Pi Magazine, Issue 713 - Re:Generation by Pi Media, UCLU

January2016 i s s u e 7 1 3

re:

o far this year, we’ve thought a lot about place -- about setting, environment, and surroundings. At the very beginning of last term, we celebrated Pi’s 70th birthday by looking at the seven decades of politics, arts, and culture it has been a witness to in its capacity as a student publication at UCL . Then, at the end of last term, we zoomed out -- away from just UCL -- to consider London as a whole, and the changes currently facing the city. But now we’re going to change gears, and instead consider identity. Why is our generation, and specifically our smaller, sub-generation of people born in the 1990s, the way it is? What shared experiences bind us together and give us a collective identity? Is it even fair to say we have some sort of collective identity? And why are we suddenly so obsessed with revisiting and recreating the fashion, art, and music of the decade in which we were born? These are all questions we asked our writers, editors, designers, and photographers.

From a debate on the best decade in which to be born (Pi Debates, p. 5), to features on the use of new technology in primary education (The changing face of primary education, pp. 9-11) and the use of brick phones (Out with the new, in with the old, p. 14), to a profile on the dominant political figure of our childhoods (Tony Blair: A divided legacy, pp. 20-21) and a fun reminder of what we used to eat for lunch as kids (Lunchbox flashback, pp. 34-35), to thoughtful pieces on the legacies of 90s supermodels (Super(thin)models, pp. 42-43) and television comedies (TV comedies: Then and now, pp. 50-51), our writers and editors answered us in creative and interesting ways. As always, we’d like to thank everyone who put their time and energy into the creation of this magazine. To those writers, editors, subeditors, designers, photographers, models, and committee members: congratulations on another successful issue, one more to go. And to you, thanks for reading -- we hope you enjoy it.

Wyndham Hacket Pain and Katherine Riley Editors-in-Chief Pi Magazine, 2015-16

LETTER f r o mthe EDITORS

C O N T E N T

All photos by Helen Dickman

Editorial: Should anyone be able to speak at universities?

Pi Debates: Was the 90s the best decade to be born in?

Why New Year’s resolutions don’t work

Here’s why you shouldn’t give to harities

The Officer Training Corps: From Brecon Beacons to brainwashing?

The changing face of primary school education

Listicles: A complete write-off?

Out with the new, in with the old

The crying game

Lib Dems: What’s next?

Student issues: Unheard or unvoiced?

Tony Blair: A divided legacy

Writing or typing

Can the immune system cure cancer?

Important issues in research

Barely bonding

Travel blogging 101

Dark tourism: Visiting man’s mortality

Campus Style: Faux Fur

Lunchbox flashback

5 pieces of clothing to replace before you turn 20

Living without the internet for a day

Overheard/So you’re super hungover...

Pi Recommends

Super(thin)models

What on earth is postmodernism?

A short history of feminism in music

Music and madness

TV comedies: Then and now

Artificial intelligence in film

Going the way of the western

Three’s a crowd: A literary history of the love triangle (and why it will never die)

pi magazine 713 | editorial

Should

be able to SPeak Anyone at T

Universities?

he issue of controversial speakers and whether they should be given platforms at universities was fiercely argued throughout 2015. Back in September, secular activist Maryam Namazie was banned from speaking at Warwick University, and at Cardiff University, a petition of more than 3,000 students tried to prevent Germaine Greer from speaking following her controversial comments on transgender people. UCL too become part of this debate, when UCLU banned former student Macer Gifford from speaking about his experiences fighting against Isis. Asad Khan, UCLU activities and events officer, justified this stance by suggesting that “an event with a person speaking about their experiences fighting in Syria could lead to others going and fighting in the conflict”. In response, Kavar Kurda, event’s organiser for the UCL Kurdish Society which hosted the event, said: “The union and Asad Khan still lack and have a disregard for freedom of speech”. This event did eventually go ahead, but its initial ban gave the impression that certain figures within the university would have preferred if it hadn’t. A group of leading academics, led by Professor Frank Furedi, have warned that universities are “killing free speech” by banning events that may cause offence. Universities are meant to be places where students’ preconceptions and assumptions are challenged. This kind of action is denying students a valuable part of their education, as it stops them from being able to discuss views which oppose their own. If controversial speakers are barred from visiting universities, certain topics of study are undermined. This was seen last year at Duke University, where undergraduate students refused to read Fun House, a graphic novel with LGBT+ themes by Alison Bechdel. Reading lists are very carefully chosen and designed to challenge those within the course. Refusing to read a certain item on the list,

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because you disagree with what it says, shows a deep seated insecurity. If the views you hold are so infallible, then there is no reason to be fearful of views which differ from your own. Perhaps the best response to the issue of censorship within universities has been seen at Brunel University. When Daily Mail columnist Katie Hopkins was invited to be on a panel debate, the union and students did not try to ban the event, but instead vacated the building en masse when she arrived. Ali Milani, president of Brunel student union, said: “It is important to note that the conversation at no point has been about banning Ms Hopkins from speaking on campus, or denying her right to speak. It is instead about saying it is distasteful and incongruous for our university.” It is important to note that not everyone left the room, though it was nearly empty, and that the opportunity arose to hear and refute the points that she made. Allowing Katie Hopkins to come to the event meant that her views and opinions could actually be challenged, instead of simply being rejected. Learning where you stand on certain issues, contentious or not, is often part of the university experience. People are allowed to have views that are not upheld by the mainstream. Suggesting that a certain figure cannot speak, or that a certain book should not be read, is arrogant and assumes that your viewpoint is the correct one. No one should go out with the intention to offend – above all, it just makes you a rather unpleasant person – and if this is the intention of the speaker, they should not be given a platform to speak. However, it is possible to be informed by an opinion you do not agree with. Just because someone disagrees with you doesn’t mean their perspective is invalid. If we see certain viewpoints as dangerous, not engaging with them only allows them to continue. There is a fear that open discussion of controversial issues is the cause of growing tensions in society, when it is actually the resolution.

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Pi Debates: A

s I strolled out of the cinema, having just watched Woody Allen’s Midnight in Paris, all I could think of was how awesome it would have been to be born in a previous decade. Had I been born in the 1920s, I could have sat down and chatted with Salvador Dali or Ernest Hemingway. Still filled with nostalgia, I suddenly came to a realisation: the 1990s were actually the best decade to be born in.

Were the 90s the best decade to be born in?

up waiting for a response on WhatsApp, or taking ridiculous selfies you will regret ever posting on Facebook. You are, however, still young enough to sigh and roll your eyes at lame people older than you who aren’t up to date on the latest parody accounts on Twitter and Tumblr.

It’s the perfect balance.

It’s that perfect combination, where you are able to judge the maximum amount of people.

You’re still old enough to lecture people born in the 2000s on the days before social media, when your time wasn’t taken

The music and fashion of the 1990s was so great that they have already come back in style.

For

Think of the girl power of the Spice Girls, or the twin pinnacles of boy band perfection, ‘N Sync and the Backstreet Boys. While we couldn’t record our hardcore fangirling on social media back then, the passion was certainly there. And need I remind you of the decade’s fashion icons? Remember the characters in Clueless, whose outfits are now being dug up and resold in Topshop? What would Cher say if you told her you didn’t want to be born in the 1990s?

ria

En a t t e l ico

by: N

h ba a n n a us

by: s

just don’t get hype surrounding the 1990s. How can our generation have nostalgia for a time that most of us don’t really remember? Of course, bits of it were good. I like the Spice Girls as much as anyone. But there was a lot more going on, and I’m pretty sure we’ve deliberately forgotten the bad bits.

tire decade of designs.

There were, for example, a large number of fashion failures. I don’t think anyone looks back too warmly on Justin Timberlake’s spaghetti hair. The so-called “90s revival” is picking and choosing the things that actually looked good. It’s not too hard to come up with a good outfit or trend from an en-

Being born in the 1990s has given millennials a fair amount of problems. As a result of our birth years, we’re coming of age at a time when things are going completely downhill for young adults.

That’s not to say we don’t do this with other decades. As a pedantic history student, I’m aware we always remember selectively. But the exaggerated love for the 1990s is obscuring the fact that most of it was a bit rubbish.

t s n i Aga

£9,000 tuition fees or maintenance loans. We graduate in debt. Paid jobs for young people are scarce. We’ll probably never be able to afford a place of our own. I personally envy the baby boomers and their lifetimes filled with free education, stable jobs, and (trying not to get too political here) a healthcare system that hadn’t yet been slowly torn apart by austerity. We’re screwed, powerless, and skint. Seeing the Spice Girls in their heyday seems a poor consolation.

I don’t need to remind students of their

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Pi magazine 713 | Comment

Why New Year’s Resolutions

Dont Work Tony Ay explains why New Year’s resolutions are a waste of time

s the year draws to a close, it’s a time for reflection. Time to reminisce about the good times, and to cringe as the last year’s events flash before your eyes.

olutions is that they’re all too sudden, too drastic. How are we, as the clock strikes 12, suddenly meant to change ourselves and give up our daily habits? The all-or-nothing approach just doesn’t work.

There may be some memories we’d rather not remember, but hey, the new year will give us a chance for a fresh start. It’s time to set some goals for the year ahead. This time, we all tell ourselves, I’ll become a new me. A healthier, more sophisticated, well-rounded version of myself.

The prospect of “You 2.0” being realised seems very slim.

But as everyone knows, you’re never going to keep that New Year’s resolution. One afternoon, you’ll emerge from a long day of lectures, and forget about that new diet as you tuck into some greasy chips. Say goodbye to that gym membership, the only muscles getting a workout will be the ones you text with. Sure, you could be super organised and start that essay, but there are millions of pointless Youtube videos calling your name. Maybe you’ll go gluten free next year. It’s inevitable that New Year’s resolutions will fail, no matter how good your intentions are. Last year, determined I would actually stick with mine, I wrote a detailed list on my phone. Here it is, I thought, I know what I’m going to do and how I’m going to do it. But of course, things didn’t go as planned, I got a new phone, the list was gone, and all was swiftly forgotten. Well, at least I tried. Perhaps the problem with New Year’s res-

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So, I want to suggest that we bin the whole idea of New Year’s resolutions. Instead, I’m proposing an alternative. Let’s put a stop to these unachievable tasks and aim for something we can actually do. Pick a goal that can gradually be achieved. Of course, you won’t develop the spirit of Mother Teresa, the fitness of a marathon runner, or the money-making know-how of Alan Sugar overnight, but you can work towards it. If the most exercise you’ve done all year is lifting your fork to your mouth, don’t expect to do a three-hour gym sesh every day. But you can build up from five minute exercises to half hour sessions. If you want to learn to cook, it might be a jump too far to go from barely being able to fry an egg to making gourmet dishes. So aim for mastering the basics, rather than copying Masterchef. Getting your life together overnight probably won’t happen, but maybe you could limit the procrastination. Think how much extra time you’d have if you only read one BuzzFeed article instead of five. So, I’ve given up. I’m saying sayonara, au revoir, adiós to New Year’s resolutions. Good luck for 2016!

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Here’s why you

shouldn’t

Photo credit: Garry Knight

give to charities

Ciniza Leonard responds to the True and Fair Foundation’s report that some of the UK’s biggest charities spend less than half of their cash on good works

wo years ago, I decided to get a head start on the competition for summer work placements after receiving an email from my department with what appeared to be a great opportunity to work in the not-for-profit sector. Getting something to put on my CV while simultaneously doing something for the greater good seemed like a win-win situation. That summer, it quickly became apparent that I had entered into the FIFA of the charity world. I wasn’t to work for any charity directly, but for a third-party company. First came the boot-camp stage, during which we had three days to memorise our scripts, specifically designed to include every sales tactic imaginable. Some tactics were fairly trivial, like to nod when asking one of the many leading questions (apparently, it’s psychologically proven to make someone more inclined to agree with you). Others were more worrying. We were told those celebrating Ramadan would be more likely to donate, and although we were instructed not to sign-up anyone we thought to be mentally or physically vulnerable, that wasn’t followed. The working conditions were no better than the tactics. During the six weeks I managed before I quit, I was sleeping on a mattress on the floor (admittedly, my roommate and I took it in turns in the single bed), working 10 hour days for a third of the minimum wage, and had just one day off per fort-

night. This probably sounds exaggerated, but it’s not. We eventually realised our contracts had stipulated we were in fact “self-employed”, and therefore not legally entitled to much. Lesson learned in reading the small print. The following summer, I gained a place on another charity work placement, but this time working in the head office of a national charity. I figured it could only be an improvement. And yet, let’s just say it didn’t exactly restore my faith. The secrecy had to be the most uncomfortable aspect. As an intern, my tasks generally revolved around finding donated items for events. Fortunately, with such a wellknown brand behind us, a handful of companies were happy to donate, given a bit of publicity via social media. Perfectly reasonable really, but I had to decline donations on multiple occasions because the charity was not being transparent in how it was sourcing donations. There was a clear lack of honesty with partner companies and with the public, and yet no one seemed to bat an eyelid. At one of the weekly report meetings, the head of the department even stated the aim, and likely outcome, of this year’s annual campaign was solely to break even. So all of the charity’s advertising that claimed donations were funding research was entirely misleading. For such a huge hole to have been dug in the first place was hardly surprising – keeping costs down

rarely seemed a priority to a team who shopped for basic stationery in Paperchase on the company card. Bearing all of this in mind, it’s easy to become cynical when it comes to giving to charity. It would be misleading to let my personal experience speak for the many UK charities undoubtedly doing incredible work, which are in need of our support.

Be pro-active and research your chosen charity When donating to charities, remember they vary hugely in size. It’s not always the case, but donating to smaller charities usually means your money is more likely to go directly to the cause. Your monthly subscription certainly won’t go towards multi-million pound advertising campaigns. It might seem obvious, but all charities are different. Be pro-active and research your chosen charity. Demand to be kept in-theloop and receive detailed, regular reports. Some charities do tremendously good work and help a lot of people, making it paramount that you chose the right one.

