Impact Magazine Issue 233

IMPACT ISSUE #233 NOVEMBER 2014

OUT OF CONTROL, OUT OF CHARACTER INVESTIGATING DRINK SPIKING IN NOTTINGHAM

ALSO IN THIS ISSUE POVERTY IN ST ANN’S / THE WAR ON POACHERS / DIVING INTO THE DARK WEB GREAT SHOWS, TERRIBLE ENDINGS / INTERVIEW WITH WOLF ALICE WWW.IMPACTNOTTINGHAM.COM

WELCOME

EDITORIAL Impact has been making waves recently after our exposure of the necrophilia-laden chants that Week One reps have been teaching first years. Students, parents and national papers have been shocked by the content of the chant. However, as has been pointed out, this has been going on for years - so why is it only news now?

For the first time, we were presented with undeniable proof of the chant’s existence. That night, singing “if she had wings I’d fuck her flying” could be dismissed as ‘banter’. In the sober light of morning, having to repeat “dig her up and fuck her rotten” to family could cause many to blush in shame.

This incident is not in isolation. The chants are a microcosm of the venomous culture found at our University, and across many others nationwide. The chant should not be swept under the carpet and branded as the result of a few individuals’ foolishness, instead the SU should tackle the issue head on.

After LSE’s rugby club handed out a misogynistic leaflet at Freshers, the club was disbanded, and an email was sent to staff and students condemning the sexism the club promoted. This was a bold and immediate move by LSE, and one that UoN’s own SU should take note of.

I would like to hope that this exposure means 2014 is the last year that Nottingham students will be taught this sexist drivel. The SU Officers should make their stance clear; they should not let their influence go to waste.

SARAH DEAR EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

INSIDE ON THE COVER

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NEWS INVESTIGATION

OUT OF CONTROL, OUT OF CHARACTER

Investigating drink spiking in Nottingham

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NEWS INVESTIGATION

WHERE DOES UON GET ITS FUNDING? Chemicals, Corruption and Corporations

12 COMMENT

THE ART OF THE FEMINIST MUSIC VIDEO

Does it matter if sexist videos are still being churned out?

14 FEATURES

“IF THE FOOD STORE DIDN’T EXIST I’D BE STARVING” Impact investigates poverty in St Ann’s

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IMPACT

MAGAZINE

24 TRAVEL

POACHERS, PATROLLERS AND POVERTY

GAMING

THE YEAR THAT GAMING ALMOST DIED How E.T. almost brought down an entire industry

A spotlight on Costa Rica’s war over turtle eggs

32

FILM Why do the best shows go downhill?

THE DEEP DARK WEB

A hub for illegal activity or space for free expression?

MUSIC

LITTLE BLACK BOOK

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JUST CAN'T GET ENOUGH Is 80s music making a comeback?

FOOD

The best cake and coffee spots in Nottingham

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YOUR SHOW SUCKS

SCIENCE

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50

ARTS

68

THE PRICE OF ART

The problem of mixing business and art

42 STYLE

STREET INSPIRED Sport luxe on campus

SPORTS

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CROSS-TRAINING OR COMPLAINING? Impact investigates the Sports Centre price rise

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NEWS

INVESTIGATION

SPIKED PILLS, POWDER AND

UNKNOWN SUBSTANCES INVESTIGATING DRINK SPIKING ON NIGHTS OUT IN NOTTINGHAM

Since the start of this academic year, there have been numerous incidents of drink spiking in various venues in Nottingham. An Impact survey of 120 people revealed that 19% of students have had their drink spiked in Nottingham. Of these respondents, 61% are female and 26% male; the remaining 13% did not specify. An additional 4% of people who completed the survey were unsure if they had been spiked, but reported relevant symptoms, and another 9% knew other students who had been.

A Freedom of Information request sent by Impact revealed that ‘‘an initial search of incidents [of the Nottinghamshire Police database] involving the key words ‘spiked’, ‘spike’, ‘date rape’ or variations thereof disclosed a total of 306 records for Nottingham City’’ over the last three years. ‘‘Such incidents do not have a specific offence/incident code or flag upon which we can conduct searches [so] this total does not include incidents which have not used any variations of the above key words but which may also fall within [drink spiking crimes]’’.

THE EFFECTS

Drink spiking, where alcohol or drugs are added to someone’s drink without their consent or knowledge, carries a maximum sentence of ten years in prison, which can be increased if assault, rape or robbery

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have also taken place. Most symptoms often take effect within half an hour of the drink being spiked and can vary from difficulty speaking, loss of balance, nausea, hallucinations to the loss of consciousness. A third year Geography student shared their experience: “I felt confused, spaced out, physically uncontrolled and I threw up”.

AFTER BEING SPIKED BY A STRANGER IN A CLUB SHE DISPLAYED SYMPTOMS INCLUDING A FROTHING MOUTH; SHE LATER COLLAPSED The similarity between the effects of a spiked drink and alcohol intoxication has led to UoN students feeling as if their experiences have been flippantly disregarded by third parties. A first year Veterinary Medicine student spoke to Impact of their frustration when paramedics outside a club ignored their concerns that they had just been spiked.

“Paramedics brushed me off and didn’t even listen” she said.

IMPACT

MAGAZINE

Emma*, a third year English student, was not quite as fortunate. After being spiked by a stranger in a club, she displayed symptoms including a frothing mouth - she later collapsed.

After collapsing, Emma* had to go to the Queen’s Medical Centre for respiratory and blood treatment. The spiked drink had reduced her brain function, while her ‘‘heart rate slowed down to a dangerous level’’. She had to stay overnight.

“MY HEART RATE SLOWED DANGEROUSLY DOWN” Jasmine*, a Genetics student in her fourth year, received similar treatment; she was rushed to the QMC where her blood samples were taken and vitals monitored. Recollecting the differences in her own behaviour, she commented: “I acted out of control, out of character, and basically as if I was much more drunk than was possible considering the amount that I’d had to drink that night”.

Different substances have been recorded when being used to spike drinks, the most common of which include ‘date rape’ drugs such as gamma-butyrolactone (GBL) and gamma-hydroxybutyrate (GBH), as well as tranquillisers such as valium, rohypnol and ketamine.

Nick*, a second year who studies Natural Sciences, was spiked by what he believes was GBL. “My drink tasted the same but I went from tipsy to drunk very very quickly. My eyes started rolling into the back of my head. No more than 2ml [of GBL] plus the alcohol I had drunk would have had me in that state. This is educated guesswork though”, he admitted.

Beth Rowland, a History and English student in her second year, believes a staff member to have added an unknown substance into her drink whilst she was on a night out in Nottingham town centre. “‘My drink was spiked by the bartender”, she revealed. “I asked for a water and he laughed when I ordered it. I looked at him, confused, and he said ‘well, don't you want a proper drink?' I said, ‘no thanks, just water is fine’. I watched him as he poured it then he put it underneath the bar and when he brought it back up it looked cloudy”.

She went on to say: “I could see a white powder in the drink. I asked him what it was, he said 'nothing' and was trying to say I was seeing things. I refused the drink and left it on the bar. I didn't even pick it up so I have no idea what the powder was but I don't care. I asked for a water and I should have been given water’’.

THE AFTERMATH

Many of the victims Impact spoke to were disappointed with how the venues handled their situation. As Sally*, a biologist in her third year, told Impact: “When I was spiked my friends had to call the NHS helpline as I was responding so weirdly. They advised someone to monitor me every hour to check I could respond to basic commands’’.

With this in mind, she was disheartened by the reaction of the club at the time. “The club did nothing to help my friends when they were trying to help me”, she complained. ‘‘I’m more careful now. It put me off drinking a bit. It was a very unpleasant experience”.

Jasmine also suffered from indifferent behaviour from members of staff at the venue where she was spiked. ‘‘Most people just assumed I was drunk. The bouncers of the club were of no help at all. They told my boyfriend to take me away from the club even though I was barely conscious, they were saying that he should just take me home because I was too drunk”.

She went on to state: “My boyfriend tried to explain that I wasn't drunk, he asked for their help and they just refused. Even when the ambulance turned up the bouncers didn't apologise for their behaviour”.

PREVENTATIVE MEASURES

The Impact survey revealed that 30% reported the spiking of their drink to either the venue, the University of Nottingham or the Police.

A bottle toppers initiative was continued at this year’s Welcome Fair and toppers were distributed by Nottinghamshire Police.

Susie Rhodes-Best, Senior Licensing Officer at Nottinghamshire Police, said: ‘‘I am not aware of any incidents of drink spiking over recent months and the spikies/bottle tops are a preventative measure to ensure that if you are drinking a bottled product it cannot be contaminated’’.

The Nottingham Crime and Drug Partnership also work with the Nottingham Street Pastors to distribute bottle toppers. Their Chief Executive Jo Cox-Brown told Impact:

“I DON'T REMEMBER ANY OF IT” ‘‘[In Nottingham] We don't have an issue with drink spiking per say, we have the odd one or two every now and then. However, five years ago when we launched ‘Spikies’ some of the venues did have a problem with drink spiking, so we specifically targeted those venues and now those venue's say that after our sustained high profile approach they no longer have any problems’’.

Impact also contacted clubs in Nottingham to ask them about their policies on drink spiking. Only Oceana responded at the time of print.

Peter Tormey, the General Manager of the club said: ‘‘The safety and enjoyment of our customers is our main priority. We are not aware of any issues with drink spiking in Nottingham; indeed in my 29 years within the nightclub sector, I have never had a case”.

The University of Nottingham was provided the opportunity to comment, but had not responded by the time of print.

WORDS BY YASEMIN CRAGGS MERSINOGLU IMAGES BY BEKI HOOPER SURVEY CONDUCTED IN SEPTEMBER - OCTOBER 2014. *NAMES CHANGED TO PROTECT CONFIDENTIALITY.

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NEWS

INVESTIGATION

ATOMIC WEAPONS AND CHEMICAL CORRUPTION

IMPACT INVESTIGATES GLAXOSMITHKLINE AND THE ATOMIC WEAPONS ESTABLISHMENT, UNCOVERING THEIR FUNDING LINKS TO UON Following the fire at the GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) Building for Sustainable Chemistry on the University of Nottingham’s (UoN) Jubilee Campus this September and global revelations of malpractice from GSK executives, Impact News investigates sources of funding at UoN and the true extent of the relationship between the University and multinational organisations, such as GSK and the Atomic Weapons Establishment (AWE).

GSK, BRIBERY AND CORRUPTION

In September 2014, several media outlets, including The Guardian reported that GlaxoSmithKline had been fined £297 million by China, following a bribery scandal in which the pharmaceutical firm made direct payments to hospitals and doctors in return for having their products promoted.

“I ALSO THINK IT’S REALLY IMPORTANT THAT INDIVIDUALS, COMPANIES AND INSTITUTIONS CAN HAVE MULTILAYERED RELATIONSHIPS” The Chinese court also handed a number of GSK executives suspended prison sentences, including a three year term to the company’s former head of Chinese operations, Mark Reilly. In an official GSK press release, Sir Andrew Witty, CEO of GSK and Chancellor of the University of Nottingham, described the practices as “shameful” and revealed that he had been “personally deeply disappointed”.

When the allegations of bribery first came to light in April 2014, a University spokesperson told Impact that the charges were “a matter for GSK as a commercial entity which operates on a global basis. As such it is entirely separate from, and unrelated to, Sir Andrew’s role as Chancellor of this University, which he undertakes in a personal capacity as a Nottingham alumnus”.

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GSK, THE CHANCELLOR AND CURRICULAR INVOLVEMENT

The appointment of the Chancellor at the University of Nottingham is the result of a decision-making process undertaken by the University Council, a panel which includes Nottingham alumni, the ViceChancellor and the President of the Students’ Union.

Sir Andrew Witty was officially installed as the University’s Chancellor on October 23rd 2012 and is currently serving the standard office term of four years, a period which can be renewed at any time, subject to Council approval.

The University officially states that the Chancellor has a number of key roles, including ‘acting as an ambassador and advocate of the University in the UK and around the world’ and ‘acting as a key advisor on matters of major strategic importance to the development of the University’.

The University has been strengthening its links with GSK since 2010, following the facilitating of a £12 million grant by the pharmaceutical firm to help further the UoN’s ‘green chemistry’ commitment, and the company has since expanded its relationship to involve the sponsoring of academic modules.

Several undergraduate modules, created in collaboration with GSK, were first announced in 2010 and one is currently offered as an option to third year Medicinal Chemistry MSci students. According to the School of Chemistry, the module allows undergraduates to ‘gain firsthand experience on drug discovery’ and ‘will allow them to pursue real laboratory research on drugs that are investigated by GSK’. The module document also states that students ‘will receive tuition from a GSK medicinal chemistry mentor’.

In a 2013 interview with Impact following his appointment as Chancellor, Sir Witty dismissed concerns about whether the £12 million grant was, in part, responsible for his appointment, commenting: “There is no link. We talked about the donation in 2010 and I was asked last year whether I would do this role. There’s quite a long time

IMPACT

MAGAZINE difference. I did ask if anyone would be concerned because obviously as a company we have this strong relationship with the University. But the answer was: ‘We’re asking you to do more work, it’s not like we’re giving you some amazing gift’. It is a lovely honour but what comes with it is an obligation to do quite a bit of work.

“RESEARCHERS SHOULD ASK THEMSELVES WHETHER A RESEARCH PROGRAMME IS LIKELY TO SUPPORT OR UNDERMINE SUCH NORMS BEFORE DECIDING TO ACCEPT ANY FUNDING FROM AWE” “I also think it’s really important that individuals, companies and institutions can have multi-layered relationships. It would be a sad state of affairs if just because I came to the University I shouldn’t think about how my company might collaborate with [it], and just because my company collaborated with the University nobody from my company could be involved in things like this”, he continued.

NUCLEAR WEAPONS AND ACADEMIC FUNDING

The issue of funding at the University of Nottingham extends beyond research, development and academic collaboration as UoN has forged relationships with companies previously cited for engaging in unethical practices.

A two year study, entitled ‘Atoms for Peace: The Atomic Weapons Establishment and UK Universities’, revealed that the Atomic Weapons Establishment (AWE) have contractual links with the United Kingdom’s Ministry of Defence to design and manufacture part of the UK’s base of nuclear weapons.

The study, commissioned by global health charity, Medact, and the Nuclear Information Service, also found that over half of UK universities, including Nottingham, had research links with AWE. Dr David McCoy, Chair of Medact said: “Many aspects of scientific research work funded by the Atomic Weapons Establishment are conducted in sensitive and controversial areas, raising complex ethical and legal issues”.

“There are clear international norms against the use and possession of weapons of mass destruction, recognised by a number of international

legal treaties, including the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and the Comprehensive Test-Ban Treaty, which require states holding nuclear weapons to take steps towards disarmament. Researchers should ask themselves whether a research programme is likely to support or undermine such norms before deciding to accept any funding from AWE”.

Following a Freedom of Information Request, Impact can disclose that the University’s Schools of Engineering and Chemistry have been in receipt of funding from AWE since 2006. In the period 20062012, the University of Nottingham had received a total of £157,046 for four separate enterprises, three in the School of Engineering and one in the School of Chemistry.

The two largest payments were received across two years, first in 2007, during which £83,300 in funding was received for an electromagnetics project by the School of Engineering and also a project on inorganics in the School of Chemistry. Impact can confirm that this portion of funding was used entirely for research purposes.

In 2008, a series of payments totalling £69,017 were received by the electromagnetics strand of the University’s School of Engineering.

The remaining amount, totalling £4729, was provided to the two Schools in the remainder of the period and was used in a nonresearch capacity, with the Freedom of Information request revealing that the School of Engineering used a portion of the funding in an academic capacity in order to provide financial assistance for studentships and academic conferences. Details of funding to the University from AWE plc in the years 2010, 2011 and 2013 were not disclosed to Impact.

The ‘Atoms for Peace’ report details the remit of AWE’s ‘in-house engineers and scientists’ as covering three areas: to ‘ensure the safety and reliability of the UK’s nuclear weapons’, ‘to develop a new generation of weapons if asked to by the government’, and ‘to actively participate in a variety of nuclear weapons programmes with US nuclear weapons laboratories, with the aim of maintaining the close relationship on nuclear weapons research which exists between the USA and the UK’.

The University of Nottingham’s School of Chemistry was provided with the opportunity to comment on its’ relationship with GlaxoSmithKline, but had not yet responded at the time of print.

WORDS BY JACOB BENTLEY IMAGE BY ‘IMAGES MONEY’ VIA FLICKR

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NEWS

INVESTIGATION

IMPACT INVESTIGATES

THE BME ‘ATTAINMENT

GAP’ AT UON IMPACT UNCOVERED THE TRUE EXTENT OF THE DIFFERENCE IN ATTAINMENT, EXPLORED REASONS WHY THE GAP HAS INCREASED AND SPOKE TO CURRENT BLACK AND ETHNIC MINORITY UNDERGRADUATES AT NOTTINGHAM TO UNDERSTAND POTENTIAL REASONS BEHIND THE ‘ATTAINMENT GAP’.

UK universities have come under increased scrutiny in recent years for allowing a significant ‘attainment gap’ to develop between UKdomiciled ‘white’, and ‘black, minority, ethnic’ (BME) students, which has led to major discrepancies in the classification of degree obtained by certain groups in the student population. An Impact survey of selfdefining ‘BME’ students revealed that the majority questioned were not aware of the existence of the ‘attainment gap’. 82% of respondents said that they had no prior knowledge of the issue at Nottingham or other UK universities.

A recently published report by the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE), entitled ‘Differences in Degree Outcomes’, found that the ‘BME attainment gap’ at Russell Group universities had widened, rather than lessened, since the initial acknowledgement of the problem in the early 2000’s. Statistics from the report reveal that ’72% of white students who entered higher education with A Level grades of BBB or above’ graduated with a 2:1 or above in 2010-11. This compares to 56% of asian students and 53% of black students who graduated in the same academic year.

While the report emphasises that ‘the weight of evidence’ raises serious questions about university admissions practices and the effectiveness of widening participation schemes, data from the University of Nottingham suggests that the ‘attainment gap’ is perpetuated by more than just external factors affecting students entering into higher education.

The University of Nottingham’s Annual Student Diversity survey in 2012 revealed the difference in attainment between ‘white’ and BME students to have increased substantially in a two year period and also the significant differences in the number of ‘white’ and BME home student admissions to have widened.

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Despite the internal report claiming that UoN remains ‘slightly higher’ than other higher education institutions with regard to the number of admissions, the proportion of BME students at the University has decreased by 1% over a three year period. In 2008/9, the proportion of registered BME students was 19%, whereas in 2011 this had dropped to 18%. However, the difference between the proportion of students graduating with upper first class honours or above had widened between 2007/08 and 2001/12 academic years, rising from 19% to 22%.

“IT’S A FAILING OF THE UNIVERSITY NOT TO LEVEL THE PLAYING FIELD ACADEMICALLY FOR EVERYONE FROM DIFFERENT BACKGROUNDS” Following a Freedom of Information request Impact obtained statistics detailing the scale of the attainment gap at UoN, with figures being released for graduates in both 2009-10, and 2012-13. The latest figures reveal that the number of ‘white’ UK-domiciled students obtaining a 2:1 or above has increased by two percentage points to 56.3%, whereas the percentage of BME students obtaining a 2:1 or above has either remained at 2010-11 levels or in some cases decreased slightly.

One survey respondent, a Masters student of Business and Economy of Contemporary China said: “You have to consider the rise in tuition fees. 2011/12 was the last year of lower fees and it’s likely that a lot of BME students who haven’t attained well did not properly consider the fact that university may not be for them, but didn’t have the luxury of taking a gap year to find out, as BME students typically come from lowincome backgrounds”.

A third year natural scientist commented: “I think it [the attainment gap] is awful and whilst it would be difficult to determine where the blame for it could lie, it’s a failing of the University not to level the playing field academically for everyone from different backgrounds”.

In order to close the widening gap in attainment, the University of Nottingham is one of thirty higher education institutions to have signed up to the Equality Challenge Unit’s (ECU) Race Equality Charter Mark, an initiative that will be used to gauge the views of minority ethnic staff and students at the University. The results of this trial period are expected to be available in 2015.

“I WOULD HATE TO THINK THAT I’M ONLY WHERE I AM NOW BECAUSE SOMEONE IN THE ADMISSIONS OFFICE WANTED TO BOOST THEIR DIVERSITY SCORE” When presented with this information by Impact, over 90% of survey respondents said that they took issue with the label ‘BME’ and the grouping of students in a homogeneous manner. One student told Impact: “I’m not a fan of the term, personally. I find it divisive and it compartmentalises students from the get-go. Merit is all that matters”.

A second year law student commented: “I don’t think the term is too broad, but I do not think that it is specific enough. It should encompass all ethnic and minority groups, but it should be clear about what

IMPACT

MAGAZINE counts as one of those. Certain groups of people may be unsure if they classify”.

Additionally, several students questioned highlighted the risk of positive discrimination in future attempts by the University to assess and tackle the issue.

A Masters student of Social Work commented: “It’s positive discrimination, at best. I would hate to think that I’m only where I am now because someone in the admissions office wanted to boost their diversity score. Information that encourages success and progress is coming out of my ears from being at UoN. I don’t need another email from a mailing list or a careers appointment to add to this, just because I’m from an ethnic minority”.

Internally, the gap in attainment noted in the Annual Diversity Report had previously been made a point of emphasis, with the University launching the ‘Concordat’ Action Plan in 2010. The details of the plan make clear the need for to close the gap in attainment between students of different ethnic backgrounds and goes some way to discussing the factors at UoN which could be contributing to the disparity in student success rates, such as ‘the underrepresentation of black and/or minority ethnic members of academic staff’.

Furthermore, UoN’s ‘Strategic Plan’ was put in place in 2010 and is scheduled to run until 2015, when the objectives of the plan are going to be measured. One of the key targets presented in the plan was to raise the number of ‘minority ethnic (non-white staff)’ to 10%; an increase from the previous baseline of 6.4% in 2009/10.

A research briefing by the Students’ Union’s former Political Insight Coordinator, Dr Heather Watkins, in January 2014, emphasised the need “for the BME attainment gap at University of Nottingham to be acknowledged at both University-wide strategic level, and at School level, and for explicit plans to address it to be included in University and School plans and monitoring cycles”.

WORDS BY JACOB BENTLEY IMAGE BY UNIVERSITY OF NOTTINGHAM VIA FLICKR SURVEY RESULTS AVAILABLE ON REQUEST 9

COMMENT

A ‘FRESH’ PERSPECTIVE: WHERE IS MY LIFE GOING? UNIVERSITY IS SUPPOSED TO BE A FRESH START, BUT OFTEN WE’RE FACED WITH THE PROSPECT OF IT BEING THE START OF THE REST OF OUR LIVES. IS THE PRESSURE TOO MUCH? WORDS BY RACHEL LEWIS IMAGES BY SARA V. VIA FLICKR

As I sit here and scroll down my newsfeed I notice my Facebook friends are split into three main categories. Those who are now married and have their own children to look after (ew), those who moan about having to work 9-5 Monday-Friday, and those who have done nothing except sit on Facebook since they left school with one BTEC in sport science.

I realise that I’m at an awkward juncture in life where I am at university supposedly doing something with my life, but not actually doing much.

I moan that I have 9-1 straight lectures on Thursdays, forgetting that when I leave this campus bubble and enter the real world of full time work, this will only be half of one day.

“I MOAN THAT I HAVE 9-1 STRAIGHT LECTURES ON THURSDAYS, FORGETTING THAT WHEN I LEAVE THIS CAMPUS BUBBLE AND ENTER THE REAL WORLD OF FULL TIME WORK, THIS WILL ONLY BE HALF OF ONE DAY”.

My life is going in a scary direction. I’d love to be a student for as long as possible, going out three times a week, doing a couple of hours reading here and there, living off a glorified dole. But we all know that soon enough reality will come crashing down.

The momentous boredom that surrounds a 40 hour week sitting behind a desk completely terrifies me. I’d love to believe that my future career will involve me whizzing off around the world, but my life is probably going in a direction that will leave me pushing paper for the next 50 years of my life.

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“THIS WILL PROBABLY LEAD TO SOME KIND OF SETTLED EXISTENCE WHERE I GET MARRIED, HAVE CHILDREN, AND THEN SHUFFLE THEM INTO THE SAME EDUCATION SYSTEM THAT I GREW UP IN, ONLY FOR THE CYCLE TO REPEAT ITSELF” I owe it to myself, to my parents, and debatably to the government, who have funded my education, to earn a proper salary. This will probably lead to some kind of settled existence where I get married, have children, and then shuffle them into the same education system that I grew up in, only for the cycle to repeat itself. Is this what I want?

Where will I fit in with my friends if I don’t?

‘Where is my life going?’ is a difficult question for me to contemplate at 20 years old, but I’m not ashamed that I don’t yet know the answer.

Right now, I’m probably just too used to the freedoms of student life to think about the positives of a settled existence. So all I hope is that my life is going in a direction that I can control and will be happy with.

“‘WHERE IS MY LIFE GOING?’ IS A DIFFICULT QUESTION FOR ME TO CONTEMPLATE AT 20 YEARS OLD, BUT I’M NOT ASHAMED THAT I DON’T YET KNOW THE ANSWER”.

