MUSIC & Light iSSUE

RED XMAS

TREESTHE only COX i’m

INTERESTED IN!

DURHAM LUMIERE:

TOTALCHAOS

&

magazine

FREE MAGAZINE DEGREES NORTH* UNIVERSITY OF SUNDERLAND STUDENTS' UNION

festive

music

reviews

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ONTACT

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ANOTHER CHRISTMAS,

ANOTHER YEAR GONE.

ONCE YOU

HIT 23 LIFE FLASHES PAST YOU AND BEFORE YOU

KNOW IT YOUR ON TH

E DOORSTEP OF ANOTH

ER WINTER.

WILL WE HAVE SNOW?

WILL I GET AN iPAD?

WILL I BE COMPLETELY

SLOSHED, OFF HOT RE

D WINE?

WELL I CAN ANSWER ONE O

F THOSE QUESTIONS WITH

CERTAINTY:

NOTHING BETTER THEN

A GLASS OF HOT MUL

LED WINE,

ALSO MY VERSION OF

A CHRISTMAS COFFE

E….COFFEE

SHOT, BAILEYS, AND

A TOUCH OF MILK FO

AM! SIMPLY

AMAZING, ESPECIALLY

WHEN YOU WAKE UP

WITH EX-

CITEMENT AT 4 O’CL

OCK ON CHRISTMAS M

ORNING AND

YOU JUST NEED THAT

EXTRA BUZZ TO GIV

E YOU THE

ENERGY TO OPEN ALL

OF YOUR PRESENTS.

OR SHOULD

I SAY 1 PRESENT, YES THAT’S RIGHT, WHEN YOU

GET TO OUR AGE LIF

E PASSES YOU BY AN

D THE NUM-

BER OF PRESENTS GE

TS LESS AS EACH YE

AR COMES.

I’M NOW DOWN TO 1!

I SUSPECT IT WIL

L BE PJ’S.

BRILLIANT. WELL AS

LONG AS NO ONES GE

T IN MY

WAY FOR WHEN THE D

OCTOR WHO SPECIAL

COMES ON.

AND, NOT

ONLY IS THIS OUR F

ESTIVE ISSUE, BUT,

IT’S A DOUBLE WHAMMY

. THIS IS OUR MUSIC

ISSUE. SO

SIT BACK RELAX, AND

AS YOU READ THIS

ISSUE FULL

OF INTERVIEWS, REV

IEWS, AND A CONTRO

VERSIAL RED

CHRISTMAS TREE, WE A

T DN WOULD LIKE TO W

ISH YOU A

VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS

AND A HAPPY NEW YEAR

.

KEEP AN EYE OUT FO

R THE JANUARY-FEBRU

ARY ISSUE,

WHICH WILL BE OUR DOM

ESTIC VIOLENCE ISSUE

. MORE IN-

FORMATION TO COME, K

EEP UPDATED VIA THE D

N WEBSITE.

-LEE

issue 44

music

DEGREES NORTH MAGAZINE,STUDENTS’ UNION OFFICE,

WEARBANK HOUSE,ST PETERS,SUNDERLAND,

SR60AN

NO. 0191 515 2957E-MAIL: dnmagazine@sunderland.ac.uk

w w w . d n m a g a z i n e . o r geditor-in-cheif

Lee W Allison

Deputy Editor

Louise Steel

Marketing

Allen Humes

Sub-editors

Emily Kay SmithHayli IngramDonna Petch

Natasha SteelLewis McGintyAmy IngramSam Dudley

Amy Mcgeorge

Contributors

Katy TroubleJordan North

Debbie Sykes-WallerJamie Ryan

Mitch ScollenAdam GawneKim Walker

special thanks

Mike, finance girls , the whole exec!!! North Shore staff, Student Media, Derwent-side Domestic Abuse Services andJordan North

NEWCASTLESUNDAYMARKET

editor's letter

cover: Jordan North

Cont

ents

...

4<

the only cox i'm interested nerokaty trouble

1 in 4

graduates with jobs***

music reviews

music therapy

durham luminaire

what is dub step?

welcome to the

teamlauren debney

a walk along the quayside

does art have a

place in education?

does education

have a place in art?

festive coffeejordan north

diversity week

67

7

8 9

10

1415

16

18

20

30

2831

3232

dn garden

34sunderland xmas light switch on

36

union

news!

BY KAT SYMONSEnts and Media Officersu.ents-media-officer@sunderland.ac.uk

RAG

The last week in October was our first RAG week of the academic year and we raised over £1200 for the Breast Cancer Campaign and Everyman. We got involved with some great events and activities to raise money, in-cluding a street raid where we col-lected money from the very generous general public of Sunderland. The girls here at the Students’ Union have perfected the art of nails and were decorating students’ nails with cute designs such as the Cookie Mon-ster, however the Halloween themed nails were the most popular. Look out for nail art coming back soon! A massive thank you to all of our volunteers for RAG and to all of you that donated to the great causes!

INTERNATIONAL EVENT AT STADIUM

The Students’ Union Executive Com-mittee went along to the Interna-tional Welcome Event at the Sta-dium of Light to say hello to all of our new international students. It was a great event hosted by Josh and Calum, from Spark fm, who did a fantastic job and even showed off some of their dance moves. It was a chance for students to meet new people and share cultures through dancing and traditional clothing.

DECEMBER @ NORTH SHORE

We have a great line up of events at North Shore in December includ-ing U2-2 the best U2 tribute act on Saturday 3rd. Our very own uni-versity lecturers will be show-ing off their talents at University Rocks on Thursday 8th and we will be starting the Christmas celebra-tions of in style on Saturday 10th with the Split Christmas Special featuring Futureheads, B>E>A>K>, Hyde and Beast, and a dj from Frank-ie and the Heartstrings. It’s not all just about the music though ,as BBC Masterchef’s Stacie Stewart will be providing an amazing fes-tive food fayre. The Christmas cel-ebrations continue on Saturday 17th with the BunnyPunk Winter Festival, with three rooms of great music. For information on tickets check out

www.sunderlandsu.co.uk/events.

STUDENTS’ UNION COUNCIL

Here at the Students’ Union we are currently in the process of setting up the Union Council. This is a great opportunity for students to get in-volved in decision making and play an integral role in shaping the academ-ic structure and overall experience of all students at the university. More news on that to come, conct your union for more infomation.

and... in true DN tradition, another embarrasing photo of

our VP (vice president)

LOL

6

XMAS WALKABOUT 2011

It is that time of year again where we all dress up the same and take over Sunderland City Centre. Walkabout is the ORIGINAL AND UNIQUE STUDENT ONLY PUB CRAWL in the city. Tickets are on sale now for JUST £5 and gets you: a tshirt, free food, santa hat (ofcourse!), exclusive cheap drinks offers, and an amazing night out!!Tickets can be bought from both Stu-dent Union Offices, get your ticket now and we will see you there!!!

The only

cox im interested in!

3RD NIGHT OF FRESHERS 2011. THE DATE WAS MONDAY 19TH SEPTEMBER AND THAT NIGHTS ENTERTAINMENT WAS THE ‘SARA COX NEW MUSIC TOUR FEATURING BRIGHT LIGHT BRIGHT LIGHT & CLEMENT MARFO & THE FRONTLINE’. EXPECTA-TIONS WERE HIGH; WILL SHE BE JUST AS NICE AS SHE COMES ACROSS ON THE RADIO? WILL THE BAND BE AS GOOD AS

WE WERE PROMISED?

The main priority was that the students would enjoy the night (and not boo Sara off stage like they did with the Geordie Shore Girls on Saturday night.) Everything was running smoothly as preparations began, sound techni-cians were working well with the bands, everything was set up nice-ly in the dressing rooms. Every-thing seemed to being going great!

UNTIL A CERTIN TWEET (TWITTER)

Finally 8.15pm arrives and me (Deb-bie Skyes Waller, the boss lady) and Kathryn Symons (Ents & me-dia officer on the SU exec) drove to Sunderland station to pick up Sara. There was no need to be con-cerned that her uncomfortable jour-ney here was going to affect her mood, she is lovely, if rather qui-et, but does ask if we can get her some chips and gravy, which we do.

After giving Sara some time to set-tle in her room, I return to pick her up and escort her to North Shore. This time Sara is in a much brighter mood, “apologies about being moody before” (not that she was) and she starts chatting and she is EXACTLY the same as she is on the radio! She was telling me about her kids and how she had a day looking after them once she got back to London the fol-lowing morning and when I apologised about the train (which I booked) she was fine and laughed it off, and pointed out she’d tweeted more later on about how excited she was to be in Sunderland. It was Sara’s second time in the city after Radio One’s BIG WEEKEND came here back in 2005 and she said people in the North East were nothing but friendly.

