Observatory Issue One

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CONTENTS in this issue

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connecting sydney

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sacha molitorisz

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dharawal park

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reptile park

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a history of the oyster

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alrick brown

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around town

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spirit figures

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best of spring break

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food and globalization

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photo essay

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day in the life

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sixteen legs

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single asian female

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in this issue Welcome to the inaugural edition of Observatory, a magazine produced by the team at NYU Sydney for current and prospective students, alumni, families and the global NYU network.

In this issue we look at how NYU Sydney balances an exciting amalgam of past and present, how respect for tradition is being met with new immersive technologies and communications strategies to engage a new wave of tech-savvy students.

We check in on publications from our instructors as Sacha Molitorisz signs a new book deal with New South Press on Internet privacy, Alecia Simmonds writes about the world’s most prized mollusc, and Sean Blamires discusses his research on Hickmania Troglodytes, the star of the documentary Sixteen Legs.

Be sure to read about Tisch professor Alrick Brown’s special presentation on Black Image & Film where he discusses the theme of the power of images and how representation in its many forms can be problematic.

There’s a lot to get through, from our Around Town series to the beauty of the Blue Mountains, the best of Spring Break, Mardi Gras and a recap our special visitors from Steinhardt. So sit back with a flat white and catch up with events from your favourite site down under. Our magazine is interactive. Click to enjoy!

Learn More

NYU Sydney’s classes are only a five minute walk from Circular Quay and the famous Sydney Opera House.

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CONNECTING SYDNEY how nyu sydney is embracing new technology

Stepping through NYU Sydney’s broad welcoming stonework entrance, visitors are immediately struck with a sense of history.

Built in 1931, the site retains strong physical evidence of a long association with groups that once occupied the now heritage listed building.

exciting amalgam of past and present.

It is this balancing act, along with the energetic administrative and academic staff that makes the site so attractive to students. It is here that a respect for tradition meets a new wave of tech-savvy students instigating their own international academic journey. It is the site’s staff that are now tasked with meeting changing expectations of learning styles, and communicating the site’s story as it continues to grow.

Science House has been host to Australia’s leading scientific organisations such as: The Linnean Society; The Royal Society of New South Wales; and, The Institution of Engineers Australia. The University, which has occupied the site since 2012, has tasked itself with In the five years the site has been welcoming continuing the rich tradition of academic inquiry. students, local staff have crafted a unique The building’s catalogue of photography learning environment, and as student showcasing scientists from the 1930s numbers continue to increase for the Sydney incessantly reminds visitors that this is site, so too does increased experimentation a place steeped in academic rigor and with new projects and mediums tasked tradition. But as you traverse deeper with enhancing learning experiences. between teaching environments with ‘Each classroom is host to an impressive AV cart their vibrant canvases showcasing friendly inclusive of elements such as large screen TV, faces of semesters past, it soon becomes Mac Mini, and Apple TVs, allowing students to apparent that the site has balanced an cast supplementary materials on to the screen

nyu sydney students studying in the science lab

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for all to see during discussions. With the use of Google Drive, real-time simultaneous edits and contributions can be made to planning documents, and learning materials.

This base technology allows for a truly interactive, communal learning environment.

is essential. The site has extended the reach of learning technologies beyond the classroom.

‘One day you might have a class going to the Sydney Institute of Marine Science and the next another will be off interpreting Aboriginal rock art at Ku-ring Gai Chase National Park’ explains Yuri Ogura, Academic Programs Coordinator at NYU Sydney.

Off site, science students also have access to world-class laboratories, thanks to the site’s partnership with a local institution, which is host to Australia’s first ever ‘Super Lab’. Sydney is one of a select group of global sites offering sciences in the Spring and Fall semester and these state of the art teaching facilities are now host to Physics, Biology, Biochemistry and Chemistry lessons.

Instructing sciences in these locations allows interaction with local students and experts, with the learning environment less than a five-minute walk from student housing opportunities for experiential learning are an integral element of the Sydney experience.

Students stay in Sydney for roughly seventeen weeks, meaning any opportunity to broaden understandings of concepts in local contexts

‘A big part of the learning experience for us is allowing access to site-specific opportunities and then ensuring what we hope to be the closest thing to a uniform access of information for each student.

That’s where field trip technology comes in’.

NYU Sydney utilises a wireless audio headset system, allowing local instructors or guest speakers to talk with students within a 250 metre range, affording students enhanced freedom to independently explore aspects of a location or collection without missing important discourse.

Inside the classroom, the team has begun experimentation with Virtual Reality as a teaching tool, allowing students to put themselves into another environment rewarding users with a real feel for locations and atmospheres.

‘We have had great success with the use of our VR system, not only using them in our regular semester film classes but for J-Term coursework for anthropology’, explains Associate Director of Academics, Dr. Megan Carrigy. ‘We have had wonderful feedback in particular with the VR screening of Collisions, from acclaimed Australian artist Lynette Wallworth.

Collisions is a virtual reality journey to the land of indigenous elder Nyarri Morgan and the Martu tribe existing in the remote deserts of Western Australian. Nyarri’s first interactions with Western culture came in the 1950’s bringing with it a dramatic collision between his traditional world view Western science and technology.

students using their wireless audio headset systems while exploring the sydney opera house

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working with virtual reality headsets : watch here

Commissioned by the New Frontier program at the Sundance Institute the work features 360-degree panoramic photography, computer animation, and an ultra-dynamic soundscape created using Dolby Atmos.

