[smiths] the summer issue #71 by [smiths] Magazine

CONTRIBUTORS Senior Editors Charlie Brinkhurst-Cuff and Lucie Horton smiths.gsu@gmail.com Sub-Editors Arts & Culture Lucy Brisbane-Mckay, Priya Shemar and Sarah van Binsbergen smiths.artsandculture@gmail. com Literary & Creative Writing Giorgia Cowan, Will Jamieson and Momina Mela smiths.literaryandcreative@ gmail.com Fashion Taylor Mcgraa and Hannah Twiggs smiths.fashioneditor@gmail.com Food & Drink Adam Morby and Joanna Rowse smiths.foodanddrink@gmail.com Music Ella Daniel-Lowe and Patrick Heardman smiths.musiceditor@gmail.com

Assistant Editor Karen Dâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;Arcangelo smiths.socialmedia@gmail.com

Politics Tedros Getachew and Toby Roddham smiths.politics@gmail.com Travel Heidi Martin and Rachel Dodson smiths.traveleditor@gmail.com Smiths T.V Charlie Maxwell and Daisy Samuel smiths.smithstv@gmail.com Designers Head Designer Ted Low Sub-Designers Will Course Sophie Hardcastle Maria Portugal Lucy Sharpe Sophie Cook

contents Arts Creative Writing Masterchef...............................................................1 In the middle, but not mediocre................ 30

One Hundred and Twenty Days of David Cameron or Dave............................... 2 Surfing.......................................................................4

A night out at Goldsmiths – the demise of Club Sandwich..............................33 Is public space really ours?...........................36

literary Food Connecting the dots…....................................... 6 Everest Curry King............................................38 Travel The American........................................................8

Why eat?............................................................... 40 Three Thai Curries...........................................42

Music Goldsmiths Alumni Interview:

The Baby Photos That Will Last Forever...............................................45 Enemies of the internet................................. 48 Twitch Plays Pokémon................................... 50 Public school twittishness at its worst on Prime Minister’s Questions.....52

Tube Lines.............................................................10

JUPITER-C............................................................. 14 The Myth of the Female Musician............ 16 The Sound of Nastalgia................................... 18

Fashion Photoshoot............................................................ 20

Give + Take............................................................24 Is fashion growing a conscience or is this just another controversial marketing strategy?...........26 Meet The Sapeurs..............................................28

POlitics

Editorial Goodbye Goldsmiths Like most students, we will come out of university over £20,000 in debt, and as we say goodbye to Goldsmiths, we ask, was it worth it? Our university is certainly not perfect. As Ella Jessel wrote in a recent article for The Leopard, Goldsmiths has a vision of a ‘market-orientated and profit-driven future’, cashing in on its representation as a liberal arts college but leaving true radicalism behind. As English and Media students we have seen first hand the image Goldsmiths presents in the New Academic Building, contrasting negatively with its inability to dedicate more funds to the library, which remains woefully outdated and under-stocked. It hasn’t always been unchallenging at Goldsmiths, you do a lot of growing up at university and looking back it’s easy to tell yourself that you should have taken life a little less seriously - or perhaps more. Relationships change drastically from the way they are at school, and the typical student problems, such as finding decently priced accommodation that isn’t infested with mould, rats or an idiotic housemate, are exacerbated in the big smoke. On average our rental prices are a lot higher, but we only get a little more in student loan and grant. But it’s not all bad - we’ve both had some pretty inspiring lectures, been able to live in one of the most exciting cities in the world and meet friends for life. In fact, as we’ve decided, more than the facilities, perhaps even more than the teaching and learning of a degree, what has been important about our time here has been the opportunity to surround ourselves with like-minded people. Goldsmiths students are often condemned as being pretentious, but pretentiousness exists without charity-shop clothing and a propensity for that everunavailable attempt at individuality. At the end of the day, we’d like to think that the labels projected onto our university are pretty inaccurate. With the risk of sounding clichéd, for us Goldsmiths has been a place where it has been possible to broaden our minds; and in many ways it is up to us, the students, rather than the management, to attempt to define the way our college is presented. University doesn’t last forever, but don’t go telling yourself that your youth and the idealisation that comes with it ends right now. We’ve got the whole world ahead of us, and after Goldsmiths will come opportunity after opportunity to live life to the full. The future is bright and exciting despite the bleak reports we keep hearing. Smiths has been on a rollercoaster of a ride this year, and it’s difficult not to be cheesy and nostalgic as we come to the end of our editorship. Nevertheless, we would like to say a huge thank you to every single person who has helped us out and contributed, from our fantastic sub-editors, to our brilliant designers. A special thank you has to go to Karen D’Arcangelo, who has been an invaluable asset as assistant editor and friend. We are so grateful for all the hard work everyone’s put in - certainly not forgetting all the writers for coming up with such imaginative and engaging articles. lots of love, Charlie and Lucie

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CREATIVE WRITING

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Masterchef Although your hands always possessed the quaint safety of garlic and coriander mapped translucently above the swift zeal of a slim knife your careless layering of cheeses were met with the eagerness of a dog circling to find the tail on his back, and you always forgot to pre-heat the oven anyway, justifying the pre-heating of ovens as an ancient myth that we, as a collective human race must tackle, instead you left a seedy paste of tomatoes sprouting morbidly in the tiny holes of the drain, but by this time some fresh panic has overwhelmed the internet and we all start breathing heavily all of a sudden while your various sauces hasten to burn and make a fool of you again. Momina Mela

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One Hundred and Twenty Days of David Cameron or Dave Inspired by Pier Pasolini’s film Salo, or 120 Days of Sodom, William Jamieson takes a brief look at David Cameron’s personal diary, detailing one hundred and twenty days of his life after leaving office and wonders if his domestic life will run along the same lines as his political life.

CREATIVE WRITING

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Day 1 Mic up all the flies in the garden so I can hear what is said before they rub their small, fingerless hands together Day 14 Call Barry Hey Barry I know that isn’t really your name. Ok, bye bye Obama Day 19 Leave all the taps in the house running have a word with myself in private Day 42 A patch of night sky in the distance like a knee bending inside lady’s tights. I’ve learned to avert my eyes and avoid questions such as: what is happening, what is that exploding and shouting is it the sport? Day 49 Scotland isn’t replying to any of my texts Day 82 Date night with Samantha. I replay the black and white drone strike level in Call of Duty. She straddles my back, holding two football horns to my ears, in case I hesitate. I make her wear a mask of my face during sex. It is for her own protection

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Day 99 The children have stopped playing croquet and now pump 265 litres of blue playdoh into a ten thousand foot hole they’ve drilled in the garden

they come back at the end of the day happy and dehydrated, drink water straight from the tap and smile at me, blue tongues flickering silently behind their lips.

Day 111 The house, its corridors lengthened by whispering, is so peaceful. I close my sites, wipe myself with tissue. I take my laptop round the back and smash it with a hammer my wife can’t see my children can’t know about my sites. They’ll see the shattered computer near the bins and pat me on the back because I took care of it. Day 119 Sunday dinner at GCHQ. They lead me to the roasting spit in the garden, strap me in I tell them there are no hard feelings. They laugh, and say in one voice: ‘Here is the apple. And here is your mouth’

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CREATIVE WRITING

Surfing We took the car out to the point. It was February and we were going to watch the waves. I still can’t believe how long you used to spend in the water then. In our little car on the cliff we were buffeted by the wind, rocking in the centre of a drizzle vortex. My God it was freezing, maybe six degrees. The rain was coming in through the hole by the accelerator and you had your trousers tucked into your socks to stop the water running up your leg. I wore two jumpers under my coat and the surfboards were stuck between us. It’s funny to think that I couldn’t see your face because I always remember it like I could. There were no other cars, just our little Peugeot and the sound of the wind. It whistled around, muffled by the stupid windows. The waves were hitting the cliffs so hard that the spray was jetting up the rock face, whipping far away from our tiny little car. I remember thinking that somewhere it was raining salty. With the engine turned off it was way too cold. My knuckles were blooming orange and purple. We sat for a few hours watching the sea rage at the cliff over and over. Everything was grey, the sky like concrete and the waves like iron and looking down at the beach I could see the bluish haze of the dunes. After an hour or two the waves sucked away all my thoughts and the cold all my feeling. The only thing that kept coming back to me was this stupid little joke. I guess this is what surfers call chilled out. That’s why I remember your face! I could hear you smirk. That dried-up sound is stuck in my head.

- Inigo Vyvyan

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CREATIVE WRITING

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Literary

Connecting the dots… Publishers are under pressure to remove gendered children’s books from the shelves. Giorgia Cowan argues why removing gender bias in children’s literature is important for society.

