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[smiths]
Issue 74 Freshers 2015
1
[smiths]
Art and Culture
Politics
Deconstructing Hollywood - 4
Memory is for losers - 5
Does my head look big in this? - 6
The cure for gentrification is SMASHING! - 8
A glimmer of hope in a dark time for British
politics - 9
Politician’s Tinder profiles - 10
Literacy and Creative
Food
Mamma’s Boy - 7
Streets of Edinburgh - 8
In defence of fast food - 15
Ice cream you scream - 16
A guide to drinking in New Cross - 18
Music
Travel
Are the BBC Proms selling out? - 12
Guilty Pleasures: An open letter to music
snobs. - 14
Home is at the tip of my toes. - 20
Berlin baby - 21
Fashion
Housing
The Metamorphoses of Chloë Sevigny - 22
Social Media vs Fashion - a shift in power - 23
How I learnt to love the London housing
market, and how you can too - 25
Luke and Louis
Cartoon Strip
Is there a right to free education? - 26
Metagirl and Postman - 28
Agony Aunt
Letters
Miss Enfranchise - 30
Readers letters - 31
Welcome,
Goldsmiths students new and old!
[smiths] hopes you’ve had a really excellent summer. We’ve been
working like crazy towards making this year’s magazine the most
spectacular so far in its long, distinguished, illustrious history.
It will also be the most prolific (if the printers don’t succeed in
shafting us!).
This year we’re taking a major risk. We’re aiming for a whopping
five issues. Our priority is to fill your boring, textbook-filled lives
with an eye-popping, brain-melting, wee-inducing amount of
freshly-baked, hot-off-the-press [smiths] magazines, teeming
with a wild extravaganza of everything and anything to brighten
up those rain-soaked, coffee-fuelled days of misery and weeping
in the good ole’ Goldsmiths library.
There are many new things to look forward to and we’d like to
take this opportunity to give them a warm welcome and a big
kiss. Firstly we have a new Agony Aunt, so be sure to send her
your problems, she’ll be more than happy to help. We also have
our first Letters Page, so keep your eyes peeled for opportunities
to give us your opinion on our content, good or bad (though
we prefer bad, it’s more fun). Thirdly, say hello to our Resident
Dialecticians, Luke and Louis, who’ll hopefully be arguing
themselves hoarse about any number of political issues, from
free education to Jeremy Corbyn. And finally, this year [smiths]
will have its very first comic strip, so we hope you enjoy the
ridiculously over-the-top adventures of Metagirl and Postman.
Yes, we’re in for a wild, raucous ride. In the coming year you will
be challenged, maybe offended, possibly even disgusted, but so
it goes – we live in a world of acute subjectivities and we here at
[smiths] are firm believers in all or nothing.
So smile and enjoy it and please, don’t do anything [smiths]
wouldn’t do.
ALL OUR LOVE,
The [smiths] team.
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3
[smiths]
Arts & Culture
Deconstructing
Memory is for losers.
The monolith that is social media has been
incorporated into the lives of over 2 billion
people. While the world is more connected than
ever before, Daisy Graham argues that we are
in danger of ‘living life through a lens’.
© lj16 flickr
Growing up with parents in the film industry,
Gemma Pecorini Goodall thought she had
movie sets sussed - until she worked on one.
Here’s the real kicker: I did this for six days a
week, four weeks straight and I was lucky if the
actor whose shoelaces I was tying knew my name.
Sure, most of the people I worked with were
wonderful, kind, gracious human beings BUT –
the rebuffing of those who happened to be ‘lower’
on the totem pole was absurd! This surprised me
the most. As a kid I was always treated like royalty
on my parents’ sets – the grips would give me my
own head set and I always had a corner of some
trailer to nap in. This was completely different.
If you think about it, most people you can name
in the film industry are actors and directors.
But what about the best boy or the driver who
chauffeured those A-list names to set? There are
thousands of people working on feature films and
the crew members who slave away for months
are barely recognized. They are the dedicated
men and women whose names you don’t read on
screen because you left during the credits.
The work they do is amazing; there’s nothing
better than seeing an empty courtyard turned
into Oxford Street right before your eyes.
However, such a transformation entails hours of
dirt and paint flecks building up, which means
leaving the set and washing off a visible layer of
black dust from your body and encountering
tissue upon tissue of blue-black snot. Not
glamorous.
Those who know me know that I don’t openly
talk about my parents’ professions with strangers
because they tend to have preconceived notions.
Anyone who thinks working in film means
cocktails with celebrities and red carpet events is
drinking the Hollywood Kool-Aid. The ‘glamour’
that people associate with celebrity can be
achieved with very hard work and dedication, not
by simply showing up.
My first job ever was on a film set in Romania.
Going in, I felt very prepared. I’d been on sets
before and it helped that I was working with
people I’d known all my life. When I signed up
for working four weeks in Romania, for free, I
too had this deluded idea of what it would be like
- drinks at the bar after work, cigarette breaks by
the soundstage with movie stars and inside jokes
on set. The reality was very different.
I knew the film industry had some dreadful
hours but I was not prepared for the six am call
time every day. Once on set the prep started. For
some it meant unpacking trucks of equipment,
for others it was running between offices with
paperwork. The worst part was that once the
day was over the process had to be repeated in
reverse. On a good day, I’d make it back to the
hotel by nine pm. On a bad day I was lucky to
lay my head down before midnight. When you
work for more than twelve hours straight it’s a
challenge just to pull on your dusty, glue-gunstained jeans the next morning.
Let me get one thing straight – I do not mean to
in any way demotivate people who are looking
to pursue a career in film. But the hard truth is
that, for most people, Hollywood’s glamour is
a myth. Yet, if you’re doing what you love, the
thirteen hour days and the sweat-encrusted dust
become your life because, in the end, nothing is
better than seeing your hard work pay off on the
big screen.
4
eyes not their phones. Every concert today is
recorded/tweeted/blogged/snapchatted (if it’s not
a verb it will be) and propelled into the vast, cold
expanse of public domain.
‘It’s the first thing you see in the morning. It’s
Man of the moment (or-let’s face
it-decade) and the National Theatre’s
the last thing you see at night. It’s the one thing
current Hamlet, Benedict Cumberbatch,
you never want to be without.’
was recently filmed pleading with fans
not to watch his performance through
their cameras. It’s distracting, and ‘I can’t
give you what I want to give you which is a live
No, not a direct quote from 1984, but the
performance’. This shouldn’t be so hard to accept
narration on a current television advert for a
– one of the most famous actors in the world is
new version of mobile phone. Since when was
bringing Shakespeare’s tortured antihero to life
an intelligent slab of plastic and metal the ‘one
in front of one room of people at a time. Why
thing’ we never want to be without? Of course
can’t those magical few hours stay in that one
it isn’t. It’s just another lie that advertising
room, in the minds of those who experience it
companies
first-hand?
want us to
believe,
Because memory is for losers.
along with
Skinny is Best
‘This play/concert/festival is AMAZING! I want
and Nicole
everyone to know I was here and they weren’t.
Scherzinger
Sure I could tell them … y’know … with talking,
eats Muller
but I want them to SEE and HEAR exactly what
Light. Yet
I did, and then tomorrow when I’m not here I
there’s a
want to watch myself do exactly what I did when
grain of
I WAS here, even though I’ll know what I did
truth in there
because I did it. Oh, it’s over.’
somewhere.
