Pelican Volume 90 Edition 2 by UWA Student Guild

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Booladarlung I Edition 2 I Volume 90. I April 2019 I EST. 1929

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PRES SOPHI SUSI TORIAL ITORIAL

Hello! How’s your first few weeks back at uni? There’s definitely a lot of ~~ quirky ~~ things happening at UWA at the moment. We’ve got the Women’s Department’s SCREW Week coming up, as well as Fringe Festival, and lots more. Fringe is one of my favourite times of the year, with lots of music, arts and comedy happen on campus. Take some time to smell the roses and enjoy! This time of semester can also get pretty stressful, so make sure you take some time out for yourself and use the services available if you need them. We’re here to help. See you around soon xoxo Conrad

Conrad’s two quirky truths and a lie:

I’m left handed I’m a vegan

TORIAL

I’ve been told enjoying soy milk in my coffee is a quirk. I’ve also been told that my curly hair is a quirk. I’ve also been told that my hatred of certain textures and uncanny ability to catastrophize every single situation is a quirk. Turns out that was crippling OCD but hey, swings and merry-go-rounds, I guess. So long as they don’t come at the expense of your mental health, you should enjoy your quirks. In a very benign way, they make you, you. Sometimes, learning to enjoy what you like and what makes up you, can be difficult. Especially when other people tell you that shouldn’t feel the way you do about them. QUIRK is about unashamedly loving what you shouldn’t but do anyway. Celebrating what makes you tick. From that unreleased Imagine Dragons EP from 2008 to the way you fold toast half before you eat it and everything in-between. It’s small, it’s sometimes unnoticed but it’s not unimportant. QUIRK is a space for people to talk about what they like, without any of the embarrassment and with all of the love, and why you should maybe like it too. So, pull up a chair, kick your feet up with a cup of that special brand of tea you like and indulge in the love of the small things. Thank you for reading.

I learnt the trombone at school Sophie

I’m a little strange. I collect stamps. I watch Twin Peaks. I listen to Leonard Cohen. I used to keep my obsessions safely tucked away in the box in my brain labelled ‘TOP SECRET - do not reveal!’ I thought no one in real life shared my interests (except on the internet). But life’s too short to live in the shadows. As humans we’re afraid to be judged. So we hold back, hide our true selves and try to conform to a façade of ‘normality’. But then we miss those special moments, when the stars align and you meet someone who’s just as obsessed as you are. Someone with that same sparkle in their eye. And that magic can only begin the moment we take off our masks. We’re all quirky here. We all have our little fixations that make us feel wonderfully alive. Without them we’d be as boring as baked beans with no added salt. You’re unique. One of a kind. So, embrace your eccentricities. Let people see the real You in all its divine, quirky magnificence. Show the world your passions. Let them shine! There’s no one exactly like you in this corner of the Universe. This edition is an ode to obsessions, a celebration of fascinations and your beloved passions that make you, You. It’s about throwing away the masks we’ve learnt to wear, revealing those peculiar parts of you that make you unique and letting our QUIRKS radiate out into the world! This issue wouldn’t exist without our brave contributors, who did just that and hopefully inspire you to do the same. Quirky is the ‘new’ cool. Stay wonderfully weird, friends! Infinite x’s and o’s, Susie

HEAD EDITORS:

CONTRIBUTORS:

SOPHIE MINISSALE SUSANNAH CHARKEY

AVA CADEE, X

X = Words, O = Art ELOISE SKOSS, X EMILY PETERSON, X

SUB EDITORS: ARTS: AIMEE DODDS & STIRLING KAIN CAMPUS NEWS: CAMERON CARR DIVERSITY: ELIZA HUSTON & ELANOR LEMAN FASHION: MAJA MARIC & SAMUEL WORLEY

LINCOLN ASPINALL, X STIRLING KAIN, X PARIS JAVID, X BAYLEY HORNE, X LEAH CHAPPELL, X SKY EDWARDS, O PAULINE WONG, O

FILM: THOMAS TANG & DOMINIC KWACZYNSKI

ALEX HOCKTON, O

LIFESTYLE: AVA CADEE & ELOISE SKOSS

MAJA MARIC, X

LITERATURE: ASHA COUCH & LAURENT SHERVINGTON

SAM WORLEY, X

MUSIC: PATRICK ROSO

FELIX KING, X

POLITICS: JACOB MITCHELL & SHAMINA ROZARIO

JEAN MADISON, X

SCIENCE: ZOE CASTLEDEN & LACHLAN MACRAE

ELIZABETH LONG, X

TECHNOLOGY AND GAMING: BAYLEY HORNE

ISABELLA ZALMSTRA, X

ALEX PINDUR, X

ANINYA MARZOHL, X CATE TWEEDIE, X JARED GALE, X PREMA ARSU, X ISABELLE YUEN, X

WANT TO JOIN THE PELICAN TEAM? DROP US A LINE AT THE CONTACT DETAILS BELOW! pelicanmagazine.com.au/ fb.com/PelicanMagazine

LAUREN HALFORD, X JACK LOGAN, X WILLIAM HUANG, X BRODIE KELLY, X JESS CARBONE, X RYAN CRAIG, O *Pelican would like to apologise that Aninya Marzohl was not credited in the last Contributorâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s list.

@pelicanmagazine pelican@guild.uwa.edu.au

COVER ART ALEX HOCKTON, @HOCKTAG DESIGNED BY XANDER SINCLAIR

The views expressed within this magazine are not the opinions of the UWA Student Guild or Pelican Editorial Staff but of the individual artists and writers.

The Pelican team acknowledges that the UWA Campus is located on the lands of the Whadjuck people of the Noongar nation who are the original storytellers and custodians of their land. 4

CONTENTS 3 - Editorials and Presitorial 4 - Contributor and Sub Editor List FEATURES 6 - Letters to the Editors 8 - Aunts in Agony Ava Cadee and Eloise Skoss Art by Pauline Wong 36 - A Modmin’s Take on the Aesthetics of Perth aesthetics Elizabeth Long 50 - Quiz: Which UWA building are you? Jess Carbone LIFESTYLE 12 - A Night Out in Perth Eloise Skoss 14 - Dormilona Wine Natural Wine Interview Ava Cadee 48 - Urban Occult Rituals William Huang DIVERSITY 22 - Quirky Styles and Queer Identity Leah Chappell Art by Sky Edwards 34 - Crossdressing Jean Madison FASHION 28 - Back to Uni Fashion Maja Maric and Sam Worley 33 - Why I Bulk Buy Tarjay Felix King 15 - I didn’t slap you, I just high-fived your face Lauren Halford 49 - Quirk in Kicks Brodie Kelly

TECHNOLOGY AND GAMING 42 - Let’s Go Smash Some Bros. (An Interview with David Stebbins) Bayley Horne 41 - The Magic of Indie Game Music Cate Tweedie 20 - Kiss, Kiss, Fall in Love: Dating Simulations Isabelle Yuen LITERATURE 38 - Quirky Literature Found in UWA Libraries Prema Arasu ART 16 - Jeff Koons, I Hate You Stirling Kain Art by Pauline Wong 35 - The Problem With Quirky Art Aninya Marzohl MUSIC 26 - Pelican’s Favourite Records 40 - Jammin with Juche: Tunes to Keep the (Korean Worker’s) Party Alive Isabella Zalmstra and Jared Gale 45 - Siren of the Caspian Elizabeth Long FILM 10 - The Last Picture Show: Perth’s Fading Film Preservation Culture Emily Peterson 46 - Realism and Representation: The Use of NonActors in Cinematic Storytelling Jack Logan POLITICS 44 - Student Experience and Casualisation Licnoln Aspinall SCIENCE 18 - Quantum Physics Makes the Sun Shine Paris Javid 30 - Mycophilia Alec Pindur 5

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR UTOPIA VS. BOOST? BOOST IS BETTER FOR YOUR BOD

I need to rant about this recent fad. Everyone keeps saying Utopia is the ‘new’ Boost and I am furious. I am genuinely worried students will be missing their 2 fruit and 5 vege now that Utopia has opened. Don’t be fooled by peach tea there’s no fruit there! I think it’s shocking that students are willingly choosing diabetes in a cup over healthy, refreshing, straight- from-Mother-Nature juice. As a raw, vegan, whole foods advocate the fact that people are choosing to start their day with a deadly dose of sugar baffles me. I think that Professor Pelly should get on this and inform the students what they’re really ingesting when they drink their sickly syrups and choke on gooey bubbles through plastic straws too big for their mouths. (Even Boost has hopped on the eco-friendly straw bandwagon!) Yours sincerely, Concerned Population Health Student

Art by Pauline Wong

FACT: The swans on Matilda Bay will absolutely take your lunch money.

RANTING ABOUT RAVING I’m disappointed in the Guild. There’s been general lack of parties and social events this year. All the iconic events are being postponed or cancelled such as Ibiza and the now called ‘Texicana’. Whatever happened to the ‘campus culture’ thing they keep going on about? Where have all the raves gone? Where is the culture? Why is the Guild discriminating party clubs? It’s not enough to run a BNOC angled event like a Block Party. Plus, it’s pretty intimidating for the freshers. We need large club affiliated events that promote campus culture and socialisation without the social pressure and stigma of “Frat” or the Guild. Events where students can feel safe and engaged but still have a good time. Alcohol-free, music festivals celebrating different cultures and genres like Bollywood or K Pop would be much more accessible for everyone, compared to Block Party or Frat Party. Especially when you consider the fact that most international students are ones most vulnerable to isolation and need social events the most. Yet the clubs they join are the small, underfunded clubs ones who can’t afford UWA’s ridiculously expensive venues. The Tavern costs 1500 dollars to run a single event. 1500 dollars. Shame on the Guild for not doing more to help clubs and really promote ‘campus culture’! From, Your Average Club Enthusiast

A GIFT Hello Pelican,

I shot this in Canning river! Reckon a picture of a pelican should send to Pelican magazine. Enjoy!

IT’S TIME UWA LIFTED THEIR GREEN GAME Dear Editors, As a vegan student on campus, I am always looking for shifts within the system that produce more ethical, and environmentally sustainable circumstances for students. I love the new solar panel bench in front of Reid library, where students can recharge their electronics using nothing but the sun’s rays as a nonpollutive energy source. Although it is encouraging to see small changes like these, promoting a better, cleaner future, they are mere grains of sand next to boulders. One girl sitting on this bench and using this innovative technology is seriously outnumbered when you consider the computers inside of the library, running on fossil fuels. For a university that prides itself on pursuing the impossible, I would like to see us move toward a more sustainable future, and channelling more money into creating a healthier environment rather than seeing it go to waste on gratuitous activities around campus that are actually fostering pollution. There needs to be a greater push on faculties to produce units that are directly in line with society’s major issues - namely our environmental collapse. One might argue that an enormous shift toward a cleaner campus might need political aid, and that is true. But the very policymakers and leaders of the future are currently inside of society’s universities. If the campus implemented greener ways of thinking by any means reasonable (and they do have the means if they channelled money into clean endeavours rather than other unnecessary or subordinate issues), then it will pave the way forward for other academic policies, in terms of fostering an environmentally focused culture, and an education for future leaders in all fields who can intelligently discuss the issues of their generation in an effective and impelling way. Yours truly, Waiting for change

BANNED FROM TRANSPERTH Hey,

Image by Wenjing Zheng

I just read the entire current edition of Pelican front to back on the bus ride home from Uni. It was the greatest piece of satire I have read in a long time! It made me laugh so hard, I’ve now been banned from all Transperth services for life. Now I will have to break the bank to park on campus and live off baked beans and oranges. All because of you, Pelican. So, THANKS a lot!

GOT LOTS TO SAY BUT NO ONE TO LISTEN? WRITE TO US! Are you outraged with the opinions in this magazine? What makes your blood boil at UWA? We want to hear it! Send us your campus rants, witty whinges and outrageous confessions. pelican@guild.uwa.edu.au I fb.com/PelicanMagazine I @pelicanmagazine

AUNTS IN AGONY Eloise Skoss and Ava Cadee

Dear Aunts in Agony,

Hey there Aunts in Agony,

I’m a fresher at Tommy, and as I just turned 18, I am super excited to go to my first ever Cap S on Wednesday night! I am really hoping to find my dream woman on the d-floor, and experience the kind of romance I have dreamed about since I started following ‘UWA Love Letters’ a month ago. How do I go about this Aunty Pelican? What do I do? What do I say? What do I wear?

I was recently at Reid, planning to squeeze in a few readings before my tute, when I noticed a guy energetically waving in my direction. I looked over casually and made eye contact, and not seeing anyone else around, returned his wave with a smile. He looked at me confused, then looked past me to a girl walking over towards him, whom he greeted with a hug. How embarrassing!

Please help!

How long is an appropriate amount of time before I can come out of hiding and show my face on campus again?

Captain Romance

Regards, Dear Captain Romance,

Mortified

Cap S is a sweaty, strange whirlwind. Strap in, because it’s a wild ride whether you choose to ride the bucking bull or not. Forget romance – Wednesday nights are about survival. Whether that’s surviving the dance floor without passing out from heat exhaustion, surviving the queue in the pouring rain or surviving the bouncers who will remove you from venue faster than you can say, “Another jug of cider please at the slightest stumble. Bearing that in mind, dress for the circumstances and avoid anything you wouldn’t want drenched in bodily fluids. We can even look to the natural world for outfit inspiration - head to toe bright red signals, “I’m a dangerous bad boy.” Neon yellow will make you stand out anywhere and alert all the ladies to your presence, so try a funky high vis vest. Just remember that camouflaging is going to get you nowhere. Most importantly, pick the heaviest shoes you can find and fill them with concrete, you need to be planted to the ground to prevent the dangerous falls that will have you sent packing out onto Stirling Highway. Above all, remember to stay safe, look after your mates and stay hydrated and you’ll be boogieing the night away in no time. In agony,

Your Aunts

Hi there Mortified! Your aunts receive some pretty ridiculous questions, but this honestly takes the cake! To remain in hibernation for anything short of a semester would be social suicide! Personally, I would recommend you stay away for longertake the gap year you should have had after Year 12 and leave the country for a while- your parents may have been against it then, but they will definitely understand in these circumstances (and will probably shout you a one-way ticket). Learn a new language, become an Au Pair, hike up a mountain or do one of those sickeningly fast-paced Contiki tours where you visit 30 countries in 30 days. Whatever you do, do it far, far away from the scene of the crime. Get in quick to your relevant student faculty before the Census date, so you can defer your studies without academic penalty, so when you can return from your extended sabbatical, it will be almost as if you had never committed this horrific faux pas at all. Even then, it would be in your best interests to change your default library to Barry J Marshall. In agony,

Your Aunts

FACT: Have you ever thought that bubble tea just like, isn’t that good?

