s world.

RE: URBANNABRU MOC COMFORT ZONE ENOZ

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To Conan Chan, meeting the minimum requirements is just the beginning step before he submerges himself deeply into his interior design work — and the community he’s working with. Tasked with designing a wellness space for both Ryerson students and the community of Gerrard Street East for a third-year studio assignment, Chan paid on-site visits to wellness buildings in the area where he observed and analyzed how people interact with the spaces before setting off to design his own. “I tried to create this type of gradient transition from line work, to base colouring, to texturing with each layer highlighting a key element 74

of the space,” said Chan. “I know there are no two people who are the same, especially when it comes to coping with stress, responding to colours or form in a space, so I wanted to emphasize that.” Chan explained that RE: Urban Comfort Zone combines the multiple wellness spaces he observed and the diversity in what people experience as “comforting” and “well.” “I hope [this project] encourages more conversations about wellness and reinforce this subject as a positive and important aspect of not only student life but everyday life,” he said.

Conan Chan Fourth-year interior design RE: Urban Comfort Zone Digital Conceptual Design 2019

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DOWN TOWN

CHINA TOWN

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Inspired by her Chinese descent and Torontonian roots, Downtown Chinatown stands as an introspection into Mia Yaguchi-Chow’s intersectional identity. “Growing up in downtown Toronto, specifically Chinatown, I had always been surrounded by people, places, and things that equally juxtaposed authentic, ethnic Chinese culture with the street spunk of Toronto,” she said. “Within all of this, I found a connection between how I perceive the way my identity has been formulated over the years and the identity of Chinatown on Spadina.”

Yaguchi-Chow wanted to portray the similarities she finds within herself and Chinatown by styling her model “in a very street-reminiscent style with traditional Chinese elements, while also representing a strong feminine essence.” The photographer expressed that she hopes her series can be of use to others, as it was for her. “I wanted to share my story and love for Chinatown while also providing an opportunity for others with similar associations and identities to relate and possibly reflect on their relations to their identities and what has helped create them as individuals,” she said.

Mia Yaguchi-Chow Third-year fashion communication Downtown Chinatown Photography and Fashion 2019

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amanda

WORDS JEMMA DOORELEYERS PHOTOS MILES CLARKE

shekarchi “Okay I think I want to hear that again but this time with reverb,” said Amanda Shekarchi after the 10 second video clip displayed on the screen in front of her came to an end. She was addressing Ofer Weis, a second-year media production student who was helping her edit her final projects for the semester. They sat together in Mixer Room Three in the Rogers Communications Centre almost shoulder to shoulder as Weis clicked, scrubbed through audio, read assignment requirements and followed Shekarchi’s directions.

FEATURE | RTA SCHOOL OF MEDIA

Together, Shekarchi and Weis edited a final assignment for her introduction to digital media class, a 10 second motion graphics trailer for a book of her choosing. For the assignment, Shekarchi was challenged with something different — her professor wanted her to make it accessible for herself and others that have visual impairment. Shekarchi has been visually impaired for all of her life and can perceive flashing lights and the general outlines of shapes. Her trailer reflected this. The first scene included flashing circles of orange, green and pink lights against a black background, which represent headlights in the dark. The screen jumped to another black scene as white vertical lines ran across it and sound effects of passing cars filled the room. The screen finally faded into a blurry beach scene with vibrant blues, bright yellows and a seagull flying. Shekarchi’s voice concluded the trailer with one line that said “It’s Not What it Looks Like by Molly Burke” in a serious tone. This is the name of the audio book

she chose to create a trailer for; an autobiography that tackles the preconceptions that the seeing world has about the visually impaired. This is the line that she wanted Weis to replay with reverb, and he did, switching the audio back and forth between reverb and without reverb almost five times. Weis helps Shekarchi edit because the editing software is not accessible to the visually impaired. While Weis may have been the one physically operating the software, with every direction that Shekarchi gave to him, it was clear that it is her project through and through and that she fully knows her way around the software. They decided to go without reverb. Shekarchi said the attention to detail is a labour of love. “I might have to spend an extra hour on something because I want to make it perfect but I am doing what I love so it is worth it,” she explained. Shekarchi is in her third year at Ryerson but in her first year in the RTA media production program. She started in the psychology program after high school, initially not knowing that the RTA program existed. She later got word of the program and knew it was the right place for her, as she desired to expand her knowledge and experience working with audio. “I heard about the RTA program and the more I heard about it the more it felt like I needed to be there,” she said. “Something that drew me to RTA was the fact that I would be learning other audio, I would be learning things like recording my own podcasts, and learning all of these techniques that

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“I HAVE A VOICE FOR THIS WORLD, AND THAT [MY] VOICE IS INSPIRING OTHERS.” can help me in the future.” Shekarchi applied after her first year and got waitlisted but tried again knowing that RTA was where she belonged. That is how she ended up in Mixer Room Three finishing her final assignments of her first semester. According to Shekarchi, as soon as she started in the program, she felt welcomed and accepted. She explained that the professors and students in the Faculty of Communication and Design have been very accommodating and helpful. After Shekarchi was satisfied with the book trailer assignment and submitted it, she pulled out a device called a Refreshable Braille Display that connects to her

computer and converts the letters on the screen to braille on the machine. With this device she read the feedback that she had received on the rough draft of an audio production assignment out loud. The assignment was a podcast featurette in which she discusses advice on how to write a song. Shekarchi has been playing piano since she was five-and-a-half years old, earned her Grade 8 level in the Royal Conservatory of Music, taught herself ukulele and has been singing since she was little but taking voice lessons since she was 10 years-old. In 2013, she wrote a song called “Without

“I AM DOING WHAT I LOVE SO IT IS WORTH IT.” No Doubt” which was inspired by Taylor Swift’s song “We Are Never Getting Back Together.” She was 13 at the time and had written songs before, but this one was different. “When you’re a kid you write all of these crazy songs and at the time you’re like, ‘This is so good,’” she said with a chuckle. “But when I was 13 and wrote ‘Without No Doubt’, that’s when I felt like it really had potential and like I wanted to take it seriously to go out there and do whatever I can with the song.” After she wrote the song, she performed it at her middle school talent show where her teacher approached her and told her that her son works with EMI Records and that he might be interested in listening to a demo.

