Impact Magazine #251 by Impact Magazine

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IMPACT

Letter from the ARTISTIC DIRECTOR

Hello

there reader, it’s Poppy here, Artistic Director. First off, thank you for picking Impact up! I promise it’s worth it. Secondly, you might be wondering why I’m writing the editorial, right? Well, here at Impact we like to mix it up, so, hi! You’ve picked this up maybe because you fancy a bit of light reading, you’re bored, you’re a hardcore fan or you’re just curious as to what’s inside these pages. Amongst all the choices we students are making at the moment, I can assure you that you’ve made the right one in picking Impact up. It means a lot seeing you holding the final printed product after I’ve had tantrums over paper weights, typefaces, pixel resolutions, white space and so on. Basically just THANK YOU. Now I’ll get to the point of this and give you a little sneak peak of what you’re about to discover in #251. Now Portland is almost complete, our News team have constructed a timeline of the redevelopment over the last few years, while Features rant about what we think should be banned at University (cough, smoking, cough). The ladies of Lifestyle challenge themselves to find the coolest, yet cheapest outfits from Nottingham’s charity and vintage shops. In our photoshoot we go back to the 90s to relive those Clueless vibes - “pretty groovy, huh?” - and Rhys tells us how to declutter and sort our shit out. Caught on Campus is back in this issue, so keep your eyes peeled to see if your style caught our eye. Traverse through Bromley House with Entertainment and get all the insights from the University of Nottingham’s skydivers with Sport. My favourite piece that I encourage everyone to read is about gyming your way to academic success, proving that we should all get sweaty at least once a day because not only does it make us feel good, but it also helps our brains!

Lastly, I would like to take this chance to chat about Impact’s design, as that is my job after all. At the beginning of this year, in early August, I gave our logo a bit of a revamp. Along with this, design in general has also been revamped. My aim was to bring Impact down to earth again, as I felt like we were getting too serious for students. With a modernised logo and a less corporate typeface, I’ve attempted to make the magazine look younger and more creative. Yes, I love paper, I love fonts, I love illustration, but most of all I love being a student, so I really wanted to emphasise that we are a magazine made by students, made for students. This wouldn’t have been possible without support from the rest of the team, so thank-you to the Impact family for backing me up on this. And to you, who has picked this magazine up, I hope you feel the rays of sunshine coming off the pages just as I do.

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Ok, so without getting too emotional over how paper feels when you flick pages, I’ll love you and leave you to read at your leisure. Now, I’m off to make some avo toast.

INTRO

news features Consider Yourself A University Drop Out? Spotlight On: STAR Join The Banned

08 10 12

entertainment Lunch With Jon McGregor So Much Media, So Little Time Traversing Through Bromley House Judging An Album By Its Cover? How Far Can Open World Games Go? The Nottingham Creatives Size Matters? The Truth Behind Fiction

36 38 40 42 44 46 47 48

Portland, Are We There Yet? Welcome To The University Of Nottingham

04 06

lifestyle Frugal Fashion High Fashion: Why The High Cost? Caught On Campus Rhys’s Pieces Of Lifestyle Advice Exposure The Case For A British Holiday Photoshoot: Clueless UoN Scientific Breakthroughs Gym Your Way To Academic Success

14 18 20 22 24 26 30 33 34

sport Hitting Sixes In The Emirates ‘As Long As We’ve Got The Cup’ That’s Not Flying, That’s Falling With Style A Sporting ‘Society’ With An Unofficial Varsity

50 52 54 56

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Portland, are we there yet? SEPT 2015 The Studio opens as part of Phase One

JULY 2014 CrowdDNA student research

OCT 2016 Mooch Terrace and Peace Garden open, Theatre Garden opens

OCT 2016 Back of house staff office spaces completed and opened

FEB 2017 Work begins on Phase 3

DEVELOPMENT T

NOV 2016 Front entrance to Portland Building extended and big screen installed

IMELINE

JAN 2018 Portland Hill redevelopment completed

OCT 2017 Welcome Zone opens, B-Floor retail centre opens

NEWS

Marvel Kalu Is Portland finally a recognisable Students’ Union building?

Before leaving for the Christmas break you may have noticed a few changes to the Portland Building. The most notable ones were perhaps the Welcome Zone and the Portland café, which have provided students and staff with more places to sit between lectures, grab a coffee and socialise with friends in the Portland Building. All of these changes seen in Portland are due to the Portland Redevelopment project, the four-phase plan set to improve the facilities and social spaces for students on University Park campus. It started in 2013 when the Activities Officer and the President at the time, took then-Vice-Chancellor Sir David Greenaway and other senior managers from the University of Nottingham to see Leeds and Sheffield Students’ Union buildings, as inspiration for the potential space that Portland could be. Portland is such a busy building, sometimes attracting 18,000 students throughout the day. However, it is not an easy place to navigate, and as described on the Student Union website, Portland is “a space about students, for students.” Therefore, one of the main objectives of the redevelopment was to re-define the purpose of the building through its structure of space. Evidently, plans turned into action, which in turn has resulted in stray ladders and blocked off corridors. Despite the well-needed updates, not many students are aware of the extent of Portland’s updates. Impact got in contact with James Hale, Senior Capital Projects Officer, to further establish what is left with the redevelopments and the challenges faced. From all of the redevelopments, which phase or particular location has proven to be the most challenging and why? “The new retail corridor on level B was the most challenging, as it involved a lot of enabling works, including relocating the Student Advice Centre and Student Services prior to commencement on site. The actual refurbishment works had their own challenges due to the construction of the building”.

Which has been the one most demanded from students and the most need for change? “The circulation spaces are the hardest to manage as you have to ensure safe working environments, and ensure there is still safe and accessible access for all staff students whilst the work is continuing. “In terms of where needed the most attention, the general corridor and circulation spaces were/are looking tired and old, and required updating”. When is the last phase, Phase 4, set to be completed? “Enabling works for Phase 4 have already commenced, but these will be less noticeable at this stage. The main works are not going to commence until the end of the term. Plans are to get as much of this completed as possible for the start of term. We have learnt many lessons from the first phases and are implanting some of these to try and avoid some of the issues faced in the first three phases”.

“The main issues have been limited access and lack of communication to students of what to expect in the redevelopment” The overall feedback for the redevelopment so far is generally positive. However, after talking to a few students, they told Impact that the main issues have been limited access and lack of communication to students of what to expect in the redevelopment. This is despite the University having an active blog of Portland redevelopment updates. Yet with one last phase until Portland reaches its final form, Portland is starting to find its charm once again, and as one student put it, “It’s becoming more obvious that Portland is the central hub of [University Park] campus”.

Image courtesy of: Alexander Tang, University of Nottingham via Flickr

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Welcome to the Amirah de Bourg How effective is the social mixing between international and home students? The University of Nottingham (UoN) prides itself on being a global university, with campuses in both Malaysia and China, and over the years the relationship between both overseas campuses and the University have flourished. An example of UoN’s global solidarity is the hosting of HRH Prince Charles at UoN’s Malaysia campus (UNMC) late last year. The visit was a part of his traditional autumn tour and proved to be hugely successful. In addition, earlier this year, UoN was awarded the prestigious ‘Services to Education’ category award, representative of the university’s contribution to UK-China relations. Hosting exchange students for the length of their degree is supposedly representative of the community cohesion between the three campuses. This has been reflected in recent years, with the influx of Chinese and Malaysian students coming to study in Nottingham. Nonetheless, it seems that the University has concentrated its efforts into building partnerships that prioritise business and investment, whilst neglecting the social ramifications: the segregation of international exchange students.

“Culture, as well as not starting university together from first-year has a bigger impact on the segregation than anything else”

Impact spoke to both Malaysian and Chinese students, who mentioned that the reclusive conduct of most international students is largely due to a cultural divide and a slight language barrier. Ju Ean Tan, a twinning Malaysian student in his fourth year, told Impact: “I generally feel that culture, as well as not starting university together from first-year (which is where you begin networking) has a bigger impact on the segregation than anything else. I know a couple of Malaysian friends who are close to UK/EU students just because they started their first year on the UK campus.” In order to try to fix this problem, he acknowledges that one’s ability to maximise your availability as a new student is key, and in order to do this, you have to join societies that are not culture related.

“At the end of the day, it will depend on the individual’s personality” “Malaysians tend to stick with other Malaysians/Singaporeans because of background and common interests, such as good Malaysian food”, Ju explains. “Joining clubs and societies that are not culture-related will help with getting to know others”. He does, however, link the degree of adaptation into the UK social scene down to the individual’s desire to

mingle: “At the end of the day, it will depend on the individual’s personality.” Most exchange students fail to network because of the general difficulty of befriending people so unfamiliar with their traditions, lifestyle and language, something that a second-year Chinese exchange student confirmed. “For me, [an issue] is that my English is still not good enough to communicate with [home-based students] naturally and fluently”. She also goes on to mention that she also experiences “culture shock, and that there is a lot to learn”.

“The Students’ Union has a dedicated post for an international coordinator in the Welcome Week committee” One of the SU International Officers, Hemanth Kalathuru, said that two major reasons for the lack of social integration between campuses are due to differences in languages and culture, which is explicitly noticeable when it comes to clubbing and drinking. Hemanth, however, confirmed the impending introduction of strategies tailored to comfort and bring about the inclusion of Malaysian and Chinese students: “For the very first time, the Students’ Union has dedicated a post for an international coordinator in the

NEWS

University of Nottingham

Welcome Week committee, to solely cater for international students’ events”.

“Joining clubs and societies that are not culture-related will help with getting to know others” In addition, the SU team have also implemented a policy that has restricted alcohol consumption in halls. “It used to be the case that alcoholic events such as Ocean or Rock City could be subsidised before in halls,” Hemanth explained. “But not anymore; the SU want to encourage more participation in non-alcoholic events, which make it more inclusive to both home and international students”. The Students’ Union does seem to be aware of the split experienced by exchange students and home-based students, but work is still needed until exchange students from these abroad campuses truly feel as if they are integrated into their new society.

IMPACT

Consider yourself a

university drop out? Natasha Manohar Impact spoke to ex-students of the University of Nottingham to find the truth behind why people leave university from those that had done it themselves.

You’ve just had exams, a really nice break, and now you’re back to the reality of university work. It just doesn’t stop, does it? We’ve all considered dropping out of uni at least once. Especially on those days when you’re trying to concentrate in a 9am lecture when all you’re actually doing is mapping out the escape route to the nearest toilet whilst the alcohol from last night is churning in your stomach. We’ve all made that threat to our parents saying that we will ‘just drop out’ when things get tough, but we really don’t mean it. After the mental breakdown has subsided, we begrudgingly return back to the reality of university life. But why is it that people drop out of university? Is having the freedom to do what you want when you want really so unappealing? I talked to a few ex-students, to find the truth behind why people leave university, from those that had done it themselves.

University can be a lonely experience. For first-year students, being in halls with new people is scary, and living in a house in second year is even scarier as it turns out that people aren’t always who you first thought they were. What’s more, once first year is over people start to find their interests and friends, so tend to be out a lot more, which makes the house quiet and scary.

“What feels nice about being in your room with nothing to do?” Molly Johnson*, a current student told me that she dropped out because at night she’d feel overwhelmingly lonely and isolated: “It gets too much after a while: I know my friends like their alone time, but what feels nice about being in your room with nothing to do?”. Sometimes there’s only so much time you can spend alone using Facetime to compensate for the loneliness. In this essence, some people drop out

because the social aspect is unfulfilling. By Christmas-time she had left, deciding instead that she would look for an apprenticeship: ‘I’d rather not give uni another chance, I don’t fancy living in a lonely environment again’. Another ex-student, Katie Barns*, told me that “This uni wasn’t [her] first choice, and it didn’t live up to [her] expectation of what a business degree would be like”. By doing a course that she wasn’t as interested in, she lost interest very quickly, and dropped after a month. “The modules were horrible, and I didn’t even get along with half the people there”. After reapplying to the university, she originally wanted to go to, but after a few weeks she realised that, not only didn’t she like the course, but the whole experience. “I imagined being at uni to be fun and my course to be interesting, but it wasn’t. Going to lectures was a chore, and the work I had to do wasn’t even enjoyable. When I’d get home and I would be too tired to cook and clean.” Being in education

FEATURES

seemed a lot like school, but worse—as there was no-one telling her what to do—Katie had to find the motivation herself. This is something a lot of people struggle with. Having too much independence a shock: whilst some people relish in balancing a social life, work life, and looking after yourself, others struggle.

at a particular university that you had your heart set on can be a key contributing factor for wanting to leave; for some it can make or break the university experience. The social aspect was never an issue for Josh: “I’ve made a ton of friends that I know I’ll keep contact with, but I just can’t physically do a course that I really don’t like.”

