Issue Three - 2015

issue three – what’s in the box –

, then

p to 50% u e v a s d n a y Bu en! v e k a e r b o t ll Rese

what’s in the box issu e th

ree: cover image by Ting He

Contents

I S S U E

T H R E E

Editors Allison Bermingham Cameron Hart Christopher Quyen Gabrielle Rawlings

03

Editorial

04

Meet the Editors

June Murtagh Katie Kendall Rachael Versace

07

An Emoji A Day

08

On Learning To Be More Present

10

Volunteerism: The New Colonialism

13

Have A Slap

14

What’s In The Hat

18

An Open Letter To My Parents

20

Heroism And Hedonism

22

At Least When I’m 80 I Won’t Be Boring

24

Meta[data] Matters

26

The War, The Myth, The Legend

Sambavi Seermaran Creative Directors Ting He Rose Wallace McEwen Designers Joy Li Bec Lourey Angela Tam Brian Nguyen

30

Why Won’t These Women Shut Up And Let Me Help

32

10 Albums Released 10 Years Ago

34

BLT, BLAT or BLOCMAT

35

She Said Guac

36

Be Yourself(ie)

Collette Duong Cassie Ciccarelli Matthew Harrington Alya Higgins

38

What Goes Up

Contributors

40

TV and Reality

Cat Bendiech

42

The Force Tingle

44

Vertigo Serial Pt 3: Prophecy

46

Do You Know Him

47

The Fever

Vail Bromberger Jess Chen Victoria Chong Cassey Coleman Liam Edwards-Playne

48

A Journey To Kanchanaburi

Harry Goddard

50

Time

Henry Goodwin

54

Project Rooftop

Intisarul Hoque

56

Art Showcase

58

Photography Showcase

Sudden Matsa Raynor McKay Vanessa Papastravros Nicholas ‘Freddy’ Phillpott Zoe Rochford Robert Scarfone Gabrielle Shina John Taase

Vertigo is published by the UTS STUDENTS’ ASSOCIATION

Jennifer Worgan

Email us at advertising@utsvertigo.com for advertising enquiries Proudly printed by SOS Printing

Design Contributors Levi Hayes Kimberly Luo

Cover Image Ting He

Marie Good

Editorial Editing at times, is stressful but always

thank yous

rewarding. Finishing one publication

and an open letter to parents that

means another lurks nearby, waiting

we’ve always wanted to send. Among

Pugs

to be brought to fruition. It is like the

the more serious discussions are

Plain toast

myth of Sisyphus, cursed to push his

mental illness, representations of

Hello Kitty

the end of each distribution of our

the ANZAC legend has shaped our

Glasses

beloved publication, we are back at

national identity. Rounding off, we’ve

String quartets

the beginning, once again ready to

got prose, art, photography, and a

Payday

Sweater weather

boulder up a steep hill each day. At

special architectural showcase about are, drunk on our own success (and

innovation. This issue is a medley

some other things too) and welcome

of the wicked and the hopeful, the

to the top of the mountain. This issue

innocent and the sinister; and we hope

is all about “what’s in the box” – and

that by the end of the issue you’ll have

if you’re a bit confused, don’t worry.

discovered something new/strange/

Biting your tongue

exciting/frightful to think about.

Limerence

vague as fuck and not immediately

fuck yous Meninism

Elevator doors This issue has been a Herculean effort

Insomnia

of Greek mythology, we could not help

for us all, fraught with more perils

Sharing food

but see the implications to Pandora’s

than the seas surrounding Ithaca, but

People with no manners

Box. Ah, Pandora, and her curiosity

we’ve all played the hero in this epic

Memes

which unleashed all things dark and malicious into the world.

our aristeia, as we creep back into the shadowy dungeons of Building

This issue is like a perfectly-bound

2, and await for our next quest from

Pandora’s Box. We aimed to procure

the Gods. Never mind us, crossing

Copyright and Acknowledgement of Country

the diversity of the good, the bad,

magazine as much as we did compiling

Vertigo and its entire contents are protected

and the ugly in our world. As always,

it for you. While I might’ve said that

by copyright. Vertigo will retain reprint

we’ve included some delicious

this magazine feels like Sisyphean

rights; contributors retain all other rights for

features, prose, and artworks, all

myth, I really just wanted to use the

resale and republication. No material may be

by you – the talented students of

word. Sue me.

produced without the prior written consent

UTS. Amongst some of the treats

of the copyright holders.

we have for you are the scourge

Farewell for now, and remember what

Vertigo would like to show its respect and

of voluntourism, a new insight into

they say about curiosity and cats.

acknowledge the Tradition Custodians of the Land, the Gadigal and Gurring-gai people of

Sambavi and the Vertigods

the Eora Nation, upon whose ancestral lands the university now stands. More than 500 Indigenous Nations shared this land for over 40, 000 years before invasion. We express our solidarity and ocntinued commitment to working with Indigenous peoples, in Australia and around the world, in their ongoing struggle for land rights, self-determination, sovereignty, and the recognition and compensation for past injuries.

04

Meet the Editors

Vertigo

Meet the editors

You know how there’s always that one person who leaves about three sheets of toilet paper on the roll just to be like “look who doesn’t need to put the roll in the bin because there’s still paper on it”? That’s me. I take joy in slightly inconveniencing others. shutting the doors, leaving the next person a grocery avalanche? Filling up a pot to “soak” and forgetting to wash it? Oh yes, tell me more. Pure schadenfreude.

Allison Bermingham

blame my star sign, my youngest child syndrome, and my mother’s road rage.

I apologise to all who have felt my wrath, except those who’ve earned it by being ignorant or cat calling me.

June Murtagh

Katie Kendall There are only so many times you can shriek “I AM A TOTALLY CHILL PERSON” across the room at the top of your lungs before you realise you might in fact have a problem remaining chill.

My deadliest sin has always been

What is my greatest sin? My desperate need for chocolate or my ability to lie to myself incessantly. Perhaps its my constant need to check my phone even though I know there are no messages waiting for me. Sad. But unfortunately true. Facebook has become an addiction and my need for headphones whilst riding on public transport is nothing but ridiculous. So what is my greatest sin? Perhaps its that I have far too many.

Sambavi Seermaran

Cameron Hart

Rachael Versace Forgive me, Father, for I have sinned time and time again.

I am guilty of indulging in a…pleasure of sorts. A pleasure in the form of (very expensive) plastic. Plastic toys.

Recreational plastic toys. That vibrate.

I’m talking about dildos, people.

The insurmountable burden of my existence is my sinful compulsion to be excessively modest at all times.

I imagine this must be shocking, what with having witnessed my extraordinary talent, eloquence, and grace, but I assure you, mine is

Hands down, my greatest sin is laziness.

My penchant for lying in bed sleeping and generally bumming around in sweat-pants is renowned. Legendary, even. My laziness evolved from the teenage phase of just casual chilling in the house to a legitimate lifestyle

Over the course of 3 years, I have compiled a $700+ collection of these dildo-licious delights. I oftentimes sleep with them in my bed, and let the dull electric drone of their motorpowered engines lull me into a sexy,

a life of utter humility. This vow of abnegation is by far my most nefarious act. Although, while I obviously abhor vanity, I am totes adorbz, and this is a small reprieve from my typical austerity, because, after all, beauty on the inside doesn’t get you free drinks.

choice in my adulthood.

The expression “ceebs” describes my attitude to anything that is not my bed or cat. If I ever become a missing person, the fourth place you should check is a Forty Winks store or the beds section in Ikea.

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What is your greatest sin?

way into the backstage catacombs and set off the sprinklers… unintentionally

James Wilson

When was erasing sin considered sinful? It all began with Sticky Fingers opening their set with the infectious melodies of Gold Snafu while punters hooked up like tangling hairs. I stood separated, my entry into the sin pit blocked by a bouncer. Suddenly, visions of grandeur overcame me. If I can’t have fun I must wash away the sin before my eyes! I’m the saviour

Sin is such a moralistic term. Who decides what it is? If it’s the church, perhaps my most sinful experience was getting a blowjob from a cute guy on the grounds of St. Mary’s Cathedral.