IMPACT

MAGAZINE

CAN STUDENT ACTIVISM BE EFFECTIVE? STUDENT ACTIVISM IS A DECADES-OLD MEANS OF PROTEST AND PUBLIC ACTION. IT’S BEEN A KEY FORCE IN SOME OF THE GREAT CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENTS OF HISTORY. HOWEVER, CAN STUDENT ACTIVISM STILL BE EFFECTIVE? OR HAVE STUDENTS SWAPPED THEIR PLACARDS AND JACKBOOTS FOR TWITTER AND NOTEBOOKS?

YES

BY PRIYA VARUGHESE

Can student activism be effective? Well, yes. But will sitting on your laptops ‘liking’ and ‘sharing’ various worthy causes make a difference out in the real world? Not so much.

It depends on whether student activism seeks to initiate tangible change, or improve someone’s CV. Today, being part of an activist group might seem irrelevant, as students are making more headlines for antics committed during freshers’ week than for fighting injustice or advancing progressive ideas. But with focused student activism groups such as the University’s LeftSoc, there is still hope.

“EACH INDIVIDUAL IS CAPABLE OF CREATING A WORLD OF IMMENSE POSSIBILITIES” Everything starts from one single person and each individual is capable of creating a world of immense possibilities. In fact, proactive creation is not just possible, but necessary. Once this proactivity is realised, movements can grow, starting with 10 activists, growing to 20 and gradually snowballing. Eventually, the movement will be noticed, and the difference it makes can then exponentially increase.

This isn’t just hypothetical posturing. There are millions of students all around the world who have been increasingly vocal against all sorts of crime, corruption and war, as well as striving for education and other public rights.

Students have been responsible for universities being closed down, the democratisation of university policies, the eradication of the traditional functionalist view that prevailed in state education, empowering students to stop sexual violence and countless other social reforms.

If a sophomore at Harvard could create Facebook and see it grow to the international force it is today, it’s hardly difficult to imagine what a group of students are capable of doing if they were to channel their energy towards better causes. Whilst it is definitely easier said than done, history shows that it’s far from impossible.

IMAGES BY BEN TYNEGATE

NO

BY RACHEL LEWIS

Student activism has lost its zeal. It might once have been effective, during the protests against the Vietnam War and the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament. But, in Britain, there are few examples where student activism has been a central motivation for social or political change.

“ACTION IS NOT ONLY RARE, BUT INEFFECTIVE” A key problem is that student activism can often lack support from a wider local community because students are often perceived as privileged or even a nuisance to the local area. This isolation also means that student activism often fails to attack the actual issue, because it is misunderstood by those of us who sit on our student pedestals.

The university population is also disengaged from governmental institutions. In 2010, 50,000 protesting students did not prevent tuition fees from tripling. Action is not only rare, but ineffective.

Secondly, the transient university population creates an unsustainable base for student activism. Long term issues cannot be tackled because of inconsistent leadership, policy and experience.

With an eye on their careers and futures, students tend to avoid investing significantly in areas that they know they are going to move away from. They’re also increasingly encouraged to toe the line by tight job market restrictions. Local activism is therefore limited to the occasional soup run or Macmillan coffee morning.

Even if the above were not true, student activism cannot be effective because, put simply, student activism is dead. University culture has got to the point where most of us feel more comfortable discussing how much we had to drink last night rather than whether Israel has the right to exist.

“WHY SHOULD WE GO OUT ON THE STREETS TO PROTEST, WHEN WE CAN TWEET ABOUT IT INSTEAD?” The sad thing is that in countries like the UK, where student activism is a legitimate political protest and can change political agendas, it isn’t being utilised. From our comfortable liberal democracy we are removed from issues that infringe seriously upon our daily living. After all, why should we go out on the streets to protest, when we can tweet about it instead?

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COMMENT

THE ART OF THE

FEMINIST MUSIC VIDEO

AS FEMINISM IS BECOMING INCREASINGLY ACKNOWLEDGED WITHIN POPULAR CULTURE, WE HAVE SEEN THE EMERGENCE OF MAINSTREAM PRO-WOMAN POP. LOUISA CHENCINER ASKS WHETHER ACTIONS SPEAK LOUDER THAN WORDS WHEN IT COMES TO THE ART OF THE FEMINIST MUSIC VIDEO.

The modern day pop-star-mega-feminist is an odd phenomenon. It’s not so much about the song lyrics scrawled on a napkin or that aloof comment made supporting the empowerment of women that matters, but rather the imagery employed in their latest music video.

Lily Allen spent two weeks learning how to twerk just so she could make a mockery of the dance move with some ‘ironic twerking’ (yes, that is now a term). Miley Cyrus is doing what she wants in her videos, as she describes how “guy rappers grab their crotch all fucking day and have hos around them, but no one talks about it”. And Nicki Minaj gives Drake a salacious lap dance, only to leave him hanging with not one opportunity to touch her arse.

Despite the presence of more and more satire, hilarity and hits of equality in music videos, there is also a well-established counter argument: the sexist music video. Robin Thicke’s Blurred Lines and Maroon 5’s Animals are perhaps the two most hotly debated music videos in this regard, the first of which was banned from the University of Nottingham’s Students’ Union in October 2013. But does it actually matter if these videos are still being churned out?

“DOES IT ACTUALLY MATTER IF THESE VIDEOS ARE STILL BEING CHURNED OUT?” Last November, Brendan O’Neill, the editor of sp!ked, questioned whether “an individual’s view of the world and the people who inhabit it is determined by what pop videos he or she watches?” O’Neill suggested that the view that a short video has the power to entirely 12

change someone’s fundamental viewpoint and opinions constitutes the “most discredited theory of the modern cultural era – the theory of ‘media effects’”.

However, it seems that the situation is a little more nuanced. Rewind and Reframe, the campaign group that O’Neill was criticising in his article, produced a report named Pornographic Performances this year.

A review of recent academic studies, in the report, suggests that students who viewed sexualised music videos in a controlled setting express more sexist attitudes, are more tolerant of sexual harassment, more likely to endorse a ‘sexual double standard’ and make excuses for perpetrators of ‘acquaintance rape’. It argued that music videos have made women into sex objects and have in particular eroticised black women and portrayed them in a hyper-sexualised manner.

“MUSIC VIDEOS HAVE MADE WOMEN INTO SEX OBJECTS” There appears to be an air of reluctance when it comes to self-declared “normal” feminists admitting that “fame-nists” (as described by Roxane Gray, author of The Bad Feminist, in The Guardian this October) have such influence over young people and their perception of equality. The term “fame-nists” refers to actresses and celebrities, as well as their singer counterparts, who have chosen to affiliate with the feminist movement.

The report made the case for a collaborative effort, calling for ‘compulsory age ratings for all music videos’ and for those in the music industry to ‘listen to the views of young women, including especially young black women, and commit to eradicating sexism and racism from their work’. Further to this, it was suggested that clearer sex and relationships education needed to be taught in all schools.

It seems that we still can’t decide whether watching music videos is a formative experience. I hope, however, that we can all agree to look forward to a time when we do not relate every populist feminist argument back to the music video; whether it is good or bad.

WORDS BY LOUISA CHENCINER IMAGES BY EYES ON RIGHTS VIA FLICKR

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GIVE US THE FACTS: THE PERSISTENT PROBLEM OF THE UK’S PRESS REGULATION NEWSPAPERS LIE. THIS IS A FACT. GIVEN THE DELICATE NATURE OF PRESS REGULATION, HOWEVER, CAN THIS PROBLEM BE SOLVED?

According to the Daily Mail, shaving might cause cancer. So too, might artificial light, dogs and the WiFi used to research this article.

The last risk could well be what seems to preclude many ‘journalists’ in popular media sources from doing any research of their own. Instead, they seem happy to present consumers with a list of pseudo-facts, backed up by a sensationalist headline and a collection of vaguelyquoted ‘expert’ opinions.

Science reporting is probably the hardest-hit, capitalising on a relative lack of scientific knowledge in the general public, and the inherent emotiveness of the issues at hand: will the cannabis I’m smoking give me a hankering comparable to that for heroin?

“JOURNALISTS SEEM HAPPY TO PRESENT CONSUMERS WITH A LIST OF PSEUDO-FACTS, BACKED UP BY A SENSATIONALIST HEADLINE AND A COLLECTION OF VAGUELY-QUOTED “EXPERT” OPINIONS” The distortion of facts by the press can often have all too real effects.

As mainstream media is concentrated in the hands of a few individuals, it’s used to lead political agendas, invade privacy, and smear individuals and organisations with sometimes tenuous bases.

This is hardly a new problem, either. In fact, regulation of the press has been a contentious issue since the 1940s, when the first Royal Commission on Press was established. More recently, the British press’ self-regulation had been led by the Press Complaints Commission.

This was a voluntary, self-regulatory body for printed newspapers and magazines which aimed to maintain high ethical standards in journalism, including standards in factual reporting.

However, the phone-hacking scandal in 2013 put an end to this state of affairs; perhaps not surprising given that editor of the Daily Mail, Paul Dacre – that crusader of unbiased and non-sensationalist reporting – had been on its Editors’ Code of Practice Committee, along with numerous other active members of the press.

Instead, there came the Leveson inquiry; this eventually produced a Royal Charter agreed upon by the main political parties, which detailed how the press should continue its self-regulation.

“FREEDOM OF THE PRESS IS SACRED” The first key change was that current members of the press could no longer be on a newspaper’s self-regulating board, effectively regulating the regulators. The idea here was to ensure that self-regulators were not only independent from the state, but also members of the press with vested interests. The second change was that self-regulation was no longer voluntary. From now on, it was law.

These implementations didn’t come about lightly, and their details were the subject of much debate between the government and newspaper bodies. Press law therefore has to be handled delicately, as the Charter implementations tried to with their emphasis on selfregulation. However, they were still criticised by publishing bodies as “deeply illiberal”.

If this seems churlish, it’s worth being reminded: Freedom of the press is sacred. Perhaps a fear of state interference, however minor, is founded, given that in many countries around the world, the press is either suppressed or outright controlled by the government.

However, the power of the news, when left unchecked, has been seen to descend into tyranny. The Leveson Inquiry was ground-breaking in the way it tried to address this and, in some ways, it was successful.

Why, then, do newspapers continue to lie to us? The answer is that we demand it. Shoddy reporting is only perpetuated by how popular it is, with every click bumping articles up Google and generating advertising revenue. This is especially unfortunate when links are shared in anger, rather than agreement.

Perhaps, then, this raises a question about who the real tyrants are: us?

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SUMMER IN

ST. ANN’S IMPACT INVESTIGATES THE POVERTY IN ONE OF NOTTINGHAM’S MOST DEPRIVED AREAS

THE VIEW OVER NOTTINGHAM AS SEEN FROM THE HILLY TERRAIN OF ST ANN’S IS SOMETHING MANY UNIVERSITY OF NOTTINGHAM (UON) STUDENTS WON’T HAVE SEEN; THE DISTRICT LIES ON THE OPPOSITE SIDE OF THE CITY TO THE UNIVERSITY. WITHIN ST ANN’S VISTA FROM BLUE BELL HILL YOU SEE ITS OWN BUILDINGS, AGING RESIDENCES OF A LOW MARKET VALUE, AND THE CITY’S CENTRAL PROFESSIONAL AND RESIDENTIAL DEVELOPMENTS. IT’S A POINT THAT THE GUARDIAN NOTED IN AN ARTICLE ABOUT THE CITY WARD’S VIEW BACK IN 2012, AND WHICH IS RELEVANT STILL - “ALL HUMAN LIFE LIES BELOW”. THERE’S A DISTINCTION BETWEEN THE FOREGROUND AND THE CITY CENTRE IN THE DISTANCE, BOTH VISUALLY AND SOCIALLY. WORDS BY GEORGE MAIER IMAGES BY ANDREAS BILLMAN *NAMES WERE CHANGED TO PROTECT CONFIDENTIALITY

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“SOCIAL MOBILITY FOR PEOPLE HERE IS STAGNATED BY A VARIETY OF ENDEMIC ISSUES INCLUDING SOCIAL PREJUDICE AND EDUCATIONAL SHORTCOMINGS” The Index of Multiple Deprivation (IMD) ranks of areas within St Ann’s put it collectively within the bottom 10% nationally on issues of health, crime and income deprivation. Additionally, a large proportion of the city ward scores extremely low in regards to education and skills training, posing significant threats to upward social mobility.

Cherry Underwood, chief executive of local charity The Renewal Trust explains that “not only are people economically less mobile and subsequently less able to navigate a way out of their position of poverty, but there is also lack of hope, a vulnerability that makes it so much more challenging socially”.

In St Ann’s there are hundreds living in domestic poverty. Social mobility for people here is stagnated by a variety of issues including social prejudice and educational shortcomings. But the struggle has heated up in recent years as local people, groups, students and charities across the area are leading what could be seen as a grassroots attempt to bring about change in response to recent central government decisions.

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“THE TRUSSELL TRUST HAS ALONE REPORTED A FOOD BANK USAGE INCREASE FROM 25,899 PEOPLE IN THE 2008-2009 YEAR TO 913,138 IN 20132014” Cherry believes that such decisions have caused damage locally: “The far reaching consequences of the welfare reform are yet to be felt. We have seen the growth in the use of food banks, the Bedroom Tax, the employment sanctions and welfare advice services, but what isn’t so visible is the effect this has on relationships, health and family/ community structures”.

She went on to state: “Stress, depression, low self-esteem and lack of hope are the ‘hidden’ impacts of austerity. Over the medium and longer term these will do even greater damage and gradually erode a family’s structure and relationships and this will be affecting their neighbours and their friends”.

It’s become increasingly relevant to talk about issues of poverty in recent years, as more people are forced to the extremes within our own cities and suburbs. Food bank usage has increased dramatically; The Trussell Trust, a community project tackling poverty and exclusion in the UK, has alone reported a usage increase from 25,899 people in 2008-2009 to 913,138 in 2013-2014.

In Nottingham, the St Ann’s and Sneinton Food Store feeds about 40 people on zero income every Thursday. They don’t call themselves a ‘food bank’ because they don’t want to be associated in any way with financial ‘banks’. “Banks caused this issue”, Steph Hagen, who manages the Food Store on behalf of St Ann’s Advice Centre, tells Impact.

The financial crisis of 2008 has been widely accredited deregulation of banking and a culture of over-leveraging. Since then, St Ann’s has been feeling the increased pinch of austerity, causing an increase in domestic poverty.

James Goodman*, one of the food store users, said that he has been forced to claim food parcels for almost a year now in order to feed himself and his two children. He tells Impact: “I’ve been unable to find work as of yet, and the benefits I applied for to keep me and my children going until I can find work have been ‘processing’ for a year”.

During this time he has been living on zero income.

The food store staff explain to Impact: “If the food store didn’t exist, many of the adults and their children who come here would very literally go hungry”, which has left people like James in a disquieting situation. When asked if there was a message he wanted the world to know, James said that he wanted people to understand: “No one wants to be in this situation. This is not my choice. No one would choose this”.

James also tells Impact about the abuse that he has received. “It’s happened a few times now. The woman who owns the chip shop, she shouts at me when I’m walking here with my kids. She calls us scrounging bastards and scum”. James’ experience here is not unique, in fact it is disconcertingly routine.

This September The Mirror published figures from a YouGov survey that shows up to 212,000 claimants have been physically attacked specifically because they are on benefits. Furthermore, 6% say that their children have been bullied at school because their family receives benefits.

The recent passing of David Clapson, who died after having his Job Seekers’ Allowance stopped when he was unable to attend one meeting, highlights the cracks within the current system. In his final week he was unable to afford food or put credit onto his electricity

“THEY DON’T CALL THEMSELVES A ‘FOOD BANK’ BECAUSE THEY DON’T WANT TO BE ASSOCIATED IN ANY WAY WITH FINANCIAL ‘BANKS’”

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card, meaning that his fridge where he kept his insulin stopped working.

Another food store user, Sarah Nightingale*, tells Impact about her situation: “I’ve been unable to work for a while now due to health reasons. I should be getting ESA (ESA is the Employment and Support Allowance; it was introduced in 2008 to replace incapacity benefit) but they stopped it 22 weeks ago because I was unable to attend a medical appointment. I have been to the medical appointment since then but they haven’t processed it yet, so I’ve not been getting anything”.

In the UK, the Work Capability Assessment is administered by a UK subsidiary of Atos, a transnational private corporation based in France, who is contracted by the government to carry out the assessments, for the price of £100 million per year. A person’s GP or consultant cannot make the assessments. Atos have been widely criticised; one article in The Guardian last year reported: “The government’s own figures revealed that 1,300 people had died after being told they should start preparing to go back to work”.

Sarah continued telling Impact: “If the food store didn’t exist I’d be starving. I’d have nothing. I want people to understand just how bad it can get”.

One of the main issues facing residents of St Ann’s is that of stereotyping. Not only has the area been criticised in the media over recent years due to its crime rate, and specifically its history of gun and knife crime, but also St Ann’s in general is seen as a ‘benefits area’ in Nottingham. The Telegraph published an article in 2005 describing Nottingham as the “city of drugs and murder”, noting cases from the St Ann’s ward, and more recently in 2013 the BBC wrote an article targeting one individual in St Ann’s who was running a “munitions factory”.

Crime and benefit stereotyping are two separate and yet comparable issues; both increased numbers of benefit claimants and levels of crime are indicators of a lack of social mobility, and stereotyping of these issues in relation to an area usually deters mobility aiding investment within that area, causing a cycle from which it is difficult to escape.

Mary O’Hara’s 2014 publication Austerity Bites discusses in an academic depth with statistical analysis how “long-term cycles of unemployment, poverty and racism [are] being exacerbated by

“IF THE FOOD STORE DIDN’T EXIST I’D BE STARVING” 16

austerity”. Her work talks about the decrease in real value of the minimum wage and increased debt among the poor in her chapter “Welcome to WongaLand”.

The Renewal Trust’s Director of Media and Communications comments: “It is unjustified and unfair that society’s blame for these issues should be placed entirely upon the population that has been victimised, and not upon the governance and media that enforces social segregation and serves to diminish social mobility”.

But the struggle to socially renew the area is making ground in recent years. Help is coming on a local level, largely from charities and volunteers and St Ann’s has started to gain a greater degree of positive focus.

“THE WOMAN WHO OWNS THE CHIP SHOP, SHE SHOUTS AT ME WHEN I’M WALKING HERE WITH MY KIDS. SHE CALLS US SCROUNGING BASTARDS AND SCUM” Across the square from St Ann’s Food Bank, IntoUniversity, a scheme set up to help those living in disadvantaged areas access Higher Education, have their East Nottingham base. Dr Rachel Carr, Chief Executive of IntoUniversity, says: “IntoUniversity runs 18 local learning centres across the UK, including one in St Ann’s in Nottingham.

“We offer disadvantaged young people aged 7-18 the support often taken for granted in better-off homes, providing an integrated programme of after-school academic support, mentoring and aspiration-raising FOCUS schemes to help young people to achieve their academic potential and build their self-esteem and confidence”.

She adds: “We support students over the long term, with provision beginning at primary school in order to give students the best chance of progressing to Higher Education”.

Local charity, The Renewal Trust, is also making waves within the area, taking a holistic approach to social improvement. Cherry Underwood tells Impact: “The Trust provides support for people not only getting back into employment but also in starting their own business, as we advocate local jobs for local people. We are also firmly committed to getting local people into skilled jobs and ensuring that there are accessible training opportunities”.

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MAGAZINE She went on to state: “Employment is only one of our approaches; through taking part in our top quality sports activities residents can be more active, healthier, build new relationships and be more confident with others. More recently, our Rankin4Notts project made St Ann’s allotments hit the news for all the right reasons, as a prime location for arts and culture within the city”.

The Rankin4Notts project brought world renowned photographer Rankin to St Ann’s Allotments, the oldest and largest area of Victorian detached town gardens in the world. During his visit, Rankin photographed thirty local allotment holders on their plots, bringing national media attention to the area, including the BBC Two special Museums at Night and in print in the BBC’s Gardeners’ World Magazine.

“These experiences create confidence, hope, pride, aspiration and relationships that cannot easily be quantified, but deliver a real improvement to the lives of people locally”, Cherry explains.

Students from the University of Nottingham are also now getting involved, with two student run groups focusing on food poverty, providing a ‘soup run’ service in the city centre. Martine Hesketh, Volunteering Manager at the Student Volunteer Centre tells us: “Over 3,000 students took part in a variety of volunteering roles last year, and that is just the ones we know about, I have no doubt there are many more students who volunteer through links they have made themselves.

“UoN students’ involvement in volunteering to support tackling local, national and international issues differs from: Taking part once in a short one off volunteering role, to committing to an organisation weekly for a year, to running their own ‘mini charity’ (Student Led Projects). We have had students collect for local food banks at key times such as festive periods and at the end of the academic year”, Martine adds.

“OVER 3,000 STUDENTS TOOK PART IN A VARIETY OF VOLUNTEERING ROLES LAST YEAR, AND THAT IS JUST THE ONES WE KNOW ABOUT”

With plans in place for further austerity measures, the work of local people could soon get much harder. Social mobility and normal ways of life in St Ann’s have become largely reliant upon the free labour of volunteers. The Renewal Trust claims: “While the willingness and commitment of local people in volunteering is one of the most vital and uplifting features of St Ann’s, and one which we are proud to promote, we are keen to highlight the ways in which it is being rigorously exploited by central government, used as a safety net for poorly considered policy, and been ignorantly branded as ‘the big society’ in governmental discourse”.

As local charities continue in their missions and search on for funding, local residents who have the most to lose have equally taken on the duty of care for St Ann’s and their own futures.

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HELL OF A JOURNEY, OR A JOURNEY FROM HELL?

IMPACT HEARS YOUR TRAVELLING HORROR STORIES TRAVELLING AND BACKPACKING HAVE ALWAYS BEEN POPULAR ACTIVITIES AMONGST STUDENTS, WHETHER IT’S FOR YOUR GAP YEAR, STUDYING ABROAD OR SIMPLY JUST A BIT OF ADVENTURE DURING THE SUMMER HOLIDAYS. IT IS NO SURPRISE THAT A RECENT IMPACT SURVEY REVEALED THAT 96% OF STUDENTS SURVEYED AT UON HAVE, AT SOME POINT, TRAVELLED TO A FOREIGN COUNTRY. HOWEVER, CULTURAL DIFFERENCES AND UNFAMILIARITY CAN SOMETIMES JEOPARDISE SAFETY ABROAD, ESPECIALLY CONSIDERING THAT 33% OF STUDENTS ADMITTED TO TRAVELLING TO WHAT THEY PERCEIVE AS A DANGEROUS COUNTRY. Despite this, the eagerness to meet new people, ‘find yourself’, and achieve an overwhelming sense of freedom and independence means that many travellers decide to go solo. Unsurprisingly, 40% of UoN students who were surveyed said that they had travelled alone.

So when does paradise turn sour? During his year abroad in Kyrgyzstan, Ben Lowe discovered the dangers of travelling alone and revealed that the very nature of travelling on a budget made him vulnerable.

Ben tells Impact “I decided to hitchhike from Kyrgyzstan to Finland. As I was travelling with little or no money I was spending my days on the beach, sleeping in my tent and reading books. One day a woman in her 18

40’s was walking her dogs close to me and she told me I had to come back to her house for tea”.

Ben proceeds to share: “When we got to her apartment she immediately tried to take off my clothes and told me that she needed to wash them. So I told her that I would first change into some other clothes and then she could wash the rest. I hadn’t washed my clothes in quite a long time, so I was happy for the offer”.

However, Ben’s situation soon began to get out of hand. “Suddenly she got a phone call and had to leave, but said I could stay and use the internet. I went to find my bag, which she had put in her bedroom, and above the bed I found a sizable knife. I needed to leave very quickly. I

IMPACT

MAGAZINE went to the fridge to get my water bottle and found a syringe and horse tranquilizer. So it was definitely time to move. I stopped the washing cycle, gathered my wet clothes and ran out to the road, stopping the nearest taxi”.

“ON THE SHELVES OF THE FRIDGE I FOUND A SYRINGE AND HORSE TRANQUILIZER” Like Ben, a worrying 38% of students surveyed by Impact have also admitted that they, or someone they know, have found themselves in dangerous situations while traveling abroad. Jennifer Highland*, a student at UoN, reveals to Impact how her friend found herself in a dangerous and unexpected situation in Madagascar: “My friend was in the local village of Hell-Ville and was suddenly surrounded by kids brandishing small knives”. The children then grabbed her bag.

Backpackers that carry weeks’ worth of belongings, money and travel documents in just one bag can often become easy targets of theft.

Impact speaks to David Cooper*, whose friend learnt the reality of this the hard way. “My friend had all his possessions stolen in Poland and had to hitchhike all the way to Paris where he was meeting his friends with no money, no passport and no way of contacting them”.

David is not alone, with a disconcerting 42% of those surveyed by Impact saying that they or someone they know have been the victim of a crime while travelling abroad.

Impact speaks to Sia D-W, a student at UoN whose experience of theft was particularly daunting, as it happened while she was asleep in her own room in Strasbourg during her year abroad. Sophia tells Impact: “I had a UoN student room in Strasbourg which was only €190 a month.

