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Chris Comer Polspakfilla, 2001 Size variable £01 TORI AL '?-S-'¥-JJ7Ml3S5S®i4SE3SS*3SS?^«'«'^'3^'"'*®*«"'^^
Pigs in spaaaaaaace. Or not...
When Semper decided to do space, our intial thoughts didn't take to the sides, to the outer. We assumed space was the stuff between buildings, between mornings, between sinews and synapses, not that ofthe many-mooned variety. For many of our contributors, though, the appeal of astronauts and oxygen masks stiD holds. And why not? As our city, seemingly always under contruction, laps up and redevelops its last uninhibited stretches for office space, luxury apartments and billboards, one can't help but feel a little claustrophobic. And maybe this quest for the outer, exhibited by so many of our contributors, is due somewhat to an increasing dismay at the availability of appropriate spaces on this earth. Some nights the XXXX is brighter than the moon. Shuttles it is, then. . i Smce leaving our childhood bedrooms we've all had to pay for the space we inhabit: our sleeping space, study space, •"'•'^<—^JtiiiiaJiJSi^ recreational space, and the space for the spaces in-between. The only space we truly own is the space inside ourselves: anywhere else and you have to pay rent, purchase a ticket or swap a fiver for a watery latte. Read Naomi Klein's No Logo PEOPLE WHO ROCK... and you may come to suspect the notion of public space is inherantiy flawed. Hell, you probably suspect it anyway. Big apologies to Rachel Burton who we somehow neglected to credit for our wonderful cover last All this is admittedly a bit ace at the moment, this disection of month. Ditto to James Kenyon for his cartoons. power along horizontal and vertical measurements, Big thanks to Anna Carter for this issue's cover and but necessary. Our fundamental human requirements for all her other images, as well as Julian Killen, Jason interaction in the dimensions ofthe physical are being Spencer, Christine Comer, Sebastian Moody, David increasingly disregarded in our prioritization of efficiency in McDermott and Louise Terry for their visual both social and commercial transactions. Yet we do want these delights. Huge, gigantor props to all our writers, spaces back. The phenomenal support given to the Sii including Cath Hart, Maura Edmond, Jen Tsen blockade gives testimony to this. Kwok, Emma Jane, Jen Smith, Matt Thrower, The Copycat, Luke Beesley, David Megarrity and Brett And so, we Semperites thought - because we are one of those Collery, Peter Fenton, Matt Collins, Al D, Rachel- rare little institutions slash info outlets slash meeting places maiy Moore, James Wall, Sally Brand, Molly which makes space available in a way that others don't and Haiikwitz, J. Faithe Duberchin, Hana Cowell, the can't - that we should dedicate a whole issue to the subject. ex-Press Pet, Peta Mitchell, Lucas Moore, Liz Shields, Josie Huxtable, Emilie Awberry, Jason And so we did. Curtis and Marcel Dorney. Thanks to the Queens And now we're all spaced out. Arms crew, Genshen, Loomer and the Kents in advance for launch #2. Finally, thanks to Anne Hope you enjoy. Hope you use our space more in the future. Coleman, Andrew Kettle for letting us pick his (i.e. CONTRIBUTE GOD DAMMIT) And hope it further brain for an hour (and Brett Collingwood for stimulates a questioning of the uses and possibilites of all transcribing the affair), and the lovely Kate Wild those various spaces available (or not) to you. and Genevieve Cheetam for their tooth-comb copy- editing (god knows we needed it). Semper. Loves. You. All. Kate, Rachel and Mark
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Don't hesitate! Call now - 075561 0131, email now - [email protected] and check out our website - www.bossmodefs.net There are a glut you take them off In front of people who you of ways to be want to show your bits to. And usually, these INTERSTICE transgressive: if two audiences are different, nicely separated phones are by common sense and legislation. With WSttBBBSm THE SPACE BETWEEN HI AND BYE your site of phone messages though, the audience is transgression whoever has your number; varied from kin to A COIOMN FROM CATH HART then why not anonymous salespeople, and you probably pull it out of the don't want to take your clothes off, read wall, why not erotica or yodel the national anthem to all of immerse the machine In wee and put it In a them. So you compromise between who you The Grey area between Post-Modern and gallery, or pull it to bits, or just not use it? expect will call, and what you are willing to Post-Mortem, Foucault and Focaccia, Eco And perhaps these things are done, but it display to them. and Eminem, Baudrillard and Bus Stop, seems that a lot of people use their The Frankfurt School and Frank N. Furter, answering machine to record a transgressive Beyond co-opting popular culture into Adorno and Alfred E. Newman. message. Seriously. So we'll concern technology as a means of display, it may also ourselves with them, or you - depending. be attempting to humanise the wires and chips by plugging the world into them and I am astounded by the lack of interest or So, how did we get from 'please leave a vice versa. Strangely, it seems our own research conducted on the art and subculture message' to free floating bits of pop culture mundane little ambling realities aren't chosen of phone messages and their authors. These as a means of youthful transgression? to do this if we venture into this particular are the texts that are truly the voice of now sport. Our world seems far less powerful and steps ought to be taken to preserve at The answer may than the reified sphere of popular culture, of De La Soul or any of the other least some of the seminal samples. So I be that familiarity Generally, as you get older you samples that can be picked up shall endeavour, as best my meagre breeds stop taking your clothes off In education and outlook allow me, to flesh contempt. This on messagebanks around the things out, clarify some issues, and technology is so front of your family, you take them world. There seems to be a problematise, highlight, elucidate and intimately known off in front of people who you view that these voices are far deracinate as I go. that it has want to show your bits to. more powerful, far more able become an to humanise the machine. The I'm not here right now so please leave a integral part of paradox of it is that these message. This is all my phone message how people communicate with one another, voices are really just the noises other says. Friends have more inventive invitations; down to the ritualisation of recording or machines make. entire share houses chorusing Britney Spears retrieving messages. It is interesting then together, die hard b-boys uttering De La that it is used to capture and indicate I suggest that these findings reflect, among Soul's Ring Ring Ring (Hey Hey Hey). The personality, or a part of it - or even: a part of other things, a reluctance, or even inability to more technologically savvy press the phone the personality we'd like to show the rest of see ourselves as an integral component of receiver against the stereo for a DIY sample the world. More interesting, is that this is the loop of the continual production and of a track chosen for reasons of nostalgia, done not by recording our own voices or reproduction of cultural fact and artefact. cool cred or anti-cool cred. words but the words of others. Instead, we are content to see ourselves as swaying in the winds of culture, so we try and There are no statistics on the relationship I was moved to reactionary action - as most catch the breeze of what has gone before to between a person's age and the likelihood, or activists are - to do some original research by display ourselves to the world. occurrence of them having a non-traditional recording a message of my own words, as phone message (the deficit of research is just original as they may be, and exploring the There are great opportunities for research to appalling). Having not done maths since year process and consequence of this activity. I be done - Freud, Lacan, Foucault, 10,1 hazard that the relationship would be thought i might pen some erotica and record Baudrillard and McLuhan would all be useful inverse and I'll settle for being gratefully it as my phone message - being doubly initial points of inquiry. To this end, I suggest acknowledged in the preface by whichever transgressive in the process. The problem a research centre, a small amount of funding one of you eventually conducts this ground was the audience component of the chain, for examination of Phone Messages and their breaking study. What I can offer is that young those who might ring and hear it - namely, Cultural Contexts, and a Senate inquiry to 'uns are perhaps wanting to be a little my mother, a professional so-and-so or see which heads will roll for the dearth of transgressive by erring from traditional someone who could write erotica better than activity in the area thus far. messages. me. Generally, as you get older you stop And remember: penultimate means the taking your clothes off in front of your family: second best thing.
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l,YeeI {ll^'j'm part of aci^'l C <: v / :and thai allows them to|c^:^- 38 engaged in a better way '-X4.,^"l jjeople. So there's positive Z7^^'i-" jfi}%Ut there's also a lot of
Farm Park project and one which drew certain sections of the represent dancing as somehow fascist, and thus justify police September 'correction'. What they were doing, and what they partially succeeded in, was reimagining and refiguring public space, and this to may: proved to be the action which the print media bloc was incapable of letter to J, part two absorbing into their litany of violence. Out of frustration, and given Marcel Dorney my own association, I was capable of and did in fact do exactly that, and I was wrong, and I'm sorry.
It's been a while since we spoke. I'm writing to you because I I also wrote about how I observed anti-democratic action from was wrong, and because I'm afraid. representatives of several socialist organisations, This was true, and it still angers me, and it angers me more that 1 was advised not to You once told us, J, that you were only an artist because you had talk about it, as if misrepresentation of the facts were excusable in never felt at home in the world, and that you only ever worked as an the name of solidarity. (There's a name for shit like that.) The newly artist for the right of everyone in the world to feel at home. I'm still trying formed Socialist Alliance has given me pause, and a great deal of to hammer that paradox, as you put it, into a usable shape - but it still hope. This coalition, organised by some of the soundest and looks like a sword, not a ploughshare. hardest-working socialists in I do not hate police. I hate the hierarchy the country, represents an There will be a blockade of the Brisbane Stock Fvoh»r,no ^n tho fi.ov * KA *w ^ t .u ^^ ^^0 polico forco aHc! what it does to encouraging step away from hxcnange on the first of May this year, as part of the ^ , the tendency within International Workers' Day celebrations and street party. ^^men and men, IH and OUt of uni'form. contemporary Australian This blockade is the most obvious location of any socialist practise to turn violence that might take place that day. I am afraid because there are inwards; for organisations to fall victim to their own misguided sensQ many people that I care a great deal about that are going to be there. I of destiny, to the vanguard myth of Leninism, that everyone outside will be there, and I will be doing my best, as will everyone I know the self-determining soviet is somehow less committed, and Jhat attending, to ensure that there is no violer]ce. I do not hate police. I much less indispensable. hate the hierarchy of the police force and what it does to working men and women, in and out of unifomi. 1 hope that as individuals, and as a Deliberately treating independently minded people as baton body, the police officers attending the protest can respect the integrity of fodder, it should be said here and now, was not the prevailing a peaceful appropriation of public space, one undertaken to register attitude of the vast majority of s11 organisers and marshals. As protest at the activities of an institution which does not represent the frustrated as I can become with the tendency to propagandize popular interest. I will defend police officers, if the occasion arises, as 'Victory at s11', I will say - which I have not done before - that the far as I can from any fool who tries to attack them, to make them 'move protest was efficiently, sensitively and painstakingly organised, and on' from a place where they have a moral right to be (say, conscious), no that the actions taken by the vast majority of blockaders were matter which 'side' this fool happens to think he's on. I'd like to think successful, in the sense that the reordering of public space to they'd do the same for me. accommodate popular protest was executed peacefully and with compassion, although I still wish some of us had talked to Crown People need defending. Statements are a different matter, and employees rather than shouting at them. The claims made by some of the comments that I passed on actions designed to creatively Andrew Bolt in the Herald-Sun of 'fascist' tactics by the blockaders reclaim public space during the WEF protests in Melboume last were and are, to be blunt, full of shit. Similar claims will be made September are indefensible. In my article 'How Not To Join The Army', about the planned blockade of the Stock Exchange on the first of published in the final print edition of last year's Semper, I complained May this year; that can't be avoided. What can be avoided is giving bitterly that the people dancing at the doof stage were 'retreating inside credence to them by acting in the way which the occasional themselves' while the people attempting - ultimately unsuccessfully - to protester did - bottles of urine, hate-filled epithets, and lack of physically blockade the Crown complex were being clobbered by the respect for other people's safety. Victorian police. What the dancers were doing, I realise, was just as important, if not more so, than the blockade, part of the same thing but This is what helped to bring me around on the dancers. It's intrinsically less prone to violent attack, because it was harder to perfectly all right - in fact, it's the best thing - to treat M1 as a street 8 party, It's incredibly important that this International Worker's Day open the system, and I'm talking about the one that includes your protest - a city-wide event, if all goes according to plan - is a own head. celebration of everything that corporate 'globalisation' wilt burn off the face of this and every other country. Living, growing communities Closed systems - whether Ancient Hellas or Stalin's Russia • whose purposes don't begin and end with accumulation of capital will are breeding grounds for the cruellest kind of tragedy, where the fate not survive if they are forced to turn, as individuals, the totality of their of the suffering not only seems but is completely out of your control. efforts towards an efficiency of production, consumption and We do not live in a closed system, but we often behave as if we do. distribution based on concentration of these powers in a few large (When you're locked out of the democracy that purports to represent corporations, the control of which relies upon investment capital and you, and your 'labour' party has become a brand name, it is hard to not popular mandate. tell sometimes.) The systems we live in are becoming homogenised, our range of choices restricted to a globalising standard produced by The corporations and some 'socialist' hierarchies both claim that companies who make nothing but an fictional quality represented by once their system is implemented, social problems such as family an emblazoned symbol. The fate of sweatshop workers and the rural breakdown, drug abuse, gambling addiction, the poor of the Third World is failure of education and the violence born of ..a celebration of everything that corporate something that we are being frustration will disappear. These are systemic 'globalization' will burn off the face of this told we should simply be problems, certainly, not simply individual or familial gp(-j every Other COUntry. grateful that we do not ones: but they are also, now, part of the system, and share. Lies make me tired, so are the people - us - who suffer from and and I'm tired of this. contribute to them, often with alternating hands. We are the part of the state that you can't 'smash'. As much as I'd like to make a really clean For those of you who have nodded and yawned your way sweep - and as many things as I believe can and should be swept through this, I want to pass one plea of street-reclaiming for M1 and away - insisting on a violent break, and refusing to engage in any for all parties. Don't, for Christ's sake, block emergency vehicles. dialogue on the subject, will only engender further violence. (If that's The ambos and fireys are doing their job, and you'd be an idiot to try what you want, gentle reader, then admit it, but don't front to me as a and stop them. If they are smuggling detectives in the back, that's a suffering agent of the people, because your right hand is forcing your risk we're gonna have to take. Eat well. Get some exercise. See left.) There are too many awesome fucking people working too hard to you on the street. And keep your head up. build towards real socialism, for recognition they will never receive nor ask for, and at incredible personal cost, for us to keep quiet about Because we're not going to win. Things are probably going to those few who attempt to hijack mass action for their own ends, no keep getting worse. Australia won't be any more democratic on the matter what colour T-shirt they're wearing. People who have drowned 2nd of May than it will be on the 30th of April. But I've only got one their sense of humour and human compassion in the bucket of their life, and if it's a selfish pleasure to be able to say that I didn't spend it own grievances, who glorify the macho-heroic elements of 'The simply accepting unnecessary injustice, then there's no pleasure Struggle' thinking that by doing so they touch the inner life of the that's not selfish, no such thing as love. It is possible to imagine that working class • I stil! want them on the streets come May, because one everything was decided on the plains of the Serengeti, that we're still lives inside me, and 1 want him to see what he'd look like if he had the biting each other's throats out because we're not capable of anything run of my behaviour. else, that all the grace and compassion that lives on in the bodies of everyone whose DNA has lasted this three billion years is self- First and foremost, taking to the streets for a day is not simply a indulgent aberrance. peaceful act. It can, however, contribute more to the future peace and prosperity of this country and this globe than a lifetime of silting at It is possible - and if this is what you think, or if you don't home staying out of the way. Fact is, if you do need corporate agree with me on some other point, even if you think the whole M1 sponsorship to have fun and enrich your life by enriching that of other 'thing' is a waste of time, come out on the street and tell me so. I'm people, then you've found out - and I mean this - why they call what not going to throw stones at you. I want to talk to you. However you you're wearing a 'brand'. What taking to the streets and immersing might feel about me, I don't want to live in a space, or in a country, or yourselves in the culture of the people around you, unmediated by on a globe that doesn't have you in it. corporate appropriation of public space, will do is flip the script. It will We miss you. Come home. 9 An Open Letter to John Howard/ or: Thanks for the spare change.
Dear Mr Howard/
Firstly, I would like to congratulate you on the job you have done running the country thus far. It has never been easier to denigrate minorities and the less fortunate without consequence and with the full support of the federal government. Way to go, four- eyes. \,
•u. Secondly, I would like to congratulate you on what you have achieved wit± the newiv^tax system. Sure, the things I need to survive .and ,can barely afford, such as food, clothes, rent, utilities, and phone bills, are now 10% more expensive"^than t:hey were a year ago, but at least the priQe'*6tf new cars have gone down. •••*
Thirdly, thank you for reducing'the excise on-petrol by 1,5 cents a litre, l,5,y/eeks after the automatic indexation rise, 1.5 weeks.after having the posteri or of your party kicked in consecutive state elec tions. Considering that i:-usiB. about 20 litres of petrol a week, that means{^vl-will end up with the princely sum of 30 cents .e^tira in my pocket after I
fill up at the bowser. .1 *
And finally,;, thank you',;'^i£i^rite3#)^-a:i#»jHesa.ify?a ^ ' advance' o'^'n" ••:^n mvy mp;^«- measli \>y vVrt^Mlisf?!^in3i*i^itirt,^Y Yours sincerely, ••'. !iAlMSm^^d:--: •*r:->-;?^-'.--^'.^^-i5S^j;-h^ '•i:v:y;;,>^-^,t'yffX'r^-1 :i..it'.^:.:-.s;';'Kfi?'-v-^v^^3;-/^-j y/-'y'^-~-p Pedro Valdez. (voter) .•'•[-'"."i'^i* [•^•^•K. -i y'y. y^^TfCi'j'rfVry:!••.• :.:v-'!.'"^.~'y.'- .•.:;•;-'• /•v.•J.t^•^/7v''-'*''•-• Until recently, the only legal framework for prostitution in Queensland existed under the heading of sole operation, in which a lone sex worker could operate a business from their home or a similarly private room. Now, subject to the approval of council and the Prostitution Licensing Authority, brothels - theoretically - can be established anywhere, provided the site is not within 200 metres of a residential building, hospital, place of worship, school or any place frequented by children. The changes, as the Courier Mail declared with flourish, aimed to "sweep hookers off the streets" into well-regulated establishments operated by liscencees of good character and sound business ability. However, as Perkins et al observe in their study of Queensland prostitution, controls imposed on the prostitution industry have the tendency to "increase the points out, the law tends to target only those facets of prostitution, which power of brothel and escort agency operators" without encroach on the general community, "such as soliciting in public or quasi- actually protecting or improving conditions for sex workers. public spaces, kerb-crawling, advertising sexual services or conducting sexual Those who organise prostitution are less likely to be convicted practices in public view." In other words, the government cares less about in Australia than those who carry out the act; to deny this is to protecting sex workers than protecting the supposed public spaces they deny Queensland's rather long and mottled relationship with inhabit. Sure, Eagle Farm is but a short drive from the Valley in a fast car, but the organised sex industry. is it a coincidence that council's approval of the out-of-the-way site coincides with the big Fortitude clean-up? It was at the bidding of Prime Minister John Curtin that a trainload of prostitutes was shuttled from Sydney up to It's interesting that while state and local governments appear to be using Brisbane during Worid War ll for the delectation of stationed these measures to desexualise our streets, neon strip clubs continue to American soldiers. The goods were picked and bundled by a replace our night clubs while roving billboards brandishing tits and arses (one Sydney undenworld figure; the transaction may have been a particularly provocative ad shows a female shot from the waist down, her legs cash-based one, maybe one of favours. The idea was to keep spread at 137 degrees, the lettering across her bikinied crotch demurring the peace between the locals and the Yanks by making sure 'Come on in!') prowl the city, announcing the relative delights of Bad Girls and there were enough giris to go around, by making sure no one Universal. Outside Showgiris, just off the Queen Street Mall, stands a different so inclined would be sent off to battle unfortified. Chances teenage girl each week, her platforms launching her uncomfortably to the were these giris weren't unleashed in a foreign city to publicly same height as the ad announcing steak buffets and calling for new erotic walk the streets among respectable citizens, but housed in dancers. This, while thousands of other teenage giris troop past, their arms temporary establishments of convenient location. According to laden with Dotti and General Pants bags, some eyeing off the '$1000 a week' Sullivan, the Labor Party defended prostitution against police sign, perhaps calculating how many shoes/skirts/plane tickets this money offences legislation in the early decades of the twentieth could buy. The stylish camp of strip clubs and their unthreatening promise of century on the basis that such laws "would be used to curtail simulated sex are acceptable in the inner city where real sex is not. These the freedom and harmless pleasures of working class men". clubs sit comfortably next to the new high rises, but a single prostitute in the Though brothel-keeping became a summary offence in 1931, slick new recesses of the urban landscape is too violent a juxtaposition for evidence tabled during the Fitzgerald Inquiry revealed that Queensland's councils and developers, many Brisbane bordellos had kept a steady trade from the turn of the century until the late 1950s, with further evidence The legalisation of brothels is not a problem, but the street-cleaning zeal of revealing that police corruption and organised prostitution these new laws and our governmental authorities is. The hypocrisy that allows made more-than-friendly bedfellows during the reign of Joh. Fitzgerald figures such as Wayne Armstrong to operate high-profit clubs like Universal while single sex workers are shuffled away from the new-look Valley Now, prostitution laws seemingly have very little to do with jars. While transactions have, and probably always will be made in alleys, in sex. Hubbard, in his dissection of the geography of backrooms, in parked cars against the mosquito-buzz of distant traffic and prostitution, believes that the corners, shadows and stretches not-unpleasant tang of sweat, council would like to see franchised yellow of cities are intrinsically sexualised and organised to separate storefronts with friendly staff and disinfected lino veneers tucked safely in the 'good' and 'bad' sexual identities - the good, perhaps, being industrial sectors of the city - bring on the ATM, ABN and GST. the tipsily underdressed young thing hailing a cab outside 11 Viva at 4am, the bad being the Valley streetwalker. As he By Kate Scott the basis ofthe idea that the postmodern city is fragmented.Dot-com industries are beginning to invest themselves in some of this near-empty space leftover by the enormous footprint of light industry. In doing so they bring with them the real estate values, advertising, and gentriflcation which transforms whole regions of the city from affordable areas with diverse and textured inhabitation to higher rent, commercialised areas rife with surveillance and rising prices. Behind this trend is urban form at the mercy of commercial interests Tvhich promise to maintain and ensure development of their new territories. It is form which means nothing in terms of urban planning but which means everything in terms of commercial profit and the gains made by capitalism when it commands space and can produce a rapid turnover of consumer needs. fHE NMED ciry The postmodern city is a consumer city, formed by consumer societies which more and more, in western countries, cater to the privileged and the wealthy and exclude the poor. Our citics are morphing into virtual theme parks ofthe picturesque market economy, pushing ready-made consumption and suburban values over the libertarian values of self-determination, freedom, and spontaneous creation. The alienating effects of postmodern consumption and boredom have been written about extensively by Henri Lefebvre, Guy Debord and Spontaneity is the true mode of creative being. others. Postmodern daily life is subsumed under a stultifying mandate of 'to It is creativity's initial, immaculate form, unpolluted at the source and as yet buy is to be.' With this credo as the social code, consumers, faced with unthreatened by the mechanisms of co-optation. Whereas creativity in the increasingly limited shopping choice from more and more malls, are broad sense is the most equitably distributed thing imaginable, spontaneity spending their precious time as the bored subjects ofthe consumptive spaces seems to be confined to a chosen few. Long resistance of corporate supermarkets and the new mall conglomerates. to power has endowed these priviledged few with a consciousness of their own value as Individuals, In revolutionary moments this means the majority; in IN OUR 1 other periods, when the old mole works unseen, day SPECTACULAR by day, it is still more people than one might think. SOCIETY WHERE For so long as the light of ALL YOU CAN creativity continues to shine, SEE IS THINGS spontaneity has a chance, (i) AND THEIR PRICE At the heart of tiie matter ofthe contemporary citj' is its mjTJad surfaces and the kinds of spaces those O • CD surfaces make for perennial public use. In the engineering ofthe postmodern contemporary city the passing of heavy industry into light industry and now into elusive information systems and digital industries has brought about new geographies of urbanism which are \vithout design and which form 12 •I' I *!••« Theorist Marc Auge points out in his essay 'Non- forget the sort of false familiarity- the small culture of collapsed time and space - of Places: Introduction to an Anthropology of screen establishes between the viewers and the experience replaced more and more by the Supermodernity' contemporary life has the actors of big-scale histor\', whose profiles virtual? Is the current trope towards problem of an excess of space in addition to an become as well known to us as those od hyperrealism a way out or a way to jar our excess of time. international artists or sporting stars.