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Pi magazine 713 |713 Comment pi magazine | comment

The The Officers Officers Training Training Corps:

Photo credit: Hermes Crespo

FROM FROM BRECON BRECON BEACONS BEACONS TO TO BRAINWASHING? BRAINWASHING? Thomas Hollands sheds light on a relatively unknown program of the British military

or most students, firing a rifle and trudging through mud is not what springs to mind when considering extracurricular activities. For members of the University of London Officers Training Corps (ULOTC), however, this is a reality. Target practice and arduous hikes are as regular to them as weekly pilgrimages to Loop are to the rest of us. The Officers Training Corps (OTC) is a section of the British Army Reserve which provides military “training and leadership” to different universities across the UK. Its ostensible goal is to “develop the leadership potential of selected students and raise awareness of the army ethos.” It achieves this aim by enticing cash-strapped students to come to their weekly sessions by paying them. A fresher can expect to earn £39.77 for an evening’s commitment. As you ascend the ranks, you can expect your pay to rise accordingly. The army attracts no shortage of school leavers, most of whom go on to become rank-and-file soldiers on the ground. Students enrolled in higher education, however, are generally less tempted by the armed forces. The OTC was therefore primarily created to entice these would be skeptics into military leadership positions. At weekly training evenings, burgeoning officers can expect to learn about military tactics, equipment, as well as participate in night missions. On monthly training weekends, classroom-taught skills are put to the test, as students traipse through a variety of grueling hikes, obstacle courses, and exercises. At all events, you can expect to be led

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by army veterans and exposed to the “army ethos” firsthand.

luring students into the army with government subsidised ski holidays seems a little deceitful Many students join for the obvious financial benefit and the sporting opportunities. According to one member: “Most people who join aren’t interested in the army at all.” Instead, they’re attracted by the “relatively low cost” of activities compared to other societies. This year, the UCL Snowsports Society are travelling to Tignes for a week. At £389, it’s not cheap. Comparatively, the OTC host a yearly ski trip which is entirely subsidised by the organisation. One member said: “Last year, they even gave us a daily spending allowance, which went mostly on booze.” The OTC has such a large budget because it doesn’t depend on university money.

Like the rest of the military, it is financed by the government. With promises of beers and excursions funded by the taxpayer, the OTC ensnares students and attempts to slowly mould them into army officers. Between 2008 and 2010, no such moulding or ensnarement has took place on the UCL campus. UCLU passed a “Motion on Troops out of UCL”. This resolution banned any military recruitment organisation from using UCLU spaces to promote their goals, saying, in regard to the recent wars in in Iraq and Afghanistan: “This union does not wish to endorse the foreign policy of the Bush administration.” And I agree with that decision – if students want to take army money, they should do it elsewhere. The Royal Army is an indisputably important part of British culture and British politics, and there are many professions within the armed forces which can be rewarding to university graduates. However, luring students into the army with government subsidised ski holidays and field trips seems a little deceitful. If a career in the army was really that great, would all these incentives be needed? I wouldn’t say the OTC brainwashes students, but there must be better ways to spend military funds than paying people to come to their meetings. Military recruitment has its place in society, but it shouldn’t be using its extensive budget to take advantage of cash-strapped students on university campuses.

features | pi magazine 713

The

CHANGING FACE of PRIMARY EDUCATION

ack in 2013, when he was Education Secretary, Michael Gove said: “Whiteboards may have eliminated chalk dust, chairs may have migrated from rows to groups, but a teacher still stands in front of the class, talking, testing and questioning.” In the past decade, we have witnessed the invention of the iPad, the advancement of laptops, and the advent of the smartphone. If technology has become so ingrained our everyday lives, its effects have inevitability infiltrated our education system, as well.

Jamie Boylan-O’Rourke considers changes in primary school education and the influence of technology in the classroom

To understand how technology in the classroom has progressed since we were primary school students well over a decade ago, I decided to go back to the start: a primary school in Monmouthshire, the county where I grew up.

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pi magazine 713 | features

The essence of this discussion seems to be two questions. First, what are these changes, and how have they affected teaching methods? And second, are these changes good, or are they bad?

“ICT can both enhance and hinder progress.” Ceri Pini, a former primary school teacher and current English teacher at Chepstow School, expressed concerns about how new technologies are being utilised in our education system. “I worry that some teachers are over-reliant on technologies and therefore their

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students lose some important skills such as writing,” she says. Vivienne Punshon, SEN co-ordinator and Year 5 teacher at Castle Park Primary, reiterated the same concerns. “I’ve witnessed teachers putting up a worksheet on display via a projector and then asked the pupils to copy it,” she says, “Pointless was my reaction.” She went on to elaborate: “Far better to discuss and copy it for pupils to make notes by highlighting key words, for example.” Punshon did also highlight the advantages of using new technology in the classroom. “I’ve seen some foreign language lessons [invigorated] by the use of native speakers in a simple ICT setting, such as YouTube, to give pupils a real feel for the subject,” she says, “However, inviting someone in to class would enhance that. Overall, ICT can both enhance and hinder progress, depending upon its application and purpose.”

The possible hindering of progress is a concern. According to studies by the Confederation of British Industry (CBI), a quarter of British students are failing to meet the expected level in the three Rs by age 11. A recent Estyn report has also reported slipping standards in primary education. Could technology be playing some role in all of this? As an English teacher in a secondary school, Pini has also witnessed some of the possible negative effects of increasing use of – and increasing reliance upon – technology in the classroom. “Is it a coincidence that spelling skills have deteriorated over the last 10 years?” she asks, “A game on an iPad won’t teach you how.” According to Pini, new technologies are “useful for practicing and consolidating skills, but not a substitute for quality first teaching”. But, what about people our age who

features | pi magazine 713

are now teaching in primary schools, who have lived through at least some of this technological evolution in the classroom? Is their perspective different?

“I’m surprised at how much they use the internet.” Miriam Brooks, a second year Anthropology student at UCL, is a part of Debate Mate, a scheme through which university students go to schools with high rates of free school meals to run debate groups.

“There are smart boards in every classroom,” Brook says, “In my primary school there [wasn’t] a whiteboard at all. The kids know exactly how to use the smart board, and I don’t.” She adds: “It’s quite embarrassing when I want to use it, actually, and a bit of a nightmare because it can be a big distraction.” But, Brooks’s experience of technology in primary schools goes further than just what’s on the walls of a classroom. “In primary I’m surprised at how much they use the internet,” she says, “Like how much they know about current events that I had no access to as a kid. I didn’t even know what a chancellor was in year six, but all of my class go on about George Osborne in their debates, and when I ask them if they were taught that stuff in class, they say no, they can just look stuff up if they want to know.” She compares this to her own experience with the internet in primary school. “[It was] something I never

had because the shared computer in my house wasn’t even connected to the Internet until I was 12,” she says, “Twitter and Facebook are big topics of conversation as well – they’re all on social media.” The changes in education caused by the changes of technology are inevitable. It’s clear that children growing up in the internet age are more technology savvy than older generations. However, it also seems as though modern technology has some part to play with some of the problems modern education is currently suffering from. It could be because teachers aren’t applying these technologies correctly, or because our outdated education system hasn’t kept up with the modern day technology. This is an issue that has to be faced head on. But it’s fair enough to say that things have definitely changed since we were in primary school.

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pi magazine 713 | features

Listicles:

a complete write-off?

Alys Bannister looks at the impact of listicles and “clickbait” on modern journalism

ith the ever-increasing popularity of sites like Buzzfeed, listicles and “clickbait” have become a ubiquitous part of digital journalism, but I can’t help but wonder whether they’re killing the art of writing. Is the concept of news really morphing from thought-provoking commentaries to “Which One of Zayn Malik’s Tattoos Are You?”

If people prefer to read lists of “The 20 Best Avocado Toast Pictures of 2015”, is it actually the editor’s fault, or are they just catering to a demand?

According to the content-marketing tool BuzzSumo, in 2014, online articles with 1000 words or less outnumbered those with 2000 words or more 16 to one. A recent study from Chartbeat, a web analytics company, also found that about 55 per cent of readers now spend less than 15 seconds on an online article, a possible sign of the dwindling attention spans of today’s readers. In a world where we swipe away anything which doesn’t captivate us at first sight, has journalism become victim of our society’s obsession with instant gratification?

Much like the rest of our culture, another issue common to list articles is the fixation on the individual – they’re often not a commentary on the outside world, but a discussion of ourselves. With the most popular listicles on Thoughtcatalog, for example, being concerned with “50 Things You Need to do for a Relationship to Last” or “How to ruin your life (without noticing that you are)”, do readers now look to journalists to examine themselves, rather than the outside world? Have we lost that much sense in ourselves that we require articles to dictate how we live our lives?

Eleanor Ross, a travel editor and freelance journalist for publications like The Financial Times, The Guardian, and The Independent, says that list articles are “everywhere”, explaining that she once pitched a piece on travelling Italy, which her editor loved, but was only willing to publish it if it was in list form. This is a common story. Editors of respected publications are now pushing for shorter, more accessible articles due to the growing demand for bite-sized news and entertainment.

Ironically enough, these articles and quizzes have done the very opposite of what individualism promotes – they actually compartmentalise people, narrowly defining them in terms of film characters and personality types.

“It makes my heart sink”, Ross says, “My job is made redundant. Everything you’ve trained to do as a writer is thrown back in your face.” She claims the demand for listicles and other easily digestible news is due to “editors cashing in on people’s ADD”. With online tools like Omniture measuring the average time spent on each article, publications are becoming increasingly concerned with grabbing readers’ attention before they click onto another story. More website traffic also allows companies to charge higher rates for advertisements. So, in one sense, journalism has become increasingly about likes and shares, like social media. More clicks means more revenue. In Ross’s experience: “If a piece isn’t easy clickbait, editors shy away from it.”

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“I hate myself for publishing these things, but it’s my bread and butter”, Ross says while sighing. Journalists can’t bite the hand that feeds them.

Among the lacklustre lists and vaguely amusing videos of drunk guys sliding down tube escalators, are there any benefits of this new type of journalism? The answer is yes. Even Ross admits that listicles can make the writing process enjoyable. The new demand for instant entertainment means that journalists are challenged to find a new way to attract more people. Ross also believes that the domination of lists doesn’t necessarily mean the end of the appetite for important world news. Some newspapers, in particular The Guardian and The New York Times, have risen to the challenge of this new form of reporting, catering news reports towards a wider demographic. Take for example a listicle on The Guardian entitled “Truth bombs: eight alternatives to airstrikes on ISIS” which proved to be one of the most popular articles the website published in 2015. Turning

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features | pi magazine 713

the news into a list makes information more accessible for a larger proportion of the population, and catches people who may not devote the time to read a lengthy article analysing the situation in Syria. “People click on clickbait as a joke and might learn more. It’s very clever.”, Ross says. In this sense, listicles aren’t killing our education, they’re just presenting information in a new way. Whether listicles are damaging our perception of the world, ourselves, and what we deem important is debatable. What is certain, however, is that listicles aren’t going anywhere any time soon. City University now teaches list-writing as part of its Journalism MA degree, and the popularity of Buzzfeed and spin-off sites is undeniable.

listicles aren’t killing our education, they’re just presenting information in a new way Ross says she’s “scared about it”, but work published by many broadsheet newspapers embracing this new form in an intellectually stimulating way suggests that maybe this might not be the end of writing as an art. Maybe reporters just have to play a different game. Although the internet allows room for more superficial articles, good journalists are learning to make writing interesting and accessible for the ever-changing world around it. If Hemmingway can write a book in six words, maybe we can make art out of a list.

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pi magazine 713 | features

Outwith withthe theNew. new, Out withthe the old Ininwith Old.

Felicia Gutmans discusses the growing trend of using old school mobile phones

ave you ever wondered what your life would be like without a smartphone? How would you cope without Citymapper? How would you take those beautiful selfies and upload them onto to Instagram? You might not even be able to get internet on your phone at all… (It’s OK you can stop thinking about it now, I’m sure that was pretty traumatic.) Financial or fashionable? Smartphones aren’t cheap, despite those contracts which give you a new Samsung Galaxy for £1 in return for signing a soul-binding 2-year contract. Sometimes that Galaxy will break and its owner, unwilling to fork out another couple hundred quid for a new one, will revert to their old phone. It’s an almost too familiar story for many of us. However, there are some people who are actually choosing to use non-smartphones out of their own free will – and it’s not just cereal-guzzling, craft-beer-brewing hipsters. Vogue editor and fashion icon Anna Wintour was spotted using a flip phone last

year. So, are old phones now “hip”? Perhaps it’s a natural reaction to a society increasingly fuelled by technology. Maybe some people are trying to opt out of being constantly tuned in. Brick phones or flip phones allow us to perform the basic and most important tasks of calling and texting, without being subjected to the incessant *ping* of a Facebook message or a Snapchat notification. So what’s all the fuss about? There are also other benefits to old phones. I asked Nokia-brick-user Patrick Greenway why he’s decided to ditch the smartphone. Our conversation went a bit like this: FG: Hey Paddy! Have you used a smartphone before and, if so, why do you use a Nokia now? PG: I joined the cult due to the camera on my Samsung Galaxy not agreeing with a photogenic fish I was snorkelling beside in the summer and had to resort to my phone of old. (I.e. His phone got wet when he tried to take a picture of a fish.)

it’s not just the cereal-guzzling, craft-beer-brewing hipsters

There’s nothing to dislike FG: Fair, fair. And since being reunited with your old phone, do you think there are any advantages of using it over your old Samsung Galaxy? PG: There’s nothing to dislike: quick and easy, drunk finger friendly texting, a lifetime of entertainment from classic snake, an endless battery, and a solid brick which always comes out on top in phone fights. Greenway is entirely right: I certainly wouldn’t want to put my delicate little iPhone 5 up against one of those bad boys. Back in the day, I used to have fun chucking my own Nokia against the wall every now and then, as it gave a really satisfying little clunk before carrying on as usual. Now, every time my phone falls out of my pocket, I have a mini heart attack. He’s right in other ways, though. Think of all the perks of ditching the smartphone: being able to text in the rain, not having to deal with that accursed autocorrect, and – well, you can’t deny it – getting to look super cool and edgy. Now, where would someone even get one? (I’m asking for a friend.)

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POLITICS pi magazine | PI MAGAZINE 713 713

CRYING

game?

Nancy Heath asks how much emotion we want to see from our political leaders

t the start of the New Year, President Obama made a heartfelt speech about tightening gun laws and controls in America which literally brought tears to his eyes. The general reception of this speech has been positive, with many voters being moved by the President’s open display of emotion. Is this an Americanism? How would we react in Britain to such a flagrant display of emotion from our politicians? Do we want Cameron reduced to torrents of tears over flood defences? Debatably the opposition leader, Corbyn is more open in his emotions that his Conservative counterpart. Corbyn’s weekly video updates are marked by his sincerity, and the individuals’ questions in PMQs are always delivered with feeling, if not fluidity. But, this still isn’t equal to the open displays of emotion seen by Obama. The question is do we want our politicians to show such emotion? Sadly, it’s usually in the wake of a crisis that emotions will run high enough to spill over into political speeches. President Hollande’s response to the Paris Attacks in November was memorable for the genuine raw emotion he displayed. It’s instances like this, when it seems that the public does want to see this from their leaders. We want to see that they’re feeling as affected by these events as we are. Voters always like to be reminded that the people in power really are people. A few

tears or a break in the voice helps this belief be accepted. Of course, Obama isn’t the only politician making emotion waves recently: Hilary Benn’s airstrike speech was impassioned. Benn showed that politicians can remain calm and collected whilst delivering an impassioned speech, enforcing: “We must now confront this evil”. No, he didn’t cry, but he used emotionally loaded language and made the horror of the Paris attacks so relatable that it could easily have been London, Glasgow,Leeds, or Birmingham. Through his use of emotion Benn also emerged seeming more relatable by talking about the topic in a way we all understand.

emotions are a natural part of decision making New psychological research suggests that politicians showing emotions actually makes them seem more rational, stating that emotions, particularly anxiety, are a natural part of decision making. “Anxiety – which means a lot in American electioneering, with its mud-slinging – generates a cognitive decision-making process,” states research leader Else Marie Holm. Emotion shows the severity of the

situation and the need for action. It’s worth wondering if emotion is as acceptable in female politicians as male due to the derogatory stereotypes that still surface of women being over emotional. For men, it’s a sign they’re connecting with the issue and the people. For women, it can be viewed as letting emotion cloud their judgement. To compensate for this, women often have to walk a finer line with showing emotion and are arguably less prone to it in politics. Margaret Thatcher notoriously showed little emotion, perhaps the half smirk on “This lady’s not for turning” being the most the public ever saw. There are certain speeches which stand out and make us remember politicians, moment, and movements, regardless of whether we support the sentiment behind them or not. Almost all such speeches are characterised by a feeling of sincerity Tony Blair’s “The people’s princess”, Enoch Powell’s “Rivers of Blood”, and Martin Luther King Jr’s “I have a dream” speech all come to mind. These are iconic moments of history are remembered due to their emotional impact and impassioned delivery. It seems people remember policies and speeches better when there’s real emotion behind them. The time for the stiff upper lip, even in the UK, has perhaps passed. No, we don’t want to vote for someone who’ll cry at every death reported in the news, but we want someone who’s affected by events. We want a politician with the emotional intelligence to know when to show their true emotions, but to also know when to not.

