Westworld issue 2

December 2012

02

Exploring Arts, Culture, Music & Film within Bristol.

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The Master Perks of Being a Wallflower Fond Zine Raime The Hit Ups Featured

Tom Phipps Leon Makari

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Featured Artist / Tom Phipps

Tom Phipps Tom Phipps is currently studying Animation. He writes and illustrates cartoons, including random jokes and two comic strips. Ham Green follows an eccentric squirrel and his friends, a pragmatic bird and dimwitted dog, around the village where they live. Odds on Favourite is set almost entirely in the pub, and follows an ill-mannered and socially inept waster. Tom's work can be found at http://phippscartoons.com/

Editor Emma J. Hardy emmajhardy.co.uk westworld@westerneye.net

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Creative Direction & Design Myrna D’Ambrosio mybitsnpieces.tumblr.com

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myrna.dambrosio@gmail.com

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Monica Giunchi monicagiunchi.com

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design@westerneye.net

Contributors Nathan Moss-Bezzina Leon Makari Tom Phipps Nadia Atget Hannah McVeigh Owen Chambers Madison Christinne

Special Thanks The Hit Ups Fond Zine

Contact Western Eye Frenchay Campus Coldharbour Lane Bristol, BS16 1QY www.westerneye.net

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Film Reviews

The Master Paul Thomas Anderson

Hannah McVeigh

The Hunt or Jagten by Thomas Vinterburg is a new release which has been receiving a lot of critical acclaim recently and in my personal opinion it is an utterly fantastic film.

Synopsis: A lonely nursery teacher struggles with his ex-wife over the custody of his son. His life starts to pick up when he finds love and receives good news about his son visiting him.

However, this new luck is about to be brutally shattered by an innocent little lie.

Plot: Lucas (Mads Mikkelsen) is a nursery teacher who is lonely, he is a member of the close knit community that makes up the village he lives in and is surrounded by close friends.

He may be lonely but he is not too sad as he has his dog, his job, his son and his friends to support him. He is in a difficult custody battle over his son with his ex-wife but gets good news regarding his son coming to visit him and he also begins to fall in love with a fellow worker at the nursery. Then one of the nursery children – his best friend’s daughter to boot- accuses him of abusing her. From this moment on Lucas’ life in the community completely changes and he becomes an outcast fighting to clear his name.

to empathise with and he did not overact the seriousness of the issue in fact his entire portrayal of Lucas was very natural.

He seemed only bewildered at the accusation but never angry.

If you go to watch this film I would recommend that you don’t wear mascara it’s a tear jerker, there were a fair few moments that truly tugged on my heart strings. I can’t recommend this film highly enough it was well written, the actors were brilliant, the visuals were stunning and it was very engaging. From the strong opening to the steadily building tension and the satisfying conclusion it’s well worth a watch.

Although this film tackles a taboo subject it is not a comment on paedophilia or who to believe in that situation instead it is a comment on hysteria and peoples- especially parents- clouded judgements. This film is heartfelt and tackles the delicate subject in a very restrained matter. If you’re after an action film then this isn’t it but there is enough drama and tension to sate your needs, there is also a particular scene which I found to be quite brutal, it’s needed in the film but still very brutal. The characters were all fantastic and Klara (Annika Wedderkopp) the little girl that started it all is still likeable at the end of the film, this is a testament to the script and also to how the characters interact with each other. Mads Mikkelsen as Lucas was a brilliant lead, he really carried the film, he was very easy

The Perks of Being a Wallflower Stephen Chbosky

Madalina Ciobanu

It’s safe to say that not many films have the power to cause goose bumps or start the ol' waterworks with their impeccable acting or plot originality. Teenage comedies or dramas all seem to follow a xeroxed storyline of glamorous lives, parties, cheerleading competitions and finding eternal love at 17, but this particular drama exceeds its expectations.

American novelist and film director Stephen Chbosky’s film adaption of his coming of age novel, ‘The perks of being a wallflower’ was released in October 2012. The story focuses on Charlie (Logan Lerman), an introvert who is about to become a freshman in high-school and struggles with making friends, being dubbed as a 'wallflower'. His only friend is presumably

an imaginary one, to whom he writes frequently. Following a school football game, Charlie befriends Sam (Emma Watson), whom he ultimately falls in love with and her stepbrother Patrick (Ezra Miller), both high-school seniors. Although he enjoys his newfound life and spends increasingly more time with them and their group of friends, Charlie soon starts to realise that his friends are also slightly troubled, calling themselves 'misfit toys' (a cartoon reference). Charlie has childhood flashbacks and anxiety attacks throughout the film, mostly involving his aunt Helen, who died in a car crash for which he secretly blames himself. The severity of his condition is revealed in the film finale, when it is revealed that his aunt Helen had sexually abused him during his childhood, but he had chosen to repress that memory out of love for her. After undergoing a treatment, Charlie recovers and reunites with his friends who return home for the holidays.

