TN2 Issue 3, 22/23 (Valentine's Issue)

ART CLIMATE FASHION FILM

GAMES & TECH

LITERATURE

COVER ILLUSTRATION Linde Vergeylen

PHOTOGRAPHY Megan O’Rourke

EDITORIAL TEAM

EDITORS

Gale Aitken

Brídín Ní Fhearraigh-Joyce

CLIMATE EMERGENCY

Caitlin Kawalek

Emma Harris

ART & DESIGN

Bruna Ciulli

Kate Moloney

FASHION

Aisling Finegan

Grace Maddock

FILM

Ava Bolger

Fionnuala Short

GAMES & TECH

Robert Crossen

Finn Brannigan

LITERATURE

Maxine Boudway

Leah Downey

MUSIC

Alessandro Loro

Erica Smith

Frank Crossen

SEX & RELATIONSHIPS

Alison Cummins

Julie Gleeson

Rachel Kelly

THEATRE

JP O’Brien

Saul Sherrard

TV

Eva Criscuolo

Evan Cryan

ALT.

Abby Cleaver

Libby Marchant

PHOTOGRAPHY

Megan O’Rourke

ILLUSTRATIONS

Linde Vergeylen

SOCIAL MEDIA

Eva Conn

Sarah Rooney Fitzpatrick

CONTENTS

TN2 Love Letters

The Truth About Veganuary

An Interview with Trinity’s Sustainability Officer

Review of Bassan Al-Sabah’s exhibition, Douglas Hyde

Review of Turner: Sun is God, National Gallery

How TikTok’s ‘For You Page’ Fuels Fast Fashion

The Imitable Legacy of Vivienne Westwood

Dublin v.s. Paris: Student Street Style

It’s About Time the 2000s Apologised

Growing Old at the Gaze Film Festival

From the Forest to the Ocean: The Way of Water Review

A Wrap-up of the 2022 Game Awards

AI and the Artistic Vision

Romance Novels: High Art or Cheap Pulp?

Unique Perspectives on Poetry

Sitting Down with TV Girl

Gillaband: Live Review

Dating for the Plot

Relationships on Erasmus

The Name Game: Pros and Cons of Stunt Casting

Dublin Theatre Festival: That Magical Time of Year

TV’s Rousing Romances

The Art of Reality TV

Best Shows of 2022

For Those Who Cannot Sleep

Top 10 Predicted Trends of 2023

A Defence of Trackies

TN2 Crushes

With the slow deaths of both Trinder and Trindr (RIP), we at TN2 reckoned you sad, sad souls need somewhere to detail your love, yearning, heartbreak, and strange fetishes (TN2 does not endorse “touching toes in the ussher”). If your confession isn't here, sorry. It clearly wasn't embarrassing enough. Try harder next time x

you are the best dream - BNJ

What sweet things must remain unsaid? or which should I not care to know? My love is mean. As am I, which is the only reason for loving you like this. I will not feel guilt for loving you: your coldness, the way you abuse my conscience, the way you mock me with your beauty. I am your fool.

It’s over. The right person at the wrong time. I love him, but he is not mine and I am not his anymore. I love you S.

This mightn’t be two notebooks but I still think you’re really hot.

Love, Anon.

it’s a stupid cliché, but when i met you i believed i wasn’t the sort of creature who would find love. you keep proving me wrong. my angel, my sunshine, mo chroí.

I had it all figured out. You, me, together on the beach reading Tolstoy and Dumas. My dreams, my love for you, reflected in those hazel eyes. Imbibed on your gaze. Our chemistry was dazzling, irresistible - an unstoppable force in a world of unmoving conversation.

And thus, I ought not to have slept with your best friend. Twice.

Dear Chair of Litsoc,

i love him, he is all i am. i attend him- terrible, beautiful plan. i fear he is all i could lose. he clears me, corridor, cloudless roof. i find him gone, bedless; fool; man. i regain him often, he is who i am.

AS in 3rd year nursing, I get lost in those piercing green eyes of yours every single time. Will you be my valentine?

i love your passion for the arts let’s study bog bodies while touching toes in the ussher.

You say everything is Gucci but I’m not your main. Sweetness overload driving me insane Call me you crutch since I’m someone to lean on L your beauty is something that could turn Mr clean on.

You are not very good at cooking, asking the waiter for ketchup, using scissors, getting up early or yoga. But you are very cute when you try and then look at me after as if to say “did I do it right?” and I smile, amused at your incompetence. And then I ask you to open up the jam jar, reach the thing on the high shelf, help me calculate something, fix the dishwasher and remind how to save a file on my laptop.

Completely fell for a guy I worked with this summer. He became my best friend, like no one I’d ever met. BUT BUT BUT. He has a girlfriend, which I completely respect, and nothing happened. I don’t know how to let go of that to move on. He said “I’ve never been so happy as I am around you”. WHO SAYS THAT!!! cry.So happy to still have him as a friend but my God am I in love with him. Never said that before. When we talked or looked at each other it’s like a whole other little world opened up. EW right that’s it. We ball. at least I can drive a car. Maybe some day.

Sometimes I listen to the song he was listening to when we first got together. It’s a terrible song but it makes me smile and feel fuzzy because I love him despite his atrocious music taste.

lhc is claha

CLIMATE EMERGENCY

The Truth About Veganuary

In 2020, 400,000 people in the UK signed up to Veganuary, reducing their carbon emissions to the equivalent to 450,000 flights.

WORDS Valentina Milne ILLUSTRATION Linde Vergeylen

Okay here it is, the inaugural month where veganism comes to light and people begin their intrepid journey to cut out all animal products and realise their potential to be a ‘vegan.’ This is, however, only to last for three days of funfilled meal-making after one realizes that the chicken filet burger is – surprise surprise – an animal and the late night chocolate cravings are seventy percent milk.

So why, you may ask, turn vegan and give up the only luxuries in life that sustain us through university? Veganism is the fastest growing trend in the world of healthy eating due to its reliance on whole grains and vegetables, as opposed to the more dominant meat orientated diet.

Beyond the significant health benefits from reduction of processed meats, the more pressing environmental impact of reducing animal product consumption is what makes veganism so attractive to the modern consumer. It is evident that the meat industry drastically increases the carbon emissions of the planet. Therefore, the gradual removal of reliance on livestock would reduce emissions of greenhouse gases and significantly improve the climate crisis we are currently facing. In 2020, 400,000 people in the UK signed up to Veganuary, and by doing so, reduced carbon emissions equivalent to 450,000 flights.

However, the transition to a vegan diet is not completely environmentally pure. This is evident in the lean, mean, but not-so-green avocado. Reportedly requiring 9.5 billion liters of water a day to grow, the avocado industry has sucked previously nutrient rich areas of rain forest dry, transforming them into mono-cultured avocado machines. That’s the same as 3,800 Olympic pools worth of water! This delicious and yet devastating super food is one reason why the apparently eco-friendly vegan diet is perhaps not

as environmentally friendly as one may think.

Nevertheless, one cannot ignore the significant health benefits of switching to a less processed diet of fresh fruits, vegetables, and grains. A focus on fresher foods naturally increases one’s fiber and important nutrient intake. Studies have shown that transition to a vegan diet significantly reduces risk of heart disease and a 75% decreased risk in high blood pressure. The long term health benefits are undeniably positive.

However, another problem associated with veganism is its facade of expensive inaccessibility due to the diverse and somewhat unusual ingredient range of seeds and saps that influencers claim to be the ‘life changing’ part of their perfect diet. Yet it doesn’t have to be that hard. Indeed, you can switch to a healthier diet by perusing the humble aisles of Lidl or Tesco. The almighty chickpea is a cheap and nutritious example of a diet staple that is full of delicious potential. In fact, if being both environmentally friendly and a healthier human being is on your agenda this January, perhaps a switch to seasonal eating is more attractive? The consumption of seasonal vegetables reduces carbon footprint and remains cheap and cheerful. (I mean, if you’re buying raspberries in January there is definitely something wrong).

As a push to increase awareness about the environmental impact of the meat industry, Veganuary is a positive movement that should be practiced by all willing to take up the initiative. Such an extreme change may seem daunting and somewhat expensive. But do not fear. A switch to seasonal eating and the inclusion of nutritious and cheap grains such as lentils, chickpeas and beans are a much more inviting way to begin your journey to a healthier and more environmentally conscious diet.

Loving Trinity, Living Sustainably:

1) To start, can you tell me what a sustainability manager is in your words?

As the Sustainability Manager my role is to work alongside our Vice President for Biodiversity and Climate Action, Prof. Jane Stout to embed sustainability across everything we do at the university from education to research, operations and engagement. It is also to drive the development of university policy and implementation plans and deliver key sustainability projects involving a range of different institutional stakeholders within College. In reality, this means that I need to collaborate with a wide range of people who work throughout the university as well as engaging with students and our alumni. It is a very strategic role as it encompasses the whole university alongside our external partners and stakeholders. Put simply, the role is one that brings people together to work towards a common goal – the goal of a nature positive, climate neutral and net zero university as well as a healthy place to study, work and enjoy.

2) Can you explain what your goals are as the sustainability manager?

My goal would be to reach our national targets of reducing greenhouse gas emissions of 51% by 2030. It would also include reaching our aim of becoming a nature positive university, whereby we ensure that our actions do not have a negative impact upon our natural world but in fact support restoration and regeneration. This would mean that we support our students to learn about sustainability in a multitude of courses. It would mean using our research knowledge to focus on solutions to global problems. It would mean that we work with our operations team to reduce our use of resources, as well as working with our finance department to assess how best to invest our funds in the future. There is so much work already underway in Trinity that these goals are achievable if we all work together.

3) What is the most challenging aspect of the position?

Trinity functions as a small city, so the challenge comes with its size and scale. It is a complex place with a multitude of functions, as well as a hugely diverse community spread across a large geographical area. This means that it is hard to know everything that is going on in the University with respect to sustainability, however I have had the pleasure of meeting many staff and students as well as visiting the majority of sites owned or affiliated to Trinity, so I am slowly getting to grips with it after six months. We are also undertaking an extensive consultation period which will feed into the development of the

University’s Sustainability Strategy and Action Plan. This has been a great way to hear about all of the amazing work happening across the University as well as learning about what people want us to do and how they can help.

4) What is your favourite part of the position?

So far, my favourite part of the role has been meeting the inspirational students and staff that are already working hard to progress sustainability in Trinity. I feel like I have learnt so much in such a short space of time about the people who make Trinity a great place to work and study, as well as finding out about how we can overcome the key challenges we face together.

An Interview With Trinity’s Sustainability Manager Jane Hackett

5) What can students do to make your job easier? In other words, how can Trinity students help you?

It would be great if students got involved in the Green Campus committee as this programme really focuses on partnership, collaboration and action. Trinity has been awarded a Green Flag since 2013 and that achievement is down to the collaboration between students and staff. I would also encourage students to get involved in college societies and add a sustainability dimension to the society that you are part of. That could mean getting involved in Green Week which is being held from 20nd – 24th of March, and we are really hoping that societies ‘lean in’ and get involved. I would be particularly interested in seeing a diverse range of events being planned from societies that traditionally don’t participate in Green Week. For example, maybe the Gaming Society can put on a talk about digital carbon or maybe the Comedy Society can do a few sketches?

Think outside the box and get involved! However, the most important thing that students can do is to keep pushing for sustainability to become an essential part of life in Trinity. We are working hard to make changes happen but will need support and we will try to keep you as informed as possible. If have any ideas, suggestions or want to get involved email me at sustainability@tcd.ie

CONTACT: sustainability@tcd.ie hacketja@tcd.ie

6) Ideally, if you could do anything to make Trinity more sustainable what would you do?

I would appoint a Vice President for Biodiversity and Climate Action who has the remit of embedding sustainability across everything we do. However, our Provost Linda Doyle thought of that already!

7) In your opinion, how can Trinity campus as a whole be kinder to the climate?

I think we need to be a whole lot kinder to nature in general and remember that we not only have a climate crisis, but a biodiversity crisis too. We need to start rethinking everything we do and how we do it, from the resources we use every day to the courses we are developing for future students. We all need to adjust our own personal behaviours to respond to these crises and that might mean changing our habits, learning more about sustainability, using our jobs as a way to effect change, collaborating with others, sharing ideas, as well as supporting those who may not have the capacity to get involved. I think Trinity is in a unique position to be a leader, not only in thought but in action, and that means that we as a community need to work together to put nature first. We have some big challenges ahead, but we have the solutions at hand and can meet the challenges head on because of the imagination, knowledge, passion and dedication of the students and staff in Trinity. I am really excited to be playing my part in making these changes happen, here’s to 2030!

INTERVIEWED BY Emma Harris PHOTOGRAPHY Kallum Linnie

Bassam Al-Sabah’s

Dreamlike Odyssey through the Self

A review of the artist’s solo exhibition at the Douglas Hyde Gallery.

Luring us into a fantastical world of fragmentation and fluidity, Bassam Al-Sabah has turned the Douglas Hyde Gallery into a space, or rather, an expanse, in which reality is unbounded. Constructs of gender, time, and body dissipate into a world of fluid discovery. The gallery has become Al-Sabah’s land of eternal exploration, an uncharted everchanging voyage where one traverses the drifting essence of the self, fractured.

IT’S DANGEROUS TO GO ALONE! TAKE THIS consists of a collection of sculptures and digital artworks scattered throughout the gallery. The centerpiece of the exhibition is a 20 minute-long CGI animated film that shares the show’s title, a phrase borrowed from the 1986 video game The Legend of Zelda.

The film centres around a computergenerated character, the ‘hero,’ undertaking a journey through various fantasy realms. We watch the hero’s body endure cathartic and often horrifying mutations, kicking forcefully through the boundaries of possibility. Entirely separated from the course of their own journey, the character seems to be at the mercy of an unknown force, a predestined narrative that mirrors the player-controlled video game. The

body has no agency; it is caught in the currents of its own transformation. The immersive film sees regeneration arising from tribulation; it is a recurring journey of inner emotional turmoil and revelation, a virtual projection of internal human struggle.

Clips from Al-Sabah’s previous CGI film I AM ERROR play on a loop, projected from clusters of stacked monitors on the gallery floor. SINSTASIS shows a body suspended in a state of endless metamorphosis, bending the laws of physicality- the viewer watches the body reduce to a spectrum of light and become physical again.