Art by Pauline Wong

G’day Aunts in Agony,

Hello Aunts in Agony,

I am a GT born-and-raised lad in my first semester at UWA. On O-day I accidentally joined SNAGS, and went along to their sundowner, and now, a few emus later, I’ve changed my major to Agricultural Science and I can’t stop talking like Russell Coight! I’ve never even seen a cow in real life, but all of a sudden, I’m looking up rainfall charts and talking out the corner of my mouth, so the flies don’t get in. It’s driving the folks insane, Mum walks 10 paces in front of me at the Boatshed now, and the misso has cracked the shits too!

My girlfriend of two years recently broke up with me, saying that she just can’t do it anymore because I’m “too basic,” have “no sense of style” and “embarrass her in public.” She is the love of my life- how can I change my style in order to win her back? I’ll do anything, even stop wearing my Leavers jacket from 2014! I’m desperate for your help! Many thanks, Clothing Clueless

Can youse help me out? Cheers,

Dear Clothing Clueless,

Ken Oath

Greetings Ken, Fair dinkum, what a total stitch-up! You will need to do a lot of personal reflection to be able to solve this problem, and all I can do is gently guide you through the process. It seems you have started on a new life pathway, albeit inadvertently, which differs significantly from the expectation your family had for you. They are hurting, which is a natural reaction to what they view as a rejection of the type of life they have built for you, as well as a sadness that all money they spent on your Christ Church schooling may have gone to waste. Continuing on the pathway of soil science, Blundstones and exaggeratedly drawn-out vowel sounds is likely to alienate you from all you have ever known but may open you up to a rare breed of blokes and birds you may not have otherwise met. You need to critically analyse your inner thoughts, hopes and dreams and decide which pathway is best for you. University is a time to experiment, and figure out who you really are, but unfortunately in this instance, you may soon reach the point of no return. It’s not too late to turn in your SNAGS cap, and return to warm embrace of the Commerce major your dad picked out for you, but time is ticking, so make your decision soon.

I’m so sorry to hear of your split, those times are never easy. This is the part in the movie of your life where the makeover montage begins. Crank up the volume and blast ‘Eye of the Tiger’ as loud as you can to drown out the sadness. You are going to want to find every last remaining piece of school uniform you can find: your leaver’s jacket, your gym shorts, your backpack – and burn them all in a flaming garbage fire. Those glory days are over, but don’t fret as soon you will be turning over a new sartorial leaf and winning your girlfriend back with your fresh kicks. Hit the shops and pick up some stylish uni essentials. You want to project the image that you are down with the 411 and that you’ve finally got your life together, even when it’s completely falling to pieces. Strap on some Vans, maybe even a funky button-down to demonstrate your newfound effortless cool. Nothing says, “My life has direction and I pay all my bills on time,” than a pressed linen shirt! Strut into the Reid Library and show off your fantastic new look, your girlfriend will be blown away! In excruciating agony,

Your Aunts

In agony,

Your Aunts

FACT: You should write for Pelican. Please.

THE LAST PICTURE SHOW:

PERTH’S FADING FILM PRESERVATION CULTURE Emily Peterson

“WOW, A DVD STORE, I DIDN’T KNOW THOSE PLACES STILL EXISTED.”

It’s a pretty common response to when I tell people I work at a DVD store. Unfortunately, the struggle for existence is very real. The DVD stores of Perth have been quietly dropping off the radar one by one, falling victim to soaring rent prices and competition with online companies such as Netflix and Stan. That is until Friday, March 1st 2019, when Blockbuster in Morley announced it was shutting its doors after being the sole survivor of its name in Australia. I heard the news when I was at work, it was a quiet period when I answered a phone call: “Are you still open?” The voice asked me on the other side. I replied in a manic customer service voice. “Yes, we don’t close until 9pm on Friday nights.” “No,” The voice replied abruptly, “I mean, are you still open?”

FACT: The Pelican Office is booked out on Fridays after 5 pm for our weekly editorial ‘Wine Mum’ nights.

And that’s when the voice told me about Morley’s sudden closure, despite weeks of being featured in newspaper articles and even on The Project. I felt it as a doubleedged sword. Yes, one less DVD store in Perth means less competition for us, we might get a few new members out of it, but at the same time I still feel dread. Dread that the days for our own store are numbered, dread that I won’t be able to indulge in that nostalgic tradition of browsing the shelves for movies. Dread that I won’t be able to find those rare artistic films again. That I won’t see the local customers to debate the quality of Nicolas Cage movies. That I’ll lose the comedic gold that is the staff banter. I guess, this is a part of what you might call: ‘film culture’. If I’m being perfectly honest, I’m no film buff. I don’t know about directors or screenwriters, I couldn’t care less about the Oscars and I don’t even know what other awards exist. Yet somehow, as a staff member and customer, I’ve been brought out into this vibrant world of film culture and inadvertently been made a part of its preservation. Our contribution to film culture is an archive of over 40 000 film titles. That includes the box-office fails, the artistic foreign movies, the 90s movies from your childhood with peculiar names, old classics, and so many others that you couldn’t even imagine. We keep the hidden gems right along-side the box-office winners. I can’t tell you how many people walk in looking for something particular that they can’t find on Netflix, like Hedwig and the Angry Inch, and end up leaving with a stack of ten DVDs in their arms because they’ve been browsing for an hour in the Critics section. You might believe that Netflix is convenient, but we make its less than 3000-title collection seem dismal. Furthermore, people should care more about the preservation of films.

THAT ONE OLD BLACK AND WHITE CLASSIC THAT WON’T BE RE-RELEASED OR REDISTRIBUTED BECAUSE NO ONE REMEMBERS ITS NAME SHOULDN’T JUST DISAPPEAR. Old-school screenwriting, acting, cinematography and directing shouldn’t be lost forever merely because it isn’t hot enough for Netflix. It should be rightly preserved for everyone to rediscover and enjoy. That’s what a DVD store brings to film culture: it’s a catalogue of cinematic history that continues to expand, even in these hard times. The survival of the DVD stores a dream that Mel, the owner of Network Video in Mt. Hawthorn, is trying to cultivate. “I am trying to achieve something that I believe we don’t have in WA but, yet we have over East”, she often tells her customers. What she’s referring to is that vibrant film culture that we seem to lack in Perth. Mel’s dedication to keeping the store alive is the lifeline of a small community hub; the community being the customers who have rejected

online streaming services in favour of customer service, variety, and socialisation. The DVD store inadvertently serves as a prime environment for human interaction, simply because we all have a common interest: movies. Everyone loves the escapism of comedies, dramas, actionstunts, intricate costuming and all the other efforts the cinema industry has to offer. You don’t need to be a critic to have a film review. It can be as simple as a “loved it” or “hated it”, but a microscopic input of feedback on a new release can turn into a full-blown conversation about anything ranging from your favourite movies to politics and current affairs. For introverts like myself, it seems like a daunting prospect, but it is a rare and beautiful thing to be able to immediately connect with total strangers, sometimes having conversations like long-lost friends. At the end of the day, it’s really other people who lead you to discover new films and genres. It’s the guy next to you who’s returning a movie you’ve never heard of and tells you that it’s a documentary you need to watch, or a comedy with biting social commentary, or a thriller that serves as a gentle gateway into horror (for those ‘chickenshits’ like myself who don’t venture near the horror section). But Mel’s dream isn’t just about cultivating an appreciation for your big production movies, it’s giving the local Perth talent a chance to show off their creative output for the lay public to enjoy. “I would love to achieve a cultural hub in Perth that supports our local film industry, with the DVD store being the centre of it all. I don’t think we do enough and so the industry struggles as a result.” Mel’s given opportunities to young filmmakers to test their skills by featuring their movies in the store, with 100% of the profits made going back to the producers. “We have young up and coming filmmakers that have nowhere to turn to. Imagine if we could build this cultural place that’ll give them an opportunity to create and bounce ideas off mentors.” We’re all optimistic, though none of us are blind to the grim reality that the store’s shelf life is close to expiring. Mel has a plan in place to get this film culture hub up and running, but it comes at a price: “We need to attach another business and other products to our store to have it remain viable; it just can’t continue the way it has been. As it is, I don’t pay myself and next week I’ll be starting a full-time job, as well as working in the store, to keep it going.” In the end my point is this: if you rely on online streaming services to watch your movies, you’re missing out. There’s so much more to be gained out of film culture than just watching the latest movies and reading the opinions of some random film critic. Film culture isn’t some artistic elitist society for people with high opinions about cinematography and directors, nor is it reserved for those in Hollywood. Film culture is available for everyone to enjoy, and if all of our DVD stores vanish, that availability will seriously diminish.

FACT: All ducks on campus are honorary members of the Editorial team.

Art by Anon 13

QUICK QUESTIONS WITH JO PERRY Ava Cadee

Josephine Perry is an exciting natural winemaker from Western Australia. We had a quick chat with her all about her funky and delicious biodynamic wines and all the quirks of natural winemaking. How would you explain low intervention wines to someone who has no idea what they’re about? Certified biodynamic or organic grapes that have been fermented into wine with bare minimal invention. How does the process and the final product differ from that of other wines? Less taken out, nothing added so more a more present wine. Why do you think there has been a recent rise in the prominence and popularity of natural-style and low intervention wines? People are taking more notice of what they are putting into their bodies. Can you tell us a little bit about how you got into the industry and the process of starting a business like Dormilona? My grandfather was a Brewer for Swan Brewery and he sent me off to do a work experience vintage at the age of 14. I loved it and never looked at anything else.

How does using organic and biodynamic fruit make a difference when it comes to wine making? Easier to handle in the winery. They ferment better. You see more a clarity in the fruit and wines are beautiful and pure. Are you able to expand a bit on your experience as a female in this industry? Being a female has not made much difference to me to be honest. I think it’s just one of those industries like school teaching - more women to men. Times are changing slowly. All the ‘Clayface’ artwork is absolutely stunning, are you able to tell us a little bit about that? ‘Clayface’ wines are purely made in amphora. The artwork symbolises what I feel in the wines and a place of being. What’s a good jumping off point for someone who wants to get into and learn about low intervention wines but has no idea where to start? Travel the world of wine. Work in the most off beat places, learn from your elders and give respect to all growers. But most of all trust your gut instinct.

How has your experience abroad influenced your winemaking style? I studied correspondence which gave me the opportunity to study and work vintages all over the globe so when it came time to start my own business I knew exactly what I wanted to do.

FACT: No one knows what Boost is anymore.

I DIDN’T SLAP YOU, I JUST HIGH-FIVED YOUR FACE Lauren Halford

Stepping into Jay-Jay’s circa 2009 was something out of a present-day fever dream. Neon, SpongeBob, quasi-nerdy, pop-culture filled nonsense with prints of pandas and Mr Men lined the walls and towered on trolleys. Suspenders with rainbows, furry beanies with pockets, and an inordinate number of spikey bracelets stood glaring at you. And twelve-year-old me was stepping into paradise. To be able to develop your own style as a teenage girl, discovering your personality and passion is a huge turning point in your young life. Your unique quirk; whether it was always wearing berets, or those multicolour stretchy bangles, or choosing your very first BYS lipstick in black, is something that can define your adolescence, chose your friends, and even paste a label on your back for the years to come. Donning a violently lime green, sheer singlet to expose my purple crop top was my first teenage act of defiance. With a greasy side-fringe hanging limply on my face, and mum’s black kohl lining my upper lashes and lower waterline, I looked a mess on the Bell’s Rapids hike I was dragged on. But did I feel invincible. The rebel, with a cause. A style icon. I had found myself. Little Miss Naughty giggled from my shirt as I sung Taylor Swift at my school talent show. Black eyeliner stained my eyelids and tear ducts, making me cry unsettling streams of black. Elastic headbands with tiny bows encircled my head like a crown and I felt beautiful. Telling my friends that they weren’t allowed to wear black Dunlop Volleys because that was ‘my thing’. Low rise jeans and t-shirts with cheeky pandas telling us that ‘I didn’t slap you, I just high-fived your face’, or ducks telling me that I was ‘Totally Quackers’. I was edgy, and I finally felt as though I was looking like the cool, hip, teenage girl I’ve always wanted to be.

Looking back at those days, it is obvious that I now have trouble with my vision due to continuous eyeliner build up, and although my love affair with band t-shirts has never really ended, my personal style is now a lot more toned down. It is easy to look at teen girls now and make judgements and assumptions based on their appearances- but being able to take a step back and to let kids discover themselves in their own time is so important. While growing up can be hard, having your own little fashion and beauty quirks can serve as a suit of armour. You allow people to see only what is on the outside- a cool, catchy slogan on a crop top hides insecurity over your boobs, black eyeshadow hiding that one of your eyes is definitely smaller than the other. It is, however, important to reflect on how your choices – however insignificant they may seem to those on the outside – have shaped you as an individual. Your questionable and outlandish lipstick choices turned into a genuine passion for makeup, a hobby that leads you to a community of like-minded people and healthy SPF habits – and that rebellious straw fedora that you wore at the dinner table let future you know that you can definitely pull off hats. And while this all may seem superficial to many, reflecting on how your fashion and beauty choices have contributed to who you are today is an interesting activity in self-development. Your fashion choices will define you - and while it may take some time to decide on who you want to be, exploring colours and accessories is harmless and introspective, and a part of growing up. Be thankful for those awkward teenage years- your quirks made you who you are.

Image by Maja Maric FACT: Utopia is just FINE.

JEFF KOONS:

A RANT, AND AN ACROSTIC POEM Stirling Kain

Art by Pauline Wong

J STANDS FOR JUST SETTLE IN WITH YOUR POPCORN FOLKS, BECAUSE YOU’RE ABOUT TO GET ONE OF MY SPECIALTIES – AN UNSOLICITED ART RANT.

Jeff Koons, based in New York, is both a world-renowned artist – best known for his purposefully banal sculptural works, such as Balloon Dog and Puppy – and one of my artistic arch-nemeses.

FACT: You’re not original for not liking the coffee on campus.

O STANDS FOR HIS OVERINFLATED, BALLOON DOG-SIZED EGO.

Koons demonstrated this best when he said in Vice’s “Jeff Koons is the Kanye West of the Contemporary Art World”, that he has the same DNA as Pablo Picasso.

E STANDS ONE OF KOONS’ MOST EMBLEMATIC PIECES

his sculpture Ushering in Banality. In an homage to most things kitsch – cherubs, pastel colours, and farm animals, all perfectly sized for your grandmother’s mantle – Ushering in Banality embodies Koons’ practice of making conceptually and aesthetically inferior art. I say most things kitsch because no kitsch art that I can recall has ever sold for anywhere near what this piece did – over US$4 million, at Sotheby’s, New York, in 2006. There is no reason that Ushering in Banality should have sold for this much - other than that it is by Koons. And, as we will investigate, whilst he is doubtless an accomplished businessman, Koons’ artistic acclaim is hardly deserved.