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PI MAGAZINE 713 | POLITICS

Lib P

icture the faces of the Lib Dems on the night of 7th May this year. Wipe away your tears. Now think: what can a party do after an electoral demolition on that scale?

According to Kit Wallen Russell, co-founder and CEO of JooMo, a facewash company (more on that later), the answer is a complete revamp of the party and its policies. Let’s think for a second about where the Lib Dems are now. They’re a party with eight MPs and the political clout of Nicola Sturgeon’s nail clippings. It’s a heavy fall from a party that had (technically) been in power for the previous five years. The party’s message is meagre at best (Can you name a single Lib Dem policy? It took me a while…), and they’ve been described by a certain Pi deputy editor-in-chief as a party “for people who don’t have opinions”.

Russell characterises the Lib Dems under Tim Farron as “going absolutely nowhere”. According to him: “They’re trying to be Labour but just sort of watered down.”

So how on earth do you get out of this rut? This is where JooMo comes into play. According to their website, the company is the maker of the world’s first 100 per cent natural face wash, and intends to take over the Liberal Democrat Party. Yes, you read that correctly. The family-run business also proclaims itself to be the answer to the excesses of capitalism, poverty in Africa, and the great modern skincare crisis. Now they

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politics | pi magazine 713

WHAT’S NEXT? Rafy hay considers the party no one else seems to

want to “solve all the mess and get the Lib Dems to be a majority party by 2025”.

This audacious strategy is based on gaining membership for their own political foundation, which would act as a caucus within the Lib Dems to push the party towards classical, nineteenth-century liberal values. Their extensive “Liberal Awakening Manifesto” is based on the “disestablishment of the ruling class” and a libertarian return to the government as a simple regulator.

It’s a novel strategy for a party which has been a politically weak entity since the rise of Labour after the First World War. The answer to the failings of the centrism of the Lib Dems could well be to bring in an entirely new manifesto of policies, and you have to admit that the policies espoused by JooMo are not being touted by any other party. Take their ethic of benefits and the government for example. Instead of the Tory position of cuts for the poorest, or the Labour position of an increased welfare state, the “Liberal Awakening” would see state support – most outlandishly, even the services of the NHS – going only to those who need them. People who could pay would have to do so, and those at the bottom of society would have a chance at equality of opportunity. It’s a nuanced position, and one which isn’t really expressed by any of the major parties. Another striking policy, and one which is sadly absent from modern political

discourse save for a handful of pressure groups, activists, and smaller parties, is that of penal reform. The foundation calls for the abolition of victimless crimes, and their willingness to reduce the prison population and focus on rehabilitation is admirable.

rowing, housing benefits, and all manner of things the British public is deeply wedded to. Their argument for a means-tested NHS is one which almost guarantees electoral failure given the widespread popularity of the NHS, even among Tory voters.

The political message promoted by the foundation does, surprisingly, have a niche. Classical liberal values, such as the primacy of fair commerce and free trade (in their words, “responsible capitalism”), have been largely ignored by the mainstream political parties for several decades. Yet, there may be widespread support for these ideas among voters previously loyal to several other parties.

So being a party espousing classical liberal principles, while arguably a good idea, doesn’t seem to be the way forward for the Lib Dems.

However, there are several major flaws with the strategies of the JooMo manifesto – probably too many to go into in this article alone. The key one is its electoral potential: there doesn’t actually seem to be a large contingent of the British public who would want to vote for their policies. If there was, their policies would probably already be in place in one or more of the existing parties. The fact that this is not the case indicates a general lack of interest and support for these ideas. Another issue, one I identified simply from reading through the manifesto on their website, is that it involves a vast amount of extensive reform, on a scale far too ambitious to allow the foundation any chance of electoral success. They propose overthrowing patent law, the EU, government bor-

There may be a totally different view as to why the Lib Dems have failed so miserably, and it isn’t to do with their policies. Third year medical student Ross Haydn Phillips sums it up well: “The Liberal Democrats have gone the way of UKIP… Their share of the vote is larger than the Scottish Nationalists but it’s spread thinly. Under first past the post, concentration of votes is rewarded.” It’s not too hard to imagine electoral success for the Lib Dems – just cast your mind back to the heady days of 2010 for an idea. With a set of popular policies that didn’t involve mass reform or a totally new conception of society, the party managed to catapult themselves into government. The Lib Dems could still be a prominent force in politics, but only if they play their hand right. They had over 2.5 million votes in the last election. In a more representative system, they’d have a good number of MPs in parliament.

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pi magazine 713 | politics

student issues: Unheard or unvoiced?

Adil Sait considers the division between students and other voters

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politics | pi magazine 713

first began thinking about whether we stop caring about student issues once we graduate when attending the Labour, Liberal Democrat and Conservative party conferences as a youth delegate for the Scouting Association in 2013. The MPs had questions to ask us about young people and public engagement, and we answered them as best we could. At the Labour conference, a young MP asked me: “How best can I engage with young people?” The question may seem loaded. Who really cares about student loans, graduation, employment, tuition fees, and all the other burdens in post-university life? Almost certainly not the vast majority of the population. However, this is a question that goes to the root of public engagement and student representation in government. In August 2015, Ipsos Mori research showed that only 43 per cent of those aged 18 to 24 turned out to vote in the 2015 General Election. Of those who voted, 43 per cent voted for Labour, 27 per cent for the Conservatives, and the rest for the smaller Westminster parties. Turnout rises with age. In real terms, this means that, although young people account for 12 per cent of the UK population, their vote is worth dramatically less, and those who are older have greater proportional electoral influence. How likely are these older people to fight for “student issues” really? The strange thing is that, while we so often hear about the political apathy of young people, students often seem more politically active and vocal than other groups. Protests against tuition fees and austerity have become common place since 2010, and have gained some wider support from teachers, doctors, nurses and those adversely effected by government policies. Other voters rally around students when issues like fee rises come under scrutiny, but this support wanes as the news cycles on. While students may focus on issues like tuition fees, employment, and education, these are subjugated in parliament to other issues such as economic growth, public services, and global competitiveness – issues

with mass appeal. Though support for student issues may exist, the government argues – possibly correctly – that it has more pressing problems to deal with. However, student issues themselves may not be the problem. At the core of the problem with youth representation is the fact that students have less power over political processes, either because they opt out of formally participating, or are deliberately excluded.

If students start voting radically, does this create a divide? Late last year, the electoral register was changed by the Conservative government in preparation for its seat redistribution efforts. This was done in full knowledge that students, being proportionally more likely to live in cities and fall into a younger demographic band, were far less likely to put themselves back on the list in their desired location than traditional Tory voters – rural, older people. The mechanics of student exclusion from politics can take even more basic forms. A prominent theory is that the first past the post system disproportionately affects the voting power of students, many of whom vote in their home constituencies, diluting the power of the group by spreading its votes across the entire country. Of course, these problems are not just limited to Britain. Max, a Biology and English student on exchange from New Zealand, says it is the same everywhere. “We [New Zealanders] have the same problems,” he says, “It’s universal – but socio-economic factors have a large part to play.” A seismic shift in political agendas over the few last decades has led to a more divided

UK. The Iraq War and the financial crisis have put political polarisation and anti-establishment sentiment on the rise, especially among students who have grown up amid this political cynicism and turmoil. Mikolaj, a first year studying Chemical Engineering says he thinks an “anti-establishment feeling means that young people are mostly at the extreme ends of the political spectrum”. If students start voting radically, does this create a divide between students standing up for “student issues” and the general consensus which is largely apathetic to them? Students who have grown up in this ideologically charged political environment might be so radical that they’ve effectively barred themselves from mainstream political representation in recent years, triggering a shift away from their interests in government. This may be an overstated case, however: anyone who’s watched the stock footage of a teenage Jez Corbyn or Ed Miliband knows that students have always been at the forefront of radical, anti-establishment politics. It seems to be that a disparate student political force has always existed, it just hasn’t been politically advantageous to capitalise on it. An exception to this rule is Scotland, where the SNP has successfully courted the student vote. In championing the rights of students, the SNP have found a proxy for Scottish economic and political freedom from Westminster – students in the Caledonian utopia have no fees, English students under the Tory yoke are heartlessly forced to pay through the nose. In spite of not gaining independence in the 2014 referendum, the 2015 general elections showed that the SNP was able to retain the momentum it had built – a striking example of the power the student vote can bring if cannily utilised. The fact is that political processes, low student turnout in elections, and protests may seem to suggest that no one cares about student issues outside of the campus. However, while problems in student representation in parliament do exist, student policies are important, and a government which were to stand up for these issues may be one with a real chance of electability.

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pi magazine 713 | politics

TONY BLAIR a divided legacy John Bilton revisits one of the most influential political figures of our lifetimes

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politics | pi magazine 713

hatever you think about him, Tony Blair is one of the most successful politicians in British history. Yet, he is also one of the most reviled, especially by our generation, despite his influence on modern British culture being undeniable. His three-term tenure as prime minister was the inspiration for Armando Iannucci’s comedy series The Thick of It, which brought us characters like inept careerist politician Nicola Murray and Malcolm Tucker, a thinly-veiled pastiche of Blair’s spin doctor Alistair Campbell. In Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour Party, the term “Blairite” is commonly used an insult, and there are some who would blame Mr Blair for the widespread political disillusionment among young people – as can be seen by our generation’s significant part in electing the more left-leaning Jeremy Corbyn as leader of the Labour Party.

And yet, Blair won three elections for his party between 1997 and 2005 And yet, Blair won three elections for his party between 1997 and 2005, and, from the political centre, presided over one of the most progressive periods in British history. Why, then, are he and his political credo of centrist pragmatism so widely hated? The obvious answer is Iraq. Blair led Britain into a war in 2003 from which it would emerge, six years later, bruised and bloodied, £9 billion poorer, and having achieved no discernible victory. The Chilcot report, a long awaited inquiry into the war ordered by Blair’s successor Gordon Brown, is due to be published next year. Expect it to be damning. There are plenty who would even like to see Blair tried for war crimes. The website arrestblair.org is offering one quarter of its funds (currently £7,413.80) to anyone who performs a citizen’s arrest on Blair. (Currently, five people have claimed the prize.) The “spectre of Iraq”, as Mr Corbyn put it, also loomed over the recent parliamentary debate on Syria. Yet, to the displeasure of many, Blair has

never apologised for his role in the armed intervention of the country. There are other reasons for Blair’s unpopularity, though. During his time in office, his slick political machine, filled with careerist politicians and spin-doctors like those satirised in The Thick of It, was widely distrusted by the public – we can see echoes of that today in Corbyn’s slogan of “straight talking, honest politics”. Unlike most former prime ministers, who tend to slip into dignified obscurity, Blair has led a jet-setting lifestyle more akin to an former US president. His various charities have spent hundreds of millions of pounds on various causes around the world. His estimated net worth is around £100 million, though he says his fortune is “less than a fifth” of that. His letters are headed “From the Office of Tony Blair”. Many Britons find this sort of flashiness distasteful.

Blair’s critics also often overlook his domestic and foreign policy achievements Even worse is his close relationship with various unsavoury regimes, notably with Nursultan Nazarbayev, the autocratic president of Kazakhstan, to whom he gave PR advice over the “Zhanaozen issue”, during which 14 unarmed protesters were killed by police in the town of Zhanaozen in 2011. This does little to enhance his credibility. Yet, despite all of this, does Blair deserve the contempt with which he is held in British society? I would argue not. His invasion of Iraq was widely supported at the time by his cabinet, his MPs, and the public. Twenty-one YouGov polls taken between March and December 2003 put public support for the war around 54 per cent. Of course, Blair was re-elected in 2005. There were mistakes made, as the Chilcot report will undoubtedly show, but the blame cannot be put entirely on Blair. Remember: Britain was only one of a coalition of countries that went to war in Iraq. Blair’s critics also often overlook his domestic

and foreign policy achievements. He led one of the most progressive governments in British history, introducing the minimum wage and the Human Rights Act to Britain. He also reformed the House of Lords, and worked for gay rights by equalising the age of consent at 16, lifting the ban on gays in the military, introducing the Civil Partnership Act, and scrapping Thatcher’s Section 28 law. Blair also oversaw devolution in Scotland and Wales, expanded the welfare state, introduced tax credits, and invested more in the NHS than any previous government. Britons generally became richer and poverty declined. He helped prevent the ethnic cleansing of Albanians in Kosovo in 1999 and sent troops to stop a civil war in Sierra Leone in 2000.

Tony Blair made mistakes when he was in power, but so has every other prime minister Arguably, Blair’s centrist Labour government managed to change Britain for the better more than any Labour government that came before. He certainly won more consecutive elections than any previous Labour leader. So why then are the young so disillusioned with him and the pragmatic centre he represents? Many young Britons do in fact appreciate Blair’s achievements – they just don’t recognise them as his. The huge waves of student protests over cuts to the NHS and welfare state, for example, are protests defending achievements of Blair governments. Political disillusionment leading to polarisation is not unique to Britain’s youth. Voters everywhere, especially young ones, are flocking to the far-left and far-right (think: the popularity of Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders in the US, and of Syriza in Greece). Tony Blair made mistakes when he was in power, but so has every other prime minister. Few have had the positive impact on their country that he has. Blair deserves a more nuanced look at his time in government, especially by the young. If he is lucky, perhaps history will grant him this, but it’s likely this redemption isn’t coming any time soon.

