2015: A Nerd Oddyssey

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C O N T AI N E R C O - O P

• S I F T E R S E S P R E SSO • HERITAGEKITCHEN • • M I N T Y D U DS • PEPESGARDEN •

82 MARKET ST WOLLONGONG OPEN EVERYDAY @SIFTERSWOLLONGONG • @SIFTERSESPRESSO • @HERITAGEKITCHEN • @MINTYDUDS • @PEPESGARDEN

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ANTI SOCIAL MEDIA

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MY SPIDEY SENSES ARE TINGLING

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CONTENTS

GEEK ON 41

ZOMBIE SURVIVAL GUIDE

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C A P T I VAT E D B Y T H E

NEW HOPE WITH DISNEY?

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P O P C U LT U R E G E T T I N G I T ’ S

LOVING V I C A R I O U S LY

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CONTROL

T H E V A L U E O F C U R S I V E WRITING

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T H E S TA R T O F A D R E A M

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F IS FOR

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LEONARD NIMROY

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GAME ON

TRIBUTE

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LIFE IN A BOOK

MARVEL ANNOUCES

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THE

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PRINCESS LEIA COMIC 11

DIVVY

U P Y O U R PA R K S

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LENOVO’S DEAL WITH

CHOICE IS YOURS 54

C O S P L AY

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I M P O R TA N T

C O N V E R S AT I O N S

SUPERFISH 13

BUYCOTTING PRE ORDER

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F E AT U R E A R T I S T

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CONFESSIONS OF A

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#ENVIRONERDS

S H O PA H O L I C

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SHARKSTWEETING

5 GEEKS YOU MEET

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AN ENVIRONMENT FOR

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AT U N I

NERDS 66

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CONTRIBUTOR PROFILE

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GAME CHANGERS

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VOX POPS

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C R E AT I V E W R I T I N G

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D E B AT E

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REVIEWS

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F E AT U R E S

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20 UNDER 20

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UNDER THE DOME

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DEER GOD

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EXPERIENCE WITH

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7 U N D E R R AT E D F E M A L E

MICROBES

A TECH GIANT 28

MY BIG BANGIN’

WRITERS 86

NERD THEORY 29

P L A S T I C E AT I N G

FARMER AND THE OWL FESTIVAL

WHY FIGHT WITH

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FIXED

YOUR FISTS?

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UP IN THE AIR

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HOW OBSESSED ARE WE?

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LINDSEY STIRLING

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#BREAKTHEINTERNET

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TERT GIG GUIDE

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EDITOR’S NOTE

ZOMBIE SURVIVAL GUIDE An important question that every young university student must face at some point in their lives has been on the minds of your Tertangala editors: what is your have a zombie apocalypse survival plan?

In 20 years-time, (because let’s be honest, the outbreak is imminent) when the dust has settled and the last zombie is classified as brain dead, what will you say when they ask the question “where were you when the apocalypse began?”

Zombies are, in our opinion, more implausible than impossible. Maybe not the whole ‘dead rising from the grave’ thing but if you think about it, a disease attacking the brain, causing violent and irrational behaviour doesn’t sound so far-fetched. There were actually a few supposed cases of real “zombies” in Haiti. A researcher, Wade Davis, claimed to have discovered what he called a zombie powder back in 1985 (oh the 80s, you were so wacky), he suggested that there were two powders which would enter the blood stream (usually by a cut) and could be used to turn some Haitians into zombies. The first powder supposedly contained tetrodotoxin, which is the neurotoxin found in pufferfish and the second, a dissociative drug similar to datura. Davis said that together, these powders produced a death like state and victims would seem to die and be buried only to “re-awaken” into a psychotic state.

Creepy right?

Luckily, there were a lot of scientific inaccuracies in Davis’s work, so don’t call it quits just yet. In terms of a survival plan for the inevitable, It’s okay, The Tert’s got your back.

As it turns out, there’s actually some science behind the perfect hideout According to a team of statisticians from Cornell University in the US the best place to hide out is a remote and rocky area… Uluru anyone? With the best places to avoid infection being “remote [and] sparsely populated locations”.

“Given the dynamics of the disease, once the zombies invade more sparsely populated areas, the whole outbreak slows down- there are fewer humans to bite, so you start creating zombies at a slower rate,” lead statistician, Alex Alemi, stated.

That means, contrary to popular zombie survival theories, a shopping mall or your local pub are not the way to go. Unless, of course, you’re content in living your last days eating cheap fast food and trying on clothes you’d never be able to afford in real life or getting so drunk your chances of a nudie run through a bloodthirsty horde are quite high.

This issue of the Tert is packed full of nerdy goodness, from Star Wars and Spiderman movie speculation to sexism in cosplay and censorship in China. We also have a bunch of great reviews on books, games, movies and music (definitely check out the 20 Games for Under 20) as well as an amazing artist profile with Ian Bool.

This is our favourite issue so far, with more articles than ever before on everything techy, nerdy, gaming, geeky and relating to the environment. So, before you head off to the middle of nowhere to begin your new zombie free existence, check out some of the article for an awesome read. And as always, let us know what you think at thetert@ gmail.com or on the website, www.tertangala.net.

For any inquires or pitches please feel free to tweet us at @GemmaMolle07 and @youfoundbec Love, Bec & Gem

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GUEST EDITOR

by Angus Baillie @angusuow

C A P T I VAT E D

BY THE CONTROL

About 20 years ago, when I was just a young boy, I played my first video game. My older cousin had come to visit and he had brought with him a Sega Mega Drive along with a copy of the very first Sonic the Hedgehog game.

I don’t remember much from this period of my life, but I remember that I had fallen in love. I was captivated by the speed, the sound, the colour and - most of all - the control. I was in control of a character in a story. I had access to the actions of the hero in a story about saving cute animals from an evil scientist known as Dr Robotnik.

I remember when it was time for my cousin to leave and he took his valued console with him, I would then watch TV passively and imagine what it would be like to have that control again. I would watch Thomas the Tank Engine and fantasise about being able to move the trains myself.

I would catch a glimpse of my parents watching the news and imagine being able to control what came out the mouth of Richard Morecroft. I would even stare out the car window as my mother drove me around and imagine Sonic running and jumping over the scenery as it whizzed by my window. From that young age, video games had completely occupied my imagination. Now as I sit here, aged 27, I can honestly say that video games have offered me some of the most special, unique, and cherished experiences I have ever lived through. This is just a part of my story, and there are many more like mine.

My name is Angus Baillie and as the Coordinator of Video Game and Geek Culture here at The Tertangala, I have been given the privilege of writing a guest editorial to introduce this issue of the magazine titled “2015: A Nerd Odyssey.� My sections of the magazine are only very new additions to a magazine that has a very long and rich history in the student life of the University of Wollongong.

I feel very lucky to have been given this opportunity so early on to give a direction and voice to this section of the magazine. My goal for this section is to create a progressive gaming space that aims to make games journalism less about hype and more about interesting, personal experiences with gaming and projecting an idea that gaming is an inclusive art form for everyone. You will come to our section not because you want to read that the latest Triple A shooter will run at 6o fps, but because you will want to hear about our opinions, feelings, and suggestions regarding the games we are playing and the current events that are constantly shaping the industry and the culture that we are all so lovingly invested in.

Over the past 6 months in particular, we have been reminded that there is much about gaming and nerd culture that is harmful and fundamentally broken. But all the geeks, gamers, cosplayers, tech appreciators, feminists, and passionate content creators I have working with me at The Tert make me feel proud and have given me hope that the cultures I love are still capable of being beautiful and instilling wonder. Because at the end of it all, we were all young children once, staring out the window with wonder in our eyes and a controller in our hands; ready to embark on a nerd odyssey.

Press A to continue.

Angus Baillie

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GUEST EDITOR

by Matthew Pearce

It is incredible to think that something which began last year as a joke has, in a short space of time, blossomed into a society which has taken our founding members totally by surprise. Our dream of a Wollongong IT Society is now a reality. The response from the faculty, the student body and local industry groups has been so overwhelming that we’re left pinching ourselves.

At the same time that response tells us so much about the students and staff we share our lecture halls with. They are the bright young minds who see an opportunity to collaborate with their peers and jump at the chance to get involved. They are those with a desire to learn and achieve more than the minimum expected. The people who recognise that technology allows us to do more than just share pictures of cats or argue about the colour of a dress, but also allows us to take an idea and use it to change how we interact and connect with the world around us.

This is the creative environment we see ourselves in at UOW and we feel lucky to share it with other talented, free thinking individuals. The Illawarra has a great track record of being an incubator for startups and innovative enterprises. And we see that an opportunity exists at Wollongong for students to make something to call their own which not only allows them to get the most out of their time here but that also will be a key selling point for future students.

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THE S TA R T OF A DREAM So what now, I might hear you ask? Well our calendar is already quickly building with workshops, meet and greets and industry events but the missing piece in this puzzle is you. We’re listening and looking to take your ideas and make them a reality. So take the step to reach out and let us know how we can make your time here at UOW the most rewarding possible.

The founder of Intuit, Scott Cook, said “We’re still in the first minutes of the first day of the Internet revolution”, reading that it feels like humanity is standing on an edge, about to make its next huge leap forward, and it is exhilarating to feel like a part of it.

Matthew Pearce Treasurer, University of Wollongong IT Society (WITS) If you wish to become involved in UOW’s IT society visit http:// www.facebook.com/uowits

WUSA PRESIDENT’S REPORT

by Peter Munford @petermunford93

Hi UOW Students!

I hope you are all settling well into Uni. We have a lot of exciting things happening on campus this year as the University of Wollongong celebrates its 40th Anniversary as an independent university. It is an important milestone for WUSA as well, as it marks 40 years since student-led activism was successful in helping to see UOW established.

Today, WUSA is continuing with our proud history of student activism, taking the fight to the University and Federal Government on fee deregulation, and on many other important issues.

One main issue I wish to touch on is the Concession Opal Card. Through investigations conducted by WUSA, we have found that in order for a student to access the Concession Opal Card, they must agree for their personal data to be shared by the University to the State Government. Police and Transit Authorities can then access this information without a warrant, and we consider this to be a breach of personal privacy.

WUSA is taking up the fight for students’ privacy, ensuring that students are made well aware of this issue. WUSA is also lobbying the University to ensure that they continue to provide concession stickers for students who do not wish to sign up to the Opal card scheme.

WUSA is continuing to fight against changes to Higher

Education Funding. Since I last wrote to you, the Government has pushed their proposals to deregulate university fees through the Lower House, and will be reintroducing them into the Senate very soon. WUSA is committed to fighting these “reforms” as we believe that they will hurt students by causing degree fees to skyrocket, and adding to the already rising debts of Australian students. WUSA is working with the National Union of Students to lobby the cross-bench Senators, with NUS running campaigns on campuses across the country.

The WUSA Education and Welfare Officers will be working to roll out these campaigns at UOW in the next few weeks.

WUSA’s services are now up and running and available in our space. Our Free Breakfast is available from 9-11am each day, and our Book Bank is open Monday-Thursday 9am-2pm. Our printing service is currently unavailable due to maintenance issues but we are working to get that fixed as soon as possible. WUSA memberships are still available for $20 for the whole year. Come see us at the WUSA Space (Ground floor Building 19), grab some free brekkie, get some cheap textbooks, and join the fight for a fair and accessible education for UOW Students!

Peter Munford WUSA President

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TRIBUTE

by Kurtis Hughes @KurtLogan

Leonard Nimoy, the creative mastermind best known for his role as Spock, sadly passed away on February 27th at the age of 83. For years, Nimoy brought joy to his audience as the purely logical human-alien of the Galactic Enterprise within the television and movie juggernaut Star Trek.

His passing was confirmed by his wife, Susan Bay Nimoy, who sadly indicated that the cause was end-stage chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

Leonard Nimoy made his almost cult-like following of fans aware of his disease last year, attributing its development to his extensive smoking habit in the early stages of his adult-life.

Nimoy’s passing, although a universally despondent event, has allowed fans and family alike to not only reflect, but also relive his most courageous and utterly astonishing endeavours through the plethora of tweets and pages made in tribute to his life.

Nimoy’s unadulterated passion for acting is universally known, however his artistic pursuits also included poetry, photography and music. Yet it was as Mr Spock that Nimoy became the quintessential symbol of the Sci-fi spectrum, and gained a following that extended far beyond the tight confines of the United Nations of Planets.

Nimoy was able to breathe life into one of the most enduring and iconic characters of the past half-century, who’s composed signature greeting ‘live long and prosper’ has permeated the very boundaries of time, still resonating as a staple-saying among today’s sci-fi community.

Gene Roddenberry, the creator of the Star Trek¬ franchise often referred to Nimoy as the “conscience of Star Trek”.

Although a highly powerful compliment which must have been conducive to Nimoy’s sense of accomplishment and his love for the show, he often showcased ambivalence in regards to the public’s tethering of his own identity to that of Mr. Spock’s. However, the fervent following of fans that accompanied the character seemed to bring Nimoy to an acceptance of this entwinement of identities, with Nimoy often signing off his tweets with LLAP (live long and prosper).

Although the series was suddenly cancelled after three seasons, Nimoy’s stardom continued to escalate over the years due to his fan’s devotion to both his own life and that of Mr. Spock’s.

From a young age, Nimoy acted within many local productions, and continued to do so throughout his high school years. But, it was in 1949 that Nimoy made the decision that many aspiring actors have to battle with, and moved to Hollywood. 2 years later he secured his first two roles in the movies Queen for a Day and Rhubarb.

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LIVE LONG AND PROSPER A LEONARD NIMROY TRIBUTE Nimoy, for many years after, only appeared within minor productions, including a minor role in the television series The Twilight Zone until he made his big break in Star Trek.

Although Nimoy’s identity is highly defined as an actor, he also had a plethora of other attributes. Unknown to many, Nimoy served within the Army for 2 years, eventually rising to the rank of sergeant. He was also the director of two of the Stark Trek movies, Star Trek III: The Search for Spock and Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home as well as the executive producer and writer for Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country. Nimoy also published many of his own works over his lifetime.

When we look back at the life of Leonard Nimoy, he seemed to embody the very essence of creativity. He showcased an exuberant amount of skill, artistry and leadership within every endeavour that he was willing to undertake throughout his entire life.

In the words of the great man himself: “A life is like a garden. Perfect moments can be had, but not preserved, except in memory.” - Leonard Nimoy 2015

TRIBUTE

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NEWS

by Gemma Mollenhauer @GemmaMolle07

MARVEL ANNOUCES PRINCESS LEIA COMIC

comic series titled Star Wars: Princess Leia. As journalist Brian Truitt from Daily Life states, this “Star Wars heroine [is] set to have her best year since she took down Jabba the Hutt and smooched Han Solo in the 1980s”.

The 5-issue mini series, written by Mark Waid (Daredevil, S.H.I.E.L.D) and artist Terry Dodson (Avengers & X-Men: Axis, Uncanny X-Men), kicks off at the end of the original 1977 film. This finds Leia mourning the destruction of her home planet Alderran whilst also celebrating with the Rebel Alliance the destruction of the Empire.

After 3 years of waiting, 1980 saw a sequel produced to the original Star Wars film, with The Empire Strikes Back.

However, by this time Leia has been established in a leadership position within the rebellion. Waid states “fans haven’t seen her face the loss of her parents, the loss of everything she knows and holds dear. However, it is not five issues of her weeping and pouting and feeling sorry for herself, because that is not her.

“How does she really cope with losing her entire world once the events around that loss have calmed down somewhat? Does she choose to be a princess of nothing -- or does she set out to rebuild her heritage and civilization?” Waid teases.

Never the ‘damsel in distress’, Princess Leia came onto our screens in the late 1970s with the acclaimed Star Wars series directed by filmmaker George Lucas. Originally played by Carrie Fisher with co-stars Harrison Ford and Mark Hamill in Star Wars: The Force Awakens; the film series was thrust into the SciFi hall of fame after smashing box offices around the world.

After recruiting another survivor, female X-wing Fighter pilot, Evaan, Leia and her co-pilot venture out into the galaxy to find any surviving Alderaanians.

Leia “really sees herself as second to no one, which unfortunately in this series has the potential to also be a bit of a downfall for her because she has to learn a little bit of humility,” says Waid.

Featuring two strong-willed women, this comic is set to be one of a limited few in which young ladies can truly relate, and is in line with a current desire to increase gender diversity within comics and SciFi. Waid states, “The timing couldn’t be better to be able to come out with a story of a bad-ass princess who is her own hero and doesn’t rely on others”.

Today, the Empire-fighting princess is commencing a comeback to quash all others with the release of her own

The comic is on sale March 4th

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NEWS

by Georgia Holloway @grumpygeorgia

Divvy Parking, a shared economy business similar to Airbnb, recently announced its launch in Wollongong.

The Australian website and app was launched in response to the growing parking crisis faced by many cities.

Divvy is an online booking platform for parking which allows other commuters to rent out their own private car spaces, such as driveways, to those searching for a space.

Drivers are offered convenient monthly and long-term parking at significantly cheaper prices than traditional options.

Divvy, which was founded by Nick Austin, has already been successful in Sydney suburbs. Austin first conceptualised the site after growing tired of the daily struggle to find a parking space.

“I was so frustrated with the constant fight to find parking for work. I thought to myself there’s got to be an easier way than this,” Austin explained.

Austin said Wollongong was a place in obvious need of an alternative model like Divvy. Despite Wollongong’s huge numbers of students in transit, Austin believes his app will make a positive change. Divvy’s short-term renting options start at 1 month, ensuring users can reserve the same parking space (at competitive rates). However, there are also longer-term options available.

Not only does Divvy increase the number of available parking spaces, but it also gets more cars off the streets and into unused private spaces. Divvy believes that by alleviating this reliance upon on-street parking, short-term visits will become easier and traffic flows will improve.

“The battle for parking has traditionally been fought on the streets, but most people would be surprised to hear that there are thousands of vacant, but hidden, spaces available all around Wollongong.”

Yet Austin claims that Divvy will also make the lives of those who don’t own a car easier.

DIVVY UP YOUR PA R K S

“For example,” Austin explains, “those students who live in Wollongong (but don’t necessarily drive) can rent out their unused driveway or front yard. This means they’re earning money from something that was just sitting there, and the earnings can help pay rent.”

The website is a shared economy business which allows people to make money off things they already own, such as a driveway, by renting it out to people. These websites, such as Airbnb, have gotten into hot water before as disputes over ownership and management regulations have caught the attention of lawmakers.

Yet Divvy’s spokeswoman, Kasi Reynolds, explained users need not worry about that because ‘there are no laws regulating who can park on private property’. Reynolds does, however, recommend that renters seek their landlord’s approval to avoid any potential disputes.

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NEWS

by Angus Baillie @angusuow

LENOVO’S DEAL WITH SUPERFISH SELLS OUT CUSTOMERS China-based computer technology company Lenovo has come under scrutiny over the past month. It has been revealed that the multinational corporation had been pre-installing adware known as ‘Superfish’ in its new laptop computers between September 2014 to January of this year. The news broke on Twitter after Facebook engineering director, Mike Shaver, discovered that Lenovo had been using Superfish on new laptops for the purposes of advertising.

Lenovo struck up a deal with Superfish that let the adware company control the ads that appeared on users’ computer as they used websites like Google. But this business deal came at the expense of the consumer’s privacy and security.

This might not seem like such a big deal at first. We all know that the Internet does a wonderful job of packing advertising into any and all avenues it can– from banners to pop-ups to YouTube interruptions. But what is particularly nefarious about this Superfish installation is that it actually leaves users vulnerable to cybercrime.

By exploiting the adware, it becomes possible to harvest information (including bank details) from users who were never informed about the pre-installation. The software has the ability to monitor web activity and inject imitation login pages, in the same way that it was being used to inject ads.

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In response to the backlash, Lenovo has admitted their wrongdoings and released a download for the tools that allows Superfish to be removed from your computer.

However, at this stage in the game, the damage has been done. Security has been compromised, and Lenovo’s reputation has been tainted. The U.S. government weighed in and urged the public to remove Superfish from their devices. Lenovo and Superfish even have a proposed class-action lawsuit filed against them in response to the revelations.

These events are likely to shake consumer confidence across the board when it comes to buying tech. Ultimately, advertising using internet tools is still something that marketers are trying to figure out. Internet users have become so inundated with advertising cluttering up their devices, that it’s reached a point where most people have just become blind to it. For the more intrusive ads, many users are now perfectly comfortable browsing the net with Adblock software, and advertising agencies are increasingly looking for ways around this to make their ads more visible.

This might mark the end of specific adware arrangements such as the one between Lenovo and Superfish. However, as far as devious and consumer-unfriendly advertising goes, I fear that the worst is yet to come.

NEWS

by Olivia Harris @Grifflon916

BUYCOTTING PRE ORDER Over the summer break many of us would have sat down with a video game at one point or another. Whether it was while checking out a Christmas release or the latest edition of Pokémon, most people would have come across the online movement to boycott pre ordering video games.

This petition has increased in popularity after the failed title releases of November 2014.Mmany video games had bugs and issues which prevented players from playing the game they paid an arm and a leg for.

Bugs and games crashing are nothing new to the video game industry. Years ago the fix to a crashed game was simply to blow on it, but today it is becoming more of an issue, making players having to wait days for patches and bug fixes. In the current era of instant entertainment, this is unacceptable.

The solution? Stop pre ordering video games.