F STANDS FOR FIFTY-EIGHT-POINT-FOUR MILLION DOLLARS,

the amount for which Koons sold a Balloon Dog at Christie’s, New York, in 2013. His most recognisable work, Koons has created five of these variously-coloured, ten-foot steel sculptures. Until 2018, the Christie’s sale held the record for the most expensive piece of art by a living artist sold at auction. I will leave it for you to decide whether the art market can be corrupted and unrepresentative of quality art, or if Balloon Dog was really deserving of fetching this sum.

F STANDS FOR THE FLOWERS

used in Koons’ piece Puppy, a 12-metre-tall dog sculpture – largely constituting real, biannually-replaced flowers - located at the Museo Guggenheim, Bilbao. I believe that a fundamentally good use of resources is those used by artists to make art. Regardless, I am disgusted by the decades-long carbon footprint and maintenances costs doubtless generated by Puppy resultant from its mass, ongoing incorporation of organic materials.

K STANDS FOR THE KRITICISM OF KOONS BY KEY COMMENTATORS.

The way Koons’ conceit feeds his artistic demand is surmised best by art critic Robert Hughes, in his article “That’s Showbusiness”: “Koons really does think he’s Michelangelo and he is not shy to say so. The significant thing is that there are collectors… who believe it.” An argument I sometimes encounter is that Koons’ practice simply reinvigorates the qualities of outrageousness and subversiveness embodied by early 20th century Surrealists and Dadaists. Art critic Jed Perl, in his “The Cult of Jeff Koons”, rebuts this with the notion that, whilst Surrealists and Dadaists sought to subvert the pretention and grandiosity of art, Koons instead embodies it by selling his excessively lavish works whilst surfeiting exorbitant profits.

Obviously intended to be received metaphorically, this comparison regardless contributes to his personally manufactured lust that is consumed by his viewers and followers, and aptly demonstrates his self-canonisation into the matrix of perpetual artistic celebration. Also, if we want to talk about Picasso, I shall refer you to Hannah Gadsby’s brilliant piece of cultural criticism and comedy Nanette: where she makes reference to Picasso’s inherent misogyny, lack of talent, and status as a false idol of the artistic canon. But that is another acrostic poem unto itself.

O STANDS FOR HIS UNFETTERED OSTENTATIOUSNESS.

In 2017, Koons collaborated with luxury designer Louis Vuitton to create the Masters Collection. Here, Koons printed famous artworks from the likes of Claude Monet and Leonardo Da Vinci onto handbags, plastered them with the artists’ surnames, and sold the bags for as much as AUD$5,000. As such, Koons manipulated the way historical artists intended viewers to see their work; contributed to the reduction of such masterpieces into fetishized aesthetics, in the service of wealth advertisement; and reinforced the destructive misconception that art appreciation is less an expression of personal interest, and more an indulgent (however misconceived) signal of cultural superiority.

N STANDS FOR NOT TAKING HIMSELF SERIOUSLY.

I think my favourite quote from the artist himself is “it looks like something you’d get at a children’s birthday party,” when describing his Balloon Dog. My problem is less with the presumed aesthetic of such art, and more that he’s not even pretending to take his own art seriously - despite selling it for millions, and professing his own genius. Considering this, there’s an unbecoming smugness that Koons must possess in order function within the dichotomy of creating vacuous art, whilst continuing to congratulate himself.

S STANDS FOR YOUR SCULPTURAL PIECE,

Michael Jackson and Bubbles, which depicts the singer-songwriter of the same name, and his pet chimpanzee. Here, Koons unironically (and, according to him, unintentionally) captures the way we create Gods out of our celebrities, through his literally gilded idolisation of Michael Jackson. Firstly, it’s hard to believe that a man of his business savvy and market manipulation creates art intended to have no meaning. Secondly, Michael Jackson and Bubbles captures the ongoing gestures of Koons’ practice. At best, he is complicit in the toxic phenomena of the cult of the celebrity; at worst, he is a morally-ambiguous, manipulative producer of purposefully degenerate art. And there you have it, folks.

FACT: UNIPrint are the unsung heroes of campus culture at UWA.

QUANTUM

PHYSICS

MAKES THE SUN

SHINE Paris Javid

You’re out in the sunlight, basking in the warmth of the summer sun. You take in nature and all the living things around you, all of which wouldn’t be here if it weren’t for the Sun. Quantum physics is probably the last thing that’s on your mind. But it shouldn’t be. At some point or another, you’ve probably been taught that the Sun is fuelled by fusion reactions inside its core, where under extremely high temperatures and pressures, hydrogen nuclei (protons) fuse together in a chain reaction to produce helium nuclei (two protons, two neutrons), releasing huge amounts of energy in the process. The energy released in this process gives us light, warmth, and powers our world. Well, that’s true - but as always, there’s a catch. The Sun has an output of about 1026 Watts, which means that around 1038 fusion reactions have to happen every second. But according to the math, the Sun is nowhere near hot enough for fusion to happen at the rate that it does. Most of the hydrogen atoms in the Sun just don’t have enough energy to overcome their positive charges and fuse together. The energy required to break the Coulomb Barrier, and for proton-proton fusion to happen, is about 5 billion kelvin. However, the average temperature of the Sun only reaches around 16 million at its core. Even though temperature is an average, meaning there’s still a very small percentage of protons that do have the sufficient energy – it’s nowhere near enough to keep the Sun going at the rate that it does currently. Overwhelming evidence suggests that the Sun does, in fact, exist. So how exactly does the Sun burn? The answer lies in quantum mechanics. -- Physics Interlude -In everyday life, you’re probably quite used to things having definite states - like having a definite position or a definite amount of energy. But when you go down to the quantum scale, you must throw all your intuitions away. At this scale, things don’t behave the way you would expect them to. So now, think of the particle not as a definite point, but rather as a “smear”. An unobserved particle exists in a superposition all its possible states at the same time. When the particle is measured or

FACT: You can’t use a Guild discount to buy a personality.

observed, this superposition collapses to just one state. The probability distribution of its state can be described by the Wave Function (Ψ). Weird? Yes. Newton is probably rolling in his grave right now. --End interlude-You may be slightly bamboozled by the next part (I certainly was). I’ll give you a misleading analogy as popscience articles often do. Suppose you were standing in front of a wall - in this scenario, let’s imagine that you’re an American in a postTrump world where he actually did build his wall - and you want to throw it to your Mexican friend on the other side. You would have to throw it incredibly hard (beyond the scope of human ability) for it to go through the wall. Otherwise, it will firmly remain on its original side. The same rules usually apply to particles. Consider a barrier that requires a certain amount of energy to cross. In classical physics, a particle wouldn’t be able to cross that barrier unless it had sufficient energy. But very rarely, particles can appear on the other side of a barrier even when they don’t have enough energy to do so. If you think of a particle not as a “ball” but rather as a probability wave as mentioned before, there’s always a very tiny but finite probability that the particle could be on the other side, or even inside the barrier itself. This, my friends, is known as “Quantum Tunnelling.”

To answer your inevitable question, no, that does not mean that everyday objects can spontaneously go through walls. The probability of a quantum object tunnelling is already very small, and gets even smaller as the object or the barrier gets bigger. It’s within the realm of possibility that all the atoms in your body will happen to tunnel to the other side of a wall all at once, but in reality, the probability is so incomprehensibly small that it will never happen during the lifespan of the universe. This effect is strictly limited to quantum sized objects for now. In fact, it happens all the time inside the Sun. In this, the “barrier” is the energy needed for fusion to happen (aka the Coulomb Barrier). Protons inside the Sun can get relatively close to each other, and then they have a very tiny chance of tunnelling through the energy barrier required to fuse together. Even though the probability of quantum tunnelling is very small, the Sun contains so much hydrogen that this becomes a common occurrence. The probability of this happening is somewhere on the order of 1 in 1028, yet it happens enough that it explains the large majority of where the Sun’s power comes from. Without quantum tunnelling, fusion wouldn’t happen in any significant amount in the Sun. Quantum physics allows the Sun – and all other stars - to shine. So next time you bask in the light of the Sun or look up with existential wonder at the starry night sky, remember that it all wouldn’t be possible without quantum tunnelling.

Here’s a helpful diagram:

FACT: Pelican is printed on recycled Arts Degrees.

KISS, KISS, FALL IN LOVE: DATING SIMULATIONS Isabelle Yuen

It is no secret that the traditional gaming scene is dominated by males. When we think of ‘gaming’, chances are we think of high-tech PCs whirring with multicoloured lights, and seemingly over-the-top setups for professional gamers and Twitch streamers. However, there exists a subset of the community where games are designed for a dedicated and fervent following of female consumers, who can’t seem to get enough. This is the romance/dating simulation genre. This genre is also known as ‘Otome games’, coming from a Japanese term directly translating into “games for girls”. It describes a specific type of role play simulation game that takes the player through a romantically-driven narrative, allowing players to make choices about their actions and dialogue within the game, which in turn dictates the interactions with in-game characters to move the plot along. A hallmark of these games is that they often feature romantic scenes or descriptions between the player (known in-game as MC/Main Character) and the in-game characters or ‘love interests’. Depending on the choices that were made throughout, the players can receive either a good or bad ending (some games even include a neutral ending). Within each game, there are usually several character routes for eager players to select from, and satisfaction lies in successfully “wooing” a favoured character, and revelling in the reward of unlocking a special intimate ending scene. While it might seem quite strange that some individuals would rather play a game to satisfy their romantic desires instead of making ‘real’ connections with actual people, 20

the reality of such games goes much deeper. To give an example of how otome games work, let’s discuss Mystic Messenger.

Mystic Messenger is a South Korean female-oriented visual novel-based dating simulation game developed by Cheritz. Releasing around July-August 2016, it quickly gained popularity upon its release, not just within South Korea, but within the Southeast Asian demographic as well. In 2017, Mystic Messenger was awarded Best Indie Game at the 2017 Korea Game Awards. So, what exactly is the appeal of this game? Well, one special feature of Mystic Messenger is in its name; the narrative is moved along through participating in various chat rooms. Here comes the really special part: the game mechanic allows any in-game messages, calls and emails to come in for the player in real time. This means that in contrast to other games where you choose to log in and play the route at your leisure, the chatrooms for Mystic Messenger open up at specific times throughout the entire day, requiring players to participate in the chatrooms before the next one opens (or risk skipping the chatrooms and missing interactions with the characters) in order to experience the full narrative. Seeing this unique execution, it’s easy to tell how Mystic Messenger has gained an overwhelming fanbase. It’s this format that enables players to fully immerse themselves in the game, letting the story carry them. With the addition of private texts and calls from the ‘love interests’, it makes the game feel even more personalised and allows players to develop an ‘emotional’ attachment to the characters and their individual stories, even while players are fully aware that the in-game characters are merely programmed

FACT: Pelican is written by “people with big mouths who smell like fish” (an actual quote).

to interact with them that way. Mystic Messenger’s game format makes it all too easy for players to allow themselves to play make believe in a fantasy narrative, while partaking in an exciting and budding ‘romance plotline’ with the characters. Another example of a successful dating simulation is The Arcana. The Arcana, created by Nix Hydra in 2018, follows a more common format used for dating sims, where the story is narrated in a third person and the player follows the plot through visual novels and interactions with characters within the game. The thing that The Arcana manages to nail is the carefully crafted plot revolving around a murder mystery which begs the player to unravel and learn about the characters in turn, all while playing a role in moving the narrative forward. It has stunning visuals, with vastly diverse characters in terms of personalities and character design; the game is beautiful from start to finish. With actionpacked scenes and riveting mysteries, this game caters to players who wish to pursue romantic scenes with darling in-game love interests, or even those who simply want to get to the bottom of a good mystery. Furthermore, the game has both male and female love interests, and allows you to pick your gender and pronouns. Overall, a stellar dating simulation with the added twist of a solving a murder. After all, isn’t that what we’re all looking for in a good relationship? While many RPGs have dating elements in their game the romance-focused nature of the dating sim is missing in most. An interesting premise, a sustainable plot and well-developed characters with depth all help to make a

great RPG, but mainstream ones fail on relationships. The trick to making a dating sim so enticing is that romance should definitely the key factor around which the game is centred but it should not feel forced or rushed in any way. Many players are looking to be swept off their feet in a whimsical romantic fantasy, but it’s often the build-up that makes the subsequent happy ending satisfactory. Of course, dating in real life isn’t as straightforward as chalking up ‘favour points’ for your desired love interest as one does in a game; there are so many more unexpected twists and turns cultivating a real-life romantic relationship can take and are infinitely more satisfying than any game. Still to its credit, in a romantic simulation game, players can feel safe and loved knowing that by following the tried and true steps for romance, they too can have their own sort of happy ending.

“OF COURSE, DATING IN REAL LIFE ISN’T AS STRAIGHTFORWARD AS CHALKING UP ‘FAVOUR POINTS’ FOR YOUR DESIRED LOVE INTEREST AS ONE DOES IN A GAME”

FACT: BNOC stands for ‘Be Nice On Campus’.