Bright light Bright Light began the night with a bang! Brilliant perfor-mance and it really got the crowd go-

ing, then it was time for Sara to go on stage and say hello to the 700 or so screaming and intoxicated Fresh-ers. She’d done her research be-fore hand and played with the crowd, ‘Who’s from Clanny House?’ ‘Who’s from the Precinct?’ ‘Who’s from the Forge?’ She worked the crowd into a frenzy and then introduced a new band ‘Clement Marfo & The Frontline’ who absolutely smashed it. Every single person was caught up in Marfomania as

these guys, who I’d describe as a mix between Pendulum and Tinie Tempah, played an amazing set and gained a whole set of new fans! Then it was time for the DJ set, by Sara Cox herself. She played for well over an hour and to fin-ish the night off we had a bit of ‘Never Forget’ by Take That and then ‘Don’t Stop Believing’ by Glee. Even the most hardcore indie kid af-ter a gallon-full of jagerbombs will ‘ba-daaaahhhhh’ with the best of them! We drove Sara back to her hotel. She loved the night, the crowd was great, the bands were amazing, and she’d had a great time! She even said so on Twitter, and I got a personal tweet thanking me for getting her those chips, gravy and mushy peas. Must be doing something right ;)So roll on Christmas and more live music, U2-2, The Split Christ-mas Show with the Futureheads, Hyde & Beast, BEAK and Frankie & The HeartStrings, and the Bun-nyPunk Winter Festival, 2011 will certainly end with a musical BANG.

BY DEBBIE SYKES-WALLER

THE GREAT NORTH BIG BAND JAZZ FES-TIVAL RETURNS TO SUNDERLAND FROM

FRIDAY 2ND – SUNDAY 4TH MARCH 2012. THIS YEAR IS THE NINTH ANNUAL FES-TIVAL AND EVERY YEAR THE FOLLOWING GROWS WITH MORE BANDS, MORE MUSI-

CIANS AND BIGGER AUDIENCES.

This year, once again, the whole Festival weekend is based at North Shore, The Universi-ty of Sunderland Students’ Un-ion venue at St Peter’s Campus.

THIS YEAR’S PROGRAMME IS AS FOLLOWS:

Friday 2nd March Paul Jones/Mick Donnelly Quintet

and Big Band in Concert8pm

Saturday 3rd March Big Band Jazz Competition and Con-

cert

11am – 8pm Youth and Open Sections Competition

followed by Big Band Jazz Concert featuring the winning bands from

the Open Section from 8pm

Sunday 4th MarchBig Band Jazz Competition and Work-

shop12noon – 1pm Jazz Workshop

2pm – 5pm Big Band Jazz Competition – Schools Section

All at ‘North Shore’, Charles Street, SUNDERLAND SR6 0AN The Sir Tom Cowie Cam-pus at St Peter’s, Sunderland

Food and licensed bar at all ses-sions. Free car parking available.Daily admission: £7 (under 16’s free)University Students £2 (on pro-duction of Campus Card)

For further information please con-tact Bill Watson, Festival Direc-

tor on 01388 767 208.

The Great North Big Band Jazz Festival

nero@newcastle

02 acadamy

DUBSTEP DUBSTEP DUBSTEP DUBSTEP DUB-STEP. At the moment you can’t cur-rently watch an advert break, turn on the radio, or walk into a record shop without being bombarded with Dubstep. But what the hell is it?To many it just sounds like a bag of hammers being thrown about in-side a washing machine, or a bagpipe player falling down the stairs; but to American’s and the new waves of kids who have now grown up and can go out clubbing it would seem that it is just an excuse to play a load of robot sounds and mosh about. However it has not always been like that.

Many genres of music come and go, a hybrid of sounds accidentally put together or just someone trying to create something new. A good recent example of this would be fidget house which quickly grew in popularity but then snuck away during 2009/10. Dub-step though has been around for 10 years, slowly growing through the un-derground in London and other major cities around the country, but re-cently the former dark sweaty under-ground music scene has burst on head-lines and shelves of not only music shops but major supermarket chains.

Dubstep grew from the original dub/reggae Soundsystems of Jamaica which grew in popularity in England in the 1970’s and 80’s, a combined this with the 2step garage movement of the late 90’s, and in the early days were released as B sides to Breakbeat and Drum & Bass tracks. Dubstep’s main characteristic and defining feature has always been its’ over-whelming deep dark basslines, this is what attracted people to it and is now the main cause of arguments between fans all over the world. It could now be argued that there are 3 main types of dubstep fans.

1) The original fans who are pur-ists who hate the ‘new’ sound of dub-step that can be heard on the radio and claim that America is bastard-ising our beautiful sound. 2) The fans who have been into dubstep for years who while they love the old original sounds also enjoy the new sounds and find the evolution of the scene exciting, and 3) The trendies, these are the guys who have heard Zane Lowe play a dubstep track and scene an advert on the radio and be-cause it’s cool go along to gigs and moshing and get into fights, (these guys are hated by numbers 1 and 2). Another point of conjecture between dubstep fans is that of ‘Brostep’. Brostep is considered the ‘harder’ form of dubstep, mainly consisting of loud quickly changing and screeching synths and robot sounds and not so much bass. This form of dubstep came about mainly from the scene start-ing to grow in America. (I still

What is

Dubstep???

(I still can’t understand why we in England can take imports from Ameri-ca TV, music etc, and keep it as it is, but America has to remake any-thing we export- again TV and music mainly. Sorry this is slightly off topic). Americans decided that the dubstep sound was good but lacked high level synths and especially in American dubstep a defining feature is the use of robot sounds, for some reason. Due to this Brostep revolu-tion in America a high percentage of dubstep released now feature very little deep basslines and instead re-lies on synths fluctuating around the mids instead, detracting from what dubstep originally was and should be. Dubstep now has reached a turning point in its existence, the new-er ‘brostep’ sounds of screeching synths and not deep basslines seem to be taking over and are now what dubstep seems to be known for com-pared to how dubstep originally came about. Soon we may see the ‘true dubheads’ and producers heading back underground to where it all began, back to a scene that is truly loved, while the more commercialised styles will carry on being exploited by mu-sic companies to make mix tapes and America carrying on its bastardisa-tion on dubstep with robot sounds.

JAMIE RYAN

A.S.B.O. SUNDERLAND’S LONGEST RUN-NING ELECTRONIC MUSIC HOUSE PARTY

IS INDEPENDENT 1ST AND 3RD THURSDAY OF EACH MONTH. PLAYING DRUM & BASS

// DUBSTEP // HOUSE AND BEYOND.

NERO. IN ONE WORD, AMAZING. HOWEVER FOR THE PURPOSES OF THIS ARTICLE I WILL DRAG IT OUT A LITTLE LONGER.

I am of course referring to the dub-step band, or as Wikipedia puts it the ‘electronic music and not the Roman emperor who played the fiddle while the entire city of Rome burned down around him. Even by Glaston-bury standards, that’s a bit messy.Nero are one of the more popular groups on the dubstep scene with charting singles and albums to match, they are certainly one of the more mainstream dubstep groups, singles such as ‘crush on you’, ‘promise’, ‘guilt’ and ‘me and you’ may have ran past your ears if you have been listening to the charts recently, and they are without a doubt bril-liant poptastic tunes with a dubstep undercurrent, but I was concerned whether I would enjoy the gig as I’m not particularly into the genre as a whole and some of their less known songs might not be as impressive.So I get to the gig in good time, at the O2 in Newcastle and we get the usual early acts. Rock ‘n’ roll bands are preceded by slightly less known supporting rock ‘n’ roll bands, Punk bands are supported by less known

punk bands, dance acts however are supported by a dj…. By himself, so it appears. Listened to songs I really couldn’t make out for a bit and then decided to have a wander outside. Not the most entertaining act, consider-ing he actually was an ‘act’ and not just some dj to fill time, I was quite surprised he didn’t put more effort in than just playing some random songs anyone could have picked out, well I say anyone, I couldn’t be-cause I couldn’t make out what the songs were he was playing, although I did hear one New Order tune…. Great.And so the night went on, then about midnight on comes the main act, mental set, absolutely brilliantly bonkers, basically it was a fully raised dj booth made out of arcade machines, old tv’s (no HD) and ra-dios. Loads of fanfare and build up music to raise the atmosphere when they came on stage, the usual stuff.

On comes the first track, and the fun literally didn’t end until they stopped, the music was mind blowing stuff, completely full on hard core material with a slight pop whip to some of their songs. Although they didn’t play an encore which was a bit of a shame, I was so impressed with the overall performances and quality they maintained on stage. Obviously being a dance band they don’t really move much on stage, but that didn’t matter as the lighting and effects were enough to keep you mesmerised for an hour and a half, besides the fact that the audience are going crazy so you can’t see much anyway.