Originally the idea of pre ordering a game was to make sure that you could get your hands on a physical copy come release day, in case the game was sold out. Over the past decade though, things have changed. Retail stores will now over- stock enough copies to cope with the rush of the release, even accounting for the growing trend of digital downloads. If the original ideal behind pre orders is now redundant then , why do we still do it?

The main reason is thatbecause now pre ordering means consumers have access to bonus content or physical merchandise, limited only to pre ordering at retail or before release online. Publishers are creating content just for those who will buy the game ahead of time., Rreleasing limited editions and or rare copies tojust encourages consumers to pay large sums of money months before the game is released, or even finished. Publishers are using this as a way to gauge the expected retail success of a game come release day. Publishing companies are now blowing the budget on marketing and trailers to get consumers to buying the idea of the game well before it’sthey’ve even come out, based simply on the strength

of how it has been marketed. This process is hurting the gaming industry. G, gone are the days of demos, and instead, money is being spent on other areas other than improving the game itself. Less money in development will lead to failed launches, glitches, bugs and unsatisfied consumers.

The most famous example of this was the game ‘Dead Island’ from Polish developer Techland and English publishers Deep silver. The trailer for the game went viral due to the shocking and emotional tone, enhanced with the booming popularity of the zombie genre in both video games and movies. This trailer depicted a family with a young girl being attacked in a hotel room by a group of zombies, in reverse,. The entire trailer is played in reverse and accompanied by a tear jerking soundtrack as -- the only audio in the entire trailer. The trailer was the first of its kind and hopefully the last. The Dead Island trailer entertained and gained audience interest but failed to represent the actual product --; the game. The game was a flop, with mixed criticism from both critics and consumers,; the hype died out soon after release.

ManyNumerous first day patches were also needed to fix many of the bugs and issues plaguing players.

Recently other games have followed the same formula, causing an uproaruproar in gaming communities across the world. It has also and sparkinged an online movement to boycott pre orders and take back the power. Social media websites like Reddit and the forum sections of Steam have exploded with posts and threads promoting the banning of pre ordering games, and which enabling enable the entertainment industry to play their consumers like puppets.

When you pre order games you are giving publishers the permission to lie to consumers and get away with it.

Just wait!. Games will get cheaper and you will avoid the initial bugs and issues. You may even change your mind completely about a game. My answer is to just wait.

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NEWS

by Nat Croker @natcroker2014

CONFESSIONS OF A S H O PA H O L I C For the Instagram obsessive and online shopping addicted, today we’ll be exploring two rapidly growing industries and their partnership with a consumer (us) who is willing to do anything to keep up with the latest trends.

Fuelled by partial vanity and a need to be up to date, I have to confess, I’m suffering from this addiction also.

I am a consumer, consumed by trends and celebrities, obsessed with a constantly changing world, and driven by the desire to one day be a part of it. This is an insight into the mind of the shopperholic, fashion conscience individual and the two industries fuelling her fire.

Last month we said goodbye to yet another season of International Fashion Week. New York bought us Alexander Wang, Paris a rare mix of Valentino and Zoolander and this month we celebrate 20 years of Fashion Week in Australia.

It is no secret that the fashion industry is continuously evolving, with money the motivator and innovation and creativity the key. We as consumers have never been more influenced or directly targeted by this once exclusive and elite world.

Bombarded by monthly trends and weekly drops of new clothing, consumers are constantly being pressured to purchase. Tell me the ugliest colour green is the colour of the season and ill go out and buy it in the first top I can find. 30% off storewide, (#bargain) I’ll spend money I

didn’t even know I had. Constantly sucked into the forever evolving trends, I find myself always wanting more and forever in a “wardrobe full of clothes but nothing to wear” state of mind. Nowadays, magazines are viewed on iPads, fashion shows are live streamed to the masses and selfvalue is determined by ‘likes’ or ‘followers’. With a click of a finger we can have parcels of new product delivered straight to our door; it’s convenient, cost effective and addictive.

With the age of Instagram comes a new form of online marketing. Organisations are able to promote their product through consumers with a high following as well as engage with customers about their wants and needs, online marketing has never been so profitable. The introduction of apps such as ASAP54 which finds products consumers like is making buying products the easiest it has ever been. All of our desires are being targeted; whether we bring it upon ourselves is a whole other question.

So if you’re thinking I have issues, well, I do: serious online shopping issues, but as the fashion and technology industry continue to collaborate we will forever have a love hate relationship. Because how can we hate the sweet convergence of two industries that brought us the likes of netaporter.com and the ability to shop in the comfort of our homes.

And did I mention no annoying sales assistants?

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UOW101

5 GEEKS YOU MEET AT UNI They’re everywhere. They’re in our cities. They’re in our neighbourhoods. They’re in streets.

They’re even in our universities. Cue dramatic screaming...

Things have changed a lot since high school (thank god!) and more and more now, it seems that people are celebrating their geekdom rather than shunning it. Geek-prohibition is over and as a result, some of your friends may have come out of the closet (or Tardis, depending on what they prefer). As such, it’s not unlikely that you’ve come into contact with these lovable characters at some point in your university experience.

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The Alice in Wollongong:

The Wolf of Crown Street:

They almost always have their nose buried in their readings for five weeks from now (they completed this week’s readings before session even started). You can’t really recall a time in their studies where their average dropped below an Ender Wiggin level of genius, and you’re pretty sure their brain is rigged with some sort of time-turner device. They also literally have more hours in the day than you since they got up before 11. Their room has some really nice Beautiful Mind decoration going on because they’re never switched off and they have self-discipline down to an art-form. Sometimes it’s hard being around them since every time you hang out you feel a little bit guilty about skipping your lecture… again. Do you even attend classes anymore? However, they inspire you.

That is, they inspire you to do your homework, to be a better student, and to be a better person (partly so you can rub it in their damn over achieving face). On top of that, you know they’re always willing to help you be better because they want you to do just as well (it gets lonely at the top). Gold stars are their Mr. Darcy and tardiness is their Voldemort.

When you open a newspaper (let’s just pretend for a second that we still read news in papers) you pass them the business section as you flick straight to the comics. They’re inherently old fashioned like that, like they’ve just stepped off of ‘80s Wall Street (the bright optimistic perspective of someone pre the GFC, suspenders, and all). You’re pretty sure they’ve been playing the market since that one time their mum didn’t give them their hard earned allowance raise when they were 10 (and we all know about lollies inflation). You even heard from an ex-partner of theirs that they once screamed “SELL” in bed. While they’re obviously very penny-wise, you’re kind of sick of the tut-tutting you receive every time you blow your Centrelink on a Steam sale, and it seems like their idea of casual is the same outfit you wore to your year twelve formal (which makes it kind of hard to blend in at Hotel Illawarra). Luckily, they’re always more than happy to shout you a beer (or five, they can afford it). And you know every time you encounter scary, adult-world obstacles, such as doing taxes, applying for a loan, keeping a good credit rating, they’re actually excited to walk you through the process step by step. SWOT is their mantra and Venkat is their idol.

UOW101

by Rebecca Wiggins @youfoundbec

Tsundere Student:

Dr. Mad Scientist:

The Tech Wizard:

Some may call it childish, others may insist it’s “cartoons”, they would incinerate these people with some Roy Mustang inspired alchemy. You don’t think you’ve even taken a picture with them where they weren’t throwing up a peace sign (you know it’s “kawaii” but they’re derailing your selfies) and they seem to speak flawless Japanese, despite you never seeing them actually attend any of their international studies classes.

You can’t stand watching movies with them since they’re always subbed, and let’s not even get started on how confused you were after they made you sit through Neon Genesis Evangelion (even Totoro made more sense than this). They even named their first car The Bebop and second one Lagann. Even though sometimes they embarrass you when they scream “moon tiara magic” when you play Frisbee, they’ve opened up your world to so much more.

They’re not exactly what you’d call a jet setter, but they’ve taught you a lot about countries and cultures you had no idea about. They’ve enriched your life and shared their passion with you.

Ultimately, they’re your waifu.

Dr. Doom, eat your heart out; this mad scientist is a whole other level of crazy. You’re not 100% sure what they do at uni exactly but you’re almost certain that it’s diabolical. You know when someone looks normal on the surface until you happen to catch that deranged twinkle in their eye? Well even Emma Frost doesn’t twinkle this much. You don’t envy their roommates because you’ve seen the cultures they’ve sampled and incubated in their kitchen, not to mention the biological warfare going on in their bathroom. Sometimes it’s hard to believe they didn’t jump straight off the pages of a comic book and into your life, recruiting you as their very own side-kick. In any other universe, they’d probably be 1v1ing Batman since you’re sure they’re the Joker incarnate. But, despite their nefarious ways, deep down they definitely care for you. Whether it’s diagnosing the difference between your hangover vs your imaginary aneurism, or calmly removing the biology from your life (spiders are your ultimate foe), they’ve shown time and time again that they’re looking out for you. At the very least, you know that when the day does come that they take over the world, you will be spared from their Dr. Horrible inspired freeze-ray. And maybe kept as a pet.

Part human, part machine and definitely related to Robocop, these geeks may seem out of this world.

Every time you pop over to their house to say ‘hey’ (and maybe also suggest it’s time leave the World of Warcraft for today and enter the world of reality) they’ve added to their collection of computer screens and soon they’ll have their own Cerebro. You think the last time they saw sunlight was while praising it with Solaire of Astora and they continue to insist that League of Legends is a legitimate sport. While they may be a bit of a shut in and their passion for gaming and gadgets reaches disturbingly high levels (some people have sex toys, they have an Arduino board), you have to admit they definitely know their stuff. You’ve never seen anyone more capable at commanding technology that it blows your mind. While you struggle with working out how to use the remote, they seem to magically understand the most complicated of machines. Not to mention, they’re pretty handy to have around when your computer is throwing a tantrum and you’re having a meltdown.

17

CONTRIBUTOR PROFILE

by Gemma Mollenhauer @GemmaMolle07

TEISHA CLOOS For our contributor profile this issue, I sat down with my fellow journalism student Teisha.

Can you give us an overview of who you are and what you’re all about?

I’m Teisha, sports writer and enthusiast. I’m really into everything natural from people to plants to food.

The beach is my home. What am I about? Peace and happiness… for sure.

What degree are you studying and what year will you graduate?

I study Journalism and International studies, with a double minor of French and International Communications. I will be graduating when I’m about 47 … so 2020.

sports and Rugby.

Where do you see yourself in 10 years?

Beach house in Hawaii, as a surf correspondent, married to some beautiful surfer who has a man bun.

What would you like to see more of in The Tert this year?

Umm well I like seeing sport, hence the reason for my sport features. Maybe some “Sex and the City” stuff? I love awkward boy and girl encounters, it happens so often to me.

Do you have a plan post degree, if yes, what is it?

If you could have dinner with anyone in all of time and history, who would you pick?

My plan is to either be on T.V as a sports reporter; maybe working with fuel T.V or the NRL because I froth extreme

Ahh that’s too hard!!! I’m going to turn it into a dinner party. Me, Bob Marley, Bam Margera and Ghandi.

18

GAME ON

by Jayden Perry @_JaydenPerry

way this flood of games could be seen as devaluing, or at very least, changing the way we respond to them.

I can quite happily say that in 2015 the game development giants’ hold on the industry is crumbling, allowing for a much more open medium. Where once I was incredibly excited for the latest Ubisoft title, now my excitement and enthusiasm is directed towards the weird and wonderful creations of independent developers. Talk to me about the new Mass Effect or Star Wars Battlefront and I’ll be suitably exuberant, but as a whole the big studios just aren’t doing it for me lately - there’s still the flood of sequels, prequels and tired rehashes we never quite needed saturating the market.

GAME CHANGERS I remember when I was a kid, playing video games for the first time. The memory of sitting in front of Ratchet and Clank on my shiny new Playstation 2 comes back to me vividly; I had no other worries in the world, I was the hero of that universe. I knew it wasn’t actually me taking on the galaxy with a wrench in hand and robot by my side, but these early experiences with games were really something special.

Now, as a twenty something university student who plays more video games in a month than I did in a whole year as a kid, I can’t help but feel a little saddened looking back. Once I approached these worlds with a literal childlike sense of wonder, enthralled by the characters and creatures that brought them to life. I lived in those little worlds for months at a time. Now, what would once last me months now can take as little as a few afternoons of my time, and while I may enjoy myself, it’s definitely not the same feeling I got when I was younger.

Call it nostalgia, but having played games for the better part of the last fifteen years, games really are something different now. Since I first started playing, the gaming industry has swelled in size and increased in international revenue to over 81 billion dollars. More people than ever are playing and making games thanks to new technologies and the internet. But I have to question whether in some

However, a new hope is rising in the form of indie games, as in games made generally without the support and funding of a large gaming publisher. This brings a world of freedom to developers, cutting out those corporate details that can make all the difference in producing a quality game.

A freedom from corporate targets and profit margins means that these games can explore anything and everything, regardless of whether it would sell commercially. This capacity for exploration allows games to be as relatable, grounded and personal as needs be. A loved one suffering from cancer (That Dragon, Cancer), relationships and consent (In Tune) and morality (Papers, Please) are all explored through indie made games, giving us new ways to understand and consider the world around us.

Aside from just how broadly independent developers have opened up the industry, another thing that draws me to them is the people behind the games. It’s incredibly inspiring to see the passion independent developers have for their work. They truly love what they’re doing and you can see their personality in their creations. By their very nature, these indies can be created by as little as one person and cater to a niche, personal audience. It’s almost magical that these creations can be so powerful and personal.

Maybe as I get older I’m less concerned with getting lost in alternate worlds and more concerned with understanding the one I’m a part of. As I look back, I now feel as though I’ve shaken off that hint of sadness I had for the enthralling escapism I enjoyed with my Playstation in a very different time. I’m now presented with thousands of games, each delivering new ways to interact with people and the real world, through different points of views and experiences we may never have gotten outside of games.

It’s kind of beautiful, really.

19

VOX POPS

by Claudia Poposki @claudiapop13

Georgina Ross, International Bachelor of Science.

Patrick Andersson, Bachelor of Arts.

Shannon Wilson, Biology (Study Abroad).

“Yes I would leave. Because by 2024 I would have had some time with my family to say my goodbyes [with] a solid effort. And then I will revolutionise a new planet.

“No I would not. I am not prepared to leave my world yet! Everything I know exists in this planet… I would not be prepared to up and leave it.

If I die, well, I don’t have any choice in that, but I don’t think I would be prepared to choose Mars.”

“No. My life here is far too important to me. And… it would be very lonely.

It’s foreign, and it’s just very lonely.”

Mars One is a Dutch based organisation that is giving citizens the opportunity for to embark on a one way trip to Mars. After originally receiving 202,586 applications for the mission, it has now been narrowed down to 50 men and women, with the majority coming from the Americas and Europe.

The main objective is to establish a settlement on the planet, with crews of four beginning to leave in 2024.

Follow up crews will leave every two years after the original launch.

With such a project, there are always risks. However, Mars One is doing all they can to minimise this. According

to their website, “the Mars lander will be tested eight times prior to the landing of the first crew, using identical vehicles.”

They have identified their two biggest risks as the loss of human life and cost overruns.

Many of those selected will be leaving behind loved ones. They will never see these people again. Clare Weedon, a finalist, said she is not afraid of leaving these people behind, “Leaving will be a test of character, but we will still have contact through emails — it’s not game over.”

Mars One will send unmanned ships to Mars prior to sending the Mars 100 winners, beginning in 2018.

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VOX POPS Photos by Bec Wiggins and Elodie May

Joe English, Bachelor of Primary Education.

Todd Hardingham, Bachelor of Commerce

“I don’t think so. I would never be able to come back, and if I couldn’t come back, I would miss my family…

I have a girlfriend, and I don’t know if I could take her with me! If I had to go by myself, that would suck. And we’re trying to stop the destruction of the Great Barrier Reef, so if I go, I couldn’t do that.”

“ [In 2024] I’ll be thirty. Do I have to decide right now? Can I say yes now and turn it down later? After 9 years I probably would say yes… Because hopefully by then I’d see enough of earth, that I would want to travel somewhere else. Um… I guess I am the future of the human race.

Stewart McNair, Bachelor of Medical Radiation and Physics Advanced “It’s a tough one! Because, realistically, you want it to be set up before you go into this vast land, where you have no idea what you’ll be experiencing. So… you don’t know what you’re in for. … It might not be the future of the human race! We don’t know. I think I would stay home and see what happens in this expedition first. It’s a bit of a scumbag move, but I would not want to risk it.

“WOULD YOU GO TO MARS IF YOU KNEW YOU COULD NEVER COME BACK?” 21

DEBATE

TECH VS. PRIVACY

SHOULD THE A D VA N C E M E N T OF TECHNOLOGY BE PURSUED IF IT C O M E S AT THE COST O F P R I VA C Y ?

WHERE SHOULD WE DRAW THE LINE?

22

PLAYER 1 JARROD SMALL

Technology should be pursed even if it does come at the cost of privacy and over a billion people agree with me.

Now I understand that that’s a pretty bold statement but hang in there with me.

Facebook is currently the largest social media platform in the world and is an excellent example of people choosing technology over privacy every time.

Everyone has heard of the countless privacy issues that Facebook has had in the past, with the most recent being the seemingly excessive number of permissions that the Facebook messaging app requests when it is being installed. Even with all the controversy, even with all the complaints and backlash; you still have Facebook. Why? Because it’s awesome.

Being able to talk to your friends whenever and wherever wasn’t possible 10 years ago. Technology has and is making our lives better every day, and the billions of dollars that companies like Facebook, Instagram and Twitter make every year is proof that we’re willing to sacrifice our privacy for it.

A long time ago, Google came up with what would turn out to be one of the best money making ideas of the past 15 years: Adwords. Adwords is a pay-per-click system where a company would advertise its products and Google would display them. It’s still around today and you can see it in a Google search or on a YouTube video (sans Adblock). What Google realized after a while was that their Adwords system was getting barely any hits for how many people were seeing the ads. So they came up with the idea to start tracking user’s searches and only display ads that were related to the user’s searches. Guess what?

It worked. Since then, every major internet company that supports its business through advertisements started monitoring and processing everywhere you go and everything you look at while using they’re site.

I have absolutely no problem with this because if I have to watch an ad I’d rather it be something that I might actually care about. I would rather see the latest trailer for a triple AAA game title then for ANOTHER mail-orderbride (one is really enough). Admittedly, it can be a little creepy when you are looking at shoes to buy on Ebay and then 10 minutes later you see an ad for those same shoes on Google. But on the other hand, Google does provide the helpful service of being able to find anything in the entire collective repository of human knowledge … ever.

If we assume that technology should (and will) prevail over privacy, the next question of if there is a line and

DEBATE

where it lies needs to be addressed. This is something that I sometimes struggle with, and yet, I’ve always come back to the same answer. The advancement of technology doesn’t strip people of their privacy; sometimes it’s simply the cost of admission.

The line needs to be drawn where people’s privacy isn’t violated without their consent; however, this line never comes close to preventing the advancement of technology. For example, when you join basically any social media platform or online service, you first have to click “agree”. You know, the button that is preceded by a wall of text? Well if you’ve ever wondered what it says the tl;dr is “we reserve the right to store your data and images and sell them to advertising companies later”.

The technology already exists and will continue to advance but to quote Uncle Ben “with great technology comes great responsibility” … or something like that.

PLAYER 2 NIKOLAJS OZOLINŠ

Tension between new technology and privacy is something we’ve almost come to expect these days. We don’t often think about why Tinder requires information about our web browsing history, but nevertheless we go on swiping right. I think it can partly be explained by the way most things, technology included, are viscerally connected to knowledge about what is deemed important and valuable, or at least, permissible in our society. ‘Privacy’ is an ideologically loaded term and a practical definition can be quite elusive. Things like ‘not being observed’ don’t really work when we make profiles to exhibit some form of ourselves, but are important when thinking about being filmed on the street or having our metadata retained.

Moreover, rights to personal information are regularly ceded but what happens to this information afterwards is often a point of concern. What’s most important, I feel, is acknowledging that the relationship between technology and privacy is informed much more by ideology than it is by any narrative that “advancement may cost us some of our privacy.”

I get the impression most technologies can be applied in a huge number of things, but certain values direct the development of technology. For instance, rockets and missiles, and our numerous space-faring craft are essentially variations on the same design. That the technology was developed earlier for killing people speaks to the priorities of those who had power over

it rather than to any categorical good. And so it is with privacy, such that it need never be jeopardised by any new technological development, but it is allowed to be in service of the relationship between capital, power, and you.

Walking through Crown St Mall just last night, I was struck by the huge number of security cameras installed there. I thought of them as an invasion of privacy, but one friend commented on them being important for deterring violence and crime, or solving cases thereof. In the name of full disclosure, I will say I might be biased because I’ve been bashed in Wollongong CBD, with security cameras doing nothing to help, but I really feel that these cameras are a technological intrusion into privacy, made not in the name of protecting the public from acts of random violence, but protecting private property and ensuring a certain type of behavioural uniformity. They represent the saturation of our developed environment, and more generally the social landscape, with an ideology of surveillance, discipline, and control.

What has brought this topic into vogue is the imminent passing of metadata retention laws by the Australian government. While these laws remain in the works, and I remain no expert on telecommunications, it’s difficult for me to comment on them definitively. However, they do sure seem to exemplify the type of relationship where peoples’ privacy is infringed upon to secure discipline and state control. This metadata retention is also, I feel, justified with explanations which really just attempt to pull the wool over the eyes of the Australian public.