QUIRKY STYLES AND QUEER IDENTITY

OR, STOP TELLING ME THAT MY NATURAL HAIR COLOUR IS FINE, I KNOW IT’S FINE I LIKE IT BUT I ALSO LIKE DYING IT BRIGHT FUCKING PINK, SO SHUSH. Leah Chappell The other day, a friend and I were gleefully trading gossip, as you do, when the topic of a mutual friend’s foray into the dating scene came up. Much was said about the series of shenanigans that led up to and encapsulated said date; how our friend met her new beau, where they went and what they did, and of course, the genuinely delightful “most lesbian outfit ever” that our friend wore to meet her potential new lady friend. That phrase has stuck with me, for reasons that I can’t quite put my finger on. Don’t get me wrong, it was a fabulous outfit, all dark warm tones and clashing prints, but I suspect that there is something beyond the glory of the skirt-shirt-cardigan combo that keeps pulling me back to the concept. Trying to put the vague, nebulous idea of a queer aesthetic into concrete words is difficult on multiple levels. For a start, it should be patently obvious that not all queer folks dress the same way. We don’t go around decked in rainbow flags all day every day; after all, you have to save some outfits for special occasions. There isn’t any one fashion element, rainbow or otherwise, that can act as a through-line for all of the different ways that queer people present themselves. Similarly, I personally don’t want to give anyone the idea that they can tell who is and who isn’t LGBTQ+ just by looking at them; down that road madness and a whole bunch of unfortunate stereotypes lie. But, at the same time, there is an undeniable truth to the idea that one significant way that us queer folks explore and express our identities is through our appearance; through hair and clothes and makeup and accessories. Advice on which hair dye brands and colours work best to achieve vibrant, bright hair is common among my friends; so are no-styling-required undercuts and shaved heads. Outfits featuring complementary and clashing colour families, with prints on prints on prints, can often be seen; so can monochromatic, entirely black-is-nottechnically-a-colour outfits. Styles that mix and match elements from traditionally feminine and traditionally masculine categories can be found frequently, blurring the lines between genders; so can styles that, at first glance, seem to strictly adhere to expected gender presentation. Some people spend hours on their appearance; some people throw on whatever is closest and head out the door. 22

Trying to condense all of these possible choices into one cohesive stylistic category would be highly unproductive to attempt, and also impossible. Pride flags, activist slogans, kitsch and camp and tacky fashions with decades of queer history behind them; all of these inform the way that LGBTQ+ people navigate their personal style, but none of them define it. However, while there might not be any one stylistic element that links all possible queer aesthetics to one another, there are links none the less. Queer aesthetics, like all aesthetics, have more behind them than just looks; they communicate ideas to the world through a visual medium. Queer aesthetics tell other queer people that they’re not alone; queer aesthetics tell the world that we’re going to do our own thing with a cheerful fuck you attitude; queer aesthetics break, reshape, and re-embrace norms because doing so is fun, and because doing so is important. Perhaps, then, if I had to draw one single connection that linked all possible queer aesthetics together, it would be the idea of playing around with what it means to break away from the expectations that other people have of you. Queer aesthetics can involve rejecting stylistic expectations completely, fulfilling the stylistic expectations of a group that most people wouldn’t associate you with, or fulfilling the stylistic expectations of a group that most people would associate you with and then being queer anyway. There is, by all accounts, no single unified queer aesthetic; but that doesn’t change the fact that there are hundreds of delightfully queer aesthetics. Obviously, this is an oversimplification. I’m very confident that most LGBTQ+ people don’t wake up in the morning and think “how am I going to deliberately challenge society’s normative values today?” as they pick out their clothes. Aesthetic, personal identity, and subculture are all incredibly complicated and interconnected. But, acknowledging that interconnectedness seems like a pretty good place to start, in terms of understanding how and why queer can be an aesthetic. Also, I still maintain the assessment of my friend’s poppin’ date-night outfit as the most lesbian outfit ever. Pretty sure that’s the highest possible compliment I can give, to be honest.

FACT: The EDFA Library was originally a Cold War Bomb Shelter.

Art by Sky Edwards

Right: ‘Lost in My Passion for Plants’ | Ryan Craig | @lost_in_botanicals

Left: Alex Hockton / @hocktag

PELICAN’S FAVOURITE RECORDS We asked a bunch of Pelican contributors what their favourite albums of all time are and why. After much deliberation and inner turmoil, here are the results.

Lowell – We Loved Her Dearly This record contains the most joyfully sad set of songs I’ve heard. Lowell trills about sexuality, politics, love, suffering, queerness and feminism in ways that make me want to dance all night. It was the first record I ever heard on vinyl back in 2015, and I haven’t stopped listening to it since. Its quirks come in its inclusion of ethereal, childlike vocals, shaker percussion, undulating piano ballads and catchy pop songs. Hearing this album made me feel like the indie and enlightened arts student I so acutely wanted to be. Somehow, Lowell’s songs feel more relevant now than they did four years ago. Sharing this album’s intricacies in the spirit of ‘QUIRK’ feels like an acknowledgement that different is good.

Aimee Dodds Silent Planet – Everything Was Sound

CW: Mental health Full disclosure – I fucking love this band. Silent Planet’s Everything Was Sound is a metal album that requires a dictionary, sometimes dubbed ‘homework-core’. The album is essentially an exploration of mental health issues, with different tracks covering topics like bipolar disorder, anorexia, grief and PTSD. The whole conceptualisation of the album looks at how people individually experience their own mental health issues in a vignette style. It also moves this theme into the realm of wider topics like fascism and religion and how they interact and shape our own experiences of the world. There’s a lot more to it, but needless to say it’s a wild ride. Let’s start with the structure of this 13-song album itself. The 1st and 13th track are two parts of the same sentence (‘Inherit the Earth, Inhabit the Wound’), as are the 5th and 9th (‘Tout Comprendre C’est Tour Pardonner’/ ‘To Understand All Is to Forgive All’). This mirrored structure converges in the middle with the track REDIVIDE, which is lyrically also a mirror image, beginning “I am autonomous” and ending “autonomous am I”. Lyrically, this album is on another level, dotted with extensive footnotes and references. These notes cross a spectrum so wide that it manages to put multiple Biblical passages into the same set of song notes as the Iran-Contra affair. Not only is this album an incredibly intelligent and socially conscious one (check out the track inspired by the Black Lives Matter movement in ‘No Place to Breathe’), it’s also straight up fantastic musically. I’ll admit it’s not everyone’s cup of tea, but they’re certainly a band to check out if you love yourself some SociallyConsciousMetal™.

Animal Collective - Person Pitch

Person Pitch was the first album I bought - I sought it out under nothing more than the recommendation of a new friend, who I first noticed turning on my heel to survey the swelling crowd in front of Animal Collective’s set at ‘Big Day Out’ in 2012. Afterwards and for weeks following we got into circular, non-discursive, school boyish chats, more so exercises in music-taste-signalling than anything else. At his house, he handles the LP like a waiter in a restaurant: “One of the members of ‘AnCo’ made this sick album - apparently - gotta get ‘round to checking it out man.” Despite this it wasn’t until I left school that I began looking at circumscribing my own preferences, in books, clothes - especially vinyl. And especially when cheap wish I could say it was the depth of production, or the kaleidoscopic artwork, but copping Person Pitch mostly revolved around the price point. In any case, no vinyl has seen such heavy rotation as this one. It is a go-to for when wheeling about the house, spiralling away in wavier moments, or just finally completing the circle: Me on my back, head between the speakers, staring at the sunlit ceiling as Side B, ‘Bros’, plays out. Nick Morlet

Cormac Power

FACT: Now that UWA has recognised public holidays, the Semester is really only 11 weeks.

Agnes Obel- Aventine

Fleet Foxes: Fleet Foxes (2008)

Agnes Obel is worth listening to for the unique sound of her Classical/Indie fusion

I discovered this album while studying for WACE exams (thanks Spotify)

I really owe it to Spotify for introducing me to some of my favourite albums and artists over the years, and Fleet Foxes is no exception. Standout best thing for me are the vocal harmonies included in each track – they are all pretty non-conventional, with a lot of focus on parallel motion, but all of them seem to work perfectly. Within the album, there is a wide range of songs, each worth listening to. For me, this is a real road trip album, and brings back memories of travelling around Australia with my family as a teenager, where I listened to this instead of talking to people.

Nothing beats calming yet innovative audio styling

Cate Tweedie

Violin, Cello and Piano feature heavily Each track is close to my heart because of the amount of times I’ve listened to them Notably, Agnes is a Danish Singer/Songwriter The best time to listen to it is on rainy days

Every song is a spooky bop

Cate Tweedie

Have a Nice Life – Deathconsciousness (2008) The Dear Hunter – Act V: Hymns With the Devil in Confessional I’m a big fat sucker for over the top, ambitious musical endeavours – and Hymns… is exactly that. The seventh album from prog indie rock group ‘The Dear Hunter’ reflects on mortality, death and forgiveness, interwoven amongst a really diverse set of songs. I hold it dear to my heart, simply because I’ve listened to it so many times. It has the same quality as a well-worn book, from which you recite familiar passages and thumb through dog-eared pages. It carried me through the final months of my honours year, and remains my soundtrack of choice during exam periods, jogs and car rides. And yet, I find a new musical surprise every single time – a repeated motif, or an undiscovered instrumental part. I still manage to listen with joy, years after discovering it. And the coolest part? Hymns… is part five of an ongoing series, all linked together by the same overarching plot. Not only do the lyrics of the album itself tell a story, but when listened alongside its older siblings – each very different in sound – they gain new meaning. If that’s not OTT, I don’t know what is.

Bridget Rumball

I spent far too much on this record and I am okay with that because I believe in this band. To be fair, double LP orange splatter with a sixty-page explanatory booklet is a hell of a package, and so $200 seems to me like a fair price, now that it is purchased and has been in my collection for a year. ‘Have a Nice Life’ are a Connecticut experimental rock band formed in 2000 by Dan Barrett and Tim Macugo, boasting a mixture of shoegazing gothic rock, synthesised with industrial and ambient drone for a unique sound that internet critics have dubbed “depressive post-industrial doomgaze.”

Deathconsciousness is the band’s 2008 debut, and it came as something of a meteor from the goth gods upon release, totally unlike the status quo of bright jingly indie rock being released at the time. I came late to the party, first finding this album in 2014, about to graduate from high school. I can still distinctly remember strutting to the beat of ‘Bloodhail’ on the Murdoch Station concourse on the way to the school bus and chanting “arrowheads” over and over in my room at eight pm while reading Frankenstein. The remarkable thing about Deathconsciousness is that it apparently only cost $1,000 to make, which ought to encourage DIY hopefuls everywhere to go and try to do their thing, that they can get something that sounds this good with relatively little investment. Listen to this album because it will nourish your inner goth, because it is a genuinely unique aesthetic experience, and because such DIY productions deserve your attention. Eamon Kelly

FACT: You should definitely call your Mother.

BACK TO UNI Maja Maric & Sam Worley Prowling the campuses of UWA and Notre Dame during the first few weeks back at Uni, fashion editors Sam Worley and Maja Maric went into the field to find out what students were wearing, and how they really felt about it. No amount of rejection followed by, “Pelican? What’s that?” would stop them in their quest for hard-hitting style news.

Describe your style in a few words: Weather appropriate, baggy – always baggy, a hint of colour. What do you think the most important thing about Uni fashion is? Practicality and comfort.

Marko, 4th year Masters of Architecture

Taco, 4th year Communications and Italian major Describe your style in a few words: Trying to mimic Audrey Hepburn, but failing. What do you think the most important thing about Uni fashion is? I like the back of the dress because it’s a cut out at the back - but still high necked so it’s business in the front and party at the back, literally.

FACT: Bronson the Pelican Office plant wants to let everyone know he’s doing really well, thank you.

How would you describe your style(s): L: Comfortable, loose and breezy, textures and tactility. I: Minimal, Scandi vibes, whatever’s clean. What do you think the most important thing about Uni fashion is? L: Comfort (feeling like I’m almost naked!) and it being somewhat professional. I: Practicality – I walk a fair bit, tourist Birks are on today, and modesty.

Lauren (R) and Issy (L), 4th year Masters of Architecture

Adam, 1st year Engineering Student Describe your style in a few words: There’s no way I could answer that question. Tell us a bit about your outfit today: I choose clothes in the morning based on how I feel when I wake up, which changes drastically. Today I had really good energy, so I wanted to move more freely.

Dylan, 3rd year Microbiology How would you describe your style: Op shop, plaid, just whatever. Tell us a bit about your outfit today: The bag I got from this place called ‘The Butcher Shop’ in Northbridge that used to be an actual butcher shop, and everything but my socks and undies are thrifted.

FACT: Sophie is still unnecessarily worried about the mental health of the Law Therapy Dog.

‘Ramaria’ and ‘Coprinellus’ - Photos by Alec Pindur 30

FACT: Girls who go to Mojos single handedly revived the global film photography market.

MYCOPHILIA Alec Pindur

After bush walking for many years, I started to look for more than just fresh air and exercise. I started to pay attention to things living around me, and what particularly caught my eye were splashes of colour and alien shapes popping up out of the ground or from the sides of trees. This is how I first encountered fungi, as enigmatic featurettes on a winter bush walk. For the chronically curious this was fatal; bright oranges and purples in leathery or slimy lumps would appear and then disappear within a week, and as I started to do some research I realised this mystery would not be quelled. They are difficult to identify and microscopically diverse and complex, issues exacerbated by a dearth of resources for the general public. But here some basics are elucidated, so you too can study fungi without admitting it to anyone.

“I STARTED TO PAY ATTENTION TO THINGS LIVING AROUND ME, AND WHAT PARTICULARLY CAUGHT MY EYE WERE SPLASHES OF COLOUR AND ALIEN SHAPES POPPING UP OUT OF THE GROUND OR FROM THE SIDES OF TREES. THIS IS HOW I FIRST ENCOUNTERED FUNGI”

In the 20th century species began to be studied at the cellular level, and a re-categorisation process took place that left us with a lot of outdated terminology. Many similar looking fungi were seen to be microscopically very different, and many microscopic species - not observed as spongy clumps erupting from the soil - were now discovered and considered fungi. Likewise, a number of species - referred to as slime moulds, which have macroscopic forms - were found not to be fungi but protozoans, however, are still often studied within mycology and included in fungi guides. A fungus is not a plant nor animal, but its own kingdom. They are distinct from plants in two key ways: their cell walls typically have chitin rather than cellulose, and they eat complex organic molecules rather than producing their own. And importantly, most fungi are made of hyphae (sing. hypha, from Greek for ‘web’): long threads made of joined cells that spread, interconnect and form a web - called a mycelium. When that old peach in your fruit bowl grows mould, that furry mass is a mycelium, but not all fungi form hyphae and mycelia: yeasts are collections of single cells but are still considered fungi. It is important to note that in many ways the mycelium is the fungus, so what are the mushrooms and other fungal structures you are seeing on your winter bush walks? Many (but not all) fungi reproduce using spores, so under the right conditions they grow a structure called a sporocarp (-carp from the Greek for ‘fruit’) also called a fruiting body, sprouting from the mycelium. This structure houses the spores and spore-producing cells and is there to spread sweet fungi far and wide. The mycelium rests in the soil, wood or whatever ‘substratum’ it so chooses, away from prying eyes - although peeling off a piece of dead bark or disturbing some wet leaf litter, you may well see its silky white web. Fungi that form visible sporocarps are known as macrofungi (not a taxonomic group) and the wide variety of shapes, colours and methods of spore dispersal are classified broadly in non-taxonomic groups, from coral fungi (pictured) to Colus pusillus, which resembles pink tentacles emerging from a white egg.

FACT: Presotea would’ve been better.

Ultimately fungi are quite difficult to identify, both due to a lack of resources on identification and because species within a genus may only be distinguishable by microscopic features. For this reason, I (and many experts) do not recommend eating any wild fungi you find, as many are poisonous. Here I offer descriptions of three common species, but if you want more current information and photos, I recommend N. L. Bougher’s Fungi of the Perth Region and Beyond, which can be downloaded for free on the WA Naturalists’ Club website: www.wanaturalists.org.au.