Meanwhile, FLIES displays a hyper synthetic fly-covered hand in continuous circular movement. This unsettling perpetuity is a running theme and gives the exhibition its distinct sense of disquiet. In this world, journeys are never-ending; time is distorted and

WORDS Eoghan Smyth

does not operate in linearity, widening the gap between fantasy and reality, separating the self from the body.

The distinctions between artistic mediums clash uneasily. Polystyrene sculptures of body parts bleed out into the gallery, perpetuating a sense of disembodiment. Made using a computerprogrammed carving machine, these sculptures are physical renditions of Al-Sabah’s digital creations; they claim the space in full tangibility whilsholding the uncanny surrealism unique to CGI films. A large sculpture of a male torso in an arched position is held in the air by metal frames, while a pair of feet are suspended similarly at the other end of the gallery. These corporeal sculptures surrender themselves to the journey of selfhood and so the question arises, what is the place of the body in the realm of identity?

Al-Sabah’s transformative solo show explores selfhood through the limitless potential of computer software, creating a space in which fantasy and possibility intertwine. His craft is seamless. This enthralling exhibition transcends the imaginations of all who embark on its journey.

‘IT’S

DANGEROUS TO GO ALONE! TAKE THIS’

by Bassam Al-Sabah is on display in the Douglas Hyde Gallery until the 5th of March 2023.

Images courtesy of the artist and the Douglas Hyde Gallery

ART & DESIGN The Exuberant

WORDS Matthew James Hodgson

Almost three years after the start of the coronavirus pandemic, the National Gallery of Ireland announced an exhibition courtesy of the Tate Gallery in London: nearly ninety artworks by J.M.W. Turner on display in Dublin. Conceptualised by the Turner scholar David Blayney Brown, the Turner: The Sun is God exhibition opened to the Irish public in October 2022. In addition to displaying the well-known watercolours from the Henry Vaughan collection, the National Gallery is showcasing Turner’s sketchbooks and larger oil paintings.

To restore Turner to the present consciousness was a gesture of forcive renewal, and one that was desperately needed. His influence reverberated among artists and thinkers of the twentieth-century, from the early faces of modernism to the existentialists. What truly draws Turner apart from the crowd of his contemporaries, however, is his unflinching approach to the operatic drama and power of nature alongside his inventive, almost blasphemous, use of light and the sun to reflect human interiority.

The exhibition takes its title from something said by Turner a few weeks prior to his death in 1851. It is rumoured that the person to whom Turner declared “the Sun is God” was admirer and critic John Ruskin before the two had a falling out. A complicated professional and personal relationship existed between Turner and Ruskin, the latter was a lifelong follower of Turner’s work, especially as the pre-raphaelites rose to prominence. After Turner died, his entire body of work was left in the basement of the National Gallery in London, until Ruskin began sorting through them. Ruskin perceived Turner’s later work as “indicative of a mental disease.” In fact, the questions surrounding Ruskin’s alleged burning of Turner’s erotic drawings and letters have led to a decades long controversy.

The sentiment that the Sun is God comes as no surprise to people familiar with Turner’s work. The artist became obsessed with light, once writing “Light is therefore a colour.” The National Gallery paints a picture of Turner out in nature studying the world, how light is simultaneously formed and formless. To paint light is to give form to light, but Turner’s experiments with wet-on-wet watercolour taught him that a person cannot rely solely on the creation of forms. His attention turns to the sun: geometric, perfect. In an era when the sun, a source of indescribable power, was still relatively uncharted, Turner used that mystery as a source of inspiration, bestowing it with a sequence of guises and mystical properties in his work.

For some background, in 1900, the National Gallery was bequeathed thirty-one Turner watercolours and drawings by the English collector Henry Vaughan. According to Vaughan, light is

A Review of Turner: The Sun is God in the National

“an aesthete or a physicist would suggest that these paintings are created by natural forces”

at its weakest in January and, therefore, ideal for protecting the watercolours from damaging natural light. The Vaughan Bequest, along with another five watercolours, as well as Turner’s Liber Studiorum prints, are maintained by the National Gallery and annually exhibited in January. In January 2020, the dawn of a new decade, the National Gallery unveiled a more expansive exhibition, including work by artists he influenced, titled Turner: The Visionary.

January. In January 2020, the dawn of a new decade, the National Gallery unveiled a more expansive exhibition, including work by artists he influenced, titled Turner: The Visionary.

Turner’s watercolours, in addition to posing questions of representation, operate experimentally on the levels of creativity and mechanics. Turner is regarded by art critics to have been the best watercolourist of his time. Turner painted wet-on-wet in most, if not all of the works at the Visionary exhibition. An example of his work using wet-on-wet is A Ship off Hastings; painted in 1820. This style of watercolour marks a departure from artistic control. They chart Turner’s protean evolution from an experimental young artist into a mature one. Wet-on-wet technique creates a formlessness that overwhelms some watercolour painters, but Turner’s use demarcates a small personal drama of escaping the shackles of strict representation. Indeed, an aesthete or a physicist would suggest that these paintings are created by natural forces, such as gravity or probability: the bleed blooms through the contours of water and eventually settles to dry. By surrendering control, Turner gains access to new ranges of expression that he explores using light. It is in these works that the figure of Turner emerges, down to the very fingerprints.

The Turner: The Sun is God exhibition will be open at the National Gallery of Ireland until February 2023 in the Beit Wing with an admission charge. More information can be found at nationalgallery.ie.

Sunset From the Top of the Rigi c. 1844 by JMW Turner. Exhibited in Turner: The Sun is God. Permanently held in the Tate Collection.

How TikTok’s ‘For You Page’ Fuels Fast Fashion

The impact of short-form videos on short-term trends

From the moment I succumb to the daily temptation to open TikTok and scroll through the app’s never-ending ‘For You Page’, until I finally muster up the strength to snap myself out of the trance-like state it has induced and put down my phone, I’m bombarded with video after video of so-called influencers wearing the latest fashion trends, sharing their most recent shopping hauls and advertising their favourite brands.

Unlike other social media platforms such as Instagram, which also promotes fashion-related content, TikTok specialises in short-form video clips that are quick and easy to consume — providing the viewer with instant gratification. Hours of scrolling feel like minutes. We are so overwhelmed with the amount of content we’re consuming on this app that memes, pop culture moments and fashion trends alike from only a year ago feel like distant memories. Clearly our perception of time has become severely warped by this uniquely hypnotising platform.

There is no doubt that fashion has always been an ever-evolving industry, producing trends that come and go, however, the chokehold that social media platforms have over consumers today has rapidly accelerated the life cycles of these trends to such an extent that we can now barely keep up. Trends in fashion can be broken down into two main types:

macro and micro. The former refers to a long-term directional shift, usually having a lifespan of five to ten years, while the latter was once used to describe more fleeting trends that last around three to five years. This is no longer the case, as thanks to apps like TikTok we are now experiencing microtrends that last mere months, if even.

Possibly one of the most notable and ironic examples of this phenomenon is the rapid rise and fall of selfproclaimed sustainable brand House of Sunny’s infamous green Hockney dress. The dress quickly became highly sought-after when celebrities such as Kendall Jenner and various influencers were pictured wearing it during the summer of 2020. Fast-forward a couple of months and this dress had become so mainstream that it ended up gathering dust in many people’s wardrobes as it had already lost its appeal. It’s a sad state of affairs when even a seemingly unique item of clothing from an independent brand like House of Sunny becomes too ‘cheugy’, or outdated, to be seen wearing, almost overnight.

Another potent example of a current microtrend, with an admittedly longer lifespan, is that of Vivienne Westwood’s iconic pearl choker. The choker saw a rapid resurgence over the last couple of years and has quickly become a staple for Gen Z. A quick glance around the Trinity arts block will tell you what’s in and

what’s not. The “what I got for Christmas” videos that flooded my TikTok last month are also very telling of the latest trends; last year the Dyson Airwrap and Dior lip oil reigned supreme, and according to this year’s hauls, Uggs are back in. But for how long?

For fast-fashion brands like Shein, microtrends are a dream come true. An interview with Forbes revealed that the retailer adds a staggering 700-1000 new items to the site per day. Other reports have estimated Shein’s turnaround to be even higher than this. The brand sells a wide variety of clothing, capitalising on microtrends as it sells the latest styles for a fraction of the price they are normally retailed for. On top of this, Shein has been publicly accused of ripping off many small independent designers. Yet, perhaps unsurprisingly, despite the negative press it received, Shein was declared the most popular brand of 2022. There is clearly a lesson to be learned from our continued fueling of unethical brands for the sake of trends.

Not only is giving into TikTok driven microtrends without a second thought burning a hole in our wallets, the environmental impact of this habit is hugely concerning. According to Earth.Org, approximately 100 billion garments are produced each year, with 92 million tonnes ending up in landfills. Let that sink in for a minute. Our habits as fashion consumers are having a real effect on our planet. It is simply not good enough to continue jumping on the bandwagon, allowing ourselves to be swayed into purchasing pieces of clothing that we know we’ll only wear a couple of times just because the ‘For You Page’ tells us to. In order to reduce overconsumption we should instead prioritise investing in versatile pieces that we can see ourselves wearing for years to come.

Try asking yourself these five questions next time you feel the urge to buy something you’ve seen online countless times: How often will I wear this? Do I own anything that serves the same purpose? Can I style this item well with the clothes I already own? Does this item feel authentic to me? And finally, would I still want to buy this if it was more expensive? If in doubt, leave it out.

WORDS Ella Sloane

Th Inimitable Leg

On December 29th 2022, we heard of the regrettable passing of our Queen of Punk, Vivienne Westwood, a trail blazer in the worlds of fashion and activism, and a life who will always be remembered. In 2016, in an i-cons interview with i-d, Vivienne told us that she didn’t believe in the word ‘icon’ or that she would even be remembered 10 years after her death, but I think this statement couldn’t be further from the truth. Her death has sent the fashion community into mourning, and her unique presence will be sorely missed.

After careers in both corporate work and school teaching, she followed a rather unconventional route into the fashion industry. Vivienne’s career began when she opened her first shop in London in the 70s, first named ‘Let it Rock’, and now named ‘World’s End’ which is still standing at the iconic 43 Kings Road. Throughout her entire career, Westwood never succumbed to the pressure of the fashion world around her, and consistently remained authentic to herself. Her work was influenced by the world around her, and more importantly, what she wanted to change about it. At the beginning of her career, in 70’s England, politics were

conservative and much of the nation was influenced by this. These politics played a role in the chic, fitted and often reserved clothing which was the dominant trend at the time. Drawing inspiration from the Rock and Roll and Teddy Boys subcultures in London, Vivienne began designing clothes in her shop which pushed against the norm. What emerged were controversial graphic t-shirts, short spiky hair, and a growing fan base. This ultimately led to the creation of Punk. From here, opportunities like designing the clothing for The Sex Pistols emerged. Westwood admitted that this period was when she started to truly feel like a designer. Her career really took off, leaving a monumental legacy behind.

Westwood was already seen as a symbol of the British avant-garde by the end of the 70’s. However, she saw her work as far from done. The 80’s were an important decade in her career. Westwood had her first runway show ‘Pirates’ in 1981, which was unlike anything that had been seen on a runway to date. In 1983 she collaborated with Keith Haring to create ‘Witches’, a collection which would later be seen on Madonna, and cement Westwood as a household name in

WORDS Anna Lyons

winning awards such as British Designer of the year, receiving the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire from Queen Elizabeth (which she decided to accept commando) and collaborating with models such as Kate Moss and Naomi Campbell to produce some of the most impactful moments in runway history; let’s not forget Naomi’s graceful fall at the peak of her career, and Moss’ appearance as a shirtless Marie Antointette. While Westwood had placed herself firmly on the map of fashion history, she went far beyond just design, and I believe that it was her devotion to activism and creating change through her work that made her such an extraordinary designer, and someone who will inevitably go down in fashion history.

From the beginning of her career she was a trailblazer by making rebellious political statements through her work. Her brand has always been political; Vivienne Westwood and activism are intrinsically linked, and it is activism that has always taken the forefront. Unlike many designers who support the causes they care about, she has always been the face of her activism, attending marches and making speeches, and believing in the importance of being seen and heard. The Vivienne Westwood brand is deeply thought provoking, and goes so far beyond clothing and accessory design.

Today, her impact is still present. She spent much of the 2000’s dedicating herself to campaigning against climate change and over-consumption; launching her own campaign ‘Climate Revolution’, being an ambassador for Greenpeace and designing their official logo, and dedicating shows to issues she is passionate about, such as her AW16 show ‘Culture no consumption’. As well as all this, she simply raised awareness through her presence, she made sure that these issues

were spoken about, and always given the attention they deserve. These are just some of the many reasons why her impact on fashion has been formally recognised in more recent years. In 2004, she had the largest show of any living British fashion designer dedicated to her at the Victoria & Albert museum in London, and earned the title of Dame Vivienne Westwood in 2006.

Everyone can learn something from Westwood; be kind, be passionate, be active, and always keep in mind her motto:

“Let the next generation get a life”.

FASHION

Subsidised Conformity v.s. Appreciation of Individuality

Dublin v.s. Paris Student Street Style

Being a Trinity student, it can be difficult to escape certain stereotypes; the top university in Ireland is often believed to produce snobs, studying something obscure and useless. However, there is one Trinity stereotype that does hold true. We have one of the most fashionable campuses in Ireland, a double-edged sword when you arrive hungover for your nine a.m. lecture in the Arts Block, surrounded by fur coats, mini Uggs, and Urban Outfitters’ parachute pants.

Having spent most of my college years on campus, Trinity is where I get some of my best style inspiration. However, the culture of fashion in Trinity can become slightly destructive within a specific sphere. With everyone putting their best foot forward at what seems like all times, a certain expectation and pressure presents itself unto what is already a competitive academic environment, potentially as an indirect result of the conformity of the student demographic within the college. An overwhelmingly large portion of the student population are middle class and white, with many coming from a small concentration of increasingly elite secondary schools. This is an attitude that is reflected in the expectation of what to wear, with the vast majority succumbing to this college-wide pressure to keep up with expensive and unsustainable trends.

