Issue One - 2015

issue one -back to where you’ve never been-

03

Contents

Editorial 04 Meet the Editors 05 Things I’d wish I’d known 08 Back to the present 10 YouTube talk 12 Ideal Bodies – Women 14 Ideal Bodies – Men 15 ‘Bout 2 blow up 16 My culture is not a costume 18 If I didn’t mind the distance 22 Food imitates art 24 Gun control in Australia 26 Pills and double standards 28 Why you should jump off a bridge 30 Golden Globes for golden locks 32 #hatemyjob 34 Savings takes cents 36 Cocktail recipe: The Liberal spiller 38 Fee deregulation 39 The death penalty 40 In defence of Tony Abbott 42 Climate change, give a fuck 44 Trigger warning 46 Privacy: Sia later 48 Showcase: Poetry 50 Serial: Back to where you’ve never been 52 Showcase: Art 54 Showcase: Photography 56

Issue one

Vertigo

Editors Christopher John Quyen Dinh Rachael Versace Gabrielle Lei Sambavi Seermaran Cameron Hart Allison Bermingham Gabrielle Kate Joshua Cram James Wilson Steph Aikins Katie Kendall June Murtagh Creative Directors Ting He Rose Wallace McEwen Designers Collette Duong Matthew Harrington Brian Nguyen Angela Tam Joy Li Owen Cramp Contributors Isha Bassi Declan Bowring Ben Chapple Alexander Cochrane Tom Crotty Harry Goddard Raveena Grover Sammy Howes Megan Ji Katya John Sam Langshaw Samantha Low Diandra Malivindi Lauren Meola Lauren Newcombe Vanessa Papastavros Emma Rose Smith Design Contributors Rekha Dhanaram Laura Adamson

Vertigo is published by the UTS STUDENTS’ ASSOCIATION Proudly printed by SOS Printing Email us at advertising@utsvertigo.com for advertising enquiries

04

Issue one

Vertigo

editorial So, UTS opened that Dr Chau Chak Wing building during the break.

Depending on whom you ask, it resembles either a crumbled paper bag or a sandcastle the ocean is attempting to reclaim. Climate change is a thing, so maybe the latter is foreshadowing. Vertigo’s editors and designers didn’t really get a break.

(Like, whatever.) But like UTS, we changed a fair bit – by choice and hopeful/devastating circumstance.

Also, deadlines are life changing.

Be open to a world that is changing.

Maybe draw the line at climate change, though. Seasons are hard enough in this country. There are other reasons, too; see Declan Bowring’s article on page 44 for why you should give a fuck.

In a better world – the world I’ll pretend we [live/exist/fuck around/ love/verb] in, university is a choice to surround yourself with people who challenge you. Anything else is a waste of time. Tertiary education is a choice to find the people who will love you for the pretentioushopeful-weird-terrified kid, and shouldn’t be ashamed of. There’s a faith we keep with who we are. A sentiment worthy of Taylor Swift, as Katie Kendall will tell you while wondering if T-Swizzle will pay her university fees under deregulation.

Our theme is what we want for you.

The clichés, yes – experience new people, new places, and new shiny things. But also, the ability to shape your future and your community, to reconcile the person you were with who you are becoming. Vertigo revels in voices. Write for Vertigo.

Share ‘you’; no matter what choice you made to get here. Vertigo doesn’t discriminate against noncommunication kids, but there are structural problems we want to help you overcome.

In this issue, you will find lots of politics, a distinct lack of italics, too many feature articles and hipster content. You can see we’re trying to broaden your horizons. But seriously, make sure you participate. Submit to Vertigo. Join in with things. Do your readings. Make sure you check out Megan Ji’s article about cultural appropriation on page 18 and Lauren Meola’s first segment of the Vertigo serial – a short story spread across all editions of Vertigo this year, which anyone can volunteer to write for. on page 52 If you’re not sick of Tony Abbott, there are few articles to enjoy at his expense. And really, that’s just the tip of the iceberg. No, that’s terrible. Fuck off, Joshua.

thank yous Design Team Dance Parties Chicken Google Translate The Irish

fuck yous Deportation Sydney Trains Retail work Deadlines Rain Italics

- Joshua and the Vertighosts

Copyright & Acknowledgement of Country Vertigo and its entire contents are protected by copyright. Vertigo will retain reprint rights; contributors retain all other rights for resale and republication. No material may be produced without the prior written consent of the copyright holders.

Vertigo would like to show its respect and acknowledge the Tradition Custodians of the Land, the Gadigal and Gurring-gai people of the Eora Nation, upon whose ancestral lands the university now stands. More than 500 Indigenous Nations shared this land for over 40,000 years before invasion. We express our solidarity and continued commitment to working with Indigenous peoples, in Australia and around the world, in their ongoing struggle for land rights, self-determination, sovereignty, and the recognition and compensation for past injuries

05

Issue one

Vertigo

meet the editors – what do we want double of?

Gabrielle Lei

Cameron Hart

Katie kendall It takes double to make me functional:

I’d like to have a doppelgänger, but

The saying goes “Good things come in

a double shot coffee, a double length

entirely in the name of science. Once,

twos”, so going by that logic, we should

Taylor Swift album, and the desperate

I read an article that scientists believe

like doubles of everything. I mean, think

denial that I really do have double the

that if someone saw an exact clone of

of all the good things that come in twos

time I actually give myself to get ready in

themselves they wouldn’t recognise

- boobs, limbs, boobs, socks, oh, and

the morning. In my down time between

them because purportedly the human

did I mention boobs? Two seems to be

furiously editing and working (double

idea of what we believe ourselves to

the magic number. If I were answering

time), I wish I had double the current

look like is so vastly different from how

this question with a cheesy grin in a ball

episodes of Twin Peaks and wish the

we actually appear. Of course, after

gown at a Miss Universe competition, I’d

average bookshop had a poetry section

that myth has been busted, I’d sell the

say all I want is “Double all the food on

double the size. I wish there was double

extra parts on the black market to help

earth to end world hunger.” But really,

the time in each day to write. If you like

pay for my HECS (Thanks a lot, Pyne)

just give me double my bank account

a good laugh, and a strong cup of cof-

or something deeply essential, such

balance and I’ll be happy fulfilling my

fee, then you’ve already doubled the

as a thousand kittens or a villa in the

materialistic needs.

chances I’ll love you.

Maldives. Ah, the possibilities.

Joshua Cram

Christopher Quyen

Allison Bermingham My name is Allison with a double l. In

Double rainbows are phenomenal sights

What would I like double of? Patience.

most cases, double of anything is a good

that have caught the public’s eyes ever

Time. Money. Elephants. Cats. But two

thing, double the savings, double the

since it brought tears to one-hit wonder

times zero is still zero. Two minds — but

legroom and of course double the pay

MMA Fighter, Paul “Bear” Vasquez. I

my horoscope apparently said I’d be

when you decide to work that pesky

too enjoy double rainbows, but prefer

in two minds until I die, and that’s a bit

Sunday shift hung-over. I have spent my

watching human and nature interacting

worrying. I actually would prefer twice

entire life fixing people’s mistakes when

with each other in awkward stand-offs.

the time, though. To read and watch

it comes to the spelling of my name.

whole seasons of television, to balance

Alicen. Allysan So I guess what I’m saying

things – but I’d probably just waste

is double is a good thing except when

that time, too. I enjoy procrastination.

you name your daughter Allison with a

I would like to double down on that.

double l. I still love you, mum and dad.

06

Issue one

Vertigo

double or nothing Rachael Versace

Steph Aikins

June Murtagh I’m a Media Arts and Production

I enjoy doubling back on myself in all

I spend the vast majority of my days in a

student and ice cream enthusiast

areas of life so that I can experience

perpetual state of dizziness, so seeing

whose strengths include going to bed

the same mistakes multiple times and

double is something I’m quite familiar

early, laughing at your jokes, and not

never learn my lesson. She is proud

with. Once, I happened upon a helpless,

understanding pop culture references.

that this trait applies to all areas of her

silver bunny being attacked by a cat on

Weaknesses include small talk, wra-

life and has fostered in her a talent for

the side of the road, and swiftly rescued

pping presents, and tolerating slow

procrastination, over-eating, drinking

it. Now, I see two bunny rabbits every

walkers. I’m a strong advocate for

too much wine and dating all the wrong

time I look out onto my backyard - two

doubling the amount of hours in a day.

people. As a result, she experiences

cottontails and two button noses that

We’d be able to see double the amount

déjà vu often and has come to regard it

wriggle and crinkle ever so sweetly.

of sights, meet double the amount of

fondly as a personal ‘Flashback Friday’

Lately, I’ve found that my orgasms have

people, hear double the amount of

that can occur any day of the week and

been occurring in twos — this is a new

music, eat double the amount of food,

without the #follow4follow. Besides,

phenomenon, but a welcome one,

and escape double the amount of

her innate ability to spill liquids all

nonetheless.

uncomfortable situations by making

over herself and everyone around

double the amount of bad jokes.

her, she cites her red hair is her most defining feature.

Sambavi Seermaran

James Wilson

Gabrielle Kate I love tutus. (Two tu! Get it. Yeah.) I’d

As a bipedal homosapien composed

Double shots of alcohol. Double slices of

love to double myself so one version can

of a double helix sequence of DNA,

cake. Double the time spent vegetating

work the double-pay public holiday shift

James Wilson is naturally drawn to all

in front of the TV. Double the amount

and the other one can enjoy the public

things double. As a child, he was fond

of cats I have. Choosing a single option

holiday. Also, I have this unexplained

of double dutch skipping, and as he

out of everything was always going to

desire for twins. Two kids for the price

grew up he didn’t not become fond of

be especially tough. I’m hopeless at

of one pregnancy. I haven’t decided

using double negatives, a skill that would

making choices or decisions like this.

when or how I want kids but I know want

become useful while downing two drinks

I’d probably like to double the wisdom

two of them! A matching set of humans.

at once while playing ‘I Never’, the result

I have. I’m not even positive I have any.

Think of the costumes, as I always do!

of which is that he usually doubles over

The wisdom to make good choices, not

Just for Halloween, I can dress them up

in laughter, pain, or a 3rd thing that isn’t

to fuck up, and to sort out the important

as the girls from the Shining!

necessary when outlining why he likes

things in life from the minutiae that

the power of two.

consumes us would be invaluable.

07

Issue one

Vertigo

Kill the Messenger Mount Druitt’s answer to Lena Dunham is here to make you rethink – well, everything. Time Out

By Nakkiah Lui Director Anthea Williams

Indigenous Theatre at Belvoir supported by The Balnaves Foundation

14 FEBRUARY – 8 MARCH BOOKINGS 02 9699 3444 BELVOIR.COM.AU

Nakkiah Lui. Illustration: Julian Meagher

08

art by: Joy Li

written by Katie Kendell

things I wish I’d known

Issue one

The first few weeks of uni can be intense. You’re late to classes in places that you’re certain don’t actually exist, you’ve already met a thousand new people – yet somehow forgotten all of their names – and hard as you try you can’t find any decent coffee on campus (get back to me if you ever do, guys). It’s enough to make you miss uniforms, friendly canteen ladies and the slightly dank smell of your high school. Almost.

Don’t worry, its not going to stay this scary. You’ll stop getting lost eventually. You know the Tower is Building 1 and you know there is a building that looks like a paper bag somewhere, but beyond that, UTS is a confusing campus. The best thing to do is ask; everyone’s been a scared first year trying to figure out how level 4 of the Tower and level 5 of Building 2 are three floors apart. Eventually, you’ll come to understand the twists and turns of this place. Or you’ll end up in the basement, but it’s only up from there.

You’ll make friends, and lots of them.

Uni isn’t like high school; you don’t have a set ‘friendship group’ and you can have as many different friends and interests as you want. But how does one get from chatting in class to hanging out?

Luckily for you, timetabling is a nightmare at UTS, so you’ll probably end up grabbing lunch with a few soon-to-be familiar people every single time you share that god-awful two hour break. Don’t be afraid to float, because no one has to be your best friend right away.

On the lunch point, it seems inevitable that freshman end up forgoing the expensive Central Park, and walking down the block to the runt of the retail litter, Market City.

Don’t. If you want the best clothes

bargain in the CBD, five different places that sell converse, and some damn fine retail workers then Market City is your gal. If you want decent food, save yourself the time, misery and over-crowded food court. Plus you’re more likely to make friends if you can have lunch over a beer, or share the earth-moving experience of the Uni Bros chicken salt. Seriously.

Finally, the uni actually does are about you. Your tutors (usually) work really hard on top of having their own lives and interests, so sometimes they are stressed, too. But they’re cool people working in the industries you care about, so listen to them. And if you email, they will reply. The uni also has great academic programs! Remember, HELPS is always available at UTS to those who ask for it. And they won’t send you out into a forest full of spiders.

Good luck firsties, you’re going to have an amazing time here.