“ I just cannot physically do a course that I really don’t like”

The whole prospect of going to a university and getting a degree seems ideal whilst we’re still at school, and naturally, seems like the next step to take. There’s not a set reason as to why someone should or would drop out of university. Some people love their course, but the idea of being alone is too overwhelming and scary. Whilst other students either picked the wrong degree or found that their course just wasn’t as enticing as they thought it would be. It is a common belief that you need a degree to be successful or even intelligent, but this is not the case. Success is in your hands.

Another student, Josh Smith, left university because he did not see the point of doing a course that wasn’t fulfilling: “it’s just not worth the money in my opinion” he stated. Josh didn’t get his first-choice university, so already his expectations did not line up with reality, and he dropped out within the first term. “I will redo my A-levels to get into the university I originally wanted” he told me defiantly. Often, not getting your first choice for a course

Dropping out of university is a lot more common than you think, and it can be from anything to not having friends, to not liking the area, or the course itself. If you are having doubts, know that you are not alone. Going to university is both intimidating and exciting. Regardless of your decision, you will either stay and earn a well-deserved degree, or leave and succeed in another way that suits you.

*names changed to protect anonymity.

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Spotlight on:

STAR Shanai Momi Shanai discusses her experience as part of STAR (Student Action for Refugees), and their work with refugees in Nottingham. When my family and I attended a peaceful protest last summer to support refugees in the UK, it gave me a desire to increase my contribution in fighting xenophobia. I made it my mission to find something that would help me be active in this when I came back to Nottingham for my second year. It was last term that I discovered STAR (Student Action for Refugees) at the Welcome Fair and became a member instantly.

No specific teaching experience is necessary, and anyone is invited to go along and teach following one short training session. University of Nottingham students are therefore demonstrating that refugees are more than welcome in our city, ensuring their English skills improve and assisting them in integrating into the local life. STAR also seeks to engage in volunteering campaigns both on campus and in the wider community.

STAR is an active society (and national charity) whose goals are to generate links with Nottinghamâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s refugee and asylum seeker community. They do this by holding a weekly English Conversation Class at St. Andrews Church in the city. Their first session began in January of 2009 and since then hundreds of refugees have attended the weekly sessions, working with students from the University of Nottingham. Having recently celebrated their ninth birthday, STAR has seen registration numbers from volunteers grow to over a thousand in the last four years.

My experience of being a STAR member has been thoroughly rewarding and I encourage any readers who are remotely interested to give one session a try. My first session was quite nerve-wracking as I wasnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t entirely sure if I was equipped to have conversations with people that had gone through so much. I didnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t need to be so nervous! Fellow society members were welcoming, and the refugees were enthusiastic to talk about their experiences. It was rewarding to know that we were doing something useful to help improve skills that could prepare them for integrating into society.

Not only can you teach the attendees about British culture and the places in Nottingham that you recommend them to visit, but you also learn a great deal about other parts of the world through a perspective that usually is not readily available. The person I was first paired with was from Sudan and his stories about his childhood were fun and exciting. Learning about his struggles and trials to reach the UK was powerful and opened my eyes to how we must do more to help those in such situations. One of the most enjoyable aspects is simply the rapport you build with the person you are working with that day. It is extremely special for students, refugees and asylum seekers to spend time together since these groups would never normally mix. Nottingham is home to hundreds of refugees, yet the support given by the government and council is generally low. Therefore, the work that societies on campus do is very important to make people feel comfortable and wanted.

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Refugees are created when human rights are threatened, so it is worrying that there is a lack of empathy in this city and the country in general. Many refugees who come to the UK are assigned to Northern England and the Midlands on first arrival, and the people that come through the different schemes are not necessarily Syrian as many may assume. Through the teaching sessions I’ve attended so far, I’ve met people from Sudan, Iraq, Somalia and many other countries.

“University students in Nottingham have historically been drivers of change” The classes are a brilliant opportunity to mix with people from different backgrounds and gain a deeper insight into other cultures. It’s amazing to see how quickly people progress, and the strength of their determination in decreasing the language barrier. Despite some hostility towards such groups, Nottingham is taking steps in showing that refugees are welcome through awareness-raising events, to get these people talking.

Some stories at teaching sessions are hard-hitting and difficult to comprehend. The accounts in which some feel that they don’t have an identity or have been the only person in their family to make it across borders are devastating, but these are the stories we must hear to increase conversation and make the transition easier. The media is often antagonistic, resulting in a lot of misunderstanding about the ‘refugee crisis’ and what the terms ‘refugee’ and ‘asylum seeker’ actually mean. Terms like these are often intended to project angst. However, everyone has the right to safety and we can easily do our bit to change this hostile perception. University students in Nottingham have historically been drivers of change, but even young adults can sometimes be unaware of issues happening around them. It is understandable for British attitudes to lack the sense of urgency held by other countries, as there are not a lot of self-made camps on the streets with people who have fled heart-wrenching situations. Recognising that we live in a city with people in these scenarios is

needed, in addition to being aware that this country makes the process very difficult. Paperwork is extensive, with little help given to those who have difficulty in understanding how to fill them in. There are many cases where refugees have arrived in the UK and been sent to a variety of destinations by the Home Office, who have taken years to look at the relevant paperwork, often denying people refugee status several times before finally accepting.

“Nottingham is taking steps in showing that refugees are welcome through awareness-raising events” The need for safety from persecution is a real issue that Nottingham is helping to combat. These are ordinary people in extraordinary circumstances who are more than welcome in our city. For students who want to get involved with STAR there is information on their Facebook page and through the Students’ Union website.

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Join the

BANNED Students get up on their soapbox and tell us what they think has been allowed for too long. SHOULD BE BANNED: Piercing Guns Jo Ralphs If you’ve ever been to a shopping centre, you’ve most likely walked past a popular accessories shop, and seen a 10-13 year-old child having their ears pierced. Perhaps, even, when you were a 10-13 year-old child, you got your own ears pierced there. I’ve come to believe that that shop is owned by the devil himself. Something that is little-known by idiots like myself is that piercing guns are not designed to pierce cartilage, despite the option being available in shopping centres across the country. The design has not only led to the banning of piercing guns for this purpose in several countries such as the USA, but also infections, keloid scarring and ears which have required reconstructive surgery. Like I say, I was unaware of this fact, so I went ahead and had a spring-loaded gun force a blunt object through the cartilage in my ear. And yes, I did meet the entry requirements to get into the University of Nottingham.

Now, luckily, since removing the piercing the swelling and scarring around it has gone down, but I still had 9 months of pain, bleeding and only sleeping on my left side. In contrast, my mum’s piercing, done on the same day but by a professional piercer using a needle, no longer hurts at all, and has had no bleeding or bumpy scarring. Admittedly, although I did hit the side of my head on a rollercoaster and get punched in the ear (both incidents leading to a lot of bleeding and fresh pain), I firmly believe I would have had a much better experience having gone to a professional. Professional piercers have up to three years of training, compared to people who operate piercing guns, whose training can be as little as 2 weeks. Guns cannot be sterilised in an autoclave, while needle equipment can, and in my experience, these piercers give a much more thorough, personalised service. Despite my horrific experience, I do plan on getting my ear re-pierced, and if you’re planning on getting a piercing too, I would recommend Raw Bodycraft in Nottingham, who gave me excellent advice on healing my dodgy ear.

FEATURES

SHOULD BE BANNED: Smoking on campus Katherine Gomes

SHOULD BE BANNED: Vaping on campus Emily Hall

If the University of Nottingham introduced a campus smoking ban, they would not be the first to undertake such action. Many other universities have introduced a similar ban for their campuses, so should we do the same?

Ah, vaping. Something that only a few years ago was a foreign subject, yet now seems to be a staple within youth culture. You can hardly go a few steps without seeing those beautiful rings of unknown vapour, disappearing into the sky quicker than you can say ‘that doesn’t make you look cool’.

Through indulging in this habit do student smokers not only affect their own body, but also that of those around them who inhale the second-hand smoke unwillingly. Though it ultimately remains the smoker’s choice, the negative impacts should be considered. We must remember that despite the campus being a dedicated student area, it is also open to the public; School trips are not uncommon to the campus, and any lingering smoke will be harmful to them as well as to any other visitors to the grounds, Moreover, though it may be outdated to refer to the stigma of smoking, personally, I cannot see how it would paint a glowing picture of any University on an Open Day to see its students smoking between lectures. Ultimately it remains the choice of the student whether they smoke or not and it would be difficult to determine who has the right to eradicate that from them. An important aim of University is to prepare students for a world aside from academia, so it could be considered regressive to ban smoking from the campus when it’s allowed in other public areas. Elaborating on this, other public areas leave people besides the smoker exposed to second-hand smoke, so a ban could be considered a futile effort. Finally, with regards to its futility, a ban attempt will achieve nothing if not effectively enforced. Where there are rules, there are rule-breakers, so enforcement becomes problematic when speculating what consequences should be put into place that make the ban worth obeying. I just think it is highly doubtful that people would be complicit in leaving the campus whenever they battle a craving.

Alternatives to cigarettes are arguably a great thing, but when something turns from a coping mechanism and helpful tool to a social phenomenon which teens feel enticed to try, is it doing more harm than good? If you need to vape, fine, keep on trying to better yourself and kick habits - that’s great. But if you’re doing it because you think it “looks cool”, “makes you edgy”, or worst of all think it’s fun because it “tastes good”, then all that vapour must be clouding your judgement. What’s more, you people that do it inside because you think it doesn’t count as proper smoking... everyone is secretly hating you right now. It is an E-CIGARETTE, and you wouldn’t whack out a fag and start lighting up on a cramped and damp train carriage, or in a packed lecture hall, so why do people think that vaping is any different? It has become a social norm to see vaping in town and around university, but should we be doing more to stop it? Not even stop it, just ban it in certain social situations so that people can breathe normal air that doesn’t taste like berries, or desperate overcompensation.

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Frugal Fashion Three of the Impact Lifestyle ladies were tasked with buying an outfit for as little as possible, from Nottingham’s vintage and charity shops.

Now that our initial burst of student loan has well and truly dissipated, and we are left with the dregs of the empty barrel that is our overdraft, it is time to start cutting back the costs. As cutting out that Deliveroo or extra pint is just not feasible, it’s time to look towards your wardrobe. To prove that being fashionable and frugal are not mutually exclusive, I sent our contributors to scour the charity shops and vintage stalls for some cheap and chic clothing.

Charlotte Hegley A common (and mistaken) assumption is that looking good is expensive. On pay-day most people run to high-street stores like Topshop and Urban Outfitters to pick up the most recent (but expensive) trends. However, most people forget about the charity shops that are hidden away on almost every street-corner. The often time-consuming nature of rifling through racks of clothing to find that one diamond in the rough puts a lot of people off, sending them to the prettier

and better organised high-street stores instead. £10 white ribbed turtle neck jumper – similar version for £29.99 in H&M (paying a third of the price) £22 brown waist length fur coat – similar version in Urban Outfitters for £120 £10 Burberry side patterned blue denim mini skirt – similar found in Topshop for £32 Another great thing about charity

shops is more often than not you’ll find a designer piece of clothing. I found a £10 Burberry skirt that fit me just perfectly (I am extremely lucky, I know), this skirt would have been sold originally for hundreds of pounds and similar skirts go on online second hand clothing sites Ebay and Depop for £50 minimum. Therefore, I recommend getting yourself down to a charity shop near you and rifling through their clothes for designer at non-designer pieces.

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Amy Wilcockson Even in the world of second-hand there is a hierarchy, with vintage shops being far above charity shops in the world of acceptable fashion. However, scouring charity shops has its perks – mainly coming across awesome vintage finds for a fraction of the price. The patterned dress in this shoot not only came from a charity shop, but cost me only £15. Looking at similar pieces in Cow or other vintage shops, a floral dress of this length was around £30 to £50. Another perk of charity shop vintage is knowing that you’re not another high street clone, wearing the same old Topshop shirt as approximately seven thousand (million?) other people. This dress is handmade, and in such a unique fabric that it’s unlikely I’ll ever see anyone else in a dress like this. And that’s what makes charity shops so intriguing; you never know what you will find, and their prices are so appealing. I’d take good quality charity shop over high street any day.

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Danielle Preedy I set out into Nottingham with the aim of proving that charity shops are a great place to find clothes. Sometimes they get a bad reputation as being for the elderly and only stocking cardigans your nan might wear. There is also a bit of a stigma around saying you’re wearing second hand or ‘unwanted’ clothes. In reality, you can save yourself a lot of money, find great one-off pieces that are often from popular brands and great quality, as well as getting your hands on vintage pieces that no one else will have.

