issue # 4 - WINTER 2014 - create
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THE FEED ISSUE four
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Editor's Letter THE FEED ISSUE four
B Y J ESSE MATHESON
@THEFEEDMAGAZINE
Who are the creators? W
hen was the last time you created something? As kids, we grow up building, constructing and then destroying. We explore the depths of our imagination, bringing it to life in the real physical world - but then we grow up. As adults we are told to leave these “pie-inthe-sky” dreams and fantasies behind us, to enter into the boring, bland and stark reality as just another cog in the machine. Some of us refuse this reality keeping our heads in the clouds, eating all of that pie to keep on creating and innovating. In this issue of The Feed Magazine, we explore the worlds of innovators and creators, to find out what pushed them to never stop dreaming. This issue also marks the near launch of two new sub-platforms of The Feed Magazine which consist of two e-books: “The Art of The Feed Magazine” and “The Fashion of The Feed Magazine”, both of which will act as a digital collection of the art and fashion shoots featured within The Feed Magazine. But first, let’s see what lies within this issue... We start off not looking forward, but looking back as Jeremy Smith muses on the past decade of film to see how the art has changed in a world full of war, terror and natural disasters. Then we speak to one of our very own innovators, the mastermind behind this issue’s cover, Natasha Killeen. I took a trip to Rome to watch the ordination of priests in St Paul’s Basilica, but what I FOUNDING EDITOR & PUBLISHER Jesse Matheson: Jesse.Matheson@TheFeed.com.au SUB-EDITOR Georgia Leaker: Georgia.Leaker@TheFeed.com.au FASHION EDITOR & STYLIST Kate.Burgess: Kate.Burgess@TheFeed.com.au
learnt about the Catholic Church’s past when it comes to art, science and enlightenment will leave you reeling. On a lighter note, as a farewell to our beloved Fashion Editor and Stylist, Kate Burgess, we let her run wild with full creative control over her very last Feed photo shoot, which she shot at Clovelly Beach. Alannah Maher then fills us in on the Australian comedy group On Patrol, the latest online show to bring the LOLz to the internet. Finally, our youngest contributor Grace
PHOTOGRAPHY Leila Joy Illustrations Natsha Killeen
ENTERTAINMENT EDITOR Jeremy Smith: Jeremy.Smith@TheFeed.com.au
CONTRIBUTRORS Alannah Maher Grace Laura Mitchell
ADVERTISING Advertising@TheFeed.com.au
CONTRIBUTE Contribute@TheFeed.com.au
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Laura Mitchell returns to The Feed Magazine one year later to write about the changing world of music in a Q&A with Julian Gough, Principle of the Australian Music Institute High School, Sydney. So there you have it! The Feed Magazine is, and always will be, a platform and outlet for creatives. So, if you’ve got an idea or want to be a part of the magic, you need only ask! Thanks again for sticking with us for another issue and helping us in creating this ever-growing magazine.
The Feed Magazine (ISSN: 2202-3275) is published quarterly by Revesby Press. No part of the magazine may be produced in whole or in part without written permission from the publisher (The Feeding Media). Opinions expressed in the magazine are not necessarily those of the publishers. Submissions of text, photographs or any other material will be taken as consent to publish said material. All other enquires: Admin@TheFeed.com.au
Her: Dress - STAPLE THE LABEL, Vest - Coco Ribbon from IV Collective, Necklace - Atoll from Casa Boheme Him - Shirt - Our Legacy from Somedays
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IN THIS ISSUE... @thefeedmedi a
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A DECADE OF DISTRACTIONS
Looking back at films which defined a decade of war, terror and natural disasters.
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ENTER THE MIND OF NATASHA KILEEN
An interview with the artist behind this issue’s cover
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THE DIVINE INTERVENTION A trip to Rome uncovers the Catholic Church’s meddling in innovation
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GIVES ME CHILLS Fashion Shoot P.g P.g 17 25
ON PATROL: UNDERDOGS OF AUSTRALIAN COMEDY
Making your own comedy series isn’t easy, but it is funny! P.g 33
NEXT GEN, NEW BEAT
How has the way music is made changed, and who is making it? P.g 35
A D ECA D E O F D I STRACT I O N S THE FEED ISSUE four
T he T op 1 01 Films Of The 2000 ’s “
Goodbye to the decade from Hell” was how TIME Magazine famously chose to farewell the decade spanning 2000 to 2009. The preface to the article stated: “Bookended by 9/11 and a financial wipeout, the first ten years of the century will likely go down as the most dispiriting decade Americans have lived through since World War 2”. Other titles for the decade the article suggested included: ‘the Reckoning’, ‘the Decade of Broken Dreams’ or ‘the Lost Decade’. Indeed, from the initial Y2K fears, the decade got off to a bad start and never seemed to get better. The September 11 attacks, the global ‘War on Terror’, the invasion of Afghanistan, Iraq and the various other wars throughout the Middle East, Hurricane Katrina, the Boxing Day Tsunami, Global Warming and the Global Recession dotted a landscape of fear, war and runaway greed. Art and cinema responded with hedonistic escapism, fantasy, gritty social dramas and provocative documentaries. The decade saw the simultaneous critical flourishing of the indie,