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Pi Magazine 713 | Science & Tech

Writing or

Typing? I

Beatrix Willimont discusses whether writing by hand is better for our studies

t’s quite poetic to think that a pen and paper are void of purpose when they’re not in the human hand. They exist solely as tools to allow us to draw symbols to which our creative minds associate meaning. Computers, on the other hand, are not creative like human beings. They are controlled and ordered in a manner that promotes efficiency but arguably hinders the little insanities that can so often lead to great, unforeseeable outcomes. The author Graham Green once said: “My two fingers on a typewriter have never connected with my brain. My

hand on a pen does”. Green, having written over two dozen novels, clearly knows what he’s talking about.

vert my ideas into typed essays on my computer. If I were in the US, I’d probably just take the easier option and resort to Adderall.

Perhaps my personal hatred of computers is, ironically, beginning to spew out of my fingertips into my word processor. Personally, when I’m tired or hungover and desperately need to get work done, there’s nothing worse than staring at my laptop screen. My eyes begin to hurt, my brain feels like a kumquat, and my concentration becomes worse than that of a toddler in a toy store. I’ve begun resorting to a pen and paper to get my work started. The brainstorming made on paper seems to allow me to easier con-

Enter a generic coffee shop, and the majority of customers are using a portable computer. From phones to tablets and laptops, people are engrossed in their devices. It’s understandable that we are all so keen on our technology, they provide a feeling of constant connectivity.

exams measure our ability to be efficient, clear, and concise The problem with these devices is that they provide infinite opportunities for distraction and mindless divertissement. They are a vehicle through which we can attain almost any information. Perhaps this is also why we attribute great value to them, even if it may be at a subconscious level. Herein lies the problem. Computers are multipurpose devices, and the sheer quantity of options they provide us with, even just in terms of distraction, tends to prove problematic when attempting to use them for prolonged concentration and to obtain a coherent stream of consciousness. When it comes to handwriting versus typing, the big secret is that handwriting boosts memory. A 1990 study by Anne Cunningham and Keith Stanovich found cursive writing requires the use of more mental faculties than typing does, as we must shape

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Science & Tech| Pi Magazine 713

each letter, requiring more concentration and expertise. It’s also a lot more personal and creative. It’s a quintessentially human experience – picking up a pen and some paper, and then composing something potentially Shakespearean in eloquence. But should we be allowed to do our exams on a computer? Writing an essay or document of any significance by hand simply isn’t likely to be something we will be faced with in our modern age. So what is the value of being assessed in such a manner? In an exam, you only have one attempt at writing it down, so literally every word counts. It seems logical to assume that marks may decrease as you sit your exams and your less than fabulous handwriting becomes part of what is assessed, even if it is done on a subconscious level by the examiner. After all, Connelly et al. found that most first year undergraduates have a handwriting efficiency similar to that of the average 11 year-old. When it comes to exams, knowledge of your subject might not be the only factor that contributes to you achieving a decent grade. Expressing yourself and articulating your thoughts onto the paper, rapidly and effectively, is greatly influenced by the medium used and our learned affinity with it. The process of preparing for exams is not, for arts students at least, simply about learning knowledge to the point of merely understanding it. We often forget that exams measure our ability to be efficient, clear, and concise, even if it’s through a medium we very rarely employ. In the 2010 Mogey et al. study, students were given the option of typing or handwriting their exam essays. Identical copies of their work, in the format they didn’t choose, were produced. No examiner marked the same essay more than once. In the end, the

most striking discovery was that the main factor that affected the variation of grades turned out to be the exceedingly vast variety of standards set by the graders. Very peculiarly, few of them awarded the same grades for the same quality of work. However there was evidence of format effect.

when typing it’s much easier to allow your thoughts to flow The paper concludes by suggesting that the “practice” (i.e. the assignments throughout the year) should be in the same format as the final exam. They suggest two options: allow students to choose their examination medium or oblige all students to type their exams. The evidence of grades differing based on medium is “negligible”, but allowing students the choice would be more justifiable. In 2014, Greenfield looked at third and fourth graders and found that having access to a word processor for four months resulted in a 64 per cent increase in the number of words written in an essay done by hand. In contrast, their peers who were not given access to a word

processor for that time showed no improvement or increase in word count. This suggests that when typing it’s much easier to allow your thoughts to flow and to edit your work. After enough time writing with a keyboard and word processor, our brains learn to carry out this trial and error process in our heads so that we always write more efficiently and clearly – be it by hand or on a computer. Maybe universities have it right by combining the two processes and forcing us to write by hand once a year at least. Hopefully, our generation won’t need to advocate for the continued appreciation of the value of handwriting and perhaps it’s decline can justify universities forcing us to handwrite just once a year. Our children may enter a world where it will not be a necessity to know how to write by hand if the education system decides to devalue it. But for now, they seem to be pretty keen on keeping it alive. Hey, maybe that’s why we get so many free pens during Freshers’?

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pi magazine 713 | science & tech

Yangyang Wang takes a look at the growing momentum behind cancer immunotherapy research

Can the

IMMUNE SYSTEM cure Cancer?

owever much or little you may know about the immune system, there is one thing we can agree on: it’s rather handy during flu season and the winter coldsnap. Recent research has made headlines by showing that our immune system does a lot more than fight the common cold, and that it could be the new saviour in cancer treatment. From a girl with leukaemia at Great Ormond Street Hospital to Jimmy Carter, immunotherapy has been the basis for innovative cancer therapies. But this is no recent development. The relationship between cancer and immunotherapy spans a century. In the 1980s, William Coley, an American surgeon, saw that the tumours of patients with bone cancer spontaneously disappeared after infection. So excited was he by this groundbreaking prospect, he coined the term “Coley’s toxins”, a vaccination consisting of dead bacteria to be injected into cancer patients in the hope of eliminating their tumours. The theory made sense but the results did not live up its promise. Cancer immunotherapy was on the backburner for many years as scientists failed to understand the process of immune regulation. How the immune system distinguished between self and non-self cells was puzzling. Tumours are nasty versions of our own body cells but cleverly avoid immune detection and clearance. For a while, scientists did not understand how cancer cells were seemingly invisible to immune surveillance and the field of cancer immunotherapy existed in a period of limbo. This was until Professor James Allison, formerly of University of California Berkeley and also known as the “Texas T-Cell Mechanic”, identified the T-cell’s immune braking system.

a cancer therapy drug using the checkpoint blockade. Ipilimuab was the first drug of this kind and was used in treating patients with skin cancer. This particular drug works by switching off the inhibitory CTLA-4 signals and allowing T-cells to kill cancer cells. New and improved versions of this drug have since been developed such as pembrolizumab, which was used to treat Jimmy Carter’s melanoma. Research in this area is also at the forefront much closer to home. Sergio Quezada of UCL Cancer Institute and his research team have also focused on a similar molecule to CTLA-4 called PD-1. Tumours express PDL1 surface markers which binds to PD-1 on T-cells to shut down their killing activity. Antibodies, Y-shaped molecules with a complementary shape to PD-L1, were made which blocked these interactions to kill tumour cells. However, a potential side effect of this treatment is autoimmunity where the immune system attacks healthy cells as this mechanism unleashes the brakes of immune regulation. According to review in the journal Science, immune checkpoint therapy currently only offers an overall response rate of 37-38 per cent in patients with advanced skin cancer in a large clinical trial. Sergio Quezada spoke about the future of his research to UCL News: “There has been very exciting progress in this field in recent years but we still need to figure out why some patients respond extremely well to these new therapies whilst others don’t, why these therapies lead to side effects in some patients and not in others and most importantly how to combine them in order to maximise efficacy and reduce toxicities.”

T-cells are a type of immune cell which can destroy infected and cancerous cells. This mechanism of immune braking is called the checkpoint blockade. Cancer cells take advantage of the checkpoint blockade and prevent T-cells from activating these cells as dangerous and destroying them.

However, this is not the only exciting area of cancer immunotherapy. The capability of T-cells extends much further, as T-cells can be engineered in the lab to recognise and destroy cancer cells. Dr Martin Pule, a clinical haematologist at UCL Cancer Institute explained the research goals of Autolus, a biopharmaceutical company spun out of the university to UCL News:

Scientists used this knowledge to conceive

“The key will be to remain at the cut-

ting-edge of T-cell engineering to create a new generation of programmed T-cells acting as autonomous agents to kill tumour cells. What we’ve seen so far in the CAR T-cell field is only the beginning.” T-cell engineering takes T-cells from a patient’s blood and then grows them in the laboratory. These T-cells are reprogrammed so they selectively recognise and destroy cancer cells by introducing a protein called chimeric antigen receptor (CAR). The modified cells are reinfused back into the patient blood where they can circulate through the body and track down cancer cells for destruction. This particular therapy gave encouraging results in a clinical trial of adult patients with leukaemia. These patients had stopped responding to other types of treatments and the disease becomes increasingly harder to treat to the point where most patients die within a couple of months. However, this treatment allowed a subset of patients to remain leukaemia free for over a year. Michel Sadelain, of Memorial Sloan Kettering’s Centre for Cell Engineering, said to The Scientist about these findings: “[Immunotherapy] represents a radical departure from all forms of medicine in existence until now.” Though the results of this therapy are promising, it is still premature to tout immunotherapy as a miracle cure. Cancer is unlike diseases such as influenza or a bacterial infection, where we know when these diseases are cured as microbes are removed from the body. It is difficult to say someone is completely cancer free as cancer cells may still remain undetected in the body, and doctors refer to this period as in remission. But the advantage of cancer immunotherapy over traditional chemotherapy or radiotherapy is that the immune system is able to retain a memory of all the bugs and cancers it encounters. This means it is ready to launch a more powerful and faster response the second time round. There is much promise about the hope of this field and it certainly is an exciting time for cancer immunologists.

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pi magazine 713 | science & tech

Important issues in research Martina Aghopian, Tom Rivlin, and Janice Yiu highlight important issues in their fields Funding in Science Martina Aghopian

sking anyone for money is always an awkward situation. However, it’s a prospect most of our lecturers regularly face. Professor Jonathan Butterworth, head of the UCL physics and astronomy department, wrote a piece on the woes of funding for The Guardian. One quote in particular stood out: “The balance between hypothesis-led research and data-collection for its own sake needs continual discussion.” What determines whether a project should receive funding and how much a certain project should receive are big questions. The potential socio-economic value that research could generate is often something that is considered when applying for funding. With limited money available, funding agencies like the EPSRC and STFC have to allocate grants carefully. However, it’s surprising to find out that the UK only spends 1.7 per cent of its GDP on scientific research, where Germany spends 2.9 per cent. While it might not seem like a significant difference, we are talking in terms of billions of pounds. The worry is that more and more researchers will start to go abroad for better funding prospects. This would, over time, degrade the level of scientific research in the UK. In 2013, an analysis by BIS showed that the UK has 0.9 per cent of the world’s researchers, and that they have generated 16 per cent of the most highly-cited papers. To top it all off, 90 per cent of our research, funded by the public, is classified as “internationally excellent”. What’s clear from the funding debate is that we need more funding if we want to maintain the UK’s current high-quality level of research.

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The Excess of Success Tom Rivlin

Not just your regular, ‘Ouch’ Janice Yiu

Running a journal isn’t free, and they serve an important role by weeding out bad science. “Journals do add value in the form of peer review,” says Professor Jonathan Tennyson, a UCL physics academic, “But that is not to say certain journals don’t get very rich by charging high fees.”

Professor Wood and his colleagues at UCL focussed on studying individuals born with congenital analgesia, who are unable to feel any pain. Miss C, a woman in the 1960s, reported that she felt no pain despite being subjected to severe electric shock.

cientists publish their research in academic journals, and reading these journals is expensive. Most UK universities spend over $1 million a year paying subscriptions fees to Elsevier, just one company among many. Mars robots and cancer drugs aren’t cheap so surely the money would be better spent elsewhere?

Therefore, is the current situation the most just and effective that it could be? Many people see open access publication as a solution. Under open access, articles are free and journals make their money (usually) by charging researchers fees to get published. A contemporary challenge in science, therefore, is getting more journals to sign up to business models like this. It’s by no means perfect, though. It can cost a few thousand pounds to get published in some journals, with Professor Tennyson saying: “I’m not sure if £3000 is a good use of taxpayers’ money.” Along with journal publishing, physicists upload all papers to ArXiv, an open access repository of physics papers. If universities stopped paying subscription fees, we could still read most papers published. “Universities pay journals out of inertia,” says Tennyson, “I’m not sure the current model… is sustainable.” Academics are beginning to vocally oppose the practices of journals like Elsevier – it seems the battle is only just beginning, and the future of science itself may even be at stake.

ain is a personal experience that is hard to measure, unlike high cholesterol or diabetes - it is influenced by age, gender, stress levels, and cultural learning. The language of pain is different to other biological processes, but scientists at UCL have made monumental leaps in understanding the physiology and psychiatry behind pain signalling mechanisms.

Recently, Wood identified a link between defects in pain signalling and non-functional sodium channels 1.7, which suggests this defect is playing a role in preventing these people from sensing pain. It also appeared that in mice models, as well as a lady without functional sodium channels 1.7, there was an increased amount of opioid peptides in the sensory neurons being produced by their bodies. Opioid peptides are a form of opiate that is widely known for its pain relieving effect. By blocking opioid peptides activity, the lady was able to experience a sharp, intense feeling (pain) for the first time in her life. “This result casts a very different light and highlights the dangers of focusing upon a single molecular target in the complex brain process,” said UCL’s Professor Maria Fitzgerald. This finding has reignited hope for research that we will hopefully soon allow us manipulate all manner of physical pain.

sport | pi magazine 713

Photo Credit: Helen Dickman

Barely Bonding

Nicola Chew explores what UCL sports teams are like underneath the kit

eam bonding is a crucial component of sporting success, transcending all levels of play, from recreational to professional. It’s an ideal preached by captains and coaches gunning for victory.

asm for the this year’s feature. It prompted some to hit the gym and whip their figure back into shape, something President Lydia Collett and Men’s President Quintus Carr admitted to.

Although tennis was one of the clubs with low turnout for the calendar shoot, rather than being disappointed by the lack of support, Jasmine “pitied” those who didn’t turn up.

Some teams prefer to host regular socials to help build a team atmosphere, others use rigorous training camps or intra-team friendlies. But what about stripping the team bare of any fronts and pretences – literally?

“We are already a very close-knit club,” they said, “When you’ve posed naked with this lot you’re definitely a little closer. That said, it’s only inevitable that you see a little more than you’ve bargained for.”

“I never thought I would enjoy a morning catching accidental glimpses of people’s bums,” she said, “But screw it, I did.”

