Dircksey Crisis vol3 ed4

ISSUE 4 : CRISIS

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Contributors: Andrew Douglas Christopher Spencer Davo hunter ElishaHammond Holly Ferguson Jack Cooksey Josten Myburgh Karina Miyazaki Leighton Campbell Nils Terton Noemie Hunter-Koros Samantha-Jane Rose Tristan Sherlock Zachary Sheridan

Artists: Holly Ferguson Marshall Stay Maxine Singh Shona Wong Special Thanks To: Cover: Hayley Campbell Interviewees: Jordi Davieson Perthonalities: Alex Catherine Gerard Logo: Sella Winadi

The opinions expressed herein are not necessarily those of the Dircksey Editor(s), sub-­editors/ section-­editors, Edith Cowan University or the Edith Cowan University Student Guild. Reasonable care is taken to ensure that Dircksey articles and other information are up-­to-­date and as accurate as possible, as of the time of publication– but no responsibility can or will be taken by the abovementioned entities if an issue of Dircksey has any errors or omissions contained herein.

Editor: Holly Ferguson editors@ecuguild.org.au dircksey.com.au Marketing: Lauren Reed lauren.reed@ecuguild.org.au

Film Editor: Zachary Sheridan Art & Literature Editor: Tristan Sherlock

DIRCKSEY

ISSUE 4: CRISIS

5 / Letters 6/ Foreword 7/ Shitty ways to deal with stress 9/ step by step: the extraordinary value in ordinary walking.

10 / Stocism in a cowardly crisis 11 / The Long Long Funeral 12 / How to: Procrastinate like a pro 13 / First World Problems: The Real Crisis 14 / Our Queer Elders- The Marriage Equality Crisis 15 / Technicolour Companies 16 / Ideas Boom Crash & Burn?

18 /Arbitrary Saftey 20 / Perthonalities 22 / What it’s like to go viral Art, Literature and Creative 23 / Robots from Outer Space 24 / Blackholes 25 / Book Reviews Music 26 / Un lieu pour étre deux 28 / Interview: San Cisco 29 / Music Reviews 30 / Film Reviews

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Hi everyone,

Since coming into office, I have been busy re-establishing the Guild’s relationship with the senior members of the university, but more importantly, working hard to re-gain the trust of the student body. I’ve attended as many different club events as possible, letting everyone know that while the Guild might have had some turmoil earlier this year, we are now a fully functioning organisation that is back to putting students first.

The 2017 budget currently being proposed by the Australian Government severely hurts university students. It asks them to pay more money for less in return. We at the Guild are fighting this in numerous ways, including protesting and lobbying, by ourselves and in conjunction with other WA universities.

I hope all your exams went well (or at least not terrible) and that you can put your faith back into the Guild next semester. We have many events big and small planned, that appeal to a broad range of interests. Make it a goal to attend at least one Guild event in the first few weeks of next semester, you won’t be disappointed.

Hey Guys!

Sam Martyn ECU Guild President

Holly Ferguson Editor in Cheif

ISSUE 4: CRISIS

Welcome to season 3 episode four of Dircksey! This episode is called CRISIS! Relatable much? I think it’s fair to say that we all experience crisis, perhaps on a daily basis? From a minor crisis like deciding if you want kombucha on tap or cold brew on tap (s/o to Grindhouse for that predicament), to major crisis like human rights violations, global warming, racism, homophobia, transphobia, poverty, terrorism, deforestation, disease, corruption, addiction… just to name a few. It’s easy to feel overwhelmed when you consider all the crisis in the world, I certainly feel that way. I know it sounds cheesy but it only takes one person to create change. So, if you’re feeling apprehensive towards a crisis I encourage you to dive in, speak up, tackle it and create that change.

On another note! Is that a colouring in page as a front cover? Why yes it is! If you do any funky colouring send us a pic to our Facebook page (Dircksey) or email it editors@ecuguild.org.au I hope you enjoy this issue and maybe learn something new or feel inspired to check out some of our recommendations. Shout out to all the fab contributors who helped make this issue amazing!

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Foreword:

A

s I pen my first article that expresses my personal opinion for the first time and not merely reporting on sporting events, I think about three very important bullet points on the subject of ‘Crisis’. One, what is a crisis? Two, am I currently in a crisis? Three, why did I use a pen, I’ve made a right mess of this laptop screen?

In a previous life, I don’t know what I got up to. In this life, however, I wrote for two national motorsports magazines, which means I am very suitably qualified to answer question one. A sports journalist is forever in a crisis, usually involving engaging the reader with ever more unique wordplay to spice up an otherwise monotonous occasion.

Sometimes deadlines and lack of article space add to your woes. More often than not my largest crisis was an empty bank account. If you play your cards like how I play cards... that’s a permanent crisis. But don’t just limit owning a crisis with my situation only, you too can have your very own stuff 6 / FEATURE

to worry about.

I think politicians have the right idea, as they use the ‘ostrich head hiding’ technique. How can you identify a politician on the television? It’s very easy, you can still see the sand behind their ears. But anyway, I envy the way they brush away some of the biggest problems that anyone could possibly face.

You see them announce their entire constituency has just got washed off by a flood to another country and that the chief treasurer just ran away with the entire bank account and yet there is your political representative, proudly showing off his dentists’ finest hours of work with not a sweat broken. That has to be more than just the Lynx effect.

At the moment, the state of Western Australia faces a very uncertain time. The iron ore madness settles down, gas projects kick in and people are buying less of the novelty rude shape beer glasses to consume their beloved bush chook in. Times are tough and, going by the politician example, they have firmly

stuck their fingers in their ears, proclaimed everything is okay and we should carry on as per normal. I suppose this is reassuring to know.

I was really concerned that we may have unemployment, homelessness, financial strain, crime, drug use etc. running rampant in the nation. I’m glad that isn’t the case.

I wonder how many parallels there are to world issues and studying for a course. Since I pay attention to neither due to the complexities of said issues and, more often than not, sheer ignorance, I can’t answer that. Solving a crisis can be too difficult, so the best answer I can come up with for that is total ignorance beforehand, damage control afterward. Once again the solution courtesy of our suited leaders for that worldly bit of wonderment. And hey, you can’t blame me for offering that piece of wisdom. I’m only qualified to tell you the Falcon won the race against the rear engined dragster...

By Davo Hunter

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We all experience stress, at least that’s what my psychology book from year 11 taught me – who knows though, I failed that class. But the real question: how does one deal with stress? We all have our ways. Some (mine) are much better than others. So if you want to find out my shitty amazing ways to deal with stress, turn the page! You should try them out!

Art by Shona Wong @somechuppy

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Shit ty wa ys 1.Eat

to deal with stress

Everyone loves food, right? And what’s stressful about love … In saying that I don’t feel love so … yeah

2.Sleep

I lied, I do love — sleep that is. Sleep is good.

Also, no stress for 3-24 hours (Sleeping hours will vary from person to person).

3. Rave

Is this copyright infringement? Eh … My editor can deal with this.

4. Repeat

4. Pass your stress onto others

It’s ensured that you will no longer have to deal with that stress. (Disclaimer: They must accept the stress in order for you to be rid of the stress.)

5. Bathe

Get some bath bombs from anywhere but Lush (don’t go there they didn’t hire me that one time) and stay in that bath until your fingers make my grandmother look young again.

6. Drop out of uni

Look, you’re tempted, I know. So, channel your inner Shia LeBouf (1: can you believe it’s almost a year old now? 2: I need to step up my meme game) and just do it.

7.Quit your job

Again, I know you’re tempted. Take a strike against capitalism today, all for the easy price of one Letter of Resignation.

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The ShittyTM Series is brought to you by actress, songstress, comedian, poet, writer and glamazon Tristan Sherlock

8. Start looking for another job It’s distracting?

9. Become a hermit

No social interactions. Check. No laws. Check.