animated and foreign language genres together with the critical floundering of the big studio films. Gone was the optimism of 90’s cinema. Now the hero became the flawed anti-hero, fairytales became anti-fairytales, the line between good and evil, right and wrong blurred. Black and white became grey. The culture wars raged at their most white hot, blue states verses red states, ‘The Passion of the Christ’ verses ‘Fahrenheit 9/11’. The 2000’s were the decade of special effects driven franchises. Re-emergent superhero and fantasy genres made gaudy love with sequels that spawned countless franchise films. The Oscars introduced the Best Animated Feature Oscar in 2001, acknowledging the new importance of animation in film. The golden age of Pixar cast a deeper shadow over the dark days of Disney. We also saw the slow death of the leading Hollywood Star and the brave new world of 3D. Now, four years into the new decade, as the dust of the last decade settles, its greatest films begin to emerge. The most defining test of a great film is time. Does the film stand the test of time? And
by stand I’m referring to the two other tests of greatness: truth and original strangeness. Firstly, Truth: As John Keats wrote in ‘Ode on a Grecian Urn’, “Beauty is truth and truth beauty”. Art should, in the words of Shakespeare, ‘hold a mirror to nature; show virtue her own feature, scorn her own image’. Great films reflect mirrored universal truths about our world and humanity. Secondly, as literary critic Harold Bloom argues, originality in the sense of strangeness is a quality more than any other that makes a work truly great. It is this original strangeness that we can either never quite come to terms with or it becomes such a given that we are ‘blinded to its idiosyncrasies’. So for a film to be great its truth and original ‘strangeness’ must remain as vital and as vivid upon repeated viewings over time as it was when it first premiered. Or perhaps, more simply, critic Derek Malcolm defines a great film as being: any movie he could not bear the thought of never seeing again. With that in mind here is my list of the top 101 films of the decade...
made. The film works on two levels as a road trip action thriller in the foreground and an exploration of humanity in collapse in the background. The films beauty is in its background, filled with potent visual metaphors and references calling out to the intelligent viewer. As Dante Alighieri journeyed into the depths of hell so too the film’s journey is about what is discovered along the way rather than at its end. A world without children opens the dark heart of human nature. Offering us a ‘big picture’ worldview, the problems in society today are viewed as if the
people inside the situation barely notice what is going on. Although exploring human nature and society at its worst, our anti-immigrant xenophobia, religious fanaticism, terrorism, oppression, social stratification, decadence, apathy and despair, the film is ultimately about redemption, hope and what makes us human. A light of hope that burns brighter in a world of such darkness, set against a mournful Beatles soundtrack. Few films have captured more sorrowfully or fervently the state of our world and what it means to be human.
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The greatest futuristic films tell us more about the present than they do about the future. More than any other film, Alfonso Cuarón’s dystopian masterpiece ‘Children of Men’ eloquently captures the zeitgeist of the young millennium. The genius of the film is that, although set in a near-future world of global infertility, the film simply exaggerates the state of our current world, making us perceive our own reality as an alternate reality. The greatest dystopian film since ‘Blade Runner’, the film paints the most realistic and believable vision of civilization decay and collapse ever put to film. When I first saw this film I found it almost unbearable and yet for months after I could think of nothing else. So much so that I read the book by P.D. James and re-watched it many times, each time discovering something new. I now believe it to be one of the greatest films ever
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2. T h e r e W ill be blood - 2 0 0 7 It’s been 7 years since I saw ‘There Will Be Blood’ and I can still vividly remember walking out of the cinema with my dad saying that was one of the most powerful movie experiences of my life. The film opens with 14 dialogue free minutes, punctured by the most original and ominous musical score in decades , becoming a character within the film’s sad story. Not only does ‘There Will Be Blood’ share with, perhaps the greatest film ever made, ‘2001: A Space Odyssey’ artful use of silence and an exuberant eerie score, it is littered with references to that classic. Opening on a primitive ape like man in a desert who then triumphantly discovers oil and raises his to the sky, referencing Kubrick’s masterpiece,
the film’s simultaneous focuses on both the technological advancement of man whilst exposing his inherent primitive nature. Primitive human nature is played out in a character driven battle between one of the greatest villains in movie history oilman Daniel Plainview, in the best male performance of the decade by Daniel Day Lewis, and a corrupt local preacher Paul Sunday, played brilliantly by Paul Dano. As ‘Citizen Kane’ shattered the idea of the ‘American Dream’ as an empty exercise in greed and pride, ‘There Will Be Blood’ similarly, yet savagely, exposes two primitive forces that shaped that dream’s insatiable greed in Daniel’s quest for oil and fanatical religious
delusion in Paul’s charlatan preaching. Greed becomes religion, religion becomes greed. A character blesses a baby with oil and in one of the greatest scenes an oil rig catches fire and Daniel, covered in oil, looks upon the raging fire as a worshiper of a demented God. Paul’s religious service serves his gargantuan ego and selfish desires for wealth and power. The more I see ‘There Will Be Blood’ the more astounding it becomes with its strangeness, violent beauty and epic scale of its ambition and truth. Although it feels like it was shot in another era with, long tracking shots, natural lighting, lack of visual effects and classical based score, it has a urgent timelessness that rings profoundly true.