Vertigo

09

Issue one

F E A T U R E S

10 back to the present 12 youtube talk 14 ideal bodies 16 ‘bout to blow up 18 my culture is not a costume 22 if i didn’t mind the distance 25 food imitates art 26 gun control in australia 28 pills and double standards 30 why you should jump off a bridge 32 she calls action 34 #hatemyjob 37 saving takes cents 38 cocktail recipe: the liberal spiller 39 fee-deregulation 40 parks and recreation 42 in defence of tony abbott 44 climate change: give a fuck 46 trigger warning 48 privacy, sia l8r!

Vertigo

010

Issue one

Vertigo

Back t o t he Present P art m m x v words

by

ben

R

obert Zemeckis changed the world when he gave audiences his 1985 science fiction film franchise Back to the Future. Michael J Fox put it best in an interview, explaining, “The irony of this movie about time is that it’s timeless.” Itthe careers of Fox and his co-star Christopher Lloyd; made the DeLorean DMC-12 an iconic vehicle with incomparable street cred; and bestowed the pop culture vernacular with phrases such as “Flux Capacitor”, “1.21 gigawatts”, and, of course, “Great Scott!”

MR FUS

Its sequel, Back to the Future Part II (BTTF2), has held an even more esteemed status since its 1989 release — for its depiction of October 21, 2015. Who could forget Marty McFly and Doc Brown flying towards the camera and disappearing, only to materialise in a 2015 so vivid, technology so advanced, and fashion so ludicrous it made us laugh? 1989 audiences MR FUSIO

chapple

would no doubt have viewed this world with a large degree of scepticism and humour. They would’ve laughed when Marty ordered a Pepsi from a digital Michael Jackson, or when Griff Tannen revealed an extendable baseball bat draped in clothing that could only be described as Mad Max meets Mardi Gras.

For many, this sentimental relationship with BTTF2 has a lot to do with the fantastical and hilariously hideous representation of our present. Much of this is due to our insatiable lust for prediction. Why else did Marty want the Sports Almanac? Why else do we gamble, make forecast lists of the Oscars, or adore speculative fiction texts like George Orwell’s 1984 or Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner?

For humans, predicting the future can become a game. It’s a huge reason why BTTF2 has retained its throne in science fiction after all these years. Back to the Future, as with most

N

That’s the deadline, folks. That’s how long we have.

011

Vertigo

M

A

T

T

E

L

M

A

T

T

E

L

Issue one

other famous science fiction works such as Total Recall and Planet of the Apes, employs an enormous degree of creative license, and audiences love them dearly because we anticipate these films as predictions of our future. This is where the line between science fiction and science first becomes blurred — when audiences absorb science fiction texts, which have been written and designed to entertain and hypothesise, and interpret them as science fact.

For years, we have seen authors, artists, and filmmakers construct futuristic landscapes that have shaped an expectation for audiences. George Orwell and Isaac Asimov challenged expectations by presenting futures in the form of totalitarian regimes and robotic apocalypses, and recalibrated how their audiences have envisioned the future since the early 1900s.

October 21 2015 is growing closer, as is the answer to our question, “Is BTTF2 an accurate prediction of the future?”

Zemeckis’s future looks a whole lot more fun than most.

Really, who wants a future like Blade Runner? October 21 awaits us, but what dwells there? Will there be hoverboards and flying cars? Will we wear mesh and spikes with rhinoceros-horned shoes? We need only walk into our living rooms to answer these questions.

As science fiction informs our expectations of the future, it begins to inform science. This is where the line between science fiction and science once again blurs; science fiction sets a challenge. Speculative fiction authors stare science in the face and dare it to match them, or even surpass them.

BTTF2 was not the first time we saw flatscreen TVs or virtual glasses, but its genre was. Decades ago, science fiction writers imagined technologies and landscapes we would not see for years.

Google Glass and Oculus Rift virtual glasses look remarkably similar to those in BTTF2, as well as other designs in Star Trek and The Terminator. While Funny or Die made a viral video of a disappointingly fake hoverboard, Hendo has developed an actual hoverboard with spokesperson Tony Hawk. Flatscreen TVs, video conferencing, drones, robots, and biometric identification are some aspects of BTTF2’s fictionalised 2015 that are arguably integral to our 2015.

While flying cars and Nike power laces currently only exist as prototypes and promises, credit must be given where it is due. Maybe BTTF2 directly inspired scientists to stroll down to the lab and dedicate themselves to building a pink hoverboard, maybe not — but a connection is undeniable.

To recap: science fiction is a projection of our future, often with heavy creative license. But that projection needs to come from somewhere – and the number of successful predictions proves something. Science fiction informs science, so science informs science fiction. It’s a link so obvious many overlook it, but the greatest science fiction writers prove this true.

Arthur C. Clarke, author of 2001: A Space Odyssey, had degrees in math and physics, while Isaac Asimov had a PhD in biochemistry.

H.G. Wells, the first futurologist, is arguably the best science fiction writer of our time. He predicted technologies such as genetic mutation (The Island of Dr Moreau, 1896), digital tablets and automatic doors (When the Sleeper Awakes, 1899), warplanes (The Shape of Things to Come, 1933) and listed accurate details of a devastating device he called an atomic bomb (The World Set Free, 1914). He held a degree in biology from the Royal College of Science in London. While not every science fiction text is nearly as accurate as his, Wells’ success is representative of the relationship between science and science fiction, the accuracy of his predictions earning him the title, The Man Who Invented Tomorrow.

If H.G Wells could predict the atomic bomb, why can’t we predict the fashion trend for summer in 2025? One could argue that the increasing trend in wearable technologies could see landscapes similar to BTTF2 evolve, where our personal devices compress into digital forms attached to or designed as clothing apparel. We see hints of this emerging with Fitbit wristbands and the new Apple Watch, while Forbes conducted a survey concluding that 71% of young adults want wearable tech. Personalised clothing technologies have existed since the 90s with mood rings and hypercolor t-shirts, so it seems the trend will only grow as our technological progress accelerates.

Will our future be clean and romantic like Spike Jonze’s Her? Will it be characterised by an interplanetary class divide, as in Neill Blomkamp’s Elysium? Overpopulation, global warming, famine, economic collapse, zombie apocalypse, releasing Jaws 19 in 3D; in the eyes of current science fiction, there seems to be a plethora of ways our world will end, and one can only hope that these predictions are not as accurate as Wells’s and Asimov’s.

But it’s not yet 4:29pm, October 21, 2015. I still have my fingers crossed for Mattel to deliver a bright pink hoverboard to my front door.

012

Isha Bassi

Issue one

The purpose of YouTube as a social medium lies in its ability to share personal snippets of our lives with one another. The creators of popular content have become celebrities or idols for simply ‘being themselves’.

This is indicative of an era where the consumers of online content evidently value the purported sincerity and approachability that is presented by these individuals.

Over time, these viewers begin to experience a sense of emotional connection between themselves and their idol as a result of this perceived association. The viewer firmly believes that they share an intimate bond with this individual. They imagine that they understand this individual’s character and disposition, and can thereby comprehend their motives and actions despite never having a physical or ‘real’ interaction.

This phenomenon is known as parasocial interaction and I, like many others, am guilty of engaging in it. As a member of the YouTube community

Vertigo

I too have watched these individuals with the naïve opinion that I was seeing these people for whom they really were rather than the persona they chose to project.

Realistically, we do not know these individuals personally, so are only privy to the most favourable and best versions of self they choose to express. Yet we accept this; we believe what we see and blindly accept this projected persona at face value. We resign ourselves to participating in this idealised fantasy because the thought of these individuals being anything but harmless and genuine not only terrifies us, but goes against everything we believe YouTube stands for.

It is this discourse surrounding the para-social that has made the recent allegations of sexual abuse against several prominent YouTubers so disturbing. It is why conversations regarding the nature of relationships between fans and creators need to

Vertigo 013

take place. These allegations cannot and should not be ignored or forgotten.

To understand these allegations we first must comprehend the existing power imbalance in the YouTube community. Creators gradually gain emotional power over their viewers through sustained para-social interactions. Essentially, such interactions create an illusion of genuine human connection between that of the fan and the creator. This emotional bond is particularly influential in not only affecting a person’s identity and behaviour, but in manipulating their own perceptions of reality.

In extreme cases, creators have exploited this imbalance so that they may coerce financial or sexual favours from their impressionable fans. As a result of their supposed connection, a fan’s perception of morality would be overshadowed by their desire to please their idol in order to be accepted. In many instances, these fans are sadly blind to this manipulation.

They cannot fathom a reality wherein their cherished idol would take advantage of them and subsequently face the serious repercussions of their goodwill.

We could perhaps be justified in saying that para-social relationships do inadvertently perpetuate abuse culture in the YouTube community. If you need further evidence, look no further than YouTubers, Sam Pepper and Jason Viohni.

In the case of Pepper, a large portion of his fan base accepted his excuses for a video in which he gropes women inappropriately under the guise

Issue one January 2015

of a social experiment. This is also evident in Viohni’s apology video, in which he openly admits to having sex with a drunk minor. Several viewers acknowledged his apology and defended him with comments such as “everyone makes mistakes” and that it was “very unlike him”.

Despite their allegations of abuse, both Pepper and Viohni still maintain a considerable fan base. This is largely because their fans honestly believe they share a true and intimate bond with Pepper or Viohni, resultantly conditioning them to refute or ignore anything that would interfere with their con-strued image of these YouTube celebrities. This conditioning has lead supporters to defend their idols and shame the victims for the abuse or harassment which transpired.

As a society, we should address this behaviour which is at best manipulative, and at worst, predatory.

The members of the YouTube community – both creators and fans – need to realise the serious harm that can arise from the power imbalance as a result of the influence of para-social interactions. It must be understood that these YouTube idols are no different than any other people in society, and should be held accountable for their actions; famous or not.

Further, if fans such as those of Pepper and Viohni are unable to properly comprehend the severity and wrongness of these situations, this represents a dire ramification for the way that impressionable viewers understand important concepts such as consent, abuse, morality, and harassment. If these YouTubers are

013 Vertigo

not held accountable for their crimes, what is to prevent it from happening again, stopping the cycle of abuse?

The answer to that question is: nothing. Absolutely nothing. This is why it is important to educate and spread awareness of the dangers that can be present when people are exposed to these kinds of power imbalances.

However, there is nothing criminal or wrong with admiring and enjoying the content which YouTube creators offer, and there is nothing inherently wrong with para-social interactions, either. YouTube is and continues to be the voice of the digital generation, and as a society we can only learn and grow, whether we are members of the YouTube community or not. After all, by educating ourselves on matters of consent, harassment, morality, and abuse and by refusing to stand idly, we can only hope to take a decisive and prominent stand against this kind of destructive behaviour and its perpetrators.

014

shape up or ship out moulding women’s body perceptions

Raveena Grover For thousands of years, people have had an obsession with the body. This obsession can be viewed through a patriarchal perspective — what men have seen the archetypal woman to be, and how women force themselves into a mould to please others, often men. Many know Barbie, which has been viewed as an ideal type for females (big tits, blonde hair, fair skin, long legs, no fat or muscle) body would, if she were living, perish in a matter of days as she would not have enough body fat content to survive.

But hey, at least she’s hot.

But what is the archetypal body type?

Looking through history, we can see it is not just one but many body types that have been regarded as the perfect type for women, despite any medical, genetic, environmental factors, which impede all female bodies being indistinguishable.

The ancient Europeans could never get enough of the perfect Venus, marbled white skin statues. The ideal body type was a full-bodied, plump, and light-skinned lady. These babes were considered disfigured versions of men. Okay, cool.

The Italian Renaissance ideal woman

Issue one could be compared to the cherub.

A rounded stomach topped with large breasts, fair skin, and full baby bearing hips. What’s not to love?

Victorian England praised a body type similar to the cherubic archetype of the Renaissance, but with a clinched waist. This was achieved by the wearing of the severely uncomfortable corset.

How these ladies managed to exercise wearing a death trap around their midriff is beyond me.

Moving on to the Song Dynasty which was the most significant perpetrator of foot binding - left women, especially those Wwof the higher classes who could afford not to use their feet, unable to walk (or live, really) comfortably. These ‘lotus feet’ became a popular part of Chinese culture and the practise would begin very early in childhood.

It was painful, but as long as they added to the aesthetic, right?

If you had a thing for being mistaken for a 12 year-old boy, just head on over to the 1920s! These flat chested, petite babes knew how to have all the fun and laughs! As long as a lightweight body gets you drunk more quickly. Watch out world, here comes your girl.

Nazi Germany favoured babybearing hips and enough fat reserves to appear at the perfect balance between ‘the mother next door’ and ‘never-made-it-as-a-professionalchef’ grandmother. An interesting thing about this period is the ideal body type wasn’t sexualised, but rather promoted at women who were still able to conceive and thus would provide healthy babies with their favoured body type to continue the Aryan race. Because we all know that a woman’s only purpose in life is to be a baby-making factory.