Can do whatever you want, when you want.

Check. The best way to not have to stress. Check.

10. Spend 10 years learning martial arts It worked for Batman.

11. Become a super hero Who doesn’t want to be a super hero?

12. Become a super villan Who doesn’t want to be a super villain?

13. Waste the money you don’t have because you’ve obviously listened to my advice.

Retail Therapy. It works for me. It may work for you.

14. Procrastination

Do anything but the work you need to do; save your stress for another day.

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step by step: the extraordinary value in ordinary walking.

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ooking for a simple, imaginative, and rebellious response to crises? Try walking.

Seriously. I’m not talking about the ‘how fast can I get from point A to point B’ style of tread that’s currently very popular. Instead, this is a considered, all-senses-alive type of wandering that allows you to feel the revolution of the Earth itself. Through mindfully making one’s way through space, a person can reflect, reclaim and form narratives, and fully realise the interrelatedness of all things.

In an earlier edition of Dircksey I interviewed Ruth Little from organisation Cape Farewell – a not-forprofit that brings ‘creatives, scientists and informers’ together to inspire a sustainable future – and she said that to take action in the face of crises like climate change we must ‘understand the contingency of all things.’ This means truly knowing that all of our individual actions are relevant. As Ruth wrote to me, ‘we become a system by the accumulation of and feedback from individual acts, just as a hive or ant colony do.’

So how does walking come into it? Well, in a world where speed trumps time, the mindful walk itself is a subversive act. Moreover, Rebecca Solnit, author of Wanderlust: A History of Walking, writes that walking ‘postulates a mobile, empty-handed, shareable experience’ of land. By slowing down and carving your way through a landscape – a shared landscape nonetheless – one can locate themselves within the world, make sense of it, and act. A person may be able to understand to a greater degree how the narrative they forge through their actions makes a difference.

Try this: Go for a walk. Find a bench. Sit down. Take note of five things you can see, four things you can

touch, three things you can hear, two things you can smell, and one thing you can taste. Yes, this is classic mindfulness. However, it also practices the key skill required to solve crises like climate change – listening. By paying attention to environments they begin to generate meaning. This meaning is essential to care, and if we care about something we will generally do something about it. This is the type of crucial ecological thinking promoted in works like Boorna Waanginy and the Museum of Water that is so important right now. It is a way of listening with hearts wide open.

Want some more inspiration? UK-based artistresearches Wrights & Sites are experts when it comes to disrupted walking. Their publication A Mis-Guide to Anywhere offers a few suggestions such as, ‘Follow your shadow’ or ‘Find way to get where you want to go by walking in the opposite direction’ or visit a museum and ask the security guard, ‘What is your favourite thing on display?’ Immediately look at this item. There are also provocative questions like, ‘What happens if you overlay a map of Moscow onto your own city? What do you find where the Kremlin should be?’

Physical theatre specialist Lorna Marshall says that ‘legs are designed for effort, to be strongly involved in our activities. That’s how the body is built, that’s how it likes to work.’ So, let’s get moving. Get playful, go forward, get lost. As you walk, notice your community. What difference can be made? Would writing a positive message in chalk on the footpath change someone else’s day? Through walking we can see the world anew. We can make it better. Little by little, step by step.

By Zachary Sheridan FEATURE / 9

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Stoicism in a

cowardly crisis I

n the wake of the recent spree of terrorist attacks plaguing the western world, there are further calls for a focus on preemptive action. For every deadly suicide bombing, careening van and knifewielding jihadist, there is another candlelight vigil, charity concert and out-pouring of condolences expressed on social media. But as nice as the plethora of sympathy may seem, it does little in terms of bringing back the victims of these cowardly attacks, and less still with regards to ensuring these events do not happen again Jenni Russell shares this perspective in her op-ed for the New York Times, a piece titled ‘Against Terror, is London Pride Enough?’ She calls to mind the definitive power a united, fearless front can have in response to terrorist attacks, but reminds her readers that stoicism will not ultimately be the end of terrorism. Russell begins her piece by referring to a tweet that went viral in light of the attack on the 3rd of June. A man is seen running from London Bridge, pint in tow. Shared countless times on social media, the image has become a symbol of unity and British pride in the face of danger and destruction. ‘London pride in a glass,’ one man tweeted.

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Yet even though this courage should be encouraged amidst this era of terror, Russell points out it won’t stop terrorism. It’s the James Bond spirit writ large,’ she notes. ‘Many people are defiantly hoping that while they may be shaken by the horror, London hasn’t been stirred.

The problem with this brave mentality is that its primary usefulness lies in uplifting and encouraging those left to pick up the pieces in the aftermath of a cowardly attack. And perhaps this is all some Britons intend to do, yet holding the belief that patriotism blockades terrorism is as transparent as it is foolish. The attacks will continue because the beliefs of the attackers remain fostered in the Middle East; no amount of stoicism will change that.

Further into the article, Russell shifts her focus from how citizens have reacted to the terror and their current perspective to the reality of the modern plight.

Her further musings all revolve around the fact that each of these attacks are not just ordinary affronts; they come from a pattern of increasingly brutal strikes plaguing many countries and cities.

These attacks are no longer ‘once in a blue moon.’ And each time we may respond with even more support and further amp up the threat level, but the fact remains that these actions are powerless as preemptive measures. Russell refers here to the fact that her son believes what terrifies him the most is not the increasing threat of further attacks, but his impotence to be able to stand up and fight it, as afforded by other

citizens in previous wars.

What’s interesting is Russell’s perception that the capacity for these attacks is fresh. She notes, ‘However many plots are being foiled, now that anyone with access to a career van, a kitchen knife or the internet can choose to kill, some will succeed.’ Access to these options is not new; the recent spate of attacks spurs on and inspires those to come.

So if this is the case, it appears that the only way to prevent future attacks is to put in place barriers so strong they ensure they cannot take place. For this to occur, Russell notes the ‘tolerance of extremism’ needs to be halted. ‘The police and security services should have all the powers they need.

The internet giants, Facebook and Google, must be held accountable for the radicalising material that appears on their sites.’ She concludes by noting that the government should be more extensively involved in setting up solid counterterrorism policy and security.

As Russell notes in her op-ed, ‘Cultures live by myth. They create their own reality.’ Even so, a perpetuation of patriotism and solidarity in the face of cowardly terrorism does little to alter the eminent arrival of later attacks.

Whilst a ‘reality’ of strength and unity amongst adversity is valuable and precious in its own right, stronger, tangible strategies are necessary to prevent these affronts, As Russell aptly concludes, ‘An unsettled Britain needs something more substantial than jokes about beer.’

By Elisha Hammond

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The Long,

Long Funeral

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ersonal crises come in all shapes and sizes. They can be short, sharp isolated events or they can be a long, drawn-out series of interconnected ordeals.

Recently a close friend, who had been ‘lost’ for about three years, came back into my life. I knew exactly why he had been slipping away more and more with each year and, as of recently, each month. When he finally came back, I was relieved. I had been through something similar years before. But my ordeal lasted only about a year while his went on for over three.

Both his parents ended up being diagnosed with different forms of cancer at approximately the same time. Although tragic, this was not the crisis which kept him apart from me and his other social contacts.

About three years ago, his father died a few days after Christmas. As many government departments were closed during the holiday period the organisation of the funeral was difficult. Although problematic, this was not his crisis. His crisis began after the dust settled.

His mother was still alive and in reasonable health — her cancer was mostly in remission — but another variable now came into play. While both his parents were alive, his father could manage his mothers’ medical conditions. Once he died, the responsibility for her care fell to him. Thus, his carer role was not halved but doubled. His mother’s cancer was effectively treated but the treatment exacerbated another condition. It resulted in frequent phone calls from either his mother or paid carers, who had to be present as she could not be left alone. The contents of one call effectively illustrate the seriousness of the situation:

MOTHER: Where’s Dad? SON: In the cupboard.