(2) senses to sense - another illusor>' distraction in the hall of mirrors. The second accelerated transformation specific Supermodernity, Auge suggests, has to tbe contemporaiy world, and the second superseded postmodernity and adheres to The contemporary' t-ity is marked by a kind of figure of excess characteristic of supermodernity, the hyperrealit>^ of western illusoiy upheaval, a liquidity and dissolution; a concerns space. We could start by saying - again global media. The ensnaring power ofthe destabilising of old centres of power, memory somewhat paradoxically - that the excess of broadcast reaches into eveiy turned-on and meaning. These spaccs will be space is correlative with the shrinking of the tele\ision set. Billboards and products in turn marked in memory only by the planet: with the distancing from ourselves proliferate, coating the surfaces of the degree to which they can be embodied in the feats of our astronauts and the metropolis with their full-colour four-colour lived in, reinvented and acted endless circling of our satellites. In a sense, our images and fillingth e windows of the upon - only by spontaneous first steps in outer space reduce our own space streetscape. The imagination ofthe spectacle subjects capable of creating. to an infinitesimal point, of which satellite forms a pseudo-histor>' in the imagination. We Such spaces are the building ])hotographs appropriately give us the exact are incapable of Ii\ing without absorbing the blocs of resistance culture. measure. But at the same time the world is details of consumpUon into our lives. Distant becoming open to us. We are in an era corners ofthe globe and fjir corners of the Lc ddvcloppcment mtoe characterised by changes of universe are miniaturi-sed as spectacularised scale - of course in the conte.xt of space events, "nearer" than they are far, and are de k soci6t6 de classes exploration, but also on earth: rapid means of experienced as shared simulations ofthe real jusquU rorganisation transport have brought any capital within a few thing." spcctacniaiie de la non'vle hours' travel of any other. And in the privacy of m^ne done ie projet our homes, finallyimage s of all sorts, relayed by teyolutioimaiie i dovenir satellites and caught by aerials that bristle on the visiblement roofs of our remotest hamlets, can give us an instant, sometimes simultaneous vision of an ce qu*il etait d6i^' event taking place on the other side ofthe cs$ttaie!kment. r*r1 planet. ^ Of course we anticipate per\'erse effects, or possible distortions, from information whose images are selected in this way: not only can Ihey be (as we say) manipulated, but the Culture thrives and survives in an interstitial broadcast image (which is only one among present, Auge's perception of the .shrinking of countless possible others) exercises an influence, Characterised by a nexus of images, products, the globe has its positive effects. Creativity possesses a power far in excess of any objective and needs which promote the future of lifestyle, becomes an operation of information it carries. It should be noted, too social organisation, ideology, the space of globalisation itself when creativity is that the screens ofthe planet daily consumption, reaping profits, expands to new wired and the net rewards a great global cany a mixture of images (news, advertising and frontiers. Its visualising, need-producing trafficking of ideas and information with fiction) of which neither the presentation nor the structures are branded on the miasma of our connectivit)'. The new global economy becomes purpose is identical, at least in principle, but minds in a simulacra of a worid contrived-for- transparent through the exchange of its users which assemble before our eyes a permanence. De-politicised, de and the web appears a manageable simulacra of universe that is relatively sensitised, bored, and the vast spatialisation of late 2()the c. capital: an homogeneous in its diversity. "normalised" we become infinite .space of signs, sites, telecommunication. What could be more realistic and, in a sense, paralysed, incapable of acting Global cities are nodal points on that web of more informative about life in the United states upon this world and are exchange - the belter wired with fiber optics the than a good American TV series? Nor should we absorbed into its vortex. Are we a more capable of information wars and finance 13 themselves, a virtual metropolis, an amorphous battles a city becomes - the more capable of an accretion. Tiny entrances to new interstices, selling bandwidth to con.sumers! Public .space the fine splicings of actions and images, 'blob', at once experienced and, simultaneously, becomes networked and more and more users minuscule games, neW Urban dispersed. image and interact with cities through the conditions for human action— mediating devices of the small-scale computer of spontaneous desire for life (c) Molly Hankwitz, Brisbane, 2001. screen and modem. New "economic chains" are over boredom. The consumer-present is created out of these user-geographies. Not all of detourned and the city is reinscribed with them co-opted. (3) meaning. 1) Vaniegem, Raoul. The Revolution of Everyday Life. Ch. 20 In the situationist city everyday If the postmodern city has fragmented mass (www.nothingness.org) life replicates itself through culture and the supermodern city emerges as a media and architecture, is vacancy supplanted by global media-imaging, 2) Auge, Marc. Non-places: An Introduction reconstructed through its to an Anthropology of then the city has morphed into a virtual non- Supermodernity. London: Verso, 1995. inhabitants to fit their needs place - it is a post-human corpus. This IS and desires, is desired to become another not a pitch for "artists' 3) Sassen, Saskia. "Subject: The Tpooi of E- extension of desire, morphing into another housing" but a pitch for Space: Private and Public representation more affirming, less alienated, C>'berspace." READ ME! Filterd by Hiedeggerian dwelling, for Nettime: ASCII Culture and the Revenge of more desired than the space before. Space and living in, for rest, Knowledge, ed. by Josephine Bosma, time are not in excess in situationist cities. Tliey contemplation, conscious Pauline Van Mourik Broekman, Ted do not become a monument. On the contrary, Byfield, Mathew Fuller et al. NY: action. Autonomedia, 1999. pp. 97-100. they are an immediate surplus, in effect "owned" by actors creating situations. They are self- In the digital city, identities and insfitutions are Figs. 1, 2,4. from www.nothingness.org determined units of power over cultural death; networked or not, forming a parallel universe to Figs. 3,5 from www.nasa.gov. DO YOU NEED TO SEE A DENTISTP We will treat your dental emergencies promptly $2 Clothing Sellout. DENTIST Patricia Wright B.D.Sc (Hons) % 2 Days Only. Taringa Fiveways, corner of Gailey and Indooroopilly Road, SQllout of Pre-loved winter Taringa fashions. This Weekend at th© RNA *Situated close to UQ campus Showgrounds, The Avenue, *Easy access on the 411 bus Alexandria Street. *Ample free parking available 8.30am to 5.00pm * After hours appointments Saturday 28th and Sunday *Caring, friendly staff 29th April. *Student discounts *Laughing gas available for apprehensive patients *Hlcaps system - health fund rebates processed on the spot *Visa, Mastercard, Bankcard, eftpos and cheques accepted Phone for an appointment on 3870-1100 14 By Michael Rasmussen MONSTROUS POP: BODY MUTATION AND DUAIISM \H THE FILMS OF DAVID CRONENBERG BY MARK GOMES We've not devised an aesllielic for the inside ofthe body any more tlian wc have developed an aoslhetie of disease. Most people are dissiistecl. like when they wateh an insect tran.sform itself. Hut if yon d^jvelop an aoslhelie for it, it ceases to be uj^ly. I'm trying to force t.he andience lo chanj^e it.s aesthetic sense just as the characters in my films do. D.-WID CROXKNBKRG As anti-tlc'sh piu-iUuiisni cbb.s in our era, similar battle. They too arc mutating in envisions the ultimate comment on this more and niorc extromc stimuli -both., regards to their treatment of the huhiau unfathomable "split" (the basis of all horror) i-)h\ sical and conceptual - arc needed to body: once organic, now a cyborg. ' .• as bei,ng the process of physical death, "^\•hy reestablish an awareness of our bodies. shoukta healthy mind die. just because the .Monyside the \Vest"s overuhetming If nothing else, Cronenberg's work is body isnot healthy?... There S(jems to be enthusiasm for all tilings technological (think ' resolutely body-conscious. Although the sqiiiething\vrong with that. It's \er>-eas_\-to electronic connnunications pt'ostheses, average reaction to it is one of revulsion, and see wh\- man\- philosophers detach tlie mind . robotic automation, VR emironments and, despite the fact that man}' critics claim his ' from the bod\-... But I don't belie\e that." It's' biogenetic engineering) thc^'icious repression ^ Nvork demonstrates a righteous disgust with this anguish of contradiction that lic^s at tha of bodil\bodih- awareness that is our inheritauf^inheritance the flesh, Cronenberj^'Cronenberg's films, be they bloody, heart of his films. Though he senses .a split,, from Pauline thrislianit>- slill lingers. The big be they carnal (and perhaps for these exact . Cronenberg's intuitions deny such a thing question for our age has become a question of reasons)-are, natural in concept and organic exists. the ego posited in the.se new technological in dqliveiy..Just as scarification and tattooing • ; , realiiLs^: realms that Avork towards its ^ sei,'\'e to re-invoke contemporaiy individuals'' Like Lacan, Cronenberg's struggle hinges on displacement. Both body modification . ^ ' ' body-consciousness, Cronenberg's \iScerally the realisation that^ humans' fear of death "is practices and ph\'sical forms of S&M sexualit>' painful imageiy helps remind the video psychologicall\- subordinate to the narcissist! are public proof of tlie human subject's fight generation of its collective physicality. fear of damage to one's body." ^Vhen, in the to reclaim its corporeality, to reclaim the cyberspace age. the bod\' cannot be fiesh from encroaching technologies. In light Cronenberg has stressed his fascination with distinguished from the machine, strange new of David Cronenberg's cinematic oeu\'re, it's Cartesian dualism (the idea that body = pathwa\-pathways for the death dri\-dri\e emerge. ^Vith clear that our cultural m>1holog>-mythology,, imagery nuitter, mind = spirit, and never the twain machines sinuiltancouly ser\ing as props and artistic conceptions are engaged in aa shall meet) on numei-ous occasions. He (against diseases) and invaders ofthof thee bod>bod\' • 1-1 Cameron Vale's eyes exp'odo in Scanners (implants, prosthetics, plastic surgery), a Behind all its horrific effects and sexual Channel 83, Max sets out to tra strange paradox emerges. Cronenberg's films violence squirm a great many issues pertinent transmission. On the way, he^- witness the de-realisatibn ofthe ego in the to our times - mass media landscapes, Masha, a contact in the vid^n^ cyberspace age. In them, the Cartesian body / censorship, the effects of technology oft who lets him in on a secret.... mind battle is played out with monsters that humanity,, loss of stable identity, violent death throes in Videodrome ^' emerge no longer from within (e.g. Jekj^U and sexuality and mind control - all woven Videodrome is in fact'a pro* ^ Hyde), but from \vithout. Cronenberg together xia the body-mind of one individual, broadcast by the sinister muhir transforms the n\achinic excesses of our Max Renn (James Woods). If in Shivers corporation Spectacular Optic world intp replicants forged in our own (1975) Cronenberg explored an organic (planted by Spectacular Optici image. His is a philosoph}' of mutation, a parasitic relationship (\aa an animal that fed Max to Videodrome in orde^ calculated mapping of technology's body on women's blood, causing them to launch an infectious signal underljTni transmission! Videodrome's vi^. tocjay. • ^ •. into wild, sex-crazed killing sprees), mth Videodrome he went for^ a much l^igger, opens up the brain's neural re""' Like Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey, technological parasite: television, conceived allowing the program's undm. Cronenberg's films re\-olve around the notion as a hallucinatoiy tumour feeding on the sink right in. The Videodrome sij that, if Darwin is right, tliere is no reason to mind. ^ fimctions to induce a tuniQ"" '^"•' believe that man represents the end ofthe. in the brain, which in turn e\-olutionaiT road. 'In them, character after The film opens with a TV image, the logo of hallucinations. Created by 1 character is born \vith special powers or Channel 83, an end-of-the-dial cable outfit eccentric, McLuhanesquenieSuT^ changed through the workings of disease or transmitting cheesy violence and nudity 24-7. stolen by Spectacular Optical, Vid genetic engineering. In fact, pyscho-sexual Renn, the channel's chief, appears restless being broadcast in drder tO'tHH mutation is the subject of most all'' of his with it's diet of soft-core pornography and American populace. H work. In Scanners (1980), science breeds a ^ tasteful carnage. "I'm looking for something class of telepathic superpeople, capable of that'll break thi;6ugh," he says, dreaming of a Max's hallucinations begin wwuii inducing cerebral explosions in auN'one who new frontier in exploitation. Looking to heaving videocassettes and " •""" commission a new show, Max is intrigued by episodes of sado-masochis^^ mental duel between Darrel Rc\'ok and his an illicit interception made by Harlan, he brings therapist / radio-pc brother Cameron Vale (the two most Channel 83's satellite broadcast pirate. The Brand (Deborah Hany) back powerful 'Scanners") results in a complete transmission is 'Videodrome' (police-state apartment, she pops a bootlej fusion of their personalities. Similarh' in home video? S&M net\vork? televangelical tape in the VCR and gets turneu^ Videodvome (1982), tele-hustler Max Renn's death cult?), a show featuring naked women beatings. In what is one ofthe n stomach develops a yawning, vaginal hole being beaten and tortured by men clad in cinematic sequences I've ege into which pornographic \-ideocassettes are black. No plot, no dialogue, no characters, Cronenberg pulls the cam^H inserted. As a result, Renn becomes "new just "snuff T\^... the final frontier." "It's sadomasochistic sex to reve|t flesh': neither wholl>- human nor wholh' tape, absolutely brilliant," maiTcls Max, "there's bedroom (in Max's psyche^B but parth' both. Froiu Crimes ofthe Future almost no production costs!" the Videodrome death-chamb (1970) and The Fly (1986), to Crash (1996) Nikki's gone, Max's tele\i9iwJ^ and most recently Existenz (2000), body With a mind to broadcast Videodrome on massi\'e caressing mouth while un; morphs are rife, with himian forms into deformed, othenvorl »a mutations of appe|i|| fusing, melting and transforming into -1 * -^u insects, machines and super-humans. ,^ JX- M comniodit)'. Manuiac.v.. 'I and appearances dm''"' To nie. liic centre of e\er\thing is ihe luiniaii I human counterparts • boilv. I keep rclurniug.to tliis \eiy physical ^^•^f$' exchanges its subjec... .v.. elLMuent of life and rni also fascinated hv the ^;::0i( forged on soundsJlaei wav hiunan lu'ini^s alter e\er\ihinj; and acceiit V^ T cells. In short, tel( nothing as ^iveii, We are constantly chans'lni' oiir bodies and this leads me instinctively ; ;; . physical extensio towards the bioloi;ical sciences. Vm inlerested ^ i consciousness-alterini in the \va\' we have taken our own evolution «, into our hands. Darwin's theory of evolution b\- " . J^ l^^/S Soon Ma.vs hallucinat nuitalion bad a serious Haw. because he never ^ involve his body, t considered Ihc possibilit.v of evolution by disease - the idea thai some diseases nii^hl chest with a hand] anionnl lo a superior strain of Ihe siiecies. hi stomach opens up lu ... my films dierc is an allcnipt b\- some of the throbbing vaginal slil characlers to see their diseases as j startlingly literal ^11 metamorphoses. ' penetration, Max im^ D.Win CROXKNHKRG j into the orifice, which closes up, leaving Vkleodrome is probably Cronenberg"s \ thegunin vain. Its J most complex and pro\ocativc film. .-^ * mroniivtui Shooting Videodrome - David Cronenberg probes for a video cassette signifier swallowed by a (w)hole new intercourse. Each \vas intended to produce tlic flesh that sought satisfaction through language. Max's mutation grants Spectacular new, luutatcd sex organs - Nikki and Bianca materiality in the first place. No longer is it Optical complete control over him. By developing penises to match Max's vagina in that the body's necessities are the mothers of sending him tapes, the super-corporation order to physically meld with each other. The"' invention: now its inventions are the mothers forces Max to 'play' programs on his Videodrome chamber, the site of Max's of necessity. Videodrome replaces liyed bioconipul(M* / video / self. With tho fantasies of violence and torture, would'\'e experioncb ofthe realwith stillborn images of videocassettes inside him, Max becomes, in been transformed into a place for a more its consumption. . his own words, "the video \voixrmade flesh." creative, viscerally psychedelic existence: mind manifestation in tliis flesh. However, Cronenberg is driven by an urge to rediscover Aleister Crowley once wrote, "The act of Cronenberg thought the scene might not have file possibility of the autonomous (autoerotic) i-epressing hasthe effect of exciting." So it is had the intended effect, that the mutated sex subject in a postmodern / technological in Videodrome. By repressing his love of, and organ prosthetics may have been laughable. world. In his films, the body is posited as a receptivity to, the Videodrome signal, Ma.x ^ As it is, we're left with a taste of the tragic site for the expression of profound social accentuates this aspect bf himself, renedering finality that was to characterise his films' anxieties. Time after tiuTc, Cronenberg himself an ci,\sy target for Spectacular Optical. conclusions throughout the eighties. externalises this "meta-biology of thesexual Max's passivity, howqver, isn't ciuite so^clear motive" as a neurotic "love" (or cut. In a scene in wiiich HaFlan inserts a So what has all of this to do with space? ^ "eroticisation") of technology: a cassette into Max,'\'aginii dentata is evoked as depoliticisation ofthe ideological structures Harlan's hand is bitten off by the orifice. With the rise of Videodrome, a funny thing > , that influence / reif}' sexual identity. Max, it seems, has the power to turn his happened to de Sade: he became redundant. '• apparently" rec&i^tivc organ jato a tool pf The old monster's vision of power- and its - From his first feature, Crimes ofthe Future assertion. ' . . appetites beca:ue, as it ^cqiitinues to be, public (1970), to his last, Existenz (2000), - domain. ' , ' • , Cronenberg has explored ways in'which Max eventually shoots his work colleaguc/s, ideology and its material jjroductions can delivering Videodi-oiue to Channel 83 for its What started out as a weightless'pop-horror cause grotesque pyscho-sexual mutation. public transmission. He's also sent to fantas\- has solidified into social metaphor. Again and again he's foreseen our now well- eliminate O'Blivion's daughter, Bianca, but in Escaping the realm of abstraction for the documented desire to converge (in cyborg a tvaneelike scene, she dissuades him by spawning ground of histon, Videodrome has fashion) with materialitN* itself. In re\ealing the nature of his disease. found its real purpose: the reconfiguration of Videodrome, Max Renn is a c\'borg who, "Videodrome is death," she announces, the social life, the dissolution ofthe borders rather than transcending the material screen filling with electronic snow before between pop ciiltui-e, government, sexuality, optimism that creates him (e.g. distending out to^vard Max, the swallowed business and religion. Tirelessly it Frankenstein's monster), becomes the pure handgun now organically- fused to his hand! homogenises these forces, collapsing them embodiment of Marx's idea that life (and "You'll use the weapons they'\e given you to into the same sphere of leisure and power: materiality) determines consciousness. destroy them," Bianca O'Blivion tells Max transforming citizens into voyeurs, atrocities before repeating tbe film's most memorable into pleasures and pleasures into Videodrome is the niediascape you operate refrain: "Death to Videodrome! Long live the abominations. Nubile chainsa\v massacres within. Take a look aroundr Excess is - new flesh!" and nightmares on Elm St, news broadcasts evcr\^vhere, violence is too. The monstrous is showcasing sex crimes and other death- no longer a function ofthe Other or the In the film's final scene, Max ends up in a related instincts are all now staple 'IY fodder. family. It's a by-product of technolog}' and derelict boat. Inside, he is informed by Nikki, Contemporary pop has successfully usurped contemporar\' social life: it's pop culture. or at least her tcknisual image (if there is an>- pornography's terrain of sadism. As in difference), that it's time for him to let his Videodrome, oppression today isn't locked body die. Max's physical form, she says, has into a single place: it's fluid, adaptable and outlived its usefulness. Renn is shown himself alwa\s available for redistribution. Fighting T^'- .•w:*^^"^' committing suicide on television: pointing his false consciousness with even more false gun / hand to his head, shouting, "Long live consciousness is the nature and name of the the New Flesh!" and firing. Blood and viscera media game. gush from the 'W. Finally, Max replicates his telcnisual suicide for real: the blast ofthe shot Toda>^ the monstrous resides neither in the echoing over a blank, black screen before the Other, nor in the family, but rather in the final credits roll. unintended b}'-products of technology that metastasise the body. Max's mutation in It's (un)fortunate(?) that Cronenberg's Videodrome is a metaphor for the parallel intended ending never made the final cut. transmutation of contemporary social / The original script called for a scene following cultural nudaise. What's important to notice Max's apparent suicide in which Max, Nikki, is how Cronenberg collapses the mind-bod>' Max Renn busting a move on his TV in Videodrome and Bianca 0'Bli\ ion meet in the Videodrome dichotomy into the biological: the social chamber and engage in polysexual ps\choses sjxiwned b>- technology transfigure The South East Busway is as close as your local bus stop Traffic congestion will be a thing Importantly, there will be no radical changes to bus routes of the past between the Brisbane once services commence to run on the South East Busway CBD and Eight Mile Plains for The guiding principle for the development of the operational bus passengers travelling on plan is to minimise the change to routes while taking advantage the South East Busway from of the busway to bypass congestion and to link passengers 30 April 2001. to new destinations. Buses will bypass Passengers travelling to the University of traffic congestion by Queensland from Brisbane's Southern and travelling through a Eastern suburbs are also set to benefit from series of the South East Busway Catch the bus at underground tunnels, underpasses, your usual local stop and your bus will join overpasses and dedicated two way the Busway where it currently joins the roadway. South East Freeway, bypassing freeway congestion. Bus services from the Local bus stops in Brisbane's south CBD directly to the University of east will be the most convenient Queensland are the; 407 Rocket, place for bus passengers to access 411 and the 412 Express. the South East Busway and benefit from improved trip times, and same Services which don't currently travel seat, point-to-point travel. on the South East Freeway (such as services currently running along Stanley The latest in computer modelling Street, Logan Road and Ipswich Road) technology, developed by the University of will converge at Woolloongabba and travel Southern Queensland, is being used to on the busway through South Brisbane to the finalise the Busway Operational Plan. The plan CBD bypassing congestion and accessing will provide a framework for the effective operation high quality passenger facilities and and management of buses on the busway network destinations. Current timetables are being massaged to deliver the right amount of services, at the right times and at the right places Betteri/i/ay for passengers. Smarteri^^ay Cleaner i/i/ay IIJIIl \uu iia LSMWk^iKllKilUfflll,l paces available to you, many times over^ i Those who stay often fold into more repetitive visceral experiences of two days local beach sunburn following five days monotonous work air-conditioning (24 degrees). . And although they presume an exhaustion of available spaces, its only because they also presume that their skin has felt every touch ofthe organic and concrete landscape. Small town kids wrote their bodies over ant dirt ovals with the curves of BMX burn outs. Someone's house was made out ofthe planks used for skateboard jumps on their empty block. They smeared fish poo on the jetty steps and skinned their knees on the mall. And everyone's toes were taught the same curve to grip the swimming pool blocks. With the passing of years though, no one looks up in awe when you capture the ici: frtiinf qjn V.ri <1'K Ht ...... fe.AiUKxAikiini^Hikil Autllii Sure I've waited for small friends to go meeting at perpendiculars, covered and deemed 'personality' into a microphone has sweatshopping at Dotti's, where my weathered by chalk and rain and illegible us Aussie-raucous and sparkle eyed and momentary stair-sitting has had me halves of posters. There are no familiar united with our adult city nights again. threatened away by a gun toting security people there in my conceptual construction Possibles are again flavoured concrete and guard who only gets ten minutes for lunch. of public city space. Only potential close to home albeit under duller brewery There are chairs for that sort of thing, in the opportunities for occupation. It is a space lights. middle ofthe mall. Well there used to be. guarded by bronzed old men on rearing Now they're in coffee shops and we must horses with shoulders of pigeon poo poo. I once walked through a particular reclaim scunge water for a chance at sitting down. And I see it avvhvardly and arguably the streets rally in Bris. Someone kissed me And the buskers in front, must make over reclaimed from the poo spattered men, by very well on the same corner there many the cost of their purchased license in order cargo pants and megaphones and ten months before. By all means and espesh for for their music begging to prove profitable. speeds with rust and stickers. me, I thought 'Reclaim by God, people,' But A friend of mine lucked out on getting one the kiss was still stuck to that Brisbane such license. He could play, sure but didn't But we really don't know yet, the full extent corner. And I walked from that pavement go so well in the interview. of what to do with supposedly public space. then, towards beer and affirmations of Or at least don't recall its eon-ago usage. In caring for numero uno etc and stronger face I've stuck my bottom in chevring gum on cityish vernacular, where there are enough expression. And then, in this my second the footpath, waiting for a lift near a city people now to have sub-cultures rather than city, previously untarnished - its concrete so writing centre. The gum didn't come out. everyone being of one kind in 1989 romantic for lacking both too familiar peers Doors were closing for the day. I used to (grunge), it nevertheless takes a certain and a foolish self-imprint - there were again hand out coffee and family assorteds and style of grafitti, and ftequency of electronic corners I couldn't walk for fear of accordingly get to sit in on eighty dollar music to qualify acts as intelligently space- remembering that both a) unfortunate hats crime writing workshops for free. political. And awareness and publication and b) laugh-too-louds, exist in my adult Apparently it runs good crime writing methods must not be, but must appear to hfe too. I decided then that I hadn't yet workshops. I wasn't a very good judge. I be, photocopied. Aiid evervlhing must hnk wanted to own this city space in mind. At don't hand out family assorteds anymore. together in cut and paste. Festivals are least that I wasn't ready to contain it as And the stories I hear now don't involve great, at best overwhelming and upsettin? such. Sure I knew I'd write with head on • ' llll iini-iii 'in I I • II m "ii ii'ii I' IIIIU 'III- •ii I I III' deviations: an interview witli andrew ketde Sound artist Andrew Kettle has been organising heavy. We had these poems. Each one had five live events for local experimental musicians for sentences and each sentence was digitalised so over three years. Developer ofLabe(:KETTLE, that I could use it on a keyboard. The idea an experimental music recording project, his behind it was that you trapped a sentence into personal recorded material dates back to 1993, the keyboard in order to play them with this sort with several CD releases and nwnerious tracks of staccato effect. It was really important forme on various compilations (Serbsky Institute, ABC at the time. The Queen Street Mall was still music, Vibragim, Last Chance Gasp, Phat Ups, being redeveloped and I hated it. The space has Overt). His work, heavily influenced by grovm on me since. I tend to like Brisbane's alchemy, is riddled with ti'ansmutive processes older spaces though. You look at Brisbane and and experimentation in the natural world. In you think, we've destroyed our heritage, or, our addition, Kettle was the presenter of heritage has destroyed itself. I'm more interested "Atmospheric Disturbances," the experimental in the hallways and small pokey rooms in musicians' and sound artists'show on 4ZZZ, government buildings. I've had favourite places, from June 1998 to July 2000. Semper spoke to as far as acoustic stairwells go, that have been him about some of his recent projects, public demolished... It's interesting to think about the space, sculpting sound and the madness ofthe sticker culture that's come about now, with really web. cheap, twenty-four hour photocopy places where you can go and copy the hell out of