Digital
Volume 6 | Issue 2
who’s on staff?
editorial EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Alana Valko CREATIVE DIRECTOR Kenzie King FEATURES EDITOR Sophie Cloherty PRINT FASHION EDITORS Nick Farrugia Jenny Ruan
business
DIGITAL FASHION EDITOR Alexa DeFord
PUBLISHER Claire Dickerson
DESIGN EDITORS Mackenzie Schwedt Manda Villarreal
ACCOUNTS DIRECTOR Colleen Jones
PRINT PHOTO EDITORS Katie Corbett Evan Parness DIGITAL PHOTO EDITOR Francesca Romano
MARKETING DIRECTOR Molly Shulan FINANCE COORDINATORS Kate Burns Drisha Gwalani
STREET STYLE EDITOR Lucy Carpenter
EVENTS COORDINATORS Paige Dobies Courtney O’Beirne
MANAGING PHOTO EDITOR Natalie Guisinger
OUTREACH COORDINATOR Ellery Benson
VIDEO EDITOR Hayley Danke
SALES COORDINATOR Kira Mintzer
DIGITAL CONTENT EDITOR Alice Huth
SOCIAL MEDIA COORDINATOR Liz Haley
ILLUSTRATOR MANDA VILLARREAL
SHEI /’sh(ay)/ Magazine was founded in 1999 as an Asian Pop Culture Magazine and became affiliated with University of Michigan Student Publications in 2013. Our Digital Magazine, known as SHIFT at the time, was launched in 2015. Since then, SHEI has grown to campus wide recognition as a publication that students can come to for fashion, art, and culture commentary and inspiration.
who’s on staff?
contributing members DIRECTORS Juan Marquez Jessica Peterkins Alexandra Plosch Jasmine Smith Jacob Ward Abigail Ziemkowski STYLISTS Isabelle Fisher Tavleen Gill Molly Graf Anastasia Hernando Anthony Hyunh Amreen Kanwal Krit Kosoltrakul Hannah Leonard Karly Madey Claire Manor Lily Marks Natalie Marshall Neil Nautiyal Natalia Nowicka Quinn Riley Catherine Small Katy Trame Dhruv Verma Caroline White Megan Young WRITERS Katherine Feinstein Elya Kaplan Brooke Lange Hannah Triester
PHOTOGRAPHERS Alex Anderson Monica Babits Blake Borgeson Gabriella Ceritano Kris Cho Nayoun Kim Michelle Lin Heba Malik Juan Marquez Emma McKillip Gwen McCartney Dana Papandreadis Robina Rranza Eva Russa Vera Tikhonova Rita Vega Alvin Yao VIDEOGRAPHERS Noelle Broussard Miranda Felty Sophie Herdrich Hannah Yoo GRAPHIC DESIGNERS Eliz Akgun Dana Dean Maddie Fox Tung Tung Lin Halley Luby Carly Lucas Yuki Obayashi
SHEI MAGAZINE X NOIR PIZZA HOUSE FUNDRAISER October 29th, 10:30 am - 4 am Mention SHEI at checkout (online or in-person) Join SHEI and NOiR for fashion, feta bread and fun! All proceeds go to supporting our student-run fashion organizations at U of M.