3. M ul h o lland driv e - 200 1 In the opening to David Lynch’s other dark masterpiece ‘Blue Velvet’ the camera pans across an idyllic American suburban front yard white picket fences, flowers, people going about their lives, slowly moving underneath the surface of the lawn to reveal a disturbing scene of black bugs feasting. Lynch is the master of turning the ‘American Dream’ into the ‘American Nightmare’. In ‘Mulholland Drive’ Lynch goes after that most glamorous dream of all: Hollywood. The film rejects conventional plot narration instead using the tropes of film noir: a mystery, a dark foreboding city and a femme fatale, to construct a surrealist neo-noir post Freudian fever dream. As confusing as the non-linear dream plot is,
the general plot of the film can be somewhat constructed backwards similar to Nolan’s great ‘Memento’. The film opens in an old Hollywood ‘A Star Is Born’ style, following the beautiful blonde idealistic Betty Elms, played unforgettably by Namoi Watts, as she is discovered to become a star. However events unravel until ‘Betty Elms’ is so slowly revealed to be a dreamed up fantasy construct of the real Diane Selwyn who represents the bleak underbelly reality of Hollywood as a used up failed actress. Not since ‘Sunset Boulevard’ has a film so cleverly and damningly critiqued the broken dreams of Hollywood and its industry. Lynch’s Hollywood is a nightmarish world run by a shadowy small man in a wheel chair, dictating
which star will rise and which will fall. Subconcious, raw, emotional and unnerving, ‘Mulholland Drive’ mystery makes it all the more disturbing for unknown reasons. In one of the most original and moving scenes I have ever seen the two lead characters arrive at ‘Club Silencio’ a dream-like club in which a woman sings ‘Llorando’ signalling the change from dream to reality as she is revealed to be mouthing to a recording. The most influential critic poll in film the BFI’s ‘Sight And Sound’ 2012 poll named ‘Mulholland Drive’ the 28th greatest film of all time and the 2nd best film of the 2000’s decade. I am haunted by this film.
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Year
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Pan’s Labyrinth
2006
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The New World
2005
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WALL-E
2008
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The Lives Of Others
2006
12
The Lord of The Rings: Return of The King
2003
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Million Dollar Baby
2004
14
City of God
2002
15
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
2000
16
Lost In Translation
2003
17
Artificial Intelligence
2001
18
Gosford Park
2001
19
Dancer In The Dark
2000
20
Requiem For A Dream
2000
21
The Hurt Locker
2009
22
Elephant
2003
23
Monster
2003
24
Into The Wild
2007
25
No Country For Old Men
2007
26
The Dark Knight
2008
27
Dogville
2003
28
Far From Heaven
2002
29
The White Ribbon
2009
30
The Departed
2006
31
Milk
2008
32
The Royal Tenenbaums
2001
33
Finding Nemo
2003
34
The Pianist
2002
35
Sideways
2004
36
Moulin Rouge!
2001
37
Avatar
2009
38
The Diving Bell And The Butterfly
2007
39
The Lord of The Rings: The Two Towers
2002
40
Amelie
2001
41
Y Tu Mama Tambien
2001
42
United 93
2006
43
Kill Bill Vol. 1
2003
44
Ratatouille
2007
45
Letters From Iwo Jima
2006
46
The Queen
2006
47
Memento
2000
48
Little Miss Sunshine
2006
49
Russian Ark
2002
50
Inglorious Bastards
2009
51
Up
2009
52
Capote
2005
53
Slumdog Millionaire
2008
54
The Fog of War
2003
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4. s pir ited away - 2 0 0 2 ‘Spirited Away’ is arguably one of, if not the best, Studio Ghibli film. For just under 30 years the Japanese Animation Studio Ghibli has been making not only some of the greatest animated films ever but also some of the greatest films period, with complexity and subtlety missed in many Western animations. In many ways Studio Ghibli is the forerunner to the Pixar Studio, coming to prominence at the time of the Disney animation studio decline. The story is told through the viewpoint of a young Japanese girl named Chihiro as she uncovers a hidden spirit world at an abandoned theme park. In an ‘Alice In Wonderland’-esque coming of age journey ‘Chihiro’ must pass a series of tests in order to save her parents learning valuable life lessons along the way. After years of Disney animation saturation ‘Spirited Away’ brings back a startling true sense of wonder and magic that I had not experienced since a boy. The plot is so
complex, original and foreign to a Western audience that it is able to take us to kind of wonderland that we have never seen before. Beyond the magic of the plot and characters, ‘Spirited Away’ is eye-wateringly beautiful in its painterly detailed animation. In a beautifully serence scene, one of my favourites, ‘Chihiro’ and ‘No Face’, a spirit that she saves from the spirit bathhouse, take a train ride together across an ocean perfectly marking her transition from child to young adult as she takes responsibilty of another character and no longer only thinks about herself. As she looks out the window of the train with stations whizzing past I was struck by the subtle and elegant representation of growing up ‘Spirited Away’ so effortlessly accomplishes. This heatwarming story reminds us of: the wonder of childhood, the struggle of growing up and the loss of innocence. I cannot think of any other film that more poetically captures what it is to grow up than the magical masterpiece ‘Spirited Away’.