The small team at NYU Sydney work hard to ensure experiences, both academic and communal, remain with students as they leave for the next stages of their academic and professional careers. Part of this story is keeping lines of communication The Collisions screening is one example of open and building on each story to the possibilities that VR technology affords create a rich tapestry of Sydney stories. to the learning environment; being able to transport a whole classroom to the Western ‘The development of Sydney’s new online Australian desert to create their own learning persona and associated content has been experience with uniquely Australian content. crafted to ultimately serve four main objectives: As a conduit for increased interaction with The Sydney site’s open embrace of new alumni and other NYU sites.To consistently platforms and technologies for teaching has showcase the hard work and success of also been matched for the communication our academic and student life endeavours. of these experiences and the broader To showcase all that Sydney has to offer, narrative of Sydney’s operation and success. both inside and outside of the classroom.

Since opening for operation in 2012 NYU As a research pathway to understand Sydney has welcomed almost 1500 students how these platforms affect students, both through its heritage doors in The Rocks, Sydney’s before and after their time in Sydney. beautiful harbourside historical precinct. With In line with traditional social media outlets, social media followers increasingly mirroring which of course are playing an increasing these numbers, the Sydney site, now 5+ role in dialogue with all stakeholders, the yearsinto operation, has 1000+ unique stories Sydney team have begun experimenting to share, with many more being incubated with new exciting pathways to connect.

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NYU SYDNEY'S NEW SHORT SERIES - AROUND TOWN: EPISODE ONE, BOURKE STREET BAKERY

'Sydney is working to empower current students in ways such as Instagram Takeovers and a 'Day in the Life' series in order to personalise the stories coming from real life, real time students. We want to showcase these wonderful classroom technologies, our unique site-specific field trips and guest speakers and all that Sydney has to offer’, explains Mark Eels, Operations and Communications Coordinator.

and much more. This ties in with our push to increased access for anyone wanting to learn more about our site and beautiful city. Our community will have the opportunity to not only see what a semester in Sydney is like but get a real feeling of what it’s like to study away’.

‘It’s a collective activity. Students are also playing a larger role in ensuring fun content is released that informs current and future students of cultural spots ‘Our communications are also covering throughout Sydney. These might be favourite academic programming with the site places to eat, theatres, events, anything’. hosting live streaming sessions for ‘A newsletter, both physical and electronic screenings and Q and A sessions. We want is also about to have its inaugural edition to broaden our reach to allow students and all of these projects tie together around the world to access content’ perfectly to really showcase our beautiful ‘We are also preparing to release an interactive site and city. We are really pushing to platform, which covers 360 degree tours, make all elements of our communications interactive maps with popup video content strategy both interwoven and interactive’. written by mark eels

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NYU SYDNEY GLOBAL MEDIA INSTRUCTOR

SACHA MOLITORISZ SIGNS A BOOK DEAL In 2013, soon after joining NYU Sydney a really good place to teach while I as a founding faculty member, Sacha was wrestling with Kant and privacy.”

Molitorisz began his PhD in media and philosophy. Last week he signed a publishing deal with New South Press to turn the now-completed PhD into a book.

“The provisional title is Panopticon 2.0,” says Sacha, who has been teaching Global Media since 2012, when he put a full stop on his career as a newspaper journalist. “It’s about the ethics of internet privacy, and basically it applies Kantian theory to the internet.

“The idea, taken from Kant’s categorical imperative, is that people should never be used ‘merely as a means’. It took me about 100,000 words to apply that single phrase to internet privacy. And the good news is that an ethical principle from 1785 turns out to be a really good fit for a medium invented nearly 200 years later.”

The publication date is pencilled in for February 2019, and New South Press will seek an academic co-publisher for a US release.

“I’m thrilled New South Press are publishing. They straddle that middle ground between academia and the mainstream. That really suits my approach.

Now that I’ve shifted from journalism to academia, I’d like to blend the best of both: the accessibility of journalism with the substance and rigour of academia.

dr. sacha molitorisz postdoctoral research fellow

“Actually, I think that sums up the NYU Sydney approach too. Everyone makes an effort to be both approachable and substantial. And it turned out to be

sessional lecturer, new york university phd, macquarie university (media/philosophy)

sacha outside the office where he landed the book deal

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student

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DHARAWAL NATIONAL PARK

AUSTRALIAN REPTILE PARK

Each semster, NYU Sydney offers a tree planting opportunity to their students.

In February, Spring semester students traveled to Dharawal National Park, about 84 km outside of Sydney. The volunteers spent around four hours planting and caring for trees in the rundown part of the national park. The National Park Staff taught the students about restoring habitats and caring for seedlings. Dharawal does a great job conserving their land.

After many bushfires and climate issues, the staff never stops fighting for the restoration of this beautiful land. They also conserve the aboriginal culture of the land. Other sites of this park include Maddnen Falls, Minerva Pool Walk, and the Figure Eight Pools.