A3 and A4 So, the next issue's on space? Guess you did a adhesive sheets, stick 'em everywhere. Another web-search, and found the 'Public Space' thing with sticker culture is that it's all about project? Isn't it freaky, the whole web-site thing? symbols. Like graf. If you've got a symbol, you Last week I had this guy from America called can stick it everywhere. Like that Motorola ad Andrew Kettle email me, going, "Hello, I'm campaign, remember? Those blue, black and three garages but you'll have 150 people in one Andrew Kettle." He'd typed his name into a orange rectangles everywhere on poles? I'd really garage all crammed in, with your speakers search engine to see what'd come up, and landed like to find out if they actually got done for it, if suspended from the ceiling. So, I put something on my site. So, I responded to to him, "Oh great, Motorola got fined fiftydollar s a sticker. The on based on that, where we had a space that another one I have to kill, thanks for coming out council could've made an absolute fortune! Alot measured roughly 2x9 meters, with 65 people ofthe woodwork!" Haven't heard back from him of people actually got mixed up about it, took in it. I'm really into that sort of stuff. To me, as a since! I remember one time when I t>'ped in them home and stuck them on their fridge. But sound artist, space is as important as the music. "Australian Experimental Music," and found out seriously, stickering is a really great form of Also, for one of the first ADAPT festivals I did that I was listed higher, because search engines reclaiming space from the muUinationals. I stuck the Drone 9 performance, where we utilised the prioritise finds by hit-rate, than the Adelaide some up for the Deviations project. The idea was allevway at Metro Arts. That was a really space- Experimental Arts Foundation. They're an to go back and photograph them each year and centric thing too. organisation with a national profile, so, that was see how they'd slowly degraded. Photocopy ink is pretty weird! incredibly lasting. Deviations was in November Do you make your music adhere to the space, or 98 and you can still see some ofthe original did you pick the space to adhere to your music? So, can you tell us a little bit about the 'Public stickers on poles and stuff like that. Space'project? Both. Drone 9 was on 9/9/99.1 don't know, it What other space-related projects have you sort of sculpts itself into an idea. There's an Sure. It was a performance. I was heavily been involved in? artist called Jamie, and when I was doing involved in community arts at the time, and Atmospheric Disturbances we were the only witnessed the whole changeover ofthe public Over in Japan there's this sort of fetish club radio show in the whole world to play all of his advertising legislation, which a lot of people thing, these really small little clubs which fit material. He produces these one hour drone weren't aware of. The council tried to make it so about 100 people maximum and they're pieces, using kids' organ toys with the keys gaff"a- we couldn't put posters up anj^wliere except reclaimed. The}''re normally converted from taped down. Over a certain amount of time the designated conmuuiity boards. So, it really put a garages of some ofthe high rise buildings, circuitry, because it's cheap and plastic, would lid on our ownership of public space, and also on usually three or four. They knock the walls out bug out or warm up, making the key-notes any kind of alternative culture, underground between them, leaving one ofthe garages for change. So, over one hour you can hear this sort culture or street culture, because that was our audiences, one for a stage and one's left as a of slow-morphing key change. Wliat you heard communication to a large extent: the street poles green area for artists. The space for the artists is when it started up and what you heard at the and bus shellers. Not only was il like an as big a space as tlie audiences'. The other style end were completely different notes. Space is information exchange, it was like a circulation of which is really common is, you'll have a bar and actually very important to music and sound art local art, like a public galleiy of sorts. So, to see then the audience and then the stage and there in general. Have you seen three-inch CDs? You that die, to tiy and ban all of that was pretty won't be anything behind the stage. There's only can package them a lot differently. Wliereas a 22 actually do a performance really cheaply. I mean, pollution we're putting into the environment normal CD costs you $2.80 to post, a three- I've never got an arts grant for anrthing I've ever that we don't even see. It's bad enough with inch'll only put you back 45 cents. You just pop it done. carbon monoxide. One of the nicest things I've in a litde envelope! ever recorded was captured at the Treasury So how do they work, having only such a short Have you always been interested in chaos Casino taxi rank. It was a Friday night and busy amount of time to work with? Isn't composition? as all hell. There was this whole row of taxis, experimental music a kind of open-ended each picking up passengers, one by one. Once a artform? I'm doing a day job for a market research firm at taxi picked-up, all the rest moved up two spaces. the moment. I go doorknocking, asking people Sometimes when it was really slow, I recorded KE'ITLE, the record label, just wanted to get lo fill out surveys and stuff like that. It's insane! one car going, all the drivers getting back in their away from producing regular objects. When we Ever>' address you go to you've gotta write down cars, starting up their engines, moving one were putting out normal CDs, a lot of people what happens to you, if they were home, etc. So space, then turning off their engine. When you went "oh no, sixty minutes of experimental I've been tran.slating the results into music: actually listen to it completely unrelated to the music! Don't you have anything smaller?" It's a whole notes for an interview, half notes for a actual event it's like WOW: It sounds composed good marketing or gimmicky thing to say, "oh subtie refusal, and quarter notes for vehement in a .strange sort of way. The hard thing about it's only twenty minutes." The latest CD I did refusals. In theoiy it should produce an organic editing fie'.d recordings is you can never snip was 'Fading.' The idea was to capture the essence rhrthm .system, Another composition thing I'm tiiem correctly because of these random of twenty-odd minute performances in only one wanting to do is a performance, in which the elements. You can always hear the edit marks. to two minutes. With a three-inch I could fit in music is based on the chemical breakdown of the twelve tracks over twenty minutes. In this way, planets. Seeing as though there's eighty-four What do you think are some ofthe best spaccs listeners get a cross section of a year's worth of different elements, there's eighty-four possible to listen to music in? performances in under twenty-five minutes. notes. It's quite interesting, you can give each element a key or a note and then with the Wlien I was doing Atmospheric Disturbances, we Could you tell us about the Lotto project? Didn't planets you can say, well, the earth's made up of asking listeners, "how do you listen to the you give it away with gold lotto tickets as a a lot of carbon, oxygen, nitrogen, whatever, each show?" We got some strange feedback. One guy gimmick? of which has a corresponding note. When you hid in his cupboard, put the speakers inside the play the elements / notes together, you get a cupboard, stepped in.side and closed the door. Lotto was a CD of random tracks, just little chord of sorts. The Earth might end up a G or Another guy put his speakers in a toilet-bowl, snippets one after another. The idea was that the something else, based on its elemental and sat on the toilet during the show! So, there's listener could either play it as is, or play it on random: limitless music, potenfially. A breakdown. I once did an interview with Tim this crazy shit going on. You'd get these emails graveyard shift programmer from a radio station Ritchie for a documentarv' that was supposed to once a week: we had a few taxi drivers listening in Melbourne actually left it on random for be about electronic music, but ended up being in, and they were going, "it's great, we can wind hours. But that's the whole idea. You could even make it do your gold lotto: make it pick your The Earth might end up a G or something numbers by playing it on random and marking down the track-numbers. So, it's a 20 minute else, based on its ele mental breakdown. CD, but it's really a limitless CD. Tlie next thing about Napster. We were talking about down the windows and get all this traffic noise I've been wanting to do is digitalise this 9 page composition and what influenced me and I said mixing with the stuff you're pla>ing!" That's poem a won an award for in 1988. I'd assign a what I really like about radio. You can have a different voice for each ofthe sentences over the this now notorious quote, that if you're the 9 pages. The whole deal would sort of be this average person, 85 percent of your Ufe is spent whole variety of locations. We did a performance whole random idea of recording it, getting it listening to traffic or air-conditioning. As a at a music conference last year where there was down to 99 lines and putting it on to a CD. You sound artist, what hope do you have? I've done whole speaker distribution, which is a term for a could randomise the poem like you could the performances with televisions the microwaves, performance in which you have a mixing desk Lotto CD: you could even play the two with music triggered by the fieldstha t these with an unlimited number of faders controlling simultaneously, endlessly Music on one CD and tilings radiate. Participants were able to figure your different speakers. In this particular poetry on the other. Just going back to the three- out when they're moving into the field of an instance, we had subwoofers, tweeters, bioken inches, recently I got into this whole idea that I appliance, and realise how far out these fields ones, half destroyed ones, ones that had pin wouldn't do a performance unless I could either reach. People came up afterwards and asked, holes in the speaker, a \\iiole variety. Each had wear it or fit it in my pocket. So, for the Odyssey its own littler fader so we could control the performance, the idea was that I used only two "have you done something to the television?" Lotto CDs. I had them in my pocket, popped Why go out and buy a television when I can just whole movement around the space. But we did it them into the CD player and just randomised use my own? It was about awareness of on radio, and because eveiyone had theii' own them, moving between the players, loopmg one electromagnetic variation. Al the time there was radio: alarm clocks next to the bed, ghetto and randomising the other. Afterwards I just a documentaiy on the ABC about the noise blasters, little hand walkie-talkie things, we jumped back into the audience. Down in pollution we're putting into the ocean from all threw them all aro\md the room and we Melbourne someone asked if he could get a the engine noise from all the boats. Whales used broadcast a show which was, 1 guess, a curated quote on my luggage and equipment freight! I to be able to communicate for hundreds of performiince. That was a really easy sound thing mean, mv aesthetic is, if you can't cariy it m your kilometres, but because we've got all this engine with big results. We managed to get this whole hand luggage, you don't take it. The idea of variety of sound and location.. spending as much on your luggage as your plane noise we've created this fog of noise that stifles ticket has caused me to become an economic the whales' communication beyond three valioualist about the whole thing. You can kilometres. It was about being aware of all this KfVI'E SCO'IT AND MARK GOMES 23 bodily experience of place. Foucalt surmised that in the Middle Ages, places were hierarchically ensembled: the sacred above the profane; protected versus open /exposed; urban distinct from rural; " In cosmological theory, there were the supercelestial places, as opposed to the celestial, In 1967 and the celestial place was in its turn opposed to Michel the terrestrial place. It was this complete Foucault gave hierarchy, this opposition, this intersection of a lecture in places that constituted what could very roughly be which he claimed that 'the present called medieval space: the space of emplacement." epoch will perhaps be above all, the (Foucault) epoch of space.' The nineteenth century, Foucault claims, was obsessed vrith history and time, (an obsession It was only with the decay ofthe religious which began with the Enlightenment philosopher Immanuel Kant), History and medieval world view, and the emergence of a geography were divided into rigorously discrete disciplines, and time and space nascent discourse of scientificity - furthered by were similarly rent in tv/o. Reinforced by Nevrtonian physics, time and history Galileo, Descartes and Newton - that the were elected the agents of change, or 'becoming,' while geography and space transition from place to space was completed. became merely descriptive, the passive 'being' of philosophy. The finite and ordered cosmos CA gave way to the idea of the The later twentieth and early twenty-first centuries, however, universe - a singular, infinite have witnessed the reinvestment of space with social and critical The finite and expanse of extensible space. importance. This affirmation of space is evident across a broad ordered cosmos Space, characterless and passive, n spectrum of disciplines. In philosophy, Michel de Certeau gave way to the idea was there to be conquered. speaks of space as practiced place, Gilles Deleuze and Felix ofthe universe - a Guattari describe smooth and striated spaces, Gaston Bachelard This conception of space fed into proposes the poetics of space, and Maurice Blanchot explores singular, infinite the exploratory compulsions of The Space of Literature. Unsurprisingly, architecture and expanse of the European Renaissance and geography have welcomed the renewed interest in space; and extensible space. Enlightenment. The discovery of indeed a dedicated field of postmodern geography has emerged, Space, the 'New World' and the search with Ed Soja and Derek Gregory picking up where Foucault and characterless and for 'Terra Australis' was fuelled by Henri Lefebvre left off. Women's studies has also recognised passive, was there a desire to fill in the gaps, to the importance of space; Doreen Massey's Space, Place and render unknown space familiar by Gender, Rosa Ainley's New Frontiers of Space, Bodies and to be conquered. subsuming them into the known. Gender, and Nancy Duncan's Bodyspace providing a few Not coincidentally, these passive, examples of feminism's interest in space. The space ofthe city and yet savage, lands were has provided a new area of investigation for sociology. Even law has recognised typically anthropomorphised as women, not the importance of space, and political theor}' is branching out into a very only in language but also in art and maps. The spatially aware 'geopolitics.' representation of unknown spaces as female bodies implied not simply passivity and In order to explain today's revaluation of space it is important to understand the Otherness, but also outright submission to the history of space from the Classical world to Postmodernity. As Edward Casey mastery of Western epistemology, embodied in writes, the period 400 B.C. to 1800 A.D. underwent a 'complex transition' from the omniscient male gaze. place to space. This transition was also a gradual uplifting ofthe line of sight from the Greek concepts of chora, or place, to kosmos, the cosmos. The mapping While the Enlightenment formalised the practices of the medieval period bear witness to a move away from choreography Renaissance view of space, it was Great with its emphasis upon the importance and power of place, to cosmography Britain's Age of Empire which raised it to its which looked to the stars for fixed bearings in order to define and enclose space. logical limit. The concretisation of this view of Yet, while cosmography and cosmology began to emphasise the global over the space in Empire's colonial and expansionist local, they also maintain the importance of place, particularly vrith the hved, urges is depicted by Joseph Conrad with great 24 acuity. In Heart of Darkness, Conrad's that one should take as its model a perpetual Striated space forms hierarchical systems in protagonist confides: battle, rather than a contract regulating a which 'lines or trajectories tend to be transaction or the conquest of a territory.' subordinated to points: one goes from one Now when I was a little chap I had a passion point to the other.' In smooth space, on the for maps. I would look for hours at South Power, in the late twentieth centurv' other hand, 'the points are subordinated to America, or Africa, or Australia and lose myself becomes an active and dispersed strateg)' the trajector>'.' Deleuze and Guattari then in all the glories of exploration. At that time instead of a passive and sovereign propert>'. seem to turn the being/becoming there were many blank spaces on the earth and Similariy space is divested of its role as dichotomy on its head by arguing that, 'all when I saw one that looked particularly ineit backdrop to history, and reconceived progress is made by and in striated space, inviting on a map (but they all look that) I as a productive tool. bift all becoming occurs in smooth space.' would put my finger on it and say: When I They are, however, careful not to reduce the grow up I will go there... I have been in some of However, the smooth and the them and - well, we won't talk about that. But reassessment of "Smooth striated to a simple there was one yet - the biggest ~ the most blank, space in the spaces are not opposition, for they so to speak - that I had a hankering after." twentieth centur>' argue, the two has not simply in themselves cannot exist independently of This imperial expansionist project of inverted the liberatory... one another: conquering and colonising 'Other' spaces space/time never believe had the effect of further subordinating dichotomy, that a smooth 'the two spaces in space to time, for the annexation of land privileging space space wiU fact exist only in tesrified to the temporal permanence ofthe f"5fftingtime. suffice to save mixture: smooth sovereign Narion-State. While Newton s 9i ^ •, linear physics ^S. Dcleuze space is constantly being translated, The twentieth-century, on the other hand, is bolstered the and Guattari. transvcrsed into a often referred to, polftically and modernist striated space; economically, as a 'bordericss worid': a conception of tiine, Einstein's theoiy of striated space is worid in which the Nation-State can no relativit}' probleniatised the ver>^ notion of constantly being longer maintain its pretensions of enduring, the absolutes of time and space. Paul reversed, returned to monolithic, unitaiy power. A monument to Virilio writes that after Einstein, the binaiy a smooth.' time and histoiy, the Nation-State began to of time (duration) and space (extension) fragment in the twentieth centuiy, has been subjected to a thirding in the form Moreover, Deleuze particulariy with the growth of information of light (limit-speed). The absolutes break and Guattari also and communication technologies - such as down, leaving a 'spatiotemporal the internet - and the vegetal spreading of continuum' which 'cannot have a centre - resist privileging multi-national corporations. Similarly, the still less an origin - beyond this veiy the smooth over the striated, for. they power that the Nation's sovereign had held relativit)'.' Consequently, writes Casey, write, 'smooth spaces are not in themselves a power generally handed down over time space is now 'less suggestive of infinite liberatoiy... never believe that a smooth began to disperse to become, in Foucault's settled extension than of speed - if not the space will suffice to save us.' words, a spatialised network of power speed of light, the speed of their own relations. frenzied movements through space in Thus, in the twentieth and twent>'-first imagined or real flights.' centuries, space is ultimately concerned with practice, performance, knowledge and It is space, Foucault argues, which throws power. It is at once a being and a into relief the nexus of power-knowledge, a Deleuze and Guattari define the movement becoming, and is concerned with both the field of enquiiy ignored by dialectics of ofthe body in space as a kind of local and the global. Spatial theoiy histoiy. Moreover, it is the irreducible cartography made up ofthe elements of identifies itself as a kind of praxis, a space and surface of the body upon which longitude, 'the sum total ofthe material technology ofthe self. If recognising the power-knowledge is exercised. Thus, in elements belonging to it under given relations of movement and rest, speed and spatialit>' of self, language and society Foucault, power is spatialised and takes the slowness,' and latitude, 'the sum total of allows us to see the play of discourses that form of a strategy rather than a propeil}': the intensive affects it is capable of at a construct 'reality,' a spatial awareness is a given power or degree of potential.' The functional tool in the negotiation of the 'One should decipher in [power] a netivork of movement of the body occurs within what postmodern world. relations, constantly in tension, in activity, they term 'striated' and 'smooth' space. rather than a privilege that one might possess; 25 ional SludeniS: boy John Hay's Gash Cows? by Henry Citizen Why am I crapping on about the appearance overseas students." He went on to reassure of our beloved John in the new UQ members of the QUT community that the promotional agenda? Because UQ currently university is always concerned with has its great, monolithic 'corporate maintaining the highest academic standards ^i promotions' machine clunking away at the and fairness to all students. moment in an effort to attract more international clientele to the university. The However, too many surveys and masses of shortfall in federal higher education funding in anecdotal evidence have amounted to a " 2001 is forcing universities to trade academic beyond reasonable doubt jury verdict. So the integrity for institutional revenue, with the question is no longer, 'are' academics international student market proving the most lowering passing grades for international lucrative. students and giving them preferential treatment, the question is now only 'why'. The issue of pass marks for international The more conservative response to such students has been a contentious one in the ghastly evidence, and one certainly taken by Australian media so far this year. The Sydney most of the Australian media and public, has Morning Herald ran a series of articles, been a resounding 'poo-poo' at Australian based on statistics released by the Australia universities. Fancy allowing these wealthy, full Institute, on the issue of institutional pressure fee paying international students to romp with on academics to pass and give preferential ease through our wonderful education treatment to system. What about our domestic, welfare He is becoming international recipient kiddies, sweating away over the the UQ 'Dorian students. Locally, a grindstone desperately trying to pass? Grey'; the lecturer in the H^fas anyone else noticed lately John Hay's photo looming out at you from every piece of physical Brisbane Graduate This interpretation bears more of a UQ merchandise or paraphernalia? UQ's manifestation of ^^^°°' °^ ^"^'"^ss suspicious resemblance to the stuff that 'promotions' section seem to have decided the Increasingly ^^Q^^ accused comes out of this writer's bottom than the that John should be the 'front man' of this .'**'' his Faculty of pure and utter truth. International students commercial compromising university's new corporate image. He is are being used as the proverbial 'cashcows' becoming the UQ 'Dorian Grey': the physical enterprises of this teaching and of universities, particularly UQ, to desperately manifestation of the increasingly more university. learning integrity, try and raise lost revenue from a budget commercial enterprises of this university. after being stranglehold on Australian tertiary funding. Perhaps this new 'playboy V.C behavioiir pressured to pass international students not International students are being herded in the 'up to scratch'. explains the massive pay rise that our gates on the basis of misinformation and beloved Vice Chancellor has received this commercial hype, and milked as a revenue The beloved Vice Chancellor of QUI Dennis year whilst facilities have been forced to cut raiser. Australian Universities provide them Gibson was quick to suggest, in a release courses and academic positions. Catwalk with misleading information about the level of from the university on the 2nd March 2001, modelling has now been added to his dossier academic English required to study in the that 'Ihe change (in marks) did not result and job description. land of 02, with the ILETS English from the application of different standards to proficiency tests being more of a debacle than an accurate guide. £6 It would be rather obtuse of anyone to not learning environments offered to international venture is obviously unrealistic. So if we can't recognise that there is a dramatic difference students will encourage them to have a provide them with sufficient tuition, perhaps between the level of English required to say: positive attitude about Australian education we could supply support services? "Can I have a piece of cheese please?", and and Australia when they return home at the the level of academic English required to conclusion of their studies." The University of Queensland has 4 write a Master of Laws thesis. The difference international editing assistance counsellors In though, seems to be So... what to do? its student support services who do a glanced over in the there is a dramatic difference There is a massive wonderful job, but most are limited in the service they can provide as a result of glossy 'come to UQ between the level of English influx of international students at the intense workloads. This is also the case with please Mr / Ms required to say: "Can I have a overseas student' University of the International support counsellors in piece of cheese please?", and the pamphlets. These Queensland who may Student Support Services, counsellors who students are blatantly level of academic English not have the ability to all work beyond the call of duty (and pay being ripped off by UQ required to write a Master of Laws study the program of packet) on a matter of principle. This and as trends indicate, thesis. their choice because University is allegedly trying to cut 10% from this mass rip-off will of misleading the UQ Student Support Services, a sector continue. The University of Queensland made information and deliberately manipulative made up of overworked counsellors and one 30 million big ones from international language tests. How do you attempt to photocopier! That effectively means staff are students in 99, and has been frantically address this problem? to be cut as well. straining to try and dramatically increase these enrolments over the past couple of Perhaps you could The situation at the moment years. QUT made $38 million from provide them with is dire. International students international students last financial year and English language are being left to fend for has also been desperately trying to build on support and editing themselves. They are this figure. UQ has stated (in its strategic assistance? provided limited support plan) intentions to dramatically increase services despite the fact that international student numbers on campus. The current they dominate the caseload Between 91 to 99 in national terms, arrangements of of most of the Student enrolment numbers in Aussie universities departmental tuition and Support counsellors on have grown from 47, 882 to 157, 834. staff/student contact '.