in this issue
MASTHEAD 02 LETTER FRO P THE COPING WI GL STUDEN
2 OM THE EDITOR 08 POOL 10 DEPENDENCE 16 HISTORY OF TIE-DYE 24 IN A HAZE 28 ITH TOXIC RELATIONSHIPS IN EUPHORIA 34 LOW 38 CONCERT COGNITION 44 ROMANCE OF A BY-GONE ERA 48 NT SPOTLIGHT: BAILIE POSEN 54 HEAD IN THE CLOUDS 60
letter from the editor
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Hearing the word “euphoria” today as a millenial or Gen-Z’er probably conjures up glittery mental images of the eponymous HBO show. Generally speaking, though, “euphoria” refers to an intense state of elation, happiness and freedom. Concerts, love, and mind-altering drugs might all come to mind. Euphoria actually derives from “euphoros,” a Greek word that means “healthy,” according to Merriam-Webster. In the 18th century, doctors used “euphoria” as a medical term to describe patients who felt relieved from medicine they prescribed. Ironically, nowadays doctors use the word to describe abnormal feelings often caused by illness and the illegal substances they once prescribed. Despite disagreeance, doctors from both centuries can probably agree that euphoric feelings often enjoy departures from reality. In this issue, our articles dissect euphoria from all ends--and yes, the hit show Euphoria may have inspired us. While the show centers around euphoria felt in young love, sexuality and substances, we also discuss its portrayal of toxic relationships and dangerous coping mechanisms (pg. 34). On page 24, we break down the
history of tie-dye--while commonly, and rather westernly associated with euphoric waves in the 70s, you’ll learn it didn’t begin with the hippies. We also talk Rihanna, JAY-Z, Janelle Monáe, and John Mayer, and the stirring, exhilarating melodies they’ve brought us in the middle of a concert in Philadelphia to the nostalgia we’ve later experienced in our earbuds. We wrap with a student feature on a completely electric senior member of the Michigan Electronic Music Collective (MEMCO), Bailie Posen, who is advocating for women in the electronic music scene. Our fashion and photo staff have interpreted euphoria with vibrant colors and expressive conceptions. On page 10, we are immersed in splashy, creamy pools of color. It’s hard to believe that a kiddie pool and milk were ever involved in the making. Youthful stickers and tulle follow in “Dependence.” Touching hands, captured smiles, and shrinking sunsets linger into our memories of fleeting romances on page 48. To end, our team captures maybe the most magical interpretation of euphoria, envisioning a mind free to roam in the clouds.
Alana Valko Editor-In-Chief
DIRECTOR JESSICA PETERKINS STYLISTS ISABELLE FISHER CLAIRE MANOR CAROLINE WHITE PHOTOGRAPHERS BLAKE BORGESON RITA VEGA EVA RUSSA VIDEOGRAPHER SOPHIE HERDRICH GRAPHIC DESIGNER YUKI OBAYASHI MODELS IVY LI ASA HUFFAKER
POOL
White top left - Ophelia White top right - Salvation Army
DEPENDENCE
DIRECTOR JACOB WARD STYLISTS KATY TRAME HANNAH LEONARD ANTHONY HYUNH CATHERINE SMALL PHOTOGRAPHERS HEBA MALIK JUAN MARQUEZ ALVIN YAO VIDEOGRAPHER HANNAH YOO GRAPHIC DESIGNER MACKENZIE SCHWEDT MODELS NICHOLAS KRAFT ANNIE POORMAN YOUMNA KHAN
Red Top - Forever 21
Green Top- Salvation Army
Tie-dye for me has always meant summer camp, popsicles, and slip-n-slides. It is an arts and crafts project that left my hands stained orange. It is another white cotton t-shirt lost. Whether it was a perfect pajama top or soccer practice jersey, tie-dye clothing was a staple in my childhood wardrobe. I never thought that at age eighteen I would be wearing it again. Although best known in American society as an emblem of 1960’s counter culture, nations across the globe, including India, Japan, Peru, and China, have used tie-dye as a textile design method for as many as six thousand years. According to a recent article published by Vox News, India and Japan are two of the most prominent creators and continued developers of the tie-dye style. In India, tie-dye is known as Bandhani and is used to create unique patterns on fabric for sarees, turbans,
and other clothing. Japanese tie-dye, known as Shibori, has had a similarly significant history, and is used to create painstakingly specific textile designs for an assortment of clothing accessories and other items. Whereas the tiedye patterns associated with the American hippie movement are representative of the Bandhani style, the resurgence of tie-dye has leaned on both the Bandhani and Shibori style. In Japan, the original purpose of Shibori textile design was to repurpose old clothing by repairing the garments and then restyling them through the dying process. As reported by CBS News, the Shibori dying process traditionally focuses on stitching, folding, twisting, or wrapping fabric around a pole and coloring it using Indigo dye. Unlike Bandhani, which incorporates many different colors, conventional Shibori style relies on Indigo dye’s uniform