UCLU sport’s annual charity calendar, now in its fifth year, has featured a variety of UCL’s bets sports teams, revealing all to raise funds for the mental health charity MIND. With 12 sport societies allocated a themed photograph for each month, team members were exposed to not just the camera lens but to each other. It’s a strangely intimate affair, letting down all barriers with a group you had thought you were already very familiar with, having seen their physical strength, stamina, and endurance on the sporting field. But does getting naked with your teammates bring camaraderie to a whole new level? The lacrosse team has a history of being featured in the calendar, and missing out last year has only fuelled the club’s enthusi-

For the women’s rugby team, getting naked for the charity calendar was a chance to induct the new members. “We definitely think it helped bonding the team,” said Vice Captain Kitty Dennis. It seems that partaking in an activity which requires collective nudity can really help break the ice – that is after you get past the awkwardness. According to Dennis, the newer members were able to “acquaint themselves with each other’s sense of humour” in a totally unique environment. When asked, Jasmine Wong, president of the tennis club, gave an honest account of the matter. “I am well aware that I’m not a Victoria’s Secret Angel,” she said, “Insecurities aside though, I decided baring it all was a lot less of a big deal than I was making it out to be.”

Being naked around others, it would seem, is only as serious as you choose to make it. The men’s rugby club illustrate this idea better than any other team. They have gone a step further this year, baring all again in the attempt to raise £5000 for Prostate Cancer UK. 2nd Team Captain James Morris admitted the naked shoot is “just a bit of fun.” For sports like rugby, the process put individuality aside which ultimately heightened the “in it together” mentality of team sport. There seems to be a general consensus that getting naked with your mates is seen as a bigger deal than it actually is. Posing au naturel, albeit an unconventional method, is seemingly effective in helping teams boost spirit and morale. The bare moment may be over in a flash of the camera, but the entire operation is sure to leave a far more lasting, intangible effect.

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Pi Magazine 713 |TRAVEL

T R AV E L blogging

101 Aleksandra Lifshits speaks to travel blogger, A Lady in London

any of us dream of exploring the world, but only the lucky few among us actually get to do it. One of those people is Julie Falconer, known online as “A Lady in London”. Despite social media’s oversaturation of bloggers, Falconer has managed to stand out from the rest. She has nearly 100,000 followers on Instagram and has been singled out by publications like Esquire, La Repubblica, and Harper’s Bazaar. So not only has she travelled to over 100 countries, but she has managed to make a living from it. Before becoming a travel blogger, Falconer studied International Relations at Brown University, an experience that both sharpened her writing skills and filled her with a hunger for discovery – two things that laid the groundwork for her future career. Although Falconer did not take photography classes at university, she has picked up essential photography skills on her own.

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The travel blogging community’s growing dependency on Instagram and Tumblr have made photography skills a prerequisite to succeed. In fact, Falconer said more of her time is spent on photography than writing nowadays. Something Falconer made clear during our interview was that travel blogging requires much more than just good writing and photography skills. A creative mind and a practical view of the world is necessary to make it to the top.

guage, they get excited and simultaneously more comfortable knowing that someone took the time to learn their language,” she said. So, travel blogging doesn’t sound too difficult does it? At this stage, you may feel emboldened to try to become the next Julie Falconer. But how about the practical bit of the trade? How exactly does she manage to fund her travels?

For example, knowledge of languages is essential. “Knowing different languages has helped me tremendously, especially in South America and Africa where Spanish and French are essential to get around,” said Falconer.

At the beginning, when sponsors are few and far between, Falconer said self-funding is essential. After graduating, she worked at Goldman Sachs for a couple of years and then at a hedge fund in San Francisco. “I appreciated that part of my career greatly as it helped finance my future in a certain way,” said Falconer.

Not only do languages help with everyday logistics in foreign countries, they also break the ice with the locals. “When Czech people hear their uncommonly spoken lan-

But, of course, not everyone has a job at an investment bank that can help them kickstart a career in travel blogging, so Falconer suggested other ways into the business. She

Photo Credit: Helen Dickman

travel TRAVEL || pi Pi magazine Magazine 713 713

said there are work exchange programmes like WWOOF, Helpx, and Workaway that allow you to work abroad in exchange for food and shelter, reducing the costs involved in traveling.

wasn’t at the beginning for Julie, setting aside time to work on the blog is essential. She would wake up an hour early every day before going to work to spend time on her blog.

Identity is important in blogging, and Falconer said it’s important to find a niche and stay true to it: “I recommend finding something you are really passionate about because you will be stuck with it for a long time.”

“It was the only time I could consistently find to actually work on it,” she said. “Other people say they will work on it every Wednesday night or Sunday morning, but I always ended up having something planned for the evening or the weekend.”

The most difficult aspect of the job is getting the blog to take off, as the amount of time and effort needed to promote it can be draining – especially when no one seems to be interested. “One of the hardest things at the beginning is asking yourself: Why am I doing this, no one is reading it anyway?” said Falconer.

Even after gaining a significant number of followers, there are still more hurdles along the way. In order to make travel blogging sustainable (i.e. monetise it), Falconer said she had to seek out and build relationships with sponsors. Tourism groups and hotels partner with travel bloggers and sponsor their trips, but the itineraries on those trips are fully laid out for the bloggers. They have a full schedule, giving them little flexibility to explore on their own.

When barely anyone seems to be reading your posts, it’s easy to put off writing. If blogging is not your full-time job, like it

According to Julie, finding a sponsor is about finding the right fit. “Only if something really fits with my audience will I take the partnership,” she said, “If it doesn’t, I won’t take it even if it’s a well-known tourism board or a hotel.” At the end of our interview, I had a newfound respect for travel blogging as a career – it’s not always as glamorous as Instagram may suggest. One picture of a Mai Tai on the beach in Phuket belies a life consumed by writing, promoting, and working around the clock. Falconer doesn’t regret giving up her day job to live a life of constantly crossing borders, though: “I loved the Maldives for its beaches. I loved Chile and Namibia for their natural landscapes. I loved Thailand for its food. You can ask me tomorrow and I can tell you a completely different list.” Read more about Julie Falconer’s travels on her blog: aladyinlondon.com

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Pi Magazine 713 | TRAVEL

Dark tourism: Visiting man’s m Lydia Webb considers the morality of visiting places where people have suffered

ark tourism – when people visit places associated with death and suffering – is an interesting concept. These sites preserve evidence of some of the darkest moments in world history, from natural disasters to concentration camps. They can be found all over the world: Auschwitz in Poland, Pompeii in Italy, the Kigali Genocide Memorial in Rwanda, they city of Hiroshima in Japan, and Chernobyl in Ukraine, among many others. It wasn’t until I was given the brief for this article that I realised just how many of these sites I have personally visited over the years, which got me thinking: why is there a market for such places that remind us of our own mortality? One purpose – and possibly the most important purpose – of these sites is education, as they commemorate significant events in a country’s past. Without these sites and the museums they are so often attached to, it would be difficult to understand why a country is the way it is today.

I definitely don’t regret going In order to get the most out of our travels don’t we have need to understand at least some of a country’s past, especially if it has had a profound effect on its current population? While I was on my gap year, I visited the

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TRavel | Pi Magazine 713

mortality Killing Fields and the S21 Genocide Museum in Cambodia, and I wasn’t quite prepared how difficult that day would be. The barbaric history of Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge regime, which slaughtered millions of innocent civilians, was something I hadn’t heard that much about previously. When the tour guide described the staggering extent of the violence, the group’s collective was palpable. Although I came away from the Killing Fields with mixed feelings, I definitely don’t regret going because it gave me a crucial insight into Cambodia’s troubled history and the national conscious of the country I was visiting. We hear statistics about atrocities like the Holocaust everyday, but to me numbers are so alienating that I don’t think they help me fully comprehend the horror. Physically being at the places where these atrocities happened humanises them. At the Anne Frank House Museum in Amsterdam, being led through the tiny and cramped attic where she lived in hiding with her family was a physical explanation of how truly awful this period in history was. The museum is an important memorial, bringing her story to life – a reminder to us that each victim of the Holocaust was a person with hopes and dreams like any one of us. For families and descendants of victims, visiting these places is a way to pay tribute to their ancestors who have suffered. When Jonny Weinberg, a second year History student, visited the Holocaust memorial

in Prague with his family, they stumbled across the name “Weinberg” on the memorial. According to Weinberg, this was a powerful moment for all of them.

Are these sights simply exploiting the suffering of others? But those of us without a personal connection to a human catastrophe lack that specific motivation for visiting some of these places. More often than not, we are driven by a morbid curiosity to find out more about unfortunate events. In the same way that someone might watch documentaries about plane crashes or murders, we as human beings have a macabre fascination with death and inhumanity. Another question is whether it’s ethical to make money off of these tragedies. Does the educational aspect outweigh the financial gain? Are these sights simply exploiting the suffering of others? In the case of genocide, our obligation to commemorate the atrocities as a warning to future generations likely outweighs any negatives.

Photo Credit: Helen Dickman

That being said, there are troubling aspects of the dark tourism trade. A practice some have dubbed “poverty porn”, in which people visit slums like Rio de Janeiro’s favelas, is increasingly common. Although visitors may see a slum tour as a way to give themselves perspective on their own lives, something about it is uncomfortable. The proceeds raised from these tours do go to local charities, which benefits the residents of the slums, but wealthy people effectively paying to observe people who are suffering as a form of entertainment is deeply unsettling. Past suffering is one thing, but this is almost definitely voyeuristic and exploitative. In light of recent disasters, dark tourism sites are constantly springing up. The Costa Concordia, a cruise ship that sank two years ago off the coast of Italy, has already become a tourist draw. The Fukushima plant at the centre of the 2011 nuclear disaster is currently being transformed into a tourist attraction. Given that humanity will always be at the mercy of nature and itself, there will not be a shortage of sites in the future either. However, it would be a shame if these sites weren’t open to the public. Even though dark tourism can seem exploitative, most of these sites are thoughtfully set up to promote reflection. If I hadn’t visited any of these sites, my awareness of these issues would be nowhere near what it is today. Seeing them for yourself is such a powerful experience. Yes they charge for admission, but as long as the money goes toward something positive, whether that be educational outreach programs or charitable initiatives, the pros outweigh the cons.

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CAMPUS

STYLE x

FAUXFUR

DAISY WU Third Year

Moleculat Biology Fur Lined Denim Jacket from ASOS

page 32

RUBY EVENS Third Year English Brown Aviator Jacket from Spitalfields Market

WILL COPP First Year Chemical Engineering Black Jacket from Urban Outfitters

MICHELA DE NICHILO Masterâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Degree Slade Turquoise Fur Coat from Italy

TASHA TENNANT Fourth Year Arts and Sciences Leopard Fur Coat Vintage

page 33

LUNCH BOX FLASH BACK

Frubes

Whoever invented yoghurt that could be eaten mess-free, without a spoon was a genius. The days when you would sit down, open your lunchbox, and cry at the sight of your exploded yoghurt (which had also ruined the rest of your lunch) were long gone.

Jessie So reminisces about the things we used to have in our lunchboxes during primary school

Cheestrings

Before Cheestrings landed in our lunchboxes, cheese just wasnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t the same. Sure we ate it, but something was amiss. Where was the fun factor? Cheestrings were the answer.

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life & style | pi magazine 713

Fruit Winders

Fruit Winders had no nutritional value whatsoever, but they were fun and basically like having sweets for lunch. And does anyone else remember those comic strips on the strip of paper?

Capri Sun

Named after the Italian island of Capri, thereâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s nothing more reminiscent of summery days sat on the school field, eating your packed lunch.

Dairylea Dunkers

They were just great.

Penguin biscuits

When I gave my friend a Penguin bar as a birthday present she looked up at me and said: "Is this some kind of joke?" "Yes," I replied, "And on the inside there's a chocolate covered biscuit." page 35 Photo Credit: Helen Dickman

Pi Magazine 712 | Life & style

PIECES OF CLOTHING TO REPLACE BEFORE YOU TURN 20

Jaguar FUNGSA tells you what not to wear when ENTERING ADULTHOOD Obscene language T-shirts

Most of us were born in the 1990s, when wearing shirts saying “Don’t be sexist…bitches hate that” was acceptable. But this is the 21st century – we’ve evolved. You just look immature. It’s time to throw these in the bin marked “teenage memorabilia” and replace them with floral or Aztec print t-shirts. They’re surprisingly on trend and easier to integrate into your everyday wardrobe than you might think. Don’t be afraid to try more daring and colourful patterns. Pair them with denim jackets and shorts for a casual look, or layer with a blazer for a classy night out. Shop: Hype Massive Floral Long Sleeve T-Shirt £32.00, justhype.co.uk

Converse All Star

This one may be hard. I mean, who doesn’t love a good pair of Converse? I swore by them during my younger years. While they may win points for comfort and versatility, no adult should be caught wearing them unless they want to look like a teenager. Chuck those Chucks away and replace them with a pair of stylish leather or suede loafers. If you can’t live without trainers or want to get in on the sports luxe trend, then a pair of all white Vans or Onitsuka Tigers are great alternatives. Shop: City Gommino Moccasins In Nubuck £ 285, tods.com; Vans True White Authentic Trainers £44.99, office.co.uk

Leavers’ Hoodie

The final year of sixth form is a bittersweet time for us all. The thought of not seeing your close friends every day for the rest of your life is saddening indeed. While the leavers’ hoodie gives us something to look at, put on, and remember those good times, there must finally be a time when we finally let go of the past – and the hoodie. Replacing old and faded hoodies with versatile and trendy crew sweatshirts is a great first step. They’re as easy to throw on as a hoodie, but infinitely more fashionable. Shop: Black trouble in paradise slogan sweatshirt £25.00, riverisland.com

Baby-G Watches

These colourful, plastic watches were all the rage back at school, but now they just seem tacky and cheap - maybe because they are. Sure, they may still appear from time to time in pop culture (ahem, Pitch Perfect 2), but to say they have fallen out of trend would be a severe understatement. Luckily, there’s more than enough choice out there, especially with the advent of smartwatches like the Samsung Gear S2 and Apple Watch, which have the benefit of being more than just simply a watch. They won’t replace smartphones anytime soon, but being able to check your Instagram feed or bus arrival times on them is handy, in addition to being all cool and futuristic. Shop: 42mm Space Black Stainless Steel Case with Black Sport Band Watch £519.00, apple.com

Overalls

Cowgirl chic may look cute when you’re 12, but after the age of 20, the only things made of denim in your wardrobe should be jeans or a jacket. Overalls were originally made for construction workers, and they should stay that way. While they’re functional and easy to throw on, denim jackets provide the same advantages without making you look like you belong on a farm. If you’re going for the rustic, easygoing look, denim jackets are also the perfect replacement. Those lined with faux shearling are especially trendy, giving you the added warmth needed during the brutal winter months. Shop: Boyfriend Sherpa Trucker Jacket in Snow Dust £105.00, levi.com

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life & style | Pi Magazine 713

lwithoutivingthe

Internet for

DISCONNECT

Day

CHARLOTTE LIU takes on THE CHALLENGE TO disconnecT for 14 hours.

ike most of us, I live constantly connected to the internet. I decided to see what my day would be like without it, and here’s how it went.