It was vile”. She adds: “One evening I put my phone on charge on my fridge and my purse on my desk, locked my door and fell asleep. The next morning I woke up and my phone wasn’t there. I noticed my door was slightly open, but I went back to sleep uneasily”.

“I NEVER REALLY SLEPT WELL EVER AGAIN” Then panic struck for Sia, as she explains: “I later noticed that my purse was missing and then a friend pointed out that there were marks across my door, showing signs of forced entry. UoN insisted that I move rooms but I never really slept well ever again”.

However, it is important to note that when travelling abroad it is not simply ‘stranger danger’ that people need to be cautious of. The Impact survey revealed that 27% of students had fallen seriously ill,

received a serious injury whilst they were abroad or knew of someone who had.

Impact spoke to UoN student Georgia Howard Merrill, who fell dangerously ill after swimming in a Cambodian river. She tells Impact: “When I made my way back to halls two weeks after leaving Cambodia I found I couldn’t look at bright lights, had my head on the table at dinner, was fainting on the way to lectures and getting shooting pains up my spine. After a quick trip to Cripps I was told I had the flu”.

However, it soon became clear that Georgia had been misdiagnosed.

“Days later I was on the way to Nottingham train station and I collapsed in front of the ticket collector. Following another trip to Cripps, a call to the QMC and finally a trip to Nottingham’s City Hospital, I was stationed at the tropical diseases ward for the next four days”, she confides.

“What followed was a combination of hospital beds, drips, heavy medication, and multiple diagnoses of the weirdest sounding diseases.

I felt the weakest I’ve ever felt. My temperatures were rocket high. I had multiple sleepless nights and I had extremely sore muscles. Two weeks after leaving hospital I got my final diagnosis: Paratyphoid fever and Spotted fever”.

“TWO WEEKS AFTER LEAVING HOSPITAL I GOT MY FINAL DIAGNOSIS: PARATYPHOID FEVER AND SPOTTED FEVER” The indigenous wildlife of unfamiliar countries can also present dangers, as Sarah Peterson*, a student at UoN, found. Sarah tells Impact: “My friend got bitten by a poisonous Brown Recluse spider whilst we were travelling in Costa Rica. She had to go to the hospital and have three antidotal injections, two of which were in her buttocks”.

So, whether you’re an avid backpacker or simply studying for your year abroad, travelling to foreign countries is often a case of travelling into the unfamiliar and while travel broadens the mind, it can also broaden the compilation of nightmare stories you have to tell upon return.

WORDS BY ABBY ROSS IMAGES BY NICHOLAS TA (TA-GRAPHY) VIA WIKIMEDIA COMMONS AND ELENI PHILIPPOU *NAMES HAVE BEEN CHANGED TO PROTECT CONFIDENTIALITY

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LENTON’S HAUNTED

HOUSES FROM UNEXPLAINED NOISES TO MOVING FURNITURE, IMPACT FINDS OUT ABOUT LENTON’S HAUNTED STUDENT HOUSES

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A LARGE PROPORTION OF STUDENTS CALL LENTON HOME DURING TERM TIME, BUT HOW MANY OF THOSE ACTUALLY CONSIDER THE HISTORY OF THEIR HOUSE AND PREVIOUS RESIDENTS? THREE UON STUDENTS TELL IMPACT ABOUT THEIR EXPERIENCES OF THINGS THAT GO BUMP IN THE NIGHT AT THEIR STUDENT HOUSES...

CHARLOTTE “I can tell you there’s something not right with my house”, third year English student Charlotte tells Impact. “My housemate was living here by herself over the holidays and she said she'd come home to find the furniture rearranged, lights on, and things moved about the house. We dismissed it as nonsense, but since all moving in we've heard some weird noises, heard footsteps coming up the stairs and walking across the landing when everyone's been in their rooms, and lights have randomly switched themselves on/off!”

Disturbingly, this is not the most shocking unexplained activity that has happened in Charlotte’s house: “One morning I woke up with finger marks pressed into my arm like someone had been grabbing it. I was alone in bed and definitely not sleeping like that! The marks lasted for approximately half an hour, and when my friends and I tried to recreate it, we found you had to squeeze really hard for a really long time to make such a deep mark! Very odd”.

“ONE MORNING I WOKE UP WITH FINGER MARKS PRESSED INTO MY ARM LIKE SOMEONE HAD BEEN GRABBING IT” ADAM Charlotte is not the only student with a suspected extra housemate.

UoN student Adam Warburton tells Impact: “I have never believed in the paranormal or anything of such, but since moving into my new house I have been very weirded out by some pretty weird occurrences”.

When asked about these ‘occurrences’, he responded: “A number of things, including noises that sound like people talking above and below my room. I know it sounds weird, but it sounded like they were saying "I think there's been a rape up there", or something along those lines. Then I bought some ham and left it on the kitchen worktop, and when I went downstairs the next day it had been moved slightly and had been opened at the corner”. He adds: “The weirdest thing is I was home alone at the time as well, so it's been really unnerving. It’s made me super nervous to be in the house on my own”.

MEGAN “I've believed in the paranormal for as long as I can remember”, second year Zoology student Megan Davey tells Impact. “The first time we noticed something strange in the house was about a week or so ago.

We bought our housemate, Scott, a robotic fish for his birthday as a joke, but after opening it, the fish appeared to be broken and didn't move. A couple of days later, whilst the fish was sitting out of water, it started wriggling of its own accord on the shelf. As a joke, Scott called down our one of our other housemates to have a look. Playing along, she asked the spirits in the room to move the fish. The fish moved again. At this point I got yelled at to come and see. I do believe in ghosts but I was relatively sceptical that it was anything to do with the supernatural and not just a malfunctioning toy. Our housemate once again asked the ‘ghost’ to move the fish, and once again the fish moved. By this point we were all getting a little freaked out so she put the ‘ghost’ to a bigger test; 'If there is anyone in this room, make the fish fall off the shelf'. About thirty seconds passed, and then this fish turned itself around and began to move towards the edge of the shelf.

Needless to say I now hate the fish”.

“SHE PUT THE ‘GHOST’ TO A BIGGER TEST; 'IF THERE IS ANYONE IN THIS ROOM, MAKE THE FISH FALL OFF THE SHELF'... THEN THIS FISH TURNED ITSELF AROUND AND BEGAN TO MOVE TOWARDS THE EDGE OF THE SHELF” Much to Megan’s distress, this wasn’t the only potentially supernatural incident in her house. “I've heard a series of weird bangs and creaks.

The house does have the odd creaky step, so the noises are sort of background noise now. However, seeing as I'm living with people who have fuller timetables than me, several times during the week I find myself on my own. I live on the third floor but as long as my door is open it’s still relatively easy to hear somebody coming in the front door. I awoke the other day assuming I was alone and I could hear no moving about. So naturally, when I heard a fellow housemate banging about on the floor below, I stuck my head out to yell hello. After they rudely ignored me I went stomping downstairs to find out who it was.

As I had previously thought, there was nobody in and the bangs, I assured myself, must have come from next door. Later on, I heard a door open and swing shut, so once again I yelled hello, and once again I got no answer. It was at this point I locked myself in my room and didn't re-emerge until I was sure somebody else was in the house”.

WORDS BY NATASHA GREGSON IMAGE BY CHRIS GOLDBERG VIA FLICKR ILLUSTRATION BY EBONY IYANGETE

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“RADIO CAME AND SMACKED ME OVER THE HEAD ACCIDENTALLY” BBC RADIO 1 PRESENTER GEMMA CAIRNEY TALKS TO IMPACT ABOUT BEING NOSEY, THE SERIOUS SIDE OF HER JOB, AND HAVING TO GET UP AT 3AM 22

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MAGAZINE HOW DO YOU MANAGE TO WAKE UP SO EARLY IN THE MORNING? The only students that listen to my show are ones that have been out the night before disco dancing - I know what you guys are like. In terms of actually getting up, the only way to do it is to go to bed early and get enough sleep. That’s a sad realisation that I’ve had to come to in my own life.

WHAT WOULD YOU SAY IS THE BEST THING ABOUT PRESENTING THE BBC RADIO 1 BREAKFAST SHOW? People. You can be as nosey as you want and it's kind of accepted in broadcasting. I love finding out about people, their history, their backstories, their lives, their loves, their hates. I think human beings are very funny.

“I REALLY ENJOY BEING ABLE TO MAKE A DIFFERENCE” YOU WERE PREVIOUSLY A FASHION STYLIST FOR ARTISTS SUCH AS FLORENCE AND THE MACHINE. WHAT WAS THAT LIKE? I did really enjoy styling for a bit. I liked being around amazing luxurious wacky clothing and people. It just wasn't for me and I felt that the fashion industry wasn't for my quite sensitive sentiment. You've got to be so hardcore.

SO WE CAN'T GIVE YOU THE BLAME FOR FLORENCE AND THE MACHINE'S REALLY WACKY SENSE OF STYLE? No - she already had it going on. I do remember trying to convince her to wear heels and she wasn't sure - but now she wears pairs that are 9-inches. She looks incredible now, her style is so much better than anything I would have been able to do.

WOULD YOU SAY THEN THAT RADIO WAS A PASSION FROM AN EARLY AGE? Radio came and smacked me over the head accidentally. I had a very open mind and just wanted to immerse myself in the arts. I didn’t know how to channel that but I thought acting was a good base. Then that wasn't working out, so I tried fashion for a bit, but that wasn't quite right either. I thought broadcasting was a good way of combining all that I’d learnt, and I completely fell in love with it. I've always had an open mind and I'm really proud of that because you end up doing the most weird and wonderful things.

ALONGSIDE YOUR RADIO SHOW YOU'VE ALSO PRESENTED A LOT OF SPECIALS - SUCH AS ‘BRUISING SILENCE’. WOULD YOU SAY THAT THESE ISSUES ARE CLOSE TO YOUR HEART? Definitely. Every single documentary that I've done I've 100% cared about. ‘Bruising Silence’, the documentary I made about young violent relationships, was because of something that I'd been through when I was younger. It's an issue that affects young people as well as adults and I was really passionate about telling that story. Every single one has come from the heart and they do mean a lot to me outside of my career.

WOULD YOU SAY THAT ONE OF THE MORE EXCITING ASPECTS OF WORKING IN RADIO IS BEING ABLE TO SHED LIGHT ON ISSUES THAT ARE IMPORTANT TO YOU? 100%. You can have fun on the surface, you can laugh your head off, you can dance hard, but at the same time you can really get in the belly of the beast of humanity through radio. You can strip back emotions, ask big questions, paint pictures and provoke thought in a way that nothing else can.

YOU’VE HOSTED A LIVE GOOGLE HANGOUT FOR THE QUEEN'S YOUNG LEADERS PROJECT ALONGSIDE PRINCE WILLIAM AND PRINCE HARRY. WOULD YOU SAY THAT INSPIRING YOUNG PEOPLE IS SOMETHING THAT YOU FEEL STRONGLY ABOUT? Absolutely. I just feel there is a responsibility in the public eye to be honest with yourself, ask questions, be yourself and engage in stuff

that makes you feel good about the world. It's quite complex being a young person and I really enjoy being able to make a difference.

WERE YOU A LITTLE STARSTRUCK MEETING PRINCE WILLIAM AND PRINCE HARRY? It was quite hysterical to be in Buckingham Palace. It was a bit of a whirlwind. I've got to this point now where you can't focus on whatever is going on too much or you will freak out. I thought William especially was really charming and really engaged in the campaign.

IS THERE ANYONE WHO WOULD LEAVE YOU ABSOLUTELY STARSTRUCK IF YOU MET THEM? Beyoncé. That would be crazy.

WHO HAS BEEN YOUR FAVOURITE MUSICIAN OR GROUP TO INTERVIEW? Singtank - which is Joséphine de La Baume and her really cute brother.

They’re both basically a personification of France. We went to a pub and chatted about what it's like to make music on the streets of Paris. I really enjoyed that. One of my favourite things to do is to have a good chat.

IF YOU COULD INTERVIEW ANYONE IN THE WORLD - DEAD OR ALIVE - WHO WOULD IT BE? Martin Luther King. I just think - what a presence, what a passion, what a power, what a time.

IS THERE ANY ADVICE YOU WOULD GIVE TO STUDENTS WHO WANT TO GET INTO THE MEDIA INDUSTRY? Just absolutely go for it and don't get too bogged down by the competition and the formalities. Try different things, do work experience in your first choice of career, and don't be too rigid. Keep that passion. Don't let the idea of a London rent put you off what you're doing.

“YOU CAN STRIP BACK EMOTIONS, ASK BIG QUESTIONS, PAINT PICTURES AND PROVOKE THOUGHT IN A WAY THAT NOTHING ELSE CAN”.

LET'S GET PERSONAL...

WHAT'S THE FIRST THING YOU DO WHEN YOU WAKE UP IN THE MORNING? Have a big sigh and drag myself out of bed - at 3am.

WHAT'S YOUR NUMBER ONE PET HATE? Addiction to selfies. It's a bit weird and scary.

IF YOU COULD ONLY EAT ONE FOOD FOR THE REST OF YOUR LIFE, WHAT WOULD IT BE? Lamb madras.

IF YOU COULD HAVE ANY SUPERPOWER FOR ONE DAY, WHAT WOULD IT BE? Take over all the newspapers and TV channels with my friends. See if we could change the world in 24 hours with a riot of colour.

WHAT'S THE ONE THING THAT YOU LOVE TO DO THAT WOULD SURPRISE PEOPLE? Everyone thinks I'm so slapdash and sloppy that I would never be able to cook. Don't get me wrong - I am a little bit slapdash - but I can actually cook.

WORDS BY CHARLOTTE MCINTYRE 23

TRAVEL

SPOTLIGHT ON: COSTA RICA ON THE PRISTINE BEACHES OF WESTERN COSTA RICA, A SLOW AND TEDIOUS WAR IS BEING FOUGHT BETWEEN THOSE TRYING TO SAVE A SPECIES, AND THOSE TRYING DESPERATELY TO CLIMB ABOVE THE POVERTY LINE.

Every night, between July and October, various turtle nesting beaches along the west coast are diligently patrolled through the night by groups of passionate locals and volunteers, who are on the lookout for turtle tracks in the sand. Playa Tortuga, the aptly named Turtle Beach, is one of those beaches.

It is a beautiful place; golden sands hemmed in by a rich, buzzing tropical rainforest on one side, and the fearsome turquoise Pacific on the other. It is alive with the noise of cicadas screaming into the night, crashing ocean waves, and the soft crunch of tired footsteps shuffling up and down the sand.

Hired patrollers and their volunteer teams walk up and down the beach in shifts. Some nights there are no turtles, some there is one, and others there are up to ten. They are usually Olive Ridley turtles, sometimes Green, and very occasionally the colossal Leatherback.

When the turtles appear, patrollers and their teams collect the eggs as they are laid, measure and tag the turtle, let her go, and then rush to the turtle hatchery - a wooden structure built by volunteers in a hidden alcove just off the beach. Here they bury the eggs, which are watched over 24/7 by hired staff, until they hatch seven weeks later. The young turtles are then chaperoned to the sea.

“IT IS A BEAUTIFUL PLACE; GOLDEN SANDS HEMMED IN BY A RICH, BUZZING TROPICAL RAINFOREST ON ONE SIDE, AND THE FEARSOME TURQUOISE PACIFIC ON THE OTHER” The reason the patrollers, volunteers and hatchery staff must do all of this is because there are poachers lurking on Playa Tortuga too. Before the patrollers, poachers were taking nearly every nest and selling the 24

eggs for food. Now some of the poachers wait in the undergrowth while patrollers search the beach, and hope that at shift change-over, or when the team is at an alternate end of the beach, they might be lucky enough to find an unclaimed turtle nest. Others are not so timid; they walk up and down the beach just as confidently as the patrollers, and race to the turtle when she comes. Some use intimidation techniques, walking directly behind the patrolling team the entire night, until the team retire at 4am and the poacher might get lucky in the last few hours of darkness.

“SOME USE INTIMIDATION TECHNIQUES; WALKING DIRECTLY BEHIND THE PATROLLING TEAM THE ENTIRE NIGHT, UNTIL THE TEAM RETIRE AT 4AM AND THE POACHER MIGHT GET LUCKY IN THE LAST FEW HOURS OF DARKNESS” The damage caused by poachers in the past is slowly being recovered in areas with patrollers. Where before, no turtle may have reached maturity from a single beach, hundreds of hatchlings are now released each year, with a small percentage expected to reach maturity and return to the beach to breed. But with poaching being illegal, and a system in place to ensure most eggs are taken to the hatchery, why do poachers persist?

This is a difficult question, where culture, tradition and economy are all factors at play. Some poachers persist because it is a family tradition; their parents did it for fun, and they teach their children to do the same. They get to stay up all night on a wild, exhilarating beach

IMPACT

MAGAZINE

and get a little extra money in the process. These are the people who, through a little education, begin to understand the importance of their nation’s wildlife and how their activities are damaging a delicate ecosystem. This is especially effective for children, and often reserves which set up patrols also set up school education programmes, in order to stop the next generation from following in their parents’ footsteps.

Other poachers, however, do it through necessity. They have families to feed, live below the poverty line, and are simply taking advantage of a natural resource that allows them to buy a little food. Each egg sells for $1, and with nests of 100 being laid multiple times a night in the summer season, poachers can bring in more money in a night than they might in months otherwise. If unemployed, this can be a lifeline for some. They may only take one nest and it might keep their heads above water for weeks. There is little wonder as to why some are so angry at foreign volunteers, who fly to their country to, it seems, simply snatch their income away.

“THERE IS LITTLE WONDER AS TO WHY SOME ARE SO ANGRY AT FOREIGN VOLUNTEERS, WHO FLY TO THEIR COUNTRY TO, IT SEEMS, SIMPLY SNATCH THEIR INCOME AWAY” One solution to this is hiring poachers as patrollers; giving them a regular and relatively high wage to save the eggs rather than sell them.

This is the case on Playa Tortuga, and it works extremely well, not only because the new patroller is desperate for a reliable income and so is now completely committed to his job, but also because he meets with other poachers and explains the importance of conservation to them.

Furthermore, it teaches volunteers that this situation is not black and white; many come from wealthy backgrounds and fly to Costa Rica to help save a species, while demonising those who endanger conservation efforts. But when the man teaching you to save the eggs used to be the man poaching them just to get some money, the complexity of the situation is evident, and it becomes apparent that demonising poachers is effectively just demonising people so poor that saving a species would mean starving themselves.

“IT BECOMES APPARENT THAT DEMONISING POACHERS IS EFFECTIVELY JUST DEMONISING PEOPLE SO POOR THAT SAVING A SPECIES WOULD MEAN STARVING THEMSELVES” The slow and tedious war being fought between patroller and poacher is not a war of right and wrong; it is a war between tradition, poverty, and the need to conserve a species. And sometimes, it is a war where one person has been on both sides, and is lucky enough to have broken through to a place where he is able to pay for basic necessities, and save a species in the process. However, this is a rare and unsustainable outcome, and until employment rates and wages rise, the war between patrollers and poachers has no end in sight.

WORDS AND IMAGES BY BEKI HOOPER 25

TRAVEL

HITCHING EUROPE The word ‘hitchhiking’ often brings with it a look of trepidation due to society’s view on the activity. Tragic newspaper headlines may leap into the minds of worried mothers and dubious fathers, but after Nottingham University student Jess found her way around Europe with no horror stories, she recommends it as a safe, sociable and satisfying means of travelling. Here are all the things to consider when debating whether to hitch:

COST

The most obvious advantage: it’s totally free. An interrail pass is costly and often limiting, whereas hitching can be done whenever you want.

TRAVEL TIME

Once a lift has been offered, how far they will take you is the next consideration, varying massively depending on the type of vehicle.

Truckers stop frequently which is great as they cover huge distances.

However, trucks go slow. The best way to estimate how long a hitch will take is to double the time that it says on Google. However, don’t let this put you off; you do get bad days, but also smooth, easy-sailing days.

CULTURE/SOCIAL

Whilst it should be acknowledged that there are often quicker methods of transport, the time it takes to hitch a ride often varies depending on the time, weather, location and whether people are feeling kind. In most countries you are only ever likely to wait for 20 minutes before being offered a lift. However, in Greece, this isn’t the case - you may end up waiting on the only road out of a city for up to three hours.

Being in a car with a local teaches you a lot more about the country than travelling alone. You get to learn about the history, language and traditions of a country; fulfilling the many aims of travelling. Having said this, it is useful to note that you may not share the language of your driver and may need to communicate by simply pointing and nodding. However, this provides a truly unique experience on its own.

As well as this, it also facilitates the opportunity to immerse yourself in the lives of the people that would not have been otherwise possible.

For example, truckers often invite you to lunch in their home.

“TRUCKERS OFTEN INVITE YOU TO LUNCH IN THEIR HOME”

To conclude: Hitching is cheap, sociable, cultural, easy and fun. Yes, it’s exhausting and sometimes time consuming, but the people you meet along the way more than make up for these little negative niggles. Go on, give it a go.

WAITING

SAFETY

The big ‘S’ is every parent’s prime concern, with the phrase ‘Stranger Danger’ flashing red in their minds. Although you may feel anxious about people’s intentions, you are unlikely to be in any real danger.

There are two main pieces of advice that are key to hitch-hiking: avoid hitch-hiking into large cities and avoid hitching at night.

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WORDS BY JESS BOSI IMAGES BY SENNET TOMAS VIA WIKIMEDIA

Tomorrow’s Leaders Tuesday 25 November | 6.30pm Senate Chamber, Trent Building University of Nottingham To book your place, sign up on our website: teachfirst.org.uk/graduates Come and hear five Teach First ambassadors talk about the career paths they chose after Teach First and how the skills they learnt on the Leadership Development Programme prepared and accelerated them to be leaders within their current roles.

For more information, contact Ed: earthur@teachfirst.org.uk

Apply now for our Leadership Development Programme

teachfirst.org.uk/graduates Charity No 1098294

SCIENCE

WOMEN IN SCIENCE Once a profession dominated by males, women are now rising the ranks in the world of science and technology. But what are the reasons why women have been for so long underrepresented in science? There are claims of bias, women leaving to have children and lack of female role models. Men have been shown to publish far more scientific papers than women, whom only account for less than 30% of worldwide authorship, depending on the field. There are 803 male Nobel laureates compared to 44 females. With the rise of Women in Science and Technology events and organisations encouraging girls to pursue science and technology, are things starting to change in the world of science?

“FEELING SO SELF-CONSCIOUS LEFT ME UNWILLING TO ASK QUESTIONS AND MAKE MISTAKES – BOTH OF WHICH YOU NEED TO DO IN ORDER TO BE A GOOD SCIENTIST”.

There are differing reasons why women are not as prominent in science. Studies have found that females are more likely to suffer from low confidence on their course or be dissatisfied by the support they receive, with only 27% of tenured professors being female.

Females in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) careers only make 82% of the wage of their male counterparts in America, and even less in Europe. A big problem found was that many drop out at the early stages of academia and do not pursue postgraduate education. In a survey of Chemistry PhD students conducted in 2006 by the Royal Society of Chemistry 28

in London, more than 70% of first-year female students said that they planned a career in research. However, by their third year, only 37% still wanted to follow that path.

Whilst the University of Nottingham (UoN) is a pioneer for promoting women in science, being one of only four universities to be awarded a Silver Athena Scientific Women's Advancement Network (SWAN) Award (which celebrates the success of women in science, engineering and technology), there are certain subjects that are still vastly underrepresented by females. Around 40% of UK mathematics undergraduates are women, however at higher academic stages this dramatically drops. Physics is another subject that is low on female students, who make up only 26% of its intake.

Impact spoke to Royal Society University Research Fellow and Physics lecturer Dr Clare Burrage about working in such a male dominated field. “I think the biggest problem for me has been that I stand out.

All of the little things that mark you out as being different from the norm attract attention. Sometimes it’s good to stand out, but never feeling able to blend in with the crowd made me quite self-conscious, especially in the early stages of my career. Feeling so self-conscious left me unwilling to ask questions and make mistakes – both of which you need to do in order to be a good scientist”.

“Things are definitely changing. Not very long ago women were still facing open and active discrimination. That’s not the case anymore, and whilst a handful of people have said stupid things to me over the course of my career, they are vastly outnumbered by a huge number of kind and supportive colleagues. Departments, universities and funding agencies are all now starting to recognise and address the particular issues faced by women. But this change is happening slowly, and the number of women in physics still remains very low”, she adds.

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MAGAZINE

The University of Nottingham’s Computer Science course has a ratio of 13% females to 87% males. UoN Computer Science student Paula Clerkin has organised a Women in Tech event to help inspire females to pursue careers in a severely underrepresented field. One of the speakers at the event is Paola Kathuria, co-founder of one of the first internet companies Limitless, now called Limitless Innovations. Paola shared her experience as a female in technology: “Women are as able as men in technology; their skill and ability isn’t a factor. There’s certainly sexism in technology but I’m not sure it’s any different to sexism in other industries”.

“HER SENIOR IN PAIR PROGRAMMING WOULD IMPATIENTLY TAKE THE KEYBOARD OFF HER AND CODE HIMSELF”

run campaigns for projects creating strong female role models”.

When asked about what advice she could give other women, Paola commented: “Do it. If you’re thinking about it, you probably already like it and are good at it. Do what you love. Be true to yourself”.

