LOT'S WIFEELECTION ZINE // SEPTEMBER 16, 2014

ANNA HILL // CLAIRE ROWE // BILL MOLLOY // JARROD VERITY

MONASH UNIVERSITYSTUDENTMAGAZINE

AUTHORISED BY MALI REA AND BEN KNIGHT

COVER IMAGE BY GEORGIA ANSON

IN THIS ISSUE:

STUDENT AFFAIRS

INTERNSHIPS LIST

“WHAT’S UP, DOC?”

with Milad Haghani

MUSIC SPOTLIGHT Jessica Carlton

GIG GUIDESeptember/ October

ART SHOWCASEDanielle Natividad

GROG BLOG

FROM THE EDITORS

It’s a momentous year for our humble student publication: at fifty years, we’re in the midst of an identity crisis. Originally a newspaper, currently existing under the leering dominance of the In-ternet Age, we’re unable to keep up with instant news and have yet to embrace our place as a magazine. In 2015, we propose a little coming-of-age.

Moreover, as a student magazine, we plan to cel-ebrate the entire student body. We have a re-markable presence of talent on campus, and a huge opportunity to celebrate it. As a taste, in this election zine we profile Jessica Carlton, a jazz musician studying at Monash, who releases her first album on the 19th of October this year. There is also our Gig Guide, a calendar guide of upcoming gigs performed by Monash artists. ‘Art Showcase’ is a new regular section we propse, which will feature the works of one or more stu-dent artworks; this issue, we look at Danielle Nativad’s Dualism. We also feature engineering PhD electee Milad Haghani, with a guide to en-gineering and science internship opportunities: the intention being to carve a space within the magazine for students this side of campus.

In addition, we’re introducing regular colum-nists. To give an example, Claire Rowe explores the tantilising Toff in The Grog Blog.

Lot’s Wife is foremost a political publication, and certainly we aim for a revival of its rich political heritage. But politics is not all that matters to our student body - it’s likely many students consider themselves indifferent. This is also their maga-zine, and we will endeavor to cater for them.

Anna HillClaire RoweBill MolloyJarred Verity

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This semester Monash University has seen the introduction of the English Lan-guage Peer Support Program which is a ‘drop in’ service held at the John Med-ley Library. The program is run through the Monash Student Association’s (MSA) Academic Affairs department, and allows students to receive assistance in develop-ing and strengthening English language skills. The Academic Affairs officer Nic Kimberley initiated the program out of a concern that students with poor English language proficiency are marginalized throughout their degree which has the potential to have significant implications for their grades. Monash currently has over 21,000 inter-national students and prides itself upon its ‘expertise in hosting a range of nation-alities’. In addition to the English Lan-guage Peer Support Program, Monash students also have the opportunity to participate in ‘Let’s Chat’. This program is run through the Monash Univsersity International Students Society (MUISS) division of the MSA, and is specifical-ly focused on improving conversational skills. Whilst acknowledging the success of these programs, Kimberley feels that ‘there hasn’t really been as much of a push for English language proficiency and im-proving it with international students in previous years up until really now’. Due to a recent report commissioned by the university which found that English pro-ficiency amongst international students was an area requiring attention, Monash has proven willing to work in conjunc-tion with relevant student services in or-der to tend to this area. Programs such as the English Language Peer Support Program and Let’s Chat are not funded by the university, but are considered to be pilot programs which, on the basis of

their successes, could potentially receive funding from the university in the future. Whilst Kimberley considers this to be promising, it is apparent to him that there continues to be fundamental is-sues which permeate within the univer-sity in regards to international students. The first of these is international student entry into Australian universities. Cur-rently international students applying to study at Monash sit the International En-glish Language Testing System (IELTS), enter via TAFE or sit their VCE in the country of origin. Despite these methods, on the basis of his experiences in Aca-demic Progress Committees (APCs) Kim-berley feels that there continues to exist ‘students [who] fall through the gaps and come into Monash with English language proficiency which is less than adequate’. Similarly, the MUISS president Dalia Al Khunaizi, believes that the IELTS test ‘is not an accurate representation’ of En-glish language proficiency. In addition to this, currently data pro-vided to the Academic Board regarding APCs, a procedure which is used when students consistently fail to fulfill cer-tain requirements of their degree, is lim-ited and only entails the basic numbers of students who attend these hearings. Kimberley and the Academic Board have recently pushed for greater specificity within the data in order to for it to in-clude further details regarding the spe-cific circumstances of the students. De-spite the apparent limitations of the data, ‘no one had ever questioned it in 7 years’, consequently resulting in an inability to actually understand contributing factors which lead to students having to attend these hearings. He feels precise data would make apparent to the university and student services certain trends that

STUDENT AFFAIRS:

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may be occurring which could then enable them to provide responses and solutions which are specifically targeted and therefore of greater efficiency. As it stands, MUISS consists of seven executive members which are all unpaid. Due to visa requirements, these members – like all other international students – are un-able to decrease their study loads. Al Khunaizi considers this to be a further obstacle in providing support for international students because ‘it’s really hard to put in so much work into MUISS if it’s voluntary’ and when all volunteers have to maintain a full time study load. She feels as that if at least a few executive members of MUISS were paid, similarly to MSA departments, ‘everything that we do would be so much more efficient’. Both Kimberley and Al Khunaizi consider the university’s recent initiatives and support for the pilot programs to be promising, however they also feel concern over whether this renewed enthusiasm will be sustained. Due to MUISS’s limitations as a division, there is concern that its future volunteers may not have the means to apply pressure on the university to continue the development of these newly established programs.