FEATURE | RTA SCHOOL OF MEDIA

After the demo was picked up, they professionally recorded the song, which has now received almost 400,000 views on YouTube. Because of the song, she was also featured on Global News, the Toronto Star and interviewed on the Humble and Fred Radio show. Shekarchi has also done a number of live performances and does motivational speaking for girls who are ages 12 and 13.

The process of writing music is simple for Shekarchi. She gets a melody in her head, records it as a voice memo on her phone and listens to it a couple of times. Then, she writes the music for piano and fills in the lyrics. She draws most of her inspiration from pop artists. “One thing that is really important to the song is the message and I think that a song that has a strong message is meaningful and really resonates with me,” she said. The feedback that Shekarchi received on her featurette was generally positive. However, she wanted to listen to the podcast again and tweak it nonetheless, her attention to detail unwavering. “As someone who is visually impaired, I have learned how to be a self advocate,” said Shekarchi. “It’s not something that holds me back, it’s not everything about me it is a part of me but I am very positive. I let myself do whatever I can achieve.” And to Shekarchi, a great achievement “would be knowing that I have a voice for this world, and that my voice is inspiring others.”

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wasted lies

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Luke Avoledo Third-year media production Wasted Lies Visual EP 2018/2019/2020

Additional Credits: Aaron Smith Daniel Shpuntov Kevin Lien Alex Xiao Emma Cheuk Sabrina Boyle Katrina McGaughey Victoria McGowa James Robbins Annemarie Bowker Peter Kelly Jesse Charo

“I wrote these songs in a dream-state,” said musician Luke Avoledo, reflecting on the creation of Wasted Lies, a six-part visual EP. “I knew the songs were visual from the start,” said Avoledo. “Because I was telling my story of growing up, it became one linear storyline.” Avoledo wrote his Wasted Lies EP to share his coming out and coming-of-age experiences. Coming out, he explained, was messy and complex, but telling his story this way felt absolutely right. The project was, “the only thing I ever wanted to do for two years,” said Avoledo. He explained that making Wasted Lies was, “awful, time-consuming, intrusive

and over-emotional.” But it was also something that he felt deeply compelled to continue, and the process was exhilarating. His collaboration with students from the RTA media production program and others in the Faculty of Communication and Design was crucial in the creation of the visual EP. “I am continuously blown away by the talent and generosity of my peers,” said Avoledo, adding that he is excited by the opportunities to work with other young artists. “I am way too proud of everyone involved and what we did together not to have this thing on loop for a while,” said Avoledo.

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IN THE IN BETWEEN STAGES

Samantha Williams Third-year fashion communication In the In Between Stages Poetry and Illustration 2019

Samantha William’s In the In Between Stages is a creative piece portraying personal expression and reflection during hard times. While experiencing struggles within her home life, Williams felt compelled to create forms of art as a way of processing her emotions. The combined poetry and illustration aims to convey the feeling of being caught in between something, as well as the melancholy of everyday life. The visuals for Williams project were hand-rendered using marker and ink initially illustrated in her sketchbook. Ink is her preferred medium and specific to the creation of her vision. The bold, cascading line work describes a phase she had experienced where life felt as if it was being drawn out. “Ink takes you where you want to go without knowing,” she said. “I like the balance between me and the medium when it comes to control.”

life

in the in-between stages can get pretty solemn lost in a home that I no longer know

trying to pretend this is only temporary trying not to form memories how do I let go of the place that birthed me

the ground that earthed me my entire existance is undivided

yet Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;m being torn apart 89

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Natasha D’Alessandro Fourth-year graphic communications management Another Time, Another Place Film Photography 2018/2019

Natasha D’Alessandro created her photography series Another Time, Another Place as a way to remind herself to “enjoy things the way they are.” Taken during her time abroad, as well as at home, D’Alessandro said these photographs capture a time that she wants to cherish and remember fondly. She is inspired by the imperfections of life, which is why she decided to employ film photography for the series. “There are so many aspects of life that you cannot control but it ends up being beautiful anyways,” she said. From this project, D’Alessandro learned to look at objects, scenarios and places through a new perspective. Another Time, Another Place helped her realize that “not everything that doesn’t work out as planned becomes a failure.”

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amy

WORDS DAPHNÉE LACROIX PHOTOS MALINI KHOTSIPHOM

yan Flipping through the pages of her furniture sketchbook, Amy Yan chuckled softly at the sight of the little sketches of dark lead plastered on white sheets of paper. The loose drawings of cartoon people exhibited various expressions including fierceness and boredom. They seemed to cover more pages of her notebook than her school-related sketches.

FEATURE | SCHOOL OF INTERIOR DESIGN

“I’ve always loved drawing and illustration. I really like drawing little characters. But I haven’t had time to really work on my drawing skills and I think I really neglected them since I started design school,” said Yan, a third-year interior design student at Ryerson. Sitting up straight on a leather couch located outside of a lab reserved for students in her year, Yan proceeded to open up a second sketchbook — the one she uses for studio, her core interior design class — and carefully ran through the pages. She opened up a third one, which she mostly uses for planning. Her soft yet vibrant cartoon sketches made it in there, too. “It’s definitely something that I want to keep working on, for myself, to have something to unwind,” Yan said of her sketch work. She admitted that her work and creative process are largely inspired by the qualities of illustration, which she finds in the branch of set design. She said this is a segment of design that she wishes to further explore in the near future. “Strangely, what inspires me is not interior design related. I’m just mostly inspired by the way artists,

especially illustrators, are able to tell their story so succinctly, visually and so beautifully,” she said. “Storytelling through drawing is something that really inspires me.” She paused for a moment, seemingly contemplating her own words. Her face suddenly lit up in revelation. “Maybe that’s why I’m so drawn to set design; because your sets are part of the story, almost like a character in a way — it contributes to the story,” said Yan. Yan’s penchant for set design is sustained by her interest in the subtle elements that create crucial effects to storytelling of all kinds. For instance, she referred to the significant impact of dark material and squared and angular furniture to depict a gloomy character. Yan stressed how essential it is for people to understand interior design beyond the popular belief that it solely revolves around residential designs, as her own interests don’t align with this generalization. “There’s so much more to interior design in terms of creating a mood, creating a space that is pleasant to be in,” said Yan. Through her involvement in multiple projects within her program, Yan experiences the various dimensions and techniques her field has to offer. She also encounters opportunities to work on matters she personally relates to. In fact, towards the end of spring 2019, assistant professor in interior design Linda Zhang reached out to Yan, following their collaboration on an earlier 93

