Empire Times 50.2

EMPIRE TIMES

Vol 50 Issue 2

SOUTH AUSTRALIA

ARTISTS OF SA | THE FRINGE | NO. 1 PLACE TO LIVE? |

STUDENT COUNCIL | HISTORY OF SA | MUSIC AND GAMES |

CREATIVE PIECES

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT OF COUNTRY

Nina Marni (translation: hello, how are you?).

Empire Times would like to acknowledge the traditional owners of the lands in which the editors, contributors and readers live, and honour elders past, present and emerging. Bedford Park is a significant site in the complex Dreaming of the Kaurna ancestor Tjilbruke. We write on behalf of the students and faculty on this land, First Nations, Non-Indigenous and Immigrant, who work and learn here. Empire Times is edited and distributed on the traditional lands of the Arrernte, Dagoman, First Nations of the South East, First Peoples of the River Murray and Mallee region, Jawoyn, Kaurna, Larrakia, Ngadjuri, Ngarrindjeri, Ramindjeri, Warumungu, Wardaman and Yolngu people. We acknowledge that sovereignty was never ceded, and that this land is stolen.

Art By Alysha Dinning

Find Flynn the Mallard Duck and win!

Hidden on one of the pages in this magazine you will find Flynn. Send a picture of Flynn in his hiding spot and your student ID number to empiretimes@flinders.com.au to claim your prize!

The winner will be announced when the next Empire Times issue is released.

(This image of Flynn above is not the one you need to find.)

ISSUE 2

EDITORS

Katia Rawlings

Rachelle Summers

Katie Stedman

Georgia Nolan

WRITERS

Evangelia Karageorgos

Ez Knill

Margot Albrecht

Oliver Land

REVIEWERS

Brianna Dinning

Alysha Dinning

Mahalia Clark

Midchell Daykin

William Langrehr

INTERVIEWEE

Taylor Summers

COVER ART

Isabella Rose Bianchini

ARTISTS

Alysha Dinning

Evangelia Karageorgos

Harry Kellaway

Rachelle Summers

Taylor Summers

Charlotte Stedman

WHAT IS ET?

Empire Times is a publication of the Flinders University Student Association (FUSA). It is your student magazine. The opinions expressed within are not necessarily those of the editors, Flinders University or FUSA. Reasonable care is taken to ensure articles are accurate at the time of publication.

Editorial

In this issue we’ve asked people who have lived in South Australia their entire lives, and people who are newly acquainted to the state, about their opinions on Flinders and their overall experience with South Australia.

We are so excited for you to read Issue 2! This issue has held a few different challenges for us to rise above, starting back at uni, quickly moving on from just finishing Issue 1 etc. We are extremely happy to say that we managed to accomplish it with the help of our amazing team and the many other people that contributed.

Thank you, we couldn’t have done it without our readers and contributors.

We highlight both the good and the bad of South Australia - promoting its natural beauty and artistic talent! We explore South Australia’s rich yet controversial history through a series of photographs by some of our contributors and sub-editors. We also have a look at some interesting information that we found out about Empire Times’s first ever printed issues, and facts about this magazine’s history.

Have any of you been to the Fringe this year? If you haven’t then you’re missing out! Read through our reviews to find out what to catch next year!

We’d like to, again, thank our contributors who helped make this issue a reality, and we look forward to continuing to work with you in the future. We’d also like to thank you, the reader, who without, there’d be no magazine in the first place.

If you’re interested in contributing, please email us at empiretimes@flinders.edu.au or contact us either on our Facebook or Instagram.

Warmest regards,

Katia,

Rachelle, Katie, and Georgia

Student President Update

Hey Flinders! I am your 2023 Student President Billy Greet and on behalf of the Student Council I welcome you all to uni/back to uni.

I am grateful for the opportunity to represent and advocate on behalf of all students. And I am always willing to hear from you on how we can best support you! You can contact me at student.president@flinders. edu.au

As a friendly reminder, you can utilise the services provided by FUSA (Flinders University Students Association) to support you alongside your studies.

We offer services to support with academic advocacy, financial counselling and emergency financial assistance

Throughout the year you will see FUSA running events, exam support, club days and student-led campaigns. We have 20 council members on Student Council to support you, with dedicated officers for our diverse student communities. We welcome your feedback and communication - scan the QR code below.

To everyone we met during O’Week that you so much for all the chats it was lovely to meet you - Student Council have FUSA shirts that we wear around campus so if you see us again, feel free to say hi.

This year I’m looking forward to seeing the Student Council continue to work on the Deadnaming campaign. Late last year I met with the Deputy Vice Chancellor of Students, Romy Lawson, and other executives of the University to form a steering group to put an end to the deadnaming that occurs at Flinders University. We are also working hard on initiatives to combat the effects of student poverty and the cost-of-living crisis so keep an eye out for future updates via ET.

We’ve had a busy start to the year with some great events/initiatives such as:

• The Welcome to Adelaide Bus Tour hosted by International Student Services and Student Council where nearly 100 international students were able to explore areas around Adelaide on a guided tour.

• Holi Festival. Early in March the International Students Officer, Social Activities Officer and The Indian Students Association held the Holi Festival event on Sturt Oval which was a lot of colourful fun!

• BGL restructures. The Education Officer has been working with members of Student Council and other students as part of a working group on addressing

concerns around the restructures in the College of Business, Government and Law which were brought to light in late November 2022. This has been a long process of gathering information, consulting and developing plans, all of which will be further communicated to students shortly as Empire Times is working with the Education Officer to inform you.

• International Women’s Day. Our Women’s Officer attended the Flinders International Women’s Day Event in the Hub and gave a moving speech on her passion for education around menstrual care and gender equality.

I also want to take one more opportunity to congratulate the clubs who were presented with awards at the 2022 FUSA Club Awards which were held in late February. My personal favourite award to present was the Pun of the Year award, which was presented to the Flinders University Computer Society for their ‘404 no FUCS found’ Merchandise. I look forward to seeing what our amazing club’s community can achieve this year.