This film is special, it's different and most importantly, it's something most of us can relate to.

There isn't any youngster out there who has not feared that moment of having to commence a new phase in his life by himself and starting from scratch, without any friends, is certainly difficult.

High-school is a beautiful, unforgettable experience in one's life and reminiscing those moments alongside Charlie's character and his group of friends, in spite of Charlie's condition, is an enjoyable experience. The importance of friendship, love and loyalty is a motif in this production and it servers to underline that sometimes, friends are the family you choose for yourself. No matter how hard it might get down

the road or how special you may be, you can overcome any obstacles with them by your side.

In terms of acting quality, Lerman has done a beautiful job portraying a lonely, shy teenager and it was certainly entertaining seeing Emma Watson as something other than Hermione and in a more mature, emotional role. She has even mastered the American accent, so all in all, a perfect performance on her part.

Chbosky is speaking to teenagers on a 'carpe diem' tone, treating them as equals. Nothing is unreachable and as Charlie says,' in this moment, I swear - we are infinite'.

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Fond Zine

Fond zine Fond is a self initiated project by two third year Graphic Design students at UWE, Bristol, Sophie Balch & Fanny Wacklin Nilsson. What started as a professional practice project for university - to contact inspirational designers - soon grew in content and enthusiasm into a regular publication.

Fond is zine full of interviews with designers and studios about the design industry, whereby each issue takes a different theme. The first being editorial design it features magazines such as Fire & Knives, Boneshaker, Grafik and Wired. The second has a focus on Dutch typography with a Riso graphed interior and screen printed cover. The newest issue explores the relevance of internships, including studio's opinions alongside students experiences of interning around the globe.

Fond was recently sold at Handmade and Bound fair at St Brides Library in London and won first price for 'best in show'.

This was a real honour and achievement as they were up to stiff competition from a number of London universities and industry professionals.

One year strong and three successful issues later plans for a fourth are underway!

If you want to get your hands on an issue please get in touch through fondzine.tumblr.com

Fond Zine

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Exhibition Review

Arnolfini,“Gost Log” Matti Braun

Nadia Atget

It is easy to get lost in modern society, where people often become isolated and reserved. Our feelings are silenced, our stories become forgotten.

Contemporary art challenges this tendency. It brings together different concepts, connects cultures and directly addresses the viewer.

The exhibition “Gost Log” at the Arnolfini is an example of how an artist and his views may serve as a medium between people. Matti Braun, a German artist, focuses on the individual stories and on rare and unknown to majority of people's moments, and translates them into symbolic language. So, despite being essentially about life, his art takes you away from reality. There is always something mysterious about abstract art, as it is never straightforward, and it may be interpreted in the

Picture: Arnolfini, Matti Braun

different ways. The variety of meanings makes the works of art universal, so anyone can find something close to them.

I noticed that myself: the art of Matti Braun is not mute; it does not provide you an opportunity to stay indifferent. When I saw Bunta Garbo, a work based on a novel written in Ido – an artificially created language, which has only about 300 speakers right now – I could hear the vanishing tales and see disappearing cultures. At the same time I was thinking about people around me, who silently come and go away, and whose thoughts often remain undiscovered.

One of the most attractive parts of the exhibition is an artificial pond with the wooden stepping

stones. In order to cross a room visitors are required to find their own path. This exciting task forces you to slow down your pace, to stop rushing into another room, and to think carefully about every step. Some of the logs are more unstable than others, spacing between them varies. This little journey can be compared to a movement through life: we realise how unsteady our path is and how cautious one should be when coming to a decision. Thus Matti Braun shortens the distance between art and the viewers, invites them to be a part of a project.

Other exhibit includes the paintings on silk, as well as glazed pottery, notable for a beautiful combination of colours and shadows. You can come and find out their meaning by yourself till 6 th of January 2013.

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Music Interview - RAIME

RAIME Raime’s music takes you places. Their new album, “Quarter Turns over a Living Line” transports the listener to a halflit world of industrial decay and apocalyptic dread, and doesn’t offer any route back out. They are one of a handful of highly idiosyncratic acts to emerge from cutting edge label Blackest Ever Black, an imprint that synthesizes 80s postindustrial music and 00s avant-garde techno into a fresh and vital aesthetic. I spoke to the duo after their recent gig at the Arnolfini on Bristol’s Harbourside about the album, their influences and the visual side of what they do.

Simon Bishop

How do you think the gig went?

How did Raime come about?

