WestWorld March

March 2012

012

Exploring Arts, Culture, Music & Film within Bristol.

westworld

including

Fredwah The Bristol Pound Taking the Piss Lent for Lent Eye for Fashion Secret Festival Featured UWE ArtistS

Archie Fitzgerald Naomi Wilkinson

FREE

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Featured Artist - Fredwah

FREDWAH

Jenny Pearce

This month’s featured artist is a little bit different. He’s not as established as our previous poster artists, but I reckon he is just as good. Fredwah’s dark yet strangely friendly work, inspired by the buildings of Bristol, is created using a mixture of inks, watercolours, spray paint and marker pens.

Fredwah moved to Bristol,which he calls “a playground of architecture”, in early 2011, where he has since kept a sketchbook of every building, view or structure that interests him, bringing them all together to create his unique characters.

So far, avoiding the conventional art gallery, Fredwah has chosen more alternative platforms to showcase his work, including squat parties such as the TAA’s Bedminster Bingo hall takeover of last year.

I met with Fredwah in his Picton Street studio, which he shares with an illustrator, a fashion designer and a make up artist, to find out what gets his creative juices flowing….

“My interest in buildings started at a very young age,” says Fredwah. “I grew up living opposite a gigantic derelict factory and was relentlessly told to go nowhere near it. Naturally, this meant I was climbing through the un-boarded-up skylight as often as possible to explore,” he adds, with a cheeky grin of excitement.

“I then spent my early teens clambering into as many abandoned sites as possible, including our regular hangout ‘the bunker’, an old stone ruin almost completely submerged in brambles that we’d dragged a few old sofas into.”

Editor Jenny Pearce

Fredwah then later discovered the warehouse/squat party scene, which he says brought new levels to his abandoned building influences. “Not only had someone else already done the hard bit – finding and breaking into the building – but they had been injected with a shot of something new and different. Smiling, gurning, and cheering faces hung about in the corridors (the many ‘party faces’ used as inspiration in his work) whilst the thumping techno heartbeat brought the building back to life.”

To the young (just 20 years old), yet ridiculously street savvy young artist, every building has a personality. “I mostly draw architectural characters, faces within buildings and cityscapes and strange mutant building monsters. I love personifying buildings. When I look out over the cityscape I see hundreds of weird creatures all curled up waiting to come alive,” he says.

To enquire about prints or commissions, visit his website or e-mail mr_wah@hotmail.co.uk.

Creative Direction & Design Holly Catford catford.com holly@catford.com

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Westworld would like to give a big apology to Tara Evans, who we left off of our contributor list last issue. We are very sorry and would like to say thank you for your brilliant work!

You can find more of Fredwah’s work at www.wix.com/fredwah/mr-wah

westworld@westerneye.net

Sub-Editor James Moorton Ed Sharp

An Apology

iamjackfranklin.co.uk

Contributors Archie Fitzgerald Matt Hoare James Moorton Holly Parmenter Jenny Pearce Kate Sansom Ed Sharp Ed Tolkien Naomi Wilkinson

Special Thanks Fredwah

Contact UWE Publications Frenchay Campus Coldharbour Lane Bristol, BS16 1QY www.westerneye.net

Typeset Grotesque MT Std Berthold Akzidenz Grotesk & Warnock Pro

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Feature - The Bristol Pound

Kate Sansom Only last issue were we worrying over the future of independent Bristol.

Already, a whopper of a solution has arisen! The Bristol Pound is a new innovative scheme offering an alternative local currency to the people of Bristol, estimated to launch in May 2012.

With the current economic crisis, The £B hopes to support and build the local economy, by re-circulating money back into the Bristol area. This will also provide support for independent traders and help improve and boost community relationships.

So, how will it actually work? The £B can only be spent in Bristol, meaning that the money you spend in your local shop will help sustain local farms and locally sourced goods.

By encouraging people to shop at their local stores, rather than at large commercial shops, the public will be feeding money back into Bristol, instead of another city, country or larger corporations.