MOTHER: What’s he doing in there?

SON: His ashes are there.

MOTHER: Aw, that’s right.

As the weeks past, she could not be left alone. Her son had to spend longer and longer periods in the home, both as a carer and to ensure her safety. She gradually lost the ability to work the television remote and even the automatic garage doors.

But these were relatively minor hiccups compared to what was to follow. During the weeks he stayed with her there were occasions when she did not recognise him; he was at times either her son, her husband, a family friend or simply: ‘Who are you?’

Days, weeks and a few more months passed. I crossed my fingers and waited. The clock was ticking and he was coming to the end of this tether.

She fell and was admitted to hospital where it was clear she could not return home, even with the support of her son, who was -by now- physically and emotionally exhausted.

Now she resides in the Eastern States where her daughter lives. She has her own room and ensuite and shares a communal dining area. She is safe and cared for, and recently turned 80. Although she went there just after Anzac Day, she now only has vague memories of Perth and of ‘that man’ who used to visit her there; she is not exactly sure who he was.

By Andrew Douglas FEATURE / 11

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How to: Procrastinate like a Pro

By Karina Miyazaki

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e’re all at uni – that means there are assignments and exams galore. Who wants to study though? There are a million other things you could be doing with your time.

Besides, you have a whole two weeks before that essay is due! Here’s a few tips to help you master the art of procrastination.

1. Uni-season cleaning Spring cleaning? No, the best time to clean is when all your assignments are due. How could you possibly concentrate when there’s that little smudge on the wall distracting you?

Better organize your closet by colour, too. Oh, while you’re at it, how about some change?

Now is the perfect time to rearrange the furniture! Research feng shui so you can take even longer with your redecorating. Wouldn’t some new curtains really brighten up the place? Time to make a trip to IKEA to buy a bunch of cushions your house totally needs!

2. Learn way too much about other people You see that phone there? Yeah, pick it up. Go on. Open Facebook, and scroll down and read all the pointless, over-sharing statuses people post. Hm, it’s been a while since you spoke to most people from primary school, hasn’t it?

What do they look like now? What are they up to nowadays? These are important questions that need answering. Hey, this person is Facebook friends with that person? Better scour both of their profiles to find out how. It’s time to fall down the rabbit hole of learning too much about people you barely know.

3. Visit the great outdoors Now that you’ve sufficiently stalked everyone, it’s time to have a really jam-packed social life.

Go outside every day. Find everyone else who’s procrastinating, and discuss how much you’re procrastinating together. One of them is bound to be procrastinating harder than you are, so you can feel better about yourself – at least 12 / FEATURE

you don’t have a 2000 word essay you haven’t started due in two days! Social interaction is important too, so you’re not actually wasting time, right? Might as well drink some alcohol while you’re out too. It’ll fuel your creative energies for when you get home and definitely won’t give you a hangover.

4. Watch/read/play/ learn everything You’ve been meaning to watch that movie for forever, but you hadn’t had the time. Well, now you do… technically. This is still productive, isn’t it? It’s okay to watch it now, because it’s been on your to-do list for months. Why not watch every other movie you’ve wanted to watch, or read every book or play every game you can find as well? Or, you could learn a new hobby! There’s YouTube tutorials on everything and you’re still learning something, so you can justify to yourself that this is perfectly acceptable.

5. Sleep Sleeping fixes everything. Sure you already slept in until 2 pm, but a nap is definitely needed to recharge your brain. Yeah you might have to pull an all-nighter to finish something as a result, and you do have class in the morning, but who cares? What matters is that at this very moment you’re tired and that needs fixing. Once you awake you’re bound to be refreshed and ready to do whatever you need to do. This is more beneficial in the long run.

Besides, your bed is so warm and comforting and sleeping is awesome.

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First World Problems

The REAL Crisis

Pouring out your cereal before realising you’re out of milk Having unequal levels of shampoo and conditioner Spreading your toast so roughly that you make a hole in the bread No one likes your hilarious Facebook status Your laptop’s about to die but your charger is up stairs Getting comfy on the couch before realising you left the remote/food on the kitchen counter

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egardless of what we see in the news nowadays, everybody knows that first world problems are the real issues plaguing our privileged society. Here at Dircksey, we’ve compiled some of the very worst ‘white whines’ us folks have faced. If you or someone you know is going through a first world problem, reach out and remember: we’re all in this together. By Elisha Hammond

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Our Queer Elders- The Marriage Equality Crisis

By Samantha-Jane Rose – Queer Officer at ECU Queer Collective a crisis most people will Iit’st’sunlikely have heard of but something that is entering

its critical phase, the point of no return, the point at which it will be too late. I speak of course about the pressing issue of marriage equality and how it affects our “queer elders”, as it was comically coined at the Australian Marriage Equality Forum. These are our friends who have been waiting, committed to those they care about for far too long. While Malcolm Turnbull procrastinates loudly in Canberra, our Queer Elders continue to wait, as they have for decades, for the chance — the right — to marry the ones who they have loved for longer than I have lived.

It saddens and hurts, dare I say wounds me, that these people are deprived of the chance to live their lives married and committed to each other. These men and women who have paid taxes their entire lives, have endured abuse and bullying at the hands of a government, which is supposed to serve them. Malcolm Turnbull not only owes these people a debt he cannot repay, he owes them marriage equality. He owes them an apology on behalf of

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this nation for the government has supported and enabled this discrimination to continue for as long as it has.

Malcolm Turnbull knows what he must do. He knows what is expected and required of him now if he wants to preserve any shred of respect from our community; he needs to immediately banish the plebiscite to the dustbin of history, forever.

He needs to stand up to the far right among his party and he needs to allow a conscience vote for Coalition members of parliament and senators. Not only is this the morally correct course of action, it is a course of action which makes the most sense, politically speaking. It would end an issue which has caused the Coalition to haemorrhage votes to the Greens and Labor and it would deny Labor an important political achievement should it win government next year.

It amazes me that the far-right faction within the Coalition cannot see that its dwindling political fortunes can potentially be reversed to a degree. If only they would come to their senses and fulfil the wishes of the Australian people, even if these wishes are incongruent with the

backward, socially conservative mantra that has become the hallmark of the Abbott faction within the Coalition. The lesson has seemingly gone unlearned; the answer to the plummeting fortunes of the Coalition is not more severe doses of conservatism and austerity but, rather, the adoption of policies that reflect the Australian value of a fair go for all.

While our government continues to sit on its hands concerning marriage equality, our Queer Elders continue to lose time that they do not have. The tragedy of passing away before they have the opportunity to commit to one another in marriage is something that we have had to witness Something their loved ones and families have had to experience.

It is an abhorrent, preventable tragedy that could be resolved with a simple parliamentary vote.

We know the numbers exist, we know that it enjoys overwhelming and consistent public support among men, women, Christians and even Coalition voters.

To put it bluntly, what the bloody hell are you waiting for, Mister Prime Minister?

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Technicolour Companies

By Tristan Sherlock ecently more and more companies have been coming forward to show support for their LGBT+ customers. With each company finding new, diverse ways to demonstrate queer support.

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As an example: Google, a long-time supporter of LGBT+ Pride, opted to show support for Pride this year by adding a rainbow banner in the search results for the entirety of the month.

In Australia, Airbnb partnered with eBay to show their support for marriage equality by distributing free (excludes delivery) acceptance rings.

“This unique design features … a signature 2.2mm gap symbolising the current inequality of marriage that we need to close within Australia. Until the day comes when two people who love each other can celebrate that love through commitment, wear this ring and show your acceptance of marriage equality.”