5. LOTR: Fell owsh ip of th e r ing - 2002 Originally J.R.R. Tolkien’s epic high fantasy saga was thought to be unfilmable and languished waiting for a time when special effects could make Middle-earth a reality. In many ways this trilogy is a perfect movie storm: made by the right person, in the right place, at the right time. Peter Jackson whose career in goryhorror comedies made him the perfect person to translate his home country of New Zealand into the setting for the greatest fantasy franchise of all time. Of the series the first installment ‘The Fellowship of the Ring’ remains the simplest and purest of the three films. Unlike the other two which get caught up in the race towards the climax, the first
has building pace with a variety of different tones and locations. What I love most about the epic entire series is the fact that it all comes back to one small gold ring. To me not only is the ring a complex metaphor for addiction; it is also a reminder that seemingly benign small things can dictate the course of larger events. Passion, the corrupting influence of power, evil, good, hope, an example of high fantasy morality play writ large in which ultimate evil battles against ultimate good. This movie re-invigorated the fantasy genre for a new generation. Never before and perhaps never again will a fantasy film be made on such an epic scale and so well.
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6. B r o k e b a c k mounta in - 2 0 0 5 It is a sad reflection on our world that a simple love story between two men could cause more controversy than almost any other film from a decade filled with such violence and political scandal. Banned in several countries, attacked by the religious right, and spawning countless parodies, the controversy around the film belied the intimate, humble, small-scale nature of the love story. Having won more precursor film awards than ‘Schindler’s List’ and ‘Titanic’ combined, its ultimate defeat to the far less worthy ‘Crash’ for the 2005 Best Picture Oscar was a further indication of lingering homophobia in Hollywood. It is precisely the simplicity of ‘Brokeback Mountain’, its quiet humanity, lack of reference to the gay rights movement and lack of a preachy ‘message’ that makes it widely regarded as the greatest LGBT film in cinema history. It reminds us all of what is at the heart of a
great struggle: love between two people. The film never seeks to engage a culture war, attack conservatives or critique society in a direct way. The controversy has muddied the true nature of the film. Its reputation as the ‘gay cowboy film’ is a misleading glib definition of a profoundly moving masterpiece. Although Heath Ledger will be most remembered for his Oscar winning role as the Joker, Ledger’s Ennis and Jack Twist, played brilliantly by Jake Gyllenhaal, will forever rank along side Titanic’s Jack and Rose, or Casablanca’s Rick and Ilsa, as one of film’s greatest romances of all time. ‘Brokeback Mountain’ is first and lastly a tragic romance, ranking as the 13th highest grossing romance movie of all time. The stirring score, epic Wyoming mountain scenery, powerful dialogue and all round deep performances, cannot help leave you with a profound sense of wonder and sadness at a truly great film.
7. eternal sunshine of the spotless mind - 2004 Literature critic Harold Bloom described originality as one of the defining features of greatness. In his view, originality encompasses strangeness. ‘Eternal Sunshine’ is certainly “originally strange”, covering four different genres of film from science fiction, romance, Hitchcockian man-on-the-run thriller, to surrealist philosophical thought experiment. The disorientating and complex plot of the film involves the romantic relationship between loner Joel and self-expressed Clementine, the demise of their relationship, a company that promises to erase the painful memories of their romance and Joel rebelling. The film asks many philosophical questions; are we merely the summation of our memories? Should we erase painful memories? Is ignorance truly bliss?
The answer to these questions lies in the journey of self-discovery that Joel embarks on as his memories of Clementine are erased. The film is therapeutic and uplifting as it encourages its audience to revisit both painful and happy memories and asks “if we could only remember the good, would we?” A spotless mind does not lead to eternal sunshine. As our society ever seeks for more scientific perfection to correct our flawed human nature we are reminded of the beauty of our flaws. The sheer originality, surrealism, dreamlike sets and deeply moving romance makes ‘Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind’ a thought-provoking masterpiece which allows you to appreciate your life in all its spottiness.
No.
Title
Year
55
The Hours
2002
56
Juno
2007
57
Gladiator
2000
58
The Aviator
2004
59
Chicago
2002
60
Babel
2006
61
Crash
2005
62
La Vie En Rose
2007
63
Donnie Darko
2001
64
The Incredibles
2004
65
Bowling For Columbine
2002
66
Downfall
2004
67
Vera Drake
2004
68
How’s Moving Castle
2004
69
Atonement
2007
70
Hunger
2008
71
Zodiac
2007
72
A Serious Man
2009
73
I Killed My Mother
2009
74
A Single Man
2009
75
Almost Famous
2000
76
Let The Right One In
2008
77
Finding Neverland
2004
78
Happy-Go-Lucky
2008
79
Ponyo
2009
80
Kill Bill Vol. 2
2004
81
Erin Brokovich
2000
82
Munich
2005
83
Bright Star
2009
84
Farenheit 9/11
2004
85
Tarnation
2003
86
The Wrestler
2008
87
Volver
2006
88
Hotel Rwanda
2004
89
Minority Report
2002
90
District 9
2009
91
Transamerica
2005
92
Batman Begins
2005
93
Once
2007
94
Gangs of New York
2002
95
Doubt
2008
96
Man On Wire
2008
97
The Cove
2009
98
Billy Elliot
2000
99
The Constant Gardener
2005
100
Goodnight and Good Luck
2005
101
District 9
2009
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er art and photography is weird, wacky, and a little outrageous, but that’s what makes Natasha Killeen tick. Killeen blends pop art and culture within a collage to create eye-catching and surreal art that will make you feel as if you’ve just taken a hit of acid to the brain. Perhaps that’s how you felt when you saw her art on our front cover?