In the time it
We are a generation obsessed with living
has taken me
life through a lens. If we don’t record our
to write this
experiences then how will we know they really
paragraph
happened? And, crucially, how will other people
I have checked my phone twice and Facebook
know? The other day my younger brother and
three times, without even thinking about it – a
I were channel surfing and came across an old
purely instinctive act. Our lives are saturated with
Wings concert from the 70’s – we both felt there
so much ‘stuff’ (phones/tablets/computers) that
was something odd about the crowd, until my
we have ceased to notice the influence it has over
brother remarked that ‘there are no lights’. He
us and the extent to which it dictates how we live.
was right – the stadium was filled with people
just enjoying the moment, watching with their
Don’t get me wrong, I am not against modern
technology. I certainly don’t wish we were
living in the 70’s, when phones were the size of
Chihuahuas and Worzel Gummidge (imagine
an exhumed Jimmy Saville) was considered
a suitable television show for children. Social
media can be great but we should practise using
it in moderation. So the next time you’re at a
concert or event, resist the compulsion to watch
the entire experience through your iPhone and
instead enjoy each moment for what it is; a vivid,
imperfect blip in your vivid, imperfect life. Don’t
dilute it – live it.
5
Arts & Culture
[smiths]
Literary and Creative
Does my head look big in
this?
Fatima Amin talks prejudice, volumiser and
her experience as a young Hijabi in the Big
Smoke.
London is known for its diversity and
multiculturalism. However, being a modern day
Hijabi in this great city can have its downs. It
seems these days that walking out with a hijab on
is equivalent to walking out of your house with
a Post–it that says knob stuck to your forehead.
You carry the stereotype that comes along with
the piece of cloth. Before I even have a chance to
say hello to someone new, it seems clear to me
what they are thinking. Judgmental homophobe.
I see the way the light in their face slowly fades
and their smile crumbles away.
I, like many women my age, like to boogie,
watch a good rom-com (preferably starring Julia
Roberts) and, from time to time, pretend I’m
a cat. Us Hijabis are as normal as they come.
Yet sometimes people have a hard time seeing
beyond the tent that sits on our heads and this
can make it feel about the size of Jupiter. Life
would be a lot easier for me if I were to rip off
my hijab, because every time I step into a room
I wouldn’t feel the need to prove to people that I
am good enough.
However, it’s not their fault that they know so
little about what my scarf represents. To me it is
the symbol of my liberation and what connects
me to the great women that came before me.
Being a Muslim is a personal journey, a choice,
and definitely not a path anyone should be
forced down. In a world abuzz with talk of Islam
being the root of all evil, how can young Muslim
women like myself not feel out of place?
Despite all this there are, of course, perks to
being a Hijabi, and these include the ridiculous
questions every Hijabi will at some point be
asked.
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1. Is wearing a Hijab irritating?
“When you’re having a bad Hijab day it will keep
slipping off and just won’t cooperate with you,
even though you went to the effort of wearing an
under scarf.”
2. What’s the best part of wearing a Hijab?
One of the greatest things about being a Hijabi
is that I never have a bad hair day. I can wake up,
get dressed and throw a scarf over my head and
you would never know that there was birds nest
under it!
3. Do you even have hair under there?
This is the mother of all questions. Yes I do
actually, and it’s very luscious.
4. Do you shower with your scarf on?
Yes, like I shower with my clothes on.
5. Does it get really hot in summer?
Summer weather can leave your head feeling
like you’ve spent the entire day at the sauna, but
the minute you get home and rip it off… ahh that
is the true feeling of bliss.
6. But, do you feel smug in winter?
While every other human fights against the
blistering cold, you’re wrapped in possibly
two layers of cloth giving your ears a good ol’
hug. Although the layers can sometimes leave
you half deaf and begging for people to repeat
themselves.
7. Can your Hijab be too big?
Never! Little tip if you’re doing your DoE or
just going camping for fun - your volumizer (the
thing that makes your head look twice its size)
can double up as a pillow. But we’re not all fans
of the ever-so-popular scarf volumizer.
Mamma’s boy
By Meiling DellaGrotte
Streets of Edinburgh
By Aisheshek Magauina
A woman, her hair coiled to create a wild mane
of curls, regales me with a story. ‘My ex-fiancé,
he is just my lawyer. It is better now.’ She lifts
her hands and brushes them together, as if that
could wipe her clean of him.
I walk in the sun with my disguise,
Everything is dark.
‘Yulia is missing’ printed in black and white,
The buildings are grey but their windows bright.
A girl walks across the road in screaming red
tights,
But I don’t mind.
RED
Red
red
Gone. I don’t look back.
A door opens, a women walks out.
The man next to her lights a cigarette,
But I’m gone before the glowing red.
I look ahead.
‘I would ask him what he wanted for dinner,
and he would say, “Something simple, like my
Mamma would make.” Something simple was
homemade pasta with pomodori, melanzane, e
zucchine.’ She shakes her head in dismay.
‘He cooked me food.’ She pauses, laughter
dancing in her eyes as she lifts a singular finger.
‘Once. He cooked me food once. And it was
popcorn. “But I cooked it on the stove,” he said.
No, no, no. Popcorn is not food.’
‘And when he was sick...only one thing would
make him feel better - soup only his Mamma
could make. So I drove him to her house and
said, ”Bye, bye!”’
7
[smiths]
Politics
The Cure for
Gentrification
is SMASHING!
Sam Bland argues that there might only be
one way to deal with Bourgy independent
shops and cafes that are ruining the streets of
London.
Gentrification is spreading like a disease; it ‘s
seeping through the streets of London at an
almost unstoppable rate. First it took Shoreditch,
then Brixton and now it’s heading to New
Cross! From living in London we see every day
new high-rise apartments being constructed
to support the rich while working class people
are being forced out of their homes. This is the
first rung on the gentrification ladder and is
something that we must fight from day one, but
what does gentrification look and feel like after
the invasion has done its worst?
The knock on effect of this daylight robbery
is that it spawns a perfect breeding ground
for young business professionals. They try to
differentiate themselves from your average
capitalist by marking their territory with
‘alternative’ bars, shops and cafes, when in
reality all they are really doing is perpetuating
the destruction of an area. Charging £10 for
a cocktail in a jar and £15 to eat scrambled
egg from a shoe is no different to developers
charging £400,000 for a one-bed flat. These
bourgy independent outlets allow gentrification
to be sustained as they attract a new influx
of people to the area. Areas like Shoreditch
have turned into a wank-den for marketing
professionals; average things like a cup of
coffee and a cup cake have been rebranded as
even more expensive commodities. You can
always spot an ass-hole when someone orders a
“Skinny-Soy Macchiato” at a coffee shop or pays
£5 for an overly frosted posh fucking cup cake.
Alright, I admit it, as a student I can’t claim to
be totally clean from avoiding the effects of
gentrification. Students push the prices up and
attract chic bars and shops to the area. This
means as students we must be aware of this and
do everything in our power to help fight it. It
can be anything from helping to stop evictions,
to getting organised with a local campaign
group, to simply supporting your local music
venue. Gentrification is a tool used by the
government in order to white wash the effects
of their spending cuts on the people. Areas like
Brixton, formally a predominantly workingclass area, are becoming over run by the rich,
with the average price of a one bed flat being
nearly £400,000. Many of the original record
shops have been forced to close and are being
replaced by pricey restaurants and ‘vintage’
clothing stores, giving a completely different feel
to the area.