As expected, the act of showing off LGBT+ support by these major companies has sparked quite a bit of controversy. Just recently QANTAS showed its support LGBT+ Australians, which lead tennis legend, Margret Court to write a letter claiming that she would not be flying with QANTAS anymore, based on their support of the LGBT+ community. It was later revealed,

by Court, that her opinions on the matter come from religious beliefs.

A similar situation involving Former Pastor and Evangelist, Joshua Feuerstein, has also taken place, in which he called for a boycott of fast food chain McDonalds, after they decided to make queer friendly “Rainbow Fries”. Feuerstein took

to Facebook to announce his disgust: “DISGUSTING! McDonald’s released their RAINBOW FRIES today in honor of GAY PRIDE! Im tired of corporations trying to influence our families like this. SHARE THIS and let people know to STOP EATING at McDonalds! Plus, their food is crap. Really.”

With an ever increasing amount of companies demonstrating their LGBT+ community support, arguments concerning whether companies should show their pride and political alliances have arisen. As our not-soqueer-friendly-pastor said on Facebook: “Im tired of corporations trying to influence our families like this.”

While Queer people aren’t nearly as desperate for any support as they would’ve been 50 odd years ago, they accept all and any allies who are willing to help in their own fight.

Especially an entire company. One of the few good arguments against companies showcasing their support for the LGBT+ community is the potential for them to be using their ‘support’ as a marketing technique to gain customers.

It is very likely that some, maybe even most, companies are in fact doing this, however with still over twenty American States having not passed any bills to allow LGBT+ citizens safe workers right the more company support the better. And here’s an extra dose of information, even more States don’t have any laws protecting any gender non-conforming or trans employees.

Whether you agree with the argument it’s hard to argue that this has potentially been one of the best ways to smoke out the bigots.

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Ideas Boom Crash

&

Burn?

By Leighton Campbell

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DIRCKSEY

ustralia is home to world-class tertiary A education providers. Many of our universities have fostered the brilliant minds

of people from creative and scientific fields that have changed the world for the better.

Whether it be WAAPA graduated actors taking Hollywood by storm, or ANU educated researchers discovering breakthroughs in science, Australia’s education capabilities are world-renown. So when the 2017-2018 Federal Budget was announced earlier this year that saw cuts to university funding, and changes to the HECS repayment plan, one starts to question the future of Australia’s education sector.

ISSUE 4: CRISIS

support from the government so that they are able to transition with Australia into this “ideas boom” as well. The innovation needs to start now, and it needs to come from our leaders.

On the other side of the cuts to university funding, the government announced in the Federal Budget that an increase in Commonwealth funding to primary and high school students is on the horizon. An extra $18.6 billion over the next 10 years will be

Is there an education crisis looming ahead?

In December 2015, the Liberal Party began running advertisements promoting Australia’s “ideas boom” – a play on words to suggest Australia’s transition from the mining boom days that are starting to fizzle out. A quick search of the term “ideas boom” will lead you to the homepage of the government’s National Innovation and Science Agenda where it states that,“extraordinary technological change is transforming how we live, work, communicate and pursue good ideas. We need to embrace new ideas in innovation and science, and harness new sources of growth to deliver the next age of economic prosperity in Australia.” One would think that the central way to deliver this new age for Australia would be through our education system; to directly invest in our future and allow the young minds of today, tomorrow’s future leaders and innovators, to flourish.

So why then, has the government decided to cut university funding? How can a government claim to be supporting an “ideas boom” yet penalize the very institutions where these ideas are able to develop and grow?

If Australia really wants to see itself amidst an “ideas boom”, the government needs to put its money where its mouth is and support all of its education providers. TAFE programs, as well as universities, need to be continually supported by the government for the ability for our nation to prosper. Investment in education in regional and rural areas is crucial for the success of Australia. Mining towns that will no longer be able to mine and no longer able to receive funding from mining companies will need

ECU Guild President, Sam Martyn (right), and Former ECU Guild President, Lewis Price (left), at an NUS march to protest the cuts to funding & fee increases to education. invested into schools across the country.

It has taken the Australian government over four years to introduce education reforms that will help to bring the education standard in this country further forward. The passing of Gonski 2.0 in parliament is an important step forward, but it was also a step forward that took much longer than it needed to. Australia is in a watershed phase of the 21st century. It really is no longer safe for us to rely on the oldfashioned mining sector to carry us onwards.

With the government recognizing this, and committing itself to a more technologically innovated future, universities and TAFE also need to be able to keep up with the demands of Australia’s ideas boom.

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Arbitrary

By Noemie Hunter-Koros

T

Safety

hree weeks ago marked 25 years of Australia’s system of mandatory immigration detention.

And each night when I perform there are small paper lifejackets strewn everywhere I look.

Each one has a name written inside.

Reza Berati Hodan Ysain Omid Masoumali Faysal Ishak Ahmed Khodayar Amini When people ask me what my show was about, I often say that it was about Australia’s system of mandatory immigration detention, as if that system could ever be summed up in such a neat little sentence. But what I wish I could capture is what I felt each night as I found myself getting ready to perform a piece about crisis and there was electricity coursing through my body. Each night I manipulated hundreds of little paper boats that I had carefully hand folded; I flung lifejackets that people had worn onto the floor. I sung my grandmother’s folk song softly while looking audience members in the eye, acknowledging our shared complicity, our common (but silent) understanding of our role in this crisis.

ancestors climbed a fence into another country.

They carefully passed her between concerned familial hands over a fence and because of chance and actions such as that one, today we are alive and we are contemplative and reflective. But I often think about this arbitrary safety, this arbitrary line that decides who lives and who dies or who is worth saving. And as today we face the largest numbers of refugees in human history I imagine waves of humans trapped between borders. I imagine people on Manus Island, and Nauru, and Christmas Island, and all the other places our government carefully and methodically attempts to hide, and I feel myself on the edge of speech.

Because that this is occurring almost defies any regular attempts at language or rationality. But we still try to find words, because we must.

In 1942, my grandmother was two years old and fleeing. In order to escape and save their lives my

For each performance I roll out long strips of white masking tape that demarcate the boundaries between safety and danger. And this crisis is about

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Art by Maxine Singh @maxinesingh

journey: about the attempt to leave an impossible situation but being stopped before you’re able to reach the next. It’s this terrifying moment of limbo trying to start the next chapter of your life but being stopped by a border, or a gate, or a holding cell, or a policy built on twenty+ years of xenophobic rhetoric about who we accept and who we don’t.

At the heart of the piece was an exploration of what it is to be engulfed in crisis, to be in the midst of crisis and attempting to respond and survive at the same time. Because this is what I see around me so much; I see fear being used as a tool to manipulate large swathes of people. I see us constantly in reactionary mode from the last crisis, so busy responding that we’re not even able to plan, to scheme, to dream about the kind of world we want to build, to inhabit, to coexist in.

Ultimately I think that is what terrifies me the most. Call me naive or unrealistic but at my core I’m an optimist. I believe in the power of people to create great change when it needs to happen. And I believe in the collective ability of humans to feel compassion for others who are not them. But this inability to see beyond the immediate future or immediate present circumstances arouses feelings

of deep panic within me. I don’t understand how Australia got to a point where locking up thousands of innocent people seeking refuge became the most viable option.

So I suppose the question then becomes: where to from here? I feel vulnerable and nervous writing this because I don’t have answers. I know we need to consciously reject narratives that tell us of our powerlessness, our hopelessness, and connect with people we’ve never met to become empowered.