Hollywood’s Golden Age was a dramatic change from the lithe figures of the roaring twenties. The perfect hourglass figure with curvy hips and large breasts was your ticket to stardom. For those who could not

Vertigo magically mould themselves - don’t even think about considering for a lead role.

And now we’ve reached the world of today. What is considered the perfect body type for 21st century women? Going by everyone’s favourite brainwashing tool, the media, I’d say it’s those lucky gals who have the perfect 5’6’’ height, C-cup breasts, long legs, a flat stomach, and straight hair. However, this only scratches the surface. If the gal doesn’t have a big ass, she’s not black enough, if she doesn’t have eyes dark enough; she’s not Indian enough, if she’s not completely hair-free; she’s not Asian enough. But I mean, at least there’s some leeway and sympathy for those who are so close to achieving that goal but still need another little push.

I’m talking hunger-subduing tablets.

Who comes up with those things?

The worst thing is these ads feature perfectly healthy and, in most cases, slim women.

But seriously, one has to ask: what is this obsession with the body type womankind have had? What spurns this ridiculous mindset that every single female-identifying person has to fit into a mould to be the archetype?

Why is there only a single archetype for women to fit into at any given point?

Where does the perfect body type lie for non-binary folk? This is just the tip of the iceberg.

015

Issue one

historical body image The human race has held various male bodies in high esteem,a practice that consequently determined the masculine self-esteem. Unsurprisingly, it has always had a trickle-down effect.

With wealth, nobility, and class producing a particular aesthetic that indicates to the plebs what exactly is attractive in a man. So now that we know it starts from top to bottom, let’s go bottom to top (historically) and identify the ideal male body throughout the ages.

Ancient World: The Sexy Statue A potent cocktail of patriarchy and divine worship. You’d be forgiven for misinterpreting the ancient Greek world for certain parts of our society today. Sigh. The idealisation of a light musculature, consisting of little body fat, chances are there’s a doppelgänger of this ancient archetype at your local FitnessFirst.

However, you might find the men of the ancient world pumping up their veins because mere mortal men would instead worship statues of the ancient gods, which would not have had any striations or veins at all. With all this fanboying over the likes of Apollo and Zeus, it’s hard to reconcile what our Greek antecedents would’ve thought of our old m8, Zyzz.

Dark Ages: The ‘Knigglet” If you ever happen upon a Tardis, you should probably pilot yourself anywhere between the 6th and 13th century. A wide upper body, with heavyset shoulders on a stocky frame, was the common virtue of beauty at the time. Knights would joust and do battle in weighty chainmail armour and plates, requiring the men of the Dark Ages to have developed a certain musculature. Although, due to all the horsing around (riding horses everywhere) a man’s lower body was

often under- developed. So yeah, leg day wasn’t a thing.

Middle Ages: Skinny Bitches in Heels That didn’t last. Largely thanks to Louis IX of France, the low-cut heel suddenly became vogue for the ruling classes. Combine this with the advent of tights, and what we may now refer to as the ‘mantyhose’; a well-shaped leg was a male fashion-must. However, if you travelled down to the lower ranks of society, you’d discover an under-nourished and fleshy aesthetic.

Living in times of uninterrupted war, feudalism and poverty, clear and smooth skin became a staple of male beauty for those who weren’t fortunate enough to be of royal kin.

This was reminiscent of imperial China and Japan where the fairer the skin, the better. Tan skin was seen as representative of poverty as it was a sign that a man must work outdoors in order to survive.

17th - 19th century: The Royal Cover Up Nudity is disassociated with cleanliness and replaced with elaborate garments, coats, and furs. Possibly because the value of worldly accruements promoted by both church and state... or because the upper class was kind of fat. The majority of statues and oil paintings from the time depict fleshy men in tight clothing. However, with the rise of the middle class in the 19th century, came the man who worked for a living and his appearance had to match. With little time to build muscle, the men of the middle class would appear slim and more feminine.

A Cumberland corset would pull in the waist and lengthen the back, appealing to the ‘Dandy’ image.

From fat-to-thin, this period was a sticky mess.

Vertigo

Tom Crotty

20th century till Today: Flubby, Fit, and the Restless.

With two world wars and a Great Depression vying for the attention of the world in the first half of the 20th century, men were mainly focused on keeping there bodies breathing.

During this time you’d find the clean cut, neatly shaven and straight suited mail population going about “business as usual.”However, with a growing suburban sprawl in the 50’s and the boom of Capitalism in the 60’s through to 80’s these suits had to be tailored to match a waist line that had expanded with the American economy. Here in Australia, the Aussie ‘Larrikin’ became idolised as an ideal representation of masculinity. The type-a Larrikin would be defined by his golden skin, athletic body, wind blown hair and a daily tendency to get shit-faced. Back in the U.S, a pandemic was sweeping across the whole nation. Aerobics and Jazzexcise was all the rage. Tightly clad buttocks, blaring neon latex and Richard Simmons came on the scene.

Only to fall into quick dissension with the rise of Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Biceps got bigger and balls got smaller and the more mass you had the more you became doted upon. Today the ideal male body will vary depending on who you ask and where you ask them. A sub-culture of vegan promoting, beard grooming hipsters has given rise to a new masculinity, but this isn’t definitely not everyone’s piece of gluten-free cake. Masculine bodies now vary from cross-fit gods to cross-dressing queens, a pantheon of ‘types’ and ‘preferences.’ So if you’re trying to aim for an ideal male body type in 2015, don’t worry you have many to choose from, or don’t choose at all, chances are your somebody’s Casanova.

016

Issue one

Vertigo

Bout 2 Blow up ~ Smgdh ~

Words by Katya John

When self-proclaimed god and auto-tune addict, Kanye West, released his single ‘Only One’, featuring Sir Paul McCartney, it divided us into two types of people.

The young people who, bless their hearts, praised Kanye for shedding light on ‘new artists’ and giving up-and-comers like McCartney some needed exposure, and the rest of us, whose passionate tweets can be summed up simply with SMGDH*.

So why do twenty-somethings (I’m guilty of this, at the ripe age of twenty seven) get so mad when teens don’t know and love the same stuff we knew and loved? Is it because it makes us feel old and uncool? Well, I’ve done some soulsearching and I’m here to lay down some truths. Quite literally, nothing will make you look older and less hip than waving your fist at the youth of today because they don’t show the proper reverence for 60s rock royalty.

Not that I’m taking sides here. I died a little inside when I found out that nine people wrote Kanye’s newest collab with Rihanna and Paul McCartney, ‘Four Five Seconds’.

Nine. People. RIP the days when four guys with bowl cuts, tripped out on magic mushrooms, could cut an album in a day, and still be the most successful band on the planet.

This year, Katy Perry made headlines with her Super Bowl

017

Issue one

Vertigo

“the new kids think I’m a new artist & I’m bout 2 blow up like Paul McCartney”

halftime show by paling in comparison to guest act Missy Elliott. The next day, Missy (bow down bitches) tweeted this: “the new kids think I’m a new artist & I’m bout 2 blow up like Paul McCartney Lord ha mercy chile I love me sum y’all” Suddenly it’s the same old story on every aggregated news site, bemoaning a generation who are unfamiliar with music that was written years before they were even born. Think about it, during her Super Bowl cameo, Missy performed ‘Work It’, a song released thirteen years ago in 2002. For those too young to remember, 2002 was a time long ago, when there were no iPhones, and Beyoncé and Jay-Z had only just announced they were a thing. This means that if we expect an eighteen year old in 2015 to be familiar with ‘Work It’, they would have to have been singing along to,

“Love the way my ass go bum-bumbum-bum, Keep your eyes on my bum-bum-bum-bum-vbum, And think you can handle this gadong-adong-dong, Take my thong off and my ass go vroom” at the grand old age of five. Sounds about right.

Hey, I get it. We live in a digital world, and we have centuries of music and culture at our fingertips thanks to YouTube and Soundcloud and Spotify. But if this new age of cultural saturation has taught me anything, it’s that not everybody has been exposed to the same stuff, and that’s okay!

What might be a golden oldie to you, rich with the nostalgia and hard won memories of your once-cherished youth, could be downright irrelevant to somebody else. Fellow elders should remember this: if you want to hear some unadulterated Kanye West-free Beatles tracks, you still

can! That’s right; artists don’t record new songs over the old ones. Amazing!

You’re welcome. Now, excuse me while I go clean my dentures.

Translation: SMGDH = Shaking My God Damn Head

018

Issue one

Vertigo

My Culture is not your Costume Words by: Megan Ji Art by: Rekha Dhanaram

Cultural appropriation can be a complicated concept and one many of us have trouble fully understanding, so I’m here as your friendly neighbourhood Chinese gal to explain exactly what it is and why it’s wrong.

I rung in 2015 at Falls Festival in Byron Bay – in 40 degree heat and 100% humidity. My mates and I snuck in vodka disguised as various cosmetics products, got a bit sunburnt, and saw plenty of great bands. One of the most interesting curiosities at summer music festivals is festival attire; there’s a lot of tie-dye and metallic temporary tattoos, but also people wearing Native American war bonnets, bindis, and dreadlocks.

And when I say ‘people’ I mean white people. I’m going to be picking on white people a fair bit today.

You’ve probably heard the term ‘cultural appropriation thrown around before, and if you haven’t, I guarantee you’ve seen it in action. Cultural appropriation can be a complicated concept and one many of us have trouble fully understanding, so I’m here as your friendly neighbourhood Chinese

gal to explain exactly what it is and why it’s wrong. Let’s break it down: to appropriate is to take something that is not yours – that you did not create – and place it in a different context for a different purpose. According to Susan Scafidi, law professor and author of Who Owns Culture?: Appropriation and Authenticity in American Law, “culture” refers to a particular people’s “dance, dress, music, language, folklore, cuisine, traditional medicine, religious symbols etc.”

Essentially, cultural appropriation is when a dominant culture (typically white people) adopts an aspect of a minority group’s culture without their permission without understanding the meanings behind it. It’s an ongoing issue that has recently been the subject of many debates amongst the SJWs on Tumblr, and celebrities such as Katy Perry, Iggy Azalea, and Justin Bieber are repeat offenders.

Unfortunately, but unsurprisingly, the concept of cultural appropriation and the fact that it is offensive seems not to have infiltrated mainstream society’s collective cerebral cortex.

At the 2013 American Music Awards, Katy Perry performed in full yellowface. There’s really no other word for it. Does it really shock anyone that Katy Perry’s knowledge of “Asian culture” is limited to a demure Korean fan dance in what appeared to be an outfit somehow derivative of both a Japanese kimono and Chinese qipao? What was more shocking to me was how dismissive and flippant mainstream media was about the controversy. Many prominent web publications such as The Guardian, E!, and Vulture all distanced themselves from the opinion that the performance was blatantly racist.

Worst of all, because Katy Perry is one of the most well known stars in the world, she is sending out

019

the message to all the people at home that this sort of behaviour is acceptable.

If you are thinking, ‘surely cultural appropriation isn’t that harmful?’ you are incorrect, and I have three words for you, my friend: check your privilege. I came across a zine titled Desi Girl: the journey from contaminated to exotic to quirky white gurl Friday night attire, in which Desi women perfectly articulate the problems associated with appropriating aspects of South Asian cultures. The stories recall experiences of growing up as brownskinned, bushy-browed girls; kids would make fun of these girls for their henna and bindi, and for smelling of “cardamom and jasmine and incense sticks”, complaints from other parents were made about their rice and daal lunches, and then there was the feeling of embarrassment when white

Issue one

kids came over because the house smelled of tandoori powder. Today, henna tattoos and bindis are big fashion statements, and white people will stand in queues to get Govinda’s for lunch. When white people stop brushing and washing their hair to form dreadlocks, it’s an expression of an “individualist” lifestyle, but when black people naturally grow their hair into clean, neat locs they may be labelled as “thugs”. Dreadlocks are called dreadlocks, as in “dreadful locks”, because the first white people who encountered Rastafarians considered them to be disgusting and frightening. Even in the etymology we can see how white people demonised the culture that they are now stealing from.

People of colour raised in Western countries are constantly inundated with white standards of beauty.

People don’t spend hundreds of

Vertigo

dollars dyeing their hair black; they spend it dyeing their hair blonde.

Even in non-Western countries, the whitewashing of our perceptions of beauty has become insidiously prevalent. In East Asia, big, round eyes are considered beautiful, and in South Asia, light skin is considered more beautiful. People of African descent pay small fortunes to smooth their natural hair. There are thousands of little girls and boys looking into the mirror everyday wishing they were white, or wondering how different their lives would be if they were born white. We are overwhelmingly sent the message that light hair, light eyes, light skin, and pointy noses are beautiful. We can thank European colonialists for that! For many people of colour, the forced assimilation into white society does a lot of damage to their confidence and sense of self-worth, so when the blue-eyed devil rocks up

020

Issue one

Vertigo

We are overwhelmingly sent the message that light hair, light eyes, light skin, and pointy noses are beautiful to a party sporting a cheap version of your culture’s traditional dress, you’d feel a bit pissed off.

