SERIAL CULTURE ISSUE SEVEN by Serial Culture

APRIL 2022

Exploring the lives and art of young people in Halton

ADHD - THE MUSICAL REVIEW / GLOW GROUP / PITCH / ART IS EVERYWHERE LOUISE NULTY / SCORES FROM THE SCREEN 1 ISSUE SEVEN

Seri Meet the team

COVER ART

GOODBYE CULTURE HQ

THE SCARLET WATCH

LCR AWARDS

CULTURE PIGEON

LOUISE NULTY

ADHD THE MUSICAL REVIEW

EU4

HAZLEHURST STUDIO

GLOW

THE UNKNOWN ART OF IDENTS

SCORES FROM THE SCREEN

ART IS EVERYWHERE

PITCH

GET INVOLVED

Editorial Advisory Team Editorial Team Facilitator - Meg DeMar Designer - Greg Oldfield The Studio Project Manager - Louise Nulty

COVER ART

Alistair Eason Name: Alistair Eason Where are you based?: Widnes How long have you been creating art? My drawing background started when I was really little. I watched Minecraft YouTubers and would draw them like Stampy. When I was 12ish, I got a touchscreen laptop with some basic drawing software. I enjoyed the medium and stuck with it. I always got told off when I was young for making a mess with paints, losing pens and grinding stuff into the carpet. What training do you have? I did art till year 8, but I don't count that as it was more abstract painting. I’m just a self-taught digital artist, who takes inspiration from animation. I enjoy mad intricate, vibrant Japanese art, with intricate lines and details. I love clean art. Steven Universe revolutionised my art style.

What media/ software do you use? Medibang paint pro and a Wacom Intuos draw. What is the inspiration / for this piece/pieces? There are two parts to it. My art and writing often combine two ideas. I love vintage stuff, especially 20-50s fashion and music. I love art deco and the fashions of that era. I’m inspired by Coroika, which is the Splatoon manga. Splatoon has a lot of music and fashion feels and themes. The plot points hinge on it. It has a retro 80, 90s cool feel. Bringing a 20/30 feel inherently makes sense as it is already something that plays with different decades. I love cell-shaded art. When I draw I use two brushes of different sizes. One is a pen brush and the other is an airbrush for touch up. I let the complexity come through from the linework itself. What are your aims for your art? My art is very queer. There is a queerplatonic relationship between the two characters. It’s a reflection of my own experiences through them as an aro, transgender, genderqueer, person. We as aros are creating the basis of history now and pioneering it now. The manga is mainly aimed at kids, for a lot of the fans of the manga, it's their first time being in an online fandom space and potentially their first experience with the queer stuff people in fandom create. I explore my life in a way that's easy to digest. My aim is to help kids figure out their a-spec through my art, something that is beneficial in their own life. I want it to help people figure out gender. It’s my platform of expression and information. Rather than techy and informative, I’m showing lived examples. It’s just representation at the end of the day. Where can people find you on social media? @squiddiboo on Twitter

On March 26th, it was the final day for Culture HQ at Runcorn Shopping City, and it was a great event to participate as it has helped me interact with some great local artists of the Halton area. So, I’ll be looking back at Culture HQ and how it has changed local artists for their projects and recognition.

e y b d o o G by Owen Johnson

What did I like about Culture HQ? I loved it because it has opened a new opportunity for me to engage and interact with local artists in the borough of Halton, and which I found all of those artists work very interesting and fantastic, every one of them has great detail and designs, and are truly incredible.

Meet the Artists of Culture HQ Here is a list of the local artists who’ve participated in Culture HQ. Starting in Alphabetical Order: Abby Moyle – Abby is the creator of the fictional cartoon dragon called Dexter the Dragon. He is a combination of cartoon characters from the 50s, and 60s, and characters like Mickey Mouse, Roger Rabbit, and many more… You can find Abby on Instagram @abby_m0yle

Amy Gordon – Amy was a Work Experience Student for the ‘Draw on Halton’ event.

Allison John – Allison is a Resident Member for Hazelhurst Studios and took part in the ‘Draw on Halton’ Event.

Claire Pitt – Claire is the person who owns Hazelhurst Studios and was the person in charge of Culture HQ Halton. You can find Claire on Instagram and Twitter @crpittdesigns

Cliff Richards – Cliff took part in the ‘Draw on Halton’ Event and was a member for Hazelhurst Artists. Cliff’s style is more proposed in Charcoal as his style is quite well made.