This attempted maintenance of perfection and acceptance, in line with the external pressure of your classmates and acquaintances, can only be flawlessly executed in circumstances of an extremely large allowance from The Bank of Mum and Dad; a privilege that many students, who struggle to sustain this undeniable hidden pressure, do not hold. Therefore, students with greater financial freedom have the ability to dominate the

WORDS Sarah Crowe

PHOTOGRAPHY Sarah Crowe

competitive culture of trends and fashion, by adding to their wardrobe on a seemingly weekly basis. This phenomenon leaves many other students, engulfed by the latest Trinity trends, trying to keep pace financially and mentally. With an overwhelming middle class presence, comes a restricted middle class expectation of what to wear; with some seeming to hold an endless budget.

This adherence to following the latest trends, or not expressing your true sense of self through clothes, can also be related back to a common attitude. The smalltown mentality that is ever-present in Irish society affects our generation in a myriad of unseen ways, including the effect it has on the way in which we dress ourselves and present ourselves to our peers. Many shudder at the thought of stepping outside of the box by dressing creatively, a product of the culture of Irish gossip. In order to become more accepting as a society, we must prioritise the appreciation of individuality and diversity not just in fashion and creativity, but in all aspects of life.

individual self-expression and creativity, will only lead to great things for Trinity and Irish fashion. This shared perspective could lead to the production of an increasingly unique culture, adding a layer of individuality and expressiveness to each piece of clothing you decide to put on your back.

I came to many of these realisations when I moved to Paris, moving to a campus for the year where the monetary pressures and societal judgement isn’t as intense. I am not trying to argue that Paris is less judgemental as a city, we all know that that isn’t true, but there the small-town culture is eradicated, and the unofficial uniform that can be seen in Trinity is non-existent in Sciences Po, my Parisian university. It seems to me that less importance is placed on fitting in and being part of the crowd, with more students focusing on self-expression and refusing certain trends whilst still maintaining a fashionable yet personal look.

Within an enriched culture and history so steeped with arts and creativity, we should think twice before judging someone’s ‘wacky’ or ‘out-there’ fashion choices. A deeply entrenched joint perspective like this one will take time to overturn, especially when it is observed on all levels of our society; the government’s unsupportive stance on the arts, creativity, and youth culture being one example. Becoming more tolerant of others, and even becoming more tolerant of your

Potentially, this is due to a greater appreciation of art and creativity within French culture on a whole, however an amalgamation of certain factors is more likely to be the case. Maybe it is because of a larger thrifting scene within Paris and the increasing availability of a diverse range of sustainable clothing at a far cheaper price. This increased appreciation of thrifting can also be reflected on Vinted, France’s answer to Depop, but an ungentrified, inexpensive version with both low-cost and designer options. Ultimately, this variety and range of choice allows for affordability and accessibility to all, as reflected in the diverse range of outfits and garments that are shown on the streets of Paris and in the corridors of its universities. Of course, everywhere has trends and there are people on both ends of the scale in both cities, but the students of Paris have something that many in Dublin do not yet hold regarding their selfexpression; it’s uniquely their own.

“...the small-town culture is eradicated, and the unofficial uniform that can be seen in Trinity is non-existent...”

It’s About Time the 2000s Apologised

The early 2000s were wild for almost everyone involved. Whether it was Susan Boyle positioned as a joke because of her looks, Benefits Britain prodding around poor people like zoo animals, or Tyra Banks borderline abusing her contestants into doing black face, producers got away with murder. It’s only with hindsight that the insidious undercurrent of what was presented as normal becomes clear. This is the context that I rewatched About Time (2013) in. I needed a tear-jerker and I had a fuzzy understanding that the film followed that exact vein of cosiness. But an hour in, the protagonist hadn’t come anywhere close to learning a heartbreaking lesson about what it really means to live life. Instead, he’d come much closer to acting out the misogynistic daydreams of a ten-year-old boy.

This is because the film is based on a similarly coercive premise to Groundhog Day (1993). The protagonist, Tim (Domhnall Gleeson) can go back in time and change the past, most often to manipulate a woman to the point they find themselves convinced that he is delightful. It’s the patriarchy on steroids; the men in this movie control both women and time itself. Their power only passes down through the men in the family because what possible use could women have with it when they only exist to be fucked or saved? Father and son stand in the cupboard, both fists clenched, to

travel back in time. No wonder Tim can’t get laid.

While good characterisation is slim on the ground when stereotypes are taken out of the mix, the romanticised construction of women in this movie is particularly grating. We have Tim’s sister, Kit Kat (Lydia Wilson), a manic pixie dream girl figure who forgot to be likeable and who is obsessed with the colour purple to a child-like degree. Tim sets himself on the task of fixing her depression by getting her a better boyfriend, apparently assuming that all female problems can be solved by male attention. Then we have Tim’s love interest Mary (Rachel McAdams), defined solely by her ability to charmingly laugh off his creepy and witless remarks, and an exceptionally good pair of bangs. One scene has her stripping off an item of clothing for every decision he makes about the wedding. It is obviously playful, but for the joint venture of their wedding to be reduced to only what he wants (and which is her duty to make him realise) and to sexually gratify him in one fell swoop really is something. There’s only so far the Englishman-so-innocently-flustered-by-sex trope can pull the film out of bad taste.

Women, then, are always understood through the lens of a man. Good actors like Bill Nighy and Margot Robbie wrestle with flabby lines that could well have been

written by an alien whose only exposure to Earth was smut. It’s enough to make you query whether any of the scriptwriters had ever met a woman before. The only attempts at ‘good-natured’ humour are uncomfortable jokes about women’s sexuality that struggle to land. One, because the jokes are hypocritical (Tim is an interdimensional ginger slut) but two, because as a general rule, for something to be funny, the entire joke can’t be predicated on denigrating a social category’s position in society.

world and almost nothing would be lost. By the late 2000s, star-studded rom-coms were almost always produced at a loss. Films like Easy A (2010) and 500 Days of Summer (2009) did well because they broke away from the form by being self-aware and smart but, About Time feels dated because it clings to the rigidity of the genre.

But what pisses me off most about the film is the fact that the ending is actually good. It’s a poignant reflection on grief, suffering, and learning to see the wealth of what you have in the present moment. The first hour of the film being reduced would have done a world of good. It’s almost like the audience’s emotions are manipulated into forgetting the misogyny that’s woven into the very fabric of the film.

The film was released when rom-coms seemed to be breathing their last breath. In the wake of the release of Avatar in 2009, the film industry started to realise blockbuster audiences would reliably turn up in droves to a cinematic universe they had already invested in. Instead of the rom-com formula that had been chuntered out for twenty-plus years, production companies could take the same values of romance, patriarchy, and flat characters, place them in a CGI

The film emphasises the importance of living everyday as though we are coming back to live it again from the treasured perspective of knowing what it’s like to lose it. However, when the ‘now’ is laced with misogyny, it’s hard to do anything other than dream about a future of film where women and the way they are talked about feels fresh, and it feels believable. We’re all traveling in time together, Tim says in his closing monologue. It’s about time women got to do so, outside the long shadow of men.

WORDS Eve Smith

Women, then, are always understood through the lens of a man.

On the third night of this year’s GAZE Film Festival, I listened to Queer historian Tonie Walsh introduce Gregg Araki’s 1992 film The Living End by listing historic events contemporaneous with its release around the city. He talked about how modern technologies changed the way gay communities were sustained, gendered political issues from access to

the past. As a Pine Tree Queer myself, I expected to find catharsis or nostalgia from hearing the jargon of my community spoken by voices from home, but I was left feeling angry at the history that was kept from me as a young person. On the screen, there were archival images of xeroxed posters, ACT UP Portland actions, and barred-up windows and plastic, rainbow awnings. I wasn’t frustrated because there were people like me in the past that I wasn’t aware of; I was upset because nobody told me there were people from that past still alive! Through the

contraception and safe sex supplies, to the shadow of institutions like the Magdalene laundries, and the fact that homosexuality wasn’t decriminalised in Ireland until 1993. The point of this introduction and his comments during the Q&A afterwards was clear, times had changed since the first GAZE film festival and, in many ways, that faded world has become de facto inaccessible for those of us who came after the normalisation of gay life.

The film itself is about youth. It follows two men, Luke (Mike Dytri) and Jon (Craig Gilmore), who are disaffected twenty-somethings that have recently been diagnosed as HIV positive at a time when there was no effective treatment for it. After Luke kills a cop, the two of them decide to become fugitives while they try to figure out what to do with their remaining, shortened lives. A consistent motif throughout the movie is the characters’ investment in cartoons and their merchandise. During a sex scene in a hotel, the TV is tuned into Wacky Races . While the men are on the run, Jon wears Snoopy slippers. While the movie references older, avantgarde gay media from Jean Genet, Andy Warhol, and Derek Jarman, it also questions whether the characters’ punk aesthetic is an expression of this legacy or a coping mechanism against the violence and disease which threatens them. It’s not only a movie about young people in impossible situations, but also their unique relationship to time.

On the fifth day, GAZE showed a collection of shorts called The Art of Experience focusing on the perspectives of older members of the community. One film entitled Bar Stories from Queer Maine (dir. Betsy Carson and Wendy Chapkis) featured elderly gay Mainers talking about their favourite haunts from

film, they spoke about everyday gay life from community fundraisers to the struggle of making our outcast community inclusive of everyone who has been cast out. I imagined the life I could have lived if I had grown up with those people, in a timeline where they had felt safe enough to entrust their legacies to me and my found family. Strangely, I didn’t feel younger than the interviewees, but like we were two, fresh oysters living in parallel, isolated tide pools.

Another documentary that stood out to me was called, Where do the Old Gays Go? Experiences of the Older LGBTQIA+ Community in Ireland (dir. Cathy Dunne) Each of the subjects reflected on how they met their partners, how they’d come out, and what they thought had changed since then. One speaker, a non-binary person, stood out not just because I am non-binary myself, but because after seeing them I realised I’d never known someone like me over sixty before. They said they came out in the 1970’s and expressed concern about obstacles they’d faced receiving medicine from our overwhelmingly binary healthcare system. In fact, all of the interviewees worried about the care they’d receive in their final years in a less-than-welcoming care home. A lot of these problems came from a root cause: that we don’t think about older gay people. If someone like me, who lives, studies, and organises every day in the Queer community, gets taken aback by a theatre full of post-middle-aged lesbians, imagine how far our hospices have to go before they can approach inclusivity? What the short film wouldn’t say aloud but certainly suggested is this: we haven’t thought about the old gays because we expect them to be dead already.

“ A lot of these problems came from a root cause: that we don’t think about older gay people"

The festival’s closing film, Girl Picture (dir. Alli Haapasalo), was framed as a new kind of gay movie made to reflect us, the next generation. The movie was about three women and their experiences trying to find intimacy and personal fulfillment. Wonderfully, one of the main characters is asexual, an identity that the festival hadn’t discussed up to that point. In the narrative of progress the film’s placement in the program suggests that the struggle for young gays today comes from finding identity and intimacy, as opposed to navigating homophobic society or existential pandemics. We’re supposed to feel safe, enjoying the rewards of our parents’ and grandparents’ struggle, but between rising authoritarianism, the climate crisis, late-stage capitalism, and the ongoing conflicts within the community which haven’t been resolved as much as paved over, I still feel trapped by the same kinds of questions which haunted the final days of Jon and Luke.

We Queers have always had a difficult relationship with time. You’re supposed to follow the script: get a partner, get married, have kids and paint the nursery walls pink/blue, and make your kids do the same. We don’t. We tell our wives of thirty years that we’re actually a woman and have struggled with it for decades; we call young adults babies and show them how to ask out a girl for the very first time; and we meet in our twenties, have kids in our forties, and maybe, finally get married in our sixties when they finally give us the paper. At best we have chosen not to live that life, and at worst we’ve been forcibly denied a chance at it. In particular, being trans is essentially taking control of your relationship with linear time, making it something answerable to your sense of self and truth. The Russian filmmaker Andre Tarkovsky once called movies, with their meaningful arrangement of constant change, a “mosaic of time.” At GAZE, I used film to see and feel more personal works of time than I could ever have imagined possible.

GROWING OLD AT THE GAZE FILM FESTIVAL

WORDS Azrael Norman PHOTOGRAPH courtesy of Gaze Film Festival

From the Forest to the Ocean

In his book Reef Life: An Underwater Memoir, marine biologist Callum Roberts writes about his first diving experience at a coral reef in the Red Sea: “Few moments in life can compare with the sudden arrival on a reef; that headlong rush from the realm of air and people, buildings and cars, into the fluid domain of creatures that crowd and jostle, fearless and unconcerned.” In Avatar: The Way of Water, the long-awaited sequel to the highest-grossing movie ever, director James Cameron has replicated this sensation on the big screen. Indeed, as characters dive into the water for the first time about a third of the way into the film, what I was most reminded of was my own first scuba dive in the Mediterranean, aged fourteen. Although this sequel has the same issues as its predecessor, overall it is a magical, immersive experience, in which innovative technical achievements serve a strong ecological message.

In the years since the humans were defeated on Pandora, Jake Sully (played by Sam Worthington) and Neytiri (Zoe Saldaña) have had children and are living a happy, peaceful life. However, their married bliss is interrupted by the return of the “sky people”, who are now not merely setting up a mining camp but aim to make the planet their new home. Accompanying them is a “recombinant” avatar, to whom memories have been uploaded of Colonel Quaritch (Stephen Lang), the antagonist from the first film. Quaritch and his team hunt down the Sully family, prompting the latter to seek refuge with the Metkayina, a clan who live in an archipelago surrounded by coral reefs. The Metkayina seem to have been inspired by groups from Polynesia, Melanesia, and Indonesia, such as the Maori and the Bajau. The plot, as in the original, is very straightforward, and it is not here where the wonders of The Way of Water lie. It should perhaps not be surprising that Cameron would reuse the formula that made Avatar such a success, but it is indeed disappointing that the characters are not well developed (although Colonel Quaritch is more complex this time around in his new Na’vi body, even having, dare I say it, a Hamlet-like moment in which he contemplates his own human skull) and that the dialogue is as awkward as before: the annoying Corporal Wainfleet has even been brought back to grace us once again with his lines like “oorah”, “light ’em up”, and “get sum”.

Michael Healion explains why Avatar:TheWayofWater is unlike anything you have seen before”.