On the other hand grass-root resistance against
gentrification is at an all time high. Reclaim
Brixton back in April, which saw thousands
on the streets to protest over rising rent prices
and social cleansing, showed that there is a
strong movement growing. The E15 mums are
a prime example of how we can win against
the ferocious hand of the government and the
developer. So unless we want our streets littered
with more posh twats, expensive coffee shops
and hipster cocktail bars, we must act fast. The
Radical Housing Network, Class War and the
Radical Assembly are just a few of the many
London groups keeping up the fight against
gentrification. So bin your ‘vintage’ clothes,
forget that over-priced coffee and get ready to
occupy, resist and smash the next posh Cup
Cake shop, we cannot let this happen without
a fight!
8
A Glimmer of Hope in a Dark
Time for British Politics.
Beth Fielder explains why it might be the right
time to start taking notice of the man known
as The Corbynator.
The rising popularity of Labour candidate
Jeremy Corbyn is clearly evident. The air
is now thick with hope at the thought that
maybe, just maybe, this man could be the one
to topple Thatcherite politics’ long reign over
Britain. I’m sure it is common knowledge
by now that the left and the right wing have
become somewhat indistinguishable in British
politics, nowhere more apparent than in Blair’s
‘New Labour’, which brought the party closer
to Thatcherite policies and further than ever
before from the socialism on which labour was
founded. Milliband, despite his hilariously ironic
nickname of ‘Red Ed’, did very little to maintain
the traditional socialist values of his party.
One of the things Jeremy Corbyn should be
applauded for doing is adhering to the parties’
original principles of the distribution of
wealth, public ownership, welfare and (most
importantly), people. Corbyn stands apart from
the sleazy, money grabbing and disgustingly
selfish trends seen in politics, in all parties,
instead providing a truly genuine, caring,
moral and political perspective. He is an active
member of the CND which harks back to the
days when Labour still had prinicples. He does
not seperate himself from us commoners, in
fact he regularly gets the bus home - a stark
comparison from Cameron’s fancy-shmancy
blacked out Jaguar.
From a non-political point of view, it is my
belief that if we base our decisions upon
kindness, respect, caring and consideration we
can only decrease the sadness, suffering and
depravity we see in the world. It is very rare that
a politician bases his political policies around
compassion, further explaining why Corbyn is
attracting so much attention. When looking at
the history of British politics, there is clearly
a left/right swing; with the swing to the left in
1935 we gained the welfare state, provided by
Attlee and something that our society would be
in ruins without. With the swing to the left in
the 1970s we saw the social reforms of Wilson,
providing a mild cure for discrimination
and prejudice. We owe some of our most
humanitarian policies to the socialist pioneers
of the Labour party.
Just as people are asking, “is socialism dead?”,
it may be possible that British politics is again
swinging back around, as Jeremy provides us
with an outlook on politics which is focused
on the wellbeing of the people of Britian as
opposed to the money in Britain, and the
businessmen-like ‘high flyers’. It is all well
and good trying to boost the economy, but
when obsession with finances takes over,
the bottom half of society is often forgotten
about. Socialism is traditionally an ideology of
the working class, and right now, the working
class are the ones who need help. Corbyn
seems to be a little glimmer of hope in the
dreary, cold, depressing lives of the homeless
and the young who are treated in a more
despicable way than prisoners. He may be
able to provide a helping hand to those whose
very existence relies on the benefits they
receive, rather than cutting that all-important
lifeline. He may be able to restore a sense of
compassion and benevolence, as
a replacement for selfishness
and greed, just as socialism
preaches and just as Labour
should have been preaching
all along.
9
© garryknight
flickr
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51
Boris,
18 miles away Active 33 seconds ago
lie, 48
Nata
9 miles away Active 28 minutes ago
About Boris
They used to call me ‘Big Dick Boris’ in my
bullingdon club days.
I like long cycle rides around London. I hate
underground drivers and their unions.
Got ambitions bigger than my penis.
Swipe right and i will take you to the London eye
)
(we can skip the queue and everything
About Natalie
Not even from here - Yes, like Mean Girls. Proper
Aussie,
barbies an’ all. Went to University of Sydney, mate.
I am here looking for a supportive and long-term
relationship. I LOVE NATURE. Call me to tree hug,
but don’t do well on first dates. I love the attention
I’m getting right now, hope it doesn’t wear off. See
ya soon on the big TV - so excited! I am ready for
y favourite colour
my close-up this time, I swear. M
is Smoke Green.
George, 44
3 miles away Active 49 seconds ago
About George
Eton and Oxford. The lads call me Guideon and I
help run the country with ma boii Dave.
More a foire gras than nandos kinda guy. Not a fan
of the poor or low grade cocaine. Big fan of pink
elephants.
Politician’s Tinder Profiles.
48
Nick,
18 miles away Active 33 seconds ago
About Nick
Buckinghamshire Boy, attended Cambridge
University - read
Archaeology and Anthropology, Deputy Top-Dog.
I’m in a “complicated” relationship, looking for
another heated fling. Promise to be truthful this
time, and speak my mind. I enjoy discussing sexlife
wiht GQ; man of the people; Arsenal fan; Johnny
Cash, Prince and Radiohead make me sweat
y favourtie colour is
smoke the creed everyday. M
Yellow Dirty Fellow.
l, 50
Nige
24 miles away Active 43 minutes ago
Jeremy, 66
9 miles away Active 28 minutes ago
About Jeremy
Jazzas the name, socialism’s the game.
Old skool
Labour RIP Toby Benn!
Likes: Knitted Sweaters, Marx, Red Roses
.
Dislikes: Tories, anything blue, Liz Kenda
ll.
Hit me up for a policies debate.
10
About Nigel
Protestant Kent lad and attended the University of
life - like to get down and dirty.I am new to tinder
and want to shake things up!People call me racist
but I’ve tasted some sexy schnitzel! Prefer home
though, not into johnny foreigners. In fact, if you’re
not from the UK don’t bother messaging me. Loves
to Gamble, Irish are alright I guess. My favourite
colour is Purple Rain.
Ed, 45
3 miles away Active 49 seconds ago
About Ed
London born, studied PPE at Oxford University.
I am a lone wolf. Trying to move away from my
priviliged past - enjoy slumming. My favourite colour
is Ravish me Red.
11
Words by Ewan Atkinson and Anne Fisker
Graphics by Anne Fisker Nielsen
[smiths]
Music
© Ania Mendrek
via Flickr
Are the BBC Proms
selling out?
dozen world premieres and countless first time
performances in London. During the 1920s,
then-contemporary composers such as Debussy,
Rachmaninov and Ravel had their works
exploited to English ears for the first time. What
was once new and unfamiliar quickly evolved
into reoccurring favourites for the future Proms
audiences.
After 120 years of the Proms, is it now
starting to trade in its ideology for
consumerism?
Since 1895, the BBC Proms have been a go to
place for classical and modern music. With up
to 8 weeks of daily concerts, classical music has
remained the focal selling point summer after
summer. The Proms repertoire has long been
expanding to include niche genres outside of
this typically classical idiom, but in more recent
years, are we seeing a migration away from
tradition, showing more concern for a wider
audience in the aim of increasing income, or is
this atypical diversification still broadening the
realm of what we truly consider ‘art music’?