“It is full of the drip, drip, drip of the gendered environment.”

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Following the ‘Let Toys Be Toys’ campaign that lead to ‘Let Books Be Books’, some publishers are finally starting to change their policies and refusing to publish children’s books that are explicitly for boys or girls. This is a small step with wider implications and so far very few publishers are willing to opt-out of the still popular market for gendered books. Language and literature are undeniably important tools in learning. Books teach us about the world, our place in it, how to look, how to act, what to consider good or bad: the list is endless. So if children’s books have titles like Buster Books’ The Beautiful Girls’ Colouring Book and The Brilliant Boys’ Colouring Book, naturally with obligatory pink or blue covers with butterflies or submarines, it’s no surprise that sexist attitudes persist in society. This will sound absurd to many people because gender differences were ingrained into what we learned ourselves. They are so seemingly harmless and omnipresent in dayto-day living that even highlighting them is deemed an attack on anyone just trying to live a normal life; ‘this isn’t sexism, why don’t you talk about real problems?’ This is not a criticism of the colour pink; this is connecting the dots between the vast numbers of small-scale socially learned differences and their wider implications.

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According to The Independent, Michael O’Mara, who owns Buster Books and has three children, refused to opt-out, saying, ‘the proof is in the pudding. Our two best children’s books ever are The Boys’ Book and The Girls’ Book. The boy’s one included things like how to make a bow and arrow and how to play certain sports and you’d get things about style and how to look cool in the girl’s.’

“This is not a criticism of the colour pink; this is connecting the dots between the vast numbers of smallscale socially learned differences and their wider implications.” Maybe boys and girls are just interested in different things. Industries that employ one gender almost exclusively often claim women or men just don’t apply for those sorts of jobs. This suggests that biology is responsible for making the majority of makeup artists female and the majority of mechanics male: maybe men are just biologically better at fixing cars and women are better at putting on makeup? Referring to recent studies, neuroscientist Professor Gina Rippon stated: ‘Saying there are differenc-

LITERARY

es in male and female brains is just not true. There is pretty compelling evidence that any differences are tiny and are the result of environment not biology [...] The world is full of stereotypical attitudes and unconscious bias. It is full of the drip, drip, drip of the gendered environment.’ Another aspect of children’s literature being addressed is the way in which books represent gender roles in professions. In 2012, researchers at Yale University gave a number of scientists identical applications for a position as a lab manager and asked them to rate the applicant’s competence, hireability, and the wage they would offer if successful. Half of these were given a female name and half were given a male name. In every case, even when the scientist was female herself, the female applications were rated lower in all areas. The scientists here are not consciously sexist; they are respectable people living normal lives; subject to the same biases as the rest of us. Maintaining the system by which we teach children that girls are one way and boys are another perpetuates gender bias and fuels the sexism ingrained in our society. Connect the dots.

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TRAVEL

SUMMER 2014

THE AMERICAN

Charlie Brinkhurst-Cuff was looking for an interesting bus ride between Panama and Costa Rica when she went travelling last summer. Instead, she was unfortunate enough to come across The American.

The American had shrinking, beady green eyes that roved around his long, wan, tanned face. His eyebrows were dense and hairy, and his eyelashes looked as though they had been cropped into short, brown tufts. The length of his face contrasted with his rounded torso, which protruded, beachball like, and was swathed in a flannel blue Superbowl t-shirt. He wore a ‘quality’ USA baseball cap with pride, because however much he pretended to dislike being labelled as ‘The American’, in actuality, he loved it deeply. I first met the American at Mamallena’s Hostel, whilst watching Die Hard 4 with a newly made friend. He had chosen the film, of course, and told us all about its many merits before, somehow, turning the conversation surreptitiously to his struggles – the difficulties he faced with being a North American in Latin America.

Sitting there, on the couch covered with a brightly woven Panamanian print, he cut a humorous figure. I was not listening to the undertones of his speech clearly enough or else, on a whim, I would not have decided he would be a good companion for my upcoming bus journey to Costa Rica. The American had been travelling Latin America for four years. His favourite place was Mexico, where the women were very beautiful, astonishingly so, and regardless of their age, would date an ‘old gringo’. Not that he would date a younger woman; he was conservative in his values. At the beginning of the bus ride, when I had realised my dire mistake in choosing to travel with him, a man named Ian found out exactly how conservative he was, as the American launched into a political discussion which I overheard with closed eyes and a sinking heart.

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The word ‘gook’ eventually spilled out of his mouth,and Ian raised tired Asiatic eyes to look at me. ‘You’re travelling with him?’ they said, as the American flaunted me like a china doll. I was his little, unhappy, pouting companion – two parts scared of him, one part grateful – as he helped me navigate the border crossing, albeit with a graceless style that brought yet more shame. Waiting at the border I watched as local Amerindian girls paraded across the streets in thick, frilled, colourful dresses that tightened at the waist and cut off at their brown throats. There were flowers in their hair and boredom in their eyes, but the American did not see them and their plain-faced gloriousness, he simply complained that the customs officers on the border should be able to speak English.

TRAVEL

‘I’ve never liked these people,’ he said, in his dull, nasal voice. ‘They don’t believe in the Christian god, and they don’t have the same morals as us. And they try and cross our borders all the time but make it difficult for us to cross theirs!’ By this point I had taken to ignoring him, and soon after this statement he slunk off to a McDonald’s, asking me to tell the bus driver to wait for him. Instead of attempting to pass on the message to the bus driver, I went and spoke to Ian who, by the worst luck, had happened to be sat next to the American for the first 8 hours of the bus journey. The three of us were the only Westerners on the bus, and while I had been having a lovely conversation with a green-eyed Costa Rican woman about how she would take me on a

“His favourite place was Mexico, where the women were very beautiful, astonishingly so, and regardless of their age, would date an ‘old gringo’.”

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tour of the capital, San Jose, Ian had been listening to the American talk about the Vietnam War. ‘He keeps excusing himself,’ Ian told me, clutching onto a bottle of water as if he was vaguely traumatised. ‘Starting his sentences with “I’m not a prejudiced guy, but…” And calling the Vietnamese, “my people”. I’m from Singapore!’ I nodded in solidarity, and the two of us spent the rest of our time at the border talking and laughing at the ridiculousness of the American’s behaviour. The American just made it back on the bus in time before it sped off. I did not make eye contact with him as he pushed his bulk between the small walkway and sat down heavily in the row that Ian had tactically vacated. I last saw him at the other end of the bus journey, stretching so that his thick, hairy waist fell out of his baggy jeans. I did not say goodbye, rushing towards the first beaten-up blue taxi I could see, and he remained nameless.

TUBE LINES

Rachel Dodson and Heidi Martin

BAKERLOO LINE As a city dweller you might have thought there are few opportunities for long walks that didnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t involve pushing past hoards of people on a dull grey street. But in fact there are many idyllic walks that you can take in London that donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t involve your bog standard park. This circular route, all five miles of it, starts at Warwick Avenue tube station. It guides you along the canals on the towpaths, past Camden, along Primrose Hill, and back to where you started. On your way be sure to keep an eye out for the blue historical plaques - they turn any unassuming building into a trove of mystery. You could spot the old residence of Robert Browning in Little Venice, Sylvia Plath on Fitzroy Road and many others, including William Strang and Sir George Alexander MacFarren.

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TRAVEL

SUMMER 2014

DISTRICT & CIRCLE LINE South Kensington. It has developed a stigma because of the wealthy Made In Chelsea clan, but there is nothing better than sitting out on the cobbled street of Exhibition Road when the sun is shining. Named the cultural heartland of London, it has the Natural History Museum to your left, the V&A to your right, and the Royal Albert Hall just up the way. This little thoroughfare will give you the holiday feeling, as you sip iced tea in a roadside cafĂŠ.

CENTRAL LINE This is one for a Saturday. Hop off at Bethnal Green, and simply follow the crowd. With over 100 stalls packed into the little road between Regentâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Canal and London Fields, you will find everything from organic meat and seafood, to luxury lingerie. Pick up some cheap vintage clothes, get your weekly food shop and be done in time to have a drink in one of the charming pubs.

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PICCADILLY LINE ‘Speakeasies’ were set up in 1920s America, when the selling and manufacturing of alcohol was prohibited. Hidden behind an unmarked door on Poland Street, Soho, is ‘Milk and Honey’ – the modern ‘speakeasy’. Enjoy exquisite, handcrafted cocktails in a relaxed, classy atmosphere. It’s open to non-members but you do need to book a table.