I spoke to Michael Lloyd-Jones, part of the Business Engagement Team for The £B, about this new scheme and how it will affect Bristol. He said: “It boosts local trade for the independent businesses and in turn supports a more diverse high street, which is good for the Bristolian economy.”

He added: “Having a diverse high street and somewhere exciting to shop, which is essentially unique to Bristol, will make people want to come and visit Bristol even more!”

Briz Quid

The £B is very simple and easy to use. Firstly, you need to set up a bank account with the Bristol Credit Union (BCU), and then just swap your sterling money for the new £B. The notes will be in values of one, five, ten and twenty pounds, and can be used in any shop with the Bristol Pound symbol (£B). It can be used just as you would use sterling money. Although, a downside to this is that if you pay with the notes, any change given may be in sterling, which might make you question the benefits of joining the scheme.

The preferred way to pay for products is via text, as according to Lloyd-Jones: “This is something that is particularly exciting about this scheme. We think this will put the system on a much higher level of success.” After setting up an account with the BCU, you’re given a membership card, a unique username and security pin. Then you just text the £B with your security pin, the username of the business, and the amount that you need to pay. It works in the same way as a card transaction, taking the money out of your account; once you’ve sent the text, you will receive one back saying that the transaction is complete. It’s that simple and only takes around ten to fifteen seconds, it is apparently just as quick as using your debit card!

The aim is to get 300 businesses on board for the start of May, so this scheme will make a big impact on Bristol when it begins. By shopping in the local stores, it’s hoped that: “This will bring people together a lot more and that people will stop and get to know each other. This has a lot of good benefits, rather than a cold interaction that you might get from an automated machine at a supermarket.”

So, what do you lot, on whom the scheme will be heavily reliant, actually think of this new cash? Will you be filling your purses with it?

Or will you be sticking to the safe old sterling?

Anybody can use the £B, including students; it is hoped that the local community will come together to support each other.

Lloyd-Jones adds: “I think students will recognise the £B as a really important thing. It’s supporting the area in which they live and I think it helps create a better connection and understanding about the city; how to be better connected to the city instead of escaping to the student bubble.” Some shop owners on Gloucester Road have even suggested that to encourage students to shop locally, they may do certain discounts for users of the £B. Stores that participate in the £B scheme will be marked on a map on the website, allowing students to discover parts of the city that they may never have been to.

You may be thinking “Why should I change my money to the £B, if I can still use my normal money in Bristol?” This could be a negative point for the £B. Part of the initiative is to shop in your local stores, but why not just promote local businesses instead of the extra hassle of converting part of your money to the Bristol Pound. Another negative might be if you had text the wrong amount or miss spelt the businesses username, what happens then?

One thing is for sure though, this is one more way in which Bristol will stay diverse and hopefully independent.

For more information about the scheme and how you can get involved: website www.bristolpound.org email info@bristolpound.org Twitter @BristolPound

“I live on a tight budget and would like the local stores to give a discount for using the £B, otherwise for me it’s a bit of waste of time getting them exchanged. I might get a note to show my friends back home, but I can’t see this being very successful, because it doesn't really benefit the consumer. People only shop at Tesco and Primark because they are cheaper than Bristol's independent stores.” - Paul Campbell, studying Journalism at UWE

“The Bristol pound… it seems pretty sound.

I like the idea, as long as it doesn't disappear!

Lets hope it can keep going and the businesses keep flowing.”

- Tilly Evans, general Wordsworth. studying Journalism at UWE.

"I don't really understand the point as I don't understand why business owners or the public will really benefit.

People who are conscientious enough to choose local shops will shop there anyway, and people who aren't won't. I use local businesses but I won't want to go through the effort of changing up my normal pounds.”

