SPACEmag The TECHNIQUE issue Spring 2020

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INTERVIEWS

3 INTERVIEWS

SPACEmag The TECHNIQUE issue Spring 2020

TECHNIQUE––What is it Good For? A word from the editors-in-chief

Tina Barbusci, Olavo de Macedo Collins and Yaani Dinu Mahapatuna What We Talk About When We Talk About TECHNIQUE Defining TECHNIQUE Aaron Krishtalka, Maimire Mennasemay, Kenneth Milkman, Richard Shoemaker, Lisa Steffen, Ursula Sommerer, Joel Trudeau, Lois Valliant, and Andrew Katz The Making of a Poster Dawson illustration students propose visual concepts for the TECHNIQUE poster Audrey Gravel, Chaimae Khouldi, and Maggie Zeng

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INTERVIEWS Do Computer Scientists Dream About Ethics?

An interview with two Dawson computer science students Written by Émilie Hellman Illustrated by Vassila Kiakas TECHNIQUE across the Disciplines An interview with Gesche Peters, history professor at Dawson College Written by Anouk Arseneau Illustrated by Mathieu Deroy and Yu Ji Li The Singing Physicist An interview with Jaime Sandoval, physics teacher and opera singer Written by Anouk Arseneau and Émilie Hellman Illustrated by Layloo Lapierre A Funky Ride An interview with skateboard maker Alex Marini Written by Tina Barbusci Illustrated by Ori Fox

PROSE AND POETRY Shell-Shocked (creative non-fiction) Oysters, the taste of nostalgia, and technique Written by Yaani Dinu Mahapatuna Illustrated by Caitlann Allan and Paule Racicot Le Venin des hommes (fiction) Both healing and war involve their own techniques Written by Sara Boubekri Illustrated by Laurence Breton-Turbide Teach me How (poetry) The challenge of translating emotion into words Written by Yara Ajeeb Illustrated by Samira Ashian Dusk & Dawn (poetry) Is that glimmer of light in the sky hope fading . . . or emerging?

Written by Rei Stephen Sison Illustrated by Lauriane Carignan Particle Knowledge (poetry) The rhythm of existence Written by Romy Surprenant Illustrated by Uliana Gilbo

FEATURES A Pioneer for Public Health Sara Josephine Baker and the Impact of Health Education and Community Outreach in the 19th century Written by Nadia Trudel Illustrated by Francis Esperanza Do Disability Accommodations Give Students an Unfair Advantage––or Level the Playing Field?

An investigative report on accommodations for students with learning differences at Dawson College Written by Eve DeLavergne Illustrated by Lou Deziel Fishy The ancient roots of ketchup Written by Yaani Dinu Mahapatuna Illustrated by Jean-Pierre Dussan SKAM How a Norwegian TV show became loved by fans worldwide Written by James Stewart Illustrated by Fabiana Jolin-Campos Democracy, Ideology and Technique How do we do democracy, and why do certain techniques become predominant over others?

Written by Olavo de Macedo Collins Bed Ruminations A reflection on the lonely state of life for an average CEGEP student in the midst of this coronavirus crisis Written by Yaani Dinu Mahapatuna

OPINIONS I Love What I’m Learning . . . But is it of Any Use? A reflection on the usefulness of techniques in the humanities vs. the sciences Written by Émilie Hellman Illustrated by Evy Voyatzis and Grace Rondo Is Clicktivism Really Activism?

Instagram can both incite and inhibit environmental activism Written by Romy Shoam Illustrated by Marilou Choquette The Art of Difficult Conversations How to speak up when our usual social techniques fall short Written by James Stewart Illustrated by Mackenzie Gervais

HOW-TO KNOWLEDGE 7

Fried How a seemingly simple dish like fried rice hides an array of techniques

Public Speaking and Anxiety Reappraisal A technique for turning anxiety into excitement Written by Raquel Simon Mental Health in the Time of COVID-19 In response to the global pandemic, mental health professionals have been offering techniques to help people cope Written by Olavo de Macedo Collins Photograph by Ursula Sommerer

INTERVIEWS

Written by Yaani Dinu Mahapatuna Illustrated by Aleksandra Tuszynska

TECHNIQUE— WHAT IS IT GOOD FOR? A word from the editors-in-chief

Tina Barbusci, Olavo de Macedo Collins and Yaani Dinu Mahapatuna

What is the technique of editing? Well, a technique often invol and for us, as student editors, the goal was to bring each of the this issue close to sparkling. Nothing is perfect, and at SPACE w celebrate effort and process as much as end results. But as ed still tried our best to polish the raw gold of each piece sifted o river of submissions to a shine. This is not to say that editing r forcing change onto our amazing contributors. If anything, wh tors have learnt is that the technique of editing is about coaxin and every shimmer from the written gems we cannot help but in their rough form. Our job, as our faculty supervisor Andrew us, was “to give each and every piece a Swedish massage” and out any kinks that were holding back pieces with potential.

SPACEmag, as an interdisciplinary magazine, accepts work in genres from anyone and anywhere, though first and foremos Dawson College students. Whatever the genre, our primary cr accepting, developing and publishing work is that it reflects a lar intent in the contributor: to explore an area of passionate in share their exploration with others, and to evolve in their unde That goal may lead a contributor, and hopefully the reader as w greater depth of understanding; it may also lead to a greater b understanding—i.e. perceiving links between a subject and its context, such as other disciplines, culture, society and life in ge

As current events such as climate change and the global pande manifest, knowledge about science, politics, economics, psyc sociology, history, journalism, media, ethics, and art cannot b separated from each other. To survive and thrive in balance w other and the rest of the planet, we will need all our ways of and an ability to communicate despite our different areas of approaches. In this spirit, SPACEmag and the entire SPACE initi to foster innovation and collaboration beyond the classroom a disciplines, as well as to showcase both the diversity and the s ground in our ways of knowing.

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lves a goal, e pieces in we like to ditors, we out of our required hat we eding out each t love even Katz told d to wrestle

In this issue, devoted to the 2019/2020 theme of TECHNIQUE, you will find everything from fiction and poetry—including the winning pieces and honourable mentions of this year’s SPACE writing contest—to interviews with singing physicists and skate-board designers, to essays about revolutionary medical practices, to opinion pieces about the value of humanities studies, to original art work by a class of Illustration students collaborating with SPACEmag writers, to reflections on COVID-19 and more. All these works explore different facets of technique, such as its relevance, its acquisition, its application and its potential impact. Rather than narrowing your understanding of TECHNIQUE, we hope that this issue leads you instead to ponder its multiple and varied possible meanings and implications in our lives.

n many st from riteria for a particunterest, to erstanding. well, to a breadth of s broader eneral.

As SPACEmag editors, and writers as well, our experience has been undeniably hands-on. We have been learning not only about the editing and writing process, not only about a variety of subjects related to TECHNIQUE, but also about ourselves. We guess you could say we are like the Karate Kids of the editing world, learning how to rise up (albeit with significantly less violence involved) within a medium to which we are all relatively new. For every Karate Kid, there is also a Mr. Miyagi.

For us, this was Andrew Katz, guiding us so patiently and kindly while we learnt to “wax-on, wax-off” with words, and also Ursula Sommerer, who worked diligently behind the scenes to make the magic of SPACE a reality. We extend our thanks to them.

emic make chology, be neatly with each knowing, focus and iative aims and across shared

We hope you are as excited to read this issue of SPACE magazine as we are to share it with you. We hope you are inspired by the richness and variety of the theme of TECHNIQUE, and that you may even consider submitting a piece for consideration for the next issue. (Stay tuned for the 2020/2021 SPACE theme.) Happy reading!

Sincerely, The SPACEmag editing team

WHAT WE TALK ABOUT WHEN WE TALK ABOUT TECHNIQUE Defining TECHNIQUE Aaron Krishtalka, Maimire Mennasemay, Kenneth Milkman, Richard Shoemaker, Lisa Steffen, Ursula Sommerer, Joel Trudeau, Lois Valliant, and Andrew Katz

Karl Popper (1902—1994), a prominent science philosopher, argued that the ultimate test of whether our hypotheses are scientific requires that nature and experiment be able to falsify such proposals.

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Technique is involved in every activity that human beings un It may be explicit, implicit, conscious, intuitive, theoretical, e learned through instruction and practice, inherited through o or many of the above at once. But from speaking to walking a child to growing crops to building a house to running a bus organizing a social movement to making art to performing s splitting an atom to landing a rover on Mars, to list just a few all our endeavors involve a form of how-to knowledge that g toward the accomplishment of our goals.

But what are our goals? Are they to cooperate and work with n both our natural environment and our own human nature? M Indigenous peoples throughout the world have used hunting an tural techniques for millennia. Certain techniques of art-makin automatic painting or writing, seek to let the unconscious min the creative process. Similarly, the scientific method involves m of technique that, according to one influential view,1 continuall nature to prove our hypotheses about it wrong, so that we can most accurate picture possible of reality and adapt accordingly

Of course, in industrialized societies, some forms of techniqu an attempt to control or even dominate nature, such as the te involved in producing hydro-electricity here in Quebec, or in ing deep rock (aka fracking) in order to extract natural gas fr earth. During the Industrial Revolution, technique was focuse amplification of production and efficiency, giving rise to wha poet William Blake called “those dark Satanic Mills”—i.e. fac and to cities as we know them today. Since then, technique h been intimately associated with the development of technolo as computers, social media and artificial intelligence, and ha humans living in ever-greater symbiosis with technology, wi quences to us as individuals, a society and a species that are not completely understood.

nature— Many nd agriculng, such as nd inform many forms ly invite form the y.

ue involve echniques n crackrom the ed on the at British ctories— has also ogy, such as led to ith consee, as yet,

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ndertake. embodied, our genes, to raising siness to urgery to w examples, guides us

Technique enhances and expands our natural human abilities, increasing our capacity to survive and thrive as well as to exploit and destroy.

In the last two hundred years, advances in technique across multiple fields have led to breathtaking breakthroughs while also transforming the way we work and interact with others, not to mention altering the very ecosystem of our planet. In light of this Janus-faced (a force for both good and evil) nature of technique, might it be valuable for us to pause in our thinking about technique? To pause for thinking about technique? To consider its past, present and future? To explore its complexities? To introduce uncertainty into our attitudes and assumptions?

The acquisition of technique almost always requires teachers in the broad sense of the term, from the artisan masters in medieval and Renaissance guilds who guided their apprentices to the teachers in modern classrooms who instruct their students. An exploration of technique, therefore, cannot be separated from an examination of the mission and pedagogical approaches of the institutions, such as Dawson College, that educate our youth. What kinds of technique do our students gain through their studies? Do students discover the creative possibilities that can arise from learning technique—the way that grasping an art form permits them to master or even bend its conventions; the way that understanding the accepted knowledge and skills of a discipline can allow them to interrogate that knowledge and innovate on those skills?

Do students emerge from school thinking critically about technique, not only as an instrument or a method but also as the technified 21st century environment in which modern life unfolds?

Most relevant of all, perhaps: toward what aims do graduates apply their technique? How do they use technique to make a difference both in terms of their own lives and as citizens in the world?

Among the broad array of SPACE activities that students parti this year, one of them was the creation of this end of year “iss gathers together feature articles, interviews, prose and poetry pieces, and art, all related to TECHNIQUE, from students an across multiple disciplines, who contributed both independen in conjunction with their classes. The issue as a whole was cu edited by a dedicated team of student editors who met throug year—at first in person, then on Zoom—weighing and conside word and phrase. The result is a wide-ranging and engaging m on TECHNIQUE, which we hope will offer you a moment in y pause in your own thinking, for further thinking, and perhaps your own explorations into how we do what we do, why and of our actions and choices.

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icipated in sue,� which y, opinion nd faculty ntly and urated and ghout the ering each meditation your day to s to launch the impact

THE MAKING OF A POSTER: TECHNIQUE POSTER COMPET Dawson illustration students propose visual concepts for the TECHNIQUE poster

At the time of the competition the Illustration students were in the second year of the Illustration program. Below are three prototypes, and, reflections on the process of creating experienced by the students.

On the right is the final version of the 2019/2020 SPACE theme poster created by Maggie Zeng.

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TITION

During the Winter 2019 semester, SPACE put out a call to Illustration students at Dawson College to propose a poster that would serve as the public visual representation of the upcoming SPACE theme. In 2019/2020, the theme was TECHNIQUE, and so in early 2019 SPACE met with interested Illustration students to explain the various aspects of TECHNIQUE that we hoped would be portrayed in the poster.

Six students created posters as well as reflections on their work that they pitched to the SPACE team. Three of these poster prototypes and reflections appear below. (Note: at the time that the students were working on their posters, SPACE was playing with the idea of an M-dash to replace the “N” in TECHNIQUE, creating TECH—IQUE, though this idea was later dropped.)

As we are every year, the SPACE team was impressed by the thought, attention to detail and indeed technique that each student displayed in their proposal.

Audrey Gravel In her work, Audrey Gravel loves to produce art that strikes the viewer’s curiosity through light and colour. She is inspired by her surroundings, the Victorian era, and Japanese culture. She creates her version of the world through diverse mediums, but mostly through digital painting, gouache and pastel.

To begin with my creative process, the first question I asked m ''What is technique to me?''

The clearest thing that came to mind was that technique is abo ing, but not only that. It's also about going above and beyond w currently can achieve. It's about learning new ways of thinkin adapting with new techniques, new goals and new limits by co evolving with what's around you, at the same time that the wo evolving as well.

Technique doesn't really depend on where you are in life—Yo Student, Self-employed, Employee, Artist—since it's about evo yourself and what you love. It's about where you come from, you will go.

My interpretation of technique represents this particular school This life-long learning curve with all the roads that you have from to go where you want to go.

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myself was

Chaimae Khouldi is currently finishing her 3rd year in Illustration, where she likes to play with shapes and composition. If she had to describe her style in three words, it would be bold colours, contrast with a touch of texture.

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Chaimae Khouldi

As I came to think about the concept of "TECH-NIQUE", the first thing that popped into my head was my childhood. What were our ways of learning as we grew older? We painted, drew, counted and played with blocks, things that were mostly done using the three primary colours, which is why my colour palette (except for my character) consists of only bright red, yellow and blue. I also wanted to represent technique as a sensory thing: something that is heard, seen, touched and felt, something that is unclear to the eye, a learning and sensory experience, as seen through the waves and the blobs on the poster, with the title moving and shifting in front of the character. Finally, I wanted to feel the contrast, the simplicity and the fluidity of the concept of TECH-IQUE.

Maggie Zeng Maggie Zeng is an illustrator with a passion for storytelling.

If I had to describe my concept in a single line, it would be “a lessly building itself”. I wanted to convey the idea of a comm through the sharing of technique. I chose to do this through t of hands interconnected and intertwined. The goal was to re the idea of passing down technique from generation to gene from individual to individual. However, because we are so fi “progress”, we might fail to see that we sometimes lose sight matters. As a result, I wanted to express a certain ambiguity i to our use of technique. Here, the city is a puzzle that is grad together (or perhaps taken apart). Though all the pieces fit, th may never be solved.