NYU Students recently had the opportunity to get up close and personal with one of Australia’s most famous characteristic, the wildlife. The Australian Reptile Park is a hands-on zoo hosting both exotic reptiles from around the world and a variety of Australian native animals. Nestled amongst a natural bush setting on the Central Coast of New South Wales, students have the opportunity to learn about conservation projects undertaken by the keepers, including a Tasmanian Devil breeding program and lifesaving spider and snake venom collection. The site is about an hour drive from the campus. The highlight of this trip, of course, include walking with and feeding Australia’s national icons, including koalas, emus, and kangaroos.

watch the reptile park video

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A HISTORY OF THE OYSTER the oyster is the world ’ s most prized mollusc but it wasn ’ t always so . alecia simmonds charts its journey from pau per ’ s staple to sharing tables with champagne .

Eating your first oyster is a milestone like your first steps, first days at school and first kiss. Like delicate messengers to the palates of youth they whisper secrets of sensuality and sophistication. For children, oysters appear at eye-level on tables, just out of reach, shrouded in tantalising prohibition and mystery. "You're not quite ready for them yet," we're told, while the adults slurp in indecent delight.

relish the heady transports oysters bring; the quiet raptures that shoot through my body from fingers to toes. bring; the quiet raptures that shoot through my body from fingers to toes.

I remember the feeling of reverence that attended my first oyster. Christmas. A dozen aunts and uncles perched along a wooden last-supper table, resting their eyes on my trembling fork. "Don't chew," were the instructions. "Just let it swim in your mouth, then swallow. Savour the aftertaste." I remember its cool voluptuousness, its sea-saltiness and its strangeness as it swelled on my tongue.

I remember gulping, wincing and then beaming with the giddy pride at being admitted to a prestigious club, all the while stifling waves of nausea at its slipperiness on my tongue. I remember gulping, wincing, and then beaming with the giddy pride at being admitted to a prestigious club, all the while stilfing waves of nausea at its slipperiness.

Our desire for oysters is related to their rarity, to their elevation from everyday life. And so I was surprised when they appeared on the menu at a recent colonial banquet at the St Alban's Writer's Festival (two hours out of Sydney), hosted by food historian Jacqui Newling. The salt-pork and jellied desserts were to be expected.

But oysters? In the gastronomically grim world of 19th-century Sydney? "It was cheaper to buy a bucket of oysters in the early colonial period than it was to buy a dozen eggs," Newling told us as we devoured the luscious oyster loaf (crusty French rolls drizzled in a butter and wine sauce, flecked with cooked oysters). My tastebuds and curiosity were piqued.

Over time my initial discomfort turned to deep and abiding pleasure. Today, I

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Reserved for special occasions, oysters carry within their shells the memory of life's happiest moments. They're where sentimental and gastronomic pleasure mingle.

The very foundations of Australian society, I soon discovered, were built on oysters. Quite literally. Sydney had no lime deposits, which were needed to create cement and mortar; the early

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houses were bound by burnt oyster shells instead. One reason oysters were so cheap was because their meat was of secondary importance to their shell.

Take a look at the mortar used in Sydney's Hyde Park Barracks, and you'll find silvery speckles of oyster shells winking at you. And if you were to peer beneath the floorboards of the barracks, you would be greeted by secret stashes of oyster shells discarded by hungry convicts.

Oysters with wasabi nori and lime dressing. Photo: Con Poulos

lineage can be traced to the Romans whose appetite for oysters was so voracious they turned the coastline of Gaul into a vast oysterfarm, feasting as their civilisation festered. And before that the Greeks converted a briny delicacy into a tool for democracy. The custom of voting on an oyster shell to ostracise people from the polls was first practised in 487BC and its victims included Themistocles and Thucydides. Around 1,600 oyster shells have been excavated from the Athenian Agora bearing around 60 names of people deemed "undesirable and suitable for exile", says historian Maguelonne Toussaint-Samat.

Oysters were once the most democratic of foods: salty travellers across class and racial divides, they were considered fit for princes and paupers alike. If an artist were to trace the outline of Sydney Cove in the 1780s it would undulate with middens of oysters, some reaching four metres high, created by the local Aboriginal people, who roasted the flesh and crafted fish-hooks and cutting tools from the shells. Godfrey Mundy, writing in 1846, describes "oyster-eating" as "one pursuit peculiarly congenial to the tastes of the people". It was a "half-jaunting, halfsedentary" pastime that involved "a little sea air, a very little personal exertion, and a large amount of gastronomic recreation".

But what of the oyster itself? How might it experience the world? Here we're confronted with humanity's monstrous arrogance, for the life of the oyster is far more thrilling than our own. The oyster is born of hermaphrodite parents who in certain species drift seasonally between sexes, sometimes flaring their shells and fertilising themselves. Lacking any finer feelings of parental attachment, oysters spit out their larval infants and nature gives them two weeks to find a hard surface to call home.

All Australians were oyster-lovers, even those in inland towns. Unopened, oysters could travel for days across the country's hot terrain, arriving at any number of the 19th-century oyster bars found in rural towns like Orange, Wagga Wagga or Mudgee. Sepia-tinted photos from the time depict well-whiskered Victorian-era men standing on dusty streets outside oyster bars, slurping and grinning at us across the centuries. Oyster bars, Newling tells us, were as popular as pubs.

ALECIA SIMMONDS

We inherited our egalitarian love of oysters from the English, for whom they were so plentiful that they were regarded as poor people's food. Before this, our gustatory

this article was originally printed in gourmet traveller .

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THE HISTORY OF BLACK IMAGE IN CINEMA:

AN EVENING WITH ALRICK BROWN “without

friction we have no feeling , we don ’ t grow .”