- Portia Banwell, aged 20, studying Geography and Planning at UWE

“I think it’s one of those schemes that will fall through quite quickly. I don’t think it will work and I won’t be using it. There was a similar scheme in the past, the Bristol LETS (Local Exchange Trading Scheme), which is still around but never really took off.”- Phil Hargreaves, Technical Instructor at UWE

“I think it’s a really good idea because it’s something that is happening with just Bristol traders, which is cool as it makes the city come together and feel like more of a community. If the pound went down we would still have the £B, which is also a good thing. I’ll definitely being trying it out.”- Thom Popejoy, studying Journalism at UWE.

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Melancholia - Social Networking

Social networking or Social Fish to the Net?

Melancholia

Matt Hoare

In the past decade, people all over the world have been taking part in a 21st century phenomenon: the growth of the social networking service. MySpace first brought the online social space to the mass market back in 2003, but it, and others such as Bebo and Friendster saw their popularity decline in the wake of the next-gen: Facebook, Twitter and most recently, Google+. As of 2011, there were 500 million social network users on Facebook alone, or 1 in 13 of the global population. Such sites are now constantly accessible: Smartphones, Tablets, games consoles, TV’s, and of course, computers. Is this technological revolution providing power at your fingertips, or is it intrusive, displaying our lives for anyone to see?

Sites like Facebook and Twitter have transformed the ways in which we communicate in ways never thought possible.

We can contact each other instantaneously, regardless of distance, for free. We can relive memories, share photos and create friendships with millions, all with the click of a button.

Information has never before been so readily available - so many ideas, so much knowledge distributed to countless numbers. Twitter alone has reinvented citizen journalism, enabling anyone to report live news and events. To many, social networks have become a beacon for free speech and democracy, a virtual space for free discussion and political organisations. Facebook has become a central advertising platform – these days those businesses who don’t ask their customers to “Follow us on Facebook” are a minority.

But is the power of social networks merely benign, simply a service for people to connect, socialise and discuss, or can a wider agenda be identified? The issue of privacy has consistently been in the media spotlight over the last few years and justifiably so. In typically complex legal language, their terms and conditions tell us that everything we upload onto the site is legally owned by Facebook and can be shared with whoever requests it. All personal information can therefore be shared with anybody, individual, government or business. Their privacy policy also states that it “also collects information about you from other sources…regardless of your

use of the site”. Furthermore, there has been no mainstream disclosure of those who fund Facebook. Among the list of investors who escape the public eye, two key players stand out: Gilman Louie, the CEO of In-Q-Tel, a venture capital firm established by the CIA, and Dr. Anita Jones, (former member of In-Q-Tel) an advisor to the US Defence departments ‘Information Awareness Office’; their task is to collect personal information from people in order to combat terrorism.

The concept of a ‘free internet’ is slowly disappearing too.

Twitter has signalled its readiness to censor tweets at the request of governments, and it, and Blackberry messenger came under pressure to cut off service and censor messages in the aftermath of the 2011 riots. Facebook status updates are also increasingly monitored by government departments; last year several people were given four years in jail for discussing riots over Facebook.

Contrary to the positive portrayal of media figure Mark Zuckerberg, the links to government departments and intelligence agencies imply a darker side to social networking.

They undoubtedly bring many benefits to our lives, and are tools that can be used for good ends. Yet, we are becoming too used to constant communication, and too reliant on technology. Maybe we should put a higher value on our information, and think twice about what we give over to the Internet.

James Moorton

I am a huge fan of the apocalyptic. Not the actual threat of the end of the world! But, as a theme, I can’t get enough of it. It could be deemed as a guilty pleasure I suppose, given that my passion lies even in the mainstream, over dramatised, emotionless Blockbusters (The day after tomorrow, Independence day, 2012 etc.).

So, when an apocalyptic espionage involving True Blood’s Alexander Skarsgard - whom I hold an equal amount of passion for - came into play, I was in-dubiously excited, and despite its release being six months ago, I feel it deserves a late review.