Analogies likening metadata retention to reading the outside of envelopes are quite misleading, because that information is basically public anyway. It doesn’t really match the government’s desperate need for metadata. At the same time, the government says that the consequences of not having that metadata are “unilateral disarmament in the face of criminals.” This kind of juxtaposition is used to create a type of ambivalence and acceptance of the new rules. But spying on people all the time is wrong.

It undermines the principle of being innocent until proven guilty, and blanket surveillance really makes me think these laws are for prosecuting people rather than protecting anyone. Technology really doesn’t have to be used like this, and the fact that in Australia it hasn’t been, and in Europe similar laws were rejected, shows that there’s a certain ideology behind the relationship between technology and privacy.

Technologies don’t spring from the ground; they are created and exist socially, as such they work according to the same principles as most other social relationships.

Maybe we won’t always be concerned about tension between technology and privacy, but as long as this relationship can be used to make money or control our behaviour, I’ll bet it will be. The basis of the issue isn’t the technology though, rather, it’s the relations and knowledge which inform it.

23

F E AT U R E S 24

by Claudia Poposki @claudiapop13

UNDER THE DOME

Under the Dome, by Chai Jing, is a self-funded documentary that explores the issue and affects of air pollution in China through a combination of personal narrative and interviews featuring scientific evidence. It was with this message that assisted with the avoidance of censorship. The documentary- first released in China - has attracted international attention and has been compared to Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth, and, Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring.

The largely popular Chinese environmental documentary was pulled from most of the internet on March 7th. It was released just prior to the annual legislative meeting, meaning many eyes were on China and wandered what they were going to do about the state of their environment.

Jing explained that it wasn’t until she had her child that she became “afraid” about the pollution in China, stating, “I didn’t wear a mask in polluted days before. After holding a new life in my hands, I started to worry about the air quality.” Her fear is one that is shared by most of the urban Chinese population.

Beijing’s air holds particles of 89.5 micrograms per cubic meter. The World Health Organisation (WHO) and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has concluded that it should hold no more than particles of 10 microgram per cubic meter. The WHO along with the University of Washington, in Seattle, also concludes that pollution accounts for 1.2 million deaths per year. Chinese statistics only put it at half a million. Yet Beijing isn’t even the worst city for pollution in China.

The problem of pollution in China is not a new concern, but to have the issue addressed so frankly, and through a

medium widely accessible by audiences (already clocking 150 million views), this means that conversation will be sparked – particularly through the attention of revered environmentalists like Ma Jun. Jun commends the documentary, stating it is, “one of the most important pieces of public awareness of all time by the Chinese media,” and it is powerful “because it is motivated by a personal story and has got the feelings that people can relate to. It also holds to the standards of investigative journalism, it is properly vetted on the scientific and technology side, it is a powerful combination”.

The government has taken measures to try and combat the pollution, particularly in Beijing. Approximately 15,000 factories have been ordered to publish levels of harmful substances they have released since January 2014. The State Council has also authorized a plan that aims to reduce the amount of fine particles per cubic meter to 60 micrograms by 2017 in Beijing. The plan also focuses on the Yangtze Delta, the Pearl River Delta and Beijing, Tianjin and Hebei provinces. A reduction in the dependency of coal is also an aim, however, it is predicted that China’s need for coal will actually rise by 2018.

Chinese President declared two days into the National People’s Congress to, “punish, with an iron hand, any violators who destroy the ecology or environment, with no exceptions”, according to the official Xinhua News Agency.

The movie can still be viewed via YouTube and Hong Kong based news site ifeng.com

25

EXPERIENCE WITH A TECH GIANT

The opportunity to represent a company such as Google is something every IT student dreams of. Such a thing you would expect to be reserved exclusively for graduate students, with experience and a developed expertise in a specialized sector. However; here I am on my way to the Google offices in Pyrmont Sydney, 2nd year of University, about to start as a Google Student Ambassador.

I’m here to attend the Google Ambassador Summit, where all of the new Ambassadors from around the country stay in Sydney for 3 nights and get to experience the Google Offices. During the summit we learned all about what we would be doing as an Ambassador and learnt a lot about the company and their products. We got to hear from and meet a variety of Google employees (or, Googlers) and discovered the culture and lifestyle of Google.

When we arrived at the offices in the morning we took the elevator to the 5th floor and into a room where we would spend the majority of the next two days. The room was very “Googly”, sporting a colour scheme that would not look out of place in an Andy Warhol painting, with bright yellow walls, a green stage and very bright green lights surrounding 3 huge whiteboards.

When we entered the room, there were long conference style tables and chairs to one side of the room, with a lecture style setup of chairs closer to the stage. Upon the chairs were white messenger bags which resembled the Gmail envelope icon; a nice welcoming present every ambassador receives.

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After a series of introductions, talks and Q&A panels, we made our way to lunch. We went to one of the restaurants run especially for Googlers; these meals are all free to Google employees, breakfast lunch and dinner.

The offices are amazing; fantastic Google themed decor adorned every wall. But, it’s the little details which made it really great. One memorable feature was the various naming schemes they elected to use for their meeting rooms, such as different Female computer scientists or Memes (my favourite room is ceiling cat, which has a papercraft cat hanging from the ceiling).

The elevators on one floor of a building were made to resemble Sydney trains, complete with ceiling rails, leather train handles and sliding “train” doors. We were all waiting for the “Doors closing, please stand clear” chime, but it was unfortunately absent.

Another section of the office had an old Sydney monorail cabin inside which was converted into a video conferencing “room”, the tour guide said this improved the speed and efficiency of international conferences, but I think it just looked cool.

They also had a full music room complete with drums, guitars and a ukulele and about three rooms for video games, ping pong tables, pool tables and pinball machines. They also had a “makerspace” which allowed employees to tinker and experiment with electronics as they please.

FEATURE

by James Rule

If you type Google into Google, you can break the internet

So, their offices are awesome and they get free food, so they probably are so distracted with all this that they don’t do any work, right?

funny hat and we all get similar pieces of paper. But our aspirations once we finish university are shaped from our journey through it.

This is simply not the case. Over the course of the summit we learnt a lot about what the company is striving for and about the wide variety of products they already supply.

The people who work there will all admit their job is not “easy”, but the ones that I met all said it was highly rewarding and they have some incredible stories about where they have been and the people they have met.

We may move into a PhD, a graduate program or a (dare I say it) job! But whatever we do will be unique and deeply personal.

Overall the summit was amazing, but I also learnt a lot.

Visiting the offices of one of the largest companies on the planet gave me excellent insight into “why I am here”.

There are some great things that I want to do, whether with Google (fingers crossed) or not. These things may change, and may be unobtainable, but I know I want to do something cool that makes a difference; which is exactly what Google is doing with their various software solutions and programs. Doing cool things that matter.

Some go to university because they want to make “all of the money ever”, others will go to uni to find the cure for Cancer and others will go because they don’t know what they want to do after school. I originally wanted to go to uni for better job prospects and the desire to learn more about computers. But after attending the summit and seeing a bit about “what’s next” I now know for sure why I am here: to test myself. I want to know what I am and am not capable of, whether I go the moon (or Mars) and back or just cross Windang Bridge; I want to know.

So, while the reason people go to uni varies for many people what is interesting it that the final conclusion varies as much as the beginning, if not more. We all (mostly) end up graduating and wearing the blue robes with the

If you’re interested in how to become involved with Google at UOW, head on over to: facebook.com/GoogleUOW”

27

FEATURE

by Amy Joyce @AmyJoyce1

Nerd (adj) 1. a person who behaves awkwardly around others and has unstylish hair, clothes, etc’ (Merriam-Websters dictionary) or 2. ‘an intelligent individual/ expert in a technical field’ (Oxford dictionary).

The Big Bang Theory, the popular culture hit television show, has generated a strong stereotypical image of the ‘nerd’. This is typically a male who enjoys Sci-Fi, video games, science, is socially awkward (especially around women) and consistently engages in intellectual debate.

However, the earlier seasons of the show rarely included lead female ‘nerd’ characters, thus further cementing the generalisation that a nerd is generally a male. However, when their female nerd characters are introduced they are socially awkward, sport typically unstylish fashion in contrast to the other female lead Penny.

Does an individual have to encompass all of these qualities to be a ‘nerd’? I believe that the word ‘nerd’ is simply a base word that stems into multiple categories, typically popular culture nerds, academic nerds and gaming nerds. Of course an individual may fit into all of these categories but the large majority do not and thus are forced into society’s stereotypical view.

I was curious as to what the general population considered a “stereotypical nerd” and whether they felt that in order to be a nerd you had to hold certain qualities such as; intelligence or be into Sci-Fi. First I spoke to David Cardoso, an Honours student, studying Medical Biotechnology Advanced at UOW his thoughts on the nerd culture. Many would consider David a nerd due to his intellect, however, he does not agree because he rarely engages in intellectual conversation.

Although he has noticed that society truly believes in the nerd stereotype which is demonstrated within the Big Bang Theory. David does not agree that there are sub categories of nerds, he strongly believes that to be a true nerd you must be intelligent.

Compare this to Brett Tye, a self-confessed “gaming nerd”

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MY BIG BANGIN’ NERD THEORY and Kathleen Taylor also a self-confessed nerd. Brett is studying a Diploma in Child Care and considers himself a non-intellectual nerd but rather enjoys massive multiple player online games. It is clear he is strongly opposed to David’s viewpoint, as he sees the term nerd not being defined by an individual’s IQ but rather by a person holding an in-depth knowledge in an area. He gave the examples of fantasy games and anime. Whilst Kathleen who studies Bachelor of Communication and Media Studies at UOW agrees with Brett that an individual’s IQ will not make them a nerd but rather a vast knowledge about their passion is a defining factor.

David, Brett and Catee represent very different ends of the “nerd spectrum”, however, David and Brett agree that The Big Bang Theory has presented a stereotypical ideal of what a nerd should be. Whilst Kathleen agreed to an extent she believes the show does not explore the evolving nature of ‘nerd culture’.

But, is this stereotype damaging?

In my opinion, the stereotype maybe true for some but, places others into a position of being judged and for society to assume they are socially awkward and highly intellectual, which is not the case for many. Shows like the Big Bang Theory have also clearly cemented this ideology in society, which is evident when speaking to David who is clearly a traditional academic ‘nerd’. However, due to his ideas gained from the Big Bang Theory, he believes to be an academic nerd he must be, ‘cracking intellectual jokes and getting in socially awkward situations’.

Nerd, a word with multiple definitions that encompasses multiple categories but there is only one distinct social stereotype.

So what kind of nerd are you?

FEATURE Elizabeth Ellis and Blake Stanbridge @blakestanbridge @thelizcloud

WHY FIGHT WITH YOUR FISTS? HOW ABOUT A H A S H TA G ?

2015. This might finally be the year Generation Y grows up and starts taking care of the issues that our parents so quickly turned a blind eye to. Global warming, racism, gender inequality and homophobia are all the wrongs which we now apparently have the ability to right. But if we’re going to do this, we’ll have to do it in typical Gen Y fashion. Am I right?

Our gadgets and technology have become integral parts of our bodies. The Internet has become just another brain wave within our minds. Something as simple as losing your iPhone can leave you clueless about the events of the day - from Kim Kardashian’s latest butt selfie to the new social activism hashtag trending online. Gen Y culture has become an incredibly connected online community and through multiple media platforms, individuals worldwide can connect to share stories, beliefs and insights.

Tumblr, the social media blogging platform founded by David Karp, allows its users to post limitless amounts of eclectic content onto their personalised blogs and newsfeeds. As a social media platform once renowned for its fandoms such as porn and ‘bronies’ (adult male fans of the My Little Pony franchise), Tumblr has since become a platform for social justice warriors where they are able to share and fight injustices.

In June 2013, Tumblr erupted in support for Texan politician Wendy Davis, as she held a filibuster to block Senate Bill Five, a proposal to ban abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy. People worldwide connected with each other as they viewed the website’s live stream, posting quotes, pictures and text posts to show their

support. Although not all Tumblr users participated in the protest by sharing content, it without a doubt showed the power of the individuals behind the computer screens who felt that they too, were involved, despite being half way around the world.

A more recent event of online activism was for campaign, ‘Hands Up, Don’t Shoot’, which brought to light the racial injustices that are rife within the American justice system.

African-American Mike Brown was shot dead by Darren Wilson on August 9, 2014, despite being unarmed and on his knees. Wilson was later also not indicted for his actions.

This was a boiling point for social and racial injustices. The outpouring of support and emotion from online users was colossal, with individuals questioning the society we live in and the very core of our humanity. The online activism on Tumblr soon became recognised on a global scale as the activism spread to other social media platforms and the international media.

The connectivity of our online activisms is proving to be successful in ways previous campaigns could never have imagined. One simple hashtag can be the seed to a revolution. #HandsUpDontShoot, #IllRideWithYou, #HeForShe, #BringOurGirlsHome have spread internationally like wildfire, and this is only the beginning.

The future of online activism will spread and you now have the power to be involved. Our digital age is not about being disconnected or anti-social as we are labeled by other generations. Our social media platforms have the ability to channel countless voices into one large collective – one large social media revolution.

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HOW OBSESSED ARE WE? As much as I have never wanted to admit this, both to myself and my forever complaining parents, I do indeed have an addiction and obsession with technology. There I said it, the truth is out! I know I’m not the only one and I bet you’re reading this right now are probably nodding along in agreement with me. I love checking Facebook just as much as the next person does. I love scrolling through my Instagram feed and having a Twitter rant all while texting the person sitting across the room from me.

Our world is consumed with the drug that is technology, it influences every move we make. I do agree that many of the amazing and revolutionary ideas in our society have come to fruition due to technology. However, have we ever stopped to have a think about the implications they may have on the way we interact with other human beings or even with ourselves?

The way we communicate has drastically changed in the past few decades and continues to evolve rapidly.

Gone are the days of handwritten letters and face to face interaction; the modern generation have been faced with the epidemic of an online society.

A study named ‘The world UNPLUGGED’ led by the International Centre for Media & the Public Agent (ICMPA), University Of Maryland, took 1000 university students from ten different countries and asked them to take a break from technology and media for a full 24 hours, reporting back the next day with their pro and con experiences. For some, this may sound like an extreme feat, just think what

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your day would be like with no laptop, no phone and no internet. Could it really be done?

The findings that came back from this study were shocking, with one student comparing his experience to a drug addiction saying, “I was itching, like a crack head”. Are we, as a society, really that dependent on and obsessed with our social media sites and the technology we rely on? At some point we start clinging and depending on the technology we created to aid us. This “addiction” to media and technology plagues our generation. The university students involved noted feelings of loneliness, anxiety, stress, paranoia, restlessness and sadness. In short, depriving ourselves of technology for one day created panic and what sounds like a severe ‘nervous breakdown’.

One UK student went as far to compare their feelings to those of having a severe mental illness, when she noted, “It’s like some kind of disorder, and addiction. I became bulimic with my media; I starved myself for a full 15 hours and then had a full on binge.”

I mustn’t be the only one who isn’t a little concerned and, quite frankly afraid of the effects that our dependance may be having on us. In saying that, I’m currently sitting here and writing this with a movie playing in the background and Facebook open. Technology is inescapable due to the boundaries we have pushed and life changing discoveries we have made. However when does it become too much?

We are forced to avoid social activities, communication,

FEATURE

by Annelise Decaria

work and school just to be able to escape from technology and take a break What our Internet generation lacks are the communication skills that don’t require technology of any sorts. Although this really isn’t our fault since we have been brought up the idea for a solution to our problems: just ‘google’ it.

The absence of technology and media in the students’ lives from the above study bought to light some mental health issues that are potentially concerning for the wellbeing of students our age. Feelings of anxiety due to not being able to connect with or contact friends and family were raised. This then calls the communications skills of the students into question. These students could have easily interacted in a face-to-face manner, but instead remained distressed. The ability to hide behind one’s screen doesn’t allow for the development of good communication skills, which are lacking in many students today but are being sought out by employers in the workforce.

After removing majority of face-to-face interactions, the rate of social anxiety has seen an increase in recent years due to the way technology has transformed and changed our way of communication. Research is beginning to indicate that the more time that an individual spends utilising online communication methods the more anxiety they display when asked to interact in person. Social media and technology has become an aid to which many students are over using, prohibiting development of social skills.

A student from China described his feelings during the experience as “anxious, irritable and … insecure”, while others noted they felt depressed, with no real presence in this world. Even though I agree technology has immensely benefited our world, the reactions of these students are alarming in that they couldn’t go one day without checking their phone, logging onto Facebook or browsing the internet without experiencing emotions similar to those that accompany severe mental disorders.

The way our generation construct their social lives and friendships is predominantly online, with a heavy emphasis on the top social media site, Facebook. When taken away from this online community, some felt they had lost apart of themselves. It was almost as though our mobile phones have become the modern age security blanket and the centre of students’ lives. This also raises questions of personal identity and asks who are we without our phones and laptops.

A clear majority in every country admitted failing to the challenge, illustrating to us the huge dependence and obsession we have to technology. Don’t get me wrong, I myself am a prime suspect of a technology addiction, so I’m challenging myself and challenging you: take a break from your screens, look up instead of down and voice your concerns instead of fitting it into a 140 character or less Twitter rant. You might just discover something new about yourself all while proving me wrong about the idea that our society is too obsessed with technology.

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I T ’ S R E A L LY H A R D T O #BREAKTHEINTERNET CHINA Last semester, in the typical first tutorial, I happened to sit next to a Chinese exchange student and marketing major by the name of Sue*. We took international media together, we learnt about press freedom, media ownership -- you know all the standard stuff you would expect. Yet it was Sue, not the tutor, who taught me a lesson I will never forget.

Despite the slight language barrier we became fast friends. Sometimes we studied together and Sue would ask me questions about western media. I’d try my best to answer simply, but that’s a bit of an impossible task. I liked to ask Sue questions about China, and quickly our friendship became a learning experience.

Midway through the semester Occupy Hong Kong started to gain to media attention. I didn’t really understand what it was all about, so I thought why not ask Sue? Long story short, Sue hadn’t heard of it. I thought that’s a bit weird, surely the Chinese media would be reporting something like that, right? Wrong.

To understand the reports better, Sue told me the next day she tried to search the event on a Chinese search engine.

met with an error message. If you are anything like me, this may come as a shock to you. I thought China was quite a free country -- its citizens can travel and study abroad.

Honestly I’d never really though of it as ‘communist’, but that’s exactly the type of thoughts that the Chinese government wants to maintain. In reality, China doesn’t have the same ‘freedom’ we are accustomed to as Australians.

For example, Sue found it shocking that the Australian government, and it’s politicians, were mocked so openly by the media and the public. At first I thought that was a culture difference, but the more Sue and I got to know each other and our respective cultures, I quickly realised that culture didn’t have that much to do with it at all.

This year alone, Reporters Without Borders ranked China number 176 out of 180 countries in their press freedom list.

It ranked just ahead of Eritrea, North Korea, Turkmenistan, and Syria. This year was worse then last; China has already dropped a position from 175.

Sue replied, “I’m not sure if it translates like that, but sort of.”

My understanding of China was completely jarred by this comparison. I found myself thinking, ‘but China isn’t like North Korea or anything’, though that’s probably a fairer comparison than any ‘western’ nation. The Chinese government heavily censors the media, even though Sue has access to Internet, her Internet isn’t the same as ours.

It’s commonplace for current affairs to be blocked by the government’s filters, whereas some websites cannot be accessed at all. It’s understandable that Sue was uneasy about hearing Chinese events in foreign media while being unable to read about it in her mother tongue.

In China if you search terms such as ‘Tibetan independence’ or, more simply, ‘environmental issues’ you are likely to be

Sites like Facebook, Blogger, YouTube, and Twitter are all blocked in China. Instead, China has their own versions,

“Nothing came up. It just kept saying that it wasn’t working,” “You mean it said something like ‘Page cannot be displayed’?” I asked.

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FEATURE

by Georgia Holloway @grumpygeorgia

which are monitored closely. Sue once told me “don’t worry there are ways around it”. What she was referring to is virtual private networks (VPN’s): internet browsing services which can be installed on mobile phones and other devices, which are able to negate China’s firewall and filtering system. VPN’s are posing a threat of the government due to the explosion in personal device popularity. With more and more people using mobiles to access the Internet, the government is running out of ways to control the media that’s accessible. Disruptions to VPN’s happen periodically, it is also common for VPN speed to slow down in the lead up to political events, for this reason many VPN users tend to give up.

According to Reporters Without Borders, there were at least 48 hackers behind bars in 2014. Those are the people who make VPN’s possible. But that doesn’t include journalists who are being held on bogus criminal charges.

Perhaps one of the most notable Chinese journalists is Gao Yu. Yu has received multiple journalism awards, including the Golden Pen of Freedom, which she won in 1995. However Yu has also been arrested multiple times, the first came in 1989 following the Tiananmen Square protests.

Last year Yu was arrested again on charges of ‘divulging state secrets to persons outside the country’. Allegedly, Yu sent a confidential government document to German broadcaster, Deutsche Welle, which she was also a regular contributor to. Yet the Chinese government did

not confirm what document had been used. According to media reports at the time, they claimed they had solid proof of Yu’s crime. Following her arrest, Yu ‘confessed’ to her crime in a video. However, late last year, the BBC reported that during Yu’s pre-trial hearing she claims to have falsely admitted to her crime because the police were threatening to arrest her son. Sadly, this story is a common one for Chinese journalists.