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Although Killeen studied science at University, she left it all behind to carve out her name as an artist who was inspired by people, animals, nature and architecture with, as she puts it, an “inherent need to create things”. “I don’t remember a time when I wasn’t drawing or painting. I attended weekly art classes as a child and spent a lot of time sketching instead of listening to teachers. This continued on into my university life where I mainly edited photos and doodle on notebooks during lectures.”
Working across collage, photography and painting, Killeen shows a wide and promising array of skills, always dabbling in and out of mediums. “Over the past few months I have really been pushing my boundaries in photography, I think this is mainly because I am living at home with limited space, so photography allows me to get out of the house and create beautiful imagery without having to worry about getting paint on everything,” she said.
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> “Despite this, watercolour painting is probably my first and main love, it is a medium that I feel really connected too.” With so many ideas in her mind and so many mediums at her disposal, one could only imagine the pure insanity of the creative process from a creator like Killeen. “It’s pretty chaotic to be honest, I don’t plan out images as such or even sketch ideas,” she said. “In regards to my collages, I generally flip through some magazines from my unnaturally large collection and find something that catches my eyes. I’ll take those fashion based images and draw them digitally in illustrator.
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“From then on it’s more of a puzzle. I play around, cutting images out of old books, painting bits and pieces and throwing glitter at everything I possibly can. Eventually, once I find images that fit well together and are aesthetically pleasing, I will place them all together and distort sections in Photoshop to make the piece fluid.
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“When I am painting or even planning a shoot, it is a similar process. I find an image or idea, and I run with that, not so much worrying about the end product, but more so adding, tweaking and manipulating what I am creating into something I am proud of.” When we approached Killeen to create two original art pieces for The Feed Magazine, we never knew how much we’d fall in love with her work. So much so, we asked her whether we could use these pieces for the cover. Needless to say, she said yes. But what inspired these creations?
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“The images I created for The Feed Magazine were designed with the previous issues in mind. I was very inspired by the fashion shoot in issue three - Diversity for Sydney Gay & Lesbian Mardi Gras. I loved the colours and vibrancy of the shoot and I wanted to really capture that in these illustrations,” she said. “I also heavily inspired by fashion and love to incorporate an element of fashion illustration throughout my work. The line drawings within the pieces are based on editorials and advertisements I come across and I also love to incorporate vintage images of animals and people. Some I find online, and others I rip out of an old encyclopaedia and scan in.
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While her art bounces off the page, Killeen feels as if Australia’s creative industries, and really Australia’s focus on art, is becoming stagnant and stuck in the past. “There is definitely a strong creative community in Australia but I don’t think there is enough encouragement of young creatives. Much of the art opportunities focus on established artists as opposed to young innovators. “I also feel as if Australia is stuck in the past. I am really sick of looking at the same old landscape paintings.”
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As a message to young and inspiring artists, Killeen said: “Being one myself, I would say don’t give up. Pursuing a creative career takes a lot of work and can often feel like you are going nowhere. But if you just keep going, people will start appreciating what you do. Focus on networking with other creatives and feeding off them as you never stop progressing.”
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Witnessing the ordination of eleven soon-to-be priests, Jesse Matheson discovers to what lengths the Catholic Church meddled with genius, self-expression and the search for enlightenment...
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he Renaissance, an era spanning the 14th-16th centuries, saw the revival of classical European art and literature through the contemporary lens of the time. Beyond giving us some of the world’s finest art, the era provided leaps and bounds in science and free thought, and a multitude of texts whose subtle beauty would change the world more than any sword. Superficially speaking, the renaissance, named after the French word meaning “rebirth”, might confer that it was simply a movement bringing “what once was” of the classical age to the then present time - but the truth runs far deeper. During a summer stroll through Rome between oddly timed sun showers, my ecclesiastical tour guide and now good friend (who shall remain nameless), joked “we killed him, we killed him and we killed him” while pointing at statues of some of history’s most important figures all executed by the Catholic Church. Indeed throughout the capital of what was once the world’s greatest empire, the influence of the Church and how it changed the world of art, literature and philosophy, either through minor censorship or execution, is a running theme. At times the Church’s influence has quite literally painted right over history. Take for the example one of the world’s true artistic wonders, that of The Last Judgement painted by
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A once nude Jesus Christ looked over Michelangelo’s The Last Judgement until the Church abolished nudity in religious art.
You could only imagine how horrible it must feel to slave day after day, sculpting the perfect penis only to see it hacked off in the name of modesty and religion. Michelangelo in the Sistine Chapel. An immense painting sitting behind the altar, The Last Judgement depicts a glorious scene of the blessed floating to heaven, while sinners fall into the depths of hell. In its original state, commissioned by Pope Clement VII, the fresco painting featured a large array of nude, yet artistically presented, human bodies. Somewhat ironically opposed to the beauty of the naked body which, according to the bible, was created in the image of God himself, the Council of Trent (the Catholic moral police of Italy at the time) complained with the Pope’s Master of Ceremonies Biagio da Cesena saying “it was mostly disgraceful that in so sacred a place there should have been depicted all those nude figures, exposing themselves so shamefully.” In what could only be considered renaissance level trolling, Michelangelo painted Cesena’s face into the painting as Minos, judge of the underworld, with donkey ears and a snake covering his nudity. Although Cesena complained, the Pope refused to change the painting joking that his power did not extend to Hell (Minos’s domain) and therefore the painting would have to remain. Once Michelangelo passed away, the Council of Trent condemned nudity in all religious art and ordered a lesser known painter and friend of
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Biagio da Cesena, depicted in Michelangelo’s ‘The Last Judgement’ as Minos the judge of the underworld.