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a city endmunity built the image epresent eration or fixated on t of what in regards dually put he puzzle

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INTERVIEWS INTERVIEWS

DO COMPUTER SCIENTISTS DREAM ABOUT ETHICS?

Written by Émilie Hellman Illustrated by Vassilia Kiakas

The following interview was conducted by Émilie Hellman with two Dawson computer science students, who preferred to remain anonymous.

What is SPACE? What is TECHNIQUE?

Émilie: Are you aware of something at Dawson called SPACE? Student 1: Space like space?? Like the Space? *hand gesture referring to the sky, general laughter*

Émilie: SPACE is an initiative at Dawson which attempts to cre between the humanities and artistic disciplines and the more disciplines, as well as between school and life in general. It als ages students to take ownership of their learning and to shar explorations and discoveries in a way that engages the commu encourages discussion. Participants express themselves on var jects related to a theme, which is different each year. This year TECHNIQUE, so I figured who better to interview than compu students, who also turn out to be studying the opposite (or is what I learn in my program, Liberal Arts. I imagine Computer a more modern and technical program whereas Liberal Arts reading and writing papers and stuff. What does TECHNIQUE you? What do you associate it with?

Student 1: The way you do something. To be able to do someth specialized. If you get a certain technique and you’re good at i you’re more specialized at doing one specific task.

Student 2: What he said.

Do you think you can learn a technique yourself, on your own only something that can be taught to you by someone else? O it’s both?

Other people can learn on their own, I can’t. I can’t self-teach. bad at it.

But, for example, a technique could be like programming, righ could also be speaking a language or making good brownies. any skill ever stop involving a technique? You said technique w thing specific, but pretty much every skill requires technique cooking to programming to running. So what’s a technique yo like to master?

Like any at all? Playing the guitar.

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Why? Because I really like it, I play everyday. I would really like to be able to produce something I am proud of.

eate links scientific so encourre their unity and rious subr’s theme is uter science it?) from Science as is a lot of mean for

Do you think you can master playing guitar?

Yes, I think so, if I put enough effort into it.

hing more it then

Are you doing something to master this right now?

Practicing and failing. You start writing things and then you test them and they don’t work and eventually they do work I guess.

n? Or is it Or maybe

. I’m really

ht? But it So does was somee, from ou would

What’s the next step you could take to master this technique?

Practicing, like actually practicing, rather than just playing a bunch of songs that I don’t really know.

What’s a song you would really like to learn?

“Since I’ve been loving you” by Led Zeppelin What about you?

Game development.

Do you make a plan in advance?

You try but then it doesn’t work.

Are you asking for help or are you guided by someone to do this?

Like teachers or friends?

No one I know, but I watch tutorials on Youtube.

27 INTERVIEWS

Computer Sciences and General Education Arts Courses

When you think of a program like Liberal Arts, what is the first thing you think of?

Uhm...

Don’t be afraid I won’t be insulted.

A lot of text analysis and just a lot of analysis in general, which is important because you gain appreciation and understanding of many subjects.

And you?

I think of my friend in Liberal Arts at Marianopolis.

What does he tell you about his program?

Essays. He doesn’t like it but he’s almost done. Not much more.

Same. Do you like your humanities classes? Which ones are you currently taking?

My current Humanities class is Dostoevsky and Nietzsche and there’s a lot of readings. I don’t really like it.

Why don’t you like it?

I have to do as much work for it than in my other computer science classes.

And you think you should put less work and less time in your non-core classes?

Yeah.

I like my English class. It’s called Adventure and Fiction. In general, I don’t mind my English classes. Humanities is really a gamble; you can get a good one or a bad one.

If you had the option to not take Humanities or English or both, would you do it?

English is not a problem, but Humanities I’d look for one with less readings.

English I wouldn’t really mind, unless the teacher is really bad. Humanities it really depends on the course.

Do you think you struggle in Humanities classes because it is s the opposite of computer science?

I don’t struggle in my Humanities, but I don’t like it anyway.

And you don’t like it because there’s too much reading?

Yeah 400 pages and we’re not even done the semester yet.

Why do you think there’s so much division between scientific like computer science and humanities programs like Liberal A A lot of it is a different thought process. In computer science really do that much analysis whereas in Liberal Arts it seems main skill. In computer science it’s more problem-solving. I mostly the way you approach problems that you’re faced wit your case and projects in our case, which is different.

What he said.

So when did you know that writing essays and analysis weren’t I just find it much less fun.

Do you think you guys dislike it because writing essays it not s the point and there are many different ways to answer it? Unli where there is only one good answer?

The good answer in the arts can be really subjective dependin teacher and I don’t like that.

Do you think Humanities students should take mandatory bas or coding classes just like you have to take Humanities?

Personally, I don’t think so. At least not in CEGEP because in generally speaking you already kind of know what you want what you’re interested in. If you’re forced to take a math clas though you’re never gonna do math it’s just useless, so that’s works well as a complementary.

I think no as well. You always hear that everyone should lear but I disagree. Not everyone needs to; it doesn’t help you if y use it ever.

But you think it’s fair that you guys take a Humanities class eve you learn there might not be useful in your programming or co Well, English at least you need to develop it because you are speak it and write for the rest of your life. Humanities I would be opposed if it was or wasn’t mandatory. It does force you to ferently with the kind of assignments you get in these classes

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en if what oding? going to dn’t really o think difs.

INTERVIEWS

t your thing?

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programs Arts? e you don’t s to be the guess it’s th, essays in

A Need for Cross-Disciplinary Discussion?

As you know, there have been numerous recent attempts at in ing Ethics into A.I. Computer scientists have reached out to Ph or Humanities teachers for guidance and they have worked t Computer scientists have realized that if we want A.I. to take ger place in society, as it seems like it inevitably will, we will to be able to make moral choices about how to use it, becaus even the most sophisticated form of A.I. there has to be a hum programming it. To trust artificial intelligence in health fields situation where it was making potentially life-and-death dec would need to believe it can be used ethically. Do you think of discussion shows that the Humanities and the Sciences ne other? Or is it just in this specific case that they can work tog Not just related to A.I. or robots, but also to how companies se clients. A lot of the time they have practices that are very mor tionable. So obviously if your work affects humans negatively means you don’t have enough Humanities involved in your co I feel like once two fields have been useful to each other, at on you won’t be able to separate them completely again. Up until like they haven’t connected really, but now I think they will ne other for future problems we can’t foresee yet.

What goals do you have with all the skills/technique you’ve ac computer science?

I actually want to do A.I.! I see that many companies in this fie morally questionable, as I said, and I don’t necessarily like it, b ficult for me to work for someone else.

Do you think by making you take Humanities classes you are g more aware of these issues when you work in A.I.?

Well, certainly it makes me think a little bit more about myself society functions.

Myself, personally, I want to become a game designer and then ally if I could get enough money, I’d like to clean up some of th companies’ acts because now they’re really iffy.

31 INTERVIEWS

ncorporathilosophy together. on a bigneed them se behind man mind s, in any cision, you this kind eed each gether? erve their rally quesy, that ompany... ne point l now I feel eed each

What do you mean they’re iffy?

They underpay people. They sometimes make people work 80 to 100 hours a week when a game is about to come out.

cquired in

If you got an internship at Microsoft that would be gold for your C.V. right? You could get hired anywhere you want after that. Would you do it despite knowing that it is such a problematic company that treats its employees badly, etc. ?

So, first of all, don’t put my name in this just in case, but yeah, probably.

Microsoft hires 1 in a 100 people who apply, so regardless of what it does to your resume, it really shows that you know what you’re doing and that’s an accomplishment in itself.

eld can be but it’s dif-

going to be

But isn’t that what you’ll have to do when you become a game designer?

Yeah, I know. They do that to appease the stockholders who want their never-ending profit increases. But if I get enough money I could buy back 51% of a company’s shares and calm it down, but that’s a lot of money, like in the billions. Still, that’s what I’d like to do if I could do anything.

Montreal is growing exponentially with computer science, A.I., game design, with companies like Ubisoft, which really represents Montreal, or Microsoft opening new offices close to Jean-Talon station.

Ubisoft specifically I have no idea. I haven’t heard anything recently, but I understand they did some sketchy stuff in the past. Microsoft can be very iffy. When there are lawsuits against them they will hire lawyers to make the lawsuit last forever until the people suing run out of money.

It’s not related to computer science specifically, though; every company does this.

f and how

n eventuhe game

It’s an assured career.

For sure.

For sure.

Émilie Hellman is a 2nd year student in Liberal Arts.

Vassilia Kiakas is a 1st year Illustration student.

But at the same time corporate or financial lawyers, who are n ple of science, they will also defend criminals because there is money to be made.

Well, it’s hard to find a company that has no ethical issues. Suc panies are usually the least successful because they didn’t byp system.

At the end of the day, most people are gonna end up prioritiz their own survival. I’m not gonna quit my job even if I have t something unethical, unless it’s really bad.

Also, if you want to change how a system works, you can’t be o it; you have to be a part of it. Otherwise who’s gonna listen to s who has no experience in the field/company?

So are you guys going to work for Microsoft and destroy it from inside?

Yes exactly.

zing to do

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INTERVIEWS

ch compass the

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not peos so much

TECHNIQUE ACROSS THE DISCIPLINES

Illustrations by Mathieu Deroy and Yu Ji Li

The following interview was conducted by Anouk Arseneau with Dawson College history professor Gesche Peters.

Anouk Arseneau is a 2nd year student in Liberal Arts.

Mathieu Deroy and Yu Ji Li are 1st year Illustration students.

Illustration by Mathieu Deroy

35 INTERVIEWS

Q: Can you present yourself and your background?

A: I am a history teacher in the history department at Dawson. We are all expected to be rather flexible in what we teach, so the training background with which a person came here is not necessarily what they end up teaching, and therefore, in view of the theme of TECHNIQUE as such, it is certainly very important to be versatile in approaches. Each of our backgrounds usually involves a training methodology, training in research approaches that in general are quite specific. Is it archival research? Does the research involve original documents? Do researchers have to travel? Does the research involve oral history? All of those are quite different approaches. And so, we try to obviously transfer our best techniques forwards into whatever it is that we are teaching or into how we are teaching. But everybody is expected to be flexible and therefore to be appreciative of different approaches. Also, to add to that, all history teachers are expected to teach in the methodologies. So, that automatically means you have to be familiar with approaches, methods, methodologies of the social sciences from a general level to quite a sophisticated one because that is what you are expected to teach.

You also teach History of Science. Some would say that the te used in the sciences and in laboratory work is quite different used in the humanities? Since your class joins the two, what d think about the differences and similarities between the tech used in the sciences and those used in the humanities?

The techniques are really quite different, but very often, at the least of conveying the knowledge that you gain in those disc they are quite artificially different. Obviously there needs to a specific approach in the laboratory; it is a controlled envi You in fact try to reduce all sorts of outside influences down manageable variable that you wish to study. So, that is really u in many ways. It is designed to gain knowledge on the natura or on natural phenomena, but the environment itself is by defi unnatural. In the humanities, the social sciences, it is exactly th site. It is virtually impossible to regulate all the variables that o It is looking at an insanely intricate and complex system alway trying to make sense of those systems, see the patterns, rather very particulars. So, to combine the two is incredibly challeng also incredibly instructive, because I think certainly in the way education functions, people are forced at a very young age to c path and then of course it is important to go down that path to your knowledge in that area. But unfortunately that also mean those paths shall never meet again, apparently. So, I apprecia approaches. I can see value in both approaches, and I think ev should make it their business to be mindful of why the approa different. They’re not qualitatively different; they are different different subjects need to be addressed in a particular setting. knowledge in my mind is never complete unless you can also the other side, so to speak, why such knowledge is important. how it’s obtained, but why it’s important, because in the end i social project. And that makes them both really important.

Is there a technique that you think you have mastered in your Whether it be in teaching or in work outside of school?

I think right now what I have mastered by virtue of zillions o of practice is editing. Sheer hours and hours and hours of re reviewing, needing to know about everything from grammar the subject is that is being researched—that is quite the learn curve. And in fact it’s never finished.

r life?

of hours eading, r to what ning

INTERVIEWS

e level at ciplines, be quite ironment. to the unnatural al world finition he oppoone studies. ys. We are r than the ging, but y modern choose a o deepen ns that ate both verybody aches are t because . But that convey to . Not just it’s all a

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echniques than those do you hniques

Is there a technique that you would like to master?

I would like to catch up on and gain a deeper understanding of some of the more profound methods in the sciences. My background in math is very shoddy, and at the time I thought; fine, I’m good at other things, I don’t need that really. But I have real regrets that I didn’t find it more interesting, and that my teachers could not make it more interesting for me, because I think a numerical literacy is very profound in our world. And it is not the numbering itself; it is the approach, the pure abstraction that, in my world, was dismissed, and I am as guilty of that as many other people. I think that’s something I’d really like to catch up on. As a good renaissance woman, very auto-didactically, I’ve been working on this very hard, but it’s frustrating to do that because I find I’m missing part of language, or I know words but not the conjugation or the syntax of how it should function, and therefore I always feel something eludes me. But, then again, in my little social science arrogance, I can also testify that the same is true for scientists. Of all the conferences that I’ve participated in, of all the lectures that I’ve heard, and so on, in my effort to educate myself more, I am totally aware of how they’re caught in the same trap. The downright inability, sometimes, of people to explain clearly what they’re doing, why they’re doing it and why anyone should care has been astonishing. They have built their own defense system with downright arrogance by stating that what they do is somehow superior or it’s so dramatically different that if you are not in the in-club, so to speak, you don’t need to worry and you won’t gain admission. Well, the opposite is true of teachers on the social science side who reject that and say, “Well, this is just technical trap, and they’re missing the big picture.” So, I am very aware of both sides and their shortcomings.

Don’t you think this is the case in every area? For example, in t arts world, it used to be accessible to everyone before, and eve one knew about the big artists, and now no one really knows w going on.

Yes. Absolutely, I think that’s absolutely true. But this is part of general specialization is in life. That’s true in business, that is t ture, that’s true in sports.

Do you think everyone should get a broader education then?

A much broader education. When it comes down to education to be respectful of someone’s opinion, but it has to be an opin on knowledge, on facts, on obtained information, not opinio taking shortcuts. In writing, that’s the same; you have to alwa mindful that there are things that you don’t know. And it’s ac not to have to know everything, but to be able to rely on peo may have more expertise in an area, but then the onus in on t able to convey their knowledge and information as well. The obligation is always to try to go deeper based on need, or inc or just curiosity, but the onus in on the expert to be able to p information at different levels so that there is greater commu right across the board. In art, that’s absolutely true, in physic in music, which, depending on how one sees it, can be part o but musical knowledge is actually really profound, all kinds show that very clearly. And yet it is art and music and drama first that goes on the chopping block. There is a great empha ence and technical expertise, that’s where the jobs are, unde so, but I’m very old fashioned in believing that you really hav just a well-rounded person in order to be successful at anyth that requires not just learning about different disciplines, or but also learning more deeply in them, and that includes app why their methods are different, what their techniques are fi why they are the way they are, and then at least trying to gat aspects of that and starting to own them. You can only start t something when you practice it. If you never practice it, even smartest person, some ideas just flash past you. It might be in you take a little bit out of it, but it doesn’t go deep. And master niques, one’s own and those in other domains, is a lifelong, d process. So the more you’re exposed, and the more you’re en to engage in that in meaningful ways, the better.