We need to tell these stories and speak these names, so that people on Nauru and Manus and everywhere else are never forgotten. We need to speak loudly and with courage to departments and politicians that remain fixated on arbitrary borders, as philosopher Mary Zournazi explains: “to keep asking what risks need to be taken for a hopeful world, what habits of thought need to be changed in our cultures, and what responsibilities and ethical and political acts willmake the world a hopeful place.” To be with each other in moments of crisis, to see and be seen and to bear witness to these times. To bear witness means to be implicated in the action, still standing on the street corner taking in what’s happened, borne on by our responsibility to events.

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ECU

Perthonalities

Catherine I am the senior technician for the Fashion Department. I’m currently finishing my Bachelor of Arts… I’ve always studied arts my entire life, and my family works in arts, so that’s been a huge influence for me growing up. I really love doing it. I’d like to work somewhere other than Perth… I definitely don’t want to make clothes. I’ve come to the conclusion I’m not very good at doing that. I’m probably more interested in the business side of it. Either being a buyer or doing marketing or something like that… I think when it comes to university it doesn’t matter if you’re not 100% set on what you’re studying because you can always change it. There’s a really big pressure when you finish high school that you need to know what you’re going to do for the rest of your life and that’s definitely not the case. You figure it out as you go along.

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Interviews by Zachary Sheridan / Photography by Marshall Stay @MarshallArts (on Facebook)

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Gerard I study a Master of Business Administration International. I’m from India and the thing is when you go into fields like marketing and sales, I feel the education here is a little better.

I’ve been here four months. It’s pretty good.

The job market is kind of rough, but otherwise you’re allowed to push the boundaries of what you can dream here. Honestly, in the long run, I hope to be an assistant to or a brand manager for a brand. My place of Zen is pretty much Uni right now. I think success is always closer than you think. Every time you think you’re going to stop – that’s when you’ve got to keep going. I believe our generation especially has been given this image that if you haven’t made it by the age of 21 you’re pretty sucky… But if you’re patient and persist, and trust the process, things can happen.

Alice I study contemporary dance at WAAPA. It’s something I’ve been doing since I was little and I never really tried anything else so I stuck with it. I like that it’s a creative outlet, and with dance especially there’s so much versatility within it that you can explore different forms and ideas. Last year I was dancing fulltime and I made a lot of friends, and it really became my life… All my memories were shared with the same people… Because I’m from Adelaide I’ve been able to work with Australian Dance Theatre, and to work with that company from when I was quite young was an amazing opportunity… There’s some performances that you just have to push through, but when you find ones that are fun to do where you work with great people you realise why you’re doing it. When I’m not dancing I’m quite boring. I just hang out with friends or nap. If I had any advice to give… Don’t always take things so seriously.

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viral

What it’s like to go

W

hat would you think if I told you that today you would become a viral sensation just for dropping a phone? You would have to laugh.

It’s a silly thought but something that actually happened.

On the 19th of September a simple search for ‘iPhone’ brought up thousands of results, the number one being the story of a man who dropped the phone as soon as he got hold of it. To top it off he was first in line and it was all captured live on national news.

The difference between those articles and this is that they were written by media outlets that didn’t have the full story and as a result wrote down incorrect facts, and even quoted words that were never said. They wanted something that sounds more sensational.

This article on the other hand is written by the man that dropped the phone. The man in those articles that knows exactly what happened and what was said. I am writing this to state what actually happened and to give an insight into what it is like to go “viral.”

After arriving home I received a call by Lisa Fernandez, the reporter who interviewed me. She informed me that I was now a viral sensation and that I should expect a big amount of attention.

I checked my twitter timeline, and just scrolling through my news feed every third tweet was about me. I follow many sites and media outlets. I was seeing Forbes, Metro and even the BBC reporting on it. This itself sent me into a panic state.

I was shaking like crazy, it was scary. You may not be able to comprehend how being all over the media could be a scary thing,

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but it was. I was receiving tweets to my Twitter account at a rapid rate, my Facebook went into an overload and to top it off I couldn’t use my brand new phone because of how many notifications were coming through it.

To make it even scarier I was receiving calls from radio stations and Nine wanted me to come in to their studio that night to go live on TV. Despite me now tweeting people telling them what really happened and even sending out a tweet saying the phone was fine media was still writing incorrect media reports.

One of the most common sentences I read was that I had been camping out all night, maybe even for days to get hold of the new device. Many sites reported this including Mashable.com who stated, “After lining up all night, Jack Cooksey was the first customer at Perth’s Apple Store”.

I wasn’t there overnight; in fact I was there barely over two hours when I came out with the phone.

I was only first because I reserved the phone for pickup. This wasn’t the first time a media outlet was to incorrectly report the story, and it wasn’t the last.

Another report by the Independent said the phone fell flat on it’s front and shattered. This was because someone claiming to be me tweeted a picture of a broken screen. To this I replied to my whole Twitter feed.

Later that day a Nine News reporter came to my house for a quick interview in my living room which was something I could never have imagined happening when I left for the Apple store that morning. I thought this would be as big as it got, but boy was I wrong.

Before I went to the Nine studio I received a call by an Irish radio station and even a Russian one. It had gone overseas. Later that night when the US awoke was when it went huge though. The YouTube video, which now has just under 20M views, shot up millions in hours and people like Perez Hilton and Jimmy Fallon were talking about it. I was receiving emails and tweets left, right and centre from American media asking for pictures and interviews. This even included TMZ. Now some years after “the incident” I still receive contact from media, although obviously a lower amount and I still get people asking for pictures of me or taking them without permission in the public. I have also done a few more interviews and been shown on shows like Have You Been Paying Attention, rudetube and the Big fat quiz. If there was something I got out of this is that you can never believe everything the media says.

They are in it for a story and they are there to grow their audience.

Another thing I gathered from this is that silly stories like this are more popular than world events that have much more serious consequences.

I also learned to ignore what people were saying about you.

I was called silly, clumsy, stupid and even comedians insulted me.

I ignored this, just like I have ignored all the death threats and calls for me to kill myself on Youtube. These people don’t affect me, they don’t know me, and as such their opinions of me are irrelevant.

Becoming viral isn’t all it is cracked up to be, but it sure is a thrill ride.

By Jack Cooksey

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3. EXT. ROBOT MANOR. DUSK. MAC and PHILLIP make their way across the manor grounds. They are going to the boss to talk about MAC’s troubles. A sprinkler turns on spraying MAC in the process.

MAC No wonder I am always so rusty PHILLIP. PHILLIP Don’t let it dampen your spirit. Come on, let’s see the boss.

MAC *sighs* Why can’t we have robot plants like we did back home?

PHILLIP Remember what happened to the birds and bugs? They couldn’t eat and left.

MAC *muttering* Well we could get robot birds couldn’t we.

PHILLIP You’re in a foul mood today aren’t you. Let’s go, it’s getting dark.

MAC and PHILLIP make it to the east wing of the robot manor and enter through a large door.

4. INT. ROBOT MANOR. DUSK. MAC and PHILLIP stand in a corridor outside the boss’s office. MAC looks around nervously.

PHILLIP Come on MAC, it’s just through the door there.

MAC I’m not so sure about this, the boss has been real short tempered recently.

PHILLIP Oh, go on, he’s not going to bite.

PHILLIP pushes MAC towards the door.

This installment of ‘Robots in space’ was written by Nils Terton. If you would like to write the next scene email editors@ecuguild.org.au with an expression of interest. At the end of the year the script will be made into a short film.

CREATIVE / ARTS & LITERATURE / 23

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Blackholes

I am not okay...

