{Issue 9 May 14 2014}
www.ucnow.canterbury.ac.nz
THINGS WE LEARNED THIS ISSUE
Students have fashioned some letters on the style on campus piece. Oh how
opinions on appearance make people talk with their ripe brain fruit ideas.
12
Cognitive Bias’s, they exist and we have an article on them,
therefore it is confirmed.
Find out more about the images and the people 26 who created them. This is an informative couple of pages.
Children may be the future but apparently the lazy lambs cannot feed themselves.
8 Should the state feed the buggers or the parents? Point Counterpoint activate!
10
Go on you peeping tom, have a geeze at this weeks Flat Profile, The Goat House.
A film on film school, it is all very Meta. Art makes the brain hurt when an
idea folds into itself like an acordian.
16
The Art issue of Canta is hosting a student gallery. Look at all of the
The Reviews
section!
Where we tell you what you should be
thinking
and feeling, you know its good for you.
29
pretty images from 16 – 24. mundane existence.
What’s On. Go on, find something to flesh out your
EDITORIAL
If, like me, you are studying Fine Arts, people ask all kinds of questions along the lines of, “So, why Fine Arts? What are you planning on doing when you graduate?” When you tell them you’re studying it because it’s your passion, they say: “Oh man, that’s so cool!” and then look away a little awkwardly because you both know that really you have no viable financial future. Toats awks.
Through the grape vine I heard Fine Arts described as a finishing school for private school kids who don’t know what else to do with their time. Yeouch! But perhaps verging on the truth.
But, when did coming to university, when did higher education, simply become a means to an end? Sure, going to university to become a doctor isn’t exactly a new idea. The University of Bologna has been matriculating lawyers since 1088. But going to university used to be
about satisfying a thirst for knowledge and making this education useful to society. Let’s skip over the fact that during these times that I’m romanticising, only young, well-off men ended up at university, leaving the plebs to toil in the fields, because without these young men the world would have been without some of its foremost thinkers.
If primary school teaches you how to learn and high school teaches you the basics to get through, university teaches you how to THINK. University teaches you how to form ideas and turn them into something of value, be it monetary, social, academic, political etc. and that is a skill that is priceless. Education is something that stays with you forever and should be seen as a lifelong investment not a way into a grad job at PWC. Don’t get me wrong, if accounting is yo thannng go for it, dude! But if you’re turning up for class each week and want to bang your head against a wall before the lecture has even started, you probably ought to ask
yourself why you’re there.
I have a friend who studies Fine Arts with me not because he necessarily wants to become an artist but because art is his number one interest. When we first talked about that, I thought to myself, “Well that’s a waste of time and money.” And now I realise that it’s never a waste if this is something he is going to spend the rest of his life loving. How could that ever be a waste?
That is why you should bother coming to university, to study something that is going to stay with you for the rest of your life, to learn how to think and express those thoughts. It’d be great if that eventually turned around and benefitted the taxpayer who’s essentially put you through four years of undergrad studying a Bachelor of Fuck All (aka Fine Arts yoloooo) but y’know, one step at a time.
Jessica Todd Guest Editor
PRESIDENT’S PIECE
Sarah Platt
Now that all those delightful holiday assignments and mid-semester tests are out of the way and you have been able to return to a slightly more normal sleeping pattern I’m imagining you’re looking for something to do with your newly regained free time? Well, luckily for you I’ve got you covered!
Next week brings with it two events that give you the opportunity to have your say and ask the hard hitting questions:
1. What: The UCSA AGM
Where: Bentley’s (this is located at the end of the Foundry closest to the Health Centre.)
When: Tuesday 20th May, 1pm
Why: I would like to counter your question of, ‘Why?’ with a few questions of my own. If you answer yes to any of the follow I suspect Bentley’s may be the perfect place to spend an hour on your Tuesday afternoon.
• Do you like free food?
• Do you want to hear what your UCSA Exec has been up to so far this year and what we have install for the rest of the year?
• Would you like to earn double points on your Foundry Loyalty Card?
• Do you have a some questions you’d like to fire my way?
• Do you think the UCSA should be doing something that we’re not or not doing something that we are?
• Are you busy Wednesday at 11.30am and so can’t attend the forum with the VC but would like me to pass on some questions?
2. What: The second student forum with the VC, Dr Rod Carr.
Where: The Living Room (the new student space on campus, right by the UBS) or online*
When: Wednesday 21st May, 11.30am
Why: Because it’s the perfect opportunity to check out the new ‘Living Room’ space and of course ask either the VC or myself anything you like...anything at all. Still not convinced? Ask yourself the questions below. Answer yes to any of them? Then come along and have a yarn.
• Do you want to verse the VC at a game of foosball?
• Are you busy Tuesday at 1pm and so can’t make the AGM but still have questions for me?
• Do you want to know how many marathons Rod has run?
• Did you forget the question you wanted to ask me at the AGM and then remember it again Tuesday night while you were cooking dinner?
*if you’d rather not leave the warmth of your bed before midday on Wednesday don’t fret. You can fully participant in the forum online. It will be streamed live and you can even ask questions through the chat thingamabobby bit.
Have a great week!
Sarah.
ASK THE PRESIDENT
Tired of complaining to your Facebook newsfeed about your locker-less existence, or the lack of microwaves in the engineering building?