NORTHERN LINE A unique and charming London district, it deserves a visit day or night. In daylight hours wander along the cobbled streets and have lunch in one of its many charming cafés. The evening is when Angel really comes alive though. The district boasts some of the best independent theatres in London. We recommend The Little Angel Puppet Theatre; an amazing venue with innovative shows, most of which have extremely cheap ticket prices. Then pop out for something to eat and a few drinks. Whether you prefer a traditional English home-brewed ale, or modern experimental cuisine, with over 500 bars and restaurants it has something to suit everyone.

VICTORIA LINE Brixton has a reputation for being cool and trendy, and it is, but without the price tag that normally goes with the label. The market is full of amazing authentic restaurants, which are bustling with people every night of the week. Stop by Seven At Brixton for amazing ambience and delicious cocktails; including the Marmaladey Boy and Lemon Cheese Cake, both with a kick, and only five pounds.

HAMMERSMITH & CITY

Twelve carefully choreographed swinging pendulums, giving off their own individual light and sound have been transfixing visitors since its opening in February. Wonderfully hypnotic, if slightly unnerving, ‘Momentum’ invites you to journey through space as it plays with your emotions. The unique shape of the building means this exhibition would not work anywhere else, so it’s one not to be missed. ‘Momentum’ is at the Curve in the Barbican until 1st June 2014 and it’s completely free!

JUBILEE LINE Pop off at London Bridge and there’s a whole day of wonders to enjoy. Start at Borough market, just across the road from the station. Here you can browse food stalls boasting local produce and cuisines from around the world. Make the most of the free tasters, and be sure to try the mushroom pâte - it’s a delight. Then make your way to the river and take a walk down South Bank. Catch a street performance or two and have a drink on one of the several pub terraces. We recommend the Founders Arms. Although a bit pricey (as you’d expect right on the river), it has a lovely atmosphere; with patio heaters and blankets outside if you want to enjoy the fresh air but that hot summer we were promised hasn’t turned up just yet.

OVERGROUND

What better way to spend a summer’s afternoon than taking a dip in an outdoor pool, and you don’t even have to leave London. Get off the Overground at Hackney Central, and after a short walk you will find the London Fields Lido. The 50 metre, heated, outdoor swimming pool is open all year round, and it’s under a fiver to get in. After your swim, have a bite to eat in the café or relax in the sunbathing area.

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MUSIC

SUMMER 2014

Goldsmiths Alumni Interview: JUPITER-C BY PATRICK HEARDMAN

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Patrick Heardman sat down with Goldsmiths’ David Kane and Former St Martins Student Ashiya Eastwood of pop duo JUPITER-C to discuss their fascination with zombies and space rockets. So Ashiya you’re from Manchester and David is from Liverpool right? I was wondering how you came to meet and start this whole thing. Ashiya – It was about seven years ago at a house party in Manchester, we had mutual friends and ended up having an interesting conversation about zombies and film, which kept us in touch. We ended up going out as a couple a while later whilst we were both in separate bands, but mine fizzled out and yours kind of disintegrated didn’t it Dave? Dave – I’d say that’s probably an understatement. It was more of a catastrophe. We all moved in together under the impression we would be making music everyday but it didn’t transpire. Our bass player ended up getting stoned and playing Nazi Zombies relentlessly. But yeah Ashiya and I just started sharing ideas. I would supply the guitar side of things whilst she would do the electronic, and that’s how it stayed. Your first gig was just down the road at Café Crèma in August last year, how did you find taking your recorded sound into a live setting? David – That was actually the

hottest day of the year, and I had to carry my amp across East London on the overground. It wasn’t the best gig we played but it confirmed in our minds that what we definitely wanted to keep it going.

on my love of the Manchester music scene even since the likes of the Happy Mondays. We do concentrate on making our own sound but at the same time we aren’t scared of our influences.

Ashiya – Live performances are something we’ve gotten our heads round quite recently. Our writing process is essentially our recording process so it’s a case of when rehearsing to pull out the live aspects as much as possible.

Okay. How would you say Goldsmiths has helped you in this project if it has at all?

Watching your videos, it could be assumed you want to be associated with a certain visual aesthetic, is that fair to say? Ashiya – It wasn’t really a premeditated thing but we take inspiration from other disciplines. For me personally people like John Carpenter and Philip Glass, who produced the soundtrack for Koyaanisqatsi are massive influences as well as photo montage artists like Adam Curtis and Peter Kennard. You mentioned some influences before but two that jumped out at me instantly from listening were Kraftwerk and Joy Division. David – Yeah my exile from Liverpool to Manchester was based

Dave – Everyone here is so willing to share ideas. That’s what is so great; it’s enriched me personally. People will recommend me certain books or films that will then have an effect on the way I play my guitar. Like we said before we like to take influences from elsewhere, I don’t necessarily pick up my guitar and try to sound like Joy Division, but I’ll try to sound like something I’ve read instead. Ashiya – From a very literal point of view it got us our first gig down the road! David – Yeah to be a part of a network of people is great, to be able to be a part of a collective is a lot better than being stuck and stranded out on your own. Follow Jupiter-C’s movement on their website: http://www.jupiter-c.co.uk

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MUSIC

The Myth of the Female Musician

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El Hunt challenges the lazy categorisation that is placed upon successful female musicians all too often.

Language is an endlessly evolving thing. Anybody with an Oxford English Dictionary has access to about half a million entries right now, and that’s a figure that currently increases at a rate of about 900 words every three months. The upshot of this is that theoretically there are billions of combinations of words with which people can express and describe things. And yet, when we’re talking about female musicians the available vocabulary seems to plummet and condense into a pool of about 50. All too often female artists are reduced to songstresses or pop divas, sultry vixens or quirky, left-of-field indie chicks. This is language that mythologises a female artist as somehow otherworldly – or otherwise labels them as a certain ‘type’ of woman – in order to be understood. By definition a diva means a goddess, a force of female divinity. And yet it’s a term attached to almost every woman who gets behind a microphone and makes pop music. Male musicians, in contrast, only win comparisons to god-like deities when they have proven themselves as a musician over many years.

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MUSIC

Dissect a few more commonly occurring descriptors and a similar pattern emerges. A vixen is a ‘she-fox’, a songstress is a ‘female singing-bird’. The songstress crops up especially often in literary history, and most often she is conjured as a nice, calming voice to soothe the male protagonist after he’s done his thing slaying dragons and all that other stereotypical macho ‘guy stuff’. Have a read of Metamorphoses’ myth of Philomela, where an innocent woman suffers brutal violence and as some sort of compensation is turned into a nightingale for voiceless freedom. The idea of the ornamental woman who can only produce a beautified melody is thankfully absent from most parts of logically functioning society today. So why is this vocabulary still something that peppers the latest buzzy blog posts of 2014?

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they are clearly not the same thing, at all. The only thing that they unmistakably have in common, in fact, is that they both identify as female. Calling a female musician a songstress clearly isn’t the pinnacle of the music industry’s issues with sexism and misogyny; it’s mostly just slightly lazy writing that buys into language that should be outdated, and does a talented musician a disservice in the process. There are at least half a million words far better than the paltry selection of vocabulary that currently gets over-used. It won’t change the world completely, no, but a simple switch away from vocabulary that sexualizes, mythologises or otherwise typecasts female musicians will contribute towards creating a new pattern of change.

Female musicians are not demi-gods, magical woman-animal “Female musicians are not demi-gods, hybrids, melodic they are women who make music.” nymphets. They are just women who make music. The very broad category of ‘female musician’ is also a bit of a non sequitur, too. Just because two women share a talent for shredding the hell out of a guitar, or have a knack for crafting vaguely similar sounding music,

MUSIC

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Nick Woodall

Ann-Marie

Glen Burch

Degree: Humanistic and Psychoanalytic Counselling Song from your childhood: ‘Waterloo’ by Abba Memory: It was a sunny day and I was staying with my Grandma and Grandad in Chesterfield. The song was playing on the radio in the chip shop at the bottom of the road. The chippy was part of a small parade of shops that served the National Coal Board housing and local authority estates. Being young, it felt a bit scary to go there on my own but perhaps, also a sense of excitement. My memory is of the song, the sounds and smells of the cooking and the intensely bright sunshine.

Degree: BA Education, Culture, Society Song from your childhood: ‘BAD’ by Michael Jackson Memory: Dancing with siblings. I called my cat Michael because I loved him so much.

Kirstie Hewlett

Harri Noirhi

Degree: PhD Music Song from your childhood: ‘Pinball Wizard’ by The Who What memory is associated with it?: I must have been about 10 or 11. My parents had taken us to a friend’s house in Northampton. While they did whatever boring stuff parents do over cups of tea I headed upstairs with one of the friend’s kids. They had a Dansette - a small, portable, mono record player, and various 45s – 7”. The one that stood out for me was ‘Pinball Wizard’ by the Who. From the first strident guitar chords to the manic strumming of the main riff, I was electrified. I’d never heard pop music sound like this before. A voice shouted up the stairs to “Turn that noise down!” You can’t turn the sound of revolution down though, can you?