It was angelic. Sin is though, as I see it, a personal concept. Perhaps then my greatest sin was not to grab that guy’s number for round 2, take him into the vestibules of St. Mary’s and well, you get the drift. Sin though, huh? Who needs it. Just do what you want and fuck the rest, pardon the pun.

that washed this sinful night away. I’m a hero. Period.

Ting He

Rose McEwen

meet the creative directors

Christopher Quyen

Gabby Rawlings My greatest sin is my horribly annoying addiction to over-using words I have just been introduced, or reintroduced, too. When I come across a word which, in my mind at least, sounds like it would be used by someone with a much more extensive vocabulary then mine, you might start hearing it quite a few times out of my mouth. So if you’ve heard me say ‘condescendingly’ or ‘idiosyncratic’ or something along those lines, start getting used to it, because you’ll be hearing them a few more times. I’d say I’m sorry, but really I’m not.

I’m a bit grumpy. Not your aggressive in your face grumpy… it’s subtler, like a short sigh-blunt remark-occasionallysprain-an-ocular-muscle grumpy. I even have a hashtag #alwaysgrumpy which I sometimes like to include in

This reminds me of in job interviews where they ask “what is your greatest weakness” and people respond with something like “it’s probably that sometimes I just work TOO hard, like I’m just such a HARD WORKER I will probably do all your work toO WELL

wake up grumpy, I’m grumpy before my coffee then I’m hungry grumpy again before lunch- pissed off after Pilates, sulky after sundowners… It’s like a state of mind you know.

ha ha : ) ”. I mean in that case my greatest sin is that I’m just TOO GOOD of a creative director, Like my creative directing skills are just TOO STRONG”.

What can I say? I’m not perfect.

04

Features

features 07

An Emoji A Day

08

On Learning To Be More Present

10

Volunteerism: The New Colonialism

13

Have A Slap

14

What’s In The Hat

18

An Open Letter To My Parents

20

Heroism And Hedonism

22

At Least When I’m 80 I Won’t Be Boring

24

Meta[data] Matters

26

The War, The Myth, The Legend

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An Emoji A Day Words by Cassey Coleman A failed campaign, a broken promise. An entire generation – disappointed. I am of course referring to Apple’s new-and-improved Emoji keyboard.

I might be/am definitely jumping the gun when I say that an entire generation was left dissatisfied. But if you were 100% satisfied upon being promoted to iOS 8.3, hopefully this article chips away at that resolute faith.

I’ll start by saying: kudos Apple. Brownie points for attempting to progressively introduce cultural diversity into your keyboards. Fantastic. As a woman of colour, I love that I am now represented; I’m not simply subject to pictorial homogeneity when I switch keyboards.

Although, admittedly, it never bothered me too much in the first place. And yet, somehow, Apple has missed some key cultural players. When throwing around the term ‘diversity’, surely we’re not simply discussing skin tone. Is it enough to label oneself ‘diverse’ if one is able to slide the colour metre all the way up the epidermis colour chart? I see ‘diversity’ as reflecting all kinds of difference. Where are the redheads? The people with freckles? Why does every emoji have brown eyes?

They’re common, but isn’t that the opposite of diversity?

Reflecting only the ‘common’, the ‘dominant’?

More than that, however, is the potential to make an inadvertent political statement by using a particular racial profile. Paige Tutt of the Washington Post insightfully concluded: “What Apple has done is introduce race into everyday conversations where it doesn’t necessarily need to be.”

Admittedly, it’s implausible to presume that every minority will be represented, and Apple has strived to represent some key minorities that were overtly missing in the previous Unicode. Sexual orientation has been expanded to include same sex relationships and families; national representation has broadened to include 198 additional flags; even the standard whiteskinned emoji has been replaced with an attempted ‘culture-neutral’ profile (although the result appears to be more a Simpsons-Lego crossover). And like I said – I love that now I can see an emoji that sort of, kind of, not really, looks like me. I am represented.

But let’s not make the mistake of seeing this as a huge achievement in the fight for equality. What we have is limited diversity on a keyboard that is only available to people with access to both Wifi and an iPhone. Hardly a giant leap for mankind. But potentially a step in the right direction. A small one. With culturally-neutral feet.

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Features

Vertigo

On learning to be more

Present.

Audrey

This article contains references to mental illness and graphic descriptions. If you are affected by these discussions, don’t hesitate to reach out to someone you trust, or contact any of the following hotlines.

Beyond Blue: 1300 224 636 Lifeline Australia: 13 11 14 SANE: 1800 187 263 Suffering from a mental illness is not always conducive to being ‘socially present’.

adequate. I smile, I laugh, and I relish in the company of my friends. Suffering from depression and anxiety doesn’t mean that I don’t enjoy see those I love and indulge in everyday activities that make me happy - it just means that, oftentimes, I can’t.

Until recently, I thought I had struck a balance; sure, I was not one hundred percent recovered, but I was still trying my best to see people, still surrounding myself with those who I held dearest.

This wasn’t the case.

There are days when the medication feels like poison in your bloodstream, when the dizziness won’t dissipate and the hallucinations seem all too real. There are days when your body feels like a distant island shrouded in a dense blanket of fog; when your drug-induced vomit tastes like epoxy and acid, foamy and white like the lips of a rabid in your bathroom mirror, but see only a beast with tendrils feasting on its own dark maw, see only an empty shell of the person you once knew.

These days are the days suffered in isolation. The lonely days that I seldom tell people about, because it’s all too much.

But not all days are like this, and I like to think that, when I do make it out of the house, I am nothing short of socially

A friendship of mine was severed a few weeks ago because of my inability to be physically present. Whilst I completely understand the perspective of the friend in question, this If one friend could do it, what was stopping everyone else from upping and leaving because of my sickness?

Now, she was right. I wasn’t physically present. We still talked frequently, but various medication changes, loss of appetite and general insomnia meant that I was often too unwell to meet in person. I thought that every time I messaged to say, ‘I’m sorry, I’m sick’, that she understood the subtext - ‘I’m sorry, but I just can’t face the world right now. I’m battling some demons, and I will overcome them in time, but right now, I just need to be alone’.

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I don’t think she did understand.

is physical, corporeal, or tangible. The inherent invisibility

All too often, I am told that I am ‘always sick’. You see, that’s the funny thing about ongoing illnesses - they don’t just disappear overnight. This is the thing that people struggle to reconcile with most. The people in your life want to see consistent improvement, want to see a rapid recovery. They

accept their legitimacy and validity, but also to understand the unique recovery process that ensues. Just as the illness is intangible, so too is the process of healing. There are no

victories that mean so very much to those suffering from an ongoing mental illness.

Unfortunately, when you are ‘always sick’, it becomes your default state of being. When you tell your friends that you can’t make it out to brunch because you are unwell, by the interest in your illness, in your struggle - they expect and anticipate that you are suffering, so they stop trying to meet up, stop messaging to see how you are, because they know how you are - you’re unwell, just as you have been for the past two and a half years.

This isn’t an article about my social inadequacies - it is an article about respecting the recovery process of people with mental illnesses. Unfortunately, our prevalent cultural climate validates everything by means of visual perception, and this is especially true of the way in which society diagnoses and accepts illness. ‘Sickness’ is almost always attributed to that which is bodily - an illness that

gradually sew themselves back together in time. The healing occurs internally through daily rituals, through practising healthy lifestyle choices, and through observing otherwise forgotten processes of self-care.

It is important to never let anyone dictate your recovery process, or make you feel inadequate because you aren’t, by their standards, ‘getting better’. Your recovery process is about you and you only. Take all of the time in the world, if that is what you need. There is no timeline for these things, no point by which you need to be completely recovered. All we can do is take these things day by day.

Finally, surround yourself with people who understand your it isn’t because you don’t value them as a friend - it’s because you just can’t be present.

When you are ready to be present, the best people will be there waiting for you.

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Features

Voluntourism: the New Colonialism

Vertigo

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< Tapestry by Labhanshi (made in India) via Amazon.com

By Sambavi Seermaran Recently, I went abroad for a number of weeks to India to do a voluntary program in a rural Indian village.