There are now organisations such as WISE (Women in to Science and Engineering) set up to increase gender balance and promote women in STEM jobs, aiming to increase the number of women in STEM careers from the current 13% to 30% in 2020. They provide funding, internships, careers and mentoring for women in science. Their aim is to also promote young women of school and university age to be inspired to pursue a STEM career. The L'Oréal-UNESCO For Women in Science programme recognises the achievements and successes of women in science by awarding fellowships and grants to help fund further research. The programme has recognised over 13,000 women in over 106 countries.

Paola went on to state: “A talk at the GeekGirl Meetup Conference described a scenario that was similar to my experiences 25 years ago.

Dom DeGuzman, a Twilio Engineer, had flown in from San Francisco to talk about ‘Breaking the Bro Code’. She described how her senior in pair programming would impatiently take the keyboard off her and code himself. That’s the complete opposite of what pair programming is about”.

With an increase in strong female role models, more women studying science at university and better opportunities available it is hoped that women will become better represented in the world of science and technology in the future. Dr Burrage gave some final words of advice for women thinking of pursuing a career in science “Go for it! Life is too short not to do the things you enjoy, and a career in science can be incredibly exciting and rewarding. I always feel incredibly lucky that I get to study the Universe for a living! More practically, I would suggest talking to as many people in the fields you’re interested in as you can”.

“In recognition of the bias in science, people are looking to give children the tools to choose a future in science and technology. Hello Ruby (a children’s coding and programming book) is just fantastic. The main character is a girl called Ruby and I think that this kind of female role model for young girls is the way to go. Then there are also women-

WORDS BY JESSICA HEWITT-DEAN IMAGE BY UNIVERSITY OF NOTTINGHAM VIA FLICKR 29

SCIENCE

JAMES WARBURTON 4TH YEAR MECHANICAL ENGINEERING

ESME DANIELLS

3RD YEAR PSYCHOLOGY “It’s only now that we’re starting to do anything interesting because first and second year is very, very vague”.

“Did you think studying psychology would be like this?”

“There’s a lot more maths than I expected”.

AMARA LALEMI-JACOBS

2ND YEAR NATURAL SCIENCES “I know I want to help people and I know I can’t just be stuck to textbooks; I need to actively help the patient. You need the book knowledge and the social skills to help. You need the best of both, not just one or the other”.

SCIENTISTS OF

NOTTINGHAM WE’RE ALWAYS TOLD THAT THE STUDY OF SCIENCE IS ESSENTIAL. BUT WHEN IT COMES TO STUDYING SCIENCE AT DEGREE LEVEL, THINGS GET MORE DETAILED AND OFTEN A LOT HARDER. EVERY SCIENCE STUDENT HAS THEIR OWN PERSONAL ACHIEVEMENTS AND CHALLENGES. IMPACT SCIENCE TALKED TO A FEW OF YOU AND FIND OUT ABOUT HOW YOU’RE GETTING ON WITH YOUR SCIENCE.

WORDS BY PAULA CLERKIN AND BEKI HOOPER IMAGES BY BEKI HOOPER 30

“I just like to make things and play with Lego. Actually, I’m trying to build a quadcopter at the moment because it looks really cool and it’s fun. I’m interested in the programming behind it. I can program in Matlab but not in the language that I need for the microprocessor. But after uni I want to go into the automotive industry”.

“What’s your favourite car?”

“The McLaren P1, it’s really quick”.

MAX WILSON

1ST YEAR INDUSTRIAL ECONOMICS “I wanted to do something with maths, something quite relevant that I can apply to the real world. It’s a really solid course with quite a lot of choices”.

“Is there a lot of money to be made?”

“I hope so”.

IMPACT

MAGAZINE

GEORGE FURLONG

BRYN DAVIES

3RD YEAR ARCHITECTURE AND ENVIRONMENTAL DESIGN “It’s been really tough this past year. The way that my course works is that I do 18 months of architecture, 12 months of engineering and then 18 months of architecture again. The contrast between the two is very interesting; the very arty architecture with the subjective drawing and sketching and the much more definitive engineering side of things, more maths based”.

“Which do you prefer?”

“Architecture is a lot more work – the hours that you have to put in for example, in third year one of the modules on this is 70 credits. It takes up a huge amount of time but at the same time it’s enjoyable because I really enjoy designing things, sketching stuff out. But the workload is not fun. The sheer volume of presentation you have to do, it’s always a rush. The engineering is quite nice because at least there’re some right answers”.

3RD YEAR BIOCHEMISTRY “For your third year project you have to choose a supervisor you want to work with and you basically study what they do. You help them out and you’re essentially a glorified lab technician who doesn’t get paid”.

CAITLIN NORTJE

ENRIQUE SANCHEZ LOZANO

PHD 1ST YEAR COMPUTER SCIENCE “The maths is beautiful but the programming is tricky. The simulations never look as good as the maths does”.

4TH YEAR COMPUTER SCIENCE “Computer graphics really interests me. I think it’s because it’s actually quite challenging. You can visualise what you’re creating. I took the module and really enjoyed it. I had the opportunity to do an internship in it so I did and now I’ve decided that’s what I want to do. Once I graduate I’m going to pursue it but I’m not sure how or where. Ideally, I’d like to do graphics for computer games and movies”.

“What’s your favourite game?”

“BioShock”.

JONATHAN GIBBS

PHD 1ST YEAR COMPUTER SCIENCE “In my third year, I had my dissertation published. It was my proudest moment in education. It was about hyperheuristics, the kind of problem you don’t know the actual answer to it and it’s impossible to find it out, but you have to find an optimal solution to the problem in a limited amount of time. So my software would take five seconds to find a solution but the actual solution would take years.

I beat the professors here at Nottingham, but they have since beat it again”.

“What have you least enjoyed doing?”

“Working. After I graduated, having a job and working twelve hour days was not fun”.

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SCIENCE

THE DARK WEB THE OTHER SIDE OF THE INTERNET We think we use the Internet a lot; visiting Facebook, watching videos on YouTube, streaming Netflix and reading articles online. We may spend a lot of time on the web but we’re not actually accessing very much of it. In August 2014, some sites (including eBay) went offline.

Wider afield, users generally experienced slower browsing speeds and sporadic outages of sites. Some users noticed it and the media blew it up. All of a sudden there were reports of the Internet being full and that it is going to shut down.

“KNOWN AS THE 'AMAZON FOR DRUGS", IT WAS PROBABLY THE MOST FAMOUS TOR SITE IN HISTORY” That problem was caused by the infrastructure of the Internet; the traffic exceeded the capacity of old router memory caused by the very rapid growth of the Web. The Internet has grown rapidly and it is huge.

The sites we use on a daily basis are referred to as the surface web, and are sites that search engines can access. These web pages are static and connected to other sites, which means they can be discovered.

However, there’s more to the Internet than surface web. The deep web is estimated to be 4,000-5,000 times larger than surface web, although it’s impossible to quantify. The sites on the deep web are not crawled by search engines, and are dynamically generated - meaning that ordinary browsers will not be able to find them. The majority of it can be mundane; dead links and data housing sites, or databases with no interesting or useful data. However, it’s the dark side of the deep web that people are more aware of.

Searching the Internet can be described metaphorically as dragging a net across the surface of the ocean. You can catch a lot from the 32

surface but very little from below. Much of the web is buried deep, and this thriving community can only be accessed using a special browser.

The Tor browser allows you to access the deep web as it conceals your location and therefore your identity. Dylan Love, a former tech reporter at Business Insider, explains Tor as follows: “Where Google helps you find the needle, Tor lets you explore the haystack”.

The Tor Project was launched in 2002 and has since been developing.

Tor is an acronym for ‘the onion routing’ principle, where a plaintext message is wrapped in lots of layers of encryption to render online users anonymous. It was originally developed to protect U.S. naval intelligence communications online. However, the anonymity that Tor provides has been taken advantage of, and illegal activity thrives within an area of the deep web called the dark web.

“IT’S THE DARK SIDE OF THE DEEP WEB THAT PEOPLE ARE MORE AWARE OF” “ILLEGAL ACTIVITY THRIVES WITHIN THE DARK WEB” Pretty much anything can be found and bought on the dark web. Silk Road was an illicit, anonymous, online marketplace in the dark web.

Known as the 'Amazon for drugs", it was probably the most famous Tor site in history. In October 2013, the site hit headlines when its founder and administrator was arrested in a public library on suspicion of drug trafficking, soliciting murder, facilitating computer hacking and money laundering, to which he has pleaded not guilty. The FBI shut Silk Road down and seized over $3.5m worth of Bitcoins. But that was not the end of Silk Road. Silk Road 2.0 has been created, and there are plenty of other alternative sites like it still active in the dark web.

IMPACT

MAGAZINE

Trading anonymously is carried out using Bitcoins; the peer-to-peer crypto-currency that exists outside the control of governments.

Supposedly untraceable, this internet currency can be spent anonymously on drugs, firearms, counterfeit money, passports, identities, accounts, stolen electronics and other contraband, as well as hiring services such as hackers and hit men. Taboo and illegal pornography also make up a large proportion of the dark web.

“LEGALLY, ACCESSING TOR IS PERMITTED. IT ONLY BECOMES ILLEGAL WHEN YOU USE IT TO BREAK THE LAW” But it’s not just the illegal world that booms in the deep, dark web. Tor is necessary for us to live in the way that we do in such a technological age. People and organisations that require anonymity to share information, and communicate safely without fear, use Tor. It provides anonymity to vulnerable Internet users by offering freedom of expression to those, for example, in countries where the Internet is heavily censored. News organisations can protect the anonymity of whistleblowers and of course, the deep web is a resource that victims of domestic violence, rape and crime, can use for support.

Legally, accessing Tor is permitted. It only becomes illegal when you use it to break the law. It’s important to remember that when you download Tor and use it to explore, someone, somewhere is logging it.

Although what you do on the deep web may be untraceable, looking at, reading, sharing and downloading banned content is unlawful. You may not be able to prove what you do, but you also can’t disprove it either.

Although none of the University of Nottingham’s policies specifically mention the deep web, if a student does something illegal, it doesn't matter whether it is done on the visible web or the deep web, the consequences are still the same, and Nottinghamshire Police support this notion.

UoN Information Services told Impact: “If the university becomes aware of it [illegal activity] through network monitoring or other means, it will be a disciplinary matter and, if serious enough, could be reported to the police”.

In its widest context, the deep web’s content is just pages that are not indexed and therefore not visible to search engines. Most of it is just normal, legitimate content that cannot be easily accessed for various reasons. However, it is usually the illegal activity that draws people in.

Security and anonymity is important and something that should be cherished, not taken advantage of. It is important to remember that, one way or another, what people do on the web is being monitored and you don’t want to get caught for doing something you shouldn’t be.

WORDS BY PAULA CLERKIN IMAGE BY ‘ZEPHYRIS’ 33

COFFEE AND CAKE

LITTLE BLACK BOOK

IN THIS EDITION, WE SUGGEST THE BEST ALTERNATIVE STUDY VENUES… OR WHERE TO HEAD WHEN YOU NEED A GOOD SLICE OF CAKE.

FOOD

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THE PUDDING PANTRY Setting itself apart from the countless cafés in Nottingham’s city centre, The Pudding Pantry specialises in ever-changing, home-made and indulgent dessert; think American style pancakes (with all the trimmings) to honeycomb parfait. But this isn't all they offer: the menu extends to a number of delicious breakfast and lunch dishes made from locally sourced fresh ingredients, making it the perfect place to eat at all times of the day. Sit outdoors in a quaint picket-fenced eating area or indoors in the quirky and brightly decorated cafe space.

Remember to ask for the 10% student discount - not that we needed an incentive to eat pudding in the middle of the day.

Mackenzie Orrock

THE WHITE RABBIT TEAHOUSE Occupying two different locations in the centre of Nottingham, the White Rabbit Teahouse is as typically British as you can get. With a traditional menu on offer, it’s the perfect place to go for breakfast, lunch or afternoon tea. The White Rabbit won’t set you back too much either: sandwiches, jackets, paninis and salads cost between £3.90 and £5.80, meaning you can add a drink and still get change from your £10.

If you’re feeling peckish, the tea for two is the perfect option at £21. Not feeling very hungry? Don’t panic, the cakes are to die for; the chocolate orange cake is an Impact Food favourite. The teahouses often get very busy, but the queue is worth the wait. The Hounds Gate café is closed on Sundays, however you can head over to the branch on Bridlesmith Walk, open from 11:30 to 16:00.​ Mike Winnington

WIRED CAFÉ BAR The relaxed, stylish and homely feel of Wired Café Bar makes for a perfect study environment. Bring your revision, select an option from their extensive coffee menu with one of their tasty cakes and you have the perfect antidote to the autumn/winter blues. Impact Food recommends the ‘Nanimo Bar’ - a custard cream treat with a coconut and chocolate base, described by staff as “a chocolaty hug”. The array of savoury snacks, sandwiches and specials is extensive, and won’t break a student budget. The café is relatively newcomer to the city’s coffee scene and aims to bring a slice of East London to Nottingham - an idea that has so far proved to be very much appreciated. You can also feel satisfied that Wired is doing its bit to support the local community - their ‘suspended coffee’ scheme provides the less financially able with a free mug of the good stuff courtesy of charitable customers who ‘add another’ to their own order to help others in their moment of need.

Heather Corser

HOMEMADE Hearing the electric riffs of Fleetwood Mac upon entering a café is always a good sign. Combine this with a Parisian bistro ambience and a 10% student discount, and you know you’ve found the right place to step in from the chilly winter air. Homemade Café does exactly what it says on the tin: meal-sized portions of home-baked goods à la your mum’s kitchen. Their signature brownies are famous but with a well-stocked window featuring white chocolate and cranberry sponge, Belgian chocolate crunch, carrot cake and peanut butter chocolate chip banana cake you are in for some tough decision making. Already eaten? The milkshakes are a great alternative and are almost dessertlike thanks to the lashings of whipped cream and sprinkles. A homely, relaxing café that transforms into an ideal candlelit date location by dusk. Be sure to get yourself a loyalty card.

Gemma Coleman

RAPID RECIPES

IMPACT

MAGAZINE

FOUR WINTER WARMERS TO CUT OUT AND PIN UP

SUPER SPINACH NOODLES

KEEP YOUR STRENGTH UP FOR THAT 9AM COMMUTE TIME: 30 MINS // SERVES: 1 1 serving microwaveable rice noodles ½ an onion ½ a pack of spinach ½ a pack of mushrooms

1 bell pepper 2 cloves garlic, minced. all-purpose spice mix 1 vegetable stock cube water

1. Chop onion, mushrooms and pepper into strips and throw into saucepan with garlic.

2. Sprinkle 1 tsp. all-purpose spice mix and half a chopped vegetable stock cube.

3. Add half a glass of water, turn on heat to medium-high. Stir and cover.

4. Cook for 10 min. When veg is softened, add spinach. Stir and cover for another 5-8 min. Add more water, stock or spice to suit taste.

5. Microwave rice noodles for 3 min before adding to saucepan. Stir on medium-low heat.

6. Serve.

Sara Assumai

ROASTED PEPPER AND BUTTERNUT SQUASH SOUP BETTER THAN ANY CENTRAL HEATING! TIME: 45 MINS // SERVES: 6-10 3 peppers 1 butternut squash 1 red onion 1 garlic clove 1 can tinned tomatoes 1 chili

vegetable stock coriander tabasco lime juice olive oil balsamic vinegar

1. Deseed and cut peppers, drizzle on olive oil and lime juice then season. Whack them in oven on 180C for 20 minutes.

2. Make stock, bring to boil. Chop remaining veggies and add them once base is boiling, simmer for 20 minutes.

3. Blend with the roasted peppers and remaining ingredients until smooth.

4. Serve with some balsamic vinegar, paprika and coriander if desired.

Add more water to stretch it out, store the rest.

Isabel Jury

SPICY PRAWN LINGUINE

PERFECT FOR THOSE CHILLI EVENINGS TIME: 15 MINS // SERVES: 2 175g prawns 1 lime 1 chilli 4 tbsp olive oil

1/4 avocado 10 cherry tomatoes 120-140g linguine

1. Salt a pan of boiling water and add linguine.

2. In a separate pan, add the olive oil and lime juice. Leave for one minute before adding the chopped the chilli, vary the amount according to your spice tolerance.

3. Once the chilli starts to sizzle, add the prawns and chopped tomatoes. (If you aren’t using pre-cooked prawns, fry them off first until pink.)

4. Cook for two minutes before taking off the heat and stirring in the chopped avocado.

5. Drain your pasta after it has cooked for 7-8 minutes and spoon the sauce over the top.

Rachael King

WAFFLEBERRY PUDDING EDIBLE KNITWEAR TIME: 60 MINS // SERVES: 6 2 x 180g packet of toasting waffles 55g caster sugar 150g white chocolate 1 tbsp flour

300g frozen raspberries or mixed berries 3 eggs 500ml crème fraiche ½ tsp vanilla essence

1. Preheat oven to 200ºC/Gas 6, defrost berries in microwave.

2. Cut waffles into 2.5 inch square pieces, coarsely chop white chocolate.

3. Place half of the waffles into the base of a deep, oven proof dish. Top with half of the white chocolate and half of the berries. Repeat layer.

4. Mix together the sugar and flour, whisk in the eggs, sour cream and vanilla essence.

5. Spoon the mixture over the waffle mix, covering evenly.

6. Bake until golden brown and set in the centre, about 30-35 minutes.

Serve with vanilla ice cream (optional, but highly recommended) Adapted from a Pampered Chef recipe.

Lauren Wilson 35

FOOD

STUDENT SWITCH IMAGINE RUNNING A RESTAURANT AS PART OF YOUR COURSE

ADAMS RESTAURANT AND BRASSERIE EST. 1999

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Located in Nottingham’s Lace Market, the Adams Restaurant and Brasserie opened in 1999 and has since been providing its clientele with contemporary and high quality dishes - entirely prepared by students. The restaurant is an authentic working environment in which students on catering and hospitality courses at New College Nottingham perfect their skills, with the support of tutors, in order to pass qualifications and enter the industry. The staff may still be in training, but you wouldn't guess from the top-class service and varied menu on offer.

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It's no surprise, therefore, that previous students have gone on to win prestigious prizes, including The East Midlands Professional Chef of The Year, whilst others have progressed to work in restaurants and hotels in London and America. Level 3 graduate, Lewis, was snapped up by celebrity chef Raymond Blanc at his renowned cookery school at hotel Le Manoir, whilst Level 3 graduate, Michael, grabbed himself a position at Marco Pierre White’s Bar & Grill in Birmingham.

PM It’s definitely hometime. You’ve had back-to-back lectures since 10am and the prospect of entering Hallward again is just unthinkable. You join the queue for the 34.

Meanwhile, on the other side of town, students from New College Nottingham are just beginning their studies.... in the kitchens of Adams Restaurant and Brasserie. There are starters to be prepared, pastry to be rolled and custard to be infused, all under the guiding eyes of tutors.

PM Your housemates come through the door - what’s the plan for this evening, and who’s cooking?

The hospitality students arrive, and it’s time for team briefing.

How many tables are to be set for the evening, are we expecting any big parties, are the glasses polished?

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PM Unlucky, you remembered about that seminar prep for tomorrow… textbook onto desk once more.

An empty plate is cleared, from the right of course. “Can I interest you in our dessert menu, Madam?” There’s half an hour of service left for the students, it’s been a busy but successful evening, 40 covers completed in just one and a half hours.

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PM All answers prepared, they’ll be no awkward silences tomorrow morning… at 9am. Netflix, tea, bed.

The work surfaces are gleaming, the menu for tomorrow lunchtime has been decided…..Netflix, tea, bed.

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In fact, Adams Restaurant & Brasserie has a very unique relationship with Marco Pierre White, who has trained the likes of Gordon Ramsay and Curtis Stone. He regularly visits Adams to inspire the students, and talks with them about their future career aspirations. Some lucky Level 3 supervisor students are even offered work placements at Marco’s restaurants; it would appear that hard-faced Marco does have a heart after all.

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WHAT WE ATE

SNAPSHOTS FROM THE MENU

STUDENT PROFILE SHARIFA MARQUIS, 17

WILD BOAR, ONION AND THYME PIE

“I WANT TO OPEN A RESTAURANT LIKE ADAMS” From a young age, Sharifa, 17, has watched her auntie operate her own restaurant; an experience that has only strengthened her passion for catering and hospitality. Currently working towards her PCD (Professional Chef’s Diploma) Level 2, she hopes that the experience and skills she acquires at Adams will give her the edge in the future, when she plans to open a multi-cuisine restaurant of her own.

TOFFEE APPLE CRÈME BRÛLÉE, APPLE SORBET

The Adams Restaurant and Brasserie is open every weekday for lunch, and Wednesday and Thursday evenings for dinner. They offer varied and quality menus at affordable prices. See their website for more details and for information on their themed nights: www.ncn.ac.uk/content/adamsrestaurant.aspx.

WORDS BY LAUREN WILSON AND HEATHER CORSER IMAGES BY 37

STYLE

AUTUMN INVESTMENT

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Going shopping

Heading to lectures

DRESS VINTAGE, £15 BOOTS PRIMARK, £22 HAT H&M, £12

SHOES NEW LOOK, £26 JUMPER MISSGUIDED, £20 BAG TOPSHOP, £34 JEANS ARK, £20

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A MAC IS A KEY INVESTMENT PIECE FOR THE CURRENT A/W SEASON. HERE’S SOME INSPIRATION ON HOW TO STYLE YOURS…

COAT: ASOS, £70

PHOTOGRAPHED BY SHOPE DELANO | STYLED AND DIRECTED BY SHOPE DELANO AND TARA BELL MODELLED BY CHANELLE OLALEYE, TINA PICHOWIZ, ZOE WILLIAMSON, AND KATHRYN OGLETHORPE

Weekend cocktails

Date night

SKIRT ZARA, £25 SHOES TOPSHOP, £58 TOP TOPSHOP, £12

SHOES RIVER ISLAND, £35 DRESS ZARA, £40

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STYLE

SHOULD DESIGNERS COLLABORATE WITH THE HIGH STREET? IMPACT STYLE OFFERS TWO OPPOSING OPINIONS ON WHETHER HIGH END DESIGNERS SHOULD COLLABORATE WITH HIGH STREET BRANDS

YES

As a lowly student who pours herself into the pages of any fashion magazine she can find, designer collaborations provoke the kind of urgency in me that would severely alarm the average consumer. To pay for an arguably diluted version of your favourite label understandably doesn’t cut it for many, but after considering the simple yet high impact benefits reaped at all levels of these genius ventures that don’t always necessarily poke at your consumerist alter-ego, who could resist?

“ENJOY THE PICK-ME-UP THAT WEARING A LITTLE PIECE OF KARL OR ALBER OR DONATELLA WILL GIVE YOU. WHAT ON EARTH ELSE WOULD YOU SPEND THAT STUDENT LOAN ON?” Jil Sander’s continued line with basics giant Uniqlo, anonymously labelled J+, proves the continued success of such collaborations; low key marketing coupled with editorial campaigns whispered quality to customers, and sales stayed high throughout the three year life span of J+, as their signature down jackets received designer treatment, ushering in a more experimental aesthetic for outerwear.

Looking at the teaser images for Alexander Wang's highly anticipated collaboration with H&M - if not the pioneer, Wang is certainly the current undisputed leader of this movement - we can expect the fearless silhouettes and innovative combos that shot Wang to fashion stardom to compel the masses to approach their wardrobe daringly, yet with consideration.

Fashion has become accessible and moreover these collections dull the pretension and snobbery often found at the luxury end of the $1.5 trillion industry. The high fashion arena is no longer just reserved for a select elite, but has opened up to new buyers at retail level and, with the high exposure that is synonymous with these partnerships, these collections can rapidly propel a designer in the industry.

When Christopher Kane’s wildly successful debut ‘capsule collection’ for Topshop was released in 2006, he was relatively unknown and was awarded the opportunity after winning Young Designer of the Year at the Scottish Fashion Awards. With highly respected collections under his eponymous label, not to mention a Versus collection under his belt in the years following, the rest is history.

The rewards of these collaborations carry advantages for both consumer and designer and if, like me, you view the concept of ‘fast

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fashion’ as increasingly problematic (with our bank accounts as well as the environment in mind), these collections provide consumers with a point of access to undeniably higher quality items, minus the huge financial sacrifice and hopefully educate the consumer into building a ‘less is more’ wardrobe.

This isn’t to say these highly coveted items range in at the average prices you would stumble upon during your Saturday afternoon splurge, but considering the improved fabrics, cut, and - let’s face it the name on the label, you’re being cut a decent deal.

“FASHION HAS BECOME ACCESSIBLE AND MOREOVER THESE COLLECTIONS DULL THE PRETENTION AND SNOBBERY OFTEN FOUND AT THE LUXURY END OF THE $1.5 TRILLION INDUSTRY.” Isabel Marant’s leather trousers that featured as part of last autumn’s H&M collection retailed at £179 and were practically the spitting image of the pair featured in her mainline collection, which come in at nearly 10x the cost of their high street cousin.