A brave face for everyone to see, But I am not okay…

When you live in pain for as long as I have, You feel like the weight of a thousand stars is being placed upon your shoulders, And you, this tiny Infinitesimal speck on the cosmic radar, You alone are expected to carry this immense gravitational burden…

On those tiny shoulders But all hope is not lost, for there is beauty in our universe, our world…

We all have those beautiful entities, our blackholes if you will, Dark entities, entities of unspeakable blackness, ready to devour our problems, To reduce them to the smallest of particles, to a beautiful quantum singularity…

If only, if only, We could see, those beautiful, invisible, indivisible…

Blackholes…

By Samantha-Jane Rose

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Book Reviews

DIRCKSEY

Sharp Objects Gillian Flynn, 2006 I knew from the moment I began reading Sharp Objects I’d love it. Sharp Objects is face-paced and impossible to put down. Before the first chapter is even over Camille Preaker is already investigating — questioning — the people of Wind Gap about the murder of one child and the kidnapping of another. While most of the time, Flynn is straight to the point, wasting no time in allowing her story to move along, she tends to ramble on and over describe certain aspects of the novel. Notably, backstories.

Sharp Objects successfully manipulates the reader until the very last twist. As crime novels go this is not only a great one in general but also perfect for those who are interesting in investing more of their time in them, such as myself.

By Tristan Sherlock

Queer There and Everywhere Sarah Prager, 2017

Sarah Prager’s Queer, There and Everywhere offers twenty-three short biographies of queer people who’ve influenced history. While it’s an essential, interesting and wonderful historical novel it does lack a certain amount of depth, and focuses far too much on European and American queers (with no African or Asian queer history as far as the biographies go). Despite this however, Queer, There and Everywhere comes with the best of intentions and tells the stories of so many diverse queer people who’s LGBT+ lives have been erased. Prager uses her novel to emphasise how queer people have lived throughout society. From Ancient Rome to modern day San Francisco, Prager tells queer people that they’re not alone, they’ve never been alone and they never will be.

By Tristan Sherlock

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Rebecca Daphne du Maurier, 1938 The classic Hitchcock film based on this book illustrates it is not your average romantic novel.

It starts with a simple young woman who is swept off her feet by a wealthy and recently widowed handsome stranger. Once married, he whisks her off to his gloomy seaside mansion where at least one unpleasant secret is uncovered. This novel is unusual for the main reasons: firstly, the action is dominated by a character who has died well before the novel commences; and secondly, the main character - the young woman who narrates the story - is never named. These add to the overall mystery of the novel which begins as a near-fairy tale romance but evolves into a murder mystery. While the film - Hitchcock’s first in Hollywood - follows the novel in nearly all major events, there is at least one bit of ‘artistic licence’ in the film to make the hero more socially palatable to audiences of the 1940s. Having seen the film will not detract from reading the novel.

Although first published in 1938, it has not dated.

Recommended for those who like romance with more than a touch of suspense. By Andrew Douglas

Marlborough Man Alan Carter, 2017 The mystery and suspense of Criminal Minds meets the action-packed and thrilling atmosphere of Taken in Alan Carter’s Marlborough Man. Unfortunately for Carter Marlborough Man is all great premise with little great execution.

The biggest flaw present in Marlborough Man is the narrator’s voice. Marlborough Man is the type of novel that would’ve worked far better having been in third-person. Thankfully, the narration is really the only issue present in the novel, everything else is presented quite well.

Alan Carter manages to successfully entwine two stories (Nick’s Past and Present) and make them into one. While Marlborough Man has plenty of strong aspects, it is unfortunate that its major poor aspect is the most important aspect of any novel. In saying that, I do believe that Marlborough Man is a novel that everyone should at least attempt to read. By Tristan Sherlock ARTS & LITERATURE / 25

Un lieu DIRCKSEY

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pour étre deux

he Sydney-based philosopher T Mary Zournazi’s book ‘Hope: New philosophies for change’

involves discussions between the author and various contemporary philosophers on the subject of hope. I love it—even starting a morning by reading just one of its pages or paragraphs gives me new ideas on how to engage with the world for that day—and it’s freely available online, so I highly recommend looking it up!

It manages to be as empowering and affirming as it is radical and serious: at no point does it downplay the critical nature of the global crisis situation we find ourselves in. In my favourite chapter of the book—the last one—Isabelle Stengers explains her idea of ‘philosophical workshops’: In these workshops we try to produce a collective process of thinking amongst us. In order to achieve this we have to produce games and rules, the aim and success of which is to slow down the questions/answers process in order for people not just to express what they were thinking anyway but to feel their thought becoming part of the collective adventure. When you go too fast you do not feel the possibility of new creations, new connections.

The rules we invented are meant to make it impossible for anybody to be able to posit him or herself as ‘I know what I think’, in order for thought to emerge from1 a kind of collective stammering.

Whilst I studied composition at WAAPA, I’ve probably spent more time in the last year as a performer, playing the music of composers other than myself.

This quote (and the whole interview) seemed so striking when I first read it, not just because of Stengers’ compelling idea of ‘slowing down’ as a form of resistance to the status quo and its emphasis on ‘progress’ and ‘innovation’ at the expense of

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humanity and the environment, but also because it seemed completely applicable to a lot of the music I had found (and continue to find) myself drawn towards performing in the last year: John Cage, Michael Pisaro, Eva-Maria Houben, Emmanuelle Waeckerle, Samuel Vriezen, Marianne Schuppe & Laura Steenberge, but perhaps most clearly in the work of the Dutch composer Antoine Beuger.

Many of Beuger’s pieces seem to near-perfectly reflect Stenger’s ‘philosophical workshops’: they are a set of simple conditions which offer to the performers a slowed-down form of (musical) communication in which previously unknowable ideas seem to be able to emerge. A page of the score for his 2005 duo composition un lieu pour être deux (roughly ‘a place for being 2 two’) may look as simple as this: 1 2 These two numbers (which range from 0 to 3, and are in the same position on all fifty of the pages) describe the number of sounds each performer should make whilst performing that page, the sounds themselves described as being ‘very quiet’, ‘not really short to very long’, with the timing of the starts and ends of sounds being freely chosen3by the two people performing.

Depending on how many pages you choose to play, the piece can easily last for longer than two hours—two hours of extremely soft, sustained sounds! Despite the fact that the piece is so stripped back, actually performing it is an extraordinarily complex and even intense experience. Given that the amount of decisions one need make is reduced—one only need decide which sound to play, when to play it and when to stop playing it—each one of these decisions is revealed to be of vital significance to the moment-to-

moment intensity of the work, and there is (relatively) so little going on that subtle nuances start to seem like huge variations in context.

Sometimes, a page even appears with two zeros. In this case, both performers need not act at all, simply sitting in silence with one another, but in context the situation between oneself and the other player still seems extraordinarily rich: What is the other player thinking? Who will turn the page first? Why did they 4 turn the page so late/so soon?

Sometimes sitting together in such a way is calmly joyful. Other times you feel nervous or anxious about what the other person might be thinking, and the piece can become a kind of quiet struggle towards finding peace with the other person again. You can play games with the piece or the other performer: I’ll only make my sounds whilst the other person makes theirs, I’ll make my sounds really short for the next ten minutes, I’ll just repeat the same sound for the next few pages, or, I’ll make my next sound really, really long (in an hour long performance of the piece with myself & Jameson Feakes, we found ourselves sustaining one sound together for nearly ten minutes). Within this elegant little score hides a whole range of possibilities, and emotions.

Beuger’s compositional concept is so simple, and I’d argue that it is just as simple to perform. But it somehow offers an unusually complex experience, a look at the peripheral parts of music (and life) that we mightn’t be able to offer enough consideration or attention towards without the piece’s help, even if we consciously try. Through attending to these peripheral parts so much, we realise how full of information & possibility they are.

Beuger has noted that, for him, it

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a place for being two is the performers who make the music, not the composer: ...to me the most important question, when working on a piece, is: how is it, how does it feel, to be part of this for a (the) player(s), what happens to them?