PHOTO COURTESY OF THE U.S CONSULATE GENERAL SYDNEY

'This conversation can be honest. Open and honest always makes for uncomfortable discourse, but as Martin Luther King once said, It’s friction that helps us to grow, without that intellectual and emotional friction inside of us nothing changes'. And with that NYU Tisch professor Alrick Brown set about delivering a truncated version of what is typically already a packed fourteen week course for eager film students. The topic- ‘Black Image & Film: A Brief History”.

Alrick conceded that it was always going to be ‘A Herculean task to talk about the history of Black cinema in 40 minutes or less… There are too many pieces, too many nuances and moving parts for one guy’s perspective’. But for the viewer, Professor Brown was equal to the task.

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The event, which coincided with NYU Black History Month, attracted a large audience of students, members of the Benjamin Franklin Club, the U.S Consulate and the broader public.

At the core of the presentation was the theme of the power of images and how representation in its many forms can be problematic. ‘Racist, stereotypical images are present, even in the earliest films. So as soon as the technology was born people are misrepresented’.

Alrick acted as a steward, navigating the audience through the evolution of the involvement, themes and representation of black people in cinema, especially from a Hollywood perspective. He set the scene with a basic but powerful thought, ‘A lack of representation is problematic; I want you to think about what it means for cultures that

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PHOTO COURTESY OF THE U.S CONSULATE GENERAL SYDNEY

don’t see themselves at all on screen. do I try to understand where people's’ Or should they see themselves, what ignorance and prejudice comes from?’ if the image is not positive? ‘These The lecture was successful in traversing images shape how we see the world. between periods with sufficient salient It’s a conversation of representation examples and room for discussion. Behind and we don’t have it enough’. these movements, he explained lay ‘A Brown interlaced a pertinent mix of kind of intersection of art, technology supplementary clips, along with a but also the time we are living in’. continual return to content from ‘Classified The presentation seamlessly moved from X’, a film created from one of his mentors, discussion of the birth of love for cinema Melvin Van Peebles. Some content was to the current climate. All starting with so blatant in its racism that it risked those moments where people realised making the audience uncomfortable at a ‘Complete enamour with moving times, echoing his initial remarks on the images’, how, ‘cutting two images importance of friction. But Alrick pushed together changed us forever, cutting the audience to confront their own back and forth between something like feelings and interpretations, ‘Should I a woman and a fire to create suspense’. be angry, or as a director and story teller

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And so, says Alrick in 1903 you have these innovations but you also have a very racist society. Giving birth to one of the first ever blockbusters, ‘Birth of a Nation’, originally titled, ‘The Clansman’.

Alrick moved on to the interwar period, noting a shortage of new black filmmakers trying to create a space and have a voice.

But alas, as he points out heroes inevitably were lighter skinned. And so, as his mentor Van Peebles argues, ‘The so called golden era of independent black film is a myth…

The real history has been one of struggle… sacrifices to bring a few precious moments of black humanity to the silver screen… All that wonderful talent wasted’. ‘The only ray of hope was Sam. You remember the colored piano player in Casablanca? It was the first time I’d seen a black actor go through an entire film without having to kiss ass.’

It was clips like these that elucidated the often neglected or forgotten stereotypes enforced by the hands of Hollywood. Films an audience member like myself might have seen many times, on their own less obvious in their representation, but strung together and seen as a collection, stark in racism.

Moving to the post war period Brown introduced the new black character, one more multidimensional in nature. Why, he asks? ‘Black people are consumers, so Hollywood caught on. There was a need for a token character or a sidekick to open the market’. Behind this, though he argues always rested the sympathetic white character, ‘Even after these adjustments there were always rules’.

Brown then showed a clip from ‘Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner’, Hollywood's push

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to a more ‘liberal’ lense through interracial relations. ‘The problem though is that if you understand Sidney Poitier’s character in the film, he had just won a Nobel Prize, but the white girl did nothing. But according to the meter in Hollywood they were evenly matched. She was white.’

Alrick then moved on to the realisation of the Black power movement in the 1960s and the acceptance of the need to ‘let people in’. And so, he stated, Hollywood had to let people in, a select few tasked with making movies, directors such as Ossie, Melvin, Gordon, all given budgets.

From this stemmed the ‘Blacksploitation’ movement, which was good for employment at the time but there was still an imbalance in roles. Eventually scripts got weaker and it all began to taper out.

The irony, he noted, is that ‘There’s something happening where some of the success that the people are experiencing is a direct result of the lack of success in the criminal justice system’. And with this came the post 1975 movement and the glorification of drugs and their agents of circulation.

And so, in circular fashion we arrived back to Professor Brown’s central theme for the evening ‘No representation- some representation - distorted representation’.

So where does Alrick leave us, after some confrontational material and realisations?

A combination of personal anecdote, his first short film project ‘Familiar Fruits’ and a message of the importance of not shying away from what he calls friction.

He explained his pathway to NYU Tisch School of the Arts, via immigrating from Jamaica to New Jersey, living in the crack epidemic of the 1980s, watching footage from

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the likes of Spike Lee and John Singleton.

'I was watching them from a distance, I would run home and watch TV, that was my protection, that’s how I escaped’.

‘Some teachers saw something in me and encouraged me to write. I started understanding my world a little bit.