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project, and offered her a position in a research project on Chinatowns in Toronto. Based on her own cultural attachment to Chinatowns, Yan agreed and spent that summer collaborating as a research assistant. “It was a privilege for me to participate in the project as the research is concerning a place that I have had a personal connection to for a long time, having lived in Toronto all my life and visited the city’s Chinatowns often as a kid,” said Yan. “It’s been really cool to get to work on a project that looks at Chinatown through the lens of heritage and cultural preservation.” The project explored what makes East and West Chinatown so culturally significant. “We never stopped to identify why these places are cultural landmarks for us,” said Yan. “This project looks into why, perhaps it is the architecture, and tries to find ways of heritage preservation through emergent technologies.” Talking fast, her voice animated, Yan further explained what her summer position entailed: “We flew a drone down Chinatown East and got a bunch of aerial photos of the buildings. We used a software to scan and stitch pictures together into a 3D model. The mesh [product of connected images] is going to be part of a game in which people will have to piece together their own Chinatown and through that we hope to see what it is about the buildings that make Chinatowns special to people.”

“THERE’S SO MUCH MORE TO INTERIOR DESIGN IN TERMS OF CREATING A MOOD”

Her enthusiasm decreased slightly as she mentioned how she recently noticed that Chinese businesses are struggling, some even closing down. “It’s important for me to be able to preserve this, something I’ve grown up with,” said Yan.

FEATURE | SCHOOL OF INTERIOR DESIGN

In addition, in the fall of 2018, Yan and three of her peers, Willow Barker Jones, Monica Beckett, and Margarita Yushina, participated in a project led by interior design associate professor Jonathon Anderson and Linda Zhang. They designed and fabricated the Design Milk Stand for the Interior Design Show, a showcase of a wide selection of interior design concepts, including products and designers across Canada. The convention booth was funded by Design Milk, a company that allows diverse products of various fields, including interior design, to be available to everyone. The Design Milk Stand held numerous booths for vendors to showcase their products to designers. “It was a great experience to see something get built. At that point, I was in second year so I didn’t know how anything was built,” said Yan. “Seeing so much of how Anderson worked through the building process, getting to work with faculty is such a close manner, and also to work with some of my classmates was really cool.”

fascination for architecture, although she is not yet set on a specific path. “Creating environments and sets that contribute to a storyline and become a character themselves in a movie is an exciting prospect for me,” said Yan. “On the other hand, my recent work on the Chinatowns project has really made me think about design on a larger scale than just interiors, which is something I’m realizing I have an interest in, so I could also see myself moving towards architecture in the future with a master’s degree.”

Yan said that the school community is allowing her to gain confidence in various facets of design and get a better idea of what truly captivates her interest. Going forward, she hopes to dive deeper into set design and perhaps also into her newfound

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Sarah Pasquini First-year fashion communication Petal Power Pencil Illustration 2019

e t a l Po w e r Growing up with parents who are passionate about gardening, Sarah Pasquini has always been surrounded by a special adoration for flowers. Thus, when asked to pick a natural object to translate through design in her fundamentals of design and colour class at Ryerson, the decision was easy. Pasquini said she chose a pencil to create her design for the fascinating simplicity she finds in this tool. “Considering this project focused on an object derived from nature, I also thought it was appropriate to use a medium

that was organic for the most part,” she said. The creation of Petal Power allowed her to reflect on her personal and academic development as she kicked off her first year at Ryerson. “I can relate to this plant as I am still exploring and ‘blossoming’ not only as a student, but also as a person ... Each cluster is symbolic of something that I am in the process of discovering or have learned about myself thus far at Ryerson,” she said.

JM Delante Second-year photography Kat and Kat Photography 2019

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KAT AND KAT JM Delante’s photography series Kat and Kat explores the friendship and connection between two individuals whose nicknames are the same. This personal project portrays a relationship of two friends in their youth and the intimate connection between the two that is expressed by a strong tie in identity. Created in the summer of 2019, Delante’s project challenged him to apply knowledge he gathered in the Ryerson photography program. He incorporated technical skills he acquired as well as significant conceptual and theoretical photography skills. Delante additionally included inspiration he gained through reading archival books, viewing photo books found in vintage stores and curating photo collections on social media. Delante explained that his experiences within the Faculty of Communication and Design (FCAD) have helped shape his identity as a creator. He often finds inspiration from the students within FCAD as the range of creative diversity refreshes his perspective. “There are a lot of talented students whom I truly respect their work because their work speaks truth about diversity and inclusivity,” he said.

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WHAT ONCE WAS,

Alexis Nardi Third-year creative industries What Once Was, Will Forever Be Short Story 2019

WILL FOREVER BE

Alexis Nardi wrote What Once Was, Will Forever Be as her first piece of fiction writing for a creative writing class at Ryerson. Incorporating acquired skills such as magical realism and sensory writing, Nardi illustrates the story of a 1960s pianist who, one night, eyes a noticeable couple at the jazz club where he regularly performs. Nardi was inspired by her Spotify playlist, the song “Two Slow Dancers” by Mitski, as well as the character of Sebastian in the 2016 film La La Land. Upon entering Ryerson, Nardi explained that she felt unfit to call herself a creative, as she believed 100

she hadn’t reached the standard of which that label required. She credits the Faculty of Communication and Design for helping her break personal misconceptions about what it means to be a creator and connect with others who have also struggled to claim creative identities. What Once Was, Will Forever Be is an affirmation of what Nardi constantly strives to be — a creator. “This piece gave me the confidence to keep writing and to help me understand that it’s not as hard as I make it out to be. That everything is quite simple when I put my mind to it,” she said.