Degree: PhD Music Song from your childhood: ‘Easy Lover’ by Phil Collins Memory: My parents only owned a few CDs, and this album was mine and my sister’s favourite. I remember dancing around the living room to this song pretty much every weekend.

Anon Degree: BA Sociology Song from your childhood: ‘Smooth Criminal’ by ichael Jackson Memory: Dancing in my Mum’s bedroom like a badass.

Degree: BA Media & Sociology Song from your childhood: Opening song to Moomin TV Show Memory: I remember sitting round the TV with my whole family, watching ‘The Moomins’ in Finland. The song would play in my head much later, even when I would go to bed. It always seemed to calm me and prepare me for sleep. I still associate it with peace, tranquility, and happiness.

Dileh Serife Degree: Politics Song from your childhood: ‘I Want it That Way’ by Backstreet Boys Memory: The memory was simply associated with my obsession with the boyband itself.

Mikaela Aschin Degree: History of Art Song from your childhood: ‘Barbie Girl’ by Aqua Memory: I associate it with being a pretty girly girl and dancing to it with my friends. We didn’t understand the lyrics. The lead singer was Norwegian (like me), but singing in English – although we understood the word ‘Barbie’ perfectly!

Alexis Calvas Degree: BA Sociology/Politics Song from your childhood: ‘Wildchild’ by Enya Memory: My mother teaching me ballet in the studio.

Marie King Degree: Sociology Song from your childhood: Norwegian good night song ‘Byssan Luck’ Memory: My mother singing to me when I couldn’t sleep or was afraid because of some TV show or something!

MUSIC

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THE SOUND OF

Nostalgia

Lauren Bush reflects upon the childhood soundtrack of Goldsmiths students, ranging from The Who to the Backstreet Boys... BY LAUREN BUSH

It seems fair to say that in the digital age, the lack of sentiment between music and its listeners is somewhat saddening. With such a mass of music available on seemingly infinite online platforms, we are less focused on the discovery and memory of our first listening experience than we are with being first to â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;likeâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; it, share it, and then forget it; music has become vastly more peripheral. Whilst in the library, I looked around at others wearing headphones. What songs from their past resonate strongly in their lives, as so many do with my own? Pen and paper in hand, I recruited fellow Goldsmiths students to share their childhood soundtracks, with the hope of producing a musical memoir for all to see, and for the songs to be passed on for others to enjoy.

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fashion

photoshoot

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Aditi Jain, 21 University London College of Fashion, batch of 2014. Attended for 4yrs Course BA (hons) fashion design and development Inspirations My dad, as I have seen him expand his fashion business Future goals To establish my own fashion label of international repute.

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fashion

Jaesun Chung University London College of Fashion, 2012-2013 Course MA Fashion Design Technology Women’s wear Inspirations Something that represents spooky creatures or humorous monsters in me. It can be anything. People, art, science, philosophy, etc. Future goals To become a ‘child’ when working on fashion design, truly having fun, not being disturbed by anything.

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Photographer Cecilia Difford Editors of Photography Cecilia Difford & Benjamin Jones Directors Hannah Twiggs & Taylor McGraa Designers Olivia Howick, Aditi Jain, Jaesun Chung, Daniellle Richards Makeup Artist Sophia Hinton-Lever Models Sophia Hinton-Lever, Sammie Hayward, Emma Schwarz

Olivia Howick, 22 Olivia2010-2013 Howick, 22 University London College of Fashion, Course Fashion Design Technology: Surface Textiles University LondonbyCollege of Fashion, 2010-2013 Inspirations Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;m heavily influenced historical Fashion Design Technology: textile techniquesCourse and traditions, and finding a way Surface Textiles Inspirations Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;m heavily influenced by historical to re-invent them through contemporary techniques techniques traditions, and material. I also textile start every projectand with a bulk of and finding a way re-invent through techniques illustrations, whichtobecome thethem central pointcontemporary around material. alsonow start everytoproject with a bulk of my textile workand Future goals IFor I intend illustrations, which become the my central point around learn as much as I can. In the future I hope to build my textile work. work goals For now I intend to own brand, incorporating my love forFuture contemporary learn as much asswear I can. In the future I hope to build my textiles and simplistic women design. own brand, incorporating my love for contemporary textiles and simplistic women swear design.

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Danielle Richards University University London London College College of of Fashion Fashion Course Course BA in Fashion Inspirations I am BA inDesign FashionTechnology Design Technology inspired by cultural identity and street trend. My recent collection combined sports apparel with traditional costume for an interesting fusion of fabrics and colour Future goals For now I would like to work on a commercial level for a high end retailer but ultimately I dream of starting my own label.

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Give + Take by John Duku

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John Duku interviews boutique owner Gary Patrick on his radical way of trade and his passionate contribution to charity.

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Take a stroll down East Dulwich’s Lordship Lane and you will find a boutique named Give + Take. This labour of love was opened on Valentine’s Day 2011 by actor Gary Patrick and his wife Jane – a former product director at Aquascutum. Observing how charities were often unaware of the quality of donated clothes that had passed through their stores, the Patricks’ combined commercial acumen, ethical product-sourcing and their industry contacts to execute neo-liberal life lesson #15: find your passion and work out how to get paid for it. Gary ‘holds the baby’ day-to-day, managing a team of two friendly assistants who guide customers

“The boutique has raised over £10k solely for breast cancer charity ‘Breakthrough” through the ‘guilt-free shopping experience’ as advertised on the Give + Take website. Within an aesthetically pleasant space, well-presented male and female lines sit alongside furniture, home-wares and beauty products. I was led on a tour of Spencer Hart shirts, LK Bennett shoes and

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“The Patricks’ combined commercial acumen, ethical product-sourcing and their industry contacts”

giveandtakeshop.co.uk

Valentino handbags discounted to a third of their RRP; evidence of the recyclable designer fashion trend commentators predicted under the clouds of the recession. Customers who donate merchandise to Give + Take are granted 50% off the net selling price of their goods as store credit (hence the name Give + Take), thus ‘exchanges’ represent 80% of store turnover. Expectedly, there is broad variation in the marketability of goods received in this manner. The staffs’ trained eyes spot quality items most likely to sell on the shop floor, with any subsequent surplus items donated to ‘traditional’ charity shops to ethically close the loop.

In addition to this refreshing way of selling recycled merchandise, Gary and Jane also support a breadth of causes through their business: from The Eve Appeal for gynaecological cancer research, to the homeless and indigents in Cape Town. In fact,the boutique has raised over £10k solely for breast cancer charity ‘Breakthrough’. Mr Patrick lost his mother to breast cancer, and the store itself was secured with money that she had left him, providing a profound connection to their involvement with such causes and proving the passion driving it. It is satisfying to see an enterprise committed to originality, ethics and giving in the local community. Independent retailers such as Give + Take can play a significant part in shaping our next generation of fashion marketing. I urge you all to take a visit and help support one of the good guys; to give them the recognition and reward that their innovative approach truly deserves.

“Customers who donate merchandise to Give + Take are granted 50% off the net selling price of their goods”

3 Lordship Lane East Dulwich London SE22 8EW

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Is fashion growing a conscience or is this just another controversial marketing strategy? by Hannah Twiggs

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Fashion conscious or fashion conscience? Hannah Twiggs considers the use of transgender and 62-year old models in advertising campaigns

It’s safe to say that fashion is an industry that constantly recycles superficial images of slim, young and beautiful women. We are peddled a perfect and mostly unattainable body image that we aspire to be like and inevitably buy into. This image fails to integrate the diverse range of people in the world and therefore manifests unrealistic ideals of beauty. While these may be implicit qualities of the fashion world, there are some brands that are reorienting their advertising strategies by using models that don’t submit to the typical model ‘standard’. In the spring 2014 campaign ‘Brothers, Sisters, Sons & Daughters’, for New York department store Barneys, 17 transgender models were photographed wearing high fashion labels Balenciaga, Saint Laurent and Givenchy. The campaign not only featured the faces of the models but also their inspirational back-stories of facing