If the piece doesn’t allow the players to have a deep musical experience while playing it, it doesn’t make any sense. On the other hand, a deep musical experience for the players will immediately convey itself to the listeners, so the music will become a “shared experience” (as in James Tenney’s definition of 5 experimental music).

To perform this piece you need to make yourself quite vulnerable and responsible, both to a potential audience and also to your duo partner—you are making this music, and it couldn’t exist without you (the score by itself does nothing, and is far from the ‘objective’ objects that, say, classical and romantic scores are seen to be). But there’s a joy in doing this, just as there is a joy inherent in pausing ones life to be in the compelling space the piece offers, and a kind of quasi- freedom in the opennessto-interpretation the work displays. I would argue, as well, that there is something powerful inherent in the re-positioning of power structures a work like this enables.

Speaking of joy & freedom: for Stengers, joyfulness can be both a kind of “renunciation” and “the experience of being free from the many poisons we hold so dear”—

the anxieties and pressures of life in the 21st century that seem increasingly difficult to avoid or let go of. Critically, she follows immediately with: “But you’re never free yourself, you can help the process, 6you do not command the event.” Another philosopher I am influenced by, Alain Badiou, describes our current global crisis as having an ‘objective’ level (blind violence and brutality on a global scale, both towards7 humanity and the environment ) and a ‘subjective’ level—the latter being a kind of ‘disorganisation of thinking’ and an ‘obscure vision of the future’, particularly8 for younger people like myself. Badiou continues to say that we are powerless ourselves to change the objective situation immediately without the power or money to do so, but that we can change the subjective crisis, by proposing “new ideas, new visions, new forms of life for humankind”— something that can be done through new artistic creations (as well as procedures of love, science & politics, in 9 Badiou’s philosophy). He, too, proposes a kind of joyfulness, again sharing Stengers’ vision that this is part of a “process” one can become a part of—the call for Badiou, to change the world, is to be “happy...not as a result of [some] change, but by the change itself.” In artistic creations of any kind which can offer a new perspective openness, generosity and joyfulness to those that realise them, one might find ways to get on the right track— to create ‘encounters’ which are empowering to those who experience them, and to get

better ‘habits’, as Stengers calls them, which are vital “if we wish to begin resisting today, not waiting for the revolution [and] if we do not wish what we call revolution 10 to turn into a catastrophe”.

What is the potential inherent in someone who is in the process of acquiring these habits, of renouncing old ones?

For Badiou, this can change the world; it moves towards revealing the “true life”, which has become something hidden from us, something impossible to visualise in our current worldly conditions.

The world is brimming with different ideologies, perspectives, opinions, belief systems.

Technology has perhaps made us more capable than ever to hear these, and to be heard with our own. It seems increasingly important, then, to learn how to listen to them. I see teaching and sharing new ways of doing this as an important task of the composer and musician today: through the discussion around music, but also (most importantly) through the music itself. Beuger’s work can teach us how to deeply care for the sound of another, and for one’s own sound. It can teach us how to place these within the world with intention, presence and humility. Perhaps it can teach us better habits of being. In this way, I have some hope that it can be part of this process, towards changing the world...

By Josten Myburgh

1 Isabelle Stengers, quoted in Mary Zournazi, Hope: New philosophies for change, Annandale: Pluto Press (2002), 252.

2 Antoine Beuger, un leiu pour être deux, Düsseldorf: Edition Wandelweiser GmbH (2007), 1.

3 Ibid.

4 My own performance of this piece, with Jameson Feakes, can be heard at the following link. I have also performed it with Andre Möller (in Düsseldorf, as part of Klangraum Festival) as well as Sage Pbbbt and Beth Gosper. https://soundcloud.com/josten-myburgh/un-lieu-pour-etre-deux-antoine-beuger 5 Antoine Beuger, liner notes to “Wandelweiser und so weiter”, Another Timbre, at56x6, 2012.

6 Isabelle Stengers, Hope: New philosophies for change, 270.

7 Alain Badiou, “Alain Badiou: Reflections on the Recent Election,” Verso, November 2016, accessed April 22, 2017, http://www.versobooks.com/blogs/2940-alain-badiou-reflections-on-the-recent-election 8 Alain Badiou — On Optimism, YouTube Video, 7:30, posted by “TheNexusInstitute”, December 18, 2012, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o6O_d1DVk3U 9 Alain Badiou on Being Happy, YouTube Video, 8:10, posted by “TheNexusInstitute”, June 25, 2013, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oEY14y4jThY. 10 Stengers, Hope, 267.

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W

ith hits like Too Much Time Together, RUN, About You and most recently Hey, Did I do You Wrong and three outstanding studio albums, San Cisco are undoubtedly one of West Australia’s greatest exports. I spoke with the band’s singer Jordi Davieson about all things tour, The Water, vocal chords and shoeys! Interview by Holly Ferguson How does it feel to be near the end of your Australian tour and have it end in Perth?

It’s really good because we’ve got the next two weeks off and then we’ve got our Perth shows, so it’s been really good to come home and touch base again and do a little bit of writing, play a few more shows and get in the right head space.

Have you got anything planned for your time off in Perth?

I’m just going to go down south I think. I’m going to try and do a bit more writing to keep that muscle working.

With your last album Gracetown you guys did a lot of writing on tour, did that happen with The Water too?

We didn’t really because when we released 28 / MUSIC

Gracetown we toured so much and we didn’t do a lot of writing because it was so intense.

Then we just came home and a had a little break and did all of our writing in the studio.

The Water was pretty much all written in the studio, a little bit was written in our break, but the majority of it was all done at the same time.

How do you get into the headspace to write in the studio? Do you find it easy to get inspiration there?

I think you’ve got to collect the inspiration over a long space of time and write down ideas, notice things and work on concepts.

That makes the actual creating of the song a lot easier instead of sitting in a room and looking for inspiration. So if you have all these ideas banked up it makes the song writing process a lot easier.

DIRCKSEY

What’s it like performing The Water? Are you enjoying it?

It’s really fun! The whole last tour has been really good because we’ve got a really good crew behind us and we’ve put a lot of work into the pre-production of the live show and lot of rehearsals. It’s made for a really pleasant touring experience and really enjoyable.

Do you have a favourite song to play?

I like playing ‘Did You Get What You Came For’ because it’s probably one of the most challenging songs. I’ve got to do guitar riffs and a few singing parts, there’s a lot of different aspects to it. I have to be thinking a lot more rather than just playing it.

With Gracetown you recorded in lots of different places, like a toilet on ‘Skool’. Did you have any interesting recording spots on The Water?

We recorded the drums for one of the songs in a massive stairwell and some of the vocals. But the majority of it was recorded and written in a studio in Freemantle. We had this way of doing it where we had two studios set up, we turned the drum room into another little studio and we would rotate. I’d be working on one song out in the live room with vocals and arrangement and Josh would be working on the other one in the drum room on guitar parts and musical things.

Once we both hit a brick wall we would swap them over so there would be fresh ears for a new song. That’s how we wrote a few songs in a sort amount of time because we were both writing at the same time.

When you did the swap overs were there any points where you thought ‘what is this person doing?’ or were you on the same page?

That stuff happens all the time. But then sometimes it doesn’t. You’ll hear something that Josh has been working on and I’d be like ‘Wow, I would have not thought to do that, that is perfect.’ And there would be times where you’d be like ‘What!’ Sometimes when we get our mixes back from our producer Steven Schram, I’ll hear it for the first time and I’ll think ‘What is that? Is it even in tune, in time?’ And then after I’ve heard it for a few times, because I’m so used to an old version of it, I’ll think that it’s really good and fall in love with that part that he put in that I originally hated. They call it ‘demoitis’, where you get used to the demo tracks and someone changes it and you’re like ‘oh no! I like it the old way!’ That’s when you have to take a step back, take you ego out of it and have a good listen, and think is this what’s best for the song?