^^^ campus. Whilst international seem inadequate in '^^ student numbers continue to i Hi spiral on campus, student Beyond a sIde-to-side head shake, you ask, properly serving the are there particular codes of practice in number of international support services are actually existence to call to authority in such students with language reducing in size. Curriculum circumstances? Yes indeedy. The University difficulties. Most and assessment of Queensland is a signatory to a number of departments seem requirements at this codes with respect to its responsibilities to reticent in providing University are particularly students. Of particular relevance is the direct editing assistance Inflexible, and as a result Australian Vice Chancellor Committee's 'Code for international many international students of Ethical Practice' in the provision of students in the interests are dropping out, flunking, education to international students by of avoiding conflict over concepts of returning home without their degrees and Australian Higher Education institutions. intellectual property, plagiarism and copyright. substantially out of pocket. Amongst its many provisions, the code The University will provide an international states: student with one semester's worth of What can the University do about this language tuition. Studies by language support problem? Well, they can lower the pass marks, sacrifice academic standards in a "2.7. Australian institutions should recognise units in England show that, whilst the rate of program, and allow preferential treatment, their ongoing responsibilities for the acquiring language differs from student to thereby letting them slip through, and that is education and welfare of international student, it takes between 100 to 200 hours of what this whole kerfuffle has been about... students. Institutions should ensure that the study to improve lELTS scores by 0.5%. academic programs, support services and That's a lot of hours, and funding such a 27 internal staircases hanging on the outer parapets of sites - you see; impossible in design. It is this blend of art and science that will help us understand the monster or Madonna we have created with the web. These are the new mythologies, and they employ science for their cause. The tangible, empirically knowable aspect of the internet is There is a danger in the academy of clinging It is impossible to build a definitive physical the location of ISPs. The other too tightly to science as a way of model of the internet, once you take into constellations; websites and users, are understanding or conceptualising the internet. account the continually shifting elements, the constantly shifting (although some have wviw.cybergeography.com lists a range of micro-point networks of links within a site, the sought to pin these butterflies down by sites devoted to mapping the net in different links to other sites, and sites that are simply tracking internet weather patterns). These ways. There are maps of ISPs in the world, lists of links, not to mention the textual/human myths highlight the victory of the science maps of user densities in an area. At the traffic. A fiscal economy is mapped narrative, and on reflection exposes a truth: other end of the spectrum there are maps of according to a series of figures - hard data the internet cannot be known for any more the way sites link within themselves and to that can be crunched and poured into a than a moment. each other. framework, While the internet is simitar to the Idea of mapping an economy, the data is The shape of the net, the path of contour and These maps can be dull. But some, even more slippery and at this stage, less gully, can only be mapped by you as you without the benefits of FlashPlayer, are available. journey through it. These are paths that fall beautiful. Visually, they suggest beams of away once trodden on, and while you may information arcing overhead, wrapping This does not make the idea of cyberspace return to a place you can never be sure if it is around the world, cocooning around each fraudulent or fake. A ThjMlffililff'n other and untangling to courier data from concept has as much "•^^Wlli» U typing fingers to grappling minds. We mill valency as does underneath this graceful traffic, demanding of people who believe in U can dniv lie it and feeding it, and it responds without it - and there are jOUf 11^ ough creaks or groans - conceptually, these maps plenty of people who ^ make you think information is natural, the net are trying to make sense of cyberspace. It in fact the place you were before, or just a is natural, that information simply knows its does mean we might ask ourselves why we space that looks the same (Adelaide is path. have chosen science to author the answers surprisingly simitar to Seattle). Internet to the 'What is it?' question, if the current mapping could be thought of as the attempt The problem starts here: it's a story. Articles, mythologies are held at the expense of of a bunch of white coats trying to pull an theses and books on the subject of others, and how we might incorporate empirical, thus knowable landscape over cybergeography use science as an authorial competing ideas into the schema of wind; impossible and kind of clumsy. device for what is simply a narrative, like the knowledge as they arise. Science seems to sage character who comes in and sets draw a distinction between itself and Cybergeography, the story, not the science, is everyone straight. And this is fine. The philosophy - occupying the higher Veritas how cultures have understood themselves for problem is that we, the readers and authors ground so to speak. eons. Our attachment to calling on scientific of these texts, don't recognise the fiction of authority to explain this empirically slippery them. We believe them as science. What we Pick the better metaphor for describing the cultural phenomenon will be to our detriment should be doing is seeing them as creation shape of internet: cartography, or an Escher if we do so at the expense of other methods myths - although creating a story in order to drawing with its impossible staircases? The or madnesses. The trick then is, to see the understand something so that it is no longer cartographic example works if you suspend science discourse - or any one discourse - scary, and then admitting what you've been other competing concerns. Escher on the as a means for further dialogue, not the ends. saying is simply a story, is perhaps too brave other hand, managed to capture for a and honest for even our sophisticated moment, in a single frame something akin to ByCatbHart outlook. the shape of the internet, with its impossible 28 girlfriends, children, whomever can really only I was once told that the inside of a be a catalyst to stir up some of that deep prison wasn't everyone's cup of tea. And to seated appertaining rage. I've only had to be honest I don't usually drink tea, or endure such unpleasantries twice, and anything for that matter, flanked by prison personally I found it very Hollywood anyway. guards and enclosed in a cage with several dozen cameras watching my every breath. 1 On the Here, an androgynous prison suppose half the reason I went the first time other hand, clerk checks through my shoes was out of morbid curiosity. But the stark grey if you're one walls, masked by fence upon fence of razor of the lucky and pockets, satisfied that I pack of wired barriers, seem less of a mind-fuck haven't concealed angel wire in 'leelers", today than in recent v/eeks. you can my cleavage or pills in mXgnts proceed Stripped of all jewellery and detachable items through electronically locked doors into a and wearing the only pair of enclosed shoes I large room or caged outdoor area. White tables and chairs complete with big old coffee own, I make my way from the car park to the tins as makeshift ashtrays only add to the visitors sign in area. Here, an androgynous echoing silence. My knees buckle, my prison clerk checks through my shoes and stomach churns, I sweat. "Jesus, not again," I pockets, satisfied that I haven't concealed think as I feel the bile slowly angel wire in my cleavage or pills in my make its way from the pit of my belly to the pants. I can proceed to the next back of my mouth, "just breathe. You've done stage. this a million times before." 1 follow the yellow line painted onto the As the door's lock buzzes open my heart rate bright meanderings of what will come once white cement that leads me through the increases and my mouth dries out. My once this place is just a memory. inside of the jail to another waiting room. And calm state of mind has transgressed to fear this is where it begins to get a bit tricky. Once the two hours have slipped away over a intermingled with intense anxiety. "Is this a packet of cigarettes and two cans of coke. I panic attack or is it all in my fucking head If, for whatever reason, you've been cursed re-emerge into the familiarity of the "outside" again?" with a non-contact visit, you separate from world. This world where we take space and the pack that is lucky enough to have fill it with shit. This world where space is no And then I see him. Everything else becomes privilege of touch. Non-contact visits to an all longer even recognised, let alone a void, a vacuum, an insignificant backdrop to male prison can cause more aggression than appreciated.This space where he is not. the core of escapism I'm opening up. And so good in inmates. Prisoners only get one for two hours there is no space or time or 29 visit a week lasting from one hour to two. and Rachel-Mary Moore for them to not be able to touch their wives. relativity; only soft words, crazy stories and HSH THAT LOOKS UKE A SPIOER: an interview witli Not From Tiiere's Heinz Riegler been to before, so, I guess it's a departure, LA., being in LA.? but it s also a departure that works in our contmuing cycle. It still sounds like a Not Yes, I think so, definitely. Just walking From There record. around in a new city, like, walking around Tokyo or around Los Anseles reallv does What do you think some ofthe catalysts for make you e.xcited, even thrilled. W'hen you've the change w sound haue been? I know that travelling I think your senses become a little you guys recently spent some time in America. Has travelling influenced uour more, like, turned on, because evcivtiiing's sounds? new, and you take that in, and you love it. Is accessibility ever a consideration in That's got something to do with it. The band making a Not From There record? as a unit real])' likes travelh'ng. We reallv hked druang through the desert in the States. It kind of motivates you to wanna be in a I think there's a notion within a lot of hands band, because all of a sudden you're on who kind of sit around, listening to pop somebody's else's tab, you're getting flown music, or really catchy music, and kinda go, around and getting to do some really cool oh, that s fuckin easy, I can do tliat Once in shit, and you kinda realise, oh right, this is a while as a songwriter I get turned on to the -why we're doing it. It really made us come Idea of, can I write a pop song? Can I wife back and think, let's make a record, because that piece of music that just jumps out at you we d been talking about making one for from your stereo? It's more a challenge to somethmg like si.x or eight months before myself then a challenge to radio or the then, but \ve never really felt all that inspired people but, I like that aspect of music, I like to do It. So, after the trip, we definitely felt wc the instantaneous aspect of music. So, I like Last month Semper spoke to could do It again. And then there's personal that, but I also thmk the band has always Hemz about space, travelling, things, like falling in love, having a really predominantly been an album band. Tlie kind Australia and recordinc Not good time, and being with someone I totally of band who likes to make pieces of music } rom There's new record, adinire, who just drives me nuts. That's part vjnth a start and an end. This time I wanted to Latvian Lovers... of It. Another is that we really wanted to do both. I wanted to have a record that was chalJenge ourselves in the sense of, talking the epic piece of music, with a beginning and Uituiau Lovers is being touted everywhere about the good shit, which is difficult in the an end, but 1 also wanted it to contain as a really radical shift from your previous sense that, it's fairly simple, at least, is has indnqcuaj songs that were instantaneous, work. I was wondering iftjou guijs been to us, to express anger or disillusion or that cou d make people sing along and tap yourselues consider it siich a radical shift, or their feet. So, that was a definite objective. I whether the new sounds have always k'imla been with you? Well, I think we've kinda been making stSVnd tJS/?H ^ spider" is just me, being really records for the last len years, and we've never made the same rceord twice, so, I can I couldn't riSnf^f^*'"''^ ^ **''^^"» of an octlpus, and see how some people, if thev've only iieard I couldn t thmk ofthe word octopus, so I said, %sii." band on Seven or I'ne Ii.P.'s before it, could think Uitvian k)vers is this really radical to be bleak. You just strap on a guitar, scream into a microphone, and that's prett>' much all nk there are people who've done that, like thin};. Hut to us, it's a reallv natural .Jl^n^V ^'""''^ f''"'P'c of someone who progression, because we've never really you need. But to describe the fun stuff, the cool shit m vour life, well, we haven't really •1.?!. T )i'?^'' ?Vt also made awesome rei)eated ourselves. We make a point of not lecoids that woi-k in their entirety. As a repeating ourselves. We like to pusii it explored that factor much in the past, so, that y know? In that sense, it felt reallv innocent was a bit of a challenge. fZ i'> '""^^ '"'"^"^ '°^^^"g «t tJ^at and how to making it, because we're trying new stuff, WOIK It. u'c rc kinda going into worlds we've never Has recording in new spaces pulled new sounds out of you guys? I mean, recording in wi'if f'^ «"!/.«7'if5 ijou kind of held in the I know you just mentioned Bowie, but were 30 control of that side of things as well. little backyard, it's the Australian dream. It's there any other artists or records you sort / think Lounge Anthem's my pick ofthe new a veiy clean place. It's vcr>' intriguing here. of well, were trying to equal in recording tunes, could you tell me a little about its I've kind of gotten used to'it now, but it took this record? conception? me a long time to adapt to the pace of the place too. It's slow, but it suits the climate I Not so much, no. There arc not so many There's a really long piece before it which is think. artists I want to emulate, but there is a lot of like just a single guitar tone, before it actually people I really respect for what they do, they kicks into the start idea of the song, and to It's really great for fledgling musicians to are all over the place, I really have a lot of me, that's a piece in itself. That sound is have a band like Not From There in this city. time for them. I mean, ten years ago, my kinda me, sitting at home, waiting for mv You're so eclectic and although you've been favourite band would have been Sonic Youth, girlfriend to show up. Because we're both here for so long, there seems to be a certain just for the noise and the craziness and the really busy people, I've learnt to value the European flavour to your work. It's also energ}'^ they generate, but, for the last year or time we have to spend together, just watching great, I think, to have a band here who so I've been listening to a lot of hip-hop TV, or sitting in the loungeroom. Thus, the upholds the degree of artistry that Not From music, that, when it's good, really nails Lounge Anthem. It's just kinda sitting There does. stories right on the head, while giving you a around, not caring about what's outside those sense of groove with it as well. Then there four walls. "Fish that looks like a spider" is The words artist, art, and self-indtilgence are are bands like Mogwai, who I really admire just me, being really stoned and tr>ing to generally frowned upon in this count^\^ I for what they do, but, y'know, there's a lot of describe a dream of an octopus, and I make music because I wanna be self- music out there that I really enjoy. But when couldn't think of the word octopus, so I said, indulgent, first and foremost, I wanna please it comes to making our own records, it's more "fish." It's just an ode to time in which we myself, and I don't have any qualms like, who don't we wanna sound like? Rather relax. connecting the word art to what I do. I'm than, who are we trying to sound like? comfortable with that. I mean, that's it, that's Because that's not really something we're How do you feel about the current Brisbane what I do. I think Australia as a place interested in. There are other kinds of scene? sometimes has a problem with that kind of avenues you can pursue, like with the track attitude. People who are not afraid to be Breakfast v^th Valentine. I didn't play that People have always been good to us all along, called artists are often looked upon in a much guitar on the record for the first three, ever since we came here there have been strange kind of light here. I'm not sure what four, five weeks of the session, but then I people who've supported us, there's a label that's all about. It's something that bugs me went home one night and thought 1 really here who put out a record we did overseas, about this place. While it's alright to be the wanted to do a guitar song, because that's before we were ever signed to Mushroom. guy next door who's just lucking around on a where I come from, that's where I started out. Venues have been supportive and just guitar, ambition in art and music is really So, I found myself wanting to do this generally people have oeen really supportive. frowned upon, it's like you're not meant to be excessive guitar piece, and I was thinking of I think Australia has got a huge amount of ambitious or wanting to go places, you're just bands like My Bloody Valentine, y'know? people making music, I mean the ratio of meant to be the happy-go-lucky guy next Lyrically, it's really ecstatic. I was sleep total people in this country to the number of door who happens to play guitar. I think deprived, walking home in the morning and everything seemed really orange around me, and I had this fish-eye kind of vision, I don't how that happened and everything was The words artist, art, and self-indulgence are moving realty slowly around me, like time generally frowned,upo n in this country. was really bent. And I think Mv Bloody Valentine really bend time really well, and that was what I wanted to do with that song, I people making music is incredibly huge, so, I there's examples of that attitude being broken wanted to really bend time. guess at times there is a real sense of right now from Australian bands, and when I competition that does taint the scene in a see that I get really excited. I think it's ver}' What are some of your favourite spaces to way. People are working reallv hard to get important for Australia to say, people here play? their music out there, but really they're can make as good, as relevant, as important competing for such a small piece ofthe pie art as anyone else, anywhere in the world. I like indoors. For me it's important when it's that, I think, sometimes people get really Somewhere we've got to find the confidence sounds really awesome on stage. Essentially I bitter about it, and upset and all that, which I to actually say that and mean it. Then we've think, as far as performing music goes, you think is just silly, because they're doing what got to take our art to other places, rather than really want set the scene properly and they love. I mean, I can understand it, but I just stay here and complain that we're really unfortunately a lot of venues in this country can do without it. Brisbane's pretty good removed from the rest of the world. That's don't allow you to do the best you possibly though, in terms of bitchiness I think Sydney bullshit. You've really got to grab that shit by can. Especially if you're rocking up to a pub, and Melbourne do a lot worse. I like coming the balls and say, fuck it, this is what I do, I and there's old winos propped up at the bar back here. There's a certain, laconic kind of really beUeve in it, it's really important to me, when you're doing a soundcheck. It's a peace here which is really enjoyable. It's and if you don't like that attitude, you can go shame, because we really care about what we green, there's lots of space. Australia in fuck yourself. It's one ofthe most fucking sound like live and we work really hard to general has a lot of space, which really important issues concerning AustraUan art I perfect our live sound. Unfortunately you intrigued me when I first came here. When I think, this lack of confidence. reach this point after which your control is flew in over Brisbane I was looking down and relinquished to the size ofthe P.A, the way eveiyone had their own house, on a little it's set up and all that kind of stuff, the way block of land. I mean, for a European, that's a the room is shaped, all those things, I'd love very strange concept. It's quite wild y'know? Not From There's new LP Latvian Lovers is to be in a position where you could take It's so spread out and everyone's got their out now through Festival-Mushroom 3-1 demonstrate the realities of women's sexual A womb of one's own? Or the dangerous and reproductive selves. They have done this in order to bring about social and often devil inside: women's bodies as space for legislative change. Unfortunately, while this has offered more opportunities for the pubMc debate. By Jen Smith... reality of women's lives to be discussed, it has also opened up a new arena for the Throughout history, women's bodies and On the other hand, to desexualise a woman demonisation of women's bodies and sexuality have been conditioned through the was to make her good. In the middle ages sexuality to take place. constant modelling of discourse and female mystics were celibate and often practice. They have been demonised, lived in closed communities away from men, A fine example of the portrayal of women's desecrated and violated whether under the or were symbolically desexualised with sexuality as demonic and dangerous to knife, in acts of violence or through the accounts of mystical or spiritual women society is abortion. Through their anti- actions of institutions and social norms that lopping off their breasts or dipping their abortion rhetoric, anti-choice campaigners characterise women in stereotypical ways. genitalia in boiling water. To do this (misrepresenting themselves as pro-life) In Australia today, federal and state symbolically exalted them 'above' ordinary seek to make lawyers, politicians, the governments, through restrictive policy women who were prone to giving in to church and doctors the gatekeepers and making (specifically on abortion or hysterical behaviour because ot their moral guardians of women's wombs. What reproductive technologies) condition and unstable and dangerous sexuality. they are effectively saying with their anti- shape women's bodies and sexuality. choice rhetoric is that women are not smart While this blatant demonising of women's enough to make these decisions about Historically, to sexualise a woman is to sexuality is less frequent in our society, motherhood by themselves: women are too make her 'bad'. Take, for instance, witches women's bodies and sexuality are still stupid, too frivolous, they don't care about and the highly sexualised nature of demonised regulariy within government human life, they are naughty, they did demonic literature that speaks of lesbianism policy making. In Australia women's bodies, something wrong and they should therefore and sex with the devil. The portrayal of and specifically our reproductive bodies, are suffer the consequences. In other words, witches' perverted sexuality has also frequently sites for public debate. Feminists they are saying that women who have demonised women as mothers. There are from the 1960s onwards have sought to control over their bodies are dangerous, many accounts of witches taking young bring women's sexuality out of dim, dark, and therefore need to be kept in check. children, harming their own and giving birth dangerous corners in which it has been to demonic offspring. . kept. They sought to make it a topic for The recent discussion about the availability public discussion in order to stop this of IVF to single women and lesbians once demonisation from taking place and again made women's wombs and sexuality a space for public debate. Women were demonised, not for wanting to terminate pregnancy, but for wanting to become pregnant (often by the same people that are so set against abortion). Women were again portrayed as being dangerous to children - this time for wanting to bring a child into a world where there is no male parer^t; a dangerous place where women's sexuality and action is unchecked by the presence of a male partner. The bottom line is that women need to be trusted with their own reproduction and sexuality. To do anything else is to reinforce that women are evil and therefore not to be trusted. Wanna do something about it? The women's rights area on campus runs campaigns to bring about abortion law reform and seek reproductive freedoms at all. Come along to women's collective on Tuesdays at 1pm in the women's room upstairs in the union building and get involved. artist's page CAN ^0\i " HI5 blCOV (^fZB&SURB IS THE PASn " TRtA(\/6,L£ Sebastian Moody The Triangle, 2000 Comic and inic on paper, 21 X 30 cm highly potent strains of marijuana, and stockpiling it in their bunkers so that the survivors could spend their time in an apocalyptic future blissed out and eating Dorritos. Mutually Assured Destruction (MAD) was the official name for the philosophy, a policy that had a lot in common with Irish Roulette (you Invaders know, like the Russian version, except that every chamber has a bullet in it). To keep MAD going, all that was required was a few nuclear tests annually. The other side would By the CopyCat pick these up on seismographs and satellite images and deduce that your warheads could [ expect that a lot of the people who are reading still go boom. The problem with MAD was that this will only just remember the whole Chernobyl people on both sides still wanted to win this war, thing in '86. And really, after that a lot of people even if it wasn't running hot. One of the first stopped treating the USSR and the Eastern Bloc ideas they had was the arms race, which boiled as a threat. A few years later the Berlin Wall came down to who had the most nukes. But as some down, and to a lot of people that marked the end of those damn tree hugging hippies pointed out, of the Cold War. But for most of the children of once both of you have enough nukes to the Eighties the Cold War seemed like a non- completeiy destroy the world, who has the most event, a premise for Bond film villains to exist and becomes a little besides the point. little more. I mean in the fifties and sixties people Having a The next idea was to have the war by proxy. A were truly scared of the proxy war is good example of this was Afghanistan. What the Communist threat. Of course kind of like East and the West discovered is that having a the West eventually reacted being a proxy war is kind of like being a professional to McCarthyism, and showed professional caterer - you do all of the work and preparation, that a lot of what was caterer - but don't get invited to the party to have any of passing for policy in the you do all of the fun. Seventies was actually the work and 11 hysterical paranoia, but preparation, Then came Ronald Reagan. Today ex-President everybody, on the right and but don't get Reagan suffers from Alzheimers, and can't on the left, was terrified by invited to remember having been POTUS. But when he the thought of some sort of the party was in power, Regan set about trying to win the •if-*. nuclear confrontation. Cold War. He backed the Space Defence Initiative, what became commonly known as the Public perception and administration policy was Star Wars project. Satellites were launched and focused on the loose nature of a nuclear war. billions of dollars spent researching the Early warning systems meant that either side technology needed to shoot Russian missiles could spot a preemptive strike, and launch a out of the sky. Of course SDI, Star Wars, was a counterstrike in time to ensure that nobody would total failure at actually shooting missiles down. survive. Deep command bunkers with years and But it did help win the Cold War. Even the years of canned food became the must have chance that the US could make a space based fashion accessory of any world leader. defence work meant that the USSR had to try Supposedly the US even spent time developing and develop one. Otherwise the Soviet nuclear 34 arsenal would be neutralised, and all the target missile. EM pulse weapons on satellites in orbit of the USA's nukes would still be around the planet. For the stated pointing at Moscow. This was a This hasn't stopped the US reason oi shooting missiles down, even problem. government from putting the project though everybody new they didn't out to tender, awarding Boeing the work! Which doesn't make much sense, The Soviet economy was in trouble. estimated $1,3 billion dollar unless they were never meant to work, Corruption was endemic, and the development. The plan, as it stands, is unless they were never meant to shoot shortages of basic items meant that to develop an intercept facility in down Russian nukes. many Russians had Alaska, which a standard of living would hold Instead Regan was trying to create a that could best be Famous for her dependence twenty space based defence against the described as poor. on her astrologers, Nancy is interceptor aliens that Nancy kept waking him up That the Soviet high reputed to have once missiles. The in the middle of the night and telling command would channelled Cleopatra, and project is him about. He had seen the photos of even consider believed that she was able estimated to what was actually found at Roswell in entering into a to communicate with aliens. end up costing 1947, and knew what the US Airforce multibillion dollar around $10.5 was playing around with in the Nevada space race angered Tiany within the billion dollars, and may be ready by desert at Area 51. The fact that the Communist Party. New members, with 2005, Of course the fact that the NMD Soviet economy collapsed like a fat concern for the rampant poverty of the seems likely to violate the Anti Ballistic man on a stairmaster when it tried to Russian people began to undermine Missile treaty the US signed with the keep up with the US was an the powerbase of the older hardline USSR decades ago, and that all of unexpected benefit. members. People like Gorbachev, with America's allies think it is a mistake his Glasnost, began to emerge as wont stop it from being built. If the fact George W, Bush's dad was Reagan's reformists who believed that it was that it doesn't work didn't stop 'Dubya' Vice President, and knew all about time the USSR concentrated on its from wanting one, why would the Star Wars. When the Democrats took domestic problems. The rest is recent concerns of his office the history: the Berlin Wall came down, the neighbours? ... all the aliens had done so far Strategic USSR fell apart, and Star Wars was was kidnap a few rednecks and shelved. Who needed missile shooting Defence But all of these mutilate some cattle. lasers when the threat of nuclear war arguments are Initiative was over? just a languished. smokescreen. Let's revisit Ronald Clinton had things like medicare and But now Star Wars is back. It has a Regan for a minute. Ron, a Hollywood education to spend US dollars on, and new name, the National Missile actor who appeared in a few B grade anyway all the aliens had done so far Defence (NMD) shield, and a new fan, cowboy flicks, had a wife Nancy. As was kidnap a few rednecks and George W. Bush. President 'Dubya' has First Lady she indulged her interests: mutilate some cattle. But now the an administration that believes that the charity fund raising, the White House Republicans are back in power. And US is again under threat of ballistic rose gardens, and new age lets be honest, after seven years of the missile attack. Recent terrorist action, conspiracies. Famous for her X-Files, Millenium, and all the other such as the suicide bombing of the dependence on her astrologers, Nancy conspiracy shows on television USS Cole, has prompted further is reputed to have once channelled America is ready to vote for a development of the old idea, Like Star Cleopatra, and believed that she was candidate who campaigns for a Wars, the NMD shield doesn't actually able to communicate with aliens. So work. The second series of tests in the President's wife believed in aliens. National Missile Defence shield to January of last year failed, with the And this same President spent billions protect middle America from the perils interceptor vehicle failing to destroy of dollars putting lasers, railguns and of an alien invasion. 