Goldlink 46

Issue 46 Autumn 2017 It doesn′t have to be this way

From the moment Goldsmiths was founded in 1891, this institution has always done things a little differently. The values of radical and innovative thinking have been the foundations upon which the University was built, and ring true today.

They also provide the background to the theme for this edition of Goldlink: ‘it doesn’t have to be this way’. We’re exploring some of the ways Goldsmiths has encouraged its scholars to think and act differently and then take that practice and action out into the world.

As part of this, our main feature celebrates the 10th iteration of the Urban Encounters Conference held at Tate Britain in partnership with Goldsmiths and UPA — the Urban Photographers Association.

What began as a conversation became a conference, and the conference is now part of something even wider reaching.

The annual UrbanPhotoFest, which returns in November, is a photographic arts festival focusing on cities and urban spaces across a variety of global contexts. A decade in, the spirit of doing things differently remains.

This tradition continues with the Goldsmiths Centre for Contemporary Art, which is due to open in autumn 2018. From next year we will have a world-class gallery on campus, bringing in internationally renowned artists to New Cross with free exhibitions for all, alongside our first-run cinema, music events and our very own literary award, the Goldsmiths Prize.

It is in this spirit that we also ask our alumni to join us and be a part of our supportive and collaborative community. So, wherever you are in the world, please do keep in touch to make the most of your membership of Goldsmiths.

Patrick Loughrey, Warden Goldsmiths, University of London

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Contents

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News 02 Goldsmiths CCA 02 Our Honorands 04 The Legacy of Professor Stuart Hall 05 The Goldsmiths Prize 06 New membership benefits 07 Elsewhere

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UrbanPhotoFest Feature (on the cover)

24 14 NX Records Mixtape Spotlight

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Community-Development Showcase

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Natalie Campbell A day in the life

27 Guest Posts Alumni perspectives

30 Volunteering at Goldsmiths Manisha Tailor MBE

Goldsmiths & Spike Milligan Feature

Contact Development & Alumni Office Goldsmiths, University of London New Cross, London SE14 6NW alumni@gold.ac.uk +44 (0)20 7896 2619 Renew your membership www.gold.ac.uk/alumni/join Support Goldsmiths www.gold.ac.uk/support-goldsmiths

Facebook Goldsmiths Alumni

Blog www.goldlink-online.com

Contributions may be submitted for consideration by email. We reserve the right to edit articles in the interest of brevity and clarity. The opinions expressed in the magazine are those of the writers concerned and not necessarily of Goldsmiths.

Editors Mary Davies, Minh Lam

Goldlink is printed on paper accredited by the Forestry Stewardship Council.

Twitter @GoldAlumni

Design Spy Studio

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News

GOLDSMITHS CCA The Goldsmiths Centre for Contemporary Art (Goldsmiths CCA), a new public art gallery on campus, will open in autumn 2018.

For decades, Goldsmiths alumni have been instrumental in bringing contemporary art into the forefront of British culture and many of them have generously supported the project so that we can continue to inspire the next generation of contemporary artists and curators.

The CCA will bring leading artists and their art onto our campus for extended periods of time. Students will get an invaluable insight into how the art world operates on a practical level, as well as being inspired artistically. It will therefore greatly strengthen our teaching and research across all disciplines.

It will also offer creative learning programming as an integral part of its remit, including working with schools, young people and the diversity of residents in Lewisham, across London and through regional partnerships.

Sarah McCrory, Director of Goldsmiths CCA, said: “Being connected to Goldsmiths, and the wealth of talent and knowledge that it incorporates, will feed into the realisation

of a very new and exciting centre and reflect the University’s status as one of the leading contemporary art institutions in the world.”

Goldsmiths CCA marks the next chapter and an important moment in the development of the University. Turner Prizewinning architecture collective Assemble have been appointed to design the new space for Goldsmiths CCA. It is their first major building commission, and will be an important new landmark in South-East London, enabling us to bring great art and artists onto campus.

The building that will house the gallery will be part of the redeveloped Grade II-listed Laurie Grove Baths and adjoining water tanks. This ambitious build consists of eight diverse exhibition spaces and a café – with space totalling just under 1,000m².

This project is being made possible through the generosity of the Goldsmiths community, including trusts, foundations, alumni and friends. The campaign is now moving to raise the final £1 million towards the construction of Goldsmiths CCA. To find out more, visit our website: www.gold.ac.uk/goldsmithscca

OUR HONORANDS Each year, Goldsmiths bestows Honorary Fellowships and Honorary Degrees on a small number of distinguished individuals in recognition of their achievements and contributions to the University, community or wider world.

In July, figures from the worlds of sport, music, theatre and art were honoured as part of graduation celebrations at Goldsmiths.

A former international footballer, Hope Powell CBE was coach of the England women’s national football team and the Great Britain women’s Olympic football team. Born in Lewisham, she played for Millwall Lionesses and won 66 caps playing for England, scoring 35 goals. In 1998, the FA appointed her England’s first ever full-time national coach and in 2003, she became the first woman to achieve the UEFA Pro Licence.

She led the team at four UEFA Women’s Championships and twice took England to the quarter-finals of the FIFA Women’s World Cup. She was awarded an OBE in 2002 and a CBE in 2010.

Composer, producer and DJ Gabriel Prokofiev studied composition at both Birmingham and York universities. He then produced electro, hip-hop and grime, before returning to classical composition and founding Nonclassical, a record

label and club night, in 2014. Over the last decade he has built up a large body of works including seven concertos, several of which have been performed at the BBC Proms. He frequently collaborates with contemporary dance, with recent performances at Sadler’s Wells and the Royal Opera House.

Dennis Kelly is a writer for theatre, television and film.

After leaving school at 16 to work in a market he became interested in theatre. Aged 30, he graduated from Goldsmiths with a degree in Drama and Theatre Arts and went on to write plays such as ‘Debris’ (2003), ‘Osama the Hero’ (2005), ‘Love and Money’ (2006) and ‘Taking Care of Baby’ (2007).

He co-wrote the award-winning ‘Matilda the Musical’ (2010).

He also co-wrote BBC Three’s BAFTA-nominated sitcom ‘Pulling’ and wrote Channel 4 thriller ‘Utopia’.