color scheme, emphasizing the negative space created rather than just the hue of various colors. Shibori did not transcend Japanese culture as a market good until 1608 when citizens of Arimatsu, a Japanese village, began using the style to create textile souvenirs for soldiers and civilians passing through. As a result of this commercialization, Shibori came to be recognized as an art form rather than simply an inexpensive means to repurpose clothing. As these souvenirs gained popularity, the demand for more designs increased, and today there are over one-hundred distinct Shibori patterns. As Western exposure to countries such as India and Japan increased in the early 20th century, the tie-dye textile design method trickled into American culture. In the 1920’s, Americans appropriated tie dye as a cheap way to dye old fabrics, like grain sacs or rags,
for use as decoration in the home. This use of tie-dye was short lived, but in 1960’s America, the style took hold of the masses which craved a garment that would resonate with the free-flowing ideals that pervaded the counterculture movement. Everyone from the Grateful Dead to Jimi Hendrix to Janis Joplin adopted tie-dye as a fashion necessity and it became one of the most recognizable aspects of the hippie movement. With a simple, do-it-yourself process and cheap materials, tie-dye was easy for Americans to copy and morph to fit cultural demands of the era. The appropriative nature of tie-dye’s American birth, however, cannot be ignored. Americans adopted the tie-dye methods traditional to India, Japan and many other nations, without even recognizing their cultural origins. Subsequently tie-dye’s American connotation is the hippie movement, rather than
WRITER BROOKE LANGE GRAPHIC DESIGNER HALLEY LUBY
its millenia-old cultural habitation nations like India and Japan. This bulldozing of tie-dye’s true origins should make us reconsider our relationship to and use of the style today, and challenge the continued representation of tie-dye as mainly an icon of 1960’s American culture. With the demise of the hippie era and the rise of preppy fashion in the 1980’s, tie-dye in America died down but never died out. Through the 90s and early 2000s children and teens kept the trend alive, but tie-dye had not re-infiltrated the mass market until recently. What was perhaps the boldest and most surprising reinvigoration of tie-dye occured at the Prada 2019 spring show. In discussing the combination of more classic school girl cuts and tidy pleated skirts with tie-dye and rhinestone embedded fabric, Miuccia Prada asserted that the goal behind this spring ready-towear line was “to discuss a wish of freedom
and liberation and fantasy, and, on the other side, the extreme conservatism that is coming—the duality out there.” Prada’s take on tie-dye neither replicates the style’s 1960s American connotations, nor does it strive to somehow culturally reimburse its Western washed roots. Instead, Prada has focused on the relationship younger Americans have with the style, those of us who grew up making and wearing tie-dye. It should come as no surprise that we are interested in a matured version of what is to us a childhood emblem. We still understand and subscribe to the theme of “liberation and fantasy” that tie-dye represented to us growing up, but we want it to fit in with the “conservatism” of our newfound adulthood. By allowing ourselves to reincarnate tie-dye as a popular style, so too are we permitting those signature fleeting feelings of childhood to be brought back to life. The unbound swirls,
lines, or stripes of color fundamental to tie-dye unintentionally but adamantly connect with the lack of control involved in being a child. No matter how hard you may have tried, ice cream only came after dinner, there was no running by the pool, cold sunscreen was applied to the back of your neck, and summer always always came to an end. An article published by the New York Times in 2013 describes that while designers can painstakingly twist, tie, stitch, plead, bargain, and cry, the dye process will always result in fabric design that cannot be wholly predicted. While both in childhood and fashion this lack of control at first seems terrifying and frustrating, today such unpredictability is exactly what young Americans and designers crave. Despite millenia of use, tie-dye remains a preserved and prominent fashion tradition in India, Japan and other nations of its origin. Shibori artists in Arimatsu continue to hone
their craft while the Bandhani style competes with more technologically advanced dying methods in the Indian textile design market. At the same time, tie-dye in America is centering around young people. It has become synonymous with childhood summers and the faded t-shirts hiding somewhere in the back of your closet. When I put on my rainbow spiral shirt, I recognize tie-dye’s true origins, but I also wear the visual representation of nostalgia for my own dye-stained-hand summers.