The Chinese governments past explanations for censoring include the need to restrict ‘harmful’ content, such as pornography. Many western media outlets believe this is a weak scapegoat to controlling freedom of information and the press. Learning about Chinese life in this manner was a massive shock to me. In the past I have been guilty of wrongly writing off my Chinese classmates as ‘ignorant’ for not knowing the same amount about global news.

However, I was actually being the ignorant one. I can’t speak for Sue, but I wouldn’t know how I would react if I left Australia to study and discovered that my government had been blocking social media and news stories my entire life.

Sue and I talked about this a lot during the 13 weeks we knew each other. She seemed concerned about what she was discovering, even a little sceptical about it all and I still can’t decide if that’s a good thing or not. Regardless, we still keep in regular contact via email, not Facebook. *Name changed for sake of privacy

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ANTI SOCIAL MEDIA

“Stop being so antisocial; get off your damn phone!”

Everyone under the age of thirty has heard a variation of this reprimand from parents, teachers and older relatives.

It has become a running joke among the culprits to sarcastically remark upon how social it is for a group of people to all be on their phones at once.

Our media has become inundated with references to the ‘decline of human interaction’, and technology is always to blame. In WALL-E, the entirety of humanity was dependent on technology, speaking through computer screens even when right next to each other. In Warm Bodies, pre-apocalypse humans were compared to zombies, insinuating that there was a similar level of brainlessness. The implication in these films is that this is our future; if we continue to embrace technology, we will become mindless consumers of digital media.

Think of the children!

A student media website based in Utah has commented that, “What used to be a crowded community park is now filled with silence and a few occasional

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visitors, thanks to technology’s effects on children.” Ironic, considering I accessed their article, The Digital Universe, on my phone, whilst at the gym.

They seem to be bemoaning the loss of carefree exercise by today’s children, and the dreadful, stunting effect of video games on developing minds and bodies.

This complaint is not a new one. Baby boomers and concerned parents all over the world will tell you that it used to be so different in their day. They would play outside with the neighbourhood kids for hours and only come inside when the sun went down. Not only is this blatant nostalgia, it’s also not even entirely true. When my mother used to come home after school, Mary Poppins was playing on the television every single afternoon, and she still watched it every time (although who would blame her, Julie Andrews is flawless).

The thing is, people – especially children – will always crave something to occupy their minds. You’d think by now, it would be more widely recognised that children are in fact people. They have different aptitudes and interests, and after a few years, not everyone wants to play hide

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by Adara Enthaler

and seek for hours and hours. Modern technology, rather than limiting the range of activities children can engage in, has created a wide expanse of opportunities for kids to engage with peers, entertain themselves and their friends and to access games that can actually be useful for developing minds.

It’s not natural!

As with anything in life (except breathing), we should remember to moderate our Internet use. Amongst their griping about ‘kids these days’, the technophobes do have one good argument: humans are biological, not digital. We need regular exercise, natural air, and perhaps the occasional hug in order to prevent our bodies from freaking the hell out.

However, the argument that technology is unnaturally warping our minds is subjective to the point of ludicrousness. When did technology start being harmful and excessive? If you go back far enough, almost everything is technology. Are bicycles also flighty inventions that make everything too easy? Should we refuse to read newspapers online because it’s more natural read them off scraps of dead trees? No. For the love of science, no.

The Internet is addictive!

Whilst it is true that Internet addiction is real, it is often a misnomer for boredom, or a tool through which other addictions are accessed. The convenience of Internet access provides people, such as gamblers, porn addicts, and shopaholics, with quick avenues to their vices. People who spend inordinate amounts of time on Farmville or Candy Crush do so because it provides them with small amounts of achievement and gratification for passing levels. It can be addictively satisfying for people who do not find fulfilment in other parts of their lives. It’s the reason I always seem to find myself playing Plants vs Zombies between semesters.

Stop being ridiculous.

Many people seem to have romanticised the times

before mobile phones and computers, replacing the reality with a vintage fantasy of cheerful strangers having enthusiastic conversations whilst tap dancing to musical numbers. Advancements in technology haven’t made people antisocial, they just made it a lot easier to be selfcontained. People have always hated Mondays, public transport, and early morning chitchat; they just didn’t tweet about it. They avoided eye contact and buried their faces in newspapers. You certainly can’t blame the people in the corresponding image for keeping to themselves; the guy on the far left looks like Norman Bates with Mondayitis.

It can be fun to handwrite letters to friends, play card games and read by candlelight, but when a wealth of conveniently accessible sources is literally at our fingertips, it would be foolish not to use it. And to refuse the use of technological advancements in an attempt to keep our society mired in the underdeveloped past is nothing less than a step backwards. Those of us who are comfortable with technology, who have grown up as it developed into a multidimensional platform, recognise its benefits and possibilities, instead of counting up the ways it could be ruining our lives.

The argument that technology is making us antisocial, in my opinion, is ultimately bullshit. If you think that being absorbed on a mobile in a social setting is anti-social, then you just plainly don’t understand how phones work. This Easter, when the rest of my family is sitting around the table listening to Aunt Helen rave for twenty minutes about the nutritional superfood power of avocado, I’m getting things done. I’m organising a lift to a party through Facebook, selling my crafts on Etsy, emailing my honours supervisors, messaging a friend in China, and probably getting a date on Tinder. Technology has given us the option to be productive when we’re stuck doing nothing, and if you want to call us rude, then go ahead.

But we sure as hell aren’t lazy.

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FEATURE

by Zoe Simmons @ltbeginswithz

MY SPIDEY SENSES ARE TINGLING, MARVEL!

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The announcement that Spider-Man will be joining fellow Marvel superheroes in Marvel’s Cinematic Universe (MCU) will hopefully prove that Sony Pictures has learned from its past mistakes.

How they will explore this new direction remains to be seen. After two reboot attempts with the SpiderMan series, the first being in 2002 with Spider-Man 1 — followed by 2 and 3, (let’s not talk about the creepy dance scene in the third film), as well as The Amazing Spider-Man 1, and 2. One can only hope that this joint venture with Marvel will return our favourite web-slinger to his rightful place of glory.

Although Sony, who will still own the rights to the $4 billion series, have not yet revealed Spidey’s involvement in the MCU, there has been a lot of speculation. In the comic books, Spider-Man is an integral part of the Marvel universe and plays a significant role in the Civil War storyline. In this, the U.S. Government has proposed the Superhuman Registration Act, requiring all super-powered beings to register as living weapons of mass destruction, and all costumed heroes to unmask themselves for the sake of regulation and legitimacy.

Iron Man and Captain America are on opposing sides, and while I won’t tell you exactly what happens, I will tell you Spider-Man’s involvement creates rather astounding ripples. As the next Captain America film, which is due for release on May 6, 2016, is titled Captain America: Civil War, it would seem likely we can expect to see this course of action played out on the big screen. .

Will it be a continuation of The Amazing SpiderMan? Something completely different? Personally, I hope it isn’t another reboot—I mean, how many times are we going to have to watch Ben Parker die?

I sincerely hope that producers Amy Pascal, who oversaw the Spider-Man franchise launch 13 years ago, and Kevin Feige, with his expert team at Marvel, can save this beloved series and return Spider-Man to his rightful glory.

I guess only time will tell, and I for one will be saving my judgement until then.

Go team Marvel!

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SOME CONSEQUENCES OF P O P C U LT U R E GETTING IT’S GEEK ON Over the past 15 or so years pop culture, as a whole, has embraced geek culture. Stan Lee isn’t just famous for comic book fans anymore and everywhere you look in film and TV nowadays you’ll find something that is straight out of Comic Con. Some of the most popular TV shows around now and in recent memory have strong connections to geek culture. For instance The Walking Dead is based on a series of graphic novels and The Big Bang Theory features four friends who live for two things, a) science and b) geek culture.

Speaking of Comic Con, conventions like this are getting bigger and bigger almost every single year. Comic Con itself is now a major event that is on the verge of taking over San Diego for a whole weekend every year.

Geek culture is now a key part of pop culture as a whole.

There are numerous consequences of this development, two of which stand out for me; the growth in diversity and the opening up of geek culture to degradation.

Geek culture is now so large it has also become more diverse. People typically associated geek culture with with socially awkward white male shut-ins who can’t find a girlfriend. That would be wrong, however. There have always been women, people of colour and people who don’t have any difficulty in finding a partner in the geek world, though it traditionally is dominated by white men. The world of geek culture did, and still does, act

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as a refuge for many people who felt that the world had shunned them.

Plenty of young women now will have posters with Hugh Jackman on their walls not (just) because he is a babe but because he is dressed up as everybody’s-favourite-antihero, Wolverine. This is a very positive development, because it has meant that there is growing demand within geek culture for more material with leads and supporting characters that are women or are non-white or of a sexual orientation other than homosexual. Or, better yet, some combination of these.

This development of greater diversity has generated an extremely negative reaction from many within geek culture; this is particularly the case in the gaming world.

This negative reaction is primarily a vicious and reactionary sexism.

There are two main reasons for this, one more general and the second more specific. The more general reason is that we of course still live in a capitalist world. This means that unless this is changed we will continue to live in a world in which inequality, oppression and exploitation prevail.

Women still make about three quarters of what men make on average, women’s bodies have been commodified and made into sex objects and our culture normalises rape and other forms of violence against women. Although liberal feminism did still half win, great legal gains have been

FEATURE

by Ben Kohler @FakeBenKohler

made. However, these legal changes don’t actually deal with the real problem. As long as we live in a class society with quirks like massive inequality, brutal oppression and mass systematic violence, what could you really expect?

The more specific reason is that geek fandom used to be dominated by white men who had varying levels of trouble fitting in and being socially accepted. Due to the popularisation of geek culture, many geeks then feel that they are losing their culture to a world that they feel rejected them.

When feminists make calls for the portrayal of women in video games to be changed so that it is not sexist and some gamers respond to that with death and/or rape threats, it is not just because they’re misogynists. It is also because they feel that someone is taking something that they love from them.

The solution to this hostility from some in the geek community should not be to step down or make concessions. A big part of what makes geek culture so good is that it’s about being passionate about the literature, films, TV shows and games that you like and doing so together. I don’t want to love The Walking Dead by myself, I want to love it with a bunch other people!

Whatever stands in the way of geeks being allowed to love something collectively and being completely embraced, such as sexism, should be smashed; preferably by the Hulk.

Another consequence of geek culture becoming a major part of pop culture is that it has become vulnerable to degradation from the Michael Bays of the world. That is, the quality of much of what makes up the biggest parts of geek culture is potentially at risk.

Film companies don’t necessarily care if what they produce is good, just so long as they make a lot of money from it.

By the logic of capitalism they can’t just make what they

did last year, they need to make more and more every year without interruption. If the film needs to be shallow and pander to the lowest common denominator to make as much money as it could make, film companies are cool with that.

It doesn’t matter to them that aside from the first one, which was somewhat reasonable, the Transformers movies are absolutely appalling. Great special effects, but Michael Bay just ruined something that plenty of geeks love. They suck, but those “films” have done extremely well at the box office so there will be more until either people stop going to see them or until they just can’t really make anymore.

As things stand, it is not too bad however. The Marvel films have mostly been very good and some have been pretty awesome, Guardians of the Galaxy for instance, and from the looks of what we’ve seen thus far, it looks like the next Avengers movie will be incredible and Ant Man is expected to at least be quite good. Additionally we may allow ourselves some optimism for the Star Wars movie that will be out later this year based on the teaser.

But we still know that Marvel is not infallible; case in point, Iron Man 2.

Geek culture is awesome, as more people are finally aware. We are now at a point where movies are being made that are based on rather obscure comic books from the 70’s and becoming massive hits. This is having very positive consequences as well as some very negative ones. Geeks need to be as engaged as ever to push for positive changes in geek culture whilst being active in fighting against forces that will see the decay of what motivates us to get our cosplay on. Geek culture is one of the few really awesome things about the world and in order to keep it that way, geeks need to unite to fight sexism, racism, homophobia, Michael Bay and everything else that might ruin it. Geeks of the world, unite!

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FEATURE

by Zoe Ridgeway

A few years ago in a corporation far, far away, George Lucas sold his company Lucasfilm for $4.06 billion to Disney. It was a controversial transaction at the time causing a disturbance in the force for Star Wars fans, who either anticipated or feared what Disney would do with their beloved saga. Coming back to 2015, these conflicting opinions are on the rise again, as everyone wonders what to expect on the 18th December 2015, when Episode VII: The Force Awakens is released. In order to try and speculate what Disney-Lucasfilm will do with its first major motion picture, it is important to review how Disney has handled the merging of companies in the past.

It has been said that one of the reasons Iger has managed to maintain Disney’s success was due to his understanding of how the company’s popularity rests on developing enduring characters. By investing in Lucasfilm, Iger is adhering to that strategy, which may prove successful if minimal interference is made with the decisions of the knowledgeable creators behind Star Wars. Disney has proven to be good at this in the past, as seen with its $7.4 billion purchase of Pixar in 2006. In that deal, Iger kept the creative team led by Pixar CCO John Lasseter intact, remaining in their headquarters near San Francisco.

Furthermore, the companies agreed upon maintaining separate identities and cultures, as Pixar founder Edwin Catmull and Lasseter insisted that each studio should be purely responsible for their own projects, holding local ownership over their work. Disney was agreeable to this. Similar negotiations were made between Disney and Marvel, and in both cases, each company was still able to produce high-esteemed, highgrossing movies such as The Avengers (2012) and Toy Story 3 (2010). It is arguable that this would have happened without Disney, but the main point is that its interference with the respective companies’ projects didn’t affect each film’s fictitious universe, which held true to their lore. Even

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Lucas himself said that Disney’s decision not to meddle with Pixar was “brilliant,” perhaps what led him to his decision to sell Lucasfilm to them.

So far it can be said that Disney has handled Lucasfilm in a similar fashion, with a promising cast and crew on board for Episode VII. It is common knowledge that Lucasfilm president, Kathleen Kennedy, got J.J. Abrams to direct, a fitting choice as his revival of the Star Trek saga was a huge success. At Star Wars Celebration Europe 2014, Kennedy spoke about how character development and story were being prioritised above all else, saying that “effects would be at the service of the story.” She also confirmed that CGI would be used along with props, miniatures, set buildings and shooting in exotic locations, a combination that breathed life into the original series.

Another comfort is that the co-writer of The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi, Lawrence Kasdan, has signed up to write and produce the third trilogy, along with Simon Kinberg, who is notable for his work on the X-men film franchise. John Williams will also continue to compose the music for the next three instalments and it has been confirmed that Harrison Ford, Carrie Fisher and Mark Hamill will be making a return, as well as the characters Chewy, C3PO and R2D2. On top of the reappearance of key contributors to the original series, Lucas also holds artistic control over the Star Wars Universe, meaning decisions like the deaths of central characters would require his approval.

So what can we expect from The Force Awakens?

It has been said that it is going to be set roughly 30 years after Episode VI, leaving a lot of room for game-changing events to have occurred. There are always going to be spoiler rumours circulating the net, but the only real clue we have is the official teaser trailer that was released last November.

IS THERE NEW HOPE WITH DISNEY? As painfully ambiguous as it is enticing, a substantial amount of clues can be gleaned from its shots than what one would initially think. Heed warning that the following contains character names and actor speculations: • As the trailer opens in a vast desert, it is safe to assume that Episode VII will make a return to Skywalker’s home planet Tatoonie • Storm troopers are back, and their familiar uniforms have a sleek, modern and dare I say, badass look. Who knows, maybe they will shoot something this time…

• A new droid is featured in the trailer, looking more or less like a cyborg football. Mark Hamill revealed its name to be BB-8 and is a remote controlled set prop, evidence of Kennedy’s claims of mixing special effects with traditional mediums.

• Actress Daisy Ridley’s character is seen riding an industrial-looking speeder. The similarities between her and Leia speeding through Endor in Return of the Jedi cannot make me help but wonder…

• Oscar Isaac’s character appears to be in the rebel alliance in an X wing speeding over the ocean of a potentially new planet.

• A mysterious, presumably Sith, character is seen holding a light saber with a cross guard, already generating jokes regarding their practicality. The weapon itself has a fierier aesthetic too.

• Who can forget the return of the Millennium Falcon, in that stunning shot of it looping through the sky. Just seeing it fuelled my excitement at the return of the original cast (unfortunately there was no glimpse of Chewy or Han steering the ship).

• Arguably the biggest mystery of them all is who did the voice-over? There has been much online discussion over distinctive deep voice, which has lead to conclusions of it sounding like Benedict Cumberbatch. If our ears prove correct, Disney could well win my approval.

So far it seems that Disney has shown its sensitivity towards long-term fans, especially after the prequels failed to live up to expectations (need I mention the bumbling and infuriating ways of Jar Jar Binks?). The trailer appears to adhere to that familiar grimy and worn for wear aesthetic of space, as well as giving us glimpses of stunning visuals and iconic imagery. It looks new, but feels like Star Wars.

Only time will tell if Episode VII does justice to this beloved saga. In the meantime we can only wonder, what will Disney’s force awaken?

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FEATURE

by Beth Cunningham @chairmanmeow239

Their eyes meet. Their breath hitches at the sight of their one true love, mere metres away. You grasp the pages, the book inches from your face as a fictional relationship comes to a fictional high point, a very real squeal escaping your lips. All those pages, chapters, novels of anticipation, waiting months or even years for the author to relinquish the next steps in the journey you treasured for far too long.

Books are something very special. There is no audio, no enhanced digital visuals with explosions and technicolor.

There are just the words; eloquently devised sentences and chapters that have a stunning effect on the imagination.

When asked why book nerds love to read, I can guarantee most will say because books transport you to a whole other world. When you ask me why I love to read, and why I love to read fantasy novels in particular, it is not simply the transportation of the mind that I love, but the relationships kindled within them.

The ‘meet cute’, the instant connection, the nervous looks and shy conversations all have me devoted within moments to this potential new couple and the bright future that they clearly deserve.

But why? Why do I feel like Jace and Clary from the Mortal Instruments are clearly meant for each other? Why do I care either way when they aren’t even real?

I asked some others why they cared so much. A simple post on Facebook in a dedicated fan group produced not one sentence comments, but full paragraphs of passionate information about why others connect to fictional relationships the way I do.

“The girls are just as powerful as the boys,” gushed shipper Carolines. “I like … how ‘real’ it is. …The characters kick major ass, they do normal things like going out to eat, and even get kicked themselves. There’s just this nice relatability mixed with a desire to have a little extra magic.”

In the same way many groups are brought together over

a common interest, people find great belonging and connection through their love and investment in fictional romances. The internet has made it so easy for people to find groups dedicated to every pairing imaginable; their common adoration spawning artworks, fan fiction and videos.

The virtual world my generation now lives in has an entire culture based around relationships, complete with acronyms and jargon dedicated to the subject. Phrases such as OTP (one true pairing) and shipping (supporting a particular couple or a potential relationship) are now common knowledge. Fans of all mediums- be it book, film, or television- gather to gush and support. Whether one relates to the emotions and turmoil being experienced by the characters, or just adores imagining themselves in the place of their favourite hero or heroine (and in a perfect fantasy relationship), this dedication to fictional unions is definitely not new, but growing.

From the conflict of rooting for Heathcliff or Edgar, right up to the ultimate debate of Harry vs. Ron, people have been shipping for generations. With the incredible expansion of technology, this passion and dedication will only continue to grow, finally giving die-hard shippers a place where they all can agree that Jacob needs to get a clue and accept his friend zone status, regardless of his muscle definition.

LOVING V I C A R I O U S LY 42

FEATURE

SCRAP OR S AV E : THE VA L U E O F CURSIVE WRITING LESSONS From next year onwards, Finland will stop the mandatory teaching of cursive writing in its primary schools. The curriculum change has sparked debate across the country about whether Australia should follow suit.

Australian schools have already taken steps down a similar path. The National Assessment Program - Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN) is one of Australia’s largest school assessments, which students take in grades three, five, seven and nine. From 2016, it will be conducted online.

In a public statement, the Finnish National Board of Education described typing as “more relevant to everyday life” than the “out-dated” practice of cursive writing.

Dr Nicola Yelland, a Professor of Education at Victoria University, is one of the loudest voices calling for reform in Australia. Her recent article in The Conversation claims that our nostalgia for cursive writing is impractical and we should prepare students better for the working world, where digital communication is the norm. In fields like manufacturing or medicine, she argues that workers would not be expected to use archaic practices. Yet, Australian schools train children to communicate in a dated way.

Ashley Howes, a year five teacher at Milton Public School, strongly supports Yelland, stating: “There is no benefit to [my students] in learning cursive as it is a skill that is never used in adulthood. As 21st century learners

by Issabelle Chesher @isabellecheser

[my students] should be taught the skills to survive in the age of technology.”

However, cursive handwriting has its merits.

According to research cited on RN Afternoons last month, students tend to struggle in long-response exams. Their often illegible writing and muscle strain in their hands comes from lack of practice. It’s an issue that Lisa Crawford knows well, after a long career as an English teacher at Bulli High School and as a former HSC marker.

“Students need to be competent hand-writers,” she says. Almost all the major schooling tests are done on paper, she explains, which she feels is unlikely to change for many years. She adds that most of her pupils still prefer writing books to laptops in the classroom.

Crawford does agree that cursive writing will eventually become irrelevant. “It’s aesthetically appealing but probably fast becoming an anachronism.”