Irish artist Dorothy Cross works in sculpture, photography, video and occasionally opera. One of her best-known works is ‘Ghost Ship’ (1999) in which a disused light ship was illuminated through use of phosphorous paint and moored in Dublin Bay. She represented Ireland at the 1993 Venice Biennale and has won a Pollock-Krasner Award.

Right: © Assemble

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News

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THE LEGACY OF PROFESSOR STUART HALL

Later this year, Goldsmiths Press will publish a major new collection of essays on Stuart Hall. The collection will examine the career of the cultural studies pioneer, interrogating his influence and revealing lesser-known facets of his work.

Stuart Hall played a pivotal role in social change and was also a uniquely gifted teacher. He was internationally recognised as the leading figure in the field of cultural studies and was awarded a Goldsmiths Honorary Doctorate in 1997.

With contributions from Britain, Europe, East Asia, and North and Latin America, ‘Stuart Hall: Conversations, Projects and Legacies’ provides a comprehensive look at how, under Hall’s intellectual leadership, British cultural studies transformed itself from a form of ‘local’ knowledge to the international field of study we know today.

Throughout these pages, edited by Goldsmiths Professors Julian Henriques and David Morley, with Dr Vana Goblot, Hall’s colleagues and long-term collaborators assess his theoretical and methodological standpoints, his commitment to the development of a flexible form of revisionist Marxism, and the contributions of his specific mode of analysis to public debates on Thatcherism, neoliberalism and multiculturalism.

North American activist Angela Davis argues that the model of politics, ideology and race initially developed by Hall and his colleagues at Birmingham continues to resonate when applied to America’s racialised policing. Further essays focus on Hall’s contributions to contemporary political debate as well as questions of race, ethnicity, identity, migrancy and diaspora.

Others discuss Hall’s continuing involvement in issues of representation and aesthetics in the visual arts, particularly photography and film.

‘Stuart Hall: Conversations, Projects and Legacies’ is published in December 2017 by Goldsmiths Press. Our pioneering university press seeks to revive and regenerate the traditions of academic publishing by taking advantage of digital technologies and experimenting with the many attractions of print. Its first title was last year’s ‘Academic Diary: Or Why Higher Education Still Matters’ by Goldsmiths Professor and alumnus Les Back. Visit the Goldsmiths Press website for more information: www.gold.ac.uk/goldsmiths-press Above: ©Donald Maclellan / Getty Images

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THE GOLDSMITHS PRIZE

The winner of this year’s Goldsmiths Prize will be announced on 15 November 2017. Launched in 2013 with the goal of celebrating the spirit of creative daring associated with the University, the prize rewards fiction that breaks the mould or extends the possibilities of the novel form. Works by authors from the UK and Republic of Ireland are eligible for the award.

Eimear McBride was the first winner of the £10,000 prize for ‘A Girl is a Half-Formed Thing’. Ali Smith won in 2014 for ‘How to be Both’, Kevin Barry in 2015 for ‘Beatlebone’ and last year, Mike McCormack (pictured) for ‘Solar Bones’.

The six books shortlisted this year are ‘H(a)ppy’ by Nicola Barker, ‘A Line Made by Walking’ by Sara Baume, ‘Playing Possum’

by Kevin Davey, ‘Reservoir 13’ by Jon McGregor, ‘First Love’ by Gwendoline Riley and ‘Phone’ by Will Self.

Dr Naomi Wood, Chair of Judges, has said: “Our six shortlisted books offer resistance to the received idea of how a novel should be written. Variously, they break the rules on continuity, time, character arcs, perspective, voice, typographical conventions and structure. As such, there is a wildness to all of our chosen books that provokes in the reader a joyful inquiry about just what a novel might be there to do.”

The Goldsmiths Prize 2017 judging panel includes singer, songwriter and writer, Tracey Thorn; previous recipient of the prize, author Kevin Barry; and A L Kennedy, a writer and performer whose most recent novel 'Serious Sweet' was shortlisted for the Booker Prize.

Naomi Wood, Lecturer in Creative Writing at Goldsmiths, chairs the panel. Naomi is the author of ‘The Godless Boys’ and the award-winning ‘Mrs. Hemingway’, which won the Jerwood Fiction Uncovered Award.

You can download the Goldsmiths Prize app on iTunes to read the latest information on all the nominated books. There, you can watch interviews and readings, explore the fresco that lies at the heart of Ali Smith's 2014 winner ‘How to be Both’, and see pages from the manuscript and first draft of Eimear McBride’s ‘A Girl is a Half-Formed Thing’. Find out more about the shortlisted novels: www.gold.ac.uk/goldsmiths-prize

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News

NEW MEMBERSHIP BENEFITS

Goldsmiths continues to develop the benefits it offers alumni and these include those especially designed to help new alumni in the first three years of their career.

The latest of these provides ongoing access to the Library at no extra cost including 24/7 access, borrowing rights and access to the guest Wi-Fi. For alumni who left Goldsmiths more than three years ago, the same access is offered at a new, discounted price of ÂŁ30 for three years.

New alumni can also benefit from free professional careers advice and resources for three years with the Careers Service.

They will also be eligible to apply for a new mentoring pilot that will be launched in 2018.

In addition, all alumni can use Goldsmiths Connect to contact former students who are happy to share their knowledge and expertise.

All alumni can also benefit from discounts on further study including a 30% alumni fee discount for taught Masters programmes and a 15% discount on most of our short courses.

Internationally, the award-winning alumni festival, Around the World in 7 Days, goes from strength to strength; this year, 33 cities, 42 Alumni Ambassadors and more than 750 alumni

took part, with new events in Bangkok, Cambridge, Istanbul, Kuala Lumpur, London, Madrid, Moscow, New Delhi, Paris, Sydney and Toronto.

Your membership used to be automatic but this is changing due to data protection regulations. In future, if you would like us to keep in touch, you will need to let us know by renewing your contact preferences online: www.gold.ac.uk/alumni

33 CITIES, 42 ALUMNI AMBASSADORS AND MORE THAN 750 ALUMNI TOOK PART

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ELSEWHERE 1 Goldsmiths has progressed in the overall QS World University Rankings climbing 23 places this year, putting us in the top 400 globally, as well as being the 60th ‘most international’ university. The Complete University Guide also placed Goldsmiths in the top 10 universities in London.