DIRECTOR ALEXANDRA PLOSCH STYLISTS DHRUV VERMA MEGAN YOUNG LILY MARKS PHOTOGRAPHERS ROBINA RRANZA GABRIELLA CERITANO NAYOUN KIM VIDEOGRAPHER NOELLE BROUSSARD GRAPHIC DESIGNER DANA DEAN MODELS CAMERON ARNOLD LIAT STERENFELD
Both tops - Thrifted Black and White Skirt - Handmade by Robina Rranza
IN EUPHORIA
COPING WITH TOXIC RELATIONSHIPS
HBO’s original television series Euphoria has amassed a significant audience. Many watchers are drawn to the show’s ethereal and unique makeup, soundtrack, and film aesthetic. Even more intriguing is the complexity and development of each character. Many characters shamelessly wear their vices on their sleeves, and stand out in completely individual ways that make us want their confidence. Though it may be the current trend to copy makeup looks from Maddy, the show’s iconic ‘badbitch,’ or to envy the scandalous costume design of her partner-incrime Cassie, their reckless and aggressive personas are actually quite twisted in nature. Romantic intimacy perhaps allows both Maddy and Cassie to avoid the acknowledgement of past trauma or their own possible obstacles with mental health.
Maddy is the ultimate Queen Bee, with her fashionable, promiscuous style, dramatic makeup, and unapologetic opinions. She tells others what to do, walks the school halls with an unmatchable strut, and controls the image of her relationship by constantly publicizing her and her boyfriend Nate’s love. While Maddy seems to be completely secure with her promiscuous and assertive attitude, behind closed doors she recoils into a submissive, almost juvenile role with Nate. Within their private relationship, he controls the conditions of their life: when they break up, when they stay together, and what Maddy is allowed to know about him. When Nate becomes physically abusive and gets in legal trouble for it, Maddy loyally returns to him in secret. She seems to need his abusive love. She craves his instability and attention and wants to
submerge herself in the drama. What drives a beautiful, intelligent, seemingly confident woman like Maddy to hold on so tightly to a horrible man like Nate? According to the journal article “Understanding the Diverse Needs of Children whose Parents Abuse Substances”, there are several “vulnerabilities” among children of alcoholic parents. In addition to lower academic functioning and cognitive deficits, children who grew up in a neglectful, alcoholic home showed “increased rates of anxiety, depression, oppositional behavior, conduct problems, and aggressive behavior as well as lower rates of self-esteem and social competence.” These findings were also more consistent when this parental alcoholism coexisted with depression in the home, creating an environment that Maddy knows all too well.