I went as part of a large group of Aussie university students, working in teams of 8-10 people to help set up sustainable businesses that would empower the local Indian villagers. Our project ran for a whole month and by the end of it we achieved the result we were hoping for. It was an incredible experience to have gone to India; friendships were forged, laughter and wonder and good times were had, whilst we all had the satisfaction of knowing that we were there for a purpose that really mattered.

Our coordinators constantly told us that we were doing a great job, that we were absolutely necessary and valued in India and that we were making a massive change to the lives of these people who so desperately needed our help. The praise and heartwarming feedback from the organisation felt good; we believed our project and purpose was amazing and that we were among the lucky few to be in a position where we could make such a big difference.

The first whispers of doubt began to creep into my mind about half way through the project. In the midst of all the optimism and excitement that characterised each day in India, it was only at the end of each day that I could get the chance to reflect. I would think about what we were doing as a team and whether everything we were doing for the project had been justified. Before long, I was asking myself the questions: What exactly was I doing here in India?

For whose benefit was I here for? I asked my leader these questions and attempted to find answers.

The doubts wouldn’t go away; if anything, they became more insistent. Especially recurring was the thought that I was doing more harm than good to the local people. Was I really helping these villagers empower themselves? Or was it just an illusory idea that a university student can come to a foreign land and ‘help’ these communities in one month and then leave without a backward glance back when we return to the Western nation from where we came?

These are all relevant questions to ask ourselves, especially with a lot of students at the moment doing exchange programs or going abroad in their holidays to do some sort of volunteering activity in a developing nation. We all have that one friend who is a social justice junkie and goes abroad to do exactly this sort of thing. In the last few years, there has been a massive growth of overseas exchange programs and volunteering organisations in developing countries.

There is even a new term for it. Voluntourism: a portmanteau of volunteer and tourism, is the term describing a new form of travel that has recently started to boom. There are estimates that voluntourism is a multibillion-dollar industry. It is increasingly popular among students and young people who want to travel the world but also make the experience more ‘meaningful’ and enriching. Many programs have sprung up to cater for this rapidly growing market of young people who want to travel but “make a difference”.

With much of the world still enveloped in serious problems such as the lack of quality education, poor health and sanitation services and inadequate access to shelter and clean water, there is an abundance of businesses that are willing to step in and solve these global human rights issues in place of organisations like the Red Cross or the UN. Whilst this sounds fantastic because it means more and more people are starting to help solve these issues and getting involved, often in practice it is not quite as good as it sounds.

There are several problems with the booming market of voluntourism. Recruiting volunteers from Western nations who have no real experience or skills and sending them in untrained into developing countries to ‘help’ communities there can be more often a hindrance than a benefit. The lack of expertise and knowledge in crucial areas like aid and development that university students have is not very effective in tackling the complex problems that these communities face. Combined with the immense language barriers and particular cultural sensitivities of foreign countries, it is hard to make as much of a difference to vulnerable people as volunteers are led to believe they are going to make.

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Features

In my mind, sending untrained university students who were willing to pay for the privilege of making a difference to a developing country is a bit of a farce.

It turns on the idea of the “white saviour complex”, where the disadvantaged and backward countries of the developing world need “rescuing” by the people of the superior and advanced West. This viewpoint – that developing nations need to be rescued or liberated from their difficulties – is patently false and arrogant.

It assumes that one nation’s standard of living or culture is superior to another’s. It is patronising to assume that the Western way of living is the right way to live, and even more arrogant to go into a foreign country and attempt to change their practices and traditions. This was one of the major consequences of colonialism of the last century; and voluntourism is almost like its more insidious modern-day successor.

There is no easy resolution to this problem. Whilst it is understandable that Western nations want to help developing nations resolve their human rights issues, it is important to avoid developing the idea of being a saviour to these people. The project I went on was one of the best things that had ever happened to me.

It was so much fun and I learnt a lot about the world and myself. But it wasn’t the project or the organisation that I owe my gratitude to – it was the nation of India, which was amazing and chaotic and beautiful. I have the deepest respect for the humble people in the Indian village where I lived for a month, who taught me much more than I think I ever taught them.

Tapestry by Labhanshi (made in India) via Amazon.com >

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Have a Slap Cat Bendiech

Artwork: Angela Tam

This article contains references to gambling and addiction. If you are affected by these discussions, or know someone who is, please don’t hesitate to contact the Gambling HelpLine on 1800 858 858.

away your time, and your life. Yet there is nothing I can do but smile, serve them another drink, and make sure that the small, almost unnoticeable, required gambling helpline stickers are still stuck to the front of the machine.

My friends had often encouraged me – “Go on, have a Slap, it won’t kill you”.

Working in gaming takes a toll on your own personal wellbeing and control.

Yes, we see those who lose their lives to the addiction of gambling, but at the same time, we see those who win.

The people who win big, or small, are almost like the distraction from the realities we see – and it is intoxicating.

You wonder why it can’t be you, and the temptation starts to creep in. Our Responsible Conduct of Gambling, required by every employee and venue within the gambling industry, tells us that help is provided to those affected

I’d be lying if I said I hadn’t tried it; slipped a bill of my hard-earned money into the brightly lit machine as it shouted how much I could win at me. I sat there smacking the buttons randomly, and after all my money had disappeared, I was done. I didn’t want to feed this horrid contraption another cent, and give it another‘slap’.

Why? Because I had seen how it destroys people.

For four years I have worked in the gaming industry, and for four years I have seen people sit and gamble their lives away. Every time another dollar is put into the machines, you’re giving it more than just money. You’re spending

scouring the internet, I came across research by Hing and Nesbit (2009) which found gaming venue staff are more vulnerable than the general community to developing a problem with gambling. In a survey of 533 gaming venue employees in Victoria, they found 13.7% of participants were moderate risk gamblers and 5.6% were problem gamblers – compared to 2.36% of Victorian adults who are moderate risk gamblers and 0.7% who are problem gamblers, according to the Department of Justice.

If someone seems overly intoxicated, our Responsible Service of Alcohol tells us we can cut off their supply and remove them from the venue. If a gambler is spending away their life, we can only hope they decide to exclude

by gambling, but provides nothing for the staff of the gambling industry.

themselves from the premises. If a staff member becomes affected by

There’s an ambulance of research on problem gambling, yet close to nothing on how the gaming industry affects employees. After

minute break, try regain control, and not give into the ‘slap’.

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What’s In The Hat?

The answer depends of course, on which hat...

Peak Popularity: 11:08:39pm, July 27th, 1764. Now that was a party.

Current Use: Cameos in fancy dress parties, Abraham shows set before 1950, and Winston Churchill wax

(Personal favourite) Peak Popularity: Current Use: Available Colours: All Street Cred:

due to its spacious interior and 4WD capabilities.

Available colours: Street Cred: What’s in the hat?!?!

are chained to the wall. And some white fur.

What’s in the hat?!?!

Intisarul Hoque

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Peak Popularity:

Peak Popularity: location. Anywhere close to Russell Crowe is usually a

about 3 months.

Current Use:

Available Colours: Current Use: Street Cred: What’s in the hat?!?!

Available Colours: colour.

Street Cred: more into caps.

What’s in the hat?!?! nachos.

Peak Popularity:

Peak Popularity:

Available Colours:

Current Use:

Available Colours:

What’s in the hat?!?!

Current Use: Street Cred: What’s in the hat?!?!

A set of instructions written on parchment about

016

Peak Popularity:

Issue 03

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Peak Popularity:

Available Colours: Current Use:

Current Use: Available Colours: Street Cred:

stop this madness.

Street Cred:

What’s in the hat?!?!

What’s in the hat?!?!

circumference may seem. No matter how bad the doctor

Peak Popularity: Available Colours: Current Use:

cherish her newborn baby. But more than that, because

Street Cred: Go forth and CLAIM. YOUR. HAT! placed exceptionally well.

What’s in the hat?!?!

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Features

Vertigo

An Open To My Parents Jennifer Worgan

My mother has made it clear to me on no uncertain terms that I am to begin regularly undertaking an activity that she calls Getting Out Of The House.

Intellectually, I am receptive and approving of this sentiment. The issue that my mother and I seem to be facing is that my theoretical appreciation of her arguments does not correspond to any activity in the physical realm.