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2 Generous alumni and friends raised over £75k in gifts and pledges during our annual telephone campaign. This will mean we can help more students succeed at Goldsmiths through scholarships and bursaries, supporting the student experience or enabling access to vital support via the Student Hardship Fund.

3 Alumnus Hisham Matar, who completed the first ever MA Design Futures course at Goldsmiths, received the Pulitzer Prize in Biography at a ceremony at Columbia University in New York on 25 May, for his book ‘The Return: Fathers, Sons and the Land in Between’.

4 The inclusive culture of Goldsmiths has been recognised in an independent staff survey coordinated by the charity Stonewall, with some results exceeding sector expectations. The survey is part of the University’s submission to the Stonewall Workplace Equality Index.

A creative writing student at Goldsmiths has won the 2017 Guardian 4th Estate BAME short story prize. Lisa Smith won the prize for her short story ‘Auld Lang Syne’. The prize celebrates the writing of people from Black, Asian and minority ethnic backgrounds in the UK and Ireland, seeking to shed light on voices from underrepresented communities.

5 Goldsmiths academics have received distinguished recognition in their fields: Sociology Professor and alumnus, Les Back, was named a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences in April and Angela McRobbie, Professor of Communications, was elected a Fellow of the British Academy in July.

Keep in touch by email to find out more about news and research coming out of Goldsmiths throughout the year. Update your details or join us: www.gold.ac.uk/alumni

URBANPH

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This November sees the 10th anniversary of the annual ‘Urban Encounters’ conference held at Tate Britain in partnership with Goldsmiths and UPA — the Urban Photographers Association.

The event has grown over the years, in part due to the positive response from photographic artists and urbanists attending the conference, and also as a consequence of Goldsmiths’ central role in developing and supporting the emergent fields of urban photography and interdisciplinary visual urbanism.

Paul Halliday, Course Leader of Goldsmiths’ MA in Photography and Urban Cultures, reflects on the changes he has been part of over the last decade, and discusses the relationship between the new urban photography that crosses academic disciplines and ways of imagining visual practice.

by Paul Halliday

HOTOFEST

Feature Some years ago, I received an email from Gabrielle BendinerViani, a PhD student in New York completing her research on the relationship between locality, environmental psychology and photographic ethnography. As my interests overlap across urban social research and visual practice, I thought it would be a good idea to meet up and discuss some of the ideas developing within what was then a somewhat specialised area of sociological, geographical and anthropological research.

After an afternoon spent walking and talking along the banks of the Thames, it became clear that the scope of the discussion was much bigger than we had originally imagined. The questions we asked each other about how photography relates to urban research just seemed to result in an even bigger set of questions about the nature of ‘the real’ in documentary image-making; photography’s tortured relationship with ‘truth’, ethics, aesthetics and the cultural geographies of space.

No bad thing, but quite daunting in terms of how one creates a coherent set of arguments about ‘field’.

So we got to talk about how we might put together a discussion space in the form of a symposium or conference.

We had no funding in place, but what we did have was a set of questions that were not going away any time soon. To our minds, these were not peripheral questions — they were big questions. At the time, there weren’t too many people practising as photographers, filmmakers and visual artists in sociology departments. It’s true to say, anthropology, particularly British, French and North American varieties, had a well-established relationship with photography and film stretching back decades. But what we were talking about was the possibility of developing an annual event that would not assume that people attending could tell their Lévi-Strauss apart from their Mead or Malinowski.

WE WANTED TO CREATE A DISCURSIVE EVENT THAT COMBINED THEORY WITH PRACTICE, THAT REACHED ACROSS DISCIPLINES AND THAT ENCOURAGED CONVERSATION AND ‘ENCOUNTER’ We wanted to create a discursive event that combined theory with practice, that reached across disciplines and that encouraged conversation and ‘encounter’. That was some tall order at the time. Things have changed markedly over the last ten years, but at the beginning of our endeavours there was a degree of academic consternation tempered with some disciplinary boundary policing; and then suddenly, rather unexpectedly, people seemed to ‘get it’. We put out a conference notice for panel proposals, called in favours from colleagues and asked our friends and associates to talk to their

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networks about why they shouldn’t miss such an important upcoming event in the international academic calendar.

A veritable flood of enquiries and panel proposals came in, and around this time, Mike Keith, the then Director of the Centre for Urban and Community Research (CUCR) said he would find some funding to support the conference. There is something profoundly ‘Goldsmiths’ about this. And it wouldn’t be the first time, and probably not the last time such a thing has happened. Sometimes resources follow ideas; things find a way to happen. And I can say that over the years, it has been an incredible privilege to be involved with this event, which we think of now less as an ‘event’, and more as an expanded ‘happening’.

SHE SAID SOMETHING THAT STILL RESONATES FOR ME TODAY: “THEY STAYED BECAUSE THERE WAS SO MUCH TO TALK ABOUT” The first international conference focusing on urban photography was completely booked out, and Paul Goodwin who was then the Senior Public Programmes Curator at Tate Modern attended, and at the end of the event asked us, ‘would you like to run this at Tate?’ We hadn’t quite expected this. We thought it would be a one-off, but by the end of the two days, a large section of the audience was still in a local pub, and as I headed off to catch the last train home at 11.30pm, many of the audience and speakers relocated for a midnight meal at a West African restaurant in Deptford High Street. I spoke with someone the next day, apologising profusely for being such a ‘lightweight’ and asking why so many people had stayed on so long after the conference, and she said something that still resonates for me today: “they stayed because there was so much to talk about.”

If anything sums up what ‘Urban Encounters’ means as a philosophical, sociological and creative concept; it is precisely that. We had aimed to create the conditions for an intensive conversation that we thought of in terms of a specific, limited duration. And yet, as most people that work in the creative sectors understand, ‘creativity’ rarely conforms to a set of presets and preconditions; rather, ‘creativities’ resist flying in straight trajectories. Once they are loosed, who knows, definitely, where they will land?

