Magic shop project
The magic shop project is an interactive illustrative book with cut-out paper constructions. I was very much inspired by the internet-based phenomena of designer paper toys which you can download, print and construct – but I wanted something with more, context, story, and subtlety. The project is based around word play, puns and wit with words, in an old curiosity style shop.
Transition stop motion film
I had always wanted to do a stop motion film since watching the eerie ‘Secret adventures of Tom Thumb’. I think a dark story works really well with the creepy effects you can get with pixilation and stop motion – I was also inspired by The Cure’s ‘End of the World‘ video and Slipknot’s ‘Vermillion‘. The film took just over a month to complete, from concept to finish.
Pink Teapot
I worked as a resident designer at a charity 2 week event, ‘Worthless’ held in Seven Dials, Covent garden. Members of the public were asked to bring in unwanted items, which were then made into something desirable, which the customer could buy back. As one of the event’s sponsers was Jelly Belly, I decided to put my resources to use – I sold several of this particular print of an old yellow toy teapot which I transformed.
Maria Lee-Warren
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Twelve months ago there was a shop called Woolworths, Michael Jackson was planning 40 nights at the O2 Arena and taxpayers were unaware they had bought a duck house and adult movies.
Yes, 2009 has been a busy year. It has been dominated by MPs expenses and the credit crunch but the last year of the noughties was also the year of swine flu, Somali pirates, the end of the Tamil Tigers and 104 British deaths in Afghanistan.
The expenses scandal, unearthed by The Daily Telegraph in May, has cast a shadow over UK politics from which it seems it may not recover. Numerous current members have been forced to either resign or not seek re-election and Sir Thomas Legg has made no friends asking several of them to pay back expenses retrospectively.
The big name resignation was Speaker of the House Michael Martin, the first speaker to be forced out in 300 years. However, his successor was not without controversy. John Bercow began his career as a staunch right winger but won the election for speaker thanks to support from Labour who favour his maturing moderate tendencies.
However this years Lazareth Award goes to Peter Mandleson.
The EU Trade Commissioner rejoined UK politics after two resignations as a Lord and has been instrumental in keeping Labour in with a shot at next year’s election.As he said at the Labour party conference ‘Tony said our project would only be complete when the Labour Party learned to love Peter Mandelson.’
Although Mandleson has certainly stopped the free-fall in Labour’s polling numbers this year certainly belongs to Conservative leader David Cameron.The Prime Minister elect has been on great form both inside and out of the House of Commons, despite his communications director being implicated in tapping phone calls from members of the royal family while editor of The News of the World.
BNP leader Nick Griffin was a regular fixture this year winning a seat in the European Parliament and contentiously appearing on BBC flagship Question Time where he struggled against some tough interrogation.
Outside of Westminster it has also been a busy political year.
The EU appointed its first President and Foreign Minister in Belgian PM Herman Van Rompuy and Baroness Ashton respectively, a decision heavily criticised for lacking public involvement and ignoring diplomatic heavy weights like Tony Blair.
This was not the first time Europe had caused controversy in 2009.
In August Abdelbaset Ali al-Megrahi, otherwise known as the Lockerbie bomber, was released on companionate grounds from a Scottish prison cell and returned to a heroes welcome in Libya.
This caused a huge stir across the world but most notably in America, where most of the victims had come from. The Secretary of State and heads of the FBI and CIA objected to his transfer despite al-Magrahi suffering from terminal cancer.
Later in the year another trial halfway across the globe caused a stir in the United States when American student Amanda Knox was convicted in Italy of the brutal murder of British student Meredith Kercher. The effects of the American complaints, which are heavily critical of the Italian police and legal system, are not likely to be known soon and Miss Knox will spend a significant amount of time behind bars in Italy.
In America the infamous Washington sniper John Allen Muhammad, who shot and killed ten people over three weeks in 2002, was put to death in Virginia after failing in his appeal to the US Supreme Court.
There has however been some good across the pond. In January the first black President was inaugurated (Twice), but President Obama has since seen his approval ratings crumble. He did controversially win the Nobel Peace Prize for his ‘aspirations’ towards world peace beating Zimbabwean opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai. Recently Obama was forced to deal with substantial backlash from proposed health care reforms which, in a diluted form, now look set to take effect in 2010,
However, he did fail in his attempt to close Guantanamo Bay detention centre by the end of this year, although it may now move to Illinois.
2009 did see one detainee return to England. Binyam Mohammed had been held at the Cuban army base and is now searching to prosecute his captors for prolonged torture over his four year stay.