Writing was the one place I felt at home. I often say to my students it’s the great equaliser. No matter how much a movie costs, paper and pencil is still free. And you can put pen to paper and you can create just about anything.'

Closing his presentation he revealed the moment he realised his passion for film. Walking in Ghana between two villages beginning to doubt his arrival at his destination. ‘I started to write a message to my mother and brother… If I would live what would that one thing be to make my life meaningful? It was film.

Everything became clear in that moment’.

And so he applied to film school. That year he was one of 36 accepted from a pool of applicants 1000 strong. The title of his application essay? ‘Death on Graduation Day’.

‘If I die after studying film for three years, I’d be OK. I would have done something I loved.’

Some years have passed since Professor Brown’s graduation. And for NYU Sydney students and those in attendance this was certainly something to celebrate.

article written by mark eels watch this session here Q&A session with alrick brown. photo courtesy of the u.s. consulate general sydney

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AROUND TOWN “a series that helps students find the hottest places in sydney"

BOURKE STREET BAKERY BARANGAROO

Bourke Street Bakery is an inconic Sydney bakery and cafe offering artisanal breads, cakes, sweet and savoury pastries, and beverages. A ten minute walk from Science House, students and faculty love to come here to enjoy an Australian classic, the meat pie. This classic pie is made with a shortcrust base and a beef mince gravy. Fun fact: The average Australian consumes around 12 meat pies a year! Check out our host, Payton Leihgeber, with guest, Paula Seesawn, by clicking the link below.

WATCH EPISODE

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MESSINA CIRCULAR QUAY

Messina, right next to Circular Quay, makes amazing gelato with the very best, real ingredients.

They make everything from scratch, leaving clourings, flavourings, and preservatives out the door. Gelato, the Italian word that literally means frozen, is made with a base of milk, cream, and sugar. It's generally lower in fat than other styles of ice cream. Only a five minute walk from Science House, Messina is definitely the place to treat yourself. Watch epsidoe two, featuring guest, Meghan Murakami, by clicking the link below.

watch episode

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PHOTOS BY ANNA LETSON “we’ve

talked about the environment in most of my classes and its importance in australian culture , so i wanted to pay some sort of homage to that ”

BLUE MOUNTAINS

Australia has a very interesting relationship with its environment. The nature that surrounds cities is easily accessible, just outside of the city limits and Australian culture seems to have a deep connection with the environment. On days off from class or on the weekend, my leisure activities have mostly been related to the outdoors,

be it as simple as going to the beach where people tend to flock on a nice sunny day, or a bush walk through one of the National Parks nearby. Outside of the major cities, Australia is a lot of nature, rolling hills and mountains of the countryside. It would be hard to be here without appreciating the environment and the exploring its diversity.

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SIXTEEN LEGS written by ethan david lee

watch the session here

On Wednesday, March 7th, NYU Sydney hosted Zoologist and Filmmaker, Dr. Niall Doran. After a screening of The Making of Sixteen Legs, Doran fielded questions from Professor Sean Blamire’s Biology class and guest students. Sixteen Legs is a real life ‘Charlotte’s Web,’” narrated by Neil Gaiman, which tells the story of the Tasmanian Cave Spider’s search for “kinky love in the dark.”

With award winning cinematography by Joe Shemesh, Doran directs a groundbreaking insight into the previously unknown story of these ancient spiders, a culmination of 25 years of scientific research and 6 years of subterranean filming in the most difficult conditions. Against all odds, this rare event has been captured on camera for the first time.

Doran’s background as a biologist and his work with the Tasmanian government on endangered species management birthed his passion for caves and spiders and lead to the making Sixteen Legs.

During his visit to NYU Syndey, Doran answered questions on the struggles of filming such a rare act in unfriendly camera conditions, the characteristics and behaviors of the Tasmanian Cave Spider, as well as the Spider’s relationship with the environment.

The event was live streamed on Facebook and is available to watch on NYU Sydney’s YouTube channel, courtesy of Dr. Niall Doran.

Sixteen Legs is touring in Sydney until July 2017, go to www.bookendtrust.com for more details.

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modern ‘true’, web building, spiders (the ‘Araneomorphs’) and more ancient nonweb builders (the ‘Mygalomorphs’). Add to all of this H. troglodytes has a slow but deliberated, complex, and measured copulation behaviour, involving males tapping female’s heads, kinked forelegs, spider bondage, contortionism, and even cannibalism, all over the course of several hours.

MEET THE STAR OF SIXTEEN LEGS:

HICKMANIA TROGLODYTES written by sean blamires

On Sunday, March 18, 2018, the documentary movie Sixteen Legs premiered in Sydney. Earlier in March, New York University students got rare behind the scenes glances at the making of the documentary and a chance to meet the director, Niall Doran.

While this animal’s sexual exploits are undoubtedly impressive, my interest is in its massive horizontal sheet web and the types of silk it uses to construct it.

My collaborators (including Niall Doran) and I have examined the main structural silks in H. troglodytes web and found that The movie is an interlinking journey across larger, older, spiders use tougher silks. We the Tasmania culminating in rare footage presume this is because the web needs to of giant cave spider mating behaviours support the larger spider’s mass or that the and is well worth a look. The novelty of the film is its intertwining themes that combine tourism, education, art, natural history, science fiction and fantasy. While an impressive compendium of celebrities, comedians, and scientists appear in the film, the star is unquestionably the cave spider itself, Hickmania troglodytes.