Ellie Francesca Watson – Ellie is a member of Hazelhurst Artists and took part in Culture HQ. Ellie’s work consists of hand drawn, black and white charicatures of Musicians. You can find Ellie on her Instagram page @ellie.francesca.design

Julia Midgley – Julia Midgley was one of the artists who took part of Culture HQ’s ‘Draw on Halton’. Julia draws her designs with watercolours, just like Sir Quentin Blake would do, but honestly, she’s a brilliant artist! Check her out on Instagram @midgleyjulia

Maria Tarn – Maria is a Resident Artist at Hazelhurst Studios and took part in the ‘Draw on Halton’ event for Culture HQ. Her artwork is a mixture of Textiles and Fabrics.

Nick Carrillo – Nick is a Resident Artist for Hazelhurst Studios and is also a Photographer. His theme for Draw on Halton was all about the High Streets of Runcorn. You can find Nick on Twitter @ncnewmedia

Owen Johnson – I took part in this event as it was something completely new to me. I met some of these great artists like Abby Moyle, Claire Pitt, and Rachael Prime. I thought it was a fantastic experience to take part in!

Rachael Prime – Rachael is a Resident Artist for Hazelhurst Studios and took part in most events for Culture HQ, from the very first one to the last ever one. Rachael’s work consists of actual hand-drawn artwork, and a mixture of Digital Drawings

What people have said about Culture HQ Ian Pye from MakoCreate wrote: “Culture HQ has been an amazing venue and opportunity for creative people to meet, learn and share. it’s such a shame to see it go but hopefully peoples experiences from Culture HQ will live on in the community.” Corbyn Wilding: “Well, I think that it was a wonderful place for people with great creative talent to come together and share it with the public. It was a place for anyone to come along and let their mind run wild for the world to see. I didn’t really spend too much time at Culture HQ but I’m really sad to see it go” Overall, it was a fantastic experience for me as it had helped me engage and interact with the local artists of my hometown, and to be honest, I didn’t even know that Widnes and Runcorn even had local artists, but now I know! I’m sad to see it go, but I’ve had such great opportunities with this wonderful event. Want to know more about Owen’s experience of Culture HQ? Check out his blog: https://owenjohnsonsblog.wordpress.com

e y b d Goo 9

The Scarlet Watch from Elkie Atherton

My Love Letter to Chick Flicks. Chick Flicks are something that have always appealed to me. The way this media is created and further demonised has fascinated me. The way we interact with media associated with the idea of femininity shows a lot about the things we equate with being a woman. How we liken these pieces of media to being lesser than that expressing masculinity is uncomfortable to analyse. The term Chick Flicks is a way of describing media appealing to teenage girls and young women, it is predominantly used in a derogatory way From the 1930s, a category emerged; “Women’s Films”. Movies have always been made to cater to a specific audience. Whether this is through the use of male or female gaze, themes that appeal to one group of people or who is the protagonist. Though tokenism (the prac�ce of only making a symbolic effort for example the gay/black best friend character) plays a part in this too and stories can be made about marginalised groups but

made for the gaze of the more privileged. Women’s Films o�en centred on the stereotypical role of women in the early days of films, with stories relegated to those of domes�city and marriage. Moving further into the century movies about women could be about all sorts of things, things that were once deemed unacceptable now took centre stage in these stories. The Hays Code was a set of industry guidelines on self-censorship of content which was enforced on most major pictures released in America between 1934 and 1968. This code censored certain things from being shown in movies. It enforced such rules as keeping one foot on the ground while kissing that is now roman�cised in media such as The Princess Diaries.

It enforced a rule sta�ng that if you were to cast a white man as the protagonist, a white woman would have to be cast opposite him essen�ally censoring all a�empts at interracial couples being portrayed on screen. These kinds of ideas sunk into the ideology of the internal bias of those who work in the film industry limi�ng the role of women of colour in subsequent films centring on women. In the 80s, teen films were on the rise thanks to John Hughes. These teen films - though similar in plot and style - are divided. When the plot revolves around a women’s experience it is a Chick Flick and just another teen movie but films like The Breakfast Club are beloved having the perspec�ves of both male and female characters. In the 90s, the term “Chick Flick” gained popularity and became an allencompassing way of saying a movie for women no ma�er the theme, genre or plot. Tonality varies in these films but their associa�on with femininity deems them the same. “Chick Flick” became an insult.

girl, this film is s�ll talked about today with its instantly quotable lines and masterful costuming showing that these films do have long-las�ng effects and importance. In the 2000s, more films were seen and marketed as “Chick Flicks”. They centred on platonic love not just roman�c love and rela�onships between women. One of my favourite examples of this is Elle and Vivian from Legally Blonde. They are first shown as enemies but that grows into a friendship when they realise that it’s a man who has pit them against each other. In the 2000s and 2010s, films that were marketed for women but made by men were less well received by audiences because there was a disconnect between audience and inten�on. The rise of the #girlboss movies wasn’t helpful either. Telling stories of perfect women makes real-life stories of complex women go unheard when popular stories about men focus on this messiness.