WHAT ONCE WAS

Placed in the back, I am forever committed to being background noise. Though, from my view, I can still catch sight of scuffs from shined shoes on the hardwood and the couples that dance over them, creating more. Most nights I play mindlessly, allowing my fingers to determine the keys after next. I am paid to be another sound in the room, so I perform as such, doing my best to blend in with the chatter. However, there was something unexplainably tender about tonight, so delicate that one may fear it slipping from their grasp. Swathes of frothy tulle were met with the crisp cut of a threepiece, colours blurred when the tempo increased slightly. But there was a pair just off to the side, I noticed, matching each other not only in all black ensembles, but in movement. They danced slow—slower than the rest—as they swayed back and forth to a song that did not call for it. And they stood so close; I could not tell from my seat behind the piano where one ended and the other began. Perhaps that is what they intended. I squinted trying to get a better look at them, despite the steady flickering of light bringing detail into the room. It was constant; women, flushed in the cheeks, dragging their partners through the side door by the small of their wrists. Thankfully, the shine of the mirrored ball offered just enough to see two aged hands clutched tightly and held at the heart. I wondered what kept the pair up this late, as this hour was mostly populated by those forty years their junior. Admittedly, it was endearing to see — a love so earnest, no hands of a clock could tell them when they had enough. As the figures in my periphery petered out, I realized my attention had been paid to the two slow dancers, and the song I was playing was over. Though it was never requested, I began a song with notes more mellowed than the last, to offer them a piece that would match their ebb and flow. I could see the tune brought a smile to both their faces, drawing their foreheads together. The very corners of my own mouth raised slightly, feeling pleased by my song choice. They continued to dance, as if time did not exist in the space they created for the two of them. I imagined then—sitting behind the piano as my hands did the playing—the lives of this elderly couple on the edge of the dance floor. I had never seen them before, 101

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WILL FOREVER BE in all my weeks of playing to the usual crowd of the effervescent and bright-eyed. Here, the buzz of champagne pulled more people onto the dance floor than their partners ever did. This couple seemed so unlike all that, which made me curious. What brought them here? How long have they known each other? I pictured them as young lovers in the Roaring Twenties, acting brash and careless and basking in uncertainty before war tore them apart, rendering them lovesick before returning to the otherâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s arms years later. They found each other and lost each other and found each other again, all the while their love never faltered. I blushed at the thought of my make-believe, looking down at the keys as if I had unfurled their secret. Something drew my gaze back up, and I saw the two of them, dancing as they had always been, but now surrounded by fragments of light from the glittering ball hung above. It filtered through their lightened hair, creating halos upon their heads for just a moment, before they changed the direction they swayed. Though my piano and I occupied the space in the farthest corner of the room, I recognized the tenderness I felt when my shift first began. My manager tapped me gently on the shoulder, reminding me to bring things to a close for the night. I nodded to acknowledge him, though my eyes were still trained on the sweet couple. On any other occasion, I would be quick to end my set so I may be on my way home. Tonight, I played until they were the last ones out.

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Emily Vassev Second-year interior design Summer Pavilion Rhino3D, Digital Conceptual Design 2019

SUMMER PAVI L I O N Emily Vassev conceived and designed Summer Pavilion in her first year of interior design at Ryerson. She created this conceptual software model in IRC 112, an introduction to digital communication class, with the help of Professor Jonathon Anderson. In the class, Vassev learned how to use the graphics program Rhinoceros 3D to create a clay-like digital model. “Through the making of the model I came to better understand the structure and

imagined it as a pavilion in some open outdoor space,” she said. She then imported background, middle ground and foreground images into Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator to create the final product. “These tools can be used to bring an idea to life in a way that can communicate a vision clearly to anyone,” said Vassev. She explained that she can imagine people strolling around the pavilion in a park somewhere, exploring her design.

Plane BD

Plane AC

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claire

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WORDS MEGAN EBREO PHOTOS RENEE FOY

gray For Claire Gray, fashion is second nature. It was an initial inherent calling that, with time and growth, would turn into a full-time career path. “Ever since I could dress myself, I have loved clothing. It’s always been a thing for me. I remember as a kid watching America’s Next Top Model,” said Gray. “I was obsessed with that TV show. That’s when I knew that I wanted to go into this field.”

FEATURE | SCHOOL OF FASHION

Fast-forward years later, third-year Ryerson fashion design student Claire Gray’s creative passion and ambition can be seen through her unique garments and her drive to push beyond the expected. For Gray, the enjoyment is in the challenge. She is all about the growth and expansion that comes with completing more complex projects. This means taking on creative work that allows her to push her boundaries such as incorporating elements she’s never been exposed to and teaching herself skills that go beyond the classroom. “I’m hard on myself and I always want to design something that’s difficult for me to do,” said Gray. “I want to explore every technique that I can, even in my personal work.” A notable example of this is the evening gown she completed during her second year. In her small studio, Gray set the detailed gown on a mannequin, sewing up the intricate body length corset by weaving braided nylon rope through the leath

er backed grommets. Her studio space is located within her room in her apartment in Toronto’s Kensington Market. The space was draped with Gray’s detailed fashion pieces. A bikini piece from her Chainmail Series, another one of her creative projects, hung on the wall. Sketches and illustrations of the human body were taped up. Accessories such as belts and chokers were pinned along the wall in a neat fashion. The glow from crimson red lights filled her work space. When the gown was fully set on the mannequin, Gray’s voice echoed proudly as she described the various aspects of her work laid out before her. The piece was a part of her final project for which she was required to make a gown suitable for the red carpet. The work itself was a product of Gray’s ongoing ambition to expand her capabilities. For the gown, she took on the challenge of teaching herself how to sew leather, which is a difficult task that second-year design students are not asked of. “The professors told me that leather was too advanced for me and that I couldn’t use leather until the third year,” she explained. “I said, ‘You know what? Watch me.’” The dress took significant time to create. The piece is a strapless, sweetheart neckline gown with a corseted bodice and a skirt made of white peau de soie fabric, splatter painted with black, goopy liquid to create a dramatic blood-splattered look. It is form-fitting and accompanied by black 105