This his year it was an act of domestic terrorism which shook America to its core. In November at Fort Hood, Texas, 13 were left dead after an American Army psychiatrist went on the rampage. This was followed on Christmas Day with the attempted attack on a Delta Airlines flight from Amsterdam to Detroit where a British educated Nigerian man allegedly tried to blow up the plane. In 2006 the liquid bomb plot caused a similar security scare and the men responsible for the attempted attack were found guilty in the UK this year and were all given hefty prison sentences.
According to Bush, Blair, Brown and Obama a large reason for our presence in Afghanistan is to stop terrorists like this. However it has come at a terrible price this year. 310 Americans and 104 British troops have lots their lives battling the Taliban and al Qaeda this year alone. Their sacrifice was unable to provide a democratic election with widespread rumours of fraud in President Hamid Karzai’s win which eventually were declared after Dr Abdulla Abdulla withdrew. Apparently there is light at the end of the Afghan tunnel with President Obama hoping the latest troop surge from both sides of the Atlantic will see soldiers returning home as soon as 2011.
Iran also struggled to hold elections this year with Mahmoud Ahmadinejad apparent election victory triggering protests in Tehran in which several people were killed. In December Ayatollah Montazeri died casting doubt over the reform movement in this strictly Muslim country.
One conflict did end with the British handing over power in Basra in June and the Americans withdrawing from Iraq in September.
The world was however nearly brought to its knees by the H1N1 Swine Flu virus. Cases started in Mexico during March and spread rapidly across the world. Although the feared global pandemic has not yet come to fruition people still hold reservations it may make a return in 2010.
There were also attempts to curb larger global problems. The G20 in London, marred by violence from protesters and heavy handed conduct by police led the way to the Copenhagen Climate Conference, and also global solutions to the economic crisis. Unfortunately for environmental activists the infamous Climategate e-mails dominated the news in the run up to Copenhagen with revelations of results tampering and selective publishing.
The summit, marred by protesters, police and poor organisation, may not have led to the deal which many campaigners wanted, but may have set the ground work for legally binding deals including financing for developing nations to develop green energy.
Available funds have been an issue now for nearly two years with both businesses and governments alike struggling to find liquid capital. Brown, Cameron and Clegg, along with every other party leader across the world have clashed over the issue of public spending cuts to cure the £820bn deficit. The right argues for rapid deficit reduction while the left believes it should be a more gradual process. Both claim theirs will avoid the dreaded double dip.
Bankers dominated the news with repeated calls for government bailouts and with the full extent of their involvement in the global economic collapse becoming clear. Sir Fred Goodwin, the head of Royal Bank of Scotland at the start of the crisis, retired with a £16million pension pot while unemployment rates rocketed to nearly 2.5million. As Christmas approached the some banks announced they were going to pay bonuses this year despite their taxpayer owned status.
Other countries have made progress with their problems.
In May Tamil Tiger leader Velupillai Prabhakaran was found dead after bloody fighting in North Eastern Sri Lanka effectively ending 26 years of civil conflict.
Nigeria also saw tentative steps towards peace with the surrender of militant leaders in May. It is hoped this may release valuable oil in the Delta region and encourage tourism in what many see as a failed state.
In other parts of Africa the problems keep mounting. Somali pirates have been a constant challenge regularly hijacking ship off their cost and holding the vessel and crew ransom. They are still holding a British couple snatched from their yacht in October.
Globally the biggest story of the year was the sudden death of the King of Pop Michael Jackson. The often controversial icon passed away in June.
More recently Tiger Woods drove into the headlines after a car crash led to revelations about extra marital affairs which have left his personal and professional life in the rough.
It has been a year of surprises and disappointments, the end of the first decade of the new millennium.
So what will dominate 2010?
Read the New Years instalment to find out.
Colin Rowe
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Whether it be technology or model train-building, niche interests have always carried jargon with them, which enthuses the hobbyists and frankly scares the outsiders. Horse-racing is one of the few mainstream spectacles which continues to baffle and intrigue those not engrossed in its entertaining world. My grandmother would religiously watch The Morning Line, and so by proxy I couldn’t help but pick up various bits of racing psycho babble. Since then I’ve always viewed the betting shop as a dystopian limbo, a sort of holding pen for anyone who’s had too much to drink and too little cash.