The 90s saw the release of Clueless, an adapta�on of Emma by Jane Austen but retold by a new protagonist Cher, a valley

LIVERPOOL CITY REGION

CULTURE AND CREATIVITY AWARDS On March 2nd 2022, The Serial Culture team was invited to the 3rd Liverpool City Region Culture and Creativity Awards. Writers Luke and Elkie went along to cover the show supported by team facilitator Meg, whilst fellow team member Ben performed a piece of poetry at the ceremony, which took place at Cronton Playhouse.

The Liverpool City Region’s most talented and inspiring artists and creatives were commended at this year’s Culture and Creativity Awards, honouring work that took place across the region during 2021. Organised by Liverpool City Region Combined Authority, artists, organisations and community creatives gathered at the venue for the much-anticipated event which was hosted by entrepreneur and Radio Merseyside presenter Ngunun Adamu. Guest presenters from across the city region including Liverpool Chef Dave Critchley from the Great British Menu joined her to announce the winners of the 15 categories chosen from more than 700 entries.

When we arrived at the venue, we were greeted by reception with a programme and led to meet Clare Barber, the Senior Media and Communications Officer at Liverpool City Region Combined Authority. She was very receptive to young people reporting on the event, asking us what angle we wanted to report from/our aims. It was great to have an opportunity like this, as it helps with future exposure for the Serial Culture zine and left a lasting presence, trying something new. Although initially daunting, once we settled in, we enjoyed the BlackTie soiree. There was food, refreshments and many cameras. We even got papped a few times! Our highlights were listening to Ben doing his poem, which turned out to be about Serial Culture and watching Serial Culture’s project manager Louise Nulty win the Borough of Culture Star of the Year for their role during Halton’s Borough of Culture year. Steve Rotheram, Mayor of the Liverpool City Region said: “Culture plays such an important role in what makes our region great. From community organisations and individual artists to Hollywood stars, we have so much to be proud of.”

I was recently asked by my drama teacher (Matt Plant, who I interviewed way back in issue 2) if I would write a poem about Culture for the Liverpool City Region Culture and Creativity Awards. Immediately, as tends to happen when asked to meet a deadline, all inspiration immediately dried up - to get me out of the poetic dearth, I thought I'd write a poem about 1) the most impactful cultural outlet I've been a part of and one I am incredibly thankful for, and 2) a poem about not ever knowing what to write and feeling dreadful and spiteful and sad about it, and how, ultimately, the creative juices tend to triumph. It's untitled, so make up a name for it if you want! -Ben Cooper

Untitled Serial Culture’s lead zine writing team Met up late last Wednesday afternoon: to Talk music, talk writing, talk talking, talk Through creeping deadlines – a bimonthly issue. —Any issues? —No issues. Some biscuits, A brew – then a question, that cuts into You. Hits you smiling, beguiling, smarts you Craven with guilt: Is your article ready To launch issue two? Here you shrug and you Stammer —I guess culture dried up, but know Really the drought draws from you. Built a blockade Culture could not break through, resigned, sitting Idle in the meeting room. Then you’re out On the street, you’re a-walk in the dark, dim-lit Alleys, cold car parks sped through - in a rut But there’s no way out of it, it seems in the Slipstream of breaths breathed by you. No more left Looking, right - eyes are down, fixed to ground, shunning Drivers more driven than you, as you step Over lines, avoid cracks in tarmac: you’re Fixated – in tarmac, the truth. How there’s Beauty not only in nature hits you, But in each line of pavement, within each Record groove; in each motor, each meeting, Each breath and each brew, every fence-gate, each Bin-bag – it’s true. How there’s culture abound In each borough, each town – you need look no Further than your feet. So don’t sit resigned! Pick up your pen and write - find your muse in The floor beneath you.

“I heard Concorde 17 minutes after its release …” 15

LOUISE NULTY We met with Louise Nulty, who is the Project Manager of The Studio in Widnes Following their success at the LCR Culture and Creativity awards.

Team: You have many roles: Victoria Park Environmental Team, Chair of Halton Housing Customer Forum and Halton’s only rep on the Liverpool City Region Music Board. What else do you do? Louise: Sleep. The main other thing is that I am an actor. That's my chosen profession and I trained at drama school. I have chosen to stay living around here because I don't think that you should have to leave where you're from to follow a certain career. You just have to diversify and by doing that, I ended up in youth theatre, community arts and then venue management. I've found ways to keep being an actor because it's such a precarious profession. Most actors or most artists need another job and I'm just lucky that my job here at The Studio means that I can take time off if I need to for acting jobs.