08:00 AM My alarm goes off. Through the night, I’ve received a few WhatsApp messages from friends living in different time zones. I usually reply when I get up, but not today. I switch off mobile data and Wi-Fi. 08:30 AM Without the distraction of answering messages, I leave home on time and head to campus. It’s a 20 minute walk – normally the time I scroll through social media. I had posted on Instagram the night before but can’t check how many likes and comments my photo has received.

IT’S A REFRESHING CHANGE FROM MY USUAL HASTE TO TICK THINGS OFF THE TO-DO LIST.

09:00 AM It’s the first tutorial of the day. We’re meant to have small group discussions, but we usually procrastinate, have a bit of banter, and answer some messages before properly settling into work. Today, however, I get down to business far more quickly. It’s 10 minutes in, and I’m actually prepared to ask questions. 10:00 AM There’s an hour break. I had intended to go on Moodle to print out notes and submit society finance claim forms via email. Annoyingly, I can’t do either. I go to get a free coffee from Waitrose instead, then hang around my department’s social space. It’s a refreshing change from my usual haste to tick things off the to-do list. 11:00 AM It’s the least interesting lecture of this term. I typically have the handout on my iPad, but get distracted by Facebook or Buzzfeed. Without those distractions today, I’m determined to pay attention, yet end up zoning out anyway. 01:00 PM To make this internet-free day less painful, I’ve scheduled a research study at the Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience for the afternoon. Four hours of participation in an experiment should help the time go quicker. 05:00 PM What else can I do that doesn’t require the internet? Grocery shopping perhaps. Like always, I take my time looking at Tesco’s offers and planning what to cook for the next few days.

06:00 PM Back home and surviving this day fairly well. I cook dinner and, instead of streaming the latest episode of The Big Bang Theory, I have to make do with an older episode already on my hard drive. 08:00 PM Living without the internet is actually costing me more time dilly-dallying! I’m far too engrossed in the show and watching episode after episode. I’d like to get started on my coursework, but it requires research from online journals and data processing with online software. Maybe I’ll just clean the flat instead. 09:00 PM I’m sitting at my desk attempting to read, but I’m too preoccupied with thinking about all that needs to be done once the internet is back in my life. My flatmate and I make some hot chocolate. It is great to sit and chat without checking my phone every few minutes. 10:00 PM Finally gotten through the day! I grab my phone and connect to the internet. It starts buzzing insanely from 14 hours worth of notifications. My society’s committee group chat has accumulated over 200 messages, some friends are waiting for me to confirm an outing, and worse, my mum has sent me a few messages with the final one asking: “Are you okay?” It’s time to reply to everyone. First though, I need to check my Instagram.

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Pi Magazine 712 | Life & style

section | Pi Magazine 2015

SO YOU’RE SUPER

HUNGOVER...

Mikey williams OFFERS tips for minimiSng the effects of THE DREADED hangover.

h, the hangover. This article could chide you on the pitfalls of excessive drinking, or smugly tell you how “one more drink” is never a good idea. But let’s be honest, it often can be. University is about having fun, right? A severe hangover is just a price we all have to pay from time to time (albeit some of us more frequently than others). Here are some handy tips to make the day after slightly less painful.

THE NIGHT ITSELF Fats and proten before

“This tab article is just a bunch of pictures of a girl dressed up as a bunny.”

“wanna come get twatted in krakow for new year’s?” “IF HE MAKES ME CARBONARA, I’LL PROBABLY HAVE SEX WITH HIM.”

“I’m off tofu shopping.”

“I can’t call my parents - I’m sober!” >> Heard something funny around campus? Tweet at us @OverheardatUCL or with the hashtag #OverheardatUCL. page 38

Contrary to popular belief, minimising your hangover relies more heavily on what you do before you booze than on what you do after. While some people swear by “carb-loading”, lining the stomach with protein and fats is actually more effective because they do a better job at slowing down the absorption of alcohol. Scrambled eggs or peanut butter on toast are quick and easy options to fix up before a night out. ‘

Clear spirits

As a rule, there are more congeners (the substances which increase hangover severity) in darker-coloured drinks. Red wine and whiskey aren’t your friends bourbon, for example, contains 37 times the congeners that vodka does. So, if possible, reach for a gin and tonic, not a rum and Coke.

THE MORNING AFTER Berocca, Dioralyte or a sports drink

Get your vitamins and electrolytes. Pop some Berocca or Dioralyte in a glass of water upon waking. Or even better, have one when you stumble in drunk at 3am. Alcohol suppresses the antidiuretic hormone vasopressin which normally stops you from urinating, hence the multiple loo visits while drinking and the need to replace water and vitamins the morning after.

Sprite or 7-Up

This is a pretty simple one. Chinese researchers recently found that carbonated drinks like Sprite or 7-Up help the body metabolise alcohol by speeding up our ability to process aldehyde dehydrogenase (ALDH), one of the main culprits of hangover symptoms.

Coconut water and eggs

In addition to being a source of rehydration, coconut water contains lots of potassium, which you lose a lot of if you’re urinating constantly. Low levels can cause hangover symptoms. So, slug it back. You may also want to eat some eggs (again). The amino acids from the protein in eggs help the liver in breaking down toxins in the body. So yes, there’s now a legitimate excuse for a cheeky fry-up.

Hair of the dog?

We’ve all been told about the supposedly miraculous effects of a Bloody Mary – but does topping up the next morning actually help? I’ll spare you the science, but, in short, at best, drinking more delays the worst symptoms of a hangover – nothing more.

page XX

MU SE Pi MAGAZINE’S CULTURE SECTIONS

Recommends

muse | pi recommends

page 40

FILM & TV

By: Charlotte Palmer, Tamsin Hilliker, and Cecile Pin

The Last Days of Disco (1998)

Whit Stillman’s “Doomed-Bourgeois-inLove” trilogy details the lives of young, privileged New Yorkers – or the young and privileged who move to New York and make total fools of themselves. The Last Days of Disco, the second in Stillman’s series, focuses on two women (Kate Beckinsale and Chloë Sevigny) and their self-absorbed, self-serving acquaintances. Dancing is the only thing they’re capable of doing unironically – and at a time the disco scene is vanishing fast. It’s so incisively funny it’s painful to watch, but you won’t be able to stop returning to it for the sharp dialogue and faultless aesthetic.

The Addams Family (1991)

With the rise of dungarees, Whitney Houston, and grunge, there was one 90s family which was immune: the Addams. Inspired by the cartoons of Charles Addams, they are a satirical representation of everything goth and have become the archetype for an unconventional family of loveable weirdos who embrace their quirkiness and aren’t afraid to be themselves. The humour is wickedly macabre, yet with jokes that can be appreciated by all ages.

Freaks and Geeks (1999-2000)

This dramedy is a TV show set in a 1980s high school that aired between 1999 and 2000. It focuses on Lindsay, her rebellious “freak” friends, Lindsay’s little brother Sam, and his “geek” friends. Produced by Judd Apatow, you’ll recognise some familiar faces in the cast, like James Franco and Seth Rogen. You’ll laugh at the caricature-like characters while still enjoying the plot lines. Although it was cancelled after only one season, it has since garnered a cult-following and acclaim from critics. And, on the plus side, it means you can binge-watch the entire show in just one weekend.

pi recommends | muse

LITERATURE

MUSIC

ARTS

40 Sonnets Don Paterson

Too FIDLAR

Art and Alcohol, BP Spotlight Tate Britain

By: Byron Abad

A collection of graceful, riveting, and penetrating poems. Each of the sonnets are written to a friend or a stranger, dead or living, and all are varied in their form – some adhere to a more traditional verse, some are successfully experimental. But what these sonnets share is a beautifully realised lyrical intelligence. They allow us to speak with themes that we all can relate to: contradiction and irregularity, the dream world, love, loss, life death, childhood, family, and the divided self.

Bad Marie Marcy Dermansky

A gripping read guised as a deceptively simple book. Written in clear and determinedly unpretentious prose, Dermansky’s characterisation of the main protagonist, Marie – a tall, voluptuous, thirty year old woman who has just been released after six years of incarceration and is forced to go work as a nanny for her childhood friend, Ellen – is masterful. Things get complicated when Marie finds herself fleeing to Paris with Ellen’s husband and child. On the run and clearly out of her depth, Marie will journey to distant pastures and grapple with the highs and lows of foreign culture and lawless living as she figures out how to be an adult, how to be a mother, and how profoundly she can possibly love. Though an immensely flawed character, it’s hard not to care about Marie and find oneself cheering for her.

The Rosie Project Graeme Simsion

I ravenously read this over two days. It’s a hilarious, feel-good novel, narrated by an oddly charming and socially challenged genetics professor, Don, on an unusual pursuit: to find out if he’s capable of true love. You cannot help but develop a fondness for him. He views life with such a beautiful naivety – he austerely knows the workings and technicalities of people, and yet is unable to comprehend that humans are chaotic, individual works of art.

By: Sophie Harris

FIDLAR’s Cali-rock tones have gained a large (although, still cult) following worldwide. Too, their 2015 release, is arguably their best yet. Their music is still relatively simple, harking back to the powerchords of punk. But this simplicity, combined with raw, heavy vocalisations of lyric anthems creates a euphoric, anti-establishment mood. There is still an underlying, classically Californian, laid-back attitude beneath the harsh vocals of Zac Carper, which through in the lyrics. Look out for 40oz on Repeat, Punks, and Why Generation, all of which are key players on Too.

Holo Pleasures Elvis Depressedly

The distinctive vocals on Holo Pleasures sound like they’ve been recorded on a cassette player, providing the tracks with a personal, homemade, almost endearing quality. The EP, released in 2013, has six fantastically melodic songs, the low-fi causing the tinny guitars to distort slightly and merge with the bass. Teeth, a shorter song on the EP, is a personal favourite. Its singsong, three-chord structure and simple melody give it a loveable quality – the type of song you’d find in a quirky rom-com like Juno. Also look out for Weird Honey and Okay, two other standouts.

Corrine Black Honey

We absolutely fell in love with Black Honey after hearing the release of their single Corrine in late 2015. Madonna, their other single release in 2015, is possibly their most well known song, racking up over a million hits on Spotify, but compared to Corrine, it comes across as generic rock-pop. After touring with The Wytches, Black Honey is certainly on the rise and certainly a band to look out for.

By: Anna Tomlinson

Try making student life and our collective affinity for drinking more cultural by checking out this exhibit at the Tate Britain. Art’s relationship with drinking goes back to William Hogarth’s relationship with gin. The spotlight, curated by David Blayney Brown (the same man who curated the Late Tuner exhibition last year), contrasts painting and sculptures. There’s plenty of time to go see it and show all your friends, as it’ll be open until 30th September 2016.

Julia Margaret Cameron Exhibit V&A

After suffering through all the artsy Christmas photos of reindeer decorations and mince pies, visit the V&A to see a different side of photography. The exhibition looks at the beginnings of experimental photography, focusing on the female photographer Julia Margaret Cameron. Her work is artistic, haunting, and unusual – especially for her time.

Kinky Boots, The Musical The Adelphi

The show is bright and cheery, exactly the cure for the January blues. The story focuses on Charlie Price, struggling to meet his father’s high hopes for him and the family business, until a chance meeting with drag queen Lola and her backing dancers gives him the key to reviving his shoe empire. It has received fabulous reviews from critics and stars some of the most well-known, experienced actors in the West End. Go to see for yourself if all the five-star reviews live up to the hype.

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SUPER (thin) MODELS “N

Helen Dickman explores the rise and fall of the 1990s supermodel othing tastes as good as skinny feels”. Well Kate Moss, I’m here to tell you otherwise.

The “pressure of skinny” is something a majority of the teenage population can relate to – I for one most certainly can. But why do we aspire to these unhealthy and frankly unattractive forms? While I don’t believe there is anything wrong with wanting to be thin, there’s a fine line between being healthy and being unhealthy, and for the past few decades, that line has been a Burberry catwalk. The fashion industry in the 1990s grew out a period of beautiful, curvy women. During the 1970s and 1980s, the industry and its models promoted a fuller body aesthetic than they do today. Now, this glorification of a size 0 (UK size 4) figure has been known to lead to some serious issues such as anorexia and body dysmorphia. If the 1990s came after an era of the voluptuous bikini babe, during which size 10 (UK size 14) was the norm, why did this so drastically change? Cindy Crawford, one of the original beauties of the industry, has openly said she feels sorry for the models of today. And yet, while we watch the size 0 and size 2 (UK size 6) models strutting down the catwalks of the Louis Vuitton show, the average size for a woman in the UK is a size 16. Have you ever seen a size 16 supermodel? No. Me neither. In fact, in the modelling industry, sizes 8-10 (UK sizes 12-14) are considered “plus-size”. To me, this seems absurd. These plus sized models -- with a few exceptions -- are never as successful as their “normal size” counterparts.

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By creating these categories of “plus-size” and “normal size”, all the industry is doing is creating a discourse of an unattainable body image. It makes it seem like a size 8 is abnormal – but it’s not. In the US, this is starting to change. There are a number of American plus-size models, ranging between sizes 14 and 22 (UK sizes 18 and 26), who are finding success, a big first step toward fashion better representing the everyday American woman. While this is a change I support, I think you have to be careful to not go too far the other way – promoting an obese body image is no better than promoting an excessively skinny one. It’s time the industry finds the balance. Perhaps if runways weren’t one or the other, but a mix of body sizes, then women wouldn’t feel the need to fit into either extreme. Having a mix of sizes, as opposed to one ideal, helps make variety normal and rids the feeling of women needing to fit a mold. In recent years, the fashion industry has found itself at the centre of another hot topic: the objectification of women. But is this really happening as much people say it is? Of course it’s an issue, but I think most people are missing the point. Fashion is art. The act of designing, creating, and displaying clothing is an art. It may not be accepted as an artistic practice

whole.

by institutions like the Royal Academy, but for those of you who made it to Alexander McQueen’s Savage Beauty show last year, I think you’ll agree with me. Models are part of this artistic aesthetic. They’re the mode of display for the clothes, for the art, and their entire appearance is one part of the

Another interesting question is why modelling is such a female-dominated profession. Does it just have to do with the nature of the fashion industry? Is it just because there are more brands, designers, and products for women? Men can be these walking works of art as well, can’t they? Perhaps we give

arts | muse

the female form a certain value and aestheticism that we don’t give the male form? And yes, we all ogle the Victoria Secret Angels seemingly sent from ideal body heaven. But don’t we do the same to the chiseled, topless Calvin Klein men? I will openly hold my hand up, and say I have most definitely objectified well-known Dolce and Gabbana model, David Gandy.

Today, our role models seem to be changing. Women like Kim Kardashian (who, let’s be honest, may not be a role model in every other respect) flaunt their big bottoms and boobs like there’s no tomorrow, comfortable with having no thigh gap and a size 12 waist. And you know what? They should be proud. Beauty shouldn’t be dependent on what size you are.