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bovine leather, creating a rigid and structurally hard element to the gown, portraying an archaic straight jacket with use of the bovine leather on the top half. “I wanted the gown to be a physical manifestation of what it felt like to live in a chronically ill body. I wanted it to look constricting and mimic the constriction of illness,” said Gray. “I wanted to express the frustration, pain and explosion of anger and suffering in the skirt through the paint splatter.” Gray’s expression of dark feelings pervades throughout all of her work. These feelings are what inspire her when executing projects and is the focus of many of her creative pursuits. “People have invaded my space, either with their bodies or through their words as if they have some sort of authority or right over me to say these things,” said Gray. “They think that just because of the way that I look, my appearance is an invitation to touch me, talk to me, yell at me or hit on me.” Another one of Gray’s projects — a cropped leather jacket — is also an example of how her personal experiences and feelings have led to creative works. The project was inspired by several incidents that occurred last summer and particularly one that left significant impact on her. Her experiences have profoundly impacted her perspective on men and her view on abuse, both verbal and physical. Left in a tragic physical state, her experience and these visceral emotions poured into the creation of the leather jacket. The piece is cropped with long sleeves continuing all the way down to the hip. On top of the sleeves lay multiple straps, mimicking that of a skeleton’s

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structure. Silver buckles and rings line the jacket. It’s draped in claw-shaped spikes, making the garment dangerous to the touch. “If you touch the jacket, it hurts. It’s a form of protection. ‘Don’t fucking touch me’ is the message that I wanted to give off from the piece,” said Gray. “It’s not only a leather jacket or garment of clothing. It’s a piece of armour and self-defence.” Thinking about the past couple of years as a fashion design student, Gray noted that she has grown immensely as both a creative and an individual. The Faculty of Communication and Design (FCAD) has aided her in honing her style and aesthetic and has provided her guidance on finding a clear path in her craft. Late nights spent in Ryerson’s fashion labs, trips to the nearby fabric store next to her studio, and constant trial and error of technical application of materials have moulded Gray into the fashion creative she is today. Additionally, her learning experiences have been enriched by many FCAD professors who have helped her strive to reach her highest creative potential and push her beyond what she thought she was capable of doing. “Farley Chatto was my illustration and fashion design [professor]. He cared so much about my work and he wanted me to be the best, so he would push me really hard and I appreciate him a lot for that,” said Gray. “I wasn’t very strong in illustration and he turned me into a much better illustrator.” Gray said that many FCAD courses have exposed her to different creative opinions and perspectives

“IT’S NOT ONLY A LEATHER JACKET OR GARMENT OF CLOTHING. IT’S A PIECE OF ARMOUR AND SELF DEFENCE.”

she hadn’t heard of and has strengthened her knowledge and craft as a fashion student.

FEATURE | SCHOOL OF FASHION

“The variety of courses that I’ve been able to take have been really eye-opening,” said Gray. “In first year, taking courses like art history has broadened my mind and has inspired me through being exposed to art that I never would have seen before.” For her aspiration of turning her passion into a full-time career, Gray hopes to find a mentor she can study under as an assistant following her graduation in 2021. She also aspires to achieve her master’s degree in fashion design from a European university, such as in London, Paris or Antwerp. Further into the future, she wishes to pursue creating a high-end menswear label. Gray aims to shoot high and her greatest aspirations include an opportunity to study under designers such as Raf Simons, Sarah Burton, Rei Kawakubo or John Galliano.

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mother’s side Soka Luft-Rodriguez Fifth-year photography Mother’s Side Photography 2019

Soka Luft-Rodriguez grew up hearing stories about relatives from her mother and grandparents. Although the rest of her family was spread across the globe, Luft-Rodriguez felt that she knew her aunts, uncles and cousins through her family’s vivid accounts. Her photography series Mother’s Side was inspired by the stories she heard. Each photograph is a representation of one of her female ancestors on her mother’s side of the family. Luft-Rodriguez said she was compelled to create the series because of the discrepancies between the photos of her relatives from old albums, compared to the stories she had heard about them. The background, props and costumes were all carefully curated to help tell a story. She said that studying other people’s work has helped her find inspiration and develop a personal style. Professors and peers in the School of Image Arts helped her fine-tune the series. It was her professor’s idea to edit in backgrounds in Photoshop. The backgrounds, she said, “created a different aesthetic that I want to continue to use in my self-portraiture work.”

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kathleen grace

grace sandra

pauli

kay jennifer

Soka Luft-Rodriguez Fifth-year photography Motherâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Side Photography 2019

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BOUNCE Sugar Bounce is art with energy. Tanya Jordan created her piece spontaneously, guided by feelings of free movement and inspired by her sister’s creative energy painting beside her. Being in the graphic communications management program at Ryerson, Jordan said she spends a lot of time working on technical drawings. This piece, she said, was an excellent escape from her other work. Jordan painted the waves on canvas, and then took magazine cutouts that attracted her eye and glued them on top. The artwork and the style in which it was created are a reflection of Jordan’s personality and her approach to life. “I simply followed the brush and felt the ways in which it wanted to bend, swirl and dance across the page,” she said. Jordan explained that she wants Sugar Bounce to be perceived as fun and playful, hopefully sparking imagination in viewers.