Research also suggests that students who make hand-written notes provide more thoughtful essay responses in exams. Those who study on laptops can regurgitate information, and do well in short-answer questions, but struggle more with an unexpected essay question. Other studies claim that handwriting helps children to develop fine motor skills, including eye-tohand co-ordination, spatial awareness, hand and finger dexterity, cognitive function and brain development.

John Ruscics, a primary teacher in Dapto, believes that schools should not have to choose between cursive and typing.

“Even builders will write you a quote on their tablets and email it to you. So in terms of preparing kids for the real world, it’s very useful [to teach typing]. But kids still need to be able to write, and they need to be able to do it quickly.” Ruscics adds that sometimes, technology is simply not on-hand when we need to take note of important information.He continues, “90 per cent of what the students do is in the classroom with pens and pencils.

Unless there is a big funding change from somewhere, I just don’t see how there’d be enough laptops to go around in a lot of schools.” For Ruscics, a lot more work should be done at a policy level before Australia can go further into this debate.

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F I S F O R FA N D O M Fandoms, to those on the outskirts, can be a little overwhelming. Some consist of a whole new language, complete with inside jokes destined to leave you with a puzzled look on your face. As John Green explains it, “Nerds like us are allowed to be unironically enthusiastic about stuff … Nerds are allowed to love stuff, like, jumpup-and-down-in-the-chair-can’t-control-yourself love it.”

This is pretty much what fandoms are - and they’re sort of incredible. They can spark a range of emotions from excitement to heartbreak, but they can also provide a support network to aid in dealing with emotional trauma caused by moments such as when the Doctor muttered “Thank you, Rose Tyler”.

Once you understand that “canon” means what actually happens in the TV show, that “shipping” means putting two characters in a relationship together, and that SuperWhoLock is the combination of Supernatual, Doctor Who and Sherlock and one of the larger fandoms around, you’re pretty much ready to go.

Fandoms are incredible things that have both good and bad traits. The good is the creativity that is inspired by the TV show or movie. It usually materializes in the form of fan fiction and fan art. Some of it is cute in a style similar to anime, whilst others are replica masterpieces that have you questioning whether or not you missed that episode because it’s so damn lifelike it could be a photographic

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still. There are also shoes, posters, t-shirts and other clothing items with quotes on them on websites like Etsy. Please, won’t somebody buy me a Deathly Hallows necklace already!

The more popular version of creativity is fan fiction. It comes in two forms; the “canon” universe or the “alternative” universe (AU). Canon, as previously explained, is the actual plot and so canon fan fiction means the author is following along with the plotline in their version of the story. AUs are when it’s the same characters in totally different situations; one may work at a coffee shop or they may be in a band together. AU is a personal favourite of mine, you would not believe the amount of times I have stayed up until 4am reading (flailing) because I just need to know how the story ends. It is so much easier getting into fan fiction than it is reading a novel because the characters are previously established. You aren’t wasting time finding out that the Doctor has the oldest and youngest eyes in the universe, because you already know.

Of course, there is terrible fan fiction out in the world; the best example being 50 Shades of Grey which originated as Twilight fan fiction. The concept behind it, however, is not so terrible. Fan fiction allows people to explore relationships and sexuality in a safe environment. Those who choose to write it are mapping out ideal relationships

FEATURE

by Claudia Poposki @claudiapop13

F IS FOR FLAILING and sexual experiences they might want to have, without having to go to a bar and try to pick up a stranger who is willing to play along. It’s all of the knowledge without any of the danger.

Sam Wolfson, reporter for The Guardian explains that, “Fan fiction is making teenagers better writers and better satirists, and allowing them to explore sexuality in a way decided by them rather than dictated by the entertainment industry.”

Not all fan fiction is about romance and sex, though. I have read fan fiction that’s been written better than any novel assigned to me for Year 12 English, with complex emotions and depth that would make classic authors jealous. The plotlines blow my mind and sometimes it’s difficult to remember that Play Crack the Sky is Teen Wolf (2011) fan fiction. I mean, no way did a silly ship that has no way in hell of happening inspire a story about a music scene where you only make it big if your sexual orientation is hidden.

Fandoms also inspire a sense of community.

‘Nerdfighteria’ is one of the larger fandoms not about television shows. It follows Hank and John Green and refers to their fan base. Conventions are some of the highlights of the year for people in fandoms, the biggest being Comic-Con International in San Diego. Cosplay,

where the fans dress up in costume, runs rampant. There are panels with the stars, trailer premiers and stalls. This puts a bunch of people who all love the same thing in one place, meaning friendships are inevitable.

However, as with many things, if you advertise something there will be a group of jerks that will make fun of you for it.

Many fandoms have lost a member due to suicide because of bullying, so much so that New York Comic Con had two anti bullying panels in 2014. This can be from outside the fandom or within because the victim wasn’t cool enough or wasn’t as big a “fan” as the bully. Supernatural has lost two fans, to which Misha Collins, who portrays the angel Castiel; has tweeted “If rumors of what’s happening in fandom are true, that sucks. We might not be able to stop hatred, but we can try to stop listening to it.”

Fandoms are supposed to be places of creativity and community, about people brought together due to common interests. Even if you’re a Brony (older males who watch My Little Pony), you’ll be able to find a fandom somewhere that also loves your television show or movie.

Like with anything, there is a bad side but in fandom, the good far outweighs the bad.

Happy Flailings!

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FEATURE

by Teisha Cloos

GAME ON

Have you ever wanted to play a sport that doesn’t involve leaving the house or any physical activity? Perhaps you wanted to join a sporting team but realised you are as co-ordinated as a baby on skates. Stress no more people of Wollongong! I have gone behind the scenes into the world of gaming and found the perfect solution for all; from the adrenaline junkies to the laid back lasses.

Sporting video games. Although they aren’t a new invention, sporting video games date back to 1958 when they were originally played on a computer as opposed to the flat screens T.V’s of today.

I live with, and around, a bunch of guys who are on the rugby team and surf. An observation I made was the camaraderie they show on the field is the same as on the virtual field. I couldn’t help but think what the fuss was about when it comes to these games, so I decided to interview two gaming fanatics about the virtual sporting world. Mind you they were playing a game during the interview and I was shocked by their multi tasking skills…

Maximilian McInerheney, a first year Marine Science student.

Michael Mckenzie, a second year Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of commerce student.

What sporting video games do you play?

Table Tennis Xbox 360, FIFA 2013-15; Xbox, Play Station.

NHL 2007 original Xbox, Kelly slater pro surfer on Xbox.

What sporting video games do you play?

FIFA 2006-15, Formulae 1, any destruction derby games and Rugby Union 2007.

When did you start playing video games?

I came out of the womb with a controller, so I’d say all my life.

When did you start playing video games?

I started gaming when I was seven. I got a gaming console and enjoyed the relaxation of playing and versing people online.

Do you play any sport off screen?

Yeah of course! I surf, I skate, I play a bit of basketball.

When I was younger I played soccer, I played speed Mitton (mix between squash and bad Mitton).

Why are you interested in playing sports on a console?

I get to beat my friends. I like video games in general. It’s another way to workout.

Do you think sporting video games are aimed at people who enjoy playing sport in real life or kids who don’t actually enjoy it practically?

A bit of both; the nerdy kids that want to but can’t, and for sporty people who like video games. I have friends that are good at sport but love FIFA because it’s realistic.

What games do you recommend?

FIFA, its easy for anyone to play and easy to pick up.

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Do you think sporting games are invented just for “nerdy” kids or are for all people to enjoy?

Well it’s human nature to enjoy team games and you have friends to play against. Everyone has a competitive nature so I think it’s for everyone.

What games do you recommend?

Tony Hawke pro skater 2.

Sport is a game which can be enjoyed by anyone regardless of age, race or gender. Sporting games are exactly the same but cater for those who would rather stay in and play rather than going out. So switch on and start playing.

Litoria chloris, Red Eyed Tree Frog by Ian Bool 47

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FEATURE

by Zoe Simmons @itbeginswithZ

LIFE IN A BOOK: WOULDN’T IT BE NICE? (IN THEORY) I can’t help but think life would be better if we lived inside the universe of a novel. Probably not Game of Thrones, though dragons are pretty awesome—though still: how amazing would it be to practise magic or shoot lightning bolts out of your fingertips?

That last part—sadly—is pretty irrelevant to my point and this article.

Some of you may have heard of the best-selling Vampire Academy series by Richelle Mead—it recently also became a film (one I am particularly upset with. I mean, seriously.

What is up with filmmakers ruining perfectly good books?).

Calm down, I’m not writing about Vampire Academy. But I am going to write about Richelle Mead—sort of.

Richelle Mead is a brilliant author, and has written some of the best material I’ve ever read. She also happens to be the one who ignited my passion for writing and all things wacky. Sadly, her adult novels—which I’d argue are some of her best work—are largely unknown.

Her most recent venture is the mind-blowing Age of X series, which is set in a futuristic world nearly destroyed by religious extremists who unleashed a deadly virus.

Obviously, the deadly virus part is bad. But how she describes society adapting to overcome this danger is truly remarkable.

Gameboard of the Gods, the first instalment in the series, is mostly set in the Republic of North America (AKA RUNA). In this society, religion has all but been extinguished, thus eliminating religious conflict. Gene pools have been rigorously mixed in order to fight off the disease before a cure was created, so there is no racism or underprivileged minority groups. Gender equality has finally been achieved, as well as equal pay. RUNA also has strict birth control regulation—citizens are embedded with a contraceptive implant until the age of 20, where they are able to conceive up to two children. If citizens are able to prove they can financially support their family, they may be allowed up to four children—though strictly no more. This removes many issues we experience today, such as teen pregnancies, childhood poverty and a population that is too large for the Earth to possibly sustain. Education is

also strongly embedded into RUNA’s culture, with a year of compulsory tertiary education for all students.

I understand some of this stuff is pretty controversial— particularly the control of procreation. I have had many discussions with friends about this; do people have the right to choose? What are the consequences of this?

I fully support a person’s right to choose—within reason.

This policy is nothing like China’s disastrous one-child policy, in which 400 million births (mainly female) were prevented. There is no gender inequality in RUNA. And proving you can support your children isn’t paying for them—it’s not elitist, it’s logical. It encourages parents to first further themselves (and the country) before they procreate. In Australia, the average couple has 1.7 children—four is a lot.

This issue isn’t about control; it’s about sustainability. The Earth doesn’t have enough resources for our growing population, and it will be the poor who suffer.

Whether or not you agree with this strict kind of control, you have to admit they solve many issues with a few simple steps—steps that allow society to flourish. The needs of the many should outweigh the needs of the few—somewhere along the line, I think we’ve forgotten that.

I know RUNA isn’t perfect. There are a lot of issues that haven’t been addressed. But you do have to admire the superior—in theory—society. We could end world hunger, end gender inequality, end religious wars (mostly). It sounds great until the banished gods return—with a vengeance, I might add—in a power-scramble for followers. It’s called Gameboard of the Gods for a reason. But that’s beside the point.

My point is: RUNA sounds great. I would gladly live there, and I think we could learn a lot from fictitious worlds like this—admittedly, with some modifications. Someone should notify the politicians immediately.

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FEATURE

by Alex Napier @AlexNapier93

“This game series adapts to the choices you make. The story is tailored by how you play.”

This is the message that greets you when playing The Walking Dead by Telltale Games for the first time. Gone are the days of video games being like movies where the story was determined long before the player picked up a controller and every player experienced the same story.

An increasing numbers of video games are allowing for players to make decisions that will affect the outcome of the game.

Heavy Rain, by developers Quantic Dream, is another example of game where the player exercises a significant influence over how the story unfolds. “Your smallest decisions can change everything” you are told on the back of the game box. It goes on further: “Every action you take has consequences. Your decisions affect how the plot unfolds” and; “How this story ends is entirely up to you”.

These games, as well as being known for letting the player exercise choice and shape the game, receive near universal acclaim for the quality of the stories they tell and, in most cases, the way these choices are successfully integrated into the story. The Mass Effect and Dragon Age series by Bioware are other examples of successful games that follow this model. This is with the exception of the original Mass Effect 3 ending; a travesty that shall never be spoken of again. Crafting engaging stories is important, because if you aren’t invested in the story, or if the choices you make never seem to make a difference, then there’s little point in carrying on.

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Decisions you make can be as inconsequential as deciding what to have for dinner, or as serious as deciding whether or not to spare the life of someone. Sometimes a choice may seem to be of no great importance but could be hiding something deeper behind it. The consequences of a decision may be immediately apparent, or it may take a longer time for the ramifications to be discovered.

Of course, when making difficult choices in video games you are afforded a luxury that you are not given in the real world - the ability to pause for some extra thinking time or to reload the game from an earlier point and make a different choice. Though some might consider this cheating (and I confess to using both of these options on several occasions) I believe this speaks further of the way in which games have been able to immerse people in the stories they have been telling. In a badly written game, you won’t care as much about the story or characters, and thus will not be as invested in making what you think are the right choices.

The pressure I have found myself in to make the ‘right’ decision has sometimes left me very unsure of myself and what decision I should make. In these moments I find there is less of a barrier between myself and the character within the game. I want to do right by these characters, even though, thanks to incredible writing and very well thought out stories, this may be impossible.

So, is all this just a novelty or is there a serious point to it?

Decision making is an inescapable part of everyday life, be they mundane or life-changing. The story of a game can be a metaphor for the story of our lives outside the

games. Video games such as the ones I have mentioned do a very good job of imitating many of the circumstances in which people do make decisions in the real world. They can be made in a split-second with little time to consider options. Other times they can be as considered as long as you like. Sometimes you are caught in the middle of a dispute and are forced to resolve it one way or another.

Some people will agree with the decision that you make, others will not. All of these are situations that people find themselves in every day of their lives.

Telltale Games compile statistics of the main choices people make when playing their games and then display them to the player once they have finished up to a particular point of the game. These statistics form a major part of the post-game discussions people have with their friends.

Many times I have been chatting with people who made different decisions to me. Lengthy debates have ensued, with each of us being equally firm in our beliefs that we made the right choice and the other is wrong. Though this is all in good fun, this is another thing people face in the real world. Many times you are forced to justify a decision or strong belief in the face of opposition, despite having undergone the same or similar experiences.

Voice actor and gamer Mark Meer has spoken in interviews about his approach to games which offer multiple morality paths. Given the option to be either good or evil throughout a game, he chooses to play the evil path first and then on his subsequent play through chooses to be a good and noble character. This he sees as “redeeming himself� from the bad choices he made in the game.

THE CHOICE IS YOURS This is another reflection on choice in real life. Not every choice you make will be a good one and righting wrongs is something that is important to many.

Though it would be going too far in my opinion to say that the video games of today are able to prepare people for life in the real world, they are still useful to some extent in other ways. I believe they can be a very good way to study how people are influenced and choose to carry out their choices. Why do people exposed to the same situation choose to react in different ways? To what extent does knowledge about how others have acted influence a person’s decision?

Those are just two questions to do with decision-making in real life that I believe video games can help answer.

Player choice in video games therefore can, not only make a game much more fun to play, but serve a useful purpose as well.

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FEATURE

C O S P L AY: WHY DO PEOPLE DO IT?

Have you ever been watching or reading a work of fiction, and you find yourself gravitating towards a particular character? Suddenly, you begin thinking (okay… obsessing) about this character in your spare time. You doodle pictures of them on scraps of paper. Maybe you’ve even gone that extra mile and written fanfiction, or you’ve role-played with other passionate fans over the Internet.

Sometimes though, these indulgences are not enough.

There is still a gaping hole inside you that needs to be filled. Enter the world of cosplay: dressing up as your favourite fictional character.

As an increasingly popular global subculture, you’ve probably seen or heard of cosplay at some point in time.

Maybe while watching TV you’ve seen cosplayers en-masse at a Sydney convention, or you may have even run into a group of them attending Wollongong’s local convention, Comic Gong. However, teenagers and adults going to great lengths (and expense) to create and wear costumes at popular culture conventions are often perceived as a somewhat peculiar spectacle to those uninitiated with the practice. Thus, the question is often asked, ‘why do you cosplay?’

There are as many reasons why people cosplay as there are cosplayers, but some motivations for the hobby are common among the masses. A central motive is that cosplay enables fans to feel as though they are paying the

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ultimate homage to their fandom. For both myself and many other cosplayers, it allows us to show the world that ‘this is who I am and this is what I love.’ Whilst you may still find this a little bizarre, think about sports fans who go all-out and wear team colours and face paint to sporting matches as a show of devotion and support to their team.

Cosplayers and sports fans share this element: we’re both donning our ‘team colours’ as a way of expressing our passions (despite the fact that fictional characters always have cooler clothes than what real-life has to offer).

This notion brings me to another extremely important reason why people cosplay: the instant sense of community it creates. Because most people at a convention will already be well-acquainted with the character you are portraying, that initial air of awkwardness most of us feel when talking to someone we don’t know for the first time is diminished. Even if you’re cosplaying as a less-popular character, people still ask you to pose for photos, strike up conversations and compliment you on your costume.

I’ve found that it’s very difficult to leave a convention without making at least one new friend. Cosplay also has a very strong online community where participants share their cosplay photos, chat, and exchange tips and advice globally. Many local Sydney cosplay groups also exist on Facebook and often organise picnic days, group days out and photo-shoots in major cities around the country. Even

FEATURE

by Claudia Blanche

if you’re very shy, the cosplay community is friendly and accepting and cosplaying is a great way to meet people who share your interests.

Cosplay is also a wonderful creative outlet and fosters the development of numerous artistic and practical skills – it really is a form of art. Whilst not everyone can be bothered to make a costume from scratch, many cosplayers make an enormous effort to create a costume that is as accurate to the character as (humanly) possible. This can prove to be quite challenging as the outfits worn by fictional characters often defy the laws of physics in more ways than one. Nonetheless, passionate cosplayers are more than willing to put in the hours to learn a new skill, This could be sewing, dyeing fabric, leatherwork, carpentry, electronics, wig styling or makeup in pursuit of making their costume perfect. It’s always a wonderful feeling when you’ve worked tirelessly on a difficult part of your costume and others appreciate your hard work.

It’s hard to say this without making us cosplayers sound like a bunch of manic egocentrics, but another significant motivation for people to cosplay, particularly at conventions, is that it’s kind of like being a celebrity.

I’ve always been a pretty shy person and my self-esteem wasn’t always crash-hot, but when I attended my first convention in-costume I was quite literally overwhelmed by the attention and affirmation I received.

In stark contrast to the usual schoolyard remarks of “Ew don’t go near the nerd-girl, she’ll give you anime germs,” having people approach me and excitedly squeal “Oh my God! You’re (insert character name here)! Can I please take a photo with you?” and “You look amazing!” was a very welcome change. This positive affirmation, combined with the new friends I’d made was an invaluable boost to my self-esteem. Many of my cosplay friends also agree that having positive experiences such as these have actually translated over into their ‘everyday’ life by enabling them to feel more self-confident. And let’s face it - everyone needs an ego boost once in a while!

I’m sure every cosplayer in the world could write a different article about the reasons people cosplay, but hopefully I’ve covered some of the main reasons why people find the hobby so attractive. Above all, cosplaying is just so much fun, and I think that the world would be a much happier place if everyone dressed up as their favourite character once in a while.

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FEATURE

I M P O R TA N T C O N V E R S AT I O N S With Sydney’s Supernova on the horizon, the excitement is building for many cosplayers as they prepare their costumes. UOW student Erin Okane has been attending conventions since she was 13. This year she is planning on attending Supernova as her female interpretation of Vegeta from Dragon Ball Z. “The costume shows off a bit more body,” Erin told me “I’m more cautious of going because of that, because of the shaming people get.” Although Erin will not be deterred by the negative attitudes of a small minority, she still raises a good point; such attitudes have an effect on the cosplaying community and need to be addressed. For last year at SMASH, Erin went as Sailor Venus where a photographer took her picture before saying, as recounted by Erin, ‘You know people can see up your skirt? It’s inappropriate, I don’t think it looks very good.’

“I didn’t know this person at all and they just had a go at me,” She recalled “It made me feel ashamed.”

It’s no different to the slut shaming that we see and hear about in everyday life, except for the fact that it occurs in situations where people can, but not always, expect more “racy” female attire; you can just take a look at an anime compilation and agree. “I don’t want to come off as being sexist, but this particular sub-culture is very much male targeted,” stated UOW Troy McMullan, another experienced cosplayer. “Seventy per cent of the people who go to cons are guys.” So if people are expecting certain characters to go to these conventions, why is there still a shock factor when they see women wearing exactly what they have seen that character wearing on TV? Claudia Blanche , UOW student and Master Novice cosplayer at Animania 2014, agrees with Troy’s statement.

“Lots of males feel quite threatened when girls have come

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onto their scene and [become] role models [that] have important things to say about popular culture. They feel their status is being ripped away and that’s where the slut shaming comes into it.”

Yaya Han and Jessica Nigri are such role models, who have received waves of abuse over the internet for their beautiful and highly detailed costumes. In 2012, Nigri, dressed as Lollipop Chainsaw, was asked to leave the PAX East Floor Show in Boston, having her costume deemed “inappropriate”. Erin also noted that some people claim cosplayers just represent the “boobs and arse” of their character inspirations, despite the fact these women make their own costumes from scratch.

In fact most cosplayers do. “Westerner’s tend to make their costumes more because they aren’t readily as available to buy as they are in the east,” Claudia said. “In Japan there are cosplay shops which are more accessible.” With the added personal insult of criticizing someone’s handmade representation of a character they admire, slut shaming is arguably brought onto a much more personal level.