Well, you can stop now. Your 400 friends don’t give a shit about your uni problems. But luckily for you, Sarah does. Send in your UC related questions, criticisms, and curiosities to president@ucsa.ac.nz and Sarah will get back to you in the next edition of Canta.
NOTICES
Postgraduate Study Abroad
“I urge you to stay on the path you’ve chosen, and to travel on it as far as you can. The world needs you - badly,” wrote Harvard Professor Edward Wilson, when addressing young scientists considering further study.
Perhaps you are considering beyond undergraduate study abroad, it is actually easier and more obtainable to you than you may think.
This term a series of seminars have been organised to help demistify the process of applying. So if you’re even remotely interested I urge you to come along.
Check out the What’s On section in Canta for weekly sessions throughout May, and look out on the College of Engineering website for locations. Note: these seminars are not limited to engineering students!
Connect the Community with the SVA
There are times I’m sure you’ve been caught thinking, in bed or in front of the news, about what it would take to make life better, if only for a day. The Student Volunteer Army is addressing this challenge. In order to achieve our goal of Connecting a Community we need people to volunteer for a few hours this Saturday 17th May. There will be opportunities to meet people in your community, rub shoulders with staff from Duncan Cotterill law firm; and to make a measurable difference.
Each of the SVA Platoons will be deployed to unique projects including helping local primary school students with collaborative art, cooking food for the community, delivering baking, gardening and assisting the elderly.
Sign up at our website www.ucsva.org
The
Harvard Project for Asia and International Relations 2014 Conference
Calling all Harvard enthusiasts, global citizens and those interested in learning about the growing presence of Asia. The Harvard Project for Asia and International Relations is an annual conference hosted by an Asian city and has been running for over 20 years. HPAIR is the largest student-led conference run by Harvard University, and this year it is being held in Tokyo, Japan from 22-26 August 2014 and being cohosted by Keio University.
The theme for this year’s conference is Reflection and Progression: Fostering Mutual Growth. Head to this link for more information: www.hpair.org/conf/aconf2014
The conference is not funded so delegates must support themselves financially. However, the large majority of delegates receive financial support from their universities and local rotaries and MP’s.
This conference accepts delegates from all subject areas. Applications close 31st May.
CONTRIBUTORS
Charlotte Jackson Age 20, BFA, ‘15
Would you hang out with Spiderman in public, or is he not your kind of superhero?
He seems to be a supporter of the ‘tights as pants’ movement and I’m not down with that.
If you could be a famous tortured artist, which one would you be?
Frida Kahlo, because she had fierce eyebrow game.
What was the last art exhibition you went to?
Recreations of Dr Seuss’ artwork in a small gallery in Auckland.
Judith Collins – politician or new age prophet?
Not particularly qualified for either.
What was the best period for art throughout history?
Definitely Ancient Roman art, anything found around the Pompeii site.
Mitchell has submitted a moody and great looking photo for this weeks arts issue. He also snapped the cover image.
Would you hang out with Spiderman in public, or is he not your kind of superhero?
Nah but I’d hang out with his girlfriend.
If you could be a famous tortured artist, which one would you be?
André 3000
What was the last art exhibition you went to?
Viviane Sassen: Lexicon.
Judith Collins – politician or new age prophet?
Dunno about either of those but I did walk past her the other day in wellington airport.
What was the best period for art throughout history?
30,000BCE, cave paintings were rad.
Charlie is the President of SKUB and co-ordinated the artwork for this weeks issue, that is pretty rad.
Would you hang out with Spiderman in public, or is he not your kind of superhero?
I feel like Spiderman might be hard to hang out with, he would be forever climbing things and I’m too unco-ordinated for that.
If you could be a famous tortured artist, which one would you be?
Probably Andy Warhol. Or anyone hanging out in The Factory.
What was the last art exhibition you went to?
The last art exhibition I went to was Daniel Crooks, Seek Stillnes in Movement.
Judith Collins – politician or new age prophet?
I choose not to get into political discussions. Not my forte.
What was the best period for art throughout history?
Pretty keen on the 60s onwards, heaps of Pop Art, conceptual work and early photography. But I’m just biased.
Frances was featured in the Flat Profile this week.
Would you hang out with Spiderman in public, or is he not your kind of superhero?
Of course I would, who wouldn’t?
If you could be a famous tortured artist, which one would you be?
Diane Arbus, she went to such length to get the photographs she wanted which made her one of the most proclaimed female photographers of all time.
What was the last art exhibition you went to?
Andy Warhol: Immortal Exhibition, Wellington
Judith Collins – politician or new age prophet?
Sick of her being on the news that’s all I have to say
What was the best period for art throughout history?
Although the Renaissance period created such masterpieces, I think the Contemporary Art period is forever expanding what we consider “art” and allows artists to push boundaries that would be unheard of during the earlier periods.