Nottingham has a wealth of charity shops, most of which are located in Hockley, as well as Banardo’s on Angel Row and Cancer Research near to the Broadmarsh Centre. The latter was my port of call, and I decided to make my task more of a challenge by sticking to just the one shop. First of all, I found a great staple pair of jeans. I was worried that at 5”1, finding things to fit me would be difficult, but I was pleasantly surprised by clearly labelled items from size 6 to 24, and found a pair of distressed mom jeans, originally from Next and still with the original labels on, for £2. My next mission was to find a few different ways to style it. I found a bright blue jumper, super-soft, cosy and comfy for £4, and my favourite piece from the day, a black and grey patterned plisse shirt. This was only £4.50 and I can’t wait to wear it. I styled it with my own black belt and white trainers, although it would look great with a pair of black boots too. Channelling my inner The Great Gatsby character, I also found a 1920’s flapper-esque dress. Again, I was happy to see such cool pieces in my size! The dress was only £4, and its only fault was a broken adjuster on the strap, something that could be fixed easily and still cost far less than something similar on the high street. By looking in just one shop, I found a bunch of great pieces without too much effort, and could have come home with bags full if I had looked around elsewhere. I hope this proves how valuable and worthwhile looking in charity shops can be, especially on a student budget. And most importantly, your money goes towards supporting important causes like Cancer Research that need our help, in return for a fab new outfit.

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High Fashion: Daisy Cooper Are we really getting what we pay for? Since we were thirteen, my best friend and I fantasised that when we grew up, landed our first proper jobs and got our first ‘big-girl’ pay-packet, we would splurge on the ultimate emblem of sophistication and maturity: a Burberry handbag. For us, the iconic class of such an item was absolutely worth of the £1,000 price tag. But why does high fashion always come with the high price tag? Is it necessary? And, more importantly, why are we willing to pay?

It’s easy to assume that materials used for luxury items, be they handbags, shoes or garments, are of significantly better quality and much more expensive than those used in cheaper brands. However, this is generally not the case. While materials may indeed be of a better quality, this does not alone account for prices that can sometimes match your termly rent.

production that high fashion brands face as the true cost of their luxury status. This is especially due to expert design and manufacturing. Naturally, how can an embellished dress, which takes the best part of a month and a team of five seamstresses to create, with all the painstaking skill and labour that this entails, be sold for high street prices?

The price you pay for a Fendi jacket or a Dior skirt is actually partly explained by the weighty costs of

This is not to mention the capital involved in securing prime online and real estate presences, or that

Image courtesy of: W Magazine

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Why the High cost? Image courtesy of: Vogue via Getty Images

invested in print and digital marketing. The endorsement from the likes of Bella Hadid or Cara Delevingne, for example, may set a brand back millions. The cost of production only goes so far in explaining why a garment from Gucci or Versace sometimes costs upwards of £5,000. The Balenciaga ‘Triple S’ trainers, images of which have been spammed from the Instagrams of bloggers and celebrities, recently moved its production to China, significantly reducing its production costs but retaining its £700 price tag. The expense of such pieces, then, is clearly as much a part of the item as the design itself. In fact, the product itself is arguably the very last thing that is sold. What is truly being sold is the brand, with all the legacy and associations that it brings. The exclusivity and desirability of such is reinforced by the price tag. Just like a piece of fine art, the expense associated with high fashion items can be considered almost as much a part of their allure as the design itself; an allure which holds such pieces, not necessarily as unattainable, but inspirational.

The fantasy and dream-like qualities of such items would surely be diluted if it were as easy and cheap to attain them as popping down the high street. This further fulfils a desire many fashion forward individuals have to be ‘unique’. If you indulge in a pair of Vetements Highlighter heels for a special event, you can be pretty darn sure you won’t have the awkward realisation that someone’s turned up with the same idea. The complementary nature between exclusivity and recognisability has been capitalised on by brands such as Louis Vuitton, whose recent show saw Kate Moss and Naomi Campbell walk in monogram, logoed trench coats, as well as Burberry, which has lately shown retakes on the classic Nova design. The reasons many of us give in to our fashion desires, despite real threats of entering overdraft territory, are apparently backed by science. Psychologists Karl Aquino and Jessica Tracy of the University of British Columbia attribute high fashion spending habits to a pride we receive from a purchase in terms personal accomplishment and self-esteem.

This helps to explain why may feel compelled to indulge in items like a pair of Louboutins. While otherwise we may feel indifferent towards a pair 5-times cheaper, those red soles, and the legacy of the brand they represent, alight recognition and a profound craving within us of the luxury of that product. Of course high fashion is always at risk of tipping over from exclusivity to vulgarity. Simply splashing the word ‘Gucci’ over a regular cotton-blend T-shirt and charging £400 is hardly reflective any of skill and effort. However, critics of high fashion fall short when undermining expensive items merely as a wealth symbol. After all, the price we pay for high fashion should be circumstantial. Neither splurging on a designer item nor opting for high-street purchases can be categorised definitively as wrong. It is down to our individual choices and we must each decide whether the artistry, history and talent associated with a particular high-fashion item is worth opening our wallets just that little bit wider.

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OF OF LIFESTYLE LIFESTYLE ADVICE ADVICE Decluttering, prioritising and sorting your shit out Rhys Thomas Life gets hectic at times. I know. A good month into the new semester and you’re at that odd point between feeling settled into the swing of the new content and also realising that coursework is just around the corner. Life is full to the brim. Well, here’s another piece of data to add to your oversaturated day. Fear not though, this one might actually be useful. Decluttering We’ll start here. A fresh space really does create a fresh mind. There’s bare science to this but I’ll let you research that when you have time (we’ll take a lack of information over alternative facts any day). You can declutter in a few ways. Physical space, virtual space, inner space(s). Don’t I sound ridiculous? Yeah absolutely, but keep it in mind because they’re all equally important.

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STEP ONE: Physical Space

STEP THREE: Inner Space(s)

Perhaps the most obvious method. A little spring clean is perhaps the most known way to feel better by getting rid of shit. Evaluate your wardrobe (maybe in terms of style too) and figure out what it is you wear and don’t wear, and then look through the ‘wear’ pile and figure out what you need and don’t need. This is the ruthless and effective way to pare down the wardrobe. When you know what’s being ridded, set up a Depop account or if you’re balling donate it to a charity/thrift store. If it’s broken etc. dispose of it properly.

Mental and Physiological

If having a small enough amount of clothing to actually see your desk chair has motivated you, now it’s time for that desk covered in crap you don’t need. Mine gets to this state on a weekly basis so don’t even worry. What you need to do initially is move everything to the bed, whilst doing so if you’re holding some to do list from the pre-brexit days or a receipt for some hobnobs that would have naturally decomposed by now, get it in the bin. By the end of your moving around you’ll probably have a good amount less to put back. When putting things back, get them looking neat and organised. Finally, make the bed. I don’t know why but rooms look ten thousand times cleaner when the bed is made. If you’re a superhuman you can hoover too.

STEP TWO: Virtual Space This one is quite simple, don’t be the fiend with ten thousand things on your desktop and no subfolder in sight. Take an hour, get organised. With your phone, answer or delete the 1568 emails you’ve ignored and consider whether you need all of those apps still.

Eat well, try and prioritise sleep for a bit and drink some herbal teas. To help feel more at ease mentally, one app to have on the phone is headspace. It does what it says on the tin: creates space in your head, or stills the mind to take a yoga slant on the matter. Doing just five to ten minutes of these exercises daily is super helpful for essentially detoxing the brain. You might not ‘get it’ for a bit, but when you’re walking around knowing focus for the first time since your red bull, you’ll realise it’s helping. Like them desks, you’ll also feel more on top of the day ahead if what you’re doing is set out for you: get a diary (2018 ones are probably selling for less than a penny now) and just write down what needs to be done. Stick to it and you’ll not only not forget anything, but you’ll be able to visualise your day, which can be one of the most important elements of productivity. Sure, there’s a whole lot more I can add to this list, but these are the essentials. You needn’t become Minimalist, Buddhist or Nihilist to feel less weighted by everything, it starts with a little bit of clearing up once every now and then.

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Photos courtesy of: Caitlin McIlwraith

Exposure

IMAGES + EXPOSURE

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The case for a

Elise Jackson Travelling the world? How about travelling around your home first.

You’re overworked. You’ve been socialising for too long. You long for adventure. You are also, however, pretty broke. Student life may seem to outsiders like one long Ibiza weekend which, whilst true for some, can usually descend into a kind of monotonous chaos. And sometimes, you just need a holiday. Unfortunately for a lot of us, money is a bit tight when it comes to splashing out large amounts on flights and hotels and deckchair rentals. But I’m here to tell you that it need not be so. That you can have a perfectly good, I’d even argue better, holiday right here in Britain. As a kid I grew up envying my friends massively, as they were always being taken off to Kenya and Spain and all sorts on holiday. I, however, was sitting in a Welsh cottage watching the rain chase down the windows.

To my tiny, privileged brain, this was the greatest injustice known to man (or child). But to my slightly larger, slightly more aware brain, I realise just how lucky I was to go on these trips as a child, as I got to experience how truly magical my home country is. Due to the extensive British holidays we went on as a family, I have been to 11 out of the 13 National Parks in England and Wales. I understand this sounds like a boast to me but to no one else. So, no time, no money, but in desperate want of a break? Unfortunately, I have never been to Scotland or Ireland and they also have different parks organisations, so I will have to omit them for now, so here’s a suggestion from each part of England and Wales.

Image courtesy of: ‘PhotAsia’ via Flickr

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THE NORTH: The Lake District Starting off strong, the Lakes are my top choice for British holidays. Home to poets, painters, and water speed records, the Lakes are one of the most beautiful areas of the country. If you’re into hiking and fresh, clean air, there is no better place to visit than the Lakes. They are home to the highest ground in England, Scafell Pike, from which you can see all the way to Northern Ireland and down to Snowdonia in Wales. As of last year, it is a UNESCO World Heritage site and covers 2,362 square kilometres of Cumbria. However, any amount of numbers and facts cannot explain the awe-inspiring landscapes of the Lakes. My favourite area is Derwent Water, home to Derwent art supplies and (wait for it) the Pencil Museum.

Image courtesy of: ‘Michael Button’ via Flickr

That one is genuinely great but probably (definitely) only to me. Cat Bells is to the west of Derwent Water, and is one of the most satisfying walks you could ever make. The fellwalk is right atop the perfect peak of Cat Bells,

so you get an unbelievable 360-degree view of the lake beneath and the mountains surrounding. You feel like you’re walking a tightrope. Other favourites of the Lakes are Hill Top House, home to Beatrix Potter and Kendal, home to the unbelievably good, unbelievably sugary Kendal Mint Cake. You can get a cottage with a view like this for £15 per night if you take a few friends.

You may recognise from: Star Wars VII: The Force Awakens, Black Art by Bonobo.

THE MIDLANDS: The Peak District Only an hour or so away on the train from Nottingham, a return ticket costing but £6.45, the Peaks are well worth the trip. The Peaks are most easily accessible by car, but there are ways in via train and bus. Working our way up the line, the village of Cromford is home to the best bookshop-café I’ve ever been to, Scarthin Books, and a mind-blowingly good chocolatiers.

Matlock, the small town at the end of the train line, boasts the Heights of Abraham, a viewpoint accessible by cable car above the deep valleys of the Peaks. It’s green and lush, contains pub after café after pub, and feels like a place completely out of time. From there, you can hop on a bus up to Buxton (of Buxton water fame), the Peaks’ largest town, and visit the phenomenal Buxton Taphouse, or try the ingenious cocktails at Monk. The other side of Buxton has the Blue John Caverns, as beautiful as they are extensive. Again, for the Peaks, a car is ideal, but most places are accessible by train, and are really worth the cost of a ticket. There’s no reason why anyone at the University of Nottingham shouldn’t experience the Peaks at least once in their university lives, and for anyone who loves a good café, pub, or lush view, it can be done in a day.

Things we owe to the Peaks: Bakewell Tart, Jane Eyre, and Dobby from Peep Show.

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EAST ANGLIA: The Broads Big old bias incoming. A few years back, my family moved to a small village in the Norfolk Broads and, having lived in a commuter town my whole life, I cannot explain the freedom the place inspires. I wrote a piece on that a few months ago, so I won’t go off on one here. The Broads are a National Park consisting of 7 rivers and 63 broads, most of which are navigable. This is one of the gems of the Broads: boating. Hiring a day boat and cruising about with your mates is such a great activity. You need no experience to try it out, I find it a lot like driving a go-kart, but way, WAY more peaceful. The beaches of north Norfolk are gorgeous, completely sandy and warm in the summer, full of baby seals in the winter.

There is a train line straight through to Cromer and Sheringham from Norwich, stopping off at the famous Wroxham Broads which house some of the best fish and chips I have ever tasted. The Broads are a fantastic trip if you’re a fan of cycling, but maybe aren’t the fittest. The flat terrain and coastal bikeways make for the perfect, low-level cycling experience and there are plenty of pubs and cafés on the way. From Nottingham, it’s a direct train to Norwich, the city just south of the Broads, if you fancy a bit of a country break but are still a city-dweller at heart.

Perfect for: avid birdwatchers, would-be sailors, or that large majority of people who just can’t get enough of Norman churches.