Consider these highly coveted pieces as your ‘gateway’ wardrobe, a fleeting brush with luxury that you can treasure forever and enjoy the pick-me-up that wearing a little piece of Karl or Alber or Donatella will give you. What on earth else would you spend that student loan on?

WORDS BY AMRIT SANTOS

IMPACT

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NO

In theory, high end fashion houses collaborating with the high street seems like it would be beneficial to everyone, it allows those who might not be able to afford the original price of high fashion designers to finally have it in their wardrobe. It appears as though these collaborations are a way of enhancing the fashion credentials of high street brands, but at the other end, are they potentially devaluing designers’ reputation and image?

Ultimately, the high street brands get the final say as they are the ones retailing the items. It could just be a con to get high street brands to sell poor quality clothes at high quality prices. After all, money is what makes the world go round, not high end fashion designers making their elitist clothes accessible to you out of the good nature of their hearts. This is business, not charity, and there is always a motive.

There is a degree of pride and preciousness attached to owning an authentic high end fashion piece, be it a Valentino gown made from the most exquisite fabrics, to an iconic Chanel 2.55 purse, with its signature quilting inspired by horse breeders’ jackets.

Owning a quality high end fashion piece is like owning a work of art, something that you could treasure and perhaps pass on to a daughter or loved one as a gift. It is a timeless investment for those who can truly appreciate the beauty and world class standard of high end fashion.

But for high end fashion designers to collaborate with the high street would only make this unique quality of such fashion ebb away.

“IN THE SAME WAY THAT THIS QUOTE CAN BE APPLIED TO OUR TASTE IN MEN; ‘IF ANYONE CAN HAVE IT, I DON’T WANT IT” Also, do not be fooled into thinking you are getting a bargain. Let us take a look back to Valentino’s 2010 military collaboration with GAP to celebrate the arrival of GAP in Italy. £99.95 for a pair of cargo pants? £149.95 for a parka? £69.95 for a skirt? It was hardly an accessible price range and remained particularly steep for the general public. If you would turn your nose up at paying nearly £150 for an ordinary parka jacket by GAP, but would gladly kiss your money goodbye just because it was associated with Valentino, then perhaps you’re interested in the item for the wrong reasons. Parading around in labels just to make the point that you can afford it isn’t exactly the image you want to be promoting.

Thirdly, how can we be sure that the pieces included have actually been designed by the said fashion designers? We seem to willingly overlook the possibility that the designer might actually have very little creative control in their collaborations with the high street.

“ALWAYS REMEMBER: YOU GET WHAT YOU PAY FOR.” Of course, if you find yourself loving a piece from one of these collaborations that you genuinely adore and would buy regardless of the name associated, then you should 100% treat yourself. Just don’t get roped into the con that you’re walking around in unique, highly sought after designer clothes. And always remember: you get what you pay for.

WORDS BY KATHRYN OGLETHORPE 41

STREET INSPIRED

STYLE

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MILES

BODYSUIT NICCE LONDON, £34.99 TRAINERS REEBOK CLASSICS, £55 JEANS VINTAGE

DAN

JUMPER ASCEND CLOTHING, £70 TRAINERS NIKE SKATEBOARD MOGAN MILD 2, £62 JEANS TOPMAN, £30

JOSHUA

T-SHIRT SUPPLY AND DEMAND, £20 TRAINERS NIKE FREE RUNS 4.0: £79 JEANS H&M, £29.99

STYLED AND DIRECTED BY SHOPE DELANO AND TARA BELL PHOTOGRAPHY BY ANDREAS BILLMAN AND TOM FERNANDES MODELED BY JOSHUA WATKINS, DAN MARSHALL AND MILES FROSSARD URBANO MAKEUP BY EVIE SAMUEL 43

STYLE

THE FUTURE OF FASHION

IMPACT STYLE INVESTIGATES THE INCREASING INFLUENCE OF TECHNOLOGY ON THE FASHION WORLD No-one could doubt that the minds behind Apple are dynamic, intelligent, and inventive: but fashion forward? Yet this might actually be the case with the firm’s new Apple Watch, which comes with surprising style credentials. With its sleek, customisable design conceived by new acquisitions Angela Arhrendts (former Burberry CEO) and Paul Deneve (ex-CEO of Yves Saint Laurent), it’s hardly surprising the device is being lauded by the fashion crowd. It sparked great excitement at its recent one-day Fashion Week preview at Paris boutique Colette, with Vogue editor Lisa Armstrong calling it ‘terrific’.

ASPINAL MARYLEBONE TOTE FROM ASPINALOFLONDON

Most remarkably of all, however, the Apple Watch seems merely the tip of the iceberg in a whole new merging of science and style. Google Glass, for example - once surely the preserve of tech geeks if ever there was one - recently announced a collaboration with Diane Von Furstenburg, a cleverly calculated move to oust the device’s image problems. What is more, this relationship is a reciprocal one. Not only are the techies of this world utilising fashion, the world of fashion is embracing all that is cutting edge and futuristic.

“NOT ONLY ARE THE TECHIES OF THIS WORLD UTILISING FASHION: THE WORLD OF FASHION IS EMBRACING ALL THAT IS CUTTING EDGE AND FUTURISTIC” Some might say this is not a new phenomenon. London label Cute Circuit, for example, has designed micro-electronic ‘smart’ garments said to create an emotional experience for their wearers since 2004.

Some of their most famous creations have included the ‘Twitter dress’, worn by Nicole Scherzinger, that turned her into a walking message board for incoming tweets, or the 3000-LED rainbow light gown worn

by Katy Perry at the 2010 MET Gala. Whilst these are undoubtedly statement pieces that might be called gimmicky by some, and may be a bit OTT for your next hall formal, Cute Circuit’s pioneering concept is becoming more and more mainstream in the fashion world.

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Richard Nicoll, for one, recently debuted a S/S 2015 slip dress created in collaboration with London technology company Studio XO. Crafted from light-up fibre-optic fabric and infused with high intensity LEDs, the ethereal dress was a hit, with Tatler tweeting, ‘FAINTING over the opening look at Richard Nicoll… HELL YES’. Side-note: The dress was inspired by Tinkerbell and also created in collaboration with Disney… as if we needed another reason to love it.

“NO LONGER CONFINED TO LADY GAGAESQUE PIECES SOLELY INTENDED TO MAKE A BANG AT FASHION WEEK, TODAY’S TECHNOLOGICAL DEVELOPMENTS ARE BEING INCORPORATED INTO DAILY WARDROBE BASICS IN A WAY THAT COULD REVOLUTIONISE OUR QUALITY AND EASE OF LIFE”

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“THE NEXT BIG THING IN RETAIL: ‘VIRTUAL SHOPPING’ WEBSITES, FULL OF HIGH DEFINITION PANORAMIC Workout-wear might be the most obvious example of this, with IMAGES ALLOWING A CUSTOMER TO gadgets such as Nike’s speed and distance monitoring SportBand ‘WALK’ THROUGH A STORE, ZOOM now commonplace, but these are set to advance almost beyond recognition. Ralph Lauren has already introduced a fitness shirt IN ON PRODUCTS THEY LIKE AND packed with sensors designed to monitor heart rate, stress levels and movement - which is sure to eliminate the need for cumbersome extras INSTANTLY CONNECT WITH STAFF TO on your runs.

“BORED WAITING FOR YOUR FAVOURITE CHECK AVAILABILITY” CHAINS TO DELIVER THE RUNWAY Not only are we taking more and more technology on board at home, Britain’s best retailers are getting with the programme. In its Moscow LOOKS YOU’RE LUSTING OVER? THEN flagship, Topshop has trialled groundbreaking virtual fitting rooms with an eye to developing the system worldwide. Cameras recognise a YOU’LL BE THRILLED TO LEARN THAT human body and superimpose a 3D model of a garment onto it, letting try on clothes without braving the mile-long queues you’ll see in 3D PRINTERS MAY ALLOW YOU TO TAKE you Nottingham on a Saturday afternoon. This is just one way technology could save you a ton of effort when shopping.

MATTERS INTO YOUR OWN HANDS” Perhaps the most impressive aspect of the design, however, is its ultimate wear-ability. No longer confined to Lady Gaga-esque pieces solely intended to make a bang at Fashion Week, today’s technological developments are being incorporated into daily wardrobe basics in a way that could revolutionise our quality and ease of life.

Even more strikingly, wearable technology is moving beyond the gym to the wider world. We’ve all experienced that infuriating moment where your phone dies mid day-out; this could soon be a thing of the past. Luxury brand Aspinal have recently re-released their classic Marylebone tote to include a tech pack allowing you to charge your phone on the go. Retailing at £895, the Marylebone is sadly beyond the average student budget, but may well represent the first step in this technology filtering down to a high street near you.

The Internet could soon offer the perfect solution to that eternal dilemma - get out of bed on a hungover day to trawl into town, or take a risk and order your next Coco Tang outfit online with no idea how it’ll look in the flesh? The next big thing in retail, ‘virtual shopping’ websites, full of high definition panoramic images allowing a customer to ‘walk’ through a store, zoom in on products they like and instantly connect with staff to check availability. AllSaints have recently launched a simple version of this with Google Virtual Tour specialists Ideal Insight.

Bored waiting for your favourite chains to deliver the runway looks you’re lusting over? Then you’ll be thrilled to learn that soon 3D printers may allow you to take matters into your own hands. Last year, Dita Von Teese debuted the world’s first ‘printed dress’ by Michael Schmidt. Designed on an iPad with each piece then printed individually, the dress marks the possibility of ordinary people one day being able to design and print their own clothes at home. Remember the Big Bang Theory episode where Howard bankrupted himself and Bernadette buying a 3D printer for their apartment? In reality these are getting ever smaller and cheaper, and could make the sky the limit when it comes to your wardrobe. Already, 3D nail art is booming, with online store TheLaserGirls doing a roaring trade in 3D-printed false nails in the shape of guns, dragons, lego blocks and roman numerals; a cool statement for days when a bottle of Barry M just doesn’t cut it.

For the even more time-pressed (or lazy), technology firms are harnessing the same voice-operated software used by Siri to allow customers to ‘shop by voice’. With apps having already been created to allow people to bet this way, and the firm having received government funding for their research, soon it should be possible to shop on the go with no need to input fiddly bank details… perfect for a spontaneous buy between lectures. Now when was next loan day again?

WORDS BY JENNY SKIPPER

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IMAGES

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IMPACT

FRESHERS

MAGAZINE

FINALE 2014 PHOTOS BY JACK GUNTER AND ANDREAS BILLMAN

GET INVOLVED WITH IMPACT IMAGES IMAGES@IMPACTNOTTINGHAM.COM

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EXPOSURE

COMPETITION

PERSPECTIVE WINNER: ALEXANDRA FARZAD - COMMUNITEA “ESSENTIALLY THIS IS MY PERSPECTIVE OF COMMUNITY, DIFFERENT PEOPLE BROUGHT TOGETHER BY SOMETHING WE ALL HAVE IN COMMON – TEA!”

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GAMING

THE 1983 VIDEO CONSOLE CRASH: A HISTORY Although it may seem unthinkable looking at the gaming industry today, but way back in 1983 the world of video gaming as we know it very nearly died. The enormous failings of Atari, one of the leading companies in the industry, caused the industry to crash. The industry went from making $3.2 billion in 1983 to a mere $100 million in 1985 - a 97% loss in revenues. Until the success of the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) in 1985, it seemed that video games had buckled under their own weight; that they were a fad and were rightly fading away.

So what went wrong? Firstly, Atari’s refusal to give developers sales based royalties nor credit them in their own games lead many to leave the industry. One group of developers left Atari and created Activision in 1979, and started to create games for consoles such as Atari’s 2800: Activision becoming a third-party developer.

“IT SEEMED THAT VIDEO GAMES HAD BUCKLED UNDER THEIR OWN WEIGHT” Before Activision, Atari had full control over the games released for their consoles. However, Activision’s wildly successful Pitfall! showed there was money to be made in third-party development. Ironically, Pitfall! led to a pitfall; all of a sudden there were a thousand crappy clones of established games created by inexperienced teams.

Consumers no longer knew the quality of the game they were buying, many decided gaming was no longer for them.

Yet the biggest reason for the downfall of the ‘Golden Age of Gaming’ was Atari’s attempt to cash in on the success of Spielberg’s E.T. in 1982. Atari insanely overhyped the release of the movie tie-in game, plastering in every magazine and on every billboard. Such was their confidence that they produced 4.5 million copies, way above realistic sales expectations.

However, they only managed to purchase the rights for the game six weeks before Christmas, expecting development to be completed the 50

week before Christmas. They left it up to a poor chap called Howard Scott Warshaw, who had developed critical successes before; surely he could spin gold. He normally had six or seven months to develop games, for E.T., he had five weeks.

“ALL OF A SUDDEN THERE WERE A THOUSAND CRAPPY CLONES OF ESTABLISHED GAMES CREATED BY INEXPERIENCED TEAMS” When it was finished, it was a buggy and a barely functioning mess, and most people thought it was physically impossible to complete.

When it was released for Christmas 1982, it sold 1.5 million copies, and as word got out, sales plummeted, shops ended up with a huge surplus of copies which they sent back to Atari (who infamously buried them in a New Mexico desert landfill) and by the end of 1983, Atari made a loss of $500 million before they essentially went bankrupt the following year.

All was not lost though. When Nintendo marketed their console in 1985 as the “Nintendo Entertainment System”, rather than a console, they took control. They also instituted the “Nintendo Seal of Quality”, meaning that every game developed for their console had to be agreed on by Nintendo, removing the issue of shoddy third-party games.

Nintendo was so successful that by 1990, 30% of American household owned an NES - whereas only 23% owned a personal computer.

And with that, so ends the tale of the time gaming almost died.

WORDS BY TIM SPENCER IMAGES BY THIAGO A. VIA FLICKR

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GAMEPLAY AND NARRATIVE IN VIDEO GAMES VIDEO GAMES ARE COMPLEX LITTLE CRITTERS; THEY’RE MADE UP OF SO MANY DIFFERENT COMPONENTS, EACH MORE IMPORTANT THAN THE LAST. OR ARE THEY REALLY MORE IMPORTANT? SOME PEOPLE BELIEVE THAT THE GAMEPLAY ELEMENTS OF A GAME ARE MORE IMPORTANT, WHILE OTHERS ARGUE THAT THE NARRATIVE ASPECTS ARE MORE ESSENTIAL. BUT WHO’S RIGHT?

GAMEPLAY NARRATIVE Gameplay. Narrative. There are many arguments that favour one over the other, and some go as far to say that you can have a game where one of these elements is absent entirely. Both can be equally important for a good game, but I’m going to have to side with gameplay.

Can a game be good without a tight narrative? John Carmack, the founder of ID Software and creator of Wolfenstein, Doom and Quake (three of the biggest first-person shooters in the industry), certainly thinks so. Carmack is quoted as saying: “Story in a game is like a story in a porn movie. It’s expected to be there, but it’s not that important”.

Amusement aside, there’s definitely some truth in the point he is making.

A story, or narrative, is defined as being the written or spoken account of connected events. ‘Gameplay’, however, is defined as being the features of a game - such as the plot and the way in which it is played (as distinct from graphics and sound effects). By this definition, the plot of a game can be included as part of the gameplay.

If a game lacks strong gameplay, then why does it even need to be a video game? If the narrative is all you have, then why not write a book or make a film? A good game ties the narrative into the gameplay and utilises the strength of the medium - which is interactivity. This allows the player to play the story!

This is a relatively new debate in the gaming world seeing as narrative has become a big industry focus over the past few years. This can only be a good thing though as narratives have a way of gripping the experiencer in a way that resonates with them on a deeply personal level. It creates a world. A fully-fledged, fleshed-out, flowing world that can feel like it was built with you in mind (to quote Jim Reeves). A world that can evoke sensory reactions such as tears, flushes, chortles and everything in between.

Gaming has evolved. It has sliced chunks from the big meaty flank of cinema and deeply inhaled that fresh air of ‘take-me-seriously’ that it’s been holding its breath around for a long time. Look, if you will, at To the Moon, which is easily one of my favourite games ever. It got this honour based solely and completely on its narrative quality. I am not going to lie: I cried multiple times throughout the three hours it took to complete the game.

“I CRIED MULTIPLE TIMES THROUGHOUT THE 3 HOURS IT TOOK TO COMPLETE THE GAME” To the Moon was never contrived nor was it cheap in the way it dealt with the player. It drew you in with its premise and sucker-punched you at every turn - and that is what gaming’s next big leap has to be: in order to be taken seriously by other forms of entertainment, it has to shed its niche skin and fully embrace the ability to tell a story.

WORDS BY JAMES OAKLEY WORDS BY ROBERT PRIEST IMAGE BY BEKI HOOPER 51

GAMING To many of us, video game music (VGM) is just music that is found exclusively within video games. This may seem like an obvious statement, yet VGM is unique in the fact that it is confined within its own industry and subsequently doesn’t exist outside of it. How many times have you heard the opening to Skyrim on the radio, or the Zelda ‘Overworld’ theme blasting in a club?

The very idea that VGM can even been defined as legitimate music may seem ludicrous, as surely music should be more universal? When most people think of music, they will almost always pick out chart-topping artists of past and present. How many of us actually know the names of gaming composers, such as Jeremy Soule and Nobuo Uematsu.

These guys are icons within the gaming industry, but outside of it they are barely recognisable. Lastly, how much talent is actually required?

Aren’t the majority of these songs merely earworms that get lodged into your head? In this sense, can we really regard VGM as real music or is merely repetitive, unoriginal, dull drivel? Can video game music truly be classified as real music?

To start off, it is important to note that VGM is a dynamic and evolving media, which through the decades has influenced entire generations of musicians. Back in the 8-bit era (1980s), hardware limitations meant very few games could access more than three tones at once. This led to composers being extremely limited in what they could produce, making it much harder to create original and innovative songs for their games. The overall simplicity of their compositions made them extremely memorable and catchy, with songs from the original Super Mario, Megaman, and Castlevania games becoming legendary amongst gamers. This limited style of music has inspired modern musicians, creating the genre known as “chip music”, with bands like Anamanaguchi using old consoles to produce music, notably for the film adaptation of Scott Pilgrim vs. the World.

CAN VIDEO GAME MUSIC REALLY BE CLASSED AS LEGITIMATE MUSIC? “IS VGM MERELY REPETITIVE, UNORIGINAL, DULL DRIVEL?”

As time progressed and the limitations of old consoles were no longer apparent, VGM developed massively. Composers now had access to full orchestras, professional singers and much better recording equipment. This led to many games leaving their chiptunes behind and embracing the full capacity of new hardware to create great symphonies that would elegantly embrace the player either into a harsh and melancholic dystopia, or a beautiful and majestic landscape. Not only that, but more and more artists are eager to relate themselves with the gaming industry. Take Imagine Dragons and their release of the song Warriors for industry giant League of Legends. This collaboration between artists and VGM composers is strengthening everyday, as more and more artists become inspired by VGM and desire to directly engage with it. With the popularity of VGM constantly growing, the future of VGM looks brighter than ever.

With that in mind, why is it that, with all this growth and development in the popularity of VGM, is the legitimacy of VGM as a genre even questioned? Well the answer is simple, it revolves around the stigmatism that is still attached to modern gamers. Thankfully, as the gaming industry becomes larger, these images are fading. By having majorly influential figures such as Imagine Dragons getting involved with the gaming community, the growing casual gaming audience are beginning to understand and appreciate the beauty and power of VGM. In conclusion, VGM can not only be classified as legitimate music, but it is truly unique in its style - it is able to bring the atmosphere of a virtual world to a completely new level. It has inspired generations and will continue to do so as it grows, develops and evolves into something beyond our wildest imaginations.

WORDS BY VIRUBEN NANDAKUMAR IMAGES BY IAN LINKLETTER VIA FLICKR 52

IMPACT

MAGAZINE

HOW GOLDENEYE 007 BIRTHED THE CONSOLE FPS Picture yourself in June 1997. Goldeneye 007 has had an unsuccessful E3 preview and looks to be another throwaway movie tie-in for consoles. First-person shooters (FPS) were all the rage on PC - and noone expected anything to change. After all, Doom had demonstrated only four years earlier that there’s one clear way of making an enjoyable FPS, hadn’t they?

“IT LAUNCHED THE GENRE FURTHER FORWARD THAN ANY OTHER GAME IN HISTORY” The incursion into James Bond territory marked development studio Rare’s first foray into shooters, having had success with platforming and fighting games as part of a partnership deal with Nintendo from 1994 onwards. Goldeneye 007 was released to accompany Pierce Brosnan’s first incarnation as the fictional British spy (albeit two years after the film originally hit cinemas; another possible reason why it wasn’t seen as a particularly notable game before its release). But it became far more than just that. It looked amazing. It played amazing.

The multiplayer was hailed as the best around. In short, it showed FPSs could indeed exist on a platform other than on a PC, and it launched the genre further forward than any other game in history.

Firstly, the gameplay innovations were utterly unprecedented. The unique layout of the Nintendo 64 controller was an obstacle to most developers but was only a springboard to Rare, who allowed for precise aiming (something particularly useful with the fantastically fun sniper rifle) and made gamers forget the mouse and keyboard almost entirely for a while. This was particularly effective when combined with an environment far more realistic than those of PC shooters. Up until that point, it must be remembered that FPSs were only concerned with shooting monsters, robots and Nazis. This really was the first time that gamers were in the shoes of someone facing very relatable enemies in a somewhat familiar setting, improving the game’s atmosphere greatly.

Secondly, the game’s video and audio capabilities were similarly acclaimed. It sounds strange now, but at the time critics were amazed at the inclusion of things like bullet holes, extended draw distances and characters that actually resembled their counterparts from the film. The developers even utilised sets from the film to directly model the game’s environments, something which we are very familiar with nowadays with historical epics like Assassin’s Creed, but at the time it was seen as utterly inspired. Moreover, the soundtrack was praised for two reasons: for the use of the official James Bond theme to add authenticity, and the tweaking of other tracks specific to that particular film to retain some uniqueness.

Thirdly, in combination with an atmospheric single-player, came a multiplayer mode which was highly innovative in itself. The splitscreen multiplayer deathmatch mode was pioneering for consoles and, speaking from delightful personal experience, was incredibly addictive. The strengths of the single-player, from smooth controls to well-balanced weapons, were only made all the more fun with friends along for the ride. Edge Magazine said that it was the gold standard for console multiplayer shooters, and wasn’t toppled until the similarly revolutionary Halo: Combat Evolved was released at the turn of the 21st century. The icing on the cake was the potential use of cheats: from huge character heads to unlimited weapon choice, it just added that little dash of spice.

The legacy of Goldeneye 007 is quite astounding. It led to a spiritual successor, Perfect Dark, which followed a completely different plot but used the same technology and built upon the gameplay formula used so well previously. That was the Nintendo 64’s swan song and opened the door for a whole raft of similar console shooters on the next generation. One only has fond memories of Goldeneye 007, a game thoroughly deserving of a place in the medium’s hall of fame.

WORDS BY TOM WELSHMAN IMAGES BY ROLO TANEDO JR. VIA FLICKR 53

FILM & TV

INTERVIEW WITH NSTV Following their recent rebrand from Nottingham University Television Station (NUTS), we chatted with Nottingham Student Television (NSTV)’s Station Manager Rory O'Shea, to find out more about the station's reinvention and exactly what it means to be a part of student television at UoN. FIRST AND FOREMOST, WHAT LED TO THE REBRANDING OF NUTS TO NSTV? The decision to initiate a rebrand was taken by two consecutive Executives, with the goal of creating a brand identity that was more professional and accessible to the students at The University of Nottingham, and in the wider community.

"STUDENTS CAN EXPECT A MUCH MORE VISIBLE AND ACTIVE TELEVISION SERVICE THIS YEAR" SO WHAT MAKES NSTV DIFFERENT TO NUTS? NSTV remains a professional and award-winning student television station. What is most notably different is the creation of nonexecutive positions in the form of production coordinators and publicity managers coupled with a greater emphasis on training and development. Hopefully, the result of this will encourage more people get involved so that we can provide a higher standard of training and encourage a clear route of progression through the society.

AS THE STATION MANAGER, THE MOST SENIOR MEMBER OF THE NSTV EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE, HOW DIFFICULT HAS THE TRANSITION BEEN OVER THE PAST FEW MONTHS IN REINVENTING UON'S STUDENT TELEVISION? I was under no illusions that to initiate such a transformation in the branding of Nottingham’s Student Television Station was not going to be a challenging process, however I am incredibly fortunate to be surrounded by a team of incredibly hardworking and dedicated people. This has meant that at every stage, when perhaps my own resolve has been a little low, they have been there to pick me back up, 54

and together we have been able to create a new brand identity that we are all immensely proud of. I cannot stress how grateful I am for all their work.

LOOKING FORWARD, WHAT CONTENT CAN STUDENTS AT NOTTINGHAM EXPECT TO SEE FROM NSTV OVER THE COMING MONTHS? Students can expect a much more visible and active television service this year. We are planning more extensive sports coverage throughout the year, which will encompass live BUCS (British University & College Sports) matches streamed into Mooch, brought to you in partnership with the SU Sports department, live music events, in the form of open mics and talent competitions, as well as the potential for live theatre events in partnership with The Nottingham New Theatre and quicker response to breaking news stories in the form of bulletins.