Children of alcoholic parents and who experienced consistent neglect growing up are more prone to toxic relationships due to their tendency to develop low self esteem. Maddy’s father is a debilitated alcoholic, and her mother appears to be a victim of similar neglect and abuse. From a psychological perspective, Maddy’s neglectful upbringing and lack of parental role models may have led to an adulthood of low self worth, approval-seeking behaviors, and emotional attachment; all of which keep her from moving on from Nate. In addition, the website for the National Domestic Violence Hotline suggests that victims of abuse like Maddy find it extremely difficult to leave and may have many psychological issues clouding their judgement and skewing their view of the relationship. Victims of abuse feel pressured and trapped for
WRITER KATHERINE FEINSTEIN GRAPHIC DESIGNER ELIZ AKGUN
many reasons including shame, low self esteem, believing abuse is normal, and even love. Due to her traumatic upbringing, Maddy’s subsequent low self esteem and shame creates a reliance on some sort of source of love or validation. Like many people in abusive relationships, these post-trauma traits may also be keeping her tied to her abuser, Nate. Cassie is another character with a complex nature whose childhood trauma may be manifesting into harmful choices in her relationships and sexuality . She grew up as a ‘Daddy’s girl’, and had a seemingly tight-knit, happy family. However, later in her adolescence her father became a drug dealer and eventually an addict. He became more and more absent in Cassie’s life, only coming home a few times a year to have her help him steal money to buy drugs with. The show explores
flashbacks into Cassie’s childhood time and time again where she can be seen getting her hopes up about seeing her Dad, only to have him use her, knowing she’ll do anything for him if it means he’ll come back at all. This need to please her Dad and still have him love her is directly reflected in the way Cassie views her self worth and how she will do anything to be loved and needed later in her life. Cassie falls in love with McKay, a college football star, but either settles or self sabotages whenever she feels invalidated or unloved by him. When McKay denies their relationship to his friends to save face, Cassie forgives him and puts up with his behavior. Cassie not only feels invalidated and often questions when McKay tells her he loves her, but she also has a hard time speaking up about what she needs from him. At several
points in their relationship, instead of communicating these issues to him Cassie copes by taking drugs, acting sexually explicit at a school carnival, and cheats on McKay at a party that he is at. This type of coping mechanism is quite common in today’s sexually accessible world, where attaining sexual validation can be a quick and easy fix to help fill emotional voids. In dissecting the toxicities and sometimes abusive nature of the relationships and sexual expressions in Euphoria, the coping mechanisms for mental health issues and trauma-related ailments of today’s millennials becomes glaringly apparent. Both Maddy and Cassie have similar pasts that affect their current relationships in different ways. Euphoria asks us to confront and detangle the interpersonal relationships that can be found in our modern world, while also providing
us with iconic characters to look up to and relate to. Not to say that the show romanticizes trauma or mental health issues, but to some extent, we find ourselves rooting for these characters to find the love they deserve. In turn, we root for ourselves.
DIRECTOR JASMINE SMITH STYLISTS NATALIA NOWICKA NATALIE MARSHALL NEIL NAUTIYAL PHOTOGRAPHERS KRIS CHO DANA PAPANDREADIS GRAPHIC DESIGNER MADDIE FOX MODEL HANA AGOLLI LOCATION STAMPS STUDIO
glow
Black and White Blazer- Ostradivarius
Grey Blazer- Ralph Lauren Pants- Free People
Black and White Blazer- Ostradivarius
Black Jacket- Cav Empt
Why do we go to concerts? Why do we crave the deafening music, the crowds, the thunderous applause? What makes us want to surround ourselves with people we don’t know, to see someone perform on a stage often so far away that we cannot make our their features? The body’s response to such a situation, to hearing music we love, and being surrounded by electric energy is physiological and simple. We process noise first as it travels through the tiny bones in our inner ears. Once it reaches the auditory nerve fibers, communication with the brain begins. The brain unscrambles the sound so that we perceive the noise as distinct from others. This inspires a reaction and sensation. Only then can we formulate our own unique response to the music.
Even before the music started, I was overwhelmed by the sounds of the crowd. The sheer number of souls overwhelmed me, all packed in front of the temporary stages that marked the summer festival in Philadelphia. The energy was vibrant, pulsing, and alive. I could feel heat and life emanating from the people around me. Everyone was waiting with breathless anticipation for the act to begin. There was a constant buzz of conversation among friends and shared glances between strangers. The graphics and visuals on the screen behind the stage flooded our upturned faces with neon, and the movement across the stage promised a set unmatched by any other we had seen yet that night. In a moment, everything changed. I hadn’t seen or heard any notable differences in the environment, but suddenly everyone around me was cheering and I felt my heart rate accelerate. I scanned the walkway overhead and saw her. She stood on the edge of the platform waiting to be seen and adored. Then I was jumping and whooping alongside every-
WRITER ELYA KAPLAN HANNAH TRIESTER GRAPHIC DESIGNER CARLY LUCAS
one around me, brought to my feet by some ineffable internal call. Rihanna. She had brought us all together. A voice that changed through the years, her messages called to us at different moments in our lives. I couldn’t believe I was actually here, seeing her, seeing her see me and the thousands of others who had come from all over the country to experience this moment. I remember being close enough to see the lipstick on her face. She stepped forward, lifted the hood from her head, brought the microphone to her lips. We all went quiet. Music immediately affects the brain, and thus our emotions. Beginning in the ventral tegmental area and the nucleus accumbens - both of which are associated with dopamine — the musical impact makes its way to chambers of our minds in control of reward.