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UNKNOWN When Paige Deasley was told she was going to Arizona with her father, she had no idea she was about to snap one of her favourite photos she’s ever taken. The Allure of the Unknown was captured on a whim in October 2018 when Deasley snuck away from a popular tourist spot so she could reflect on the beauty of the canyon alone. Recalling the deep grooves in the bend carved from years of erosion, she explained that the sight, much like her photograph, encapsulated the terrifying feeling of the greatness of Earth.

“I wanted to show great depth and scale in this photo,” said Deasley. “There was much more to see and the scale really emphasized how small the man was and how grand the mass was.” When examining her image, Deasley revealed that she likes to picture that the subject of her photo is “reflecting on the unknown future of the environment,” she said. “He’s there by himself and there’s not much he can do but when he’s in solitude and can reflect, he sees a clearer picture.”

Paige Deasley First-year creative industries The Allure of the Unknown Photography 2018

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WORDS ELIZABETH SARGEANT PHOTOS RENEE FOY

FEATURE | SCHOOL OF GRAPHIC COMMUNICATIONS MANAGEMENT

st-pierre Adele St-Pierre recalled the time a spill of cyan, magenta and yellow ink spread across the floor forming a colourful mosaic of mess in her workspace at a Ryerson printing lab. Constantly surrounded by a loud clanging and clunking of presses, followed by the sounds of squishing, stamping and churning out prints, for some, this may seem like a frenzied scene to operate in. For St-Pierre, this is paradise.

The multi-step process seems tedious, however, it’s St-Pierre’s niche, and though she wasn’t familiar with the practice when she first entered the program, she said that she’s been noticing flexography around her forever. “It’s all around you — on chip bags, on the shelves when you go grocery shopping — you don’t even know what it is, but it’s there,” said St-Pierre.

At age 23, the fourth-year graphic communications management (GCM) student has already gotten her foot in the industry. Enthralled by all things detail when it comes to packaging, designing and printing, St-Pierre’s approach to graphic communications management is both modern and traditional.

Despite the seemingly complicated mechanics, StPierre is fascinated by the traditional practice, from design to execution. Her high marks and success in the program has allowed her to win the 2019 Flexography Scholarship from the Foundation of Flexographic Technical Association (FFTA), which has helped fund her studies.

Equipped with contemporary ideas, designs and business methods, St-Pierre, like many of her peers, is part of an innovative cohort on their way into the graphics industry.

Explaining how the rollers and ink work in conjunction to create logos, St-Pierre seemed to know the ins and outs of the technology and the business-driven industry.

It’s her chosen specialty, however, that’s classic.

In fact, she became so well-versed in flexography that she’s chosen to follow it as a career path. StPierre has decided to move back to her hometown of North Bay after her graduation this spring to share the traditional practice with the people in the small city she grew up in once she’s hired.

Flexography — also known as today’s version of letterpressing — is a traditional printing practice that uses an anilox roller to pick up ink and transfer it over to an image plate before laying it onto a material and passing it through to the other side. As it is able to be printed on almost any type of material used for packaging, the method is used by many companies across the world.

“If I stay in Toronto, of course, there will be more options for me to pursue flexography,” said St-Pierre. “But I feel like it’s an aspect small businesses are 115

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“YOU HAVE TO DO THE RESEARCH, REMEMBER WHO YOU’RE MAKING THE DESIGN FOR AND VISUALIZE HOW IT WILL DRAW THEM IN.”

missing out on in North Bay and it’s something I want to shed light on by introducing it to them.” In addition to flexography, St-Pierre also has a passion for business and marketing. Before Ryerson, she studied marketing and advertising communications at Canadore College. Her focus is creating for her audience. She explained that she is fascinated by the types of designs she can conceive and said there are many opportunities for creativity when designing for others. “Of course it’s important to stick to your audience,” she said. “You have to do the research, remember who you’re making the design for and visualize how it will draw them in.” St-Pierre put those skills to work this past year as she completed a massive project for the Phoenix Challenge, a North American printing competition that challenges students across various schools with nearly three days of flexographic skill building. Ryerson was the only team that represented Canada in May 2019 when St-Pierre attended the competition in New Orleans. In collaboration with fellow GCM students, she was given the opportunity to help out a Toronto-based business with their branding for one of the competition’s challenges. St-Pierre and the team chose to reach out to a small start-up company called Second Closet, 116

which was initiated by two university students. Second Closet is a business that helps store items more conveniently and cost effectively for people on the move. Her team designed the company’s vinyl stickers, pamphlets and a promotional box that they uniquely modelled to look like a moving box, allowing it to be easily unfolded, and provide more information to customers about the small company’s big ideas. “That’s the thing I love about this program,” said StPierre as she rolled one of her flexography class projects in her hands — a can covered by a Tootsie Roll label that she redesigned by taking the traditional logo and adding her own flare. “It shows you the process from start to finish. From meeting with the client, to designing, to outputting, to finally putting it on the shelves. I was interested, I tried it, and I absolutely fell in love with it.” Years before she was even introduced to this process, St-Pierre revealed she had always been intrigued by flexographic design. “It’s so weird, but when I was a kid I’d collect those fancy tags that come on clothes and keep them in a box,” she said. “But it’s funny, that’s what flexography is, and even as a kid, I was drawn to it. The paper, the texture, the design.” Something young St-Pierre couldn’t have imagined was the arduous effort that goes behind the

process of making those tags. “Running a press is a lot of hard work, and cleaning — there’s a lot of tools involved. A lot can go wrong,” said St-Pierre. The physical labour and potential accidents that come with flexography aren’t the only difficult aspects of the practice; it’s mitigating the industry, something St-Pierre said she has had much experience with.

FEATURE | SCHOOL OF GRAPHIC COMMUNICATIONS MANAGEMENT

St-Pierre was offered a volunteer position at the 2019 Canadian Printing Awards last November — a night that celebrates and recognizes significant work in the Canadian printing industry — due to her high GPA and work as a teaching assistant. Many industry leaders attend the awards, but St-Pierre said she wasn’t nervous to approach them as she represented Ryerson at the event. Initially, when she first entered GCM, she feared her new knowledge of flexography wouldn’t match their professionalism. Now, in her fourth-year, she feels secure in what she’s passionate about. “Now, when [professionals] talk you’re just like ‘Yep, I do that too!’ and you feel like you know everything,” she explained. However, from her experience dipping her toes in the industry outside of school, St-Pierre has noticed something quite apparent is missing.