The Student Council has a big year planned and I hope to meet many of you at one of our events or around on campus.

Cheers, Billy

Billy with Reynal Adrien, President of the Sri Lankan Students Association, winner of Best New Club.

HOROSCOPES FOR APRIL

Aries

April is going to be an interesting month for you! The start of term chill has receded and we’re now full-swing into the Uni year. Don’t let your ambition get ahead of you! There’s still a long way to go, and you don’t want to burn out before you’re even halfway through! You need more bubble-baths in your life, or perhaps just some quiet “me time” will do. I believe in you!

Taurus Gemini

Took my advice from Issue 1? No? *sigh* No matter. I see career growth in your future, so make sure to reap the rewards! Be cautious however: when something good happens, bad is bound to follow (or vice versa). It’s how the world stays balanced. What can I say, Life’s a b****. I see potential mental stress… and definitely some turbulence in your love life. My third eye is never wrong.

You may feel overwhelmed in April. All those first Uni assignments are due, and you haven’t started any of them! It’s important for you to focus on what you can control in the situation you find yourselves in, rather than getting too caught up with things outside of your power. Seek help if you need it. Keep your chin up! You’ll get through it.

Cancer Leo Virgo

Ah, you delectable little crustaceans. This month, all I ask is for you to stop wallowing on that past incident that’s made your shell so hard to break through. I can sense the potential for a strong friendship on your horizon. It’s your choice but opening up to this someone might finally bring you that special joy of having someone know you, and still want to hang out with you.

Oh my God Leo’s! Stop being cowardly lions and go get that person that’s been running around your mind for the past month! I’m sure they’re getting very tired. Sure, you missed out on Valentine’s Day and that hangout didn’t go quite as planned, but your loyalty, ambition, and confident nature is going to win this mind battle in the end. Go get em’ tiger!

Hey… How’s your car going? Remember, I’m just the messenger! Anyways, all that money you saved up last month is paying off—literally! You’re ahead on your monthly budget! Go have a good time out somewhere or invest! You deserve it after everything that happened in March.

Libra Scorpio Sagittarius

Dear Libra, April is going to be a fantastic month for you! You’ll finally get to book that hair or nail appointment, and it’ll look great! And we all know how important “looking great” means to you. Warning: someone might get a bit jealous of your mini glow-up. Expect your car to get egged or cryptic death threats in your mailbox—nothing serious! The culprits are dropkicks, anyway. Keep thriving.

Scorpio…Why the resting B face? You guys always look like you want to sock someone. Take a breather. Book a holiday, get a life coach…I don’t know, just loosen up. Also, stop wearing so much black—you look like a member of Green Day. No one listens to Green Day anymore.

Sagittarius!!! Please get some sleep!!! Did you know that sleep deprivation can take years off your precious life? You’ve got too much adventuring to do for that. Read a good novel before bed or drink some warm milk. DON’T watch Netflix right before bed— it’s bad for you. I’m watching you through your webcam, so DON’T.

Capricorn Aquarius Pisces

Capricorns, my favourite over caffeinated capitalists. You need to get some sunshine this month. Your vitamin D levels are at an all-time low. Maybe do that Zoom call outside? Don’t worry, you’ll still be able to micromanage people, just in nature.

Aquarians. You guys are absolute weirdos. Weird in an artistic, cool Bowie way, not in a “you’re invading my personal space” way. You’ll have a chance to express yourself this month. You could be dying your hair a crazy colour, educating your friends on polyamory, creating an abstract and slightly bulls**t artwork… anything really. Go ahead and let your uniqueness shine.

Pisces. You guys are so adorable, I can’t even. The world is all “bubble-gum and rainbows” in your eyes. While I’d love that to be true, it’s not. Due to your naivety, you guys always get yourselves entangled in trouble. This month, I’d watch out for phone scammers—they know exactly how to prey on your goodhearted nature. Also, you probably shouldn’t be reading this—you might just actually believe it.

Press Any Key To Start - Sarah Valle

I am lucky enough to have a job that connects me with many amazing people, and one of those people is Sarah Valle. After a work talk she revealed that she had a show in the Adelaide Fringe called Press Any Key to Start, where she played a collection of scifi and fantasy themes on the piano for an audience at The Lost Dice cafe. So, I rounded up a group of friends and off we went. I was thrilled to hear so many tunes I recognised, most excitingly the theme to The X-Files, and then whole medleys dedicated to Star Wars and Lord of the Rings. Me and my friends played a fun game of ‘place that tune’, and enjoyed the food and drink that The Lost Dice does particularly well. All in all, the show was a fantastic time, and I highly recommend it for the future.

The Best of The Edinburgh Festival

Each year, me and my parents have gone to see a show called The Best of the Edinburgh Festival. Three comedians with 20-minute sets, the show has been good each year, and this year was no exception. Mark Simmons, the first comedian delivered several clever one liners, the second comedian, Markus Birdman, told a couple of funny stories, partly about being a stroke survivor, and lastly John Hastings taught us about the dangers of microdosing mushrooms before a wedding. Yep, fun for the whole family. This year’s show was one of the best I’ve seen, and if you’ve never been to a Fringe show before, I reckon this is a great place to start.

Seeing The Invisible

The Adelaide Botanic Gardens has become a Fringe venue again this year, as they‘re hosting an augmented reality (AR) ‘show’ of sorts. After downloading the ‘Seeing the Invisible’ app, you can walk the 1km trail around the gardens to see what isn’t there. At each of the locations you have to engage technologically with your surroundings, whilst enjoying the beautiful Botanic Gardens. Using sound, images and video technology, the pieces of art expand around you, whilst you only have the ability to see it through the virtual world. Some of the art contains beautiful imagery, whilst others are interactive, forcing you to walk through the site to see the full picture. The only place you can see this artwork is at the Botanic Gardens which makes it an experience unlike others. Free of cost and available until September, go check it out!