With a leg-span of up to 18 centimetres, Hickmania troglodytes is an intriguing animal on many levels. It has an evolutionary history dating over 100 million years, as such it has outlived the dinosaurs. It has a lifespan of over ten years, which is rare among spiders. Being a troglophile it spends its life in caves but can survive outside if it needs to. H. troglodytes belongs to the Family Austrochilidae. H. troglodytes is found only in Tasmania, while all other extant members reside in Chile. The Austrochilidae is of particular interest to Arachnologists because they are thought to represent the nexus between 25

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webs of larger spiders catch bigger prey.

To capture insects in their webs modern spiders can make their capture threads sticky by using a type of silken (aggregate) glue, while more ancient spiders, such as H. troglodytes, secrete bundles of fine silk threads called cribellate silk to entangle prey. Interestingly, cribellar silk is thought lose its adhesion in humid environments.

However, the cave environments where H. troglodytes builds their webs often have humidities exceeding 95%. We are therefore investigating how their cribellate silks can withstand moisture and whether water might even enhance their silk’s stickiness.

There are other projects on this spider and in Tasmanian caves in the pipeline, which we are keen pursue. We plan to one day take New York University students on our expeditions.

reference :

P iorkowski , D., B lamires , S.J., D oran , N., L iao , C.P., W u , C.L. & amp ; T so , I.M. 2018.

O ntogenetic

shift towards stronger , tougher silk in a web building cave spider .

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Z oology . 304: 81-89.

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SPIRIT FIGURES FROM ARNHEM LAND

nyu sydney indigenous art students recently toured the maritime museum with helen anu , author of the following article regarding mokuy , a new collection by yolnu artist nawurapu wununmurra

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Dhuwa. The sacred art of this region, known as Miwatj, details the spiritual forces behind the ongoing Creation and the continuing identity of the fresh and saltwater country of the area.

In 2015, the museum purchased new works titled Mokuy by Yolŋu artist Nawurapu Wunuŋmurra. The acquisition comprised 36 carved wooden figures produced at the Buku-Larrŋgay Mulka Art Centre in Yirrkala north-east Arnhem Land. These contemporary carvings are the artist's interpretation of the spirit figures known as mokuy. They speak of cycles, comings and goings, life and death, and the strong tradition and culture held within Yolŋu customs.

Mokuy is a ghost or the sinister spirit of a deceased person. It lives near the burial ground and is believed to harm those who venture too near. These mortuary figures of mokuy made in eastern Arnhem Land are derived from square-sectioned and painted graveYolŋu are Aboriginal people from post figures called wuramu. These in northeast Arnhem Land, Northern turn were influenced by the grave posts Territory. Yolŋu worldview sees every of the Makassans, traders from Sulawesi species of plant, animal, fish or bird or in present-day Indonesia, who visited any place or person as belonging to one the shores of Arnhem Land for some 400 of the two balancing halves of the world, years up to the beginning of the 20th the clans making up the two moieties century. that define all Yolŋu relationships The artist, Nawurapu Wunuŋmurra, is the to people and country – Yirritja and 27

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eldest son of senior Yirritja moiety elder the late Yaŋgarriny Wunuŋmurra c 1932– 2003 who was the first Aboriginal artist to bring a case of copyright infringement – Yanggarrny Wunungmurra v Peter Stripes (1983) to the Federal Court of Australia, unreported, which he won.

own spiritual authority increased, in his own right.

Displayed side-by-side in the current Gapu-Monuk Saltwater exhibition are two bark paintings by both father and son demonstrating the hereditary ownership of areas of land and sea as documented in their paintings.

In 1997 Yaŋgarriny Wunuŋmurra was the Overall First Prize winner of the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Awards (NATSIAA). Nawurapu was trained in the school of his father from an early age, first assisting him and then, as his own spiritual authority increased, in his

After his father's passing, Nawurapu stepped into this senior role with his brothers. His ceremonial responsibilities have required him to move between the homeland centres of the Miwatj region,

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north-east Arnhem Land and central Arnhem Land. He has lived in Yirrkala, Gurrumurru, Gängan, Gapuwiak and Wandawuy in recent years.

Awards. Nawurapu took out first prize in two categories: New Media and People's Choice. For the judges, the installation was a stand-out piece in an exhibition of works by 96 finalists. The Mokuy spirits appeared to float theatrically in dancing poses just above the floor onto which archival footage of traditional ceremonial dances was projected, as if they were incarnations of dancing spirits illuminated by the spirits of dancers past. As they turned with the air in the room, they gave a sense of watching the viewer's every move, as if they were trying to communicatie.

In 2010 following in his father’s footsteps, Nawurapu entered his mixed media work The artist says of this work: Mokuy in the National Aboriginal and Torres “These are happy spirits. They are going home. The mokuy [spirits] come in together, Dhuwa and Yirritja to the sacred Strait Islander Art ground called Balambala, past Gängan, the other side for all the mokuy to get together. The spirits go there and that’s where they make the yidaki [didgeridoo] sound … different sounds for Yirritja and Dhuwa. The Yirritja and Dhuwa play yidaki to call in the mokuy to the same ground Balambala.