That said, horse racing and betting are big business. Over $100 million a year is waged on bets in over 53 countries. You’d think with animal rights movements gaining momentum that horse racing would have cantered to a halt by now. Indeed, it does have it’s critics, amongst several high profile animal rights groups, but horse racing refuses to die, because it has a small and loyal following who will always turn out to the races, lay bets, and then discuss it at work afterwards.
What follows here is a review of 2009 in horse racing:
2009 started, and indeed ended all about Kauto Star. Denman had been diagnosed with an irregular heartbeat whether he would make Cheltenham. His absence was noted at all the big post Christmas and new years meetings (where Kauto Star put in an impressive win in the King George, and winning once again yesterday), and was well beaten in February over hurdles. At Cheltenham Kauto Star put faith to the hype, and Denman finished a long way second to his next door neighbour. Ruby Walsh, second only to AP McCoy described him as the greatest horse he had ever ridden. Denman’s next big appearance was at Aintree on Grand National week, where he fell after travelling well. There was heartbreak, and there were many fears that this was the end.
However on November the 28th at Newbury he took the Hennessy Gold Cup in fine style, beating another stable mate; What a Friend, in doing so became the only horse since Arkle to win two. For many this showed the promise of great things to come, and another year of battles between Paul Nicholls’ two best.On February the 9th, Restless D’Artaix jumped flawlessly round Plumpton, taking AP McCoy to the massive landmark of 3000 winners, made even more remarkable by the fact that just over a year previous the Ulsterman had broken his back following a horrific fall from Arnold Lane.
Although arguably Roby Walsh is many times more stylish a jockey, there is good reason why AP is dubbed the finest jump jockey to date. Since riding his first winner over hurdles; Legal Steps in 1992, aged 17 he has been unbeatable, taking the title every year since the 1994/5 season. He royally thumped the record for numbers of winners in a season in 2001/2002, which had been held for 55 years previously, by a flat racing jockey (without wishing to bore people with mathematics, it’s a lot easier to rack up winners on the flat than it is over jumps). Realistically all he has left to do is 300 winners in a season and the Grand National, which has eluded him so many times.
Whatever happens he will go down as one of the greats, and should his records ever be broken I would imagine it would be by someone not yet born.
In a year of heroics and unlikely champions (such as Mon Mome – the 100/1 chance taking the National) there were a few very sad losses. The ones I feel I have to note are Pressgang, Commercial Flyer and Russian Trigger. However the saddest loss of all was that of Exotic Dancer, a truly lovely horse who I have followed for many years. It was a horse on the way to the top, only outclassed by Kauto Star. The only departure that has been sadder so far in the 21st Century has been that of Gloria Victis, as we would never see how good Gloria Victis was; there was a huge amount of speculation as to how it would become one of the greats. Exotic Dancer showed he had class and his death overshadowed the remainder of the season.
Emma Louise-Kerwin
Introduction by Joseph Stashko-Adamaszek
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I was in India recently, and nearing Christmas and engaging in sometimes frivolous conversation with rickshaw drivers and the like, I often asked “what happens at Christmas time here?”. The general consensus was “a really big party”. – Nothing unusual there. But I had to ask, because I had to wonder. There aren’t decorations sprawling streetwards from businesses, or climbing lampposts and strangling trees. Christmas music doesn’t filter from speakers in lifts or lobbies or halls or rooms. There’s very little (if any) advertising for “Christmas bargains!” or anything of the sort.
Across one small span of ocean from India’s east coast however, you will find Christmas has taken on a traditional flavour of the sort we are more used to here in the western world. In Singapore, carols infest almost every space, with version upon version of all of the tunes we’ve come to know. There’s advertising on walls, televisions, radios, buses, trains and their stations – the list is almost endless. And I realise finally, after much detachment from the Christmas that I am used to, that we’re only a matter of days away, and the typical push for consumption and money that we see in the western world is indeed, slowly filtering in to the east.
But why not yet in India? Is this some measure of capitalism’s impression on a nation’s thinking? Is it a sign of just how far Singapore has come, and how far India is from really being the player on the world stage that they are hoping to be? (Don’t tell them). Look up how they celebrate Christmas in for example, Vietnam, Africa, Peru, Samoa or Uzbekistan (all of which aren’t yet dictated by capitalist ideas) and the focus seems to invariably be on celebrating family and feasting (just like India) – not spending and consuming.
