Less Common / More Sense
14.03.2007-15.04.2007
10 YEARS IN THE MAKING. BE PART OF IT.www.suarts.org
Less Common / More Sense
16Christoffer Skjott
17David Fulford
18 –19 Ethical Fashion: The Fairest of Them All
20 – 21 Portrait
22Colophon
04 – 05Against The Tide
06 – 07The Inexplicable Disappearance
And Triumphant Resurgence of Music
Events At Central Saint Martins
08 – 09Dodeckahedron
10The Weather Club
11(F) art Degrees
12 –15 Club Class
Contents
WWW.LESSCOMMON.ORG WWW.SUARTS.ORG MORE SENSE / 03
04 / LESS COMMON
José González told me three years ago that
he has problems finding words for his
thoughts. This hasn’t become easier, he just
hasn’t confronted his problem. He compares
giving interviews with washing up after dinner.
Something you just have to do – or don’t?
José is an experienced musician whose
influences range from classical guitar to bossa
nova and from flamenco to the Beatles. All of
these influences shine through and make his
music extraordinary. It feels very intimate in
that Elliott Smith way, that kind of closness so
few musicians manage to pull off. They share
a linear way of singing – but unlike Smith,
José’s music relies solely on his voice and
spiralling Latin guitar play. There are no drums,
no bass and no backing vocals. It feels intense
and even a bit hectic, although it’s totally not.
José has said he never improvises when he
performs and compares it to driving in traffic;
“you have to be concentrated”.
At the time of this interview José was
undertaking a three - month tour of the States.
He was sitting in a car from New Orleans
when I called. He told me about how you
could see black lines on the top of the houses
from where the water had been during the
tornado. Apart from that, he thought everthing
was normal. But then he’d only been playing
and eating in restaurants during his stay.
The European release of his debut album
Veneer was in 2003. After that a busy year
followed with talk shows, UK hits, a sucessful
Sony advert and endless touring. But despite
all of that he’s yet to become a ubiquitous or
typically mainstream figure. He hasn’t been
using any cheesy marketing strategies and his
music videos and album covers remain plain
and beautiful.
Please tell me about your music videos:My band member Elias Araya, from my other
band Junip, directed the Stay in the shade
video. He has also designed all of my album
covers. We are childhood friends and he was
the drummer in my old hardcore band.
He started to draw and went to Art College,
so I asked him to do the video. I basically gave
him free hands. ( The video is very contempo-
rary and atmospheric. It’s hand drawn and very
abstract ). My other video Hand on your heart
is made by Andreas Nilsson. He’s a member
of the Swedish band Silverbullit and has made
videos for The Knife. I had the idea that
I wanted the video to be fable - like with lots
of animals. It generated from my screensaver
of a Japanese bird that I’ve always been very
fond of. So I gathered twenty to thirty pictures
from the Internet and sent them to him.
The result is a collage made movie of José
in a Japanese wonderland.
Will you continue making music with Junip?I’ve been so busy touring lately that I haven’t
had time to do much. But when I get back
home, probably in November, I will start
making music again. It feels like Junip is an
everlasting project. Because of all the atten-
tion I’ve got from my solo project, it seems
more natural to continue with my own music
instead.
Do you still dislike writing lyrics?I’m more of a musician than a storyteller.
I get the same sensation when I’m on stage.
It never really feels right. My song texts are
very abstract and short. But that’s mostly
because I like repetition in music and that
I want to leave something for the imagination
of the listener.
Would you call your music melancholic?Yes, I would call it quite dark. My lyrics are
dark and about the hard times of relationships
and life. But it’s totally up to the listener how
to understand it; nothing is really right
or wrong.
Do you have any secrets you’d like to share?I used to nick money from the others pockets
while we where on tour. We get pocket
money every day, but mine usually finishes so
quickly because I eat so many sweets.
So when they are not watching I have a look
for some coins.