The impression I am given is that Getting Out Of The House is anything that involves me leaving my bedroom and possibly having to encounter direct sunlight. I infer this from the way that my mother sighs, and says Literally Anything, Jennifer, when I press for details.

One reason that my mother feels so strongly about this is because when my parents were my age, they used to

Do Things. The nature of these things seems to be lost in the mists of time, but it was the 1980s, so presumably they involved shoulder pads or the birth of hip-hop. I like to imagine them in that happy time, rapping away with the greats and cutting up bits of foam to improve their jackets.

Sadly, these pastimes are less available to me. The world is a different place now. I have yet to invent a genre of music, and the only shoulder-related activity I tend to indulge in is bad posture. There does not seem to be much point in leaving the house if all the interesting things have already been done.

It would be a lie to say that I view leaving my house as a leisure activity.

Luckily, I am endowed with the selfawareness to know that without me

the world would lack an intellectual the hieroglyphic vocabulary of visual culture. I must do my part to Engage with The Outside World.

I do, at times, leave my house voluntarily.

The reason for miscommunication between myself and my parents seems to be that when I do, my activities are almost always brunch-related. When it comes to brunch, I am rabid. I am a avocado on sourdough until the cows come home, but only metaphorically.

This is because once any cows have actually come home, it is at least late afternoon, and therefore too late for brunch.

My parents enjoy a good brunch as much as the next person, provided that the next person is someone who

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Letter mildly enjoys brunch. They spent their reckless youths watching Pretty in Pink in cinemas and going synthesizer shopping. A well-frothed latte holds few thrills for them now.

Any bland attempt at a leisure activity that I make is nowhere near as interesting as the ones my parents believe that young people should have.

Whatever hijinks they indulged in At My Age, they did not generally involve failing to complete a simple task, which is what any and all of my hobbies tend to consist of.

For example, I have been running three times, but have been forced to abandon this as a viable option for Getting Out Of The House due to geographical concerns. In the process

my legs to move quickly and think about which direction I am going in. I have only lived in the suburb for a few months, and its most striking feature is the way that all its streets manage month after moving in, it was a thrill each time I correctly located my own house.

Each time I attempted to run, I would venture out with the best intentions

and trot about happily for some time. I would then look up and both eerily familiar and completely unrecognizable, and would be forced to endure the humiliation of having to attempt to locate myself on a map and follow GPS instructions. Dazed and in a state of physical exhaustion, these complex acts of cartography would be beyond me.

Generally, these excursions would end with my frantically calling my parents, delirious with dehydration, and begging for a lift home. This lift would then, invariably, end up being about thirty seconds long, and I would be subject to unwarranted ridicule regards to my being Right Around The Corner.

I am a modern woman, and I cannot be put in a box, unless the box is a giant one that was built to transport a large item of furniture. Mainstream Your Life are not applicable to me in the way that they were to those who lived it up in the age of Peter Gabriel.

I can undergo a transcendental experience without getting out of bed., and there is no need for me to express myself through any form explain this to my mother.

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Vertigo

Heroism or Hedonism Vail Bromberger

I’m going to say something slightly controversial: we are obsessed with heroes. I don’t mean we, as a society, enjoy and glamorise heroes. I mean we ‘hero-ify’ people and things that we’ve decided are morally good. Note the difference there; heroes are not meant to just be good people. They’re individuals that do extraordinary things, for the greater good, often at personal disadvantage.

They validate that which we hold dear.

Just last week, a young woman who went toe-to-toe with a racist woman hurling Islamophobic vitriol at a Muslim couple on a Sydney train was hailed ‘a hero’ by media commenting on the case. I think what she did was excellent; prejudice thrives where people say and do nothing in opposition, and the couple attacked indicated their gratitude. But equally, I would argue that standing up

My hero is Liz. Liz was a woman that stood in front of student leaders from 19 universities nationally, the majority of whom were intending to sanction her university, and told them to shove it. Of course, she wasn’t that blunt, because she was a woman of considerable taste, and irreplaceable class.

But in that circumstance, it would have been so easy for her to acquiesce. It would have been acceptable for her to comply. The mob would have felt morally superior for their part; she would have swallowed her pride but otherwise stayed intact.

If I had been in her position, I probably would have done that. Either that, or I would have actually just stormed out of the meeting, hurling personalised profanities at void of heroism.

to prejudice is not a moral good; it’s a moral mandate.

How our popular culture venerates superheroes. It’s a remains one of my literary idols to this day (typical law student much), and he and his family evidently faced extreme peril because of his conduct. But I don’t think he’s a hero because he defended Tom Robinson – that’s his legal duty.

Cinemas. Avengers: Age of Ultron has, by my count, seven superheroes in it. And I haven’t even seen it yet – there are probably others that I’ve missed. But without a doubt, quite a bit of superhero bang for your entertainment buck.

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In recent years, superheroes have less become individuals that exceed basic moral mandates, and more average individuals with extraordinary skill sets. Superhero movies are rarely about highly ethical people who just happen to have superhuman strength (Captain America is debatable

spark our interest. Thor may be a Norse god from Asgard, but he deals with a jealous sibling and struggles through his relationship with his father. I don’t personally know anyone with Bruce Wayne’s money or resources, but I know plenty of people who bear the burden of caring for and standing up for their community because it has been neglected by others.

This is perhaps why the superhero movie genre has become so commercially successful – the more superhero characters are developed, the easier they are to identify with, and the more we want to see them in movies. Watching the beginning of , I am already captivated by Professor X’s super-genius intellect and (and others in the series), the empathy gap between my life experience and the character storyline of Mystique

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(with super powers, mega wealth and high-level training as well).

I think true heroics are about doing something beyond the ordinary, which is in and of itself subjective. I’m average individuals. But to me, the ability to sit still and not physically assault someone trying to put a needle in your arm, so that you can contribute to saving lives, is totally beyond heroic.

Instead of acceding, Liz defended her university. She did so quietly, without pomp and circumstance, and politely impressed upon everyone that she did not accept their terms. And in response, the Chair accepted this and the case was entirely dropped. This probably seems like an utterly meaningless thing for Liz to have done. Perhaps, in the grand scheme of things, it was. But it’ll remain in my mind, and it’ll comfort me whenever I think of her. And I think you’ve found your hero if you’ve found someone that provides you with comfort, for whatever reason. It could be because they won a Nobel Prize. It could be because they can cram 192 marshmallows into their mouth. But if you’ve found your hero, then power to you as well.

protective boyfriend as the universe develops. But during that whole time, he remains wealthy, brilliantly intelligent and adept at manipulating the resources around him to suit his interests. More or less everyone will face relationshiprelated issues in their life. And equally, there are few people on this planet that would turn down a home computing system that spoke to you (in Paul Bethany’s voice to boot).

We don’t need our superheroes to go beyond basic ethics.

Artwork: Collette Duong

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DESIGN:

BRIAN NGUYEN

@BRIAN1.0

WRITTEN BY

LIAM EDWARDS-PLAYNE

The National Security Agency (NSA) is an intelligence organization of the United States government responsible for global monitoring, and processing of information and data for foreign intelligence and counterintelligence purposes.

Originating as a unit to decipher coded communications in World War II, it was officially formed as the NSA

by Harry S. Truman in 1952.

For those who don’t read the news, or do and simply read the entertainment parts, a major ongoing news item, possibly one of the most important in your lifetime (aside from that of climate change), is the global surveillance disclosures. The NSA leaks of 2013 (whose scope was later increased from the USA to the entire world) are an ongoing series of leaks from a former NSA IT contractor that detail a global system of surveillance larger than any Hollywood movie trope could’ve imagined. It details how a coalition of Western nations, led by the USA, have been building a global surveillance network worthy of Orwell’s dystopia to monitor,

This was revealed responsibly by Edward Snowden, 31, and married, earning a high $200,000 USD, now a fugitive living in Russia (and you know when you’re seeking asylum in Russia, something’s up). Little more than a year later, and he’s been labelled as a traitor and accused of “unprecedented treachery” by our Foreign Minister Julie Bishop.