Rueben Solo

A comedian from Melbourne, Rueben Solo is fairly well known online, with followers on YouTube and TikTok. The show was at the Rhino Room on Pire St. I thoroughly enjoyed myself, partially because I was so close to the comedian, and almost the entire room got to interact with him. However, if the idea of being in the firing line for a comedian scares you, perhaps skip the show. Rueben was very funny, well known for his skits, and it was great watching his jokes come together. I recommend checking him out, and if you like what he does, see if you can catch him next time he’s in Adelaide.

Tom Gleeson’s Hard Quiz Live

There is no doubt that Tom Gleeson is good at what he does. The show we went to see, located in the Boboli at the Garden of Unearthly Delights, was a live version of Gleeson’s television series Hard Quiz. As I was given the tickets, I had no idea what to expect but was pleasantly surprised! A lot of the jokes before the quiz started were aimed at older generations who tend to watch freeto-air television, which, as a child of the streaming era, went straight over my head. Despite my cluelessness, he hit the mark with his audience who were in stitches by the end of the hour long show. His quick wit when hosting the quiz portion of the show made it stand out from other quiz shows and kept the laughter flowing throughout.

Kaleidoscope

Kaleidoscope is a mirror maze art installation created by Keith Courtney. Made entirely of mirrors, steel framing and clever lighting, it is a struggle to find your way out. Using a key as your entry ticket, you are immediately immersed in the experience. I was worried that I would walk into mirrors as I made my way through the maze. Some of the walls were made of a yellow glass which let you see through to the other side and some were mirrors that had a dark blue colouring to them, making us believe that we would be getting out through a door that didn’t exist. Despite the confusion, it was a one-ofa-kind experience that was incredible to be a part of.

The Umbilical Brothers ‘The Distraction’

A mishmash of gags displayed on a green screen located in the Garden of Unearthly Delights, ‘The Distraction’ was an hour-long, nostalgia-filled update to The Umbilical Brothers style of comedy. The duo, having been together since 1988, has been around for a long time and their unique style of comedy will never cease to get you laughing. A few swear words here and there but nothing too inappropriate or crude. Good old Aussie humour with a side of nostalgia. Even despite hiccups, they are still very entertaining. The next time you see them around, don’t hesitate to check it out!

Lost in Translation - Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl

Lost in Translation is a show in which an original film script is shortened to an hour long, translated into many different languages, and then translated back into English. Actors must perform the final product in character. They had a few different movies that they did this to, like ‘Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets’ and ‘Titanic’. The show that I went to see with my friends was ‘Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl’. One of the cast members on the show had never seen the script before and needed to perform on the spot. It was hilarious to see their reactions to some of the sentences that they had to say, making it that much more ridiculous. Every minute of that hour was spent laughing my ass off — to the point where I needed to physically stop myself from laughing so my stomach and smiling muscles could have a break. There were a lot of inside jokes, making it funnier if you knew the source material because you could mostly tell where the changed phrases came from i.e. the Black Pearl turned in the Beige Marble. This show was exceptionally feelgood, funny and extremely ridiculous. If it is in Adelaide again I’d recommend going to see it, just make sure you check the rating if you’re thinking of going with someone below the age of 18.

Lano and Woodley’s Moby Dick

Lano and Woodley’s Moby Dick is a comedic retelling of the classic novel. The two comedians have a comedic duo relationship - one who is trying to tell the story and the other that derails the narrative. The surprising narrative had the audience in fits of laughter throughout the hour long run time. The duo involved the audience in the show as well. There was a five-year-old sitting in the front row and they regularly included him whilst still keeping to the storyline as much as they could. Lano and Woodley are still going strong decades after their first show and are still as funny as ever.

Shit-Faced Shakespeare

Shit-Faced Shakespeare is a fantastic comedy theatre show. This unique retelling of Romeo and Juliet consists of five actors all playing multiple parts. One of these actors is drunk throughout the whole performance which makes it even funnier. The casual jokes combined with the absurdity of the actors created a room full of hysterical laughter. Because the remaining cast is sober, they have to fill in the gaps the drunk actor creates, using incredibly amusing improvisation. The audience is included throughout the show as well. Three people are given objects that end up being an essential part of the play, and one other plays Paris, who appears briefly in two scenes. I loved it so much that I went and saw it a second time. The actors rotate through roles and who is drunk every night which means that no matter how many times you see it the show will be different every time. I highly recommend seeing them the next time they are in Adelaide because the show was absolutely incredible and had me in stitches.

Reviews written by Katia Rawlings, Oliver Land, Brianna Dinning, Rachelle Summers, William Langrehr, Mahalia Clark, Midchell Daykin and Alysha Dinning

FLINDERS STUDENTS VOX POP

SA is more calm and relaxed compared to other states and countries.

What

makes SA different to other states and countries from international students.

Lots of nature - e.g, the hills and botanic gardens.

Less populated.

Speed of life is slow.

Quiet and peaceful

Australia is cool

Natural surroundings

The state takes everything at it’s own pace.

The suburbs are superb

More flexibility environmentally as well as schedual wise.

Driving here is much nicer than in Melbourne and Sydney.

I like how calm and relaxed it is comapred to bigger cities.

Everything feels like home.

We have a lot of nice beaches.

Food and multiculturalism.

How generally in touch with nature and close to nature we are.

Bustling nightlife.

It’s my home

Everyone has two degrees of separation from everyone so you always somehow have a mutual friend.

Coastlines are wonderful. Generally a beautiful place.

It’s a quieter state.

What do you like about SA?

Stobie Poles.

Everything is really close so it doesn’t take too long to get around.

WHAT DO YOU THINK OF SOUTH AUSTRALIA?

Glenelg has lots of places to eat and is easy to access.

Victor Harbour, it feels the most like a holiday location. It has restauraunts and posh places.

The salt lake at Lochiel.

What’s the best place in SA?

Kangaroo Island is the best place to holiday. It holds the taste and flavour of SA

Any beach

Berri Tree climb

Kimba which is a little town halfway across SA.