Overall I would say that the night was brilliant, and Nero are defi-nitely one to watch for the fu-ture, hopefully they will return to our local area sooner rather than later and I will most defi-nitely be attending. Au Revoir.

MITCH SCOLLEN

CHECK OUT THE

MUSIC

BLOG

Florence Welch

WHEN I WAS IN LONDON,

I GOT TO WORK

AND MEET WITH A WHOLE

LOT OF EXCIT-

ING MUSICAL TYPES, FRO

M FLORENCE AND

THE MACHINE TO RIZZLE

KICKS. I EVEN

MET ‘THE HOFF’ AT PIXI

E LOTT’S LIPSY

LAUNCH PARTY! MOST OF T

HE TIME I DIDN’T

EVEN RECOGNIZE THEM.

I HAD A RATH-

ER EMBARRASSING INCIDE

NT WHERE BOTH

MY COLLEAGUE AND MYSE

LF GOT TINCHY

STRYDER MUDDLED UP WIT

H CHIPMUNK. HE

DIDN’T SEEM TO MIND TO

O MUCH THOUGH.

katy trouble

columnist

It was for the most part very ex-citing but there always felt like there was something missing. It wasn’t until I came back up North that I realised what. Now don’t get me wrong, Chinawhite in London is a lovely venue, as are many others but gosh did I miss Independent!

The music scene in the Sunderland as I am sure, other writers in this issue of DN will claim is actual-ly pretty damn good. Okay, it isn’t London or Manchester or wherever and it certainly doesn’t have an O2 Academy but what we do have here is a heck of a lot of talented people.

So to name a couple of these, on October 1st I popped along to Inde-pendent to see my friends band Lil-liput play. I have never seen ‘the little room’ so full! Or Joe Lil-liput use as many instruments in one gig! It works though, you can-not help but tap your toe to these boys and Jamie Lilliput has one of the most impressive voices I have ever heard. There is something quite homely (even though Sunderland is not my native home) about standing listening to really good live music with a Jaeger bomb to hand. Lilliput have been described as ‘rough edge alternative folk with unadulterated soul’ (Manifesto Mag) and I am no Music Journalist nor do I claim to be an expert in the industry but what I can guarantee you is if you pop along to their next gig, you will find it really hard not to tap your toes.

Another one of my favourite local acts are B>E>A>K – I first caught these boys at Plugged Inn aka The White Rooms and their instrumental rocky tunes had me at hello. Such as ‘Peck’ and ‘Only the Crow Knows,’ I knew this band were my cup of tea. So if you are looking for something to get up to these chilly November and December nights, get yourself along to Hot Rats or Plugged Inn and bag yourself the cheaper tickets (they are more expensive on the door) and support some local talent. Who knows where these guys will end up!

Follow @katytrouble on twitter

florence

CHRISTMAS IS FAST APPROACHING, SO WHY NOT START THE CELEBRATIONS EAR-LY BY ATTENDING SPLIT FEST CHRIST-

MAS SPECIAL AT NORTH SHORE?

On December 10th, brilliant lo-cal bands like The Futureheads, B>E>A>K, Hyde & Beast and Frankie and The Heartstrings (DJ Set) will be providing musical entertain-ment and for all of you food lov-ers out there, Masterchef final-ist Stacie Stewart will be cooking up a fuss of delicious treats.By holding the Split Fest Christ-mas gig, North Shore is raising its profile across the city as a highly rated music venue and a non-profit charity organisation. With the help of the experienced professionals re-sponsible for the organisation of the fantastic summer festival; this event is geared up to be one of North Shore’s highlights of the year. Debbie, North Shore’s Entertain-ments Coordinator is confident “Split Christmas Special would be of interest to anyone who loves good, live music. North Shore is the only venue in Sunderland made for live music with a 1000 capac-ity.” Get your tickets now and get yourselves down, it’s a brilliant venue, the music is excellent and there’ll be food available from Sta-cie Stewart in the Festive Fayre.Tickets are £12.50 ad-vance/ £15 on the door.Tickets are available from Hot Ratz, RPM, HMV, North Shore and online at www. seetickets.com

NATASHA STEEL

Split Fest

Christmas Special

at North Shore

WINDOW TO THE PAST/

STEP BACK IN TIME WITH US, AND READ AN ARTICLE FROM AN ISSUE OF DN

MAGAZINE IN MARCH 2001!

TOO MUCH SEX COULD BE BAD FOR YOU

HAVING lots of sex is good fun but it could reduce a man’s ability to father children, a new study has revealed.Researchers believe men who are sexually prolific become drained and their production quickly tails off.The theory, suggested after a study of sheep on a remote Scottish Is-land, proved just this. Scientists found that larger, dominant rams were so drained by the end of the mating season that they fathered the same number and sometimes less lambs, than their weaker male counterparts.Dr Ian Stevenson, of Stirling Uni-versity, said: ‘It is possible this research could be applied to humans and that highly promiscu-ous men could become less fertile.’

JACKI HOUGHTON

Coldplay, Red Hot Chili Peppers

& Bruce Springsteen.

Its going to be a mix of pop, rock and old (Springsteen) music, next summer at the Stadium of Light. As I write this I notice an army of elderly marching outside of my office with pitchforks and Bruce Springsteen “I love you t-shirts” ….ok I take back the old comment. We at DN think its great to have such an array of diffrant music styles, personally am waiting for the day Scissor Sisters will be perform-ing there, or Goldfrapp, or Roi-sin Murphy. Then again these al-ternative music acts aren’t always guaranteed to attract 55.000 visi-tors a night, which is the capacity for the stadium gigs in the summer. Sunderland is changing all the time, new developments across the city and events, which adds a cultural side to life here. The acts that perform at the stadium bring new visitors, which in turn helps the local and regional economy. The figures quot-ed for last year varied between 18 and £25 million. All these effec-tive events, gigs and organisations working in unison help build the mu-sic status which this city wants, and I would say have already got.

First up we have Coldplay on the 7th June, this is a part of a ma-jor European tour. Next up Bruce Springsteen 21st June ( if you’re like me and heard of him, but can’t think of his music, get the full lowdown via the DN website www.dnmagazine.org) then last but not least Red Hot Chili Peppers 24th. Again part of a major world tour.

From the many people I have spoken to, even overheard, it sounds like all three of these gigs are going to go down a treat. Even though theres 55.000 tickets to be sold, I sus-pect there going to sell out very promptly, so I would advise you to go get tickets NOW, before its to late.

LEE ALLISON

Stadium Line-up

Announced

CHECK OUTOUR MOVIE

REVIEWS BLOG:BY FIMLS EDITOR STEPHEN MACHAN

graduates with jobs***

THIS MONTH OUR GRADUATE WITH A JOB IS…. THE DN EDITOR.

INTERVIEW BY LOUSISE STEEL.

Q:WHAT IS YOUR CURRENT POSITION/ JOB?

A: I work as a part time editor for Degrees North magazine, al-though I actually work full time!

Q:IS EDITING SOMETHING YOU STUD-IED AS A STUDENT? AND WHEN DID YOU KNOW YOU WANTED TO BECOME AN EDITOR?

A: I knew I wanted to become an edi-tor when I first saw this job adver-tises two years ago, strange as it sounds, but I remember reading the requirement for the job back then, I felt I could do a good job and I was interested in magazines as I spent a lot of money per month on them, rather then buying food :s How ever I didn’t actually get interviewed for the job that year, and it wasn’t un-til this year when applied for it for a second time that I was able to get the job. As for my degree, I studied BA Fashion Product and promotion, it doesn’t sound like it would connect with editing a magazine, yet it ac-tually does. As most of my course content through out the three years always at some point came back to magazine work. Whether it be produc-ing features or editorials, to actu-ally designing a full magazine. Also in my third year I took an elec-tive in Editorial Design, I gained a first, when it was almost time to graduate it was then I realized that being and editor/ art direc-tor for a magazine is my calling.

Q: DO YOU ENJOY WORKING FOR DN?

A: Yes yes yes, even though I make way too much work for myself, it pays off in the end, as the magazine is in a better place. I have met some great people working here, who I know will be in my life for a very long time, but mostly enjoy doing a job where I get freedom of creativ-ity; as a very creative person if I was in a job where I was sat at a desk making calls all the time, trying to sell people things, this would make me want to kill myself!

Q:DID YOU DO ANY VOLUNTEER WORK WHICH HELPED YOU GET THIS JOB?

A: No, it was with total determi-nation that I got this job, howev-er the volunteer work that I have done throughout my life, before

and during uni, has helped me as a person, as an artist, and ul-timately help towards mak-ing me become a professional, which I like to think I am now.

Q: WHAT TYPE OF VOLUN-TEER WORK HAVE YOU DONE?