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“Fashion is an industry that constantly recycles superficial images of slim, young and beautiful women” adversity on the catwalk. Creative Director Dennis Freedman said of the campaign: ‘While the lesbian, gay and bisexual community has made enormous strides in this country in the last five to ten years, it has always been glaring to me that the trans community has been left behind.’ Many critics suggested that the campaign simply pointed out accepted gender norms; playing on what men and women should look like rather than breaking down gender barriers. But the Barneys team claimed to be raising awareness for the 700,000 transgenders living in the US who are dealing with unemployment, suicide and homelessness. It could be argued that Barneys’ dynamic campaign not only broke the mould of typecast fashion imagery, but also gave a voice for transgenders in the fashion community - where they are significantly underrepresented. And they’re not the only ones. American Apparel, whose recent adver-

fashion tising has become synonymous with controversial and suggestive marketing strategies, hit gold with their recent promo. In an advert for their new lingerie line, they used 62-year-old model Jacky O’Shaughnessy. Labelled ‘Sexy has no expiration date’, the provocative images feature Jacky in a white room, wearing purple lacy underwear. ‘I was game the whole time,’ she said in a recent interview with Elle magazine. ’I’m comfortable. I don’t feel that any of this is inappropriate. When people talk about age-appropriate hairstyles, and age-appropriate dressing, well, whose age? And who are

“17 transgender models were photographed wearing high fashion labels Balenciaga, Saint Laurent and Givenchy” you?’ While the campaign is a far cry from their customary raunchy approach, you can’t deny that it is still just as eye-catching. O’Shaughnessy is only the next gambit in what is becoming an industry-wide marketing fad. UK high-street behemoth Marks and Spencer have launched many notable unusual campaigns, featuring women as disparate and fascinating as Tracy Emin and Helen Mirren. Their 2014 ‘Leading Ladies’ campaign had a lot to say about diversity, featuring actress Emma Thompson, living legend

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Annie Lennox and anti-racism campaigner Doreen Lawrence. M&S executive director Patrick Bousquet-Chavanne describes the brand as ‘relevant to women of all ages and strands of life’, and said the campaign aimed to be a celebration of ‘women of substance.’ Fashion has often had a visceral conviction for the textbook definition of ‘modelling’, a booming sub industry currently dominated by slim, young and beautiful women. The increase in more mature models in campaigns is refreshing; breathing new life into the principle that style transcends age. An older woman or a transgender person broadens a brand’s appeal to a different contingent of consumers, whilst also breaking down beauty ideals. But is there an ulterior motive in shock value? A 60-year-old woman in lingerie for a provocative youth brand, or transgenders in haute couture on the front of a global, high-fashion magazine is obviously going to generate a talking-point for that brand or that magazine. The question is, is fashion finally growing a conscience or is this just another controversial marketing strategy used to create a buzz around the brand?

“An older woman or a transgender person broadens a brand’s appeal to a different contingent of consumers”

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Meet The Sapeurs by Taylor McGraa

Taylor McGraa discusses the colourful world of The Congoâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Sapeur Community, and why it epitomises what fashion should really stand for.

ISSUE 71 The men sweat and strain, fire engulfs them. They wash away the dirt and kit themselves up - a tie, a pocket square, fantastic coloured socks. These striking images create a sharp contrast to the huts and the dust of the Congo. A deep voice tells us: ‘In life, you cannot always choose what you do, but you can always choose who you are.’

“These striking images create a sharp contrast to the huts and the dust of the Congo” Last January, you may have come across this beautifully executed Guinness advert, which caused conversation to flow between culture heads and fashion kids alike. Shot in the depths of poverty-stricken Congo, it exhibits the outrageous and inspiring world of the Société Des Ambianceurs Et Des Personnes Élégantes. Or for short, The Sapeurs. The Sapeurs are a society of Congolese men who, after a long day grafting in the heat, like to scrub up in the likes of Armani and Versace. They pride themselves in their personal presentation and grandeur. Congo is one of the most war-torn countries on earth, and yet the Sapeurs use the art of clothing to rise above this. The removal of their working rags, replaced with items such as canary yellow suits, is a strong and symbolic way of disconnecting from their backgrounds, and transcending their traditional

fashion impoverished image to one of unique style, elegance and flair. Unlike our Westernised connections of fashion with wealth, the Sapeur’s indulgence in luxurious appearance is not about the money; their use of clothing goes much deeper than materialistic value. In a five minute documentary that Guinness produced alongside their advert, a member of the society tells us how ‘[they] borrow each other’s clothes because as [they] always say: it’s not the cost of the suit that counts, it’s the worth of the man inside.’ The shirts and kilts lined up in the Sapeur’s wardrobe are not about peacocking their possessions, but about representing their taking part in a peaceful community, which focuses its energy on dressing up and feeling good, rather than aggression. They have taken something as simple as apparel, and manifested it into a positive movement amongst the terrors of their country and government. There are multiple layers woven into the history and reason behind these men’s clothing choices, such as heritage, French culture and reactions to the Civil War; but for now I have chosen only to provide a small essence of who these men are

“They pride themselves in their personal presentation and grandeur”

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“The Sapeur’s indulgence in luxurious appearance is not about the money” and what they are all about, because for me, these men truly epitomise what fashion should really stand for; a force of unity and community, as well as personal identity Our society seems to mix up the idea of clothing with connections to wealth and other avaricious bullshit. We make quick judgements on who people are depending on what they wear; lower-income kids should be wearing Lacoste tracksuits, a career woman should be in a Cos coat, and a hipster in a ‘vintage’ jumper from a commercialised Rokit store.

“We make quick judgements on who people are depending on what they wear” The Sapeurs contradict this mentality. They provide us with a pleasant reminder that we can really get creative in expressing ourselves through our fashion choices, and that we have the right to do so without allowing others to use it as a way of defining our background or personal experiences. As they hang up their beloved duck-egg blue blazer in their mud hut, they also remind us to forget the cliches and classes that we associate with specific clothes, and ultimately, to expect the unexpected.

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in the middle, but not MEDIOCRE Goldsmiths is synonymous with groundbreaking art. But do its current art students live up to this reputation? Priya Shemar discusses the most promising works in their recent exhibition, The Middle.

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In March, second-year Fine Art and Art History students took to discreet surroundings in East London to show their work in The Middle. Subject matter and visuals ranged from the political issues in

“...the sculptures looked like animals without limbs or heads.” Palestine, to a leopard print cushion placed (very carefully) on top of a cardboard tube. As expected from Goldsmiths, some works conveyed impressive levels of aestheticism and complexity. In recreating images of her Grandfather’s mistress, Alice Jump is both photographer and model in the I Heart Marge series. Her Grandfather’s relationship remained secret for over 40 years, and Alice retains that level of intimacy in her work. There was an overt display of traditional

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femininity as Marge sat poised in a silk nightshirt or lay on a bed in homely surroundings. The artist ‘wanted her to be seen as a dangerous female’, yet the photographs displayed a more nuanced vision. Jump hinted at levels of sympathy between the viewer and Marge as some details deliberately did not mesh – there was a contrast between contemporary and dated objects. Power played against vulnerability in this unnerving yet spectacular exploration of sexuality and relationships. Further into the exhibition visitors mulled over a composition of vintage chairs and ambiguous sculptures by Halo Hughes. Smoothly varnished, and a shade of deep green, the sculptures looked like animals without limbs or heads. As well as being visually stimulating, Four Legs Good. Two Legs Bad was a nod towards the absurd. The title took its inspiration from an Orwellian quote, and Hughes was clearly interested in the relationship between individuals and their surroundings. This premise was mirrored in the viewing itself, as Hughes challenged ‘that desire to define’. Four Legs’ invited attention, redefining the boundaries between our understanding of art and society.

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The most aesthetically striking piece was Sarah Blum’s Untitled (I Remember); an experiment in the fragmentary nature of memories and objects over time. Placed in the corner of the room and immersed in white light, refracting pieces of broken glass were suspended in the air by metal wires in a beautiful array. At the heart of this piece lay a complex investigation into Dementia and Alzheimer’s disease. Blum stated: ‘I intended the work to form an intersection between the lives of others and engage the audience through the anonymity and familiarity of fragmentary objects,’ and her aims were certainly achieved. In a stunning display of simplicity, Sarah Blum’s work subtly delved into complex issues in a way that did not alienate the viewer. If this exhibition is anything to go by the future of Goldsmiths art promotes the experiences of the individual, whilst challenging the viewer. Although radical and controversial pieces were few and far between, The Middle reminded viewers that conceptual art is still the forté of students. The featured artists managed to balance concepts and aesthetics in stunning ways. Given that they are only ‘in the middle’, a lot should be expected from this generation.