Team: You perform the Character Maureen, what was your idea behind her? Louise: Maureen Common came about because at The Studio we created a song called More in Common for the More in Common movement, which is part of the Jo Cox Foundation, and the Great Get Together movement. It was an idea of Anthony Brandreth's to create a song, so we did, but it was late 2019, so the pandemic followed. During the pandemic, we started doing stuff with the song online and putting it out there so that people could sing along to it. I had bought a wig for an event that I was hosting in 2019 for somebody's 60th birthday so thought I'd do it in character. Then for some reason, I just thought oh yeah, Maureen Common is like More in Common. I don't actually remember thinking I'm going to invent a character.

Then for Borough of Culture, I was lucky enough to get one of the Made in Halton grants to work with a filmmaker to make a series of films with Maureen in certain locations. We chose Victoria Park, the water tower in Runcorn. And Culture HQ. I am looking at getting a 10-minute act together and touring it around some scratch nights, comedy open nights and things like that. Maureen could be seen as quite rude, but in a nice way and she uses her husband John, who you never see behind the camera as the focus of a lot of the things she says. There's no malice behind it. It's more that she's the one who's getting it wrong. She calls herself lazy and things like that, she wears a dressing gown and has no other costume. So that's me just putting my dressing gown and a wig on, and maybe some lipstick. It was a very quick thing. Team: Tell us a little bit about the awards you've received. Louise: I was lucky enough to be nominated for Star of the Year for Halton's Borough of Culture, alongside Claire Pitt from Culture HQ, and Rob Sanderson-Thomas from Norton Priory. I hold both of those people in high esteem, so it's an honour to be nominated with them. But, I won! It was to do with the Celebrate Halton Music festival that I helped develop last year.

There was also the Age Concern Community Kindness award and The Studio has won awards. One by Victoria Music Limited, which it is really nice to get an award from another arts organisation. Team: You do a lot of voluntary work and you work with a lot of voluntary organisations. Why do you do that? How would you encourage other people to get involved? Louise: I've always thought if you live somewhere, and you want it to be a certain way or you want a certain activity to be happening and it's not happening, then you probably have to do it yourself. Victoria Park is the longest volunteering thing that I have done, since about 2004 or something like that. It went from putting wood chips down in the woodland walk area to running the Butterfly House.

Team: What is the proudest moment in your career? Louise: That's difficult. I think one thing that I'm quite pleased that I did, is doing a solo show in Edinburgh. I didn't write it, it was somebody else's, but it’s good to know that you can go to Edinburgh and be on your own. Nobody else in the team, like the director couldn't be there. So to know that you can survive that, no job is gonna get more difficult than that. I just look for the next thing really. It's not an upward trajectory with acting, it's side to side with what's going to come next. I've had one of my highlights playing the Ladybird in James and the Giant Peach. That was a real career highlight. Team: What did you get involved with when you were younger? Louise: I was often involved in gymnastic competitions. I wasn't the best but I was in the school squad and so was Mel C from Spice Girls. I did a lot of shows with dance but again I was only doing it in school, I never was in a dance school. We did school shows and I never acted, I thought, that's for clever kids so it wasn't for me, I was just average. I decided that English and drama were my two favourite subjects, so I pursued them and then realised that actually, I want to be an actor. If I look back on being a child and the little giddy thing I was, it was obvious, that I was performing from a very young age. Team: Any advice for young people who would like to join something like this? Louise: If you can have an activity other than just in school I think that'd be really useful. But also just find a way to keep things in your life. You don't have to say I used to do that as a kid. If you've got an interest don't let anybody stop you from getting involved in it because you think they might laugh at you. Get over being embarrassed. It's an absolute crusher, it stops your creativity.

On Friday 11th of March, ADHD: The Musical came to The Studio, Widnes. This autobiographical musical explores Dora Colquhoun’s diagnosis of ADHD at the age of 30. She explores how being neurodiverse has affected her life covering work, family and romance. Written and performed by Dora herself, the musical makes you laugh and cry and contemplate the challenges neurodiverse people face in our narrow-minded society. Dora’s inventiveness astonishes as the story is told in such a creative and multifaceted way. Her energy is infectious fully immersing you in the experience. You can almost lose yourself in the energy of the performance. The production’s musical director/composer/musician, Luke Thomas, and music collaborator, Jonathon McGuire, contributed to the catchy and hilarious songs dotted throughout the performance. Sometimes gut-wrenching, sometimes side-splitting music communicates the themes of the piece in a very eloquent and clear way while keeping you emotionally invested and more importantly entertained.

Sitting down in my seat, I dreaded audience participation, something I have had a borderline phobia of since my traumatising experiences in pantomimes as a wee’un. My stomach churned as I catastrophised what it would be like if Dora chose me. There was no need to fear. Dora’s natural interaction with the audience was amazingly quickwitted but mercifully did not involve me. The absence of a panic attack made me really appreciate the off the cuff humour that Dora did so impressively.