39

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INTERVIEWS

f what a true in cul-

Illustration by Yu Ji Li

THE SINGING PHYSICIST

Written by Anouk Arseneau and Émilie Hellman Illustrated by Layloo Lapierre

The following interview was conducted by Anouk Arseneau and Émilie Hellman with Dawson College physics teacher Jaime Sandoval

Anouk Arseneau is a 2nd year student in Liberal Arts.

Layloo Lapierre is a 1st year Illustration student.

Q: So what techniques would you like to master?

A: I just want one: singing.

Why singing?

Well, that’s my biggest passion nowadays.

What are the next steps you think you can take to reach that g I’ve been taking steps for the last fifteen years to master this g probably take me the rest of my life.

Do you think you will be able to master it by the end of your l I think so, yes.

You think singing is something someone can master?

No. Because you said “someone”. I don’t think everybody can specific technique. I don’t think all techniques are for everybo technique is a know-how, right? Yes it’s true that it contains a and steps and all that, but you also need talent, you also need you need the interest, because it’s so broad. Yes, there is a tec how to typewrite, and probably everybody can typewrite, but some areas technique is so broad there are also techniques tha hard, like the technique of how to split an atom. It takes time, sion, because you’re going to hit the wall again, and again, and if you don’t have the drive, you’re not going to learn it. That’s not everybody is meant to learn any technique.

So you think some techniques have to be learned through tale drive and others anyone can do them?

I guess, if it’s something easy, like handwriting. Well, you’ve handwriting, and it’s terrible, so, if it’s a technique, I don’t hav to improve my handwriting.

n master a ody, because set of rules d creativity, chnique on because in at are super it takes pasd again.So, why I say

INTERVIEWS

life?

41

goal? goal. It will

But that’s something you could do if you had the drive?

I could if I wanted to do it. But it’s not always the case. What if, let’s say for the handwriting technique, you have an impairment in your hand.

Even if you want to, you won’t be able to write. For singing, you also need a good ear; if you don’t have a good ear, even with all the drive in the world, you won’t be able to sing.

Do you think everyone can learn to master something? Not necessarily that everyone can master any technique, but that everyone can learn and master at least one?

Yes, I want to think that everybody has some interests and that there are techniques involved that they can learn. Now master, I don’t know. You can learn a technique, but to master a technique takes a lot of time. In the arts, at least in music, they say that to master a technique, it takes ten thousand hours, right? Which is about ten years. I must be dumb then because I’ve been singing for fifteen years and I still don’t think I’ve mastered it. But just to give you an example: one of the most famous cellists in the world, his name is Pablo Casals, and he never stopped playing and practicing, and he was close to 90 years old and he was still practicing when he had already conquered the world with his cello. And people would ask him, how come you’re still practicing and he would answer, “I think I’m beginning to see improvement” at 90 years old. So, to master a technique takes a lifetime of drive and humility.

But that would be only for techniques in the arts then.

Oh yes you can master pushing a button in a factory quite easily.

ent and

seen my ve the drive

So you would consider pushing a button to be a technique as well?

Because of the broadness of the term “technique”, yes. Because if I push the button wrong and I hurt myself, that’s not good. How do I push the button right so I can do it all my life and not get hurt, that’s the trick.

And what do you think of the difference between the techniqu arts and the techniques in the sciences, being a physics teache Well a technique in itself is a know-how. Anything you want t you need the know-how, and so I think it’s the same. The goa ences is to, I don’t know, solve a problem. How do you make how do you prove something? In the arts, you also have the p how do I convey what I want to express, how do I make the a the public, the visitor to the gallery feel moved?

Would you say that the techniques in the arts are much more than those in the sciences because there are so many differen ways to paint, or to sing, and there aren’t that many different split the atom?

It has to do with the goals of each. In the arts, the goals are di is more subjective, and so you can ask what’s beauty, and som tell you beauty is a Rembrandt, and someone else will say, no a Picasso. And they had their own techniques! Their own way themselves, and they both were masters of whatever techniq found. Some even developed their own techniques, some lear ous techniques. Some masters would never dare inventing or a new technique before learning everything there is to know old techniques. For example, Beethoven. He said I need to kn everybody before me did, and then, when I know everything able to improve. Same thing with painters. There is a way of which says paint a Leonardo, then do it again. In the old scho that even if you want to develop your own technique, first sho can replicate a Leonardo; then you can improve your own, be is so much knowledge there.

So that would be like in the sciences then. You have to learn w before you so you can better it.

Yes. Exactly.

ifferent. Art mebody will o, beauty is y to express ques they rned previr developing about the now what g, I will be f thinking ool, they say ow me you ecause there

what came

INTERVIEWS

e abstract nt types of ways to

43

ues in the er yourself? to do right, al in the scisomething, problem of audience,

A FUNKY RIDE

Written by Tina Barbusci Illustrated by Ori Fox

The following interview was conducted by Tina Barbusci with skateboard maker Alex Marini.

45 INTERVIEWS

What technique would you like to master and why?

When I first began carving and painting skateboards, I had no idea what I was doing and I still learn something new with each one. Even now, after having made 7 boards, I’m still always experimenting with different tools, painting techniques, and materials. If I had all the time in the world, it might be nice to master all the techniques, but I know that’s not practical. At the end of the day, my goal is to be able to communicate my thoughts and feelings with others more effectively.

How do you plan on achieving this goal?

Communication is a two-way game. I believe the best way to develop this skill is through practice, not just by sharing my experiences and thoughts through my words and art but by also listening and fostering relationships with people from all walks of life. I don't just make skateboards. I draw, design, animate, make music, sculpt, paint, sew, and more. I value being a jack of all trades.

Are you anticipating any challenges? What kinds of challenges?

The only challenge I can anticipate is fighting with myself to stay motivated on certain days. I am my own worst enemy, but I try not to beat myself up over it if I don't feel like doing anything for a whole day or even a week. I've learned a lot over the last few years about taking better care of myself and being aware of the cyclical nature of my moods.

Who are your biggest influences?

My biggest influences are the people in my life and the experiences we share. Friends, family, lovers, enemies. My experiences growing up with my father have really influenced me to follow my heart, work hard, and never settle, even if things are difficult.

Tina Barbusci is a 1st year student in Liberal Arts.

Ori Fox is a 1st year Illustration student.

What are the details that you pay the closest attention when y working on a board?

There’s so much that goes into each board that it’s easy to ei bogged down in details or to get impatient and cut corners. I best not to rush. The most time-consuming and detail-orient of any board is the sanding after carving. Since carving is a r process, it leaves a lot of little imperfections in the wood. It’s important to go in and sand each little crevice with tiny squa sandpaper. This step is definitely the most important to mak everything looks smooth and it can take up to 10 hours to sa one board.

What motivates you in your craft?

When I'm at a low point and feeling depressed, I make art as process my emotions. These skateboards I've been working o exception. I'm motivated by the thought that someday I will e from my funk feeling better with a body of work to show for i

What is your greatest source of satisfaction in what you do?

I’m a generally very reserved person, but when I meet someon genuinely interested in my work enough to go out of their way me know how it has affected them, that feeling can’t be beat. T some darkness in all of my pieces, and I don’t shy away from t about them in depth if prodded. I think it’s also very therapeut way, connecting on a darker note. A lot of people keep their pr and negative emotions to themselves. To acknowledge the bad sad, and the ugly parts of life, that’s important too. To know th not alone in feeling sad sometimes, that's really nice.

What impact do you hope your work will have?

I don't really care if my work achieves any kind of widespread nition. At the end of the day, I'm just trying to sort myself out a better me and connect with people however I can. I hope th work affords me many opportunities to meet some interestin and develop meaningful relationships with them.

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INTERVIEWS

a way to on are no emerge it.

47

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49

PROSE INTERVIEWS AND POETRY

SHELL-SHOCKED Creative non-fiction

Written by Yaani Dinu Mahapatuna Illustrated by Caitlann Allan and Paule Racicot “Shell-Shocked” was the winner of the 2nd annual SPACE writing competition in the prose category.

Yaani Dinu Mahapatuna is a 1st year Liberal Arts student. She loves history, literature and food.

Especially so when the three are combined.

Caitlann Allan and Paule Racicot are 1st Year Illustration students.

We live in a world where there is little separating an oyster from

I did not always live in this world. I used to live in a world wh maids lurked beneath the ocean depths, where one island was of the universe and oysters were commodities instead of pearl

Growing up on an island by the sea-side, near a beach cover not-so-picture-perfect remnants of social media escapades, t I ever found myself to what I considered the true essence of was through food. I dreamt of mermaids and sunken kingdom but when I woke to harsh reality of morning I found myself n my imaginary adventures through fishermen and street food through wading in tumultuous Sri Lankan waters.

On the island, seafood was an unavoidable consequence—an would basically bring shame to both your honour and that of ily. In contrast, many of my Canadian friends do not hesitate their disregard for the merits of my people's bounty. These n claim that they could not possibly stomach the taste of seafoo it is ‘fishy’ and at that I scoff (only somewhat pretentiously). ‘Fis opinion is the adjective of someone who has never lived near t of someone who has not tasted the ambrosia that is a sea cr plucked straight from ocean and placed delicately onto their

Fish served as it is meant to be served (within hours of bein has a clean flavour, like meat without blood. Most seafood tast pure and delicate as a jasmine flower’s scent.

European favourites like cuttlefish melt in your mouth like swe ter, its flesh putting up little resistance against your molars, wh traditional Asiatic choice of snapper roe coats your tongue in a symphony of umami, savoury juices submerging your conscio gustatory delight.

51 PROSE AND POETRY

m a rock.

here mers the centre ls.

red in the the closest the ocean ms at night, nearer to stalls than

n allergy your fame to voice naysayers od because shy’ in my the ocean, reature plate.

g caught) tes pristine,

eet buthile the a tender ousness in

Illustration by Caitlann Allan

Yet, out of all the beautiful and delicious sea creatures I have pleasure of relishing, nothing comes quite close to the debriscontainer of ocean nectar that is the oyster. The overriding fla oyster is that of salt, but it remains a flavour-profile that cann be replicated with any run-of-the-mill shaker of clumped wh Oysters contain unique pockets of salty and mildly saccharin infused naturally with the ever-elusive umami that most dish to introduce through the addition of reduced stocks and arom oyster is essentially a flavour bomb, releasing a refreshingly s concoction as you simultaneously swallow and bite its slippe Now, imagine this flavour slightly enhanced; a squeeze of lim tang that electrifies your taste buds and a dash of hot sauce st quivering warmth that melds harmoniously into both the zest rus and the pleasurable sting of sea salt. As a child, this was e make the oyster the embodiment of the ocean’s merits in my

After having moved to Canada (and leaving behind easy acces shucked oysters in the process), I struggled with the abrupt dis I felt in the midst of maple syrup lakes and poutine mountains. food had been my life, every memory captured in some part by I had ingested throughout my childhood. Seafood had been m a symbol of every good time I had enjoyed in the company o and family as we watched the waves lap against worn rocks or in building transient sand-castles. When I moved to a countr natural flavour was almost completely discarded in favour of m let-friendly options, I observed that other children were driv point of fanaticism by the sight of ready-made goods such as fl cupcakes and flatbreads smothered in tomato sauce and chee

My parents probably assimilated faster than I, as they were no quick to offer me the oceanic fruits I had revelled in during the of my lifetime, instead shoving crisps and candy in my directio form of hasty distraction. Suddenly, oysters were like pearl nec luxury my parents could not afford.

My next meaningful encounter with oysters came several yea had first moved to Canada. As I got older, my eye had becom into the culinary world in a way it had not been before. Now, to satisfy my hunger. Flavour had morphed into something be existed either in the realm of pleasant and unpleasant; it ha countless layers working both individually and cooperatively an experience that transcended nostalgia. I joined a cooking cl a veteran cook, whom I militaristically addressed as “Chef” de being asked to refer to him (in what I saw as a wholly unprofe manner) as “Danny”.

o longer e first half on as some cklaces: a

ars after I me drawn w, I cooked eyond what ad depth, y to create lub lead by espite often essional

Chef, whose light-hearted banter warmed up even the coldest of his students and whose debate was fierce enough to rival any open flame, taught me almost everything I know about cooking. Most importantly (for this story’s sake), he re-introduced into my life the magical crustaceans that are oysters.

PROSE AND POETRY

ss to freshsconnection . Sri Lankan y whatever my vice and of friends r competed ry where more walven to the fluorescent ese.

53

e had the -encrusted avour of an not simply hite grains. ne liquid, hes seek matics. An savoury ery flesh. me adds a timulates a of the citenough to y eyes.

One cool, autumn evening, Chef hauled into the kitchen a wooden crate lined with newspaper and filled to the brim with a variety of aquatic produce. Filets of cod wrapped in parchment rested against bundles of gleaming dark mussels and chalky clams, while the star of the show, a small bucket of ribbed, dirty oyster shells, perched prominently atop the lesser denizens of the crate.

I had never shucked an oyster before, but I presumed the task at hand would be relativity easy. To write that I misjudged my abilities or, at the very least, the complexity of the maneuver would be an understatement.

Leading up to that day, my experience with oysters had been limited to the ingestion of the prepared creature, shucked into half-shell, cleaned, and presented artfully on a bed of densely packed salt like fruit ripe for the picking. Never before had I been forced to confront an oyster in its most primal state, clamped tightly in fear and covered in grime-encrusted, sharp barnacles and ridges.

Chef made it look easy as he took apart the creature into a familiar form.

He roughly washed the crustacean in cold water, before grabbing an oyster shucking knife in his other hand and placing its tip into the base of the oyster’s shell hinge. He wrenched the knife into the hinge, twisting the tip of the blade as far into the narrow space as possible before levering the knife upwards. The hinge was pried open with a pop, but the shell did not give way just yet. He continued to slide the knife under the top shell, scraping apart the singular tendon still holding the flat top shell to the oyster’s basin-like bottom shell. Finally, he revealed the delicious creature lying beneath, immersed in a transparent fluid.