A: I used to be an art reviewer for the Weardale Gazette, Stage manager and set designer for a local dra-ma society. I had done some teach-ing assistance in the past as well.

Q: WHAT DO YOU THINK OF THE CUR-RENT JOB CRISIS, AS IN DO YOU THINK THERE IS ONE? AND IS THIS WHY THERE ARE SO MANY GRADUATES WITHOUT JOBS?

A: Obviously there is a slight cri-sis with there being less jobs, how ever I don’t think it’s that big a problem, by this I mean, the lack of jobs isn’t the reason graduates aren’t getting the jobs. Its actu-ally the lack of dedication. All of a sudden we are seeing a rush of students taking up volunteer work, internships. Here at the magazine we try to offer as much as we can in in terms of work experience. But there’s still a large portion of students that aren’t doing as much as they could, to help themselves, to better themselves. Alcohol has a part to play, but self-discipline is really the back breaker. I have been there my self, but during my last year, something clicked in me, that after five years of uni (after trans-ferring from Fine Art to Fashion) I did not want to come away from this with no job and ultimately no life. I wanted a career, I wanted to be, and still want to be, suc-cessful. My advice to students, is to adopt that same attitude, if not in your 1st or 2nd year, then in your final year! Its very important.

The Students Union can help, and in fact are helping in everyway they can to give students the chance to become apart of their Union, to gain real working experience, which all helps.

Q: WHERE DO YOU SEE YOUR SELF IN TEN YEARS?

A: Either Editor or art director for a big magazine, Art/ Design based, or the editor of my own magazine.

Q: HAVE YOU ENJOYED YOUR TIME AT THE UNIVERSITY OF SUNDERLAND?

A: Its been a long journey, that still isn’t over, even though I’m still taking up more courses, I like to think that my professional ca-reer has began, here at the union, as the editor of Degrees North maga-zine. I also hope to be here for another year as your editor for DN.

In the initial ‘Climb Kilimanjaro for COCO’ meeting, I was sat think-ing to myself “I can’t climb Mt Kili-manjaro!” Laura from COCO made the whole experience sound so amazing, with the help of two girls that took part the previous year. I always wished I could take part in some-thing like this but always managed to convince myself that I couldn’t. After the meeting I couldn’t stop thinking about climbing Kiliman-jaro and how amazing it would be, but I still kept thinking “I can’t climb Kilimanjaro, I struggle with the escalators in ASDA!”, then a thought popped into my head, “but what if I could do it?” That was my mind made up really. I was going for it, I signed up for ‘COCO Stu-dent Kilimanjaro Challenge 2011’. It was the BEST decision I ever made.

After signing up, we had lots of meetings to prepare us for the chal-lenge and to help reach fundraising targets, which seemed like a mam-moth task. However, once you start organising events to raise money you realise it’s very do-able and this actually ended up being one of my favourite parts of the whole experience. The COCO meetings also meant we had plenty of opportuni-ties to meet and get to know oth-er people before going on the trip so there were no unfamiliar faces.

That day before the climb we were taken to some of COCO’s projects in Tanzania, one of which was called Uwawayaki. This is a support centre for women whose lives have been af-fected by HIV. It is somewhere they can go and be with other women who are in the same situation and help and support each other. Uwawayaki is also a school for children in the area and when we arrived and walked through the gates the children came running up to us. They were so ex-cited, they just wanted us to pick them up, give them a hug, and talk to them. I met one girl called Aziada who asked me how I was and counted up to ten in English for me, not bad for a 5year old. Meeting children like Aziada was the source of my deter-mination for the week ahead of me.

Climb Kilimanjaro for COCO

WANT TO READ MORE, THE

N

VISIT www.dnmagazine.o

rg

CLICK ON E-FEATURES

E- FEATURES

THE AIM OF THE 1 IN 4 PROJECT, IS TO BUILD AWARENESS OF DOMESTIC

ABUSE. (YOU CAN KEEP UPDATED WITH EVENTS AND INFO ON THE 1 IN 4 BLOG

VIA WWW.DNMAGAZINE.ORG)

On the 25th Nov, Derwentside Domes-tic Abuse servies held an event at Durham Town hall. Through out the day there were stalls with infor-mation about abuse, support work-ers to help raise awareness of the work that they do and quite of-ten saving peoples’ lives. On av-erage, two women per week will die as a result of domestic violence.

The main focus of the day was a perfor-mance, called “We have something to say” The message they wanted to make with the performance was how certain ser-vices handle a victim of domestic abuse, showing how they feel when they are been handled with a lack of sensitivity around these issues: the inhuman system they must go through to help them and in some cases save their lives. These women are trying to show Police/ child support ser-vices, and many other organisations that might be required to make risk assessments in a case of domestic violence, how they want to be spoken to, how they want to be approached. Rather then just being a number! They are people, human beings who are suffering, and there are stil ser-vices today who handle these issue in the wrong way, often resulting in the victim going back to the abuser. The play was put together in one week, wich was pretty remarkable considering how effective and eye opening it was.

Also, we DN, made an appearance at the event. We had a stall, to start a large art project, based around DV. The idea is to get 100 people to paint 100 canvasses, the inspiration be-hind their work is the answer to the question “What does fear look like to you?” then they would paint it.

Then once all canvasses are complete we put all of them together to make one large painting, to be later exhibited in DN Gallery in North Shore, which we hope to have open by late January.

So if you would like any more in-formation visit the blog, also keep an eye out for the DV is-sue of DN, which will be printed and be available in late January.

LEE ALLISON

WHAT IS 1

IN 4?

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1 in 4/event,

25th nov

HERES A SMALL PREVIEW OF THE ART WORK CREATED THAT DAY

reviews

&

TrellicBaxter Dury

I’ll be honest, I’ve never heard of Baxter Dury so went into listening to this single with a complete open mind. Baxter’s voice seems reminis-cent of Charlie Fink (Noah and the Whale) My first impression was that it’s very ‘coffee shop’ style music. It’s not bad, but at the same time it’s not groundbreaking excellence.

Scarlet2:54

2:54 are two sisters creating some brilliant lo-fi pop/rock with en-chanting dischords and haunting lyrics. If you’re a fan of XX or Warpaint you’re going to love these girls! I can see them becoming quite well known after their sup-port slot later this year touring with The Big Pink. There aren’t a great deal of bands around that pro-duce music that sounds like there’s four or five members when in actual fact there’s two, for example The White Stripes and The Kills. The ef-fort that goes into the songs cer-tainly shows when listening to the Scarlet EP. I just wonder if they have the same energy as other two piece bands when performing live…

great xmas giftideas!*

This Isn’t Everything You AreSnow Patrol

As a fan of Snow Patrol I was quite excited to listen to this. ‘Don’t keel over now, don’t keel over’ cries Gary Lightbody in this track that would be the perfect soundtrack for the series finale of a TV dra-ma. ‘This Isn’t Everything You Are’ is very much like what you’d expect from Snow Patrol, but not in a bad way. They’ve found their niche of what works for them and what the fans like and they stick to that, occasionally breaking out of the re-fines. This strangely uplifting track however, sits firmly in the middle.

BruiserThe Duke Spirit

If lots of bass, catchy guitar riffs and harmonised female vocals are something you look for in a band, then look no more! The Duke Spir-it are what you’re looking for! The newest single ‘Don’t Wait’ along

Sinners Never SleepYou Me At Six

“Sinners Never Sleep” feels like it has the same influences behind it as Take Off Your Colours did. Catchy pop/punk/rock with memorable lyrics and repetitive guitar riffs; Sinners Never Sleep has been very success-ful for You Me at Six. Tickets for their March 2012 tour have already completely sold out across a multi-tude of venues such as the 02 Academy in Newcastle. Josh Franceschi shows he can sing slower songs with more heartfelt lyrics just as well as the uptempo tracks like ‘Loverboy’ and ‘Reckless’. ‘Crash’ is the Sinners Never Sleep equivalent of ‘Fire-works’ (from Hold Me Down) If you’re a fan of You Me at Six you’ll love this, there’s no doubt about that.

NATASHA STEEL

with ‘Cherry Tree’ stood out on my first listen. ‘I don’t look back… Why would you?’ asks Liela Moss as gui-tars crunch and build up behind her vocals. No two songs sound similar; The Duke Spirit are a band with lots of ideas and this certainly comes across when listening to ‘Bruiser’.

music

Normally around Christmas you have

your standard CLIFF RICHARD Christmas album released, and that is your only option. Yet this year there has been a boom in artists releasing purely seasonal albums.