Michelangelo, Daniele da Volterra, to cover the bodies with vestments and fig-leaves, giving her the title of “the breeches-maker”. The fig leaf has become synonymous with censorship and the covering of one’s “shame” since the time of Adam & Eve. In the Old Testament’s ‘Book of Genesis’, once the two ate from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil they covered themselves with fig-leaves in much the same way. Walking through the Vatican museum there is a hallway adorned with a multiplicity of eunuch sculptures, statues whose genitals were cut off and replaced by a subtle fig-leaf. An act which I equate to vandalism. You could only imagine how horrible it must feel to slave day after day, sculpting the perfect penis only to see it hacked off in the name of modesty and religion. However, you could argue that without religion, catholicism and the Church, the pieces we have today, hailed as some of the greatest art in history, perhaps wouldn’t exist. Without biblical stories or spirituality, perhaps the inspiration for the art, or the inspiration to even create the art, wouldn’t have come to the artist. Fig-leafs and vestments aside, the pieces are still beautiful in their own way, even if their originally intended state is forever lost.
CREATE Perhaps more importantly than the affect the Church had on art and self-expression was how it actively halted the progress of science, especially in the realm of understanding the ins and outs (but mostly ins) of the human body. The ideal Renaissance man was one whose love of the arts was only matched by his thirst for knowledge, making Leonardo da Vinci arguably the epitome of the Renaissance man. Imagineer of contraptions far beyond his years, like scuba suits, armored vehicles, and flying machines, Leonardo was also at the forefront of medical science. During his time the church strictly forbade post-mortem dissection unless you were a physician, which Leonardo was not. Ignoring this, he eventually dissected over 30 male and female bodies by candlelight in a Church crypt, sketching the innards of the human body. Although he never published his findings, with his sketches and writings discovered after his death (due to the method of his research being outlawed by the Church), it is believed that if he had published them, he would’ve become one of the most important figures in medical science at the time, furthering the science by decades. Humorously, Leonardo’s study of human anatomy led to the creation of the world’s first known robot in recorded history which, in 2007 was recreated and found to be fully functional. Frankenstein, anyone?
A statue of Giordano Bruno standing in the very spot he was burned at the stake for heresey, Campo de’ Fiori
Leonardo da Vinci’s medical drawings would give us one of the most accurate, and beutiful, depictions of an unborn child inside the womb.
Ending our walk through Rome, my guide’s finger finally fell upon a domineering yet solemn bronze statue of Giordano Bruno, a philosopher, mathematician and astrologer, standing in Campo de’ Fiori, the very place he was burned at the stake for heresy forever becoming a martyr for science. So what was Bruno’s crime? He believed that our universe was made up of infinite celestial beings, that our sun was just another star and, like Copernicus, that the world was round - all of which is true. For those who are atheist it can be mindboggling at times to think just how much religion has pushed back the progress of humanity in the name of spiritual fulfillment. On the other hand, for those who are religious, it can be embarrassing and difficult to come to terms with that revelation. The Renaissance may seem like a time long ago and you may believe that we now know better when it comes to censorship, yet you would be wrong. Censorship like that which occurred in 14th century Rome due to religion, the censorship of artists, scientists and free-thinkers, still happens today. Here in Australia, climate change scientists are called liars, artists like Bill Henson are denounced as pedophiles and free-thinkers like Dr Philip Nitschke’s, author of the voluntary euthanasia guide ‘The Peaceful Pill Handbook’, are considered purveyors of death. Rome is a beautiful city perhaps made more beautiful by its strong connection to the Vatican and the Catholic Church, yet its highly visible censorship has kept it from being a masterpiece in of itself. We can only hope that when discussing censorship in the future, that history is not doomed to repeat itself.