My own first attempt at performing the same task was met w cess. I broke part of the top shell in my effort to pry it open, u oyster covered in debris from my mishap. I tried optimistical but found, unsurprisingly, that the delicate flavour was oversh the gloom of my failure as shards of oyster shell and barnac my teeth. Chef took pity on me and gave me another chance ing the same gorgeous product as his, but this time my hand allowing precious savoury liquid to trickle out of the opening The result was good, but nowhere as great as it would have b of the oyster’s flavour-defining liquid would have been retain end, it took me several more tries and multiple cuts and bliste was able to obtain an oyster even slightly similar in quality to enjoyed so frivolously in my childhood.

When I was a child, I had fallen prey to the common misconc the oyster is delicious by mere virtue of existence. The fact of is that the only thing actually separating an oyster from any o the bottom of the ocean in terms of taste is technique. Techni allows a chef or even a fisherman to effectively open an oyste something which can be quickly underestimated into a delica as a luxury.

There is, in fact, a reason as to why the ready-made goods we to eat in this day and age do not fulfil us in the same way a hom meal does, and that reason is that they lack the care and love t through the technique that is applied to a meal. Human effort nique, which is infinitely more magical than that of a machine requires thought and emotion.

I never realized as a child that the creature I was relishing, alth from the sea, had been nurtured by a person into becoming th towards which I accorded so much value. I bled and (embarr enough) cried in order to achieve what I considered a beautifu the half-shell and I was all the more proud of my creation bec During the time when I lived in my childhood fantasy world, I understood that behind every amazing facet of life and of food is technique, which is the pain-staking process, skill and pract combine to allow mediocre objects to turn into art.

55

with ill-sucunveiling an lly to eat it, hadowed by cle scraped at producd slipped, in the shell. been if some ned. In the ers before I those I had

PROSE AND POETRY

ception that f the matter other rock at ique is what er, to elevate acy valued

are so quick me-cooked transmitted is the teche because it

hough born he substance rassingly ul oyster on cause of it. had not yet d that there tice which

Illustration by Paule Racicot

LE VENIN DES HOMMES Fiction

Written by Sara Boubekri Illustrated by Laurence Breton-Turbide “Le Venin des hommes” was an honorable mention in the 2nd annual SPACE writing competition in the prose category.

Sara Boubekri is a 1st year student in Enriched Health Sciences.

Laurence Breton-Turbide is a 1st year Illustration student.

This work explores how techniques, their invention and use are inex linked with our physical, psychological and ethical realities as huma At the same time as surgeons may be devoting years to mastering skills that could improve our quality of life, physicists and engineers using their knowledge and skill to design nuclear weapons. In other techniques amplify our human will, for good and for ill, and are dev meet our goals. As such, they can also amplify the impact of our a

À l’aurore, des cris résonnèrent dans le silence de la plaine, p en eux les déchirures d’un combat intransigeant. Ce tumulte frances m’était familier : il m’avait accompagné depuis le pre de mon expatriation. Dès que j’eus obtenu mon doctorat en c générale, je décidai de mettre mes habiletés médicales au pro population du Manghanu, victime d’une guerre civile impitoy clans belligérants s’entredéchiraient pour gagner l’amour d’u Dieu auquel ils attribuaient des noms différents; que de la ha résultait. Le confit dévastateur sévissait déjà depuis deux ans, réconciliation des deux peuples tardait à germer: ceux-ci dev d’abord faire l’apprentissage de la honte.

Aux limites du village, l’horizon enflammé cracha une silhou issante qui progressait avec peine vers mon hôpital de brousse tivement, je courus lui porter secours, empoignant au passag trousse de premiers soins ainsi que la planche de plastique qu office de civière. C’était un adolescent—si ce terme a toujours dans un monde qui n’en a plus—vêtu d’un uniforme de solda humectait la terre sèche d’un liquide rougeâtre à chacun de s me fallut arriver à sa hauteur pour réaliser que cette saignée p source d’un enfant évanescent que le jeune homme transporta dos.

« Aidez-moi! C’est mon frère, Titu! Il a été blessé dans une em menée par les Rebelles! » sanglotait l’adolescent.

Ce dernier m’aida à déposer le corps menu sur la civière. Le pe avoir huit ans. Il arborait les mêmes atours que son ainé.

uette gĂŠme. Instincge une ui faisait s un sens at, qui ses pas. Il prenait sa ait sur le

mbuscade

etit devait

PROSE AND POETRY

portant e de soufemier jour chirurgie ofit de la yable. Les un mĂŞme aine en , mais la vraient

57

xtricably an beings. g precise s could be r words, veloped to actions.

« Chef m’a dit qu’il fallait continuer le combat, que je devais le parce qu’il n’avait aucune chance de survivre... »

J’examinai la cuisse du blessé. L’impact d’une balle y avait laiss plaie béante qui faisait craindre une hémorragie mortelle.

« Mais je ne pouvais pas…JE NE POUVAIS PAS! J’ai désobéi aux Oh, Titu! Je n’ai pas su te protéger. Pardonne-moi… Pardonne-

Je dus déchirer le pantalon militaire de l’enfant afin d’en garr jambe. La pression ainsi exercée diminua le saignement, mais restait inquiétant. L’artère fémorale avait sûrement été touch malheur! Il fallait agir vite. Le petit respirait. Son pouls était Tenter l’opération d’extraction de la balle sur place : c’était n espoir. Mes gants chirurgicaux enfilés, j’introduisis mes doigt les fibres musculaires des quadriceps. Rapidement, je localisa étranger. De la main gauche, je sortis une pince effilée de la t secours. D’un mouvement minutieux, j’extirpai la munition d déchiquetée.

En observant la pièce de métal, je fus prise d’un effarement qu tétanisé : l’ogive de la balle était enduite de sybrilum, un redou son qui, déjà, nécrosait la dernière parcelle de candeur de la n

e laisser 59

sé une

roter la s celui-ci hée. Quel constant. notre seul ts entre ai le corps trousse de de la chair

ui me laissa utable poination.

PROSE AND POETRY

x ordres…

-moi… »

TEACH ME HOW Poetry

Written by Yara Ajeeb Illustrated by Samira Ashian “Teach Me How” was the winner of the 2nd annual SPACE writing competition in the poetry category.

Thoughts scrambled on the edge of each sheet Letters too rebellious to form words My pen shakes with anticipation; greedily wanting to fill these pages with ink Each word I write translates to something incomprehensible And my emotions refuse to abide by the rules of literature Want to jump from one stanza to the other So freely moving Reminds me of a time when the sun rising meant a new day

A time when my first steps meant a new beginning And I travel to my past through old poetry Written on lined paper With every line, I hear a teacher’s praise With every stanza, I remember a teacher’s remark And through these immortal pages I see my words grow with the growth of my bones Each word I write is crafted by previous knowledge Each poem I finalize is manufactured by an acquired skill Hold my mother’s hand till I walk by myself Observe the world till I create my own And I write these words the way my teachers taught me Walk on this earth the way my grandmother taught me Smile with kindness the way my mother taught me And beneath the mess of letters and words There’s an organized chaos of sentiments Thoughts scrambled on the center of each page Letters dancing with words My pen shakes with anticipation; delicately wanting to fill these pages with feeli Each word I write translates to something applicable And my emotions are tamed by the rules of literature

61 PROSE AND POETRY

k

ings

Yara Ajeeb is a 2nd year student in the ALC program.

Samira Ashian is a 1st year Illustration student.

DUSK AND DAWN Poetry

Written by Rei Stephen Sison Illustrated by Lauriane Carignan “Dusk & Dawn” was an honorable mention in the 2nd annual SPACE writing competition in the poetry category.

Dusk (Top to Bottom) Living is meaningless You should never think that Life is a beautiful gift Discard such deception as atrocity Future defined by your past alone An influence to keep within Growth is worth having and fighting for An idea for the naive Dreams are unreachable expectations Accept and never feel defeat To show comprehensive appreciation Is a privilege of no use Inner regret held cautiously A thought of the tenacious Owning every second this life gives will only dishearten you Fearing your fears These are the absolute approaches to life Give up on your dreams And never Accept yourself Dawn (Bottom to Top)

63 PROSE AND POETRY

Rei Stephen Sison is a student in General Social Science.

Lauriane Carignan is a mixed media artist who is currently studying Illustration at Dawson College. She aspires to be a fulltime illustrator and concept artist.

PARTICLE KNOWLEDGE Poetry

Written by Romy Surprenant Illustrated by Uliana Gilbo

There is a rhythm to this existence A pulse A beat Vibration It runs through my bones holds up my flesh and tells me we are but waves Particles of being Unexplainable Irreconcilable I want to bite into its beat rip apart its knowledge destroy meaning, divide it until it cannot be cradled in numbers, or laid over my own geometry spread out helpless before my hungry hands There is a shape to this existence And my eyes do not dare look away

65 PROSE AND POETRY

Romy Surprenant is a 2nd year student in Liberal Arts.

Uliana Gilbo is a 1st year Illustration student.

67

FEATURES INTERVIEWS

A PIONEER FOR PUBLIC HEALT Written by Nadia Trudel Illustrated by Francis Esperanza

Nadia Trudel is a 2nd year student in Liberal Arts.

Francis Esperanza is a 1st year Illustration student.

Sara Josephine Baker (1873-1945) was an American physician for the Department of Health in New York City. She is known twice tracked down Mary Mallon, famously known as Typhoi Irish cook who was the first person in the U.S. identified as an tomatic carrier of the pathogen associated with Typhoid feve she was infected but displayed no symptoms, and she was pr have infected 51 people, 3 of whom died.

But Baker was best known for her contributions to public heal ularly for children and infants in poor urban immigrant commu was the first director of a children’s public health agency and ga publicity when she told a New York Times reporter it was, “si safer to be soldier in the trenches of France than to be a baby b United States.” Although her work in public health was not very it was invaluable, and a display of how basic education on he hygiene could drastically improve people’s health and save liv

Health departments such as Baker’s were a response to the ep infectious diseases such as smallpox, cholera, and yellow fev prompted the creation of these organizations in the 19th cent departments started massive sanitation projects to bring clea cities, as well as to institute efficient sewage disposal, garbag tion and disposal, vaccination programs, isolation hospitals, a (Leavitt 609-610). Most 19th century work had rested on the m theory that dirt caused disease, so it emphasized keeping cit People believed that vapours called miasma (which is ancien “pollution”) rose from the soil and spread diseases, often bel come from rotting vegetation and foul water, especially in swa urban ‘ghettos’. Night air was considered dangerous in many cultures, leading people to avoid breathing it in and keeping and doors shut.

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The medical community was divided on the explanation for the proliferation of disease. There were “contagionists” who thought disease spread through physical contact, and others who believed that disease was already present in the air in the form of miasma. Physician John Snow’s study of the 1854 Broad Street Cholera Outbreak in Westminster London studied the causes and hypothesised that germ-contaminated water was the source rather than miasma. This discovery influenced public health and the improvement of sanitation facilities starting in the mid 19th century.

In second half of the 19th century, French microbiologist Louis Pasteur and German microbiologist Robert Koch revolutionized medical theory about the causes of epidemic diseases. The etiology (study of the cause) of diseases was no longer of the entire environment; it was narrowed down to the examination of microscopic germs. Bacteriology affected public health theory, practices, and consequently the work of Sarah Josephine Baker.

At the beginning of Baker’s career in the early 20th century, the infant mortality rate was so high, 1500 babies routinely died of dysentery every week during the summer. At the turn of the century, “Hell’s Kitchen” was considered the worst slum in New York City, with up to 4,500 people dying every week. Preventive medicine barely existed at the time and hygiene standards were vastly different. (Typhoid Mary likely contaminated people because she did not wash her hands with soap before touching or preparing food.) Additionally, the Health Department was allegedly corrupt and ineffective. In Baker’s own words, “It reeked of negligence and stale tobacco smoke and slacking.” (Baker 56).

In contrast to many of her colleagues who emphasised laboratory-based public health, Baker focused on preventive health measures and the social context of disease. Baker tested her theories about preventative medicine in 1908, with an experiment in a lower-class neighbourhood; all new mothers in the district were visited at least once by a nurse

who instructed them in basic healthy-newborn care, which e aged bathing, how to keep them from getting hot, how to kee from suffocating in their sleep, suitable ventilation and cloth breast-feeding of infants to avoid commercial unpasteurized a result there was a decrease of more than a thousand neona while infant mortality elsewhere had not changed (M.N.S.).

She also licensed midwives (and consequently weeded out inc caregivers); previously most midwives had received no form and often relied on folk medicine. Baker established “baby h tions” which distributed milk, and established “Little Mother which taught older siblings basic principles of nutrition and better care for their siblings at a time when they were often t caretakers while their parents worked. She systematically im health education reforms into schools, worked to make sure e had its own doctor and nurse, and ensured that children wer checked for infections. This system worked so well that once diseases like head lice and the eye infection trachoma becam non-existent.

Besides improving the community’s education regarding heal was also innovative in several regards. She risked her profess utation by modifying milk content according to the weight of babies, a tactic that proved nutritionally effective, although ag prevailing pediatric opinion of the time. Baker invented an inf made out of water, calcium carbonate, lactose, and cow milk enabled mothers to go to work so they could support their fam helped design such items as receptacles for drugs to fight blin birth and patterns for hygienic baby garments (subsequently u McCall Pattern Company).

Baker aided in the prevention of infant blindness, a scourge c gonorrhoea bacteria transmitted during birth. To prevent bli babies were given drops of silver nitrate in their eyes. Before the bottles in which the silver nitrate was kept would often b unsanitary, or would contain doses that were so highly conc that they would do more harm than good. Baker designed an small containers made out of antibiotic beeswax that each hel dose of silver nitrate, so the medication would stay at a known concentration and could not be contaminated. Blindness subs decreased from 300 babies per year to 3 per year within 2 ye

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Although not widely known, Baker and the techniques she u an important impact in the public’s health education, health offered to the disenfranchised, the development of health dep and community outreach in medicine. Perhaps part of the re is lesser known can be attributed to her gender, and the fact work centered largely on helping children from poor immigr ilies, so it was seen as less legitimate or important. In her ow autobiography, Fighting For Life, Baker herself at times show towards the people she helped. Nevertheless by the time Bak government in 1923, 48 states had a Bureau of Child Health, had implemented versions of her school health program, and City had the lowest infant mortality rate of any major Americ (Parry). She detailed her work in her autobiography, conside witty, engaging, and thought-provoking even today. Baker w only one who helped to advance and modernize public healt time, but she is remarkable in her approach to medicine. In a seeing Baker as a revolutionary, we can also better understan her experience where public health was at that time, where it before then, and how it has progressed since.

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DO DISABILITY ACCOMMODAT UNFAIR ADVANTAGE––OR LEVE Written by Eve DeLavergne Illustrated by Lou Deziel

Eve DeLavergne is a 2nd year ALC student in the Studio Arts Profile.

Her goal is to pursue studies in Art History and, as a hobby, she loves to paint.

Lou Deziel is a 1st year Illustration student.