Despite these shortcomings, The Way of Water is absolutely worth the trip to the cinema, and I emphasise “cinema”, not your home TV. This is because it is unlike anything you have seen before. Cameron, who has spent over 2,500 hours in the ocean in real life, and has made a solo dive in a submersible eleven kilometers into the Mariana Trench, brings all his knowledge and passion for the sea to the project. At least half of the movie takes place underwater. As with the first Avatar, motion capture technology was used, only this time these scenes were also shot underwater, which required the development of new technology, and was the main reason for the delay of the sequel. This shooting process placed extreme demands on the actors, to whom credit must be given, who learned from professionals how to free dive (i.e. holding their breath) and then had to emote several meteRs underwater. Some facts to put this in perspective: Stephen Lang and Sigourney Weaver are now in their seventies! Kate Winslet was eventually able to hold her breath for seven minutes!

Thanks to the marvels of motion capture technology, the 73-year-old Weaver plays a teenage Na’vi girl, Kiri, an outsider with a deep spiritual and sensuous connection to nature, who also suffers from epilepsy: just like the well-known case of the writer Dostoevsky, she undergoes religious ecstasy before the onset of a seizure. As well as capturing the highs and lows of adolescence, from first love to fights with other boys, as the Sully family try to integrate with their new tribe in an aquatic ecosystem, the film contains some extraordinary set-pieces. These include a whale hunt, reminiscent of scenes from Moby Dick, in which insane sailors with harpoons would descend from the main ship into smaller boats in pursuit of a sperm whale, and of course the final battle on the ocean. Cameron has criticised Marvel movies for the fact that “although epic things happen in them, like a city gets blown up, they don’t feel epic”; the climax here essentially consists of just one big ship versus a clan, but it does certainly feel like it is happening on an epic scale.

A quick note about the technology: The Way of Water was filmed using a “mixed frame rate”, meaning some parts were shot at the usual 24 frames per second (FPS) while others had 48 FPS. I saw the film twice, first in IMAX 3D and then in regular 3D. In the second case, the movement was not as smooth in some sections, and there was a distracting flickering light throughout (I’m not sure if this was widespread or a singular occurrence); in IMAX, however, the colour and fluidity were perfect. It seems that to view Cameron’s movie as it was meant to be seen, one must watch it only in IMAX 3D, which is admittedly a pretty high bar.

There are so many more points that could be made about this three-hour visual feast. Edie Falco from The Sopranos plays a general - not an inspired casting! Jemaine Clement from Flight of the Conchords pops up as a conflicted marine biologist. As in all of Cameron’s movies, there are strong female characters: Kate Winslet’s Ronal does not let being pregnant prevent her from riding into battle, and towards the end, Neytiri goes on a Mars-like killing rampage atop a sinking ship. Speaking of the ship, Cameron clearly remains fascinated, even after Titanic, by ships that founder, explode, fill up with water, capsize, sink, you name it. The ending does not have the finality of the first film, and obviously sets up Avatar 3 (no way was Quaritch going to be killed that easily). Finally, Simon Franglen’s music is both tribal and monumental - listen to the track “Happiness Is Simple”. The composer deliberately maintains coherence with the deceased James Horner’s score from the first film. For example, when the whale (“tulkun” in Avatar-speak) is killed, Horner’s trademark motif, itself inspired by the beginning of Rachmaninoff’s Symphony No. 1, is recycled, signifying that now the humans have truly gone too far in their ecological sacrilege, just as it was in the first Avatar when Hometree was blown up.

Marine scientist Callum Roberts has commented that a coral reef’s multi-hued blizzard of life makes diving there feel like tripping without drugs. Avatar: The Way of Water successfully brings this spectacle to theatres. It is far from flawless, but some of the harsh reviews I have read seem to be disingenuous - for sheer ambition and technological innovation alone, it is essential viewing (especially in IMAX 3D!). There were times when I thought that it would be good if every child in the world could see this movie: released just as Cop 15, the UN Biodiversity Conference, was taking place, The Way of Water might encourage them to fall in love with the ocean.

“Cameron, who has spent over 2,500 hours in the ocean in real life, and has made a solo dive in a submersible eleven kilometres into the Mariana Trench, brings all his knowledge and passion for the sea to the project”

GAMES & TECH

As 2022 comes to a close, we once again find ourselves looking back on what the past year has had to offer us in terms of arts and entertainment. At the same time, the entertainment industries themselves have already begun the annual gauntlet of awards shows. This includes the gaming industry, with December 9th hosting The Game Awards 2022. The Game Awards is a relatively recent phenomenon, having only been established in 2014, but they were preceded by the Spike Video Game Awards, running from 2003 to 2013. Geoff Keighley, the producer of the Spike award shows, went on to found the current day Game Awards, which continues to be hosted by him. The Game Awards has grown in popularity in recent years, as it has become more established within the gaming industry, but the event is still derided by many online as being extremely ‘cringe’. While it is certainly true that there is an abundance of skin-crawlingly awkward moments at each of these shows, they are also packed with entertaining trailers, live music and of course, the awards themselves.

This year’s awards were dominated by two massively anticipated and acclaimed games: Elden Ring and God of War: Ragnarök. For those who don’t know, Elden Ring follows the player as they explore and navigate a massive and aesthetically diverse open-world known as ‘The Lands Between’, fighting tremendous bosses and seeking to uncover the mystery of the titular Elden Ring - an artifact that was destroyed in the past that has led to the declining state of the world that the player arrives in. A collaboration between the game studio FromSoftware and the writer of A Song

of Ice and Fire fame George R.R. Martin, Elden Ring plays in the traditional ‘Soulsborne’ RPG and combat style of the studio’s previous games, albeit with a far more sophisticated iteration of the game play formula. Martin’s contribution to the game is limited to the conceptualisation of the in-game world and its storied history, which is mainly revealed to the player through From Software’s habitual cryptic approach, primarily environmental storytelling, and descriptions of ingame items.

By contrast, God of War: Ragnarök plays far more like a traditional action-adventure game. The player controls Kratos, the long-suffering protagonist of the God of War franchise, and his son Atreus. Following God of War (2018), which cleverly gave the series a soft reboot by recharacterising Kratos as an older, remorseful and stoic man who has put his violent past behind him, Ragnarök’s story continues with him and his son becoming further wrapped up in a conflict with the gods of Norse mythology, such as Thor and Heimdall. The story is largely communicated through cutscenes, with excellent voice performances by everyone involved, as well as through smaller moments of dialogue during gameplay, helped by the expanded cast of side characters. The game is very linear and story-focused, but there are minor open-world elements that also allow the player freedom to explore a bit and add to the replayability of the game. The combat system of the game builds upon God of War (2018)’s over-the-shoulder sword and board style, with further upgrades available to Kratos’ arsenal as the player progresses.

As the awards unfolded, Elden Ring and Ragnarök swept across the heavyweight categories they were

Celebrating an Outstanding Year of Releases

A Wrap-up of the

Christopher Judge, winner of ‘Best Performance’ for voicing Kratos in God of War: Ragnarok

Elden Ring

nominated for. Elden Ring very deservedly picked up ‘Game of the Year’, as well as ‘Best Game Direction’, ‘Art Direction’ and ‘Role-Playing Game (RPG)’. The categories of ‘Best Narrative’, ‘Score’, ‘Audio Design’, ‘Performance’, ‘Accessibility’ and ‘Action/Adventure Game’ went to God of War: Ragnarök, rewarding the development team’s efforts in making a truly cinematic game. The majority of games featured in the same categories as either of these two did not receive any recognition, notably the triple-A game Horizon: Forbidden West arguably coming out as the biggest loser, considering its size and financial backing. If reviews of the game are to be trusted, this is not its own fault, but simply due to the misfortune of having released days before the behemoth that is Elden Ring, which has dominated mainstream gaming discourse throughout the year despite having released all the way back in March. The critical and commercial success of these two winners is very promising for the gaming industry, showing that developers will continue to be rewarded for artistically engaging design and storytelling. Just like Breath of the Wild a few years ago, Elden Ring has definitively raised the bar for open-world game design, which has been plagued by lazy and repetitive design from big name studios such as Ubisoft for years at this point.

The big winner of this year’s independent game categories was Stray, a delightful game in which the player plays as a cat, designed to play as similarly as possible to an actual cat, while still being fun and engaging. There was a ton of buzz surrounding the game upon release, becoming a surprise hit that felt refreshingly simple to those who might find big name games to be too repetitive or complicated. Nintendo also picked up a few awards in different genres, as

well as ‘Most Anticipated Game’ for The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, the sequel to Breath of the Wild. If the previous game is anything to judge by, this is a well-deserved win that will hopefully translate into some more victories at next year’s awards. Other games that were officially revealed during the show included Death Stranding 2, Final Fantasy XVI and Star Wars: Jedi Survivor, among many others.

As with all awards shows, the awards themselves are not the only draw for the audience. Like other years, there was a slew of big-name presenters and musical performances present, as well as a couple of awkward moments. Presenters for awards and trailers included familiar figures in gaming such as voice actor Troy Baker, as well as mainstream celebrities such as Daniel Craig, Pedro Pascal and most bizarrely of all, Al Pacino presenting the award for Best Performance. Hozier and Halsey were among the musical performers during the show, with Hozier performing a song that he and lead composer for Ragnarök, Bear McCreary, collaborated on for the game’s soundtrack. This wrap-up would also be remiss if it did not mention the hijacking of the ‘Game of the Year’ award’s speech by a mysterious fifteen year old, who followed the FromSoftware team up on stage. Following game director Hidetaka Miyazaki’s acceptance speech, the boy took the microphone and made a joke nomination. There is ongoing debate as to whether or not his joke was in fact antisemitic, but either way it was in poor taste and unfortunately undercut Elden Ring’s big moment. Needless to say, it was this year’s most talked-about moment from the show. However, all in all, this year’s ceremony was a good one, with otherwise relatively few awkward incidents and plenty of recognition for some truly spectacular games.

Game Awards

WORDS Finn Brannigan

Hijacking of the Elden Ring Acceptance Speech

GAMES & TECH

One of the most notable assaults on humanity’s intellectual stronghold in recent history came in 1997. The battleground was New York City, and the combatants were chess grandmaster Garry Kasparov and the IBM supercomputer Deep Blue. Over a six-game series, the supercomputer squeezed Kasparov in the Spanish opening, while showing finesse in the English and the Caro-Kann, and resolve against the Réti, a chess opening Kasparov had selected due to its open-endedness, intending to confuse the machine. The series ended in fireworks and dismay for the flesh when the artificial intelligence computer played a knight sacrifice in the final game. A sacrifice, a move in which a player gives up a piece in exchange for a piece of lower value, is a move that had previously been reserved for humans exclusively. To play one effectively, the player must analyse many permutations and assess whether the potential gain justifies the cost. In Deep Blue’s case, it did not arrive at this move on its own, as it had been programmed into its opening database that morning by skilled players. Deep Blue went on to win this match, and ever since AI has marched on.

Modern chess AIs reject all the common wisdom of the game, playing sacrifices with little regard for material totals, and willingly entering into incredibly precarious positions that a human grandmaster wouldn’t dare play. This is because we sapiens often evaluate chess positions using intuition. We look at the board and feel the position using our prior experience to inform us. Thoughts like “that weak king could lead to problems”, “my pieces are far more active”, and “her position is paralysed” come to mind. This sometimes leads us astray, leading us to be afraid of threats that aren’t there. Chess AIs can navigate positions that resemble minefields using calculated steps, analysing every relevant permutation with blistering speed. While a young Kasparov was rising to the top of the chess world, cognitive psychologists were learning about the nature of the human brain. We can run permutations like computers do, but we do it nowhere near as efficiently, and it requires a great amount of effort, creating a fundamental difference in the way humans and machines approach tasks with well-defined rules such as chess. Modern chess AIs will always beat the best representatives of humankind, and as such the best players are now students of the machine.

While AIs have dominated the world of well-defined games, we have taken solace in the idea that no machine could gain mastery of the distinctly human endeavour of art. Our complex brains are wired with richly interconnected neurons that allow us to store experiences and support symbolic thinking that is

AI and the Artistic Vision

The wave of AI art that has cropped up has demonstrated the importance of artistic intent in the consumption and enjoyment of art.

unique, which we can then impart into our creations. Recently, however, the internet has been swept by a trend of AI art in which the user simply inputs a prompt and is met with a composition informed the prompt. The results are impressive and somewhat eerie – sometimes the AI produces a composition with artistic flair that more literally recreates the prompt, and sometimes it produces a more nuanced composition that people are eager to attribute some sort of meaning to. While these pieces are often impressive from a technical standpoint, it is my opinion that AIs cannot overtake humans in the realm of art as they did in chess. The wave of AI art that has cropped up has demonstrated the importance of artistic intent in the consumption and enjoyment of art. While there is nothing wrong with simply enjoying a piece of art for what it is, many connoisseurs of art appreciate the meaning with which their favourite pieces are imbued by the artist. Although the initial attraction is often the technical finesse of the artist or the style of the piece, sustained enjoyment can be found in untangling the themes and emotion that the artist intended to communicate.

Referring back to cognitive psychology, when the rules for a problem are defined, we approach it in an algorithmic and steady manner. When the rules are less defined, as is the case in art, bursts of insight are a far more integral part of the process. This conjures images of a renaissance painter such as Leonardo da Vinci in his studio, having experienced an epiphany about his most recent work, slashing at the canvas with his brush as though it were a sword and burning his artistic vision into the composition. This passion and intent on behalf of the artist is something that we appreciate which, in my mind, cannot be replicated by an AI, which approaches art in the same algorithmic manner as it approaches chess.

The pieces of art produced by AIs would be impres-

sive technically if composed by a human, however it is my fear that despite this, the art produced by an AI will scarcely be remembered five days from now, while we appreciate The Last Supper five hundred years removed. We still look at The Doctor by Luke Fildes and attempt to understand his vision for the characters and their backstories, the complex emotions that they feel, and the reservoir of experiences which he tapped into when composing the piece. If you imagine that the same piece was created by an AI, the contrast is obvious; the human product feels nearly enchanted in comparison.