It turns out that Skarsgard’s performance, although pleasant enough, was somewhat irreverent, but I’ll take this as a blessing in disguise. The focus was instead shared by a deranged Kirsten Dunst and her (also deteriorating) sister Charlotte Gainsbourg, the latter of which portraying, in my opinion, the more thought provoking woman.

When Earth is under threat of collision with a mysterious new planet, of which the film is titled by, we are lead on through the emotions of world destruction through the eyes of these two women alone. No mass government plan to save a bunch of humans by lodging them in a hole, no sickly one liners when some self-obsessed dimwit belatedly realises that they are about to die and no unnecessary boy meets girl story arcs to ‘guide us through’. Melancholia is raw and believable; the pain that these two women feel, in utter respect of their personal lives, is haunting. To elaborate, they scared the shit out of me.

Director Lars Von Trier, known best for ‘Dogville’, clearly hates the human race, and I somehow admire that about him. There is a beautiful truth in his work. Dunst’s character Justine, who unfathomably “knows things [about what is going to happen]”, states bluntly that there is no one else out there, and us humans are the only ones.

I am well aware that Melancholia is not an accurate representation of reality, and the believability of the characters is out of key if anything, but the harrowing, desperate voice of the film is enough to darken any mind set. Those askew characters, the unexplained actions, the mesmerisingly daunting space vs. earth sequences and the fearfully dreamlike string arrangements from Kristian Eidnes Andersen all make for a film of twisted beauty.

NB. Do not watch when you have tonsilitus and/or any other kind of illness. You will want to scream, cry and ultimately die.

Director Lars Von Trier Age certificate 15 Runtime 136 mins Star rating 4 out of 5

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It's a Secret - Taking the Piss

It's a Secret… but I trust you.

Perfectly timed after the hand in of the last of our coursework (May 25th to 27th to be exact), Bristol shall witness the birth of 'It's a Secret... Festival'! And it looks set to be a right little child prodigy.

We don't now exactly where it's going to be held yet, as the name would suggest, but if music, skanking, workshops, walkabout performance, lawn games, hot tubs and massage sounds like your type of thing, then you are in for a treat. This isn't just a rave in a field either, there are real ales and ciders on tap to quench your thirst, and real toilets and showers. Sounds almost too good to be true.

It has also been confirmed that it will be somewhere within the BS postcode, so there will be no need for sharing long car journeys with odd smelling strangers or getting caught hiding in a train toilet by the conductor.

Literally Taking the Piss

If Westworld already has you drooling with the words ‘after coursework’ and ‘within BS postcode’, then prepare your taste buds for the line up; the rapidly increasing eclectic list of dub, hip hop, reggae, acoustic, drum n bass and avant garde folk

is sounding spot on. The entire line up deserves a mention, however we wouldn't want any of our readers who happen to be on the bus to miss their stop, so we'll keep it short; Pinch, Warrior One, YT & The Nucleus Roots Band, First Degree Burns, Skitz and Deadly Hunta, Eveson, Snafu and Eva Lazarus, and Bladerunner got us standing to attention.

Sounds tempting, doesn’t it? Well, let us tempt you further.

It’s a Secret… Festival founder Bevan Ward is offering one of you lucky so-and-sos a couple of free tickets! In true It’s a Secret style, all you have to do is tell us your juiciest secret. The person with the secret that most makes us giggle will get free entry for themselves and a mate. The best/funniest secrets will be published anonymously in our next issue. Answers should be emailed to westworld@westerneye.net (we promise not to tell anyone!).

All answers must be received by 11th April.

For more, but still very secretive, information on It’s a Secret …Festival, including how to buy tickets (early birds are priced at a very reasonable £70, including camping) visit itsasecretfestvial.com

James Moorton The subject of comedy is recognised almost as a throw away form of art in some respects. It works as a cheap kick, a pleasurable experience that doesn’t dwell in our grand scheme. It is also a renowned perspective that stand up comedians deserve our respect. They have the power to outwit us, and it seems to have been established that what they do is not easy.