Send us your stories, photographs, epiphanies canta@ucsa.canterbury.ac.nz
Editor At Large Hannah Herchenbach
Deputy Editors Callum Ching and Annalee Jones
Designer Emily McCormick
Money Honey Victoria Lean
Webmaster Rupert Curlett
Mitchell Bright, Breanne de Bruin, Cyrus Campbell, George Carvell, Edward Fraser, Tom Hancock, Frances Healey, Charlie Jackson, Adam Nisbett, Ashleigh Ooi, Natasha van Schaardenburg, Georgia Taggart, Jessica Todd, Emma Wallbanks Contributors
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
CHECK YOUR BRO PRIVILEGE
On behalf of the women, gays and non-bros of the Law school, last week’s “Campus Style: Law vs Engineering” reflected some pretty serious privilege. Even though we appreciate that Jess brings a unique perspective to the campus fashion debate, with her affinity for degrading R&B and wanting to be able to swallow more (see her contributor profile), it’s one that’s not exactly representative of the law school she claims to portray.
First, if your surveyees are just a couple of guys you can pick out wearing LawSoc paraphernalia outside the Eng block, it’s not that surprising that the result is some bro-force, rolledchino, jandal-wearing fashion crimes. If we examine genuine law students, and not just the guys who join LawSoc for cheap drinks at Joe’s Garage, you’ll find plenty of button-up shirts and sharp chinos, not to mention a dearth of snapbacks.
Second, to advance a radical opinion, it seems unfair to deny the ineffable fashion sense of the law school’s women just because the engineers have none of their own. To marginalise these strong, independent females on the basis of comparing skate shoes and backpacks reeks of bro privilege.
No-one’s denying that the fratboys of law school are well equipped to compete with the dudes of engineering. But to systematically equate the fashionability of the two faculties is pretty much defamation.
Freddie Freespeech
HOW OLD IS THIS GUY?
Dear Canta,
Half a century ago, you could get a movie ticket for a dollar.
What happened to the good old days?
What happened is that times have changed, invention of the internet led to online streaming/downloading and easier access to films. A good movie these days cost a lot more than a lonesome dollar, the cheapest I have seen is 10 dollars, plus extra if you wish to experience the same movie in an extra dimension.
This is an issue that effects every student that enjoys a good film at least once a year.
Make tickets cheaper!
Yours,
A Very Bad Neighbour
I just want to say that first off - that girl that wrote the fashion-y piece for Canta last week – I believe her name is Jess the Goddess, is not only so pritz, but she is bang on about the fact that socks and jandals are not acceptable.
I also appreciate the fact that she would, if she got the opportunity, swallow 100 Big Macs in a row.
Her fashion piece made for a great read, and I particularly liked how she is warning people so that they do not end up looking like a “Hallenstein’s chino/5 panel extraordinare”.
Keep doin’ what ya doin’ giiirll can’t wait to read more fashion pieces in the future.
From,
Someone who loves McDonald’s too
EXTRA CHEESE NEED MORE RODD
Dear Canta,
On behalf of all women on campus, I would like to thank the writer of your fashion article in this months issue for providing us readers with some eye candy for the week. However, I must conclude that I didn’t really spot the difference between the dashingly handsome Engineering and Law students. In this image, both are sporting standard club t-shirts, double strapped backpacks, the hands in the pocket look, and a fitting amount of chest hair. The typical Engineer often sports this ‘casual-but-sexy’ look on campus, but as for lawyers, I feel like they have been misrepresented. Where’s the leather satchel? The Rodd and Gunn blazer? The open collared shirt? And the crossed-arms-across the-body pose that are all too often seen on the sixth floor of James Height?
Yours Sincerely,
Confused Lawyer Stalker.
What will you write to Canta?
Use the QR code to submit, or type out this longwinded address with ‘Letter To The Editor’ as your subject: canta@ucsa.canterbury. ac.nz
Looking forward to your submissions for 2014 – this space is nothing without it.
Canta
PLEASE SIR, I WANT
Ashleigh Ooi
You may have heard of the phrase ‘the ambulance at the bottom of the cliff.’ This comes from a poem by Joseph Malins, in which the people of a town must decide how to best deal with the problem of people falling off a tall and dangerous cliff. The townspeople are divided: most want to place an ambulance down in the valley to care for those who have fallen off the cliff, but a sensible few argue that it is better to place a fence around the cliff to stop people from falling in the first place.
This metaphor is often used when considering how to attack problems such as drug abuse or violent crime – better to invest in education and social welfare than building more prison cells as the former reduces the need for the latter, and is often cheaper in the long run. Essentially, we should target the cause, rather than the effect.
The ambulance versus fence issue has also been debated in the context of child poverty.
A 2013 report revealed that a quarter of New Zealand children were under the poverty line and a further ten percent were in severe and persistent poverty. Groups like KidsCan have released alarming statistics about children being sent to school with only a bag of chips or no food at all. In other cases, children are coming to school with little food and going home to even less. There is a particularly jarring story of a family who had ‘red soup’ for dinner, which was the water that they cooked saveloys in the night before.
One proposed solution is that the government could fund lunches in schools. However, most people dismiss this as an artificial solution. Why make schools feed children when this will only disincentivise parents from taking responsibility and thus increase the problem? Surely our money would be better spent on measures such as nutrition education or food cards for benefit recipients?
The problem with this argument is that educating parents and restricting what benefits can be spent on can only go so far. Making parents fully responsible for providing school lunches only works in a society where all parents can afford to feed their families or, if they can afford it, can be convinced that they are better off spending $20 on bread and fruit than a packet of cigarettes.