The capacity of artificial intelligence has increased in leaps and bounds in the past twenty five years, from machine’s first victory against the world’s top chess player, to becoming the undisputed strongest chess players on the planet, to their first forays into the new frontier of art. While such a progression is novel and intriguing on the surface, there is something profoundly existential about seeing a machine recreate one of our most distinctly human abilities. Some are filled with dread at the idea that an AI can produce compositions free from aberrations and distortions which previously characterised AI-generated images; perhaps it feels as though an outsider is peering into the human soul and will momentarily step inside. The reality is that AI will continue to improve and venture into other varieties of art. Despite this, I think that there is something irrefutable about the value of the vision and intent of the artist when it comes to any piece of art, which a machine is unable to mimic irrespective of its accrual of technical skill. This suggestion likely goes against the grain in modern times with many favouring a postmodern approach to artistic critique, which is valid and valuable, however I feel that in the absence of a human artist, there is something irrevocably absent from art.

WORDS Robert Crossen

Unique Perspectives on Poetry

On 28th November, Trinity Ability co op launched their second annual art show, titled Unique: A Disabled Perspective. This exhibition ran through Disability Awareness Week, and featured work by disabled artists and poets from across Trinity, Marino and TCPID (Trinity Centre for People with Intellectual Disabilities).

TN2 is delighted to feature poems and commentary by Ross Ó Colmáin and Ben Rowsome. Also featured is Rachel Murphy’s art. These works were first exhibited in Unique: A Disabled Perspective.

Blue Nights

Blue nights come and go, As still as the Angel of the North But with a finer finish. In the dark grasses a league away, The horses’ screams are muffled By the clouds starchy as pillows, A sight to leave even Stubbs speechless.

I’m sat here in this lodge, Feeling safe as a tiger shark Preserved in formaldehyde, But perhaps just as lifeless—

Somehow, I write to stay alive, Some Mae West keeping this Shit-show afloat. Now, I feel dark as Munch.

Ben Rowsome

Lár Baill

Lár Baill

I asked Ross and Ben how they think their disabilities influence their poetry. This is what they had to say:

ROSS: I am ambivalent about the role of disability in my writing. I am hesitant to write about it in the sense that, while I am a disabled person, this is not the full aspect of my being. I am disabled but I’m also gay, Irish, and from Dublin. Of course, authors have their themes – Ó Ríordáin wrote about loneliness, Ó Direáin wrote about Árainn, and Ó Conaire wrote about suffering – but these themes were not them and they were not typecast. I would not consider myself a disabled writer but rather a writer that is disabled. That lived experience has helped me understand the human condition that people hold in common, regardless of if they have an impairment or not.

BEN: I have autism, which means I have a particular way of viewing and contemplating the world around me. In that sense, it influences what I write about. In terms of the way I write, I think my autism also plays a major role there too in that I become fixated with particular writers or topics, which in turn make their way into what I put onto the page. In a strange sense, my autism is the reason why I write poetry, even if it’s not necessarily the theme of my latest poem.

Tá mé i lár baill

Is bhíos le cuimhne na gcat

Idir trí bheatha

Aerach

Gaelach Míchumasach

Más ann d’áit dom

Is spás na beirte é Aerach is Gaelach

Aerach is Míchumasach Ach sin é

Tá mé san imeall

Gan teangmháil cheart agam

Gan cónaí, gan tearmann

I lár baill

Ar mhiste sin?

Níl a fhios agam

B’fhéidir go dtiocfaidh spás chun blátha

Ross Ó Colmáin

WORDS Gale Aitken

In contrast to Ross and Ben’s poetry, Rachel works in visual art. Her diptych forces the viewer to assess their perspective on both the artworks and invisible disability. Here is how she explains her illustrations:

RACHEL: It is up to the viewer whether they see it or not. These still life images portray the same scene from different perspectives. The first photo is idyllic, soft, and easy to look at. The second is bruised, textured, and fills the viewer with unease. That’s okay though, because the viewer can refocus on the first image and pretend they never saw the rotting orange and damaged bowl. I have found benefits to being able to shift focus away from my invisible disability throughout my life. I felt like I had control over it; a sense of autonomy. I was once in the bowl of oranges, hiding among the crowd. I chose to change this and I have more in common with the orange outside of the bowl. Now that I have begun to sit confidently in my identity as a disabled person, I have realised the limitations of that agency. Even when I choose to make my disability visible, many people still do not see it,or view it in a different way than I do. This has been a surprising perspective to gain.

Ross Ó Colmáin is a writer, playwright, poet, and disability activist. He has written for the Irish Times and tuairisc.ie, and has had short fiction published in Comhar and Feasta . He won a place on Foras na Gaeilge’s mentorship scheme and is currently working on his first collection of short fiction under the mentorship of acclaimed author Ré Ó Laighléis. He is the current Graduate Intern at the Trinity Inclusive Curriculum Project.

Rachel Murphy graduated from History in 2022 and was an early member of the Trinity Ability co op. She led the Inclusive Student Life Project which aims to make student bodies in Trinity more inclusive to disabled students. She is currently the Disability Service's Graduate Intern, acting as a liason between the Ability co op and the service.

Ben Rowsome is a third year Physics and Astrophysics student. While studying in Trinity, he has also been involved with the Trinity Disability Service and the Ability co op. As a teenager he became an autism advocate through his work with the autism group AsIAm, and most recently he was elected to the Youth Committee of the European Disability Forum. Ben started writing poetry when he was fifteen, and has been writing ever since. Other interests include music, chess, running, quizzing, and of course, astrophysics.

Trinity Ability co op is a cooperative movement led by disabled students working towards radical inclusion on the Trinity campus. The co op's aims include making Trinity an inclusive environment for disabled students and raising awareness of their experiences. For more information on the Ability co op, visit trinityabilitycoop.com/.

Romance Novels High Art or cheap pulp?

A90’s style small paperback. A man on the cover, his white blouse billowing. It barely covers his abs. A wide eyed woman gazes at him adoringly, her hair flowing behind her. The book itself is filled with sex scenes and melodrama. You call it a ‘guilty pleasure’ and don’t display it on your bookshelves when you have company. This is the idea most people have of romance novels.

Of all genre fiction, romance novels are the most maligned despite their popularity. A romance novel must first centre a romantic relationship and secondly, end with the characters together. Though there are male protagonists and authors of romance novels, and there are many queer romances today, it is still generally viewed as a genre that is “by women, for women”. Falling in love is a subject most people want to consume media about. Despite this, romance novels have a long history of being dismissed as frivolous, cheap, and even morally damaging pulp.

History

What we think of as the romance novel today began in the 18th century with the works of authors such as Jane Austen and the Brontë sisters, who created the gothic romance. In the 1930’s, Rebecca and Gone With

The Wind popularised the romance genre further.

The 1970’s introduced what would become the face of popular romance: ‘the bodice ripper’. Gone were the days of Lady Chatterley’s Lover, banned in the United States for its sex scenes. These novels featured explicit sex. Cover art reflected the scandalous nature of these works - popularising the ‘shirtless guy on the cover’ phenomenon that we associate with romance today. In the last few years, romance has seen a boom in popularity. Commercial successes Fifty Shades of Grey and Twilight spawned movie series and dedicated fanbases. Romance novels are simultaneously bestsellers and the subject of disgust and ire from critics.

Criticism

The most widely accepted answer for why romance novels are the subject of scorn is simply misogyny. Stories centring women are often subject to criticism, especially when they focus on ‘feminine’ themes of love and sex. Musicians like Taylor Swift or One Direction are seen as unimportant and rom-coms are regarded as a lesser or more of a guilty pleasure than Marvel films - anything which is geared towards a female fanbase is seen as frivolous.

Twilight and Fifty Shades of Grey became cultural running jokes while movies such as Transformers did not receive the same animosity. In

WORDS Leah Kelly

her time, Jane Austen was dismissed as an imitative writer with no substance. When we take a look at the literary “canon” of classic works it seems to literary “canon” of classic works it seems to be a given that ‘literature’ are books written by men for men. You have your Eliots and Brontës, but it is primarily male authors who have been praised as geniuses and had their works taught in schools for decades. Romance novels don’t fit into the general conventions of ‘High Art’.

The genre is also beholden to feminist discourse around the expectations it sets for readers. Romance novels exist as a progressive and conservative space. They have always been about women, by womenwhich appears feminist. However, the books prioritise women falling in love and getting married. They glorify male heroes who are toxic at best and felons at worst. The ‘Alpha Hero’ is a staple of the genre and love interests who are sweet and non domineering are (affectionately) referred to as ‘Beta Heroes’, aligning romance novels more with toxic masculinity. Twilight, Fifty Shades of Grey and Colleen Hoover’s novels have all had think-pieces written about them, asking if they are promoting unhealthy relationships. On one hand, they are looking out for young women and trying not to reinforce patriarchal romantic ideals. However, it can be paternalistic, implying women cannot think for themselves.

The way romance novels put women’s autonomous desire at the foreground is undeniably feminist. Female characters are vocal about their desires, and sex is a mutually enjoyable experience - something that two people do with each other rather than something that is done to a woman. The derision around romance novels can be attributed to cultural discomfort around women desiring sex, which also affects their perception in the art world.

Art or cheap pulp?

Generally, genre fiction is seen to have less merit artistically than literary fiction, with some exceptions. Literary fiction does not fall into genre conventions and focuses on language and character studies or having something to say about society. Much of what we consider to be classics today were genre fiction during their time. What gives a book artistic merit is subjective and contentious. Definitions of art are notoriously flimsy - Marcel Duchamp’s ‘The Fountain’ isn’t one of the most important pieces of 20th century art for nothing.

If we take the idea of ‘High Art’ in literature as novels emphasising language, themes, and characters, then there’s no reason certain romance novels wouldn’t fit here. Let’s go back to the two requirements for romance novels for a minute. Two or more characters

must fall in love. That lends itself quite well to character studies. The second one is more controversial: the book must end with a “Happily Ever After.” Darker, grittier novels are much more likely to be taken seriously as high art because they are about ‘the real world’, not ‘escapism’. There is very much an idea that novels which are happy are not critical. Sombre topics and morose themes are seen as more serious and artistic by default. Ursula K. Le Guin put it best, saying “we have a bad habit, encouraged by pedants and sophisticates, of considering happiness as something rather stupid. Only pain is intellectual, only evil interesting”. Romance novels can certainly deal with dark topics, but the fact they are centred on love and happy endings causes them to be diminished.

Romance novels are also populated by tropes. There is an expectation that artistic novels should not follow predictable tropes and conventions, but should innovate in some way. Personally, as primarily a literary fiction reader, I’ve read enough stories about sad college-educated people having affairs and nervous breakdowns to not be convinced by this. All genres have their tropes. A mystery novel where the mystery isn’t solved or a fantasy novel with no magic would certainly leave audiences annoyed.

Romance novels centre women’s voices and they speak to experiences most can relate to. What could be a more universal theme than falling in love? They can be profound explorations of characters and themes. Normal People is a romance blending the personal and the political by exploring class, the aftermath of the 2008 global financial crisis, men’s mental health, and the effects of this on the protagonists’ relationship. For every ‘trashy’ or ‘escapist’ novel full of tropes, there are romance nov- els which fit the definition of ‘literary’. Like any other genre, it depends on the book. I’m not going to go out to bat for Col leen Hoover but romance is an extremely diverse genre with different levels of merit and insight. To dismiss this as lesser art by default is ex tremely shortsighted. Af ter all, people have been falling in love since humans could walk.

“The derision around romance novels can be attributed to cultural discomfort around women desiring sex”

TV GIRL SITTING DOWN WITH TV GIRL

WORDS Emma Ní Fhuitnigh

Aforce in indie pop since the debut of their critically acclaimed album French Exit in 2014, TV Girl has found a new fan base due to the popularity of soundbites of their songs on the app TikTok. You can scarcely scroll through the app without hearing a snippet of either ‘Not Allowed’ from their 2016 album Who Really Cares, or ‘Lovers’ Rock’, from the aforementioned French Exit. With the revival of indiesleaze and Tumblr aesthetics in 2022, it is certain that the future remains bright for the trio, whose 60’s pop samples and sharp lyricism have captured the attention of a new generation of indie music lovers.

I sat down with Wyatt Harmon, the band’s percussionist just before their sold-out show in Paris with Jordana and MICHELLE.

Emma: So, do you think that TikTok has hurt or helped your career?

Wyatt: I think that it has definitely helped our career. I mean, just to look at the numbers on it. There’s a lot more listeners, I mean a lot, a lot more than say, two years ago when maybe this was a thing for the first time for us. But that was all very abstract, just seeing a listenership, grow in a pandemic-bubble vacuum. So then if we’d have had to wait until we had played some shows for the first time to see if there was anything different and that didn’t happen until September 2021. The shows were way bigger than before and selling out faster and people were like screaming along. And it wasn’t just to one or two songs, or now three songs that are on TikTok, but they would do their homework and they were just like rabid teens. If you have rabid teens going to your show, that’s a good thing. They buy t-shirts, they sing along, they’re really nice people and so I say thank you TikTok, thank you teens!

Emma: Perfect, and my next question is-why the name TV Girl? Who is she, what does she represent?

Wyatt: If only it could represent more than it is. It’s the way many bands are named, it’s simply a song by a band that we like. That song is called ‘TV Girl’ and it’s by the band Beat Happening. It’s a great band; The guy who made K Records in Washington-it’s like a big ol’ thing. You’ll have fun checking it out. Beat Happening, great band.

Emma: I’m curious what’s your favourite place to tour.- You know, there’s a right answer to this

Wyatt: That would have to be Dublin, Ireland. I was two nights in Dublin, it was the highlight. The favourite place to tour in generally speaking is the United States because everything is simple and we know how to do it but after doing that ten times it is definitely exciting to go to places that we have never gone before like what better reason to go to Prague? Than to play a show? Now I think the best place to tour is anywhere that we have never been before. But not everyone agrees (laughs). The closer to home, the better.

Emma: How did you come to join the band. Originally it was just Brad Petering and Trung Ngo, right?

Wyatt: Yeah, it was the two of them and it started as a gag. They wrote a song that they thought would pop off on the blogs and that’s exactly what happened. And then they were in a bind because they had to like, make a band immediately so they could play shows and maybe capitalise on the hype that they had just conjured up for themselves and they did it that way. Jason, our drummer now, joined the band around that time, really early and has always has mixed and mastered, all the songs, as well as being a wildly capable drummer in his back pocket. And then when Trung left, that was in 2013 -I was in a different band and that was having a crisis so I just swapped out. Brad asked if I knew how to play the keyboard and sing and I said ‘No. But I’ll try’ and he’s been very patient with me ever since.