In experiencing a short stand up set from Paul Parry, I was enthralled, and not just because of the Cava I had been drinking. Paul Parry injected me with a sense of sophistication (which perhaps was counterbalanced by the Cava), by which I mean, I fully understood his material. His manner was utterly bleak, and I mean this with the warmest heart. Paul Parry is just a man with a dream; to dispel the misuse of the word ‘literally’.

With a salty, whistle stop Power Point presentation, we were subject to the last eight years of Paul’s life, in which he has genuinely devoted time and effort to disproving the over use of that word of which I now struggle to use without clarifying my sentence structure first.

Paul cycled literally from A (a small town in Norway) to Bee (Central USA) because it means that much to him. That is the beauty of this man. He isn’t simply a comedian for the sake of being a comedian, he has found the simplest of passions, and elaborated part of his life around it.

Paul Parry takes examples from celebrities and their misuse of literally in order to explore the delicate subject into a realm of modern, twitterfied, celebrity politics. The mocking of celebrities is clearly beneficial in any comedy sketch. This excerpt, taken from his website, assesses the questionable genius of Fearne Cotton: “Not only was a Kasabian track recently “literally incredible”, which is hard to believe. But also this morning Fearne managed to claim another album was “literally flying off the shelves”.” “This woman is literally brilliant. I am going to have to listen to her show, and ring in. Radio 1 from 10am to 12:45pm each day. Each day. It’s literally a goldmine of literallies. Figuratively.” Despite Paul’s loveable, approachable and inspiring attitude, he has recently come under some threat from the big guns (by which I mean National Press).

Having recently appeared on BBC Radio 4’s ‘Word of Mouth’ expressing his angst for the now decrepit angle for literally, Paul seems to have made a name for himself. However, barely 24 hours after his appearance on the radio, a two page spread, headed ‘LITERALLY’ featured in ‘The Guardian’, without any consolation from Paul himself. Coincidence perhaps?

I suspect not. The article features an uncanny amount of Paul’s independent research. Particularly into the ‘literally’ irresponsible tweets of Jamie Redknapp. Within a week, several other Broadsheets and redtops included almost identical stories.

On the one hand, I am not naïve, and can understand the pressure to appeal to a Nation on a daily basis as a hefty one.

But Paul has spent at least eight years developing his ideas.

He literally went the extra mile (as proven in his stand up) to create an intricate and powerful argument that is proven to be life changing (figuratively). Surely he deserves a website mention. A small print of his initials at the very least.

Alas, this is the power hungry, multi-million pound, corporate world that we live in. How are we expected to do something spectacular, if those who have miraculously made it to the top continue to steal our findings?

As an undergraduate, it makes me feel a little un-prosperous. If my passionate, dignified peers cannot manage to find praise by the leading media authorities, what hope do we have?

Disregarding said devious corporate activity, Paul Parry seems to be receiving a healthy amount of local respect. Hosting the Grain Barge pub quiz every Monday brings a regular crowd of loyal locals, who literally (I am deeply sorry) live for ‘The Famous Alan Round’, and stand up sets are on the cards in March.

I advise you follow Paul Parry (@parryphernalia) on Twitter, and indulge yourself in his stonking website; parryphernalia.com

7

An Eye for Fashion - Lent

An Eye for Fashion Review

WHAT I WAS LENT FOR LENT

Holly Parmenter

Norman Parkinson Photographs, British Designers 1954-1964.

21 January - 15 April 2012 (Entry £5/£4) As a lover of fashion, iconography and photography, the M Shed’s An Eye for Fashion exhibition held a great mass of appeal to my fervently acquisitive artistic taste buds. The works of Norman Parkinson, one of Britain’s most significant portrait and fashion photographers, encapsulated in all its glory in this one exhibition.

Focusing upon the period of 1954-1964, Parkinson projects to us a decade in which art, music and fashion came together to form a compelling and indelible trio of creative adornment. Through his lens we are able to captivate an era in which fashion and photography collided to produce an iconic reaction.