The reality is there will always be parents who refuse to change, which means that there will always be children starving at the bottom of the cliff because their parents won’t feed them and neither will the state. Can we, as a society, really ignore the needs of a few neglected children because, on principle, we shouldn’t be shifting responsibility away from the parents? Should children suffer because their parents need to be taught a lesson?
Should children suffer because their parents need to be taught a lesson?
For those of you who cannot be swayed by emotional arguments, consider things from an economic viewpoint. It has been proven that children who go to school on an empty stomach and do not receive nutrition during the day have decreased concentration levels and are less able to engage and learn. If these children are not getting anything out of school, then we are also not getting anything out of our tax dollars that pay for them to go to school.
The ineffectiveness of education for these children is also contributing to the rising cost of unemployment benefits, a cost that most of us are loathe to bear. If children are not fully educated, they are less likely to possess the skills needed to secure a well-paying job, either by getting a degree or progressing through the workforce. There are other problems associated with unemployment, such as rising crime, the cost of a police force and the cycle of poverty and crime that future children end up stuck in. Addressing these problems comes with a hefty bill. Do you still think that a few school lunches are a poor investment?
When you take a long-term approach, a seven year-old spending the school day hungry is not only an effect of poor education, unemployment and underprivilege but also a cause. Maybe making it the responsibility of schools, the government and the taxpayer to provide lunches is not ‘the ambulance at the bottom of the cliff’ but, in fact, the fence.
WANT SOME MORE
Cyrus Campbell
When one is confronted by the unacceptable spectre of hungry schoolchildren, an understandable kneejerk reaction is to call upon the state to provide school lunches by way of a solution. But such a call is clearly mistaken when one considers the proper role of parents in providing for children and the full implications of child poverty. Instead of shouldering parents aside in a rush to fix this problem, parents must be at the heart of the solution.
Parents are responsible for providing their children with lunch at school just as they are responsible for providing them with breakfast, dinner, shelter, clothing, love, and attention. Parents remain the best delivery mechanism for all of these things and therefore they should be obliged to keep on delivering.
This obligation is assumed by parents upon their choosing to have children. It also conveniently places the responsibility for the welfare of children with those best situated and motivated to provide it. An innate instinct to care for young is common among sophisticated animals. Parents will, with some terrible exceptions, care deeply about the welfare of their children. They will seek to do what is best for children without being paid to do so unlike the bureaucrats and catering staff who would administer the provision of school lunches.
Parents also have an intimate understanding of the specific needs and preferences of their children. Bureaucrats may appreciate that young Timmy needs to eat vegetables but they don’t know which vegetables the fussy little bugger can actually be persuaded to eat. Any economies of scale which the mass provision of free school lunches may yield will be nullified by the need to provide dairy-free, gluten-free, vegetarian, vegan, kosher and halal options. The state cannot efficiently provide each and every child with a meal that meets their dietary and religious requirements. Parents can.
State provision of free lunches for school children is an intriguingly inadequate solution to the problem of child poverty. A child who repeatedly shows up to school without lunch probably has bigger problems than a lack of sandwiches. Advocates of free lunches in schools insist that it is a fantastic way to ensure that children receive at least one decent meal each day. This seems to set the bar rather low for child welfare. Surely as a society we should be aiming for children to receive the traditional three meals a day. When parents send their children to school without lunch, there are really only two explanations: they are either negligent parents or they lack the means to feed their children. The first explanation calls for some form of intervention, the second calls for greater
This obligation is assumed by parents upon their choosing to have children.
welfare transfers to low income families.
Where parents are failing to meet their responsibilities, it is better if this is brought to the attention of teachers and social workers rather than swept under the carpet. Teachers should be encouraged to sit down and talk with parents and remind them of how important lunch is for child learning. If problems persist then new parents should be found for the unfortunate child. No child deserves negligent parents.
The problem of means is rather trickier. If parents are to be relied upon as providers, then they must have the means to provide. At the risk of straying into the realm of other debates entirely, something must be said about the goal of welfare itself. That is, to provide a minimum standard of living for everyone. In a country which is willing to throw millions at a rich boys yachting competition and rugby stadiums with roofs, there should be no households in which there is not enough money for lunch. If there isn’t enough money for lunch, there probably isn’t enough money for shoes, spectacles or breakfast either. A robust solution to child poverty must target entire households.
To sum, poverty doesn’t appear at lunchtime and disappear for the rest of the day. When children turn up at school without lunch, it is a symptom of wider problems which must be dealt with. Every child deserves parents who have the means and the will to provide for them. Parents should remain responsible for feeding their children.
GOAT HOUSE
Frances Healey
These photographs are part of photography Fine Arts student Frances Healey’s Life Stories project this semester. It’s a biographical look at lifestyle of her own flat in Ilam, which consists of seven girls and three boys studying a mix of arts, commerce, fine arts, engineering, and science. All flatmates are somewhere in between 20 and 24. The words are an excerpt of the foreword of her book The Secret Life, to be printed at the end of the semester.
Life, what it teaches us and how we respond to those lessons are vital in how we see and do things. A day can disappear on you before you have time to see what happens and it’s not until the next day that you realize that another one has gone. Days turn into weeks, and weeks into years and somehow you are completely different to what you were on the same day a year ago.