3S A stralians for X^ ative J. itle CEnd J!%^conciliatio n By Jen Tsen Kwok Aside from One Nation hysteria, particular and fundamental issues of under the Gaming and Vagrancy's Act. Australians are still making snide social justice. We also aspire to ^ySTTaR's role is both dissemination of comments at barbecues and when bringing indigenous and non- information from indigenous groups Indigenous leaders and sports people indigenous communities together. We and proactive political participation on appear on tv. Others are still screwing believe this can only be done where these issues. up their faces in distaste when they see there is an environment of their children reading a chapter about communication and respect. We believe ANTaR is not exclusively for activists Aboriginal culture at school (if those in reconciliation but cur definition lies and political agitators. It broadly, as children are reading a chapter about beyond symbolic rhetoric. We wish not mentioned, gives non-Indigenous Aboriginal culture at all). I know this only for a substantive change in the Australians an opportunity to support happens because even as an Asian opinions of mainstream society but for Indigenous Australians in a purposive, Australian I've been privy to this. And tne effects of this to impact upon the tangible and organised way. when it comes to this question of daily lives of Indigenous people. This Manifestations of this support can take justice, endeavours to assist Aboriginal includes not only the improvement of whatever shape members and people in gaining the same rights and health, education and social welfare but supporters are willing to give. The most basic contribution is the act of joining ANTaR. Membership strengthens our The responsibility for assisting non-indigenous Australians in collective voice and provides us with the coming to terms with the past and the ramifications of it in the finances that keep our office and campaigns afloat. For those who want present, lies in the hands of other non-indigenous Australians. to be an active instrument in social change ANTaR QLD is the organisation to join. Bring ideas, bring expertise or standard of living as mainstream also to cement in Australian law the just bring enthusiasm. Whatever skills Australians, is seen to be against the human rights and legal rights that you bring, your presence alone is a Australian ethos of 'fair go' indigenous peoples should have. contribution to the struggle. egalitarianism. ANTaR formed in response to John Aboriginal people should not have to Howard's Ten Point Plan at the request An ANTaR club on campus is fight this racism and ignorance. It is not ofthe National Indigenous Working their war to wage. The responsibility for Group for a non-indigenous support presently being established in destabihsing this prejudice and group. We are the trustees of Australia's conjunction with the UQ Student misinformation, tne responsibility for largest public art installation, Union. If you are interested in assisting non-indigenous Austrahans in the Sea of Hands. In the past we have coming to terms with the past and the concentrated on Native Title and the joining this club, please contact: ramifications of it in the present, lies in delivery of indigenous rights in law. the hands of other non-indigenous Julianna, Lisa or Catherine on Australians. Moreover, the number of The Queensland body has existed since 3377 2263 actual indigenous people in Australia is late 1997 and was active in bringing the such a small percentage of the illegality ofthe Ten Point Plan, (the population that the capture of their Native Title Amendment Act in its final Alternatively you can contact votes by way of more just policy making form), to the attention of international ANTaR QLD at: is not of dire statistical importance at UN committees such as the Committee election times. For this reason also, the on the Elimination of Racial Ph. 07 3844 9800 Fax. 07 3844 concerns of indigenous peoples need to Discrimination (CERD). We became an 9562 EmaiL be vocally reverberated loudly by incorporated non-profit association in supportive non-indigenous people. early 2000. This year, in consultation [email protected] with local indigenous groups, we are or visit our website at ANTaR stands for Australians for focusing on four issues; the possibility www.dovenetq.net.au/communit Native Title and Reconciliation. We are of and discussion around a National all kinds of non-indigenous Australians Treaty; the Stolen Wages issue; cultural y/ANTaR who have come togetner to support the heritage; and the discriminative effects Aboriginal people's struggles in of QLD police move-on powers under Getting a Fool For tho Space - Hey, you can use this ART SPACE for your crying. - Thank you. Vll appreciate it timly. In today's romantised acreage, the average "I exhale just after bouncing the ball teary-eyed love lasts longer than most three times and when I do this my limousines. Proponents of a sa berline fi'inge flaps around. I also got dirt weeping lingo sympathise with the broken on my shirt." wing pushed by today's young Courier Mail journalists, but remain wary of most new Boo. Boohoo. Boobs. "He's a expressions of a melancholic leaning. Peter boob". There: there's a lot to be said Peter Peter ftom THROW A FEEL believes for the alphabet. It's good to get it tears can be fun: all out. "I cry a lot. I don't tell people because,Boo . Boo hoo. Finally, I was talking I don't know, it's lame. Jf someone's to a fnend recently died or something it's OK, but pretty Boobs. "He's a when he broke down in much any other excuse for crying tooboob" . There: the middle of teUing me long Just gets on peoples' nerves. about a mango allergy. Lately though Ijust cry everywhere there's a lot to Apparently he aged lo years and h#» cnifl fnr th^i overnight and I could see I don't I couldn't give a fuck". De saia lOr tne that he was still a bit mean to alphabet. uncomfortable about such condescend Movies raise this silly trait to the level pain being associated mth a (Fm willing to skip 'hip'). I value of water in your average post-flood outback frankly popular Queensland fruit. I listened friendship and like to experiment with the trail ditch. WHAT WOMEN WANT, the to him until it hurt, and tried to put myself in aesthetic. A lot of men cry. Does this feel latest Debbie Gibson cover, nicely illustrates his shoes, so much so that I got emotional new? by hand, a number of fox hunt scenes, set myself. He is a very good friend of mine but against the back drop of English greenerj' our friendship is all the better for it. I am not by Luke Beesley and an anti-celluloid Hollywood fliigli. I being sarcastic-smart or ambiguous here and recently overheard two young men referring to Gwyneth Paltrow as "women" and this space, albeit obvious and plural, guarantees For your aesthetic pleasure, the following story has been arranged in an ascending sentence a fiiture for the kind of independent longing length, from shortest to longest. To remain coherent, the sentences have been numbered, and fantasy inherent in most pre-teen hanky licked sleeves. (note; this is only a suggested order. Please alter to suit your needs) By Jason Spencer »20 such is life But what does this mean for the blend ironic? »05 it cost a fair bit »01 there was a house Sobbing, the melodramafic version of'cry', »14 no one was sure how conjures up boats and arcs and perfectly »16 a cataclysmic explosion rounded bellies. Weep is more mulchy, »07 they were not very clever more hair strand and algae, a sort of mandolin greenhouse for eighteenth »08 but they were very determined century wardrobes. TTie space between »02 more correctly, there is a house sighs (or indeed the sob and sniffle) »17 the module is nowhere to be seen requires a certain weather - the grey skies »12 not quite as much from the inside cliche explains very little ofthe pain and is »09 they have built a command module more of a bumper sticker turn off at the next exit, rather than a long wet cheek. »19 their success or failure is theirs alone Rain is wet, and the crying metaphor is »13 they placed the ball on top of the silo exotic, but whether or not we really meant »11 it looks fairly impressive from the outside it is beside the point: it hurt, someone »18 it is unknown whether they reached space or not pouted, I like tennis. »06 they plan to use this to launch them into deep space »03 in it live three astronauts, preparing a trip to the moon We cau^t up with STEFAN EDBERG and asked him about his on court rivalry with »10 it's basically their living room encased in a large metal ball Boris Becker, and the quivering Up he tried »15 they complete their safety checks and drop a match into the silo, igniting it to hide after his loss to Michael Chang in the 1989 French Open final: »04 they have filled the silo with a mixture of gasoline, c4 explosives and sparkler shavings 31 Queensland's crisis of representation by Malt Collins Labor's stunning victory in the recent state Herculean increase of ten per cent in its The Beattie landslide was possible due to election was beyond the wildest primary vote, even a cursory glance at the Labor's unprecedented success in rural expectations of the party faithful. One results of the election illustrate that less and regional Queensland. Sure, Labor also successful candidate in a hitherto-safe than half of Queensland voters cast their won blue-ribbon urban Liberal electorates Liberal seat complained bitterly that she first preference in favour of Labor. like Clayfield, but it was seats like Charters had to start work on the Monday Moreover, fully one quarter of all Towers and Burdekin and coastal seats like immediately following the election after Queenslanders continued to cast votes for Kawana and Southport that produced all, her child had a swimming class and independent candidates or those from Labor's success. Herein lies the paradox of she had made no other arrangements. non-Labor / coalition parties. There was Labor's victory - in pledging that Labor Such was the surprise that reverberated only a minor decline in the non-major will not change, Beattie has ensured that amongst the true believers. party vote from the 1998 high water mark. mass disillusionment with his government will eventually prevail. Why, because The result seemed to prove Queenslanders This continued expression of support for throughout his government Beattie has didn't care too much about the instances 'non-mainstream* parties and candidates embraced the market. He has discouraged of rorting within the ALP and that a illustrates a recurring disenfranchisement government intervention on the matter strong, dominant leader was the most with our political system. Political except to the extent necessary to entice desirable attribute for a campaign. This scientists commonly argue that the private capital to invest in the state. More latter point seemed to be reinforced when continued legitimacy of any system of importantly though, he has failed to the National's kneecapped their leader, parliamentary democracy requires the extend democratic control over the Rob Borbidge, defying nis 'put-Orie- consent of the governed. Increasingly, the economy and industry to the people. This Nation-last' edict en masse half-way people are casting a vote that seems to is a recipe to ensure people continue to through the campaign. The election result indicate the withdrawal of that consent. In feel alienated from their workplace, seemed to be a solidi endorsement of this context it must be said that we are communities and political ana economic Beattie's toothy grin and his earthy, facing a crisis of representation. institutions. sensible, centrist administration. Or was it? The rise of One Nation and the extreme The incursion of markets destroy right as a reactionaiy force has a direct communities, particularly in a The real contest in this election was not correlation to the effects of neo-liberal decentralised state such as Queensland. All the contest between Borbidge and Beattie, globalisation - commonly dubbed the community cabinets in the world will but rather the contest between Borbidge economic rationaUsm. When Peter Beattie not change this simple fact. Until people and Beattie to nab the support ofthe One proclaimed his government would not can exercise democratic control over their Nation voters from the last state election. change he seems to have missed the point lives, this sense of powerlessness will This group of people - almost one quarter of the continued disenfranchisement and continue. Conceived in this way, of all voting Queenslanders - had the alienation that echoes throughout our democracy is not about choosing who will capacity to determine which party communities, whether it be in terms of a rule every three or so years from a occupied the treasury benches. Labor won vote for Pauline Hanson or people on the selection of competing parties. As British not because Liberal and National voters streets at Sii. People are feeling powerless MP Tony Benn has argued, to seek out a deserted the coalition - between them they and want to see change. group of supposedly guilty men and suffered only a mild 2.7% loss of primary women and aemand their replacement by support- but because Labor had secured This crisis of representation is really a others would not get to the root of the the precious support ofthe One Nation crisis of democracy. Immense power is problem. Institutional devices that merely voters. now wielded by multinational siphon off public discontent by providing a corporations, banks, financial speculators 'constitutional' remedy are not what In Peter Beattie's tally room speech on and media moguls who use this power to democracy is all about. The real answer election night, he declared that he was advance their own particular interests. requires the wide redistribution of "still a boy from Atherton, a country boy Elected governments have realised that to political and economic power. This is the from Atherton and that will not change , survive tney require the confidence of real message from Hanson, and this is the despite his landslide majority. He assured these power-centres, which in turn message from the voters in the State Queenslanders that whilst his victory was restricts their role to managers enforcing Election. a magnificent win, his Labor Party would the new political and economic order not change. Whilst Labor managed a which has becoming dominant. 38 TM Ronald McDmaldT M Robots, mad scientists and cute aliens by the Enterprise load by Al D Hello hamster circuses. wonder I was gripped by while watching the movie Sphere on TV. That was where my train of thought was headed during a lecture, before it hit a misconception Unfortunately, that kind of tripe is what people have come to expect from a equivalent to a stationary Landrover. This particular mainstream SF movie. If it's SF it will have: fallacy follows me like a Kelpie dog. Every time I think a) Any number of visually shinning but essentially useless special I know the giri well enough to sheepishly admit, "I effects. watch Star Trek". Every time I take a Brin novel with b) Robots, mad scientists and cute aliens by the Enterprise load. some leery cover on a field trip because it matches the c) Someone who saves the Earth/Universe/Day. leery smiles I receive when joe-i'm-sitting-next-to- d) Someone who does this using an all too easy SF plot device you-for-countiess-hours-bloggs asks me what I'm eg time travel conveniently including more of a). reading. Every time I take too much acid at a doof and e) Someone who cannot act. idly remark that I should write a prelude to my life because they're all the rage at the moment (well ok (I stole these rules from a producers office while auditioning that only happened once but the flashbacks are still to be one ofthe aforementioned bad actors. Bad acting is a waking me up at night). On this occasion it reared its skill.) ugly head in the innocuous comments made by my colleague regarding the readings set for the English This little formula has been making SF movies for years department's Science Fiction and Fantasy subject. I tender Lost in Space, Terminator 2 and Star Wars: "Yeah I'm reading Caves of Phantom Menace as Steel and 1984 and they're Is there a world wide plot afoot to tar evidence. There are so actually really good". Of and feather Science Fiction as the genre many more but it hurts course they're good I too much to think of They're written by masters of choice for dorks? How is it that more them. These movies (Asimov and Orwell of us do not rejoice in exercising are what give most respectively) of a literary imagination, musing on the endless people the impression that SF tradition that stretches possibilities for future realities? back to before this motiey is bad, bad, bad collection of states was even a collection. And my Full of ideas that taste like stale popcorn, empty colleague completes the stereotype by concluding that of buttery meaning and yet another testimony he'd always thought of science fiction (SF to those in to the triumph of form over content. TV SF is the nerd crew) as the domain of pimply teenage boys. not much beti:er. Star Trek and Star Gate SG-i are just more ofthe same, escapist space opera. Where does this misconception come from? Is there a world viide plot afoot to tar and feather science fiction However, these modes of 'soap bubble' SF do play as the genre of choice for dorks. How is it that more of an important role. They provide invaluable us do not rejoice in exercising imagination, musing on material for the lampooning of SF. the endless possibilities for future realities? Spaceballs, Galaxy Quest and Red Dwarf Somewhere in the space of SF, between the esoteric are three cases where the inanity of future-dreaming literature that I know, and the mainstream SF is sent up with truly Hollywood SF that I wish I didn't know, the message hilarious results. of imagination and speculation embodied by the SF genre got lost. It has been transmuted from a sense of That is not to say that SF as a genre wonder at a Universe of possibility to another sense of within the medium of cinema wonder; a wonder at not so cheap Hollywood special does not consist of meaningful effects and bad plot devices. The 'how did they get the pieces of work. The Canadian money for this shite' kind of wonder. The kind of indie flick Cube was a thoughtful well-acted and subtie work, and anyone who didn't fall asleep during The New Wave was fostered again in the hands of magazine and Stanley Kubrick's Space Odessey: 2001 will testify to its elegance. But journal editors. These guys (and yes, they were predominantly male) these movies are largely unappetising to today's consumers of popular selected articles that dispensed in part with scientific accuracy and the cinema who want big names and glitzy productions. They also want it at old themes; killer robots and atomic technologies; swapping them for their local megaplex, somewhere movies such as Cube will never be new human themes and greater qualitj' of writing. Post Flower Power accepted and therefore will never reach a majority ofthe film going hippies, like editor Michael Moorcock, wanted more exploration ofthe public. Little wonder that SF and cinema equate in many people's minds free love movement and the frontiers of taboos broken in the 60s. The to stale popcorn. They've never seen the good stuff and now they're even projections in this New Wave are now ofthe human 'experience'. SF less likely to venture into the literature of SF, a space where ideas truly also began to exhibit more intricate plot lines and unprecedented shine. characterisation. Unfortunately, a strain of pessimism began to pervade this movement. They had looked deep As always it's better to see the movie firstan d then read into what they thought consisted of the book, otherwise you will be disappointed. The the human condition/experience imagination will always conquer special effects. It is etc and they were saddened by in books where SF shines. Science fiction as a what they saw. For literary genre has been around so long it has gone example. New Wave through multiple metamorphoses and revolutions prophet Michael complete with literary head loppings. SF even has Moorcock penned an it's own journal, fercrisakes. award winning novella. Behold The Man, It Tom Shippey, a Professor of English Language at the University of grittily depicted the real Leeds and expert on SF literature, describes the genre of SF as Christ as a mentally 'fabril'; a literary mode that is disruptive, fiiture-oriented and handicapped hunchback diametrically opposed to the solid, established and conservative whose place is filled by a works ofthe 'pastoral' literary mode. SF has not always been reluctant scientist trapped by under so much critical scrutiny and not all written SF is circumstance. quality. From the dawn ofthe twentieth century SF was found prevalentiy in the mad scientist and the killer The pessimism ofthe New Wave robot laden pulp space opera days. But right from the was but a small corner ofthe genre, outset authors like H.G. Wells, Jules Verne and Rudyard but this negative outiook on the Kipling were exploring the possible effects of technology human character spread over into a in the fiiture. The new possibilities offered by burgeoning new patch of feminist SF. Driven by scientific discovery were staggering and there were some writers such as Joanna Russ, the authors devoted to the cultivation of a new genre. feminists presented their dissertations on our reality SF plugged along for a good 30 years flecked with by presenting alternative moments of brilliance. But mainstream SF still struggled realities. They continued in with the spectres of pulp fiction, mass production and low the vein of reduced narrative quality. The genre needed direction. So, like a little technological emphasis and green man it descended from the heavens. The editorial focussed on human direction of SF magazines and journals ushered in a Golden Age of relationships, society structures SF in the '40s. For example, J.W.Campbell, editor of a magazine of and struggle for Utopian ideals. A short stories called Astounding, wanted a new social science fiction. He fantastic start to feminist SF is selected SF that did not only portray fabulous new machines and ideas but explored and the novel Body of Glass by Marge analysed their effect on society whilst maintaining the highest narrative and stylistic Piercy. quality. By paying more per article and establishing a wider distribution for Astounding, Campbell boosted SF's readership numbers. This rising readership lead to a rise in writer Try as the New Wave might, they numbers. Whamo, up goes the quality of their work through tiie tutelage of an couldn't keep technology out of SF established writer base and true masters begin to flower,includin g men such as Isaac for long and the silicon chip Asimov, a truly prolific and inspired novelist and Arthur C.Clarke, a genuine prophet of revolution ofthe '80s and '90s technology. brought with it the extrapolation of computer innovation. Themes such This Golden Age blossomed and flourishedbu t by the '60s stagnation through rising as biotechnologj' and robotics were literary notoriety and a perceived over-concentration on technolog>' set in. SF was used to analyse the predicted grey still trying to shake the perception that it was written poorly. Enter the New Wave. line between human and 41 machine. These new writers formed Cyberpunk, a loose perspective in which global, economic and social trends were exti-apolated. Once again SF predicted rapidly approaching technological advancements with aplomb, for example William Gibson wrote ofthe Worid Wide Web before its reahsation. YOU Cyberpunk also spawned an unfortunate growth in the SF garden, that ofthe role-play game. This apparently arcane rite consists of a bunch people sitting around and furiously engaging their imagination within boundaries set by a game master and role play manual. These have CAN'T experienced an ironic homecoming, moving easily onto the World Wide Web a medium that was once a fictional device and the main 'novum' or innovation of Cyberpunk. Multiple User Domains (MUDs) on the Net now attract even more fanaticism through the sheer immersion of building up characters over years of roleplaying. This is a classic example of one of the functions of SF space as a play ground for fertile imagination. GO But the physicists and biologists hadn't been at a High Society meeting in the rainforest ofthe SF garden while all this was going on around them. Observing the New Wave, feminist SF and Cyberpunk, they incorporated highly engaging narratives with realistically rendered characters THERE! with an ear to both scientific development and social change into a new sub-genre; Hard Science Fiction. It is one written by and mainly for scientists and is used predominantly as soapbox for informed scientific speculation. A group of scientists turned authors formed a core unit ofthe Hard SF fraternity known as the Killer Bs. Gregory Benford is a well pubhshed Cockpit of a plane professor of physics advising to NASA and the White House. Greg Bear, Stephen Baxter and David Brin (Baxter usually not included as he's High-rollers room in a casino British but better than the American contingent) are all scientists with The stairs outside Dotti similar backgrounds that make up the rest ofthe Killer Bs. Coffee Club carpark in the Valley Hard SF is pretty much the state of the art at the moment. One (Try this one, though, even if your aren't author, David Brin, interestingly combines elements of early 20th Century pulp SF vrith Hard SF themes to create unashamed Hard Coffee-Clubbing.) SF space operas, The Uplift Series. The same author is one of a few Freemasons clubhouse experimenting with Biological/Ecological SF. His novel, Earth combines astute prediction, current ecological paradigms such as Restaurant Kitchen the Tragedy ofthe Commons and expert social commentary. The Backstage at gigs main tenet of Ecological SF is that humans are just one of a horde of species sharing the same planet. The most recurrent (Unless of course you are a groupie. Or the band) themes are that of adaptation and continuity: will humanity The Press Club on a Saturday night evolve, devolve or remain static in the face of technological (Unless of course you are a 'member', read; advancement? Ecological SF is a forum extremely well-dressed by their standards) tailored for discussion on questions of Members stand at the Football genetics, ethics, evolution and changing (Unless you are a member; read a big dick) biological phenomena. The dump (Stay for too long and you'll get arrested) This little jaunt barely does justice to the world of SF literature. A larger picture should Women's room at uni emerge of SF as a solar system of different (Unless of course you are a woman. This one sub-genres and preoccupations, the Golden Age makes sense, actually) settling an older planet and throwing out off Gentleman's club shoots like the New Wave, Cyberpunk and Hard (Unless of course you are a gentleman. I'm Science into the solar system of SF literature. If not sure they actually exist) more people knew about the potential for SF to Hotel swimming pools be a tool for social, poUtical, economic, cultural and biological and future speculation, then (Pretending to be a guest is always an option) maybe the stereotypes and prejudices Staff room at primary school surrounding SF fans may one day wither and die, leaving the Stock rooms ga»- genre of prophets to Bottom of the anatomical sciences building stand solidly on its (Did you know there are bodies there?) i^ own. So, you're looking to rent a new place? The current one's a liti:le too cramped, the style's not right, it's Milton Road when we all (^uacDt^ai A© l^t!