Overall, I really enjoyed the performance. It was amazingly staged and extremely uplifting for the audience. It was also very accessible due to the BSL interpreter present throughout the show. ADHD: The Musical was an amazing end of week treat all about self-acceptance in a world where nothing can be classed as ‘the normal’. Elkie Atherton

Going into the performance, I did not know much about the experience of people affected by ADHD in the UK. The performance was incredibly informative showing the shocking statistics that are not widely known. Under our seats was a list of statements. Agreeing with more than half of these statements could mean you have ADHD. I thought that this was a great way to inform people about how ADHD manifests and how it affects people’s lives in both a positive and negative way. AB Photography

BY LUKE HARDMAN

I’ve always enjoyed a good strategy game. I’ve never been particularly good at them but that’s never stopped me. So when I saw Europa Universalis 4 was for free on the Epic Games store last September, I knew I had to give the game a try. Since then, I’ve played this game for many hours. Europa Universalis 4, or EU4 for short, is what some would call a “staring at a map simulator” and while there is a lot more to it than that, that is what you’re going to be doing for most of the game. The game takes place from 1444 to 1822 through different eras that change around every 100 years. You start the game by picking a nation and then try to lead them to success over a nearly 400-year campaign that lasts around 20 hours in real life. Despite the historical setting, EU4 is often called a “historical sandbox” because sticking strictly to real history is only one of many options for your game. In fact, it’s pretty rare for the game to stay historically accurate for very long. If you wanted to

change history in your playthrough, there’s nothing stopping you. There are over 500 playable nations in the game, many of which have unique mission trees providing you with goals to achieve over the course of your playthrough. The game has its popular nations like England, France, Austria, Castille, Ming dynasty China and the Ottoman empire but there are many other options for players looking for something completely different. Strategy can only get you so far though as there’s a strong element of randomness to the game. Popups can show up at random and scheduled points during the game which can completely change the trajectory of your playthrough for better or worse. All this leads to a completely different experience every time you do a playthrough. For those looking to get into the game though, I can provide you with some interesting nations to try out.

The explorer’s nation: Portugal Portugal has quite a few advantages when it comes to the exploration and colonisation aspects of the game. They’re the European nation furthest to the west thanks in no part to their Azores province, and their national ideas and mission tree gives them a big head start over the rest of Europe. You could have colonies in North and South America before 1500, much sooner than most nations. Playing as Portugal gives you first dibs over the new world. The beginner’s nation: Ottomans In 1444, the Ottoman Empire is just a few short years away from conquering Constantinople and beginning multi-century long domination over Eastern Europe, Anatolia and the Middle East. This is the perfect nation for beginners because it’s pretty difficult to fail as the ottomans. They have a huge army and are mostly surrounded by nations that you can steamroll over with ease. The diplomat’s nation: Cilli The Holy Roman Empire is a mess of states, and this is just one of the many unique nations within it. I’ll admit I haven’t played as this nation yet myself, but I’ve certainly heard plenty about it and plan to get round to it soon. Cilli starts off as a one province minor nation in what would be modern-day Slovenia. From the outside, not much looks special about Cilli but they can be a force to be reckoned with. Cilli is notorious for its diplomatic abilities that can lead it to seize control of the Holy Roman Empire and gain an awful lot of personal unions with powerful nations.

The masochist’s nation: Byzantium The Byzantine nation is in one of the worst positions at the start of the game. Their days are numbered as the siege of Constantinople is looming near, but a particularly skilled player can turn around their luck and bring them into a new age of prosperity. It’s certainly not easily but it can be done. This isn’t a nation to play first but it’s one definitely worth giving a try when you feel you’re up to the challenge. EU4 is one of the most replayable games I’ve ever played. No two games are quite the same and there’s always something to do. It’s the type of game you can spend hours on without realising because of how engaged you can get in a campaign. It’s a game I don’t think I’ll ever get tired of because of the sheer variety of it. Not every playthrough might go as you planned and that’s the fun of it. It’s unpredictable in the best way.

So tell us a little bit about your time at Culture HQ… Claire We did a programme of exhibitions and events, including Serial Culture Zine which was our 3rd exhibition. Within hindsight, I would have loved the exhibition to be up longer and more people to have seen it, but it was still very weird COVID times. I loved all the exhibitions but my favourite event was the music weekender. We then followed up the next day with Comic Con being there, it was just really nice.

The artwork that was up then, was from a local artist called Les Lloyd who'd never exhibited in public before. Me and Rachael helped him to curate it. But Les just didn't know where to start and didn't know which of his own work to use. He couldn't believe that people were asking him about his work, then it ended up that the local MP wanted his work in his office.