I guess you are somewhat molded by the people you surround yourself with. Whether they are genuinely extraordinary people or a right pain in the ass they all rub a bit of themselves off on you and help create you into something real.
They say the 20’s are the “fun years”, experimenting with life and all its forms. This is the case, yes, but it can also be a bit of a bitch at times, let’s be honest. You feel things deeply, independence is at its prime, you have no money and you often dream of things so far fetched that they almost seem impossible to catch. But these things also make you wonder, will this matter in a week? Or if in a year’s time will this person or thing still be of importance to me? Probably not.
Isn’t it funny how such insignificant things can depict how you live each day?
For example, you wake up with a headache and you automatically think you’re going to have a crappy day. Or you burn your toast or spill the milk and it instantly puts unnecessary stress into your day. These pathetic little things taint you and then the next day it’s like it never happened.
To me the 20s are this ‘secret life’, especially how I am currently experiencing them. I’m hundreds of kilometers away from home with absolutely no authority to depict how I seize the day. I live in this house, The Goat house, that holds 10 complete individuals and for reasons unknown get along so well that I wonder how any stage in life could be better than this one. It’s complete independence, without any real responsibilities.
The independence you gain makes you aware of what’s important in life. I guess that comes with the experiences you receive, whether they are full of joy or that of failure. They teach you things no human being can ever tell or show you.
This book is an attempt at expressing how life is as a 21-year-old student so far from home and surrounded by people with the same demographic. I want to make it clear that this is no cliché “day in the life of a student,” simply a humorous but honest depiction of this wonderful, yet secret life we lead.
I want people to gain an idea of how we truly live, so when we’re all old and senile we can reminisce this time in our life that was so short, but may just teach us how we plan to live our life.
KNOW YOUR COGNITIVE BIASES
George Carvell, for the Reason and Science Society
Cognitive biases are trends in the way we perceive and interpret the world around us that systematically deviate from reality. They manifest automatically and unconsciously over a wide range of circumstances. So even when we are aware of the existence of these biases, it is difficult for us to stop ourselves from doing them, or even to notice that they are happening at all. Here is a list of just ten ways your brain might be tricking you into being irrational.
1) Confirmation bias
We tend to search for or interpret information in a way that confirms our preconceptions. Et.g. A vegetarian looking to defend their eating habits might google “health benefits of vegetarianism”, but they are unlikely to equally research health benefits of eating meat.
2) Out-group homogeneity bias
We tend to see all people outside of a group that we associate with as overly similar to one another. E.g. A Kiwi might believe that all Americans are gun-toting rednecks, when in reality only some Americans are gun-toting rednecks.
3) Halo effect
The tendency for a person’s positive traits to influence other people’s perception of their other, unrelated, traits. E.g. Believing that a very attractive person is nicer, more moral or more intelligent than they really are, or thinking that because your professor is extremely good at math, she probably knows a lot about science and literature too.
4) Curse of knowledge
Better informed people tend to find it difficult to see a situation from a less informed person’s perspective. Imagine playing charadeswhen you are the actor (and hence know the solution), it can be infuriatingly hard to understand how your teammates could fail to guess correctly. Meanwhile, your teammates have no idea what your random arm-waving means. Related: hindsight bias, that “oh, of course” reaction we have when we gain new information.
5) Dunning-Kruger effect
Incompetent people tend to over-estimate their own ability because they can’t tell the difference between competence and incompetence, while competent people underestimate their own ability.
6) Superiority bias
It’s not vanity, it’s just hardwiring – we tend to overestimate our own desirable qualities, and underestimate undesirable ones, relative to other people. In fact, a 1981 study showed that up to 93% of students rate their own driving skill as above average (in the top 50%).
7) Forer effect
Seeing accuracy and personal relevance in generic statements. Also known as the Barnum effect, this cognitive bias is what “mediums” and horoscopes rely on for believability. They use universal statements, descriptions that fit almost everyone to some degree, and let you make the connection to your own life. E.g. You have a generally positive outlook, although sometime you struggle to control your impulses. E.g. (2) You will have a birthday in the coming year… That’s right, I’m psychic!
8) Selective perception
Also known as selective attention, this when your brain filters what you actually perceive based on what you expected to perceive, or what you were being attentive to. Have you ever hunted for a pen amongst the mess on your desk for ages, thinking of a biro for example, only to find that the novelty pen you stole from the office was right in front of you the whole time? This happens because our highly developed brains have the power of forethought. We identify what we are looking for and our brain forms a “search image” which acts as a filter for incoming information. In general this makes us more efficient in everyday life, but sometimes it backfires.
9) Texas sharpshooter fallacy
This is the tendency to emphasise groups or clusters, i.e. differences in data are ignored, but similarities are stressed. This fallacy (not a true cognitive bias, but rather bad logic) is so named for a joke in which a Texan fires a clip into the side of his barn. He paints a target around the tightest cluster of bullet-holes and claims to be a sharpshooter. He cherry-picked the best results to fit his needs, emphasising a false pattern and resulting an incorrect conclusion.