Emma: And what was it like, having a mini explosion in fame? Compared to maybe five years ago?

Emma: You don’t have to be modest.

Wyatt: Yeah, it’s just weird - we are some older guys and so I do understand that there are a lot of people on planet earth who maybe know who our band is now. But it kind of doesn’t track it doesn’t really connect in a normal way when you think of like -Phoebe Bridgers is a famous person and there’s a lot of branding and image work done around that. And our brand and image has remained the same -the logo, this ‘Dream Girl’ is not an accident, and I don’t think any of us are particularly interested in having lives uprooted by recognition and fame, so to have the benefits of having bigger shows and having people being excited and selling a lot of records is amazing. Those are the things that you want in a music career, and you don’t want it to be like you can’t go to a restaurant and here we are in a restaurant, so life is good.

Emma: Great, well thank you very much Wyatt!

TV Girl will play All Together Now on the July Bank Holiday 2023

“It started as a gag. [We] wrote a song that [we] thought would pop off on the blogs and that’s exactly what happened.”

MUSIC T

his band has had quite a year. Their latest album, Most Normal, has been met with critical acclaim, which is reflected in Pitchforks high score of 8.4. I had high expectations for this performance, having attended their mesmerising gig at Whelan’s in March, and subsequently enjoying what I would consider to be their best album to date. Between European touring done and American touring soon to be undertaken, Gilla Band found a brief stretch in Ireland to perform at Other Voices, as well as deliver the stellar gig in question at the National Stadium on the 9th of December.

Opening with “Going Norway”, the band cut straight to the chase- an overflowing dose of pure energy and noise. As the setlist continued, the band went through various songs from their new album and just as many older favourites like the above-mentioned opener and “Shoulderblades” from their 2019 album, The Talkies. It’s always an extra novelty to see relatively new music performed live, and seeing the new album’s songs performed here was no different. Spreading these throughout the setlist with older material was a standard move, which drip-fed the new content well. The performance went from song to song with a momentum that had the entire crowd moshing and dancing from start to finish.

The unique talent of Gilla Band is the ability to provide the experience of both

a raw and physical rave, as well as Daire Kiely’s captivating and authentic spectacle. Kiely’s performance as frontman and vocalist is so infectious and engaged with the music and lyrics that it makes me believe every second of what he does on stage, and every second of their music on record, by extension. Before my first time seeing them live, I didn’t fully appreciate what they were doing; seeing Kiely deliver on top of the band’s sound live perfectly sells that this is not just a collection of angsty people being loud and abstract for the sake of appearing this way or that. Kiely, and this whole band, mean everything that comes through the speakers. Gilla Band are an incredibly solid unit- there are no mistakes made and no moments of anything except the delivery of the goods.

An additional note worth mentioning, and a factor I often give the main act credit for in selecting them, is the opening act. M(h)aol are a band from Dublin and Cork that worked perfectly as Gilla Band’s openers. Post-punk command, charismatic vocals and great live performances all gave the audience a perfect heads-up for what was in store from Gilla Band. M(h) aol’s new album comes out on the 3rd of February and will be worth checking out if Gilla Band is already your thing.

Cormac Nugent reviews Dublin’s best rock band’s live show (sorry Fontaines D.C. fans)

WORDS Cormac Nugent

PHOTOGRAPHY

Megan O’Rourke (far left and below)

Séamus Carroll (left and below)

Kallum Linnie (above and below)

SEX & RELATIONSHIPS

On the first of September I arrived in Paris on my own, ready to start a new chapter. As soon as I got to sit down in my room after a morning of travel, an experience with an angry taxi man, and finding out I was staying with a couple in their sixties who in fact were not living in the countryside and occasionally visiting Paris, but rather living in Paris and occasionally visiting their cottage in Burgundy, I burst into tears. I can only describe my first few weeks away from home as an emotional rollercoaster, which thankfully ended over time, after realising that self-sabotage – drinking almost every night, kissing strangers, dismissing my school work, and convincing myself that I would only do three weeks of college then return to Ireland – would never amount to a positive outcome. I stated to my parents on my second day that “Paris just isn’t for me,” after having sat in bed crying for almost twenty-four hours and only seeing the motorway and my local graveyard. Once I left my room and started meeting up with people my mindset shifted, and I was met with the most amazing four months.

A natural introvert, I thought that moving away from home would be a walk in the park. I loved my own company and had always wanted to visit Paris with its gorgeous buildings, museums, vintage shops, and restaurants. This desire to remain alone changed drastically on Erasmus. A girl from my secondary school – who soon became a very close friend of mine – contacted me on my second day and asked if I’d like to go for drinks with her and some girls she met at college that week. Without these girls I genuinely think my plan to leave after three weeks would have become my reality. More than ever I clung to the company of others. Through the friendships I made, I was able to crawl out of my little rut and fall in love with the city and the experiences that Erasmus brought.

Erasmus taught me to value my platonic relationships, more than I’d ever done before. My day-to-day life at home consisted of seeing friends perhaps two or three times a week outside of classes and work. However, living by myself and not having the safety net of my family,I bgan to value my friends more than I ever had before. Growing up I tended to struggle with groups and forming connections with others due to trust issues and low self-esteem. Whilst I’ve always been quite independent and capable of looking after

myself, in a way it was moving abroad that taught me that it is almost unhealthy to not need to rely on anyone else in life. In a city with a limited number of connections I learnt how to create strong relationships, and not even with those who I was with in Paris, but those from home.

Moving away from everyone I knew, I had to make sure that I kept in touch. Whilst I’ve always been relatively okay at checking up on my friends, knowing I was not going to physically bump into them on the streets of Dublin meant I had to put more effort into online interactions. I’ve now become accustomed to daily check-up messages with friends. Another thing that has changed because of what I’ve learnt on Erasmus is that I actively hang out with friends more than I ever did before.

I was more affectionate with my friends at home because of the people I met on Erasmus, they taught me so much about relationships and made my experience unforgettable. I didn’t go a day without meeting up for a coffee or museum visit with friends, something I would have found inconceivable at home.

Meeting people from different backgrounds showed me how little us Irish show love for each other, with the French embracing strangers kissing their cheeks and constantly reminding their friends how much they love them. As well as this us Irish really are not accustomed to casual dating and dating apps. Whilst a lot of my friends in Dublin have Tinder and Hinge, I never hear of them attending weekly dates in town.

My friends from Copenhagen and Munich were astounded that I was not going on multiple Hinge dates in Paris, they had dates lined up for the next two weeks and explored parts of Paris with French men. At home they dated a lot too and were surprised when I told them that was not the case in Dublin – well, for me and my friends that is. The beauty of being away

“Meeting people from different backgrounds showed me how little us Irish show love for each other”

How Erasmus Changed My View on Relationships

from home and not knowing anyone made dating apps a lot more enticing. The idea of casual dating was something me and my other Irish friends grew more open to. Sorry to say though, I will not be documenting my experiences with French men – who I will say are a lot more forward than the Irish. Once on a run in the rain a man tapped my shoulder and asked to go for a drink; he gave off serial killer vibes so that was a date I did not attend.

On Thanksgiving, sitting in a room full of people I had only met a couple months before, I felt like I was surrounded by my family. As we all ate the food that my friend’s boyfriend prepared for us, drinking mulled wine and reminiscing on moments we had spent to -

gether, I realised that no matter where I was in the world, I was lucky to say that I truly had amazing friends. Everyone I was surrounded by was away from home, but we had come together to create our own unique family. Moving abroad taught me to strengthen my platonic relationships – living in our own little apartments, drinking wine on balconies, and glaring at couples blocking the streets, we formed a strong bond, one which will always remain no matter where in the world. Since arriving home I’ve been a lot more active in meeting up with friends and can say that my platonic relationships are thriving. Whilst I did attend college in the city of love, I am happy to say that I found love in the friendships I made rather than the romantic opportunities I was offered.

WORDS Lily Houlihan

PHOTOGRAPHY Séamus Carroll

WORDS Lucia Orsi ILLUSTRATION Linde Vergeylen

DatingFor the Plot

“You should view potential romantic partners as mere characters in your story.”

In her journals, Sylvia Plath wrote, “It seems I must always write you letters that I can never send.” A moving sentiment but there remains the question: what would have happened if she had sent those letters? Would she have been rejected or redeemed? Felt relief or anxiety? Would she have received a response at all? We’ll never know the answers to these questions but the possibilities that lay within Plath’s reach are certainly interesting to think about.

‘Dating for the Plot’ is the new approach to romance that revolves around one simple motive: getting the best story possible. Rather than the continuous psychological evaluation of potential partners, or the overly careful act we put on to impress our dates, dating for the plot removes the soulless seriousness of courting in your twenties while also reigniting the fun of dating. Romantic partners are viewed as characters in our own complex and exhilarating plots whilst relationships provide the backdrop for our own personal ‘lore’. Whilst this approach may seem impersonal and perhaps even unwise, I’ve found it to be a surprisingly effective and enjoyable way to tackle the dismal dating scene presented to a twenty-year-old woman. Romantic disasters have been transformed into engaging plot material, heartbreak becomes the catalyst for character building, and all these experiences assume the basis for stories to share with friends. Dating for the plot is light-hearted, enjoyable and above all, extremely entertaining for your friend group.

But how exactly do you date for the plot? The first and arguably most important step is to approach dating with no expectations. Remove all preconceived notions of romance and all ideas of what love is meant to look like. I should add the disclaimer that this is not the endorsement of lowering your standards (if you’re in the field of liking men, it’s highly probable that your standards are already subatomic), but rather dating for the plot champions enjoyment over perfection. To enjoy romance is the key, rather than striving for flawlessness.

The second step is to view potential romantic partners as mere characters in your story. They are integral to the plot but not a prerequisite to your sense of personhood; not every character in your story is meant to be there for long. However, dating for the plot by no means endorses the mistreatment of another person, simply because they are a part of your story. They are still people, just people that shape our story, rather than define it.

This characterisation of romantic interests is greatly assisted by the assignment of a trusty nickname. Not only does this help them remain anonymous to

people outside of your friend group (Trinity is a troublingly small campus and conversations will be overheard), the process of designating a nickname is the true work of a Dublin Creative.

Ultimately, to date for the plot is to enjoy the process of romance, rather than focus on the final outcome. Take risks, make the first move and, as cliché as it sounds, be yourself. After all, it is your story.

This method of dating has wholly and irrevocably altered my perception of romance. I won’t admit how many nights I’ve spent longing to be struck by Cupid’s arrow or waiting for a text from some guy I’ve met in the smoking section of Workman’s. Countless hours wasted when I should have been enjoying single life and dating simply to see what happens, rather than fixating on all the potential negative outcomes. To place yourself within a story not only reignites the excitement of romance, it simultaneously disregards many of the fears surrounding being single. Questioning whether you’re worthy of love? Time to start the next chapter and block your situationship. Feeling lonely? Go out with your friends and find a new character to add to your story. Crippled by boredom? Be reckless and text your crush. It’s all for the plot.

Perhaps the truest testimonial to the benefits of this method to romance is the positive effect it has on relationships outside of the dating sphere. Many of my own friendships have been strengthened by the process of bonding over dating nightmares or fawning over new crushes. Dating for the plot is conducive to the fine art of story-telling; an art that provides the foundations for some of the most significant connections in our lives. I cannot remember all the names of the boys I’ve kissed nor the number of dates I’ve been on, but I can remember snuggling into the couches in my flat, my friends huddled around me as I described the previous night’s encounter. I can remember their laughter and their shock. I can remember their disgust and their excitement. I remember them, the most integral part of my story; the people I tell it to.

Whether you view ‘Dating for the Plot’ as a horrifyingly flippant attitude to romance or your new, exciting method of dating, there is no denying that there is something of significance in it. To become the main character is to advocate for yourself, to defend your happiness, and to restore adventure back into your life. No experience is worthless and no opportunity should be missed. The plot is yours to create. And the best part? You can laugh about all your mistakes with your friends. Maybe the true love story is the friends you made along the way.

TV’s Rousing Romances

Love is in the air and on our TV screens. These are the special someones who are special to many of us. So snuggle up on the couch with your favourite snack as TN2 follows the various romances of my favourite TV show couples, from Catholic priests to cold-blooded killers.

Fleabag and Hot Priest (Fleabag)

Have you ever felt like there’s one person on earth who truly gets you? Someone who seems like they can see right through you, past the stretch of your muscle and the scaffolding of bone, into your soul? Who makes you smile but not in the tight, dinner-party-joke sort of way but in such a fashion that you can hardly see because your sight is blurred by the apples of your cheeks? That’s Fleabag and Hot Priest. The star-crossed lovers of modern London, Fleabag and Hot Priest are soulmates in an unfortunate set of circumstances, as soulmates so often are. He is a Catholic priest, devoted to a life of strict morals and self control, concepts largely outside the day to day vocabulary of Fleabag’s chaotic and hilariously depraved life. He also happens to be officiating the wedding of her emotionally repressed father and passive aggressive, soon to be step-mother, who happens to be her dead mother’s sister. Yeah, complicated. And yet they are just so made for each other, it seems like a sin for them not to be together. I’ll happily write to The Pope myself for a verdict. Stay tuned.

Rick and Michonne (The Walking Dead)

Rick and Michonne are undoubtedly my favourite doomsday duo of all time. Can you picture a more romantic date than dining on expired canned food, marching through the hot and sticky American wilderness and chopping the heads off animated, decaying corpses with the person you hold dearest? Yeah, me neither. If these two can find love in the middle of a zombie apocalypse wasteland then there is indelible hope for anyone out there who is seeking romance. Rick and Michonne have truly had the full evolution from distrustful enemies to devoted friends and finally, to each other’s most faithful companions. They are both inspiring leaders in their own right but still manage to be an unstoppable dream team when they come together. They also have remarkable parenting skills considering the challenges that I imagine are faced when raising a child amidst scheming psychopaths, cannibals and societal collapse. We haven’t seen them on screen together since 2018 when Andrew Lincoln, who plays Rick, departed from the main show. However these two are getting their own spin-off series in October 2023 and I for one can not wait for six hours of glorious, uninterrupted and refreshed Richonne to grace our screens.