She was real, I could feel her presence in front of me, for the first time as more than a face on an album cover, or a captured image on a screen. The moment Rihanna began to sing, a weight lifted off my shoulders. I felt transported to a place void of problems and trials where I could stand in a crowd of strangers and feel our collective heartbeat. I sang along to songs that had carried me through countless experiences. I thought of her old tracks, the soundtrack of my middle school years, and the ones she sang through her own years of pain and hardship. She strode across the walkway, dancing and feeling the power of her own creations, riding a wave of ecstasy and brilliance. I knew I would always remember the thrum of her voice, the effortless motions, and her control over the crowd. Although I was surrounded by unfamiliar faces, I had somehow known these people my whole life. I knew them because they knew her, and anyone with an understanding of her magnificence must be a friend of mine. I found myself swaying with a smile on my face, my lips pulled back in a manic happiness I saw reflected in everyone around me. This was it. This was euphoria.
The power of music is not limited to a single neurotransmitter. Beyond dopamine, music activates endogenous opioids. That warm feeling when you like something — its a chemical reaction. As I wander across Philly’s parkway through a cloud of JAY-Z’s curated sounds, I find myself drawn toward a singular aura in particular. I can see the pulsing colors in the distance as I move toward the Rocky Steps. The festival atmosphere is a playground for pop culture, and my presence adds to this collective sentiment. In the distance, Janelle Monáe commands her arena and the crowd, a queen dressed in royal checkered garb with red accents atop a literal throne. Her subjects glide around her in formations that captivate the standing audience and simultaneously inspire excellence among them. I push forward through a sea of arms held high for video capture and find myself more assured with each step. She replaces her
cropped jacket for a lengthier one, and exchanges her cap to match. Her arms drift upward to the sound of strings, as if she is physically connected to them. I stand in awe below, maintaining my gaze amidst smoke and dust and heads that stand higher than my own. I like the electric way her music makes me feel. I appreciate the garments she wears to fortify her movement on stage. Strobe lights continue to flash, as if locking me in a dream. The amygdala is the brain structure that remembers our emotional response to stimuli, locking them into our being via long-lasting connections. When we are triggered by the proper catalyst, we can be transported back in time to a specific emotion in our individual history.
Sometimes a song can transport me in time and physical space. When I tap shuffle on my playlist, the aural space I enter is left to curated chance. A soundtrack from John Mayer’s live album, the initial chords of “Gravity” sends me back to my seat among thousands in Philadelphia. My eyes are focused on Mayer and the band as they play for a crowd bonded by the solace he has brought us all, at one time or another. The harshness of the stadium setting is softened by a pink glow during “Love on the Weekend,” and then transformed into a serene forest backdrop. The human emotions he expresses are framed as equally inherent to life on Earth as its natural forms. The
combination of these stimuli instill a certain comfort within me, as if my rigid, wide-legged painter’s jeans are melting into fuzzy sweatpants, enveloping my legs as they sink into my seat. The sound is equivalent to safety, and I actively cherish the certitude Mayer delivers by his contrastingly apprehensive lyrics. There is a collective history in this massive space, a euphoric grounding implausible in another setting. My headphones can’t replicate this live sound, nor this shared sentiment - but my mind can. Concerts are illustrative of the human experience. The sensory experience of music is variable, imperfect, and uncomfortable. But it is also beautiful. Magnetic energies that flow through a venue can transform the mind. The strong physical reactions we experience might become what we most remember. The stage darkens, our ears are ringing, our steps are leading us away from the artistry onstage. Our bodies will abandon the place and time but our minds will continue to play it back.