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A night out at Goldsmiths – the demise of Club Sandwich by Amy Walker

In a new attempt to generate some excitement Club Sandwich has shifted to a Thursday. Sceptical Amy Walker investigates whether the re-branding will make Goldsmiths’ night out any less awkward. Arriving at Goldsmiths last September, scrunchie ‘n’ Reeboks intact and ready for some arts school action, I became quickly disillusioned by what the open day tour-guides had sold to us as the Universities’ no. 1 night out. Losing my club sandwich v is now a somewhat hazy memory after several months in the big bad city, but I do distinctly remember a girl smoking a blunt whilst scoffing ‘she’s cool haha (not)’ at her fellow females to a backdrop of 90s shitpop. After that first banger of a night, the sandwich crowd gradually seemed to cool off towards essay doom. So I was ready to throw in the towel and say that grinding to the

noughties’ worst anthems with ten other people on a Wednesday night was just not my thing - despite the cheap booze before ten. However, Club Sandwich decided to rebrand itself, i.e. it moved to Thursday, so I decided to take another bite. For all of you who haven’t yet attended a Club Sandwich THURSDAY, here’s a bit of a heads up from my experience last week. Strangely enough, despite several cans of Captain and Coke to gear up for those sandwich vibes, the event remains as awkward as fuck. When you’re ushered in by stern bouncers, three hours of the almost empty dance floor and the aura of extreme soberness from everyone who isn’t on it is almost pitiable. Why is it that even after the expectations of fresher’s have faded away and we’ve all splashed our government cash on Chick Chicken and a tenner a-pop events, most of us continue to avoid the student union like it’s chlamydia, even if just for a laugh?

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A few reasons spring to mind but I thought I’d ask the DJ’s. I would’ve provided some pictures, however the main guy was really seriously into his art, at this point playing Blink-182 and making hand gestures at me flashing the Kodak. The other was generally a nicer guy, but when I asked him why people don’t go to Club Sandwich he told me that he went to Brunel which is a real party place and the people here are just too indie for that scene. When he asks me what I would change, I say: where’s the Missy Elliot/Craig David at? He disapproves. Fair game. A few rounds of blundering conversations with people who also have no idea why they are even at Club Sandwich later, and we decided to go get chips instead. Perhaps Goldsmiths really is too liberated for a weekly event that keeps chugging along to music that most of us didn’t even like when we were 7. However, when I ask my friends about Club Sandwich, after the general opinion that the music, place and crowd are shit, comes the willing hopefulness that more people would go just to liven up their 15 quid budgeted week. Perhaps if DJ Brunel were to be overthrown, and the hench bouncers entertained, some enjoyment could be gained from Club Sandwich. Like the guys on the Stretch’s Facebook piccy’s, we too could make more one night only bff’s.

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Is public space really ours? by Cristina Vasilescu

The concept of public space is controversial simply because it is public and thus influenced by a great variety of people, thought systems, actions and reactions. We walk, cycle, and talk on the move and we encounter things. But we don’t observe the scenery around us, our capacity to take pleasure and knowledge from the space we interact with is prevented. Pedestrians must always pay attention to cars instead of letting themselves be captivated by the wider world. There is the constant stress that if you take a wrong step you will have to pay for your inattention. We are blind to the

city in our rush to reach our final destination, to be on time and waste none, going everywhere but seeing nothing. Born from the desire to reclaim the public space used for mindless transit, a project in Bucharest in Romania called Street Delivery, in which a street is closed for traffic and is opened for pedestrians during a three-day period, has been very successful. By adopting the slogan ‘We close the street for cars and we open it for people’, Street Delivery festival has reached its ninth inception. Culture, art, performance, dance, music, urban

“Cristina Vasilescu on the curation and creation of ‘public’ space.”

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ideas and civic projects come together in a vivid, energetic and artistic event. I spoke to one of the project founders, Cristian Neagoe, who said he believes that Romanian public space has been transformed since the first festival in 2006. He also stated his plans for a national Street Delivery weekend, sometime in the beginning of June, in which all citizens will be able to enjoy the streets in a completely different way, an alternative to the daily traffic jam. In England in the 90s there was a similar project called Reclaim the Streets in which people turned highways and roads into autonomous spaces for music

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and carnivals. There are many comparable enterprises happening at the moment in the UK, such as Bristol’s high-street waterslide project and Brandalism, in which guerilla artists take over corporate advertising spaces. But so far the art doesn’t seem as widespread and exciting as Street Delivery.

city have? What is the criteria for the acceptance of a public artistic piece? Why do we generally assign public projects to well-established artists? Why can’t young students exhibit their ideas on a Fifth Plinth in Trafalgar Square? Public art encourages us to critique why we conform.

Nevertheless, all public space, whether overtaken by traffic jams or not, opens up a great realm of expression for public art. Often perceived to have high aesthetic value for cities, public art also creates space to be provocative. It allows us to question our environment: how much agency should the people who inhabit a

As Belgian political theorist Chantal Mouffe argues, public space should be an arena for dissent and antagonism. As long as our actual public space is controlled by a select group of people, how can we call our societies democratic?

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everest curry king

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Widening his increasingly obsessive search for the cheapest and best local food, Adam Morby strikes gold.

It’s all about that plate in front of you, with the food on it. Nothing else. When you graduate and you’re earning large amounts of money every year you can start thinking about the décor and the square plates and the plush of the chairs, and the location in Dalston or wherever the next ‘up and coming’ place is. But for the moment, the food should be in control. Students nowadays are spending a lot more. I could swear that back in the day students would drink instant coffee, know the whereabouts of all the cheapest places to eat, and a pair of sixty-pound trainers would have been the thing of a madman’s dreams. But excessive spending has become so tacit and normalised

that I must sound like a madman for telling you to go to Everest Curry King - an insanely cheap eatery just fifteen minutes down the road from Goldsmiths. When I lived in Thailand one of the best things about it was that to eat out was to save money, and Everest Curry King is getting you pretty close. You can get an impressively tasty vegetable curry for £1.95, meat for £2.95. Spend a fiver and you’ll get a plate of rice, a meat curry, three vegetable curries, a bowl of yoghurt sauce, a bowl of coconut amazingness that I don’t know the name of, and a couple of poppadoms. I go there three times a week, £3.00 for lunch and a £1.95 vegetable curry for dinner, and that, excepting a few

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bowls of muesli, is almost half my week’s food. The staff are quiet, friendly and a little shy. They seem nervous about their food somehow, but they shouldn’t be because it’s wonderful; classically authentic, for better or worse. They make a dozen or so curries the night before, all their rotis, all their bajjis, all their Soosiyams, Bondas and Vaipans, so there is of course a hell of a lotta microwaving going on, but you wouldn’t know were it not for the hum, whirr and bing. To get there turn right out of Goldsmith’s shiny new entrance and walk down Lewisham Way for fifteen minutes. It’s on the opposite side of the road, just before the centre of the borough. If it was up to me, I’d get them to set up shop in Goldsmiths and take out one of those bloody Costas.

EVEREST CURRY KING “When I lived in Thailand one of the best things about it was that to eat out was to save money, and Everest Curry King is getting you pretty close.”

24 Loampit Hill Lewisham SE13 7SW

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why eat?

Joanna Rowse considers what Soylent, the drink containing enough nutrition to fuel the body without food, means for the future (it’s bleak). Every now and again a news item pops up in our mainstream media that points towards the world getting that little bit more Black Mirroresque. In recent times we have read about the 3D printer which could enable the mass production of guns, the teenager who developed an addiction to taking selfies and had to undergo mental health treatment, and Amazon’s plans to start delivering orders via personalised drone: ‘Prime Air’. These stories make great pub talk, as well as occasionally passable seminar material if you’re better at trawling the internet for weird articles than doing the required reading. Ultimately, what is so dystopian about these stories is how they challenge the idea of a limited human body. As we increasingly

transpose our physical likes from reality to virtual profiles, and create time-saving technologies that mean industries may no longer be limited to how long and hard their workers can labour, the physicality of the human body disappears. ‘Soylent’ could not be a better embodiment of this idea. Soylent is a new technology designed to replace healthy eating - for when ‘food is a hassle’, says its website. It comes in the form of a beige liquid, which needs no refrigeration, preparation, cooking or cleaning-up, and is tailored to suit the consumer’s bodily needs. Health and life benefits are aplenty, and all images of Slimfast milkshakes ignored, Soylent sounds pretty amazing. It could save huge quantities of time and human energy - no longer will we be restricted by

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the petty demands of our bodies! Furthermore, manipulating our bodily needs to get the absolute most out of our time is something we are all already accustomed to, albeit on a more banal scale. Consider this: how many coffees do you drink a day? How many do you drink a day when deadlines are approaching, or when you have a long shift at work? We exist as a generation frustrated at the constraints of time and energy, and the absolute impossibility of Bernard’s watch. Soylent means you can spend more time behind your books and less time by the oven. Last summer, The Telegraph reported on propositions for drug tests during exam periods, as students increasingly looked to ‘smart drugs’ such as Ritalin to enhance their concentration and save them time. Perhaps someday students will be washing their

“...the consumer might lose a part of herself as a social individual, but they will be able to spend more time at her office desk.”