“THE BIEBS” (or Justin Bieber if you will) has released “Mistletoe”. As you’d ex-pect it is pure pop. Lots of riffs and key changes and “oh noooos”. You get an album that a fourteen-year old girl would die for. I went into this thinking how much I’d hate it and in all honesty I wouldn’t buy it, but it isn’t a bad album if you like that sort of thing. There are several songs I have never heard such as “Mistletoe” (track two) and “Fa La La” (track five). Both of these are classic Justin Bieber songs, aimed at the love of his life. He also reworks some tra-ditional Christmas songs such as “Santa Claus is coming to town” (Track four) and “Silent Night” (Track eleven). Both of these ver-sions are very different from the originals, and the way he has re-worked “Santa Claus is coming to town”, makes me want to punch him. However saying that, I’m sure if you like Justin, you’ll enjoy it. “Mistletoe” flows well, with a good mix of the traditional and the new.

One album I’d be more than happy to have wrapped up under the tree for me

is MICHAEL BUBLÉ’S “Christ-mas”. What a wonderful album. I’m completely against listening to Christmas music before the first of December, but I’d listen to this al-bum all year round if I could. Bublé has stuck to all traditional songs and track eight is a particular fa-vourite of mine, “Have yourself a merry little Christmas” makes me want to curl up in front of a fire with a mince pie and a glass of port, possibly with snow falling outside. That is what a Christmas album should do for you, make you picture your perfect Christmas day; this al-bum is relaxing, soulful, and does exactly what Bublé does best; di-vine music. This album would be the best album to buy your mum or grand-ma (in fact any family member that has a taste for this kind of thing). The two albums are completely dif-ferent and you get nothing unexpect-ed from either. I liked Beib’s more than I hoped to, but Bublé’s album has buckets more Christmas for me.

LOUISE STEEL

the festive

music review

MUSIC IS YOUR REMEDY?WE ALL FIND OURSELVES EVERYDAY

LISTENING TO OUR FAVOURITE KINDS OF MUSIC AND SONGS TO REFLECT OR CHANGE OUR MOODS, WHETHER THEY BE HAPPY/ROMANTIC /RELAXED/SAD ETC, BUT CAN MUSIC DO MORE FOR US?

In fact music therapy is quite a large worldwide profession and can help in many health problems, par-ticularly where communication is difficult due to illness, injury or disability e.g. strokes, epilepsy, autism, dementia, neuro-degenera-tive diseases and brain injuries to mental health problems and learn-ing difficulties. Music therapists are commonly found in practices which are involved in development work (communication, motor skills). Music therapy researcher Julian O’Kelly, of the Royal Hospital for Neuro-disability in London, says mu-sic therapy is used at the hospi-tal to help people whose brains have been affected by serious accidents, oxygen starvation, and strokes.

How can it help children? You might have seen a recent film on Children In Need showing how funding has helped a Music Therapy group that Iain Spink, a BAMT member facilitates each week at a nursery in the UK. Olly Murrs (X-factor) also took part in the group. The group offers the oppor-tunity for children to interact and express themselves musically with others, including parents, carers and siblings. There are two amazing vid-eos on the BAMT website that I recom-mend you watch; these show how music therapy was used to improve commu-nication skills of a girl with au-tism, and a boy with anxiety issues.How can it help us? As students / young adults, music can pro-vide us with a sense of independ-ence, individuality ,and identi-ty! Music affects portions of our brain which can influence our emo-tions and social interactions.

A recently-published Finnish study found depressed patients who had music therapy as well as standard counselling and medication, showed a greater reduction in anxiety and depression than those who didn’t. Professor Christian Gold, who led the research, says: “Music thera-py has specific qualities that al-low people to express themselves and interact in a non-verbal way, even in situations when they can’t find the words to describe their in-ner experiences.” Also in March this year, researchers at Japan’s Osaka University found music could lower levels of the stress hormone

science & technology

by Dr. donna petch

cortisol, as well as blood pres-sure. So listening to music while you study may not be a bad thing ☺A final few interesting facts; did you know that music was played in hospitals after World War I and II to help aid in the recovery of the injured soldiers? Also Alexandra Lamont (Keele University, UK) has discovered that a fetus can hear music in the womb and children as young as one years of age can rec-ognise and prefer the music they were played! So your parents may be the ones responsible for your to-day’s taste in music? You decide!

15<

A UNION

GAY NIGHT?

A CAMPER UNION: IS A REGULAR GAY NIGHT AT NORTH SHORE A GOOD IDEA?

DN is wondering, “Would a gay night at one of our union bars (North Shore/ Bonded), be a good idea?!”. The new night in theory would be held on a different day to the regular Tuesday gay night in Sunderland, therefore giving gay students the opportunity to experience something different. For this idea to be even considered by the exec, we need to hear from you guys, to whom the night would be for! A gay student night carries many ben-efits, in that it would provide an al-ternative gay destination as well as enabling students of the University to meet and get to know new people.

Sunderland University hasn’t had a proper LGB society for a while so this a great way to get like minded people together.I recently asked members of the Union their thoughts on the concept, posi-tive responses included: “I think it’s a good idea it would give more variety to gay nightlife in Sunder-land”; “It’s great that the Union are engaging with its’ students, I think it’s an interesting concept”. However people did raise concerns about the distance of the venue from Sunderland centre as “every-one staying in the same place never happens” and also how it would com-pete with other big student nights in the city regarding offers, en-tertainment etc. Admittedly North Shore has some serious competition…For the event to materialise it needs the support from YOU! So if the concept interests you, the Stu-dents Union welcomes your ideas and input, you can get in touch with the magazine or Union directly or tweet me @lewis346 and I’ll for-ward the comments and thoughts on.

LEWIS MCGINTY

durham Lumiere,

light festival.

HAVING MISSED LAST YEARS LIGHT FES-TIVAL, I WAS VERY HAPPY TO HEAR DUR-HAM WOULD BE DOING THIS EVENT AGAIN.

So, when Saturday came, and after charging the camera all day, to make sure it wouldn’t die on me during the event, I set off for the bus.

It took over an hour for the bus to get from Sunderland to Durham city cen-tre, the traffic going into Durham was horrific! Sitting on the bus felt like being on a bus in Turkey, every seat was taken and the middle of the bus was packed with standing passengers. The weather outside was freezing, but the inside the bus felt like a sauna, so I wasn’t in the best of moods when I eventually got there. Once I got away from the steamed up windows and into the fresh air, I saw Durham like I have never seen it before. Full of thousands of people to the point you couldn’t even move, it was like a night at North Shore during the peek of Freshers. But this was throughout the market place! The bridge had that many people on it, I had visions of it collapsing, while I sat in Es-quires drinking a much needed coffee, though it was more like piss-water to be completely honest…why these cof-fee chains cannot make a decent cup of coffee I will never know! Although the breakfast ciabatta was standard.

So I began to tackle the crowds once more, to see the art work which has caused this mass gridlock of people.

The fact that you had to queue to get down to the riverbank should have been my first clue. “This was going to be dangerous” and it was. All along the narrow riverbank walkway it was packed, chockablock with people go-ing in opposite directions. It was that busy there were numerous occa-sions where we were all just standing still. It got to the point I wasn’t looking at anything but where I was putting my feet, as we were very close to the edge of the river, which had no barriers. How ever the ex - life guard in me (true story) was more concerned about the lady in front who was struggling with her baby’s push-chair, as three ignorant men standing side by side, and this poor lady had to carefully squeeze past them, with no effort on their behalf to move there asses out of the way so that her and her baby wouldn’t fall into the river!! To make things worse this was around 8 o’clock and pitch black.

total chaos

After being stuck down there for over thirty minutes, we finally got to Prebends bridge. Which I can’t deny, looked amazing. Walking over the bridge wasn’t to bad in re-gards to the human traffic jam. So it was probably the only part of the whole outdoor exhibition I re-ally got to look at and appreciate. Avoiding walking back to the city centre by having to tackle another riverbank which was suffering like the other side, I decided to walk up to the cathedral through the back roads. Which is when I came across the suspended, levitating metal mesh- made men. Attempting to stop and look at these was, again, tempting fate with an oncoming stampede of human cattle, being directed through the one way system designed by the event co-ordinators. I Would like to say the background music that also was apart of the event was really adding to the atmosphere, however it was get-ting drowned out by again these event volunteers shouting out orders, try-ing to avid the inevitable, complete ,chaos. One thing that can be said about their attempts, they did try. It wasn’t their fault at all, so this isnt a bitch at them so much, however this should have been considered when the event was organized. I am very surprised there weren’t any major in-cidents of people getting injured. Holding this event over more than a weekend would have been much bet-ter. A full month would have allowed the mass crowd to have been bro-ken up slightly, this in turn would have made the event much more enjoy-able. Once I got back into the market place I made a quick turn to M&S, bought two bottles of red, and went straight home, well after pushing my way through more crowds that is.