Normanville, it’s beautiful.

Quorn, a town with a population of 1000. It has one grocery store but 7 pubs.

The awesome film program.

Less racism and more equality compared to other universities.

Good balance between practical and theory for study.

Adelaide Central Markets is the place to go for internationals and gives them a sense of home even if they are far away.

Great big LGBTQIA+ community.

Wide variety of research and academic staff.

The natural setting of Flinders. Calming atmosphere.

Acknowledgement and understanding

of indigenous owners.

It’s the only university that isn’t in the city.

What do you like about Flinders University?

Has a good working environment - many facilities for medicine, science etc.

Broader range of arts degrees.

It’s an accessible location outside of the city.

There are a lot of stairs which is good for exercise.

The ducks!

Campus is beautiful and charming.

Support services.

Loads of opportunities.

Most accessible for students down south.

The History Of Empire Times

This year is the 50th edition of Empire Times. The first publication was in 1969. I know that 1969 plus 50 years doesn’t equal 2023, but we will get to that later. The Flinders newspaper/magazine is rumoured to have gotten its title from a Sydney publication, Empire, that ceased print in 1894. The first Editor of the newspaper, Martin Fabinyi, worked with a team of students to get the paper off the ground. Working with the Flinders Student Association, the student newspaper was very political and ran independently to the university. The introduction of voluntary student unionisation in 2006 halted the magazine’s publication due to lack of funding. When FUSA (Flinders University Students Association) was established to replace the old association, the magazine returned to print in 2013. The images contained on these pages are selected from the first year of publication. If you want to read more, all copies of past Empire Times magazines are in the Special Collections in the library.

Poem by Ez Knill

i don’t think i’ll love anyone the way i love you because in that dull continuous pulse beating between breaths rifling through long-forgotten contusions glancing over somewhat severed arteries ripping through my chest in a way that feels not out of place, but still an intrusion a dull blade skimming over tissue and muscle veins locked in ligature around your fingers pressing in tearing my heart from its cavity filling me up instead with red-hot desire.

it is all-consuming in the way that fire eats away at what it knows burning without remorse, without judgement it burns, because that is all it knows how to do. i love you, because that is all i know how to do. in my heart, wretched and ransacked, is a little hole; it was carved into me slowly spoonfuls of pulsing muscle stripped in chunks of blood-soaked blissful agony for you to create a home inside of me a concave dwelling just for you wrapped like a mole in a mountainous molehill deep-pressed to my chest so that i may keep you warm

i washed the sheets, last night and in the breeze of early-morning biting at my skin

i hung out the linen to dry for you

but the home isn’t really there.

i do not have a door inside of me nor a bedroom, or a kitchen the warmth from the hearth is figment but the hole in my heart is very much real and you live there at no cost the blood stains are normal now seeping from my chest, i barely notice as it spreads to my shirt, coating pearlescent buttons in a thick, shiny red leaving a splattered trail behind me reach down now, and undo my buttons open my shirt and bare my chest no pulse left to find there is no skin that can cover up what you have done.

i stay put, in the hole you made of my heart, and wait for you you return from the cold outside “hello darling — are you in there? are you warm?” you say, as you climb past my fence of bone lined up as brittle as toothpicks for you to force your way in (though is it force if i took an axe to my rib cage so you could find passage?) wander up the garden path, soaked in hot red blood push open the front door, pay the toll with your lips greet me with a hand in my hair, pale palm warm against my scalp scarlet sky peeking through the wilting curtains

sinew and ichor dripping and draping from the ceiling like forgotten streamers after your 16th birthday party when all the pretty people wished you a happy birthday, baby their poison lips pressed to your cheek air filled with clashing perfumes drowning out the true nature of the room if the lights turned on, would you still be happy? is this thing of ours (your home in my heart) something to care for? or should i begin to board up the doorway force the windows closed turn off the plumbing and the power an eviction notice tacked to the door sticky tape ripping layers off the paper and the paint as you wrench it free from its billboard it is not yours.

‘oh lonely bones, have you forgotten?’

Authors note: Title comes from the song Lonely Bones by Dodie.

Interview with Multidisciplinary Artist, Taylor Summers

What are your goals for the future of your business?

Paint murals all over Australia and the world. Hold more art exhibitions and arts events. Open my own gallery where I can offer painting workshops.

What are your favourite parts of the painting process (both canvas and murals)?

My favourite aspect of painting murals is being able to meet so many people and community members. Painting in a studio can be quite isolated sometimes, so when I paint murals, I love when people stop to have a chat.

My favourite part of painting canvas artworks is the beginning of the painting process. I love getting huge areas of colour painted as I can use large, relaxed brush strokes. It feels very free-flowing.

How did you get into painting and starting a business?

I have always loved painting and creative projects. It’s like a constant pull, I’m always thinking about creating. Towards the end of my schooling, I knew that I needed to pursue a creative field, so I decided on graphic design, whilst building my art practice on the side. I now run my business full-time and I love it every day, even on the more difficult days!

What are some of your favourite projects/achievements in your career so far?

Last year I painted the largest mural of my career so far, over 70m2 at the Payneham RSL. It was a really special project to work on and creating an artwork so large felt surreal. I look forward to painting even larger murals in the future… one day a silo!

In July 2022 I held my first solo art exhibition based on native birds. Putting together an exhibition with an Opening Night required a lot of planning, and it was a big learning experience! The outcome was very colourful and special. I’m excited to organise future exhibitions, with my next coming up in April

What are the challenges of mural and canvas painting?

The biggest challenge for me when painting murals is the physical demand. Spending entire days and weeks standing, painting such huge areas and climbing up and down ladders whilst exposed to the weather is a challenge, and I need to make sure to look after myself to minimise physical aches and the risks of weather exposure.

As for canvas painting, the biggest challenge I find is knowing when to stop painting! Working on an artwork for such a long period of time, I find it difficult to step back and see when the artwork is finished. I find not looking at the artwork for a couple of days helps me see if it needs any finishing touches or if it is complete.