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ADHD medication down with a pint of Soylent in the library. And what of the other purposes of food than that of as fuel for the body? As a hobby, or bonding exercise, or as part of your identity? Soylent might replace nutrients but it can’t replace the less tangible aspects of food. This is what is so depressing about Soylent: the consumer might lose a part of herself as a social individual, but they will be able to spend more time at her office desk. Sadly, with over 20,000 customers this month, the zombie apocalypse is already underway. Currently, Soylent is available only in the US. Come mid2014, international delivery will be available; but I for one will happily fall behind in school, work, eat out, and host more time-consuming dinner parties, than celebrate a Soylent-filled lifestyle.

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Three Thai Curries BY Adam Morby

To go with my recent and slightly aggressive rant about Thai curries, I thought I’d put my money where my mouth is and give you three recipes that I hope will demonstrate their versatility, deliciousness and simplicity. With all of these curries I would recommend a side dish of pak choi, lightly stir-fried with a few tablespoons of good soy sauce – and, before you vegetarians start givin’ it all this, the meat is interchangeable with firm tofu. I should add, these are Thai curries in their simplest form. There are any number of embellishments out there, in technique and ingredient, but I’ll let the more adventurous of you find those out for yourselves.

THAI RED CURRY AND PINEAPPLE This first one is a spicy, wet and fruity curry. It’s simple and takes about ten minutes. You could mess around with it if you feel like it. Change the paste to green and the pineapple to aubergine, for example. INGREDIENTS (Serves four) Red curry paste (2 tablespoons) Two chicken breasts, sliced One tin of coconut milk One pineapple chopped into small chunks Oil (2 tablespoons) Fish sauce (2 tablespoons) Sugar (half a teaspoon) Handful of coriander or thai basil (optional) - Fry the paste in the oil like crazy but keep it moving and don’t burn it. Add the sugar too. - Pour a little of the coconut milk into the paste and fry some more. - Add the rest of the coconut milk - Fill half the empty cocunut milk can with water and add. - When it’s at a simmer throw in the chicken breast and the coconut and cook for another five minutes. Remove from the heat and add the fish sauce and coriander/basil, if using.

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PENAENG CURRY LEAN MEAT

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WITH

ANY

I eat this one all the time because I’m always sniffing around the butchers in Sainsbury’s for cheap meat. The meat I’m talking about here would be pork leg, pork loin, chicken breast, top rump, rump, sirloin or rib-eye steak. You could even use a whole fillet of fish, but be a little bit careful with it. Also, be careful that the meat doesn’t give off too much juice/water, if it does, just quickly drain it off. INGREDIENTS 600g of any of the above meats, sliced into thin strips Penaeng curry paste (1 tablespoon) A handful of those long thai red chillis, sliced diagonally A tin of coconut cream Sugar (half a teaspoon) Fish sauce (1 tablespoon)

Oil (2 tablespoons) Coriander/Thai basil (optional). - Fry the meat very hot and very quick for about two minutes. - Add the paste and the sugar and stir till it’s nice and fragrant. - Throw in the chillis, stir fry for a minute, still nice and hot. - Add the coconut cream and stir quickly till you know the meat is cooked. - If you’re using a fillet of fish leave out step one, add a little water, lay the fish gently into the pan, turn the heat down and cover till it’s cooked - about ten minutes. NOTE: This is the final word on how to cook rice. Buy jasmine rice, or any ‘thai style’ rice that you can find. Wash it till it runs clear then cover it in water, a single centimeter higher than the level of the rice. Bring to the boil then turn it down low. Ten minutes. Turn it off and leave it covered. Another ten minutes and it’ll be ready.

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CHICKEN/BEEF MASSAMAN WITH POTATOES AND PEANUTS This is of my own design, as they generally don’t have ovens in Thailand. It’s cheap, delicious, and completely chilli free. INGREDIENTS serves four Massaman curry paste (MaePloy is the chilli free variety, and the best) 8 chicken drumsticks and thighs or 600g cubed stewing steak A small bag of peanuts, rinsed A tin of coconut milk Oil (2 tablespoons) One onion, sliced A couple of handfuls of new potatoes, sliced in half Fish sauce (1 tablespoons) Sugar (half a teaspoon) Handful of coriander or basil (optional)\

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- Heat the oven to Gas Mark 7. - Put the onion in an oven dish, and the chicken/beef and potatoes on top of the onion. Put it in the oven. - In a frying pan, fry the paste in the oil till it becomes very fragrant, and don’t burn it. Add the sugar too. - Pour the coconut milk into the pan with the paste and bring it to a simmer. - When the meat etc has cooked for 20 minutes, pour over the paste and coconut milk. Cook for another 30 minutes. - If you’re using beef, cover it with kitchen foil and give it an extra twenty minutes, the potatoes can handle it. - Remove from the oven, add the fish sauce and stir as best you can. - Serve with the basil/coriander and peanuts on top, and if you want to go completely crazy, a one-egg omelette too.

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POLITICS

The Baby Photos That Will Last Forever Lucie Horton on the worrying increase of the Facebook baby generation.

As I move into my twenties there’s been a change in my newsfeed. From the first pregnancy scan revealing the big news, to the exhausted post-birth smiling photo; babies have begun appearing in between the dissertation selfies and posts about drunken nights out. I belong to the Facebook generation. I have created and formed my own social media identity – freely giving all my personal information and uploading photographs, so that my 429 friends and Facebook marketers can know all about me. Georgie* (name changed, ironically), nine months old, also belongs to the Facebook generation. Her information has also been freely provided to Facebook, but obviously, not by her. Since she was born, her

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mother has been sharing Georgie’s life online, but is it right that her digital identity should be created for her? Georgie’s mother, Madison Stormes-Martino, 21, believes that the pros of being a ‘sharent’ out way the cons. Madison says that 90% of the content she posts is about her child. As Madison’s Facebook friend I’ve had regular updates on Georgie’s first smile, first roll, first burp... It’s been a cute but tedious progression for me, but I’m sure an incredibly exciting time for Madison. ‘I’m with her all day everyday,’ Madison says; ‘I’m not sure how interesting it is for other people, but because she’s my baby she seems to do new stuff all the time. I’ve got family abroad and Facebook is the only way they get to see her.’

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“As we grow up, we all develop our own identity, and children have the right to do that too, without any baggage.”

Madison isn’t alone, in a recent survey conducted by print site Posterista, 64% of the 2,360 parents questioned said they updated their social media with pictures of their children more than three times a week, with only 6% claiming to have never posted about their offspring. Caroline Hurst, Education Manager at Childnet.com, a charity that works to make the Internet safe for children, appreciates the advantages of ‘sharenting’; ‘it creates a community where parents can feel connected and track child development.’

all your own content, you give Facebook the permission to sub-license it to their partners. The information is mainly used to sell to advertisers but there is technically nothing to stop Facebook handing over your content to whomever they please. What’s more, facial recognition software is able to correlate images of a person together by taking a mathematical web. This software will only get better; making it easy for someone to trace a digital identity right back to nappies.

These advantages are obvious so you could argue that Facebook is just a modern-day family album. But I would have to disagree, because Facebook isn’t private. Within their data-use policy, although you own

“This software will only get better; making it easy for someone to trace a digital identity right back to nappies.”

And of course, there’s a reason parents use their Facebooks to talk about their children; because their lives are about their children. Elizabeth O’Shea, founder of Parent4Successs, a company that runs parenting classes, says; ‘I think parents are much happier to share images of their children than images of themselves. They’re very proud of their children and they’re part of their life.’ Equally, if you spend all your time in the gym, your identity, digital or otherwise, will be defined by your gym habits. Your Facebook friends will be lucky enough to read fascinating updates on how healthy your lunch was and how many miles you can run. So far, so dull. Except posting pictures of your muscles is your prerogative, and you’re not affecting anyone’s life but your own.

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Parents posting about their children, on the other hand, are forming the child’s social media identity. And a digital identity is important because it is there forever. Claire Lily, Head of Child Safety Online at the NSPCC, agrees; ‘You might think it’s funny to post a picture of your child on the potty, but you have to think about how they’ll react in the future. As we grow up, we all develop our own identity, and children have the right to do that too, without any baggage.’

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The future for Facebook babies is uncertain. Will job-hunters be put off by little Jimmy’s bed wetting habits? Will Suzie be teased when that paddling pool video comes to surface? Or will Facebook die a death and all the content go with it? Who knows. I just think that children should be able to form their own digital identities, without their parents doing it for them.

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Enemies of the internet Tederos Getachew on the hot topic of government internet surveillance and why we’re all being watched.