Eve and Villanelle (Killing Eve)

Another one for Phoebe Waller-Bridge, except this time one half of the pair isn’t pledged to a life of God and abstinence. Instead, one character is a deadly assassin, which is equally as troublesome for the relationship. It has long been said that opposites attract and truer words couldn’t be said for the highly-trained killer, Villanelle and the MI6 agent Eve, who become obsessed with each other. Even though they constantly threaten each other’s physical safety and are more toxic than the asbestos in a 1960’s attic, I can’t help but be wrapped up in their obsession alongside them, despite the poor odds and the serious moral conundrums. It’s the appeal of wanting what you know you can’t or shouldn’t have. Though, I am not likely to consult either of them for advice on maintaining a stable, healthy relationship, they certainly know how to spark an electric passion when they bounce off each other, like atoms of energy hopping around in space and creating a catastrophic, fantastical explosion.

Charlie and Nick (Heartstopper)

Everything about Heartstopper encompasses the warm and fuzzy feeling of your first real crush. Charlie, a shy but endlessly sweet music lover who knows he is gay, develops a budding friendship with Nick, a lovable rugby player with the personality of a golden retriever who begins to tentatively question his own sexuality. Through their growing companionship, Nick begins to understand himself more deeply and shares his beautiful journey of self discovery with Charlie. I would also like to shout out Tara and Darcy for being the supportive couple that Charlie and Nick could turn to for advice. Healthy LGBTQ Representation and diversity on screen is so important and Heartstopper feels like a resonating milestone in how far television has come. The show also resonates not just culturally, but personally with many, including myself. Nick watching Pirates of the Caribbean with Orlando Bloom and Kiera Knightley and then immediately taking a panicked “Am I Bisexual” quiz online confirmed that I have not had one original experience in my entire life.

If unlike myself you are not a cold calculating individual capable of destroying friendships, familial bonds, and romances for cash sums; reality competition shows may not be your forte. Thus, I have prepared this guide for the lily-livered fools who need strategic guidance by dissecting some of Survivor's and The Traitors' greatest and worse moves so you imbeciles can play the game with what little grace my guidance can grant you.

Stacking the cards: Survivor

Imagine for an instant you are in a reality show and faced with the daunting prospect of eliminating a player; what is the optimal move? In such a show your initial instinct might be to target the smartest, fittest, and most charismatic members of the show but this can be a drastic mistake. In Survivor a jury of the eliminated players makes the final decision on which member of the final two or three casts receives the one-million-dollar prize - yet every player is aware of this eventuality. If you yourself are a threat, cushioning yourself with juicy targets is the optimal way to ensure your survival. As long as a greater threat remains on the board available for elimination any logical player would eliminate them before you as it whittles down to the final. By ensuring your adversaries do not perceive you as the greatest threat, you increase your odds of surviving to the end.

By ensuring the final is stacked with weak players or “goats” you can effectively insure your victory. As eliminated players vote on which of the finalists win the million-dollar prize by limiting their alternatives to goats you increase your chance of victory. Goats come in many forms and shapes. Some goats are simply strategy inept simply bending to a greater force who carries them to the final. Other goats are strategically competent bar their social game which turns off potential jurors. All that matters is the jurors are unlikely to cast their votes in their favour. Notably one needs to be aware of their own social position to effectively utilize goats. Russel Hantz viewed the doe-eyed Natalie as his perfect goat. Russel was entirely unaware his aggressive gameplay turned the jury against him whilst the soft and kind Natalie was beloved by the jury and won all but two of the nine votes. Without being acutely aware of what the jury is looking for a supposed goat might just beat you in the finale.

The Traitors Season One

The show The Traitors follows a simple mafia format. There are two roles within the traitors and the faithful. Each night the players vote out a member of their group, with the faithful win condition being that they eliminate the traitors. Should only the faithful remain in the finale, the prize fund will be split among them. Up to three traitors can exist within the game. They

Reality TV The art of self interest

WORDS Finn Pierotti

are tasked with eliminating the faithful through nightly killings and surviving till they outnumber the faithful; splitting the money among however many traitors remain. Thus, I will analyse both roles.

Whilst the faithful seldom made an intelligent move; even a broken clock tells the time right twice a day by utilizing the shield superbly. The shield was given to a winning team who would enter a room one by one to pick out a box. Only one box contained a shield and whoever drew it was protected from being murdered that night. The players elected not to disclose who drew the shield for two reasons. The first was that concealing who drew the shield limited the traitor’s options that night. As they were likely unaware of who drew the shield on any given night, they could not target any member of the winning group without risking wasting a night’s murder. Thus the traitors would often be forced into making suboptimal murders leaving their biggest threats in the game longer than they intended. The second reason was even if a traitor were to draw the shield they could not kill a member of the group without arousing suspicion. To be sure that an individual did not have a shield; you yourself would have to have drawn it. Thus if anyone from the shielded group was killed; it would likely be from among their own ranks. I do however think that the traitors should have utilized this assumption by purposefully killing a member of a shielded group when they were not a part of it. If they succeed the faithful will begin a witch hunt and if they fail they can simply claim that there might have been two shields that round resulting in the traitor who drew a shield mistakenly believing no one was safe.

The faithful’s worse move was admitting to prior acts of omission. Tom admitted he was dating Alex prior to starting the show and Maddie admitted she was an actress. Breaking your fellow faithful trust for no rhyme or reason is tantamount to painting a bullseye on your forehead as you pass through a shooting range. In both cases when Tom and Maddie were

voted out many of the voters cited a lack of trust due to this omission as a key factor in deciding their vote.

Amongst the traitors Wilford arguably made the game’s best and worse move. Initially, Wilford decided to betray his fellow traitor as a distraction as the faithful began to suspect him. Like a lizard abandoning its tail, Wilford managed to distract the faithful by exposing Allyssa. Once Allyssa was voted out in a narrow elimination Wilford was perceived to be faithful. Whilst this is largely attributable to the faithful believing it would be illogical for a traitor to give up one of their own; Wilford’s emotive performance helped to quell most of the faithful’s doubts surrounding his role. Whilst this move was simply perfect; Wilford foolishly attempted to rat out his fellow traitors two more times. First, Wilford betrayed his long-time ally Amanda. Out of paranoia, Wilford believed Amanda was plotting against him resulting in her elimination. This move was idiotic as Amanda was not plotting against Wilford and due to the fact that Wilford would have to recruit another traitor directly after this move. Kieran the new traitor came into his role aware that the blood of his predecessors lay on Wilford’s hands. Thus trust between both parties was razor-thin which resulting in Wilford inevitably backstabbing Kieran. As Kieran left the game; he imparted wisdom into the faithful. By leaving hints that Wilford was the final traitor, Kieran ensured that Wilford lost the game.

Thus on a final note, even the greatest of moves should not be implemented without a thorough understanding of its context. Had Wilford simply read Kieran better and understood this burnt earth tactic was likely to come from him; he could have chosen a less bitter faithful to convert. Just a minor alteration to his strategy and Wilford would have won the game. Yet as it stands Wilford is responsible for the game's best and worse move by keeping himself in contention for and ultimately blundering the grand prize by backstabbing his fellow traitors.

In a bid to achieve the top spot, the streaming service industry has been grinding with a vigorous extremity that increases every year. While Netflix has sat comfortably on its throne for the larger part of the 2010’s, the likes of Disney+ and Apple TV+ are on the rise. However, as onerous and taxing the competition is for these corporations, we, the viewers, are so often awarded the fruits of their labour. This comes in the form of immeasurable amounts of high quality, (and not so high quality) film and television. I’ve limited my search to shows that had their first season premiere in 2022, so no cries for your beloved Better Call Saul or The White Lotus. There will also be no definitive ranking of the following shows, as it is similar to asking a mother to rank her children; it’ll be fairly obvious, but you know it’s poor form to have favourites. Caveats aside, here are my (in no particular order) top TV shows of 2022.

Best TV Shows of 2 0

2 2

The Bear (Disney+)

Many of us have grown up with Gordon Ramsay as the frontrunner of the culinary zeitgeist. We have an unnerving ability to rattle off a long repertoire of quotes straight from Hell’s Kitchen. The portrayal of the chef, angry and impatient, is woven throughout the media, and it’s likely that we have become overexposed to the hackney stereotype. The Bear, a story following talented chef Carmen ‘Carmy’ Berzatto (Jeremy Allen White), who inherits his dead brother’s grimy beef joint and attempts to restore it, plays into these conventions of the chef, and then totally inverts it. Early episodes may be near exhausting with its display of hypermasculinity and ‘Ramsay-esque’ behaviours, but it quickly becomes something much deeper. It quietly depicts the hollowing effects of addiction on a family, the isolation of grief, and the debilitating nature of anxiety with brilliant performances. And if none of that sells it, the seventh episode is twenty minutes of pure chaos. Stress so visceral and stomach churning, it will make exam-season feel like a walk in the park.

WORDS Maeve Ronayne

Bad Sisters (AppleTV+)

Sisterhood. A theme so commonly portrayed and yet so misrepresented on the small screen. Sharon Horgan comes along to fix this issue, with her trademark sharp wit, and incredibly endearing characters. I have seen very few series that accurately depict the complex relationship between sisters, and the show is so intrinsically Irish, making it difficult not to fall in love with the eponymous ‘bad sisters’. From the coastal shots of Dun Laoghaire and Malahide, to the colloquial quirks of the average Irish man or woman, it’s incredibly easy to relate to more than one aspect of the narrative. But with the context of the plot, this factor is even more impressive. A story that lies on a thin line between totally ridiculous and completely believable, it is Horgan’s talent that keeps the story comical, mysterious, and still compelling. What could have slipped into outlandish tales of blood and gore, instead teeters on the absurd, as these four loving sisters set out on a quest to dispose of their fifth sister’s, abusive and maniacal husband. It’s incredibly good fun, but effortlessly carries the heavier undertones of abuse, misogyny, and the undying love of sisters. The ensemble is spectacular, and are totally convincing as a dysfunctional but adoring family that would go to any lengths to protect the ones they love.

Severance (AppleTV+)

Never has the saying ‘keep work and home life separate’ had such a literal meaning. Severance’s protagonist Mark (Adam Scott), has undergone a procedure that results in a total lack of memory of the outside world when he steps into his work. While in work, he has no idea of the man he is on the outside and the struggles his alternate persona faces, and vice versa. It’s an eerie dystopian drama mixed with enough psychological thriller to give Black Mirror a run for its money. The cinematography is near clinical, with the brutalist, minimal sets of the ‘Lumon’ headquarters lending to the unnerving nature of the show. There’s more than one mystery to be solved within the walls of these offices and the pay off is refreshing and exciting. A common thread between each of these shows is sharp dialogue, well paced plot and tension, which Severance delivers in truck loads. This show hooks you in and quite frankly doesn’t leave you. The distinct ordinariness of the main characters, beautifully contrasts the bizarre nature of the world they live in, and it’s difficult not to devour the show in one sitting. And co-directing beside Ben Stiller is Trinity Alum, Aoife McArdle. What’s not to love?

Honourable mentions:

Andor / House of the Dragon / Minx / Heartstopper / The Staircase

This Is Going to Hurt (PSA to everyone, but especially medical students, it really does hurt)

From the 29th of September to the 16th of October 2022, our fair city hosted its annual theatre festival. Dublin Theatre Festival (both affectionately and humorously referred to as ‘DTF’) immediately follows the Dublin Fringe Festival, resulting in a two month lineup of shows from both Irish and international artists alike. I was lucky enough to see a handful of shows: particularly during the Dublin Theatre Festival, which was greatly helped by the newly introduced scheme of ‘10 for 10’. ‘10 for 10’ allocated 10% of shows tickets to be available for €10 to under 30s, unwaged, freelance artists and arts workers. Hey, us Dublin Creatives need as much help as we can get guys.

A few shows especially grabbed me from the festival. Bros by Italian experimental director Romeo Castellucci was a particularly memorable one. Taking place on the large stage of the O’Reilly Theatre, an intimidating gaggle of men dressed as soldiers fill the stage, and even march into the audience. The piece’s pre-set features a machine gun, pointing at the audience and rotating back and forth, creating a foreboding feeling to say the least. The soldiers then proceed to engage in repetitive activities such as shooting one

another, covering themselves in blood, and kneeling by a massive photograph of Samuel Beckett. As an audience member, I felt a lot of discomfort, largely due to the fascist themes the piece was exploring and particularly the onstage ‘torture’. There is a waterboarding scene, as well as a naked actor being dragged across the floor, repeatedly beaten, and having milk poured over him. Both of these events were instances where the audience walked out. This is not the kind of theatre we get to see in Ireland everyday. Which is a shame, as I wish the Dublin scene prioritised experimental work such as Bros.

The large stage of the O’Reilly was also purposely utilised for Franco-Austrian artist Gisèle Vienne’s Crowd. Crowd gave its audience a true audio-visual delight with 15 performers moving across the stage in slow motion to blaring techno music. No, like it was really loud. The performers would occasionally speed up, slow down, and freeze, all while performing their antics of drinking, dancing, kissing, and fighting. What stood out to me in Crowd was the use of the number of its performers and large space, allowing the audience to focus in on a specific performer’s journey throughout the performance as no character would

That Magical Time of the Year When Ireland has Theatre

be doing the same thing. I could have watched it 15 times, watching a different performer each time, and would have had a different experience each time from watching it through their perspective.

Lastly, I would like to talk about the beautiful What We Hold. From dance company Our Steps, and created by Riverdance star Jean Butler, What We Hold was an exploration of Irish dance. The piece was an immersive experience, taking place in City Assembly House, where we were walked by the dancers through the house’s beautiful rooms. We saw a boy practicing his steps on a wooden board, facing the mirror, something I remembered doing myself back in my dancing days before transferring my need for onstage attention to acting. Jean Butler herself performed in the piece, dancing barefoot on a table with a young girl adorned in medals, as the audience sat around the table. We listened to pre-recorded voices of older people talking about Irish dance, one woman expressing the accessibility of dance as a hobby for those who did not have the money to buy their children musical instruments. The piece ended in a beautiful crescendo of the dancers of all ages coming together, looking at one another in a familial way, and creating an at-

mosphere of community and togetherness amongst them through dance. This finale was also somewhat reminiscent of the Satanic cult at the ending of Hereditary, due to similarities in the music and the fact that the dancers were consistently silent. This, combined with the apparent contentment on their faces, made me think they were hiding something.