We really enjoyed that one. That for us is our perfect venue because it’s half gallery space and half gig space, which is kind of where we sit. It’s small enough to feel intense but the screen is big enough to be immersive.

We’ve known each other since we were sixteen, so quite a long time. There’s a lot of trust and a relationship built up over the years around music. We’ve both been making music for a while but neither of us had ever released anything because we’d never really found our voice; you're just emulating. I think it got to the point with Raime where our musical tastes were starting to move into areas that they hadn’t moved into before, and those areas were exciting to us and stimulating us in quite similar ways.

I think there was a point where we were imagining possibilities rather than replicating the glories of other producers. And that’s not saying we’re unique in any way or not a product of our influences - because every artist is - but we got to the point where we were ready to present something to the world outside of the home studio.

Speaking of the screen, the accompanying film was amazing. How did that come about? How did you work your set around it?

That came about through a production company who are good friends of ours. We gave them a brief of the things we were looking for, and they went out and spent three days in this enormous abandoned space in Lisbon and set fire to things.

It was all shot on super slow motion cameras. We then spent a couple of weeks editing that. We had a rough idea of our set and we edited to that so we know where key moments land and you can get that synergy between the sound and the image.

From your mixes for FACT and Boiler Room, I know you’re particularly fond of 90s jungle and drum n’ bass.

What is it about that genre that inspires you?

The point was about drum n’ bass for us was the emotion, usually acted out with large string sections or synth lines or, for example in Photek tunes, where it’s really just an acutely developed atmosphere. It's that tension between rhythm and atmosphere and emotion that really inspired us. So again it’s not about a replication but its about a continuity of feeling where the form doesn’t necessarily follow but the emotions do.

And it’s that continuity that we find interesting and wanted to explore.

Although all the artists on Blackest Ever Black sound very different to one another, you all draw on similar influences, that is, the darker ends of electronic music from the last three decades. Do you feel part of a movement or an emerging genre?

I don’t know if there’s a genre emerging but the commonality between artists makes you feel more comfortable, it makes it easier to express yourself. But as an artist that’s not something you use as a jumping off point; the reason you’re an artist is because you feel you’ve got something to express. But the more people do it the more it becomes something for people to discuss communally; it becomes more of a shared attitude.

After releasing three 12” singles how did you approach the album? Was there a concept or an aesthetic to begin with?

We tried to move away from sample-based stuff to using more live instrumentation. We did a lot of recording sessions with cellos and drums sessions and guitars. We go through them afterwards with a fine-tooth-comb and pick out the choice moments or things that excite us and then keep going through that process. As it took shape we wanted the album to work as a whole rather than just a collection of singles, we wanted it to have a kind of narrative or structure to it, an arc to it.

Aesthetics are obviously important to your work.

I understand that you worked closely with the photographer on the images for the album?

The photographer is actually very close friend of mine who I’ve known for a long time, so there’s a large degree of trust and he understands what we’re trying to get at. We were very keen on using a person, or in this case a dancer. Dance and the human body was interesting to us because it felt like the next logical step from the fairly austere and removed attitude that we’d had to our previous artwork. We wanted to involve the human a bit more because the records do feel austere or maybe influenced by the industrial; but the human is an integral part of that.

What’s next for Raime?

We just want to do the things that are right for us, and it’s very much about picking the right things to do. We’ve very excited about the record coming out but at the same time it’s been a huge amount of effort and work, so its nice to draw a line under that. We’re very keen to get back into the studio and let ourselves go a little bit. Once you’ve finished a piece of work it gives you a little bit of breathing space in your own mind just to experiment and not feel like you have to put something out there straight away.

‘Quarter Turns over a Living Line’ is out now on Blackest Ever Black (http://blackesteverblack.blogspot.co.uk/)

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Featured Artist / Leon Makari

Leon Makari When did your interest in graphic design begin?

What do you plan to do after you graduate?

5. Who or What inspires you?

I started studying graphic design three years ago at London Collage of Communication. I enrolled onto a one-year diploma, which taught me the very basics of graphic design. I really enjoyed the course but wanted to do a degree outside of London. Once I started at UWE, my mindset for design started to change. I was thinking more creatively with ideas and my design that has helped me produce the work I have over the last two years.

I'm still a bit undecided about what I want to do after graduating. I have recently seen a few companies that I like what they do. I would love to do an MA but I don't think I want to do one just yet, possibly after working for a couple of years. I think I would like to work for a few companies in my first two years to try and work out what part of the design industry I want to work within. I don't think you know what you want to do unless you try it but sometimes knowing what you don’t want to do is just as important.

Design studios that create incredible work inspires me most.

Thinking that potentially I could work for a company that has no limits in creativity is something to look forward to and this helps me to push and develop my work.