WALES: The Pembrokeshire Coast One word: beaches. If you’re wanting beaches in the UK, and don’t fancy Norfolk, Wales is your best bet. Barafundle Bay alone is enough to afford the Pembrokeshire Coast the National Park title it owns. In 2004 it was named one of the top 12 beaches in the world. A beach, in Wales, is one of the best beaches in the world. It’s also the focus of the Benedict Cumberbatch film Third Star, which remains to this day the only film I’ve had to stop watching because I couldn’t see it through the wall of tears. Aside from their sandy loveliness, the beaches are also some of the most geologically interesting in the world. Rock arches, stacks, and rock caves line the Pembrokeshire Coast, giving the kind of sublime awe the

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Romantics were always going on about. The whole coast is also a National Trail, so if you’re into walking, but can’t bring yourself to traipse up Snowdonia, and the Brecon Beacons give you traumatic D of E flashbacks, this is the place for you. Elsewhere in Pembrokeshire is the lovely town of Tenby, which even in the rain has a real air of holiday about it, plus some of the best mint-choc-chip ice cream ever, and Saundersfoot, an equally picturesque little place.

THE SOUTH: The New Forest Yes, I know ‘The South’ is a big generalisation. But with all the generalisations of ‘The North’, us southerners can take this one. My choice for this segment was really tricky, as I do hail from the lovely Sussex Downs. Lush green with chalky

cliffs, they are a wondrous place, referred to by George Orwell as ‘the sleekest landscape in the world’. But then I remembered that the New Forest has wild ponies running around and the winner seemed clear. The New Forest, a large heath and woodland covering parts of Hampshire, Wiltshire and Dorset, is a great all-round pleaser. For the nature lovers, it is brimming with wildlife, so much so to earn it the Site of Specific Scientific Interest title, quickly followed by a UNESCO World Heritage monomer. The heath-clad terrain also makes for good picnicking; the grass is quite short due to the heather, so as long as you’ve got a good thick picnic blanket, you’re winning. Rather surprisingly, the New Forest is not entirely inaccessible. If you’ve got a car, it’s not far from both

Southampton and Bournemouth, the A31 running directly through, as well as being on the train line. Brockenhurst is a mad place out of time and well worth a look whilst you’re there.

Home to: Chris Packham and his dog, a bunch of England cricketers and Sybil Leek, whose bio describes her as ‘witch, author, astrologer’. I mean, I’m intrigued. Did I mention there are wild ponies everywhere? So that’s it. My pitch for the British holiday. I may be biased by my upbringing, but all it has done is made me feel a great sense of love for where I live. The British countryside is one of the most varied in the world in such a small space, from beaches rivalling Byron Bay to mountains and lakes that defined an entire literary movement.

Image courtesy of: ‘Lee’ via Flickr

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“Pretty groovy, huh?” Over twenty years ago, ‘Clueless’ hit theatres, immediately becoming a costume designer Mona May took the preppy 90’s look to the next level, of plaid in the movie, Cher looks are timeless (and not appreciated enough) recreate them...

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Over twenty years ago, ‘Clueless’ hit theatres, immediately becoming a cult classic. The film’s costume designer Mona May took the preppy 90’s look to the next level, including 53 different kinds of plaid in the movie, Cher alone wearing 7. The film’s looks are timeless (and not appreciated enough) so we attempted to recreate them…

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Director: Charlotte Hegley Photography: Sophie Hunt Sophie Wilson Charlotte Hegley Make up: Emma Heasman Kate O’Gorman Lois Baglin Sophie Wilson Sophie Hunt Models: Emma Heasman Kate O’Gorman Polly Watson Lois Baglin Ben Roddy Chris Angell

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UoN Scientific Breakthroughs Some of the top cutting-edge discoveries to emerge from the University of Nottingham in recent months. Charlotte Hegley Newfound hormone crucial for fertility A recent study conducted by bioscientists at the University of Nottingham has found that ‘INSL3’, a much newer hormone system, is vital in determining female fertility. Previous research into this hormone was focused on its role within the male fetus. This 2017 study, however, found that the androgens created by this hormone work with the pituitary hormones in promoting the growth and development of follicles in the ovaries. Further findings suggest that ‘INSL3’ imbalance may be associated with polycystic ovarian syndrome, a condition affecting a large proportion of reproductive aged women. This heightened understanding of female fertility marks a step towards a future of improved treatment and diagnosis of female infertility.

Ben Edge 3D printing electronic circuits Spearheaded by Professor Chris Tuck, a group of research engineers has developed a state-of-the-art, high precision technique to 3D print electronic circuits. By using this

method, manufacturers are able to produce and develop sophisticated technology - in both research and industry - such as medical apparatus, sensors and 3D antennae. The completely functional circuits are built using a single inkjet printer, which rapidly solidifies metallic and polymeric inks with UV light. This breakthrough technique can be deployed to construct complex devices from multiple materials, like conductive metals and insulating plastics, whereas existing structures are generally limited to one.

Ben Edge Hydrogen storage waste cigarette butts Each year, over 800,000 tons of cigarette butts are produced worldwide, containing toxic contaminants that are potentially hazardous to wildlife. However, chemists at the university recently discovered that, using a relatively simple processing technique, these fag ends have the potential to store masses of hydrogen. When heated alongside water under high pressure, cigarette butts generate

a carbon product known as hydrochar, which in turn can be activated to form an extremely porous material. Due to their immense surface area and permeability, these activated carbons have an exceptional capacity for hydrogen storage. Environmentally speaking, the salient advantage of using hydrogen as an energy source is the low carbon emissions; when used a fuel, its sole by-product is water.

Bethan Greenwood Cloning Dolly the Sheep did not cause arthritis In 2003 biologists claimed that cloning caused early-onset osteoarthritis (OA), which was thought to have been observed in the famous cloned sheep, Dolly. However, four sheep who were derived from the same cell line as Dolly, named the Nottingham Dollies - Debbie, Denise, Dianna and Daisy - have been proven to be healthy and to have no sign of osteoarthritis. The team of researchers have now released an x-ray assessment of Dolly, and her naturally conceived daughter Bonnie, which show that their skeletons have radiographic OA similar to that observed in naturally conceived sheep.

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Gymyour way to academic success?

Anna Kalganova A neuroscience student explains the connection between exercise and exam performance.

During exam season, a lot of us will have used our memory way more than usual, and if youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re anything like me you got very frustrated that some content just doesnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t stick in your head. It can also be a stressful and overwhelming time, even for those of us who arenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t usually prone to these kinds of feelings. Even though on the surface it seems like these factors are completely uncorrelated, research has shown that they could be attributed to insufficient exercise. Although a link between memory and exercise has been proposed by various scientists before, the first study actually establishing a connection between the two was carried out recently. 823 participants had brain scans whilst performing a working memory task, and their results, along with number of

hours of exercise and lifestyle choices, were statistically analysed. There was a positive correlation found between cohesiveness of working memory and physical exercise. Lifestyle choices like drinking alcohol and smoking, however, showed a negative correlation with working memory ability. Because the brain is a large connected unit, with different areas affecting one another as opposed to working as separate components, working memory is associated with other factors, such as our mental health; something which is extremely important to maintain during exam season. Improvements in mental health have been positively linked with enhancements in working memory, and both memory and mental health

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have been seen to improve with increased physical endurance. Research indicates that 20-40 minutes of cardio each day results in lower perceived anxiety levels. This was found to be the case for people with both normal and high levels of anxiety, and the benefits associated with exercise were found to be similar to the levels of psychological improvement achieved with some forms of psychotherapy. The reason behind these beneficial effects of exercise is that aerobic activity produces structural changes in the brain. Rat studies have shown that exercise causes structural changes in the hippocampus, cerebellum and cerebral cortex. The hippocampus plays a key role in learning and memory, and therefore the rats showed improvement in these areas, following an increase in aerobic activity. Imaging studies on the human brain later supported these findings.

“The benefits associated with exercise were found to be similar to the levels of psychological improvement achieved with some forms of psychotherapy” The hippocampus has also been found to be involved in stress regulation. A study conducted by Henriette van Praag found that running on a wheel regularly drastically increased the number of neurons in the hippocampus of mice. Increases in hippocampal volume have been positively correlated with elevated moods in both rodents and humans, showing that it is likely that the hippocampus plays an important role in mood changes following increased exercise. In addition to this, the brain has been found to release chemicals such as serotonin, endorphins and dopamine during exercise, particularly non-strenuous, aerobic exercise. These chemicals are all associated with mood and stress levels, and low serotonin and dopamine tend to be associated with depression and anxiety. So, exercise is practically giving

us what we need to elevate our moods and feel less anxious leading up to exams!

“Exercise is practically giving us what we need to elevate our moods and feel less anxious leading up to exams” Even though exercise can be a difficult thing to fit into your schedule, it may be something worth trying and can potentially improve your academic performance and mental health in the long run. Whether it helps your memory and keeps you on the ball, allowing you to remember a vital fact for that exam, or just prevents you from feeling stressed and overwhelmed, it will be worth it. It may feel like you don’t have the time but next time you do have a spare moment, instead of watching a film (I can’t really talk to be honest, as Netflix is my best friend in exam season), maybe try going for a run or hitting the gym. Who knows, it may really benefit you.

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Lunch with

Jon McGregor Jon Petre Jon Petre sits down with award-winning author Jon McGregor to find out about his latest book, and to get advice for student writers. Jon McGregor is the Professor of Creative Writing and the writer-in-residence at the University of Nottingham. He’s the author of four novels, two books of short stories, and the editor of The Letters Page. His latest novel, Reservoir 13, was longlisted for the Booker Prize and has just won the Costa Book Award for 2017. We asked him a few questions about his novels, Nottingham, and what it means to be a writer.

it uses the girl’s disappearance as a backdrop to that. I started out with the idea of a search party on the hillside, and it was clear in my mind that this was going to be a book about what happens when someone goes missing and there are no answers. I wanted there to not be a body – I wanted the girl to be somebody for whom there are other possibilities. That’s just as much a tragedy as a body being found.

So, if people aren’t familiar with it, let’s start with Reservoir 13 – how would you describe it to someone who’s never heard of you or your books?

Last December you published a prequel, The Reservoir Tapes; that was originally broadcast on Radio 4. How is that different would you say to Reservoir 13?

It’s set in the Peak District, and it’s about a missing teenage girl. The important thing is it’s a book about a missing teenage girl, not a girl being found – or even particularly being looked for. It’s set across the thirteen years after her disappearance, and the impact of that on the village. It is mainly a book about village life, but

Writing for radio is new to me, and you have to think about narrative in a different way. You have to be simpler, to an extent, because you can’t rely on people glancing back at the page to double-check things. Radio has much more of an immediacy than a book. If people pick up a book, they’ll stick with it for a couple of pages before they

chuck it across the room – with radio you just walk away when you’re bored. I did a lot more thinking about tension and suspense, and ways of keeping people glued to it. The stories are quite different in style but it’s the same setting, the same characters. In terms of a writing challenge it was really interesting.

“The story has to come first, and if a theme or a concept emerges, then that’s fine” How do you think your time living and working in Nottingham has had an impact on your writing? Teaching at the University has made me a lot more aware of my own process as a writer. I’ve become much more analytical, more self-aware and articulate about the process of writing, which has helped me to develop my craft and hopefully helped students develop theirs. It’s hard to disentangle

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what influences your writing, and I’ve never consciously set any of my stories in Nottingham. I think Nottingham is a good place to be a creative person – there’s an overlap between writers and filmmakers and artists and musicians, and there’s a nice kind of energy about the place. My novels have all been set outside London, so sometimes people see that as “regional” writing, but I don’t have the kind of association with Nottingham as Sillitoe or Lawrence did.

“I think Nottingham is a good place to be a creative person” One of the most exciting things that you’ve been working on recently is The Letters Page. Can you talk a little about that?

Image courtesy of: Goldsmiths University, London via Vimeo

The Letters Page is a literary journal in letters. It publishes essays, stories, and poems. All the submissions come as handwritten letters, and that seems to encourage people to write in a different way than they would otherwise. It encourages submissions from people who otherwise might not submit to literary journals. It’s an interesting concept – there aren’t any other magazines that take letters. I’m the editor, but students are heavily involved. They do a lot of the reading, the research, and that helps them learn about publishing. It’s a lot of fun to work on. It’s an annual publication, and the current issue is very much for sale.

Why does the format of the letter appeal so much to you? Why does it make such a difference to the kind of thing that you publish?

Do you think writers have a responsibility to tackle issues head-on?

For a lot of people, it’s quite a novelty. Because it’s an unfamiliar format, because people have to go through a different process to write something down on paper and go to the post-box, I think that often encourages a different level of engagement. We sometimes get submissions which are not necessarily amazing pieces of writing, but which are a fresh take, and are worth publishing because they’re engaging. For me it also ties into the shift from reading on paper and reading on screen.

I struggle with that, because on the one hand I tend to shy away from the idea that in a novel you should make political statements and take a stand on an issue, that you should write opinion pieces and speak at rallies. But once you get to a point where people are inviting you to write opinion pieces, and to appear on a platform, then you’re in quite a privileged position. There is a responsibility to make use of that privilege, and to do something good with it. Perhaps there’s something complacent about not using that privilege. I’m in the middle of working that one out, I think.