Once the conference had relocated to Tate, we had a different, ‘expanded’ set of resources and experienced professional collaborators to work with. We were able to bring in internationally renowned artists and urban theorists including Marketa Luskacova, Rut Blees Luxemburg, Victor Burgin, Saskia Sassen, Camilo Jose Vergara, James Barnor, Sirkka-Liisa Konttinen, Xavier Ribas, Caroline Knowles, Vic Seidler, Les Back and Michael Keith, to name just a few who have carried the conversation forward over the years. But as we developed the programme, it became apparent that

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p8, top: ©Bas Losekoot, London, UK, 2015 p8, bottom: ©Laura Cuch, Barcelona, Spain, 2008 p9: ©David Kendall, Doha, Qatar, 2016 p11: ©Victor Frankowski, Kirkenes, Norway, 2017 Top: ©Gill Golding, London, UK, 2017 On the cover, middle: ©Stefano Carnelli, Lecco, Italy, 2015 Left: ©Heather Agyepong, Accra, Ghana, 2015

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Feature

people attending wanted to have an additional practice element, and proposals came in for exhibitions. We considered this carefully. Where were we going to find the people to organise this, the spaces, the funding?

Once the conversation had developed to include people who were tangentially connected to the wider arts, urbanism and education networks, people started contacting us with suggestions and in some cases generous offers of support.

So we expanded the event beyond the Tate conference to include an exhibition and workshop programme. Around this time the artist and Goldsmiths alumnus Diego Ferrari offered to come on board as a co-organiser for the Tate conference and Tate assigned us a talented anthropology graduate (also from Goldsmiths) to work with us on development. Joseph Kendra, Curator of Public Programmes at Tate, managed the mechanics of putting together an annual conference with a degree of ingenuity and verve that has caused me to rethink what ‘public programming’ can mean when its starting point is listening, learning, facilitation and logistical realism. In an age of austerity, disinvestment and the systemic dismantling of public services that have demoralised the UK arts landscape, we need forward-thinking people with a degree of conceptual and organisational dexterity.

Around the same time, some five years ago, a group of mainly Goldsmiths MA Photography and Urban Cultures alumni came together to create a working association of photographic and film artists whose main focus was the contemporary and, in some cases, historic city. I had been teaching the MA for several years, and as urban photography by its very nature, tends towards the ‘longitudinal’, many former course members, associated researchers and course tutors had kept in touch and continued meeting up to discuss projects and some of the related issues around making and curating work. We took the plunge and decided to put together a group under the name of the Urban Photographers Association. This association has grown significantly over the last couple of years and we now actively recruit artists, photographers, visual sociologists, geographers and those whose practices combine urban research with image-making, from Goldsmiths and further afield.

It has been a struggle to keep the festival within the timeframe of five or six days, but we remain committed to keeping things focused, intensive and immersive. People have been coming to the festival from local, national and international bases, and as such, we wanted to locate the exhibitions within walking distance from each other.

Photographer, architect and curator Stefano Carnelli came aboard in 2016 as the UPA Exhibitions Director, and he coordinates a curatorial team, including Goldsmiths alumni Lauren Finch and Jessie Martin. The beating heart of the festival are the UPA members who have put in so much of their time, creativity and imagination into making such an event possible over the years. It has got to the point where I feel increasingly redundant (in a good way), as the group discusses and owns the direction that the festival takes, and it is demonstrably internationalising as more artists, curators and academics approach us to discuss ways that they might contribute and get involved.

I remain astonished by how UPA has managed to develop ‘Urban Encounters’, from its modest beginnings into a fullyfledged international photographic festival, the first urban photography festival in the world. All the time keeping its roots firmly located within an ever-expanding set of discourses broadly reflecting what we describe as ‘critical urbanism’: that is, an urbanism that asks questions about the nature of life in the city; that questions modalities of power, presence and absence, of public and private domains, of the right to the city.

So now we have a different set of conversations in the form of UrbanPhotoFest. I feel that all the hard work, long nights and weekends that have gone into establishing this association have been well worth it, and I along with our expanding membership look forward to seeing where the road takes us over the next few years ○ Paul Halliday is Course Leader of the MA in Photography and Urban Cultures in Goldsmiths’ Department of Sociology. He is the Creative Director of UrbanPhotoFest and current chair of UPA, the Urban Photographers Association.

The festival’s UPA annual lecture will be given by international artist Roger Ballen at Tate Britain. For further information about this year’s UrbanPhotoFest programme, starting on 10 November, and the photographers featured, visit: www.urbanphotofest.org

THERE IS SOMETHING PROFOUNDLY ‘GOLDSMITHS’ ABOUT THIS. AND IT WOULDN’T BE THE FIRST TIME… SOMETIMES RESOURCES FOLLOW IDEAS; THINGS FIND A WAY TO HAPPEN

Spotlight

NX RECORDS MIXTAPE The fifth annual NX Records mixtape was released for download in June 2017, featuring a variety of music from Goldsmiths alumni and students.

The eclectic collection of 33 songs covers a wide spectrum of genres, ranging from alt-folk to ambient soul to epic electronica.

It has been arranged by composer, producer and former Goldsmiths student, La Leif (pictured opposite). One half of electro duo ORKA, she also performs with the Nomadic Female DJ Troupe, and co-runs a collective for female and nonbinary music producers called Omnii.

Describing her involvement, La Leif said: “The NX Mixtape is a great opportunity to showcase the quality of the music coming out of Goldsmiths.

I loved getting to mix it this year; the artists and genres are very diverse, which makes it exciting.

“I wanted to keep the tracks as close to original as possible, so my biggest challenge was getting the right sequence and blending everything together to keep it cohesive. I’m pretty happy with how it turned out!”

Among the mixtape’s artists is cellist, composer and sound recordist Francesca Ter-Burg, who recently completed a MMus in Popular Music at Goldsmiths. Widely regarded as one of the leading Klezmer cellists of her generation, she has worked with renowned composers Tcha Limberger and Dr Alan Bern, and has collaborated with the BBC Symphony Orchestra.

Other artists include Fille, a recently graduated BMus Popular Music student who merges her classical background with electro and pop music; second-year BMus Popular Music student Remi, who writes soul and gospel-inspired pop songs; and indie band Ordinary Noise, who have recently received airplay on BBC Radio 2 and BBC Radio 6 Music.

The NX Records General Manager is another alumna, musician Ruthie Woodward (BMus Popular Music, 2012 and MMus Creative Practice, 2014).

Explaining the ethos behind label, Ruthie said: “NX aims to be a ‘new model for the music industry’. We are continually researching, collaborating and finding new ways to develop a sustainable record label in today’s digital landscape.