When the Proms began, Robert Newman, the
founding impresario, envisioned the concert
series as something that would “train the public
in easy stages. Popular at first, gradually raising
the standard until [he had] created a public for
classical and modern music.” Immediately being
put into effect, the first series contained over a
12
After the 1960s, the Proms started to go beyond
what was once this exclusively classical event,
bringing in performers from around the globe
to display the music of different cultures,
alongside evenings dedicated purely to jazz and
gospel. This was crucial for the time, as most of
these genres had only recently gained traction
in the world of art music. Artists like Soft
Machine released jazz-fusion records that were
recorded live on the Proms stage, bringing the
contemporary jazz movement into a blossoming
artistic limelight.
By the 21st century, this progressive attitude
seems to have worn off. In 2014 there were
no contemporary jazz artists involved, and in
2015 the closest we get to anything jazz-like
is the ‘Story of Swing’; an event that was as
non-representative and as consistently white
washed as the genre has persisted to appear
since the origin of its name. Louis Armstrong
once said, “Ah, swing, well, we used to call it
syncopation — then they called it ragtime, then
blues — then jazz. Now, it’s swing. White folks,
yo’all sho is a mess.” This concert’s validation is
that which meets the demands of its audience,
one that is consistently dominated by a white
demographic. If the Proms allowed for a broader
representation of jazz, and showcased what
jazz really means to the minority cultures who
nurtured it, then surely it would appeal to an
ethnically diverse populous and cease to appease
a conglomerate of white consumers.
In the 1920s, the BBC took over the scheduling
and organization of the Proms, after the death
of Robert Newman. In the modern era, this has
had the biggest impact on the festival’s media
coverage. Nowadays, every Prom is broadcast
live on BBC Radio 3, with a handful also being
televised on a variety of the BBC’s networks. For
the first time in 2015, BBC Radio 6 organised
their own Late Night Prom, highlighting what
they deemed as on the fence between popular
and art music. This included Nils Frahm and
A Winged Victory For The Sullen, artists that
have some very deep influences from the worlds
of minimalism and sonic art. However, this
appealed to an audience who, as shown by their
enthusiastic applauding, connected most with
Frahm’s simplistic piano pieces and technoesc beats, rather than the defining crossover
material. In 2014, we saw singers like Paloma
Faith and Laura Mvula claim the Royal Albert
Hall for their own. These singers, although
successful and artistic in their own right,
have taken away from this new and unheard
indulgence, performing works that are simply
symphonic re-workings of tracks from wellknown pop albums. These concerts no longer
13
felt like the forward-thinking Proms, but an
average gig in a slightly controversial space and
setting; merely something that was just labeled
‘Proms’, rather than a Prom that pushed and
enlightened its listeners.
On the plus side, the audience for the BBC
Radio 6 concert was refreshingly different
from the ones you would expect to see at any
performance of Beethoven or Mozart. As is
evident in today’s society, the support for
classical music is dwindling, so having new
audiences like these involved in the Proms is a
great way to excite and inspire more people to
enjoy the rest of the festival, similarly keeping
with Newman’s ideal of “[p]opular at first,
gradually raising the standard…” But the more
you look at the concept in detail, the more it
becomes a bid for capitol, sacrificing on-thecusp contemporary art for mockeries of jazz
coupled with singers and instrumentalists
who could sell out wherever they played. An
organisation like this, struggling like everyone
else is in this difficult market, is always on the
look out for a quick buck, but at what moral cost?
Fortunately, a lot of the tradition still remains,
with world premieres still integral to the
festival’s structure. It’s the purpose of the Proms
that is threatened by reinvention, turning
into something that no longer challenges
its established or potential audiences. If this
persists, the Proms may slowly leave behind
Newman’s intentions towards a festival enriched
with contemporary culture.
Music
[smiths]
Food and Drink
In Defence of Fast Food.
Guilty Pleasures: An Open
Letter to Music Snobs.
Having taken one too many jibes for his
sometimes horrendous musical taste, Ben
Henderson has finally had enough.
From my wanky romantic perspective, the
whole beauty of music is that stuff is out
there for everyone’s taste - you can listen to
whatever you want, whenever you want and
Normally a piece on this subject would start a
that should be championed. Music is a tool
little something like this:
of expression, a statement of personality,
I however disagree with this entirely, because
a symbol of diversity and way too
often a reason for judgment. Feel
free to tell someone that you think
what they’re listening to is shit and
‘We all have those guilty pleasures: the songs we
if they disagree then that’s a good
would never openly admit to enjoying for fear of
thing.
social expulsion, but still find ourselves shouting
out into the mirror at 3am with a hairbrush in
hand and a backcombed mane that would put Tina
Turner herself to shame.’
1) Tina’s glorious locks should only ever be
mentioned as a mark of respect and never for
the purpose of a shit gag on a Buzzfeed intro,
and more importantly 2) there’s no such thing as
a guilty pleasure.
First of all, the phrase only ever seems to refer
to something that is really fucking popular,
something that everyone knows but has
forgotten exists. You simply cannot feel guilty
for enjoying something that millions and
millions of people enjoy every day, I’m not
having it. The phrase is used as a big dirty shield
of lies, invented by music snobs and hipsters, so
that they’re free to listen to what they actually
want without any stigma.
I suppose the main issue here then is the
aforementioned stigma. To be ‘cool’ in 2015
you’ve got to be glued to soundcloud listening
exclusively to tunes with 100 or less plays. Yes, I
more than encourage you to scour the internet
for hidden gems but at the same time, don’t be
scared of pop music kids, sometimes it’s really
good for you. Admittedly some of it is abysmal,
but that can be said for tunes of any degree of
popularity - don’t get me started on Yung Lean.
14
Just don’t limit yourself to one
genre, spread your wings, pop
on Heart FM sometimes - it’ll be
great, I promise. I mean, after all,
sometimes I listen to both Bruno
Mars albums back to back and I’m
almost definitely loads cooler than you are.
In her quest to banish taboos surrounding the
lazy cooker, Alice India Garwood writes in the
defence of the fast food lover.
For too long have fast food addicts like myself
been rejected as mindless slobs – the subtle
nuances of fast food are so often overlooked.
The flavours are as intricate as they are for juice
cleanses and vegan alternatives. This is my story.
Since as long as I can remember my eating
habits have been heavily criticised – either for
being strange or just plain unhealthy. I am by no
means denying that my diet may require some
tweaks, but what I am denying is the manner
in which fast food appreciators like myself are
reduced to a joke in the uni kitchen. I reject the
notion that I must justify every dish that passes
from the kitchen and into my humble student
belly. I am a connoisseur, God damn it!
For instance I would like to draw your attention
to that cliché of student meals, the humble
instant noodle. Too often I see people – perhaps
a little low on funds, time or patience – throw
these delicious squares of instant joy into huge
pans of boiling water whilst I wince as I see all
flavour and all the character disappear. Like
an Italian watching someone put pasta into
cold water, I die a little inside. My tip for Super
Noodles and all equivalents is to add less water
than there is noodles. If you want a rich and
satisfying flavour this is where you are going
wrong. The instructions are a guideline and one
not meant to be stuck to so religiously. Equally,
if you are hovering over the Mug Shots in
Sainsbury’s Local, just don’t bother. They are an
appalling waste of time. For quick and equally
delicious food avoid any pasta based snack food
and stick with noodles or rice – they will never
let you down and indeed open a gateway to
some fabulous one pot vegetarian options – two
pot if you wish to add chicken. You secret junk
loving food snobs will thank me for the above
later.