Coprinellus truncorum/micaceus (Glistening Ink Cap) These two very similar mushrooms are found in clusters near dying or dead trees, and are distinguishable only with a microscope. They are a cream-to-white colour, turning light brown in the centre of their parabolic cap, which has a striated margin and bright white granules on younger caps, hence ‘glistening’. Like many in their family, they undergo a process called autodigestion (or deliquescence) in which the fungi releases enzymes that degrade its own gills and later the whole cap. Such a process helps expose the spores to more air currents and reduces the ‘digested’ parts to an inky liquid, hence ‘ink cap’. Caps can grow up to 50 mm wide. (See photo)

Trametes coccinea (Scarlet Bracket Fungus) Despite its name, this bracket fungus is not scarlet but a bright orange, taking a leathery semicircular form typical of bracket fungi - on the dead wood of many species. It is not only conspicuous but perennial, lasting for several years (although fading in colour), making it a common sight in bush and suburban areas alike. Anyone wanting to read more about this fungus should note that the genus name Trametes is relatively recent, so many resources may still refer to it as Pycnoporus coccineus. These can grow up to 150 mm wide.

“FUNGI PLAY AN IMPORTANT ROLE IN ECOLOGY. THEY BREAK DOWN DEAD BIOMATTER, MANY ARE A FOOD SOURCE FOR ANIMALS AND ARE ‘MYCORRHIZAL’, FORMING SYMBIOTIC RELATIONSHIPS WITH THE ROOTS OF PLANTS.”

Laccaria lateritia This small mushroom is brick red (later is Latin for ‘brick’ or ‘tile’), turning orange-brown on the cap margin, and is found variously spread or grouped together in grassy areas and leaf litter. It has pale pink gills, a smooth stem, a striated cap margin and a parabolic cap when young, before it grows into a flatter bowl shape. It is difficult to distinguish similar species in the Laccaria genus, however L. lateritia is the most common. It is quite small, with a cap up to 35 mm broad. These are common species, but what about the uncommon ones? Unfortunately, on those we have little information; science has described approximately 15,000 species of fungi in Australia, out of a total estimated to be in the hundreds of thousands. Between 2009 and 2017 there were seven surveys of fungi in a small subsection of King’s Park, and over this time a total of 298 different fungi were identified to the species level, with another ninety identified to lower levels of specificity. Although diverse, mycology is a neglected field, probably because of fungi’s ephemeral structures, in spite of their important role in ecology. They are fundamental in breaking down dead biomatter, many are a food source for animals and many are mycorrhizal, forming symbiotic relationships with the roots of plants. Fungi are worth our attention and our conservation. 32

FACT: You should definitely buy your textbooks before semester starts.

I BULK BUY

TARJAY Felix King

In order to survive, you have to be an individual, you have to have something that sets you apart in this big wide world of hipsters, networking nights attended only for the free food, and your friends who are becoming successful while you’re still broke. You have to be something more. For some, it’s the Indie trend 3 weeks from tomorrow they’ll follow to death, for others it’s a vintage case for last years laptop – a present from the parents because you can’t afford a new computer. For me, it’s the bulk buying of Target’s white t-shirts - only when on sale. I’m talking decidedly problematic, while still not quite at the hoarder level of buying, but there are no medium sizes left after I’ve been through your local Tarjay, I’m talking that level of white t-shirts kind of obsession. I can sense your judgment, I feel your cringe. You could say it’s a bit of a unique quirk. Very basic, too - but does any of that even matter? In the short time I’ve already lived on this stress-inducing world I’ve come to appreciate a few things. 1. No one is judging you like you think they are unless you write a damn article about your eccentricity. 2. It’s you who’s putting yourself down, tell them to shut the f up.

We live in this hustle culture of always having to be working, always having to be achieving and never giving ourselves permission to relax, a moment to recover and to do things purely and simply for ourselves. We are our own controlling parents breathing down our necks, constantly pushing us harder, and quite honestly if this is what adulthood is, I say no thank you. I’m not ready to be an adult. I bulk buy Target white t-shirts because they last a lifetime. Because I’m a dude, and it was summer, and I’m just not emotionally ready for the full commitment of adulthood that’s entailed in doing my washing, in being fully self-sufficient. I would much rather further bankrupt myself buying more cheap-t-shirts than processing the idea of not needing someone. So I’ve made a compromise. Every week I say hi to my mum, coming home with a big bag of dirty white t-shirts in one hand, and trying so so very hard to keep it all together, focusing on the good stuff, in the other. Life is incredible, it’s fantastic and I love every single second on this big wide wonderful world, except for those seconds when I’m hungry and all my washing is dirty. Then it’s just a little bit shit.

Image by Felix King

3. I look damn good in a white t-shirt, jeans and my chuckies and that feeling is all I need.

I feel like I should give a bit of context to my story here. I moved out about 2 months ago. I’m currently living by myself in an apartment whilst following a ‘minimalistic lifestyle’: i.e. I’ve run out of money. It’s hard being an adult, and quite honestly sometimes I’m absolutely sick of it. Sick of the baked beans, googling if I can eat my eggs past the best before (PSA, you’ve got about 3 weeks) and every single one of those Insta stories of yummy yummy food.

FACT: Any hour is happy hour at the Tav if you’re fucking one of the staff.

D R E S CROSS S I N G Jean Madison*

I was always obsessed with the feminine. It’s provocative in a way that isn’t exactly available for a man. It’s a state of flux, always bending and shifting around others and filling any space with flowing dresses, perfect forms painted across every type of art. At least, that was my idea of it when I was young. I always wanted to be Madeline, the little carton French girl. And when my mum would take me to the still-living Blockbuster, I’d sneak away and look at the box art for this anime, Noir, about 2 femme fatale assassins. Short black dress and long blonde hair, whipped up by the wind. Why couldn’t I look like that? For men, I found out you gotta be stone. You grow up and your brain and body become more and more set until you’re too stiff to move any more. If you step out, you’re pushed back in. There’s only so many times you hear, “you eat like a girl - don’t look at your nails, fag - suck it up pussy,” before you start thinking there’s something wrong with doing things like a girl, there’s something wrong with feeling or showing hurt – that last one was after I’d dislocated my knee. Horrific pain. “Just get up.” 34

I’ll tell you about the last time I cross-dressed. I was about, what, 19? It was a small college party and you could dress up as anything and I stupidly thought it was about standing out. I had to find an outfit, so I ask the girl I was seeing for help, who was - well, she wasn’t pleased. No screaming and shouting, but a low, simmering something’s off. She was a farm girl, so no surprise. I eventually convinced her though. Half-done makeup wrapped in a loose sarong, topped off with a floppy straw hat. I was going to the beach. In winter. At night. I finally get there, music’s on, we’re dancing - and then I’m in-between two guys I know, being grinded against and groped: “you’re a freak, fucking freak,” yeah, while they were feeling up the cross-dresser. These were boys I knew, they were my friends. Friends.

THERE’S SOMETHING WRONG WITH ME. EVERY FLASH OF THE SHITTY STROBE LIGHT. WRONG. WRONG. WRONG. I was actually complimented, on my confidence – by a girl. But that’s not what I remember. I remember the looks – the words – the touch – the end of something in me. My hat was stolen, I had to get it back. The hatred in the eyes of the cunt that took it and then the weirdness of being wanted and hated at the same time. I was in contrast. Is this just what you gotta deal with as any kind of female figure? Just a part of living for some? Or maybe it because I was in this strange genderfuck of an in-between – no respect for something outside of their black and white worldview. The first time is different. I’m 9 and alone in the house, someone’s out, someone’s sleeping. I creep into my mum’s room and get out a bra, a dress and a pair of heels. My heart’s racing. I put them on quick, then sit in front of the mirror to do my face, which turns out to be just a caked layer of blush and eyeshadow and uneven stripes and smears of lipstick. I look carefully over every part of myself – the bra is stuffed with tissue, the heels I can barely stand in. And the dress is hanging loosely off of my flat boy body. Not exactly beautiful. But that’s how I feel. I trip and stumble down the stairs and through the hallway to the front door and I open it. It’s a sunny day, but I’m only half visible cos of the fence and trees in the tiny front yard of the townhouse. I step out and just stand for a while – just looking around, wondering if anyone will walk by to see me. Yeah, I wanna be seen in a way. It’s all just a performance, after all. That’s what I remember, more than anything: the being on show, being out, being beautiful. Standing there proud, or something like it.

* Pseudonym FACT: UWA POLITICS CLUB sundowner is just recruitment for LAUNCH.

THE PROBLEMS WITH QUIRKY ART Aninya Marzohl

The art world today seems to be populated by an ensemble cast of quirky characters, from artists to curators to tour guides, all dressed in tweed with round glasses and uncomfortably short bangs (I’m calling myself out here as much as the rest of you). And “quirky” has become the sort of word you put in your wanky-jargon rolodex to whip out at art shows.

NO IDEA HOW TO RESPOND TO THE PIECE IN FRONT OF YOU? THAT’S OKAY, IT’S “QUIRKY”. But when we use a word in this way, it runs the risk of losing any semblance of meaning. What makes art ‘quirky’? Does ‘quirk’ have an aesthetic? Is it an art movement in itself? The word quirky refers to the peculiar and unexpected; the whimsical and unconventional. Much art can be described in such terms, going back as far as medieval manuscripts, illuminated with sword fighting rabbits, giant snails and promiscuous nuns, as well as the many fantastical characters of Hieronymus Bosch’s paintings. More recently, we can look to the avant-garde art movements of the early 20th century, most notably Dada and Surrealism, where the peculiar and unconventional were privileged above all else. These artists revelled in quirk and, highly influenced by Freud’s theories of the unconscious, sought to reveal their own psychological idiosyncrasies and peculiarities through modes such as collage; automatic art, created by

allowing the hand to make marks freely, without actively trying to represent something; and Dali’s notorious paranoiac-critical method, in which he would induce delirium by denying himself food, water, and sleep, and sketch his hallucinations, to later render in his realistic art style.

states: “Wife of the master mural painter gleefully dabbles in works of art”. Her “dabbles” in art are still today unfortunately overshadowed by her monobrow and her affair with Leon Trotsky; the powerful images she painted have been easily pushed aside.

But being “quirky” was not all the Dadaists and Surrealists were aiming to do; both were deliberately constructed movements with political aims. For example, Andre Breton, a leading figure in these movements, wrote his Manifesto of Surrealism with a strongly Communist agenda, famously falling out with many artists, such as Dali, who did not embody such goals.

As such, ‘quirky’ pacifies art; it’s a label that relegates truly subversive pieces to the corner and explains them away as simply “weird” and “whimsical”. It focusses on the personality of the artist instead of what it is they are doing with their work. And the personality of a man will never hinder his career, but the same is not true for women and minorities.

However, with the changes to political circumstances following World War Two, the radical aims of the avant-gardists diminished in the public eye, and their stylistic quirkiness has come to define them. Dali embodies this shift in perception, having been thrown out of the Surrealist movement, only to become its most famous participant. With his scandals, controversies, bizarre art and larger-than-life personality, Dali is ‘quirk’ personified and heralded as both a genius and key Surrealist, despite being so divergent from the movement in its contemporary context.

Whilst I don’t believe all art needs to be taken seriously, mined for meaning and ruthlessly interpreted, it’s all too easy to dismiss the cultural productions of minorities as “quirky” and continue to celebrate the ‘genius’ of the same white guys, over and over.

But this isn’t the case for all artists aligned with the unconventional. Whereas René Magritte, Max Ernst, Andy Warhol and Jeff Koons are showered in praise, artists who are not white or male can be dismissed for being “too quirky”. Frida Kahlo may now be one of the most famous artists of the 20th century, but during her life she was known as Diego Rivera’s wife, as a headline in 1933

Things are changing, however. Yayoi Kusama, for example, takes quirk to a whole new level in her life and work, which often blend together. Having voluntarily lived in a psychiatric hospital for almost 40 years, Kusama could have very possibly been written out of art history, yet her installations, performances and pieces, once called “too arty” for public consumption, have become incredibly popular for not only their weird and wonderful style, but for the perspective on mental health they offer. Kusama used her art as a form of therapy, and people universally identify with her use of repetitive dots, infinite spaces and bold colours. Now, she can no longer be dismissed.

FACT: Socialists love when you bring up STAR and you should do it more often.

A MODMIN’S TAKE ON Elizabeth Long

Perth people sure do have a special place for the locations and sights they grew up around. Is this unique to Perth? Not in the slightest… But ask anyone from Perth what their favourite location in the city is and they’ll be bursting with ideas. Ideas from the picturesque, like old Highgate/Mount Lawley share houses, to the quirky, think Cockburn Train Station faces. The hit Facebook group, perth aesthetics (stylised is lowercase to further evoke the cool), is just one of the many dedicated social media homages to our hashtag-oh-kay city. As some call it, perth aesthetics is the millennial version of Lost Perth. A melancholic epilogue to a small-town Perth we never knew. A swansong to the place we love as it’s slowly being eaten by million-dollar house prices, Barnett-created Recession and an urban sprawl expected to reach Bunbury by 2050. Others have referred to it in front of me as an obnoxious mishmash of left-leaning hipster content containing numerous re-posts of featured locations, mainly Greens and Co(ck) and picturesque Perth sunsets. What is perth aesthetics to me? Well… honestly…it’s sometimes like part-time job. I am one of the six dedicated-but-Facebook-obsessed people who act as modmins of the perth aesthetics Facebook group. And through one of Perth’s greatest aesthetics, Pelican, I bring you a snapshot of the quirky and cool brought to you by our Perth-loving community. But first, what qualifies as a Perth Aesthetic? Is it the brutalist wafer-looking exterior of the East Perth Train Station? Can it be the dystopian aura of a roofless West Coast Highway McMansion after a wild storm? Is it the thunderous echo of Hare Krishna dancing through Carillon City at exactly 7 pm on Friday nights? Or the parched wilderness of a North Perth/Highgate share house backyard? It all begins in November 2017 with lead modmin Jayde opening a small group for likeminded friends to post beloved pictures of Perth and its surrounds. Almost as soon as perth aesthetics was founded there were 600 members - with a steady increase to what is now a group with over 6800 members and 8 related sister groups. Those groups are Albany Aesthetics, australiana internet studies, gumtree aesthetics, NangSpotting, Opshop Aesthetics, perth aesthetics: cursed images, sharehouse aesthetics and the NUMTOT (don’t know what this means? Look it up…) regional subgroup Transperth Memes for Cactus-Inclined Teens. The group, as mentioned above, is mostly catered to Millennials but we welcome people from all ages and backgrounds. To no one’s surprise, the vast majority sits between the 18-34 age range, 5,800 members live in Perth, and Melbourne comes a close second with 400 members. There is seemingly something for everyone too: the nostalgia of pretentious Western Suburbs 36

PERTH

supermarkets who stock the Maggie Beer range of elderberry jam. The banal absurdity of office chairs lined up at a Kalamunda bus stop. The rich berry colours of Nonna’s hydrangeas in Balcatta. A snapshot of the aesthetic of perth aesthetics demands the inclusion of the group’s most recent content. Of late, this has often been about “iconically Perth” businesses closing (78 Records and Morley Blockbuster), the recent controversies at Amplifier Capitol and The Court, and the currently waging ‘Great Conti Roll War’. Who makes the best Conti Rolls in Perth? Is it The Re Store Leederville, The Re Store Northbridge, Del Basso, Charlie’s Fresh Food Market Morley….? Should Conti Rolls have salad, or should it be kept original and antipasto? Are vegetarian Conti rolls allowed or do they defeat the purpose? We even had a relative of John Re (the founder of The Re Stores) weigh in! As one commenter wrote “one does not simply tell Leedy Re Store how to Conti”, a strong statement that I certainly agree with.