NSA surveillance has been a matter of political controversy on several occasions, such as its spying on prominent anti-Vietnam war leaders or economic espionage.

In 2013, the extent of the NSA’s secret surveillance programs was revealed to the public by Edward Snowden.

While you may think apathetically about this issue as a whole, here’s why you should care. I watched a documentary about Snowden called Citizenfour (his handle) wherein he explains succinctly and perfectly why this matters. These surveillance programs are a threat to our fundamental liberties. You might say, “But I have nothing to hide other than my terrible Snapchats and Tinder conversations”. And who cares if they saw, saved and analysed all my Instagram photos from when I was on holiday. Or if my Opal card transaction history, which is personally linked to me as part of a mandatory government policy (whose information is available without a warrant and will soon become the only way to use public transport) showed I got off at 11:49am in a location near the place that my activist greenie friend was geolocated. What does movements, who we are talking to and when, in real-time, with a nice Apple Watch app to go with it? Who needs privacy when we have nothing to hide, right?

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“Every move you make…every step you take, I’ll be watching you.”

– ‘Every Breath You Take’ by The Police not only can they track you as they them storing through all of your communications, they can do it retroactively in the future – one, two, even ten years from now. And you’ll be sure they’ll know you well enough by then. To their credit, they have a nice catchy slogan to explain themselves:

any legal means”. Kind of creepy, right?

This is no longer in the realm of movie tropes and tinfoil-hat conspiracy theorists (which by the way, were totally right). This is reality. And I digress, today it is far from being scary. We are bickering about how legislation being passed, and having mandatory registration on Opal cards. We are giving corporations all our information, photos, locations, relations, on social media without

a care in the world for how they are using it. But this was not the way of life 10 years ago. Using the word “privacy” in conversation was not a poor attempt at poking fun at activist types, it was a right; it was and still is a fundamental liberty.

technology and the Internet? How are we contributing and forming these new social constructs? Lastly, just ponder why you didn’t hear more about these surveillance scandals in the media and why there wasn’t more talk about it.

Today, we are okay, but little by little, without us realizing, our fundamental liberties are being eroded under the guise of protecting the general public from terrorists (a technological BandAid over a sociocultural problem).

Soon, without us knowing, we will live in a world where the government can do a 180, turn back on the laws and regulations protecting us now, and

We are extremely fortunate in Australia to be living as we do today, and just as generations previous have protected and ensured this way of life for us, of which privacy and no fear of oppression are key, it is our moral imperative to ensure it for future generations.

we will have no meaningful means of opposing it. And that is scary.

I leave this as an exercise to the reader: take a moment to seriously, mindfully, sit and contemplate – where are we going with technology, with smartphones, with social media, with

with friends, get talking about this global surveillance system. You may

So, next time you’re in conversation

communicating leads to change. The more we talk, the better. The more who know, the better. And the closer we get to change, the better.

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The War, The Myth, The Legend

Vanessa Papastavros

“For god’s sake, don’t glorify Gallipoli - it was a terrible

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“What we must “ask ourselves “100 years on is “whether we wish “to imitate our “history, or learn “from it”

New Zealander soldier was killed,

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Why Wonâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t These Women Shut Up And Let Me Help

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10 Albums Released 10 Years Ago

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BLT, BLAT or BLOCMAT

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She Said Guac

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Be Yourself(ie)

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What Goes Up

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TV and Reality

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The Force Tingle

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Why won’t these women shut up and let me help them?

Zoe Rochford

Earlier this month, James Ritchie, a male student at the University of Tasmania, was appointed as the

Subtext: rights for women, but only insofar as they don’t affect my own rights or

University Union.

And then – those crazy feminists at it again – he was petitioned to step down because he is not a woman.

A lot of people were upset. How dare women demand that the Women’s meant to be about equality, for god’s sake? This, they said, is an example of feminism gone wrong: a movement that purports to be about equality, but is in practice just as biased towards women as the rest of the world is towards men.

threatened by feminism it to eschew the term ‘feminism’ altogether for the oft-repeated catchphrase,

– notoriously bad at maths, amirite?), but here’s a handy hypothetical that you can whip out next time you’re confronted by an ‘equalist’.

Feminism is, of course, synonymous with equality of the sexes in the long run. Sadly, equality is a game that everyone has to play. That’s kind of the point.

Why should the onus fall on women’s groups to promote equality within their organisations when their male other organisation in the country) consistently fail to do so? Call it what bias’, ‘letting women be elected as

assume, for argument’s sake, that there are no female CEOs in any of very little imagination). Now, imagine that a group of entrepreneurial women establish a hundred companies of their own– but, to be fair in the name of ‘equalism’, they ensure that half of the CEOs they hire are male.

Did we just create a utopian society?

You do the maths.* *Hint: No.

designed to be run by and for women’: surely it’s necessary if we wish to begin to rebalance the dangerously precarious scales of gender equality to equilibrium.

When university groups like Women’s Collectives insist upon female leaders, they are not ‘discriminating’ against males – they are attempting to balance out the outrageous male domination in every other leadership position on campus, and on Earth.

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Artwork: Kimberly Luo

And then there are the arguments based on ‘merit’, like the one that Alternate image caption or quote representative on topof ofan images SRC group could in look thelike University Union’s website, lamenting Tasmanian this University maybe? Union, has made the fact that others couldn’t see his view: in defence of Ritchie.

“The point could be made if a female of less ability was in the role in terms of representing students and getting things done and making the case for an issue, that maybe women would be worse represented than they would under James.”

people can spend so much time and effort arguing about who should hold a certain position,” Ritchie wrote.

feminists just do not stop with the be represented by someone who

Strangely enough, those who champion the ‘merit’ argument tend to be outraged about the isolated incidents when women fail to respect the‘merit’ of menArtist and happy Surname to roll with the fact that @Instagram_name women are chronically underrepresented everywhere else, despite the fact that women must have merit occasionally – even if only

James Ritchie responded to requests that he step down with a letter on the

might actually understand the issues understand that it takes a man to get some real work Artist done Surname around here? @Instagram_name Disappointingly, James Ritchie is not alone in his quest to force women to bow to the superiority of men in all facets of life, including ‘being female’. Our own Minister for Women, Tony Abbott, continues to set an excellent example of how to

disregard demand for female leaders in positions designed for females. Yes, Tony Abbott, a man who describes a woman’s virginity as “the greatest gift you can ever give someone.” A man who regards the right to abortion as “a question of the mother’s convenience.” A man who simply this year like it was all a bad dream.

A man who had an opportunity to place a driven and intelligent female colleague – or, hey, even just a female colleague – in the position of Minister for Women, and who instead elected himself to that role in what would be a laughable attempt to garner goodwill were it not so depressing. into memory, James Ritchie must be asking himself the same question as our friend Tony: Why won’t these women shut up about their ‘issues’ and just let me help them?

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Ten Albums Katie Kendall

From Under The Cork Tree – Fall Out Boy

Late Registration – Kanye West

A Fever You Can’t Sweat Out – Panic!

At the Disco

While we’ve since come to know that it’s not actually okay to tell someone who’s broken your heart to “just drop dead”, most of this album makes most people at university feel fourteen and brooding with angst all over again. If you want to scream out some witty pop punk in between studying, a lot of Fall Out Boy’s most iconic jams (and longest song titles) come from this album.

This is the album that brought you the quintessential Kanye West anthem Gold Digger, and won Yeezy several GRAMMYs and international music awards. With hits like “Diamonds From Sierra Leone” and “Touch the Sky”, this album broke out onto the mainstream scene with such success it sky-rocketed Kanye’s career and expanded his fan base like crazy. Gold Digger is still the song most people think of when they think Yeezy, and listening back to this album will remind you why.

So Jealous – Tegan and Sara

X&Y – Coldplay

Illinios – Sufjan Stevens

Twins, lesbians, indie rock, and Canada.