Ultimately, cultural appropriation is another way the dominant white classes oppress and exploit the minority classes. By claiming ownership of significant andsacred customs and objects that do not belong to the white class, it completely disrespects and cheapens the custom or object – literally. In the context of the capitalist structure that the great Western nations are built on, profits are made from the cheap labour of non-white bodies, none of which go back into the hands of the exploited. Native Americans are now considered a mostly “invisible culture” as thousands of native peoples were systematically murdered by white colonialists.

Keeping this in mind, surely you can see how offensive it is when

someone like Lana Del Rey wears a Native American war bonnet in one of her music videos for no apparent reason other than to look hip? When white people create versions of our beautiful objects to wear as fashion accessories, they are stripping away meaning from centuries or millennia old cultures and are oppression of already marginalised peoples. ‘But it’s just celebrating other cultures! We’re a melting pot of cultures!’ I hear you say. Yes, we are a multicultural society here in Sydney at least, but there’s a right way and wrong way to celebrate our different cultures, and it really isn’t that hard to avoid being disrespectful. The first thing you need to do before dressing up in any sort of attire that belongs to a different culture is ask yourself a few questions: 1.Will my costume be totally out of context of where it is from and what it represents?’

2. Am I only wearing this to look cool/pretty/funny/fashionable/etc.?’

3. Does this costume perpetuate any stereotypes?

4. Am I totally ignorant and clueless as to what sort of meaning my costume may hold to someone else?

5. Did I seek out permission or guidance from a person of this culture or background about my costume?

If you have cleared these steps then continue to proceed with caution.

But the bottom line is you simply cannot pick and choose aspects of a culture you know nothing about and slap it on to be trendy, because genocide, racism, and exploitation sure aren’t trendy.

021

Issue one

Vertigo

Sign up for

STUDENT RUSH Students can enjoy and experience selected Sydney Symphony Orchestra concerts at the unbelievably low price of

JUST $15* PER TICKET .

Experience a world-class orchestra at an iconic venue for the price of a beer & chips!

For more information and to sign-up visit

SYDNEYSYMPHONY.COM * Tickets are by email offer only. Available on a first come, first serve basis and subject to availability.

Booking fee of $3 may apply. Students MUST provide a valid full-time Australian student ID. One student rush ticket per student ID. Select performances only.

022

Issue one

If I didn’t mind the distance Sam Langshaw

Vertigo

023

Issue one

Vertigo

International exchange can be fun, but long distance relationships less so.

With a horde of students going on exchange every semester, the air is rife for romance to bloom.

You’re a long way from home and exploring an unfamiliar city where nobody knows your name. It’s exciting and romantic as all hell.

And whilst part of this excitement is in its brevity, it can be a logistical nightmare for those who think they have a chance back in the real world. Cue the exciting world of long distance relationships.

About a year ago, I arrived home from San Francisco a bit of a mess. I was dealing with crippling anxiety for the first time whilst re-adjusting to life back home, which suddenly felt very foreign to me. I also missed my boyfriend. He was still on exchange and we agreed to just do long distance for three months before he came and visited. Three months was nothing, so I thought.

Regardless of how long you agree to do long distance, the experience is always draining. You become disjointed from real life as time feels to be moving slowly because you’re essentially having a relationship with a screen and Facebook messenger.

There were many times I’d be buzzing on the train home from a busy day at uni, before retreating into the disconnected world of my technology-dependent relationship.

The sex is also nowhere near as good (depending on your creative/ imaginative skills).

You certainly have to take the ‘one day at a time’ approach with long distance

relationships. The difficulty of this can come at surprising times. I thought I was doing alright until I was at a Cloud Control show and they played Dojo Rising, a song about distance in relationships and breaking hearts.

Then there are moments that throw you; times you never really thought would happen as you said goodbye at the airport, keen to make things work. You’ll be at a party back home and hitting it off with someone new and you’re hit with the overwhelming sense of how overly complicated long distance is. Here you are, making a genuine connection with a living, breathing human right in front of you, while you remember that your relationship is actually with someone who is largely just words on a screen.

When you think too much about it (as you almost definitely will in long distance), you grow frustrated. A friend helped me to realise the long distance portion of my relationship had lasted longer than the time we had actually been in the same location. Unfortunately, this is often the case. Two friends of mine met on exchange and had been together six months, before parting ways for ten months and recently reuniting for two more, now separate again for at least another six months.

Long distance has its upsides. It’s like a secret you have that only you and your partner know about. The expectation of seeing each other again gives you strength, and the thought of

being reunited at the airport fuelled me for the period that I did it. At the end of our three month absence, I had three of the best weeks of my life showing him around Australia. We took a road trip on the Great Ocean Road, we watched the sun set over Sydney Harbour at Opera Bar. I got to introduce him to my life I told him all about.

And then, a certain day just comes and it’s over.

Long distance relationships teach you a lot. The experience is tough, but if you’re on the same page, you go through it together. It’s you and them against the world. You’re making it work, damn it. You bond through how hard it is and how much you just want to be with each other so you can spoon and tell them about how shit uni was and watch movies together in bed. If shared experience is the foundation of a relationship, then sharing difficult experiences is like a (seemingly) unbreakable bond. You use the times when you do talk to talk about the important things and realise the connection you have is real and tangible.

All this is not to say that it won’t work, or that I would advise against it. I get a lot of joy seeing a long distance couple make it work. It’s just not for everyone, and it wasn’t for me at that point in my life. To reuse one of Amy Poehler’s excellent life philosophies: good for them, not for me.

024

Issue one

Vertigo

Food Imitates Art Samantha Low

There are eight photos in my living room, six of them are of people and two of them are of food.

The photo of a dips platter I had in Santorini is by far the largest and most grandiose, as it sits at my entrance mounted on foamcore. Ten years ago, if you told me I would have a photo of baba ganoush on my wall, I wouldn’t even have known what baba ganoush was. The last few years have recorded a staggering increase in an interest in food, especially with urban dwellers.

No longer seen as just sustenance, food has become a thing to be talked about, a thing to photograph, and a thing shared with friends and a wider social media audience. With millennials constantly redefining theirdiets and café’s mushrooming overnight in the Sydney CBD, I imagine food as a trend that’s here to stay.

of molecular gastronomy is as much about intriguing the tongue as it is the eye. Practices range from the common spherification process, shaping liquids into spheres resembling roe to the inventive Azurmendi egg, which sees the injection of an egg yolk with truffle broth to cook the yolk from the inside and infuse it with the earthy taste of truffle. The results of molecular gastronomy are strange and often delicious, but always test the boundaries of the patron’s imagination. It’s not unusual to see terms like ‘nitro poached aperitifs’ on a menu at Heston Blumenthal’s The Fat Duck in London, or to be presented with ‘beef jelly’ at Pierre Gagnaire’s self-titled flagship in Paris.

We can attribute some of these changing attitudes towards food to the way food is now prepared. Take molecular gastronomy, which is a form of modernist cuisine that explores the way scientific innovation can influence food by creating physical and chemical transformations in ingredients that wouldn’t be possible through traditional cooking means. The focus

On the other end of the spectrum is the farm-to-table movement that focuses on locally sourced produce and wholesome, recognizable ingredients. Meals are typically presented on rustic wooden boards and old school enamel plates to convey that country living feel.

Popular restaurants in Sydney such as The Grounds of Alexandria and

025

Issue one

Vertigo

360i, which involved combing through hundreds of photos on various social media outlets revealed that only 10% of these photos actually contained human beings while the vast majority, is – you guessed it – food. Brands like Virgin Mobile are even capitalising on the food photography bandwagon by launching campaigns such as #mealforameal which encourages the sharing of food pictures all in the spirit of helping OzHarvest.

Café Sopra present their sourced ingredients beautifully in a farmer’s market style while using farm food buzzwords on their menu, such as ‘grazing table’. Regardless of which cuisine camp you belong to, both place a huge emphasis on creating food that looks as good as it tastes.

Mainstream media educating the masses about food has made the crafting of food much more accessible. In previous years, chefs were heralded as masters of an art in part because of the mystery that shrouded how they made their food behind closed kitchen doors.

However, the prevalence of open kitchens has encouraged diners to get to know their chefs and the way they operate. In addition to this, cooking programmes have long propagatedtearing down the divide between chef and patron. Like a practical Myth Busters, the host of these shows teach you the tips and tricks to creating food in your home kitchen that look like they came out of a hatted restaurant. The rise in popularity of celebrity chefs sparks an

interest in home-cooked food beyond frozen meals. Nigella, Jamie, and Gordon all channel the same message: home cooking can be tasty and aesthetically pleasing. Compounding this are the food-themed reality TV shows, with Masterchef being the most common as it brings ordinary people head-to-head in a pressure cooker environment. Presentation is often a defining factor, sometimes making up a third of the score. The closing proximity to professional food makers has generated a better understanding of food by the community. This has raised the standard of what we expect food to be and to look like.

An article from the Social Issues Research Centre stresses that food, particularly eating out, has always been ingrained in us as a luxury.

With the rise of social media and digital narcissism, it makes sense that a combination of interests in food and thyself has led to the explosion of food photography on the Internet. Research conducted by

People take photos of food not just because they enjoy doing it, but also because it is easy. The democratisation of technology means anyone with a smartphone can now be an amateur photographer. Flickr – a photo sharing site commonly associated with amateur and professional photographers reports that iPhones are one of the most popular cameras used on their website. Having a camera has become the norm, and going digital means we can now afford to take tens of photos of the same poached eggs on toast until we get the perfect shot.

The conversation about food has always been there. Food as a basic human necessity is what makes it a common shared experience. New cuisines, the accessibility of the chef’s kitchen and new channels have simply repackaged our fascination into visually appealing forms. To quote Menulog – a popular online delivery ordering app – ‘Food isn’t fuel – it’s cool’. And if the masses want sexy food, then let them eat cake.

Artwork: Angela Tam cargocollective.com/angelatam

026

Issue one

Vertigo

Gun Control in Australia I

n the almost two decades since Australia initiated sweeping gun control laws, our number of firearms per person have stayed controlled, and gun related deaths have remained at an impressive low. Globally praised for our commitment to such gun laws, we have evidentially taught our country counterparts that gun legislation does indeed work.

Despite gaining our independence from the United Kingdom by consent rather than revolution, Australia has been swift to follow in the footsteps of its mother continent, but unfortunately not quick enough. According to the ‘Firearms Act, 1920’: “The purchase, possession and use of firearms [was] strictly restricted.”

The U.K had itself sorted out 76 years before Australia could understand the vitality of such a successful policy. But why did it take us so long? Well, simply because we moved in the opposite direction. Despite firearms initially controlled and used for hunting,

after 1901, gun laws remained the responsibility of each state and varied considerably across them. Evidently, if the same gun regulation policies were kept cohesively between all states, Australia would not have the issues it had before 1996.

Australia has successfully upped its game in relation to gun policy.

Thanks to the man, the myth, the John Howard. Without the intervention of our former PM, we wouldn’t have become the global example of radical change that we are now. Following the 1996 Port Arthur massacre, Howard etched out an agreement between all state governments, creating ‘The Australian Firearms Buyback’ - acquiring more than 650,000 firearms across the country. According to Howard, “… ordinary citizens should not have weapons.” – and right he was. The clincher is, Australia’s M.O is our safety, not our whims. According to Howard, gun-related homicide rates have decreased by factors of

027

up to 50-60% and suicides have dropped by almost 80%. Taking the term ‘successful’ to a whole other level, it is evident that Australia has become the sanctuary that other countries crave.

Australians no longer yearn to own and use a gun. According to a 2011 report by the Australian Government, “the number of guns stolen has fallen from 4,195 between 1996 – 2000 to 1,526 in 2006-7.” An easy-going population, Australia isn’t known for its thirst of violence; our peaceful nation tends to veer away from aggression. However, certain circumstances have evidently clouded our judgment – the recent Sydney Siege being one of them.

On December 15th 2014, 18 people were held hostage at the Lindt Café in Martin Place, a traumatic event that reintroduced some Australians to doubt. The death of hostage Tori Johnson, by gunman Man Monis, raised many concerns, such as: how did he get his hands on a gun? And if guns were made

Issue one

legal, couldn’t a hostage have shot him before he got the chance to kill? Australians need to keep faith in our government. In terms of social outliers, it’s expected that a small percentage of Australians tend to side with violence in times of tragedy. Ironically, we’re arguing that the way to stop violence on a national scale is to bring back the very thing that originally initiated high levels of violence in Australia.

As global role models, it makes no sense to thrust our reforms into reverse.