The showcase of work during the Dublin Theatre Festival makes me long for consistent showcases of experimental and movement based theatre such as Bros, Crowd and What We Hold throughout the year. As someone from the west coast of the country, I know first hand that theatre in rural Ireland is few and far between, and if I were still living there I would be forced to move to Dublin to experience it. However, I often joke that there is no theatre in Ireland for ten months after the Fringe and DTF, and I very much hope this can improve. By bringing platforms to smaller creatives and inviting more international ones to our stages, theatre could expand outside the city. Otherwise, I guess I’ll see you all in London. Let’s just hope they don’t take away Smock Alley’s ‘Seen And Heard Festival’...well, take it away again anyways.

WORDS Saul Sherrard

From left to right: Bros, Crowd, What We Hold

The Name Game: THEATRE

Last year I was in London with my uncle, who had booked tickets for us to go see some shows while I was in town. Of these, my most highly anticipated was definitely a production of Tennessee Williams’ The Glass Menagerie at the Duke of York Theatre, starring Hollywood mainstay Amy Adams as the iconic southern matriarch Amanda Wingfield. I was a fan of Adams’ screen work in films such as Arrival and Nocturnal Animals (and of course the indisputable classic that is Enchanted), and was excited to see what she would bring to such a famous character.

But as we left the Duke of York auditorium for intermission, my uncle and I locked eyes and immediately agreed on one thing:

“Amy Adams is particularly

poor, isn’t she?”

Critical reviews of the show were only slightly less harsh than our own, and could be summed up as decidedly mixed regarding Adams’ performance. It wasn’t necessarily that her jovial and chipper take on such a commonly nasty character was totally off base: in fact, it could have been downright compelling given the chance. It was that she seemed dead set on delivering each line in one mode and tone that she couldn’t get out, stuck carrying the energy of a bad first take throughout an entire live show.

It was certainly disappointing to see such an accomplished screen actor fall flat in the theatre, no less because the marketing had leaned upon Adams so heavily: the poster for the show was just a massive superimposed image of her face. But it wasn’t entirely her fault that the show was lacking, as the direction of scenes and other performances failed to create a strong sense of identity separate from other versions of the play. The billing of a famous A list actor was indisputably the most interesting thing about it.

This is not, however, an uncommon dilemma. Particularly in the aftermath of COVID as theatres attempt to pull audiences back in, more and more productions are turning to what has

The Pros and Cons of Stunt-Casting

been described as “stunt casting” to boost box office sales. In essence, stunt casting refers to the casting of particularly notable celebrities in a production (often in leading roles) in casting refers to the casting of particularly notable celebrities in a production (often in leading roles) in order to draw in the crowds. The downside of this approach is that often times, much like with Adams’ Menagerie, the production can lack substance beyond the appeal of its billable stars. Christian Lewis, writing for Variety magazine, diagnosed a Broadway production of Macbeth starring Daniel Craig and Ruth Negga with this exact problem. “There isn’t much substance in this production” Lewis writes, “The marketing, showing Negga’s face within a crumbling marble bust of Craig’s, feels like a lie; this production has no interest in exploring their relationship.”

Craig and Negga at least seemed to come off slightly better than Adams, whose lack of stage experience showed clearly in her performance. However, experience in stage acting (or even acting of any kind) is becoming less of a prerequisite for producers and directors when casting for shows. This was seen acutely last year in the Gate Theatre’s production of Endgame, which starred Scottish comedian Frankie Boyle as the wheelchair-bound Hamm. While I personally enjoyed Boyle’s take on the character well enough, the occasional line flub and loss of focus marked him out as significantly less experienced than his co-stars.

It also demonstrated another key issue with stunt casting - even at his sardonic best, I never once stopped seeing him as Frankie Boyle. Boyle’s cultural identity as a famous stand up comedian superseded his performance as the character, and undoubtedly influenced the audience’s reception of it. For a play like Endgame, which is most potently experienced in a kind of temporal and cultural vacuum, this is something of a disservice. I am subsequently wary of the methods which some theatres will resort to in order to pull in profits with this method. How long will it be until we start seeing social media influencers book leading roles over working actors? A little dystopian perhaps, but not altogether impossible.

However, the benefits of stunt casting were also demonstrated in the Gate’s casting of Robert Sheehan as Clov.

Having both the stage experience to pull off the role and the assistance of competent direction, Sheehan gave a great performance while also undoubtedly drawing plenty of Umbrella Academy fans to the theatre. Surely this illustrates the main benefits of this recent and much debated trend of stunt casting? Its ability to bring both audiences and actors back into theatres has the potential to revitalise the industry, something the industry is in desperate need of. So long as the actors are capable, and productions don’t lean on their casting as a one-horse trick, playing the name game may just work out in the theatre industry’s favour. We just need to play very carefully.

“How long will it be before we start seeing social media influencers book leading roles over working actors?”

Everyone has trouble sleeping at some point or another. It can be due to stress, illness, or any number of different factors. Regardless of how long it lasts or how intense it is, not sleeping well can always be a problem. Some people simply push through these bouts of sleeplessness on their own, coming out the other side with no extra help. Despite my best efforts, I am not one of these people, and more and more often I find myself turning to my phone for help.

Anyone who has ever had trouble sleeping knows that the first tip given in every article is to put your phone down. Blue light, stimulation and all that science-y stuff (can you tell I’m an arts student?). I’m one step ahead, you think. I know the tips. I know to turn screens off an hour before I go up to bed, to watch what I eat and drink before bed, to have a solid bedtime routine. I know all that. So, phone free, I lie awake in the darkness, head racing and heart thumping, longing for some sort of distraction. This is where sleep stories come in.

Over lockdown, I wasn’t the only member of my family with sleep problems. My mam, sister and I all started to share a subscription to Calm, a meditation app. While it features meditations, physical exercises and even relaxing music, what appealed to us (and many other users) were the sleep stories. Ranging from twenty to forty minutes in length and featuring a variety of narrators, sleep stories are designed to be entertaining enough to distract you and soothing enough to lull you to sleep. There is a wide range to choose from: some travel stories, some narrative stories, some aimed at children. In one, an owl professor (yes, you read that right) discusses - at great length - the history of the semicolon. In another, a softly spoken Kirby HowellBaptiste reads an extract of Roald Dahl’s Matilda in which the children learn their times tables. In one of Calm’s most popular stories, Harry Styles describes wandering through a beautiful forest hand in hand with the listener. That may sound hyperbolic, but I promise that is literally what it consists of (and it’s excellent!) These celebrity stories tend to be behind a paywall. While some stories are available on Youtube or on the free version of the app, users have to subscribe to listen to the likes of Cillian Murphy, Harry Styles, and Laura Dern. A yearly subscription to Calm costs about €50, though they do also have sales and special offers throughout the year. If it sounds like something that might work

for you, you can always try the seven day free trial or share a subscription with friends.

There are also plenty of free options out there, some of which I actually prefer to Calm (don’t tell Cillian Murphy.) One alternative is a podcast called Sleep With Me. Its host is a drawling, boring character called Dear Scooter (performed by Drew Ackerman) and, according to its tagline, it’s “the podcast that puts you to sleep”. It has hundreds of episodes dating back to the podcast’s creation in 2013. The premise remains basically the same as that of Calm’s sleep stories but with much more emphasis on the boring. Some of my favourite episodes are the story recaps. In these episodes, Scooter describes (very badly and with an excessive number of tangents) the plot of a movie or TV episode. Such episodes include The Good Place, The Great British Bake Off, and Lord of the Rings. One of my favourite episodes starts with Scooter describing - in detail - the various ties one character wears throughout an episode of The Good Place. He then moves onto explaining the complexities of philosophy and the concept of time. I was out like a light.

The episodes always follow the same structure, in an effort to create familiarity and comfort for returning listeners. Scooter begins with thanking the show’s sponsors and patrons, a segment which is vital in keeping the show free but also boring enough to not feel out of place. He then goes on to explain the show’s structure and premise, before finally beginning the story. I believe the episodes usually finish with Scooter thanking individual listeners but I’m not entirely sure to be honest, given that I’m usually snoring my head off.

The most obvious difference between these two podcasts is that Calm is a (mostly) paid app while Sleep With Me is completely free. Donations are possible,and encouraged, but not necessary. There is also the matter of time. If you’re generally an okay sleeper but need some background noise to drift off, then Calm’s shorter sleep stories would probably suit you well. By comparison, Sleep With Me’s episodes run to at least an hour. For me personally, there is also a more psychological element to the shows’ differences. Ackerman, the podcast’s creator, began the show due to his own struggles with insomnia and frequently references this origin in the episodes. Because of this, it is explicitly informed by insomnia and long, lonely nights. Where Calm is much more focused on relaxing and drifting off, Sleep With Me is more focused on keeping the listener company throughout “the deep dark night”.

It is this psychological reason that drew me back to Sleep With Me, having first discovered it in my early secondary school years. Without going into too much detail, I had a tough time of it this year, with some health issues (both physical and mental) leaving me unable to sleep. Suddenly, I felt panicky listening to Calm’s sleep stories. Harry Styles didn’t know that I couldn’t sleep. If I couldn’t fall asleep, he would keep whispering about holding my hand as I held back tears. Scooter, on the other hand, knew and understood what I was going through. There’s an explicit understanding in Sleep With Me that you are probably listening because there is something not great going on in your life. The goal of the podcast is not actually to lull you to sleep (although it certainly helps). The goal is simply for you to not feel alone. Scooter says this in every single episode. If you fall asleep, that’s great! Sweet dreams. If you don’t, then that’s okay too. Scooter and the podcast will be there to keep you company either way.

I know how awful and lonely it can feel when you’re not sleeping. So, if either of these podcasts sound appealing to you, consider giving them a go. I promise there are plenty of resources beyond the generic ‘no screens before bed’ lists.

Whatever you decide on, sleep tight; I hope you find something to help keep you company during the deep dark night.

FOR THOSE WHO CANNOT SLEEP

How to Feel Less Alone in the Deep, Dark Night

Top 10 Predicted Trends of 2023!

The fall of Twitter

Elon Musk’s takeover will mark the end of twitter in 2023, as investors and users lose faith. TN2 predicts the rise of a new spangled social media app – which do you think will fill the vacuum?

Stiletto crocs

Hear me out – platform crocs were a big, if questionable trend this year, so get your croc charms ready for heels!

Sin é

That’s it – we’re leaving bad nights out in ‘22. Try Sin é this year, the up and coming bar on Ormond’s St Quay Upper, with a lit pub quiz and pizza (alas of the frozen variety, but hits the spot all the same) to satisfy your boozy cravings.

The ‘C’ cut

If Rachel from Friends and That 70’s Show had a hairy love child - the pixie cut we’re all dreaming of to blow the January cobwebs away.

Rollies

Not to be basic, but District Magazine has spoken! Rollies are in, straights are out. Along with the chicken fillet roll apparently (?)

WORDS Rebecca Gutteridge

Pumps

Gah, if the patriarchy hadn’t already done enough, we’re going to be forcing our feet into ballet flats for another year in 2023.

Co-Star

Avoid: street lamps. Do: humility. Gen Z’s favourite astrology app will be dictating our behaviours in 2023 one weird recommendation at a time.

Hot Yoga

This one has been around a while, but getting your sweat on while getting your sweat on could just be the next biggest trend to hit the wellness market this year.

Pepperpot Cafe

Another Dublin specific one for you – the Pepperpot is our all time favourite Dublin cafe at TN2. Overlooking Pygmalion with fine China, this hidden gem is central enough to be your study break but still feels like an escape from campus. Try the pear and bacon sandwich and the Victoria sponge. Thank us later!

Prince Harry

Our cocaine loving bad boy royal is firmly back on the scene with his debut autobiography already sending shockwaves through The Royals. What’s coming next? Who knows. But the drama is only heating up; the gloves are off and the high tea is ready to be served.

Adrian Robb and Hannah Quearney

A Defence of Trackies

1. New Year, Same Gym

Look, I love a tracksuit. A minority position around the Arts Block, but if I don’t look like I’m waiting for the call up to the B-team, then I’m not in my natural element. I believe this simple sportswear has been ignored, disgraced even, for too long and I declare 2023 to be the Year of the Trackie.

If you’re not already convinced, here’s a list of reasons why you have got to get on the trend:

It’s that time of the year again; time to brave the gym for a couple weeks only to then peter out and realise it’s just not worth it. New year and all the old talk - of course it’s for real this time - it’s going to stick. But that means you have got to look the part. And that means suiting up, tracksuiting up that is. I promise, they will all talk about you otherwise.

2. Paul Mescal Chic

This young actor has emerged as a style icon with his commitment to O’Neills’ shorts, but did you know this iconic look is allowed to extend below the knees (not that it’s recommended in Paul’s case). The rest of us, who don’t take such pride in our calves, can avail of full length trackies while also repping county colours at the same time. Sure what’s not to love?

3. Commuter Clothing

Whether you are trying to catch the 46A in from Dun Laoghaire or booking it across campus after the train from Maynooth was delayed, you never know nowadays when you will need to break out into a light jog en route to campus. No outfit will serve you better than a solid tracksuit in such times of need. It is also a comfy, freeing option if you want to utilise your commute time to actually get some sleep in. The upsides are endless.

4. Sue Sylvester Core

5. Vintage

Am I really looking to Glee as a key pillar of my argument? Why not? Have you ever wanted to embody and exemplify the mindset of a fictional high school cheerleading coach from a terrible early 2010’s musical comedy show? Have you longed to be a jock slash mean girl? Of course you have! Sue Sylvester is the hero you have been waiting for. However, in order to follow her courageous lead, you will have to adopt the look. That means wearing a matching tracksuit set at all times. That’s just how Sue sees it. (This is not an endorsement of Glee).

Vintage is cool and vintage tracksuits are no exception. Admittedly, the colour schemes will make you look like you are an Olympic bobsleigh team member from the 80’s, but that’s cool right? I mean you already have the mullet to match, so why not commit to the bit? If charity shopping is more your thing, don’t worry, there are plenty of options left for you, just don’t get too concerned about where it has been.

The list could go on but I know I already have you convinced. So this is your sign to hop on the tracksuit trend. (Or at least stop looking at me weird when I rock up to my 9a.m in a three stripe Adidas that I’ve had since I was sixteen. Seriously, who knew it would be this hard to get some college students on board with a few white lines!)

PHOTOGRAPHY Megan O'Rourke