The problem with food is that it is such a
personal thing. Whether you are a meat eater,
juice cleanser, vegan, vegetarian, halal or other,
your food is a reflection of yourself and it is
damaging for others to feel it is their place
to criticise and argue for your diet to be any
different. If you suffer from certain conditions,
then yes it is perhaps unwise to eat foods which
trigger it but again, this is about your personal
choice and you shouldn’t have to answer to
anyone but yourself.
15
For myself, I found that I began rejecting the
kitchen and eating alone in my room at strange
hours of the day to avoid the scrutiny of those I
lived with. Food has always been an incredibly
delicate issue for me. I would not go so far as
to say I had any kind of eating disorder but I
am aware of a complex relationship between
what I eat and any shame I may feel. But from
this I have acquired my sophisticated fast food
taste buds and I am becoming more and more
creative in the ways I deal with certain cravings.
Example: for the calorie watchers! Avoid soups,
low fat or otherwise, tins of chopped tomatoes
are equally as satisfying if not more so and
hold far fewer calories than even weightwatcher
brands. They take only 5 minutes to cook and
if you need to fill up you can have a small
bread roll or some low calorie crackers. I would
encourage you to chop up some peppers
and red onions to create an even more filling
and interesting dish. Food doesn’t have to be
complicated to be enjoyable or low in fat. When
casting my eyes over the government’s healthy
living “Change For Life” campaign, they suggest
making small swaps. For me that was switching
to diet drinks or, more importantly, low sugar
squash – which has changed my life and my
Eczema.
Being a lazy eater does not mean you are stupid
or wrong, it just means you don’t prioritise your
food preparation over flavour. That’s ok, that’s
fine. No one should have the right to mock you
for that.
If you prefer an ice lolly to having breakfast, well
for you the Sainsbury’s equivalents of classics
like the rocket lolly are worth every penny
and often come in multi buy offers which I
suggest you take advantage of. If you think the
convenience of frozen broccoli far outweighs
its very minor lack in flavour in comparison
to fresh, then you go ahead and throw it in
with those Super Noodles and watch the magic
happen – wherever you can get nutrients is a
good thing.
I’m not saying that healthy eaters and prototype
master chefs are a bad thing – that would be
bizarre and illogical. What I am calling for is
fairer treatment of students like myself who
reject cooking and prep times over thirty
minutes. When the revolution comes, we will be
the ones you look to for answers.
[smiths]
Food and Drink
Ice Cream
You Scream
16
17
Photographs by Taylor McGraa
Models: Ben Henderson
Alice India Garwood
Teodora Kosanovic
[smiths]
Food and Drink
A Guide to Drinking in
New Cross
Robin Hunter dissects and rates every
watering hole around campus.
So here we go again. Autumn is descending
upon SE14, bringing with it the fresh wave of
first years and returning students who are ready
to have a small drink in the local area. Why? To
engage in japery together, catch up with friends,
get to know new flatmates and generally have a
bit of a laugh on New Cross Road. But hey now,
easy buddy. You need to have a general idea
what you’re doing or you’ll end up having a shit
time, and we don’t want that to happen, do we?
Fear not young booze warrior, I’m gonna go
ahead and break you off wit a lil’ preview of the
remix and set out the pint scene for you.
The Rose
This now-gastro pub was formerly The
Hobgoblin, AKA Shia LaBeouf’s fighting pit.
About a year ago it reopened as The Rose,
offering £19.50 rib steaks with a side of yuppies
who consider it edgy to move south of the river.
There is a good selection of beers on offer, which
also means it probably won’t be too long before
we see a craft beer appreciation society popping
up on campus – which I won’t be joining. By all
means, have a butchers at the photos of old time
New Cross that line the walls and enjoy the baller
view upstairs.
Beyond your budget? - Most likely. 4/10
New Cross House
In the pre-Rosealite era, this place stood proud
as the ‘actually nice pub’ in New Cross. And it
is nice. A French-farmhouse-esque raised area
at the back is very smart indeed, but should
generally be kept for post-exam celebration.
Your lecturers go here, so don’t get all tanked
up and say something dumb to them as they
definitely will remember and it’ll be weird for
all involved.
Honourable mention - The smoked salmon
salad. 6/10
New Cross Inn
The Inn bore witness the least cool band
moment in the history of all time. Picture this
one, reader; a dwindling crowd watch on as
the front-man of South London’s worst Oasis
tribute band kicks a mic stand over. He then
realises how silly it all is, proceeds to pick it up
and apologise profusely to a soundman who is
now displaying unseen levels grumpiness and
enraged passive aggressive eyebrow movement.
Rock. And. Roll.
Chance of European students in the hostel above
asking you where they can buy some weed –
moderately likely. 2/10
The Students Union
Goldsmith’s very own SU bar is the biggest
mixed bag in New Cross. The events offer a
unique insight into the truly multifaceted
student body that we have here on campus.
Wired Radio & Simon Says offer a platform for
students to strut their stuff and Club Sandwich
pumps out the cheese on a regular basis. Show
up late and for God’s sake don’t be sick all over
the place on the way to the gender neutral
toilets. It should really open in the day like it
used to... did someone say Facebook campaign?
Chance of Sambuca - 94%. ?/10
Amersham Arms
The Marmite of New Cross – and Marmite is
hideous. Amersham has a big back room which
turns it into a hybrid pub-club affair. Catch
irrelevant ex-indie band members ‘DJing’ here
at the weekend, (or don’t). It’s NME in pub form.
But remember, they are literally giving that
away now. Their most popular night Whip It
runs till 3AM on Fridays and gives a safe haven
to those who are partial to a steady stream of
crowdpleaser.
Burgers with eggs on - incredibly questionable.
2.5/10
The Royal Albert
Dive into the Albert for a cracking drink
selection, including fruity Fruli. They have a
bunch of board games and the like that you
and your mates can muck about with over
some punch-you-in-the-nose wasabi nuts. The
pub quiz is very good indeed, generally with a
healthy cash-booze combo prize for the overall
winner.
Lighting game - on point. 7/10
The Old Haberdasher
An underrated pub. Very generous food portion
size and Cobra on tap. It strikes the balance
between being nice and taking the piss out of
your bank balance. A decent spot to take in a
game of football, or light sunday day-drinking
and chatting with your lovely friends.
Seats - surprisingly uncomfortable and a little
too small. 6.5/10
The Marquis Of Granby
The best pub in London and therefore the entire
world.
Infinity/10
You got all that? Mine’s a Kronenbourg then.
18
19
Photographs by Taylor McGraa
[smiths]
Travel
Berlin baby.
Berlin was like a blanket. Grey and warm
comfort, in the pit of my stomach. The walls
reminded us of how cruel we humans can be.
How we can take our flesh and blood and revert
it into the state of a robot. We destroy. But
Berlin, baby, you defeated those machines. You
knocked it down and you knocked them down
and you painted over it. You licked over the
horror with words of wisdom – instructions
of how to love each other. You tell the tourists
that love takes no condition; that to kill for
humankind is nothing but a contradiction.