Imagine this: it’s the beginning of a new semester at Dawson a starting to settle into your classes. You already have an in-cla exam coming up soon and you’re feeling the pressure. Thankfu this really nice guy in your class who usually sits next to your one that was never specifically assigned to you but will make strangely resentful if someone sits in it before you do, so you a conversation about the exam, secretly hoping that he will tel he’s just as unprepared as you are. To your surprise, he starts t about how he won’t be writing it in class, but rather in a separa where he will have extra time to complete it, plus a computer check to write it on. You might wonder, why does he need th things in the first place? He seems normal to you, so why sho write the exam the way it was intended to be written so that is graded equally? You wouldn’t be the only one wondering, a teachers at Dawson are asking the same questions.

If a student is registered with Dawson’s Student Access Ability (SAAC), they might have access to extra exam time, computers more. These extras are called “accommodations” and are pro students with documented disabilities, ranging from sensory impairments to mental health disorders, as well as temporar brought on by accidents or illnesses. Every case is different a are less clear-cut than others. In many instances, it can be di identify why a student might need certain accommodations, can cause classmates and teachers alike to question the valid accommodations and the student’s motives. Is it possible tha students are taking advantage of these services to boost their breeze through their studies? After having done a bit of inves I have discovered a whole new perspective on the question.

Before beginning my investigative journey out in the world, I calculated decision from the comfort of my couch to take to t for some much-needed statistics. I wanted to find out if disab students have different grades than college students without Turns out that, about a decade ago, Dawson College held a 12

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TIONS GIVE STUDENTS AN EL THE PLAYING FIELD?

that sought to answer this exact question, which was then published in the Canadian Journal of Counselling as “Academic Performance of College Students With and Without Disabilities: An Archival Study”. The study had this to say about the subject: “Results showed that students with and without disabilities, including learning disabilities, had virtually identical grades and graduation outcomes. However, students with disabilities undertook lighter course loads and took approximately one semester longer to graduate”. Keeping in mind that disabled students recorded in this study would have necessarily disclosed their disability to the school and have been referred to the SAAC for support as per standard procedures, disabled students are succeeding just as well as other students, just under different conditions. It’s no surprise then that disabled students use accommodations, as they mainly serve as condition-modifiers, or rather personalized ways to meet the student’s pace.

With this new knowledge in hand, I decide to visit the SAAC directly to get more answers. The first person I meet is Christine Bustamante, one of the centre’s Adapted Services Counselors. Her office, near the back of the SAAC reception area, is cozy, to say the least: earthy-toned decorations hang from the walls, plants can be seen in every corner, and the whole space is softened by low lighting. During the course of our discussion, she shares with me that most students registered with their services use the exam centre, which can offer students extra time on tests or just a modified, quieter space, as well as notetakers in class.

However, the services that students can access aren’t the same across the board. “Every accommodation is decided based on the student’s needs”, Christine says. “Even if two people may present with the same diagnosis, it doesn’t necessarily mean that they will receive the same accommodations”. When asked about why Dawson offers accommodations, she concisely tells me that “accommodations are there to create an equitable environment so that the student can succeed in class and throughout their college experience”. As good as the reasoning sounds, some teachers aren’t entirely convinced. “Teachers, at times, can resist some of the accommodations that have been approved”, she reveals.

The sentiments hardly ever last, however. “In my experience, once we

communicate with the teacher and we explain the accommod it looks like, why it’s being used, usually teachers come around ing them in class”, Christine adds. Her explanation for resistan teachers is simple: “A lot of times, if teachers are hesitant or re has a lot to do with misinformation, or maybe just not underst it’s related to the course”.

After my meeting with Christine, I am referred to Rosie Arcuri Adapted Services Counselor who also happens to be in charge technology, which Rosie later explains as being a library of too with various barriers, such as reading and writing difficulties. lot of history with disability support services and accommoda legally blind, which means that she has severely limited vision to see forms and read magnified-text, and was registered with when she was a student at Dawson. When I first met Rosie, I im noticed that her eyes do not focus on my face, which clearly her limited vision to me. Unlike Christine’s office, Rosie’s office in the SAAC’s study lab, is bare, save for her large desktop com a red fidget spinner by her side, and is brightly lit by fluoresce When I ask her about resistance to accommodations from tea shares with me that a lot of issues are based around technolog is some concern with using assistive technology in the classroo cifically with recording, using computers and phones. There’s with giving the material in Powerpoint format rather than PDF it in advance rather than after like they normally do”. Addition tells me that there are cases of teachers getting frustrated with that use accommodations, such as having a notetaker, and the classes. Situations like these cause negative impressions, as SA sellors then have to step in and find a middle ground between and the student, and the teacher might become more resistant of notetakers in the future.

Continuing on the topic of resistance from teachers, Rosie id majorly controversial accommodation from her experience: “ aids are a huge [problem], that’s where there’s concern abou and whether the student really needs one”. What are memory might ask? “If a student has a very low working memory scor 25%,] then we will generally give memory aid for tests”, Rosie “It might be a formula sheet, an abbreviation to jog the memo of that nature”. It might seem like a huge advantage, but Rosi that circumstances are key: “To access the memory aid, there severe need. Along with a low working memory score, there n rationale for it, like [for example] if they’re spending so much to remember a formula that they’re not focusing on how to use mula. There needs to be a certain barrier for them in their clas

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of their memory and we need documented reasons to give the memory aid”. Not just anybody can use this sort of accommodation and Rosie assures me that she is cautious about how it is used. “It’s not supposed to be the answer, but something that will help you to get where you need to be without giving an unfair advantage”, she says.

Before wrapping up my time with Rosie, I ask her about her personal experience with accommodations at school and, later, in the workplace.

She recounts to me that, as she progressed in school, she required less and less accommodations and that in college and university, like many other disabled students, she took a reduced load. In regards to work, Rosie confesses to me that work has been harder for her. “I know where to go for the accommodations, but then you also have productivity expectations, fitting in and frustrations”, she says. When asked if she has felt unequal with her colleagues in the past, she shakes her head.

“I mean, what do you think of as equality?”, Rosie counters. “At the end of the day, we all get the same salary, we all have our own challenges.

For me, it’s my vision, but for somebody else, it might be that they have to take time off for the kids or they’ve never gotten used to technology.

It really depends on you. Everything is about perception. I’ve led 300+ workshops, I have lots of strengths, I just know what I can and can’t do”.

Rosie had revealed to me that accommodations can help with certain barriers, but that at the end of the day, challenges are unavoidable.

What about the students currently using Dawson’s disability ac dations, however? In search of some more personal perspectiv with Joseph-Alexandre Darrous, one of the SAAC’s Special Ed Technicians specializing in support for people with ASD, Autism Disorder, who introduces me to two of his students, Alex and Alex has been registered with the SAAC for over two years, fol referral from his English teacher at the end of his first semest Kaliope has been registered since the beginning of her time a about five years ago. Both of them have opted for extended tim tests, with occasional access to a computer with spellcheck, a notetakers in the past. Kaliope specifically mentions that she h notetakers for attention-related reasons: “I’ve had notetakers because I’m really bad at listening and taking notes at the sam attention just cannot be split”. When asked about working in a environment, she tells me that when students are misbehavin teacher stops the class to focus on one student, she has a lot with bringing her attention back to the content of the class a

When I specifically ask about how accommodations have help and Alex, Kaliope tells me that having access to the SAAC exa has been a very effective accommodation for her. “Test-takin because I’m in a quieter space, which is awesome for concentr says. “The environment makes like 90% of the difference. It’s e ing when you can just sit down and focus, there’s nobody arou your environment monstrous”. Alex also expresses gratitude fo centre. “It has helped me be less stressed for my tests, I don’t worry as much about taking too much time”, he shares. When a his experience with the SAAC as a whole, Alex, a man of few w “Now I don’t feel like I have as much trouble in school”. As fo she is grateful for the support of the SAAC and Joseph’s involv particular, for helping her put schooling into perspective. She f meets with Joseph in his office so that they can create learning nizational strategies for her. “Having a place where I can calm look through things in detail like I’m supposed to do is a godsen says about Joseph’s office. Gesturing to Joseph, she jokes: “If clone him, that would be great”.

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Kaliope has experienced some resistance from teachers towards her accommodation requests in the past. She believes that teachers might be uncooperative based on a lack of understanding of her condition. “I find that most teachers, because they aren’t really familiar with autism in general, they often don’t believe that you need accommodations, they want you to prove in class that you can’t focus,” shares Kaliope. “Until they see evidence, they don’t really believe you, and once they see it, then they understand”. Because autism isn’t usually a visible disability, Kaliope feels like she has to prove to people that she is autistic. “I get asked by people “What do you mean you’re autistic?” and I don’t know how to explain it”, she shrugs.

In short, taking advantage of the SAAC’s accommodations would be a difficult task, as you would need a documented disability just to get your foot in the door, plus the support that you receive would be determined by professional counsellors with extensive experience with disabilities.

From the multiple testimonies above, those who use accommodations have a real need for them. Whether certain students take advantage of disability support is not a closed case, but one thing seems to be clear, as shown by the study on grades, SAAC's mission and the experiences of those using its services: accommodations are not a way to get ahead of others. Recalling Rosie’s words, “we all have our own challenges . . .

Everything is about perception”.

FISHY Written by Yaani Dinu Mahapatuna Illustrated by Jean-Pierre Dussan

Yaani Dinu Mahapatuna is a 1st year Liberal Arts student.

Jean-Pierre Dussan is a 1st year Illustration student.

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Imagine red. Seriously . . . Think of a vivid shade of cherry, so bright it borders on the fluorescent. Now, visualize scarlet liquid. Pools and pools of it, flowing lazily across a surface. Imagine deep, red fluid trickling out in steady streams onto your plate. If you’re thinking about blood, don’t be embarrassed by your vampiric tendencies (It happens to the best of us). If you’re thinking about ketchup; then you and I have a lot more in common with the ancient Romans than we might have originally thought. Modern-day humans aren’t the only ones with their minds on condiments; in fact the ancient Romans might have been the sauciest of us all.

Before you, dear reader, start questioning the sanity of this (only mildly frenzied) author, I implore you to endure the incoming explanation as to how I arrived at my seemingly strange conclusion. Well, once upon a time, yours truly walked into her Greco-Roman Traditions class to find a table laid abundantly with what a group of Classics-obsessed teenagers classified as “Roman” food. As you might have already guessed, this feast consisted of bruised grapes, grape juice, grocery-store baguettes, and an incongruous, but hugely appreciated box of chocolate biscuits. My teacher was obliged (under the strict set of laws that teachers are bound to by blood oath) to turn this otherwise chaotic gathering of starved adolescents into a teachable moment, a stunt he accomplished masterfully with the aid of a documentary on Roman food and culture.

The documentary focused on ancient Roman meals, finding the majority of its comedic relief in trivializing the Romans for their scandalous use of (gasp) pepper and the all too unholy protein that is bull testicles. In actuality, most of the featured dishes were not too unusual, consisting of modern classics such as roasted leg of lamb, stewed vegetables, bread, cheese, and of course diluted wine. Yet, it was one particular dish that brought about the general outcry of my classmates in what I considered to be an unprecedented manner: Garum.

Garum was a popular Roman condiment, “used [...] more frequ salt, and [...] manufactured [...] across the Roman Empire” (Edw It was a sauce made using whole fatty fish and/or their blood a These were then brined and fermented to create the salty conc is garum (Edwards).

My classmates gasped and groaned at the sight of garum, at th tion of its production and the ingredients it employed. I blam reactions on the documentarians, who were of no particular se the general concept of garum as they winced at an exaggerate clay pot filled with fish offals.

While my peers tried to hold back the contents of their stomac mouth watered. “Garum is just like ketchup,” I thought. It’s ju ketchup or soya sauce or marmalade. “In fact,” I said out loud t of nauseous Canadians, “Garum is basically just fish sauce!” Th ment aroused an array of responses from the approval of my Asians to looks of disbelief. “Ewww. No thanks,” someone sai rolled my eyes.

In my opinion, garum is basically just an antiquated fish sau essential addition to most contemporary Asian dishes, and cu experts agree. Robert Curtis states for the American Journal o Nutrition, “Romans enjoyed numerous foods that are identifi as containing significant amounts of natural umami substanc frequently used fish sauce as a condiment in their recipes. Fi imparted to Roman dishes a moderately salty, slightly fishy ta combines synergistically with other foods to create the umam (Curtis 7125). Therefore, contrary to popular contemporary beli was not a disgusting fish brew that the Romans drank by the ga a mild umami-enhancer used in addition to other ingredients i recipes, similar to how ketchup is used today in Western socie

When I first came to Canada, I had ketchup for the first time. I ketchup, not the fermented tomato sauce that my home count loved to pawn off as the real thing. A testament to my adorat sheer amount of ketchup that has consumed my life since I firs the sweet condiment. Nothing edible in my vicinity was safe addition of ketchup; shepherd’s pie obtained an additional la swam in puddles of tangy sauce and pizza doubled in tomato This continued until eighth grade, when a deeply-concerned admonishments curbed my addiction. The point being, as an im experiencing for the first time a product that had been almost foreign to me for my decade-long existence, I did not turn awa prospect of trying something new. I owe this attribute to my pa

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like many other immigrant parents, were so involved in the task of settling into a new home that they made certain their children reciprocated the acceptance they so desired from others. My sister and I were never forced to enjoy something, but we were obliged to give everything a try so that we could form educated views.

When I noticed the general reaction to garum, I could not help but feel that while society has made progress in theoretically accepting other cultures and their foods, it has failed in instilling within people the desire to actually try something new and form their own fact-based opinions. In the age of the internet, it is easy for one to believe they have acquired first-hand knowledge of something when all they have usually done is acknowledge a secondary source. The downfall of this kind of belief-system is that far fewer people go outside and actually try anything for the sake of trying anymore. Thus, we are vulnerable to believing the first website we stumble across with little to no scepticism.

Can you blame us? It’s all too easy to not want to put in effort in a world where the need for human effort is being diminished with each passing day. However, the only aspect of humanity which distinguishes us from animals is our curiosity; our inherent lust for knowledge which drives us to search, to try and finally to know.

Taste is one sense that is uncompromisingly subjective. Take for example, durian; considered by many to be the stinkiest fruit in the world and inedible, others go to special markets in Asia for all-you-can-eat durian banquets. Some of my family members eat questionably large amounts of durian, while others cannot stand to be in the same room where it is being eaten. Thus, I present to you, a fruit which upon tasting presents a unique flavour profile to each and every individual.

Incredulously enough, I have seen my classmates consume m (by virtue of existence) contain fish sauce like pad thai and ra Yet, the moment they watched one video discussing a condim assumed was completely foreign to them, they wholehearted with the documentary’s host that garum is disgusting. These treacherous leaps to weak conclusions scare me, because we world where your opinion can be all-consuming. Whether in or in the classroom, I would like to think that the world would scary place (or at least debates would be a less pointless), if w to inform ourselves through first-hand knowledge. After all, you know what you haven’t tried?