The Yirritja mokuy come in on the birds, djilawurr [scrub fowl] and bugutj-bugutj [banded fruit dove]. The Dhuwa mokuy they come in from rangi side [saltwater]".

In early 2013 Nawurapu’s right leg was amputated below the knee as the result of an injury, but this did not stop him from creating his art. He continues to harvest timber from the bush in remote areas and work with it. Nawurapu is highly regarded as a leading artist of the region and a renowned contemporary carver and storyteller of mokuy.

In the Yolŋu conception of life, the spirit is eternal. We all have a spirit and once our bodies die that spirit’s journey continues. Ceremonies are still practiced that guide and protect the spirit’s journey to the reservoir of souls, particular to that clan identity from which it emerged. Once it is ready it will identify a new set of parents and announce its impending arrival to the families through some occurrence or manifestation in the environment. In this way the cycle continues and repeats endlessly.

The Makassans also entered Yolŋu cosmology. The grief that people feel in death is equated in Yolŋu songs with the sadness felt when the Makassans left north-east Arnhem Land on the south-easterly Dhimurru wind each May/June.

He pointed out the dances of guluwidjbidj (curlew) being hunted by rifle. He also saw ‘flag raising’ dance actions that are integral in Yirritja moiety funerals, and which equate with a sail being set and the departing Makassan spirit taking its leave.

This is testament to the closeness of the relationships over centuries between Yolŋu and Makassans, which were not just The imagery of the setting sun striking economic but intimate and heartfelt. the clouds on the horizon and colouring The film’s soundtrack incorporates a them pink is like the departing spirit and single-stringed instrument played with a is equated with the red sails of the visitors’ bow. In Bugis (a language of Sulawesi, prahus disappearing over the horizon. A Indonesia), it is known as sindrilik. In life is over. A season is finished. Families the third dance depicted in the film, the are separated. These emotions are in the dancers imitate the playing of the sindrilik songs of the Dhalwaŋu people and in the using a stick. dances shown in the fragment of film.

These motions, according to Nawurapu, The footage the artists used in the are dances of the ‘foreign people’ (the installation to accompany the mokuy was Makassans), which the Yolŋu would captured in the 1920s and unearthed from perform in celebratory preparation for the the University of Melbourne Archives in annual return of the Makassan prahu. It 2009. Its subject could not be identified seemed clear that the protagonists were by the National Film and Sound Archive, performing dances relating to outsiders so it was sent to The Mulka Project, an (Makassans) for the filmmaker, who was archive of Yolŋu cultural knowledge. There also an outsider and whose identity its mystique would slowly be revealed by remains unknown. The film title is in the chance in an incredible 83 years after it Yolŋu language: Buŋgul at Gaṉdiwuy was recorded. (dance at Gaṉdiwuy).

What had been a silent film without either So, after almost a century, a formerly an obvious story or identifiable individuals unidentifiable fragment of film that caught the eye of artist Nawurapu appears to pre-date any settled European Wunuŋmurra. He saw the distinct nature presences in eastern Arnhem Land is of the storytelling as significant of the given a name, a connection to place and Yirritja moiety dances. In the footage he peoples, and the opportunity for an artist identified three very specific dances of his to unravel dimensions to its connections people (Dhalwaŋu clan). In consultation across the seas. with his community, Nawurapu identified the flickering projection as his ancestors article originally published by the australian national maritime museum . photos courtesy dancing to their choreography. of nation martime museum twitter .

NYU SYDNEY HOSTS STEINHARDT DGHS

FOOD AND GLOBALISATION PROGRAM

During Spring Break NYU Sydney hosted Steinhardt’s DGHS Food and Globalisation course, a fast paced, jam packed schedule inclusive of trips to some of Sydney’s celebrated produce markets.

The condensed course kicked off with visits to rural and indigenous sites before transitioning to the commercial outlets tasked with selling some of New South Wales’ stunning produce.

The first stop for the group was Riverview farm, run by third generation Hawkesbury farmers that have been growing produce for over fifty years. The farm also operates a small farm gate shop for locals to purchase fresh fruit and vegetables.

The twenty-one students, led by Dr. Krishnendu also made a trip to Bilpin Springs Orchard to leave more about apple farming in Australia. The group then

visited Berry Island where they learned about Aboriginal culture including traditional methods used for hunting and gathering, native medicines, and shelter creation.

After seeing production conditions and meeting the growers, the students then transitioned into metropolitan Sydney to see commercial outlets. The group visited the Vaucluse House Tearooms to learn about people’s way of life in Sydney during the early 19 th Century. The field trip included an exploration of the homestead where students were instructed to make butter from scratch.

A trip to Sydney Markets showcased the vast operations and logistics behind bringing some of the world’s best produce to a globalised marketplace.

DAY IN THE LIFE w r i t t e n

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Studying abroad in Sydney has put me the farthest I have ever been from home, be it New York City or the Pacific Northwest. Despite being so far away, there is something familiar about Sydney that closes the gap. Australians make a lot of comparisons between Australia and the United States, and Sydney does reminds me a lot of the West Coast. From the beach culture that draws everyone here in the first place to the growing industries in many fields, there is a lot about Sydney that combines the vibes of the West Coast with the cosmopolitanism of New York.

Every day begins at Urbanest, the only dorm available at NYU Sydney which is conveniently nestled in Sydney’s Haymarket — its Chinatown neighborhood. Funky colored windows and single rooms within a suite make it a nice place to crash after a long day.