You’ve said before that you’re “allergic to making points in fiction.” What do you mean by that?

What advice would you give to student writers, or students writing essays?

That’s a good example of when you say something off the cuff in an interview, and it becomes a kind of manifesto. I didn’t mean much by it, but I don’t like fiction where a writer has set out with a message or an agenda. The story has to come first, and if a theme or a concept emerges, then that’s fine. But if you sit down and say, “I want to write a novel about Brexit,” then you’re not being a storyteller – you’re being something else. The political novel is a perfectly respectable tradition, but it’s not for me.

The three pieces of advice I give, and it applies to essay writing as well, is to read more, write more, and know your tools. Read style guides and get to grips with grammar, so that you use sentence structure well.

The Letters Page is published by Book Ex Machina and is still available to purchase online or at Five Leaves Bookshop in Nottingham. Reservoir 13 and The Reservoir Tapes are published by 4th Estate and Harper Collins.

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So much media, Emma Heasman How to watch all that is on the box and the big screen without having to go without sleep. 2018 is turning out to be a solid year for the big screen. With new seasons of our favourite TV shows, the latest superhero blockbusters and long anticipated Disney classics, it can be hard to find the time to fit it all in when our university schedules seem to dominate the majority of our lives. However, with some strategic planning, Impact has done the maths to help you keep up to date without risking your chances of achieving a 2:1.

March: The calm before the storm WHAT’S ON For a light-hearted watch before you’re overwhelmed by mid-term assessments, (thanks to a ridiculously early Easter break) the most prominent TV shows to hit our screens are reality series Survival of the Fittest and the much-loved Celebs Go Dating. Although these are, in my opinion, what I’d call ‘trashy TV’, you’re pretty much guaranteed a laugh, and it’s an easy way to procrastinate. But if films are your preference, Black Panther and Tomb Raider are the best flicks to have a quick trip to the Savoy and watch over the winter period. Although their runtimes are reasonably long, this can be justified if spent appropriately within a revision break. After all, this is the chance to relax before the exam-hell-storm comes around.

THE BREAKDOWN Survival of the Fittest = 1hr 30 x 6 episodes Celebs Go Dating = 1hr x 10 episodes A Series of Unfortunate Events 2 = 1hr x 10 episodes Black Panther = 2hrs Tomb Raider = 2hrs

Total hours: 32 hours

ACTION PLAN Binge watch all the film and TV you can before exam season begins. With each TV episode lasting 1 hour, this acts as a perfect break between ‘sem’ prep or when writing your mid-term assessments.

April-May: An exam-season survival plan WHAT’S ON There are 2 types of people during exam season, those who are stressed and need hard-core escapism, and those who do not care (but still do better than you in the exams). In an attempt to cater for both of these different breeds, we have chosen a mixture of recommended film and TV. Stress-heads do not fear, if you want the world to end to save you from your exams, then indulge in some serious escapism with some sci-fi action. With the new Avengers and Star Wars films sharing a hefty runtime, this is an excellent way to relate to the characters and pretend for 2 hours that you really are galaxies away (from uni responsibilities). For those more laidback, why not laugh in the face of stress-heads as you would at the new comedy Cockblockers? An American comedy

based on sexually frustrated teenagers and worried parents (it’s an easy watch). Regarding TV, the shows also seem to match the mood of university students. With The Walking Dead and Thirteen Reasons Why being the most anticipated in the spring months, it may seem a bit depressing that during a stressful time you’re watching zombies, death and suicide, but they should be incredible shows, and hey, we all get desperate when we need to procrastinate.

THE BREAKDOWN Cockblockers = 2hrs Avengers Infinity War = 2hrs 30 Solo: A Star Wars Story = 2hrs 30 Fear the Walking Dead = 1hr x 16 episodes 13 Reasons Why Season = 2hrs x 12 episodes

Total hours: 35

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so little time ACTION PLAN The season of films which I think is the best procrastination method for exam season. Watching a film means there’s no way you can engross in the endless binge watching of TV series: a safer way to procrastinate and stay sane in these months.

June-July: FREEDOM WHAT’S ON Unfortunately, there isn’t much news on the summer schedule for TV and film. However, with some insight, we can help you plan slightly ahead, in a

THE BREAKDOWN celebration of exam FREEDOM. For TV, House of Cards season 6 is back, and luckily for fans, with so many episodes (13 in fact), binge-watching can finally begin when the exam pressure is over. Summer films are a secret at the moment, with many months until uni is over, we can only highlight the films which are much anticipated. As for myself, the only thing getting me through uni is the return of The Incredibles.

House of Cards, season 6 = 1hr x 13 episodes The Incredibles 2 = 2hrs Jurassic World Fallen Kingdom = 2hrs

Total hours: 17 ACTION PLAN Exams are over, so binge as much as you want and catch up with anything you’ve missed out on during the year. If, like the long-anticipated The Incredibles 2, you feel like exams have gone on for 14 years, it’s time to reward yourself.

So, with a grand total of 84 hours of cinematic and TV screen magic, indulge in watching your favourite faces grace the screen once more.

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Traversing through

Sophie Hunt

to receive a huge sum on the death of his mother’s cousin.

here ever since, continuing to grow and prosper. Collections of the library:

It goes without saying that the library is stunning, with a beautiful garden kept up by volunteers, and artwork and portraits dotted around the building. Even to those with no interest in books, it is definitely worth a look around.

However, he never got his hands on the money and ran into further trouble when he was accused of some ‘scandalous behaviour’ (take from that what you will) with a male servant. He was sent to prison for two years, forced to mortgage the house, and never saw his wife and child again. After this outrage, the house fell into disuse until it was put up to auction in 1820.

A short history of the house:

A short history of the library:

Bromley is a gorgeous Georgian townhouse with a Grade II listed rating. It was built in 1752 for George Smith of Smith’s Bank, which is believed to be the first bank existing outside of London. As can be expected, they were a very wealthy family, and owned property in London too.

Nottingham Subscription Library was set up in 1816 on Carlton Street in Nottingham by a group of 169 gentlemen and women. Original members had to pay a one-off share of five guineas, as well as an annual subscription fee of two guineas, therefore it was a rather elitist, exclusive membership to begin with, unlike today.

Bromley House Library has a lot to offer, especially to students looking for a quiet place to work, or for those who want to take out books to read for pleasure to balance out the endless pile of academic works.

After George’s death, the house was passed onto his son of the same name, who was assumed to take on the family business. Despite his huge inheritance, Smith ran into financial difficulties early on, so to raise funds he agreed to change his name to Bromley

By 1920 they found that the premises were becoming too small, so they bought Bromley House for the bargain price of £2750. The library officially moved in 1822 and it has been

The library houses collections on a range of different topics, showing its sheer size and diversity. A great example is the George Fowler collection of Egyptology. Fowler was a former member of the library and his daughters donated the collection after his death, one of whom went on to become the first female president of Bromley House. There is also the Philip James Bailey collection of theological works. Bailey was a very famous man in his day, but unfortunately, he is almost entirely forgotten now. His most notable work is his poem Festus, which is 40,000 words long. As well as books, the library has an extensive collection of Punch Magazine, containing many satirical cartoons and images based on British politics and contemporary life. So, there is much to discover within the library. Local history books + local authors: There are both old and new works of local history, including the James Ward

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Bromley House

collection situated in the Standfast Room on the main floor. Similarly, there are many works by local authors. The recently published Exploring Nottinghamshire Writers by Rowena Edlin-White is a guidebook to local literature, both obscure and well-known, which can be found in Bromley House. I had the pleasure of meeting Rowena several weeks ago, and she informed me of the arduous research process behind the novel. Included in her guidebook and available to read at the library is the work of Henry Kirke White, a local poet. His work was supported by Romantic poet Robert Southey. It is likely that White never achieved his full literary potential, since he died at the age of 21. Therefore, Bromley House is a useful resource for learning about local history and literacy. Special treasure + fiction works: Fiction is by far the biggest category of the library, with constant additions being made to the collection. However, it is home to some rather special editions of well-loved children’s books

that we are all familiar with, including The Jungle Book, Peter Pan, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Robin Hood. Each of these early editions contains wonderful illustrations and is a delight to flick through. You may not think that the library would have such hidden gems, but they are available for members to look at, and are certainly some of my favourites in the entire library. Fun facts about the library: 1. The library has one of only four Meridian lines in the country. Installed in 1835, it was used by members to set their watches before Greenwich Mean Time was introduced. 2. George Green was a member of the library for nine years and called it his ‘first university’. Afterwards, he attended Cambridge University and went on to become an influential mathematician and physicist. There is a room named after him in the library. 3. The library uses a manual ledger system of recording books on loan, which involves face-to-face

interaction with staff rather than an electronic system. 4. Bromley House has its own unique classification system, since the library opened long before Dewey invented his Decimal Classification. Every category has an allocated number, and each new book is added onto the end of the sequence, so the higher the number, the newer the book. 5. The library still has the original roof built in 1752, and the staff and members are currently fundraising to carry out vital roof repairs and renovation work on the upper floor of the building. 6. Very recently Bromley House was donated a painting by the local artist Spooner, which they hope to sell at auction for around £10,000. I have been lucky enough to explore the library for the past few months, and as a recently joined member I can’t wait to delve further into the secret treasures. As we all know, Nottingham has a vast and vibrant literary heritage, and the library has been here since 1816 to capture all the local literary successes.

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Judging an album by its cover? We choose five of the best album covers of all time, and why they should be viewed as iconic.

Jack Taylor London Calling by The Clash As far as album covers go, it’s pretty hard to look past The Clash’s London Calling. Although my judgement may be slightly clouded by the brilliance of the album itself, the snapshot of Clash bassist Paul Simonon smashing up his bass encapsulates the band – and the broader punk movement – so perfectly. Rage, passion, counter-culture, subversion, and so much more are captured in a single moment of destruction and all which that destruction represents, complete with power stance, boots, messy hair and ragged clothes. And yet, on the other hand, the font and colouring of the text are taken

from an Elvis Presley album – that is, the then-unfashionable Elvis Presley of a bygone era of preppy rock despised by much of the punk community. This use of other artists’ work is another form of destruction and reconstruction – perhaps even appropriation, for some – that shows the attitude of the band to some of its contemporaries and predecessors, which extends to covers and samples used on the album as well. But the cover is by no means perfect – the image isn’t so sharp in the top right corner, and there’s a random guy in the background. But I think this is part of the appeal: no moment of passion, no band, no person is ever perfect, and that, above all else, is what this cover captures.

Anusmita Ray Plastic Beach by Gorillaz It is a bit obvious that the artwork is an inherently significant aspect of a band that comprises of cartoon characters. The third studio album by Gorillaz, however, had a distinct departure in style of artwork; whereas all the remaining albums (including the fourth one, Humanz) had some or all the band members on the cover, Plastic Beach featured an intricately designed island in the middle of the sea. Jamie Hewlett’s artwork here is representative of the concept behind the album: it shows an island built entirely out of the plastic debris washed up by the ocean. The finer details of the ship, the slightly odd, fancy house and the submarine are parts of the bigger, logic-defying story

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that is the Gorillaz lore – something that seems to be indecipherable and obscure to the outsider, but plainly evident to the avid fan. The cover thus manages to create a feeling of exclusiveness among its fanbase. I have always found the colours of the stormy sky to be in sync with the feeling that songs like ‘Empire Ants’ or ‘Broken’ leaves me with, and I have always appreciated album covers that successfully paint the songs that they enclose within.

Matthew Johnson Dark Side of the Moon by Pink Floyd Pink Floyd’s album, Dark Side of the Moon, continues to be one of the most unconventional yet essential collections of work throughout Rock ‘n’ Roll history. The album cover itself, at first look, makes simple reference to Newton’s ‘Prism Experiment’, but there is more depth to the art that only builds upon the album’s creative edge. The artist, Storm Thorgerson, faced the daunting task of putting the band’s sound into something visual, a task of increased difficulty based on their often mad and out-of-this-world of lyrics. What makes this artwork a personal choice, though, is the elegant use of monochromatic colours. Thorgerson notes how he wanted to make the connection between the Dark Side of the Moon album cover and the band’s visually pleasing light shows. The album’s tracks include ‘Money’, ‘Breathe’ and ‘Eclipse’, and to witness Pink Floyd play them with an equally incredible light show, both the sound and visuals would very well resonate with every cheering fan facing the stage.