Humidity swaddled bodies under that grey
June sky – and then heavens opened over our
heads. They opened by the wall and Berlin Rain
fell. It fell and it fell like the bricks that once
abused you, and we didn’t care that there was no
umbrella – we took pictures instead. The words
of the dead, whispers of our sisters told us not
to cry because of rain but sing. Sing, sisters, sing
because you are free so run and sing in the rain
of Berlin, baby.
Home is at the Tip
of my Toes.
Chris-Irina Sela goes to India, and finds
something that she wasn’t quite expecting.
Wanderlust. It was late at night and that gut
feeling seemed to be back again. My body felt
trapped in a place while my mind, in another,
was furiously roaming around in the landscapes
of my daydream. I needed to escape the dullness
of the perfectly planned life of the big city.
Grabbing my computer, hoping to find the
Holy Grail, I stumbled upon the website of a
programme offering students to travel to India
in order to challenge their perception of this
country. “Let’s give it a try”, I thought. Never in
my life had I made a better decision.
As soon as I stepped out of Delhi airport, sweaty,
breathless, happy, I could feel my mind and
body unite again. Don’t worry, I’m not going for
the patronizing “I spiritually found myself in
India” craze. However, in the eyes of a “biracial”,
religiously confused kid of divorced parents,
brought up in six countries, it felt like the
incredible amount of layers and nuances there
is to life there made it possible for everyone,
anyone, to adjust.
Of course, I am no expert on India, and what
I want to depict is not a naive and polished
portrait of it. Obviously, not everything is
picture-perfect and the fight for better health
provision, gender equality, ethnic tolerance,
distribution of wealth and for a more accessible
education needs to be acknowledged. Yet,
something truly unique there has filled me with
euphoria.
That something unique is life. Yes, life. I guess
you never know you have not been living fully
until you actually feel alive. There were the
spices that left my mouth on fire, my warm
and moist skin, my wide-open eyes, my ears
almost soothed by the constant honking on
the street. And then there were the people,
people that left me in awe. In each person I
spoke to, I felt a sense of pride, of passion, of
determination. They were also the reminders of
all the civilisations India was built upon; these
same civilisations that left as a gift a plethora of
© Autumn
Chawner
Words by Taylor McGraa
© Chris Irina Sela
architectures, religions, languages, ethnicities,
cuisines and spiritualities. In a country so
diverse, what could be extremely chaotic actually
exudes harmony and unity. Although it is not a
black and white situation, a couple of examples
illustrate it well: in Mumbai, Haji Ali Dargah,
the mosque in the middle of the sea, is a site of
communion for all people regardless of personal
beliefs, while the gurdwārās, the Sikh temples,
cook food in abundance to later distribute it to
anyone, literally anyone, who is hungry. This
respect is not only found looking at human life.
It is in the luxurious vegetation, in the herds of
well-fed stray dogs, in the cars carefully driving
around the cows crossing the road.
There is in India a wisdom and a consciousness
so great that I now want to say: home is at the
tip of my toes, and so they shall bring me back
there one day.
20
21
[smiths]
Fashion
The Metamorphoses of
Chloë Sevigny.
Fashion editor Jessica Cole explores the rise of
New York’s last queen of cool, Chloe Sevigny.
back to the 90’s which Sevigny personifies
and try to emulate it. I feel that she’s never
bothered by having commercial success. Her
choice of acting roles remains more art wood
than Hollywood. From ‘American Psycho’ to
‘Boys don’t cry’ which sees her as the lover of
a secret transsexual, her roles are edgy and
gritty. She is unashamedly ‘Anti-hollywood’.
With hues of controversy, she rejects any
temptation of being gilded a Hollywood
yellow. Who can forget that full fellatio scene
in Brown Bunny? Putting the middle finger
up to mainstream consumerism,
through her artistry and aesthetic, rocking
the shaved head, bleached eyebrows and torn
wedding dresses, way before you were even
born.
Chloe Sevigny’s inauguration as the modern
it girl paradigm, reads much like a grunge
fairytale. Her fairy godmother, Andrea Linett,
scouted a 17 year old Sevigny on the streets
of New York, the ‘Sassy magazine’ editor so
enchanted by the idiosyncratic style of the teen
proclaimed, ‘I just had to have her’. Fixing her
up as an in-house model, Linett quickly secured
Sevigny as a regular fixture in the magazine.
This quickly evolved into a fashion internship
and a charming article, swooning their new
sweetheart and introducing the next ‘it girl’ to
the world stage in 1992. Plucked from obscurity
because ‘the woman at Sassy just liked the hat
I was wearing’, the unravelling of Sevigny’s
career into cult status began. Modelling for the
likes of ‘X-girl,’ the subsidiary fashion label of
the Beastie Boys (designed by Kim Gordon),
led to a cameo in the music video for Gordon’s
band - Sonic Youth’s video ‘Sugar Kane’, which
coincidentally also featured a young Marc
Jacobs, small world hey.
Envied and emulated by 20-somethings
the world over, style and Sevigny go hand
in hand. The random pieces of designer
thrift and high street create this laid back,
I don’t give a fuck look. In this climate of
hyper consumerism, she refuses to buck
to the trends. The only things that sell out
about Sevigny are her collections for Open
Ceremony, which fly off the shelves. The
line’s a mismatch of Connecticut, Alternate
and hip-hop styles. I just as much aspire to
her style as I do her fashion independence,
she knows what she likes and she sticks to it,
regardless of seasons.
Aged 18, Sevigny became the poster girl for
the underground culture of 90’s New York, yet
ironically she has outlived the scene that created
her. The key to this success is in part due to
good timing. As effortless as her style, her career
has this buttery quality to it, one opportunity
seeming to melt into the next. I became familiar
with Sevigny in her first acting role, the indie wet
dream - Kids. Directed by Larry Clarke, Sevigny
got the role through hanging out with New York
skaters and most notably her friendship with
the aspiring writer of Kids, Harmony Korine.
The gritty and provocative film provided
a rare insight into the youth culture of the
90s. Infamous for its sharpness in dealing
with sexuality and drugs, the film kickstarted
Sevigny’s metamorphoses from model to indie
actress. Although the industry’s eye would
now be firmly placed on the dirty blonde, she
maintains this as a ‘down low concept: secret
alternative, not commercial - everything one
wants to be’. A concept that has now become
a rarity - plummeted out of New York and
replaced with the economic necessity of ‘selling
out’. Because society can no longer remain
‘down low’ we romanticise about it, we look
Yet, I still can’t quite place my finger on what
or who exactly Chloe Sevigny is. Her label
as an It-girl I find undermines her creativity
and seeing Sevigny as merely a muse reeks of
sexism. She turned 40 this year, outliving the
usual lifespan of the it-girl - Edie Sedgwick
OD’ed at the age of 27. Although controversial
she doesn’t carry the same notoriety as
Lindsey Lohan. Yet, I wouldn’t count her
as just an actress or fashionista. She hates
the ‘industry town of Los Angles’ and finds
fashion shows ‘dull and boring’. She remains
to me an ambiguity, perhaps due to her lack
of enthusiasm for social media and coyness
in interviews. This allusiveness I feel however
is part of Chloe’s charm. She is of a dying
breed of coolness, one that is underexposed
yet over-desired. She’s the outsider with her
head over her shoulder, whilst those on the
inside looking to her turned back.