José González’s album got the name
“Veneer” because he likes the symbolism of
something that shows itself differently on the
outside than it appears on the inside. I think
this reflects him very well. I don’t believe he’s
that quiet sad guy that he looks like on stage.
He seems to be a life - loving person that takes
most things pretty easy. He even had prob-
lems thinking of something he disliked. Even-
tually I found out it was gristly toothbrushes.
Another thing that goes against the lonely
and melancholic singer songwriter’s image
was his choice of his favourite film. Although
he hadn’t seen it yet, he thought Ali G’s
[Sacha Baron Cohen] new movie Borat would
definitely be his new favourite.
Text: Rosanna Tuvhag
Central Saint Martins
BA Graphic Design
Against The Tide
MORE SENSE / 05WWW.JOSE - GONZALEZ.COM WWW.IMPERIALRECORDINGS.SE
Photography: Jonathan Leijonhufvud
London College of Communication
Professional Photography Practice
(images used with kind permission from
Imperial Recordings)
The Inexplicable Disappearance And Triumphant Resurgence of Music Events At Central Saint Martins
Live, the band are an engagingly bizarre
spectacle, performing in surgical gowns and
masks. The concept behind this is to refute
“the outdated idea of ego”. The members
of the band perform anonymously, often
switching instruments during a performance
and playing around with their material. Related
to this is the peculiar nature of the shows
themselves – Ade commented upon the con-
nection with the audience; that, instead of the
treadmill of releasing a record and an
accompanying Big tour, they like to concen-
trate on making each one more of an event
in and of itself – “Not something which is just
a commercial exercise[…] Something which
is new to an audience”. Essentially, it’s all
about that rare, precious, primitive connection,
playing on the divisions between band and
audience – “a lot of people just dancing to the
music, getting into the music, even just for
an hour[…] Seems like you’re not just being
there as a spectacle, but are actually involved
in the whole thing”
The key juxtaposition in Clinic’s work is
one of Pleasure against Promotion. It’s an
important and genuine ethos, and one which
is well suited to CSM. The 14th promises to
be a notable evening.
— Clinic (Domino Records) play CSM
Charing Cross Road on the 14th December
Tickets £12.50 (www.seetickets.com)
Back in the 70’s, so I’ve been told, the institu-
tions that now make up CSM hosted bands
playing every week – a colourful part of our
institutional history that today is barely even
a memory – all that remains of it being that
dubious plaque in the lobby at Charing Cross.
Music events have been rare, and, when
they have been going on, have been generally
off limits to the rump student body politick.
However, these exclusive events have been a
necessary evil, apparently. Everything is now
set to change with the concert by the band
Clinic on the 14th of December, hosted by the
up and coming Domino Records label.
For the last 18 months, Peter Cleak, the
driven, multitasking young Events Manager
for CSM, has been leading a concerted effort
to reintroduce live music events into the
collective student experience. The last two
major events have been private things —
The Clinic gig; however, will be the first in
which tickets have been reserved expressly
for the students. This concert, therefore,
marks a pivotal moment – having demon-
strated the feasibility of the campaign to the
college authorities with the previous two
events, this one will indubitably mark out the
next stage in the process. All of this is very
exciting. If it is a success, then the path is
open for many more future events, and riding
along with them, plenty of opportunities for
students from all the various disciplines to be-
come involved in one way or another, either in
the gig’s themselves, or in the nefarious task
of ‘networking’ with the wider world. In brief,
this is something that requires our interest
specifically, our short - term financial interest.
And the ticket is well worth the investment.
I first heard about Clinic two days before
interviewing front man Ade Blackburn via
telephone on the 1st of November, and
listened to their new album that morning. I’m
not sure what I was expecting – in their re-
views and clippings, Clinic get compared with
pretty much everything under the Sun from
the Velvets to David Lynch. I found, instead
of or in spite of this, a group with their own
distinct, focussed sound and style, which is
also in evidence in the videos on their website
(they make all their own videos ) and artwork
for the sleeves of their albums ( bassist
Hartley produces all the album covers ). Pretty
much everything is made for themselves.