It just opened up opportunities for him having conversations about art. Team: You’ve been nominated for LCR Creativity and Culture awards, was it nice to get the recognition? Yeah, so I’m up for 3. Borough of culture, Star of Halton, which is myself, Louise Nulty (the Studio) and Rob Sanderson (Norton Priory), which is good, because we'll all like each other. The other one was people's choice, but it's like a focus on the LCR region as a whole, which I'm nicely representing Halton there. The other one was about community cohesion, because a lot of the stuff that I did with culture HQ was talking to people with an appetite to do more.

Team: How do you go about getting young people involved? Claire I would say the biggest thing that we could do is work with schools and colleges so that it's not so burdensome on younger people having to fit it in outside school. You have to be really ambitious, because you shine above other people. If you see anything advertised, like Serial Culture, jump on it and do it. Because in terms of your CV, that stuff will get you into university and colleges. Rachael It would be great if it's incorporated more into your curriculum. So that it's just a case of being part of your courses, particularly in high school. If you want to get involved, go and get involved. The art career is one that you have to constantly push yourself in. But at the same time, it'd be nice for people to experience it without having to make those steps that they may not confidently be able to do.

Team: I think people are a bit afraid to share their work as well Rachael There's definitely a confidence issue in visual arts. I think for me, the key shift was actually calling myself an artist. That the shift in confidence took at least 18 months and being at Hazelhurst. [Artists Studios] Team: Our second Cover Artist was Toni. Toni has then come to you guys. Would you agree that once you get involved, it opens more doors. Claire She's in her final year now at Liverpool John Moores studying art. She didn't even know that there was a cultural scene in Halton, that there are studios. After her Cover Artist feature, I approached Toni about doing the Culture HQ window art. She photographed it and now it’s part of her portfolio of work.

Team: I’m interested in your work with moss Rachael. Rachael Don't get me started on Moss, we'll be here all night. So basically, that started in lockdown. I was walking past the railway bridge and there was just this beautiful gorgeous bright green across the sandstone red and then that was it. I was like hang on, these are amazing. I took photos of it and enlarged it. My god the structures and textures are phenomenal. At the same time, we ended up doing a project in Norton priory. Which was really lovely. They said we could have the cottage for the year. None of it was funded, it was just professional development on our part, but it was an amazing opportunity. I created a huge embroidery of this moss and lichen kind of growth.

Team: How did you get into your craft? Rachael My embroidery kind of came from a frustration in university, where I did illustration. Somebody told me, you can actually do freehand embroidery with a machine. That was it then, I started drawing with the sewing machine. Rachael I've always wanted to do a moss zine, which sounds ridiculous. I did a project with the Blue Room in Norton Priory which is a fantastic group of adults with additional needs and they do wonderful artwork. Blue Rooms got very engaged and they didn't judge me at all; to the point where they actually produced a moss zine themselves without me at all. I was like, right I've got to do it now.

Claire One thing to say if it isn't clear. If you're an artist or creative you don't ever have one job. We all wear so many different hats. It's quite hard to keep track of sometimes, in a good way, though. Rachael If you go down a community art route, it's very much the nature of the beast, because it's just a case of whatever projects that you can try and push it the way that you want to. Claire Rachael went a more straight path, whereas I was a full time carer when I was doing science at university. I started illustrating those blogs, which got me back to drawing again.

I was just young enough to get into the Prince's Trust enterprise programme. They asked me what I wanted to do with my illustrations; I said I'll do greeting cards; said all my ideas and they had my portfolio and thought that's worth a punt. I found Hazlehurst and stopped drawing for two years because I immediately went into community projects. If I offered any advice, it would be don’t stay on the straight path, don't ever plan your life in that way. Curveballs will be thrown in but whatever opportunities are thrown your way, take them or you'll regret it. Rachael I took the more straight laced route. I did art at school. I then went to college, then to university. I did the wrong degree at University. I should have done a textiles degree or something like that but did illustration. I was diagnosed with dyslexia when I was 21, if i'd been diagnosed earlier, I think I would have then had the confidence to continue down the narrative route. I was actually told at high school that there's no point in me writing stories because you can't spell so at that point that was just in my brain and that was that. That's probably the only thing that I would change.

GLOW

EVL 29

THE UNKNOWN ART OF IDENTS BY LUKE HARDMAN

You watch television for the programmes, right? That’s what most people would probably tell you. Advertisements are mostly seen as an annoyance that the viewer has to put up with between what they want to watch. Every once in a while, you get an advert that transcends the medium to become iconic. We all remember the Cadburys advert with the gorilla playing the drums, or the infamous Go-Compare opera singer. It feels like there’s a public canon of memorable adverts, which will likely get a laugh or an “oh, I remember that one.” The same cannot be applied to the considerably more niche realm of station Identifications. A lot of you won’t know what a station identification is (which kind of proves my point about them being underappreciated) so let me explain it. A station identification, or an ident for short, is the footage shown before a programme starts to establish what channel you’re watching. It gives the continuity announcer (the person who says what show is coming next), time to say what they need to say while not boring the audience with a black screen. That’s the concept at its most simple but they can be a lot more than just practical if utilised with some creativity.