“If you go to the printing awards night, it’s definitely male-dominant,” said St-Pierre. “But if you look at the GCM stats of who’s enrolled, it’s actually more females.” St-Pierre has noticed what she calls, “a definite turn in the industry.” “I think people associate flexography with mechanical, business work, which is seen as more masculine, so there’s a stereotype for sure,” she said. St-Pierre said that despite the gap that she’s noticed outside of her program, she believes Ryerson’s GCM students are a close-knit community — one that the Faculty of Communication and Design has helped in facilitating with creative events. From attending card printing sessions for Valentine’s Day with fellow students, to spending time socializing at Creative Careers Cafes — where students have the opportunity to network with industry professionals — St-Pierre is always surrounded by events inspiring her to print. “School can be tough at times, juggling everything, but I really feel like it’s a family here,” said St-Pierre. “And I love it like that.” While many “families” spend their time having fun outside of the classroom, St-Pierre said she wouldn’t want time with her family any other way than in the lab, doing what she loves to do.

“NOW, IN HER FOURTH-YEAR, SHE FEELS SECURE IN WHAT SHE’S PASSIONATE ABOUT.”

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Julia Kolberg-Zettel Fourth-year photography We Built This City 35-mm film photography 2019

Julia Kolberg-Zettel’s photography series We Built This City offers a glimpse into Toronto’s distinct architectural landscape as it displays the juxtaposition between some of the city’s modern and historical buildings. Kolberg-Zettel said her interest in architectural photography surfaced once she moved to Toronto and began to devote attention to the city’s skyscrapers. “I’m from a small town where houses are maybe three stories high. So living in Toronto with all the high-rise buildings was very different, making me even more aware of the immense scale of architecture in the ‘big city,’” she said. Kolberg-Zettel used a 35-mm film camera to capture the architecture, which she explained was a challenge in her creative process. “This was difficult because it was the first time I had to scan my own negatives and continue to shoot and get rolls developed without knowing if the images worked or not,” she said. She explained that some of her best shots were taken unexpectedly on her way to school, for instance, or strolling downtown. Through We Built This City, Kolberg-Zettel shares the unique beauty of Toronto.

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ULTERIOR: THE HYBRID GENERATION

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Jessica Bola Fourth-year fashion design Ulterior: The Hybrid Generation Fashion Collection 2019

The Ulterior: The Hybrid Generation is a fashion collection designed and constructed by Jessica Bola for a group menswear project in FFD 613, a third year fashion design class. This class challenged Bola and her peers to create a menswear brand and pieces that would be displayed at a menswear showcase hosted by the Faculty of Communication and Design (FCAD). The brand was named ULTERIOR, and its mission was to create signature looks for young emerging creatives in Toronto who do not resonate with traditional formal wear. “I was inspired by new wave entrepreneurs of the creative field and how they dress … We labeled this generation ‘The Hybrid Generation’ due to their new approach to old practices,” said Bola. Combining relaxed silhouettes with creative pattern drafting, unique fabrics and digitally manipulated photographs of popular Toronto landmarks such as the CN Tower, the purpose was to introduce high quality techniques to casual wear. To Bola, Ulterior: The Hybrid Generation is a commentary on how the urban environment impacts Toronto youth and the city’s style.

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Additional credits: Photography: Jamar Redhead Model: Andrew Gyebi

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insert title Emily Scholtens’ self-portrait series *Insert Title Here* aims to expose the unrealistic beauty standards embedded in the fashion industry. “The concept stemmed out of fashion and self expression, however, was constantly changing throughout the process,” said Scholtens. “The project developed a more conceptual investigation into fashion and beauty standards by playing on common tropes and archetypes used within the industry.” To convey this, Scholtens used locations she found to be typical of fashion photography shoots and incorporated existing styles to recreate fashion stereotypes. Her series intends to criticize the principles of the industry, especially through the absence of facial features and the unusual positions of the model. “Models often are used as a way to display clothing, not to showcase their selves or personalities,” she said. “Excluding the face makes the subject ambiguous, and keeps the photographs from perpetuating the same ideas as fashion photography.” Created as her first thesis project of her final undergraduate year, *Insert Title Here* incorporates the techniques Scholtens acquired throughout her years in the Ryerson photography program. With this project, she hopes to spark a discussion regarding the current standards within the fashion industry.

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Emily Scholtens Fourth-year photography *Insert Title Here* Photography and Fashion 2019

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MAKE EARTH COOL AGAIN Bren Robinson created his Make Earth Cool Again poster as a way to express his own views on climate change while also creating a uniting image for people with similar perspectives as him. According to Robinson, being in the Faculty of Communication and Design has connected him with a more diverse range of artists than ever before. As he searches for his identity as a creator, the exposure to other artists has given him “a rush of creative inspiration.” Created using Adobe Photoshop, Robinson used Scadinavian patterns and imagery as a nod to climate activist Greta Thunberg’s Swedish background as well as a way to make the poster eye-catching so that he can hang up the work in public spaces. He explained that creating this poster was therapeutic for him. “I have to admit it is pretty easy to feel helpless and down trodden with everything going on [with climate change], but I think in approaching the art, I feel the need to stay optimistic no matter what,” he said. “Creating this piece gave me a chance to stay hopeful.”