Their work is eccentric and independent, in a
world of over – stylised and postured Indie, and
exemplifies a DIY ethos ( a term which Ade
was happy to self- apply ), which has a lot in
common with our own luminary Billy Childish.
Ade, in person ( or disembodied voice ), is soft
spoken and unpretentious. His conversation
ranged over an hour from the latest book he’d
read (“The Tokyo Montana Express by Richard
Brautigan[…] Surrealist style and humour[…]
mish mash of ideas[…] one of my favourite
writers, yeah.”), to thoughts on the contempo-
rary importance of community (“now it seems
like everyone is pushed more towards being
just more isolated[…]
I read recently of a band who when they
travel to and from gigs, [they’re] listening to
their own MP3 players. I think that idea of
people gradually withdrawing from communal
social situations[…] I just don’t see the benefit
from that at all. That more people can share
seems completely logical to me”). It seems
that every major decision the band makes, in-
cluding what festivals they play (Clinic recently
headlined at Audioscope Festival, Oxford
an event in aid of the charity group SHELTER),
are taken against commercial considerations.
On this, as on all things with Ade, the basic
thing is to be as independent as possible;
“Whenever we make things, it’s kind of got
the freedom within it, its not about the
mainstream or to get played, it’s just some-
thing very English”. When I asked him about
how the group consider their music in the
context of today’s big issues and the sensitive
global climate in which we live, his response
was similarly geared towards the importance
of providing an alternative to the mainstream
trends. “The way it functions, if you are
doing something then its an alternative to that
negative vibe[…] I don’t mean to say that lyri-
cally it deals with it directly[…] more
with philosophy and outlook on life[…] looking
at possibilities rather than things narrowing”
he said, adding that “It’s far too grand to
think of doing anything directly[…] I don’t feel
at home with sloganeering, like Live 8 for
example[…]I’m sure that type of things got its
place but I think that music and politics has
generally been done badly”.
WWW.CLINICONLINE.ORG WWW.DOMINORECORDCO.COM 06 / LESS COMMON
Text: Charles Fulford
Central Saint Martins
BA Criticism, Communication and Curation
MORE SENSE / 07 WWW.SEETICKETS.COM
Photography by B
art McD
onagh
Photography: Miranda Iossifidis
London College of Communication
BA Interactive Design
Dodeckahedron
08 / LESS COMMON WWW.FLICKR.COM / PHOTOS / DODECKAHEDRON
WWW.DODECKAHEDRON.BLOGSPOT.COM MORE SENSE / 09
Bow - legged, ‘fro-haired white boys mill
around to soundtracks of motown and soul,
while a girl in an oversized sweater and
shin - scraping skirt serves beer in plastic
cups from behind the bar. The sixth night of
Fresher’s (Pathfinding) Week sees the return
of Southampton Row’s Weather Club, a
student - penned night of obscure 60s records,
cheap booze and eccentric musicians. City
lights bathe the cleared cafeteria, pooling in
from the floor - to-ceiling window panels run-
ning along one side of the room. The audience
chatter happily around the tables at the side
of the room furthest from the stage, and, for
a second, it feels like a 40s nightclub - come -
school disco.
The Weather Club relaunch is entertained
by bluesy, country punks Battle of Balaclava;
St Martin’s drop-out and Vincent Vincent and
the Villains drummer Alex Cox, and the
geek chic of Tim Ten Yen’s Sinatra - esq elec-
tro. It’s refreshing to notice how obviously
selective the organisers have been, opting for
kitschy, innovative acts instead of the generic
indie bands currently saturating London’s club
circuit. Glassy disco lights run along the ceiling
above the stage, pooling down onto the acts
below and contrasting with the red stage light,
while a single multicolour spotlight shines
out over the crowd, bathing them in a hazy,
intoxicating glow. It’s St Martins as it’s most
relaxed: conceptual, fun - loving and inebriated.