^il(B know it needs to be Moray Street. So you poorly-photocopied apphcation forms that quite distressed at having people traipsing figure you'll look around at your leisure, are asking the sort of questions not even in and checking out their fixtures. check out a few one or two bedroom your doctor would. But you go home and fill jobbies, rattle a few things to make sure them out and figure you'll fax them from Real estate agencies are trained to be nast>' nothing's loose and you're not going to work the next day, but the next day you see to renters. It's simply the way it is. We're move into a place that is going to crumble the fax number isn't on the form so you call small-time, hardly worth the papenvork. down around you while you sleep. Maybe the realtors and on the other end ofthe We enter their offices with a smile and a it's got a nice balcony overiooking some sort phone is a receptionist who was imported chest full of hope, and exit more deflated of park/reserve type area. Perhaps it has a from Lithuania the week before, for the and heartbroken than we have ever been paved courtyard out the back, enough room express purpose of being as unhelpfiil to before, until the next weekend when the for a couple of plastic chairs and a gas you as she possibly can. Eventually you pry whole process loops again. Even a simple barbecue. And inside it's floorboard or the fax number out of her and she slams tlie request for a UBD is met with derision and carpet Gino? yukl) and it's all neutral phone down before you can even squeak a exaggerated sighs, and when you mention colours, nothing too sixties and in-your- word of thanks. Later on that day you you don't have a car, heavens above! And if face. So you go through the papers on the follow up the fax and are assured that it's all there's no UBD available they find the most weekends or the internet during the day, under control, the property manager is ill-informed person they can to give you write down a few possibles. If it's handling it, and a few subtie hints that you directions. Down there, then here, and turn appointment only, you try and make one, probably shouldn't ever call here again are left! And it transpires that, yes, it's but the person you need to speak to isn't thrown in for good measure. Days and days there and wouldn't be going to that place and then weeks go by and you still haven't Hardgrave Road, but Hardgrave Road in even if they were. Never mind, some of heard a peep. You don't bother calling back. Runcorn, not Hardgrave Road in West End. these other ones here require only a key We eventually found a place. Moving in this deposit. Fifty bucks and a set of That's a very diluted description ofthe weekend, actually. Bit of a stroke of luck. It fingerprints, maybe a tongue scraping, and experiences I have had over the past few came on the market Tuesday morning and you can have the keys for half an hour to months. My partner and I must have by Tuesday afternoon I had exhaustively have a look at your dream place. Problem is looked at ten, fifteen, twenty places, each examined the facilities. In fact, the property it's fifteen minutes away by car, and you're and every one of them with a different manager had driven me in her veiy own car using pubhc transport anyway, and if you're agency. We applied for around half of those to the property, and not annoyed me with a second over the thirty allotted minutes and only heard back about one of them, to trivial observations along the lines of your cash gets swallowed and you never see be told our application had been "That's the shower. See, these thingies turn it again. rejected and that the ...^^scatfl around and water comes out! But be careful landlord had found more ~ j not to leave them on all the time." Followed Never mind, look, this one's closer. suitable tenants. That JiffhK me around to make sure I didn't smash Bedsit? $230 per week? Down an weekend the ver>' same ^r^ anything, answered my questions alleyway? No dramas! You're place is in the newspaper, accurately, and drove me back to the office three weeks into your search and screaming "Open for so I could fill out a form. A day later we your current lease is nearly up, inspection!" I am sure the were approved. I won't tell you the name of you're getting desperate now, newer, more suitable fn the agency. But they're out there. They can you'll look at anything! You tenants would be be helpful. And the apartment? Lovely actually get an appointment to place. Come visit us some time. see it and you've been there before and you know it'sgoing to be like a job interview, so you put on your nicest set of clothes, make sure your hair is in place, spit-polish your shoes and stand around in the rain for a while because the property manager is running late. Sorry, did you get wet? No, no! We're fine! Then let's go and have a look inside, shall we? Yes, yes, lovely! Two heartbeats later and you're back out in the street, the tyres of the propert>' manager's BMW tearing up the tarmac as they rush offtobelate for another appointment. So you're left clutching a bunch of J^K€5 k,CA>^OAj % 'apprehension and fear' and finish with 'indescribable sensations'(whatever they are) Other detailed tales narrate the apparently considerate nature of the mosh pit, helping up someone here, pushing up someone else there. But Reding, and countless others like Jess Barron, and Bob TImm who hail the Smells bursting through the canals of the enjoy the music from a distance. mosh pit as an indiscriminate community festival grounds: wet grass, steaming mud, space often ignore its frequent statistical body odour, sausages, sun cream, fried It's a shame I couldn't have spent the rest of casualties. Nine people died las'i June at onions, tomato sauce, pot, beer, incense, Custard's set at the barrier without tearing my Roskilde, the longest running and largest curry, boiled rice, vomit, impending rain, clothes and praying to death my shoulder outdoor festival: and who wouldn't recall the sweat- It doesn't matter which: Livid, wouldn't be the next launch pad for someone. death by crush and heart attack of Jessica Homebake, The Blues and Roots, The Big Michalik at Sydney's Big Day Out, eariier this Day Out, The Falls Fest, they all smell the Now, I am not against the concept of a mosh year. The safety of women particularly, in same. It's intoxicating and addictive, it's pit by any means. At its best utilisation, it is mosh pits. Is a valid concern. At Woodstock exactly where I want to be, sharing music an essential evolutionary space for fans to 99, a number of women in the mosh pit with a crowd. play their bodies across the interface during a Limp Bizkit set reported being between audience and performer for raped. I don't tempt the mosh pit. I've only once maximum corporeal interaction. before, at Livid in 98, when I was 17 and There's been much speculation and scape overcome with euphoric stupor for the sounds From my experience, however, the mosh pit goating in the mainstream media as to who is of Custard. It wasn't on purpose, I was on the attracts far too many crazed maniacs, to conveniently blame for the death of these barriers, moving along to something calm and disregarding the safety of their fellow people. Some bands argue the organisers mellow. Maybe Nice Bird. I strained my moshers and thoughtlessly endangering one are to blame, overlooking safety standards to neck, feigned a pained and affected look and another's lives, be it through what I consider save money. Conservatives complain it's the sang the lyrics with too much enthusiasm, the selfish act of crowd surfing, or from angst-ridden lyrics of some of the bands that swaying synonymously with the rest of the inciting fear and confusion by pushing, incite the rioting. The role of the serial crowd. Then the band stopped, tweaked their thumping and swearing at one another. But shirtless, shoeless, aggravated wanker-of-a- guitars and started up with Apartment. I that's me. festival goer may be somewhat relevant here started up again, swaying, singing, assuming also?l Cause I've seen the gleam in their eye: the affected look, but I was becoming Some people will glorify the space of mosh, they don't know who's playing, they don't ovenvhelmed with the Increasing swelling of as the closest thing to a social revolution. In care who's playing, but by hell or high water, the crowd that the song was attracting. Like the pit everyone is equal, regardless of race, they know there'll be a mosh pit. Perhaps waves dumping onto the shore, more and age, colour or class. These people perhaps they haven't read James Cook and Andrew more people were thumping into me. I was overemphasise the capacity of the fairy wing Reding's philosophical treatises on music being pushed, pulled, sucked in and twisted for political subversion. For example, Andrew audience design space? all over the place. My energy depleting, I Reding In Youth Outlook magazine argues, couldn't continue the singing anymore, let "moshing is more than dance- it's a life- a alone the affected look. community-affirming sacrament... moshing is BY ERIN O'HANLON communal without requiring conformity." It's Eventually \ got out, reached for my asthnna also admittedly a natural high. Reding gives puffer and adjusted my examples of mosh pit experiences which twisted clothing. start with Exhausted, I retreated to the stands with my friends and resolved to Suburbia is the lifestyle choice in Australia. You can't give the shiny new studio apartments in New Farm away, because their investment life expectancy is about the same as the latest the suburbs are "somethmg New Farm bar. The suburban home still remains the preferred choice, and an obvious one it you fly over on your way to offers a quarter acre block of private, personal, individualised space away from the regiments Paris for most Australian of work/study. Why then, is there the tendency to cringe at all that lies West of West End or artists" David Caesar, (director, South of South Brisbane? A 1920s worker's cottage is no more comfortable, legitimate or aesthetic than a 1980s workers cottage. In Brisbane, where our CBD is undeniably Idiot box) minuscule, it is illogical to consider all that lies outside the innermost suburbs a wasteland. Anti-suburbanism Is an attitude which causes daily suburban life to be a point of embarrassment for the millions who live it and those who are a product of it. Ironically, those responsible for perpetuating this cultural cringe are often those same people who seek specifically to define and create an Australian culture. Intellectual and artistic communities neutrality with no real romantic or cinematic have long been at ideological odds with the Australian suburbs. More recently, Australian scope. The attempts to provide suburbia with cinema has persevered with this onslaught against suburbia, presenting it to us as being the visual appeal needed to incorporate it more than just politically and culturally mediocre, but also violent, racist, anti-feminist and contextually or thematically into film, have above all, excruciatingly ugly. given rise to the suburban grotesque. Sophie Lee's popular-giri in Muriel's Wedding and Michael Caton's little-Aussie-battler in The The renovated post-war bungalows of the eariy suburbs are the affirmed domains of the Castle are key examples of the suburban educated profession and worth more every year. Meanwhile traditional anti-suburbanism, as grotesque, where the icons, features and virulent as ever, is now directed at the outer suburbs, a place of low facilities and income. stereotypes of suburbia are blown out of These suburbs are distant places: "something you fly over on your way to Paris for most proportion to the point of ridiculous distortion. Australian artists" commented David Caesar at the release of his film, Idiot Box. What The fundamental characteristic of Muriel's becomes obvious is that the criticism of the Australian suburbs is much less an ideological Wedding and The Castle is this revelling in a objection than it is a materialistic attack on the values and cultures of low income, outer bad-taste aesthetic, a supposed celebration suburbia. The Australian suburbs have long been considered by film-makers to be a banal of Abba and rissoles. The notion that Australian films are 'quirky' is directly related to this embracing of the Australian ugliness. What is initially viewed as eccentric within the Australian industry, is a well- defined style of film making that has proved immensely popular with Australian and overseas audiences. The self- depreciating nature of Australians and our fondness for 'taking the piss' are essential to the success of these films, Both Muriel's Wedding and The Castle are more than ..grunge cinema condemns the comedies, they are vicious satires. Audience amusement is suburbs on a level of ideological achieved primarily through a middle-class giggle at low- objection. Australia does not have income trash. The audience laughs at their pronunciations and colloquialisms, their food, entertainment, jailed kids, the dense 'ghetto' landscape in hairstyles, clothes, names, conversations and almost every which the genre traditionally aspect of their lives. The idea of the university educated, operates, instead, (directors) utilise critically elite comedians that comprise Working Dog Productions detailing low-income domesticity is immediately the apparent ugliness and contradictory. The suburban grotesque, is an entangled and economic wastefulness of intrusive strain of traditional anti-suburbanism, perpetuating suburbia instead. our cultural cringe by invoking embarrassed laughter. Although the 'piss-take' has dominated in the popularity stakes, there is another collection of movies whose objections to suburbia are both visually potent and ideologically loaded. The Boys, together with Praise, Mallboy, Idiot Whatever the specifics of the films Box and to a lesser extent, Head On, fall into a category of film aesthetic that can be mentioned, their images of suburbia are described loosely as Australian grunge. Whatever the films' individual intentions, they are monstrous and grotesque, often to distressing all concerned with illustrating a decaying everyday life in modern society. The films effect. The innate ugliness that is presumed illustrate a change in artistic attitudes from a metro-centric, popular distaste for the about the suburbs has opened them up to suburbs to a criticism of modern life in general. Since suburbia is often considered the constant attack from new Australian films. epitome of a modern industrialised society, grunge cinema condemns the suburbs on a While the traditional, artistic impulses of level of ideological objection. Australia does not have the dense 'ghetto' landscape in cinema creates the absurd suburban which the genre traditionally operates, instead, they utilise the apparent ugliness and grotesque, the realist and decaying society of economic wastefulness of suburbia instead. The images in these films align violence and grunge cinema finds itself at home in the destructive hedonism with the decline of the family and community. Suburbia is presented modern wasteland that is the outer suburbs. as unhealthy, a place of dysfunction and depression that is monstrous and violent. Their result has been to falsely embed an image of Australians' lives as being inherently The inclination towards ultra realism of these films creates an exaggerated ordinariness banal, poor, stupid, ignorant, embarrassing, and ugliness, but without any of the comedy of The Castle or Muriel's Wedding. The depressed, violent, abusive, corrosive and effect being to make suburbia horrific rather than horrificalty daggy. A tendency to hideous, when they're anything but. stereotype exists in grunge films as in grotesque Australian cinema: they are, however, corrosive and disturbed rather than offensively humourous. Idiot Box's Mick and Kev are stereotyped versions of Muriel's brother - the dole bludger, the unemployed no-hoper. MAURA EDMOND Idiot Box has absurd elements and a dark humour that likens it to Muriel's Wedding, however it degenerates into violence and Muriel's 'no-hoper' brother stereotype (himself a perversion of the 'ocker') is given a destructive element in this new class of films. This is expressed decisively in The Boys where suburbia is a truly hellish, claustrophobic, lower class, rotten, violent, predatory space. The suburban ugliness in The Boys is both material and social - the most cutting example of the demonisation of the everyday. 46 so, if you don't mind sir, i'd like to drag you back to my place of work and show you E around, these drowning half-people are the poster children for the saddest element of the human condition - god's unlovable, and as much as i try to distance myself, these are my llll E beautiful friends in 20 years if they continue on the same track, this is the (reality?) of drugs ad at work yesterday i work In a brain was cracked by a patient, so my choice really is simple. forced to pose to myself is, "is r is my puffy wee grey matter i don't want to be cool anymore, y to enter?" i want you to read this and roll your eyes and grin to your friends and scoff my obvious lU^raves about a year ago. that's once a nerdy mama's girl qualities, i don't wanna bo the frosted fruity flakes of recreational fresh and funky and fun and rule the worid glitter, fifty-two sweet sweat drenched with you. i want to be holier than thou and crazyfunfast nights - i whirled around state disdainfully, "no thanks - i don't do through wide pupils and tangy metallic drugs" and even - for good measure - fo add e in the valley gutters and felt like a a wry smirk with a raising of one eyebrow and ngel with my standard issue royales and be despised for it. ro, i hugged strangers in bathrooms toothy reptilian reflection in amazement, i'll even throw in some literature snobbery and purred and i vomited. I looked down at say I found respite through a dead poet r, those skyscrapers, those lights and ail those people in the real worid who i choose charies bukowski. i choose verse so unpolished and dull that it leaps off the page in fire, in filth and in ennui, here is a writer who knows the only thing v/orth knowing is that which is real, a man who speaks to me in the silences; and after raving, there will be many many silences to contend, but i choose them all. I sW|ilto*e|Jandswailowed it all. but no matter how deep i " wej|U^5lilI felt wary of the people around me, these mad / want what is not said, the sharp intake of ChJl ' IW^ent a year being *pretty* and now i'm tired. give me pain and poetry and lust and elgtjiteen years old and i'm tired, my eyes hurt from the impotence glare of tumbling glitter and lasers, i feel a dull deep give me the bad memories, the sweet milk I disfi0lTte>it1ivhen i see this strange creature clenching and honey memories her Jaw, staring unblinking back from the mirror - just hoping jiodrie cares to scratch the surface to realise that give me doubt and sin and self conscious dysiexia'iSkcfeeping up steadily on her intelligence, at dancing. "*"" ieLuierles^v?e'd delight in scull fucking people who'd give me boredom but make it real. pushedtfiejpfeads to the limit the night before - all fun and gami^W'Someone loses an eye. after a year of raving that is all i want, a bittersweet dose of reality, and i am willing to •HBIndfiVg^ rdi getting tired, this is all very classically sacrifice my popularity, my fabfunk friends ^'braye^^SKfng a choice between the strange embrace and my air of excited fun all to achieve one " one hand and the lunacy oi reality on the little end... choice between the shiny silver of I want the spaces between the weekends grey of mondays. back. 41 MAZZA fresh fiction: suitcase 68 GHOTI it was only yesterday i'd been having trouble with i watched him squirm i had looked around for the past seven months sideways on the sofa my neighbourhood - • • * 1 for a prospective father i've got to get home he said dont move i said picking at the black rubber handle grips one and he stopped moving that might be i'd started fantasising slurping away at the union pub about the few black hairs i feel Kke i'm beginning to love him or dragging that had crawled hke my gold fish an aged dog through his chin i watch across the street and upper lip swim with its back arched that left a dark shadow around and lumps of turds or an appearance of dirt waiting dropping i wanted to lick clean nightly softly for me to feed flakes of food to to the cement look i said i've got this dilemma while i tap i turned away and if you can give me tap thinking christ the prosaic tone tap on the glass are these my options? i'm looking for i'll double this J. FAITHE DUBERCHIN until the sweet Chinese boy i waved a pink note from across the street who delivers my sunday paper and give you a tenner SOLITARY IS A SEAI rode his bike over each shit seven and a half minutes later soft like the amber of silence and i started to imagine i watched him and squanderous as money the beauty sit back of his clumsiness on my cream couch solitary is a seal and the school uniform his arm hung loosely that hung off his shoulders by his side fireshly pressed on the back of a crisp white envelope i called him over i was thinking of ways and dropped on a pile from across the road to lick away of mustard letters waved a fiver the darkness and black-pen confessions. and explained i needed him around his mouth to help me HJC create the poetic lines you want anything to drink? 48 suitcase 68 SPACEFARERS He told me we needed some space. raison d'etre of every drop-dead bombshell, images, like leaf-blowers, never disgrace his So I gave him intergalactic. I'll hold off an entire ehte of showbiz work. But where is the definitive study of #? gentlemen, a race who possess only phrases # like: "as young as you feel"; "let's make it # is a contradictory symbol that signifies both legal"; "don't bother to knock"; "we're not "number" and "leave a space here". I perch in a loft in a tenement in a valley in a married"; "some like it hot"; and city in a distant part ofthe world from him, "something's gotta give", but who wouldn't Typesetters often prefer to use the sjinbol A which is a difficult thing in this city. know how to string them together mth to mark a space in the text. It exudes a sense Surrounded by nothing but space for cubic semicolons. Wielding a leaf-blower I'll blow of tj'lJographic stv'le. Oliver Simon, in his metres, I float like a carved boat effigy on a these fools into a space warp, spinning them Introduction to T>T)ograpliy, says that squalling sea of mixed metaphors. This room faster than grains of light, blinding them with spacing too wide after a ftill point, results in remains as it was on the screen tiiat loomed my peroxide id. Or, unmanning them with a "rivers of obtrusive white". He advises against in front of its team of explicit designers (yes walk, an inimitable wiggle of silk and a flash using distressing amounts of space between explicit, rather than graphic: their ideas were of thigh, Til set their Groucho Marx words compared with space between lines. obvious not shocking), still inhabited by me mustachios quivering, so that they too will No one in the book-making business has ever in a lease of pixillated tetra-matrices. This resemble a muskrat in the half-light. Ha! faltered who followed Oliver Simon's advice. room was a boyish experiment, a eulogy to empty space; to the absence of embarrassing # # human tumescence. No lumps and bumps in the night! He said "we need some space". Or did he say So that's it. The end. The space after the full "he"? I mean "I". Shit! stop, between the parentheses. I have unpacked my boxes although I had none. The engorged red box, red as the "Me / we": the crowning poem in the oeuvre glinting knife, a bright searching red with a of the bombastic poet Muhammad Ali. touch ofthe spotlight in it, contained Beaded with sweat, his lip torn, fists up to The space it takes to hitch someone else's nothing. Why, nothing! protect a head full of memories and visions skirt and pow! and... and... Ali was nevertheless able to # compose rousing homonjmis about solidarity # and the black man's struggle. These two I am Galatea Shackleship whom no man shall words keep beating me over the head. Me / So we flare on, space launchers Ht against the ever fill. Or else must die in the attempt. we. Which was it? Is there a difference? And sky, borne fonvard ceaselessly (Wrecking himself violently on craggy rocks, anyway, what on earth does "space" mean? into the night... glug glug glug.) My spacious loins will clench, with the fbcatedness ofthe crab, he who goes # there with the intention of conquest. 0 why EX-PRESS PET must space always precede the explorer's THE DEFINITION OF space /speis / desire to conquer? My history shall not repeat itself. Citizens who came: beware. This siren's Darren Aronofski filmed an abstract study of Disclaimer: the space Semper is a special not about to sire. pi. He called it %. His latest film, an dumbed-down issue, rather like "maths in space" absorbing study of space cadets, he called :). (aka "spac maths" aka "maths-in-the-beer- garden") was at skool. A mindless blonde, decked out in drop His filmic dissertations on mathematics and earrings, vacant eyes and spangly smile, the iconic symbols are mind-blowing. Pedestrian 49 mischievousness with which these people Walter looked at her and let loose the kind of smile consumed Cordial disgusted Walter. They were that looks weary from a hard day at work rather suitcase 68 acting like children. than utterly bored. His beer arrived. Their table became an island of silence as the other people in the Cordial Bar and the noises they PLAYBACK HEAD (PART 2) With any luck Isobel would too, soon. She was made became as two-dimensional and indistinct as always late. He thought that if he loved her, her the images on the Paper Windows they danced to, THE CORDIAL BAR tardiness would be a trait that would become endearing. Walter hated these moments. If they weren't Walter sat in the Cordial bar. The bright bottles obliged by the government to 'clock on' to each winked at him from the backlit shelves. But he didn't love her. other once a month they wouldn't have to maintain this facade. Cafes like this had proliferated years ago, designed They had been assigned three years ago in yet in dirty grey and weathered aluminium. another obligatory govemment scheme contrived And Walter needed her. Not in the way love to encourage population growth. needed an object, but in the way an empty page in Sidewalk dining had been de rigeur until the fumes a diary needs an entry. drove everybody indoors. Now the cars had gone, They had sprung it on him at election time. Next but ash, dust and filth still fell from the sky as to the candidate boxes on the ballot form were Walter didn't have a diary. regulariy as rain. dotted lines which Walter dutifully filled with his height, weight and 'interests and hobbies'. Walter's fingers moved to the permanent knot of Years of use and the kitsch residue of the now his bow tie. The gentie whir began. He was banned fashion industry rendered little bars like At that moment Walter found the chore of voting recording. A good listener. this doubly dingy. interesting for the first time in his life. His System was embryonic at that stage, but even then he Isobel sat, fidgeting. Walter could see her lithe It was knock off time. He looked around at the knew a ballot form was not the place to divulge his body aching for Cordial.She'd ordered on her way unfamiliar faces. secret. in, but the glass had not yet arrived. He hated her drinking the stuff, but she drank it anyway. Gathering like termites to wood, they congregated He nibbled on his pencil, oblivious to the droning and formed groups. Sitting, smiling, unwinding. queue that shuffled behind him and wrote in Her eyes wandered. And why not. Walter wasn't longhand next to the interests and hobbies much to look at.. Walter reached into his pocket and felt the warm, category: 'listening.' friendly brass of his master key, firmlyinserte d 'I didn't want to see you again' into the apparatus near his hip. The ratchets To Walter's surprise this rare moment of honesty chattered as he wound it slowly. had garnered him the attentions of three young 'You have to be here,' ladies who beUeved there was finally a man in the The tinny din of the Paper Windows began. world who was 'a good listener'. 'So do you..' Walter's lips curled into a vestigial smile and he wound more urgently. The Paper Windows would In a way this was true. Walter hardly said 'This is the unhappiest I've ever been in my life.' disguise the sound. anything, and indeed if it weren't for his System he wouldn't have said anything at all. Her cordial arrived. There were three Paper Windows here. Dim images moved about on glowing screens. A simple A good listener. Walter straightened his bow tie. If 'Do you have to drink that stuff?' camera obscura device soundtracked by an array only they knew. of toothed barrels, felt hammers and springs. 'Yes, I can't help it,' The hits of the day. The other workers in the bar 'Don't mind me then, disappear into your Cordial, began to move rhythmically, involuntarily. They Walter looked at the window. Forget me.' were dancing. Walter did not understand how they could allow themselves to lose control in such a Collar up against the coming night, Isobel Isobel drank deeply. The euphoria spread visibly fashion. struggled up the street against the wind. She and her eyes lit up, stepped back onto the road to check the name of He looked at the time. Of course. Six thirty. The the bar. There were a hundred in this district. 'God it's good.' bar staff was breaking out the Cordial. Served in primary colours, the cordial tasted much like the A man in love would have run out into the weather Walter looked out the window. She was gone from sweet beverage of his youth that made him run like to welcome her, but Walter was not a man in love. him, and his mind was already walking home. a dervish around the backyard, but what they served now had a far more powerful effect. Smiles She moved her way through the press towards his Walter adjusted his bow tie. He had what he spread across formeriy stony faces, bodies table. She cleared her face of hair and to reveal needed. He'd got it all. touched, and laughter wove itself into the social porcelain skin and a wide lipsticked smile. fabric of the bar. It had been homogenised and She sat beside him and rearranged the few objects DAVID MEGARRITY (playbackhead continues EA legalised years ago, but the frisson, the on the table nervously. next issue) suitcase 68 BOOKS BREAKDOWN species called the Chelgrians. Two of their western science kinda guff. Okay, the plot: Mr suns were destroyed, killing billions of Wong is a Feng Shui expert, an often Chelgrians, but it takes over eight hundred crotchet}' old geezer who is commissioned to Look To Windward years for the reflected light ofthe suns Feng Shui up homes, offices and the odd zoo Iain M. Banks exploding to reach the Orbital Masq (where by all manner of weird and wonderful tj'pes Orbit/Penguin the storj' is set), so everyone starts thinking throughout Asia. Add to this his work of what they did in the name of war hundreds experience girl Jo McQuinnie, a loud 17 year The Feng Shui Detective of years ago. At the same time, a diplomat is old Australian with an anno>ang habit of Nury Vittachi sent to the Orbital to comince the acclaimed rarely understanding anything. As the blurb Duffy And Snellgrove Chelgrian composer Ziller to return to his on the back tells us, it's like a Sherlock homeland,,. But is that what the diplomat Holmes and Dr Watson kinda deal. Mr Wong really wants? Hmmmm...dedicated to the and Jo solve crimes and murders through the Those of you out there with exceptional Gulf War veterans, the main theme of this cunning use of Feng Shui, intuition and good memories will realise that I had a grand plan book is what happens when a perceived super old fashioned nosiness. Actually, the best last issue to shaft science fiction and fantasy power meddles in the evolution of a younger thing about this book is the juxtaposing of writers. I think it was because I was scared. species/worid/culture. Western and Eastern cultural perspectives, That, and an unfortunate incident in Grade via the two main characters. 