“Australians no longer yearn to own and use a gun.”

Different countries grow with different values. When it comes to valuing personal protection, the United States of America is a given. According to the Bureau of Statistics, Australia’s firearm mortality rate is less than one-tenth of the star spangled nation. Meaning

Vertigo

that their death rate remarkably hits 32,000 a year. While Australian politicians endorse the current weapon reforms, the power of the National Rifle Association continues to enhance the fight for firearm sovereignty. But, how do you eliminate firearms without dissolving the sovereign right for self-defense? You can’t.

If protecting this right involves increasing innocent fatalities, then gun ownership is just not worth it. Australia took the direct approach– without access to guns, you obviously can’t shoot to kill.

Australia was born from violence and ferocity, thus, we were used to attacking situations using weapons of an equal force. Thankfully, not anymore. The bottom line is, Australia did not ban guns; we just proved that restrictions do work.

By adopting laws that provide priority to public safety, we saved thousands of innocent lives.

028

Issue one

Vertigo

Pills and Double Standards Rachael Versace

“MDMA is crazy! Like, imagine that this car is a bubble, right … and you just love everything within the bubble, and the bubble just keeps expanding until you love everything so much that you could just explode!”

Music festivals. Masses of people from all across Australia gather to hear their favourite artists — sacrificing every form of basic hygiene and soaking up some heavy-duty UV rays.

So many of these festivalgoers return with flaking flesh, a few mosh bruises, and a hangover that requires at least a week’s recovery time. But some return with something far greater,something that apparently no festival experience would be complete without - a wild psychoactive trip. A few of my friends regaled me with tales of their pill popping upon their return to the dull drone of reality.

“MDMA is crazy! Like, imagine that this car is a bubble, right … and you just love everything within the bubble, and the bubble just keeps expanding until you love everything so much that you could just explode!”

It’s quite the visual — a tab dissolving on the tip of your tongue, rapidly absorbing into the bloodstream, pumping through your vessels until compressed cocktail of dopamineserotoninnorepinephrine reaches

the brain. I imagine it to be electric, the way the neurotransmitters are awakened, almost like a million tiny light bulbs turning on in unison across a dark city landscape.

The ritual is heavily romanticised. We see the glamorisation of experimental drug use in pop culture; the trope of the tortured artist who depends upon the euphoric trip promised beneath the jelly membrane of each capsule.

With drug references appearing more frequently in pop music, society are witnessing a greater social acceptance of illicit drug use. People engage in open dialogue about the use of narcotics, with an array of information available to the public about potential side effects, as well as precautionary sources to educate users on safe drug practices.

Imagine this. We are no longer at a music festival. We are in a small, white room. It smells of disinfectant, the sort of soapy sterility you only get in a doctor’s office. There’s the same hungry tongue, outstretched and eager, awaiting the capsule, awaiting the euphoria.

029

But the capsule is different. This capsule comes in a packet, Monday through to Sunday clearly labelled upon each pill-pocket. “Take one every morning and night,” the psychiatrist says. “It will help you to sleep and restore your appetite.” You won’t hear about these pills on the radio. They are seldom spoken of and received with a general air of discomfort and uncertainty. These drugs are antidepressants.

Similarly to MDMA, antidepressants alter the chemicals in brains by releasing serotonin, a transmitter responsible for mood regulation.

This is why those who try MDMA report feelings of euphoria and empathy — otherwise described as an inexplicable urge to hug people within a ten-metre radius — once serotonin dissolves into their bloodstream. A lack of serotonin is believed to be the main cause of depressive disorders. Antidepressants try to counteract this by stimulating the biochemical process that produces serotonin.

If MDMA and antidepressants possess similarities in chemical make-up and neurological reception, why is one socially celebrated at Stereo or Mardi Gras while the other remains heavily stigmatised? The difference lies within the identity narrative that each unique drug experience projects.

Research indicates that those who participate in consumption of illicit substances very seldom conflate their sense of self with the narcotics that they use recreationally. For these people, it is an experience; something detached from their greater being.

The drug leaves their bloodstream within twenty-four hours, and is expelled within a matter of days.

Antidepressants, however, pose a greater threat to your identity

Issue one

narrative. To take antidepressants is to accept the label of clinical depression and anxiety — something that many people suffering from a mental illness aren’t prepared to accept. This process of self-acceptance is a product of the cultural stigmatisation of mental illness.

Society continues to struggle with the illness — the way in which it manifests itself internally. It is precisely the intangibility of depressive and anxiety disorders which make them so unfathomable and inconceivable to the majority of the population.

People suffering from these illnesses feel socially detached, and believe that seeking psychiatric therapy will further isolate them. This is where the identity narrative of an antidepressant user differs to that of a user of illicit substances; not only is there stigmatisation on a social scale, but also on a personal level. The individual conflates their illness, embodied in the medication that they consume daily, with their sense of self. People must be made to feel safe and supported, and a wider arrayof information must be made available to the public.

If the recreational use of illicit drugs can be openly celebrated in public spaces, then antidepressants should not have to be experienced in isolation.

Vertigo

030

Issue one

Vertigo

Why you should jump off a bridge (with a rope) Gabrielle Rawlings

When someone tells you to “Go jump off a bridge”, the phrase is heavy with negative connotations.

The intention being for you to throw yourself off of a sky-high ledge and plummet to the hard ground below. It loosely translates to ‘I want you to be in severe pain’.

I assume the idea of speeding towards the ground at the complete mercy of gravity doesn’t appeal to you. Picture that rather than just falling freely, your legs are instead tied together with collection of complicated knots.

Now imagine that these knots connect to a long elasticated rope, the only device that will eventually save you from smacking to the ground with a painful thud and welcome to the world of bungee jumping.

Coming home from a trip to New Zealand, I was happy to boast of willingly free falling 43 metres into the Shotover river at AJ Hacketts original bungee site in Queenstown.

There were numerous comments and exclamations; the most common response from those who spoke to me about the experience was “You’re insane.” I disagree.

Aside from the huge hit of adrenaline

I received from accelerating towards the river below, the feeling of my stomach in my mouth brought so much more good than the fear of falling.

Do not try and convince anyone that you could die, because it’s more likely for you to be trampled to death by a cow than it is from a bungee jump.

Maybe. I think. Either way, after the numerous checks, tests, and safety requirements you need to meet before you even start the walk to the ledge, there is an almost non-existent chance of any sort of complication occurring, excluding the possibility of a few a small bruises from the rope secured to your legs.

In those first few seconds after taking the initial leap of faith, the feeling of falling is so intense that, yes, you believe that you are no longer attached to the rope and are instead tumbling to your death. But it is these moments, where you feel your life flash before you that makes the experience of bungee jumping worth it.

The effect would be slightly similar to those who uproot their lives after

031

having a near death experience. The feeling that you may not survive to see out the rest of your life, whether irrational or not, causes something inside you to realise that you’re not going to live forever. You find that when you’re undoing the harness from around your ankles, those lifethreatening seconds have built for you a seemingly unquenchable taste for life, and an unbreakable getup of invisible armour. Little things appear sweeter, that first drink tastes better, and all you want to do is take the world head on.

Nothing feels unreachable after the jump, and that sudden boost of energy to succeed and make the most of life, No matter how long it lasts, outweighs any fears you may have had. When tackling any other obstacle, you can think, I jumped off a bridge; I can do this.

You don’t have to be insane to take the plunge. Get the same feeling of life-threatening enlightenment with the comfort of knowing that you’re partaking in one of the most safely intense activities in the world.

Issue one

Vertigo

032

Issue one

Vertigo

Golden Globes for Golden Locks Vanessa Papastavros

What makes a female character compelling? Is it her motives, her flaws, her ability to drive a plot? Is it the audience’s ability to relate and empathise?

Maggie Gyllenhaal’s appraisal at the 2015 Golden Globes of complicated women onscreen best encapsulated this .

“I’ve noticed a lot of people talking about the wealth of roles for powerful women in television lately. And when I look around ... I think about the performances that I’ve watched this year, what I see are women who are sometimes powerful and sometimes not; sometimes sexy, sometimes not; sometimes honourable and sometimes not.”

We need characters with depth, development, an interior life. A woman should have on-screen relationships with other women, whether they are mothers, best friends, or colleagues. At the very least, lines in the script.

Statistically, women are underrepresented in film and television.

According to a UN-sponsored report, they receive less than a third of all speaking roles in films. The few female characters we do see in films are

twice as likely as males to be viewed in terms of their sexuality. Over the last decade, there has been a push towards developing more dynamic roles for onscreen fictional women.

Screenwriters are attempting to move past the oversimplified caricatures of the femme fatale, the damsel, and the sex toy. Instead, actresses are portraying complex women who often propel the narrative.

I felt this when I watched Best Actress in a Drama nominee Rosamund Pike as Amy in Gone Girl. Many critics have accused author Gillian Flynn (who also wrote the screenplay) of internalised misogyny due to the nature of Amy’s character. The depiction of her perspective and actions is arguably and problematically seen as inherently female, allowing critics to reduce the film’s thesis to ‘all women are crazy’. But perhaps nothing about Amy is anti-feminist. All kinds of women need to exist in fiction. Are we to let men get all the juicy parts just because we’re afraid to portray a woman unfavourably?

Wild stars Reese Witherspoon in the undeniably lead role of Cheryl Strayed Cheryl is a complicated character with significant growth. She is portrayed as intelligent, hard-working and loving, yet also shown as reckless, selfdestructive, and volatile. The sex scenes don’t pander to the male gaze, but portray her sexuality as something equally complex. Also impressive is how other female characters are represented. Unlike the tried and tired father-son trope, the film’s conflict revolves around Cheryl’s relationship with her mother, portrayed by the wonderful Laura Dern. Both Gone Girl and Wild received Golden Globe nominations in several categories, though they fell short of victory.

Best Supporting Actress, Patricia Arquette, celebrated her role in Boyhood, as “an underappreciated single mother.” She thanked her director Richard Linklater in her acceptance speech for “shining a light on this woman and the millions of women like her.” The equivalent television winner, Joanne Froggatt,

033

Issue one

Vertigo

Artwork: Joy Li cargocollective.com/joyli

spoke to rape survivors who related to the character she played on Downton Abbey. Both actresses allowed the common yet unheard stories of women to be voiced loudly, and they were rewarded.

But before we get carried away celebrating the ostensible leaps and bounds of fictional depictions of fictional women, realise a clear pattern is emerging.

These admirable women all have one thing in common — they are young, white, and blonde. Are these really the necessary requirements to be a complicated woman? You have to be a cis, white female in your thirties?

Patricia Arquette only met the white and blonde requirements, but hosts Tina Fey and Amy Poehler pointed out the bleak truth, “Boyhood proves that there are still great roles for women over 40, as long as you get hired before you’re 40.”

However, there was only one victorious woman of colour who had her voice heard at the Golden

Globes. Gina #icanandidid Rodriguez gave a memorable speech when she accepted her award for Best Actress in a Television Series. She said that her Golden Globe win “represents a culture that wants to see themselves as heroes.”

Diversity is still a significant issue in Hollywood, overlooked by both sides of the mainstream sexism debate.

From 2007 to 2013 the percentage of African Americans in speaking roles grew only from 13% to 14%. Other minorities did not fare much better.

Researchers found that “Hispanic females (37.3%) were more likely to be featured in popular films than were white females (29.6%) or Asian females (32%).” However, according to the same study, when Hispanic females were featured onscreen, they were more likely to be shown either partially or totally nude compared to any other race. It is problematic that Hispanic women are hypersexualised on film, perpetuating stereotypes that limit Rodriguez’s desire to see her culture represented as heroes.

The portrayal of women in film and television has made progress, but we must ask; is it progress in the right direction? Complicated women in fiction who subvert all the loathed tropes but one — the golden stereotype of the blonde bombshell — are they good enough? Are we promoting a culture where women may not be underrepresented, but misrepresented as a homogeneous group of young white clones?

We don’t want to be fooled into thinking everything is going to be fine now, that all women are getting their voices heard through fiction. We still need to ask, ‘Who are the actresses representing them’? Should we not desire the women that Gyllenhaal was describing? Women who are sometimes powerful, and sometimes not; sometimes sexy, sometimes not; sometimes honourable, and sometimes not. Sometimes white, but hopefully often not. If we broaden the diversity of the women portrayed in film and television, maybe it will allow for a more authentic reflection of our lived experiences.

034

Issue one

Vertigo

Gabrielle Hyde-Smith

I was mortified when my boss asked me to remove my profile picture.

“…You look hot as Wonder Woman.

But could you please remove it from your profile pic as it doesn’t fit in with our [the company’s] core values.”

- Boss.

I’d seen friends change Facebook names, delete their opinionated tweets, make their Instagrams private, and even cease posting their political opinions to avoid the critical surveillance of their employers. These self-censoring practices seemed paranoid and narcissistic. Did anyone really care about what we were doing on social media?