UAL has often been described as anti - social
and pretentious, yet the intoxicated art school
crowd mingle effortlessly, as students all over
the world are supposed to.
The only aspect which separates this from
any other Students’ Union night is the level
of effort and creativity put into appearances:
Dancing is premeditated and varied- a girl
in the corner is toe - stepping in a rah - rah skirt;
a couple to the left are holding hands and
swinging around each other as your grandpar-
ents might have done. Generally, movements
are melodramatic and pronounced; outfits are
thought - out and appreciated.
— Arrive late for a slice of artschool student
life at its best: sociable meet-and-greets,
cheap alcohol and tastefully innovative acts
and fashions.
The Weather Club
10 / LESS COMMON WWW.MYSPACE.COM / WEATHERCLUB WWW.VINCENTVINCENTANDTHEVILLAINS.COM
Text: Abigail Outhwaite
London College of Communication
BA Journalism
of a degree can be measured in money alone
is sad, boring and very contemporary – pointing
to a society where knowledge and study has
lost its true meaning. Education made
accessible to the wider public has turned into
a product rather than a broadening of one’s
personal and intellectual horizons. It also
totally devalues the importance of artistic en-
deavours and aspirations: historically the life
of the Artist has been seen as something
often obscure, luxurious ( and not seldom
‘unnecessary’ ) but at the same time com-
mitted and essential to making the lives of all
other hard - working mortals, just that tad more
beautiful. These days, consumer society has
incorporated even the arts, and with that the
artist, in the quest for universal entertainment.
Consumerism relies heavily on the visual,
the graphical, the musical stimulations of the
mind. Artists can be employed within the
wider context of the manufacturing space and
do quite, if not very, well out if it. A fact that’s
continuously being promoted at any self - re-
specting arts university. The more students
that enrol, the more fat fees in the university’s
bank account, naturally.
And yes, it is still seen as romantic, some-
how, with a financially fraught artist - and part
You’re a student, right? An exam taker, library
visitor and essay writer, according to your own
statistics. A pizza eater, boozedrinker, night
clubber – and a general debt hoarder, according
to everyone else’s. Today’s students freely
mix the traditional university debauchery of
bygone days with the demands and needs
of contemporary consumer society. The list of
things to do and to own grows longer by
the minute and not many students want to
be seen without the necessary equipment
required of the young and cool. For an art stu-
dent this is especially so: the hip clothes and
essential sunglasses in winter can be most
costly indeed. And isn’t that what student
loans are for – to get some cash and some life-
style? It’s ‘play now, pay later’ - time, but later
is later; by then you will have a degree
( at least if you managed writing the odd essay
inbetween pub sessions ) and with that a job.
You will be all right – at least that is what the
newspapers and the government keep say-
ing. The student loan advertising says it too:
Students eat pizza and own i-Pods. Borrowed
money can be your own money. And in a way
it is – you just have to pay it back first. It might
well be that you are one of those students,
who actually spends their time at university
studying, reading books and ‘investing in their
future’ – as it is called these days. You might
be very focused and motivated, knowing that
the course you are doing is the right one for
you – with a bunch of researched job options
and opportunities awaiting after completed
efforts, the whole world is your oyster.
If you belong to this category it is very likely,
however, that you are
a ) ‘mature’ (i.e. over 21) or b ) foreign.
— The fact of the matter is instead that most
people have no clue why they are doing a de-
gree. Not really. Not deep down. Mommy and
Daddy thought it was a good idea, and you
just had to do ‘something’ after A-levels; these
are pathetic but not unlikely explanations.
And after all – doesn’t society expect it? While
doing my own degree in journalism most of
my fellow students were completely confused
as to why they had ended up on the course.