In addition to all of that, we are, as ever, open to show proposals from students from the University. We are here to support students through the process of creating a show, from a fledgling idea into a fully formed concept, providing all the training necessary to see your vision transformed into a finished product.

FINALLY, WHAT DOES IT ACTUALLY MEAN TO BECOME A PART OF NSTV, FOR STUDENTS UNFAMILIAR WITH HOW TO JOIN AND WHAT ONE DOES AT THE STATION WHEN A MEMBER? To be a part of NSTV is to be a part of hardworking and driven team who share a passion for student television. It is to achieve industry standard training in a variety of areas from video editing to presenting, providing you with opportunities that are truly unique whilst allowing you to develop skills that will embellish any CV. To get involved just pop your head into our office - located on the C floor of Portland (through the double doors at the end of the corridor passed the Hub) - or drop an email to our secretary!

WORDS BY BHARAT SAMRA IMAGE BY RACHEL BERKOFF

“YOUR SHOW

IMPACT

MAGAZINE

SUCKS”

WHY LONG-RUNNING SHOWS STRUGGLE TO END WELL

One of the plethora of reasons film has historically (but not necessarily fairly) been critically preferable to television is that the ‘good ones’ outstay their welcome far less frequently. Films are bound by definitive structural limitations. Whether a six hour documentary or a two minute short, films get in, do what they intend to, and get out.

Not so with TV. All too often favourite shows plough on, well past their prime, testing the compassion of even the die-hard fans. But why?

More habitually than film, television is our ‘friend’. Programmes can unfurl and develop with us, a crutch in otherwise chaotic lives to whom we can anchor. Whether laughing at characters’ comical relationship troubles or feeling relief that we don’t lead lives as meth-dealing cancer patients, we can rely on these shows and their populations. So where, when the going’s been good, does this storm of apathy – or full-on hatred – come from? Maybe we just outgrow them…

It seems tritely obvious, but it’s true. The best shows have left on a high, popularity be damned. In Britain it’s the norm (The Office, Spaced, League of Gentlemen etc.) to have short-lived series; in America it seems to be predominantly flukes and trigger-happy network execs that produce solid content (Firefly being the most prominent case).

Despite being offered more by the network, The Wire’s last season only required ten episodes to end the show – so that’s what the creators took.

It’s a well-trodden belief that creativity is often maximised working under restrictions.

Without borders, no matter how flexible they are, creativity risks being unbridled and that’s generally not great. Fictional universes infinitely expand and increase in complexity, and the sheer number of plots and ideas crammed into a 30 or 60 minute show can produce unwieldy results.

One of the early examples of this is The X-Files (1993-2002), which, never quite sure of when it was going to be axed, continually bolted on new elements to the central conspiracy mystery, retroactively rewriting the mythology for nine seasons till all but the most dedicated had abandoned it. One only has to look at Lost’s time-hopping, islandmoving confusion to see that this approach to televisual storytelling has sadly not been, er, lost.

The other big reason for TV shows ending difficulties is economic. As has been the case for many years, the big money in media these days is in television, not to mention that it provides a more consistent and (relatively) stable job than working on a film for a month does. With such a cash cow to be milked, what’s a little thing like quality or even audience satisfaction to be concerned with?

This is clearest in sitcoms. Shows like Two and a Half Men and How I Met Your Mother push the limits of audience tolerance, eroding our enjoyment through sheer force and good intentions – like being licked to death by a puppy. The core Friends cast famously made one million dollars an episode for the last two seasons, so as long as a series is still making money and there’s little reason for any of the creative team to call it quits, the cast can easily get comfy (or complacent).

The rarest cases, meanwhile, are those where the programme in question is too much of a cultural institution; where we cannot imagine the TV landscape without it and the network is so scared of the void it would create that they daren’t kill it – looking at you, Simpson family.

Effectively in show business, these industry and creative figures at the helm of the TV content that others would kill to create, for vanity, money and lack of discipline, have forgotten show business’ first rule: always leave them wanting more.

WORDS BY TOM WATCHORN

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FILM & TV

THE SEQUEL OBSESSION It may prove astonishing but the concept of sequels is not a contemporary one. Now a vital cog in the modern movie business, the first recorded sequel dates back to 1916's The Fall of a Nation, the follow-up film to D. W. Griffith’s controversial but hugely successful The Birth of a Nation. The notion of another instalment was conceived to capitalise on the success of the original. Nearly a century later, Hollywood executives are still enamoured by the exploitation of intellectual properties.

Steven Spielberg's Jaws (1975) is considered the beginning of the blockbuster era, inspiring sequels as well as other franchises like Star Wars and Superman. This trend has since prospered and grown exponentially, with modern examples of powerhouse studio Disney having recently secured Marvel another six release dates through to 2019, in addition to already having five films at various stages of development.

"HOLLYWOOD EXECUTIVES ARE STILL ENAMOURED BY THE EXPLOITATION OF INTELLECTUAL PROPERTIES" The aforementioned numbers corroborate sequel overkill. It also delineates the industry's mentality of being reliant on the safe-bet sequel. The calendar, primarily summer season, is laden with multiple sequels, not to mention remakes, adaptations and reboots. So far in 2014, of the top ten highest grossing movies worldwide, there have been seven sequels, six adaptations, four from rebooted franchises, and zero had an original screenplay. Meanwhile, all ten had American/ Hollywood production and/or distribution association (figures from October 2014).

With over two dozen released, this year has suffered from tent-pole sequel congestion. This illustrates an ever-growing shift in the direction of mainstream cinema. The international revenue stream and reliance on these films has extended rampantly, now pivotal for commercial survival in Hollywood.

Since the conglomeration of the studio system from the late 1980s, Hollywood has established a global hegemony over film distribution.

For instance, the latest offering in the Transformers series, Age of 56

Extinction, amassed a colossal gross of over $300 million in China alone, comfortably exceeding its US domestic gross of under $250 million.

Studios can be slated for sequel fatigue, but it is difficult to condemn them considering the almost guaranteed revenue sequels and ancillary markets promise. From a studio’s perspective, whose primary purpose as conglomerate-owned entertainment subsidiaries is to make profit (and lots of it), sequels are the safety net.

The advent of technologies such as 3D and IMAX, aimed at a better viewing experience, are geared towards big-budget blockbusters, providing a considerable economic incentive for the film producers while simultaneously eliminating narrative originality from Hollywood cinema. However, it is gratifying to know that not all American studios have taken the bait.

The obsessive abundance of sequels has not necessarily affected independent filmmaking. Relatively smaller studios, such as the promising Annapurna Pictures (founded in 2011 by Megan Ellison), are the flag bearers of niche, critically and financially successful original screenplays such as American Hustle and Her that are still appreciated within mainstream culture.

Indeed, ‘indie’ movies have always thrived and occupied their own space. However, they are usually a study in the ‘critic versus commerce’ argument. For example, The Hurt Locker, which won the Academy Award for Best Picture in 2010, only managed to gross $17 million domestically in the US. While it resonated strongly with critics, the movie was deemed a box office flop.

Now more than ever, films lie on opposite ends of the spectrum.

Audiences can either indulge in sequels and similarly unoriginal overdoses of adaptations, reboots and remakes, or be enthralled by independent cinema. The middle ground is effectively non-existent, and as the financial and creative gap between the two only seems to be widening, it's unclear how long originality in mainstream filmmaking may survive, thanks to the only-increasing obsession with sequels.

WORDS BY IBRAHIM RIZWAN IMAGES BY JONATHAN KOS-READ VIA FLICKR

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THE STIGMA

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CINEMA WHAT IS INDIAN CINEMA? THE STIGMA SURROUNDING THE LATTER TWO WORDS OF THAT QUESTION OFTEN PROVOKE A RESPONSE OF EITHER "BOLLYWOOD" OR "FILMS WITH SONGS AND DANCES" WITHIN A MAINSTREAM WESTERN PERSPECTIVE. NEITHER OF THESE ANSWERS ARE NECESSARILY TRUE, NOR FALSE.

With over 1,600 features produced in 20-plus different languages in 2012 alone, India is the world's largest producer of films. With Bollywood (Hindi cinema) at the forefront, the Mumbai-based industry has often been incorrectly made synonymous with the wider film industry across the whole country. Meanwhile, the misconception that movies from the nation can be defined solely by the prevalence of song and dance numbers, and nothing more, is arguably unfair. What are the origins of this stigma of Indian cinema, and how valid is it?

During my time shadowing acclaimed Telugu director Puri Jagan in Hyderabad this past summer, I was enlightened to the introduction of music into Indian film, and why it has remained a defining characteristic. Mr. Jagan stated when cinema first arrived in India in the late 1890s, the absence of synchronous sound led to screenings of films being stopped in order for songs to be played by live artists.

As audiences began to associate cinematic exhibition with prevalent musical themes, song and dance became synonymous with Indian feature films, continuing into the era of sound with India's first talkie and Bollywood film Alam Ara (1931).

“WHEN ASKED WHAT ONE FIRST NOTICES OF INDIAN FILM, THE OBSERVABLE ANSWER IS OFTEN THE SONGS AND DANCES” When asked what one first notices of Indian film, the observable answer is often the songs and dances. However, Bollywood has made its move into a less song-orientated form of film by reducing the number of songs in recent years in order to enhance Western ties (Bollywood itself is a portmanteau of Bombay and Hollywood).The impact of this on Tollywood (Telugu cinema), Kollywood (Tamil) and so on, could be the potential encouragement of a chain reaction towards the westernisation of all Indian film.

While Tollywood still has a long way to go, Mr. Jagan decided to take the first step by shortening his songs in the actual screenings of his 2012 release Businessman. When I ask why there is an increasing need to appeal to a Western demographic by eliminating musical elements, he responds by saying that it is simply cheaper in the production stage and more profitable in the globalisation of Indian cinema.

Many songs are also written to expose necessary emotion, with melody serving as a developer of theme, and thus songs in these films serve to offer more than a break in the narrative. Music in Indian cinema varies so greatly, from being an emotional ballad dedicated to mothers as in the song "Maa" from Taare Zameen Par, to hilariously detailing a particular item of clothing in "Lungi Dance" from the action comedy Chennai Express.

While it may seem that the movement into the Westernisation of movies may make them more accessible, there are plenty of reasons for us to watch a wider range. Indian cinema does venture into genres other than romance, with sports movies like Lagaan (which went on to achieve an Oscar nomination), horror, such as Bhoot and even children’s movies like Bhoothnath.

With music as the historically and culturally significant centrepiece of Indian cinema, the stigma that we have discussed is perhaps grounded in simple observation. Nevertheless, the reluctance to adopt it into our own cinematic culture is grounded in a mistaken generalisation that Bollywood encompasses the majority of all Indian cinema, and that the musicals offer little more than song and dance. It is in fact the music that makes Indian cinema distinct. It’s what, for me, sometimes makes a movie worth watching. While the decision to have fewer songs may make financial sense in the efforts to reach Western culture, Indian cinema may perhaps lose some of its heritage in the process.

WORDS BY PRERANA SRUNGARAM IMAGE BY ‘LECERCLE’ VIA FLICKR 57

FILM & TV

SHOULD FILM PRIMARILY BE A SOURCE OF ESCAPISM? OUR WRITERS DEBATE WHETHER WE SHOULD DEFINE AND VIEW FILM PRINCIPALLY AS ESCAPIST CULTURE OR PROMOTE AND PRAISE IT MORE FOR ITS ALTERNATIVE USES

YES NO

"Mama always said life was like a box of chocolates", quoted Sam. He paused, "Who said that again?". Sam contemplated the origin of the quote. His friend nodded encouragingly at him: "May the force be with you”. But the more Sam tried to remember, the faster the answer slipped away. Sam's friend stared at him before raising his wine glass.

"Here's looking at you, kid", he gestured towards Sam. The pair clinked their glasses. Clink. The sound momentarily distracted Sam, causing an answer to instantly float into his mind. "Forrest Gump said it!" Sam's friend sipped his wine. "Say it again, Sam?" The clink diverted Sam from the agonising experience of forgetting. It provided an escape. And in escaping, Sam was able to find what he could not find before.

Escaping is a part of being human. It's an opportunity to relieve stress, monotony and unresolved issues.

What better way to escape than to become involved in a character or story? The poignant sadness of Roy's 'Tears in the Rain' speech in Blade Runner, Pulp Fiction's darkly comic injection scene, or the comedic brilliance of the final line in Some Like it Hot. Not only are films effortlessly accessible, but cinematic advancements mean there are now more films and genres than ever before. There is something for everyone. These technological developments propel us even more deeply into our chosen temporary illusions.

Furthermore, the sense of catharsis obtained from completing a film, within the act of escaping, helps us generate a new perspective on whatever we were contemplating prior to watching the film. To find, like Sam, what we were not able to find before.

Films have the power to cradle and crush us. And in experiencing this emotional spectrum, we recognise the enrichment they add to our lives. They always leave us wanting more.

Belonging to the global multimedia entertainment industry, it would be a huge generalisation to class film primarily as a form of escapism.

How do you think film is brought to you? For the hundreds and thousands of industry workers, the medium is undoubtedly a part of their livelihoods.

For many behind the creative rather than industrial side particularly, film has aesthetic and artistic value too. The final product is a visual representation of their talents and, depending on its success, a platform upon which they can build their oeuvre. Such individuals aim to bridge imagination, creativity and abstract thought with reality via their work.

"IT WOULD BE A HUGE GENERALISATION TO CLASS FILM PRIMARILY AS A FORM OF ESCAPISM" Beyond traditional associations with filmmaking, recorded news footage, documentaries, and even video messages, are all associated with film in one way or another, providing us with information and a more efficient means of daily communication, thus enriching our lives because it increases the accessibility of services/goods previously exclusive to certain viewers due to location and/ or income.

We are able to learn facts about previous centuries and current affairs, whether global or in our own personal lives, within minutes. Although such films may vary in reliability, it is something we watch attentively with the intention of increasing our knowledge of the world in which we live and engage with each other.

Perhaps earlier in the century, the experience of watching a film momentarily took us away from other aspects of our lives, but today we live in a digital era where the very definition of film has changed.

Social media enables us to constantly engage with others as we watch films and by doing so, we continue on with our everyday virtual routines if not our physical ones.

WORDS BY TESSA GLINOER WORDS BY MADZ ABBASI IMAGES BY ‘BIG-ASHB’ VIA FLICKR 58

IMPACT

TAKE 5

MAGAZINE

DESIGNED FOR FILM FANATICS, WE’RE INVITING YOU TO COMPLETE OUR LATEST TRIVIABASED CHALLENGE: A WORD SEARCH WITH A TWIST. INSTEAD OF US GIVING YOU THE WORDS TO FIND, YOU'LL HAVE TO DECIPHER A SERIES OF CLUES, EACH ONE UNCOVERING AN ENIGMATIC FILM CHARACTER WHOSE CHARACTER NAME IS LURKING WITHIN THE WORD SEARCH...

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1. 1 AM JACK'S IDEAL SENSE OF SELF (2 WORDS/11 LETTERS) 2. HE'S ALWAYS SMILING (2 WORDS/8 LETTERS) 3. ENIGMATIC PROTAGONIST, MAINLY IN VOLUME 1 OF QUENTIN TARANTINO'S MARTIAL ARTS MASSACRE (2 WORDS/8 LETTERS) 4. MARVEL FANS WEREN'T THE ONLY ONES SMILING AT THE END OF THE AVENGERS (1 WORD/6 LETTERS) 5. YOU TALKIN' TO HIM? (2 WORDS/12 LETTERS) 6. ORANGE HAIR NOT HER ONLY STANDOUT FEATURE AFTER FALLING INTO BRUCE WILLIS' CAB IN A 1997 FILM (1 WORD/6 LETTERS) 7. HE-WHO-MUST-NOT-BE-NAMED (1 WORD/10 LETTERS) 8. HAVE YOU MET HIS RABBITY FRIEND FRANK? (2 WORDS/11 LETTERS) 9. HE'S A MALENKY BIT MAD IN STANLEY KUBRICK'S CULT ADAPTATION OF A CONTROVERSIAL NOVEL (2 WORDS/11 LETTERS) 10. EVEN AFTER SPENDING 500 DAYS WITH HER, SHE'S STILL SOMETHING OF A MYSTERY (1 WORD/6 LETTERS) Answers: 1. Tyler Durden 2. The Joker 3. The Bride 4. Thanos 5. Travis Bickle 6. Leeloo 7. Voldemort 8. Donnie Darko 9. Alex DeLarge 10. Summer 59

MUSIC

TECH-NO OR TECH YES WHETHER YOU THINK IT’S FINE ART, BACKGROUND NOISE IN A CLUB, OR THE WORST THING TO HAPPEN TO POPULAR MUSIC IN THE LAST 30 YEARS; ELECTRONIC MUSIC IS SOMETHING THAT MOST OF US HAVE AN OPINION ON A ROBO-APOCALYPSE IS LOOMING ‘Why do people kick up a fuss?’ Well let’s think of all the musicians out there - and by musician I mean a person who plays a musical instrument. Electronic music devalues the talent and skill of a musician by allowing anyone with an iPad to create and even play their own music. Want to create a hit? Simple, find a few loops on GarageBand and voila! Instant dance tunes. This is all well and good, but is it real music?

Just because there’s a market for something doesn’t mean it’s authentic. Electronic music is to music what the ‘Pot Noodle’ is to food. There is clear and definite demand, but it isn’t the real thing.

Surely a Chow Mein from a proper Chinese restaurant is more authentic than its ‘Pot Noodle’ counterpart? In the same vein, isn’t the music of Miles Davis or Chuck Berry - heck, even Green Day more ‘real’ than the so called ‘music’ of Boddika?

So yes, as you probably expected, I stand by the cliché argument of ‘but electronic artists don’t play instruments so it can’t be real’.

Legitimate artists play their instruments, something which electronic music lacks. If music lacks this how can it be considered ‘real’, as it is instead virtual, like the internet or Minecraft; a useful collection of digital data that gives the illusion of being music.

“ELECTRONIC MUSIC IS TO MUSIC WHAT THE POT NOODLE IS TO FOOD” But let’s not have an existential crisis. Obviously electronic music has a huge place in modern society and culture, just as ‘Pot Noodles’ are in huge demand by the student population, and it’s doubtful it’ll be disappearing any time soon.

WORDS BY JACOB BANKS

ROBOTS ARE A MAN’S BEST FRIEND With its own music chart, awards, websites, clubs and artists, electronic music is just another music genre. As with every other form, electronic music plays host to artists that are hard working, talented and dedicated to their art. The conservative critic may argue that anyone with an iPad and the latest music programme can produce the next electronic hit. But if that were the case, surely everyone would be doing it? It comes down to preference. Who has the right to determine whether some music is more 'real' than others?

“IT'S A GENRE DESIGNED FOR HAVING A GOOD TIME” In the same way some may argue electronic music is merely just repetitive noise, others may argue there's only so many times you can listen to a lad in a snapback offending women or imparting their wisdom of the three necessities in life - 'money, pussy, weed'. Just because we can't imagine David Cameron fist pumping to Boddika or Richie Hawtin doesn't mean there aren't lots of us that still do.

There is no denying there is a clear market for electronic music and Nottingham is definitely one of the hotspots. Stealth, a key location at the heart of Nottingham's electronic music scene, holds nights like ‘dollop’ and ‘Detonate’ which are consistently sell-outs; it's a genre designed for having a good time.

All the sounds around us are slowly starting to become electronic.

Whether it's in a film, your favourite Radio 1 tune or an old classic, you can bet electronic sounds have contributed in some way. With the digital world ever-growing, everything in its path grows with it too. We all spend our lives surrounded by technology. So why do people kick up a fuss when our music has followed down the same electronic route?

WORDS BY GRACE BRIGHT

IMAGE BY TONY NUNGARAY VIA FLICKR 60

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OWEN LEWIS: STUDENT DJ AND HEAD OF THE UNIVERSITY OF NOTTINGHAM’S DJ SOCIETY BEST NIGHT YOU'VE DJ'D?

Corsica studios in London at Loud Noise, it’s one of my favourite clubs, and I was extremely happy to get the chance to play there.

WORST NIGHT YOU'VE DJ'D?

A night last year at Bodega. There was an MC who was meant to just be announcing the acts. He was jumping up and down on the stage next to me and made my needles skip multiple times, including right as I was mixing a track in which he messed the mix up.

TRACK YOU'D PLAY TO GET THE CROWD GOING?

Depends completely on the night but ‘Earth, Wind and Fire September’ is a track I don't think you can stand still to.

BEHIND THE DECKS WHETHER AT THE UNIVERSITY OR IN THE CITY, NOTTINGHAM HAS SOME FINE DJS. IMPACT GRABS A WORD

TRACK YOU'D PLAY BEFORE THE LIGHTS COME ON?

Again it depends on the night, but sticking with the disco vibe, ‘Midas Touch - Midnight Star (Hell Interface Remix)’ would be a sure winner.

GUILTY PLEASURE?

Don't really have any guilty pleasures. Maybe ‘Madison Avenue - Don't Call Me Baby’ but I don't even feel guilty about that, it's a banger.

FIRST RECORD YOU BOUGHT?

The first vinyl I bought was ‘Pink Floyd - Dark Side of the Moon’.

BIGGEST BUGBEAR WITH PEOPLE ON THE FLOOR? Shuffling.

BEST LINE-UP YOU'VE SEEN IN NOTTS?

There's been a lot. But one night that has delivered a steady flow of great line-ups is Wigflex.

DJ YOU'RE RATING RIGHT NOW?

Saw Rodhad at Dekmantel festival this year and he played an incredible techno set.

SPAM CHOP: RESIDENT DJ AND CREATIVE DIRECTOR AT WIGFLEX BEST NIGHT YOU’VE DJ’D?

I love playing at Wigflex in Nottingham to be honest. I know it’s a bit of a cop out as its my own party, but the crowd knows me and I feel like I can get away with more than I could somewhere else. Other than that, playing on a boat in Croatia and Fabric Room 3 have been highlights.

WORST NIGHT YOU’VE DJ’D?

I’ve played some shockers over the years but it wouldn’t be very nice of me to expose them. I remember the very first event I ever put on. The bouncer caught me smoking a jazz fag inside the venue and threw me out just before my set. I had to pay him £40 to let me back in.

TRACK YOU’D PLAY TO GET THE CROWD GOING?

‘Shackleton - Freezing, Opening, Thawing’ did some damage the other night.

TRACK YOU’D PLAY BEFORE THE LIGHTS COME ON? ‘William Onyeabor - When The Going Is Smooth And Good’.

GUILTY PLEASURE?

Sinead O’Connor’s ‘Jackie’.

FIRST RECORD YOU BOUGHT?

Energy 52’s ‘Cafe Del Mar’ and Double 99’s ‘Rip Groove’ - bought them both at the same time from a record shop in Dover when I was visiting my Granddad.

BIGGEST BUGBEAR WITH PEOPLE ON THE FLOOR? Mobile phones.

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MUSIC

JUST CAN'T GET ENOUGH CAN WE REALLY NOT GET ENOUGH OF EIGHTIES MUSIC? IS IT MAKING A REVIVAL THREE DECADES ON? It is near on impossible to put a bracket around a decade's music. Yet, for many of us, ‘80s pop music' instantly conjures images of glamour and excess; Duran Duran, neon leg warmers, Wham's hair styles, and the heyday of Top of the Pops. Sure, there were musical legends in this decade but when asked to summarise the era's music, they are overshadowed by shoulder pads and perms. There is, however, an explanation for the surge of ostentatious pop stars of the 80s.

WHEN WILL I BE FAMOUS - BROS WHY THE EIGHTIES WAS ALL SO FLASHY The eighties was a defining era for music. The invention of the Walkman and boomboxes meant that music was now portable - and therefore more accessible to youths. Teenagers could choose what to listen to rather than begrudgingly tune in to the limited choice of radio stations. The archaic image of a family sat around a gramophone had been replaced. Instead, these vinyl records were now being scratched

by DJs in underground clubs. In other words, music had become something readily available to young people. They were free to explore their own music tastes as they could choose what to listen to.

With the creation of MTV also came the emergence of the music video.

MTV was the first network to exclusively showcase music videos. The first video aired on the channel was, aptly, The Buggles' 'Video Killed the Radio Star'. This new platform for music meant that image was now key. A demand for theatrics and ludicrous fashion statements was now a major part of the pop music industry.

“HIT SINGLES NEED DEPTHLESS PHRASES, REPEATED OVER AND OVER AGAIN” These technological advances saw the expansion of the music industry. Music's new accessibility meant that it had become a booming, money making industry. Record companies could manufacture one-hit artists which produced huge profits and little risk. Investing time and money into artists became less important and labels were free to experiment with singles. If it didn't work, then the act would be dumped and the industry didn't have much to lose.

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DEPECHE MODE

One-hit wonders competed with innumerable other musicians, and so flamboyant personalities and flashy dressing offered a way to stand out from the competition.

“THEY SET TO WORK RECREATING THE DISCO CLASSICS SUNG BY MULLETED HEART THROBS” BACK TO LIFE - SOUL LI SOUL WHY IS TODAY'S MUSIC SCENE COPYING THAT OF THE EIGHTIES? Eighties music appears to be making a revival and, while nostalgic Madonna fans may believe this is because it simply was the greatest era for music, there could be a more cynical explanation. Music today could be mimicking that of three decades earlier because it is a quick and easy way of making money. Producing one-hit wonders is a tried and tested scheme; it is profitable. It is no secret that the invention of illegal filesharing music meant that the music industry has suffered financially. Quite possibly, the fat cats of music, in their tailored business suits, could have thought: "We need to make more money, fast”. And so, they set to work recreating the disco classics sung by mulleted heart throbs.