Image by Thomas Sweetman

FACT: The lack of parking bays at UWA is just a passive aggressive way to tell you to walk more often.

THE AESTHETIC OF

AESTHETICS When I ponder the success of perth aesthetics it’s sometimes odd to me how something so simple could attract so many people. Is it simply a foolproof formula for widespread nostalgia-posting? Or is there something about the size of a group that allows for continuous posting and sharing of content no matter what? In writing this article I have come to realise that it’s probably both. But mainly that sharing beloved landmarks from the place you call home is a universally liked nostalgia kick - even when existing in an online marketplace, where the currency is often simply a love-reaction or tagging a friend without so much as a ‘lol’. Who would have thought that interacting in such a simplistic way could mean so much to so many people? Even just an ‘@’ can spread the sentimentality for something long since passed. perth aesthetics is simply a product of our time and perfect circumstances. A collection of the right people with the right images to recreate a yearning for city we love when we’re sitting inside it. As I mentioned; Perth people sure do have a special place for the locations and sights they grew up around. Is this unique to Perth? Not in the slightest… But at perth aesthetics we’ve built a community about it. And that’s beautiful, bizarre and quirky, in its own way.

Image by Miles Burke

FACT: ISIL have amped up their recruiting drive by offering to pay off all HECS debt.

THE QUIRKIEST LITERATURE ON CAMPUS Prema Arasu Pelican contributor Prema Arasu has taken it upon herself to unearth some of the most unusually underrated, questionably quirky and confusingly compelling texts available for loan within UWA campus libraries. This list goes to show that weird reading material is not only to be found in the deep, dark recesses of 2 am internet browsing, but also in the dusty bookshelves of the rarely-frequented upper levels of Reid library.

The Meme Machine by Susan Blackmore 304.5 1999 MEM The term ‘meme’ was first used by Richard Dawkins in his book The Selfish Gene (1976), which popularised the idea that evolution is best understood as competition between genes. Although Dawkins has since abandoned mimetics as a field of study, it has been picked up by Susan Blackmore who argues that humans are defined by an ability to imitate. Memes (from the Greek word mimeme), like genes, are ‘selected’ and transmitted vertically and horizontally. Gene theory involves replicators and vehicles – vehicles (organisms) carry replicators (DNA). For memes, imitation is the replicator and its vehicle are humans. Memeplexes are complexes of memes that are replicated together and include entire cultures or religions.

Dogme et rituel de la haute magie (The History of Magic: Including a Clear and Precise Exposition of its Procedures, Rites and Mysteries) by Eliphas Lévi trans. Arthur Waite 133.4309 1913 HIS Nineteenth-century French occultist and magician Eliphas Lévi wrote many volumes on Hermeticism. His work influenced the British organisation The Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn and the occultist Aleister Crowley. Sections include the Triangle of Solomon, The Tetragram, the Pentagram, Magical Equilibrium, The Kabbalah, Necromancy, Transmutations, Black Magic and the Mastery of the Sun.

FACT: “Should women have the right to vote: A panel discussion” will be at the Octagon on April 31st.

The Malleus Maleficarum by Heinrich Institoris and Jakob Sprenger, translated from the Latin by P. G. Maxwell-Stuart. 133.430902 2007 MAL Published in 1486, The ‘Hammer of Witches which destroyeth Witches and their heresy as with a two-edged sword’ was the top seller only second to the bible for two hundred years. Chapters include ‘Concerning Witches who copulate with Devils: Why is it that Women are chiefly addicted to Evil superstitions’, ‘Whether Witches can Sway the Minds of Men to Love or Hatred’, ‘Whether Witches can Hebetate the Powers of Generation or Obstruct the Venereal Act’, ‘How, as it were, they Deprive Man of his Virile Member’, and ‘Whether Witches may work some Prestidigatory Illusion so that the Male Organ appears to be entirely removed and separate from the Body’.

The Book of Skin by Steven Connor 306.4 2004 BOO This book explores every aspect of skin across time and culture: “its poetry as well as its pathology, the chromatics of its pigmentation, the destructive rage exercised against it in violent fantasies, the shivering titillations of itch, the intensities and attenuations of erotic touch, blushing, suntanning, tattooing, flaying, stigmata, scarification, moles, birthmarks, massage, ointments and aromatics.”

Strange Harvest: Organ Transplants, Denatured Bodies, and the Transformed Self by Lesley Sharp 306.461 2006 STR

The Other Victorians: A Study of Sexuality and Pornography in Mid-nineteenth-century England by Steven Marcus 823.8093538 2009 OTH First published in 1966, The Other Victorians went onto influence Michel Foucault, who in The History of Sexuality critiqued the repressive hypothesis which envisions Victorians as a sexually-repressed society. Marcus examines the writings of the Victorian physician William Acton, whose views ‘may be said to represent the official views of sexuality held by Victorian society’, analyses the work of Henry Spencer Ashbee, a bibliographerscholar of pornographic literature, and explores Victorian pornographic fiction. A final chapter is devoted to Victorian accounts of flagellation.

Staying with the Trouble: Making Kin in the Chthulucene by Donna Haraway 599.95 2016 STA (EDFAA) Haraway is best known for her cyborg feminism/ transhumanist essay ‘A Cyborg Manifesto: Science, Technology, and Socialist-Feminism in the Late Twentieth Century’ (1985). Staying with the Trouble is a continuation of Haraway’s insistence on decentralising the Anthropocene, instead suggesting that our epoch is a ‘Cthulucene’ in which the human and non-human are tentacularly linked. A difficult book, but revolutionary.

Strange Harvest “strives to decipher the problematic status of organ transplantation in this country. As an anthropologist [Sharp] approach[es] transplantation as an exotic branch of medical culture, with its own particular ethos that guides the behaviour, thinking, and embodied practices of involved professional and lay parties.’ Sharp ‘seek[s] to uncover essential elements of an intriguing medical realm that remain unseen or unspoken, either because they seem far too mundane to warrant consideration or because professional policy imposes taboos that ultimately obscure such key elements from plain sight.” FACT: H. Pylori is not the worst biological substance someone has swallowed at UWA.

JAMMIN’ WITH JUCHE:

TUNES TO KEEP THE (KOREAN WORKER’S)

PARTY ALIVE Isabella Zalmstra and Jared Gale Nukes, the worlds’ fourth largest army and state run all female pop groups; North Korea has it all, and their music is the deadliest thing on that list. As the popularity of SK pop grows, North Korean bands such as the Pochonbo Electronic Ensemble (formed in 1983) lurk in a whimsical and eerie space untouched by Westerners. With enticing titles such as ‘The Youth Will Support Our Party’, ‘No Motherland Without You’ and ‘Envy Us’, it’s a true wonder you don’t see these boppin’ hits climbing up the charts. You may chuckle at the brazen and bizarre nomenclature, as did I at first, but then suddenly you find yourself completely hypnotised. Invigorated by the energetic choirs, hauntingly beautiful vocals and dangerously catchy synth, every song you listen to is an instant earworm. More so, ‘PEE’s synthesised orchestras with an ensemble of percussive, acoustic and string instruments indicate a distinct Western 1980s pop influence while also drawing from traditional oriental roots. The unwavering optimism encapsulated in every title does well to make you feel personally empowered; thus, making the perfect melodies to study to! However, as you find yourself intoxicated by the enchanting foreign tunes, a sobering and unavoidable truth emerges. The buoyant and lively harmonies your ears find so pleasant originate from a Hermit Kingdom whereby if you try to escape, guards will execute you and incarcerate three generations of your family. Massive monuments at which civilians must give their blessings to their Dear Leaders regularly. Schools that teach their children how the Generalissimo Kim Il-Sung fought against the American and Japanese ’scoundrels’ to protect the country. All of these rituals and regulations established for the purpose of manipulation and exploitation of the DPRK’s citizens. Sorrow and melancholy for these poor people pervade my thoughts in contrast of the jubilant melodies, and it makes me ponder: are these songs also utilised for these purposes? The Pochonbo Electronic Ensemble are named after the Battle of Pochonbo (1937) whereby the ‘Great Comrade’ Kim Il-Sung and his guerrillas successfully raided occupying Japanese forces. Further delving into the ensembles’ lyrics to the title, ‘No Motherland Without You’ some unsettling rhetoric is revealed. Starting triumphant and upbeat, a choir emphatically extols “Comrade Kim Jong-Il, our country cannot exist without you” (repeated ad nauseum). Empowering lines such as “You made us believe”, “We cannot live without you” and “Our futures’ and hopes depend on you” cover all the gaps. 40

On the surface, ’NMWY’ is delightful, comprising of bouncy percussive instruments, energising synth and passionate choirs. However, considering the name of the ensemble and examining the repetitive lyrics, it’s evident that the music on air in the DPRK is laced with militaristic nationalism. The sheer titles themselves: ‘We Shall Hold Our Bayonets More Firmly’, ‘It’s Our Party’s Pride’, indicate that the music facilitates ideological manipulation. Kim Il-Sung, bearing firm knowledge in music theory, noted to his son how “E major was more likely to [spring] the … audience into alertness and anger”. He encouraged his musicians that “you are soldiers fighting with art as a weapon for the building of a new, democratic Korea”. It’s apparent then that the Kim family understood how music could be utilised to promote militaristic communist propaganda and unify the populace under his rule. Consequently, the concept of artistic freedom is foreign to the musicians of North Korea, as it’s legally required to promote this indoctrinating rhetoric. North Korean music is the only music their people can listen to. ‘NMWY’ is regularly broadcast on DPRK radio and blasted through the streets of Pyongyang. Both the lyrics, rhythm and catchiness of the music are purposefully engineered to be optimistic and perpetuate their ideology. Along with the delightful whimsy imposed upon every song, this serves to indoctrinate the DPRK citizens into a false reality. A reality in which the Supreme Leaders are kind and charitable, in which most of the world (especially the Americans) are plotting against them, and that their life is an idyllic one. I’m grateful I can appreciate DPRK music as an emotionally evocative experience without being subject to the repression and restriction the DPRK people struggle with daily. PEE’s ‘We Are Masters of the Farm’ is my favourite song. Providing a variety of instruments and funky synth progressions, it’s just downright groovy. Consequently, a conflicting experience emerges when you contemplate the haunting origins and glittery facades of North Korean culture. North K-pop is manic, filled with unique melodies and hypnotising vocals, yet an opposing bleakness intrudes as you mourn for the people of the DPRK. This offers what I can wholly describe as a beautiful, eerie and bewitching experience. Feel free to jam along if you catch my headboppin’ in Reid!

FACT: Dementors sighted on the fourth floor of the Law Library.

Video Game music often finds a special place in the hearts of those who experience it in-game, and a lot of the time, this comes down to the way the music interacts with the game narrative, or in some cases, how it doesn’t. Thanks to the music’s affecting nature, many game designers pay special attention to game soundtracks and work closely with composers to convey the desired narrative or atmosphere. Composers have been using music for emotional affect for hundreds of years and modern game composers often borrow techniques from this tradition to enhance gameplay and immersion, in ways Classical and Romantic composers could have never imagined. One particular technique of note is known as the leitmotif, and its presence in games has only increased throughout the course of game development history, with innovations in technology enabling composers to use more elaborate scoring and instrumentation, allowing the leitmotif to truly take its place in games.

Cate Tweedie

For those of you who haven’t sat through years of music theory classes, here’s a quick overview of what a leitmotif actually is. First manifesting in the realms of Romantic German opera, the term leitmotif describes a musical theme or motif, usually associated with characters or places that develops along with the narrative action and can often reflect changes or motivations not present in the dialogue. A prime example of this is Howard Shore’s score for the Lord of the Rings and Hobbit movie trilogies. There are multitudes of recognisable themes for characters and places, which appear whenever they are relevant to the narrative, and often hint at character’s changing motivations and emotions through a change in tonality, instrumentation and speed. A pretty clear example of this is the Lothlorien theme, which in its first statement is strange and mysterious, whereas later on, at Helm’s Deep, the Battle Elves are a-coming, and thus it is faster and war-like. However, this is merely how they tend to be used in films: the leitmotif has further potential in video games due to the interactive and sometimes non-linear characteristics of said games. There’s one game in particular I feel embodies the idea of the leitmotif, a quirky little Australian game called Hollow Knight. Developed in 2017 by Team Cherry, Hollow Knight is a Metroidvania style platformer based around exploration and boss battles,

FACT: False. They were just postgrads.

in which the player character is a bug with a sword who fights other bugs. As comes with the genre, it is a non-linear game where the goal is to explore the world and discover the overarching narrative, which is practically nonexistent at the beginning of the game. However, there is barely any written information or dialogue, and so a lot of this narrative is developed and enhanced through the musical score, written by Christopher Larkin. One night, whilst bored, I decided to figure out the true extent to which Larkin used leitmotif, and so thematically analysed the entire soundtrack, only to find that essentially every single theme has developed from the main theme itself. Many of the in-game areas harness the main Hollow Knight theme, each with its own variation and tone to suit the area, maintaining an overall sense of ‘musical narrative cohesion’ between the areas, whilst assisting in the practical task of helping cement the in-game geography into the player’s mind. This helps them believe in this game world they’re inhabiting, especially since travelling between areas is common due to the nature of the game. Whilst the leitmotif is used quite traditionally within this game, it is designed to work with the specific traits of the gaming medium, developing leitmotif through every part of the soundtrack. To see the leitmotif technique developed on a larger scale within a game, one doesn’t need to look further than the indie cult classic, Undertale (2015), in which there are multitudes of motifs developed and played around with, often hinting at hidden story elements, relationships between characters, and character development. If you’ve never noticed this thematic development and leitmotif in your favourite video game and film soundtracks, you’re in luck! It’s everywhere in digital culture at the moment, designed for the benefit of your emotional immersion, and some awareness should help you be able to recognise it if you so wish. Some less-indie games to look out for it in are the Final Fantasy and Legend of Zelda series, as well as other games and films which tend to span multiple titles, allowing enough time for these musical motifs to develop effectively, as is characteristic of Classical pieces that use the same (15-hour opera anyone??).