Bren Robinson First-year media production Make Earth Cool Again Graphic Design 2019

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come to the

Daniella Rodrigues First-year creative industries come to the show//join the circus Film Photography 2019

Come to the show//join the circus is a photographic collage series that Daniella Rodrigues describes as a passion project meant to help her reconnect with herself through activities that used to bring her joy — photography and concerts. “The pieces included in this project were the outcome of a pretty rough year where I felt really disconnected from everything I once loved and as a result grew apart from these things,” she said. Encouraged by her entourage, Rodrigues picked up her camera and brought it into a live music show by Roy Blair and Muna. Determined to capture her overall experience rather than the perfect shot, a film camera seemed ideal. “Not having the advantage of reviewing my images helped me separate from my own harsh criticism that drove me away from photography in the year before,” she explained. Rodrigues felt that her series truly came together once she found the perfect title — a quote from the film Almost Famous — to complement them. “I had a eureka moment that connected the two and made these images more than just fillers used to finish a roll of film, but rather a fully fledged project encompassing the live show atmosphere,” she said.

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Vicky Wang Fourth-year creative industries PEOPLE, PLACES Illustration, Digital Collage 2019

Vicky Wang’s PEOPLE, PLACES is a personal project that was created during VIBE Arts’ Desire Lines, a two-year art program that provided young artists with the chance to have their creative pieces displayed on panels in Toronto’s subway system. Wang’s project was featured for the month of January 2020 at Finch Station in Toronto. “The inspiration behind my work lies in the beauty I see in people and places," said Wang. “I’ve always been fascinated by faces — not one is the same.” Her collages are comprised of the contour line drawings she created in her sketchbook, resulting from brief encounters with various individuals, as well as inspiring places she visited during her travels abroad. Through her experience within the Faculty of Communication and Design (FCAD), Wang said she has been able to nurture her creative self in a likewise community. She explained that the sketches within her work have also been inspired by fellow FCAD students and their unique identities.

P L A C E S

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good morning! Good Morning!, created by Evangeline Brooks, is a project that granted her the opportunity to hone and expand on her coding skills within the class FPN 513: Creative Coding at Ryerson. Created using Processing, a digital coding software system, Brooks documented her daily morning routine for a week through a series of generated images. Each day, Brooks recorded a video of her routine on a webcam. Using Processing, she then inserted the video input into a generative code which stretched and manipulated the video, resulting in a distorted image that represented each morning she recorded. The images showcase different colours in correlation with the different moods she experienced throughout the week. 136

“When you reflect on your morning last week, you don’t remember the details but you do remember the feeling,” she said. She additionally noted that each code used in the project generated an unexpected outcome, which was an element that she particularly enjoyed about the creative process. This generative aspect continues to inspire Brooks’ projects as it allows her to focus on the idea and meaning of her work, rather than the technical production and fabrication involved. Through Good Morning!, Brooks aims to inspire others to see that day-to-day documentation and visualization can seemingly be an art form on it’s own.

Evangeline Brooks Fourth-year film: integrated digital Good Morning! Generative Code 2019

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SLIME

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SUBLIME

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Tired of fast-fashion brands stealing high fashion looks, Roy Luo decided to formulate a fashion piece so unique, it would be hard to replicate. In his second-year core fashion class, he created Slime Sublime, taking inspiration from the bright colours of the television network Nickelodeon and the 2016 slime trend that rocked the internet. “Nostalgia is really big for me as it goes across all of the work that I’ve produced at Ryerson,” said Luo. “This was a particular project where the emotion is told more through colour, and that’s where the bright green and orange Nickelodeon references come from.”

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Luo used bright polyester fabric and laser-cut neon acrylic to create his evening wear garment. Instead of drafting his pattern ahead of time, as he normally does, Luo draped the garment as he went along, allowing exploration in design to lead him. He explained that this added a whole new element of fun to his creation, which was the emotion he wanted to elicit from his work. “There’s always a level of whimsy that I want to bring into my designs,” said Luo. “I wanted to create something fun, and that’s something I generally want to work towards. I think ‘fun’ is something we all need more of.”

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Soraya Sachedina Third-year film: integrated digital Inspired? Graphic Design 2019

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Inspired? is a two-part graphic design piece that Soraya Sachedina created to express an emotion familiar to many creatives — the feeling of being uninspired. During the development of her design, Sachedina struggled to find sources of inspiration for her work and found it difficult to formulate new ideas and projects. In the final creation of her piece, she realized that her being uninspired was the actual inspiration for her project and, through this, shares her interpretation of what it looks like to lack inspiration, as well as gain it. Sachedina noted that her

experience within the Faculty of Communication and Design has provided her with a vast amount of creative freedom. “Being in the integrated digital program has allowed me to follow my own creative vision, especially this year,” she said. “I feel like I have a lot of control over what I am creating and I love that.”

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THE EXECUTIVES EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR

SASHA CODRINGTON

CO-CREATIVE DIRECTOR

AANKSHIKA BHEEM

CO-CREATIVE DIRECTOR

BAILEY VANDUINEN

EDITORIAL DIRECTOR

NADIA BROPHY

MARKETING DIRECTOR

DEVI MEHTA

FINANCE DIRECTOR

AMELIA RYAN

ACK NOW LED GEM ENTS 144

CREATIVE TEAM LAYOUT ARTIST LAURYN MARKS LAYOUT ARTIST CLAIRE CAMBRIDGE LAYOUT ARTIST NANCY LY GRAPHIC DESIGNER HELEN WALKER GRAPHIC DESIGNER JADEN TSAN PHOTOGRAPHER MILES CLARKE PHOTOGRAPHER MALINI KHOTSIPHOM PHOTOGRAPHER ANDREW MORENO PHOTOGRAPHER RENEE FOY

EDITORIAL TEAM COPY EDITOR MELISSA SALAMO WRITER MEGAN EBREO WRITER ELIZABETH SARGEANT WRITER PELLY SHAW WRITER JEMMA DOORELEYERS WRITER DAPHNÃ&#x2030;E LACROIX DIGITAL CONTENT CREATOR ABRAHAM PITTS DIGITAL CONTENT CREATOR SEVERINA CHU

MARKETING TEAM MARKETING ASSISTANT VERONICA CHIU SOCIAL MEDIA COORDINATOR NOUR AL-SAIED

EVENTS TEAM EVENTS PLANNER SOPHIE MOREAU 145