When you first come across the idea that the music industry is reliving the 80s you might be dismissive. 'But where are the mullets?' you may ask. Okay, not all of the 80s has returned - but look at the bigger picture. Firstly, many songs today are meant as singles. If there was one thing the 80s had lots of, it was sing-along bangers. The uncanny similarities between 80s’ singles and the chart songs of today may come as a surprise.

In terms of lyrics, singles don't need to have poetic verses that our inner Oscar Wilde can relate to. In order to create a song that gets stuck in your head, hit singles need depthless phrases, repeated over and over again. This is common of 80s songs, for example ‘Karma Chameleon’, ‘Girls on Film’, ‘Don't You Want Me Baby’, and songs from today's Top 40's Chart such as ‘Happy’, ‘Anaconda’ and ‘All About That Bass’, to name a few.

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The 80s saw the introduction of drum machines, the most popular of these being the 808. The bass drum, a feature of the 808, is integral to the sound of the 80s, you can't imagine Marvin Gaye's ‘Sexual Healing’ or Michael Jackson's ‘Thriller’ without it. Today, many songs are driven by the drums, this is what gives many songs that infectious, have-todance feel. Drum machines are an essential to all popular electro, house, drum and bass music today.

A lot of indie bands are also driven by drums, Haim - who can all play the drums - said: “strumming a guitar always sounded kind of cheesy to us. Not to say that strumming a guitar is cheesy; it can work, but it always sounded kind of weird in our tracks. So we always kind of used the guitars as a percussion instrument”. Drums are so driven in their songs they experimented with their guitars mimicking the sound. The 1975 frontman, Matt Healy, seemed insulted when lazily labelled as a guitar band, and replied “I think that the defining elements of the way we think about things is drums and bass and the syncopation between those two things”.

“808 IS INTEGRAL TO THE SOUND OF THE EIGHTIES” A sound that undoubtedly defines the 80s would be the futuristic sounding instrument, dominant in many hits: the synthesizer. The bouncy videogame noise that was a necessity to rocket to the top of the charts has made a comeback. Songs such as Soft Cell's ‘Tainted Love’ and Depeche Mode's ‘Just Can't Get Enough’ could easily be mistaken for something in a trendy Shoreditch club today, maybe with a few added loops and drops. Electro music isn't the only imitator of the 80s. While there may be obvious artists where the synth is pivotal to their sound (Chvrches, Bloc Party, Alt-J etc.), so many live bands have someone fiddling around with an instrument that wouldn't look out of place in a NASA space station.

The resurrection of the 80s isn't a secret, in fact music lovers of today seem to be wearing it like a sandwich board, but instead of a sandwich board it's a rainbow coloured bomber jacket. Vintage clothes that seem to be uniform for gig and club attendees is just another clue that we want to recreate this past era. There has always been a correlation

between fashion and music and today is no different. The fluorescent crop tops and leggings are just another imitation of the era our parents are more familiar with.

While the sceptical conspiracies of why 80s music is back may not be justified, there is no denying that the era that was once put thought to be dead has sprinkled its glittery ashes on today's music. It is hard to escape the soundtrack of the eighties as every genre seems influenced by its revolutionary sounds. However, instead of being embarrassed of our parents, it seems we are eager to grab a snippet of their musical history and their old wardrobe while we are at it. Let's just hope the chart toppers of today stick around for more than one hit.

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MUSIC

INTERVIEW: WOLF ALICE

THIS SUMMER, IMPACT MET WOLF ALICE BACKSTAGE AT LEEDS FESTIVAL. THE BAND LOOKED AS THOUGH THEY WERE SPONSORED BY DAZ WASHING POWDER; HEAD TO TOE IN CRISP WHITE MATCHING OUTFITS. THEY WERE STILL BUZZING FROM AN ELECTRIC SET, COMPLETE WITH STAGE DIVES FROM THE BASSIST, MOSH PITS FROM A DINNERTIME CROWD AND AMPS CRANKED UP TO FULL VOLUME. BEFORE WE BEGIN THE INTERVIEW, BASSIST THEO ELLIS REMEMBERS DIE ANTWOORD ARE ABOUT TO PLAY AND DASHES OFF INTO THE CROWD. HE EXPLAINS HE ISN'T JUST HERE TO PLUG IN AND PLAY, HE WANTS THE 'FULL FESTIVAL EXPERIENCE'. THE REMAINING BAND MEMBERS, ELLIE (VOCALS AND GUITAR), JOFF (LEAD GUITAR), AND JOEL (DRUMS) TALK TOUR, THEIR FIRST ALBUM AND, OF COURSE, TAYLOR SWIFT.

HOW DID YOU FEEL THE GIG WENT AND HOW DID IT COMPARE TO ITS RIVAL FESTIVAL, READING? Joff: It was amazing. We had lots of fun and the crowd was brilliant.

Joel: You can't compare them. It’s two different places, two different sets of people. It was a great show and we are very flattered with the turnout.

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HOW HAVE YOU ENJOYED FESTIVAL SEASON? Joel: We started at Glastonbury so we were kind of pushed in at the deep end - that was quite phenomenal for us. Saying that, every festival has its own vibe and its own little thing that it provides for the performer. We have enjoyed playing smaller festivals, particularly one called 2000trees - that was amazing. All festivals differ and to tick Reading and Leeds off our bucket list is phenomenal.

HAVE YOU EVER BOUGHT TICKETS TO READING OR LEEDS FESTIVAL BEFORE? Ellie: Reading. We all went to Reading. It's pretty cool because we camped with our bottle of vodka when we were 16 and now we are here.

Joff: Except this year we have two bottles of vodka but we still camped.

We stayed for the night at Reading and we went to watch Queens of the Stone Age. Ellie: If you camp and then play a show it's a strange experience, but it feels all the more special. It's like ‘I was camping down there a second ago and now I'm up here’.

Joel: Its fun camping - you don't want to turn up, plug in and go home.

I think it becomes quite artificial if you do it that way. We like to be part of the whole experience. If you have been here as a teen, got crap GCSE results and you came here with a bottle of White Lightning and just enjoyed it. We are just doing the same thing, just five years later and playing.

HAVE YOU FELT YOUR CROWDS GRADUALLY EXPAND THE MORE SHOWS YOU HAVE PLAYED, OR DID THIS FAME COME SUDDENLY? Ellie: We did a few festivals last summer and this year has been completely different - there weren’t many people there before. We are still mind blown that we actually have a crowd now. The more shows we play, more people come and see us, it's amazing.

WILL THERE BE A TOUR ANYTIME SOON? Ellie: We want to do a tour but right now we can't as we've been

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recording. We need to make sure we balance them both. We hope to tour as soon as we can. We still wanted to keep up doing gigs so we are doing two dates in October, one up North (Manchester) and one down South (Stoke-on-Trent). We really want to do more big performance shows and showcase some more materials before we release an album.

IS WHAT YOU'RE CURRENTLY RECORDING THE MAKINGS OF YOUR DEBUT ALBUM? Ellie: That is what we are trying to do, yes. We haven't actually pencilled in recording dates yet but it going to be done as soon as possible. The album is pretty much written we are just trying to find a place to record.

DURING YOUR GIGS YOU HAVE SO MUCH ENERGY, HOW DO YOU ENSURE YOU DO FOR EVERY SHOW? Ellie: Theo is the one with buckets of energy - I don't know where he gets it from, he always stage dives, I'm way too much of a pussy for that. I think adrenalin fills you with energy, and when you know you've only got one shot.

WHAT IS THE RUMOURED RELATIONSHIP BEHIND LISA SIMPSON AND YOUR LATEST SONG ‘MOANING LISA SMILE’?

Ellie: There was an episode of The Simpsons called ‘Moaning Lisa’, the sixth episode in season one. During the episode Lisa goes through a stage that so many teenagers go through, even though she's only eight years old. She says "I'm feeling sad and I don't know why" and it's a feeling that I remember. It's quite a universal idea except its coming from a little yellow spiky haired girl. It was quite moving.

CAN YOU TALK US THROUGH THE PROCESS OF MAKING YOUR MUSIC VIDEOS? Ellie: We really enjoy making videos. That's when you actually feel you're in a band when you have to make a music video. We really try and make the most of it.

Joel: We get really involved - they're all our own concepts. We took our

idea to a guy called Ozzie who made it into a storyboard and he filmed it. The videos for ‘Fluffy’ and ‘Bros’ were shot in Ellie's front room and her Dad as the camera man. We loved the whole process.

WHEN DID YOU GIVE UP YOUR DAY JOBS TO PURSUE A CAREER IN MUSIC? Joff: It happened properly last year, when I finished my degree in Primary Teaching Education in Royal Hampton in London. I was doing that when we were touring so at the time everything we did had to be around that.

Joel: Then we got signed and now this is it full time.

ELLIE, HAVE YOU FOUND BEING A FEMALE IN THE MUSIC INDUSTRY DIFFICULT? Ellie: I haven't come across too many horror stories. There are bands with girls in them who constantly talk about how hard it is, but maybe I'm just lucky - I have never found it tough.

THERE WAS AN INTERVIEW WHERE YOU WERE QUOTED INSULTING TAYLOR SWIFT, HAVE YOU GOT ANY COMMENTS ON THAT? Joel: No no no, we don't know how that quote got in there.

Ellie: No it’s fine, basically Theo is in love with Miley Cyrus and the girl was trying to persuade us that Taylor Swift was better and so we were quoted saying "Fuck Taylor Swift".

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WHAT IF...

EVER WONDERED WHAT WOULD HAPPEN TO YOUR FAVOURITE STORY IF A CRUCIAL PLOT POINT OR CHARACTER HAD TAKEN A DIFFERENT PATH? IMPACT ARTS POSE OUR VERY OWN ‘WHAT IF’ QUESTIONS AND CONTINUE THE STORIES AFTER THE PLOTS AND CHARACTERS HAVE CHANGED. WHAT WILL HAPPEN NEXT, NOBODY KNOWS...

WHAT IF...

WHAT IF...

THE LORD OF THE RINGS

THE FAULT IN OUR STARS

GOLLUM DIDN’T FALL INTO THE CRACK OF DOOM? Frodo lashed out, dealing Gollum a blow to the head, and he fell to the ground, dead. The hobbit took the Ring and turned to leave Mount Doom. Distraught, Sam followed him.

Aragorn struggled against his bonds within the depths of Barad-dûr. He knew Gandalf to be the only other member of the Fellowship to have survived the battle, and had to help him.

Sam and Frodo awoke the next day in chains. The Ring was gone.

Sam turned and saw the sea of orcs outside the tower, a dread figure leading them. The Ring around one finger, Sauron was the Eye no longer. Sam was filled with a terrible hopelessness, and the years passed like falling leaves as he peered out of the window.

Gandalf reached out to Elrond and Galadriel, who were also captives in the tower, and they created a great spell which flowed across Middle Earth. Sauron’s armies remembered; they had been something more, part of a great race – the Elves. And so they turned against Sauron, returned to the tower and freed the prisoners. The wizards, hobbits and orcs came together to fight, and thus Sauron was defeated, and it was Sam who cut his power from him, climbed Mount Doom, cast the Ring into the fire and noticed that Gollum’s body was gone. But it was over. The Ring was destroyed.

ISAAC AND MONICA STAYED TOGETHER? "Always?"

"Always". Monica and Isaac were intertwined in a passionate embrace; as per usual. Hazel and Gus watched awkwardly from the sidelines; as per usual.

"Hey, you know the one good thing about you losing your eyes?"

Monica asked, twirling her boyfriend's hair affectionately.

"There's a silver lining?" Isaac returned, jokily.

"You can never again see a girl more beautiful than me". Monica's eyes speak with the emotion that Isaac's cannot. The pair may be cheesy to the extreme, but their love and passion for each other are real. Gus glances over to Hazel, but only allows himself a momentary glimpse.

He knows that, although his love for her is deep, true and pure, their relationship would not have time to reach the intensity of passion that Monica and Isaac feel for each other. For starters, he'd have to convince her that two cancer sufferers can and should date, which would involve telling her that his osteosarcoma has returned.

In short, Isaac and Monica are the ideal; the true, shining beacon of relationship perfection. And if he and Hazel weren't to have the time to reach the same echelon of love, why bother pursuing her? In a nutshell, any relationship between them would be fated to a short duration from the start. "Besides", Gus sighed internally, "What could she see in me? A one-legged ex-basketball player whose virginity weighs like a millstone around his neck”.

In another corner of the Shire, a frail old man lay in the shade of a tree by the river. ‘I used to call it “my precious”,’ he said to himself, again and again, blowing smoke rings from his pipe into the sky.

"We're going to go get a milkshake, you guys want to come?"

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WORDS BY ISLA MCLAUCHLEN IMAGE BY DWAYNE BENT VIA FLICKR

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WHAT IF...

WHAT IF...

ALICE IN WONDERLAND

ROMEO AND JULIET

ALICE’S SISTER FELL DOWN THE RABBIT HOLE? I followed the mysterious figure down the gloomy tunnel, and found myself falling. I’d left my sister, Alice, asleep on the bank, and wondered if and how I’d ever see her again. Down and down I fell, into the rabbit hole, until I landed with a thump in the middle of what appeared to be a tea party. “You’re late”, said a man wearing a large top hat, who was sat opposite me. “We’ve been expecting you”, what appeared to be a human-sized hare chided. “But...where am I?” I asked, looking around me at this wonderful land. An odd-looking house with chimneys shaped like ears and a fur-thatched roof rose ominously behind the two peculiar occupants of the table. It was strange, but I felt as though I had been in this curiouser and curiouser place before – perhaps in a dream?

“Why, you’re in Wonderland of course!” the Hare exclaimed. “Don’t you remember?” “Twinkle, twinkle little bat! How I wonder what you’re at!” the Hatter sang softly. “You remember the song perhaps?” Puzzled, I frowned, “I’ve heard something like it”. The March Hare and the Hatter (how did I know their names?) looked at each other. “There’s only one thing for it”, the Hare declared, solemnly dipping his pocket watch in his tea. I watched in alarm as the Hatter looked at me gravely and asked the question. The question that made everything clear. “Why is a raven like a writing desk?” he enquired. “Oh!” I gasped in shock. “She remembers!” said the Hare with a sigh of relief. It was true. The answer to that simplest of questions had indeed revealed why I was once more in Wonderland. It was my birthright and my inheritance. “Your mother, the Queen will be so happy you’ve come back to us”, the Hare smiled.

He was right. I was back. The Princess of Hearts had returned.

JULIET HAD WOKEN UP IN TIME TO SEE ROMEO? ACT 6 SCENE 1 Scene opens on Juliet waiting for her Romeo in their marriage home.

Family feuds settled since disaster was averted in the Capulet tomb three weeks previously, the star crossed lovers are now living out their lives of wedded bliss. Romeo enters.

J: My love! Why you have returned so late an hour! The hour is striking midnight and yet you have only just returned… pray where hast thou been?

R: My sweet love… please do not hark on. It is not a wife’s place to question me so. I was out for a few cups of wine with my dearest Benvolio.

J: Oh… well that is indeed strange my Lord.

R: Why so my sweet one?

J: Why Benvolio came by a few hours hence. He seemed most anxious to find you.

Romeo looks sheepish and turns away J: Thou has been chasing that Rosalind wench again!

R: Juliet listen my loJ: Enough! Not only art thou out each night chasing strumpets but thou also left all the washing up! You promised me most earnestly!

R: Why dost thou have to nag so?

J: Thou art kidding one’s self if you think thou art coupling in mine chamber tonight.

R: Maybe this marriage lark was a mistake after all.

FINIS

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THE PRICE OF ART Money and art have always gone hand in hand. If we look as far back as the Ancient Romans and Greeks, the title 'painter' or 'sculptor' has always related to someone who creates art for some financial or social gain. Over time these capitalist interests have developed into something much more, with the lines that divide the realms of celebrity and artistry becoming increasingly blurred. Since art began to fall under the grip of a booming international market over the past 50 years, issues of finance and wealth have dominated both discussion of the contemporary art world and the works produced within it.

“ITALIAN ARTIST PIERO MANZONI WAS PRODUCING CANS OF HIS OWN FAECES AND SELLING THEM BY WEIGHT FOR THEIR EQUIVALENT PRICE IN GOLD” The early 70s saw Andy Warhol create his famous silkscreen print Eight Elvises, which was later sold for $100 million. At the same time, the slightly lesser-known Italian artist Piero Manzoni was producing cans of his own faeces (yes, you read correctly) and selling them by weight for their equivalent price in gold.

If we fast-forward to today we see similar things still happening.

Damien Hirst struggled to find a buyer for his famous diamondencrusted skull due to its extensive sale price of £50 million. Tracey Emin, too, had a recent sale of her seminal piece My Bed at Christie's auction house, wherein its value had increased 15 fold since its last sale in 2000.

Whilst it is good to see that people are still interested enough in art to fork out such figures, the presence of this huge financially-driven market still begs the question: shouldn't art be for everyone? Surely artworks created today must be relevant and accessible to today's average viewer? Yet given the huge sums of money it would require to obtain a piece of contemporary art today, it's clear that engagement with this market has simply become a pastime for the elite.

“SAATCHI SINGLE-HANDEDLY RAISED A GENERATION OF CELEBRITY-COMEARTISTS, SEEN AS THE COLLECTOR WITH THE MIDAS TOUCH” Take Charles Saatchi for instance, the marketing mogul and supercollector who spends an average of £2 million a year to sustain his own displayed collection. It was his deep pockets that fuelled the Young British Artists of the 80s and 90s, and it was his professional past in advertising that turned figures like Hirst and Emin into branded cult figures who commodify themselves and their works. With a keen eye and a heavy wallet, Saatchi single-handedly raised a generation of celebrity-come-artists, seen as the collector with the midas touch.

If we couple this elitism - and elitism it is, both economic and intellectual - with institutions such as Sotheby's and Frieze, whose auctions and fairs facilitate this art market expansion, it becomes clear 68

that we live in a world of cultural capitalism. The art world of the 21st century is one that sees the art object as an investment, valued on its capacity to meet cultural trends and increase in monetary worth.

There is a huge difference between placing great financial value onto an artwork and genuinely appreciating the piece, and it is exactly that intellectual interest which gets lost amongst the auction rooms and the funded gallery openings.

But whilst we place a lot of this blame onto the institutions that embrace the art world's economic growth, it is often these galleries, museums and art schools that suffer the most. The sheer volume of money that passes through foundations like the Guggenheim has enabled the growth of their so-called 'chain galleries', with the company housing museums in New York, Bilbao, Venice, and developing a site in Abu Dhabi. This establishment of gallery-brands, an art world equivalent of Tesco or Sainsbury’s, is an issue that's both hugely detrimental and frequently overlooked.

Similarly, the rising economic value of the art world is something that can attract corporate sponsors who also wish to make a profit. It was only last year that the École des Beaux-Arts (arguably Paris' most influential art school) obtained a lucrative sponsorship with Ralph Lauren, which ended up severely effecting the artistic freedoms of its students and their access to certain studio spaces. This injustice was duly met with intense resistance by members of the school, who felt that director Nicolas Bourriaud had sold-out in some way, abusing a great financial opportunity in a way that negatively affected those it should have helped. Whilst money and art are a time-honoured pair, business and art rarely get on so well.

“AN ART WORLD EQUIVALENT OF TESCO OR SAINSBURY’S” Having said this, as institutions change, the art created for them changes too. When the market exploded just a few decades ago so did methods of artistic expression. Contemporary art has seen a rise in popularity for the conceptual and the performative, both of which favour ideas and expressions over the traditional exchangeable art object. Artists turn to these methods in an escape from high capitalism - a movement, a body, or an idea cannot be bought and sold as a sculpture or painting can.

Even when the works can be commodified within a market, the accessibility of its ideas and display can severely affect its price. Martin Creed is perhaps one of the most eminent conceptual artists alive today, yet his Turner Prize winning piece Work No. 227 (consisting of an empty room with lights flickering on and off) was purchased by the Tate after a valuation of just £110,000.

Jake and Dinos Chapman, contemporary art’s famous subversive siblings, suffer a similar curse. Their characteristically demonic and hellish dioramas average a surprisingly low asking price of £20,000 at auction. Where money is concerned, these artists still have nothing on Warhol. So, whilst it's a shame people no longer 'get' art, this might just be a blessing in disguise, providing some hope for the problems of its financial state after all.

WORDS BY AARON SHAW

69 PABLO PICASSO’S NUDE GREEN LEAVES AND BUST SOLD AT CHRISTIE'S IN NEW YORK FOR $106.5 MILLION EDVARD MUNCH’S THE SCREAM SOLD IN SOTHEBY'S FOR $119.9M (£74M)

PABLO PICASSO’S BOY WITH A PIPE SOLD IN SOTHEBY'S IN NEW YORK $104M GUSTAV KLIMT'S PORTRAIT OF ADELE BLOCH-BAUER SOLD FOR $135 MILLION

THE ‘GUESS THE PRICE’ GALLERY MAGAZINE

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LIVE THEATRE AT THE CINEMA A RECENT TREND HAS SEEN THEATRE COMPANIES SUCH AS RSC STREAMING LIVE THEATRE PERFORMANCES AT THE CINEMA. IS THIS A NEW, INVENTIVE WAY OF INTRODUCING MORE PEOPLE TO THEATRE OR A FAD, RUINING THE MAGIC AND EXPERIENCE OF GOING TO A LIVE PERFORMANCE?

IN FAVOUR OF SCREENING AGAINST SCREENING Surely anything that spreads theatre to a wider demographic is a step in the right direction. Varying camera angles allow viewers to get up close and personal with the actors. Some may argue this dictates what you can/can’t see, but I think this allows viewers to fully engage with the actors on stage. You can see flickers in the characters’ expressions and pick up on nuances that may be missed at the theatre.

“STREAMING LIVE PERFORMANCES IN CINEMAS ALSO MAKES THEATRE MORE ACCESSIBLE TO THE MASSES” Streaming live performances in cinemas makes theatre more accessible to the masses. With tickets costing as little as £15, experiencing these shows becomes more affordable to more people.

The sense of elitism that many associate with an expensive trip to the theatre is all but removed.

This recent fad began in June 2009, with the first NT broadcast of Phèdre and has been shattering the magic of theatre since. The ‘magic’ of theatre essentially amounts to the intimacy between actor and audience: something entirely absent in a performance screening.

The cinema is, fundamentally, a middleman, delivering secondary images and voices to the audience. It is impossible for actors to react in accordance with their audience’s emotions and heighten the dramatic experience via the big screen.

Attending the theatre is so remarkable simply because the audience know they are witnessing impulsive action. The actor-audience relationship stems from a certain proximity to the acting; an entire world is formed on a tiny stage, and the audience not only witnesses but also experiences this world along with the actors. A theatre audience feels the enlightenment, the loss, and the heartbreak within the voices of the characters alone, no matter how far from the stage they are seated. An observer of a dramatic screening only hears the cinema speakers.

GETTING THE THEATRE EXPERIENCE “THE CINEMA IS A MIDDLE MAN, FOR A FRACTION OF THE PRICE IS RARE DELIVERING SECONDARY IMAGES AND As a cash-strapped student who loves seeing shows, getting the VOICES TO THE AUDIENCE” theatre experience for a fraction of the price is rare. The prospect of bringing theatre into new, accessible formats for people like you and me, who can’t always afford to hop on a train to London is an exciting one indeed.

Streaming theatre shows at cinemas will allow more people to come together to experience something inspiring and, ultimately, create a sense of unity among those watching the show, wherever they are.

The factors that truly separate theatre performances from their screenings are spontaneity and intimacy. Actors feed off of their audience, pushing their emotions to the limit in response to their onlookers. This wholehearted effort simply cannot be ignored. Actors do not rehearse for weeks so that no one attends their performances, and backstage crews do not spend days setting up scenery otherwise easily superimposed in live broadcasts. Visiting the theatre is guaranteed to allure: capturing elements of the human condition that resonate, and creating emotional catharses that reveal insights into social, political or cultural contexts. And that, for me, is much more magical than popping down to your local cinema.

WORDS BY DANIELLA FINCH WORDS BY VICKY LORRIMAN IMAGES BY BIBLIOTECA DE ARTE VIA FLICKR 70

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ART NEWS ARE THE WOUNDS OF RACISM STILL RAW?

The days of segregation, slavery and the Jim Crow laws are firmly embedded in our past, and yet racism still remains at the forefront of the world’s most crucial political discussions. Art has always been controversial, challenging and political, but theatre has never quite caused such a public outrage as one production did this September.

Exhibit B, scheduled to be shown at The Vaults in London, was stopped and cancelled on its opening night on 23rd September 2014. The play, featuring an all black cast, was created in order to replicate the ‘human zoo’ of 19th century colonisation. Although an important social comment to address, critics argued that it reinforced rather than challenged the racism it commented on, a parody of suffering made worse by its invitation to the audience to laugh along with their sadistic game.