Parkinson’s photographs are chronologically dotted around the room. His photography, shot mainly for Vogue, exposes the alluring and elegant beauty of various supermodels of the period.

Models such as Jean Shrimpton, Melanie Hampshire and Celia Hammond are captured perfectly in all their immortal beauty through Parkinson’s work; the grainy black and white photographs piece together every stunning aspect of these models, their clothing, and the scenic backdrops of London in its cultural prime. In the words of art critic Sue Hubbard, Parkinson’s photographs are “moments suspended in time, nuggets of history that capture the mood, the sound and the smell of an era” It is not just the photographic wonderment of Parkinson that the exhibition provides us with; the contribution of stories from locals allows us to sense the era encompassed. Stories of ‘mandatory mini skirts’ and ‘Dusty Springfield eyeliner’ supply a nostalgia which completely submerged me within the decade.

Any fashion loving, art admirer would receive great fulfilment from this exhibition and until April 15th, M shed is accommodating this iconic dressing room, of beautification, fashion and photography. Overall, An Eye for Fashion illuminates a period of great emancipation and creativity, and the photography of Norman Parkinson evidently played a strong role in this.

If your wallet or purse is empty, then keep Wednesday 28th of March clear in your diary, when entry to An Eye for Fashion is free.

Jenny Pearce

I am not giving up anything for Lent (22 Feb - 7 April) this year. I am instead borrowing things, with the main agenda being to see how many interesting things people would like to share.

You are probably wondering how this will work…

If you have an interesting item to lend (I’m not asking for your Grandmother’s ring or anything really valuable like that) then just contact me by emailing westworld@westerneye.net and I’ll be in touch asap.

I will happily meet all Bristol lenders to borrow the item, but postage can be arranged for all those busy bodies. Postage will also be arranged for those a little further away than Bristol.

Items will be lent/borrowed for an agreed amount of time.

Photos will be taken of all items, which will be posted onto my blog (whatiwaslentatlent.blogspot.com) and the most interesting or helpful will be published in the next issue of Westworld.

I will lend as many items in return as I can, but this is depending on numbers (I don‘t want to end up with no stuff!).

This is a brilliant way to share an intriguing or useful item or show off something you are proud to have made. I have had some amazing items lent so far… all will be revealed on the blog soon, so stay tuned!

Contact westworld@westerneye.net Blog whatiwaslentatlent.blogspot.com Facebook www.facebook.com/events/355961714423846/

Student Showcase

ARCHIE FITZGERALD

NAOMI WILKINSON

Archie is currently in his third year studying illustration. He told Westworld “I take most of my inspiration for my work from the negative things in life; hate, suffering and death. I also take a lot of inspiration from surreal and horror films, the dark arts, murderers, weirdoes and our bullshit, mind numbing authoritarian consumer society.

Hate and frustration fuels most of my work and this all comes from the world around me; the dead eyed humans that fill our streets and the advertising and media that confuses and controls most of our population. I spend most of my time either drawing, partying, reading or listening to hardcore and noise.”.

Naomi is a third year illustration student from Clevedon, a small town in North Somerset. “ I think growing up in a sleepy seaside town full of elderly people left me with lots of time to nurture my imagination and look at how seemingly dull places can be full of fascinating characters. Whether they are grotesque or hilarious, characters and communities on the fringes of society are often very inspiring for me.

Archie’s work is online at kidtildeath.blogspot.com

At the moment, I’m creating work inspired by ‘’Nights at the circus’’ by Angela Carter, a story about a cockney trapeze artist who happens to be half swan. Other things that influence my work are colourful eastern European graphics, vintage children’s books and the lyrics of artists such as Jake Thackray and Serge Gainsbourg; whose music often tells stories that can be both silly and heartbreaking - I think that’s the kind of work I aspire to.” she says.

You can have a look at more of Naomi’s work at naomiwilkinson.tumblr.com