You get all that and more with this cultadored album. From the heartbreak anthem “Where Does the Good Go” to the dark hearted “Walking with a Ghost” which was later covered by The White Stripes, this album is clever, bold, and heartfelt. Carrying that oh so Canadian self-deprecation matched with very heavy, clever beats, So Jealous was the

Fix You is the song everyone remembers from this album, and rightly so, it’s a masterpiece. While not my favourite Coldplay album, this simple, beautiful

This album showed the world how ambitious Sufjan was, lyrically and musically. Much of the album is made up of references to people, places, and events that revolve around the state of, you guessed it, Illinois. But this is a gimmick-free masterpiece; it explores America, religion, and humanity in the most subtle ways through Stevens’ renowned lyrical

album that put this sister act on an international stage.

sound we most easily recognise as essentially Coldplay. This album is timeless in so many ways, and listening to it takes the listener back not into the past, but into oneself.

album. Critically, and in the eyes of most fans, this thirteen track punk-pop emo-gasm is the best thing Brendan Urie has ever pulled out of his sequined top hat. Ryan Ross, who wrote and composed the entire album, left partway through later projects and the band could never quite emulate the wit and groove of their debut in his absence.

ability. This is the kind of album you just lie on your back and listen to while crying. If you’ve felt that, you know what I mean.

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The Sunset Tree – The Mountain Goats Perhaps one of the lesser-known albums on this list, The Sunset Tree takes a listener who isn’t a perfectionist but adores a deep and eclectic musical experience. “This Year” is my go-to song every New Sunset Tree’s youthful boldness. The album suggests a strange acceptance that life will be both painful and joyful in tandem, and songs such as “Love Love Love” subvert the typical love song and leave you light and melancholy at once.

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Soviet Kitsch – Regina Spektor You might know “Us” as that indie song that plays in the opening credits of (500) Days of Summer, but you’d be better off knowing it as that song that you listened to just after you got over ready to have loss described in a way that is poetic and distant. This album looks at past relationships as a thing of decaying beauty, and Spektor’s exceptional talent for poetic lyrics will move even the most hard-hearted of listeners.

Demon Days – The Gorillaz

You will often hear me say this is my favourite album of all time. A departure from previous Death Cab albums in some ways, Plans shows a sense of refinement by Gibbard and his band mates, lyrically and melodically. Plans is all about the things we can’t plan for: death, heartbreak, growing older, and how the feeble plans we make fall apart too easily. The bands best-known song “I Will Follow You Into the Dark” comes from this album, and is nestled among forty-four minutes of lyrical depth and melodic beauty.

Fitting the theme of albums that launched the singles we’ll never forget, Demon Days brought the people the iconic hit “Feel Good Inc.” The whole album is critically celebrated, and the virtual bands seamless melding of pop, hip hop, and rock set this album apart from the crowd and set the path for many to attempt to recreate it’s sound. For an album that composition of the album that makes it timeless.

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Recipes

BLT, BLAT, BLOCMAT? Allison Bermingham

The BLT is a classic sandwich that can be consumed at any hour of the day. Some say, “Why change a good thing?” I say, “To make it epic!”. Here is my twist on the traditional BLT sandwich. I guess you could call it a BLOCMAT?

1. glasses or something to stop you from crying. You can also cut your bacon in this step.

2. of butter. Throw your onion into the pan and cook until your onion turns brown. Put aside in a bowl.

3. your bacon. Cook and make it as crispy as you want.

4. up your other ingredients. Cut the tomato into slices and shred your lettuce.

5. on to a plate lined with a paper towel to soak up the oil.

6. followed by some mayonnaise. Then place your cheese, tomato, lettuce, onion and bacon.

7.

Take a photo because it’ll be gone before you know it!

What you will need: ½ Avocado As much bacon as your heart desires Slice of Cheese (optional) 50g Shredded Lettuce Mayonnaise (optional) ¼ Onion 1 Tomato Favourite type of bread or roll

Artwork by Rose Wallace McEwen

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“She said Guac” Bermingham

1.

2.

What you’ll need

3.

4.

5.

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Be Your Self(ie) Cameron Hart

Once upon a Renaissance, the trademark for any painter or sculptor worth their base materials was to incorporate aspects of their own image into the artwork they created.

This practice was later adopted by some of the most wellknown names in art history: Michelangelo, Caravaggio, and Leonardo da Vinci, who followed in the footsteps of the man who is considered to be the father of the self portrait, Albrecht Dürer. As an artist, Dürer painted himself oeuvre, we notice a distinct shift in his appearance over where he bears an undeniable and striking resemblance to Christ.

Following this period, the artistic emphasis of the zeitgeist shifted to include self-portraits as small aspects of a larger work, while some maintained the tendency to shape art in their own image. Throughout history, it has been believed that to capture one’s self in art was to somehow become immortal; a version of a past-self preserved through time in a unique manifestation of perception and expression.

If you’ve ever been to an art gallery or watched Antiques Roadshow, you’ll have seen the breathtaking examples of this legacy, and how widely appreciated it is.

Yet what I am interested in is why, when the self-portraits of long-dead artists continue to endure with reverence in our cultural consciousness, do we have such disdain portraiture has never been considered to be a method of

enables anyone with a smartphone, decent lightning, and themselves, and let others appreciate them.

One such anyone is Kim Kardashian, a woman most famously known for building an empire upon the ignominy of a leaked sex tape, has attracted as much attention for her particular brand of self-appreciation as anyone possibly could. Despite her determined attempts to ‘break the internet’, she did break something, and with more than 30 million followers on Instagram, Kim certainly isn’t ashamed to use her image, Now I’m sure we’ve all had days where we wake up and look into a mirror and think damn, my hair looks fucking majestic people will simply smile to themselves and go about their routine, others will take a photo and share it with their friends.

Now replace the hair scenario with anything else: your recent gainz, some sharp as hell eyeliner wings, or even your fab new CK jeans, then you should goddamn go and do it. Because we’ve all been there, and I’m here to tell you that there’s no shame in wanting to live forever, because with an iPhone and a little luck, you could do just that.

Artwork by Rose Wallace McEwen cargocollective.com/papergrl

UTS Student Legal Services UTS Student Legal Services

Free legal advice service for UTS students Free legal advice service for UTS students Opening times: Opening times:

Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Tuesday

10am - 4pm 10am - 4pm 11am -- 4pm 8pm 10am

10am - 4pm Wednesday 11am - 8pm Thursday To make an appointment with a lawyer, email studentlegalservice@uts.edu.au,

To an appointment with a lawyer, call make 9514 2484 or visitstudentlegalservice@uts.edu.au, building CB01.03.15 email call 9514 2484 or visit building CB01.03.15

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What Goes

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Up

Nicholas ‘Freddy’ Phillpott

Say it with me: Hi, my name is (insert name here) and I have wanderlust. Our generation’s obsessed. Being exposed to all the wonders of the world through social media, most students dream of travelling the world. What better way to do so than go on exchange?

Some might say that going on exchange is the ideal university experience. It’s the perfect way to appease your wanderlust without taking a semester off. It’s a great way to explore other cultures, and everyone knows just how much study you really do. These are all fantastic things, but I’m here to tell you, it’ll change a few things, so be prepared.

Prepare, not for the experience itself - although a little planning never hurt anybody - but emotionally prepare yourself for the return. There is an overwhelming sense of you can revert to dependent-child mode for at least a little while.

As much as you do miss home while you’re gone, prepare yourself also for the culture shock that is returning to Australia. Sounds funny, I know, considering you’ve lived here all your life, but it’s crazy how quickly you become accustomed to a new culture. It changes the way your see your home.

I’ll say this. I was only gone nine months on a single semester exchange (so what, I travelled a bit), but I am

ruined. I can’t imagine what it’s like for those International Studies kids who have to come back after a year, being immersed in one amazing, foreign culture.

Let me break it down for you. I spent my weekends stressing over how to say “where is…” and “one coffee spare change for that coffee. In terms of the money you slaved away for working sixteen-hour days (lol jk, thanks HECS), you really can’t have enough while you’re travelling.

Not because it’s expensive, but because you’re potentially embarking on a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity and

Now that I’ve told you to go blow all your money on Amsterdam’s goods – I’m talking about the cheese, guys, come on – I think I should mention that coming home broke is quite depressing. Plus side? Most of your friends have been dying to see you, so why not get ‘em to shout you a meal. That’s what friends are for, yeah? Also, you may be moving back in with your parents, a fate I wish upon no one.