INTERNSHIPS: SCIENCE & ENGINEERINGEach issue we will post a list of internships available to science and engineering stu-dents, to assist with the difficulty that is finding placements. This is a tester: if elect-ed, lists next year will be more thorough.

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"What's Up, Doc?"with Mr Milad Haghani

Education:Bachelor Civil Eng. IUST, IranMasters Civil Eng.(Traffic and Transport Eng), SUT, Iran

PhD area of focus:

Choice and Decision Making in Pedestrians

One goal of the School of Civil Engineer-ing’s research is to examine the natural behaviour of people as they exit build-ings in an emergency. They are aiming to produce a simulator that can assess the effectiveness of evacuation of any building by rating the amount of conges-tion to help give feedback to architects on their designs. But producing an accu-rate simulator requires a comprehensive mathematical model of typical human be-haviour under such circumstances, and that’s the purpose of Milad Haghani’s PhD research.

Working under the supervision of Ass. Prof. Majid Sarvi (Director of the Institute of Transport Studies at Monash), Milad has been collecting data from Monash students over the past year on the paths they take as they walk around campus, and how they react to congestion. Of-ten he’ll observe people walking through the Menzies ground floor and occasion-ally stop someone to discover why they walked along the path they did. He’ll also present them with a questionnaire of hypothetical scenarios to see how they’d react to different situations. The student is shown a series of diagrams of the ground floor in an emergency situa-tion that requires them to evacuate, and they must tell Milad which of the four re-volving doors they would try to exit from. After collecting the data, Milad performs statistical analyses in NLOGIT and occa-

sionally BIOGEME. A theory of herding exists, stating that people evacuating in an emergency will follow others they can see, but there is a range of evidence both supporting and disapproving of this idea. Milad found that if there was reduced vision in the building, smoke for exam-ple, people are more likely to stick to the herding theory and follow their peers. However if vision is normal, we generally head away from the masses, in the hope of avoiding congestion.

He has also collected extensive data from students exiting lecture theatres, admin-istering similar surveys. Overall there is much diversity amongst humans’ pedes-trian patterns, and this makes the cre-ation of an accurate model even harder. To combat this Milad also investigated the effects of distance and density of peo-ple on the exit chosen. Interestingly two types of preferences arose; people pre-ferred to wait at a close exit even with much congestion, or they were happy to walk to a distant exit if it meant avoiding congestion.

Milad’s results on pedestrian choice and decision will give much greater power to the simulator, and produce more ac-curate results. A similar simulator has never been created before and will allow for buildings to be designed so they can be evacuated more efficiently.

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you for guiding me in music and in life. Thank you to Michael Perez, Joe McEvilly, Yen Nguyen, Olivia Chindamo and all past members of the band for your invaluable contributions to the project. And finally to Michael, my love - I couldn’t, and wouldn’t want to do it without you. Joe McEvilly, Yen Nguyen, Olivia Chindamo and all past members of the band for your invaluable contributions to the project. And finally to Michael, my love - I couldn’t, and wouldn’t want to do it without you.

Jessica Carlton (picured with band).

Thank you to the wonderful musicians who helped bring my music to life. Tim, Jack, Luke, Stephen and Marty - your generosity and musicality continues to inspire me everyday. To my parents, Susan and Darryl and siblings Nicholas, Stephanie, Alana and Sasha - thank you for encouraging me to pursue my dreams. To my teachers Greg, Graeme, Julien and Jordan - thank

JESSICA CARLTONALBUM LAUNCH 19 OCTOBER 2014

Jessica Carlton (pictured opposite) is a phenomenally talented new jazz act from the Sir Zelman Cohen school of music. Currently in her final year of a Bachelor of Music Performance course, Carlton has worked with world-renowned musi-cians such as Maria Schneider, Charles Lloyd, Django Bates and others as part of her student career with Monash.

From 2011-2013, Carlton worked as a mentor in the Juilliard Winter Jazz Pro-gram, following her acceptance as a stu-dent in 2010. In 2012, her composition “Procurable Dream” earned her a place as a finalist in the Monash Jazz Prize. She won the prize in 2013 for her composition “Not Alone”, the piece which would be-come the title track for her debut album, to be released in October.