They could not spell to save themselves and
had no interest whatsoever in politics or media
issues. Just the type of journalists the world
needs. While students in other European
countries sometimes do not start university
until in their late twenties, Britain seems
plagued with a sort of ‘now or never’ mental-
ity. Money needs to be made and young
people need to start earning – now! This obvi-
ously works out fairly well if the degree in
question is of the money making sort, which
might explain the general abundance of
accountants to artists. The idea that the value
of the image too! And so it will remain —
with today’s art degrees charged at the same
standard annual £3,000 tuition fee as some of
its meatier cousins, the pressure is certainly
on once the art graduate has left the safe
havens of schooling behind. Regardless of
the perhaps increased opportunities for the
creatively minded in today’s world compared
with 100 years ago, the fact remains
that a £15,000 debt for a degree with
- still! - vague job prospects is nothing to take
lightly. After all we live in a society where a
return on investment is expected.
As we have seen, however, things are not
always that clear - cut; so why not use your
borrowed money while you have it. Someone
once offered me these words of advice:
‘For God’s sake, just spend it. You might not
get any more in a looong while!”
— No wonder so many students dance and
drink the nights away.
(F) art Degrees?
MORE SENSE / 11WWW.SARARITZEN.TYPEPAD.COM / THE _ JOURNALIST /
Text: Sara Ritzen
London College of Communication
BA Journalism
Club ClassClub Class
Course Director for BA Pho-tographyBeverley Carruthers
or speak to Mathew Hawkins, or even Head of MA Photogra-phy AnneWilliams (the latter is not in the office I spoke about on the phone
Photography: Moira Lovell
London College of Communication
MA Photography
14 / LESS COMMON
Course Director for BA Pho-tographyBeverley Carruthers
or speak to Mathew Hawkins, or even Head of MA Photogra-phy AnneWilliams (the latter is not in the office I spoke about on the phone
MORE SENSE / 15
The Adajle lightning concept came about
when researching into health - care products.
Cotton - wool ear buds resemble certain
bacteria and can quickly be assembled to
reconstruct bacteria forms. The clear plastic
tubes that the cotton is attached to practically
disappear when the light is turned on and
only leaves the cotton buds visible. Their form
is identical to that of bacteria, and the way
they react to light, could not come closer to
the bacteria samples found. The picture show
various stages of the development process.
— The “final proposals” are really just ideas
to envoke further development rather then
finished pieces, although they easily can be
used as such.
Christoffer Skjott
16 / LESS COMMON WWW.SKJOTT - DESIGN.COM
Text and Photography:
Christoffer Skjott
Central Saint Martins
MA Industrial Design
The concept for the recliner is based on a
scandinavian interpretation of ethnic furniture.
My original aims were to develop designs
that are based on Ethnic African pieces,
which incorporate the aesthetic values of my
Scandinavian heritage with the use of modern
technology, materials and production meth-
ods. The idea was to design furniture that en-
compassed a different way of sitting than we
are used to here in Europe, while encouraging
the user to interact with the piece. The Semi-
recliner is a good example of this interaction,
as the user shifts his/her weight the recliner
responds by tilting up or down.
Dimensions: L 715 W 285 H 645 mm
MORE SENSE / 05WWW.JOSE-GONZALES.COM
David Fulford
MORE SENSE / 17 WWW.DAVIDFULFORD.COM
Paintings: David Fulford
Camberwell College of Arts
BA Illustration
Untitled [2006]: Oil on Canvas
Dimensions: W 850 H 1200 mm
Harry’s Laugh [2006]: Oil on Canvas, Dimensions: W 330 H 450 mm
18 / LESS COMMON
To say that fashion has a conscience is like
saying the devil can feel remorse or guilt.