Some people use the ‘think of the children’ card to justify their opinion on what cosplayers should wear. “Apart from supernova I haven’t seen any kids at other conventions,” Erin confirmed. “If you have an issue with your child seeing someone dressed up as a character, why do you let them watch a TV show with a character dressed like that?”

Interestingly enough, Erin told me that she has never had parents complain about this to her and her friends. “It’s usually males in the age groups of 21-30, and even girls do too.”

FEATURE

by Zoe Ridgeway

Behind the safety of a screen, people’s online discussions harvest prolific amounts of abuse on the matter, especially in the case of popular cosplayers like Nigri. In fact, outside of the convention realm, sexism towards cosplayers is far more common. Troy noted how there are far more sexist attacks on the commute to and from conventions, whereas at the con he has never experienced or seen such issues. “The majority of the time it happens on trains,” he remarked.

“Some people think that just because you are dressed up like a Barbie doll, you are not actually a person and can be mistreated,” Claudia noted of certain people outside the cosplay community. “When someone I know found out I was a cosplayer they stopped treating me like a person. I felt very fetishized by them and it really creeped me out because they wanted me to say these little catch phrases…

They were actually pretty nasty when I confronted them about it,” she stated.

Other sexist attitudes continue beyond clothing when people have been known to more readily accuse female cosplayers as ‘posers’ and ‘fake geek girls’ that seek attention. “One of my friends is really into anime,” Erin recalled, “She went to SMASH with me where a guy behind us called ‘why are you even here?’[...] Because she doesn’t really give off the persona [of liking anime] people assumed that and gave her hate.”

Although such presumptions are inexcusable, some people do go to cons canunder false pretences. “I know several professional models who are paid to dress up and just walk around the cons, some of them even go to this uni,” Troy said. “I don’t approve of those companies, it’s just sex on sale, and completely skewed towards men.

Almost all the models are women.”

Claudia also believes that cons shouldn’t be seen as sexualised. “It’s important for people who don’t cosplay to know that cosplay isn’t some obscure sexual hobby. Of course there is an element to that, as there is in everyday life. There’s always going to be that side to it, but it’s upsetting when that is what gets reported on in the media.

So people just think that these conventions are like peep shows and full of sexual deviants.”

In spite of the issues addressed, the ever-growing cosplay community is a highly enriching one for people to bond over their common love of pop culture. Plus where else would you get the chance to high five Thorin in the bathroom? (Troy is always more than happy to tell that story). It is difficult to find an avenue in our society that hasn’t been affected by sexist attitudes, especially towards communities that are already considered somewhat ‘weird’ by mainstream cultures. “The public needs to understand that there is this huge western stereotype that cartoons and anime are childish.” Claudia states “In Japan anime and cartoons are made for all age demographics, and that’s what conventions are aimed at.”

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F E AT U R E ARTIST 58

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IAN BOOL

CAPTURED: A LESSON IN PERSEVERANCE

You’re lying in bed, and it’s a hot night so you’ve left the windows open. A harsh glow floods in from your iPhone as you scroll though Facebook. You’re struggling to keep your eyes open but you sneak in one more scroll before turning the screen off for the night. That’s when you hear it. The nighttime sounds creep into your room, and my, oh my, are the crickets are singing tonight. In the distance a frog croaks its ‘goodnights’ before you drift off to sleep. For Wildlife Photographer, Ian Bool, these sounds are a call to action.

Growing up in a small shack around 60km from Kempsey, and being surrounded by native flora and fauna is what initially fueled Ian’s love of conservation and photography. “I decided to take photos of the frogs at night, I thought it was pretty cool. I started off with one of those crappy little small compact cameras”, he recounts.

Beginning with an entry level snappy, before eventually upgrading to a Nikon D 3100, Ian quickly made a name for himself and gained nation-wide interest after winning the ANZANG Junior Australian Geography Photo of the Year at the age of 16. Two years later, Ian is now studying Conservation Biology at UOW and actively contributing to the preservation of endangered species

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via his camera lens. He strongly believes in promoting a partnership between conservation biology and photography.

“It’s easy to explain what an animal looks like, but when you see it creates an emotional response- people can actually know what it looks like and that it exists,” he states. “If you just wrote on a piece of paper ‘tree frog’ people would just be like ‘oh it’s just a frog’, but if you actually show them a picture it creates a type of visualisation and lets people know it’s there.”

Through combining patience, perseverance and a keen desire to learn, Ian has taught himself the ins and outs of wildlife photography. He insists that it’s not about how good the camera is, but how committed the photographer is to honing their skills.

He addresses budding photographers specifically, stating, “Give everything a go. When I first started and I look back, my photos were crap, but I enjoyed doing it.

I suppose I still take photos now that I know aren’t going to be fantastic, but it’s for my own documentation. To take good photos, you need to be out taking photos. You need

FEATURE ARTIST

by Gemma Mollenhauer @GemmaMolle07

to be proactive and be out there as much as possible. Just enjoy what you’re doing and all else will follow”.

Ian has become an artist of sorts, by giving the world a little taste of his version of ‘everyday life’ and challenging the notion that technology is everything.

By combining two, often competing, interests to create something beautiful, Ian has captured photography worthy of national acclaim.

the outback so we get pythons in the house all the time - they usually just sit in the roof on the beams. This one time, a snake lined my Dad up and crapped all over him.

I had a chance to sit down with Ian. Here are the best bits of our interview, transcribed for your reading pleasure:

What is it about photography that you love?

Taking photos of stuff that people don’t usually see.

People look at my photos and go, ‘Oh wow, there’s so much you can see and do outside in the wild’. People living in the city don’t get to do that. People living in cities or towns or suburbia, don’t get to see the kind of stuff I get to see everyday. I’ve just got it at my doorstep. I guess it’s a way to show people how I live.

Tell me a little about yourself?

I’m from Kempsy NSW. I grew up about 60km out of Kempsey- really rural. I’m studying Conservation Biology here at UOW. I started photography around 2-3 years ago.

My initial interest in biology was generated from where I lived. I grew up surrounded by a forest and from a young age was interested in the surrounding wildlife.

Do you have any stories from home?

I do! Back home we don’t have insulation in the roof; it’s just the corrugated iron and the wooden beams. And it’s

How you got into photography?

I decided to take photos of the frogs at night; I thought it was pretty cool. I started off with one of those crappy little small compact [cameras].

Do you think there is a relationship between photography and conservation?

I think there definitely is. It’s easy to put something like a Corroboree Frog or something that’s colourful or pretty in a magazine for instance, but they’re not the only animals

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that are endangered…. People get so wrapped up in the conservation of ‘pretty things’ but small brown lizards and frogs are also endangered.

What kind of photography do you like the best and why?

I do wildlife photography.

I do it to display Australia’s natural beauty of flora and fauna and particularly for endangered species it’s a way to show people that they are there and they exist. It gives them a face instead of just a bit of writing on some paper.

It provides coverage, some of these things people don’t even realize that they exist in the first place. So I suppose by photographing threatened and endangered species it emphasizes their existence and show’s people they really exist. They could disappear. Also, by me photographing them, it’s instilling their place in time as in 20 or 50 years or so they might not be there to photograph.

So you won the ANZANG Junior Australian Geographic photograph of the year, can you tell me a little about this?

Yes, it was very cool. It was my macro picture of a dragonfly that won. I actually had two pictures in the top ten. I felt very humbled by the fact that it was in a museum exhibition in Adelaide, which then goes to Tasmania and Western Australia.

What kind of camera did you use?

For the majority of my photography I’ve used a Nickon D3100. With the kit: 18-55mm and the kit: 18-300- just the basic lenses. It was interesting, after winning the award people came up to me asking what kind of gear I used.

They were all very surprised, because for a lot of people and professional photographers, the camera is everything.

And having a really great camera doesn’t always translate into taking fantastic photos. It’s all about technique.

What’s your two cents about paying more for better camera gear as opposed to honing your skills?

I think definitely honing your skills is more important than owning good camera gear. I’ve seen in other photography competitions and also some of the most famous photos of all time were taken on small, instamatic, crappy $50 cameras. Although, with wildlife you want clarity and detail, but still, perseverance and patience are a big thing.

You can spend all this money on huge lenses, but you can still perservere with much cheaper cameras that give you similar, if not the same results.

Do you use any other types of tech with your photography?

I do use Photoshop, but it’s very minor. You shoot in RAW so all you really need to do is adjust the lighting and sharpen the image and that’s about it.

To check out more of Ian’s photography check out: https:// www.flickr.com/photos/ianbool/

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#ENVIRONERDS 63

FEATURE

by Sally Krajacic @sallykrajacic

BEWARE OF SHARKS TWEETING It’s not as ‘Internet-breaking’ as Kim Kardashian’s ass, but to find out that some of Australia’s most endangered and beautifully fierce sharks are now on social media from under the sea… is pretty awesome!

Towards the end of 2013, government researchers tagged over 320 sharks with electronic transmitters that last up to ten years. When a shark swims within a one kilometre radius of the shoreline, the transmitter sends a signal to an underwater receiver, which then triggers an automatic tweet on the Surf Life Saving Western Australia (@SLSWA) feed. The tweet notes the shark’s size, breed and approximate location. Compared to traditional media platforms, Twitter, has become an instantaneous method of delivering news and updates to the public. This in turn has allowed us to provide effective information about sharks that will improve the safety of our waters.

“This kind of innovative thinking is exactly what we need more of when it comes to finding solutions to humanwildlife conflict,” says Alison Kock, research manager of the Shark Spotters program in South Africa.

These detections are also contributing to important research and aiding marine biologists in better understanding the movements of sharks. In late 2014, having recently swum with sharks, I developed a deeper understanding for their environment, and purpose in the ocean, which greater signifies their importance. In December 2013, the Government announced an aggressive policy in response to six fatal attacks in WA waters over the previous three

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#

SHARKS Ł TWEETING

years. The changes included setting up baited drum lines and creating two monitored zones off WA, covering metropolitan beaches and large areas of the South West coast. It is also stipulated that any Great White Shark, Tiger Shark or Bull Shark greater than three-metres in length, and caught on the drum lines, were to be “humanely destroyed”.

Protests followed instantly and sparked a lot of controversy throughout the scientific community. One hundred scientists co-signed an open letter to the State Government calling on it to abandon the cull of sharks and adopt non-lethal measures to protect beach goers.

Following up on the matter two years later, I was able to speak to a member of the public with strong opinions on the issue“Sharks should be protected, not only because they don’t naturally prey on humans but because without sharks it would throw the whole marine ecosystem out of whack.

There needs to be a healthy balance of large sharks to make the marine ecosystem work successfully” - Jacob Stek When you think of sharks does the Jaws theme track automatically start to play in your head? Do you think of “Left Shark” from Katy Perry’s super bowl performance?

With either of these answers lies the problem of limited education on the matter, which ignites fear and paranoia about our Australian waters. Now that we have the statistics and research, it is time for the public to listen and critically think about who the victims of our oceans really are.

FEATURE

By Amy Fairall, member of the AYCC @AmyEloiseF

If you go to the beach, if you study biology, if you like the shade of trees and the air they allow you to breathe, then you’re pretty much a nerd for the environment. The technology that we’re developing at an exponential rate is damaging our environment. Maybe not through direct use but through the means by which these technologies are powered and the destruction that is being caused to retrieve this power- also known as coal mining.

And although coal allows us to use all of our amazing inventions and technologies, the environment is suffering at its expense.

Lucky for you there are a bunch of people who are trying to help the environment and in turn the Earth’s climate.

The Australian Youth Climate Coalition (AYCC) is a nation wide collective of youthful environment-nerds who are passionate about the environment and want to solve the climate crisis.

The group’s current focus is on campaigning against the construction of a coal mine in the Galilee Basin, approximately 50 kilometers away from the Whitsundays on the Great Barrier Reef. This coal mine, which has been approved by the current government, is planning to be built by Indian mining conglomerate, Adani. It would see the trafficking of thousands of ships a year straight through the Great Barrier Reef. The mass amounts of coal that would be extracted by this single coal mine would be enough to see the end of the reef. The amount of emissions produced by this single coal mine would be enough to fatally wound the climate.

Adani have been approaching many major banks asking for ‘assistance’ (cash) in building the coal mine. Already eight international banks, including Citigroup, Deutsche Bank and HSBC, have publicly declared that they will not fund the coal mine. However the big four Australian banks, ANZ, NAB, Westpac and Commonwealth Bank are still in the decision making process and are yet to rule the investment out.

This is where the AYCC and many other environmental groups step in. Over the past nine months, despite many petitions, discussions and friendly protests by the AYCC, the group have more or less been ignored by the big banks. So we’re starting to kick it up a notch.

“We’re running a campaign called Dump My Bank, which involves talking to hundreds of thousands of people all across Australia, getting them to send messages to their bank saying that they’re not happy that they’re thinking about investing in coal ports on the Great Barrier Reef. We want them to clarify their position. And if they don’t we’re dumping our banks,” Davis-Boermans said.

This is a big ask and a big step, but it is a small price to pay for the survival of the reef.

On Friday March 6th, Davis-Boermans and Emily Kain, the Illawarra Schools co-coordinator, conducted a ‘break up action’: another element of the campaign, in which they formally complained to the staff at the Wollongong branch of the Commonwealth Bank.

“I’ve been banking with Commonwealth Bank for about 5 years... I want to close my account with them because I am very unhappy about them thinking about funding this coal terminal. It just doesn’t make sense, environmentally, financially, or in anyway really,” Kain said.

The AYCC are hoping to receive 70,000 Dump My Bank pledges nation wide in the next two months. Pledges can be signed online at www.dumpmybank.org. And if you recognise yourself as an environment-nerd and want to know more about volunteering for the AYCC, head to www.aycc.org.au.

However, the President and Convener of the Illawarra region for the AYCC, Eva Davis-Boermans, believes that there is a silver lining. “Fortunately, Adani doesn’t have any money at the moment so they’re looking to the big four banks for funding. So that’s why we’re here to step in and make sure that they don’t invest in that project.”

AN ENVIRONMENT FOR NERDS

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PLASTIC E AT I N G M I C R O B E S THE POTENTIAL SOLUTION TO THE PLASTISPHERE

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FEATURE

by Natalie McLaren @nmae22

Once upon a time the oceans were pristine environments untouched by man. The invention of plastic (which, as we all know, is made artificially from petroleum and never biodegrades), however, and our tendency to callously litter it into our oceans, resulted in over five trillion pieces of plastic floating throughout our waterways worldwide by 2015.

Since inventing our way into this problem, pioneers in the world of science have taken it into their hands to invent a way out. The answer could be in breeding a superbug from recently discovered microbes who actually eat plastic.

Researchers and bioengineers in Australia and North America are moving closer to finding a solution to the ‘plastisphere’.

Certain types of bacteria and microscopic fungus, which consume plastics, may provide the key to eliminating litter in our oceans.

The production of plastic doubles every decade, according to the UN Environment Programme, which claimed in 2009 that over 6 million tonnes of plastic find their way into our oceans every single year. The aptly ominous term ‘plastisphere’ refers to vast amounts of plastic which wash together through currents, particularly throughout ocean gyres. There are five such gyres throughout the world, created through high-pressure air and water currents.

Circular motions create a vortex which draws in plastic and other debris, and groups it all together, creating large areas of ocean swamped with plastic. The largest gyre is the North Pacific Gyre.

Combating the encroaching plastisphere are microbes, single cell organisms, (including fungus and bacteria). In 2012, the Yale University Rainforest Expedition and Laboratory discovered a strand of fungus, pestalotiopsis microspore, in the Amazon that will digest polyurethane, a key component of many types of plastic.

A different species of bacteria has been discovered in the Sargasso Sea, in the North Atlantic gyre, which also digests plastic. It’s still early days and further research is needed to discover if microbes with this natural predilection to eat through plastic will be able to benefit marine ecosystems.

There is still the possibility that the microbes may simply take in plastics and, over time, pass it on to marine life and up the food chain.

But progress is being made. A Canadian teenager’s science fair project seems to confirm the ability of microbes to break down plastic. Daniel Burd yielded a culture which decomposed 43% of plastic in his test after just six weeks, with the only outputs water and a tiny amount of carbon dioxide.

Things are looking up for the potential to manufacture a bug to feed on plastic pollution and help clean up our planet. If this were to become a reality, we could start to reverse the damage our oceans have been subjected to in recent decades.

There is, of course, a certain amount of risk involved in introducing a new organism to an existing ecosystem.

We’ve seen the detrimental effects of introduced species in Australia in particular – think of creatures like the fox, cane toad and rabbit and the havoc they have wreaked on our ecosystem. These animals were introduced for sport, pest control, and food, but outbreaks and breeding saw their numbers increase exponentially and harmfully, with dire environmental effects. This must be kept in mind when contemplating the introduction of an engineered bug to combat the plastic problem. We would need to be certain that it would in fact create a safer environment for our marine life.

Research, time and funding are all needed for the project to go ahead, but it is a positive step towards cleaning up our waterways. Here in Sydney, we already have groups and initiatives such as Responsible Runners and Take 3 which encourage people to clean up beaches, waterways and parks, preventing plastic and other litter from entering the ocean. We should still be ensuring that as little plastic as possible enters the waters in the first place, but the possibility of a ‘superbug’ that can deal with the stuff that’s already in there is quite amazing.

Let’s not, however, think this is a panacea for the existence of the plastisphere. ‘Refuse, Reduce, Reuse, Recycle’ is the correct order of actions when considering our natural and constructed resources, and there is certainly no mention there of creating waste to be cleaned up later. We still need to all do our part in protecting our beautiful oceans and giving our marine life a cleaner, safer environment to live in.

This content was originally published for Keep NSW Beautiful, find out more information here: http://knswb.org.au/

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C R E AT I V E WRITING 68

I’m in a Taxi I’m in a taxi, 8pm, 20 minute journey.

The back seat smells like cinnamon and sweat. I’d tried to get in the front with the driver, but he’d made a fuss of getting out of the drivers seat and opening a door for me. On the right hand side.

Where to?

Oxford Street.

Why? I look up from my phone.

I’m meeting someone.

Is it an online thing?

No. Blind date?

No. Just someone.

There’s a beat. Red light. I look back down at my wallet, counting the coins, watching the numbers roll on the dashboard.

You should be careful.

I laugh. I didn’t mean to. We’re not moving, some traffic jam ahead.

Cyclist or something. There’s a few honks before he accelerates.

I’m being serious.

I say nothing.

A girl like you could get hurt.

I’m not worried about that.

His head is too still. The city’s reflected in the review-mirror. He opens and closes his mouth. Audible.

Why Oxford Street?

I’m texting her now. Stuck in traffic jam, don’t get drunk without me. It sends.

A pretty thing like you should be careful.

My phone dies.

We’re driving again. I reach in my wallet for more coins.

Are you ignoring me now?

Sorry?

You heard me.

Something rattles in the boot. Heavy.

The cinnamon smell is starting to make my eyes water, its so sweet.

Look could you pull over when it’s safe?

The taxi shakes at this speed.

Could you stop the car?

No traffic jam.

Hello?

No stopping.

No city reflected in the mirror.

I’m in a taxi, 10pm, 2 hours missing.

Isabel Moon

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Lingerie Boutique EXT. BUSY STREET. DAY A brown face looks down from the treacle of its trees.

The thrusters of its rockets burn, wading children.

FACE Sunday 7PM to 9PM and tomorrow AM instead.

Prospero swings down suddenly, a new model fjord.

PROSPERO Happiness and antagonistic negligence.

Bat tea symposiums in office space, see come see.

FACE There are so many fine pools that don’t need shade.

PROSPERO A lot of things seem to be happening, remember.

FACE You see your future stroke.

Joel Ephraims

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Rihanna’s gun ensoku I hear my cat crying, I leave my computer and fill her saucer to the brim, with milk.

She is happy now.

Milk isn’t good for cats.

I watch an R art rated film, projected on a mothers back.

Was it yours?

Her name was Sandy and she had a tattoo of a sailor.

I said “That’s a terrible tattoo.”

She called me a cunt.

Those sort of galleries should start paying people a minimum wage to attend.

Everything changed when John Lennon died.

Remember?

You started hanging around that guy called Martin.

He wore a jacket and looked like a Blues Brother.

He had a switch-blade in his glove box.

He kept taking us to motorbike dealerships. He never bought one.

His claim to fame was punching a porn-star.

People kept saying, “Looks its Martin.

He once punched a porn-star.

Will he ever buy a motorcycle?”

I hate Martin.

He never should of hit her.

He never should of hit her.

I think that makes him a coward.

I hope he bought a motorbike and it punched him and it broke his jaw in the night.

I have a detailed fantasy about this.

It is somewhere underneath my pillow.

Porn-stars?

Porn-stars.

Hhhmm.

Yes. I admire them.

I think they are very brave.

If I had teeth like that, I would be naked all the time.

I like a lot of things about them.

I like how some learn to smile.

I like how their eyelashes are pointy but soft.

I like how their shirt moves,

and creases, as it wriggles off their bodies.

(I think that is very beautiful.)

I like how they’re all different sizes.

There is no evidence for this, but they all have curvy souls.

They make me question myself.

Is my soul curvy too?

Does my soul get paid for sex? Or do I pay my soul to have sex?

If we had sex where would my soul sit, like, inside my body?

Oh! My cat is back!

She has drunk the saucer dry.

She nudges me and moves. She is now standing at the door.

She meows.

She is giving a look that says “This has been fun.

But I’m leaving you forever.

These streets are bright and full of mystery.