“As well as this, NX is ethical; the aim is to empower and educate artists, always ensuring they retain ownership of their music. The last five years haven’t been easy, and NX’s biggest challenge is moving as quickly as the industry does to try to keep ahead.

“Our annual mixtape is one of my favourite parts of NX; for me, it demonstrates the diverse creativity coming from Goldsmiths, and it’s always surprising. To then hand that over to one of my favourite producers and composers to bring the whole thing together makes it even more exciting and fabulous.”

NX Records, a collaboration between Matthew Herbert’s Accidental Records and Goldsmiths, was launched in 2013

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and has released mixtapes, compilations and albums by Goldsmiths students and alumni ever since.

The label also hosts an annual pop-up record shop, educational programmes and events across London. In September this included a collaboration featuring alumni Rocheman and Lyds alongside Accidental Records’ latest release artists ILK at the Lexington in Angel.

For forthcoming events, information and to download the 2017 NX Records mixtape, visit: www.nxrecords.co.uk/mixtapes

Right, top: La Leif ©George Nindi Right, bottom: Artist and alumna Penny Churchill

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Showcase

COMMUNITY-DEVELOPMENT

by Panagiotis Tzortzopoulos & Tom Morgan

Community-Development exhibited at this year’s degree show by BA Design graduates, Panagiotis Tzortzopoulos and Tom Morgan.

The project looks at the immaterial concept of ‘community’ and its relationship with the built environment on the Isle of Dogs, the two-and-a-half square mile island situated in the East End of London. As the densest and fastest growing area in Western Europe, the Isle of Dogs’ population is set to double in the next fifteen years.

The ‘island’ has witnessed a surge in growth before.

The West India Docks were constructed there in 1802, followed by the East India Docks in 1806 and the Millwall Docks in 1868.

The docks helped create a community and were also the reason for that population’s decline. The site was a key target during the Blitz, and despite a resurgence in post-war years, the eventual closure of the docks in the 1980s led to mass unemployment.

The traditional sense of community that remains could now be jeopardised by the rapid scale of growth, and the large transitory population that comes with it.

Panagiotis and Tom’s research found that many of the community centres and public spaces on the Isle of Dogs are currently underutilised. With such drastic development taking place, sites of this nature, when combined with public participation, are critical to developing community.

Using a range of methods and in conversation with community centres, developers, grass roots initiatives, politicians and residents, Panagiotis and Tom looked at how they could bring about greater awareness as to what currently exists and how to instigate local populations to come together and collectively seek alternative communal spaces.

Goldsmiths Degree Shows are an eclectic programme of free exhibitions, shows and performances showcasing the exciting work of our latest graduates. Discover the very best emerging talent from a range of creative and innovative disciplines at venues across London this summer. For more information: www.gold.ac.uk/degree-shows

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Feature

Before the Second World War and before ‘The Goon Show’, the irreverent and hugely influential comedian Spike Milligan attended Goldsmiths to undertake music orchestration. Music and sound would remain a critical component of Spike’s long and multifaceted career.

by Professor Tim Crook

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p19: ©Keystone / Getty Images Above: ©Harry Hammond / V&A Images / Getty Images Left: ©Tony Evans / Timelapse Library Ltd / Getty Images p23: ©Popperfoto / Getty Images

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Feature

Spike Milligan (1918–2002) is credited with revolutionising British comedy through his chaotic, surrealist and subversive imagination. He created the seminal radio comedy The Goon Show (1951–60), and wrote more than 50 books. Six of them were based on his Second World War experiences including ‘Adolf Hitler: My Part in His Downfall’, which was later adapted into both a film and a play.

To say he was larger and crazier than life itself would be an understatement. Describing his influence on Monty Python’s ‘Flying Circus’, John Cleese said: ‘Milligan is the great god of us all.’ And he was also a student of Goldsmiths’ College.

From Rangoon to Catford Terence (Spike) Alan Milligan was brought up in India where his Irish-born father Leo Alphonso Milligan was serving in the British Indian Army.

Spike was born near Bombay in 1918 and for a while the Milligan family lived in Brigade House in Rangoon, Burma.

It was here Spike remembered being visited by George Orwell who was a police officer at the time and known by his original name, Eric Arthur Blair.

But in 1932 after the worldwide recession and cutbacks in military expenditure, Spike’s father Leo was pensioned off at the age of 42.

The family, including his British mother Florence and younger brother Desmond, left the splendour of colonial life with servants to face the hardships of unemployment and despair in a two-room attic flat in Catford, at 23 Riseldine Road, SE23. Spike’s poem ‘Catford 1933’ captured the family’s fall from grace: My father places his unemployment cards in his wallet — there’s plenty of room for them.

In greaseproof paper my mother wraps my banana sandwiches.

It’s 5.40. Ten minutes to catch that last workman’s tram.

“WHAT WOULD YOU PREFER, THE BORING TRUTH OR AN EXCITING LIE?”

The trials and tribulations of a (future) genius Spike was 15 years old, disaffected and further disillusioned when he was turned down by the Royal Air Force. He had a series of dead-end jobs, including laundryman and packer for a tobacco firm in Deptford. It was there that he began to steal cigarettes to raise funds to buy his first trumpet and as a result, he soon found himself in court.

At his trial, the eloquent speech of mitigation made by his father Leo persuaded the magistrate to give Spike an absolute discharge on the grounds that his son’s genius as the world’s greatest future trumpet player deserved urgent consideration.

Spike liked to reminisce about his father’s blarney, particularly when as a child Leo had woken him up in the middle of the night to confess that he had not shot any tigers.

When asked for an explanation, Leo replied: ‘What would you prefer, the boring truth or an exciting lie?’

Playing pizzicato Spike attended a one-term music orchestration course in the middle of the 1930s at the College’s Department of Adult Education. They took place during the evenings and it seems they represented an important part of what he saw as his development as a musician and composer.

Biographer Pauline Scudamore wrote: ‘He was not really of the standard required, but he bluffed his way into the class and it says much for both Goldsmiths’ insight and the immediacy of Milligan’s responses that he survived the course.’

When arriving for the first lesson he discovered that all the other string instrumentalists were rubbing resin into their bows; something Spike and his double bass lacked completely.

He pretended that he had left his non-existent bow at home.

The music teacher said he could play ‘pizzicato’ not knowing that at the time that was the only way Spike could play it.