The fact of the matter is that now, more so than ever, Christmas is a time when retailers can push consumers to give their profits one last positive kick for the year. It’s the months leading in to it that determine whether or not salespeople hit their targets, and if you’re part of this machine (as we inevitably are in western society), you’ll jump right on to the train of thought that Christmas capitalism teaches. What’s the point of really pushing for that consumer dollar (or rupee, as it were) if they haven’t yet inherited our culture of consumption and growth?
Seriously though, do we (or does anyone) really need an excuse to encourage consumerism in today’s consumption and growth-driven society? Where over-consumption and the inherent consequences of it (pollution, waste, global warming, climate change, death, greed, hunger, excess, detachment, escapism – the list is almost endless) are continuously and increasingly inhibiting and harming our lives and futures.
Are retail and commercial organisations not simply “cashing in on Christmas” in order to improve their bottom line? Is the fact that India wasn’t gearing up for Christmas (even in December) – where big spending of a commercial nature is only now starting to really grow – some measure of their society’s ability (or current inability) to contribute cash to the machine that Christmas has become?
The point isn’t to get back into church, and pick up your bible and speak to “God” (whoever yours might be) on Christmas day. The point is that the capitalist machine further and further infiltrates more and more aspects of our lives, wherever and whenever it can. Getting back in touch with giving thanks for family, friends and our relationships, and sharing merriment ought to be far more important, especially over the behest of capitalism’s grave desire for growth – or should we call it a majority contribution to the destruction of our earth? I’m sure the rest of the world will soon follow suit, because money is most important, right?
Carlos Hurworth
Over 900 climate change campaigners have been arrested during protests at the Copenhagen summit.
The violence broke out when tens of thousands of people marched with signs saying ‘Save the humans’ but a group of protesters began to throw bricks at the police.
Police have been accused of overreacting to ‘sporadic street violence’ by using ‘kettling’ methods to detain protesters, similar to those during the G20 protests in April.
Read more on the arrests here.
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We live in a world where news flows 24 hours a day. A world where you can find out anything that your heart desires without even leaving the comfort of your own home. In such a world rather than having to trust that sources like the BBC, tabloids or textbooks supply and interpret news and information accurately, we can merely seek a second, third, fourth or in fact any number of other opinions and sources.
The irony is, that this can have a negative effect in portraying a clear message, especially for those groups trying to get the climate change message out there. Countless reports and statistics begin to confuse the scientific arguments about climate change. When differing sources tell us that temperatures may rise by anywhere between 1 degree Celsius and 6.4 degrees Celsius and with some reputable sources still predicting global cooling, trying to make a judgement becomes difficult. Indeed, sea level rise predictions from the IPCC alone spread anywhere between 90mm and almost a metre. This means people don’t know what they are really facing in the future. Our obsession as a society for statistics just confuses the whole thing further. While scientists may debate the effect thermal expansion has on sea levels and how much extra carbon dioxide can be absorbed by plant life, the wider issue is surely more important.
The Copenhagen Summit is seen by many as crucial to future policy on climate change
The real inconvenient truth is that we don’t know. We know so little about our complex world and the workings of our atmospheric systems. With Climate being one of the most complex areas of science it is obvious why we do not have a complete picture. Add to this the scale of what we are trying to predict in both space, the entire globe, and time, predictions running ahead a century, then it is no wonder that certainty is hard to come by. Unfortunately for the well intentioned Green lobby, this uncertainty plays perfectly into the hands of the groups with a huge interest in the outcome of the climate debate. Groups such as the energy sector, oil industry and car industry. Their ability and motive to spread counter-intelligence thanks to their considerable influence in the worlds of science, the media and politics means it is not surprising people start to doubt reputable sources like the IPCC when these groups stoop to any means to protect the ‘business as usual’ mantra. This leads to the defenceless individual, just looking for direction, to get lost in a sea of incomprehensible and conflicting statistics.
The 10:10 Campaign, backed by The Guardian newspaper, binds those who sign up to reduce emissions by 10% by the end of 2010
However, for those who decide to sit on the fence. Those who reason that the science is not sure, the science is not perfect. The inconvenient truth is we know enough to be sure that messing with a complex and finely balanced system will have global and irreversible consequences. The question is, will we act as individuals and as a society now, to save the world of tomorrow from the consequences of climate change? Whilst the default setting for many well educated people is just to ignore the science and the logic, to believe the whole thing a myth, whilst others hide behind statistical uncertainty, our climate will steadily change as we fail to act. Our uncertainty will no longer be whether climate change is real but whether it will destroy the security of the way we live.
Anthony Barron
For more info about the Copenhagen summit, click here
For more info on 10:10, click here
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