What impact do murals have on the community?

I love how public art can become a beautiful experience for those who view it. The way someone’s emotions can be positively impacted by seeing public art is a very special and powerful thing. With every mural I paint, my focus is to bring happiness and excitement to all who view it.

What’s next?

I’m so excited to be holding my second solo art exhibition in April this year titled ‘Blessed By Bugs’, which will feature paintings and sculptures of native insects living around Mount Barker. At the exhibition I will also be holding canvas painting workshops!

For more information about the exhibition, or to book a workshop, please see: https://www.taylrjay.com/blessedbybugs Other links you should definitely check out!

taylrjay.com

instagram.com/taylrjay/ facebook.com/taylrjayart

Want to see Taylor’s Murals in person?

Take a day to explore Adelaide and the hills and see some art! Scan the QR code to find a map that will show you where you can find them!

Zoomers vs. the Digital World

Words by Georgia Nolan

Most of Gen Z were born during the turn of the century, around the Fourth Industrial Revolution. What’s that you ask? Well, I asked the same thing when researching this. It’s basically when technology became a lot smarter a lot faster. Becoming interconnected with another on a range of devices globally became possible with just a few clicks. Whilst this has been great for making friends in the most unlikely of places, it has also led to a gradual decline in faceto-face interactions.

Zoomers are beginning to opt out of hanging

out in the flesh, mostly because they’re being conditioned not to. The convenience of instant messaging apps deters many from planning regular meet-ups; what’s the point when I can just check in with Barb on Insta? To be fair, this kind of social disengagement only afflicted few before COVID. Young people still met up, even if it was less frequently then their Millennial predecessors. But then, in 2020, COVID hit.

Any social lives we had were flushed down the toilet. “Nationwide high school and university closures disrupted the education

and peer contact of almost 90% of students around the world.” Sleepless nights and worry were at an all-time high. A mixture of heightened social media usage, reduced time outdoors, and spreading of misinformation worsened Gen Z’s already-existing mental health challenges. The thought of missing “potential social connections” and “school milestones” also caused many young Australians psychological distress (Glasper). The emergency transition from in person learning to online learning was jarring for many students. I know that, personally, I struggled to adapt, finding myself extremely restless and unable to concentrate on anything.

Given the psychological and social grief online learning has given many students, why are many universities still pushing for it? Why are there still classes at Flinders that remain online, despite the state’s control over COVID?

internet – including social media sites such as TikTok, Instagram and Reddit - for guidance. At some point, during the rising popularity of TikTok, #mentalhealthtiktok became a thing. Therapists and people calling themselves therapists posted thousands of “informative” videos. Some of them were genuinely useful, offering preventative and coping strategies, and some were not, listing several general symptoms and making a sweeping diagnosis, e.g., walking in a room and forgetting why you’re there means you have ADHD, or shirking affection means you have underlying trauma.

This is the issue with becoming too dependent on the internet for answers–there’s always potential for misinformation. What was once the Information Age is now the Misinformation Age; everyone with an opinion and an IP address is “an expert”.

The voices of qualified teachers, therapists, researchers and other professionals become lost in a flood of unhelpful “self-help” videos on TikTok and YouTube and confessional Prozac forums on Reddit. How are we supposed to know which info is useful and which is misleading?

-Professor Reed of Swansea University

During the pandemic, many suffered job losses, reduced hours, and insufficient compensation from the government. Postpandemic inflation and unemployment has also left many Zoomers unsure about their futures.

When cataclysmic events and circumstances like COVID-19 happen, psychological treatment is often sought after. Seeing as young people are subconsciously being deterred from seeking in-person help, it is no surprise many turn and have turned to the

So, in this Misinformation Age of online learning, online therapy, online friendships, online living, where do we draw the line and say, “enough is enough”? Conditioned since childhood to look to our PC or devices for answers, it’s no surprise Gen Z is completely whipped. But that doesn’t mean we can’t detach from the Digital World to stop and smell the roses. While our universities, our workplaces, our world is trying to kickstart us into a day-to-day cyberspace, let’s just pause and think to ourselves, is this something that we really want?

“Before we continue down a route of increasing digitisation of our academic environments, we have to pause to consider if this is actually going to bring about the results we want.”

Adelaide Bands That Made It Big

Words By Oliver Land

With the Fringe in swing and this edition’s focus on Adelaide, I figured it was time to dig into some of the artists that came out of our city and was pleasantly surprised by who I found. Of course, some of these are fairly obvious, but with my musical interest being influenced both by my British parents and my own enthusiasm for heavy metal, I had honestly not realised that these famous artists were from Adelaide.

SIA

Starting with the obvious, Sia was born in Adelaide and has gone on to an Incredibly successful music career. Having multiple Grammy nominations, and 15 entries on the APRA billion streams list, (more than any other artist) ARIA (Australian Recording Industry Association) awards, and an MTV video music award, it is safe to say Sia is one of the most famous people from Adelaide. In fact, in recognition of her achievements, a laneway in Adelaide was renamed Sia Furler Lane, and a mural titled; She Imagined Buttons was painted nearby to commemorate a live performance in Adelaide in 2011.

HILLTOP HOODS

A group formed in Adelaide, Hilltop Hoods also have an impressive list of awards, including ARIA awards, and APRA (Australian Performing Right Association) awards. As well as their music, they have also launched the Hilltop Hoods Initiative in 2005, to help young and upcoming hip hop artists manufacture and distribute a CD. They also established a record company called Golden Era records, also based in South Australia. A song they released called “1955” in collaboration with Sydney artist Montaigne took inspiration from Adelaide, likening it to living in a small town.

COLD CHISEL

Formed in Adelaide in 1973, Cold Chisel is an Australian “pub rock” band, renowned for the Australian rock personas the members had. They would regularly play filled out venues and were known for having incredibly dynamic live shows. They’re part of the ARIA hall of fame, among many awards, and are still selling hundreds of thousands of albums today.