There are countless stories like my own, of employers firing or reprimanding employees for their online activity. Many times these actions appear justified, such as the case of bartender in Chicago losing her job after posting racial slurs and threats in a discriminatory rant; or a man fired for threatening violence towards his boss.

There’s a lot stories that fall into a grey area. In 2013, public servant,

Michaela Banerji lost her job after she anonymously tweeted about her department, breaching the Australian Public Service’s code of conduct. Banerji defend herself by stating she was expressing a political opinion in her own free time. Her argument was lost however due to the fact that Australians have no freedom of political expression. The case of Fitzgerald v Dianna Smith showed a different outcome. The employee was fired after posting sarcastic comments about her job. The dismissal was considered unreasonable, as the employee had refrained from revealing the name of the salon she worked at in the post.

There are countless other examples of individuals getting the sack because they complained about their boss or their jobs — and debate over whether their termination was justified.

However, eyebrows should rise when a teacher gets fired for posting a picture of herself holding a two drinks; or a coach fired for posting a photo with two drag queens; or a girl gets reprimanded for showing

035

Issue one

Vertigo

beliefs as their personal views. With my experience, I was accused of not being a role model for young girls and for not being age appropriate. While I argued dressing up as Wonder Woman could be an epitome of a good role model for young girls, it came down to my boss’s personal beliefs over my own.

Finally, we have to ask at what point does cyberstalking become an invasion of privacy. Currently the laws provide little protection for employees are largely in the employer’s favor.

According to the Australian Law Reform Commission, appeals against unlawful dismissal must prove that there was an intrusion into private affairs, the intrusion was intentional, there was reasonable expectation of privacy in all circumstances, the invasion must be distressing or harmful to the individual, and the court must be satisfied that the individual’s privacy interests outweigh the defendants freedom of expression rights. It’s becoming more common for companies to have social media policies that staff are expected to adhere to, limiting what employees can communicate on social media.

These policies are increasingly used in court to decide on dismissal repeals.

‘too much’ skin in a Wonder Woman costume. It’s even more worrisome considering these posts were made out of the workplace and had no relation to the jobs.

These situations raise many red flags.

Social media activity and workplace conflict has brought to light issues of gender bias, discrimination, invasion of privacy and the expected substitution of personal beliefs for

corporate values. Women are being chastised for wearing revealing clothing, drinking alcohol, even breast-feeding, revealing a disturbing insight into the mindset of many employers.

What rights employers have to punish their staff for their personal lives (with the possible exception of illegal activity)? Employers may expect staff to hold a company’s values and

There has to be clear distinction about how much our social media impacts our work life. It’s fair to predict that there will be many more of these incidences, with most people choosing to change their profile to keep the peace or losing their jobs.

People shouldn’t fear to express their views or share their lives on Facebook.

Growing up in the digital age young adults feel entitled to our social media space, evidently our employees do as well. Ideally, our work life should not seep into our private and social spheres.

Artwork: Joy Li cargocollective.com/joyli

036

Issue one

Vertigo

Saving takes cents Saving Takes Cents: 6 Ways to Survive on a Student Budget!

As the year begins, we will all tell ourselves we won’t spend as much mone on coffee; that although sushi is delicious, it is an expensive addiction; and that we will, of course, go to the gym more than once in the next six months. Student life has its benefits, but making it through on the little money you have can be difficult. Saving money doesn’t have to be and here are six tips that should hopefully get you through the year.

01 // Use the Teapots!

When you leave your money in one big clump it can be easy to get yourself into bad spending habits. A woman I work with told me about her dad back in Ireland and how every payday he would split his money between a set of teapots; there was one for rent, one for savings, one for bills, and one for groceries. I’m not telling you to go out and buy a set of teapots — especially since porcelain is expensive and to waste all your money on that would be, well, insani-tea. You can apply this to your online banking.

02 // Master the 30-Day Rule!

If you see an item you think you want but don’t necessarily need put it

back on the shelf and walk away, write it down on a list if you feel it’s necessary. If, after 30 days, you can still justify purchasing that item, feel free to walk into that store and purchase it.

03 // Have a night in

It seems pretty self-explanatory. You will be saving money, buying alcohol by the bottle rather than the glass; and all that money you would have spent on entry could go towards pizza, or more alcohol!

04 // Cancel club memberships!

This one is aimed at those people who sign up for those 12-month gym memberships but are lucky if they remember to go to the gym once every three months. If you don’t use it, don’t pay for it.

05

// Don’t sell your soul for a sale.

Just because something is on sale doesn’t mean you need to buy it. Unless it’s an item on your 30-Day List, or

you had been waiting to purchase this particular item when it went on sale, walk away. Don’t think twice: ignore those big red signs that say 50% store wide. Think of all the money you’ll save not spending money trying to save money.

06 // Tip Jar

Some of you may be lucky enough to get tips — doesn’t matter either way.

A jar can help you go a long way. At the end of each day, put your tips or loose change into a jar. You can collect those coins from the bottom of your wallet, pocket, or handbag, and put it straight into the jar. Once the jar is full, you can count it and you could easily save over $50 in a matter of weeks without even realising.

037

Issue one

FREE

RAPID HIV TESTS Please tell reception if you want to book a Rapid Test

Sexual Health Check-ups See the specialists Show your Student Card and everything will be Bulk Billed.

www.tspc.com.au

Vertigo

038

Issue one

Vertigo

The Liberal Spiller Whatever your political allegiance, you have to agree Australian politics over the past few years has been entertaining and/or distressing. With drama and backstabbing to rival any soap opera, let’s codify a drinking game out of these spills and leadership changes. But no ordinary vodka shot will do. So, in honor the Liberal Party continuing the Labor Party’s 2012 legacy of chaos, we present The Liberal Spiller. We promise you* it will be extremely alcoholic.

Ingredients 39mL of Negative Votes (or any vodka of your choice) 15mL Liberal Frontbencher Tears (Blue Curaçao) Positive Votes (lemonade) Use a highball glass to represent Parliament House.

Step 1 Gather your right-wing politicians.

(Fill your glass with ice.)

Step 2 Mix the fun stuff! Negative votes and male tears of Liberal frontbenchers.

(Add vodka and Curaçao.)

Step 3 *Now to disappoint you and break our promises.

(Dilute with lemonade.)

Step 4 Address the media frenzy.

(Stir and serve.)

Step 5 Drink every time a politician disappoints you.

Choose a specific politician, or you may die.

Artwork: Angela Tam cargocollective.com/angelatam

039

Issue one

Vertigo

Fee deregulation

After being introduced by the Liberal Government in the 2014 federal budget, fee deregulation has stormed the meetings, movements, and placards of student political circles. To many students the potential damage caused by government ‘reform’ appears insurmountable – but perhaps this is due to the inordinate amount of attention the policy has received, rather than a direct understanding on where things are up to now and what this means for students.

Rewind to the release of the Federal Budget last year when the Abbott government announced draconian cuts to the current university-funding model.Fee deregulation was introduced under the guise of providing a buffer for universities from the economic fallout of the budget cuts that Joe Hockey attempted to bring in to ‘end the age of entitlement’. The logic was simple: let students bear the brunt of funding our universities.

The most important thing to note is that deregulation of the tertiary sector does not immediately impact the lives of current university students. The looming raincloud of deregulation will cause a trickle down affect resulting in some cheap degrees and flood of applicants, as well as some degrees with vastly increased costs, resulting in the evaporation of applicants from these degrees and serving as a deterrent for many students attending university in the first place. While this might make Christopher Pyne moist, there is no direct indication from the government, or any of the major universities, that the increased cost of courses will precipitate a better learning experience for students.

Vice Chancellor Attila Brungs, unlike his predecessor Ross Milbourne, is in support of fee deregulation, believing that students — and by extension, Milbourne — have mischaracterised the impact it will make. Professor Brungs believes that by placing caps on fees the cost to students will remain manageable. In an interview with the Sydney Morning Herald last week, Brungs announced: “A cap on fees — as we move from a regulated to deregulated system — is an approach that could moderate any unintended consequences and help ensure that access to university remains merit based.”

Despite continued pressure from students nationally, Christopher Pyne stands resolutely by deregulated fees, as he told ABC Radio just last week “We believe that they are better for the university sector than what’s currently there and we will negotiate with the crossbenchers and do whatever needs to be done to ensure that our universities are the best they can be and our students have the best opportunities that they could have to go to university.”

With continual protest by students, across many platforms, including rallies, lobbying, and protests on national television, there are hopes that the government’s position on fee deregulation might shift. Until that happens, students will continue to be vulnerable to the unwarranted and unprovoked attacks of Federal Government, who, too afraid to make difficult choices in the budget, have instead chosen to attack some of the most vulnerable in society.

040

Issue one

Vertigo

Trigger warning Thomas Grainger

This article contains depictions of eating disorders and depression. If you are affected by these themes, don’t hesitate to reach out to someone you trust, or contact any of the following hotlines.

Beyond Blue: 1300 224 636 Lifeline Australia: 13 11 14 SANE: 1800 18 7263

I was inspired. After watching the season premiere of The Biggest Loser, I wanted to be one of them. Not what the contestants looked like on day one of the program, but I wanted to be a success story, to shed the weight just as they do week in and week out. So I did. As if a light flicked somewhere inside that confused head of mine, I swapped two minute noodles doused in peanut butter, with low calorie ‘miracle’ snack bars, fruit and very little else. So began my journey to body mutilation.

Yes, I was heavily overweight at the time, but it wasn’t too long before I had orchestrated a complete 180. As The Biggest Loser contestants would weigh themselves in each week, so would I … and I lost just as much weight as they did. Everyone began to praise me. “You look fantastic Thomas” … “Keep up the great work.”

“How did you manage to do it?” For a time I luxuriated in the appraisals … until they began to dwindle away.

That fat-kid-turned-skinny had transitioned into the fat kid who was too skinny, to the skinny kid who had become a walking skeleton.

I had become addicted to counting calories, to excessive exercise. I paid no attention to the nutrition in my food. All I cared about were the numbers going into my body, and the numbers going out. Come

rain, hail, or shine, you would have seen me walking, hopping, skipping, jumping or running the streets at all hours of the day, trying to keep ‘fit’.

I was miserable, but I had convinced myself that the only way to happiness was being thin. I had become yet another teenager who was caught in the unhealthy belief pattern that your body shape and size was a measurement of your likeability, your popularity, your own sense of self, and joy. Yet the blunt reality is this: the more you lose, the sadder you become.

It was never as if I thought I was fat, I just was terrified of putting on any weight, and this resulted in losing more. I had spiralled out of control.

Most individuals think anorexic people believe they’re fat. I don’t think this is exactly the case. Most underweight people with an eating disorder are not happy with their body shape and size. They don’t necessarily think they’re fat, they just aren’t satisfied with where they currently are, and the more weight one loses, the more dissatisfied you become. It’s a perpetual pursuit for perfection, with perfection never being attainable because there’s always a ‘more perfect’ to reach.

Two years after I first embarked on the ‘weight loss journey’, I was in the cardiac ward of Westmead Hospital in

041 Sydney on a heart monitor. I had been admitted through the emergency department, but I couldn’t go into the regular adolescent ward because my heart rate was too unstable.

Months earlier my mother had tried to have me hospitalised, but I fought until agreeing on a date to enter the hospital once my year nine exams were completed. The day after my final exam, I was taken to hospital. A few more weeks, and who knows what would have happened to me.

A nasal-gastric tube made sure I was constantly nourished. This basic plastic tube was shoved down my nasal cavity and into my stomach by a group of nurses. As one nurse inserted the tube town your nose as you sat upright in bed, the other nurses would be telling you to swallow steadily. It was the most unpleasant experience I’ve had in my life at the point of writing, followed by having the same thing removed weeks later. My nose bled for several hours afterwards. I vowed that I’d never allow myself to be in this position again, and for the next month I stuffed my face whenever possible. I can remember secretly eating a bag of lollies right after breakfast, in the hope of putting on the weight even faster and getting out of the hospital.

It worked for the time being.

Two years and I was back in the hospital again. This time, it wasn’t for my weight, but for the shell of a person I had become due to chronic depression. Being surrounded by depressed people who don’t attend therapy sessions and sit around the same table each day chain smoking isn’t the most uplifting or inspiring way to recover. What it did do, was make me realise just how many people, from all walks of life, are

Issue one affected by debilitating thought patterns, addiction, and self-hatred.

I managed to pick myself up, tick all the boxes, say all the right things, which included not saying anything I wasn’t sure would be received well. I was flung into my final year of schooling to complete my HSC. Everything seemed to be going well for me. I smashed my exams, landed a scholarship at UTS, and was off to pursue my dreams as a Film Producer with a double degree in Communications and International Studies.

Two years later, I was back at square one. Only worse. Perfectionism had led me to some really great opportunities and achievements in the past, but it had also landed me into a nasty concoction of anxiety, depression, self-abuse, and a diminishing body.