Connor Higgs Rumours by Fleetwood Mac A tour de force in a musical sense and an iconic album cover to boot, Rumours was Fleetwood Mac’s 11th (yes, 11th) studio album. Photographed by Herbert Worthington, the cover shows Stevie Nicks dressed as her stage persona, ‘Rhiannon’, while Mick Fleetwood stands proud in Renaissance-like garbs. The pressure felt by the band in trying to follow up the hugely successful Fleetwood Mac (1975) was only made worse by the band’s internal strife, with Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks splitting up, Fleetwood splitting with his wife Pattie Boyd, and Christine McVie splitting with husband John. The album cover reflects this subtly yet perfectly, with Nicks’ use of her stage persona and outstretched arms creating an angelic look. Fleetwood’s strong, masculine pose is juxtaposed against Nicks’ effeminate one; Nicks’ leg stretching over Fleetwood’s a reflection of the bonds that held the band together despite the conflicts (or should I say, the ‘chains’). It’s iconic in its ability to look simple and yet hold many layers; the ‘balls’ hanging between Fleetwood’s legs much more than a lewd image, but an indication of his own stage presence. Both Nicks and Fleetwood have their eyes focused on the crystal ball-like object in Fleetwood’s left hand, suggestive of the uncertainty that must have plagued Fleetwood Mac’s future at this point. Rumours secured their legacy, however.

Mateus de Sá My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy by Kanye West My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy was a monumental album for Kanye West’s ever-evolving career. Released in 2010, it marked a comeback of sorts for the musician, after his previous project left many fans disappointed. Many even credit the album for changing the course of hip-hop, diverting public preference from braggadocio ‘bling’ rap to more experimental styles and themes. It is only appropriate, then, that this masterpiece should have an equally vibrant album cover. The central image, a painting by American contemporary George Condo, depicts a naked Kanye West being straddled by an equally nude white woman with wings. In contrast to the striking red of the background, the lone image of Kanye fornicating with an angel perfectly embodies the destructive and irrational behaviours that the rapper introspectively speaks about in the album. With this album cover, Kanye is exploring the nature of celebrity stardom, something which he was beginning to become notable for at this point in his career. With the luxurious nature of an almost ‘holy’ fame and wealth, the artist depicts the perverted, sexualised, and disturbed aspects of a grandiose lifestyle, and the lack of beauty in the two figures’ faces shows the ugly horror lying beneath the extravagant exterior of the controversial and mainstream public character. It is vulgar, beautiful and shocking, but most importantly, it manages to encapsulate Kanye’s personality, ego, and vulnerabilities into one extremely memorable piece of art.

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How far can OPEN WORLD games go? Matthew Johnson With the advancement of gaming graphics in open-world Games, will VR gaming tech be the next pill to swallow? Technology is constantly advancing, and it is currently doing so at a rate quicker than ever before. The technology of gaming is one that is certain to have a few important steps in the near future. One of those steps is gaming’s efforts to integrate virtual reality hardware. Open world games such as Fallout 4 have adopted the tech well enough, and while this can be something to look forward to, such outcomes have revealed snags that VR companies such as Oculus have yet to perfect. In the past decade, developers have revealed their talents through games such as Horizon Zero Dawn, The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim and The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, creating detail-enriched experiences like no other. By paying close attention to the smallest elements, be that the mechanics of the wind affecting the tall grass, or the sense of realness encapsulated through the flow of a

river, games are becoming more and more lifelike, built with a picture of a fully-realised world in mind. One of the most significant aspects I’ve realised in playing open world games is just how detailed every small element is; the movement of the main character as they run, the slo-mo visuals when a weapon slices through air, even how non-playable characters interact with the world. The director of The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, Todd Howard, revealed in a TIME interview how much effort was spent on getting the right ‘feel’ of the game: “We spent a lot of time on flow. How it feels to move through the world. How the game rewards you depending on which way you turn. I think that made people who didn’t traditionally play this stuff like it more”. When Skyrim was released, it drew mass attention from the entire gaming

community, an event of such significant that parallels can be drawn to several impacts in the community made by the likes of Minecraft and Mario. As of now, Skyrim is slightly over 6 years old, yet it still draws people in with its carefree, medieval world to frolic around in. What makes a game great, though, isn’t just in the detail, and can be somewhat hard to define – a point that is perhaps obvious for more experienced gamers. Graphics are great, but when it comes to games such as Horizon Zero Dawn, rendering advanced visuals such as simple lip movements becomes too arduous when the focus is on exploration, horse-riding and the fighting mechanics. Despite this, it doesn’t take away from the quality of the game itself. Vice versa, Shadow of the Colossus underwent incredible remastering quite recently, but it still plays poorly. The same can be said for

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the remastering of Skyrim; many players don’t care as much about the flow of a river as they do swifter controls or the removal of bugs. The recent surge in popularity of RPGs, alongside advancements in Virtual Reality (VR) technology, has increased emphasis on more fully immersing players into the game. This has apparently led in turn to a focus on improving graphics, strengthening the relationship between console-played open world games and VR. If graphics are of importance – which, judging by the recent accumulation of remasters such as Call of Duty: Modern Warfare, Bioshock: Collection and Shadow of the Colossus, they are – it leads us to the big question: how much longer until VR platforms become the gamers’ default preference?

“It wouldn’t be surprising if developers began to put in the time to create games directed more towards the VR platform” Over the course of 2017, though, the world of gaming has taken some significant steps forward. One game of substantial prestige is The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, a game overwhelmingly saturated with incredible atmosphere and visuals. This includes the actions made by the player, and how the reaction of the world connects back to them, being either through the actual storyline or the player’s ability to go off on their own. Additionally, while a majority of games can be guilty of having lazily-made, repetitive side-quests, Witcher 3 is different, with its knack of providing a variety of original gameplay opportunities. In this case, if it doesn’t feel fluid to the player, and freedom doesn’t reign, then

players will lose interest. Here, realism is vital. On the other hand, perhaps originality and freedom aren’t all that important. In a recent interview with Breath of the Wild Director Hidemaro Fuijibayashi, his brain was picked on how he crafted the game: “The look and feel… has changed with the times, [but] I don’t think the core gameplay of the series has changed at all compared to that of 30 years ago”. As Fujibayashi explains, Link, the protagonist, constantly finds himself “puzzle-solving”, as he always has done. Nicolas, a University of Nottingham 3rd year Economics student, vouches for the game’s more mundane tasks. These examples include Link finding his way across a river, paragliding off mountain cliffs, or trekking towards a bridge far off to the west. Games such as Breath of the Wild don’t particularly scream “VR”, but developing the graphics is nonetheless pushing the envelope as to what’s next. There appears, then, to be a divide in approach. According to Oculus Executive Producer David Lee, a “key challenge is to make the interface so seamless that it feels like natural life,” an approach focused on visuals and in-game freedom. Contrastingly, Superhot – an excellent game made for the VR platform in which the player inhabits a reality where they have abilities similar to the likes of John Wick – places its focus on the mechanics of the game, rather than making it look photo-realistic. With more open world games slowly emerging in the past decade, it wouldn’t be surprising if developers began to put in the time to create games directed more towards the VR platform. But talking to friends who consider themselves ‘old fashioned’, many seem unwilling make the switch

over to a system where the mind takes control. Gamers are therefore apparently now taking sides: traditional gaming with controller in hand, versus advancing their skills in games on VR platforms (mask included).

“Traditional gaming with controller in hand, versus advancing their skills in games on VR platforms” Steven Spielberg, building upon Ernest Cline’s original written work, Ready Player One, has even dished out a film surrounding a world where a generation has taken extensive comfort into what is known as ‘the Oasis’, the ultimate VR world experience. Similarly, anthology series Black Mirror made use of an advanced version of the technology in the first episode of their latest season, ‘USS Callister’. These fictional worlds give us something of a proposal into how far of a reach VR could have in the gaming community, and society as a whole. Both stories, however, have darker sides to them, warning us ahead of time that both light and dark reside within the future of VR. Sometimes it feels that putting a small chip (or possibly those thick cables from The Matrix) into our brains to create alternative and potentially preferable realities is on the horizon. You may see this as something that can never happen, but only around a century ago, people had never heard of cars – now the world is on the brink of autonomous driving, thanks to Tesla. The question, then, is whether our reality will remain good enough to steer away from the dark path warned against by science fiction, or if escaping to some advanced VR gaming dimension will soon be acknowledged as the default reality.

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The Nottingham Creatives Ellen Smithies With over half a dozen art galleries, numerous live music venues and countless creative independent shops, Nottingham is without doubt one of the most creative cities in the East Midlands. Here, we introduce you to some of Nottingham’s best artists and creatives; you might be familiar with a couple, but some are definitely underappreciated! Fabritzia Design, by Anna Nelson: Based in Nottingham, Anna Nelson is a designer and printmaker whose work is inspired by the natural world and the city around her. Her business is named after her “cantankerous” pet rabbit, who is also a frequent muse for her work. She sells prints and accessories of her work, along with some adorable greetings cards – definitely check her out if you’re looking for something for a nature-loving friend. https://www.facebook.com/fabritziadesign/ Amy Blackwell: Amy Blackwell (unrelated to everyone’s favourite on-campus bookstore) is a painter and printmaker, though her talents extend to pattern-work, jewellery-marking and typography as well. Currently based at Backlit Gallery in Nottingham, her work is heavily inspired by the natural world, and creating patterns from the different shapes found all around us. She also loves creating portraits, and her work is full of character and colour. If you’re in the market for a statement necklace, or some charming art for

your wall, check out her work in the Nottingham Contemporary shop or Handmade Nottingham, just off Market Square! http://www.amyblackwell.co.uk/ Katrina Sophia: A freelance illustrator and artist, Katrina is a watercolour artist based in Nottingham. She loves the natural world, and tries to use 100% recycled materials to create and package her products for shipment. Her abundant collection of houseplants (that I have to admit I am very envious of) acts as the inspiration for much of her work, so if you know a crazy plant person, check her work out. https://katrinasophia.com/ Amber Run: Formed while studying at the University of Nottingham, Amber Run are an indie-rock band comprising four members: Will Jones, Joshua Keogh, Tom Sperring and Henry Wyeth. After forming in 2012, the band featured on the BBC Introducing stage at Reading Festival in 2013, and since then have risen to fame, now signed to Easy

Life Records. Their latest album, For a Moment, I Was Lost, was released early last year, and they tour frequently, often returning to Nottingham. Keep an eye on their website and social media for updates! www.amber-run.com Lacey: Nottingham-founded band Lacey were formed back in 2011, by four guys that met through a game of football. Now the band, made up of Graz Turner, Josh Lewin, David Pearson and Pete Maksymiw, are growing in popularity, having supported James Blunt at the Motorpoint Arena and selling out at Rocky City and Bodega. Though currently unsigned, Lacey sound like the real deal, with success guaranteed to come their way in the future. Their debut album, Under the Brightest Lights, is out now. http://laceyofficialuk.com/ This is only a small selection of Nottingham’s best and brightest creatives, so keep your eye out for the others hanging around, and be sure to let us know if you have one we should check out!

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Matters? Zoya Raza-Sheikh Let’s be real; size can make all the difference. You might be thinking, what does this have to do with anything, it’s all about the experience, right? Sometimes bigger is better, but then again, it’s all about pleasure and being in the right spot. Now get your mind out of the gutter, I’m talking about gig venues. Yes, it’s time to tackle one of the big topics of music culture – venue size. As an avid gig goer, I’ve had my fair share of shows, and every venue has been its own unique and wonderful experience. Yet, it’s the casual throwaway comments about independent, smaller venues that really get under my skin. The truth is, when it comes down to venues, it’s the battle of size - do you go for the notoriously B.I.G or for something biggie small? So, here’s the thing, I’m here to bring you all to the dark side – the small side. Smaller venues have received a lot of heat lately, and no, I’m not talking about how a packed smaller venue can feel hotter than Hell itself, but how they are often overlooked. Fortunately, Nottingham is home to three killer smaller venues; The Bodega, Rescue Rooms and Rock City. These guys have housed some trailblazer acts like Wolf Alice, Ellie Goulding and Ed

Sheeran, to the equally talented, smaller artists like Tonight Alive, Pale Waves and HAIM. With cheap tickets, you could unknowingly catch the next “big” act at one of these places. Not only that, but there’s something more intimate about a small venue. You can be pressed up against the barrier front and center of the stage, or chill out at the back and still have a great night.

“Smaller venues are the underdogs of live music” While smaller venues hold a place in my heart, large-scale venues also have their moments. Having recently caught Sabrina Carpenter, supporting The Vamps, at Nottingham’s Motorpoint Arena, I could see the appeal of massive venues. There’s nothing quite like having a crowd of thousands singing back to an artist. But here’s my problem; bigger scenes mean raised

prices and not always a the perfect performance. Unless the artist is a hyper-performative artist like Lorde, Taylor Swift, or P!nk, I can’t see the seduction of them. While tickets equate revenue and the chance for more fans to see a favourite act, there’s something empty or missing about the whole experience. More often than not, they can feel more manufactured and less authentic. All in all, size matters. As corporate venues start pushing the smaller venues out, we have to remember smaller venues are the underdogs of live music. Whether it’s a new band on the block or familiar favourite taking the stage; we must keep live music in smaller, independent venues going. It’d be a shame to see smaller venues continue to shut down and if I haven’t made it clear enough; I’d take a gig at Rock City/Rescue Rooms over any over-packed, sold out arena any day.

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Truth behind fiction Nicolas Caballero Are films ‘based on a true story’ really close to the true tale?