“THIS WAS MADE WORSE BY ITS INVITATION TO THE AUDIENCE TO LAUGH ALONG WITH THEIR SADISTIC GAME” I wonder whether the word ‘censorship’ even crossed their minds, especially when setting their minimum age as low as 14. Art censorship is already an unsettling concept that is an all too poignant reality in our society. Without it, art can be dangerous, but with it are we not just censoring our ability to express ourselves?

Theatre productions are also not new to criticism, as Richard’s Bean’s England People Very Nice (shown at the National Theatre in 2009) received similar anti-racist and negative publicity. Set in Bethnal Green, purporting to represent its racial mix of inhabitants, the play used crass humour and farcical laughs to mask racism. Although not completely cancelled, it received outrage at the cheap and inconsiderate way it addressed political issues.

However, theatre is not the only medium subject to critical public outrage, as September 2014 also saw the removal of a Banksy mural that was deemed ‘too racist’. A graffiti artist famous for his controversial and politically challenging street art, Banksy creates simple but effective works to reveal the naivety of today’s society. This particular work showed five grey pigeons holding up signs towards a more colourful swallow. The comedic value of many of Banksy’s work often undermines racial and sexual prejudice; this work however clearly went a step too far.

The closing of Exhibit B will not go down quietly, and thus it must be considered how this reflects on today’s society. The blame should not have been placed on the cast members or the production companies, but on the world in which we exist. The real troubling element is not that a show comments on racism but that on the stage, a platform of human expression, our expression is being limited.

Exhibit B made all too real the objectification of the black body. Shown previously in 12 cities and seen by nearly 25,000 people before closure it clearly represented a forward thinking movement over the country. However, the proliferation of criticism it received showed not that art had taken a step too far, but that society still remains ignorant of the wounds of its past.

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ARTS

INTERVIEW WITH...

RADHIKA SANGHANI

RADHIKA SANGHANI CURRENTLY IS A 23 YEAR OLD JOURNALIST WRITING ABOUT WOMEN AND WOMEN’S ISSUES. HAVING RECEIVED A BA IN ENGLISH LITERATURE FROM UNIVERSITY COLLEGE LONDON AND LATER HER MA IN NEWSPAPER JOURNALISM FROM CITY UNIVERSITY LONDON, SHE ALSO HAS NOW RELEASED HER DEBUT NOVEL VIRGIN. IMPACT ARTS MANAGED TO CATCH UP WITH RADHIKA TO DISCUSS VIRGIN, HER WRITING CAREER AND HER FUTURE ASPIRATIONS

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RADHIKA, HOW WOULD YOU DESCRIBE YOUR MOST RECENT RELEASE OF VIRGIN FOR SOMEBODY WHO HAD NEVER HEARD ABOUT IT? So it's basically about a 21 year old student who is still a virgin, not for lack of trying. She's desperate to just have sex and be 'normal', and take chlamydia tests at the uni doctor surgery like everyone else, so it follows her journey with that, but also along the way she figures out feminism, what to do post-graduation and how to deal with her pubes.

“WE GET A LOT OF GUYS WANTING TO DITCH THE V PLATES PRE-COLLEGE, ESPECIALLY WITH MOVIES LIKE AMERICAN PIE, BUT I FEEL LIKE WE DON'T GET THAT FOR GIRLS” THE BOOK IS BASED ON A STUDENT EXPERIENCE. HOW MUCH DID YOU DRAW FROM YOUR OWN STUDENT LIFE? My protagonist goes to the same university as I did - UCL - and we both studied English. So a lot of those basic details are the same, and obviously I picked up on the general student culture of drinking games like ‘Never Have I Ever’. But none of my personal stories or experiences are in the book. It's more just the kind of stuff I saw, like the different cliques.

CAN YOU RELATE TO ELLIE (THE NOVEL’S MAIN PROTAGONIST) OR WAS IT A PURELY NEW CONSTRUCTION? Ellie is completely fictional - her journey, her experiences and her friends are all made up. But they are based on real life - not just mine. A lot of her stories are things my girl friends told me, so she's kind of like an amalgamation of all my friends. I can relate to her in that we're both 20-something millennials, and we're young women with all the issues that brings, but her story isn't mine.

WHY WRITE ABOUT LOSING YOUR VIRGINITY? IT IS CLEARLY SOMEWHAT OF A TABOO SUBJECT SO DID YOU WANT TO PUT A FUNNIER TWIST ON A SOMEWHAT UNSPOKEN LITERARY SUBJECT? Yes definitely! I feel like no one ever discusses girls wanting to lose their virginity. We get a lot of guys wanting to ditch the V plates pre-college, especially with movies like American Pie, but I feel like we don't get that for girls. We're always fed this idea that girls want candles and petals, but I just don't think that's the reality anymore. I feel like it's also important to be funny about it. In general conversation, sex - or the lack of - is often hilarious, but I feel like that comedy doesn't always make it into literature.

“I WORK 50 HOUR WEEKS, SO I FELT LIKE SOME THINGS HAD TO GO” NOW, IN REGARDS TO HOW YOU BEGAN, DID YOU ALWAYS WANT TO WRITE OR WAS IT A PROCESS WHICH DEVELOPED OVER TIME? Both. I've always written - as a teen I experimented with poems and short stories, and then I became a journalist, so obviously I'm always writing for my day job at the Telegraph's Wonder Women section. But I never thought I'd actually be an author. Virgin just happened because I had an idea, found the time to write it, and just sat down and wrote the book in a very strange month.

HOW DID YOU BALANCE WORKING AND WRITING? DID YOU HAVE TO SACRIFICE CERTAIN ELEMENTS OF LIVING? Definitely. This year I've really had to quit going out properly on weekends because then you lose the next day feeling tired. So I've swapped going to bars to going for dinners, and I've stopped exercising. That isn't so healthy, but I work 50 hour weeks, so I felt like some things had to go.

ARE THERE ANY WRITERS/BOOKS WHICH PARTICULARLY INSPIRED YOU? IF SO, HOW? I really love authors like Caitlin Moran because she's hilarious and so honest about what it's like to be a woman. That definitely inspired me to be brave with my book, but also - this sounds really weird - but I love Victorian writers like Mary Elizabeth Braddon. She had to write to feed her family, and she wrote these huge popular books in incredibly short spaces of time. Writers like that make me feel like I should stop whining about writers' block and just do it.

SO DO YOU PLAN TO CONTINUE WRITING BOOKS? WOULD THERE BE ANY SUBJECTS WHICH YOU WOULD WANT TO ADDRESS? Yes definitely - I'm already writing the sequel to Virgin now, where I go a bit further into topics like slut shaming.

YOU RECENTLY WERE A RUNNER UP IN GQ’S NORMAN MAILER WRITING COMPETITION. DID IT HAVE AN EFFECT ON YOUR CAREER, AND HOW MUCH WOULD YOU RECOMMEND ENTRY FOR SUCH CONTESTS? It was definitely a great thing to happen because it just boosted my CV and, as an aspiring writer, things like that always catch the eye of potential agents and publishers because it just proves you can write.

I'd say that aspiring writers should enter as many competitions as possible.

“I KNOW IT SEEMS LIKE IT WILL NEVER BE PUBLISHED, BUT YOU WON'T KNOW TILL YOU'VE TRIED” FINALLY, WHAT WOULD BE YOUR KEY PIECE OF ADVICE FOR ASPIRING STUDENT WRITERS? I think the most important thing is to actually write! As a student you're so busy doing so many things that it's hard to find the time to sit down and carve out a few hours to write. If you want to become an author, it's so great to try writing a novel. I know it seems like it will never be published, but you won't know till you've tried. Also, it doesn't matter if it isn't because even just practising will be hugely helpful. I wrote a novel when I was at uni that was absolutely awful and will never see the light of day. But I learnt so much writing it, so when I actually had a good idea and wanted to write, I had a vague idea of how to do it.

WORDS BY JAMES HAMILTON

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SPORTS EDITORIAL The big trophies might be handed out in May, but we’re beginning to get a sense of where they could be heading. Chelsea have started the new Premier League strongly and are understandably title favourites.

Mourinho’s teams typically improve markedly in his second season and this Chelsea side look no different. Diego Costa and Cesc Fábregas have made them far more penetrative, while they look typically robust defensively. However, with 30 odd games to go, I still think they are far too short a price at 1/2. There is massive scope for change with so many games and months remaining, and so many variables that could alter the course of the championship race.

“KEEP UP TO DATE WITH IMPACT FOR RECENT RESULTS AND ACHIEVEMENTS” Manchester City still possess arguably the strongest starting 11, and are a side truly worth the admission money when they put their mind and bodies to it. It seems as if Arsenal, Manchester United and Liverpool will compete for the remaining two Champions League places. While it may be beyond any of those three teams to win the title, I still think one will emerge from the pack to push Chelsea and City, at least until March time.

Southampton and Swansea, who many expected to struggle, have enjoyed fast starts. They went about their appointments and transfer business in the summer in a measured and calm manner, refusing to give in to the madness of silly season. Which is precisely what QPR did, and they are reaping the painful seeds that were sown by their bizarre transfer policy. Burnley do have some of the energy levels QPR lack and have been competitive, but too many home draws might prove to be their undoing this season. For the third team to be relegated, close your eyes and put a pin in the bottom half of the league table.

In other sports, Europe successfully retained the Ryder Cup. In terms of the standard of golf on show, it was one of the great Ryder Cups, though the comfortable nature of Europe’s win meant that it perhaps wasn’t so great in terms of drama. The Ryder Cup scales have been tipped towards Europe for nearly 20 years now, and one feels the balance might need addressing one way or the other.

Elsewhere, Kevin Pietersen’s new book looks actually to be the beginning, rather than the conclusion, of one of the ugliest, toe-curling episodes in the history of English cricket. The outcome of the whole thing? Not terribly much we didn’t know before. The dressing room of the English cricket team contains some unsavoury characters. And the ECB didn’t deal with the dispute very well. If you’re stuck for stocking fillers, that book alongside Roy Keane’s autobiography will assure the conversation flows over the turkey and trimmings.

In this issue, Impact Sport looks at the controversial price rise of a Sports Centre membership at UoN, which water sports facilities are on your Nottingham doorstep and what the University has to offer in terms of snowsports and futsal.

Keep up to date with Impact for recent results and achievements as sports clubs and intramural sports (IMS) teams begin their seasons, before we bring you the annual sports extravaganza against noisy neighbours Nottingham Trent that is the Varsity Series – which this year will be contested with new events and in a condensed three-week period over Easter.

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SPORTS CENTRE PRICE RISE: JUSTIFIED? After years of complaining about the price of the University Sports Centre, this summer UoN students were shocked at the announcement of a flat-rate fee for all sports centre goers and club members. It was not the low cost many had (perhaps unrealistically) desired, but instead a large increase from the previous base rate up to £135 for the year’s membership.

The reaction from students was immediate, with the creation of a petition that circulated social media, largely supported by sports club presidents and members. There was instant concern for what this price hike would mean for the clubs, and if it could potentially mean the end for some. The presidents were seemingly excluded in the discussions for the price increase and some claim to have been unaware of it happening until it was announced.

The previous system offered by the Sports Centre was a three-tiered option that allowed students to choose a payment based on their usage of the facilities. The minimum payment, a bronze membership, was £69 for the year. This was compulsory for sports team members who used any of the Centre’s services - giving access to the 3G, grass pitches and sports halls for training. Silver membership was £120, which offered much of the same as bronze, but with the added benefit of free use of the swimming facilities. Only with the gold membership at £199 were you able to have full access to all facilities, including the gym. This system with three choices of payments was particularly attractive to less popular sports teams as it enabled those who did not desire the full gym membership to pay for their use of the 3G, fields and sports halls without the added cost of the gym.

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On the one hand, the new £135 flat-rate system that has been introduced by the Sports Centre works out as a relatively low rate of £11.25 per month. And with the four weeks of the Christmas and Easter breaks as well as the three months of summer taken out, it results in £19 a month, which is a low cost for what the membership offers. To help understanding the jump in cost, the Sports Centre has even provided information on the cost of other universities’ gym memberships: UNIVERSITY OF NOTTINGHAM: £135 NOTTINGHAM TRENT UNIVERSITY: £120 DURHAM UNIVERSITY: £120 LOUGHBOROUGH UNIVERSITY: £199 UNIVERSITY OF BIRMINGHAM: £203 BATH UNIVERSITY: £346 *NOTE: THIS DOES NOT TAKE INTO ACCOUNT SPECIAL TREATMENT FOR 1ST TEAMS. This price increase has come with some upsides. The recent upgrade to the Jubilee Campus facilities with 100 stations, a ‘functional training room’, and a ‘spinning studio’ can certainly be said to be worth the money for the University’s successful sports teams. The Sports Centre boasts that ‘more classes than ever’ are on offer, all of which are covered under the new membership.

The membership also offers discount prices for pitch and turf hire, enabling sports teams to train at a discount price outside of their allocated times. Additionally, this cheaper rate of full gym membership means that the sports teams are able to develop as a team, with

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everyone having access to the same sports facilities. The price decrease for full membership, down from £199, has been welcomed by a lot of sports students who would have previously not wanted to pay such a price for the full gym membership.

“SPORTS CLUB PRESIDENTS WERE SEEMINGLY EXCLUDED IN THE DISCUSSIONS AND SOME CLAIM TO HAVE BEEN UNAWARE OF IT HAPPENING UNTIL IT WAS ANNOUNCED” But there are some drastic drawbacks that will ultimately affect the number of people participating in sport at UoN. The first is the cost. As pointed out, it is a relatively low cost compared to other universities, and offers great value for money. However, it is a huge jump from the base rate of the bronze membership offered at £69. This increase in cost brings the fear that freshers, already riddled with financial anxiety, will be even more reluctant to join a university sport. Previously, the £69 could be justified to people who wanted to try a new sport, but not dedicate themselves to the gym, but now this higher cost is offering benefits that they would not originally have to pay for.

It has also been pointed out that the price increase could also be potentially damaging to the more obscure sports that are often only an option at university. Asking students to invest a large sum of money into a sport that they have never experienced risks alienating a great number of people against trying new sports.

President of UoN Dodgeball, Lawrence Seatree, expressed one of his main concerns being for the existing members of the relatively small club. He said that “traditionally dodgeball has been popular amongst final year students” and that the club will “have to prepare for the fact that [they] may lose some of this intake”. He also adds

that this is especially a concern with the Medics in the club, who might not be willing to pay so much for just the occasional training sessions. It should be noted that Seatree does not hesitate to point out the benefits of this new system of pay, noting that a number of the previous members of the club purchased gold membership, and the change would come as a reduction for them.

The smaller clubs are not the only ones to suffer. There is the fear amongst the larger sports clubs that this new price will alienate existing members of the club, who are already required to pay large sums to join before even being able to play. These larger clubs are less concerned with first-year students, who they believe will pay the new prices, but fear for their returning members, who are all too aware of the costs of the sports clubs.

While the Sports Centre is under no obligation to include the presidents in discussions, there was a general feeling among the students that some form of consultation before action would have been greatly appreciated. Former President of UoN Women’s Basketball, Elle Allen, expressed her displeasure with the membership price increase being in the “lack of information” given and “the way it was done”. She stated that she felt like “the students were the last to know” despite the fact that she thought the “access to facilities for all [would] be very beneficial to many clubs”. This feeling was expressed by a number of club presidents across a range of sports.

Despite the general dislike for having to pay more money for access to the gym, there was quite a lot of understanding amongst students as to why the sports centre had increased their prices and the necessity of this. The upgraded facilities, commitment to continue improving the Riverside Sports Complex and the distant promise of another 3G pitch could be seen as justifying the cost increase. The anger from students came mostly at the lack of warning given from the Sports Centre and the lack of involvement with club presidents in the discussions. We will see over the course of the year whether the financial change off the pitch makes a difference on it.

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WHAT’S AT YOUR UNI? FUTSAL IMPACT SPORT SPOKE TO UON FUTSAL SOCIAL MEDIA OFFICER ISAAC GRIFFITHS TO FIND OUT MORE ABOUT THE SPORT THAT HELPED PRODUCE RONALDO, MESSI AND PELÉ…

WHAT MAKES FUTSAL DIFFERENT FROM FOOTBALL?

Futsal is essentially the FIFA-approved version of 5-a-side football.

Apart from the obvious difference of the number of players there are several others. Futsal is played with goals similar to those used in handball (not the wide, low ones often used in 5-a-side). The main difference people usually pick up on is the ball. Futsal uses a slightly smaller, heavier ball than football which means it travels faster along the floor. On top of this there are also roll-on roll-off substitutions with no limit on the number that can be made. There are a few more technical rules such as the number of times the keeper can possess the ball, but these can all be picked up fairly quickly.

“FUTSAL HELPS DEVELOP CERTAIN SKILLS THAT CAN BE NEGLECTED IN THE TRADITIONAL GAME” CAN FUTSAL HELP DEVELOP THE ENGLISH GAME AT GRASSROOTS LEVEL?

Yes, I think it can. Countries like Brazil and Spain incorporate futsal very heavily in youth football. Futsal helps develop certain skills that can be neglected in the traditional game with a heavy focus on ball control and speed. With players like Ronaldo, Messi and Pelé being the product of futsal there is an obvious correlation.

WHAT KINDS OF KEY SKILLS MAKE A GOOD FUTSAL PLAYER?

A good futsal player needs to have good close control, passing and creativity. In futsal thinking and acting quickly is very important due to the smaller size of the pitch. Like in basketball, set-pieces and tactics can be very effective as well due to the low number of players on the pitch.

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DO YOU TAKE PART IN ANY COMPETITIONS OR EVENTS?

This year we have three teams who are all taking part in BUCS interuniversity competitions. On top of this, the first-team competes in the FA National League, the highest standard of futsal in the country. We also compete in the FA Futsal Cup (the futsal equivalent of the FA Cup) and various regional competitions.

DOES IT COST MUCH TO PLAY AND TRAIN WEEK IN, WEEK OUT? Like most university sports clubs you need a sports membership to play for our club. However unlike many other clubs our membership is very low at £20 which is paid in two instalments over the year.

Additionally, we run social futsal sessions on Fridays between 6pm and 7pm on University Park – these sessions are free if you have sports membership, or just £1 if you don’t.

WHAT’S THE SOCIAL SIDE OF THE CLUB LIKE?

The team is pretty active socially and over the course of the year you get to make good friends through the club. Last year we went on tour to Salou, Spain and came home victorious. A return visit this year is on the cards. We hold fairly frequent socials including nights out as well as club meals. This year’s new social secretary is Andy Hillarby, the selfproclaimed ‘Wildman of the North’, and we are sure he’ll have many surprises up his sleeve.

HOW CAN UON STUDENTS GET INVOLVED?

If you’re interested in getting involved this year, the best way to get in contact with us is through our Facebook (NottsFutsal), Twitter (@ UoNFutsal) or email (uonfutsal@gmail.com). Alternatively, feel free to just turn up to the Friday evening social sessions.

WORDS BY JOHN MASTRINI IMAGES BY UON FUTSAL

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WHAT’S AT YOUR UNI? SNOWSPORTS AS WE APPROACH THE WINTERY MONTHS, IMPACT SPORT CAUGHT UP WITH UON SNOWSPORTS PRESIDENT FERGUS HAFTER TO TALK ABOUT SKIING AND SNOWBOARDING OPPORTUNITIES FOR STUDENTS…

IN GREY, CONCRETE-CLAD ENGLAND, HOW DID YOU GET INTO SNOWSPORTS?

I started snowsports from a young age because my family has been skiing for a long time, and my first experience came in Scotland of all places. However, I discovered ski racing through a friend, who recommended I went down to a training session at Wycombe Ski Centre (now closed) when I was 11. With the large number of indoor domes and dry ski slopes, it’s actually quite easy to give snowsports a go away from the Alps.

WHICH SPORTS ARE OFFERED BY THE SNOWSPORTS CLUB?

At UoN Snowsports we have all your snow-related needs covered. If you’ve never skied or boarded before, we run weekly beginner lessons at Stoke Ski Centre. If you fancy trying something new, improving your skills or carrying on from where you left off before uni, we also run training sessions for both racing and freestyle. Both skiers and boarders can come to any of these sessions, which take place in indoor domes and on dry ski slopes throughout the year. And last but definitely not least, we run two unbelievable trips to the Alps each year (guaranteed to be one of the best weeks at uni).

do ask that you must be a competent skier or boarder before you try them, but you don’t have to have any specific racing or freestyle experience to give them a go.

MANY SNOWSPORTS APPEAR FAIRLY COSTLY IN TERMS OF START-UP COSTS. WHAT WOULD YOU SAY TO ASSURE PEOPLE?

Getting involved in snowsports at uni is by far the best and cheapest way to do it. All of our sessions are heavily subsidised, meaning that members can go regularly and improve without breaking the bank.

The prices always include full equipment rental and travel to make sure our members get the best deal, and from experience your fellow snow kids are always very happy to lend or sell on their equipment if you’re in need. Finally, we work closely with sponsors to get some excellent discounts and deals for any member, which will save you a lot of money in the long run.

IF SOMEBODY WISHES TO JOIN, HOW SHOULD THEY GO ABOUT DOING SO?

“ALL OF OUR SESSIONS ARE HEAVILY SUBSIDISED, MEANING THAT MEMBERS CAN GO REGULARLY AND IMPROVE WITHOUT BREAKING THE BANK”

IS PRIOR EXPERIENCE NECESSARY TO JOIN AND PARTICIPATE?

Our Christmas trip to Tignes (12th-20th December) for a base price of just £359. Places are selling out fast so if you want to come get booking quickly. It promises to be a brilliant week, and over the coming few weeks we’ll have plenty of announcements about all the events we’ll be running when we’re out in the Alps. If our last trip to Tignes is anything to go by, the snow should be pretty incredible as well!

It’s really easy to become part of our wonderful club. All you have to do is visit our page on the SU website and select Standard Membership.

Once you’ve done this, head over to our Facebook page, which has all the information about the events and the sessions we run over the year, any of which members are welcome to come along to.

We want as many people as possible to get involved, so you don’t have to have any experience of (or even completely understand) snowsports if you want to try them for the first time. For racing and freestyle, we

WHERE WOULD YOU RECOMMEND FOR A SKIING HOLIDAY THIS WINTER?

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WHAT’S ON OFFER? Many of you are probably unaware that on the outskirts of Nottingham lies Holme Pierrepoint Country Park, on which resides the National Water Sports Centre. This unique facility offers a myriad of sporting activities that are neither typically available nor accessible. If you’re interested in becoming competitive in a new sport, having a day out with mates or just fancy getting soaked, then the National Water Sports Centre is worth a look.

“IF YOU’RE INTERESTED IN BECOMING COMPETITIVE IN A NEW SPORT, HAVING A DAY OUT WITH MATES OR JUST FANCY GETTING SOAKED, THEN THE NATIONAL WATER SPORTS CENTRE IS WORTH A LOOK” The facility contains a 700m white water rafting course, where they provide qualified guides to show people how to navigate the winding route. This course is one of the only gravity-fed in the UK, which means that rather than water being pumped in to create the effect of rapids, the course utilises the flow of the nearby River Trent. This also makes it environmentally friendly. There is a wakeboard park where water skiing, wakeboarding and kneeboarding can be tried, with provisions to suit both the novice and the seasoned hand.

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WHAT’S ON YOUR DOORSTEP?

WATERSPORTS

Courses and taster sessions are on offer in canoeing and kayaking as well as sailing and powerboating. Fully accredited certifications can be gained from passing such courses at the National Water Sports Centre.

These sports all take place on the Centre’s 2km regatta lake. While taster sessions are offered, they are happy to enrol complete beginners onto their courses (with the one demand that you can swim). If you fancy keeping your feet on terra firma then the Centre offers mini golf, cycle hire, Segways, the Sky Trail, e-combat laser tag and an adventure activity course.

minutes and conveniently terminates at Adbolton Lane, which is by the entrance to the Water Sports Centre.

But it’s not all high-fives and team building exercises. The National Water Sports Centre is a serious sporting arena. It has hosted the World Rowing Championships, the National Schools’ Regatta, Great Britain National Championships and the British University Sports Association Regatta, as well as numerous triathlons.

“A CANOEING TASTER SESSION THAT LAST 90 MINUTES WILL SET YOU BACK £15, WHILE THE ONE-DAY BRITISH CANOEING 1-STAR COURSE COSTS £85”

COST Due to the varied nature of activities offered, there is quite the price list. Adventure Packages, which involve a day’s white water rafting, are priced at £220 for a raft of 6-7 people, or £50 for an individual raft (including all clothing, equipment and expert guidance). A canoeing taster session that last 90 minutes will set you back £15, while the oneday British Canoeing 1-Star Course costs £85. Away from the water, a £9 package will buy you one use of the Sky Trail, one round of minigolf, and ten minutes on the Segway track.

Variety is the buzzword as far as the National Water Sports Centre is concerned. Such a wide range of options caters for a plethora of customers. Whether you’re interested in learning a new skill, splashing out on a society social white water rafting, or competing in elite level competition, it might well be worth taking the plunge.

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TRAVEL

The Centre is located on the other side of West Bridgford travelling from town, opposite Colwick Park racecourse. This rules walking out of the question, so it will be probably be worth getting a bus if you don’t drive. The number 11 bus departs from Victoria Centre every 15 81

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