Really, all of these biases boil down to two things: 1) We want to think the best of ourselves. And 2) Our brains are exceptionally good at finding patterns, even when no pattern exists (broadly speaking, seeing patterns where there are none is a cognitive bias called apophenia). Which brings us to our final entry. Responsible for sightings of Jesus and the virgin Mary in toasted sandwiches worldwide, please put your hands together for…
10) Pareidolia
Vague or random stimuli being interpreted as clear, well defined obvious forms such as faces. They’re everywhere! Ahhhhhh!
{ B }
{ Pic A }
{ c }
{ D }
{ E }
ADVENTURES AT FILM SCHOOL
Jessica Todd
it really became a collaboration where a crew of classmates and I improvised and mostly just had fun acting like idiots
The film school dynamic is fascinating. It’s a place built for drama: creative types, a little bit of underlying competitiveness, big personalities and that’s just the students.
The third year in SOFA film school involves making two films: a documentary and a short film. I wasn’t particularly interested in making a formal documentary because my interest is in narrative storytelling. I wanted to have fun with it instead. So I made a mockumentary loosely based on the lives of my friends and I at SOFA called Film School [Confidential]. The title – especially Confidential being in brackets – is a play on the Arts School [Confidential] film released in the early 2000s. I cranked out an outline of a script but it really became a collaboration where a crew of classmates and I improvised and mostly just had fun acting like idiots. They turned up over two weekends and we had at it.
Making the mockumentary was a real learning curve for me. There’s only one shot from the film here, [Pic A], of me and Suggi (SeungWoo), another amazing student director.
I’m more proud of the short film, which I made as a response to people reading interviews and articles about how Girls the TV show was an accurate portrayal of friendship. I thought that it was inaccurate and wanted to describe the New Zealand student experience better. That film was far technically better; I had more time to make it and was working with very good actors and crew, which was pretty much the same crew from the first film. Thus most of the images here are from that short, which was called “Where do I belong?” asked Ava.
[B] This is my camera assistant Martin Sagadin, who’s doing his Honours currently. He is ‘slating’ Seb, which is that stereotypical film thing you always see. That’s actually used for a purpose – the loud clap helps you sync up the camera footage to the sound recording.
[C] Sebastian plays a boyfriend who’s irrationally hated by the main character, Ava, for dating her best friend. The ice rink location came about because it’s the scene where the Ava realises Seb’s character isn’t so bad, and we wanted to put it somewhere really out of place and unexpected. We thought it would be super fun shooting on ice, just for a bit of a laugh. So we did!
We hoofed off to the only ice skating rink in Christchurch, out near Waltham.
Thankfully Martin, having grown up in eastern Europe, claimed to be a master of the ice. Admittedly he was. Martin full-on skated backwards with a camera and a rig while managing to keep the shot in focus, which was pretty impressive.
[D] The girl with the staff jacket on is Kate Wilkinson, who played Ava. We borrowed an Alpine Ice uniform; her character was working there. Alpine Ice were so accommodating –they gave us all skates for free and the guy working there was even an extra in the film.
[E] This is Jason Pemberton, who helped Sam set up the Student Volunteer Army. He’s an alum now; I first met Jason through various film friends. He was also nominated for New Zealander of the Year. He was nominated for good things, working for charities. Like me!
He played an ex-boyfriend of Kate’s Ava who was trying to be nice and good-natured, turning up with a couple of things of hers he found in his room – including a pair of sexy underwear that turned out not to be hers. It was a painfully awkward scene where pretty much I asked him and Kate to just drag it out as long as possible. They handled it beautifully. She throws a tanty and rips the underwear up.[F]
So both films ended up being about student life, and in a sense were a homage to the weirdness of being a film school student. After it was all said and done, turns out documentary-style filmmaking isn’t all that bad. I would totally make another mockumentary. In fact, I’m turning the concept of this into a web series at the end of this year. The cool thing is I’m working with a lot of the same actors again. Most people are more willing to have a laugh at themselves than you would think, even when I ask them to shove a tampon up their nose.
STUDENT GALLERY
A small collection of artwork from the talented students of SOFA
THE BRIEF
After viewing the feature spreads, you may be asking yourself “Whoa, what just happened?” Or, “Why?” The artists explain.
My name is Thomas and I’m currently in my Honours year at Canterbury studying painting at the School of Fine Arts. This piece is from my final undergraduate year, entitled “untitled.”
I wanted to work on a larger-scale painting people so I set out to make a long friezetype mural that would stretch around my four-walled studio. I took photos of people I knew with some props like beer bottles or wine glasses but other than that basically I let them do their own thing in terms of clothing and poses. I liked the frieze idea from Greco-Roman painting and also the drunken gathering and it’s appearance in painting by artists like Poussin and Titian. As I began to make it and paint in the figures I enjoyed the idea of limiting the interactions between them. I painted from photographs I’d taken of people I know, naturally they ended up all being university students so I decided to go with that. The work wrapped around my studio so the viewer was somewhat surrounded by a painted gathering of disconnected figures.
This year I plan to create a series of these paintings with more ambiguous gestures and poses and a more recessive perspectival shift to create the illusion of a vast expanse of land with groups of people wandering around aimlessly.