There are alley cats with scars I could not dream of. I want to feel a mouse, die upon my sandpaper tongue and to understand how death can slide down ones throat. I want to get lost and miss you and want to find home, and to wail like animal but to know that you are never coming for me.

This will be our last goodbye.”

Oh my cat. Who may soon die to an angry dog bite, or a crazed bus driver, I will let you leave.

I will miss you.

But I will open the door for you, this one last time.

Goodbye.

Joel Burrows

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The Ones That Don’t Get Chosen

Life it gets so lonely here trapped within these walls.

I sense some others next to me, they too kept in their balls.

I cannot say for certain but I think I can recall running in the long wild grass hearing others call.

A hazy mental picture devoid of time and place.

The last thing I remember, a stern, kind, wizened face.

And although I cannot say since then that my life has not been fairall I think about and miss is mothers love and care.

Companionship is what I long and hopefully today a someone will pick me up and carry me away.

Then I hear some voices arguing.

Some rivals, both quite young.

I sense the others go to them and hear their cries one by one.

Excitedly I hold my breath with great anticipation.

Soon I’ll have an owner, a friend and be gifted liberation.

We will go out on adventure climb mountains and search caves We’ll do battle on the beaches soar the winds and ride the waves.

But then minutes turn to hours.

The noises start to fade.

I begin to second guess myself, I start to feel afraid.

Does nobody want me?

Am I not as good as the rest?

Do you want me by your side?

Can we be the very best?

So I will carry on here waiting self-doubt festering at my core.

It’s been so long that I’ve forgotten am I squirtle, charmander or bulbasaur?

Angus Baillie @angusuow

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Warts “Samantha Munro” I am startled when I hear the name.

I have been picking a sore, a warty looking thing on the top of my foot, but I sit up, slip my shoe back on, and try to find who has just spoken.

The lecture is small so the lecturer is getting people to introduce themselves. I swing around in my seat and I spot the girl, sitting a few rows behind me. Her face is weighed down with piercings, most of them in her nose, her lips, even some in her forehead. Her ears, however, hang unfettered. They look too exposed.

She is wearing heavy black lipstick and eyeliner. She has just finished talking about herself but I do not hear anything else that she has said. I cannot tell if it is the same girl. I crane my neck and try to see her hands.

I recall kissing a Samantha Munro’s sweaty mouth behind the sports sheds in Year 7, of getting whiffs of unromantic egg sandwich breath between kisses. I remember holding her wart-encrusted hands in English. Although at the time I tried to ignore the warts, reasoning it was the personality behind that mattered, in my memory they are what have most endured. It is quite possible that they were the most interesting things about her.

Mostly she wore Band-Aids to cover them up, but one day, for whatever reason - maybe it slipped her mind, maybe she ran out - she didn’t. That was all it took for her to be christened “Cauliflowers”. She didn’t mind; she apparently failed to realise what they were referring to.

She seemed to think it was because she was very, very white. She was in denial - she was not even that white.

I didn’t tell her the truth, not wanting to hurt her feelings. Instead, I joined in. Once I took it up she embraced it wholeheartedly. I lovingly called her Cauliflowers in earshot of my friends and they stifled laughter

while she cuddled me. Perhaps I am remembering incorrectly, however, because I recall one day when I called her ‘Cauliflower’, she cried. Surprised, I asked her what was wrong. I do not remember if she told me and it is quite possible that she was crying about something unrelated.

I do not manage to see her hands during the lecture; every time I try to look they are hidden behind her MacBook.

Just before we had started going out, all the way back at the start of year 7, she came over to my house for the day. I remember lying on my bed with her sitting up against the wall, my legs across her lap. She told me her step-dad sometimes pushed her, that he bruised her on furniture.

I didn’t know what to say. After a few seconds I lifted up a leg and sort of stroked her face with my dirty white sock. She squealed and told me to stop it. I think she had expected a more sympathetic response, but that is all I offered. I had meant well.

After class Samantha leaves quickly. I try to catch up with her, to find out whether it is the Samantha I know. I do not manage to; she walks away quickly with a group. I look around for someone else I might know, someone to hang out with before my next class. I do not find anyone.

Llewellyn Horgan

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You’ve gotta let me sleep Or give me better taste Whatever’s in front of me I want to be able to face The walls may change and Your sincerity is so refreshing But there are things I’ll never let go of Despite how little I can explain If I could restart I’d lose it all I wouldn’t want a single memory I don’t want my mind to flirt with you I can’t feel you like I used to I’ve tried to feel that spark again And I hate it every time If flowers can grow from floorboards And stars from ceiling lights Why has nothing come from my attempts To find a fit that’s right Sometimes it seems as though I’m the only one without love It almost isn’t fair to know That you’ve had enough You never should have told me I’m only a little girl You shouldn’t break my heart And shatter what’s left of my world Kale Adriao

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REVIEWS 75

GAME REVIEW

20 UNDER 20

Braid – Xbox 360, PS3, PC and Mac $10

Thomas Was Alone - PC, PS3, PS Vita, Linux, iOS, Android, Wii U, Xbox One, PS4 $10

Life is Strange - PC, PS4, PS3, Xbox One, Xbox 360 $7.55-$29.99

To the Moon – PC

Way back in 2008 Braid was my first experience with an indie game that I felt had a true artistic vision guiding its design. A puzzleplatformer with time control mechanics, featuring a beautiful watercolour art style and a moving baroque soundtrack, Braid will instantly impress anyone who picks it up. Top it off with a cleverly written story that both deconstructs the damsel/hero tropes of classic games and a powerful ending that will give you plenty to think about even years later, Braid is well worth picking up at just $10.

Angus Baillie

Thomas Was Alone is a simple puzzle-platform game featuring basic, coloured shapes as playable characters. The goal in each small level is easy enough: guide all the shapes into the outline that fits them. Each shape has a different set of unique characteristics such as double jumps or buoyancy in water that makes switching between the shapes necessary to ensure nobody is left behind.

It’s a simple and effective design choice that’s given a wondrous level of depth and humour thanks to the superb narration done by Danny Wallace, who won a BAFTA for his performance.

Never before have I identified so much with the insecurities of a rectangle.

Also the music is rad.

Angus Baillie

The episodic, narrative driven game Life is Strange has only just released it’s first episode a little over a month ago, but I’m already hooked. Each episode is only a few hours long and follows the high school life of a socially awkward photography student, Max Caulfield, who is suddenly and inexplicably granted the power to rewind time for short intervals. This presents the player with some simple dialogue puzzles as well as moral dilemmas which will shape the events that occur later on in the game. Although the game starts out a little slow and clunky, the characters and music are wonderful and there are many sinister mysteries beginning to unfold that I can’t wait to see unravelled.

Angus Baillie

If you know me there’s a pretty good chance I’ve already tried to get you to play To the Moon.

Regardless of gaming experience, To the Moon is a game that anyone can (and should) finish. It’s only around 4 hours but in those 4 hours I smiled, laughed and cried actual tears on about 3 separate occasions. It’s a touching story the tasks the player with exploring the life and memories of a dying man, where small throwaway details early on in the plot grow to take on large, heartfelt meanings later on.

The art style is a gorgeous throwback to SNES-era JRPGs and the musical score is haunting. Buy it, play it, and find out why Johnny’s last dying wish is to go to the moon.

Angus Baillie

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$10

GAME REVIEW by the tert online team

2 0 G R E AT G A M E S Y O U C A N P L AY F O R UNDER $20

Spyro – PSone, PS3, PS Vita $10-$20 Don’t discount the oldies!

Just because you have your new fandangle console or PC doesn’t mean you should forget the games we grew up on. I’m talking of course about the Playstation 1 Spyro franchise. Spyro the Dragon was released in 1998 by Insomniac Games, followed by Spyro 2: Gateway to Glimmer, and Spyro: Year of the Dragon. The games follow a small, purple dragon and his wingman (a dragonfly named Sparx) as they fight to save the day from various antagonists. It’s a tale of courage, adventure and friendship. Definitely revisit it, because who doesn’t love head-butting and setting things on fire?

Zoe Simmons

Clash of Clans – iOS, Android Free This game is incredibly addictive, easy to use, and available for free on the App store. Basically, you build your own village with defences and troops, and attack other villages. You can also join or create a clan and participate in clan wars—hence the title of the game. If you’re looking for a portable, quick and simple game without the commitment of a console, this game is for you—if you can handle the know-it-all twelve-year-olds.

Zoe Simmons

Shovel Knight - PC, 3DS, Wii U, Mac, Linux, PS3, PS4, PS Vita and Xbox One $15

Bastion - PC, Xbox 360, Mac, PS4, PS Vita, Linux, iOS $15

A game made for the nostalgic, Shovel Knight is a crowd funded 2D side scrolling platformer created by independent developers, Yacht Club Games, in early 2014.

Presented in 8-bit graphics, Shovel Knight draws heavily from the nostalgia of the NES generation; using mechanics and referencing classic games such as Castlevania III, Ducktales, Super Mario Bros. 3 and Mega Man. If any of those games are hitting home then this game is for you.

Shovel Knight is simple in design and incorperates clever writing with a stunning soundtrack.

Olivia Harris

Bastion is one of my alltime favourite games and inspirations and playing it is an unforgettable experience.

American based developers Supergiant Games debuted with Bastion in 2011 which is an action role-playing video game in which players control ‘the Kid’ through the floating remains of his homeland of Caelondia. ‘The kid’ must fight the hordes of enemies in his wake and collect cores to repair his country.

With stunning visuals and a phenomenal soundtrack, Bastion is a must play.

Olivia Harris

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GAME REVIEW

The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth - PC, OS X, Linux, PS4, PS Vita $15

Don’t Starve (Together) PC, OS X, Linux, PS4, PS Vita, Wii U $20

Never Alone (Kisima Ingitchuna) – Microsoft Windows, PS4, Xbox One, Wii U (this version due out in 2015) $14.99

Peggle Microsoft Windows, Mac OS X, Windows Mobile, Java ME, BREW, Nintendo DS, Xbox 360, PS3, iOS, Zeebo, Android $4.99

The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth is the newest release from the series creator, Edmund McMillen, who first created the original Binding of Isaac in 2011. The game itself is a randomly generated action RPG shooter with a heavy emphasis on rogue elements and game play; nostalgically similar to the original Zelda game The legend of Zelda from Nintendo.

With over 450 items and counting, everybody has a different experience each time.

This game is not for casual gamers but only those who enjoy a challenge.

-Olivia Harris

From new developers, Klei Entertainment, comes an action-adventure survival game straight from Tim Burton’s dreams. Players take on a range of strange and unique characters and attempt to survive in a dark and dreary world as long as possible. As the title suggests, players must keep themselves well fed and sane in the surreal wasteland. Fend for yourself and find out just how long you can survive in Don’t Starve.

-Olivia Harris

Made in conjunction with the native Alaskan Iñupiat people, Never Alone is a beautifully poignant and insightful look into the native Alaskan culture and people. Playing as Nuna and her pet fox, you are guided through the Arctic wilderness by Iñupiat storytellers on a quest to save Nuna’s village. As educational as it enjoyable, Never Alone features real life videos about the Alaskan wildlife and native Alaskan culture, informing players on everything from what fur is best for winter to personal anecdotes about growing up Alaskan.

Never Alone is the perfect example of video games working as art and a platform for sharing and celebrating world cultures.

The game beautifully intertwines gameplay with the Iñupiat peoples’ culture to create an experience that stays with you for days after playing.

-Nicole Archer

The aim of Peggle is simple: you shoot a ball at a bunch of coloured pegs and try to hit as many as possible.

The pop of the pegs as you bounce off them is pure joy: some would say the meaning of life itself.

If you’re lucky, you might get to do cool things like shoot fireballs or even triple your score (I know).

Peggle is more addictive than cocaine (I ASSUME) and since you can’t run out of lives like the cruel Candy Crush, it offers hours of fun.

Seriously, I started playing in April 2013 and I can’t stop. Send Help.

-Nicole Archer

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GAME REVIEW

Monument Valley – iOS, Android $4.99

Gone Home – PC

This puzzle game is so pretty that I spend more time taking screenshots than actually playing the game.

In fact, the game’s artist, Ken Wong, created these levels with the intention of making them so beautiful they can be displayed as artworks themselves.

Monument Valley plays with perspective, physics and, to a lesser extent, your heartstrings. Behind the vibrant levels and creepy bird people is a story of an anonymous princess, Ida, who you manoeuvre through the world on a quest of forgiveness. The subtle storyline is enough to make you really care about Ida and it leaves you with more questions than answers about the “Tthieving pPrincess”. The game is simple and doesn’t take long to complete, but it is a wonderful experience to behold.

-Nicole Archer

Imagine this: after spending one wonderful year in Europe, you come home to find your family gone.

No explanation is offered, save for a note on the front door from your sister telling you to not go looking for her. So of course, you go looking for her. What’s the worst that could happen?

In Gone Home, you play as Kaitlin who has (coincidentally) found herself in this predicament.

Completely alone, Kaitlin goes on an adventure around a spooky mansion during a thunderstorm to find clues about her family’s whereabouts. This game has all the trappings of a horror survival game; but to (my) great relief, it instead tells a sweet story of alienation, friendship, and young love through various objects you find around the home. It’s a short game and not very challenging, but the suspense that is built up from the atmosphere of the game really keeps you on the edge of your seat right until the end. This game moved me in ways I did not expect. The story is told beautifully through letters, diary entries and other random objects found, and it stayed with me long after finishing. If you’re into good storytelling, 90’s nostalgia, and going through other people’s possessions, this is the game for you.

-Nicole Archer

$19.99

Valiant Hearts: The Great War – Playstation, Xbox, PC/Mac, iOS $15

Besiege (Early Access) – PC, Mac $7

Valiant Hearts is a war game like no other. You won’t be shooting and stabbing your way through an over the top first person campaign, instead you take control of four unique characters on different sides of the conflict and experience the impact of World War I through their eyes. Inspired by letters written during the conflict, the game mixes history and eye-witness accounts with a really unique art style, creating a really powerful image of the war that players of all ages can enjoy over a few hours. With a heavy dose of feelings, this is a really special game that shouldn’t be missed.

-Jayden Perry

Have you ever wondered what you’d get if you mixed the medieval machines with Lego construction and destructive creativity? No? Neither had I before playing Besiege:, a physics based building game in which you create medieval siege and war machines to complete challenges. Even in its early access stage, the game has taken the internet by storm, filling Ggoogle with zany, crazy and overly complex killing contraptions. The game is a lot of fun and is constantly being built upon by its developers and it’s, great to play in short bursts due to its scenario and puzzle based nature.

If you’re interested, make sure to search ‘Besiege gifs’ on Ggoogle to get a taste of the insanity!

-Jayden Perry

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GAME REVIEW

Alto’s Adventure - iOS, Android

The Banner Saga - PC, Mac, iOS, Android

Grow Home – Steam

$20

$10

When your herd of llamas make an escape down the mountain, young Alto has but one option: he must jump on his snowboard and chase them down. This basic premise opens up to one of the most simple and beautiful endless runners ever to grace mobile devices, drawing visual similarities with games like Journey. The minimalistic adventure sees you snowboard your way down an ever changing mountain while completing challenges like collecting llamas or landing double backflips. It’s a lot of fun, especially for tedious commutes (or dare I say it, lectures!), and with a onetime charge, you’ll never be bombarded with push notifications or microtransactions, which is a success in itself!

-Jayden Perry

The Banner Saga is a combination of so many amazing people and game features. From exBioware developers (Mass Effect, Dragon Age), The Banner Saga is a turn based strategy role playing game with a branching story based on your decisions. Influenced by concept art from Disney’s Sleeping Beauty, the hand drawn style captures the wild Viking landscapes of forests and ice, mixed with one of the most beautiful soundtracks by composer Austin Wintory, who also composed for Journey.

With a second title on the way and a free to play multiplayer title called ‘Factions’ out now, this is the perfect time to dive into the stunning world and story presented here.

-Jayden Perry

Grow Home is an indie like game by Ubisoft where you take control of B.U.D, a procedurally animated robot. B.U.D is tasked with growing the Star Plant to 2000m, collecting crystals for upgrades and exploring the planet along the way.

Grow Home is a cell shaded game that is reminiscent of a Pixar short film with a soundtrack to match.

This is a game that sets up the player for great traversal where every meter you climb is another meter you have to glide back down towards the ground using everything from jetpacks to floating leaves.

Even with Grow Home’s short gameplay (5 hours approx.), it gives the player the chance to explore a world while reaching for the stars.

-Jarrod Small

$2.50

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Li’l Sebastian Browers

–

Web

Free

Still mourning the Parks and Recreation series?

Fans will rejoice in Vulture’s 8-Bit-Style game which tributes the show’s starequine, Li’l Sebastian. Set in horse heaven, the aim of the game is to help Li’l Sebastian catch flying carrots and steer clear of Sweetums drinks. Bonus points are awarded if you console yourself with waffles (because, in the words of Ron Swanson, “there hasn’t been a sadness that can’t be cured by breakfast food”). This game is simple, fun and a perfect way to zone out at the end of a long day. The best part? It’s free! Let the nostalgia begin.

-Emily Bennett

GAME REVIEW

by Nicole Archer

DEER GOD Have you ever wondered how deer hunting affects the karmic balance of the universe? Well, have I got the game for you! The Deer God is a 3D pixel art game about reincarnation, developed by indie game developers Crescent Moon Games. In this kickstarter-funded platformer, you play a deer hunter who is reincarnated as a deer. Soon you find yourself on an adventure of discovery, reincarnation and a spooky omnipresent talking cervidae.

Like a classic arcade game, players use their arrow keys and spacebar to navigate the world. Apart from a short cut-scene in the beginning, the game offers little explanation or goal. You’re dumped in this world as a fawn, and left entirely to your own devices. Despite not really knowing what you’re working towards, the controls are incredibly simple and easy to pick up. However, this simplicity doesn’t really work in the game’s favour.

The game starts off fun: bounding through the forest, eating apples and jumping over valleys. However, the aimless wandering and occasional obstacle wears thin very quickly. By the second in-game day, as you jump over your 46th identical spike-filled chasm, you start wondering what the point of it all is.

You continue to leap carelessly through the various landscapes. You come across the sporadic rock that you need to push to the side or snake that you charge through, but that’s about it. You power through that creeping feeling of existential dread. Hoping to find something interesting to justify the time you’ve spent on this game, you fall onto those spikes again and are transported to the beginning.

If you are able to get past the first few days as a fawn, you unlock really cool new abilities like shooting fire from your antlers and growing plants to use as platforms. The levels become increasingly more interesting and complex,

and the enemies more numerous and vicious. However, the game lacks that staying power that makes you want to keep playing long enough to really get anywhere with it. The quests are almost too simple to feel like you’re progressing with the game, and instead feel more like an afterthought than an actual story.

The karma system adds a much needed dimension to the game (along with the added bonus of “challenging your faith”). Killing bad guys gives you good karma, killing good guys gives you bad karma. Get enough of either karma, and you can unlock “light” or “dark” abilities. This can be quite fun, but be careful not to gain too much bad karma, or you’ll be reincarnated as a rabbit. Not that rabbits aren’t cute, but when you’re going up against a snake or a redneck, you do not want to be an adorable little bunny.

Despite the downsides, The Deer God is a beautiful game.

The 3D pixel art is stunning and the concept art gives it a polished look. The realistic lighting and landscapes really immerses the player into the world of The Deer God. The music is ominous and atmospheric, perfect for when youoncept art gives little fawn wandering through the forest or desert at night. I would go so far as to say that the look of the game totally makes up for the fact that there is virtually no direction to the gameplay. Sometimes it’s just nice to jump over endless chasms while your antlers glisten in the morning sun.

The Deer God is a beautiful and simple game, and perfect for when you have a few hours to kill. It really allows you to fully immerse yourself in the world, and live out your Bambi fantasies. However, if a challenge is what you’re after, I’d go play Portal or Candy Crush.

The Deer God is available on steam for $9.95.

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REVIEW

FA N TA S Y & SCI-FI: 7 U N D E R R AT E D FEMALE WRITERS

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Elodie Gooden @elodiemay

Tamora Pierce

Emily Rodda

Isobelle Carmody

Tamora Pierce changed my life. She was born in 1953 in Pennsylvania in the U.S. and started publishing young adult fantasy in the early 1980s. It felt like a wonderful secret when I stumbled upon her Song of the Lioness quartet in my primary school library.

Her tales of Alanna, a young girl from a medieval-type land who swaps places with her brother and becomes a Knight, really kick-started my feminism. For example, the third book of the quarter is called “Woman Who Rides Like A Man”. Gender is clearly inextricable to Alanna’s experiences, as she discovers the male body, binds her breasts and even takes birth control. A witch tells the young Alanna: “Do you know what happens when you lie with a man? Well, a woman enjoys it too, and one time is enough for you to get with child. I’ll give you a charm against your getting pregnant, then. If you change your mind, you can throw it away.”

And that was better sex-ed than I ever got at school.

Pierce’s follow-ons include a more political series called Trickster’s Choice, based on the adventures of (spoiler alert) Alanna’s daughter Aly who is kind of a medieval, redhead version of Olivia Pope. What more could you want?

Emily Rodda is one of the pseudonyms of Jennifer Rowe, a Sydney-born novelist who specialises in some of the most exciting, mind-bending, and badass children’s books out.