When I got home I sat and thought what had actually just happened! I spent a good three and a half hours being stuck, never really got to see much art work as when you’re not viewing it in a calm and collective mannor and when your in complete radge and feel an overwhelming claustrophobic sensa-tion you really can’t be seeing Art in the way it was meant to be viewed. All that hard work, which should be look upon with inspired eyes. I came away from that night feeling unin-spired and sick to death of other hu-man beings invading my personal space. What a waste of what is undought-bly amazing talent. What a shame!

LEE ALLISON

science

AFTER THE RECENT STUDENT SUPPORT OFFICER ELECTIONS, WE SAY CON-

GRATULATIONS TO LAUREN DEBNEY AND WELCOME TO THE TEAM. WE CAUGHT UP WITH HER RECENTLY TO ASK A FEW

QUESTIONS…

Q: Welcome to the team, how do you feel now that you’re our new Student Support Officer?

A: I’m really excited about this opportunity to be able to play a part in the Students’ Union. I feel completely overwhelmed by the support every one has shown me!

Q: What are your goals? And what do you hope to achieve during your time here?

A: I hope that I can provide the Un-ion with a current student’s perspec-tive and to use this to help promote the Union to students, so that they know exactly what it can do for them and where they can go to for support.

Q: So far the ̀ Union has accomplished a lot since the new Exec has come into office, there has been change almost everywhere within the Union, from the new logos to big changes at DN magazine. How do you feel about these changes? And do you think you can be as ambitious within your role and perhaps begin a project that can be carried on from one Exec to another?

A: I think the changes are evidence of the direction that the Union is going in. From what I’ve seen, the changes are all positive and are re-ally pushing the Union forward. I hope to be able to be a part of this and see what ideas I have to offer. In terms of ambition, what i want to do is help students, so if I have an idea that will benefit students then I will push it all the way.

Q: And finally, what is your favorite pie?

A: To be honest i’m not much of a pie fan! But i could be converted if anyone’s offering to make me one!

HERE AT DN WE ARE SURE LAUREN WILL MAKE A FINE STUDENT SUPPORT OFFICER AND WE LOOK FORWARD TO FUTURE COL-

LABORATIONS.

WELCOME TO THE TEAM

LAUREN DEBNEY

a walk

along the

Quayside

“I was walking a

long

Newcastle Quaysi

de one

Sunday morning,

and

just by chance h

ad my

camera, so I tho

ught I

would share with

you

all the scenery

I was

blessed with tha

t glo-

rious morning”.

LEE

a walk

along the

Quayside

a walk

along the

NEWCASTLE

This year I thought I would make my Christmas column about…. the weath-er. Now before you turn over let me explain. I’m currently in Florida, I know all right for some eh? But the family has been wanting do it for years and this year we finally got the chance to go. I can’t remem-ber the first couple of days cos I’m scared of flying so I got prescribed some temazepam…(it’s a tranquilizer that calms you down). Like the dick that I am I never followed the doc-tors orders, an hour before my flight I necked two pills and downed a few whiskeys. I then got on the plane and necked another one followed by a few lagers. I’m not gunna lie I was smacked off me tits…apparent-ly I was laughing really loud when watching The Hangover 2 and kept saying ‘how small is Chow’s willy’! Anyway, because of my temazepam ep-isode I cant really remember the first two days of my holiday but the days I can remember have been amaz-ing. All the parks have been ace and the food is right up my street. And this leads me on to Christ-mas…over here in Florida the weath-er is between 26-30 degrees which is pretty hot. It’s Christmas time, the sun is shining, the shorts and sunglasses are out, there’s a pun-gent smell of sun cream, ice lol-lies (or popsicles) are selling like hot cakes, and guess what- its just not the same! No matter how hard I try I don’t feel ‘Christmassy’ at all. I’m trying to get in the mood I am, I’ve even watched the coca cola advert on YouTube twice but it just ain’t working. I don’t feel Christmassy and I love Christmas.I’m not gloating here but each morn-ing I go for a swim in the pool, then I read my book on the sun lounger then I have an Ice cold root beer, I know I’m literally American now! I’ve been wondering what root beer is like for years so you can Im-agine how pissed off I was when I tried it for the first time and it tasted just like Dandelion & Bur-dock. ‘Is that it’ I said in my thick northern accent ‘I could get a tin of that from the chippy’.

JORDAN NORTH^

pie, or the posh biscuits that your mums had in the cupboard since Sep-tember and just sit and watch telly all night. MUM ‘don’t you dare touch them biscuits there for Christmas. Ah I would love to do that right now.

To me that’s what Christmas all about I just wana put on my bob-ble hat and wellies and walk through the street with a smile across my face. And come on how great has it been over the past couple of years when we’ve had snow on the ground at Christmas? Its absolutely fantastic I hope we have snow again this year.

I never thought Id say this but I really am missing the British weath-er it’s a big part of Christmas, so next time you’re moaning about the winter weather think of me sat in my pool reading my James Patter-son book in the glorious sunshine not having an ounce of Christ-mas feeling and excitement in me!

Thanks for reading my column again, I genuinely do appreciate it.Have a brilliant Christmas, and all the best for New Year.

Jordan ☺ xx

All the shops and restaurants have got decorations up. Even Disney World and Orlando Studios have big, spectacular, magical Christmas trees but its just not doing it for me. And this is the point I want to make…its probably freezing in Sunderland, wait let me change that. IT IS freez-ing in Sunderland and snowing which isn’t nice when you’re on your way to Uni in the morning. You wake up. Its cold, wet, miserable, and dark. When you walk home it’s the same and you feel like you’ve not seen sunlight in months. But that’s what Christmas is all about I actually envy you. How I would love to travel home tonight, with it pissing it down outside, feeling like you have hypothermia, then you get home, get dry, put your joggers on and a hoodie, have your tea and nice hot brew with a mince

HIYA HOPE YOUR

ALREET AND SE

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YOU HEAR ON TH

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SUNDERLAND PENSHAW MONUMENT WINTER SCENE

“GALLERY EDUCATION IN THE UK IS A UNIQUELY IMPORTANT BUT UNDERVALUED RESOURCE” (MARJORIE ALTHORPE-GUTON, DIRECTOR, VISUAL ARTS, ARTS COUNCIL

ENGLAND).

Perhaps we should not assume anything yet. What is education? What is art? How do they relate to each other? Ac-cording to a study by Enquire (2006) the popularity for gallery spaces being used as learning contexts has grown exponentially in the last 25 years. Why has this been the case? What is different between learning in traditional learning contexts and learning in gallery spaces? Where does this leave our notion of an ‘art school’ or is this an oxymoron? Does ‘real’ learning go on in galleries or is it a tokenistic phenomenon secondary to the learning that goes in schools, college & universities? Are we asking the right questions?

An initial response to this is we cannot assume that learning is unique to traditional school contexts. Learning happens all the time. The implication of this is that we can start to accept that learning can really happen in galleries. Enquire carried out research on learning in galleries and invited institu-tions to respond to an initial ques-tion of ‘what are the conditions for enabling learning in the gal-lery context? (Enquire, 2006, p16). Breaking the rules through creative expression was a successful learn-ing strategy. A Gallery Educator from the South East stated that it is imperative to have an individual in learning sessions that can empow-er learners to break the rules (En-quire, 2006, p23). Both artists and learners can be informed anarchists and its okay! So learning in galler-ies might not be as didactic as the ‘chalk and talk’ model omnipresent in traditional school based learning contexts. Perhaps this would appeal to the polite anarchist voice in-side all of us encouraging us to both rebel and challenge authority and orthodoxy. Asking questions is not such a bad thing after all. In the words of Josef Albers, “good teaching is more a giving of right questions than a giving of right answers”.

So is ‘real’ learning happening in galleries? Let’s reflect on what learning is or what it could be. Vygotsky (1978) argued that learn-ing is characterised by a process whereby learners construct their own meaning. If this is the case, then

CREATIVE REVIEW'S****

then ‘meaning making’ is unequivocal-ly happening in galleries. Educators often identify barriers to learning such as motivation, participation and engagement. What if engaging with art gave all learners independ-ent of ability, experience, quali-fications or academic ability, the opportunity to express themselves, reflect, analyse, to scaffold, take ownership, and above all engage? Checkmate usurpers and tradition-alists! We can reinvent learning.

Do not just take my word for it. Let’s find out what other people think. Alistair Robinson, Programme Director at the Northern Gallery for Contemporary Art (NGCA) argues that “NGCA’s work is fundamentally edu-cational. A gallery is one of the very few spaces the authority offers that can address issues of civicrelevance. It is one of the very few spaces of any kind in the city thatis free to enter and which asks only for your imagination and ideas” (Robinson, 2010). We cannot argue with power of imagination, freedom or ideas. They are all intrinsi-cally meaning making tools. Vygotsy would agree. Furthermore, NGCA have space within the gallery exclusively for educational purposes, provid-ing free materials and workshops facilitated by artists inspired by current exhibitions in order to encourage people to be creative.