12 English when we had to study novels and I The best thing about this book, and the chose the sci-fi book that was put on the list reason I dig it more then the average sci-fi Other things that are cool about this to make English easier for the Maths drivel (well, it is!), is the richness and body of book...!ittie chapter openings that read like orientated school captain who loved fantasy the characters, like fine wine I spose. These pearls of wisdom from the mouth of fiction. Pity it was part three in the series, alien cats are well rounded, witty and terribly Confucious, Vittachi's interesting use of v/hat meaning I barely understood it and risked ironic. It's like Banks' vision ofthe future is a he thinks is teen Aussie slang ("well, 1 don't screwing my grade by trying to analyse the hip London cocktail party that never ends. expect any adult to get what those damn kids stupid thing. Anyway, after since avoiding My favourite character is this dude Kabe are talking about these days, what witii tiieir this genre like the plague (except for a who's described as a really big black pyramid yo this, and nuithafukker that...goodness!") smattering of Tolkien, which is more (again, similar to Space Odysscys monolith) and this rad little club that Mr Wong belongs literature anyway), I finally found a fantasy / from a species called Homomdans. This book to, consisting of other alternative sci-fi book that I could love. rocks, such a rousing chorus of approval from practitioners who seive as a kind of quasi- this old hack has gotta be a good thing. Ten supernatural help to the police. So in the Look To Windward is a thoroughly charming, thumbs up. Miss Marple tradition of things, you're entertaining and thought-provoking book wondering why this old Chinese dude and from Iain M Banks, author ofthe seminal Okay, now imagine this is the linking this brash Aussie chick are allowed anwhere Gen X classics Walking On Glass and The sentence where I'm veiy witty and I tie Look near a crime scene, but it's all so CUTE. Seek Wasp Factory, Set in the way distant future To Windward in with the very cute Feng Shui this book out, it's packaged really nicely (no, really?), the book explores the world that Detective in a way where you can see the (which is SO important when you want is Culture, a cluster of computer built galaxies obvious connections between the two. But people to think you're a learned intellectual) and planets (called Masq's) housing a mainly there is none, Ijust read them both this and you can probably glean enough about the humanoid species, not unlike our own (how month. And it DOES relate to space, like Feng Shui tradition and Eastern philosophy Star Trek). Cufture is run by Hub, a super Feng Shui space, and negative energ>' space to get you through any demanding social computer, kind of similar to Space Odyssey's and good Chi space, you know what I mean? situation. Hal 9000, except he manifests himself in an assortment of other species (called avatars) So, as I said. The Feng Shui Detective, written so he can be contacted by eveiyone all the by Hong Kong based journalist Nuiy Vittachi time (God?). (Far Eastern Economic Re\'iew and South China Morning Post) is a curious little Agatha EMMA JANE The plot is thus: long, long ago, a war was Christie st>ie book, heavy on the fey innocent raging between the Culture and a less evolved fiictor with a lotta eastern tradition meets 51 GIANT FEATHERS IN THE QUEEN ST. MALL. A Praying Mantis on South Bank... The Gates of Heaven presiding over Wickham Terrace... and Dr Who-like aliens attacking King George Square. Perhaps it sounds like a scene from a science fiction story? Strange creatures from outer space invading Brisbane city. Though the likelihood of this event occurring may seem gallery's circumference there is no such zero to none, a similar invasion has already Firstly, people who share the space with the assumption. In the public domain, labelling taken place: the invasion of sculpture into public artwork must care to notice and look is important, for it conceivably cements the Brisbane's public domain. at the work. To do so, the work must existence of an artwork. With the omission of overcome the diversionary nature of its this minor article it's more difficult for an Crawling out from within the safe houses of surroundings. It must contrast and standout everyday person to identify sculptural works, art galleries, sculpture has become a common from other visual distractions such as especially if they're not easily recognisable in entity in the composition of community architecture or the natural environment. The the first instance. spaces. The new Queen Street MaU is problems related to public sculpture are testament to this notion. In its restructure, greatly different from any ofthe problems art Taking the Queen Street Mall as a case in artists were selected to produce works that faces vrithin the sanctuary of galleries. Inside, point, it may seem that public sculpture is would "delight and intrigue... drawing upon the white walls can be considered as little more than another way for the Brisbane concepts such as spirit of place, celebration reflectors, directing all focus singularly upon City Council to waste money. Taking another. and the environment," These include the work. Conversely, the success of public King Edward Park, it may seem that pavement art by Fiona Foley, 'Landscape sculpture lies partially in its difference from sculpture's function is merely to break the No.8: Confluence: Spirits Meeting,' by its immediate environment. monotony of the grass and trees. In yet Lyndall Milani and John Mainwaring (the another, sculpture may seem to function water feature behind Rankin's Newsagency It is this difference that Milani and simply to beautify the space, or, in the event on the Mall) and Bronwyn Oliver's suspended Mainwaring's water feature misses. Its that the artwork isn't particularly attractive, work titled 'Big Feathers.' singularity from the Mall's architecture is essentially to fill a void in the architecture. almost indistinguishable. Furthermore, there This list of functions suggests public art has Yet very few people acknowledge their is no label that states the titie of their work, a quite pitiful existence in Brisbane's inner- existence. or credits them as the creators. A smaU city. However, I believe that there are a few matter that seems to have dire consequences, gems, so the invasion wasn't altogether a no It could be said that the recognition of these not only for this work but for many other show. artworks is an even less likely event than a public sculptures. Within the sheltering walls sudden outburst of space invaders. of the art gallery, there is a general My two favourite public sculptures in Presumably in this instance, this is due to the assumption that what is on display can be Brisbane are 'Canopy' (1993) by Neil Dawson particularly shy nature of Foley's pavement classified as art. However, outside the and 'Approaching Equilibrium' (1984) by 52 more elongated and the perspective appears public sculptures. For they make the \iewer to flattenout . Thus, there is an obvious rethink the space in which he/she stands. ARTSWHOZS dependence of this work on its surrounds. This is achieved through a simultaneous Even the sky creates an ever-changing singularity from,an d complete dependence Anthony Pryor, both positioned in the backdrop to Dawson's drawing. This affinity on the surroundings for its meaning. This is grounds ofthe Queensland Art Gallery. With with the environment is also evident in perhaps a pure form of public sculpture in their close proximity to this shelter of art, Pr>'or's work, situated between the Gallery which the sculpture's role is to reinterpret the these two works can presume an extrapolated and the State Library. space. However, this is not the only role of assumption as art. So the work cut out for public sculpture. Artists may also strive to these two sculptures perhaps isn't as hard as Pryor's work resembles a large black preying reinterpret the culture that their work those positioned in the Mall. However, there mantis, dominating the viewer's attention inhabits. is no doubt in my mind that these works are against the modernist architecture of the of a much higher standard. Gallery. At firstglance , this sculpture appears The invasion of sculpture into public domain to protrude from its surroundings. However, is old news. Today we are stuck with a Dawson's 'Canopy' is a site specific the design of this work actually refers to its stockpile of public art. The problem is that we suspension sculpture that hovers over the immediate emironment. For example, the have a majority of pretty sub-standard entrance to the gallery. It is a delicate line primaiy arch-like composition ofthe work, sculptures rather than ones that grab people's dravring on a monumental scale resembling plays on the arch construction ofthe nearby attention. Consequently, the inhabitants of the arch of a building, much like the cloisters Grey Street Bridge. Other shapes that Pryor Brisbane barely take notice of this other clan at the St Lucia Campus. In its firstinstanc e it employs allude to the box-like shapes ofthe that share its public spaces. Perhaps it should is an aesthetically intriguing work through Gallery and also to the folding outline ofthe employ better invasion tactics, or maybe just this exploration of two-dimensional mountains that lie in the distance behind the better marketing skills? perspective drawing in a three-dimensional Gallery. space. What's also interesting about this work SALLY BRAND is that as the viewer proceeds towards the Both of these works strike a balance between entrance ofthe gallery, the character ofthe contrasting and belonging to their surrounds. sculpture dramatically changes. It becomes This contributes highly to their success as 53 Horizon? Thought not, I'll jog your memory: potential. Tim Burton's Mars Attacks HOLLYWOOD IN SPACE it had Laurence Fishburne, Sam Neill and a parodied '50s B-grade "They Came From bunch of scary shenanigans on board a Outer Space" movies and in doing so, Science fictionan d the idea of setting fiction spaceship. It started out like a good, creepy parodied many ofthe time-warpmentalitie s in space i.e. not earth, is fiill of intriguing bit of gothic sci-fi, but succumbed to dumb in current day America as well. The movie possibilities. Just think about it: expanding slash 'n kill formula. could also conceivably be seen as a raspberry scientific/space travel developments for the at the identically-plotted, but straight-faced purpose of fiction.Th e result can be political The problem vrith many sci-fi/space movies, Independence Day. satire and allegory with chilling foresight or particularly ones fromth e last 10 years, is simply a sheer explosion of imagination. Or they start out with an interesting premise, but Starship Troopers, directed by the anything! But like Marcello Mastrioanni's the producers/writers/whoever get cold feet misunderstood maverick Paul Verhoeven, is jaded filmdirecto r in Fellini's self-probing 75 per cent ofthe way through and finish the undoubtedly the finestscienc e fiction filmo f masterpiece 8 1/2, the sheer amount of film with some infiiriatingly dull or stupid the 1990s. Taken way, way too seriously by possibilities available can clearly be Hollywood convention: feel-good cornball PC critics offended by the movie's rampant overwhelming. shite (Mission To Mars) or slasher movie machismo and supposed glorification of war, idiocy (Event Horizon). At its worst, people didn't seem to notice the wry grin Hollywood can surely recognise the many Hollywood also uses sci-fi for flag waving, that's plastered all over the film.Th e guy who radical, stimulating avenues intergalactic nuke loving rightwin g propaganda (the played Doogie Howser sporting what looks stories can take audiences, but it's all too rare execrable Independence Day). like an SS overcoat? It's called satire, people! that the journeys provided by Hollywood sci- And Starship Troopers is an all-too-rare fi reach their true potential. Mastrioanni's But on the few occasions when Hollywood example of Hollywood sci-fi as fearless film vrithin a film involves an enormous gets sci-fi right,i t does truly triumph. The pisstake. spacecraft, painstakingly put together by a Star Wars and Alien filmswor k because, large construction crew. But throughout 8 although set in outer space, the makers are And although I bitch about Hollywood space 1/2, it just sits there, unused and unfilmed by savvy enough to add the most exciting cinema faihng to match the lyricism and Mastrioanni, who gets director's block, elements of other genres into the mix as well. insight of novelists like Isaac Asimov, Arthur creatively neutered by, among other Thus, Star Wars, as well as its hi-tech C Clarke and Kurt Vonnegut (If you haven't elements, the strain of putting together a big gadgetry, also has elements of Kurosawa read Slaughterhouse Five, READ IT!), it just budget film. samurai flicks,Joh n Ford westerns and so happens that in my opinion, the greatest swashbuckling pirate movies throvm in too. movie of all timei s a Holl3Wood sci-fi flick. I sometimes wonder if the many possibilities As a result, the Star Wars movies are simply 2001: A Space Odyssey, returning to Brisbane and, therefore, many technical and creative such cracking entertainment, you can even for big-screen shovrings, was made in 1968 by challenges provided by sci-fi cause similar forgive the atrocious imitations that followed Stanley Kubrick. It's still astonishing today, problems with real filmmakers. On the in their wake (Battie Beyond The Stars, the simply because it fucks so thoroughly vrith evidence of director Brian DePalma's 1999 unforgettable David Hasselhoff vehicle the traditional Hollywood formula. I'm stinker Mission To Mars, I'd suggest a big Starcrash). frankly amazed MGM let Kubrick put it out! "yes". DePalma has always had a knack at The Alien movies, especially the firsttwo , are putting together a good genre film: great because they combine their outer space 2001 presents space as desolate and lonely, Hitchcockian thrillers (Dressed To Kill, Blow settings with dollops of horror. The HR with mankind's developments in technology Out, the underrated Raising Cain) and Mafia Giger-designed aliens are truly fearsome and looking cumbersome and awkward when dramas (the awesome Scarface and The the result is a sci-fi/scare combination placed in such an unforgiving environment. without the sloppiness or contrivances of But Kubrick also shows space as enigmatic Untouchables). So what went v«*ong when he and majestic. It's great space cinema, because tried sci-fi? Mission To Mars started out OK, Event Horizon. It's effortlessly visceral, it's the only movie I can think of in which taking us into the realm ofthe unknovra (the exciting cinema. space seems so omnipresent, that it becomes possibility of life on Mars) but eventually the main character of the film,mor e so than copped out with a sappy, literal, happy There are other space-themed filmstha t work any of the humans, who speak less than 40 ending that felt tacked on. Remember Event thanks to their recognition of sci-fi's humour 54 2001 IS HERE minutes of dialogue in a two-and-a-half hour (Or How I Learnt to Stop Worrying and within the surface ofthe moon, emitting a film. Love Science Fiction) signal in tiie direction of Jupiter. We follow the stoic Dr Heywood Floyd (William And 2001 also avoids obvious, easy digestible Last year I was lucky enough to attend a Sylvester) as he heads to the moon to ensure answers. Man doesn't "conquer" space Stanley Kubrick retrospective in Montreal, that the discovery is not leaked to the public. triumphantly. He's completely at the mercy of where I was able to see all but one of his the harsh elements and his own follies (the majestic films on the BIG screen. In this Chapter two: JUPITER MISSION: malfunctioning talking computer HAL: format, Kubrick's images took on an ever EIGHTEEN MONTHS UTER, sees a space intriguingly the most emotional character in further magnificence. Unfortunately, the crew sent to Jupiter as part of a hush-hush the film). And then the audience is given a release 0(2001 a Space Odyssey was being plan to track the signal. The eerily non-explained burst of psychedelic special saved for a more appropriate date. That year charismatic HAL 9000 on-board computer effects and a surreal dream-like episode in has now arrived and here we are with the becomes the focal point ofthe movie, when it which a terrified astronaut ages and dies opportunit)' to see one ofthe greatest science begins to malfunction and wrreak havoc on instantly, before being reborn as a giant fiction films of all time; polished, remastered the crew. This chapter climaxes with a embryo floating above the earth. And Kubrick and shimmering. phenomenally powerful showdown between never teUs us why. The film ends by asking HAL, and the crew's remaining survivor more questions than it answers. It's open to The late Stanley Kubrick set out to subvert David Bowman (Keir Dullea). interpretation. And discussion. THAT'S what and re-invent neariy every cinematic genre, good sci-fi should do: stimulate the noggin! but never more explicitly than in 2001. His In chapter three: JUPITER AND BEYOND Or at the very least, blow our minds with a goal was to make the science fiction THE INFINITE, the movie takes an rattling good story. equivalent ofthe 1962 epic western. How the unexpected turn when Bowman finds a third West Was Won. The result was a dazzling monolith. In short he is confronted with My extremely high opinion of 2001 makes me space drama relatively unequalled for its death and rebirth after being sucked through even more disappointed at the wasted scope and intelligence. the universe in a dazzling psychedelic light opportunities in space travel-themed movies sequence. No doubt quite an experience for overall. For every Space Odyssey, we get a 2001 was co-wTitten by science fiction author 1960's audiences. lamentable quantity of Battlefield Earths. Arthur C. Clarke and is based on a selection 2001 shows how sensuous and challenging of his short stories. Kubrick directed his The bones ofthe plot speculate about extra movies about space can be. So if any writers as cleverly as his actors, always terrestrial intelligence and how the human Hollywood execs are reading (ha ha!), take up driving them insane, often drawing out their race might be influenced by it. But this is the challenge! Make sci-fi great again! You best. The film opens with a solar eclipse and perhaps the least interesting aspect of the know it makes sense! Richard Strauss's dramatic orchestral piece mo\ie (which is probably why Clarke wasn't Also Sprach Zarathustra ensures that we overly pleased about the final product). MATT THROWER begin the journey with our hair slightly Kubrick turned it into an exploration of mussed. dehumanisation in the face of technology - raising questions about a corporate future mnBiK FHJs nenur ami rartn » HEY PUNTERS! CRII TO niDB M MKUCt XtSKM tr slowly draining us of our human qualities (it (HtrTM wn Mmraaiuitr 2N1 In the first of three chapters, THE DAWN OF WANT A DOUBLE- was no coincidence that the letters H-A-L fall PASS TO THIS MAN, we are surprisingly taken to a stark, K^^RP" dry landscape, contrasting nicely with the either side of the letters I-B-M in the Hk '%^^^Mi SMASHING FILM? alphabet). jBO^^it^lK^B JUST COME UP TO initial expectation of spaceman images. Here HH^^^n^H THE SEMPER we glimpse various moments in the life of a I^^^^^H^H OFFICE! family of apes and are shown how their Specifically, Dr Heywood Floyd seems so THE FIRST 5 intelligence is strangely influenced by a large nonchalant about the significance of his iBfiiyRHal VISITORS WILL black monolith. The camera pauses, blinks position, appearing superficial about the BBBBflBssHH SCORE! and tantalises with lingering shots of empty magnitude of the discovery. Other characters ADMIT IT caverns and dead zebras and a primal are simflarly indifferent. HAL, the computer, 'VMJOraOWAFn.SUNTK. CHEERS atmosphere is created by the stalking seems more human than any other character siaaMrMiw.iMcuis»tMMaMN«l*tl|a. E presence of a jewel eyed leopard. and this incongruence, along with the stark CMEOC MEWSMFOB m ONOU tssstoNsenu cinematography, creates an emptiness. A ii«« kmW H < tahMt MWi^ Ml irf k >*mnmAnmtkim0t*tmtm*'m* We then make an awesome time leap to the powerful sadness hangs over these scenes. SEASON COMKNCES AntH. 12 year 2000 where another monolith is found Kubrick teases out the human reaction by 55 I MM I I •• M MM •• I lUM m • II Bll Bll • 11 III • • •"'.IT" " ^'' somehow distancing himself from it and Some didn't like 2001 a Space Odyssey and THE KUBRICK REPERTOIRE maintains an edge of your seat curiosity in found it a little too big and silly for its own the face of this cold, slow unravelling. It's good. Some scenes are certainly so grandiose * Killer's Kiss (1955): sexy, gritty action Kubrick's talent for photography, his gift for that you'd be forgiven for the odd giggle at the sustained interest in the visual, that the wrong moment. But Kubrick resists suspense with memorable mannequin creates this movie's special atmosphere. sentimentality and cliche, I think, because of slashing climax. Importantiy, he does this by asking the way he contrasts his heart-string tugging questions, not offering opinions. Kubrick techniques - some of the most chilling and * The Killing (1956): psychological drama of a gives the audience room to think for intense moments ofthe film happen in race track robbery gone wrong. themselves rather than pushing the dumb complete silence. This gives the mountainous * Paths of Glory (1957): initiated by Kirk plot-lines, thin morals and shallow ideas of musical climaxes a knowing, questioning many a sci-fi adventure. tone, effectively saying, "well one thing I do Douglas; timeless, inteUigent war film. know is that these are big questions". Spartacus (i960): Kubrick's only Call it silly romance or sentimental bullshit, Thankfully he asks the questions humbly and commissioned directing role. but essentially 2001 left me with something doesn't claim to have all the answers. as I pulled back from it, as I stepped back to * Lolita (1962): black humour and wordplay; simply take it all in. I'm not saying it was "far Sometimes, it's hard to tell if some moments into the mind of one obsessed Humbert. out man" or "trippy", but I believe it to have fall flat, or are dated, or mimicked one too * Dr Strangelove (1964): more black comedy, perfectly placed itself between a spoon fed idea and a too-obscure ambiguity, so that our many timeso n 'The Simpsons'; but overall, sharp wit; a biting cold war spoof. like all of Kubrick's films, 2001 contains an imagination is allowed to stretch and reach, *2ooi A Space Odyssey (1968): epic space giving way to our ovm vrild interpretations undeniable power. Maybe Kubrick wasn't a (perhaps not unlike the way David Bowman's genius, but he was a brilliant film maker and food. imagination accelerates in the final part of his talent deserves awesome respect. * A Clockwork Orange (1971): blade-sharp the film). Questions are raised about glimpse into a nightmarish future; a perfect creativity and forethought and the movie meditates on this quietly. Kubrick smirked his way though Hollywood canvas for Kubrick's obsession with the with his own smart vision and this human impulse. unflinching attitude brought depth to his Once again, Kubrick achieves this by telling * Barry Lyndon (1975): Kubrick does the the story with images and sound - (there is projects, and will be missed. The slow pacing hardly any dialogue in the film,ye t you ofthe film was also a wonderful fuck-you to period piece with the perfect blend of beauty hardly notice this). Kubrick pauses and the hackneyed rush-to-the-catch style of and irony (my personal favourite). lingers on images and constantiy shifts Hollywood film making that is, of course, * The Shinning (1980): Horror with bright perspective by cleverly manipulating white more prevalent today than ever. noise, beeps and silences. When there is lights and colours, Kubrick's visual flare dialogue it is cold and uncomfortable. I hope Brisbane goes and sees this movie if (along with Jack Nicholson's presence) makes There is an excellent scene in the firsthal f of they haven't already. I think most people will this Gothic masterpiece unique and chilling the movie when Dr Floyd is confronted by be surprised. I vividly remember the first vievring. some colleagues - the icy awkwardness ofthe time I saw 2001A Space Odyssey, my first conversation is spontaneous and perfect - Kubrick film, and I sat transfixed as the * Full Metal Jacket (1987): highlighting the when Kubrick does use dialogue he uses it movie unfolded, stretched then exploded insanity of war with it's fly-on-the-wall view flawlessly to enhance the mood (Kubrick would often get actors to do an endless before me. of macho, egotistical ridiculousness. numbers of takes, hoping to force the right * Eyes Wide Shut (1999): the controversial gesture). 2001A Space Odyssey runs for a hmited and exclusive season from the 15th of March at finale; a wonderful take on close relationships Keir Dullea is excellent as the indecisive the Palace Cinema. I hope you haven't and the fantasy hovering between them(?). David Bovmian, agonising over his inner moral anxieties when confronted with the missed it. possibility that his world might require some LUKE BEESLEY genuine emotion after all. Special affects are excellent and were also way ahead of their time. 56 NICE WIG TED- ENTERTAINMENT SYSTEM (Permanent Records) As the name implies, Nice Wig Ted aren't the most serious of bands. However, the guitar- pop based, Weezer-esque tunes on this CD pump along vrith a slickness that proves when it comes to recording, these guys aren't GENSHEN - dicking around. Wliile following in the tracks LOVE IS ON THE RADIO of great Brisbane pop bands like Biro and the (Independent) Melniks, Nice Wig Ted definitely aren't lo-fi. Tracks like the apathetic "Hey Now," manage Quite simply, Genshen are a revelation. Love to hold back from cliched pop quirkiness is on the Radio (their debut single) is a while still containing that magical element dream: a majestic, heady ride from start to that makes you start singing tiie song. This blu& wine finish. Nothing local's sounded this good for EP reveals Nice Wig Ted as a band who've years, nothing since Gaslight Radio's Hitch finally found their niche after two or so years on the Leaves, or Shuriken's Defining Attemi)ts at Structure. This is music steeped of playing locally. As the last track implies, in music's history, an obvious labour of love "It's all good" for Nice Wig Ted at the that somehow escapes sounding derixitive. moment. Frontman Quentin Brown's vocal stylings are t,A beautiful, floating above and around \intage LUCAS MOORE synths, shabby guitars, spot-on bass and . ..