WORKS CITED Curtis, Robert. “Garum: Fish Sauce Made in Pompeii.” Pompeii: Food and Drink, pompeii-food-and-drink.org/ garum.htm. Accessed 8 January 2020.

Edwards, Phil. “Ancient Romans Had Yummy Condiments. Here's a Recipe.” Vox, Vox, 26 July 2016, http:// www.vox.com/2016/7/26/12278742/ roman-fish-sauce-garum-liquamen.

Accessed 8 January 2020.

“The Supersizers Eat... Ancient Rome (Part 2).” Performance by Giles Coren, and Sue Perkins, YouTube, Silver River Productions, 2009, http://www. youtube.com/watch?v=9cn9Z4-zc1s.

Accessed 8 January 2020

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SKAM Written by James Stewart Illustrated by Fabiana Jolin-Campos

James Stewart is a 2nd year Liberal Arts student Fabiana Jolin-Campos is a 1st year Illustration student

It’s midday at Dawson College, and my friends and I are eatin Oliver’s. All of a sudden, my phone beeps as a notification pop screen. Smiling, I pull out my earbuds and tune out of the con for a moment to watch something. But within a few minutes down my phone and returned to interacting with the people a This kind of brief disappearance on my part is something my have become used to when a Skam season is airing, although many people, do not entirely understand why the show is so i to me, and my fixation on watching a series over and over in languages.

Skam is originally a Norwegian teen drama released by NRK, w public broadcaster in Norway) about students who attend Har a real secondary school in Norway. The show aired four seas 2015 to 2017, each with a different main character (but who all each other's seasons), colloquially referred to as “mains.” Skam format is unique; it was released in “clips” throughout the wee individual scenes in real time. At the end of the week, these cl be compiled into an episode. For example, if the character w dinner on Monday at 6:05 pm, the clip would be released on M 6:05 pm. Each clip begins with Skam’s now signature yellow tim that shows the day of the week and time. Additionally, each ch had an Instagram account where pictures and stories would throughout the season, and the network would release screen text messages between characters, offering complementary in on what the characters were doing in between scenes. In 2018 other broadcasters in different countries began to acquire the make remakes of the series in different countries. There are c remakes in France, Belgium, Germany, the Netherlands, Italy, t States, and Spain, and broadcasters in other countries have e interest in making their own remakes. It is hard to know wher in order to explain Skam’s success, and how it became the int phenomenon that it did. However, I believe that unarguably niques that Skam has employed have lent themselves to the en impact that it has had: the unique storytelling format and the a portrayal of teenage life.

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Skam is a Norwegian word that means shame. Each main has struggle and their own “shame” that they attempt to overcom out their season, and these often connect the show with view have experienced similar struggles. In the original, the first s about Eva, a girl who struggles with loneliness, discovering w as an individual and the importance of friendship. The second about Noora, a girl who falls in love and who struggles with m her morals and principles while being with someone who has beliefs than her. Season three is about Isak, who struggles with ized homophobia while coming to terms with his sexuality aft Even. Finally, season four is about Sana and her relationship faith as a Muslim teenager in Norway. The show also includes other topics like mental illness, sexual assault, eating disorde en’s empowerment, and more. Although the remakes someti changes to the storylines, themes such as these are always at front of Skam. One viewer that I spoke to, Juul, shared that “ me feel accepted when I didn’t in high school. I understand m others better” and another that “The Muslim [representation] perfect obviously but it literally means the world to me. Now can I find it done this well where Sana is a person and not a vi she talks about Islam . . . was just so spot on.” Particularly, Isak connected with a lot of queer youth, and many individuals wh shared that his story helped them embrace their own sexuali out. Personally, I first watched Druck, the German adaptation show, because of their portrayal of the Even character as a tra boy. As a queer trans man, I never saw myself in teenage relat on screen growing up, and Druck was one of the first times t

It is this realistic portrayal of teenage life that strikes so man Skam. The dialogue and interactions of the characters seem re authentic in a world of TV shows like Riverdale. Julie Andem, t of the show, spent six months interviewing Norwegian teenag writing (Leszkiewicz, New Statesman). As well, the actors are agers themselves, something practically unheard of in Hollyw where high school students are nearly always played by adults does their age add to their accurate portrayal of teenage chara allowed Andem to consult the actors throughout the show as w teenage dialogue written by adults can feel completely inaccu Skam offered something that teenagers actually saw themselv

Despite the spectacular content, I believe that a big part of Sk cess, as well as the incredible community of fans it has create to the airing format. I watched the first three seasons of the o any normal TV show, as they already aired, and so season fou first time that I was able to be a part of the live clip-dropping

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s their own me throughwers who season is who she is d season is maintaining s different h internalter meeting with her many ers, womimes make t the fore“Skam made myself and ] is . . . not where else illain. How k’s season ho I spoke to ity or come n of the ansgender tionships that I did.

It is important to note that no version of Skam subtitles their clips, episodes and content in other languages, and so it is fans who subtitle the content within hours of it dropping and share it with the international community. It is hard to describe the feeling of being part of this online community during an airing season; after every clip there is a flurry of discussion, whether that be excitement, sadness, or simply theorizing about what will happen next. One fan, Lorra, shared that “The fact that we never know when a clip will drop is both nerve-wracking and incredibly exciting. You never know what you're going to get. It's absolutely revolutionary” and Juul that “As someone who loves film and innovative filmmaking I think the timed clips are interesting. It makes the wait shorter. Yet it feels way longer.” Juul also spoke about how the characters’ social media accounts further enhanced Skam’s storytelling, saying that “Giving characters social media fleshes them out as characters. You can see who they are on their own and how they present themselves to others.” Translators of the original would typically share translated clips through Google drive links, which earned the Skam fandom the nickname “the google drive fandom,” a testament to how integral this show’s format was to how it was appreciated by fans. Skam was originally simply created for Norwegian teenagers, but through the love fans had for the show and for sharing it with others who did not speak Norwegian, it grew into an international phenomenon with fans everywhere.

Through their usage of techniques such as releasing the show and the dedication to telling a story about teenagers accurate creators of Skam created a television series that not only told a story, but also connected with fans on a deeper level. It is hard tify the impact Skam has had on those who watch it, but when out to fans and asked what Skam meant to them, I received re like “My world revolves around it” and “Truly everything a TV . . . mean to a person. It genuinely changed my life . . . that sou but it’s true.” Lorra explained how the show had helped her c as bisexual to her parents, and that she had “alt er love” tatto her wrist (an important line from Skam, meaning everything Another fan, Sera, shared that “To me, Skam is . . . a story of h acceptance (and self-acceptance), and recovery. It’s a story wh can see yourself in the characters and find yourself through t realization that things will get better.” I cannot help but agree. taught me so much about people and about the world, and I a grateful to it. So, when people ask me why I keep watching rem suppose that I should tell them that I think we are all drawn to and relatable stories, and that’s exactly what Skam is, told and an incredible way.

WORKS CITED Leszkiewicz, Anna. “Skam: how a cult teen drama has fans invading sets, stalking characters’ Instagrams and learning Norwegian.”

New Statesman, April, 2017. https:// www.newstatesman.com/culture/ tv-radio/2017/04/skam-how-cultteen-drama-has-fans-invadingsets-stalking-characters

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DEMOCRACY, IDEOLOGY AND TECHNIQUE Written by Olavo de Macedo Collins

Olavo de Macedo Collins is a 1st year Liberal Arts student who founded the newspaper Noir & Blanc at the Académie de Roberval, and who now works for the SPACE magazine as an editor in chief. During the summer (fingers crossed) Olavo is also a sailing instructor. He is driven by a vivid sense of curiosity for everything and anything, and his long-term goal is to improve the state of democracy in the world, whether through education, media, or state politics. Short term, however, he is just trying to get better at spelling.

Stop and ask anyone in the street if they embrace “democratic and they would probably say yes. But exactly how does one a democracy?

One way to look at democracy is to consider it as a system. Th lens, “democracy” would be one way in which power can be within a given population. This definition, however, does not When we think of democracy, we conceive of it as governanc the people, by all the people, for all the people.” But this abstr begs the question: how can a group of people go about makin racy a reality?

To answer it, we must conceive of democracy as a technique.

Saying that the people are to be the driving force for political p our societies is a catchy phrase for rallies, but who are the “Pe the one hand, fascist regimes chose to consider all but a slice o ritory’s inhabitants as the people; the rest would not be grante privilege. On the other hand, some communist ideologies inclu member of the international community into the people, thro ideal that humanity transcends borders, be they political or oth

In Canada, the “People” who are given political power throug were either born here, won the parental lottery, or have lived enough to lip-sync their allegiance to the British queen. Mos concur that tourists strolling by the Plateau Mont-Royal should for the borough mayor, but what about new immigrants who a sionately patriotic and who by all standards might make more choices than the average person who may take their rights for Where should we draw the line?

As we try to reach closer to the ideal of the “People’s power”, w to consider the way in which this would materialize. If you ask the People would not have to be consulted, as the dictatorship proletariat assured the transition towards true communism. In

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Athens, the only ones enjoying the freedoms and responsibilities of being citizens were free adult males. In Canada, the three levels of government regularly check in with registered voters every four years to make sure their will is respected. But are these the best techniques we can be using to achieve democracy?

Opposing himself to this entire paradigm was an anarchist called Mikhail Bakounine. Even while agreeing that the “People'' should govern themselves, he saw the idea of a “democratic government” as oxymoronic.

According to his line of thinking, the idea of a governing body would necessitate that another a group would be governed or, in his view, oppressed. He proposed the implementation of libertarian-socialism, brought about through a social revolution to end the “oppression,” among other charges, of both state and religion. Bakunin’s ideal society would provide equal opportunity to every person (hence the socialism) while still considering their individuality (hence the libertarianism—Bakunin was very opposed to some types of communism).

Democracy is a technique simply because we have to constantly develop our understanding of the “People” and how to grant them power. We continually do democracy by voting, signing petitions or attending zoom riots, but we also have to consider how well our approaches are succeeding in getting us closer to our ideal. * One way of reflecting on a person’s how-to knowledge is to think about the requirements necessary within that individual for them to effectuate a certain action of their own choosing. One might assume, by this way of thinking, that the practice of acquiring and carrying out a particular technique inherently emanates from the intentions of each individual, i.e., they have a goal, so they figure out how to do what they need to do in order to achieve it. However, what makes each person want to pursue their own particular goals in the first place? The answer often emanates from ideology.

A reflection on ideology draws our attention not so much to th technique but to the WHY. WHY does a person want to acquire kind of how-to knowledge? We all have a plethora of techniqu able to us which we could employ to myriad ends, but from ou we only ever really work on developing a few. For example, in we invest large amounts of effort into figuring out how to live ously in family units, a traditionally fundamental structure in o yet harmonious communal living is equally possible. In other w narrow the selection of possible paths available to us, often fo sometimes not even consciously considered, of ideology.

Techniques need to be transferred from one person to anothe not to be lost over time. A language, for example, competes w tongues for primacy among social groups. Throughout history guages have risen and fallen, these linguistic patterns have bee part pushed by the ways groups (and by extent the individual these groups) interact with each other. Because of Anglo-Saxo ideology, for example (the idea that the British Empire was rig its territorial expansion and cultural hegemony), English is now common language that people write, speak, and think in.

The ideologies that shape history and organize societies often the techniques that advance them to swell into popular use. Fo in our capitalistic system, techniques will become “big� if som make money off of them. Finding techniques for connecting to on the internet can be done in a garage, but the people who ha ically invented these techniques (the founders of Facebook, Eb etc.) have used them for profit. Within capitalism, techniques a that go against the profit-drive or which do not respond to the criteria will tend not to do as well.

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he HOW of e a certain ues availur roster, n general, harmoniour society, words, we or reasons, This prioritizing of some techniques over others is not specific to capitalism. In the works of the socialist realism art movement from the USSR under Stalin, the hand of a totalitarian government explicitly limited artistic subversion. This movement did not condone “art for art’s sake”. Rather, it presented a bright future for certain approaches to art under the ideology Stalin had forged. This type of art aimed to consolidate the narrative that was extremely present in other spheres of state-controlled society. We might tell ourselves now that Stalinism has ended, and that we are free regarding artistic techniques. But apart from the previous point that any artist is forced to make money under capitalism, I would argue that any piece of art emerges from a system of thought, an ideology, and inherently contains elements that will encourage this ideology’s continuity. From commercialized art under capitalism to stark portraits of Stalin, all art—and the techniques that support it—has to appeal to a bigger, ideological system if it wants to survive and propagate.

Considering what techniques successfully proliferate and which ones do not speaks volumes about the ideology of a society. This observation begs the question: what techniques are we currently preventing from emerging due to the ideology that guides our society? And if that ideology were to shift, what techniques would suddenly become meaningful to us, inspiring us to work to master them?

BED RUMINATIONS Written by Yaani Dinu Mahapatuna

Yaani Dinu Mahapatuna is a 1st year Liberal Arts student.

To understand the lonely state of life for an average CEGEP s the midst of this COVID-19 crisis, you need look no further th bedroom.

For the average CEGEP student, who still lives with their pare dependent, the bedroom is an involuntary reflection of our me As clinical psychologist (M.Ed) Michael J. Formica writes in Ps Today, “The environment with which we surround ourselves is a direct expression of where we are emotionally and psycho-s our global state of mind”.

Pre-pandemic, my bedroom, for me, was the only constant in schedule, where nights ended and mornings began. It was alw and tidy, kempt in a manner that a room only is when you are it. Most mornings I would rarely even register the outside wor through my motions like a drained robot, performing my rout the aid of one too many Tim Horton’s iced cappuccinos.

So, when I woke up in my bed one morning this past March, o seemed to be an ordinary sunny day, I did not immediately re my world had teetered into a slant that would send all my pla ing off the horizon. I hit snooze on my alarm, enjoyed nine m indulgent sleep and then, rose stiffly to grab my laptop.

It was only when I checked my emails, and saw the message th College was closed for the next two weeks and possibly longe realized the next fourteen hours—the usual productive hours o had vanished from existence.

Fourteen hours that were usually spent grinding out the motio day-to-day life, turning the countless rusty gears in a well-oile Sometimes that meant work, other times it meant school or so ity. But all of a sudden, those fourteen hours of making my wa world had evaporated into what felt like luxuriously copious a free time.

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Little did I realize at the time what this radical transformation would mean for my own life—as my room would soon reflect.

The initial reaction to all this so-called “free time” among my friends and family was enthusiasm. They saw time off or time apart as a temporary vacation period. Meanwhile, I immediately struggled with the notion of putting my life on hold. For my personality-type (silently anxious, constantly restless, and usually nauseous), those 14 hours of my day were the feeble yet crucial blockades between my packed mind and the infinite ticking of existential questions. I tended to fill my days with as much work as possible, possibly in part so that I could avoid boredom and pondering the inevitable, pesky, existential questions of humanity. So, when the barriers crumbled with a few curt words and an official notice from the school board, I could only think, “I am alone.”