I’m kidding, I love you Mum and Dad, you got your shout-out, stop reading now.

Also, I guarantee you’ll meet someone. You know what I’m talking about. Long-distance relationships suck; unless consider what you’ve got and make good choices. While

to keep or delete, I don’t really like it but I felt weird making that point/was running out of words and needed to keep it brief) You get to casually mention things like “these are good churros but the best I’ve had was in Valencia, Spain” or “remember that night we got lost and ended up in Luxembourg”, although reliving memories and being the exchange douche.

Endnote? After nine months abroad, my Instagram thanks me. Get ready

abroad, you meet people from different cultures that you never expected to get along with, and then all of a sudden, you’re prepared to move across the world for them. We’re young; we can make rash, stupid decisions, right? Now in all fairness, I didn’t leave someone to go overseas, but I did leave someone to come back, and that’s just rubbing salt in a very tender wound. *pause for sympathetic ‘aww’s* You may think that I’m just shitting on ‘Straya at the moment? I’m not. Don’t take it personally, Sydney. Let me put it like this, it’s like growing up in King’s Landing, which is really cool and everyone longs to visit, but then you go to the underrated Highgarden or the exotic Dorne. Now suddenly, you want nothing more than to spend every last cent and hop on a boat to the Free Cities! If you don’t get any of what I just said, be proud that you’ve escaped the clutches of the Lannisters.

No seriously, Sydney is a fantastic place in a remarkable country. Sure we have that pesky boat people problem, but at least climate change doesn’t exist here, right? Now we’re entering uncomfortable territory, Murdoch might not like this. I digress.

By all means, go on exchange. Really, please do. I don’t regret a single moment of that whirlwind fantasy adventure.

Not the ones I remember, at least. The most important thing to keep in mind is, while coming back to reality may life. More motivation to keep making it great. (Your choice

Artwork: Kimberly Luo

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Reality

Careers on Screen

Gabrielle Shina

It has happened to all of us, at one time or another. You turn on your favourite show. You’re engrossed, captivated, interested in the lives of the characters.

Regardless of who you are, what you’re watching and how you’re watching it, you come away with greater knowledge, and even a wish to be part of it.

I’m talking about every show that has ever inspired anyone to be a part of something, a sporting team, musical group and even a career. I’m certain that I am one of a large percentage of people whose inspiration for their career started with a television show, or at least was helped along by a show.

For all the future lawyers out there, would you tell me you weren’t inspired

by Suits, The Good Wife or Law and Order? And medical students, is it really possible that watching Grey’s Anatomy, House or Scrubs hasn’t, at least in some

Growing up watching Bones and CSI, I’m sure I was one of a large group of my friends that was not only fascinated by the idea of being forensic scientists or criminologists, but would proudly proclaim that that’s what we would be when we grew up. I’m not sure how much trust you can put into a young high schooler’s perspective when they say that’s what they really want to do, considering the gloriously inglorious everyday life that would come with careers where decomposing bodies and painstaking observations in a highpressure environment are a recurring feature.

That’s not to say that the careers on our screens aren’t interesting or exciting, not in the slightest. But this example, like many others, shows just

part, inspired you or encouraged you to go into medicine?

and recognition of certain careers. And I’m not the only one who has picked

It almost seems like many of the careers ‘in vogue’ now have been shaped by their representation on television, and more broadly, in pop culture.

at the rise of certain careers that have been spotlighted in televised media and a link, but it is not always a good thing.

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“I’m certain that I am one of the” large percentage of people whose” inspiration for their career started” with a television show”

Looking again at the rise in popularity of forensic science careers, the results show that there is an unmistakeable link. The growth in interest was seen in the UK where the 2009 Skills for Justice Forensic Science Occupational Committee report detailed that the number of enrolments in forensic science courses had more than doubled from 2191 in 2002-3 to 5664 in 2007-8. Even more interesting is that 34% had cited televised media coverage as a factor in their choice.

However, organisations such as the Victoria Police have publicly stated that there is an inherent glamourisation and embellishment of the role and responsibilities of forensic scientists.

In fact, they estimated in a 2013 statement that only 60% of televised tests were realistic and ultimately declared that, unfortunately, ‘there are no jobs available in Australia like those

unseen drama that the very lives of legal professionals are put in danger. And it’s because that’s all we have to go off sometimes, the glossy representation of doctors and lawyers who frequently skirt the lines of ethics and professionalism and are altogether too attractive, intelligent, emotionally compromised or even obnoxious to be genuine.

depicted on CSI’.

romanticised and dramatised. Though I sometimes wish I could be Olivia Pope or Alicia Florrick, in watching them I know that the high stakes, extreme pressure and unrealistic expectations that characterise their careers belong in their world, the television world.

The glamour of careers on screen is so alluring, we begin to believe that seemingly unsolvable crimes are unravelled with ease, or legal battles are so fraught with betrayals and

As a devotee of The West Wing, Scandal and a host of legal shows such as Suits, How To Get Away With Murder and The Good Wife, I’m not ashamed to admit that it sparked my interest into my chosen degree. As a law and public communications student, I was inspired by the excitement of the characters’ work and even personal lives. From the outset though, it was never a matter of but becoming aware of the different facets of these areas, however,

There will always be a part of each of us that wants to be able to catch the bad guy, perform 15 life-saving operations a wise-cracking lawyer. Though we will are, it may not be as we pictured. But hey, a girl can always dream right?

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Vertigo

The Force Tingle

by Gabrielle Rawlings Disney’s ready to take its next step in the world and has released the trailer for the new instalment of the ‘Star Wars’ franchise. The trailer has already earned over 66 million hits, and if that wasn’t good enough, its success added 2 billion US dollars to Disney’s share price. So to welcome back Hans Solo and all his mates back to the big screen, we have concocted the perfect drink for all geeks, freaks, nerds and others to celebrate their homecoming, #ChewieWereHome

What to do: 1. Gather the stars (Fill a tall glass with Ice) 2. Add Disney’s tears of happiness (Vodka) and the Light side of the force (Blue Curacao) 3. Fill with Lemonade 4. Mix it up and add in the Dark side (Grenadine) 5. Repeat steps 1-4 for a good night and drink every time someone mentions the force. Just a sip though, or you may end up on the street in nothing but a Storm Trooper helmet.

Be warned, the force of this drink is strong.

Ingredients: 60mls - Disney’s tears of happiness (Vodka) 60mls - The Light side of the force (Blue Curacao) 30mls, or free pour as you wish - The Dark side of the force (Grenadine) Lemonade

It’ll look like a galaxy, taste like a fruit tingle, and get you so wasted you’ll forget Princess Leia is technically a Disney princess now.

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Vertigo Serial Pt 3: Prophecy

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Do You Know Him

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The Fever

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A Journey To Kanchanaburi

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Time

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Project Rooftop

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Art Showcase

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Photography Showcase

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Prop The human guided Ovid through the post-apocalyptic remains of her Earth, the skeletal remnants of a once great civilisation. She did not converse with him, and focused only on removing the stringy grime from her apron with that he saw her force the putrid gruel between her parched lips, sucking on

climbing over dusty debris and sifting through years of accumulated waste, they reached what appeared to be a great expanse of dry earth. The woman

“Hand me the device that you were talking into.”

calf to its mother’s teat.

Ovid was hesitant. All of his research thus far was stored in that minuscule Diginote.

It didn’t surprise him, really. There was clearly a lack of livestock and vegetation on this planet. Everywhere he looked, the land had cracked and rendered - there were no sprouts of

“Where you are going, there is no need for technology. I will return it to you once our journey is complete.”

of life other than the bony mass that stood before him.

Ovid obliged. The woman took the Diginote and stored the device in a

the alien foreigner, right here on this dusty plain?

“We are here”.

The woman gestured to a gaping hole in the Earth. It looked almost like a mouth, with the sharp, rocky edges resembling jagged, decayed teeth, similar to those of the pan-wielding woman. The abyss appeared to be bottomless, just a dark, stony chasm leading nowhere but down, down, down.

“This is the entrance to The Underground”. The woman stared at Ovid with the same expression as before, the same infant child mirror of his face.