LET’S GO SMASH SOME BROS:

AN INTERVIEW WITH

DAVID STEBBINS Interview by Bayley Horne

The world of competitive gaming is a fascinating and growing market, with big money being thrown around in professional tournaments around the globe. Probably the most intriguing sub-culture is the hardcore Super Smash Bros. Melee community, so I sat down with UWA student David Stebbins to talk about his love for the game.

Would you consider yourself an expert at the game? Oh I’ve won a local before but I’m not good competitively. There are so many levels to this game that I wouldn’t consider myself good. Like I can watch top players play and understand what’s going on but I can’t tell you why they are doing it. I’m still better than most people though.

So how long have you been playing Super Smash Bros. Melee for? So I started in early 2015 with my friends in Ohio, the Columbus scene is sick there. Drephen is leading the scene over there. But ever since moving to Australia, the Melee scene is not as big here and I haven’t had the chance to get my fix here.

What makes you continue to play this game even when there are newer Smash Bros. games? The gameplay more than anything else is so much more fluid and you have so much more control over your character than any of the new games. A lot of others fighting games, especially Ultimate and Smash 4 have digital inputs. Whether you are walking, running, parrying, blocking there’s no in-between. But in Melee every single input you do is very analogue and so precise that everything you do feels like an extension of your muscle memory. You are in control of everything you do. In Smash 4 and Ultimate you tell your character what to do, but in Melee you are in complete control of the character.

Is it a hard game to get into playing? The only way you can get good at Melee is if you sit down one-on-one, in person, and get fucked up by someone seven levels above you. That’s the only way you’ll ever improve but that’s what I love about the game it’s more about the community than being good in a competitive environment; the grind.

On top of all that you have all the technical skills like wave-dashing, L-cancelling, all of the dash-dancing and the movement. It just doesn’t exist in any other fighter.

FACT: Mosquitoes just trying to help you lose weight and boost your metabolism.

I want to ask about the community of Melee, what is it like in 2019? Since Melee has been around so long, most people play for the community rather than to win. I think it’s a great thing cause when you fight like a local with people you like playing with, show up once a week and pay a few dollars to fuck up and get fucked up by other people. You do that for years and years and you build an amazing community. Who would you say is your main? Sheik and Fox. Sheik is my girl; I have my Sheik T-shirt in my wardrobe. Fox is just really fun, I like pressing all the buttons really fast and still winning. Falco is really interesting he just roller-coaster drops you straight down and Marth is like slicing through water like a Zen master. There may be more viable characters in Ultimate, but I think Melee ends up being more diverse because of all the play-styles and archetypes you don’t really have in Ultimate. Melee is a lot more freeform in what you do. There isn’t one optimal move in every situation, there’s many no matter which character you choose.

Melee is a big spectator eSport, what do you think it has over other games like Counter-Strike and DOTA 2? The storylines. Melee has story arcs that have lasted eighteen years. Like “Ken is the king of smash”, that was then replaced by the “Era of the five Gods”. Then Leffen appeared, the god slayer, the villain that everyone despises, to Hungrybox and his era of dominance. All of these stories and personal brands you don’t get to see in other games. The personally of a player comes out in the way they play Melee too. Like Hungrybox is a bitch so he plays like a bitch and wins all the time. I’ll take your word for it. Has Nintendo ever hosted a contest? Melee was designed as a party game and they never intended for it be a competitive one. And when the competitive scene started thriving in ‘03-’07, Nintendo did not sponsor it at all. It kind of ignored its existence and hasn’t sponsored a tournament since. So every time you sit down to play, you know they are here for the love of the game. Even if they make tons of money at a high level, they just really want to play it. So I guess I’ll finish by asking you what has been your favourite moment playing Melee so far? As soon as Mango won Big House 6, I was in the crowd when he jumped up all two-thousand people were popping off. It was like 2 am in the morning at some random-ass hotel in Detroit and my friend turned to me and said “Isn’t America the greatest nation in this world?” and I was like “Hell yeah brother”. I had been playing Melee for the last eighteen hours, but after all that and then watching Mango win, it was awesome.

FACT: Albany is the better campus.

Lincoln Aspinall

STUDENT EXPERIENCE AND ‘CASUALISATION’

Hey, you! You know how you only get rostered one, sometimes two shifts a week? How your boss asks you to come in earlier, or stay back that extra hour just to “take one for the team”? Maybe you constantly feel rushed and even guilty for taking a break? Don’t know if you were paid the correct amount and feel uncomfortable asking? Casualisation! 44

Welcome to the sector of Australia’s workforce that comprises 41 per cent of young people between ages twenty to twenty-four. Whether you’ve experienced it first-hand or heard it in the media, it’s vital that we keep pushing for better working and learning conditions as young people. There are two industries within the casualisation setting that are super important for students – where we directly contribute: hospitality and ‘gig economy’ sectors, and where we benefit: the higher education sector. Difficult student conditions begin before we even put on a uniform. Youth unemployment is now up at 12.5 per cent which is 7 per cent higher than the national average. Add to this the rate of underemployment and the cutting of penalty rates and we’re really in a tight situation. But hey, you’ve secured a new hospo job congrats! It’s an exciting time… until you realise just how rife the industry is with wage theft, unfair working conditions, like bullying, sexual harassment, and exploitation in general. The Fair Work Ombudsman’s numbers show that despite the hospitality sector making up 7.2 per cent of our labour market, it was subject to 39 per cent of anonymous tip-offs in 2016 and 2017. These issues are so prevalent that unions like United Voice are demanding state governments crack-down on the industry to make wage theft criminal offences (massive YES). With this in mind - join your union! If you work a casual job then the smartest decision you’ll make is joining a union because their role is to empower you. The harsh reality is that your bosses doesn’t care about you, they care about their weekly targets, their sales and the maximisation of profit. Unions work on people power to push back against crappy conditions, fighting for safe and fair work. Groups like United Voice, RAFFWU and the SDA understand just how deep-set the consequences of casual work is - not to mention your fees are tax deductible! The scary thing is that our higher education sector is a casualisation machine. Universities are hiring staff on casual terms more than ever before, so much so that staff on permanent contracts are heavily outweighed now. Recent data reveals twenty seven out of fortytwo Australian universities occupy rates of casualisation above per cent. The University of Wollongong has

a casual staff rate of 71 per cent, and Victoria’s RMIT sits at 63 per cent! What this means in real terms is a vast reduction in the teaching services we are paying to receive. Chances are that most of your tutors right now are on a casual contract, meaning they don’t get paid to mark your assignments outside of their contact hours, their preparation for classes is on their own time, as is all their admin work. Unit coordinators are increasingly in the same position, constantly under the pump where their workload is ballooning, and their time is ever thinning whilst they often trying to complete their own academic research. This constant stress naturally burdens their ability to deliver content, and stops them from having quality student interactions. Even harder to stomach is the average annual Australian ViceChancellor’s salary, which now sits at $ 890,000. We’re told that universities are not-for-profit, and turnover is invested back onto campus – well I’d like to see more funds flowing back down the academic chain. We need more faith in our teaching staff because a long-term contract means job security, it means less personal anxiety on their behalf, and ultimately a better learning experience for us as students. Don’t forget that we’re paying for all of this, we’re being treated increasingly as customers, and in my view the quality we’re receiving right now isn’t good enough. Staff working conditions are our student learning conditions. TLDR; join your union and spare a thought for our casual teaching staff.

“IF YOU WORK A CASUAL JOB THEN THE SMARTEST DECISION YOU’LL MAKE IS JOINING A UNION BECAUSE THEIR ROLE IS TO EMPOWER YOU.”

FACT: All peacocks are cryogenically frozen on death for revival once the technology exists.

Elizabeth Long

SIREN OF THE CASPIAN For me the word ‘quirky’ is often coarsely euphemistic and similar to what your bougie aunt might call something she despises, all the while smiling through her teeth at the idea of higher taxes or cutting funding for private schools. I would rarely use ‘quirky’ to describe something I liked because it’s so tainted by sarcasm and fake-niceness. Often, people use ‘quirky’ to describe something eclectic. Something inherently awkward, uneasy. Something slightly more sinister than what one might capture upon first glace. This is a word I would, reluctantly, use to introduce the Dutch-Iranian singer Sevdaliza. It is difficult to describe Sevdaliza’s musical style. It is not just trip-pop, not just experimental, not just avante-pop, not just electronic R&B, not just a fusion of all these famed with traditional Persian musical elements that breathe even more rich complexity to Sevdaliza extensive repertoire. As for the woman behind the art, Sevda Alizadeh, was born in Tehran in 1987, and moved to the Netherlands with her family at age five. At fifteen she had left home; “surviving”, as she often describes this period in her life. Interestingly, she was not drawn to the music business straight away. Almost ten years before she released her first EP, she won a basketball scholarship and played for the Orange Lions, the Dutch national basketball team. She also funded multiple years of university before finally completing a Masters degree in Communications. However, she soon decided after entering the workforce that it “wasn’t the type of life she had imagined for herself”. It is here when Alizadeh set her signs on a career as a musician, despite the fact that she didn’t even know how to read music or play an instrument let alone sing. Such discipline that brought her from minimal practical music knowledge to one of the Netherlands’ most quirky and accomplished music exports. But Sevdaliza has always been talented – she speaks Parsi, Dutch, English, French and Portuguese; music simply being her sixth language mastered. Interestingly, critics and even some Iranian musicians frequently comment on what they view as a clear

inspiration from traditional Iranian music. To explain, Sevdaliza often sings in the semitones and microtones that differentiate Western and traditional Arab-Iranian music theory. However, she professes that she has “… never listened to Persian music in my life!” She sings in English, although famously she released a single in Parsi, protesting Executive Order 13769 (for all of you nonpolitics nerds that is Trump’s Muslim travel ban). Most of her songs grapple with the complexities of womanhood and motherhood. As for her music videos, I think a music reviewer for The Stateman describes it best by saying, “Her music videos are trippy, strange and will leave you thinking, “what just happened?” The music video for her single ‘That Other Girl’ and ‘HUMAN’ spring to mind. The former is a collection of images of tree roots, goddesses and a dressing room with an assortment of removable visages (Sevdaliza did it before Ariana Grande, might I add). The film’s aesthetic is weirdly reminiscent of the waxy and glitched appearance of a Half Life mod with a similarly disturbing foray into the uncanny valley. The latter depicts Sevdaliza as satyr where she erotically dances at an exclusive banquet for an assortment of clearly rich people in what appears to be an abandoned indoor horse-riding rink. Suffice to say things are pretty weird in the video world of Sevdaliza. This is clearly something she is set to focus upon in the future, considering her first album ISON, released in 2017, was also released as a ‘visual album’ (if you’re unsure of what that means, think Beyoncé (2013) W Magazine music reviewer Kyle Munzenrieder recommends that you “… stream it to your television, and let it enhance the mood of whatever else you might be doing. …enjoy the visual aspect like you might a moving painting.” Unlike so much music these days I would not necessarily call it ‘catchy’, rather it is the kind of music where a short riff or line of texts swirls around in your head for a few hours as sort of mood music to your deepest and most mundane thoughts alike. Therefore, it is the perfect mood music if you want to listen and think whilst allowing yourself to be overcome by the emotion and sensuality of what Sevdaliza had to offer.

FACT: Children found to be working as labourers in the greenhouses once parents drop them off at the UWA Daycare.

REALISM AND REPRESENTATION: Jack Logan

THE USE OF NON-ACTORS IN CINEMATIC STORYTELLING

What would be the quirkiest casting choice ever? How about not casting an actor at all! From indie films to larger Hollywood productions, casting non-actors is becoming an increasingly popular choice for filmmakers looking for different ways to imbue their stories with a sense of realism, honesty and truth. Winning the top prize at Cannes’ Directors’ Fortnight exhibition in 2017, Chloe Zhao’s The Rider tells the story of a rodeo champion who is forced to abandon his passion after a critical head injury. Set in the American Midwest, Zhao uses a family of rodeo stars rather than professional actors, basing the narrative on lead Brady Jandreau’s experiences growing up in the region, to tell a story of pride, depression and wounded masculinity. Though Brady is the film’s focus, an interesting aspect of The Rider is its depiction of autism, which Brady’s sister Lilly is diagnosed with. While portrayals of developmental disorders in film are often exaggerated and insensitive, Lilly’s presence in the film gives an additional layer to its theme of resilience and rounds out Brady’s character as 46

someone who truly cares about the people around him. However, the success of a film cannot ride entirely on one element, no matter how quirky or unusual it may be. Clint Eastwood discovered this the hard way with his $30 million re-telling of the 2015 Thalys train attack; an attempted mass shooting that was prevented by three American passengers. In his 2018 feature film account of an event that lasted mere minutes, The 15:17 to Paris, Eastwood had the trio portray themselves. Though the ode to American heroism was praised for its ‘poker-faced sincerity’, the trio’s lack of experience culminates in a misfired, awkward climax, with the director’s attempt to commemorate the post-9/11 event as some hallowed chapter in US military history leaving a bad taste in many audience’s mouths. In other cases, the use of non-actors has had broader implications for the production and release of a film. Sean Baker’s The Florida Project (2017) tells the story of America’s hidden homeless population, focusing on

FACT: The Reflection Pond is actually filled with Voss Sparkling water.

a mother (Bria Vinaite) and her six-year old daughter (Brooklynn Prince), who live paycheck-to-paycheck in a Florida motel. It’s a story of a young girl coming to grips with her place in the world, and by using a wide-eyed amateur on a set populated by real people means The Florida Project is that much more effective. In addition to both Vinaite and Prince having no prior acting experience, Baker adopted the odd strategy of filming scenes set at the motel while the actual establishment was in business, giving each shot a more populated and vibrant feel, and injecting that much more life into the charming story. His use of non-actors in a central, functioning location harks back to the post-WWII trend of using youthful non-professional actors and strong, imposing locations to convey the grim reality of war. One such example is Roberto Rossellini’s Germany, Year Zero, which uses footage of Germans struggling to survive in an occupied, ruined Berlin to represent the truth of the conflict, and its effects. Alfonso Cuaron’s recent Oscar-winning production ROMA had a far larger budget and popular attention than The Rider, and yet when it came to casting the film’s lead, Cleo, the director was less concerned with the actor’s experience or how many movie tickets they sold, but with how closely they resembled his Indigenous Mexican childhood nanny. Though the film makes broader comments about Mexican life in the 20th century, it is essentially a memoir of Cuaron’s early childhood; producer Gabriela Rodriguez affirmed that ‘Alfonso was trying to re-create members of his own family; they needed to look how he remembered them… for him it needed to be authentic.’ To this end, he auditioned both professional and non-professional actors, eventually casting Yalitza Aparicio, whose Indigenous Mexican heritage and background in pre-school education made her perfect as struggling carer Cleo. In order to maintain Aparicio’s authenticity as this figure from his childhood, Cuaron isolated the newcomer by giving her only the pages of the script that would be shot on the day, preventing her from knowing the ultimate fate of the character. This unorthodox method of chronological shooting assured the reactions and responses of Cleo, particularly to the changing landscape of ‘1970s Mexico City, were natural.

after white actor Emma Stone was cast as a HawaiianAsian in 2015’s Aloha, the use of amateur performers has frequently been an effective avenue to tell stories focusing on the experiences of minorities. Before his success with The Florida Project, Sean Baker directed Tangerine (2015), which focuses on two transgender sex workers in LA. The Danish Girl, a film starring Eddie Redmayne as a trans woman, was released the same year. The latter achieved box office success and awards season attention but was criticised as being a film made by cisgender people for cisgender people, an act of artistic dishonesty comparable to the above examples of whitewashing. Tangerine, by contrast, uses trans women to tell a story about trans women, in a sincere story set over a single afternoon. Tangerine didn’t win any Oscars or launch its two trans leads into Hollywood stardom, but it set a critically important precedent: trans narratives are better told when trans people are represented. As the audience watches the pair trek across the streets of Los Angeles, we engage more deeply with their story and their struggles because we know that those struggles aren’t so far from the truth. While it’s a gamble that hasn’t always paid off, the use of non-actors in film productions is indeed a quirk. One that has captured the sincerity of real-life stories, imbued fictional ones with a raw, emotional honesty, and addressed broader questions in the film industry in prompting audiences to respond to these films in different ways.