Romance
of a By-G
e
Gone Era
DIRECTOR ABIGAIL ZIEMKOWSKI STYLISTS AMREEN KANWAL QUINN RILEY TAVLEEN GILL MOLLY GRAF PHOTOGRAPHERS MONICA BABITS MICHELLE LIN VERA TIKHONOVA VIDEOGRAPHER MIRANDA FELTY GRAPHIC DESIGNER TUNG TUNG LIN MODELS CHRISTIANA SCHEIBNER AUDREY BARNES LOCATION GALLUP PARK
Pink Dress With Red Flowers - Cynthia Rowley
Long Tan Skirt- From Japan
STUDENT SPOTLIGHT: BAILIE POSEN Now a senior at the University of Michigan, Bailie Posen fell into her niche on campus early. A long-time and senior member of MEMCO, the Michigan Electronic Music Collective here on campus, she’s an avid advocate for women in the electronic music scene. The collective hosts events and collaborations, plays at local Ann Arbor venues, and offers a way for students to gain experience on club standard DJ equipment. The bicycle Bailie rides from Kerrytown to Central Campus lends to her magnetic approachability. Her curly lob cut brushes her shoulders and intricate tattoos grace her forearms. Majoring in communications with minors in French and Environmental Studies, her interests are widespread. She speaks with assertion, kindness, and resolute power. She’s the sort of individual who can read a room and readily immerse herself in any vibe. More than anything, it’s clear that music for Bailie offers more than a potential career path or an artistic outlet. Music, specifically electronic music she explains, has also “been a family. A community that isn’t tied to one place.”
When and how did you become interested in DJing? All throughout high school, I got into electronic music. During Welcome Week my freshman year, I found a table for the student organization, MEDMA [former name of MEMCO], and thought it was a group of students that just went to shows together. But when I went to the first meeting, it was a bunch of people that were actual DJs and producers — not just people that go to concerts! I sort of joined by accident. What is the MEMCO’s mission and what does the org provide to the students involved in the organization? MEMCO is a student organization comprised of DJs, producers, and event-goers that provides a platform for electronic music on campus. We celebrate all forms of electronic music with a focus on promoting underground electronic music — subgenres within the wide world of electronic music that are typically overlooked by the mainstream. These subgenres include house, techno, electro, breakbeat, jungle, ambient, and other experimental forms that were historically pioneered by lower-class, marginalized, and counter-cultural groups. It is through our events and collaborations that we hope to expose students to these often overlooked forms of sound and expression. Another focus of MEMCO is giving students the opportunity to use club standard
equipment. There are a lot of financial obstacles with DJing, so it’s all about giving students the opportunity and space to pursue it. A big focus is having more women on lineups, because there’s a lot of inequality in the music world — especially in electronic music. All of our lineups are fifty-fifty in terms of gender identity, which is really great. Can you explain a bit about DJing in technical terms? I think the easiest way to explain DJing, in sort of shortened down ~simplified~ terms is that it is basically just like collage art with sounds instead of visuals. You don’t have to produce any of your own original music to be a DJ, the creation/artistic aspect of it is picking and choosing the songs you mix together to make your own sound. What exactly do you like about DJing in your own experience? How has it made you feel? I don’t have a musical background, so I’m not trained in any instruments. There’s a lot of people in the organization who are, but there are also a lot of people who aren’t. It’s almost like collage art, in a way. You can find a bunch of music you really like and you don’t really need to know music theory to take your own spin on things. You can do whatever you want with it. It’s a way to express yourself artistically, but you don’t have to have years and years of piano lessons — it’s pretty intuitive.