I KILLED THE PROM QUEEN

An Adelaide metal core band, formed in 2000, I Killed the Prom Queen were extremely popular in the Australian metal scene. They had three albums with one in the top thirty on the ARIA music chart. They also, in true metal fashion, disbanded a total of three times, due to band members moving to other bands and being unable to find replacements. While not usually a genre of metal I listen to, I actually have a soft spot for these guys, as they were one of the first metal bands to listened to and introduced me to the genre.

THE TESTEAGLES

Founded in Adelaide in 1997, I had never heard of these guys until I talked to a work friend of mine who was very involved with the Adelaide music scene. I told him I was writing this article, and he told me to check these guys out. I later discovered that they are actually fairly well known, having been featured on Triple J, and frequently playing at the Big Day Out. Their album non-comprehendus peaked at number 8 on the ARIA charts. Unfortunately, they’re disbanded now, but definitely worth a listen to.

This is not the definitive list of Adelaide musicians, and I guarantee there are some amazing new artists rising in this city all the time. I highly recommend you go and check out as many live performances in town as you can, I firmly believe no live music is wasted time. (Maybe except those cover bands that do Beatles songs or the like. I’d understand if you give them a miss.)

THAT KISS

“Wait! What?”

Margot Albrecht’s Column

It’s 1982. I’m sixteen. I’m cocooned in the amniotic darkness of The Cinema; my safe place. I can’t remember what I was wearing—it was forty years ago—but I can take a punt; it would have been highwaisted, stonewashed jeans and a tucked-in baggy T-shirt. Maybe the one with the print of a Native American elder in a resplendent feathered headdress, but back then, decades before notions of cultural appropriation were mainlined, I would have referred to him as a ‘Red Indian’ and was oblivious to the plight of the Indigenous peoples of the Americas. I was oblivious to a lot.

As I sat in my own personal cloud of musky Impulse Body Spray, passively smoking under the fog of communal cigarette smoke, my still-forming mind was about to be BLOWN by Ridley Scott’s sci-fi noir Blade Runner, adapted from Philip K Dick’s 1968 novella Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? Unsurprisingly, Dick’s Electric Sheep was nowhere on my cultural radar, and it would, in fact, be years before I sat down and read Blade Runner’s original source material. All I was aware of, right then, was the complete sensory overload of the movie’s opening titles . . the aural assault of Vangelis’ evocative synth . . . the visual awe of an acid-rain drenched, cyberpunk, dystopian LA, with high-rise neon billboards, advertising blimps and flying cars. I’d not experienced such a visceral reaction to a movie since the Star Wars opening crawl text, accompanied by John Williams’ iconic space opera score.

I left the cinema, changed. Blade Runner was now my indisputable ‘all-time favourite’ movie. And long was its reign, in all its iterations and multiple cuts (though, like a hatchling duck, I remained imprinted on the first version, with the cheesy noir-detective voiceover and crowd-pleasing happy ending). That was, until 2020; the first semester of my first year as a first time Uni student.

Forty years after my first life-altering encounter with Blade Runner, cue an eye-forcibly-prized-open exchange with a forthright young student in Nick Prescott’s “Intro to the Creative Arts” topic, where Philip K Dick, and subsequent adaptations of his work, were up for debate.

As the discussions opened, I had the warm fuzzies that arise from having confidence in one’s subject. I considered myself a Blade Runner aficionado and, as such, felt empowered to rave about the absolute brilliance of this celluloid masterpiece. And what about that kiss? The one where Harrison Ford’s Deckard (a mercenary ‘blade runner’ cop who hunts down and ‘retires’ renegade replicants) forces Rachael (his replicant-who-doesn’t-know-she’s-a-replicant love interest) to kiss him. I mean, he’s helping her, right? To get in touch with her, uh, humanity?

With unadulterated conviction, I proclaimed it to be the best cinematic kiss EVER.

My observation was met with . . . crickets.

I’d emitted a clanger. But what? I was baffled until one lone voice piped up from the silent abyss to call me out. She said, ‘It’s a bit, rapey, Margot.’

Wait! What?

A bit rapey? I was in an emotional tailspin. I muttered something puerile like ‘Oh, there must be something wrong with me.’ And sulked for the rest of the tute.

But I could not unhear it.

I knew I had to watch Blade Runner again but through an ethical 21st century lens.

Filtered through my ‘new’ eyes, here’s how the scene now plays out. Harrison Ford’s broodingly handsome Deckard and Sean Young’s perfectly gorgeous Rachael are at the piano in Deckard’s bach-pad. Deckard makes a move on Rachael. She spurns his uninvited kiss and races to the apartment door, yanks it open and Deckard steps in front of her and slams the door shut with his fist.

Wait! What?

He slams it shut WITH HIS FIST!

That had never registered with me before. Then he grabs her and forcibly slams her up against the window blinds.

He GRABS and SLAMS her.

Woah. I could not unsee it.

He orders her to kiss him. She resists. He badgers her until she says yes. Then they kiss, passionately (which is the bit that became lodged in my pubescent brain all those years ago) but now I just kept thinking of the whole ‘when a woman says “no” she actually means ‘yes’’ dating culture of my generation and, thanks to the #MeToo movement, I had, in my fifties, finally been equipped with the language to label every unwanted sexual encounter I’d been subjected to from my girlhood onwards. Now I know that the best kiss EVER, between Deckard and Rachael, might well be labelled: coercion. Or, in the words of my fellow student, ‘a bit rapey.’

Has my awakening permanently sullied Blade Runner for me? Not exactly. I still love it, but in the way you love a Grandma who persists in using culturally insensitive language; they are too old to change. So, yeah, I can still love Blade Runner, in context, but just don’t get me started on Ridley’s sexualised killings of Zhora and Pris!

I’d love to hear about your own Wait! What? moments, be it a favourite movie, game, book, celebrity, etc., where your perception has been altered by your own awakening.

Contact us! Send Margot your thoughts via our email empiretimes@flinders.edu.au, @empire.times on Instagram, or @empire times on Facebook.