Of course, I did not feel literally alone, and I still don’t—my sister’s strained piano practice and my dad’s loud workouts are a constant reminder of just how false that statement would be. Yet, I did feel alone in the Merriam-Webster dictionary sense of, “producing a feeling of bleakness or desolation”. School is enjoyable for me. I chose a program I enjoy, made good friends and have been faring well, so being thrust into a state of limbo was almost unbearable. Nerdily enough, the lack of academic outlet caused me to immediately start thinking about the meaning of life.

At first, I stumbled into the pessimistic conclusion that life had no meaning. From there I spiralled into the question of why I keep living.

(Apparently my philosophy teachers have succeeded in rendering me immobilized by the love of wisdom.) Eventually, however, I landed on the cheesy but real conclusion that I live to learn and to share that learning. I live because as a human I have a fundamental drive to experience the world and discuss those experiences with others, and in so doing to learn more about the workings of humanity. In the midst of this pandemic, I am fortunate to still have access to the internet and to social media, and even to my teachers through email and Zoom. But when it comes to this mission to learn and communicate that propels

me through the world, I find these online platforms lacking. an absence of humanity, not to mention the tendency of the and of social media in particular to prove more distracting th

In other words, my wish to live a full life, to directly experienc aspect of it that I can and to share my explorations with my fe explorers and vice versa, is impeded by the fact that I am stuc house, in my bedroom, where my belongings and wardrobe h to accumulate into dangerous dunes. I walk in between book ers as if I’m navigating a landmine, occasionally stepping on a and yelling expletives at myself. My personal space has begun cluttered as my mind.

Yet if there is one clarifying symptom of being trapped in a ju own making within a house that suddenly feels more like a d than a home, it is that I’ve felt, more palpably than ever befor lonely isolation can be.

My friends and acquaintances who had initially celebrated th free time were, within one week of quarantine measures, tak posting about their loneliness. Some confessed that they (gas school and (a louder gasp) commuting. Many of my peers had down in rooms with their gaming devices, turning to graphic and cartoon animals for emotional support. Others were engu a more biological state of loneliness, increasing their engagem online dating or drifting back to exes and erasing toxic pasts i to revive even the ghost of togetherness. Others had turned st alcohol and drugs, before announcing to the world that this s ity was “no fun alone”. As for myself, I eventually once again f to drown myself in work and hobbies, adding hula-hooping a to an ever-growing list of distractions. The last undertaking I was to contemplate whether the current state of the world ha loneliness a permanent inevitability.

Loneliness is a disease that presents itself differently with eac tim. And its impact on students’ quality of living is hard to un because of how paradoxical our current state is. We, adolesce urally feel lonely and seek out the company of our peers, but forced to self-isolate, pushing us further into the bedrooms th our awareness of our isolation. People, for the most part, beli liness to have been eradicated by the spread of technology. Y experience, I believe there is a misconception that social med us to remain interconnected. I say this is false, because if it w why do dozens of healthy young adults with unlimited access media feel so alone in their bedrooms?

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In a 2016 article, The New York Times’ Dhruv Khullar wrote, “A wave of new research suggests social separation is bad for us. Individuals with less social connection have disrupted sleep patterns, altered immune systems, more inflammation and higher levels of stress hormones”.

Huh. So that explains the sudden need to hula-hoop at 3 am.

On a more serious note, Khullar’s point is simply this: there are real life repercussions to lacking real social interaction.

According to Karol Markowicz in her 2019 article for the New York Post, these consequences can be worsened by heavy reliance on social media. “ A 2017 study in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine found that ‘young adults with high’ social media use ‘seem to feel more socially isolated than their counterparts’ who use social media less”.

Call me old-fashioned, but I, as someone who believes there is a romance to the non-virtual that can never be distilled into an algorithm, can empathize with the points made by Markowicz and Khullar in their articles. This certainly explains why I have felt so fundamentally alone despite containing my friends in a touch-screen.

While I am not arguing that one should cease texting their friends, I do believe there are better techniques for combating loneliness than relying on social media interaction. While I initially approached self-reflection as a sign of a downwards spiral, I now posit that perhaps it was actually useful for my mental health. A recent article in Psychology Today by Alexander Danvers (PhD, Social Psychology) observes, “A meta-analysis (a statistical summary of many studies in an area) examined the effectiveness of different treatments for loneliness. They found that the treatment proving most effective in reducing loneliness was not improving social skills, increasing the opportunity to spend time with others, or even improving social support. It was social cognitive training interventions, meaning teaching people tools for how to think about

their interactions with others”. Basically, Danvers is arguing th tion is a better treatment for loneliness than desperately enga unfulfilling social mediums.

If this is the case, it is important that we do not convince ours the distractions or amusements found on social media are en sustain us through this difficult period in global history.

Perhaps the time has come for us to see our collective retreat room sanctuaries not as part of a global punishment, but as a acquiring the peace needed for self-reflection, and for contem world we are far from completely understanding.

In the process, I might also be inspired bring some aesthetic o to my bedroom.

WORKS CITED “Lonely.” https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/lonely Formica, Michael J. “How the environment we create is reflected is a reflection of our state of mind.”

Psychology Today, https://www. psychologytoday.com/ca/blog/ enlightened-living/200807/howthe-environment-we-create-isreflection-our-state-mind Danvers, Alexander. “Quarantine and Loneliness.” Psychology Today, https://www. psychologytoday.com/us/blog/ how-do-you-know/202003/quarantine-and-loneliness Markowicz, Karol. “An epidemic of teenage loneliness.”

New York Post, https://nypost. com/2019/03/26/an-epidemic-of-teenage-loneliness/ Khullar, Dhruv. “How social isolation is killing us.” New York Times, https://www.nytimes. com/2016/12/22/upshot/how-social-isolation-is-killing-us.html

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I LOVE WHAT I’M LEARNING… BUT IS IT OF ANY USE?

Written by Émilie Hellman Illustrations by Evy Voyatzis and Grace Rondon

Émilie Hellman is a 2nd year student in Liberal Arts.

Evy Voyatzis and Grace Rondon are 1st year Illustration students.

My boyfriend is in computer science, and his greatest fears are and Humanities’ classes. Since I am in Liberal Arts, we often ar the purpose of what he learns in those courses. He finds them and always tries to find a SparkNotes summary of his readings rather spend his time gaining technical knowledge and skills t view, are much more valuable for everyday life.

We are polar opposites when it comes to our academic interes As a student in the humanities, I am gaining how-to knowledg as well, and I want to be able to apply them towards personal, even global issues, or to support projects that address those iss will admit that the techniques I am learning seem “softer” than he is, and that exactly how to employ them for the greater go somewhat vague in my head. My boyfriend often demonstrat how the techniques he acquires will obviously help discover o things that could be useful to society, and I can’t help but agre that they will.

Recently, I went to see a conference lecture by professor Robe on “AI and the ‘Two Cultures.” There I learned that the term “Tw refers to the sciences and the humanities branches of learning cept come`s from a 1959 lecture by British scientist and noveli in which he posited that the intellectual class of society is spli two cultures and that neither one values nor tries to learn from at all. This lecture made me think not only about my boyfrien but also about my relationship to my program.

Being in Liberal Arts, I am a humanities student, and as a hu student, I often hear from family members, friends in other p and even sometimes teachers that my academic orientation ing but useless,” and that I’ll struggle to find a proper job. On hand, science students rarely seem to have to worry about th ments because most people tend to think that the techniques acquiring will be celebrated and compensated by society. Th preferential treatment makes me reflect on why we teach su

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Illustration by Evy Voyatzis

Illustration by Grace Rondon

history, philosophy, and the humanities. If they do not serve of purpose to humanity, why should current and future genera them? Now, I believe deeply that the knowledge and skills I Liberal Arts are beneficial to society. But how?

Will the techniques I am learning in critical thinking, in form well-constructed oral and written arguments, give me the exp will lead to “[…] breathtaking breakthroughs, while also trans way we work and interact with others […],” as written in the d for this year’s SPACE theme, TECHNIQUE? Will my humaniti techniques contribute to the world?

The World Economic Forum seems to think they will. As the economic and environmental landscape shifts more rapidly t previous generation, the WEF upgraded “creativity” from #10 their top ten list of skills that will be essential over the next fi

political, than in any 0 to #3 on fifty years.

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I guess techniques that simply maintain and expand the status quo—that keep us doing what we’ve been doing since the Industrial Revolution— aren’t the only ones that will be needed as we search for ways to adapt as individuals, society and a species in a changing world. Creative and critical thinking may be more important than ever.

I myself could come up with thousands of theories related to why my scholarly path is important, most of them related to how humanities are considered to be closer to ethics and morality than science. My program constantly exposes me to various philosophical, sociological and historical ideas that compel me to see the world from different perspectives and take as much as possible into consideration. This is a competence in which I pride myself and that I believe should be central in everybody’s education in the world of today where we are much more focused on the outcome or product of a process, either in a scientific, political or economical project, rather than in the techniques and approaches involved and their potential impact.

Focusing on the ends alone might ignore some of the destructive means involved in achieving those ends, means such as exploitation of people and the planet. The humanities highlight the humanity and empathy in each of us; it develops our emotional intelligence and our capacity to cooperate with others. These qualities can greatly influence our judgement when it comes to making decisions later in both our personal lives and careers because we can better consider the influence of our actions on civilization before moving forward with any task.

I believe it is at least in part because of the lack of importance given to humanities studies and their scholars that the truly breathtaking technological and scientific advancements have not prevented us from arriving where we are now: a world raging with wars, injustice, climate change and yet also general disinterest in the issues that do not affect us personally.

IS CLICKTIVISM REALLY ACTIVISM?

Written by Romy Shoam Illustrated by Marilou Choquette

Romy Shoam is a 2nd year student in Liberal Arts.

Marilou Choquette is a 1st year Illustration student.

If you’re active on Instagram, odds are you’ve heard of the ac @plantatreeco. It gained popularity in the spring of 2019, when to 151,000 followers thanks to their single post claiming that f follow and repost to one’s story, they would plant 100 trees.

Although many were convinced to click, unfortunately, the po ally were just a devious marketing scheme for the account po fake campaign to gain visibility, and then market their produ jewellery. There is absolutely no proof that @plantatreeco do money to plant any trees; there is a complete lack of transpa this case, participating in ‘clicktivism’ gave those who liked or a false sense of accomplishment, and brainwashed the publi thinking that this mindless act would actually make a differe

‘Clicktivism,’ as defined by the British newspaper, The Guardi act of supporting a cause by the click of a mouse. Today, it is th inant way of raising awareness online. Posting and liking con evolved from simply sharing one’s personal life into a suppose mate technique for raising awareness and garnering support a for a cause. ‘Clicktivism’ can be used in a multitude of ways, s the sphere of environmental activism as a call to action. Unfor can also be a deployed as a devious marketing scheme to gain increase viewership.

Whenever you click for a cause, then, are you actually having a impact on that cause? Or are you doing something that is at be useless and at worst a money-making ploy?

Apart from these blatant acts of deception, though, the questio is social media a useful medium to incite environmental and ot I think that it can be—but the process has to be twofold. First, social media does provide exposure for a cause. Platforms like that use a visual medium can raise awareness for a certain issu ing photos and infographics.

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Tentree, a sustainable clothing company, actually led a successful and traceable social media campaign prior to the Plant A Tree Co. scam.

On April 22nd, 2019, in celebration of Earth Day, @tentree posted “The World’s Most Sustainable Post” on Instagram. They promised to plant 500,000 if the post was liked at least 5 million times—and it was. Tentree informed users exactly where (Biak Island, Indonesia) and how (through Eden Reforestation Projects) these trees will be planted. Proof of previous similar projects can also be found on their website. Thus, Tentree’s transparency gives users the confidence that their like actually made an impact.

Sea Legacy, an ocean conservation organization, posts photos and videos of marine life—for example, a Norwegian orca—and captions them with an informative text that may detail if their species is endangered, and if so, how the follower can take action. Sea Legacy uses storytelling to raise awareness and has an online platform that not only eductates its viewers, but that also gives them the opportunity to make a tangible change by signing petitions, sharing them, and/or directly donating money. In the case of Norway’s marine life in the Lofoten, Sea Legacy succeeded in influencing its government to inhibit any oil or gas exploration in Lofoten through a petition and campaign shared on Instagram in 2017.

Another educational platform is @trashisfortossers, orLauren Singer’s blog. Singer lives a zero waste lifestyle—in other words, she generates zero non-recyclable or non-compostable waste in any one of her activities or habits—and founded Package Free Shop, a store in Brooklyn, NY that sells plastic-free alternatives to daily necessities. She documents her business ventures and personal life on her Instagram account, and provides tips and inspiration for budding environmentalists and experienced zero-wasters alike.

As more Instagram accounts pop up around the topics of a low waste life, environmental issues, etc., they become mainstream. More users are exposed to the initiatives, causes, and personal ventures, which may incite them to act similarly.

However—and this is the critical second step—as a follower, it not actively engage, and instead just follow. Actually acting on lic interests, i.e., as per one’s followed accounts on Instagram much more effort. It necessitates actively holding oneself acco one’s daily behaviours, and not feeling like having saved the liking a post.

I’ve personally struggled with this dilemma. After realizing th of the climate crisis, I started exploring how I could make a c individual. I followed accounts like @sealegacy and @trashis and was inspired. Although Singer advocates for any low-was made by her followers, not only a pursuit of a drastic zero wa hers, I felt like I was seeing the destination of a project witho been privy to the journey, one that was surely filled with mis mistakes.

As a result, I decided to start my own Instagram account with A a close friend, to explore and share what was lacking from acc Singer’s : an honest attempt at achieving a low waste life with and affordable tips and tricks. We invite our followers to join journey as well in order to foster a motivated and united com have called our Instagram account @costumechange.co, as it on fashion and clothing: we call for a ‘costume change’ of ou and our minds.

Besides posting tips, we debunk fashion trends, share inspiring accounts, feature sustainable brands, post creative DIY alterna share our own ‘confessions’ as to how we are not living the pe waste lifestyle. We are committed to showing that we are jus environmentalists; we are far from perfecting our green habits to use clicktivism to our advantage, and to use the power of so to spread our message and efforts. Setting up this account has us on a journey of discovery, learning and change, and hopefu the same for others as well—so long as they go beyond clickin meaningful action.

It is easy to stay passive, but it is not impossible to become act that Instagram is a fantastic platform to share inspiration, but be careful as to not be sucked into the hole of false achieveme ting oneself on the back for liking a post. Environmental chang be achieved by tapping the heart icon, but instead, by having t make real change in one’s lifestyle.

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WORKS CITED SeaLegacy. https://www.sealegacy. org/our-work#campaigns Trash Is For Tossers. http://trashisfortossers.com/ Costume Change. https://www. instagram.com/costumechange. co/?hl=en

THE ART OF DIFFICULT CONVERSATIONS

Written by James Stewart Illustrated by Mackenzie Gervais

James is a 2nd year student in Liberal Arts.