Back in 1895, Oscar Wilde was already deriding the idea of an incorruptible truth. “Truth is rarely pure, and never simple” he states in The Importance of Being Earnest. More than a century later, we know better than to believe in the idea of an objective truth, and Wilde’s

skepticism on viridity seems perhaps more tangible now than it ever was. Because of this, it is now more important than ever that as consumers of entertainment and art, we analyse the relationship between fiction and truthfulness.

We disassociate fiction from reality in a knee-jerk fashion. In our brains, the two things are intuitively separate and it seems wrong to compare them. The truth, however, is that fiction and reality are closely related.

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Fiction needs to reflect reality, so to speak, if it wishes to be of any significance at all. It can be said that the exploitation of this relationship is what elevates some art to a ‘higher level’ where it ceases to be entertainment and starts to meaningfully affect onlookers. While all is well and good with this, we need to ask ourselves if ever this relationship can turn toxic. Many years ago, the concept of ‘based on a true story’ films was conceived. At first, these were nothing more than dramatisations of real life events, often military feats of strengths propagandised during time of war. Some of the early entries in the saga for example being Battleship Potemkin and The General. While the concept of a fictional work borrowing particularly heavily from real events was not new to film, the ever-growing importance of film as an intrinsically commercial and all-sensory experience made the introduction of the ‘based on a true story’ framing device of paramount importance. It also introduced a potentially damaging new tool to the arsenal of propaganda.

“The trouble is that there is no guideline, no rulebook for how much a movie can borrow from reality” As is the case with many remnant tools of propaganda, someone several years ago found a way to repurpose it and turn it into marketing. After all, in an entertainment industry constantly being criticised for oversaturation of plot lines, character tropes, and just about every story element, what better way to reinvigorate what’s already been done than saying it was drawn from reality? Suddenly, an audience’s knee-jerk reaction to dichotomised fiction and

reality subdues. Surely, if a film borrows from reality it must be particularly meaningful, not only to history but to us as individuals. Interest is aroused, conversation ensues, and more tickets are bought. It’s an exercise in grade A marketing. Perhaps the most genial part of this marketing technique is that it is always a win for production. The ambiguity of ‘based on a true story’ (for the most part) exempts movies from being liable to legal action, and even if the film’s real elements are so few and far between that the tagline become irrelevant and critics flood the internet crying ‘fake’, the scandal is still likely to get bums on seats. The box office cannot lose. Perhaps the most recent example of the ‘based on a true story’ phenomena is The Post. The film depicts the events that occured and followed The Washington Post’s publication of the Pentagon Papers, detailing US involvement in the Vietnam war. Spoilers follow... To the movie’s credit, it gets a lot of things right. The historical events depicted remain eerily close to reality, down to where Katherine Graham was at the time where she decided to publish the papers. However, even here there are stretches. Arthur Parsons, for example, vocal about the female leadership of the paper, was not a historical character but rather an entirely fictional personification of all the naysayers that existed at the paper at the time. Perhaps the biggest stretch of the movie is in over-dramatising the series of events.

The Post’s risk-taking is undermined if you actually look at the historical events, notably that The New York Times had preceded the publication of The Washington Post by breaking the story first. Nixon’s reaction to the whole ordeal is also dramatised, as he never banned The Post from the White House

after the publication of the Papers, as the movie would like you to believe. While these stretches from reality are harmless enough, the trouble is that there is no guideline, no rulebook for how much a movie can borrow from reality before it is eligible to be marketed as ‘based on a true story’. This lends itself to the tagline being applied to a ridiculous extent. Take Fargo as an example.

“What do we call The Coen Brothers’ exemplary lie? Artistic Direction? False marketing?” The movie opens with the line: “This is a true story. The events depicted in this film took place in Minnesota in 1987”. The Coen Brothers have since revealed that (barring a few details) this is almost entirely fallacy. While Fargo is not the only film to try and trick audiences that it actually happened (The Blair Witch Project comes to mind), the grounded realism which is at the core of Fargo makes it stand out from others where the pretext of it being based on reality is so ridiculous that no one could possibly fall for it. So what do we call The Coen Brothers’ exemplary lie? Artistic Direction? False marketing? The decision should be in the hands of the audience member. Perhaps the best policy is to disregard the tagline completely and heed Mr Wilde’s advice. Truth is rarely pure and it’s never simple, yet film as a form of entertainment attempts to be both. In the midst of adapting reality, things are going to be left out, exaggerated, or completely lied about. But fiction is fiction and its importance has never relied on how closely it resembles reality, but rather on how closely it resembles humanity. As long as this is taken care of, feel free to continue buying tickets and eating popcorn.

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Image courtesy of: ‘PowerShots Photography’

Hitting Sixes in the Emirates Connor Higgs Impact Sport spoke to Alice Baird, one of the University’s two England Women’s under-21 indoor cricketers, whose skills took her all the way to Dubai.

In September 2017, the England Women’s Under-21 indoor cricket team headed out to Dubai for the World Cup, the 10th time it has been held since its inception in 1995. The structure of the tournament follows a round robin format, with semi-finals then contested by the top four sides. In the Women’s under-21 format, England reached the semi-finals, with the tournament won by Australia.

Two members of the team, Alice Baird and Sara Dimock, are students at the University of Nottingham, and Impact Sport sat down with Alice, to chat about her experiences of representing her country and the fortunes of the University of Nottingham’s own team.

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Firstly, what was it like representing England at the U-21 Women’s Indoor World Cup?

Was there any cricketers who you strived to be like when you were younger?

AB: “It was kind of surreal. I was something that I never expected even to get asked to the trials, let alone getting picked, and then getting out there [to Dubai]. Obviously, whenever you play sport as a kid, you dream of playing for your country. I would absolutely love to do it again.”

AB: “Absolutely! Charlotte Edwards was, without a doubt, my main idol. She’s a batsman, not a bowler, which is my speciality, but she was the face of England women’s cricket, but also women’s cricket in the world for a very long time.

How do you feel the team did at the World Cup? AB: “The under-21 women’s team did quite well, and got to the semi-finals. Unfortunately, we didn’t quite perform on the day to get through, but we came where we expected to come. “However, I would have been amazing to get through to the finals but it wasn’t to be. Everyone in our team did their absolute best, without a doubt. As a team, I think we performed well and we had some amazing performances. “Although we did not beat Australia and New Zealand, we did get points against them, which is more than we had in the previous World Cup. Personally, I could’ve performed better! But as I said, I certainly did my best, and have no regrets.”

“In theory, you can end with a negative score!” What are the main differences between indoor and outdoor cricket? AB: “There are some big differences between the two. Outdoor cricket has different formats (Test, ODI, T20); in indoor cricket, it’s 16 overs a side, and you bat in pairs for four overs. If you get out, you lose five runs but you complete your overs. In theory, you can end on a negative score! “You also have to bowl for two overs, as well, including the wicket-keeper. There are only eight people per team, too, rather than 11. The boundaries are netted, too, rather than walls, where you can catch off the net. It’s a more intense version of T20 cricket, essentially.”

“Her legacy is very clear, and a whole generation of women’s cricketers are coming through who were inspired by her.” Moving on to the University of Nottingham teams, how did the women’s indoor team do this year? AB: “The University indoor team have done very well; we played seven other teams regionally, and won all of our games except for those against Loughborough 1s and 2s. It’s been a good year, we had some close games. One of our closest games was actually against Nottingham Trent, who have a new team this year. “We do know that Loughborough are not allowed to take both of their teams to the BUCS Nationals, so hopefully we can go in place of their 2nd team. Going to Nationals would be a first for the indoor side.

and we have some batters coming through now, which is nice. “We also have Varsity for the first time in four years, which is incredibly exciting. I am absolutely gutted that I am not going to be there to play [as I will be in Brazil on a research project]. Who knows, maybe the Physics department will fly me back in for it!”

“Getting the exposure will help get more women into cricket” How far has women’s cricket at the University developed, even just in your time here? AB: “The first year I was here was the first year we entered the British Open, which has been our link to the England set-up. Each year, we have been coming on leaps and bounds, and entering more of our members into the indoor game. It’s a small club, but it is a very open club, and anyone can join if they want to. Having been here for nearly four years, it is nice to see how the club has evolved. We helped out with one of the Girls’ Night In events, back in December, and we had over 100 people come and try cricket for the first time.

“In terms of the British Open, which we enter every year, we did better than last year, having won our ‘play-off for last place’ game! Last year we came stone-dead last, so this year we are certainly improving, having had five of our players in the England set-up, and two of those represent England.

“We’ve had contact from a lot of those people asking to come to taster sessions. We had a lot of help from the ECB with that, and some of the Loughborough Lightning players from the Kia Super League came down. Getting the exposure will help to get more women into cricket, and we can see that it is something they want to do.”

“The competition is so fierce, as almost everyone who plays at the tournament plays for England. We are looking to enter a team into the under-21 British Open, which a number of us played in last year, despite not being able to enter a UoN team.

“We are currently looking at putting a plan in place for the club in the future, with how to go from a beginner club to a performance and then an elite club, which would be amazing for women’s cricket and amazing for the University as well.

How about the outdoor team? How do you see that season shaping up?

“Just having a women’s cricket club in the first place in certainly one of the reasons I came here, because it isn’t commonplace at University. It will take time to get to that elite level, probably five, six, or seven years, but it is certainly doable. We just need to put the measures in place now.”

AB: “In terms of the outdoor season, it is looking pretty good; we have a good core of players, which we try to get out every game, and we can rotate the newer players in with that. We have always been more of a bowling side,

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‘As long as we’ve got the cup’ Tom Monks How Forest’s history would be different if VAR had always been available.

January 7th, 2018. After Eric Lichaj’s opener and emphatic strike before the halftime whistle were followed by Ben Brereton’s much deserved goal in the second half, a managerless Forest find themselves with the chance to put away another penalty and go 4-2 up against FA Cup holders Arsenal. Kieran Dowell puts it in the net but slips on his run-up, prompting the referee to consider the Arsenal players’ claims that the young midfielder double-touched the ball. John Moss gives the goal, but replays suggest that Dowell likely touched it twice.

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Assistant Referee) technology would first be used in competitive English football the very next day, as the post-match discussion centred as much on Dowell’s penalty as it did around Forest’s stunning performance. One would be naive to think Arsenal would have been able to come back had the decision gone the other way - Forest were toying with Arsene Wenger’s side and already in a winning position late on - but it did make you realise what a difference it would make in these desperate refereeing situations. Had football always used VAR, so much could have gone differently. No Thierry Henry handball, no confusing Kieran Gibbs for Oxlade-Chamberlain, and no “Hand of God”. Even England’s third goal in the 1966 World Cup final, courtesy of a controversial strike by Geoff Hurst, might have been ruled out for not crossing the line. There’s also of course the goal that our old friend Sepp Blatter cited as the real impetus towards the introduction of video tech. A dominant Germany were 2-1 up against England in Bloemfontein in the last 16 of the 2010 World Cup, as Lampard’s effort crashed off the crossbar and landed about seventeen miles over the line, before the referee thought it better to save England from perhaps another shootout defeat to Die Mannschaft and rule it out. For better or worse, VAR is going to make the drama of the game different to how it used to be, so what would history look like had it been used from the start? In particular, how different would Forest’s history have turned out?

Four days after their Wembley stalemate, Forest faced Liverpool at Old Trafford for a replay of the 1978 League Cup final. John O’Hare was fouled by Phil Thompson, giving John Robertson the chance to score the winning penalty for the original Reds and secure the first League and League Cup double. Replays showed the tackle to be outside the box, as Peter Taylor would learn in his post-match interview: Taylor: “Your cameras will catch it, surely.” Commentator: “Yeah, and I think they show it outside.” Taylor: “Well, it also shows we’ve got the cup and that’s the main thing.” TV replays also confirmed that Terry McDermott’s equaliser was wrongly ruled out for handball, with the midfielder chesting the ball before firing past Chris Woods. The red mist had well and truly descended, with defender Tommy Smith famously saying that referee Pat Partridge “should be shot”. Contentious decisions even themselves out, however. In the sixth round of the 1974 FA Cup Forest faced Newcastle, where they scored a hotly contested penalty to take their lead to 1-3 and prompt a red card for a protesting Pat Howard, causing the home crowd to invade the pitch. The referee called a break, with Newcastle winning 4-3 once play was resumed. An appeal lodged by Forest convinced the FA to call a replay, which of course ended up 0-0,

and Newcastle victorious in the replay of the replay. Then there is Gazza’s moment of madness. Through a terrible tackle on Gary Charles, Paul Gascoigne gave away the free kick that would produce a stunning opener for Forest captain Stuart Pearce in the ‘91 FA Cup Final. Warranting a sending off for two bad fouls, rather Gascoigne’s only punishment was being stretchered off having injured himself in the second foul. Fellow Spurs midfielder Paul Stewart went on to dictate the game and Forest lost. Would VAR have changed things? Certainly, Gascoigne would have gone off earlier and more importantly put Spurs down to ten men, but after twenty-five minutes Gary Lineker had a goal wrongly disallowed for offside. Five minutes later, Forest keeper Mark Crossley brought him down in the penalty area and saved his subsequent attempt, becoming the second ever goalkeeper to save an FA Cup Final penalty. Nayim was the player Spurs were fortunate enough to bring on for Gascoigne, and the Spaniard supplied the pass for Spurs’ equaliser before also taking the corner that would eventually lead to a Des Walker own goal in extra time. The game finished 1-2, and Cloughie would retire with just one major trophy eluding him. As for Spurs, they might now be remembered as being on the lucky side of history yet again, given the changes to officiating almost three decades later.