P.S. While I’ve got you all here I am currently looking for models for my next series so if any people would like to be in these new paintings please feel free to message me at www. facebook.com/ThomasHancockArt
ADAM NISBETT
Hey, I’m Adam. Even though I’m 23 I’ve just started my Fine Arts degree - let’s not talk about why that is. When I’m not doing art stuff I like to cook, or try to cook, or whatever. Levels of success have been varied. But most of the time I like to draw.
Lions have always been one of the bigger influences on my work – right up there with dinosaurs, Bruce Willis, and werewolves. I mean, yes, I’ve watched Die Hard with a Vengeance a few times, and as a child I was so into Jurassic Park I was going to grow up and be a palaeontologist, but no movie has ever had the impact on me that The Lion King did. And from time to time, maybe I climb in the cage on the back of that truck at Orana Park and get driven through the lion enclosure at feeding time.
So yes, I draw lions sometimes. And paint them. I drew this lion to print it onto a t-shirt but that never really happened.
Maybe I watched too many movies as a child. Maybe I still do. Maybe I’m watching one right now. Really though, it’s none of your business.
MITCHELL BRIGHT
I’m Mitchell, 20 years old, and am in the third year of a BFA majoring in Photography.
I use photography as a time to relax and slow everything down and just focus on taking the photo. At the moment I’m part way through building a darkroom, so I can get more into the old school photography processes.
I took this photo last year as part of one of my projects for uni, I was channelling Eugene Smith as I created a photo essay on one of my friends, Marijke. Its probably my favourite image from last year. I’m really drawn to the qualities of light and how it can change how you see and interpret something. We were hanging out in a friend’s room in the Ilam apartments and the light was coming through the blinds falling softly onto her face. I replicated Smith’s darkroom methods to burn in the edges of the images to draw the focus to Marijke and create more of a mood that I feel reflects her.
NATASHA VAN SCHAARDENBURG
I’m Natasha, a 3rd year painting major who converted to the chill city of Christchurch from the stuck-up suburbs of Auckland. Currently my favourite spirit is tequila and my favourite food is quorn tenders. Enough said.
My interest in violent imagery began with the gratuitous teenage enjoyment of shock gore and horror films which developed into a serious interest around the presentation of graphic images in popular culture, specifically imagery used in news media. These works are from a 2013 series of six small works informally dubbed ‘The Civilised World.’ The works are oil paint on mdf board, 300 x 300 mm. I was interested in considering the range of ways that we react to, and cope with, the constant bombardment of tragic and/or violent stories and imagery that news media provides. I cannot say if I agree or disagree with the mass media’s use of real violence and crime for entertainment, and therefore would like my works to be considered as an observation rather than an argument.
THOMAS HANCOCK
CHARLIE JACKSON
My name is Charlie, I’m 20 years old studying a BFA, majoring in photography. My pet loves? Literally, my cat. I talk about him way too much.
This photograph is part of my final submission work from 2nd year photography last year. The work was part of a group project looking at the Green Frame and situations arising from the current state of Christchurch city. It is simply a straight photograph (the ‘layers’ are a reflection in the window) looking at the shop front of a dairy opposite Ballantynes. The reflection reveals a building that is still in tact and operating, while the immediate subject suggests a business in limbo, subjected to the conditions of an empty city. It bears a label of inspection, but the faded commercial image and tagging we are greeted with describes a lack of activity within the space. On its own, and when described like this, I like this image for the layers it presents; not just literally, but in terms of its subject and implications. I’m interested in work that encourages us to think further, and consider the world around us.
EMMA WALLBANKS
It’s a hard task writing about what you do. Art school is so much about learning how to define and articulate your practice and research. This is often difficult to put into a few sentences, because for me, art is a language, which can be interpreted in so many different ways. However, I’ll try.
The work is about layers, and memory. The glass domes house still life arrangements that are a combination of finite and infinite objects; I wanted to relate the objects to memory. The moment is experienced; it ends, and then only exists as a memory. Memory fails us and sometimes the moment in our mind disappears. Because of this I wanted to work to have fragility to it, and for some of the elements to eventually fade away. Ironically two of the domes have since been accidentally broken - they too are now a memory.
Much of my research is based around the concept of preserving a moment, and how a perceived experience is warped through language and imagery. I like how everything is constantly moving, perception is a constant state of change, and nothing is absolute. This is why it’s hard for me to write about what I do, because my mind is constantly changing.
BREANNE DE BRUIN
Hey my name is Breanne and I am a 3rd year Fine Arts Student. This sculpture work is one of my first pieces for the year. My inspiration for this work came from my desire to create illusion and camouflage art. My aim is to create mixed media artworks using various everyday objects and hide them with colour and patterns to show how we take them for granted and don’t acknowledge their value to us. I also want the colour and patterns to have symbolic meanings that further represent this idea.
This artwork features the enneagram shape, which represents personality, analysis and development. This shape also represents the idea of there being nine-personality types, which are presented in an irregular nine-pointed shape with lines that represent connections and relationships between the types. The colours that I have chosen also link to the enneagram shape. Each colour has a particular meaning and personality type. For instance the colour green, which is used in this work means to be caring, friendly and generous.
GEORGIA TAGGART
I’m currently in my third year of Fine Arts, majoring in Printmaking.