Okay, maybe that was too harsh. But fashion
has not exactly been known to be one of the
most principled industries. After all, fashion
evokes visions of decadence, glamour, wast-
age, and conspicuous consumption. One does
not, out of habit, go into a boutique, armed
with a checklist, interrogating sales person-
nel if desired items may have possibly been
manufactured in a sweatshop in Southeast
Asia. The truth is, we buy because we’re
drawn to something, be it a Chloe bag or a pair
of Puma sneakers. Sad to say, shopping is not
really propelled by logical or rational thoughts.
Buying is motivated by emotional appeal
rather than by where or how the clothing item
in question was made. It’s human nature.
We are not the way we are as consumers
because we’re evil or because we have no
sense of social justice. We don’t really morph
into monsters every time we buy throwaway
fashion from a not - so - ethical high street
retailer. It’s simply that the concept of “eco-
fashion” has not been entirely ingrained into
our social consciousnesses.
For that to happen, iconic brands have to
take the first step. And recently, that’s exactly
what they’ve been doing. With mega brands
like Emporio Armani, Converse, and Gap jump-
ing onto the ethical fashion bandwagon, every-
one is taking notice. Never has ethical fashion
been so chic. Now, the question of whether
these brands are embracing the concept of
eco - fashion because it’s good business or
because they’re really concerned about the
state of the Third World and the environment
is another matter altogether. The important
thing is, they’re putting ethical fashion on the
mainstream map. And that is, in turn, making
consumers more aware of the ramifications
of rampant consumption on our environment
and the working conditions of the people who
make our clothes. This realisation helps form
people’s buying habits and patterns. It also
paves the way for smaller labels and designers
to sell their clothes and promote what they’re
most passionate about.
CSM graduate and designer Davina
Hawthorne explains, “Eco-fashion is fashion
which takes into consideration the people
behind the clothes we wear, as well as the
environment.” But just because it’s ethical,
doesn’t mean it can’t be design-conscious.
Designers like herself and other brands, such
as Ciel, Terra Plana, Enamore, Noir, Katharine
E Hamnett, etc. are pushing the boundaries
of ethical fashion in terms of style and design.
Rosie Budhani of Terra Plana says, “[We give
eco-fashion a fighting chance] when we don’t
make a massive deal about the brands being
ethical, and think of them instead as fashion-
able brands that just happen to be ethical as
well.
— It could be that being stylish and being con-
scientious are not mutually exclusive after all.
Ethical Fashion: The Fairest of Them All
MORE SENSE / 19
Text: Trisha Andres
London College of Fashion
MA Fashion Journalism
Photography: Davina Hawthorne
Central Saint Martins
MA Design for Textile Futures
Portrait
20 / LESS COMMON
Photography: Kate Potter
London College of Communication
MA Photography
MORE SENSE / 21
PublisherThe Students’ Union
University of the Arts London
EditorRonan Haughton
Art DirectorLars Laemmerzahl
Thanks ToNikias Chryssos
Peter Cleak
Matthew Graham
Todd Henshaw
Oliver Hogan
Conrad Kaden
Imperial Recordings
Jens Janson
Amanda Johansson
Tamara Moore
Adrian Mott
Jenny Nash
The Weather Club
Jade Tomlin
Guy de Villiers
ContributorsSamantha Allflatt
Trisha Andres
Charles Fulford
David Fulford
Davina Hawthorne
Miranda Iossifidis
Jonathan Leijonhufvud
Moira Lovell
Abigail Outhwaite
Kate Potter
Sara Ritzen
Christoffer Skjott
Rosanna Tuvhag
Get InvolvedVisit lesscommon.org or send
examples of your work to Ronan Haughton:
mediacomms @ su.arts.ac.uk
DisclaimerThe views expressed in this publication do
not in any way reflect those of the publishers,
the Students’ Union of the University of the
Arts London. The authors accept sole respon-
sibility for the content of their submissions
AddressLess Common / More Sense
The Students’ Union
University of the Arts London
65 Davies Street
London
W1K 5DA
PrintersStephens & George
Less Common / More Sense # 7
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