Image courtesy of: ‘footysphere’ via Flickr

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That’s not flying, that’s falling with style Jimmy Moorhouse Impact sat down with some of the UoN Skydiving team, who make a once-in-a-lifetime experience a weekly occurrence. Skydiving, the sport of jumping out of an airplane and performing acrobatic manoeuvres, is an extreme experience for the everyday thrill-seeker. Impact went along to interview three of the University of Nottingham’s very own thrill-seekers, Jodie-Leigh Foster, Ellie Marshall and Hannah Broadbent. What does Skydiving involve and what are the different disciplines? Jodie: “Skydiving is more than just a one-time experience. It’s also a sport which can be recreational or competitive! It involves jumping out of an aircraft at various heights (we usually jump from 14,000ft), where you get to experience approximately 60 seconds of freefall before deploying your own parachute and piloting it to the landing area. You can jump both by yourself and with friends, get involved with many different disciplines and learn to control your body in the airflow to move around the sky.

“Some examples of the different disciplines include; Formation Skydiving, where you fall in a belly to earth orientation; Freestyle Skydiving, which is similar to doing acrobatics in the air; and Wingsuiting, which are the ‘squirrel suits’ you sometimes see people jumping in which allow you to fall at a much slower rate and have greater horizontal movement across the earth. There’s also fun to have which doesn’t involve freefall, such as Canopy Piloting and Canopy Formations.” When did you first get involved with Skydiving and what made you want to do it? Jodie: “I did a tandem skydive whilst travelling in Cairns, Australia which I loved but never thought of skydiving as more than a one-off experience. When I started at the University of Nottingham my friend convinced me to go to an information talk with her to find out more about the club, after which I decided to sign up.

“The cost of the training and to complete my first 3 solo skydives was still cheaper than another tandem so I thought, why not? I have now done 175 jumps and am still in love with the sport. Ellie: “I’ve known for my whole life that I wanted to be a skydiver, I remember being fascinated with flying when I was younger. I did a tandem skydive for my 16th birthday, and dreamed of getting my solo license, but never thought I would be able to achieve this. That is, until UoN Skydiving came along! As soon as I saw that Nottingham had a skydiving club, I decided that I would go to this university and I joined the club as soon as I could. 500 jumps later and I wouldn’t change a thing! How expensive is it? Jodie: “It’s obviously not the cheapest of sports that you could get involved in but it’s not as expensive as a lot of people think! Once qualified, tickets at our local drop zone are only £17 (£15

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on Fridays!), which is a lot cheaper than a tandem (which are £260 per jump)! We have some members that do just a few jumps a year and others who do over a hundred, so how much you spend is up to you really!” Hannah: “Another expensive part of the sport can be the equipment that you use to jump, and especially when you’re just starting to learn how to skydive this can seem like a big investment! “We’re very lucky that we have access to over £10,000 worth of kit that the club has bought and maintained over the years and being a member of the UoN Skydiving gives you free access to this!” Is it dangerous? Jodie: “I think more accidents have happened in the drop zones bar on bad weather days than when jumping! Skydiving is more of a calculated risk, as long as you follow your training and stay safe it’s not as dangerous as people expect it to be, and is actually safer than other sports, such as skiing. “Most injuries are from experienced jumpers who choose to do more complicated and dangerous aspects of skydiving, like swooping for example, where people reach speeds of up to 65mph moving horizontally over the ground. “Skydiving safety has advanced a lot over the years and there are many safety mechanisms in place which successfully prevent injury, such as your reserve parachute which is packed by a certified advanced packer (of which there are only a couple of hundred in the country). “There’s also an Automatic Activation Device which will open your reserve parachute in the unlikely event that you don’t open it yourself and many other things.”

Images courtesy of: David Alatorre Milko Hodgkinson

Are there any specific competitions which you compete in? Jodie: “I am competing in the UK Skydiving league, a national competition and hopefully the European Skydiving League in 4-way formation Skydiving this year. I am in a team with Nottingham Alumni member Jamie Ball and three of our skydiving friends. Four of us have to make certain shapes in the sky in a 35 second period of time and gain points for each shape. The fifth member of our team is the cameraman, who jumps with us and films the jump which is then judged on the ground at the end. “There are many different levels which you can compete in in skydiving; our current and alumni members have recently competed in at a range of levels from local beginner competitions to world cup competitions, as well as setting some world records!” Ellie: “I’m in a wingsuit acrobatic team, which is a discipline that involves lots of rolls, flips, transitions and tricks in a wingsuit. I currently compete on the team with my boyfriend and our cameraman is a good friend of ours. We have 65 seconds to perform an acrobatic sequence, and we get scored artistically afterwards from the video we submit. It’s great fun! “I was lucky enough to qualify for the Wingsuit World Championships which take place this August in the Czech Republic, and will be representing Team GB for the first time, and hopefully not the last! The level and speed of progression in our sport is amazing, and anyone can do well if they put the hard work in.” Hannah: “There are also lots of novice competitions to compete in. As someone who is new to the sport and has little experience with jumping with other people to make formations, this is a great way to learn without having to jump out of a plane!”

Do you have any memorable personal experiences with UON Skydiving club? Jodie: “I have so many memorable experiences with the club that I don’t think I could choose just one to talk about! The UoN Skydiving Club is like a big family, we enjoy going for socials and round to each other’s house as well as actually jumping out of planes together. I have also had a lot of memorable experiences with skydivers from outside of the club, you meet so many people from all over the world and make some amazing memories with life-long friends!” Hannah: “I can’t agree more, the club and the drop zone become like a second family, regardless of how experienced you are. I’ve only recently gained my skydiving license and my most memorable jump was the first time I was taken to maximum altitude (14,000ft). It was an incredible feeling to be in freefall for so long and I couldn’t stop smiling for the rest of the day!” How can other students get involved with the club? Jodie: “Skydiving is different from other sports like gymnastics for example, where most people who become good at gymnastics start as children. You can’t learn to skydive until you’re 18, so everyone is in the same boat and there are so many people at the same level as you! So whilst you’re a university student it’s the best time to start, it’s also the cheapest you’ll ever be able to learn to skydive!” For anyone who is interested in joining the club, you can visit UON Skydiving’s website at UoNSkydiving.co.uk or send an email to Team@uonskydiving.co.uk and students can also check out UONSkydiving Instagram and Snapchat, or Skydiving Club on YouTube to see what the club get up to, and perhaps what you have got to look forward to. For those of you who aren’t like me and aren’t significantly in debt, Skydiving could be the sport for you, it’s a great experience for thrill-seekers, and a great way to meet new people and make friends. As out interview with the club shows, this is the best possible time to get involved, so give it a try.

IMPACT

A sporting

‘society’ with an

unofficial Varsity Tom Monks The University of Nottingham Darts Society tell all about their ‘club’ and their own little chapter of the Uni of-Trent rivalry.

Images courtesy of: Hei Yeung photography

The University of Nottingham has more sports ‘clubs’ than any other university in the United Kingdom. They represent a buzzing social and competitive scene that anyone can get involved with. Not all university sport necessarily falls into this ‘club’ category, however, and Darts represents one of the outfits currently operating under the ‘Society’ banner.

Everything develops an added sense of seriousness around this time of year, as the Varsity series approaches. Impact caught up with UoN Darts Society bosses Adam ‘Banknote’ Smith and Peter ‘Ramsey’ Thornton so discuss life in their respective roles as President and Vice President, as well as their unfortunate failure to hold onto the city bragging rights following a four sets to two loss in 2018’s Varsity clash.

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How did you go from first picking up darts to getting involved with the society at UoN?

What did you make of Phil Taylor’s antics in the final of the World Darts Championships vs Rob Cross?

come to watch. If it did become a bigger event it could easily be as big as any other sporting varsity.”

AS: “I used to play in a pub team before joining university. I joined university just playing in my halls, with no idea that there was a darts society. I found out there was one, and I’ve enjoyed playing ever since.”

AS: “Darts is full of unsportsmanlike figures. Phil Taylor is no stranger to these antics, which has made him go from a fan favourite to a polarising figure in darts. You can’t deny what he has done in the past for the sport, but towards the end of his career I feel like his attitude may have ruined what he had achieved in the eyes of people who haven’t long since taken an interest in darts.”

Adam thinks to possibility of seeking club status is there for the future, and sees great appeal in having some form of BUCS event for darts. The sports membership requirements don’t fit entirely with the style of the sport and the society, however, and without facilities such as darts boards in DRSV, a switch is difficult to see.

PT: “I used to play darts with my grandma from a very young age every day after school. Like Adam, when I came to university, I hadn’t considered playing it, except with him in Lenton & Wortley in the bar. In second year, I saw how much fun he was having at the society practices and matches against other universities. Most haven’t played before joining the society though.

“It could easily be as big as any other sporting varsity” “I am quite a relaxed player, at least now anyway. When I first joined the society and started playing matches, I was very quick and got quite nervous, even when playing in the local Beeston and Chilwell league that we do every week. I thrive off playing people that I deem to be better players than me, seeing it as an opportunity to prove myself. In order to improve, I’d like to just be more consistent. As with any sport, there are good and bad days, I’d just like to make sure I have far more good than bad.”

Which brings us onto your club’s ethos. How serious does this all get for you? AS: “I am quite competitive on the ochey. I like to compose myself when I step up to a match, but understand that we do also do it to have fun. “I would describe myself as quite traditional. I am intense when I play, but not a big fan of mind-games. It’s something that needs to be taken out of the sport as part of respect for your opponent, rather than being something that plays a big part in the game.” Do you like the fact that your’s is ‘the unofficial varsity’? Or would you prefer to bring it into the mainstream series? AS: “I’d like the university to get behind the event and publicise it a bit more, but it doesn’t mean the crowds don’t

What changes would you like to see to help the society progress? AS: “Often I think it would be nice if we could attract those players that maybe don’t want to go to all our practices or matches, or perhaps don’t follow darts outside of the society. The main thing is that people understand that you can get what you want out of it, whether that’s getting better, or just making friends.” What would you say to someone thinking of joining? PT: “The team spirit that we have been able to develop over the years is amazing. I’d encourage anyone to join, regardless of how much darts experience you have. We’re open to both beginners and advanced players. Anyone would be able to enjoy the community that forms over the time we spend with each other.”

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Varsity was a heated but enjoyable night, as you’d expect between to rival unis. The crowd was superb yet again - and it was a shame to see two of UoN’s first three players come out on the losing side, upping the pressure on Uni of, who weren’t able to fully recover as Trent continued to perform at the key moments. Adam missed two darts at a double to win in the fourth leg and in the final leg was unable to muster the scoring power to keep up. Peter is able to reflect more positively on his personal performance:

“It was a lot of pressure because only winning would keep us from losing the game there and then” PT: “I was in the zone on the night, not focussed on anything but the match. I went into it as the underdog, but knew I had it in me to win. It was a lot of pressure because only winning would keep us from losing the game there and then. Even though I went 2-0 down, I never felt out of the game, so just ploughed on and managed to snatch

the final set, taking my chances at the double.” Has anyone new developed well recently that you think could help UoN reclaim the Varsity crown next year? AS: “We have some freshers this year who have shown amazing progression over the past few months. Toby Hadlow came into university darts as a good scorer but due to lack of experience playing matches struggled hitting doubles when it mattered, but as the months have progressed he has managed to rectify this. Both John Robertson and James Dobbing have shown massive improvements in their consistency and have never really let an occasion get to them.” The team mainly practice in Mooch, but Peter and Adam are desperate to return to their old stomping ground of Lenton & Wortley Hall, where there’s a board in the conservatory of Hops bar that they used to practice on.

Coming into 2017/18, Darts faced a recurring challenge that gives headaches to all smaller societies, with graduations leaving just five members to pick things up for the new year. Adam and Peter have enticed plenty of new active members to create an atmosphere where people love playing, who together secured the ‘Big Weekender’ plate in Sheffield in 2017. The process starts all over again in the summer, however: AS: “We have a lot of people leaving, nearly half the society, leaving it in an interesting situation. Hopefully with the same commitment shown at freshers week this year we can pull back the numbers. I am staying next year for my masters, and I will be stepping down as president but with the agm coming up, I’m confident we will vote in the right committee for the society’s future.” If anyone wants to go along, they have practice in Mooch Bar every Sunday at 7pm, where the team “chill until Mooch don’t want them playing darts anymore”.

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