What’s unique about living in Urbanest is that NYU only occupies a fraction of the building. This provides NYU students with the opportunity to get to know people from other universities, be them international, or locals staying in the student accomodations.

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wooden interiors. The only drawback: it’s a good half-hour walk from Urbanest, making my Tuesday 9 a.m. class a little rough. You can take the train, but it takes a similar amount of time, though sometimes it’s worth the laziness.

There is a decent array of classes available at NYU Sydney, notably Psychology classes and courses that follow the premed track. Environmental Studies courses are very popular, especially with the current atmosphere in Australia regarding climate change and energy sources.

Personally, I am on the Journalism track, combining the Environmental Journalism course with a number of classes that look at Australian life, culture and history, both colonial and Aboriginal. It is really fascinating how Aboriginal culture is so prevalent; acknowledgement of the people who originally occupied the land is a big part of being introduced to the areas of the city, and there are many campaigns for Aboriginal recognition in different social and political spheres.

When we aren’t in class, there’s a lot to do around the city. Sydney is surprisingly spread out, but public transportation makes it all rather accessible and puts NYU Sydney’s academic center, Science the MTA to shame. The trains and buses House, is located right in the heart of the here are extremely clean, almost always Rocks — the oldest part of Sydney where run on schedule and leave you a block just blocks away the First Fleet landed or two from, if not right in front of, your at the shore. Science House is actually destination. The famous beaches that a protected historic building, complete extend from Bondi to Coogee are all with old rippled glass windows and warm about 30 minutes away, making them an

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the chance to do everything but must stay committed to the events they’ve signed up for or find someone to take their place. We’ve had excursions out to go hiking in the Blue Mountains, to volunteer in one of the national parks, to go to a soccer match and many more. Trips like hiking out in the Bush or experiencing the celebration of Mardi Gras the Australian way all give a distinct taste of what Sydney and Australian culture is about.

easy getaway on the weekends or those weekdays when you don’t have class.

Cafe culture is king here; think Bluestone Lane but better and much closer. Brunch is probably one of the few foods you could pin down as distinctly Australian, from avocado toast that has made its way across to the United States to flat whites and macchiatos. There’s no meal they do better here than a good brekkie.

Something that differs from my experience at NYU Paris last spring is the way that NYU Sydney sets up its excursions. The program organized a huge number of events throughout the semester that are open to the entirety of students here in the program, unlike the point system they have at the European sites. Everyone has

For a place that’s 10,000 miles away, I’m starting to feel at home here in Sydney.

Being not too far from nature, getting to smell the ocean and hearing fewer sirens blaring through the streets is a nice change. The conveniences of New York are missing here, such as dollar pizza and

article originally posted in the washington square news

SYDNEY GAY AND LESBIAN

MARDI GRAS photos of mardi gras by ethan david lee

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photos by daniel boud

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REVIEW: SINGLE ASIAN FEMALE written by michelle law

| directed by claire christian

review by ethan david

Single Asian Female is a bit like Christchurch, New Zealand, where I am writing this from; it is a pleasant place to be for everyone but still hold those little nuggets for those who call it home.

The play is incredibly well written, with a narrative structure that leaves you nearly falling nose first into the row in front.

Law weaves together the stories of three “singles Asian female[s],” a mother and her two daughters, as they navigate their respective worlds, as well as each other.

Mei (Courtney Stewart) is a teenager struggling to contend with being the only Asian at her school, she tries to reject her mother’s culture in order to fit in and gain popularity with her peers. Zoe (Alex Lee) is a professional violinist vying with the occasional ups and substantial downs of online dating - things can only go wrong. While these issues are based on the everyday trials and tribulations of people living in a Western culture, they are exaggerated by Zoe and Mei’s innate struggle to contend with both their Asian and Australian identity.

Zoe and Mei’s mother, Pearl (Hsiao-Ling Tang), has her own secret. Law reels us in by sharing glimpses of it out of context, letting us know just enough while still leaving us wondering why she is selling everything from the restaurant and who the man is that she keeps receiving phone calls from? The characters’ personnel struggles inevitably collide in the third act in spectacular fashion and although we can predict the impending war that ensues between the three women, what makes it exciting is the unsuspected atomic bomb that grinds everything to a halt as the family tries to reconcile with Pearl’s life changing secret.

Single Asian Female is stellar theater.

It has an extraordinary script, good directing, and a few stand out performances, notable that of HsiaoLing Tang and Emily Burton, Mei’s bestfriend Katie. While I found the range of some of the characters very limited, Mei and Zoe were often left to overextended screaming, and some of the smaller roles of this six-person cast two dimensional, overall this is a play worth seeing. From its enticing secrets that draw you in to its battleground of family arguments, I hope this new work of Australian theater goes beyond its premiere at the Belvoir Theater - it deserves that. It has something for everyone but if you’re single, Asian, or female, you’ll find a few extra little nuggets scattered throughout.

This struggle with this dual identity “resonated deeply” with NYU Sydney student Kevin Jiang who described how the sisters’ arguments with their mother “about going out, music tastes, right down to the colloquial language” really represented “what it means to be an Australian born Chinese.”

While I really enjoyed the production, it held something extra for Kevin.

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new york university sydney

157-161 gloucester st, the rocks nsw 2000

cover photo by anna letson