>-(f 1 '. •> ' drums. B-sides Find a Roost and Thermodynamic just make you wish this was THE GOODBYE NOTES - a long-player. A kind of Slowdive-meets-The ;>^;^ Underground Lovers-and-eveiything-good- TENDER DOCUMENT in-between, Genshen sound poised for (Independent) greatness. Get this record. It s splendid. Local outfit The Goodbye Notes ply a trade at tbe drunken boat e.p (This single is available at Rocking Horse odds with current pop. Overtaken by sample- Records) based composition, ironic storytelling and (NiceWigTed) general bad taste, the kind of considered, GnTe«TRinmenT KRAM melody-driven tunes this band play have SVSTEm been sorely lacking in recent times. Tender Document is an exercise in good writing: a BLUE WINE - collection of stories delivered honestly THE DRUNKEN BOAT E.P. through well crafted pop songs. Beautifully (Independent) recorded, this disc merges the literarj' precision of Lloyd Cole, Paul Weller and Ron Blue Wine aren't afraid of intimacy. Listening to The Drunken Boat is like sleeping in one of Sexsmith with the sonic bliss of Antonio the band's old jumpers: you can feel it on Carios Jobim. It's a release that moves from your skin. From the first, laconic chords of rainy melancholia to countty-tinged waltz in "Swing," you know you're in deep. Like that a second, from longing to lo\ing and back of bands like Cat Power, The Dirty Three or again. Of it's 15 tracks, Coldest Kitchen is a Smog, Blue Wine's music is simply moving: a real standout: it's as if Raymond Carver - now straight-up attempt to map out emotion. And a woman - has taken up with a band. on this occasion, it works. Each ofthe seven "Downright" is Stjie Council from start to tracks included on the E.P hit home, with finish, ice on linoleum with a crazy reggae standouts "Sex is a Song," and "LuUaboy" break. Overall, Tender Document is expertly • ' '''''iMi-*i^^As^4k:mM!:^y sounding good enough to hurt. Nice to realise honesty's still the best policy. Quite brilliant. executed and arranged. A cracker. (This CD is available at both Rocldng Horse (This CD is available at Rocking-Horse and Skinny's Records) Records) KRAM KRAM 51 long-vrinded and just kind of excruciating. But that's the thing that got slapped on it. I It's the rockin' out approach again with the just go up there; I don't have a lot of Mother Superior guys? premeditation with it. That's what I'm doin', I'm gonna go up and talk some. And there We play, you know? It's good. We're good you go. players. We're real good players. Has the start ofthe Bush Junior era You have three films out this year and provided you with fodder for the shows, or several CDs, plus it's another big year on the HENRY ROLLINS Talkin' The Talk fodder for depression? road. Are you looking forward to it? Henry Rollins may have just turned 40, but Not really, because he hasn't had a chance to Yeah, it's gonna be an interesting year, there's no slowing him dovm, what with a really do anything yet. But I don't know for because there's like the talking records and a new spoken word CD, Rollins In The Wry, an sure if he's really a people person, you know? full on band release, this TV show and the Australian tour and much more waiting when I'm not all that convinced. That's the one movie stuff. Yeah, he gets back home. thing I liked about Bill Clinton - at least the it's gonna be a long one. But cool, you know? guy seemed to like people, I don't know if I I'll take it. To the uninitiated, "spoken word quite get that from George W, I think he's a performance" creates images of bad free verse lot like his dad, kind of below-the-surface. I BOB GORDON poetry. But that's not Rollins. Part storyteller, think he showed himself out when a very dry- part stand-up comedian, part motivational witted news agency reporter said, "who's the speaker, he keeps a usual capacity crowd king of Jordan?" Of course he had a huge enrapt for over two hours. smile (adopts Bush speak) "Well I don't have those facts yet," The whole time this guy's During the Rollins Band's commercial peak like, "uh huh. Who's the Prime Minister of in the mid-'gos, Rollins was often perceived wherever? Well, you know, I'm gonna get to as self-righteous, hypocritical, and/or that." He was just trying to smile and politic overexposed, the latter creating the more his way through the fact that he knew shit. recent view that he's washed up. And while That bugged me. And the fact that he still got some think, the Rollins Band may be past its elected. Man, that's the voters' fault as much prime, RoUins himself isn't. His material in as it is anybody else's. these spoken words shows is timely and sharp. Bob Gordon spoke to him recentiy. You're hosting a TV show called Night Visions in the US. I believe it's not unlike the You're a handful of dates into a pretty Twilight Zone? extensive round of talking shows, is it good to feel the embrace ofthe audience again? Yeah, it's a show for Fox and I think it starts in May. I've already shot all my stuff for it. It Oh yeah. Sure, of course. I haven't done a lot was just an interesting offer. I read the of shows at once since August of last year, material, I liked it. I thought it was a cool when the band tour ended. I only did six opportunity to do something different. It'll talking shows last year after that was done. definitely be interesting to be on like, prime- I've been in the studio mostly, or doing time American television. That'll definitely movies. So getting back into the nightiy send some people for a loop. SEMPER HAS FIVE COPIES OF performance mode is a great thing. ROLUNS' NEW CD TO GIVE AWAY. The next Rollins Band album (due in DO YOU WANT ONE? / believe you don't like the generic term, September) is called Nice. Is that because it's JUST POP INTO THE OFFICE AND "spoken word"? not? TELL US WHY. Well it never felt interesting to me. I didn't Well so far that's the titie we've given it. But I CHEERS really make me want to go to a gig if I heard don't knows, it could be that. It doesn't really (dramatically) "spoken word.' It would be matter. V^en it comes out, you'll know the something I'd run the other way from. It just titie. We recorded 30 songs for the record sounds like it'd be pretentious and boring and and I guess twelve will be on it. 58 The Women's Room supplies FREE women's space is denied in broader society. Why have a information on issues affecting women, The argument (and 1 use that term including eating issues, body image, incest, reluctantly) that these are institutions of child abuse, domestic violence, rape and reverse sexism is a false one. women's room? sexual assault. There is also information on contraceptives, safe sex. Children by Women's rooms give women space to University can be a daunting and Choice, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander define thsir reality and themselves away challenging experience. There are many women's health, information for women from male-dominated space. Women's buildings to negotiate, tutorials to find, from Non-English speaking backgrounds, rooms are for women to have a safe/r textbooks to buy, lost pens, queues for the the safety bus, sexual harassment space to come together or be alone, to talk, phone... all that plus rent, bills, household procedures, racism and homophobia. to organise, to get active around hassles, flat tyres, mysterious grocery campaigns, or to study, eat, read and sleep. disappearance soon after shopping... Women receive 93 percent of sole parent They are a space where the women's However, women face further problems. pensions in Australia collective meets, where women can access There is a very real need for a Women's This inevitably means that, women students information, use the computer, paint Rights Officer, Women's Collective, have issues relating to childcare and kids banners, meet their friends and meet other Women's Rights Area and Women's Room on campus. The Women's Room and the women. It is a non-hierarchical space for in the UQ Student Union Building. These Family Room work together to make this women to develop skills and relationships facilities and positions exist to combat the balance easier for women, acknowledging with other women, for feminist dialogue and discrimination experienced by women in that women do the majority of unpaid debate, to challenge and be challenged. their daily lives by providing a political labour around domestic issues including space for women to organise and fight this childcare. There have been active Feminist activism on campus is a threat to oppression through various campaigns. campaigns around proposed amendments conservative (sexist, racist, homophobic) to the Sex Discrimination Act. This means university agendas. Feminism is about * Women are disproportionately campaigning against John Howard and the working towards a culture free from affected by poverty. Liberal Party's outright discrimination oppressions, exploitation, privilege and * Women still earn on average 65.8 percent against single and lesbian women violence. To ensure the permanency of of the male wage. accessing reproductive technologies such women's issues on the agenda at university, * One in 4 women will still be paying off as IVF. The Queer Families Fundraising we need the Women's Rights officers and a their HECS debt at age 64, as compared Campaign was initiated to cover the legal Women's Department. to 1 in 25 men. costs of a Brisbane lesbian fighting for her right to be a parent. To get involved in the Women's Collective, The women's area fights and come along to the Women's Room upstairs acknowledges women's financial But there's no sexism at universities! in the Student Union Building every disadvantage at university and in broader In universities, women account for less than Tuesday during semester at 1.00pm. society. At the same time the women's room 15 percent of professors and associate provides free coffee, tea, a fridge, free professors. At the current rate of increase, it tampons, pads and the use of hot water will be 20 years before women hold half the By Liz Shield bottles. This may seem simple, but for academic jobs. This isn't because women women, an extra $5(plus GST) for tampons aren't' smart enough or good enough for •% all adds up!! these positions. It is because worldwide r* Tlic Alumni A.'uaciaUon ortlie University oi'Quctnsiwil [nc women are not an education priority, and All students have concerns at uni such as women have existed in the education JA "Date for yOWR Viary assignment deadlines and missed buses. system for less time than men. Women are For female students, there are added excluded from educational and other ALUMNI concerns of personal safety on campus, institutions (particularly the upper echelons risks of sexual and other harassment from of) by sexism and 'old boys' club' rorts. BOOK FAIR students and staff, rape and violence. The There has been more pressure on women MAVNE HALL Safety Bus on campus was initiated by the to sacrifice education and career for family University of Queensland Women's Department in response to or risk social ostracism. Poverty, social and 21-26 APRIL 2001 recurrent attacks on women around family pressure, racism, homophobia and -^-^ campus. There was an appaling reaction to sexism still impair women's ability to get 31^ education today, particularly in non- this service during 2001's UQ Union We DO hive Tod Books elections when one ticket campaigned for a traditional areas. BUT COME AND DISCOVER OUR OTHER SECTIONS men's safety bus. This completely denies WHICH INCLUDE the experience of women in relation to These issues, while by all means not an Spoft IliSoiy violence, and ignores the gendered power exhaustive list, shows why the experience Gnnkning dynamics of sexual violence. of tertiary life and education is different for Foreign Unguages Dallet women based on their gender, as well as Alt Childitiu * In 1996/7 96 percent of sexual assault for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Travel offenders were men. women, lesbian women, women of non- Cookery Novels of ALL Kinds. Sci-Fi * 92 percent of those seeking crisis English speaking background, working Aii B^C? N6W5 . . . C?e5TP?l According to ENERGEX energy card Product Manager, Michael Biron, the traditional quarterly Stop the BACS faculty restructure electricity bill is replaced with a card which can be charged at these convenient outlets; Gailey Road News, Indooroopilly Shoppingtown News, Corinda News, OxIey News and Shell SCAM is currently working to build the campaign to oppose the Shenwood, restructure of the BACS faculty. Already $14 million dollars has "A new card-reading display unit which meters usage and determines how much credit is left on been cut from faculties across the university and it is proposed ENERGEX energy card is installed in the customer's home. ENERGEX energy card promotes that 22 staff be cut from the BACS faculty. This is just one step in energy efficiency, with customers able to monitor and better manage their home electricity the university's plans to restructure faculties to make them more usage patterns. It is all about choice and control for customers - choice and control over how much electricity they use, how much they pay and when they want to make payments. profitable. It is a direct attack on our education. We v/ill have more overcrowded lectures, less contact time with teachers and poorer "ENERGEX energy card can be installed in a rental property, subject to the approval of the landlord. This provides an ideal method of payment sharing for multi-tenanted properties. resources on campus. Already we pay fees in the form of HECS and the government continues to slash funding from higher In addition, there is no security deposit required. If you have already paid a security deposit it will be used to off-set amounts owing on the account for electricity used up to the date of the education. This means the university tries to cut costs and out installation" sources funding from other places such as corporations like The display unit is installed in the customer's home free of charge, with a daily rental fee of North Ltd, Mitsubishi and Shell, which all have partnerships with SO.33. Trial participants will receive a bonus $20 credit on their ENERGEX energy card to UQ. SCAM is opposed to decisions about our education being commence the test campaign. made for profit motives and is working to support and fight for the Mr Biron said if a customer is unable to make a payment on their card and the credits run low, rights of staff and students. electricity will not be immediately disconnected. Rather, ENERGEX energy card will provide a small emergency amount until ttie card is recharged. The Irial is expected to last five months and depending on its sucess, public rollout of the National Day of Action ENERGEX energy card is expected to commence from late 2001. This year on April 5th the National Union of Students has called a national day of action around education issues. Students around Students interested in participating in the trial should call ENERGEX on 1312 53 lo register. 61 social events for students but also an hand prefers to divert the money used for UNION PAGES increase in political ones aimed at paying these staff into "strategic initiatives" educating students about social issues. to make UQ a more prestigious and high Highly successful examples are the ANTaR calibre institution. The question is, how high forums (Australians for Native Title and calibre will UQ be If the teaching standard is Reconciliation) and the Education Area's so poor? I urge any students to get Involved President's Report mural painting about higher education. Many in the Union's campaign against this thanks also to the tireless efforts of the restructure, especially BACS students who In March, the Union has seen O'Week come Activities committee and volunteers who will be directly affected. You can contact the and go, has dealt with many a pesky dedicated 40 hours per week (or more), BACS Faculty Officer, Matt Munchow, by problem relating to the new enrolment their sanity and ability to have a normal life email at [email protected] and procedures, and has had a lot of student without expecting anything except a cold ale find out how you can feedback concerning the proposed in return. I must make special mention of get involved. restructures of the Biological and Chemical Dom McGrath who exceeded the limits in Sciences Faculty (BACS), the Natural volunteering this year and certainly more NRAVS which is the smallest Faculty is Resources Agriculture and Veterinary than any year I've seen. facing similar staff cuts to BACS. The Union Sciences Faculty (NRAVS), and the possible has been gathering as much information merger of two schools within the Social and Restructures - oh so many restructures. It about the possible restructure for which a Behavioural Sciences Faculty (SBS). seems that the university has realised that proposal has npt yet been formally released. maybe some of the huge capital expenditure The effects on NRAVS will be even greater Ah yes, it's all happening here at the it has put into see-through upright mist- due to its small size and large amount of University of Queensland. Amidst ail that spraying water fountains and the long practical work. In response to so many we've tried to put pressure on all the awaited Institute of Molecular Biology is a faculty restructures, the Union is in the candidates in the Ryan by-election, little excessive. One would think that in order process of establishing a Faculty particularly to make some REAL online to ameliorate the problem, they'd just do a Restructure Action Group (FRAG) that I university schemes from the ALP, and little re-prioritising. But no, department strongly encourage you to participate in. "promises" to provide loans for postgraduate restructures and staff cuts ahoy, say the We'll be publicising in widely around your students from the Liberal Party. executive deans and the VC. faculties and meeting regularly. (Anna Spanner McNaughton) is the NRAVS So, when 1 wasn't going crazy, eating too The BACS Faculty is facing the prospect of Faculty Officer for the Union and she can be much chocolate and MSG, here's what up to 100 staff cuts in the very near future. contacted at happened... While academics in this faculty (and indeed, nravs.union @ mailbox.uq.edu.au. faculties across the entire university) are O'Week. It came (finally), it saw (many crying out for more resources and more As for SBS, there is a proposal in the works students), it conquered (it was the best one teachers they are looking down the barrel of to amalgamate the schools of Social ever!). Firstly, many many congratulations a very large gun. The Union has attended a Science and Political Science and and a huge round of applause to the brilliant number of meetings with the trade Unions International Relations. Mmm...there's such organisers of this week - Lisa Chesters the that represent staff in this faculty and also a correlation there. The motivation behind it Orientation Director, Catherine Laherty the with the Executive Dean of the Faculty. is (yet again) economic considerations ie. Activities Officer and Juiz deJong the There is much dispute about the way some schools don't run at a profit so they're Activities Organiser. Their ability to fonward in this scenario. Students and staff not "viable". We'll be keeping you posted on coordinate the massive program, coerce will be strongly campaigning against these this as well when we find out the details. volunteers and at the end of the day still tell staff cuts as they will result in fewer tutorials the rest of us to be calm was phenomenal. and pracs, larger classes and less teacher- With such a grim picture here at UQ, the O'Week 2001 not only saw an increase In student contact. The Faculty on the other Union took some initiative last week and off campus by david "cutting corners" mcdermott tik-tok-tlk-lok-tlk-tok-iik tok-tfk-tok-tik-tok-tik-tok- tik-tok-tik-tok-tik-tok-tik- tok-tik-tok-dk-tok-tik.... organised a forum for the candidates in the I hope this has been an informative and not the Federal Government is doing nothing to Ryan by-election called "Higher Education - entirely boring read for you. Enjoy the rest of provide schemes targeting mature aged Which Direction?" This university is right in Semper! unemployed people. the middle of the electorate and the media were watching it like a hawk. Unfortunately, Yours In Union, mutual (adj): Having the same relationship Bob Tucker, the Liberal candidate for Ryan each to the other. did not wish to attend and give his vision for Juliana Virine higher education In Australia. This was a President. The public should at least be able to expect shame as the Liberal Party is responsible some semblance of mutuality in the for more that $1 Billion cuts to (If you ever want to contact me, I can be Government's extension of mutual higher education since John Howard was emailed at obligation to more of its Welfare programs. elected PM. As 1 write this report, the result [email protected]) The Howard years have seen massive has not been finalised and I can only hope downsizing of the public sector, much of that a candidate who will take the higher this has been in the area of social services. education funding crisis seriously is elected. In 1998, 5000 Centrelink workers were There will be a National Day of Action placed out of work, seriously undermining organised by the National Union of Students UVelfare Officer's Report the capacity of Centrelink to provide the on April the 5the. If you're Interested in core social services It should. The seeing higher ed back on the agenda, then Having taken the SledgeHammer to public Government has abandoned its please come along to the actions organised education, industrial relations and the responsibilities in the area of employment on campus to taxation system (to name but a few of the services, with its decision to replace the voice your concerns. vital public policy areas 'reformed' by the Commonwealth Employment Service with a Howard Government), the federal Coalition shoddy coalition of privately contracted have now set the welfare system firmly in service deliverers in the Job Network. And finally (so much to tell you all because their sights. it's been such a busy month!) - the Student Services Charge and Enrolments debacle. All of these changes have been a reflection reform (v): The improvement or amendment of the Government's lack of commitment to The University's fees reviewing committee of what is wrong, corrupt, etc. reclassified remote and external students at its end of the mutual obligation bargain. a meeting last year and thus altering the In the context the current Welfare policy Perhaps the most disappointing aspect of amount they pay to the university In the form debate, the term reform is perhaps of the Students Services Charge (SSC). the Welfare reform proposals are in how somewhat a misnomer. Rather than to they completely fail to address the Some students have been billed simply improve what is wrong by seeking to much more than they usually pay and have inadequate levels of support for students. address the underlying causes for spiralling The Howard Government 'reformed' (understandably) become very angry about welfare rolls and a burgeoning poverty gap, government benefits for students during its it. The treasurer and 1 have been doing lots the Howard Government has adopted the first term, with the introduction of the of communicating with these particular approach of making it more difficult for Common Youth Allowance. Key features of students to explain that this was not an Welfare recipients to access benefits, these changes were the significant initiative of the Union, but the university. For additional barriers to students accessing this year, we have allocated a special grant The reforms being promoted by the Howard benefits. to these students in the Hospital Areas Government in response to the budget (under which they mostly fall) and recommendations of the McClure report are The Federal Government's idea of Welfare will endeavour to get the rules changed for primarily concerned with the further reform is based on the belief that the best next year. extension of the principles of Mutual way to get people off Welfare rolls is simply Obligation in the Welfare system. Much to make access to benefits more difficult. While I'm on the point of the SSC, you may debate has surrounded the virtues or all be Interested to know that the $140 you othenvise of Mutual Obligation. Essentially, Welfare should exist to lift the burden of pay to the university at the start of every the proponents of mutual obligation believe poverty from the most underprivileged in semester is administered as follows: that in order to build a resilient and society, not to make them feel a burden. supportive society, Individuals receiving -$79 per full-time student per semester Government benefits should be expected to Further information about the Government's (minus GST) to the UQ Union subject to contribute in some way This type of policy, Welfare reform proposals can be found at approval of the Union's annual budget by while being electorally popular, often fails to http://www.facs.govau the University Senate pass the fairness test. - $53 per full-time student per semester The UQ Union is seeking your Centrelink (minus GST) to UQ Sport For example, under the Federal horror stories. If you have any, contact me - $8 per full-time student per semester is Government's proposals, it is foreshadowed on: retained by the University as an that unemployed people over the age of 35 3377 2200 administrative fee will be expected to take on the burden of or [email protected] compulsory extra activities. For instance, The university levies and sets the fee, not dole recipients aged between 35 and 39 Cheers the Student Union. Just thought you might who fall to participate In a range of like to know seeing as it's the most approved activities (in addition to looking for Chris Vernon commonly asked question! a job), will be required to participate in work Welfare Rights Officer for the dole schemes. This at a time when 63 in the building industry you'd already know collapses - bbih possibilities - then things will this, probably because your business has get very pessimistic Indeed. gone broke. The constmction Industry has contracted by nearly 50% since July 1,1999, Indian bribery scandal The Ryan By-Election almost solely because of the insane and Not even the famous victory of Sourav Federal politics this month was transfixed by unsupportabte building spree that went on to Ganguly's cricket team could distract Indian the spectacle of the Ryan by-election, called "beat the GST price rises", as the many ads politics from the corruption and bribery after the resignation of Defence Minister John on TV stentorially urged. But things are bad scandal engulfing the national government Moore, Ryan takes In affluent suburbs in all over the economy especially in the over- this month. With the press in outrage and the Brisbane's west like Chapel Hill and hyped IT sector, not to mention in public cynically disgusted, the national Brookfield, and has never been held by Labor telecommunications (sell those Telstra 2 Pariiament has descended into chaos, with in its 50-year history. That was until a 10% shares now: they're only going down from all parliamentary business abandoned for a swing wiped yet another Liberal off the here.) Australia has had 10 years of three-week recess after any semblance of Queensland map. Most of the pre-election uninterrupted economic growth, some of the order proved impossible to maintain. The media coverage concentrated on whether strongest in the Western world, and a cyclical scandal, which saw key Government officials Ryan was "another Bass or Canberra." Bass downtown was bound to happen some time in the Defence Ministry videotaped accepting was lost by the Fraser government in 1982, soon. "Why now?" Peter Costello must be bribes from journalists posing as arms and Canberra by Labor in 1995, both shouting in his locked study, "^vhy not next dealers, has rocked the Indian government of harbingers of falling governments in year!" Labor's answer is the mayhem caused President Atal Behari Vajpayee. His Defence subsequent general elections. The lead-up to by the introduction of the GST, especially the Minister, George Fernandez, has already the by-election saw frenzied campaigning by problems caused for small business by the resigned over the scandal, as has the both major parties. Labor wheeled Kym BAS. There is no question that the BAS has President of the BJP political party, Bangaru Beazley and Peter Beaftle through at every made a big difference to businesses that Laxman, who was caught red-handed on opportunity, while the Liberals tied have lumpy or irregular cash-flow, or who camera red-handed accepting a bribe of themselves in knots trying to make the used to have pretty dodgy accounts. The 100,000 rupees. The video came from Business Activity Statement less nightmarish problem Is, many of these businesses aren't Tehelka.com, an Indian news and and pretending that there wasn't going to be necessarily unsound. They stilt employ entertainment website well-known for It's a recession. Voters in Ryan were deluged people, and spend money that flows through investigative journalism and dubious methods with every type of direct mail (including the rest of the economy But more and more of news gathering. But il has also exposed Labor's super-tricky party invitation look-alike, of them are shutting up shop, simply unable the endemic corruption that appears to where young voters opened a card inviting to meet that big quarterly tax payment The pervade Indian government, both national them to ... send John Howard a message). Tax Office, however, doesn't think there's a and provincial. I^eanwhile, the Government Polling companies had the phones ringing hot problem at all. They realise the GST is has survived a vote of no-conffdence, but is at meal times. The Democrats even put on a sucking in rivers of gold from previously looking shakier by the day A junior partner In little side-show as Meg and Natasha swept untaxed areas of the economy. This is mainly the coalition Government headed by the BJP, through UQ on speaking tours. Unfortunately because their compliance regime has been the Trinamool Congress, has already pulled, for Ms. Stott-Despoja, even if she does so much more rigid than predicted. The ABN, and the opposition Congress Party has said it become the Democrats leader, voters are for example, was meant for business to will consider running together with It In unlikely to remember that she opposed the business transactions. But now even upcoming provincial elections. Congress has GST, when it was her party that cut the deal babysitters and tutors need one if their next- vowed to try and bring down the Govemment to pass it. In the end, Labor's Leonie Short door neighbours are to claim GST, And, as over the Issue, but many voters still won by a handful of votes. Was Ryan a Bass every student and musician knows, the cash remember Congress' own corruption or a Canberra? In a sense it doesn't matter. economy has been hit for six by the GST. scandals Involving Bofors in the 1980's. The real problem that Ryan showed for the These are the sort of GST effects that don't Indian politics Is still marked by the Bofors Government was the collapse in support in easily show up in economic statistics, scandal, where senior members of the even their safest constituencies - mainly because they apply to under-the-table military and government took kickbacks In because of their ham-fisted implementation of transactions that previously sat outside the return for awarding a massive artillery tax reform. Most Ryan voters probably tax system. The result has meant yet more contract to the Swedish arms manufacturer. supported the GST in 1998. They should pain for students that relied on little cash jobs But popular resentment against the BJP over have listened more carefully to the here and there to top up their youth the Tehelka tapes is running high, and even Government's campaign slogans. Remember, allowance. It's also meant a sharp drop in the sublime off-spin of Harbhajan Singh the GST was Not Just A New Tax, it was a spending at a time when the economy hasn't kept the Issue off Indian front pages. New Tax System, complete with the BAS, the needed it least. Our favourite Minister for Now the leader of Congress, Sonya Gandhi, IAS, the ABN, the Ralph Review, and so on. Centrelink, Tony Abbot, recently gave a has her personal assistant under And it's the New Tax System that voters speech arguing we all need to be less investigation by the Indian Central Bureau of appear to loathe more than just anything all pessimistic. And perhaps he is right: big Investigation, for possessing wealth beyond else. Except politicians, of course. interest rate cuts will eventually get the his known Income. The OBI was the body that economy moving again. But the biggest risk Investigated India's cricket match-fixing of all for Australia is that these are domestic scandals, catching South African captain It's the economy, stupid economic issues, and the worid economy Hansie Cronje on tape. In India, nearly By the time this Semper hits the refecs we could get a lot worse before It gets better. If everything In public life, It seems, has a price. may well have the set of economic data for the American stock exchange crashes, or the the March quarter showing that Australia is in heavily indebted Japanese banking system recession. Of course if you happened to work Ben Eltham M