Scudamore says Goldsmiths taught Spike the rudiments of harmony and counterpoint, the discipline of formal music and sight-reading.

Spike explained: ‘Well, Goldsmiths was the nearest I ever had to a musical education. I suppose I wanted to show off a bit. To show that I didn’t only strum, and that I could play with a bow if I wanted to, and that I took music seriously.’

A thriving centre for music In 1935 there were 300 musicians attending the Adult Evening Department courses — one third of the overall total of students.

At the time, the College had its own music society known as the Clef Club and it was during these years that Goldsmiths’ Choral Union and Goldsmiths’ Symphony Orchestra, trained by conductor Frederick Haggis, were formed. A String Orchestra conducted by Miss Kitty Kennedy also became prominent in local music festivals.

Goldsmiths lecturer Reginald Jevons was famous for taking group piano lessons with dummy keyboards when there were not enough pianos to go round. He had trained at the Royal Conservatory of Music in Brussels and also the Royal College of Music in London. He wrote optimistically in the Anvil, the Evening Students’ Association magazine: ‘Of the future surely there can be no mistake. We have to thank those whose foresight led us along this path of stimulating the love of good music, and in our own Department we rejoice to see the ideals being set before us, which gave

Feature opportunity for self-expression, and a sense of well-being which accompanies the rational expression of the faculties.’

Such pompous classicism did not appeal to Spike Milligan.

He told another of his biographers, Dominic Behan, he didn’t like Goldsmiths because it was ‘all classical music’ and at the time he only wanted to play jazz, which is what he continued to do as an amateur until he began to serve in the Second World War. And the beat goes on Spike was not the only Milligan to attend Goldsmiths. In 1948 his younger brother Desmond was eligible for a post-World War Two education grant to study the three-year Art Diploma course. Meanwhile Spike found work with musical comedy acts including the Bill Hall Trio.

In the early 1950s, Desmond, his father Leo and his mother Florence emigrated to Australia while Spike teamed up with Michael Bentine, Harry Secombe and Peter Sellers to form the famous Goons and, as has often been said, the rest was history.

The Goon Show has an important place in history; comedian Eric Sykes described its significance: ‘At a cursory glance, The Goon Show was merely quick-fire delivery of extremely funny lines mouthed by eccentric characters, but this was only the froth. In The Goon Show, Spike was unknowingly portraying every facet of the British psyche.’

Sound was of course integral to The Goon Show, from the musical interludes through to punchlines of many of its gags.

In the book ‘Spike & Co’, Graham McCann described how its use of live and pre-recorded sound effects broke new ground: ‘not even Milligan knew how to capture electronically the peculiar sounds that came alive in his head — he just knew when it had not yet happened.’

There is no doubt that having creative control and confidence over musical notation, arrangement and orchestration had an impact on Spike. It all underpins the brilliance of such anarchic and in its own way, progressive and experimental musical pieces such as the ‘Ying Tong Song’, first released by Decca in 1956, which Spike said he wrote in ten minutes during a journey on the London Underground.

The ‘I’m Walking Backwards for Christmas’ song was also written in 1956 and has remained another iconic sound track for what Behan described as the Goons’ auditory surrealism.

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I told you I was ill Spike claimed he once caught a glimpse of his standing obituary and that it had summarised his remarkable career thusly: ‘Spike Milligan was born Terence Alan Milligan on 1 April 1918 in a hospital in Ahmednagar, India. When he grew up he wrote The Goon Show and died.’

Spike went on to write his own obituary in 1990 where he repeatedly stated that ‘he wrote The Goons Show and died’, eventually concluding with a list of his hobbies: ‘writing Goon shows and dying’.

Of course, when he passed away in 2002, the intense media coverage indicated that a national figure of great cultural significance had died. He was widely credited with having developed a new form of British comedy and the breadth of his career was acknowledged accordingly.

However, a dispute over his passport application in 1962 actually led to his adopting Irish citizenship. And the line he wanted on his gravestone ‘I told you I was ill’ is inscribed in Irish Gaelic as ‘Dúirt mé leat go raibh mé breoite’.

The veteran broadcaster Ned Sherrin once said that Spike Milligan ‘opened new doors of irreverence and absurdity in his mission to entertain.’ He described him as ‘a troubled, gifted man with a unique mind, an affinity for children, and a puzzled pity for humanity and the animal world.’

These are all qualities that could be said to perfectly qualify him for the honour of being one of Goldsmiths’ alumni ○ Professor Tim Crook is currently writing a new book on the history of Goldsmiths. As part of the project he is writing a blog.

You can follow the stories he is uncovering online: www.sites. gold.ac.uk/goldsmithshistory

“GOLDSMITHS WAS THE NEAREST I EVER HAD TO A MUSICAL EDUCATION”

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NATALIE CAMPBELL

25 Curious about the day-to-day of a fellow alumnus who works in a different industry? ‘A day in the life’ follows alumni during a typical working day and gives readers a snapshot of their interesting and varied careers.

Natalie Campbell is a broadcaster, HarperCollins author and award-winning businesswoman. She is an alumna of the Institute of Creative and Cultural Entrepreneurship at Goldsmiths and has featured in the Management Today’s ‘35 Women Under 35’ and City AM’s ‘Power 100 Women’ lists. She is the co-founder of A Very Good Company, a global social innovation agency that works with big brands and charities to drive sustainability-related change across the business and develop new products and services. As a non-executive director, she chairs the Nominet Trust and has governance oversight of over £1 billion in public funding through her roles on the boards of the Big Lottery Fund; UnLtd, the foundation for social entrepreneurs; and the Mayor’s London economic strategy. Earlier this year, she also became a Civil Service Commissioner.

Natalie tell us about her day.

A day in the life

06.00

12.30

09.30

13.30

I’ll be up and on emails or reading documents in bed with a cup of black coffee to start the day; the exact time depends how late I got in the evening before. I have the morning at home to respond to emails and requests from any of my boards, confirm appointments in my diary, set up social media and WhatsApp my ‘Badass Women’s Hour’ co-hosts with story ideas so we can debate and argue things we’ve seen in the news before we get to the studio.

Showered, bag packed, smoothie made and I’m out the door. I have multiple meetings and events going on so most days I’ll have an extra pair of shoes, gym kit and a dress or top in my bag. This might seem excessive but I’ve always believed in looking polished and making an effort with my appearance. Maybe it’s the retail girl in me, or the fact that early in my career I was told ‘you dress for the job you want’.