In a pedagogically informed man-ner, let’s answer the question. Does art have a place in educa-tion? Perhaps we should be ask-ing ‘does education have a place in art?’ The answer is undoubted-ly yes to both questions. Art and education are unequivocally criti-cal friends. They are both intrin-sically dynamic. They both matter. They mutually co-exist. They need each other. And we need both of them.

NGCA’s current exhibition is enti-tled ‘The Wonders of the Visible

World’Is on now until 4 February 2012 -

www.ngca.co.uk/.

DOES ART HAVE A PLACE IN EDUCATION? DOES EDUCATION

HAVE A PLACE IN ART?

CHECK OUT

THE CREATIVE BLOG***

MORE REVIEWS

&MORE ART!

Yes, that’s right, a DN gal-lery at North Shore.A proposal has just been passed up to the Union Exec, to turn the green bar (Balcony) into a gallery.This would then offer students, who are looking for exhibition space, for either art work or maybe even a sci-ence exhibit, or perhaps a cultur-al and diversity themed event, like the one we have just recently had.

This is a great opportunity and would be another expansion of the DN empire. Keep checking the website for updates. Fingers crossed its gets approved. Why not e-mail us and tell us what you think? dnmagazine@sunderland.ac.uk

LEE ALLISON

DN GALLERY @ NORTH SHORE

Diversity Week and the Celebration of Diversity Evening 14th - 18th November

at the University’s nursery St. Mary’s, and have a bit of fun making break, cards and hats embracing di-versity at the very start. Wednesday raised £30 for charity with inter-national students writing names in their own language and framing them. Thursday the film ‘Freedom Writers’ was chosen and shown to a group of students who enjoyed the film, learn-ing about all different cultures and how we can work together, em-brace each other for the better of the community. And finally the night many had been looking forward to, for many months the Celebration of Diversity Evening rounded the week off on the last night of the week.

The Celebration of Diversity Evening has been an annual event for many years, bringing all different types of students, societies and staff to-gether, learning a bit more about each other, where some of us come from, what we eat, how we dance and our cultural/ religious customs. The evening this year was hosted by the Students’ Union, in partnership with the University of Sunderland at North Shore. In total there were 14 performances by students who took the time to create and talk through a presentation, sing a traditional song and dance and also give us valu-able information about who they are. A major part of the evening involved food from around the globe, with 6 societies cooking traditional dishes for the hungry crowd. Throughout the evening students were also invited to get their photo taken by a student photographer, taking photos of them in their best traditional dress. overall 230 students came to the even-ing, to share, listen and take part in the celebration, helping to se-cure the University of Sunderland and North Shore as a cultural hub for all.

ADAM GAWNE

WE CELEBRATED AND EMBRACED DIVERSITY ON CAMPUS WITH A

WEEK DEDICATED TO ACTIVITIES THAT BROUGHT STAFF, STUDENTS AND THE

COMMUNITY TOGETHER.

The beginning of the week had two events which brought the young and old together as well as internation-al students with some local char-acters. AgeUK in Sunderland held a welcome evening for 35 Internation-al students so they could talk to local people, learning about their lives as well as exchange stories. The evening was a great success with many of the students taking away a bit of knowledge about Sunderland and making a lasting friendship with the older community. Tuesday gave some students the chance to meet with some of our youngest students at the University’s nursery St. Mary’s, and have a bit of fun making

This event was something to look for-ward to, the unveiling of the first Turner prize outside of London. The decision to go early was definitely a good one being half way down the line or so I thought until I got inside and the saw the real line I don’t even know where the back of it was. The pieces where great and really creative but also beautiful and a bit thought provoking , even though I was thinking about giant sweets at one point, maybe you will get what I’m talking about if you go see it yourself. George Shaw’s paintings were somehow in-between tradition-al paintings and contemporary ones I could definitely relate. Martin Boyce was everywhere you looked as we entered and it was amazing to see how he had installed his piece, it is definitely something to see first-hand. The after party was lively and free drinks on entry was definite-ly a bonus. It was a bit strange not to see any of the artists walk-ing around but maybe I missed them. A piece I was quite looking forward to was the piece by Mike Kelley and Michael Smith, which was described as a fantasy and a journey. Walking around the exhibit after seeing it being installed was a bit strange, not at all what I thought it would be and to be honest the light show within the exhibit kind of made it more playful than a baby against the world on a journey to the burning man festival. The footage playing on the screens was, let’s say, interesting but put the point across of a jour-ney and was definitely amazingly put together. Matt Stokes were the words on everybody’s lips well my friends lips anyways, we loved the way he had combine video footage of 6 vocalists singing as we have called it scremo vocals with no music just vocals, it was something I wanted to dance to at times, something we all wouldn’t have minded dancing too. So all in all the Turner Prize entries and the Baltic in general were great, the queue to get in was worth it, and the after party was a great laugh but if you really want the experience then go down yourself and see it. Maybe you could debate with me on the subject?

EMILY KAY SMITH

THE TURNER PRIZE AND THE

BALTIC

Calling all students! Stuck for something to do on a Sunday night? Want to finish your weekend in style and prove to your mates that you do in fact have a brain rattling about inside that head of yours? North Shore has just the thing – The Big Fat Quiz of the Week! It only costs £1 to take part, and every team gets free nachos and the chance to win some great prizes. T-shirts, Frosty Jack’s, and of course, the coveted bar tab, taken from the entrance fees. All the people you thrash paying for your drinks. What more could a student ask for? So clue yourselves up, get down to North Shore every Sunday even-ing at half 7, and get quizzical!

SAM DUDLEY

QUIZ OVERVIEW

It’s slim, it’s red, and it’s naff. Very naff. It’s the new red Christmas tree those lovely people at Wilko are trying to sell to all us Christmas shoppers. Well, best of luck to them, because selling this thing to anyone may require a miracle. What was the designer smoking when he conceived this idea? Whatever it was, I for one don’t want any. There’s no denying it – it’s an abomination. Christ-mas trees should not look like this. There are a number of ways to spread Christmas cheer, but this unfortu-nately isn’t one of them. But maybe all that’s a bit harsh. Here’s a pic-ture so you can decide for yourself:

AND WHILE YOU’RE TAKING THAT IN, ASK YOURSELF THIS: WOULD YOU REALLY BE WILL-ING TO PAY £18 FOR

THAT?we did a little market research we ask students whether or not they would buy this prod-uct, and or even consider buying it

THE WILKO RED TREE

5% SAID THEY WOULD BUY/ CONSIDER

BUYING THIS TREE

95% SAID MOST DEFINITELY NOT!

so there you have it!

SAM DUDLEY

FESTIVE COFFEE

Everyone has that one thing that gets them in the Christmas mood whether it’s the city lights going up, Christmas windows in the shops or the Coca cola advert, for me one of the most important things is the Christmas Coffees. They are actually the taste of Christmas, one sip and it feels like Christmas Eve. So I went on a search to see which of our big brand coffee shops was do-ing the tastiest Christmas coffees.

I started with Costa coffee that had put out two Christmas coffees, Pra-line and cream Latte and Black For-est hot Chocolate. Both had an in-teresting taste, however compared to some of the other Christmas coffees tasted, they just weren’t ‘Christ-mas-ey’ enough. Although it has to be said that the black forest hot chocolate was absolutely gorgeous it just didn’t give the feeling of Christmas. The Praline and cream latte was overshadowed greatly by the Starbuck’s Praline Mocha, their use of chocolate drink and bit-ter chocolate topping gave this drink a much more ‘Christmas-ey’ edge than it’s Costa counter-part. The other Starbuck’s drinks were egg-nog latte, which as a not great lover of eggnog I had to pass the tast-ing onto one of my coffee addicts, she commented that it captured the taste of eggnog perfectly, and it seemingly worked with the coffee.

The toffee nut latte was a very sweet latte, with the warm caramelly taste that incorporates the Christ-mas taste, not as much as the gin-gerbread latte which was a perfect representation of the festive period that is upon us, the only criticism that could be made was not enough gingerbread flavour as it was so good. The final brand that was tested by myself and my coffee addicts, was Esquires coffee, they only boasted one Christmas drink so far, a spiced ginger bread hot chocolate, but one hell of a Christmas drink, the all spice added to the gingerbread to make the most Christmas tasting drink so far this year ... the only thing missing was the coffee!!!!

SO YOU GO TO THE LIBRARY WITH GOOD INTENTIONS, YOU HAVE TOLD YOURSELF, YES TONIGHT IS THE NIGHT THAT I’M GOING TO FINISHED/START THAT ES-

SAY…. BUT YOU DIDN’T BRING ANY FOOD OR A DRINK…THE CAFÉ IS CLOSED AND THE ONLY OPTION YOU HAVE IS THE

VENDING MACHINE!

at 70p per chocolate bar and £1.20 for a bottle of pop… I think I am in a horror film!!!A night at the library is inevi-tably going to be filled with mun-chies and fizzy drinks, so while you’re being good and getting your work done don’t be bad and get ex-ploited by the vending machines….