Now, with chronic digestive issues, lymphocytic colitis, chronic anxiety, depression, and osteopenia (the precursor to osteoporosis) at the age of 20, I was a complete mess. I hadn’t just become a little underweight. My weight had plummeted to 45 kg. My Body Mass Index was 15 and I didn’t care. I was miserable.

Since restoring my body to a healthy weight and for the first time coming to embrace myself for the unique and beautiful person that I am (it’s still hard to say that, but I encourage everyone to see themselves as nothing less than a beautiful human being), I have become fascinated by the ways we fall into unhealthy and terribly unbalanced lifestyles. I am dedicated to helping others see their behaviours as being just as irrational and downright dangerous as mine were.

Never forget how beautiful and truly special you are. There is only one you, and you only have one body. Treat it with respect. Love it and it will love you in return.

Vertigo

042

Issue one

Vertigo

In Defense of Abbott Sammy Howes

In the esteemed words of notable political scholar, Taylor Swift: “The haters gonna hate hate hate” and ain’t that just the truth. The good ol’ blind-hate bandwagon has come a long way since Julius Caesar and The-IcebergThat-Sunk-The-Titanic, but the latest undeserving victim of such widespread hostility appears to be none other than our defenceless Prime Minister, Tony Abbott, or old m8 Tone (as the Internet has affectionately dubbed him). It seems recently, even the most politically daft and characteristically apathetic of Australians have taken up arms against the Captain of Team Australia, and nobody but T-Swizzle seems to be able to fathom why.

Surely, it couldn’t be the students paving the streets with placards? The workers throwing tools in strike? The activists organising national days of action? Could it? I mean, really.

While Buzzfeed and those pesky charlatans any other world-leader might call ‘climate-change scientists’ churn the rumour mill, it’s time we look to those who cherish our progressive and extraordinarily competent friend, Tone.

For instance, the vicious cuts to something as frivolous as Medicare could exponentially increase the income per annum for Australia’s homegrown morticians and funeral directors. This prospect has some practically effervescent with joy. As one funeral director explained: “When we read the news about the cutbacks on affordable healthcare, the whole office livened up. We’ve been busy organising teamwork-building exercises and synergistic management solutions for the surge of potential work.

Thanks Tony!”

And it’s not only the death industries who should give their sincerest thanks, but also women everywhere as the Abbott government’s cabinet itself represents an astounding win for gender equality. Most government or independent organisations have never taken the concerns raised by men’s rights activists seriously. I know, right?

Disgusting. Who else on earth is more in need of help; more downtrodden than a cabal of predominantly upper class, heterosexual, Caucasian males?

‘Who else on earth is more in need of help; more downtrodden than a cabal of predominantly upper class, heterosexual, Caucasian males?’

Abbott, having expert knowledge of the significance of white-male leadership in the face of women’s’ dangerous ‘struggle for equality’ championed their arguments by including one entire woman in his cabinet. When the concerned public and MRAs cried injustice, Julie Bishop eased tensions with her definitive statement that she “definitely did not, under any circumstances, identify as a feminist.” Indeed, by appointing himself Minister for Women, Tony Abbott reiterated his deep understanding of femininity and women’s liberation, as he peers down at the women trapped below his precious glass ceiling, all the while polishing it with a Windex-soaked rag. Which, Abbott believes, the women of Australia can most certainly relate to. His role in the feminist movement has also been cited as a major success of the Liberal government. Tony sympathises with how difficult household budgeting must be for women, hence his vehement opposition of the Carbon Tax, which threatened women everywhere with

043

Issue one

Vertigo

shake it off!

having to juggle more numbers than how many peaches to buy at the supermarket. After all, the only sole benefit of such a tax was the reduction of carbon fuel emissions and the prevention of global environmental catastrophe.

The housewives of Australia, as they do their ironing, are, of course, eternally grateful.

And let’s not forget the other names listed in the winner’s’ column: the ABC and SBS. “We really did have too much money,” reflected one reporter. “I really loathed half of the people in my office, but since the cuts, I haven’t had to work with anyone at all. Thanks Tony!”

Journalists, armed with selfie sticks and smartphones can now be found huddling around open fires waiting for the next big parliamentary success story. When asked about the importance of independent media, the PM replied that Rupert Murdoch was one of Australia’s most benevolent and objective media personalities.

With unbiased headlines such as “Australia needs Tony” (Sunday September 2011), you’d have to be a crazy leftwing nut job to disagree.

Speaking of those left-wing extremists, the Australian Labor Party has recently issued a statement declaring Tony Abbott the ALP’s “Contributor of the Year” for

his tireless efforts in boosting the approval ratings of the ALP campaign, such as with the recent knighting of Prince Philip.

A spokesman for the Queen’s husband has thanked Australia for its offering of a prestigious knighthood, which will now adorn the top of the Prince’s 36-tiered ‘achievement shelf’, previously taken by the Prince’s meagre naval rank as the Lord High Admiral for the United Kingdom.

Mere days after the tragic defeat of the Liberal-National Party in Queensland, the now-former premier Campbell Newman (aka Sea Hitler) was found crying amidst an assortment of blue ties and coal seam gas mining brochures, after his brief setback in the LNP’s war against their formidable and life-long enemy, coral. Media attention skyrocketed when it came to light that members of the ALP allegedly flooded the PM’s office with roses and chocolates because they “couldn’t resist showing [their] appreciation,” reported one staffer. ‘Tony has been a great asset to us here at ALP, why, it’s almost as though he’s doing all our campaigning for us!’ said another Labor MPs, tearing up.

In following up with the PM regarding his campaigning victories, his office was found to be entirely empty, with the exception of Julie Bishop and Malcolm Turnbull arm-wrestling on a desk with the song ‘The Eye of the Tiger’ on repeat.

044

Issue one

Vertigo

Climate Change ~ Give a Fuck ~

We hear about it every day in the news, in day-to-day conversation and even in our facebook feeds – those notorious two c words.

It’s spoken about so much that it’s become something of an exhausted topic. The world’s peak body, Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), have been warning everybody about it since 1988. We’ve seen our own government throw around a tax on carbon emissions, only for it to be thrown out a couple of years later. There have been countless protests and demonstrations across the globe about it. Even Leonardo Di Caprio got to speak about it at the UN, all the while sporting a glorious beard and man-bun.

So the topic isn’t anything new, and it’s definitely made its rounds through the news cycle. But it isn’t going away – and that’s because it is easily the greatest threat to human existence.

In fact, the CSIRO and the Bureau of Meteorology recently deduced that climate change will hit Australia harder than the rest of the world.

What makes it different to something that would seem more threatening, like an asteroid strike, a supervolcano

eruption or a solar flare, is that humanity can actually do something about it.

They say worrying about something you can’t change is pointless. In the case of climate change, you can actually help change it. Here’s some reasons to give a damn: The next generation will feel some of the worst effects of it. This is the part where somebody should please think about the children, including the ones you might have one day. 2014 was the hottest year on record, and the number of hot days and heatwaves are only going to increase.To put that into perspective, more people in Australia die in heatwaves than they do in any other natural disaster. The heat will also mean a higher risk of bushfires – and Australia has no shortage of those already. While we’re on the subject of heat, the chances of extreme drought are also increased by climate change.

If you’ve lived in Australia in the last fifteen years, you definitely know what a drought looks like. If climate

045

Issue one

“They say worrying about something you can’t change is pointless”

change has its way, these droughts could be a lot worse than the ones experienced already.

jellyfish. A dip at the beach on a sweltering hot day won’t seem like such a great idea.

We either live, love, or depend on the coast. If you look at a map of Australia, you’ll notice that even though we have a lot of space, we mostly choose to live near the coast. Why? Because most of the continent isn’t exactly all that habitable. Rising sea levels will mean that less of this coast will be habitable, but this isn’t the greatest damage climate change will inflict on our coast. Levels of carbon are increasing the acidity of the ocean, which is killing off the Great Barrier Reef and also killing or driving away marine life. This threatens a major food source and a $2 billion fishing industry, along with a major tourism industry that reeled in 2.7% of the nation’s GDP. Who would want to come here to see a dead reef?

Warmer oceans also mean for us beach-goers that Sydney beaches become more comfortable environments for tropical jellyfish: including the lethal irukandji and box

The government is doing barely anything about it. The so-called Direct Action Policy the Abbott government introduced last year is a token effort at best. Their track record for the environment is deplorable after one year. They’ve abolished the Climate Commission, announced that too much of Australia’s forests were “locked up” in national parks, defunded the Environmental Defenders Offices around the nation, appointed a climate change denier to review the Renewable Energy Target, and also repeal a price on carbon emissions.

We can’t rely on the government to take action on climate change.

Coffee!!?? That’s right – even your morning pick-me-up will not escape the effects of climate change. Close to 70% of all coffee comes from Arabica beans, which come from Ethiopia; a country quite prone to climate change.

If the climate becomes harsher

Vertigo

where the beans are grown, it will make your morning cup of coffee more expensive. And if more and more people go without their morning coffee, well, things could get ugly.

Also on the list of things we might have to learn to live with fewer of: chocolate, beer, and wine. Now how ugly does climate change sound?

The good news is we don’t have to spend our time looking for more reasons – we can do something about it. Breanna Macpherson-Rice is one of the new conveners of the Australian Student Environmental Network (ASEN).

“For me, it comes back to some of those big questions. What’s the point of life if you’re just floating along as part of a system that’s destined for disaster?”

“The issue of climate change presents the greatest opportunity for us all to be smart, creative, and rise to the challenge to create a safe, sustainable and more equitable world, and there’s really nothing else I’d rather be doing.”

Caring about climate change might only be the first step, but it’s a necessary one that we all need to be on board with.

Declan Bowring is Communications at UTS and a member of the university’s environmental collective.

046

Issue one

Vertigo

Death Penalty Lauren Newcombe

Myuran Sukumaran and Andrew Chan have recently been under the media spotlight after the Indonesian President rejected their clemency pleas, upholding the judiciary’s decision to execute the two ‘ring leaders’ of the Bali 9, an infamous heroin trafficking attempt in 2005.

A vigil service held in Martin Place saw many members of our community expressing their wishes to see the Indonesian President spare the lives of the two men by overruling the decision. It is not uncommon to see the debate on capital punishment resurface when Australians overseas have committed severe crimes. So it is not surprising that the recent coverage on this event has sparked an interest in the continuing debate surrounding the legal and ethical implications of the death penalty.

To consider the legal standpoint in Australia, the Crimes (Death Penalty Abolition) Amendment Act 1965 saw a final solidification to an abolished death penalty. Although the last State

authorised execution occurred in 1967 to a man named Ronald Ryan who was to be “hung by the neck until dead”.

However, despite the decades gone past, it seems as though the discussion surrounding the use of capital punishment in modern society has failed to subside. While Australia has discarded capital punishment it does not mean that it could never be reintroduced. It is for this reason that the continuing debate is important.

It is particularly essential to identify the failures of the death penalty as a mean of crime deterrent.

The main issue with this form of punishment is that it only addresses the legal consequences of the crime, and it fails to consider the human consequences, along with other objectives of the justice system, such as rehabilitation. As Indonesian law expert Professor Tim Lindsey noted in a recent newspaper article, the death penalty does not act as a disincentive and is a legally ineffective form of retribution particularly in

a country like Indonesia, where the law enforcement is weak. As was discussed by Maruarar Siahaan, who was on the constitutional court panel that heard the 2007 appeal of Chan and Sukumaran, when the possibility to avoid detection is high, the fear of the consequence is significantly reduced. Therefore, the death penalty will not stop the issue of drug import/ exportation in Indonesia.

The Australian Institute of Criminology (AIC) has collected countless amounts of research regarding the effect of Capital Punishment on Crime rates in Australia as well as perceptions associated with Capital Punishment in general. Their evidence suggests that arguments in favour of the death penalty usually stem from the fear of murderers and offenders of other heinous crimes. However, if you look at Queensland statistics, the decade leading up to the death penalty being abolished in Queensland (1912-1921) saw approximately 131 murders, and yet the decade following the abolished death penalty (1923-1932)

047

Roy Morgan Research asked 2 123 people: Should Australians convicted of drug trafficking overseas with a death sentence be executed?

Issue one

Vertigo

150

120

90

60

48% no

52% yes

30

0

there was 129 recorded murders.

Whilst this does not exclusively prove the effect on Australian crime rates, it certainly implies that removing the death penalty did not increase crime rates. The AIC noted that when considering statistical material from a number of countries both with and without the death penalty, there is most commonly found to be no significant difference between the crime statistics. This could also certainly imply that incidences of murder and drug trafficking as well as other crimes are not greatly affected by the presence of such a consequence.