Mackenzie Gervais is a 1st year Illustration student.

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I have something to confess: I’m not too good at having difficult conversations. I never actually came out to my brother; I let my parents tell him and waited for him to approach me about it. When I was first truly struggling with my mental health, instead of reaching out to my friends for support, I would post disturbing and ominous pictures on my private Instagram page that only they followed, and wait for them to reach out to me. And the thing is, I’m not alone.

Lately, I’ve been thinking about techniques in social situations, about the way we use them to navigate conversation and interaction with other people, and particularly about the ways we struggle to discuss serious topics. To most people, many social techniques are second nature. We introduce ourselves to someone like this, we inquire about certain shared topics like that. Although for certain people even these basic small interactions can be scary and confusing, for the most part, these are areas of familiarity in which our brains slide through techniques on autopilot.

As I’ve found, the trouble arises when we need to have rarer, more tough conversations. How to come out to someone. How to tell someone they have hurt you. How to explain to someone that you’re suicidal. Repetition is what molds technique into its final form, and with the lack of experience comes the lack of knowledge of how to proceed.

When we think “technique”, we often think science, math, step-by-step instructions. A “technical” CEGEP program is thought to be one that will give you concrete skills to apply in the workforce. However, we know that technique means more than that. A technique is any form of how-to knowledge, and so it comes into play during every conversation and social interaction we have.

Nowadays, we have the internet, which makes things a little I once saw a meme that said “no matter what you’re going thr remember there was someone on yahoo answers going throu exact same thing in 2011.” We can google “how to come out” to break up with someone” a million times, but none of that makes up the real thing. We won’t know which technique wo until we’re in the process of trying to apply it ourselves. Hum action is different from many scientific disciplines in that the will be different every time; every human being is different, a their reactions and responses to what you say.

If I can be so bold, I think this process of developing social te is a big part of what living and the human experience is abou techniques to navigate the world and relate to the people arou then we have new experiences and have to remake these tech over again. That’s the thing about a technique—it is a process t for a time, but inevitably we will find a better or more thoroug a continual process of learning and adapting to interact with t and people around us, with only the momentary comfort that this works.

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FRIED

Written by Yaani Dinu Mahapatuna Illustrated by Aleksandra Tuszynska

Yaani Dinu Mahapatuna is a 1st year student in Liberal Arts.

Aleksandra Tuszynska is a 1st year Illustration student.

When I think about fried rice, I cannot help but think of Plato. strongly that art can be deceiving and perhaps highly manipul art is only a faded imitation of the timeless or absolute ideas h to as the forms. Plato was right in the sense that (even in this d we are quick to be deceived by physical appearance, to negle substantive characteristics in favour of the most visually appea tossed in our direction. If any dish is the perfect example of d appearances in the culinary arts, it is undoubtedly fried rice.

Fried rice can vary in colour and aroma, texture and flavour p one of its perpetual characteristic is its tendency to be under to be treated as a bland side dish when its very humble Asiat implicate that it was intended to be a simple (in terms of qua quality of ingredients), yet flavourful, standalone dish. Compa of fried rice to Plato’s perception of the forms; if one is too pre by the more physically enticing characteristics of other objects it will be harder for them to recognize the value and importa underlying idea (or “form”) like the clean flavours and hearty of good fried rice. The importance of any delicious meal, let a rice, ultimately has nothing to do with appearance, but with te

Lately, I keep thinking about fried rice and how difficult it is t At this statement, a culinary amateur may scoff. To the untra fried rice is a treasure chest of simplicity. However, for the pr or amateur with delusions of grandeur, it is a wolf in sheep’s It seems simple on paper; take oil, heat oil, add vegetables, a add seasoning and voila, fried rice! Yet, the perfect fried rice ta than a couple of ingredients and the right pan. The perfect fr requires an aficionado or a stroke of good luck or perhaps a b Any average Joe can make your run of the mill fried rice; yet someone special to make great fried rice.

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Fried rice is difficult for me not simply because I do not have access to the fanciest vegetables or even the best tools. It is difficult because there is an art to cooking that goes beyond ingredients and instruments; the same way a sport has less to do with its equipment and more with how the equipment is used. Technique in cooking is an essential skill. Ingredients, whether luxurious or not, are fragile and the way they are handled has an integral impact on the final product. I would even go so far as to argue making simple dishes like fried rice require more technique than the exorbitantly overpriced baby-portions of farm-to-table vegetables and dry-aged meat that Michelin-starred restaurants and social media influencers are obsessed with flogging to the masses.

Yes, you can take oil, heat oil, add vegetables, add rice, add seasoning and voila: have supremely average or even terrible fried rice! Or, you can warm several tablespoons of sesame oil, waiting until you hear the slightest hiss before adding your chopped onions and minced garlic; waiting until the onions have just reached the brink of translucence to add your carrots; waiting until the carrots have softened enough to release the enticing aroma that will inevitably flood your kitchen and draw the snoopy appearances of your family and friends. You could create a little space at the very center of your wok, cracking two eggs right into the ring of sizzling vegetables, using chopsticks to simultaneously break the yolks and stir your egg concoction into a pile of nonuniform, slightly runny scrambled eggs. You might whip out some day-old rice, adding a hunk of it straight into your wok along with some shredded chicken breast, putting your years of pretentiously flipping pancakes in mid-air into practice by tossing your rice and vegetables together, and finishing off with a generous drizzle of soy sauce, a few thinly-sliced scallions and a sneaky sprinkle of MSG. All of this hypothetical work would take less than fifteen minutes and would result in a good fried rice (at least by my standards).

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Change any individual step of the process and the whole dish apart: use vegetable oil and you would lose the nutty taste of s add onions and garlic too late and it would burn; add the soy too early and it would burn; add salt in addition to soy sauce the fanciest ingredients would be lost to the harsh taste of salt rice instead of day-old and it will clump; do not use MSG (a lar ural flavour-enhancer which is stereotyped as being cancerou no scientific studies support that claim) and the essence of um would have been coaxed out of the simplest of ingredients be non-existent. (You catch my drift, right?)

The hardest dishes to make, the ones that set apart a great ch mediocre chef, aren’t always the dishes that require fancy ing or dry-aging, but the ones that require precision and method ing. So, what is keeping me, a mediocre chef at best, from per To put it simply, technique. The technique it takes to go beyon dish or an average dish and combine a thousand miniscule, y important, steps together in producing one perfect fried rice.

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REAPPRAISING ANXIETY

Written by Raquel Simon

To conquer fear is the beginning of wisdom.

—Bertrand Russell, philosopher and mathematician

Raquel Simon is a 2nd year student in Law, Society and Justice.

Throughout my educational journey there has always been on assignment that I and many students have dreaded: the oral p

I have learned about different techniques to make this process handling the uneasy feeling of all eyes being on you. But I won gesting picturing the class in their underwear, because that oft me wonder why I am the only one dressed. What I will sugge sound simple, but I have found it to be enormously effective. you feel nervous, tell yourself that you feel excited. Your brain able to tell the difference (Khazan).

This technique is called ‘Anxious Reappraisal’, because in bo and excitement, “the heart beats faster, cortisol surges, and t prepares for action” (Khazan). Anxious Reappraisal has helpe bat the overwhelming anxiety I face before giving an oral pre However, I had to learn this trick the hard way.

I was 14 years old when I had to write, memorize and presen in front of my 8th grade French class. As humans, we naturall about what people think of us, but as a young girl in high sch stakes were much higher. Not only did I have to speak in fron peers and my teacher, but also a video camera. When it was m speak, I walked up to the front of the class, no cue cards in h my teacher pressed record. I took a deep breath, opened my speak—and began to cry.

Tears flowed down my flushed face like a broken dam, my han in my sleeves, and the class fell completely silent. Yet, unexpec teacher started to smile at me and told me that my tears wer tears. I thought that she was clinically insane for laughing at h She then encouraged the class to smile with me. Now I really she was crazy for turning the whole class against me. I thoug was over.

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However, their smiles began to radiate onto me, which made me feel accepted. My nerves and shame melted away. After all, who wouldn’t be excited by such a warm and welcoming reception? Feeling positive now about standing up there, instead of nearly traumatized, I calmed down and presented my speech. Although my teacher has a video of me bawling my eyes out, I learned a valuable tool that day that I will carry with me for the rest of my life.

Whether it be preparing for an interview, a first date or even just a simple conversation, public speaking is an opportunity for us to turn our nerves into excitement—the excitement of connecting with others.

The problem with the fear of public speaking is that it is often not addressed, nor is it discussed seriously. I learned this technique on my own, but later research has shown its effectiveness, because there is a fine line between vulnerability and confidence. Although many of us may be more afraid of dying a thousand deaths than of being humiliated in front of our peers, I now believe that vulnerability is the best part of public speaking. Being vulnerable allows people to empathize with you and may inspire them to be vulnerable with others as well.

I have come a long way from that presentation in high school and have grown to be more vulnerable and confident when speaking publicly.

WORKS CITED Khazan, Olga. “One Simple Phrase That Turns Anxiety into Success.” The Atlantic, Atlantic Media Company, 23 Mar. 2016, www.theatlantic. com/health/archive/2016/03/canthree-words-turn-anxiety-into-success/474909/

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MENTAL HEALTH IN THE TIME OF COVID-19

Written by Olavo de Macedo Collins Photography by Ursula Sommerer

Olavo de Macedo Collins is a 1st year Liberal Arts student.

Involuntary confinement is one of the defining features of th COVID-19 pandemic. No matter who you are, your perimeter has probably been dramatically downsized. Whether you are more time on your own or sharing your quarters with close o give the pun), you are probably having to find a way to adapt least moderately, and perhaps radically, new lifestyle. This ne is having an impact on many people’s sense of normalcy, and their mental health. In response, mental health professionals h offering techniques to help people cope.

According to a review published in The Lancet using cases of q patients from the SARS other outbreaks (such as H1N1 and Ebo place to start is to ask, what is causing you stress? The answer will be different for each person. Is it a fear of infection? Frustr boredom around the lack of physical freedom? Inadequate inf Inadequate supplies? Like in medicine, a proper diagnosis is im before you can figure out how to approach the problem. And i sure what’s stressing you out, do you have someone you trus talk to? Not only can sharing with others help clarify your feeli can be therapeutic in and of itself, because it helps us to feel le more connected.

According to an article titled, “COVID-19 Lockdown Guide: Ho age Anxiety and Isolation During Quarantine,” published by th and Depression Association of America, there are also some c measures you can take that might make your time in quarantin erably easier. The article provides six tips that encourage us to what we still do have control over in this crisis.

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First, for anyone in quarantine, the article recommends trying to keep a routine, or to add some kind of structure to your day. Doing at least one productive thing in the day can help you feel better overall and having different periods of time associated with different tasks can help prevent the sense of the hours and days all just blurring together. Even rituals such as a daily walk with the dog or a Facetime with Grandma could give you something to look forward to every day. And beyond a single day, you could also try keeping a routine over the week. For example, you might want to spend more time making supper on Fridays or have a special movie night on Saturdays.

Secondly, it is recommended that we should try not to obsess over coverage about the coronavirus. Many of us might have more time on our hands, and as a result many of us are spending even more time on our phones, jumping from one news outlet or social media platform to another, following the endless coverage of the coronavirus outbreak.

But we need to watch out for two things: 1) not to stress out the ones around us by constantly bringing up the virus—it might be a temporary stress reliever for us, but be aware of the emotional labour you are asking your counterpart to do; and 2) to monitor the time we spend on social media. According to a 2018 study published in Guilford Press, people who spend on average less than 30 minutes on social media tend to feel less depressed and lonely. In this time of physical distancing, live face-to-face, voice-to-voice interaction, which could mean more old-fashioned phone calls, is the most likely to comfort us.

Third, try to keep your environment as organized as you can, and include cleaning up as part of your routine. This should make your house or apartment somewhat less claustrophobic and your space (which is now a limited resource) more optimized. Additionally, you can try to keep different places associated with different activities: for example, if possible, not eating in your bed or working on the couch.

According to Professor of Psychology Marty Lobdell, simply having a lamp at your desk that you only turn on during work could increase your productivity.

Fourth, you could try starting something productive, but also f the extra time you have with the quarantine. Just like Doctor Arruda, who is learning how to make the best natas (Portugu serts), you now have extra time to catch up on reading Das Ka playing guitar.

The fifth tip from the Anxiety and Depression Association of Am to try to reframe your mindset away from one of frustration. A to an article published in UVAToday (a University of Virginia pu taking the curiosity-oriented “mindset of an anthropologist or ist observing a social experiment” could provide much needed and reduce stress. If you aim to understand your situation bett probably deal with it better.

If you’re living with others, try as much as possible to schedule time together but also time apart, in separate spaces from ea Always being around people can be draining, and staying in spaces with someone can lead to tensions. While in cohabita ferent times and spaces can be allocated to being alone and b others, just like in non-quarantine life where you’re not in co exposure to your family or other roommates

Finally, going outside as well as exercise (perhaps a jog or an workout session) both have many positive effects such as a de depression and a boost in confidence, according to the same article, One technique taught in every 102 and 103 CEGEP gym is the setting up of SMART goals: make your objectives specifi surable, achievable, realistic and set within a certain time fra method can also apply to any other goals you may have, inclu gating a global pandemic.

All of these tips encourage us to be intentional with our time. T tionality, consciously implementing one or more of these tech transform this quarantine into an experience that, while challe not traumatic, and may even in some ways prove fruitful.

And one last note about a helpful quarantine mindset: the auth articles above all emphasize the importance, not just for othe our own mental health, of thinking about not just “me” but al Our voluntary quarantine is designed to help others as much as that means if you’re stuck at home, you can remember the go doing to those who are more vulnerable and for all our health ers on the front lines. Same principle within the scope of your f your community: helping others (if possible) can both alleviate gles that others might be going through and boost your own mo

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WORKS CITED Brooks, Samantha K. et al. “The psychological impact of quarantine and how to reduce it: rapid review of the evidence”, The Lancet, VOLUME 395, ISSUE 10227, P912-920, MARCH 14, 2020. https://www.thelancet.com/ journals/lancet/article/PIIS01406736(20)30460-8/fulltext Hunt, Melissa G. et al. « No More Fomo: Limiting Social Media Decreases Loneliness and Depression.” Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology, Vol. 37, No. 10, 2018, pp.

751-768. https://guilfordjournals.com/ doi/pdf/10.1521/jscp.2018.37.10.751 Gupta, Aarti. “COVID-19 Lockdown Guide: How to Manage Anxiety and Isolation During Quarantine.” Anxiety and Depression Association of America, March 20, 2020. https://adaa.org/ learn-from-us/from-the-experts/ blog-posts/consumer/covid-19-lockdown-guide-how-manage-anxietyand Kelly, Jane. “How To Protect Your Mental Health During A Quarantine.”

UVAToday, March 16, 2020. https:// news.virginia.edu/content/howprotect-your-mental-health-duringquarantine

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