22
Social Media vs
Fashion - a shift
in power.
to the average person. However, I can’t help but
feel that because collections are seen instantly,
they are becoming out of fashion sooner, as
soon as they are available to buy it appears they
have already become yesterday’s news.
Fashion Sub Editor George Toon explores the
impact and repercussions of social media in the
fashion industry.
It is hard to imagine a fashion industry without
social media; it seems to have permeated it
to its very core. Models, designers, brands,
photographers all have the trinity of Facebook,
Instagram and Twitter. However, what has this
done to the industry and what could it do in the
future?
Julia Yates in her book The Fashion Career’s
Guidebook estimates that there were 27 million
blogs in 2006, 2million of which were dedicated
to fashion and shopping. I imagine that almost
ten years on from them the figures are even
higher. Alongside the hardcore fashion blogs is
also the emergence of the ‘Vlog’, with suburban
America torrenting us with their clothing
purchases for tonight’s party. It seems that
everyone is getting a slice of the fashion pie,
posting about collections and models, sharing
ideas and producing reviews.
Fashion is becoming faster than ever,
trendsetting is now a sprinting competition.
Thanks to instant uploads, gone are the days
of the six month turnover from catwalk to
consumer. Due to the exclusivity of the catwalk,
previously consumers would only see the
collections in shop windows, months after the
show. The collection would slowly trickle down
the ladder through commercial buyers in North
America then Europe, and a month later private
clients would see the garments, until finally the
public would see the collections. Therefore, to
a certain extent, social media has democratised
the industry. Through the live streaming of
shows online, recorded interviews, backstage
photographs and Instagram accounts the clique
of the fashion world has been made accessible
23
Everyone gets a look and a say on these
collections, but whether this new openness will
be used to call out the fashion industry on its
problems is another matter. Perhaps people
are too caught up in the glamour to see the
problems of the industry?
Social media has also reshaped the way in which
fashion houses are now advertising. Creating
a more personal appeal to customers, fashion
brands are now able to connect with their
customers, allowing them to inspire and delight
their fans and provide a more intimate universal
shopping experience. In using social media,
customer loyalties and communities are formed
which are then formulated to the brand’s
advantage.
Marc Jacobs is perhaps the most proactive of
brands in utilising the power of social media. In
2014 he scouted his models for Marc by Marc
Jacobs on Instagram and Twitter using the hash
tag #CastMeMarc. Over 70,000 people applied
with selfies and these were then whittled down
to 50, of which 30 were flown to New York fashion photographer David Sims choose the
final 9 models. As Jacobs said in an interview
with WWD’s Marc Karimzadeh: “It seemed
like a great idea to me, as casting through
Instagram seemed cool, current and strong.
We wanted the ads to shout with youth and
energy... To be fresh and reclaim the spirit that
the collection had when we first conceived of
it – to be another collection, not a second line...
ads transmit a current social lifestyle that doesn’t
play into other clichés…and totally feels like our
company — a cast of colourful and dynamic
characters”. Jacobs furthered this reach-out with
free perfume samples for every Instagram and
Twitter mention using the hash tag #MJDaisy
Chain. In this competition whoever was the most
creative in their post won a free Marc Jacobs
handbag.
Fashion
[smiths]
Housing
However, there has been some resilience to the
advent of social media. With the fear of social
media exacerbating the industry’s sense of
vanity, people are judged on how many likes and
followers they possess. As stated by photographer
Mark C. O’Flaherty: “the urge to post anything
and everything linked to a fashion event has
become frenzied, hysterical and masturbatory”. He
argues that camera phones at shows have ruined
the fashion industry and are an indicator of the
“infantilism of the culture”, where people are there
to be seen rather than to see. These ‘instastars’
wouldn’t know their bubble skirts from their
balloon skirts. I myself have encountered this faux
fashionista, having been fortunate to attend a few
shows. I found myself bending down or standing up
to dodge the myriad of smartphones of mindless
people taking photos. Heads bent down they
simultaneously post comments and chat with their
Instagram-famous friends, rather than appreciate
the artistry and craftsmanship of the clothes that
their blurry pictures fail to encapsulate. One
journalist remarked to me during graduate Fashion
Week, ‘some people were there purely because they
have a huge Instagram following rather than any
history or interest in the industry.’
It is interesting to see this shift in control of
imagery from the brands who carefully crafted
an image of the label, to now see it controlled by
anyone with an Instagram account. The quality
of the images and how the person is wearing the
brand, however, could prove detrimental to the
label’s original intentions.
©sliceofnyc flickr
No matter what your views on social media, one
sure thing is that it is here to stay. There has been
some grumbling for camera phones to be banned
at fashion shows - in a bid to encourage people to
appreciate the collections more, but it’s clear that
social media is here to stay. Personally, despite my
reservations, I think that social media can be used
constructively. Social media could improve the
fashion industry’s ideas of beauty, sustainability
and inclusivity, though only if utilised correctly,
and this I feel will take time to evolve.
and try to emulate it. I feel that she’s never
How I learnt to love the
London housing market,
and how you can too.
Bobby Fitzgerald finds light where there
was darkness, hope where there was only
fear, love where only hate has ever seemed
to reside, and something positive to write
about the London Housing Market.
The start of the 2015/2016 student year ushers
in another record year for rent prices, house
shortages and student numbers. Its tough to
make a living in this city and that task is made
all the more strenuous for students, because
making money isn’t supposed to be your
primary focus, at least not yet.. But the rate of
rent dictates you too must pay the price for
living in one of the great metropolitan centres
of the world. But fear not, I write this as one
who has reached the other side and who is
now blessed with a growing sense of clarity in
regarding London rat race.
A student house is a special place, and over
the years I’ve lived in a few and stayed in
dozens more. Decorated with a hodgepodge
of trinkets, souvenirs and mementos, they
take on a very nostalgic feel. The general
untidiness, no matter how zealously you
or one of your house mates tries to clean
and impose order and structure, is an
everpresence. Like those who inhabit them,
student houses are never-full, settled or
finished, they are a work in progress and full
of promissory notes of a better looking future.
Student homes are messy islands of calm
and slack in an otherwise bustling world of
anxiety, and nowhere is this more pertinent
than in London City.
See, although it may not feel like it, rent is not
the most important part of living in London.
The money that gets paid to the landlord pays
for a postcode and nothing much more than
that, but what you do with that postcode is
something no renting agency is ever going
to be able to price factor into their monthly
equations.
24
25
Student digs house one of the last things
left in this city that make the sky-rocketing
prices and marginalized human interaction
bearable: namely, students. If you were
to take the collective ingenuity, brain
power, common good and sociability of
the goldsmiths student body today you
would have something of wild and beautiful
substance.
But don’t forget, there are going to be tough
times ahead when it comes to rent and they’re
going to come when you need them least
of all. Stressed to the eyes-balls, overdue on
assignments, exhausted from the weekends
(and the weekdays), with your bank account
barely able to cope, it is at times like these
that the rent’s gunna hurt you most of all. In
monetary terms but also in deeply emotional
ones too;
“what if I can’t pay?” “what happens to me if
I have to leave?” “What am I going to do!?”.
Those are the moments where you get what
you paid for, not the roof over your head but
the people who live under it.