This is a triptych piece from a body of work produced last year, based on the study of moths and their attraction to light. To produce this work I used numerous techniques such as mono printing, dry point and etching. I used the traditional method of etching whereby the lines of the zinc printing plate are ‘bitten’ by exposing it using nitric acid. It produces such an exquisite, detailed drawing into metal, which enables you to reproduce this print multiple times. I find this process so rewarding and allows me to combine the spontaneity of drawing with the pictorial effects of painting. I enjoy the flexibility that printmaking entails as I love painting and photography as well.
Printmaking enables me to combine all these mediums in my work. I don’t tend to use much color in my prints (some people find this very macabre) but I find working with black ink and paper so visually beautiful. There is always something so rewarding seeing how your print has worked when you first pull it through the press, and there is also a lot of chance involved so it’s great when you discover a random process of producing something new.
CUBA SKATE THE FOUNDRY
A REVIEW IN PICTURES
Photography by Edward Fraser
BAD NEIGHBOURS
Callum Ching
Bad Neighbours is a Seth Rogan film. Seth not only plays a lead character, he also was involved in the production of the film, as a producer. This is the only detail you need to know about the film. If you dislike Seth Rogan, then this movie is not for you.
The plot is straightforward. A young married couple (Seth Rogan as Mac Radner and Rose Byrne as Kelly Radner) live in a modest household with their baby daughter. Everything is going rather nicely until a male fraternity moves into the house next door. The relationship between the two houses breaks down and from the resulting tension the comedy is derived.
There is a pleasant theme of growing up and how your roles in life change as you age.
The Radners can no longer behave as a party duo; they must now be responsible in their new lives as parents. This kind of bums them out at first, yet they soon learn to accept their changing circumstances.
The fraternity on the other hand is in the peak of their wild and irresponsible days.
The leader of the house, Teddy Sanders (played by a mostly shirtless Zac Efron) is so consumed with the mythology of the fraternity that he becomes obsessive and delusional. Despite losing a hold on his sense of perspective Teddy remains a very likable character. His interactions with other characters on screen are enjoyable and quite natural, this is particularly so for his fraternity brother and best friend Pete (Dave Franco).
Interestingly, Rose Byrne kept her Australian accent in the film. There was a reference made to her Australian upbringing which was somewhat amusing. It suggests that although it is acceptable for an actress to have an accent which is not American, an audience must be informed as to the origins of the peculiar voice. It seemed that Rose Byrne was having a good time playing Kelly Radner, and she was happy to milk the audience for all the laughs her part could produce.
A criticism I heard was that nothing happened in the film. I can understand where that idea would come from, yet I do not agree that it is necessarily true or indeed a bad feature of the film. Not every film needs to have an unstoppable bulldozer of a plot. This film relies more on character interaction than a strong plot. It utilizes ridiculous scenes and jokes. The film can stand on its own merits and not be supported by a demanding storyline.
I found the film to be very enjoyable. There were a few golden moments and the rest of the time it flowed on at very comfortable pace. I recommend watching it and to all those who criticise it, just... ya know, keep it down.
Whose Line Is It Anyway
Wednesday 14th May
8:00pm
The Foundry Tickets: $10 from Dash Tickets
Freaks n Geeks themed Quiz Night
Friday 16th May
6:30pm The Foundry FREE
Guitar Hero Battle
Friday 16th May
All Day
The Undercroft
“Why should you consider postgraduate study?” with Prof. Geoff Chase
Wednesday 14th May
5:00-6:00pm
Venue on the College of Engineering wtebsite
Fred V and Grafix
Thursday 15th May
8pm
The Foundry Tickets available from Cosmic
Ink’d Tattoo Competition draw
Friday 16th May 4pm
The Foundry
Drive-In Movie: Django Unchained
Sunday 18th May
7.30-11pm Arts Car park
WHAT’S ON
Bobby Brown
Saturday 17th May 7pm – 10.30pm Harrington’s Brewery
Medieval Dancing with the University of Canterbury Medieval and Renaissance Society
Monday 19 May
7:00pm – 9:00pm KH07
UCSA AGM 2012
Tuesday 20th 1-2pm Bentleys
2 Degrees Comedy Convoy
Wednesday 14th May 7.30pm
Aurora Centre for the Performing Arts
Dog Training Classes
Saturday 17th May
11am – 12pm
Halswell Quarry Park
NZ Music Month Showcase
Saturday 17th May The Foundry
Free rugby, spitroast and live music. FOR FREE! Featuring Merchants of Flow, Odessey, and Alby & Lachie Monster Set. Free entry. It’s free. No charge. You don’t have to pay. Come.
$200 cash prize!
To enter:
Write a short story (500 words or less) and email it to us at: canta@ucsa.canterbury.ac.nz by ~ 5PM Thursday May 15th~
Our main competition categories this year are:
- Horror/Cliffhanger
- Sci Fi
- Fairy tale or fable
- Depressing
- B-Grade (intentional or not)
There are also two other sections you can have a go at:
- Long-form category (800-1000 words)
- Six word story (6 words. Literally.)
You can enter as many times as you like.
All winners will have their work printed in Canta. And even some of the losers will too. Then you can tell your mum you’re a “published author”.
writing!
CANTA WANTS
picture
heart desires in this here guilded frame and post a pic of it on our Facebook page. The best one will win a big fancy Donna Hay cookbook ‘The New Classics’