Picture this… vulnerable student, its fast approaching midnight and the only thing you’ve been think-ing about for the past hour is get-ting your hands on a bar of dairy milk, a boost, or even one of those packets of delicious shortbread cov-ered with chocolate snacks and you get to the vending machine… wallet/purse at the ready… you open it up, spill its contents on to your hand and then…*Scream* You don’t have enough change… there is nowhere to get change!!! If you are like me by now you’ll have broken down into a fit of despair and see no way for-ward, no way that it would be pos-sible to start your work again, and you were doing so well too.

Oh but how do we stop this from hap-pening to ourselves… a little forward planning Is all you need. On your way to the library pop into home bargains or the pound shop, you can get 3-4 chocolate bars for £1 from both, and anything from 2 bottles to 3cans for £1 from both… which I think you will agree is better than paying 70p each!So instead of paying say £1.90 for one bottle of pop and a sin-gle chocolate bar you could pay £2 and get 1-2 bottles and 3-4 choco-late bars!... so you will have, for the same price, bought enough for two nights or maybe enough to use for your lunch the next day as well.

So what should you do to avoid this horror story happening to you … Well simply just a little bit of for-ward planning, this goes for just about every situation…. Think about what you will want to buy, how much will it cost? Could you get it any-where else for cheaper? The answer to the latter question is almost certainly yes. Yes you can get it cheaper all you have to do is think of where you will go instead be-fore you head off to the library!

Don’t get caught without your choc-olate fix! Plan ahead. Save your-self some money and some heartache!

AMY XXX

when all you have for friends are the vending machines.

Studying at

the library,

FOLLOWAMY VIA THE

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MONEY SAVING IDEAS!

Seeing as it’s nearly Christmas and there’s a chill in the air, winter coats are back around, and fur and festive patterns are everywhere. From the campus to the catwalk, this year faux fur seems to be trimming every corner. One way that the faux fur trend seems to be creep-ing its way in seems to be through the parka jacket, which has made a much appreciated return to the front of our wardrobes this December. If you’re looking to pick yourself up a parka this winter, then Pri-mark, the student’s best friend, have a range of colours for only £14 each. However, if you’re look-ing to go further up the high street this Christmas, Topshop’s “Borg Hooded Parka” is the right direc-tion, especially in navy. It’s cur-rently £100, but for comfort, style and durability, it’s the best choice for those freezing winter days.

Celebrate Christmas in Faux fur!

Of course along with the parka, the most obvious current faux fur trend is the fur coat. A classic fashion statement, it seems to be all over campus, and best matched with a cute pair of ballerina pumps and thick pair of tights with a cute wintery day dress. If this year you’re willing to risk an online shop for your per-fect little fur coat or jacket like I am, then it seems to me that there’s no better place than ASOS, who have a collaboration of the prettiest little fur jackets that I’ve seen.

This cute as pie leopard print faux fur hooded coat with ears is £80 from ASOS, and worth every penny. With animal ears and furry scarves being a big hit this year, this is a nice little collabora-tion of adorable and individual.If you’re not a fan of the fur jacket and want to keep warm this winter, then a nice alternative is the fur wrap around. £12 in H&M, the lit-tle fur neck scarves can be used to add a little touch of winter to your summer denim or leather jack-et, or to customise a little black dress and keep your neck warm. Have a great Christmas guys, and keep yourself warm with a good excuse to buy accessories!

AMY INGRAM

FOLLOW OUR FASHION EDITOR/

VIA THE DN FASHION

BLOG*

TURN TO SECOND

HAND FOR HIGH END!

YOU ALL APPRECIATE THAT FEEL-ING WHEN AN ENVIABLE LOOK IS SHOT TOWARDS YOUR HANDBAG IN COSTA OR CATCHING A GLIMPSE OF HOW STYL-

ISH YOU LOOK IN THE PASSENGER DOOR WINDOW OF THE CAR PARKED OUTSIDE

HALLS.

BUT REALISTICALLY how much does it all cost?The Debt Advice Foundation says the biggest worry faced by students is their dwindled student loan and mounting debt. It’s a concern that you haven’t had to think about until now.“It’s such a difficult transition to university where being styl-ish and looking good when meeting new people is essential. It’s dif-ficult when you have to keep budget-ing your finances to suit necessities which rarely include clothes” Ra-chael Wise, 28, an Art student from Northumbria University tells me.So girls, this is where the master plan comes in. You may not like it at first but this could be the best advice you’ve received this term.I’m not telling you how to stretch six cups of tea from one bag. Some-thing far more important than that. How to look like you have just stepped out of the Burb-erry SS12 show without spending more than 20 Great British Pounds!Charity shops are the single most stylish and cost effective stores on the high street. With 129 shops in Sunderland alone, I’m certain that it’s possible to dress super chic without breaking the bank.Niamh Stewart, 18, is a fashion jour-nalism student at Sunderland Univer-sity. She has already cottoned on to what great bargains there are to be had: “I picked up a great dress for my prom in a charity shop back home.”

If you need to be convinced further, Seb Howarth, Assistant Manager at the British Red Cross Shop in Whit-ley Bay tells me: “Donated designer wear is on the up, you can pick up a designer coat from as little as £5.”Look at the get-up sported by our model. A modest £18 was shelled out for this outfit. The coat, original-ly from Zara cost £6 and looks per-fect with our Accessorize hat for £3. Team these with a pair of £4 Office platforms and Prada (yes - Prada) bag that cost a measly yet wonderful £5 and you’ve got your-self an incredible designer look.Many shops now have their gems on one ‘vintage’ rail to save time. You’ll also find that if you are looking for something particular, the lovely dears are more than willing to have a root about in the back on your behalf.

BY KIM WALKER

THE DN GARDEN IS A NEW INSTALMENT TO THE DN EMPIRE.

As its too late in the year to be-gin major projects within the plant-ing side of things, we did plant some bulbs (tulips and daffodils) fingers crossed the frost doesn’t kill them off.

We will be keeping a diary of the pro-gress of the garden on the Green blog. Follow the QR link or search for the blog via the DN website www.dnmagazine.org

The garden is a joint effort, between Adam Gawne (Student contact officer) DN’s and Louise Steel (Green blog ed-itor & Deputy editor of DN magazine)

We hope to create a beautiful hav-en of fresh fruit and veg. Anyone who would like to get involved with the garden, can do so through the intern-ship scheme with the magazine. Just e-mail us at dnmagazine@sunderland.ac.uk

DN

Garden*

DN

Garden*

Christmas lights switch-on…In case you haven’t noticed (which would take lots of denial and a huge rock to hide under), Christmas is fast approaching. It’s only a month away now, and it’s starting to show. The days are getting shorter, and colder, and the heat waves of the summer seem so very long ago. Seems like it was only yesterday when the snow was falling and the masses of Christmas shoppers were emptying the shops of all their goods. How time flies.

With all the Christmas lights, dis-plays and trees all round Sunder-land, you can’t help but feel fes-tive, even if it’s only a little bit (the more the better, though). All those lights were recently switched on at one of the biggest events of the year. Live music, choirs, and as if that wasn’t enough, a breath-taking fireworks display, all to cel-ebrate the illumination of Sunder-land. It was all very impressive, and a great start to the festive season. Unfortunately there isn’t an ice rink this year, but the extrava-gant tree (both in size and decora-tion) in Mowbray Park is an impres-sive form of compensation. That’s not to say the rest of the lights aren’t impressive too… Steve Cram (retired athlete and chancellor of the University of this fair city we call Sunderland) and Olympic and Paralympic newcomers Alyson Dixon and Fiona Tozer joined the Mayor of Sunderland onstage to flick the switch. And as a good in-dicator of how popular it was, the place was absolutely packed. People of all ages were there, wrapped up nice and warm in their hats, scarves and gloves, hot drinks in hand. Par-ents were trying hard to keep their kids under control, while the kids were trying their absolute best not to be kept under control. One boy in particular asked his parents “is I’m a Celebrity on tonight?”, so you can tell where his priorities lay. Let it be known that the highlight was seeing one child choking an-other with a lightsabre. Naturally. No evening would be complete with-out a Star Wars-inspired fight to the death. Yes, it was fun for all the fam-ily, and everyone else too, for that matter (except perhaps the kid on the receiving end of the lightsabre sleeper hold). If you were there, then you already know how good it was. If you weren’t there, then hopefully you’ve got a good enough idea by this point. Roll on next year!

SAM DUDLEY

CHRISTMAS LIGHTSSWITCH-ON....