“Are you taking me to The

“Follow me”.

Underground?”

Again, silence. Nothing to be heard but the slippery sucking of gruel from beneath the woman’s nail-bed.

After what seemed to be hours of

As they journeyed further out into the dusty expanse, Ovid grew doubtful of the situation at hand. This woman had threatened him only moments before with a cooking utensil - what was stopping her from murdering him,

“You want me to climb down this hole?”

“Yes. The entrance is slanted, and the rocks provide leverage. The journey is slow, but Scout 210 - B6 will be waiting to greet you at the end of the tunnel.”

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hecy Rachael Versace

“We’ve been expecting you.”

Scout 210-B6 looked more to Ovid like a dishevelled human on his deathbed than a leader of The Underground. His skin had warped and buckled from the lack of sunlight, and Ovid was sure that

“But you and the pan-wielding woman are the only humans I am yet to encounter. Are there more of you?”

here, surrounded by the Earth’s walls, we become her children again. We become human again.”

“Of course. The vast majority of us migrated here after The Disaster.”

With this, Scout 210-B6 pulled back the boulder shielding the sacred room. He

“Vast majority…are there more of you elsewhere?’

Ovid saw what looked like hieroglyphs engraved upon the stony surface.

“There are the top-dwellers - but we do not speak of them here.”

A space ship. A man. An abandoned planet. Below him, underneath a thick layer of Earth, hundreds of humans with outstretched arms.

dried bark from a tree.

“What is this place?” Ovid wished earnestly that he had his trusty Diginote to record the unique paraphernalia surrounding him. It looked like an ancient city, a civilisation returned to its primitive state.

210-B6 directed Ovid down a narrow, rocky corridor towards a small room, protected by a large boulder.

No sign of technology or infrastructure. The air is dense and heavy, laden with dust particles. Fire is being used as a light source. Boulders

“Before I show you the prophecy of the stone, I would like to tell you a brief history of our people. We are the Undergounders, dwellers of the Earth.

of varying sizes appear to be arranged into circles. Perhaps for communal meeting points. Or for ceremonial rituals and offerings.

Technology destroyed our former existence. It consumed us until we were no longer human. That is why we have returned to the Earth, to its core.

We have abandoned technology in all its forms. Technology is toxic, impure.

It mutates us, alters us. When we live

“This is The Underground. The rebirth of human civilisation.”

‘When we carved these chambers from the Earth, we found this. This prophecy. A man, a saviour. One to rewrite our history, to document the re-birth of humanity. To eradicate all evidence of our former existence, and allow us to start afresh.”

face, so close that he could almost

“This man is you, Ovid”.

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Victoria Chong The Fever I pause at the kitchen door, stalled by

producing that I can feel the unrest as if to contain the unbridled anger,

ringing reverberations; a cup rolls off ceiling and casts over everything a shadow, light, then shadow again.

I tentatively step forward, then retreat back into the silent haven of the hallway.

it all is only slowly oozed out once the door is opened and the two stride away

feeling of walking through the front door and knowing that the two had

the kitchen door. Stay in the house for resounding walls.

you’re wilder, harsher, as if the ferocity

My feet crunch through glass as I look on the ceiling, a whole bottle of red

is here, can sense it in the horrible

above the stove is shattered, the grey

twelveBut there he is on the bed, not crying, just waiting.

What kind of a colour is that for a “Where are your parents?” I ask, and of her eyes, I don’t know why I have to keep telling you that it’s just a fucking colour, I’d look at Luke with forced teeth, grab his hand and run upstairs before that awful, doubtless sound of skin hitting skin.

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Do You Know Him?

assurance, eyes that cut, sharp. I see

surprised the both of us, donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t touch

It is you, I wanted to say, and that tightened under the pressure of his sharpness, the daggers in his pupils not to, blink with conviction, but canâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t eyelids sent sprays of pink and yellows when it was hot, when the leaves were was spinning slowly, so slowly to the

He started laughing then, and even the

I realised then, in the sweltering heat, through the sliver between the drying

struck at how harsh the planes of his arched eyebrows, the crests of his collarbones, and so scared was I that

now than it was, but I can feel, still, the

shoulders.

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J o ur n ey to

K a n c h a n a b u r i Harry Goddard

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illustration by: Levi Hayes

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Jess Chen

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Time

I started measuring time with coloured pills blue was for 8am, brown for 1pm, white for 6pm stacking the disposable plastic containers on the bedside wondering if theyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;d reach the height of the ceiling Time seeped between the cracks of the morning and into the crevices of the afternoon At night it stilled, hovering out of reach time seeming as diluted as the sealed cups of orange juice the seconds drunk with a long, thin straw Some days time oozed down the walls like refrigerated honey Some days it slipped out the doorlike the words you should have said, the person who should have stayed far past the visiting hours I wondered about the millions of cells in my body that lapped up the time, needed it to deposit bone cells and carry the dead away oblivious to the burden of inconsistent time Time inside these walls felt stolen from another place a place where time was ticking quickly and wounding to a close

6am Outside my window tangerine streaks the sky The sun tickles the shy clouds to unfurl and the rays kiss my face as a reminder that it never stops.

But right now I think its time to eat all this fucking chocolate.

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Project Rooftop

design in architecture

Project Rooftop is an architectural project designed by a group of UTS Architectural students. It aims to convert overlooked and disregarded public spaces and temporarily change them into an exciting new space for public use. The project is utilizing a car park roof top site in the Canberra CBD and transforming it into a vibrant new area that can be a platform for local community artists, musicians, traders, performers, and restaurants. The reinvention of this public space will be engaging and appealing to the local community and bring some much needed invigoration to this unnoticed part of the Canberra city landscape.

Proposed for a life span of approximately three weeks, Project Rooftop is aiming to be part of Canberraâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s growing art scene and provide an alternative source of entertainment for the local population. Activating a space for a different purpose other than its original function is the main drive for this project.

Project Rooftop is a temporary architectural installation that will be deconstructed after the end of its 3- week run.

Afterwards, it will convert back into a car park, completing the installation life cycle.

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“A space is not always determined by its use and can be changed. Changing the use of the space isn’t enough to cause an effect - the space must be engaged and used by the community, allowing the installation to take full effect.”

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Constructed out of scaffolding and polyurethane coated spandex, the design brings together a mix of materials that is not normally used for building construction. The unconventional construction method will enhance the expression of the projectâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s design geometry to better effect. The building the building in the evening. The unconventional materials used in construction will also provide the will be in exhibition throughout the installation.

Robert Scarfone Sudden Matsa Henry Goodwin Taase John Taase Justin J Park

Designer Designer Designer Designer Project Manager

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Bryce Pemberton First year Design in Animation

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Most of my work stems from the piles of garbage I accumulate in my sketchbooks from day to day observations. Costumes, faces, dialogues, politics things exciting, and the enthusiasm doesnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t translate well in conversation, so it ferments in messy books and occasionally bubbles out as

www.brycepemberton.com

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William Versace

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William Versaceâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s most recent photo-set of Cambodia whispers tones of his Mother-In-Lawâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Tongue and continental parsley.

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Hello fellow UTS students! We’re the 2015 Vertigo editorial team, and we’re looking for contributors for our magazine and newspaper.

and email it to submissions@utsvertigo.com.au

Vertigo is the student publication of the University of Technology, Sydney. And in 2015, we’re looking to keep Vertigo awesome by keeping the magazine you all know and love and by also introducing a regular newspaper for current affairs.

Vertigo?

What can I contribute?

We want your help with investigative reporting, feature

4. What experience do you have?

sound or visual design.

What does being a contributor entail?

Being a contributor means getting to know us, expanding your skills, getting your name in print, and much more!

Vertigo 2015 is all about ambition, and we want your help with anything and everything. We’re very excited to work with each and every one of you.

media.

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UTS STUDENTS’ ASSOCIATION’S

Brekkie Bar s t n e d u t S r o F e i k k e r Free B Tuesdays, 8:30 - 11:00 AM Haymarkets Moot Courtyard Wednesdays, 8:30 - 11:00 AM Tower Building Foyer

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