She was born in 1948 and studied at Sydney University, acting as a magazine editor until she decided to write Rowan of Rin in 1994. Rowan is a skinny, weakling boy in the village of Rin, who follows the obscure prophecies of the witch Sheba and ends up saving his town from icy winters, hostile clansmen, and malevolent monsters, time and time again.

But my favourite of Rodda’s books is her series known as ‘Deltora Quest’, first published in 2000. The series has 15 short and mesmerising books over three seasons of releases, and has been made into an anime and a DS game. Deltora Quest 1 is my favourite, with heart-stopping twists, scary cover art, and horrendous placenames like ‘Dread Mountain’, ‘The Lake of Tears’ and ‘City of the Rats’.

The quest stars another young male protagonist named Lief, who travels the lands with gentle guardsman Barda, and wild forest-girl Jasmine.

The first series is based on the search for the ancient gemstones of the Belt of Deltora. Each stone has certain valued properties, but is hidden in a dangerous location. Like Rowan of Rin, clever riddles and wordplays are used to create a sense of mystery and danger. It’s addictive reading, even for a children’s book.

Isobelle Carmody changed my life.

Again.

She’s an Australian author, born in 1958, who pairs the most unlikely supernatural elements of her novels with intensely sympathetic characters.

The Obernewtyn Chronicles were these lengthy futuristic books I found in the library at high school with mystical cover art and plenty of madeup words. Enter protagonist Elspeth Gordie (a bizarre name I admit), a mutant living under a fascist religious regime in a post-apocalyptic nuclear wasteland.

Like many Sci-Fi novels, Carmody both celebrates technology and tells of its capacity for destruction. She started writing the chronicles at age 14, and the 8th novel of the series is still forthcoming.

Elspeth is a mutant of the mind, decreed a misfit, with an especially strong talent for ‘farseeking’ or telepathy over long distances. All misfits are exiled to Obernewtyn, a terrifying Wuthering Heights kind of castle, which eventually becomes a fortress against the regime.

Carmody’s series deals with war, romance, being an outcast, building a community, the environment, and animal rights. And the animals can speak mentally to the misfits! How cool is that?

The heart-wrenching and unfinished (I warned you!) Darksong and Darkfall novels – which are literally wider than my face – take place as twins fall into a mystical, underwater portal that will hold your imagination at gunpoint.

And in her stand-alone novel Alyzon Whitestarr, she writes about a girl with the surprising ability to smell people’s souls. It’s a must-read.

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Ursula Le Guin

Margaret Atwood

Richelle Mead (Guest review by Zoe Simmons)

Le Guin is a living legend, and the mother of Fantasy and Science Fiction. She was born and raised in Berkley, California, in 1929.

Inspired by a slew of male writers, she did it herself with ‘A Wizard of Earthsea’. Set in a fantastical world of islands where wizards went to school (J K Rowling, you copycat), and dragons, sailing adventures, and Viking-like invasions were common.

Earthsea was an Iron-Age type of society, with various races spread across the islands in an attempt by Guin to stop the white-washing of fantasy literature. Le Guin pioneered classic fantasy tropes, like good magic and evil necromancy, and giving her characters a powerful ‘true name’ to discover.

She wrote 5 other fantasy books based in the Earthsea universe, as well as a series of Science Fiction novels called the Hainish Cycle. She was always interested in anthropological and sociological work, and tended to write about societies in anarchy.

The nation of Orsinia, in her short stories Orsinian Tales, is drawn from 10th century European nations like Austria-Hungary.

In other words, she’s this smart, socially-conscious 85-year-old babe, and I want to be her when I grow up.

Margaret Atwood is one of the most revered, technically brilliant Science Fiction writers around. Born in 1939, in Ottawa, Canada, she is at once an author, businesswoman, and environmental activist.

I’ve only sampled a few short stories from Atwood, so I got by with a little help from my friends.

“She was the first female Sci-Fi writer that I found,” journalism student Alexandra Coulton said. “Sci-Fi is a bit of a boy’s game, and it’s hard to find a female writer that you really like.”

Alexandra says the Oryx and Crake trilogy is a favourite of hers. It’s full of strange and improbable characters in a not so improbable world, where the food crisis has led to desperate measures. Atwood usually sets her stories in a dystopian future, and prefers the term ‘speculative fiction’ to Sci-Fi, as she believes her stories contain possible futures.

Richelle Mead is an absolute badass, who you simply must read. Mead perfectly mixes wit with her wacky brand of humour and darkness into smoulderingly sexy—and inspiring— urban fantasy storylines and characters.

Born in 1978, in Michigan, Mead is one of the youngest female writers featured here. Her best-selling young adult series Vampire Academy stars heroine Rose Hathaway, a snarky guardian-in-training who won’t take crap. And she’s equally as good in her spin-off series Bloodlines, with pragmatic, resourceful and witty alchemist Sydney Sage.

But Mead’s adult novels are even better. She writes of a world-weary succubus with a terrible love life (but great shoes) in the Georgina Kincaid series. And super-soldier Mae Koskinen, in the Age of X series, exhibits the perfect combination of intelligence and sexiness, mixed with the absurd.

Have you ever heard of a character giving an exorcism to a haunted shoe? An angel who drinks with demons and dresses like a homeless man? Or a succubus who (sometimes) moonlights as a Christmas elf? No? Read Richelle Mead’s masterpieces, and you will be enlightened. Thank me later.

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Of the famous Handmaid’s Tale, my best friend Emily Ritchie said that the prose and Atwood’s use of vocabulary was exceptional, but that she also raises poignant issues.

“It goes beyond the world of the book and becomes a social commentary,” Emily said.

I get a strong vibe that Atwood’s prose was inspired by the very deliberate, organised work of Isaac Asimov. I loved Asimov; he just crucially lacked any real representation of female characters. Atwood has got my back there.

Diana Wynne Jones Diana Wynne Jones was born in 1934 in London, England. Allow me to remind you that without her excellent novel, we would never have seen Studio Ghibli’s beautiful adaptation of Howl’s Moving Castle.

(Fun fact, Ghibli took on Ursula Le Guin’s Earthsea too, but she was reputedly “disappointed”.)

Howl’s Moving Castle was written in 1986, but Wynne Jones’ other acclaimed novel, ‘Charmed Life’, was first published to enormous acclaim in 1977.

Charmed Life is a part of her Chrestomanci series, and if these aren’t the most clever, magical, exciting children’s books in the world, then I’ll eat my hat.

My personal favourite is The Lives of Christopher Chant, which follows a young, rich boy, who finds joy in playing cricket and wandering through several universes while he sleeps. Christopher is shocked to find that he has 9 lives, and that he is to be the next Chrestomanci. But the book has other lessons about the nature of good and evil, and Christopher realises that he has to endeavour to be kind and grateful to the people at Chrestomanci Castle.

With a hilarious, howling cat called Throgmorten, a sympathetic villain called Tacroy, and a storyline which showcases the surprising depth of Jones’ imagination, it is a must read.

Diana Wynne Jones does tales of magic in English society like no one else. Well, except J. K. Rowling, but we all know about her already.

Unfortunately, Jones passed away from lung cancer in 2011, mid-way through another book.

The women who have written this exceptional, underrated, moving fiction deserve to live forever. I hope you are inspired to seek it out.

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LOCAL MUSIC

Now that summer is over, uni is back in session, and the days are getting shorter, many would say that it’s time to knuckle down and get stuck into the more serious side for the year ahead. Sure, that’s what you might believe, but fortunately it’s still sunny most days and if there can be one last hurrah, why not go out big? After the breakthrough success of its first iteration, Farmer & The Owl are back.

With the subtitle of Imaginarium you rest assured that this was going to be bigger, better, and even more badass than before. With four stages, over thirty acts, and riding on the success of its ‘pay what you want’ tickets, how did the highly anticipated event stack up?

One of the more refreshingly original aspects of the festival was the wealth of Australian talent it brought together, with only four international acts. While that may seem somewhat hegemonic, let it be a testament to the excellent state of our country’s musical landscape that, even with only a selection of the vast amount of bands available, this was a festival that had a very diverse collection of acts. If there was any criticism of this, it would be directed at the unfortunate circumstance of having four separate stages of music all happening at the same time.

Sacrifices have to be made and they are difficult ones.

Despite this, you were hard pressed to witness a band that wasn’t stellar.

Beginning the day were Cherry Dolls which had the downside of playing to only those devoted to being at the festival from opening. However, this certainly seemed

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to have no impact on their set which was absolutely energetic and tight. Sounding something like a rawer, punk update on the notorious Nuggets’s garage sound, these guys were still a little unpolished but certainly worth the early beginning of the festival. Twice can be said of the second band I was able to catch the latter half of, Sunbeam Sound Machine. Hailing from Melbourne, these guys were probably the biggest surprise of the whole festival, best described as “like The Pains of Being Pure at Heart” which works for me. All bias aside, their catchy blend of washy dream-pop seamlessly blended with the jangle of the better 80s indie bands and was a perfectly suited soundtrack for the midday sun.

Next up were probably the most hilarious band of the festival, Birds With Thumbs. In the glut of the post Wavves collection of bratty, surf-punk bands, it’s easy to get lost in the sheer volume of imitators out there. Thankfully, these guys brought a dynamic quality to the style through their sheer turnover of songs, wittycisms, and earworm hooks. They’ve even got a dude rocking a tambourine.

Special mention should be made of their bass player, who was playing his last show with the band, whose melodic style and energy on stage was unrivalled by any of his esteemed low range slingers on the day. If you’re into the Blink 182/Weezer style pop punk renaissance, these guys are certainly one of the more inspired groups around.

With all these great bands from Australia, it was time to take things a bit more locally with Wollongong borne The

REVIEW

By Tyler Rose

Walking Who taking the stage. Taking their psychedelic cue from the same pedigree as bands like Brian Jonestown Massacre and Tame Impala, they are certainly one of the Illawarra’s best exports. With their hypnotic grooves, the extended jams the band went into were never less than entertaining and, at their best, truly met something transcendental.

Some other highlights of the festival were local favourites Shining Bird, demonstrating exactly why they are so renowned and so loved. Melding dreamy-pop with a distinctly Australian flavour, these guys continue to improve on their sound, which perfectly matches their name. They’re well worth seeking out next time they play in Wollongong. Next were Brisbane’s Velociraptor, a band that, whilst once consisting of 12 members, have now slimmed down to half that without sacrificing any of their haphazard charm. With their catchy two minute power pop, the band brought the necessary energy to a dimming crowd as the light left the sky.

With this came some of the more aesthetically daring bands on the roster, The Pinheads and local legends Totally Unicorn. While the former is a band still in infancy, having only existed about a year, they play with the reckless abandon that is so liberatingly brash. Considering its members were covered in smeared lipstick and drag makes it all the more entertaining. Totally Unicorn on the other hand are more of a battering ram shooting out of a jack in the box. With their lead singer entering the

FARMER AND THE OWL FESTIVAL

stage in full lobster costume, and bandmates painted with Juggalo faces, these guys fall under a certain niche.

Their sound may be somewhat hard to digest for those unaccustomed to the more sonically challenging brand of hardcore they brew with pride, but you can’t deny they’re a talented bunch.

Rounding out the festival was Brisbane’s famed DZ Deathray’s who in recent years have developed a reputation as one of Australia’s biggest bands. Whilst their reputation preceded them, it in no way impacted on a solid set of all their well known tracks. The rapturous audience was indicative enough of how well these guys can pull off such a sick show. They were by far and large the most fitting finale to Farmer and The Owl for another year; a festival that’s beginning to prove itself as a necessity for the region in bringing the greatest Australian talent to an absolutely ideal location. If you did miss it this year, there’s always the next one and know that it’s going to be even bigger.

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FILM REVIEW Tyler Heycott @theycott

FIXED: THE SCIENCE/ FICTION OF HUMAN ENHANCE MENT When the topic of robotic prosthesis is broached, most people are often quick to think of science fiction classics like Darth Vader, Robocop, and The Million Dollar Man. What many fail to realise is that what they understood to by fiction is rapidly becoming reality. Those that have suffer from loss of limb can now replace them with completely synthetic parts that, in most cases, function greater than their organic counterparts. This is the world that the film FIXED: The Science/Fiction of Human Enhancement illuminates.

Opening with a shot of an unidentified person, scubadiving underwater in a propellor powered wheelchair. This serves a great indication of the documentary to come, one that both challenges notions of the ableism movement and the contrary arguments. From the loaded title of the documentary itself, you can tell that it’s going to be focusing on the more controversial spectrum of those with disabilities. Whilst this may be the case, Director Regan Brashear has done so in a way that never approaches deliberate hyperbole or unwitting exploitation of his subjects.

Whilst the first half of the film is devoted to the formentioned prosthesis and ableism of such technologies, the documentary eventually circumnavigates into capturing the daily lives of those that have lived with disabilities their entire lives. One such person is Gregor Wolbring, a Biochemist and public speaker on the marginalization of disabled people. His view is that a disability is not a limiting factor in his life and should not ever be considered one; a sentiment shared by other subjects in the film who use wheelchairs.

This is partly what makes this such an important piece of documentary filmaking. In providing a voice for those often not heard from, it challenges the viewers perception of those living with disabilities. This is only made stronger by the counter argument made in the film by those arguing in favour of ableism. By presenting both of these in a very balanced manner, it is left up to the viewer to decide which side they agree with. This keeps the film engaging and unexpectedly fresh, especially concerning such a crucial subject.

If there were any detractions about the movie I would say that the inclusion of the random interviews from people on the street comes off a little amateurish and doesn’t really contribute much to the debate present in the film. There is also a heavy use of footage from dance productions that really only serve to act as aesthetic deviation from the slew of “talking heads” which are also fairly inconsequential.

Despite this, I would still strongly urge you to see this film. At only an hour long, it is really not much out of your life in order to better understand those that are so often unheard when they deserve just as much.

8/10

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PHOTOGRAPHY FEATURE

UP IN THE AIR

The night sky is a thing of great intrigue for humankind.

What is up there? And what can it teach us about our lives down here? Each night our corner of the universe is put on display and amateur photographer, and recent UOW graduate, Josh Bezic, is often there to capture it all.

“Comparing what your eyes see to the extra light and detail the camera sees, is really one of the most interesting things to me.”

From a young age Bezic, now 22, was interested in the depths of space. After experiencing astrophotography for the first time in 2011, it wasn’t long before Bezic bought his own camera and began experimenting with long exposure photography.

“I became astonished at how many stars I could capture in one photo.... It also allows me to convey something I’m captivated by it [space] as my own physical medium, and that’s actually really satisfying.”

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Long exposure photography is basically about capturing of an extended period of time in a photograph rather than just a moment. This is performed using a long duration shutter speed to capture the movement of objects more clearly. Thus the stars don’t appear to be moving when seen with the naked eye, but leave a clear trail of movement when captured by a camera with slow shutter speed. Coloured gases from the Milky Way and hundreds more stars become visible as long exposure also increases the light captured in the frame.

“Soon after that I discovered time lapse photography and how I could use it to capture the Earth’s rotation. That really had me stoked, and I’ve been doing it ever since.”

However space and photography are not the only things Bezic is a nerd for. “I’m interested in medicine and its associated sciences... I’ve just graduated from medical and health sciences at UOW. Next year I hope to get into post graduate medicine.”

Fortunately Bezic is not planning on setting down the camera any time soon, with a working and traveling gap year planned for 2015 which is sure to yield some more awe-inspiring photography.

Bezic uses a Canon 50D and a 5D mark II, which are both digital SLR cameras. More of Bezic’s astrophotography can be viewed at https://www.flickr.com/photos/bezshots/

Josh Bezic Amy Fairall @AmyEloiseF

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MUSIC REVIEW Jayden Perry @_JaydenPerry

LINDSEY STIRLING

Lindsey Stirling is not what you’d consider a regular violinist. She is probably best know for a composition titled ‘Crystalise’, a piece mixing her violin skills with dubstep, in in an odd, yet somehow natural pairing That single video has now reached over one hundred million views. Since the track, she has continued to entertain a huge audience on YouTube, delivering her own personal flair to tracks from video games, movies as well as recording a tonne of her own original content.

Her journey from YouTube has brought her to countries all over the world and she very recently performed at the Enmore Theatre in Sydney as a part of her Shatter Me album tour. In what can only be described as one of the most energetic hour-and-a-half long sets ever played, Stirling really brought her music to life before the audience’s eyes.

I stood crammed into the standing space blocked off at the front of the theatre, arm to arm with one of the most wide ranging groups of people I’d ever come across at a music venue. Due to the unique nature of her music, she has inspired a lot of young people to learn and perform music. This was confirmed to me as I overheard about a dozen conversations between proud parents, watching their teenagers excitedly cheer for Lindsey.

Aside from teens and families, the other group dominating the audience were pop culture enthusiasts of all appearances. Even a few older, seemingly more traditional violin fans were present. Stirling really delivered a show for everyone.

As soon as Lindsey began her performance I was very glad that I ended up in the standing section. Her energy rippled through the crowd and kept everyone up on their feet as she pranced and jumped across the stage. Her personality was really infectious as she riffed off the audience and her two band members, Jason and Drew,

cracked jokes throughout the show that bridged the gaps between songs well.

The songs were Lindsey’s signature fast paced mash ups of violin and electronic music, as fantastic as ever. Her performance was at its most magical when she slowed down to perform her Lord of the Rings medley. In a moment that hushed the audience, she took to the microphone to sing a verse of Enya’s May it be. That moment really captured the essence of her versatility and skill, it was a big talking point for members of the audience to hold onto long after the show.

One of the best aspects of the performance was just hearing from Stirling between songs. She spoke about her journey and her experiences with writing and composing; her passion and humbleness always permeating her words.

She highlighted her gratitude for all the opportunities she had been granted, taking every chance to thank her fans for supporting her.

It was rather exhilarating to see Lindsey Stirling perform live, the experience gave me a new appreciation of her as an artist. Watching her songs and videos on YouTube is certainly enjoyable, but there was a real powerful energy that she brought to her music with her stage presence and dancing. By the end of it all I couldn’t help but feel tired for her given her constant energetic dancing, however I left the theatre much happier having seen her.

If you get the chance to see her, I’d highly recommend it; she’s even better live. You can check out all her new videos on her YouTube channel, “Lindseystomp”, and her first two albums are available to purchase on iTunes and Google Play.

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TERT GIG GUIDE

Sat 04 April – Michael Franti & Spearhead - Waves Thurs 09 April - The Beards + The Stiffys – Unibar Fri 10 April – Los Chicos + Los Chicos – Unibar Fri 10 April – Bell Weather Department – Rad Fri 10 April – Thundamentals – Waves Sat 11 April – Super Best Friends – Rad Sat 11 April – My Friend the Chocolate Cake – Anita’s Theatre Thurs 16 April – Nantes – Rad

Sat 02 May – Steve Smyth – Unibar

18 April – Justin Townes Earle – Anita’s Theatre

Sat 02 may – Thirsty Merc – Waves

Fri 24 April – Andy Bull + Cub Sport – Unibar

09 May – Arj Barker – Anita’s Theatre

Fri 24 April – 360 - Waves

Sat 23 may – Electric Eclectic fest feat sleepmakeswaves

Sat 25 April – The Vanns + Joe Mungovan + Mitch & Mike

+ Crooked Fiddle Band + Troldhaugen + Without

Gordan – Rad

Parachutes + many more Unibar

Sat 26 April – The Vanns + Elwood Myre + Shoot The

Fri 29 May – San Cisco – Crooked Colours – Methyl Ethel

Breeze – Rad (AA)

– Unibar

Thurs 30 April – Tommy M & The Mastersounds + We Came For Dinosaurs + Direwolf + Liam Gale & The Ponytails

Mon 01 June – Against Me – Unibar Friday 5th June – Baby Animals + The Superjesus - Waves

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CO N TRI BU T OR S

Printer: Print & Mail 23-25 Meeks Road, Marrickville NSW 2204 PH: (02) 95198268

Contributors: Gemma Mollenhauer Bec Wiggins Joel Ephraims Isabel Moon Angus Baillie Lewellyn Horgan Joel Burrows Kale Adriao Jarrod Small Nikolajs Ozoliņš Matthew Pearce Kurtis Hughes Peter Munford Georgia Holloway Elodie May Claudia Poposki Olivia Harris Nat Croker Jayden Perry Tyler Rose James Rule Amy Joyce Blake Stanbridge Annelise Declara Adara Enthler Ben Kohler Zoe Ridgway Teisha Cloos Zoe Simmons Beth Cunningham Claudia Blanche Sally Krajacic Amy Fairall Natalie McLaren Nicole Archer James Sherley Isabelle Cheser

Disclosure:

Acknowledgement of country:

Disclaimer:

The contents of this publication are made for and by the students of the University of Wollongong. Views expressed are of individual authors and do not necessarily reflect those of WUSA or the publisher.

Tertangala and WUSA acknowledge the traditional custodians of the land upon which we meet and work, that of the Dharawal people. We pay our respect to their elders past, present and future, for they hold the memories, the traditions, the culture and the hopes for Indigenous Australia.

Responsibility for the Tertangala is taken by the WUSA council. The University of Wollongong accepts no responsibility for this publication.

Co-editors: Gemma Mollenhauer Bec Wiggins Designer/Illustrator: Bridget Peters Creative Writing Editor: Nicola Selvey Sub-editors: Jake Cupitt Heather Wortes Claudia Poposki Elodie May Photography: Alex Napier Teisha Cloos Claudia Blanche Illustrations: Editor’s PortraitsGabby Kiz Creative WritingPaulo Chicharo

the_tert facebook.com/Tertangala #itsyourtert

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