This year, she set the goal for herself of recording and releasing her first album. She spent months initially creating the music itself, and workshopping them through live performance. Carlton then selected musicians to accompany her

through the recording stages, following which she travelled to New York to work with mixer and masterer Michael Pe-rez-Cisneros. Writing most of the tunes new this year, she found herself greatly influenced by those she’s both collabo-rated with and been supported by. Ap-propriately titled Not Alone, the album is her personal dedication to those who’ve both supported and inspired her in the early stages of her musical career. The album features amazing musicians including Marty Holoubek on bass, Jack Beeche on alto and award-winning guitarist Tim Willis; as well as up and coming musicians - Luke Andresen on drums and Stephen Byth on tenor.

You can attend Jessica Carlton’s launch of her debut album Not Alone, performed with band ISSHO, at:Uptown Jazz Cafe 177 Brunswick St, Fitzroy6 p.m. on October 19, 2014.

More info: www.jessicacarltonmusic.com

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GIG GUIDE

SHOWCASEEach issue we will celebrate a student of art and design, through a series of their work. For this election zine, we have Danielle Natividad, a Monash second year Communication design student.

“My work circulates around the deconstructing and abstraction of realities at a visual and conceptual level, and I enjoy experimenting with film, layers, and textures in my projects. I am heavily influenced by designers and artists such as David Carson, Stan Brakhage, Edward Hopper and David Lynch.”

On the following three pieces:

DUALISMPart of a series of seven woodblock relief prints compiled into a handmade art-ist’s book. Each print has an accompanying transparent acetate sheet, and it investigates Descartes’ theory of Cartesian Dualism and Cartesian Doubt.

Pieces displayed across following three pages.

SEPTEMBER

THURSDAY 25th:Mikaela Brownley Quintet @ Dizzys Jazz Club, 8pm---------------Movement 9 @ Paris Cat Jazz Club, 9pm $20 / $15 stdnt

SUNDAY 28th:The Executives w/ Soulmate & The Fabric@ Bar Open, doors open 7:30. $5.

OCTOBERWEDNESDAY 1st:The Executives w/ Fulton Street & Soulmate @ The Toff in Town. doors open 7:30. $5.

THURSDAY 16th:“In Their Own Words” - Movement 9 ft. guest singers @ Uptown Jazz Cafe, 8.30pm

THURSDAY 30th:Los Cougarmen @ Paris Cat Jazz Club 9pm, $15

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THE TOFF Located at the heart of the CBD and with opening hours extending to the early hours of the morning, the Toff has been a much loved bar for Melbournians looking to not drink beer from the tap and pay 75 dollars for 2 weasely sized pieces of tofu. The bar is fitted with an old train carriage weaving around the centre of the main room, holding a series of booths which are available for reservation. With the sliding doors remaining attached, these booths make for a perfect destination for those wishing to make out or act in other unorthodox manors, COM-PLETELY unfitting of those who are old enough to order drinks off a list attached to a clip board. For customers’ convenience the booths are also fitted with buzzers not unlike those used in hospitals for receiving attention from staff. Thank God these staff members are in fact bar staff and are not imbued with the responsibility of human life, as I found my-self pressing the buzzer about 10 times making my-self feel like a frustrated 85 year old with advanced stages of dementia *. Hence, despite the modern ap-paratus I found myself returning to…more traditional methods…of attracting service. This involved stick-ing my head out of one of the carriage door giving a friendly, if slightly demanding and yet necessary, yell to one of the many male only (?????) staff members who I am quite sure was 12. I found this to be a far more efficient means of ordering drinks – full marks for customer service. For the convenience of the smokers amongst us, there is also an outside smokers’ area located at the back of the bar. Thankfully, as a non-smoker myself, there is no need for me to venture to this area. With the space looking out onto the dingy back alley way of other neighboring restaurants and bars, and with a caged fence running around the perimeter of the area, in a slightly drunken state one should not be ridiculed for

Oliver and Coyote Ugly. If however, you are one for dis-cussing Woody Allen’s 2354th film, or musing over why Australian politicians are fucked in the freezing cold whilst suffocating on the cigarette smoke of your fellow patrons, by all means, venture here. Apart from the very lovely bottle 50 dollar of pinot noir purchased by my youth allowance (drinks on social welfare yay), the Toff remains a vastly overrated venue suitable only to those with a desire for losing a jacket in the cloak room, making an fool of themselves on the dance floor stage, spending all their savings on drinks they can’t even remember drinking and stumbling down the 1000 stairs upon exit.

* I had not, by this point, actually drunk so much that I was really rendered to such a state.

Wheelchair accessible? Only until 9pm in which they arbitrarily close the lift

Eftops? Yes.

Child friendly? Depends on how large the child, if small enough to sit under the table in one of the carriages and is particularly quiet, then yes.

252 Swanston st Melbourne96398770Monday – open from 5.00pmTuesday – open from 5.00pmWednesday – open from 5.00pmThursday – open from 5.00pmFriday – open from 3.00pmSaturday – open from 5.00pmSunday – open from 4.00pm

Title art by Milly Rowett, contact: boowazz.tumblr.com