Though Cuaron took a big risk staking the appeal of his follow-up to the hugely successful Gravity on a preschool teacher, it’s hardly the first time a cast member’s background has been a factor in their involvement in a film. Ex-Marine R. Lee Ermey was originally only a technical advisor during production of Stanley Kubrick’s war film Full Metal Jacket, the former’s gruff persona on set landed him a key role as military drill instructor Hartman. Kubrick further capitalised on Ermey’s former life in the Marines by allowing him to improvise most of his lines, which have now earned a place in cinematic history as some of the most iconic rants and insults to have appeared on screen (a YouTube video depicting the ad-libbed lines has over a million views, while the trailer is nowhere to be seen). The use of non-actors in film productions also ties in to the issue of representation in Hollywood. With film industry controversies such as ‘#OscarsSoWhite’, which criticised a lack of racial diversity in the Academy Award nominations, questions of whitewashing have been raised

FACT: Measles outbreak a welcome alternative to invasive Year 12s.

URBAN OCCULT RITUALS William Huang Despite the growing ability of scientific thinking to banish long-held beliefs in the magical, divine and occult, there is something innately human about irrationality and the power of storytelling. This is particularly true when it centres around mystery, horror and the realms of the ‘what-ifs’. That’s one of several reasons why, in certain corners of the internet, a form of writing has blossomed like a dark mould. I am cautious to call this style of writing fiction, storytelling or even instructional writing, and there is a question of whether or not it is even confined purely to the internet, or if it has an effect on the ‘real world’. The best way I can think of summarising this bizarre format, as it bears no standard name, is by describing it as a unique blend of occult and horror fiction that I dub the ‘urban occult ritual’. Simple, well-known examples might include ‘Bloody Mary’ or a Ouija board, however it is possible to go so much deeper into this genre. There are entire websites dedicated to this phenomenon like, ‘The Most Dangerous Games’ or ‘Saya in Underworld’. Simply put, an urban occult ritual is a set of instructions which typically involve an elaborate preparation and materials (not uncommonly involving blood), in order to access a spiritual dimension or summon spiritual entities. Taken literally, these are recipes for disaster. Yet, there are some people out there who have tried them, presumably for the thrill of it. There is a multitude of videos on YouTube which portray people’s experiences with the Hide and Seek with One Person ritual, which claims to summon an entity into your house, from which you then have to hide. There is even an entire subreddit dedicated to these, known as ‘r/ threekings’, which contains a mixture of discussion about ritual instructions, user experiences and associated fiction. One example that stands out to me is the ‘Man in the Fields’ ritual. This is one of the better known supernatural games, and as a concept, it is simple to grasp, yet quite unnerving. I won’t reproduce the exact instructions here, but in summary, this ritual is a challenge, which must take place between 9:00pm and midnight. To begin, you simply light a candle in your cleared backyard, turn to

face the house and call out, “But who will scare the crows away?” seven times. If you hear a voice in your head saying, “That’s not your biggest problem”, then the ritual has begun. Essentially, in the time before midnight you need to close everything that can be closed (even laptops), beginning in your safe room, which you nominate as it only has one door, and a lock. You must avoid looking into backyard, otherwise you will see The Man in the Fields, and you will need to return immediately to your safe room. There is a second entity called The Ashen Man as well, acts as a referee, ensuring the game is fair. You cannot look him in the eyes either, otherwise you will take his place the next time the game is played. Once the clock hits midnight, you need to go to bed and close your eyes and mouth - the final two things that can be closed. This concludes the ritual, and if you wake up the next day, you’ve succeeded. But why would anyone attempt to try these out, or even read them? Well, part of the intrigue exists in the belief that these might work. Some of these rituals have rewards attached to them, for example, ‘The Man in the Fields’ ritual is alleged to banish bad luck, and the rewards increase when the game is attempted under riskier circumstances. Other games supposedly invoke curses, bestow knowledge, or simply grant the opportunity to experience something unusual. Logically speaking, very few people would accept these rituals as fact. I think you’d more easily find someone who believes in ghosts than someone who believes in the legitimacy of these rituals. This does not, however, reduce one’s enjoyment of reading them and performing them if one is brave enough. This is why I believe this medium of writing has continued to persist and grow- uncertainty is a powerful motivator of intrigue. It’s all fun and games until the demon joins the party, but until then, this form of writing makes for very entertaining speculation. And if anyone’s keen on making a supernatural rituals club, you’ve got my vote for SOC affiliation, my $5 for membership, and my blood as an ingredient if need be.

48 FACT: Royal commission announced into how every busker in Perth manages to play the same five Ed Sheeran songs.

WHAT YOUR SNEAKERS SAY ABOUT YOU

UWA QUIRKS, IDENTIFIED BY KICKS Brodie Kelly

Yeezys: You have considered opening your sneaker collection up for public admiration. You have identical pairs. One for wearing, one for admiring in its plastic wrap. You may or may not be compensating. Vans: Your mum went to the nearest shop that was full of unhygienic youth and asked the sales associate what shoes were cool. The shoes were half a size too small. You now have a stubbed toe. Superga Sneakers: You’re not usually one for sneakers, and decided to get on the bandwagon only when slim, crisp and comfortable styles were brought to the table. You definitely own one too many longline blazers. Balenciaga Triple-S: You have small feet for your height, or conversely don’t mind your feet looking like giant clouds. People find your bank balance intimidating. Students in the coffee line either worship you or think you’re an idiot for dropping that cash on white kicks. Gucci Ace Sneakers: Your kicks are just the tip of the iceberg as far as brands are concerned. Your MCM backpack is the real statement. You have a job at your father’s consulting firm lined up back home. You think contributing to group assignments is for peasants. Gallaz Skate Shoes: You listen to Avril Lavigne and Panic! At the Disco on the daily. You still wear a bum belt and find yourself having to constantly explain to Freshers why you wear a random piece of elastic around your middle. Most of your friends are curious as to how your shoes are still in a wearable condition. Adidas Superstars: Your favourite stores are Decjuba, Witchery, Seed and Country Road. You tried to be an Instagram influencer for a while there, but the lack of bot accounts spamming your comments with “dm me for a collab hun xoxo” was disheartening. You definitely wear a denim jacket and carry a tote bag around even though a backpack is far more practical.

Nikes: Your inbox is a constant source of simultaneous inspiration and guilt, flooded with emails from activewear brands that you signed up to for the initial 10 percent off. You’ve tried every fitness app out there, but always give up after the 7-day free trial. You go to the gym just to take selfies. New Balance Sneakers: You’re a computer science student. You didn’t realise sneakers were a thing. Yours aren’t. Chanel Sneakers: Heads turn as you walk through campus. Girls worship the ground you stand on as you leave the distinctive print of the interlocking CC’s. You never actually work out in these shoes. That’s what the other 50 pairs are for. Platform Sneakers: You’ve definitely been told you’re fun size more times than you could count. You’re a frequent festival goer. You’ve considered wearing chaps unironically, but decided against it because you’re a classy thot. Converse: You’re a bit of a tomboy. You’ve been wearing the same pair of Converse since 2010. They’re definitely odd. You thought it would be fun to swap one shoe with your friend back in high school, but then they stepped in dog shit. You told them to keep it. Stella McCartneys: OMG you’re vegan?! Tell us more. Is this the time we tell you that vegan leather is actually just glorified plastic?... FILA’s: You’re decidedly too sane to purchase Balenciagas, but still wanted to wear clouds. Known for your massive collection of high heels, you were the last person people thought would get on the sneaker train, but the last boy you went on a date with put you off looking hot for life. Golden Goose Sneakers: You’re too high brow for Converse. You’re the only person that understands the significance of your footwear, but you’re content holding the fashion high ground. Kmart Slides: What are brands? You’re here for bargains. You likely have a secret savings account worthy of a trust fund baby but consistently cry poor. You’re going on your third Contiki this winter break because money is for e x p e r I e n c e s.

FACT: There is a pair of wormholes inside the guild building, to enable travelling between CCZ and Guild club rooms.

WHICH UWA BUILDING ARE YOU? Jessica Carbone

1. Which bus route would your friends describe you as?

5. What is the biggest conspiracy theory at UWA?

A. Boring and interchangeable like the 107 and 102

A. Dawn Freshwater is actually a freshwater crocodile.

B. Loyal and reliable like the 950

B. The UWA Peacocks have cameras for eyes and mics hidden in their feathers.

C. They wouldn’t, because the people you associate with aren’t filthy commoners that catch the bus. D. Dreamy and desirable like the non-existent bus route from Business School to Octagon. 2. You’ve made a friend in your first tute, how do you spark the convo? A. Ask them if they support Gladys Berejiklian’s stance on pill testing B. You wait for them to ask you. C. Ask them what ATAR they got D. Ask them if they’ve ever heard of the UWA Student Guild 3. It’s Guild election time. You receive 23 messages from people you’d barely call acquaintances, asking you to go and vote for them. What do you do? A. Reply to all of them with “sure thing, good luck! x”.

C. You can be studying Law without constantly reminding people that’s what you’re studying. D. Every year before the first day of elections, it is a ritual for the two major Guild parties to burn a fresher live at the stake as they dance around a circle and chant “U-W-A” in the same way that Americans chant “U-S-A”. 6. Who would you rather be trapped in a room with for 24 hours? A. A group of PolSci students taking strong stances on issues they don’t really care about and trying to sound 80x more educated than they actually are. B. A group of commerce freshers trying to studying for STAT1520 C. The entirety of STAR preselecting their candidates before elections. D. Engineering students trying to speed date.

B. Block ‘em. C. Leave all of them unopened, delete Facebook, exile yourself from Perth and continue your education far away like Serena does before the start of Gossip Girl. D. Say that you’ll only vote for them if they vote for you, because you are also a Guild candidate. 4. If you could be anyone in the world, who would it be?

7. One of your mates asks you to jump the moat. Do you A. Tell them that it is against UWA by-laws. B. Do it. Mama didn’t raise no wimp. C. Plug your Facebook ‘meme’ page t selling t-shirts that rip off Nike and say ‘jump the moat’. D. Use your powers of persuasion and the art of language to make THEM jump the moat as you cackle from the sidelines.

A. Australia’s next PM B. The 1952 UWA Guild President, Bob Hawke C. Barry J. Marshall D. Conrad Hogg

8. Which is worse? A. Walking to Biz School/Sport Science B. Lecturers talking after the 45 min mark C. Year 12s in Reid D. Parking

If you answered mostly… As – Arts Building. Docs, avocado socks and living in the Arts Block. You walk around with unearned confidence, dipping your carrot sticks in hummus and suppressing your troubling neuroticism. There’s nothing better to you than carrying around your metal straw, showing off the kooky patterns on your op-shop bargain and getting into a heated discussion about the implicit biases in Australia’s political climate. You were listening to Ocean Alley MONTHS before they were cool and you’ve scheduled in three breakdowns this Semester for weeks 4, 6 and 11.

Cs - Business School. Quirky? More like jerky. It hurt a bit when you realised that coming from a rich private school, being Fresher Rep on a big club and wearing RM Williams boots to class didn’t put you at the top of the food chain. You try and charm people with your charisma and socioeconomic status but deep inside you it’s all just a bunch of ones and zeros, like a trading room. On the bright side, you know 80 per cent of the wider GT area so you always have friends to sit with in the Ref, Reid and the Tav.

Bs – Geology Building. You’re the quiet kid with a little bit of a wild side. You’ve been at uni for quite a while now and have no patience for shitty tutors or awkward conversation. On the inside you feel like the baddest mofo in the beehive but you carry yourself with the humility of the Duchess of Cambridge, with the occasional (often drunken) exception. You’re very loyal to your tight-knit friendship group you’ve had since year six and your deepest secret is that you’re kinky af.

Ds – Winthrop Hall. ‘So You Think You Can Be A BNOC?’ That’s the name of Channel 7’s new reality TV show starring YOU. For the past two months you’ve living solely off caffeine and your love for UWA Campus culture and you’ve taken on a full-time workload and three part time jobs despite being on six committees. Ignoring the welfare recommendations of your friends, family and therapist, you smile brightly in your election-ready Facebook dp, whilst feeling the light inside you slowly die.

STUDENT ASSIST The Guild’s friendly team of Student Assist staff offers free, confidential advice and support for any issues you may face, for example if: • You want access to free counselling on campus without a long wait • You’re considering late withdrawal from a unit • You’ve received a letter about academic misconduct • Uncontrollable circumstances are affecting your ability to complete assignments or sit exams • You’re stressed out and having trouble coping with life and/or uni

INDEPENDENT ADVICE WHEN YOU NEED IT

• You want to request a review of your grade or a UWA decision • You feel you’ve been discriminated against, harassed or treated unfairly • Your bank account/wallet/pantry is empty and you’ve got bills to pay • You’re just not sure where to ask for help!

Contact Guild Student Assist at: assist@guild.uwa.edu.au

6488 2292

uwastudentguild.com/assist 51

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