Another way to consider the death penalty as an ineffective tool for any legal system is that juries may feel reluctant to convict criminals who have committed serious crimes on the basis of not wanting them to be sentenced to death. This would ultimately lead to higher manslaughter rates and less murder rates, as well as more insanity verdicts to attract indeterminate detainment as opposed to death.

An SMS poll was conducted by Roy Morgan Research over the Australia

Day long weekend which collected the opinion of 2 123 people. 52% agreed that Australians convicted of drug trafficking overseas and are sentenced to death should be executed. When you consider the ethical implications of the death penalty—removing the opportunity to rehabilitate and change—it is alarming that over half of the test group doesn’t believe in second chances. Although drug trafficking is a severe crime and the stem of an industry that kills too many people, it is impossible to say that ‘making an example’ of these two men will stop the drug trafficking in Indonesia for the future, because the risk of getting caught is still not assured.

A public drive in Indonesia for the abolition of the death penalty was launched in 1980 following the execution of two persons convicted of murder. Obviously the death penalty remained and is the reason why these two Australian men, whom would be receiving a solid imprisonment sentence if they were being tried in the Australian Courts, may now be living their final days. While undoubtedly a terrible crime, allowing a State with a political agenda to

decide to lawfully murder a person for a crime that continues regardless of the consequence is arguably just as terrible.

Photography: Rose Wallace McEwen

048

Issue one

Vertigo

Privacy, sia l8r!

Cameron Hart A desire for anonymity and privacy might be universal, even if you’re famous. In pre-modern times, secrets could be kept in locked boxes or minds– but now, technology and information have been globalised to the point where nothing–and nobody– is safe. A lie can be uncovered as easily as checking the weather, and a mask, similarly, is no protection against worldwide surveillance or the transference of information. One would imagine that with trademarks, paper trails, and other indicators of possession and ownership, digital natives (that’s us, folks!) would have a better or more intimate understanding of lines that shouldn’t be crossed– the juncture where your story stops being yours and starts being someone else’s. But the discourses surrounding what belongs where or to who is now fraught with the dangerous struggle between our human compulsions know everything but reveal nothing.

For instance, take Australian singersongwriter Sia, who has been both praised and excoriated by the online masses as she claims in various interviews that despite her fame, she doesn’t want to be recognised– instead preferring the people to focus solely on her music. Ironically, obscuring her face has had the reverse effect; detracting from the performance of her music and artistry as people are consumed by the single, enduring question: why isn’t she showing her face? This might seem ridiculous to readers who are aware that a perfunctory Google search would deliver hundreds of images of her face, from every conceivable angle. Does Sia’s identity

belong to her anymore? Do our identities belong to anyone?

For other Australians, the metadata scheme proposed by the Liberal Party’s Malcolm Turnbull would have the government demand all internet service providers retain their clients’ metadata, which includes the time, date, and location of your journeys into the virtual world. Just so the Page 1 of 1 police, ASIO, and skilled hackers can know what you’ve been viewing, no watchdog or warrants required. What we really need to consider is whether mass surveillance is even a viable option in our tech-savvy society– if it stops the terrorists and other criminals, or if it makes us feel any less guilty about prying into the personal messages on our friends’ phones or Facebook accounts.

Australian intelligence and security agencies already have extensive and far-reaching powers that we as the public don’t (and aren’t meant to) understand very well. The terrorist behind the attack at Martin Place, Man Haron Monis, was on bail at the time of the siege; security agencies could have been monitoring him and may have even prevented the tragedy that followed if they’d been more diligent in their surveillance efforts. As digital natives, we all know the capabilities of governments and individuals concerning our personal information and online identities, especially since this metadata thing is essentially the desperate attempts of a government to exert some semblance of control during its death throes. But perhaps, that’s what all these invasions of privacy are about, a civilisation on its deathbed.

049

Issue one

S HO W C A S E 50 poetry:emma smith 52 serial: back to where you’ve never been 54 illustration: joy li 56 photography: alex wright

Vertigo

050

Issue one

Emma Smith Gastropod Mollusc when the slug leaves behind a slime meant clandestine she gives thanks for being a slug not the cat in its hubris twee of sleek when the slug boils up in blisters the salt grains burst she gives thanks for being a slug not the butterfly with filigree disguise when the slug trips onto leaves barrelling downstream she gives thanks for being a slug not the abalone gonna suffocate in sun this shell-less terrestrial gastropod mollusc is a modern marvel mashing up fresh honks with her mucus horns, retractable when she stretches out in the loam to hum squishy in tree in-sistent moan thrumming heartbeats juiced up with scum, yes, yes— honey she just gives thanks for the goddamn thrill of it

Vertigo

051

Issue one

Stub/born i ended up on the goat path. it splutters through the mountains, guttering curves. enough rain and fog here to spawn a local idiolect: the verb for ‘to hang clothes out to dry, only to be drenched then dried, drenched / dried, so on.’ the verb for ‘to have lingering fungal cloy through the house.’ i’m not kidding. vocabulary created by need the resident spore curls into wetnesses of books, walls, the fanned-out bronchioles of the lungs of those who scorn advice. of course i ended up like my family climbing up foothills, rocks, peaks, to cross a line, to change their idiolect or die. when they emerged otherside descending without a name folks called them cabra by the beast their bent knees implied my grandfather, fronting gullies he knew not how to map, chose to keep his coma and even now my mother’s calves are too big for her boots. this trail proliferates the calf bulge, doesn’t budge. oversupply, some believe, has made the fibres fierce. what was to be a stable perch over giddy rocks is become a firm footplant, a disregard for sentiment of welcome, or lack thereof. the goat crunches on whatever’s growing, has developed a tongue for trash. of course i had to have made him a home. his belly hangs low over scattered rocks, the path gouges deeper. he’s been bleating afresh. people call him big now, cabrón, and they have a grind to imply. stubby takes up space. i can’t walk the mountain splats no more and the resident spore has found my loamy lung mucus.

Vertigo

052 052

Issue one Issue one

Vertigo Vertigo

Vertigo Serial: Part 1

Back to where you’ve never been Lauren Meola

At the time of his landing on Earth it was mere minutes before the last whirring. Ovid had completed his recommended readings but nothing in the Planet Synopses had mentioned anything about the stillness, or the quiet. Or for that matter, the forsaken wreckage coating the ground. How unusual and how disappointing.

‘Densely populated’ was a phrase that appeared on at least six occasions; surely it wasn’t a misprint. He slipped a hand into the folds of his jacket and withdrew his Diginote, swiped left to turn it on.

whirring, if we want to be specific) was the second hand of someone’s wristwatch. The cars didn’t stop dead in the streets when it happened, as myth would have it. Though, they did stop dead eventually, when their owners did.

His assignment brief was brief.

Nowhere particular to be and nothing particular to report on. A general sketching of the place as it stands today would do quite nicely and no more than 1200 words, and no poetic embellishments, Ovid, or it will be scrapped, thank you very much.

Assignment Location: Earth He twisted his arm to compare the tracker on his inner wrist. EARTH. No mistake, this was the place.

Everything had settled by this time, save for the dust which was continually blown about. It lifted and settled incessantly onto benches, statues and terraces. It was in every ridge on lamp posts and every fold of steel in corrugated gates. Though even the wind was gentle and didn’t make much noise.

The last whirring (the last mechanical

He was standing in what seemed to be a paved forum, overwhelmingly orange and not just from the dust. Everything was the colour of Terracotta (he had decided). He spun on the spot to glimpse at each of the wide and narrow channels attached to the circular space; roads and lanes. This was probably Italy or something of the sort. His tracker could probably be more precise but he liked to play games. The only thing that threw him off was the atypical bite of cold in the air, at least, for this time of Earth year. Italy would have been exciting were it not for the absolute calm.

He kept turning on the spot trying to catch some movement, his shoes twisting on loose stones and debris.

Then, a dot in his periphery. A single bird came into view, flying towards him from one of the openings. It flew so low. Really: how unusual. It almost grazed his head.

A fresh page emerged as he swiped diagonally on his directory and dove after the bird into the lane opposite.

A true multi-tasker; walk, write, wend his way through wreckage.

He let his words contend with his disappointment. Earth, as he imagined it to be.

Earth: I’ve got nowhere particular to be. I’ve got nothing particular to report on. I’m twisting my heels into the pavement and popping my hips, shuffling to and fro. Skipping now, sliding on sporadic patches of earth erupting from the stone. I melt into a strut, flying and bouncing off the balls of my feet, navigating debris with ease.

Here there is a light, warm breeze. It licks at my cheeks as I skim the lapels of my jacket and pop them outward.

The hem of my untucked shirt is

Vertigo 053

picked up by Earth’s sweet wind, exposing my bare skin. I don’t mind.

It’s only the birds that sneak a peek.

They dip and dive in formation close to the ground. Their hollow arc is so low as if nothing close to the surface frightens them. They almost graze my chin when I turn it upwards and stare into this sun. Light shoots out and flickers against the edges of their soaring silhouettes. My squinting eyes are curious. Free little birdies fly.

He saved the file under ‘Poetic Embellishments – Earth’. The wind was picking up his jacket but his skin smarted from cold. No one would ever know different, though the visual of his editor’s eternal sneer appeared unwelcome in his head. He opened a new file and continued his walk.

The lane was slender and cobbled with stone and ceramic shards. He passed a number of shut doors and high above them, shuttered windows.

Boarded up to block the stream of dust, presumably. He tried a couple doors and each were locked.

Planet Earth: Temperature markedly incongruent with provided statistics.

Colder. Minimal penetration of sunlight. Infrastructure is as expected

January 2015 Issue one

however, subject to dereliction.

Constant light to medium strength wind. Dust. Signs of life – bird.

Humans? How dull.

The city extends its arms infinitely.

It is labyrinthine; channels erupt ceaselessly from where I stand.

Each toward a different sound and different smell. I weave and wend through clusters of humans, squeeze past them in the streets. I am a stranger. My hands are secreted away in my pockets; I make myself small.

Some smile. Some don’t notice at all.

Ovid had never met a human. Earth seemed to possess neither humans nor open doors and it was beginning to worry him, for reasons he couldn’t quite place. As he progressed up the lane he could see that it tapered off to the right and ended at an intersection. He made out a final door frame, to the left, but couldn’t make out whether it was shut.

He slowed, and would have crossed his fingers if that was a gesture he knew. There was nothing but the sound of his shoes. Staccato clacks upon the stone. Closer and closer he came and… it was open.

053 Vertigo

He moved directly through the door. Without even a knock, he had despicable manners if there was anyone there to be offended. The room was decidedly simple; a table, a single chair, some sparsely stacked shelves, a door to another room. Ovid sat down.

I am taken by the hand and pulled into a room away from the swell of bodies outside. It is warm in here, cluttered with browns and oranges.

Plates stacked high, pans hung, and cups lined up, all bronzed. Chairs sit around a table, draped in a cotton cloth. A steaming pot in its centre is filled with thick, red sauce.

Tremendous scents rise with steaming swirls from the mixture’s bubbled surface. This is a home.

Ovid placed the Diginote down on the table; he closed his eyes and let his hand drag against the timber as he pulled it away just to feel the rough.

He could almost smell his invented aroma. When he opened his eyes and drew away from the fiction, there was a human at the doorway. She held an empty pot raised in her right hand above her head, ready to strike.

054

Issue one

Vertigo

Joy Li

055

Issue one

Vertigo

2nd year design in visual communication Distinctly posied and framed, her work combines traditional drawing techniques and contemporary digital forms to create beautiful ideals derived from the modern female aesthetic.

Their coutenance, graceful yet absent, floats between two realms, existing beyond the temporal and ethereal.

instagram @_joyli cargocollective.com/joyli

056

Issue one

Vertigo

Alex Wright

057

Issue one

Vertigo

3 rd y e ar d e sig n i n photography & situated media Largely inspired by John Berger’s Understanding A Photograph, my work explores the paradoxical notions of composition and form. While Photography in its raw nature, bears witness to human choice being exercised, I became particularly caught up on a phrase reiterated by Berger, which suggested “The good photograph is the well composed one”.

Notions of paradoxical recognition are explored as the object begins to transition through the linear of the compositional still life. Posing the question; does the compositional form truly “explain nothing” (as in the opinion of Berger) or does it subconsciously alter our perception of the true content of the Photograph, when presented with a new arrangement of structural form?

@dontknowhy alexandra-wright.format.com

058

Issue one

Vertigo

, then

to 50% p u e v a s d n a Buy k even! a e r b o t ll e s e R

060

Issue one

Vertigo

BRAND NEW STUDENT ACCOMMODATION IN SYDNEY Sydney studios now with 100GB of internet per month!* Contact us to book or arrange a viewing 1800 260 801 www.urbanest.com.au Sydney Student Living Made Better

Join the conversation!

urbanest is a proud accommodation partner of UTS *Offer valid on single occupancy studios booked before 1 March 2015 at urbanest Cleveland Street or urbanest Sydney Central.

Limited stock available. See www.urbanest.com.au for more information.