THE FEED ISSUE four Produced and Styled by: Kate Burgess / Styling and Photography Assistant: Meriaam Mikhail / Illustrations by: Natasha Killeen Photography by: Leila Joy Photography / Make-Up by: Danielle Murrihy / Hair by: Liz Tieu @ LSG Creative Artists / Models: Jazz Brell from Platform Models & Kaine Wright @ Jason Williamson Management and Lifestyle Models / Special Thanks to Clovelly Hotel
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Her: Bikini - WATSON x WATSON, Crochet Coat - SPELL DESIGNS from CASA BOHEME, Chains and Rings - CLAIRE ARISTIDES FINE JEWELS (worn throughout) / Him: Cut Off Shirt - ANNEX, Shorts - LEVIS from SOMEDAYS, Necklace and Ring - ANNEX (worn throughout)
Giving CREATE
Me Chills
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Her: Knit - WATSON x WATSON, Dress - SOMEDAYS LOVIN, Necklace - ATOLL from CASA BOHEME Him: Short-Sleeve Knit - HANDSOM, Tee (worn underneath) - ANNEX, Jeans - CHRONICLES OF NEVER from ANNEX
Her: Knit - STAPLE THE LABEL, Pants - WATSON x WATSON, Necklace and Bracelets - COLETTE By COLETTE HAYMAN Him: Knit - SOMEDAYS, Pants - CHEAP MONDAY from SOMEDAYS
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Her: Knit - SOMEDAYS LOVIN, Skirt - WATSON x WATSON, Silver Necklace - ATOLL from CASA BOHEME, Hat - LACK OF COLOUR (worn throughout) Him: Denim Shirt - ANNEX, Pants - HANDSOM
Her: Shirt - COCO RIBBON from IV COLLECTIVE, Skirt - SPELL DESIGNS from CASA BOHEME, Earrings - COLETTE By COLETTE HAYMAN Him: Knit - COMMONERS from SOMEDAY, Tee (worn underneath) - ANNEX, Pants - HANDSOM
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Her: Dress - LULU YASMINE from CASA BOHEME, Vest - COCO RIBBON from IV COLLECTIVE, Earrings - COLETTE By COLETTE HAYMAN Him: Shirt - HANDSOM, Jeans - CHRONICLES OF NEVER from ANNEX
Him: Jeans - Chronicles of Never from Annex, cardigan - Neuw from Somedays Her: Dress - Hope from Somedays
THE FEED ISSUE four
ON PATRO L by A lannah M aher
S
ometimes certain people meet, drawn together by an undeniable magnetism. They’re people with loud personalities and overactive comedic drives for whom no banter is out of the question. Chemistry between these people can result in brilliance, but can also result in a lot of time wasted talking absolute nonsense. For the crew behind the new comedy web series ‘On Patrol’, the coming together of such minds resulted in hilarious creativity. ‘On Patrol’ follows the shenanigans of three unlikely best friends – Steve, Jesse, and Marvin – whom reside together, party boisterously and succumb to mischief in every direction they go. Xavier Coy, writer, actor and co-director, was inspired to write the series after meeting his mates Sam and Michael during their time in leading roles for a UNSW production. The hilarious banter between the three soon had Xavier penning away at a script involving three oddball characters he describes as “hyped-up versions” of each of them. “We’re talking partying, drugs, having fun, alcohol abuse,” Xavier said. “Some of the things in it weren’t really in the script and we’ve just sort of gone with it. Expect to have a good laugh.” As an independent series, the boys began by using Facebook as a vessel for getting the ‘On Patrol’ name out there, utilising their social networks and lettings it grow naturally. “It’s our target audience and we find that with the advertising and marketing behind Facebook, you can specifically indicate who you want to target,” Joel elaborated. “They’re also getting on board with Boom Video, Youtube’s only Australian partner network. “What they do is organise marketing for aspiring Australian YouTube acts, artists, videos - anything.” Despite the inflow of social media campaigns, word of mouth has been a blessing to the group especially in recruiting extras for a scene involving a large party. After said party, Joel was surprised to find people talking about it the following week. “I overheard a couple of people saying ‘did you go to that thing on Sunday? It was f*cking great, it was so funny, I was just laughing so
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“WE PROMOTE MANNERS...
CREATE
U N D ER D O G S
O F A U SS I E CO M E D Y
EXCEPT FOR ALL THE F-BOMBS”
much I had to turn away from the camera!’” Xavier and Joel were tight-lipped about giving away the comedy gold they’ve developed along the way, but did let slip about a spontaneous moment captured while shooting “We’re there, we’re in the moment, the music’s pumping, Xavier’s got his fist-pump on, he swings over to Michael’s character Marvin and picks him up on his shoulder and in doing so Michael’s head goes through the light in the roof and it crashes on the floor,” said Joel. “Everyone, including the twenty cast members we had, just stopped and went ‘Oooohhh’. There were shrieks of terror and then Sam, playing Jesse, looks around and goes ...YEAHHH!’ and the whole cast goes “… Yeahhhh!” – it was just the perfect moment.” Spontaneous destruction of indoor lighting aside, there does seem to be quite an “unique” workflow behind the project. “We’ve all sort of been on the comedy circuit, theatre circuit and acting circuit, and one thing that keeps popping up is the improv that happens between the characters, things that aren’t planned,” said Joel. “We get a clean version of the script and then we just ‘go off’. It works, it’s related, but it wasn’t planned.” Although not totally opposed to the idea of an ‘On Patrol’ pilot for ABC or SBS, it could mean changing half their script. “We promote manners in ‘On Patrol’,” said Joel. “Except for all the f-bombs and c-bombs. There’s only two, I think... don’t show your grandparents,” joked Xavier. Like so many projects today ‘On Patrol’ is created by volunteers with no one expecting to gain any money (although we’re sure it’d be nice). Out of the upcoming eight episodes, up to three may be monetised with proceeds going to an as yet undecided charity. For the ‘On Patrol’ crew, this project is about a bunch of funny and talented people putting themselves out there, gaining exposure and supporting independent Australian comedy. ‘On Patrol’ consists of eight episodes and will begin a weekly release from September/October. Search ‘’On Patrol’’ on Facebook for up to date info.
n e x t g e n, THE FEED ISSUE four
BY G R AC E L AU R A M I TC H EL L
I
nfluenced by time, culture, technology and history, with hundreds of genres ranging from World to Classical, Jazz to Reggae, Holiday to Disney, and K-Pop to Alternative, music has been the beating heart of humanity for well over 50,000 years. Over the past century, we are seeing more and more musicians being developed and nurtured through recognised institutions such as The Conservatoire de Paris, The Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, and the Australian Institute of Music. Julian Gough (JG), Principle of the Australian Institute of Music High School and Senior Coordinator of Contemporary Music spoke to The Feed Magazine (TF) about how he has seen music evolve over time...