Idents can reflect the personality of the channel they air on and the programming that makes that channel unique. They’re a surprisingly important part of a channel’s branding. There’s no finer example of this that I can think of than the TV channel, Challenge. Challenge is a channel known for airing reruns of old game shows like Bullseye or Wheel of Fortune as well as a few newer shows such as The Chase or the Cube. I personally remember watching Ninja Warrior and Takeshi’s Castle on there when I was younger. In the 2010s, Challenge went through three different sets of idents before settling on a winning set in 2016 and sticking with it to this day. Their previous, pre-2016 idents either did a poor job of reflecting the personality, were a good concept but underutilised or were just bland. In 2016, they finally found a design that truly reflected the channel. A design that referenced their programming and felt unique to the channel.

There’s even a case of where the idents aired on a channel surpassed the content aired on the channel itself. I do not care for much of the programming on E4 at all. The best I can hope for from E4 is a rerun of the IT Crowd or the Inbetweeners late at night. It’s a boring channel for me, but their idents are some of the most creative I’ve ever seen. They’re colourful and creative. If you want my answer for what the best idents ever were though, then I’d have to point you towards the idents Channel 4 used from 2004 to 2016. The more recent ones they’ve used since 2017 with the giant metal creature are alright in my opinion, but they pale in comparison to the previous set. The 2004-2016 set of idents offered a wide variety of ideas under one centralising theme: each one had to show the channel 4 logo at some point. How each individual ident did it was different every time, be it through pylons, hedges, haybales, buildings or whatever else forming into the shape of the logo at some point, and it produced some iconic results.

While the shows themselves are the reason that people watch TV, station identifications are an art form in their own right. We all watch them, but we don’t really take them in much. It’s a shame as they often display a level of inventiveness that goes unappreciated by most.

So I ask any of you reading this right now, to pay attention to the work of art that airs 20 seconds before the programme you’re interested in watching because you might just see something equally entertaining.

SHADOW AND BONE SOUNDTRACK ANALYSIS

'Shadow and Bone' is a popular Netflix show based on Leigh Bardugo's epic fantasy novel of the same name. The dramatic soundtrack (composed by Joseph Trapanese and performed by the Budapest Art Orchestra) is heavily influenced by fairytales, magic, and Russian stories - matching the show's atmosphere of adventure and magic in a war-torn world inspired by 1800s Russia. This soundtrack especially stands out from other recent scores due to the way it perfectly incapsulates both the emotions of the characters and those watching the show. From the lower-pitched instrumentation during unsettling and eerie scenes to the use of string ostinatos during scenes of an epic or intense nature, the soundtrack evokes strong feelings that only music can possibly evoke.

“…the soundtrack evokes strong feelings that only music can possibly evoke.”

One of the most memorable parts of the score is the use of character themes and motifs. For example, the lead character Alina's theme (called 'Her Name Is Alina Starkov') uses violin to give "an intimate, raspy sound", as Trapanese himself has previously revealed. Throughout the show, this is then "transformed into this more mature, developed, refined kind of playing" as Alina's character development is shown. This is only one of the many features that draw you into the fictional nations of Ravka.

My Top 3 From The Soundtrack: 1) Ravka 2) Her Name Is Alina Starkov 3) Strike Now

art is everywhere LARRISSA BURTON

Art surrounds our daily life, often getting overlooked and going unnoticed but if you look carefully, you will see it everywhere. Your home likely has art in it, it may not be conventional types of art like paintings, posters or murals but instead, a cushion, mug or even pieces of clothing can be considered art. All these have been purposely designed and created by someone who is creative and artistic. That pattern or texture, those colours and even that material are purposeful choices made by the designer. If you look at a local park, you will see statues, ponds and buildings and other types of infrastructure possibly a bridge or fountain – again all a form of artwhich have been designed and created by someone. Look at a well-kept garden with rows of flowers, bushes or trees, these plants have been chosen for colour as well as the shape of the flower. You could consider the garden the art and the gardener the artist. A simple book cover, and greeting cards are all art, however, in our daily lives, this is not something we always acknowledge or take notice of. Art is everywhere even if we don’t realise it and it makes life more fun and colourful and can bring joy into everyone’s day if we take the time to notice. I urge you to look around and take notice of the forgotten and overlooked, to see if you can acknowledge and appreciate some art today.