“Skinny” and “overweight” are too overused today -- what should really matter is that you are healthy. Whether you’re naturally slim or curvy, as long as you’re staying healthy, it shouldn’t matter. So while Kate Moss may argue that “nothing tastes as good as skinny feels”, I leave her my own pearl of wisdom: chocolate tastes pretty fantastic, too.

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muse | arts

ave you ever found yourself flicking through the photos of the postmodernist architecture group on Facebook to avoid continuing that annoyingly long reading for Monday’s seminar? No? Well I do, and more frequently than I should probably admit. But what is postmodernism? A comprehensive definition is conspicuous precisely because of its absence. It seems anything can be postmodernist. In fact, postmodernism seems to pop up in a variety of different contexts, from architecture and art, to geography articles on informal economies in rapidly developing cities. It seems we find ourselves in a bit of pickle where postmodernism is concerned. In order to get out of it, I decided to walk around UCL and annoy the hardworking maths and engineering students with my somewhat vague – or you might say postmodernist – questions. Being naturally shy and overall somewhat of a loner, I enlisted the help of my friend Mei, who would ambush people before I started asking them questions and showing them three bad quality grayscale printouts of a piece of postmodernist art, a postmodernist side-board, and a postmodernist building. Unsurprisingly, the first two people I interviewed owned up to knowing nothing about postmodernism. The first, who self-identified simply as “a medic”, said the artwork shown was “confusing”, while the

building looked cool in a pop-arty way. The second, Eisuke Shimizu, a second year Mechanical Engineering student from Japan, was even more confused by the whole thing. Not only has he never heard of postmodernism, but after being shown the photos, he claimed to have “no idea” whether it merits being an actual art movement. While loads of nerve cells were lost trying to talk to strangers, no progress was really made. So we quit the Maths Department café and headed to the Print Room. After all, those scientists weren’t that helpful. Along the way, I ambushed a fellow first year Arts and Sciences student, Judith Gerkenstorm, who was much better informed about the whole postmodern thing. She wrote her IB extended essay on postmodern literature, and thus went straight to literature when asked about postmodernism. She thought that postmodernism was invaluable as a movement that strives to make sense of the human condition as it is, even if we aren’t living in a completely postmodern age. So it seems that we have the objective of the movement sorted: to make sense of the human condition. However, when it came to central features that define postmodernism, she was as hopeless as the others. Outside of literature, she couldn’t think of any. When it came to architecture, Gerkenstorm had no idea. Asked whether she’d like to

WHAT ON EARTH IS...

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live in a postmodern building, she had “no idea what it looks like”. By this point, our energies were completely exhausted, so I decided to switch to Facebook for further interviews. This proved successful in the sense that I got overtly negative responses. Paris Chen, a postgraduate student at SSEES, used three blunt phrases to describe postmodernity: “Ugly artworks. End of human aesthetic creativity. I’d rather live in a madhouse [than in a postmodern house].” Another fellow Arts and Sciences student, Hana Salih, used slightly less apocalyptic language, claiming postmodern architecture to be “too dark and imposing, almost dystopian”. But, she believed that postmodernism as a social movement is instrumental for changing our relationship with the environment and cities. Moving away from the modernist ideas of rationality and one directional change is particularly useful if we are to re-evaluate the top-heavy disruptive approach to urban planning and cultural progress. So, am I any closer to defining postmodernism? No. Postmodernism is a movement that defies definition, and this is okay. As my friend Mei kindly pointed out: it is a movement that is still going on, and we are usually unable to appreciate any art movement fully until it has become historic. The whole aim of postmodernism is to understand human behaviour, not to try to theorise it.

arts | muse

ERNISM? Mikhail Iakovlev talks to people hanging around UCLâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s cafes

Muse| Music

A short histOry of feminism in music Jonny Chadwick explores the impact of feminist musicians

ust as the wider social movement has evolved over the past three decades, feminismâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s portrayal in music has transformed from protest songs firmly in the alternative domain, to the thematic core of some of the biggest pop releases of recent times. The increased visibility and acceptance of feminism in pop culture has brought with it greater inclusiveness, with BME women now the face of the movement in the music industry. Nonetheless, as with most issues that hit the mainstream, the feminist tagâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s ubiquity has brought disagreements too, particularly as some question the motives behind previously apolitical musicians suddenly adopting pop cultureâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s newest fascination. Feminism as a cult movement within the music industry gained prominence in the 1990s in the form of Riot Grrrl: a loose grouping of highly-educated, angry, confident young women in bands (often formed at university), making scrappy lo-fi punk rock about domestic abuse, rape, and sexuality. Artists like Bikini Kill, Sleater-Kinney, and Heavens to Betsy embodied the movement at that time. They were enthusiastic activists who were well versed in academic feminism and sick of the patriarchy. Photo credit: Reginald Pentinio

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musicPi|magazine muse 713 | Music In many ways, Riot Grrrl was the sound of a mass protest in song format. Defiant, loud, and indignant, it was the musical equivalent of women throwing off societal roles and snatching power back from misogynist oppression. The movement garnered a cult following, and the music gained much critical acclaim. The influence of groups like Sleater-Kinney cannot be understated. Upon their reunion last year, a swell of indie acts jumped to state the band’s significance in their own musical and political educations and evolutions. However, while Riot Grrrl put feminism on the map in the music industry, crafting an important space within the social discourse, it received criticism that seems particularly pertinent considering the face of feminist music today. Ramdasha Bikceem, founder of the magazine Gunk, wrote that Riot Grrrl had become “closed to a very few i.e. white middle class punk girls”. Indeed, Courtney Love, another musician who might fit into much of Riot Grrrl’s aesthetic, has in the past labelled Kathleen Hanna of Bikini Kill a “hypocrite”, and wrote the song Rock Star mocking the perceived snobbery and bourgeois nature of the movement. This highlights recurring criticisms of the greater feminist movement: it’s too impenetrable, too middle-class, too white. Whether it was Madonna arguing with Sinead O’Connor, or white male acts like Fugazi and Nirvana writing songs about rape and sexual assault, feminist music was angry and not afraid to shy away from graphic details, but could not yet claim to be universal. The Spice Girls’ mid-1990s legacy of course merits a mention, but it was the early 2000s that saw an industry-wide shift in focus. Two acts in particular represented the state of feminism in music in the early 2000s: P!nk and Destiny’s Child.

While P!nk firmly found the middle ground between Riot Grrrl and the pop sounds of the day, it was Destiny’s Child who would truly embody the feminism of early 2000s R&B, most notably with the song Independent Women. The trio represented an entirely new incarnation of feminism in music: diverse, populist, and beautiful.

From the album’s production (begun shortly after Beyoncé had conceived as encouragement to mothers that they need not halt their careers entirely for the sake of pregnancy), to its content (extolling the pleasures of oral sex), and the stage show (featuring interludes of famous feminist speeches and a giant projection of the word feminist behind the singer’s extravagant stage), the album declared feminism an accessible and marketable phrase and movement. Beyoncé was not alone, with other high profile pop stars enthusiastically associating themselves with feminism. From Nicki Minaj, to M.I.A., to Taylor Swift, female musicians seem to have few inhibitions about aligning themselves with the broader movement, and this has permeated the discourse surrounding female musicians throughout the music industry. Pop personalities like Miley Cyrus sparked furious debate about their representation of other women in their stage shows, as the privilege of white women has once again come to the fore. The difference is that this debate is no longer being played out in the alternative music press or university circles, but on stage at the MTV Awards and on national radio. Of course, with feminism becoming something of a market-friendly tag, it is unavoidable that there might be some at best clumsy, at worst cynically opportunist, attempts to capitalise on its sudden profitability – Lily Allen’s somewhat contrived and ill-considered Hard Out Here video springs to mind. However, this seems to be a fringe issue. The most notable element of this sudden wave of interest in feminist ideals in pop culture and music is its inclusiveness. Led predominantly by women of colour, feminist pop music today is unashamedly bold, undeniably cool, and unprecedentedly popular – finding an audience in everyone from teenage Tumblr devotees to feminist scholars who are pinching themselves, still unsure whether this is all just a dream.

Fast forward to 2016, and feminism can no longer be described as alternative, hidden or alien – it’s front and centre. Beyoncé may have championed the strengths of women a decade before with Destiny’s Child, but it was not until late 2013, and the release of her album, Beyoncé, that she actually named her defiant diva aesthetic for what it was: feminism. From the album’s production (begun shortly after Beyoncé had conceived as encouragement to mothers that they need not halt their careers entirely for the sake of pregnancy), to its content (extolling the pleasures of oral sex), and the stage show (featuring interludes of famous feminist speeches and a giant projection of the word feminist behind the singer’s extravagant stage), the album declared feminism an accessible and marketable phrase and movement. Beyoncé was not alone, with other high profile pop stars enthusiastically associating themselves with feminism. From Nicki Minaj, to M.I.A., to Taylor Swift, female musicians seem to have few inhibitions about aligning themselves with the broader movement, and this has permeated the discourse surrounding female musicians throughout the music industry. Pop personalities like Miley Cyrus sparked furious debate about their representation of other women in their stage shows, as the privilege of white women has once again come to the fore. The difference is that this debate is no longer being played out in the alternative music press or university circles, but on stage at the MTV Awards and on national radio. Of course, with feminism becoming something of a market-friendly tag, it is unavoidable that there might be some at best clumsy, at worst cynically opportunist, attempts to capitalise on its sudden profitability – Lily Allen’s somewhat contrived and ill-considered Hard Out Here video springs to mind. However, this seems to be a fringe issue. The most notable element of this sudden wave of interest in feminist ideals in pop culture and music is its inclusiveness. Led predominantly by women of colour, feminist pop music today is unashamedly bold, undeniably cool, and unprecedentedly popular – finding an audience in everyone from teenage Tumblr devotees to feminist scholars who are pinching themselves, still unsure whether this is all just a dream.

Photo credit: Mark Jordan

The former’s aesthetic was not dissimilar from the Riot Grrrl movement: aggressive, defiant, and distinctly contrary to the traditional expectations of a woman. Songs like Most Girls reflected this, with P!nk buying a car and paying her rent, and letting no man getting in her way. The difference was this was pop music. It was catchy, glossy, and hit the top ten.

They brought female empowerment out of the university seminar and into the teenage girl’s bedroom. Strong female musicians were no longer outsiders, but leading the mainstream.

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muse | music

MAD

ness

concept of musicâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s mad genius

in M

S I C Young-Jin Hur explores the

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music | muse

he idea of the “mad genius” is not a new one. The notion can be traced back to the Romantic movement, in which madness was seen as a gateway to realms beyond the ordinary. Given the individuality and subjectivity of Romantic philosophy and art, madness was thought of as a privilege for a composer, and even a requirement for a great one. It was seen as the ultimate gift given to a selected few, allowing them to break norms and reveal previously unforeseen possibilities. The biographies of Romantic composers such as Beethoven, Schumann, or Tchaikovsky are filled with stories of unsettled relationships, psychotic obsessions, and endless personal struggles. The concept of the tortured, mad musician still transfers over to the modern day. Never mind the likes of Peter Gabriel, Kurt Cobain, Syd Barrett, Brian Wilson, and Ian Curtis, but we’re slowly learning that even seemingly stable-minded musicians like Freddie Mercury lived relatively unbalanced lives. Simply suggesting that madness is equal to genius is both bold and ignorant. The prodigious English composer Benjamin Britten once remarked in a tongue-incheek fashion: “The old idea of a composer suddenly having a terrific idea and sitting up all night to write it is nonsense. Night time is for sleeping.” If we look at Britten for advice, it appears the popular idea of inspiration being found in crazed moments is false. In recorded interviews, musicians like Neil Young and Slayer reject the mad genius myth, repeatedly emphasising that they are “in fact, quite normal”. So, why have audiences felt the need to apply this label to composers and musicians

for generations? And why are we so fixated on what deviates away from the ‘normal’? It seems there are two explanations. On the one hand, the “madness” associated with the musical genius may just be a result of their values and habits (i.e. some artists tend to act in a certain way because they think it looks cooler). On the other hand, it may hold an actual cognitive basis. This latter explanation seems more interesting.

it would be ridiculous to label anyone who writes a wonderful piece of music as mad, and vice versa If a musician is labelled as a “genius”, that suggests their musical prowess and creative qualities lie at the extremes of normality. Surely it can be said, then that geniuses are, to some degree, abnormal. They have something everyone else doesn’t: the golden ticket to unique creativity. Academics have actually found differences between the brains of “creative geniuses”and those of everyone else.

Historians like John MacGregor and artists like Paul Klee endorse madness as a precondition of being an inventive genius. The psychologist Cesare Lombroso found physical, data-based evidence suggesting that insanity was the root of fantastic creative impulses. He concluded that madness could “transform into painters, persons who had never been accustomed to handle a brush.” The works of notable psychologists Anthony Kemp and Neel Burton derive similar assumptions, and Antony Storr’s book Music and the Mind also concludes that musical creativity is inherently associated with mental illness. But we can’t be too hasty. Although there’s clearly a link between genius and insanity, it would be ridiculous to label anyone who writes a wonderful piece of music as mad, and vice versa. And just because many great musicians and composers were psychologically unstable, this doesn’t mean all talented artists are. In fact, the links found between genius and madness have caused the idea of madness or mental illness to become sickeningly en vogue. Just think of the popular obsession with the so-called “27 Club” of musicians who have died at the age of 27. By linking mental issues with brilliance, are we unreasonably glorifying mental illness? And are musicians now pretending to be mad in an effort to be seen as a genius? There may never be a straightforward explanation to the phenomenon of the mad genius. Although there are unarguably links between creativity and madness, for the majority of musicians, any outward appearance of madness is likely just the manifestation of an ill-conceived fantasy.