Who are you biggest music inspirations? It feels like my music inspirations are constantly changing, it’s really dependent on the genre I’m into that week/day, but in terms of electronic music, I would say that most of my recent mixes/sets have been inspired by a lot of women producers and DJs like: Suzi Analogue, Rachel Green, Shyboi, JWORDS. How if at all do your inspirations appear in your own music making? I personally have barely dipped my toes into the production side of electronic music, but DJing is kind of completely based in your musical inspirations because you can take all of these tracks from different artists that inspire you and put them all in a mix together and make your own sort of “sound” from that. All of the production that I have done though really does pull elements/style from a bunch of different artists that inspire me though. The last little bit of music I made included a lot of robot samples and breakbeats which are both pretty prominent elements in any of the work from the artists I listed above. How would you describe the gigs you’ve played? Usually MEMCO hosts events — if not every week, every other week. Our big events are impulse parties, which are at local venues, like Club Above. We also do a lot of smaller things; last Thursday we DJ’d this event at Alley Bar on Main Street. This was through
the Ann Arbor Art Center, so when they do art exhibitions, we’ll do something more casual for our set. We have a couple yearly events that we bring back every year. There’s one that’s an all-female DJ night, which is really cool because it’s all girls on the lineup. Pretty much everyone only plays music that has been produced by women, so it’s a really great space for that. We’ll usually donate to some organization along those lines. Last year we donated to Safehouse Center. What does it feel like when you’re up there, in action? That’s hard! It’s kind of crazy to think about it because a lot of our events bring in a couple hundred people throughout the night. It’s wild to be up there, DJing, especially when it’s something that is really just a group of friends messing around with DJ equipment together. But looking at all of the people that come in, especially those that aren’t even students, but people just coming to support us - that’s what’s really crazy. What role has electronic music played in your own life? What does it mean to you? It’s influence has shifted my whole college experience. It’s taught me a lot of skills in terms of business and logistics, which are useful in the long term. It’s also just been a family, and community that isn’t tied to one place. It has opened up opportunities everywhere, because we have so many people that have
graduated who now live in LA or New York. It’s always going to be a part of my life now. No matter where I am, I can listen to music and be involved in that community and continue to express myself. So is that the role you see EDM playing in your future - will it just be something that’s always there, or will it be more central to your life? Music is mostly just a safe place — it’s something you can be a part of. I’ve always been really interested in art, but I wouldn’t call myself an artist. I don’t have professional training in anything. This is just my artistic release. How do you feel about EDM fashion? How does your own wardrobe reflect your interest in the EDM scene? I feel like EDM fashion shifts depending on the genre. A lot of our events are themed around different genres. We have “What the Funk” happening this Friday, and people wear groovy clothes for it. But in terms of a techno event, everyone’s in all black, wearing fanny packs - that’s definitely the vibe that I align with. For festivals, people go all out, and it’s more of a range of styles. In Ann Arbor, people generally dress for the smaller-scale occasion. Festivals are next-level, in comparison. A lot of the women in MEMCO stick to black mesh or fishnets, and leather platform boots.
Is there anything about the EDM world you would change or that hope to change? Are there any misconceptions that you feel exist? I think the biggest misconception about the EDM world is the idea that it’s just this huge rave scene with a very particular type of electronic music in mind. EDM as a term has sort of shifted in meaning pretty drastically over the past decade and it is now a huge umbrella term; I think it’s really important to recognize that dance music includes many other subgenres, all of which are rooted in POC, LGBTQ+ communities that were actually the sort of parents to a lot of the more mainstream EDM music that people know of today. Do you have any advice for other students trying to get involved in music in Ann Arbor? Go to events, go talk to people. There’s always something going on!
WRITER HANNAH TRIESTER PHOTOGRAPHER NATALIE GUISINGER GRAPHIC DESIGNER MANDA VILLARREAL
HEAD IN THE DIRECTOR JUAN MARQUEZ STYLISTS ANASTASIA HERNANDO KRIT KOSOLTRAKUL KARLY MADEY PHOTOGRAPHERS ALEX ANDERSEN EMMA MCKILLIP GWEN MCCARTNEY VIDEOGRAPHER SOPHIE HERDRICH GRAPHIC DESIGNER MANDA VILLARREAL MODEL DAJANA KORCARI
CLOUDS
Neck Ruffle - Made by Juan Marquez White Tank - H&M
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