How do you view the progression of your sound, since the first EP to now?

I think that it’s a bit more mature because we’ve matured a bit. When we did our first EP we were in high school and then one thing lead to

ISSUE 4: CRISIS

another and we travelled around the world, fell in love, did all sorts of things. And each time we sit down and do a musical effort that has a massive effect on it and what we write about changes, just like anything in life. It’s getting better, hopefully.

Do you get to go out much when you’re home?

I’ve been making a conscious effort to not go out too much and to look after my self. On tour it’s the same thing, it’s really annoying when you go to a city with a lot of friends and they want to go out but you’ve got another two, three shows to play and I can’t do that because I’ll lose my voice. I’ve had a real issue with my voice over the last twelve months and its just come good and it’s been good this whole tour because I was not going out (and I was drinking vodka sodas).

That’s worrying when you’re voice is out, because that’s one of your most important instruments. What do you do when that happens?

It was a nightmare. I had surgery; I was out of action for a while. I can talk about it for hours; I’ve become quite an expert on the topic of my voice. A lot of the time it’s got to do with really mild reflux like the acidic gasses, when you sleep, that come up and burn your vocal chords and they inflame, which is one thing that ruins your voice. The other thing is sinus congestion and then the other thing (that can impact your vocal chords) is talking really loudly and getting drunk and excited; as long as I don’t do those things my voice is usually pretty good.

Do you notice a difference with the vibe of the audience in each place you go to?

Yeah definitely. In America everyone is really polite, everyone will listen to your song quietly and applaud and then it will be dead quiet and then they’ll wait for you to start again. But when you’re in Australia the crowd volume doesn’t change when you’re playing a song to not playing a song. Europe is also very polite. You can always pick the Australian out in the crowd, yelling out ‘do a shoey!’

Do you encourage people to do shoeys at your concerts?

Not really, well they can do a shoey I don’t care.

But I’m not going to do a shoey, I’ll just be burping the whole time and I’ve got to try and sing songs!

So after your tour what’s the plan?

I think we’re going to be doing just a bit of writing, making new music and touring. We’re going to keep touring and playing festival shows.

It’s a bit of an empty space what we’re going to do for the rest of the year.

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Music Reviews

DIRCKSEY

RELAXER alt-J, 2017 RELAXER is the third album from folky-rocky band alt-J. Different from their lovely and pensive first two, this instalment retains some hallmarks, with its broken expectations and evocative imagery.

It’s also still hard to make out exactly what Joe Newman is saying. Endless roads, still afternoons, alt-J are the masters of capturing moments and holding them gently within their sound. The grungy Hit Me Like That Snare is probably the most unusual new track with its angsty vibes.

Otherwise, highlights include 3WW and its relentless tread, the jamming Deadcrush, and the meditative and beautiful Adeline. A reimagined House of the Rising Sun is completed with care, In Cold Blood has classic alt-J vibes, Pleader is a secular hymn, and the melancholic Last Year is a bittersweet reflection on a life that floats away. All in all, RELAXER’s intent is in the name – a delicate pause in a time requiring one. By Zachary Sheridan

Meldorma Lorde, 2017 As everyone is sure to know, Lorde has finally released her second album Melodrama after almost four years since the release of Pure Heroine in late 2013. Not only that Melodrama has exceeded everyone’s expectations. This heartfelt, intelligently written, emotional rollercoaster of a heart break album manages to stay true to Lorde’s own sound while showing just how much both her and her music has grown. Lorde experiments with a new sound of pop music that gives Melodrama a fresh feel. Beginning with the first heartbreak song she’s ever written, Green Light, Melodrama tells the story of Lorde’s last three years and the heartbreak she’s endured. Melodrama ends with the melancholic Perfect Places, which will leave you both an emotional wreck and wanting to listen to the album again from the beginning.

By Tristan Sherlock

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ISSUE 4: CRISIS

Songs to help you get through a crisis: Freedom! ‘90 George Michael

Naughty The Cast of Matilda

Loaded Primal Scream

Move Your Feet Junior Senior

Tightrope Janelle Monae

Have an EP, CD or Single coming out? Send it to us at: editors@ecuguild.org.au

Film Reviews

DIRCKSEY

Hotel Coolgardie

Pete Gleeson, 2016 If you’re going to see one film this year, make sure it’s this one.

Hotel Coolgardie follows Finnish backpackers Lina and Stephie on a working holiday as bar attendants at the Denver City Hotel, about 40km from Kalgoorlie. Akin to Ted Kotcheff’s Wake in Fright, one of Australia’s greatest films, Pete Gleeson’s observational documentary examines rampant sexism and alcohol abuse. There’s a huge pressure to be polite amidst terrible behaviour from bar goers and the publican, Pete.

Male characters cannot take ‘no’ for an answer on first utterance, and depictions of previous bar attendants at the film’s beginning illustrate what the locals are after – ‘wild, unruly, up-foranything behaviour.’ Many critics have focussed on remote Australia culture, but the desire to get pissed is not unique to the outback. An extreme version of the everyday, Hotel Coolgardie is a harrowing, truthful exploration of Australia that will hopefully allow for some introspection.

By Zachary Sheridan

Romy and Michele’s High School Reunion David Mirkin, 1997 This year marks 20 years since the iconic, ironic and ever-stylish chick flick Romy and Michele’s High School Reunion. This film explores the ultimate first world crisis, how to impress your old high-school classmates at your 10 year reunion. The central characters of the film, Romy and Michele, are classic ‘Cali’ girls with an interest in fashion, boys and that’s about it.

There’s not much to the plot. Basically Romy and Michele make a half assed attempt to get better jobs and boyfriends to make their lives appear to be better. Then there’s a surrealist dream sequence that I’m pretty sure we’d all love to be part of. The highlight of this film is definitely the reunion dance routine, featuring the two main characters and Alan Cumming. It can simply be described as… interpretative.

By Holly Ferguson

ISSUE 4: CRISIS

Wonder Woman Patty Jenkins, 2017 Directed by Patty Jenkins, staring Gal Gadot as Wonder Woman. Wonder Woman is beyond Man of Steel, Batman v Superman, and Suicide Squad because it simply is its own thing. Gal Gadot was a standout in Batman v Superman, but here she has her own movie from which she illuminates every frame of. Gadot is able to show that Wonder Woman is not some precocious character, wide-eyed and amazed by everything, but she is confused, estranged and conflicted at all times. The way that this character has been written, executed in direction, and above all performed by Gadot is truly something. The movie itself has exhilarating action sequences, solid writing, great cinematography using 35mm film from Matthew Jensen, decent music and contains powerful themes and content that push this comic-book movie beyond. Wonder Woman is a testament to belief, love and the simple power of a true hero. By Christopher Spencer

Get Out Jordan Peele, 2017 What a film. Not only was the hype out of the US immeasurable, but the film lives up to those lofty expectations of 99% on Rotten Tomatoes and making Jordan Peele the most highly sought-after director working today. Chris (Daniel Kaluuya) is visiting his girlfriend Rose’s (Allison Williams) parents. He is extremely nervous.

He should be. The truth about Rose’s family and what they are dealing is more than Chris could have ever imagined.Get Out has strong themes of racial prejudice, discrimination and systematic racism that in a serious drama, would be used to make an audience cry out in despair. But because Jordan Peele is an obvious master of tone, he uses the utter insanity of racism to wring some truly hilarious comedy from his film. Get Out was one of the best audience movies I’ve ever seen, with constant thrills, chills, jumps, cries of laughter, cries of joy and just all around great entertainment. It is scary, but Get Out is also funny and has a rich heart. By Christopher Spencer

Watched a movie recently? Send us your thoughts at: editors@ecuguild.org.au

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