Welcome Home

What makes a home, and reasons people might choose to call Adelaide their home.

By Katie Stedman

There’s a unique feeling when you return home after time away.

It might have been a short business trip, or the best holiday of your life, but hardly anything can beat being under your own roof, and sleeping in your own bed once more.

What makes ‘home’ so special, though? As the saying goes, ‘A house is not a home’. What’s the missing ingredient that turns bricks and mortar — a regular building — into something different? There are so many differences in connotation between the word ‘house’ and ‘home’. For some, ‘home’ is a person, not the four walls that surround you at the end of the day. Home should feel safe, it should feel familiar, and it should feel as though it’s yours. There should be the opportunity to express yourself and be yourself, and your identity

should be reflected in the way your home looks.

When we’re separated from our home, there’s an itchiness, a longing that we feel to just get back onto familiar ground. We can become sick with the desire to return home. This was never more relevant than during the pandemic. While most of us were all being told to stay home and could follow those orders, there were people stuck away from home, trapped in a foreign land, a different state, or with no home to go to. Even if you were safe at home, the thought of Covid managed to threaten those feelings of security. During Covid, it became apparent where our home was, but not all of us could get there.

There seems to be a shared sense among Australians that the Land Down Under is home, either because it’s where we’re

born, or because it’s where we choose to stay. Qantas has been using Peter Allen’s 1980 hit I Still Call Australia Home since 1987, to tug on the heartstrings of travelling Australians. The song expresses the idea that wherever we might go in the world, Australia will be the place that calls to us, urging us to come back home.

Adelaide is not perfect by any means, but to me, it’s home. Adelaide has been described as a small town, and more often than not, is overlooked. It might be a bit behind the times, but is life in Adelaide being compared to that of a small town really a bad thing? Adelaide is a city where you can have time to make connections, plant roots, take it slow and just breathe for a second. You can be seen as an individual, and not just become an invisible member of the rat-race like some of the more densely populated Australian

cities. Many fellow Flinders students said, just a few pages earlier, that coming to Adelaide felt like coming home.

So, life might be a bit slower-paced in Adelaide, but that doesn’t stop it from feeling like home. People even see it as a positive, rather than a negative.

This is a Spotify QR code

The Local

Words by Evangelia Karageorgos

This place smells of beer, its old and run down. There are dark colours, dim lighting, and music playing in the background.

The wine coloured bar stools have faded with time. There’s a line of painted portraits, with eyes that follow you as you go by.

Stickers and photos line the bar walls. A place full of memories and pub crawls.

There are shelves full of alcohol, and dusty knickknacks. A moose head, wearing glasses, his just missing a hat.

Next to the bar faded brown curtains try to block out the day light. This is not to bad of a place to come waste some time.

People slowly drift in after the doors are unlocked. A pub pilgrimage after a long day on the clock.

Musicians gradually arrive they grab a beer and to the garden they go. Photos and practice for tonight’s show.

People are on tap here, spilling in from the street. There here for a few beers and to rest weary feet.

The barman’s name is George, He knows every regular he serves. An art student who is off soon he’ll travel the world. There’s a young girl concerned for a mutual friend. She’s not sure what to do, to help the violence end. Then shots with the travelers, as they pass on through. They say there here working for a day or two.

People start spilling in now, from the garden round back. Its time for one more beer and a final chat.

Tabletop Times With Oliver

With the focus of this edition on South Australia and the things that make our city great, I thought it an excellent opportunity to mention some of the fantastic places around that have helped me and my friends get super into some of our games, where we pick up our supplies, and gather for the occasional game.

I think my first mention should be the place we go the most, and that would have to be Good Games in the city. There are a couple of things that make this place a standout for me and my friends. The first is the ability to buy “singles” there. That’s single cards from trading games, in our case usually magic the gathering. They don’t have the most extensive collection in the world, but they have almost all the staples you’d need to build a deck and offer really good rates for trading in other cards you have. The second thing good games have going for it is the space they have. They offer loads of table room, with the tables upstairs sometimes taken for tournaments. There are tables downstairs, and two separate rooms, one set up for tabletop gaming that we’ve used for Warhammer, and one with a table for dungeons and dragons (and other RPG’s I’m sure). Overall Goodgames is a great store, with super friendly staff, and I’ve never had a bad experience there.

Second up for our group is Dragon’s Lair! There’s one on south road that I’ve been to a fair few times, and one in Salisbury that I’ve only been to a couple of times. The Salisbury one is bigger but is often fairly busy. The one on south road I found to have everything I need, a good selection of Warhammer models and super friendly staff.

Again they offer tables to play games, although not as many as Goodgames, and I can’t say I’ve used them, although they seem like a good option. I think the only reason I would put good games ahead is the slightly more extensive Magic The Gathering stock they have, although honestly I love both places.

Finally, and I suppose as a bit of a cop out, I would like to shout out Game Traders. I know they are a big company that don’t exactly need the attention, but when I first started playing magic back in 2014, it was at the Game Traders at Marion when that used to be there. The staff were great, and so were the people, taking their time to explain the game and all. Now that the one at Marion is gone, there is one at colonnades that is equally as friendly, and there is a table there to play on. While we’ve only played there once, the fact that it is in a shopping centre does sometimes mean you’ll have spectators, which honestly I don’t mind. They have few singles, and a small range of stuff, but considering they sell a lot of things, I think it’s not a bad selection, and sometimes I wonder about heading back there to see if they still host magic nights.

As a parting mention, all these stores offer nights to play pretty much any card game, and they all offer dungeons and dragons nights as well! So, if you’re thinking of getting into these games, I think these are some spectacular places to start. Flinders also has a tabletop club where they play board games and RPG’s. Any students can join and participate, and it could be a safe space to start playing with likeminded people.

This is your Word Search!

This is your Maze!

The Maze! Can you navigate your way through the city?