T F:
You mentioned technology. Do you think the expectations on performers are different given the electronic media that is used today?
jg: The expectations on musicians are a
lot lower as you have these electronic instruments that can be controlled and modified in the editing and mixing process. We now have this equipment that, if you get a note slightly off tune, it doesn’t matter as they can change that off note to be perfectly in tune, and the equipment will do that at the click of a button.
T F:
So do you think audiences have a higher expectation of live performances today then say in the 60s, 70s and 80s?
jg: Oh no. The expectations on shows have T F:
been high since the 70’s, as that was when you had “shows”. Musicians weren’t just “musicians” anymore, they were “performers”. Groups such as Queen, The Rolling Stones and men like David Bowie, really introduced the era of “Glam Rock” and this whole idea of a “show”. They may not have had TV screens all around but they would have posters and light shows for sure. In fact, I remember going to a Fleetwood Mac concert and it was pouring down rain, but they still had fireworks going off. It was really only groups like The Beatles, who were just musicians and not performers, in that they’d get up on a little stage, all dressed in the exact same suits, and they would plug into these crappy amplifiers and they would just play, and the only way you knew it was The Beatles was because it was written on the drumhead!
From the early 20th Century modern music has changed and developed in many ways. For example, style, technology and cultural influences. What do you consider be the most significant changes to the industry over that period of time?
jg: Well you have three main sections that
have made significant impacts to the music industry. The first and main change really is technology, which changed significantly with the introduction of disc recording. You had the evolution of radio, which brought about rock and roll. The use of electronic instruments, such as bass guitars... and you could take editing a lot further... instead of having just two tracks in stereo you could now have multiple tracks. Then you have sociological change; which mainly came about in WWII, in that music started to be perceived far more differently than it previously had been. Lastly you have geography, which really worked in conjunction with technology. It meant that you were able to learn about and listen to Greek or Cuban music when you were in London. Things that we hadn’t heard before were becoming more and more frequent to the Western world’s ears and ultimately influencing the music styles and helping create what we see today.
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T F:
What is your opinion on TV shows such as The Voice and X Factor? Do you think they encourage aspiring artists to let their individuality show?
jg: No. They don’t encourage individuality.
You only really see the performer’s individual style in the blind auditions, and after that the songs that are chosen for them are songs that the producers know will appeal to the audiences.
NEW B EAT! CREATE
In saying that though, shows like X Factor are unbeatable when it comes to marketing. They provide positive marketing for the musicians, but the catch to it is that artists get very little freedom. As well you have the fact that from those shows, unfortunately, a lot of the musicians who come out successfully tend to only last in the music scene for about 6 months as their deals have them releasing songs that aren’t new and original and are therefore unappealing to vast audiences as they already have so many artists putting out very similar songs.
T F:
Do you think there is a specific image that record companies search for today and is this any different from your early experiences in the industry?
jg: Of course. Record companies have an
image that they want to project. It’s an image of sex and rebellion, and it’s what they have been doing since the Motown era, by marketing to the target audience (Gen Y and beyond). They are selling the type of music that our parents won’t want to be listening to, providing their target market the rebellion that they crave whilst throwing in the image of sex to really boost the sales, which is something they have been doing for decades.
T F:
Speaking of Motown, groups like the Funk Brothers (who created great tracks such as Ain’t No Sunshine, I Heard It Through the Grapevine and You Keep Me Hanging On) played an essential role in the production of music in the Motown era, but at the time received very little recognition. Have things changed today from then or do you see similarities?
jg: The Motown Contracts are now things
that they teach Arts Management students as something you should not do. Some things have changed today but you’ll still have musicians who can’t get a contract go to TV production companies and end up with very similar contracts to those of
the Motown era, not getting anywhere near enough royalties that they deserve. And this is also seen through the use of media, with programs such as Spotify and iTunes. People just want to get their music out there and these companies are doing it... so unfortunately it is very similar [to the Motown contracts], in that the artists don’t get that much money or royalties while the big companies are pulling it all in.
T F:
Moving on, do you think it is essential for musicians to be educated in music by tutors and teachers in order to be successful? And what influence is a “structured” music education system having on the musicians of today?
jg: When I started off you had to know how
to play in order to be successful. I started with the violin, and then the sax, and there would be musicians who knew exactly what they were doing as they had been taught from the beginning, going through basic things that people just don’t need to know now. Now anyone can make music. We use a lot of sampling so people can just pick up some sample tracks and they’ve created a song. Music is becoming a tool.
T F:
Do you believe that institutions like AIM still have a role in shaping the direction of music in the future?
jg: Absolutely, they already are. One of AIM’s
goals is to produce a network of fantastic musicians in Australia, so you could be in Sydney and send a piece off to someone in Perth who is an expert in Logic (a music recording program) and be able to have a conversation with them at a level in which both of you understand so that it’s not one person talking down to the other. The aim of AIM is to be one of the best schools around the globe. You have schools in the Northern Hemisphere like Julliard and Berkeley in the US and the Conservatoire in France, but the Southern Hemisphere doesn’t have anything like that. AIM wants to be able to compete with those schools.