PITCH by Tom Fairbrother

I awoke with a bang, my eyes flashed open where was I? What had happened? I couldn't remember anything, my name, my age, nothing. The room was bright and warm, a door slowly opened in front of me. A tall person in a bleach white coat walked in, they began to speak, but the room started to spin and I passed out. When I woke up again I was tied to a ship's mast. How did I get here? It all came flooding back. I was working for an old fisherman, cleaning and tending to his old rickety boat. He paid little wages, but it put food on my table and at the time I didn't think much about it but had I been kidnapped by the old man? Suddenly the door burst open, and a ghostly looking figure drifted in. He stared into my eyes and said in a spine chilling voice, "Your nightmare has only just begun!"

All of a sudden the floor collapsed underneath my feet, I began to fall. It felt like I was falling for hours. Finally, I smashed into a concrete wall, and as I stood up, the room began to spin again. I pinched myself was it a horrible dream? But to my surprise, it was not a dream, but a real nightmare. Out of nowhere a blood curdling scream rang through my ears, it sounded like a young girl, was she ok? Had she also been kidnapped by the fisherman? Why did I have to disobey the old fisherman? You see: I began working at the age of 15 and the man I worked for paid me in coins. I had to wait for him under the abandoned bridge, whilst he went to sell that day's catches. No one knew that it was me who did all the work. He kept me out of sight. I'd wait hours for him to come to pay me what I was due, and that's if he paid me at all. Sometimes he would lock me in the boat instead, so he had an excuse not to pay me. It's my fault he said, that I stayed on board and didn’t wait under the bridge for him! My fault that he kept all of it for himself and drank it all away!

The real trouble started, when I turned 18 as I could now legally work, I no longer wanted to work on his boat, but stupid young me had signed a 10-year contract, so naively thought I was stuck with him. That was until the next day when I cautiously snuck onto a cargo ship. At this point, I just didn't care where I went anymore. I had no family, my mother and father were dead and I had no siblings. So really no reason to stay. The ship was dark and damp, I tried to stay quiet; if I was found I could be killed or worse.. made to walk the plank.

After about 2 days the boat docked. I climbed into one of the crates that were filled with fish. As the boxes were unloaded I slivered out. Where was I? It was dark so I walked around, looking for a safe place to stay for the night. I found a dark alley it was dirty, but it would do until morning. In the early hours of the morning, a loud noise woke me up, it was the milkman who placed a huge rack of milk on the doorstep just further up from me.

They wouldn't miss one; I snagged it and quickly downed the bottle. I hadn't had a drink for over 48 hours, I was practically dying of thirst. As the sun rose the town became busier, so I hid until later on. I found a small inn with a work needed sign. I frantically opened the door and handed the sign to the man; he handed me a key, brush and dustpan. I was allowed to stay. He gave me one of the rooms at the inn and as long as I cleaned the rooms he would also provide food and drinks. Life was better finally, mine and the man's friendship grew, and we became close. After a while of working for him, he offered to pay me wages, as well as live there, so I could maybe get my own place one day. But then life turned upside down once again as after a while I felt like I was constantly being watched and my suspicions started to become true. I just knew I was being followed. One day, whilst I was dusting the painting in the inn's entrance way, a strange but familiar odour filled the room, it was a fishy smell… had he found me?

GET INVOLVED! A word from the editor Meg DeMar

Serial Culture is a place for your stories and your art! We can feature your sketches, painting, photography, graphic designs; whatever your art form is, we want to see it! Share with us your poems, short stories or articles. Been to a GIG, PLAY, SHOW, EXHIBITION, EVENT? Send us your review. Need some assistance? We can interview you about your life experiences. We can feature organisations that have supported you as a young person. We can shine a spotlight on your charitable and community activities such as raising funds and collecting for food banks. Whatever your Culture is we can give you a platform. serialculturezine@gmail.com

WE LOOK FORWARD TO SEEING WHAT MAGIC YOU CREATE.

Serial Culture Zine

Origin Story!

Serial Culture zine has been created to provide a pla�orm for the young people of Halton aged 11-25 to share their artwork, cultural ac�vity and lifestyle loves. Through Halton Borough Council’s youth provision programme, young people responded to our survey and call out for contributors. A small team has developed the zine from scratch with a larger community of young contributors. The editorial team changes and grows as the zine reaches more people, we welcome those who want to stay for the whole project or just add an ar�cle every now and then or a one off. If you want to add your cultural voice and artwork contact serialculturezine@gmail.com The views expressed are those of the contributors. LOOSE has been crea�ng opportuni�es for the people of Halton to perform, record, share and develop crea�vely since 1997. In 2010 LOOSE opened The Studio in Lacey Street, Widnes. This community venue is home to a variety of funded community and youth focused art and culture based projects. It is also home to partner organisa�ons, community groups and college courses. To find out what we currently offer, or suggest a project or event yourself visit: www.thestudiowidnes.org.uk

COVER ART ALISTAIR EASON