11.00

I’ve arrived at a government department to meet with colleagues about a new recruitment competition I am chairing.

As a Civil Service Commissioner I recruit director level and above roles into the Civil Service. The Commission is an independent regulator that ensures all recruitment rounds for Directors, Director-Generals and Permanent Secretaries are run in a fair and open way. I am also chairing a strategic working group that is looking at ways to increase diversity at senior levels so I pop into the Cabinet Office to say hi to the team reviewing the data on this.

Left: © Christian Sinibaldi

Now I’ve left the Cabinet Office I have a conference call with my Nominet Trust team about our new brand and strategy.

I’ve already done my reading and prep for this so I’m taking the call while walking from Westminster to Bank along the Thames and up through St Paul’s.

I love the view and I can’t help but stop to look at London in both directions as I walk.

I work from members’ clubs around London and today I’m in Bank having a working lunch on the rooftop. I’m rolling solo, which means I can eat, crank out a quick 400-word article, make comments on the design of a presentation deck for my new Guardian Masterclass for Freelancers and then get back on emails and send follow-up notes from my meetings. I usually take a long working lunch and also make time to read and do social media. It seems odd that ‘doing social media’ is part of my working day but it’s where I interact with a lot of people about things as far ranging from racism and sexism in the workplace to how much we love Rihanna’s badass approach to life. I promised to tweet links to a podcast I’m featured on so that’s the last thing I do before I head down to the gym.

A day in the life

15.30

20.00

16.30

20.15

I try and workout as suits my diary.

The morning is ideal but I’m realistic and doing emails and reading is what my brain and body prefers, but I’d rather get a 10-minute run and 10 minutes of heavy weights in than not do anything.

I shower and get a bit more glam for my evening event.

On my way to my evening event I’m checking emails and doing what I can to respond so that everyone is happy before I stop looking at my phone for the evening. I’m an introvert so I can’t do emails and have work on my mind if I’m also on a panel or chairing an event.

17.00

I arrive at a swanky office for an event on women in business where I’m on a panel of four. I know all of the other panel members and the chair so there are lots of hugs and kisses on arrival and then I swiftly divert to the bar for a glass of fizz. Before I speak I tend to keep to myself or I’ll talk to one person — never a group — it’s the introvert thing, so I spend sometime looking at the view and reflecting on the day.

The panel went well — I challenged all of the women in the room to ask for a pay rise the next day. I asked them to keep me posted about how they get on via social media. I walk off stage and slip out the doors into the shiny lobby to make my escape home. I’m almost running.

I love what I do but I have been talking and moving pretty much all day.

Singing along to ‘Heart Radio’ in the back of the Uber. Decompression time.

Phone in my bag.

21.30

On the sofa, candles lit, dinner made, grey sweats on, glass of wine in hand and breathe. I’ll half watch something or just have some music on after a day like today. I email myself a quick to-do list that also includes two new business ideas. As I’m online I do a final check of emails and social media; there are tweets and Instagram posts following the event so I ‘like’ and ‘retweet’ a few things before heading to bed by 10pm. I’m only in bed later if I went out for dinner or drinks with friends.

Going to sleep later than 11.30pm is very rare for me, even at the weekend.

I need a minimum of eight hours sleep to function at the pace I do otherwise I can’t string a sentence together let alone juggle emails, calls, writing and delivering an interesting speech ○ Badass Women’s Hour is on talkRADIO every Saturday at 8pm and available on Apple Podcasts. Follow Natalie on twitter @NatDCampbell.

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Alumni perspectives

Goldlink Online is the official blog for Goldsmiths alumni, launched in 2015. For inspiration, we are publishing highlights from two of this year’s most popular contributions.

Alumni perspectives Goldlink Online is viewed all over the world, and over a third of the content is written for alumni, by alumni. From sharing news and achievements to offering advice and reminiscing about life as a student.

We welcome submissions throughout the year, so please get in touch if you have an idea: alumni@gold.ac.uk It was 20 years ago today that Wired Radio came out to play

by Julian Lorkin Goldsmiths was a lively hotbed of the arts scene in Cool Britannia’s 1990s, but alas student media didn’t get a look in. Arriving in 1996 straight from the University of Kent — where I’d spent three years running the student radio station, ‘UKCR’ — I’d spent much of the summer working at ‘Jazz FM’ and hatching plans to give Goldsmiths its own radio station.

Both the Students’ Union (SU) and the College were very receptive, but as it was, no one wanted to pay for it.

First we needed a jingle, and I had a lucky break thanks to ‘Jazz FM’, who were about to change the branding on their talk service, Viva 963. They mixed three new packages of jingles and the one they rejected was called ‘Wired’— I asked to keep the jingles, and by default, Goldsmiths’ radio became ‘Wired’, as we know it today.

We then needed equipment — every penny of my student loan went to getting hold of a jingle cartridge player, and I also collected historical equipment from various skips, which meant we had studios and jingles, but nowhere to broadcast from, and no presenters either. The SU provided an office, so long as we were only on air for the fourweek exam period.

We were going to launch Wired FM when everyone was at their busiest and in a room that sounded like a bathtub.

The walls were soundproofed with egg cartons until the College Fire Officer found out, and the whole lot had to come down.

Undeterred, the Radio Authority licence came through just days before launch and with twice the power and transmitter height we asked for. Before going on air, I inched out of the top of Warmington Tower to rig up a mast fashioned from hot water pipes, and

threw the audio feeder cable down to the SU. You could pick up the signal in Croydon, much to the annoyance of a pirate radio station there who asked us to get off their frequency.

The audience loved what we were doing, and Wired was not only the first FM student radio station in London but also the first to broadcast over the internet, thanks to the Computing Department getting hold of ‘Winamp’, one of the first ever internet streaming systems.

As a training ground, Wired was an amazing experience, and many of the people who were on air went on to careers in broadcasting — I later worked with some of them at the BBC. The ability to broadcast from the most unpromising place using the most primitive of equipment is one I used for many years on the ‘Financial World Tonight’ and stood me in good stead when I covered the Boscastle floods and Heathrow closedown for the BBC. One experience remains unique to Goldsmiths, however. I presented drive on Wired, and I found that with a long enough record playing there was just enough time to nip to the bar, get a pint, and present the rest of the show lubricated by South London’s finest.