“The ridiculous amount of surveillance in this country has genuinely led me to feel like I am living in a police state.”

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Since Edward Snowden’s controversial whistle-blowing (not treason, whistle-blowing) brought the world’s attention to the scope of government surveillance, the freedom of the internet has been a hot topic. Reporters without Borders, who advocate for freedom of information, recently published a report titled ‘Enemies of the Internet 2014: entities at the heart of censorship and surveillance’ and the UK’s coalition government was amongst the top offenders. Our beloved government was named ‘World Champion of surveillance’. It seems that the intention of GCHQ (Government Communications Headquarters, our National Security Agency) is, in their words, to ‘master the internet’. So, although we can’t win the World Cup, our government is going to make sure we excel in this capacity. But how does one master the Internet? Well GCHQ, with the help of the USA’s NSA), uses Britain’s advantageous geographical location in terms of cables, which have been referred to as the backbone of the Internet. 49 of the 263 that exist run under British beaches. The GCHQ has managed to create a program called Tempora, believed to have been launched in 2011, which uses these cables to collect metadata (time, duration and sometimes

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locational information about calls, texts and emails) but also the content of some communications. The metadata is kept for about 30 days while content is stored for three days. The vile success of programs such as Tempora has only been made possible by the relationships that the government and private communication companies have. When you signed up for your phone contract, your email address, or any form of digital communication, did you sign up to have your data stored? Probably. Don’t remember? Probably because none of us read the terms and conditions. And probably because they don’t even say about supplying your data to the government in most terms and conditions. Optic Nerve, another one of GCHQ and NSA’s babies, managed to collect thousands of images from Yahoo Messenger webcam chats (you can only imagine the amount of genitalia they viewed). The goal of the program was to collect as many passport photo type images of as many people to help with facial recognition software. In essence, we will get your face before you commit a crime so that if you do commit a crime, we can run facial recognition software and find

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you. Seems logical and relatively understandable right? Except for the fact that it completely ignores the notion of innocent until proven guilty.

“In essence, we will get your face before you commit a crime so that if you do commit a crime, we can run facial recognition software and find you.” The ridiculous amount of surveillance in this country has genuinely led me to feel like I am living in a police state. But I guess it is unsurprising considering that the leaders of our world are not the ones that we - the few of us who are not politically apathetic - believe we are voting for. Instead, oblivious to many, they exist as lobbyists, under the influence of massive corporations. I strongly believe that without some kind of massive revolution or messiah this country will slowly fall into a new kind of fascism that terrifies me to my core. I guess it’s only a question of whether we will just let this happen or if we will demand true democracy. Time will tell.

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Twitch Plays Pokémon

the realities of e-democracy and politics on the internet

It’s not often a Nintendo gaming franchise and heavyweight style of political governance come hand in hand, but one of the Internet’s most recent phenomenons that has worked its way up the hallowed forums of Reddit seems proof that it can happen. Twitch Plays Pokemon (TPP) is a version of a Pokémon game streamed on the video website Twitch. TPP works through an instant messaging format, in which individual postings by members control the movements and actions of a Pokémon player-character. Members can vote how they want decisions to be made within the game, with Democracy (requiring a ‘super majority’ vote of 75% from the users), or Anarchy (requiring only a majority) changing the way decisions are made. In much the same way as Twitter and Facebook, critics have been linking the rise of TPP to new political trends. This includes the fact that only half of 18-24 year olds voted in the past election, as well as the call for the British public to be consulted more often about government affairs.

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Toby Roddham considers how Pokémon could change the shape of UK politics.

Although this can be seen to be just another internet phenomenon, TPP can be considered a democratic system where every vote has a meaning. The characters’ actions are played out according to popular consensus, and therefore create an online parallel to the practice of direct democracy. In TPP, as in all democracies, there are those few who make rash decisions over the fate of their nation (or Pokémon character). UK parties such as the Monster Raving Loony Party are quite easy to associate with the online ‘trolls’ that inhabit TPP; usually just participating to expose flaws in the system. TPP reflects how a democratic society would function if everyone’s choices led to immediate results. The major realisation of the experiment has been that, once people realise they can achieve an instant result, they begin to use the system for their own amusement, or rope others in to follow their lead. This in turn eventually leads to the destruction, or devaluation, of the society. Some users have employed ‘bots’, a type of software that makes

“The characters’ actions are played out according to popular consensus, and therefore create an online parallel to the practice of direct democracy” automated decisions, to vote within the game for no other reason than to mess with the system. TPP is an online example of how the masses can either work together, to progress, or run in completely opposite directions. As in a democracy, when two sets of votes are equal, the player character in TPP has been forced into an impasse, with the conflicting votes in some instances causing the character to become immobile. It’s probably a bit of a stretch to imagine a society where all democratic acts are made online through user votes, but there are strong advocates for the creation for an online democratic system. Parties such as Italy’s Five Star Movement have made technology-based pol-

icies including the creation of an online voting system; a staple of their manifesto and party ideology. The argument being that if an online resource were used to allow registered voters to take part in democracy it would allow internet-literate voters to remain at home and cast their vote instead of appearing at polling stations. The merits of an e-democracy show that it would allow for a more engaging style of politics, as it could encourage more of the populace to vote and read manifestos online. But arguably, if the UK were to use e-democracy techniques, it could further numb a generation to politics by devaluing the nature of their beliefs.

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Public school twittishness at its worst on Prime Minister’s Questions Charlie Brinkhurst-Cuff discovers another reason why today’s political elite aren’t connecting with young voters.

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As the camera swept over the MP’s at a recent Prime Minister’s Questions, I shook my head in dismay. The room was filled with placid-looking, generally overweight, middle-aged white men with a tiny smattering of white women in between them (there are 147 female MP’s to 503 men). Although I’m sure that they were there, I could not spot the 27 elected MP’s of ethnic minority background. They were overwhelmed by the bland political norm. And they wonder why they struggle to get young people to vote. I turned the programme off after 20 gruelling minutes. For those who didn’t know, Prime Minister’s Questions is a weekly Wednesday broadcast during which the Prime Minister spends around half an hour answering questions from MP’s. As so happens over the years, Prime Minister’s Questions has recently been under fire from Ed Miliband and Nick Clegg, who, along with John Bercow – the ‘speaker’ (or, from what I understand, the guy who attempts to keep idiotic MP’s from saying too much stupid shit during debates) – proposes reform. Bercow has apparently written to the Prime Minister about this reform, and in early April he brutally reminded

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the MP’s that their behaviour is the type of thing that the public hate. As Bercow noted in an interview in February, ‘There are people who think culturally the atmosphere is very male,very testosterone-fuelled and, in the worst cases, of yobbery and public school twittishness’. And he’s right. I had never watched PMQ before, but everything about it disgusted me. I was disgusted by the clear sign that ethnic minorities and women are underrepresented in parliament, I was disgusted by the horrific braying noise that they all make instead of letting whomever is currently speaking make their point, I was disgusted by the particularly cruel treatment one female MP received when she had to consult her notes when speaking to the PM, and I was disgusted, so disgusted, at the way in which the PM deflated and disregarded every single question shot at him. But, I also realised, that due to the format of PMQ, that there was nothing else he could do. I believe that PMQ inspires vapid debate, and helps to highlight the falseness of our politicians and political systems. During PMQ Ed Miliband and Cameron can spar all they want, revert to low tactics such as pulling the other up for

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‘smiling’ over serious issues, shake their heads, and pretend that their policies are drastically different if they like. But really, the whole way in which it is set out just screams that despite David Cameron’s promises to ‘write’ to a certain constituency, or agree that there does need to be something done about said issues, that it will inspire no real change. It is a great idea, to have a platform where MP’s can directly challenge the current government’s leader, but at the end of the day he is only one man, and he can’t know everything. As David Cameron constantly consulted his notes in the programme I watched, it was blatant that he knew very little about most of the issues covered in PMQ and probably cared even less. So the format, despite some Tory MP’s saying that Bercow needs to stop ‘whining’ about the issue, evidently needs to change. There’s no denying a bit

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of conflict works well on T.V, but it can be done without the repulsive atmosphere I witnessed. At the moment, regardless of the petty conflict, it appears dull, pointless and alienating. The youth of today are well known for their political alienation (although not ideologically), so while I sincerely doubt that many young people watch PMQ, I don’t hesitate to state that if they did it would help to put them off politics. It epitomises the backward nature of the political class. Unfortunately, considering the last time the idea of reform was in the news was 2010 and nothing has changed since then, the likelihood of reform seems slim. Bercow is fighting a tough battle against many members of the House of Commons. But even if he just manages to get the MP’s to stop braying it would be a move in the right direction. As would be the addition of more women and ethnic minorities to parliament.

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