When the going gets tough ask for help, talk
to your fellow students, one day these hapless
vagabonds are going to change the whole
world and you will be glad to have turned
to them in your time of need as they will be
there for you as you will be for them. Maybe
it’s with a couch to crash on, maybe it’s with
a can of red and a night off from the worry,
and maybe sometimes its with a slap in the
face and a stern look in the eye, but whatever
you need you will find it here, the Goldsmith’s
class of 2015/2016 and beyond. So pay your
dues in whatever way you can but know, its
not about the rent, its about being a part of
the people who suffer it, the great housing
crisis of our time, and you will find within it
an abundance of moments to grow and learn
and to love in spite of it all.
©open street map
[smiths]
Luke and Louis
Louis Davies
Is there a
right to free
education?
Students Luke and Louis debate.
Luke Gregory-Jones
Who did you vote for in the last election?
I voted Conservative but was tempted by the Lib-Dems offer on
civil liberties and ending the War on Drugs.
Who did you vote in the last election?
Greens.
Who’s your political hero?
Milton Friedman for economics and Thomas Sowell for philosophy.
Who’s your political hero?
William Morris.
Why did you choose Goldsmiths?
I enjoy not being in an environment where people agree with me,
because it helps to sharpen my debating skills and forces me to think
about everyone else’s views.
Why did you choose Goldsmiths?
For its interdisciplinary approach, and for its
radical reputation.
My first point to make is to utterly reject your understanding of education. At the very core of your
argument is the claim that the individual goes to university and the only gain or positive outcome of this
process solely belongs to that individual. The point of free education, the incredible project that it sets
out to accomplish, was that we all, societally, gain from having an educated population. Free education
is not taking money from one group and giving it to another, it is society investing in itself, in its future.
This holds true for primary education, secondary education and right up to those studying for PHDs in
astrophysics. The value of this access to free education can never have a price or value placed on it. Fuck
that attempt to quantify and commodify something priceless.
Moreover, education isn’t the compounding of privilege, but the great defeater of privilege. Yes the stats
favour middle class access to higher education (as the stats favour the middle classes on almost everything),
but scrapping grants and introducing debt will only further dilute the great power of education to take
anyone to any level they desire.
Although we do live in a world of finite resources, the issue of commodifying higher
education and introducing tuition fees is not about the allocation of resources in Britain, the 7th
richest country in the world. Our economy and State have more than enough financial means to
protect free education for all - after all, tuition fees were introduced pre-Financial Crisis in 2003,
and even during the recession we continued to pay millions towards nuclear weapons. The issue
at hand is political. Education, first and foremost, is a Right. It promises each and every one of
us freedom and opportunity. It enables both us, and the society we live in, to grow and develop.
This is not something that can be bought and sold, because when this happens the nature of our
education changes. Instead of universities maintaining a degree of neutrality, of flexibility, of
being places where people can challenge and learn and develop, maintained by society for society,
they become education-factories, where degrees are bought and sold in order for customers to
receive a degree certificate they can cash in for a job further down the line. And if you follow this
political attack of individualism to its logical conclusion, then surely secondary school should
cost too? Where would you draw the line? Also, the logic of tuition fees leaves students graduating
with, in my personal case, £45,000 worth of debt. This is an astonishing commitment, whereby a
proportion of my future earnings do not belong to me and my university experience, my freedom
to think and question and challenge, is fundamentally changed.
26
At first glance this questions appears to make no sense, education cannot be free in any meaningful
sense of the word. The staff must be paid. The equipment must be paid for. Everything takes
resources. What is really meant by “free” education is that the students should have their education
paid for by others. If we accept this (a fact which I believe to be self evident) then the only way
education can be free is if others pay for your education. This appears from the outset to be both
immoral and inefficient. Immoral simply because it is wrong for you to demand the resources and
the efforts of others to pay for something from which they do not benefit. This is compounded
by some demographic realities. Firstly, most students who go to university are middle class and
come from a higher income background than those who do not go to university. Secondly, going
to university raises the average income of the students above the level that others on average can
achieve, which then means that those who go to university start already from a position of privilege
and then go on to compound this position by attending the university.
If university is to be “free” the only people who will truly pay for this, without gaining any benefit
whatsoever, are those who did not go, which therefore represents a redistribution of income away
from those without the desire or ability to go to university, to those with both the desire and the
ability.
With this in mind I believe it is immoral to ask for others to pay for the higher education of others.
You are completely right to claim that society does benefit a great deal from a highly
educated population, but by misunderstanding value or price it makes it impossible to understand
how we should allocate resources and time in a world of such scarcity. Clearly education has a
value that is not infinite. Clearly we would not accept children going hungry in order to fund a
person’s Phd education, but it demonstrates that in principle there are limits to what we would do
for education, and therefore education is of limited value. The world is full of trade offs and by
attaching a value to different things we can understand where and how to allocate scarce resources.
Clearly education also has a price; we have to pay for teachers and buildings regardless of any
philosophical complaint about having to do so. Nothing can be truly priceless, that ship sailed
when Adam took a bite out of the fruit of Eden. Clearly free education is taking from one group
and giving to another. Society cannot invest in itself, only people can invest in people. We cannot
abstract away from how one group in society subsidises another and then claim that it’s ok because
it is simply society investing in itself.
You are right that we all benefit from a well-educated society but society is not the primary
beneficiary of the subsidy, the person being subsidised is. Because of the external benefits of
education there is a case for loans to poor students so everyone can get a education and add
value to there lives. However a blanket subsidy, and saying all education if of infinite value, is
philosophically impossible and a very blunt instrument with which to deal with injustice.
27
[smiths]
Cartoon Strip
28
29
Agony Aunt
[smiths]
Letters
Letters.
Agony Aunt.
Miss Enfranchise
Dear Miss Enfranchise ,
I recently moved to London to begin my first year at Goldsmiths.
Sadly though , I have been separated from my girlfriend of ten years,
who accepted her offer at Aberdeen university. Do you have any
advice regarding long distance relationships, how to maintain them,
the chances of staying together, and how often I should text her?
Yours Hopefully,
Enrico
Well, firstly Enrico, Miss Enfranchise always has advice. I’m very sorry to hear
about your separation, but you are clearly a victim of the alienation initiated by the
labour-capital dichotomy. By alienating yourself from your girlfriend, the powerful
forces of capitalism have very clearly driven your girlfriend to take control of her
means of reproduction and get as far away from you as possible, so my advice is
simple: RESISTANCE. Central to historical materialism is the FACT that very soon
capitalism will fall apart and socialism will be waiting to take over, and the only way
you can be reconciled with your love is by finding ways of speeding this process up.
I would suggest the following: join a Marxist resistance group, stop voting, except
if there’s a Marxist resistance group to vote for, don’t buy any products that have
been created by the capitalist engine of death, go visit Marx’s grave at Highgate with
some lovely flowers, and, finally, if you really want to win her heart, quit university,
get a job in a factory, and start a union, preferably a violent one, with sticks and
bats with nails in. Oh, and throw your mobile phone away, it is merely a tool for
capitalist exploitation and will serve only to drive you and your girlfriend further
apart, especially if you’re sending her fifty texts a day and ringing her at two in the
morning pissed up and crying.
Hope this advice serves you well and remember, don’t thank me, helping people is
my job.
Love,
Miss Enfranchise
30
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Letters
[smiths]
@smithsmagazine
smithsmagazine.co.uk
Front Cover: Gemma Dean
Back Cover: Arthur Nolan
32