TREE MURRAYRIVER THEM ALLSBALLS

Find the wor

Words can go in any dir

Answers on page 39

Words can shar 13 of 15 words placed.

Crossword Puzzle

Down: Across:

1.The longest place name in Australia

2.The State flower

3.The bird on the South Australian Flag

4.Why does SA have stobie poles

5.Adelaide's traditional lands

place name in Australia

ower

6.South Australia's capital city

8.Opal capital of the world

9.SA was the ______ place in the world to give women a vote

the South Australian Flag have stobie poles

13.Where is the largest collection of Indigenous artefacts in Australia kept?

18.Australia's most famed wine region

traditional lands

Australia's capital city

7.Silver spherical shaped art installation in Rundle Mall

10.Festival held between Februaryand March

11.Flavoured milk company based in SA

12.The largest mountain range in SA

Across:

14.Australia's longest river

15.A place you have to travel to by ferry

16.What is South Australia known as

7.Silver spherical shaped art installation Rundle Mall

17.Upon settlement what did SA not have

19.The largest indentation along the Australian coast

10.Festival held between Februaryand

11.Flavoured milk company based

20.Clothesline invented in SA

21.The best uni in the state

12.The largest mountain range in

22.Has a lot of this holy places

14.Australia's longest river

15.A place you have to travel to

Where in the World...

How does living in Adelaide city compare to other cities in the world?

By Katie Stedman

There are almost 200 countries in the world, and thousands of different cities. If you ever have the privilege of choosing where to live, how might you go about deciding, when there are so many cities to choose from?

Whilst it is by no means the only place to look, the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) releases a Global Liveability Index report online every year, which ranks the liveability of close to 170 cities worldwide. There are five categories that are used: Stability, Healthcare, Culture & Environment, Education, and Infrastructure.

Australia usually does quite well in these rankings. In the last ten years, Australia has consistently had multiple cities in the top ten rankings, including frequent placings by Adelaide. Melbourne actually broke a record with seven consecutive years in the number one spot, from 2011-2017. In recent years, Adelaide’s biggest success was in the 2021 Global Liveability Index, where we came in as the third most liveable city in the world.

In 2021, during a year of lockdowns and uncertainty, Adelaide was faring much better than other cities, including all other Australian cities. We scored 100% in the Healthcare and Education categories, and our lowest category was Culture & Environment at 83.8. Adelaideans had the right to feel quite proud of our little city.

And then the 2022 Global Liveability Index was released. Adelaide has gone from being ranked at number three down to number thirty. Other Australian cities have dropped too, and there is now only one Australian city in the top ten rankings — something that hasn’t happened for quite some time. That city is Melbourne, which just sneaks into the tenth spot.

So, what happened? Well, it had a lot to do with Covid restrictions. In 2021, Australian cities had done quite well in the rankings, which was linked in part to the response to Covid, as the border restrictions meant that the majority of us could live fairly normal lives. However, in 2022, when a lot of the world was slowly getting back to normal, Australian cities, such as Adelaide, were quite slow to remove restrictions. This led to a lower ranking.

The response to Covid will still have a part to play in how the rankings will unfold this year. However, I believe the biggest impact on rankings for 2023 will be the government’s response to the rise in inflation and cost of living.

It is my hope, though, that Adelaide will rise through the ranks in the future to be seen as one of the top cities of the world once more.

StateLibraryofSouthAustralia, MortlockWing

Horatio, Oliver & Augusta3 of the Rundle Mall Pigs

River Torrens, Adelaide City

Photos by Charlotte Stedman

Next Edition!

Are you ready for Issue 3?!

Deadlines have closed, and the magazine is currently in its editing and designing phase. Make sure to keep a lookout on our social media for the theme, and when physical copies will be available!

Want to know what Issue 3’s theme is? Have a look at the picture on this page for a clue, or follow us @empire.times on Instagram, and @ empire times on facebook where we’ll be announcing the themes for every iisue!

Flynn the Mallard Duck is going to be a regular occurrence throughout all of our issues this year! So, make sure to keep an eye out for him as you read the magazine for your chance to win a prize!

If you want to contribute to the magazine, please don’t hesitate to contact us with any ideas or submissions you have. Whether it be for a story, poem, photo-spread, cartoon, or article, we’d love to hear from you.

Mark your calendars! Issue 4 deadlines close on April 1st! The theme is MENTALITY. Feel free to take the theme as literally or as figuratively as you’d like!

Contact us at empiretimes@flinders.edu.au, through our website at empiretimesmagazine.com, or @empire.times on Instagram, and @ empire times on facebook.

This is your Word Search!

Find

Words can go in any direction.

Words can share letters as they cross over each other.

13 of 15 words placed.

With over 80 different clubs to join, there are plenty of ways for you to get involved in uni life at Flinders! FUSA’s clubs and student communities are a great way to make friends, develop your professional skills, stay involved with an old hobby or try something new.

Collectively, FUSA clubs host over 1000 events each year run by over 500 student volunteers.

Don’t see a club that interests you? Start your own! We support students in creating and leading new clubs.

Whether you’re interested in films, caving or board games, we’ve got something for everyone! Connect with like-minded people, develop your professional skills, build your resume or just have fun and make new friends.

We have a variety of clubs including:

• Community clubs such as the Queer Collective, Students with Disabilities Association and Mature Age Students Collective

• Academic clubs such as the Business Students’ Association, Psychology Students’ Association and Academic Science Club

• Cultural clubs such as the Hellenic Association, Indian Student Association and Indonesian Students Association

• Special interest clubs such as the Performing Arts Society, Tabletop ‘Und Roleplaying Enthusiasts and Film Society

• Political and social justice clubs such as the Health and Human Rights Club, Sustainability and Environment Club and Socialist Alternative Club

So why wait? Join a club today and start making the most of your time at Flinders!

WRITE FOR US

WE WANT TO HEAR FROM YOU! CONTACT US WITH YOUR IDEAS FOR WHAT YOU WANT TO SEE FOR 2023 AND YOU COULD BE FEATURED!