Julian Lorkin completed his MA Radio at Goldsmiths in 1997 and was the first licence holder for Wired Radio, Goldsmiths’ digital radio station run by students. He worked on BBC Radio 4’s Today Programme and the Financial World Tonight for a decade before emigrating to Australia. He still writes for BBC online, and broadcasts to Australia on Sydney’s 2GB radio.

In May, he wrote for Goldlink Online to mark Wired Radio’s 20th anniversary.

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29 The Female Voice at BAFTA Los Angeles

By Julia Dos Santos The BAFTA experience taught me a lot, but this is the advice I would give to those thinking of studying or doing filmmaking: 1 — ­Choose documentary Documentary can give you a lot of transferable skills because it pushes your creativity and storytelling capabilities.

In documentary, you need to learn to tell a compelling story with what you have, and you have much less control.

As a result, it gives you the discipline and flexibility to just go out there and ‘make it work’.

2—T ­ ake your university work seriously We got so much out of our graduation film because we put so much into it.

At no point did we consider ‘The Female Voice’ as just a university project — a great film was the end result, not a grade.

3 — ­Trust the process Documentary filmmaking is a process that happens organically. You cannot force things into being, and sometimes you need to be able to let a project become what it has to. Be bold and take risks, but also listen to feedback given by tutors and mentors who want to push you to a place that is uncomfortable.

4 — ­Push it further Many great student films (and films, in general) go to rest at graduation; however, I would encourage anyone to submit their films into festivals and awards, and communicate and work together with their tutor to push it as far as it can go.

AT NO POINT DID WE CONSIDER ‘THE FEMALE VOICE’ AS JUST A UNIVERSITY PROJECT – A GREAT FILM WAS THE END RESULT, NOT A GRADE Illustration: Thomas Hedger

Julia Dos Santos (BA Media and Communications, 2016) was nominated for one of four top prizes at the BAFTA Los Angeles Student Film Awards in the documentary category for ‘The Female Voice’, made in collaboration with BA Media and Communications alumnae Minji Kim and Jeanette Lee as their graduation project.

To read the featured guest posts in full, visit: www.goldlink-online.com

Manisha Tailor MBE

VOLUNTEERING AT GOLDSMITHS Alumna Manisha Tailor completed a BA in Education (Early Childhood Education) in 2001, and subsequently began her career as a primary school teacher, gaining experience in different boroughs, school settings and as a deputy head.

In 2011, Manisha left teaching to a pursue an entirely new direction: football.

She established Swaggarlicious, an organisation that uses the power of football and education to engage with diverse community groups.

She is also an academy coach at Queens Park Rangers FC (QPR). Explaining her role at QPR Manisha enthused: “the learning that I am receiving from [Technical Director] Chris Ramsey and senior staff is fantastic — it is a privilege to be mentored by someone who has a wealth of experience, passion and credibility for development.”

Manisha is also behind the Wingate and Finchley Disabled Fans Forum, a partnership with her local non-league football club to support adults with mental illness and disability through football.

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Manisha Tailor MBE Deservedly, Manisha received an MBE in this year’s New Year’s Honours list for her services to football and diversity in sport. On learning the news, she commented: “This MBE is dedicated to the continued 18-year commitment to aiding my twin brother gain a full recovery from his mental illness that tragically changed our lives at the age of only 18, through his bullying at school. I must also dedicate it to football, for without it I would be lost.”

Goldsmiths Students’ Union (SU) were subsequently in touch with Manisha to discuss how she could be involved as a volunteer to promote sport among the Goldsmiths community.

The SU supports a diverse range of clubs, all of which are student-led. Students of all abilities are encouraged to participate as a way to meet people, travel and stay fit while at university.

As a student, Manisha was not actively involved in the SU. Instead, she juggled her studies with part-time work and being a young carer for her twin brother. Regardless, she agreed to give back her time to speak at the annual ceremony recognising the achievements of the various clubs, all of which rely on the commitment and dedication of its student members.

Returning to campus can be a surreal as well as an enjoyable experience for alumni. Manisha arrived early to explore the campus and reminisce. Describing the experience afterwards: “I felt it was a wonderful opportunity to give back to a university that not only provided me with excellent teaching and education, but a safe haven. At the time, I did not let anyone know my personal circumstances with my brother, and studying to be a teacher became my outlet — as did my teaching career.

“My message on the night was that of opportunity, appreciation and overcoming adversity. I was able to share, for the first time, what I was going through in my personal life as a student, and that Goldsmiths provided me an opportunity to have the power to influence the lives of young people. It is the appreciation of the opportunity to change lives, along with desire and an obsession to succeed that helps me be resilient to adversity.”

More recently, Manisha has been appointed as an ambassador for the Goldsmiths Women’s Football Team. She will be involved in aiding the team to gain sponsorship, representing the team at events, delivering coaching sessions and much more. Talking about her new role, Manisha said: “I am excited to be meeting the team in the coming weeks to start planning sponsorship and fundraising ideas. It is an honour to be able to serve a university that has given much to me, and I would encourage other alumni to get involved.” ○

GIVE YOUR TIME TO GOLDSMITHS Volunteering is an invaluable way to give back to Goldsmiths. Alumni have firsthand experience of what it means to be a student here, from the moment you first considered applying, all the way through to graduation and the years that follow.

Our volunteers make it possible to stay connected with alumni at all stages of their career and in locations across the world. We appreciate the importance of your time as you juggle work and home life, but we know from speaking to those who currently volunteer that it is a truly rewarding experience and can make a real difference to our students as well as those who have recently completed their studies.

There are several ways you can support Goldsmiths as a volunteer, from organising an alumni event to taking part in a panel discussion or mentoring a recent graduate. We welcome alumni who can offer expertise, careers advice and encouragement, and we are always looking for new volunteers.

You can learn more by visiting our website or getting in touch: www.gold.ac.uk/alumni/volunteer alumni@gold.ac.uk

All photography: © Christian Sinibaldi

“I FELT IT WAS A WONDERFUL OPPORTUNITY TO GIVE BACK TO A UNIVERSITY THAT NOT ONLY PROVIDED ME WITH EXCELLENT TEACHING AND EDUCATION, BUT A SAFE HAVEN”

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