How would you describe your work?

I love working with typography across a variety of mediums. In third year, you write your own briefs, gather content, create a narrative and design the work. Doing all these things can be difficult but coming up with a reasoning and rationale for everything you do is important. Dealing with problems and issues and trying to resolve them is how I link my work to industry. I have started to get more involved with interactive design and design experiences. I wouldn't say I have a particular style; I try to incorporate appropriate graphic styles when necessary.

Have you done any work placements? If so, what was the most important thing you learnt?

I've worked at a Branding Agency in London and a Magazine Publishing Company in Bristol. My hard work paid off and I managed to get freelance jobs in both. Once I was getting paid for work, I had to work quicker and more efficiently. Especially in publishing, there are deadlines set everyday so meeting targets is essential for the editorial to be published on time. I have also worked on live briefs that involved collaborating with other designers and illustrators.

http://leonmakari.com/ @LEONMAK_

Featured Artist / Leon Makari

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Music interview: The Hit Ups

THE HIT UPS You've listed bands such as Foals and Pulled Apart By Horses as influences in the past. What bands have you been enjoying over the course of this year?

You've got a pretty diverse sound too. Do you think that has anything to do with living in such a diverse city as Bristol?

This year has seen the rise of that new genre - not really sure what it's actually called but I like to think of it as the space cadet sound, it has throwbacks to 70's with a bit of a Stone Roses / Madchester vibe, bands like WU LYF, Childhood and Parma Violets. These guys have done an amazing job at twisting up music that little bit to create something new and the vibe of the scene is amazing - a lot of love and good vibes for to get us ready for the end of the world. Along with these guys we’ve been submerging ourselves in Delta and Chicago blues (Bukka White, Kelly Joe Phelps, Lightnin Hopkins etc) cause these guys are the originators of so many beautiful pieces of music. Not that you'll be hearing a THU breed of electro delta party jazz but there’s so much to take there, Even if it's just in learning a new mode to write a pounding riff in. When we’re writing we try to take elements from all the things we fucking love, from a wide range of influences. These could come from anything though; it could be an idea on structure or vocal attitude or a bass sound we want to drive through a huge distortion or simply just a vibe we want to re-interpret.

We could be all patriotic about Bristol and say it's all down to that - but I think the sound comes down to who we listen to day to day. The inspiration from Does It Offend You, Yeah?!, Jeff Buckley, Hendrix, ETID, Beck, Foals, Pulled Apart

by Horses, DZ Deathrays, The Rapture, they all feed their juices into the musical pot. What Bristol does is gives you an incredible platform to test, re-test and push your work. It's a city full of people who love music and the creative scenes, so bands are able to start and become part of something with real substance. This city will let you know when you're shit and will let you know when you're putting something OK together, and once you've got some form of approval in this city you can consider yourself at a credible enough level to take your work around the country. There’s no sugar coating it though, but you gotta give this city it's credit!

Your website describes you as "Spooked out, electronic, party-core, rock 'n' roll" That's a pretty impressive description for a band. Do you think your the only Spooked out, electronic, party core rock and roll band out there?

We definitely gotta be the only spook-tro-part-roll band out there! There’s a lot to be said in this industry how you get yourself across and we need people to be able to understand what we are without having heard us. Hopefully the ‘spookedout’ conjures to mind the freaky, unhinged, wailing guitars, and growling, pounding bass. The ‘electronic’ makes people think of the filthy square wave noises, ‘party-core’ describes our live show and the energy we funnel and rock 'n' roll is what we try and use to hold it all together somewhere along the line.

Your live shows are pretty frantic. How do you go about transferring that feel on an album?

The recording process is a bit of a weird one for us. Primarily, because we don't have any funding apart from our own.

We don't really have the luxury of really thinking in detail about what we do in the studio and analysing what vibes, philosophies and/or ambiances.

We have to go in, make havoc, make noise and pour what we do live into a recording. We usually just go back and double track everything to add balls, add layers of crushing synth and tear out the vocals! Listening through the tracks quite a lot of what you hear are mistakes that get played in but which we will actually end up transferring into our live shows cause they sound a little better than what we did originally! That's considered songwriting for you.

Now the year is almost over, what are you guys going to be up to in 2013?

TOUR TOUR TOUR TOUR! We’ll be on the road in Feb and March! The newly christened Youth Obeying Lucifer's Orders tour is going to be stretching its sweat grip around the UK + EU so keep you’re eyes out for the tour schedule being released soon! The summer will see us getting muddy as shit and we’ll be on tour again come the autumn. We’ll be announcing so mad stuff over the year so look out for that too...

So basically , tearing sh*t up. You’ve been warned.