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Muse | Film & TV

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Film & TV | MUSE

TV COMEDIES:

THEN AND NOW Jonny Weinberg discusses the changes comedy series have experienced since the 90’s

he camera fades in inside a grey, mundane office. A man in an equally grey suit is looking through a filing cabinet. He flicks through each file before pulling out a bottle of whiskey, unscrewing the cap, and drinking. As a laugh track plays, there’s a buzzing sound and a female voice, a secretary through an intercom, announcing the arrival of some important figure. The man stalls for time, taking a few more gulps from the bottle, and sucks on a mint as his boss arrives. The rest of the sketch unfolds as you would expect. The sour face superior has come demanding a late report, while the man stumbles around drunk behind his back. Straying aimlessly about the room, looking for the non-existent report, he breaks the blinds, crashes into plants, and eventually falls out the window, all the while punctuating these accidents with the words: “I’m not pissed, you know”. This sketch was typical of The Fast Show. First airing in 1994 and pitched as “fast-moving comedy sketches”, the show was one of the most successful comedy programmes of the 1990s. As a viewer in 2016, the laugh track is instantly apparent. Long since dispensed with in all but the worse BBC comedies, it underlines each comic moment, at times making the jokes feel a little forced. The setup of one “straight” character and one “funny” character is also typical of the show. Paul Whitehouse, Charlie Higson, and Mark Williams all made their names here, excelling in the exaggerated and larger than life comic roles the sketches were built around. Less central are the roles for female actors, who are mostly confined to playing

secretaries or girlfriends, as in this sketch. Most of the time they are merely support to the more embellished male roles, existing to accentuate the larger characters. Female comedians are yet to reach parity today, but the imbalance here is striking. Despite this, The Fast Show is genuinely enjoyable and consistently funny. It’s easy to see why it became so popular in the 90s, as well as so respected by other comedians. Though it was the most popular, it wasn’t the only thing around. The 1990s saw developments in “alternative comedy” that permeated mainstream television. Where The Fast Show fitted into the tradition of more classically British comedy – following the well-established acts of people like Stephen Fry and Hugh Laurie – shows like Fist of Fun and Brass Eye offered something different. Fist of Fun starred the double act of Stewart Lee and Richard Herring, and, in some ways, looks even less like today’s comedy than The Fast Show did. There are some laugh tracks over sketches, but the links, which are used to move from one sketch to another, are done in front of a live studio audience. This in itself is a departure from both The Fast Show and more modern styles. The links merge with the sketches, containing their own routines and running jokes. These are often the funniest bits – Lee and Herring naturally riffing off each other and exploiting their natural chemistry. Of course, they’re not playing themselves, but comic versions of themselves, breaking the fourth wall and blurring reality. The sketches themselves are darker, more surreal, and less reliant on returning characters – the

whole format is just more innovative than The Fast Show. Even more surreal than Fist of Fun is Brass Eye – the work of Chris Morris, who would go on to create the film Four Lions. Dispensing entirely with sketches, Brass Eye is a satirical parody of a newscast, with Morris playing the belligerent news reader as well as some of the other characters. Each show was dedicated to a issue (e.g. animal rights, drugs, etc.) and included real guests. These guests, often celebrities, would be tricked into giving sincere opinions about the ridiculous fake events dreamed up by Morris. Brass Eye was fast-paced, bizarre, and extremely funny. These surreal, alternative shows were more prevalent in the 1990s than today, rebelling against the stale, traditional programmes of the 1980s. 1999 saw the birth of Simon Pegg’s sitcom Spaced – about two out-of-luck losers struggling through life – and set the tone for the next decade and shows like Peep Show and The Thick of It. An era of panel games and sitcoms followed, which in recent years has begun to be replaced by shows like the Netflix phenomenon Orange is the New Black and Portlandia. The presence of alternative comedy on television didn’t last long. Brass Eye lasted one series, while Lee and Herring failed to establish TV careers like Paul Whitehouse. Although great new comedy is being produced in 2016 (usually online), there is a tendency to play it safe. The comedy programmes of the 1990s show us that imagination, invention, and humour are often found at the comedic fringes.

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muse | film & tv

ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE in film

hen thinking about artificial intelligence, two key points of view often emerge. There are those filled with fear, imagining a world in which robots have complete control over the human race. Others are more optimistic and long for the day when a robot can become their helper and companion. Computer scientist John McCarthy first coined the term “Artificial Intelligence”(AI) in 1956, to refer to machines that are capable of human-like reasoning, problem-solving, abstract thought, and self-improvement. Films have always portrayed a specific type of robot when portraying AI, choosing not to distinguish between the three calibers of AI that actually exist. The first one is Caliber 1-Artificial Narrow/ Weak Intelligence (ANI), that is designed to help us in our day-to-day lives. These take the form of simple programmes such as the calculator on our smartphones. Then there is Caliber 2-Artificial General/ Strong/Human-Level Intelligence (AGI), which can perform any intellectual task that a human being can. It is yet to be created, but can be seen with the robot TARS in Interstellar or R2-D2 in Star Wars.

Finally, Caliber 3-Artificial Superintelligence (ASI) has an intellect that would surpass even the smartest of our lecturers. ASI is usually seen in older films, like HAL in 2001: A Space Odyssey and ARIAA in Eagle Eye. ASI leads to what is known as “technological singularity”, a situation where normal rules no longer apply and our technology’s intelligence exceeds our own. In the decades since John McCarthy started work on AI, the public’s attitude towards it has changed drastically.. We may think that artificial intelligence is a relatively new phenomenon in film, but the first mention of AI in film was in Metropolis, which was released in 1927. The film follows an evangelical figure named Maria, who advises desperate fac-

Amber Doig-Thorne discusses the portrayal of artificial intelligence in films PAGE 52

film & tv | muse

tory workers to be patient and not start a revolution. A scientist named Rotwang decides to build a robotic gynoid with the appearance of Maria, and uses it to fool the workers and betray their trust in Maria, ushering them into a full-scale rebellion. Many other films followed suit, with a similar view on how AI could be the end of humanity. In the last decade or so, films have begun to take a more positive look at AI. This shift has been accompanied by a more positive attitude towards AI from the public at large. Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, WALL-E, Her, The Machine and most recently, Interstellar, all show how humans can work together with AI to form a better, more efficient world, solving global issues that humans alone have not been able to.

We need to look at embracing AI as another technological leap With all these futuristic, sci-fi films, it’s easy to forget the ways in which AI has already help us in our daily lives. General AI is the working force behind the spell-checker that helped me write this article, the infamous chess-playing application Deep Blue, and Siri on Apple’s iPhones. Siri is a form of general intelligence, yet Apple users never complain about their fears of Siri taking over their life or the planet. The next stage in achieving super AI is as large a step, technologically speaking, as

when we first introduced computers in 1947. At that time, the public was scared, because the technology was new and unknown, and the same is happening with AI. This situation is not being helped by the films that make the public think that any kind of robot would destroy their homes and take over their lives (think of films such as Blade Runner or Terminator). We need to look at embracing AI as another technological leap, just like the smartphones of the early 2000s. AI is slowly creeping into everyday life for commercial purposes, whether the public is aware of it or not. This was seen in the run-up to the release of Ex-Machina, a story about a genius who is testing his AI bot to see if it can pass the Turing test, a test of a machine’s ability to exhibit intelligent behaviour indistinguishable from that of a human. The film’s promotional team decided to place a robot on Tinder, creating a profile for a fictitious 24-year-old woman named Ava (the name of the AI robot in the film). The film focuses on the implications for romance in the era of AI, with the lead male falling in love with Ava, which eventually leads to his demise. This Chabot fooled thousands of male users into thinking they were speaking to a real woman. They asked emotional questions which you would not expect from a robot, like,“Have you ever been in love?” and, “What makes you human?” This test shows how even basic AI can fool humans, as well as men on Tinder. The whole point is that the robots can be indistinguishable from humans themselves. As we get ever closer to the age of super AI, there will undoubtedly be more films with negative views of AI and its potential to end the human race. At the same time, though, there will also be films focussing on how the super intelligence of super AI can help fix the major issues we have yet to solve ourselves.

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Film & TV |Muse

Going the Way of the Western Caine Bird Questions the apparent demise of the Western

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Film & TV | muse

ll the cowboys have retired, apparently. “We were around when the western died,” Hollywood authority Steven Spielberg said to The Associated Press. Each genre has its moment, and, according to Spielberg, “there will be a time when the superhero movie goes the way of the western”. Spielberg’s uneasy predictions have upset the status-quo of the booming Hollywood machine before, and observing an overdue “implosion” of the western fell on the anxious ears of journalists, cinephiles, and industry moguls alike. Spielberg’s bleak declaration of the genre’s death, however, carries an implication: the western is stylistically obsolete, especially when compared with newer and emerging genres.

The genre is anchored to a historically specific phase of US history Headlines have forecast a time when the appeal of the western would dwindle in the wake of more relevant genres. A considerable number of sites have crowned the freshest fad of comic book iterations as its natural successor, ushering in the era of the geek. In 2013, The Atlantic published a sentimental analysis of the Western’s reported decline, noting its core attractions of heroism and exploration still represented many American ideals. In the wake of Spielberg’s indifferent phrase, “the way of the western”, that

suggests the genre is going through an enforced retirement, we should not forgot its relevance. These growing declarations that the western’s value has expired or, as The Atlantic writer puts it, that it’s a genre “lost” to the new generation of cinema, seems like a pre-emptive eulogy for a kind of film that’s actually making a welcome return. Amid its 2015 return are some notable titles: Diablo, The Revenant and Bone Tomahawk. The western is often thought of as a timeless and cherished genre. On one hand, the frontier is a symbol of the American identity, and on the other, it offers a space to explore relevant cultural and social issues. Once an ominous, expansive landscape home to a whole array of hazards, over time, the frontier has become a controlled place. In the broadest sense, the western is about the taming of these wild plains, but the frontier is more than just rough territory. Film critic Philip French’s claim that “the one thing the western is always about is America rewriting and reinterpreting her own past” alludes to the genre’s potential to reflect cultural changes. The turbulent self-image of America has gracefully slipped through periods of turmoil, usually to surface as a rather romanticised version of itself. It’s tangled up in cultural meanings, mobilising American values, and these meld into a mythic, embellished memory of a time and place. The genre is anchored to a historically specific phase of US history, but its narratives are not necessarily mummified in time. Rather, the western is at the intersection between past and present and bears the burdens of affirming and contesting identity. The superhero genre is too, perhaps, better interpreted as a generational document.

Attached to the genre is a mantra borrowed from Cormac McCarthy’s novella No Country for Old Men: “This country will kill you in a heartbeat and still people love it.” There’s a grain of truth in McCarthy’s musings on the western and it’s one that is frequently exploited by the maddening visions and wild offerings of Quentin Tarantino. The last two instalments in his eightpiece film catalogue have both been pulpy, zany westerns.

the Western is at the intersection between past and present Gritty, bleak, and oozing wickedness, the spaghetti-western Django Unchained found traction in the mainstream as an off-kilter tale of redemption, dotted with his signature twist of maniacal characters and personalities. And if the title of his upcoming film The Hateful Eight suggests anything, then the genre still has more hatefulness to be painfully extracted. No stranger to the genre, his past films have tactfully plucked a jumble of visual cues and musical inspirations from the Western genre, delicately meshing them into the fabric of his own mismatched narratives. This dismantling of the western across smaller, more derivative sub-genres of its classical form have built into a kind of elastic resiliency. It may have gotten old, but the genre is anything but dead.

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Muse | Literature

three’s a crowd:

The Literary History of the Love Triangle (and why it will never die)

CAlvin Law explores our immense curiosity surrounding love triangles in literature

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he love triangle – or the clash of affections between at least three characters, often centered around one specific individual, the apple of various eyes – can be found in many of the greatest works of literature. Through the drama it generates, the love triangle structure has

achieved a permanent place in the history of English literature. Far From the Madding Crowd is a classic example of a literary love triangle and shows its narrative strength. Each of the the male suitors – Gabriel Oak, Frank Troy, and Wil-

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liam Boldwood – helps to develop a different aspect of the main character, Bathsheba. Troy is the showman who lays bare Bathsheba’s weakness, as she cannot see past his act. The unfortunate wealthy landowner, Boldwood, is the money-based, as opposed to a love-based, option for Bathsheba, mirroring Bathsheba’s lessons on love. Oak is the constant moral anchor of the novel whose quiet energy circles the louder affairs of the other love interests. While it’s clearly implied that Oak is the one for Bathsheba in Hardy’s Far From the Madding Crowd, this is not always the case.. In L.P. Hartley’s The Go-Between, distinctions are more ambiguous. Marian’s attraction towards the assertively masculine Ted Burgess is palpable. However, his less savoury traits – an aggressive temperament and tendency toward selfishness – are equally revealed to the narrator. The third man in this case, Marian’s fiancé Hugh, is arguably the most likeable character in the whole book. In contrast to Burgess, whose masculinity is undeniable, he is the more quiet underdog who gradually proves himself to be an equally, if not more worthy, lover to Marian (even though he’s not her true love). Our sympathies are divided, which is clearly Hartley’s intent. The greater the drama, the stronger the text is as a whole, showing us that the multiplicity of potential love interests can greatly fortify a plot. Although the term “love triangle” is a fairly recent creation, the very literary concept stretches back to the oldest of tales. Take for example, Thomas Malory’s Morte Darthur. Malory draws the budding romance between Lancelot and Guinevere gradually to the forefront, while pushing Arthur into the background. The discovery of this love triangle culminated with the fallout of the Round Table, requiring the complete reversal of roles by all three people involved. One of the reasons this story has become a legend, and a powerful literary text, is the love triangle structure at its centre.

One of problems with love triangles for modern authors is one which has retroactively affected authors of classic novels, as well: the “shipping” of love interests. For every passionate supporter of the warped, but ultimately tender and loving romance between Rochester and Jane Eyre, for example, there is an advocate for the quieter, more pragmatic St. John Rivers. Perhaps the fascination with the love triangle for readers is that there’s no obvious conclusion until the very end. And, for writers, the endless options the love triangle structure provides is an interesting problem to work around. Is it possible to write a romantic resolution that’s satisfying for all parties?

the power of the love triangle resonates long after the pages have turned In order for the love triangle to work as a literary device, the “other character” (e.g. Rochester in Jane Eyre) must possess positive qualities, but not to the extent that they completely overshadow the “chosen character”. The probability of the other love interest being the “one” must be high, but not excessively so. If they’re completely out of the equation, they must, at the very least, be depicted as an interesting character in their own right – take for example the cuckolded Stephen in The End of the Affair. He was never any real match for the charms of Maurice Bendrix, but his platonic, husbandly love for Sarah Miles makes him, if

not a viable option in the resolution of the love triangle, a crucial part of it. In this day and age, the love triangle has become something of a recurring trope in young adult (YA) fiction. As tedious as it is, it just sells. The idea of “shipping” is exploited over and over again. Take, for instance, The Hungers Games trilogy. One of the many problems I’ve always had with The Hunger Games series is that Gale is simply not fleshed out enough as a character to make him a viable love interest for Katniss. If we compare it to the Twilight series, Twilight is definitely the stronger work in terms of overall plotting and ingenuity. Stephanie Meyer’s trio – Edward, Bella, and Jacob – make for a more engagingly unpredictable set of relations than the decidedly more obvious route Katniss takes with Peeta. Gale is not a horribly written character, he is just too removed from the main plot to make an impression in the love triangle. For the perfect construction of love triangles, however, look no further than the Harry Potter series. The central tensions between Harry, Ron, and Hermione wonderfully transition into the growing feelings and neuroses of teenage love. Over the course of the series, there are also various other love triangles, which greatly add to the story’s depth. In particular, one which underlies the whole arc of Harry’s past, revealed in The Deathly Hallows, is the love triangle between Lily, James, and Snape. Through just a series of limited flashbacks and brief hints, Rowling builds up a blossoming triangle, as well as a powerful tale of unrequited, yet time-honoured love – the type of love that eventually manifests itself in the most heroic, extended act of self-sacrifice I’ve ever seen in literature. Indeed, the participants may fade or even die, but the power of the love triangle resonates long after the pages have turned. When done right, it is perhaps the most powerful storytelling technique of all – equal parts joyous and heartbreaking.

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