tag:theconversation.com,2011:/nz/topics/youth-arts-8565/articlesYouth arts – The Conversation2024-03-25T16:39:39Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2257132024-03-25T16:39:39Z2024-03-25T16:39:39ZLear is Not Okay: meta play explores what happens when teenagers rewrite Shakespeare’s tragedy<p><a href="https://almeida.co.uk/whats-on/double-bill-lear-is-not-okay-lessons/">Lear is Not Okay</a>, which played at London’s Almeida Theatre this month, was something of a meta performance. The show tells the story of a youth theatre company as they rehearse a new play that responds to William Shakespeare’s tragedy, King Lear. </p>
<p>King Lear, <a href="https://almeida.co.uk/whats-on/king-lear/">currently showing</a> at The Almeida, is about an ageing king who divides the kingdom among his three daughters, leading to betrayal and chaos as his sanity shatters. Lear is Not Okay (directed by Germma Orleans-Thompson and written by Benjamin Salmon) is a satirical piece about issues that also reverberate throughout Shakespeare’s play – the burden and dispossession of youth, and the uncertainty of the future. Making a comedy out of tragedy asks questions about what we laugh at, and why.</p>
<p>The director characters within the play (played by Alexander and Evie*) are broad stereotypes of phoney drama group leaders. The actors’ depictions of identity anxiety and awkward social interactions in a youth theatre group, although set up to provoke laughter among an enthusiastic first night audience, cut close to the bone.</p>
<p>In one scene, the actor Sarah (played by Josephine*) performs a posthumous speech she has written for Lear’s daughter, Cordelia. She explains that she sees Cordelia as a powerful woman, but the monologue she delivers sounds more like a sulky teenager. </p>
<p>Cordelia, banished to France by her father, has been forced to invade her own country to restore political stability and is somewhat disgruntled to have ended up dead. Sarah’s Cordelia concludes with the evergreen adolescent retort: “Whatever.”</p>
<p>Youth theatre encourages actors to connect with characters of canonical plays, but the trajectories of young women within them can make it hard to find redemptive or empowering touch points. Here Sarah’s attempt to find “empowerment” in the story of Cordelia is absurd, while the collapsing of high political tragedy into teenage soap opera inevitably prompts laughter. </p>
<h2>Themes of fairness</h2>
<p>We don’t see much of Lear himself. Each time someone playing Lear goes to speak, they are interrupted, or the scene cuts away. We hear more from Shakespeare’s young villain, Edmund. Kelly (Shadia*) delivers a compelling rendition of Edmund’s first monologue in a classical acting style to contrast with Sarah’s devised Cordelia speech. </p>
<p>In the monologue, Edmund is bitter and vengeful about his status as the illegitimate son of the Earl of Gloucester and reveals he has a plot to undermine and replace his legitimate brother Edgar. </p>
<p>Edmund’s evocation of the arbitrary unfairness of the world and assertion of the necessity to fight for your place – to the detriment of others if necessary – resonates ambivalently throughout this play. Another actor, Dylan (Yee*), concludes that while we’d like to think everyone had equal rights and opportunities, we know the dice are loaded from the start.</p>
<p>This cynical insight follows an altercation in the play about private and comprehensive schools, a lottery the youth cast are very conscious of. In 2019, Nottingham Playhouse chief executive <a href="https://www.artsprofessional.co.uk/news/increasing-social-division-schools-theatre-access">Stephanie Sirr said</a> theatres “had never witnessed a bigger gap in the cultural opportunities open to those in private schools compared to those in state education”. The subsequent five years are only likely to have widened the gap. </p>
<p>When I asked the cast how they found out about the Almeida’s Young Company, they said by word of mouth. These things depend on their school, or which youth groups they attend (though the Almeida also <a href="https://almeida.co.uk/get-involved/young-artists/young-company/">announces opportunities</a> clearly on its website). </p>
<p>Reviews of youth work are almost nonexistent, which also affects the visibility of these theatre opportunities for young people and makes the chance to write about this production all the more important.</p>
<h2>The legacy of COVID</h2>
<p>The age group represented by the Almeida Young Company (14-18) has endured deprivation as a result of COVID that has affected their personal, educational and social growth and development. In addition, 14 years of sustained public service cuts <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/education/2024/feb/24/schools-england-real-terms-cuts-since-2010-tories">to education</a> and <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2024/mar/19/arts-funding-austerity-collapse-tories-labour">the arts</a> mean they inherit a landscape as bleak as that of Lear’s demise. </p>
<p>The numbers of students taking drama at GCSE has <a href="https://www.dramaandtheatre.co.uk/news/article/drama-gcse-entries-continue-rapid-decline#:%7E:text=The%20number%20of%20students%20taking,49%2C247%20entries%20to%20the%20subject.">dropped by 39.6%</a> since 2010. Specialist drama staff have <a href="https://www.nationaldrama.org.uk/response-arts-in-schools-review/">dropped by 18%</a>. </p>
<p>Giving evidence at the House of Lords inquiry into education for 11-16 year olds in May 2023, National Drama chair, <a href="https://committees.parliament.uk/oralevidence/13147/html/">Geoffrey Readman said</a> “few subjects have been so consistently undervalued” or “marginalised” as drama. </p>
<p>While youth programmes run by theatres might help to stem the drain in creative arts in schools, opportunities remain overly focused on London. Theatre critic Lyn Gardner <a href="https://www.thestage.co.uk/news/news/education-policy-has-had-disastrous-impact-on-drama-in-schools--inquiry">has argued recently</a> that “the performing arts are no longer available to many children in today’s hard-pressed, underfunded schools”, describing them as a potentially <a href="https://www.thestage.co.uk/opinion/without-access-to-theatre-in-schools-kids-are-denied-more-than-just-great-art">“lost” generation</a>.</p>
<p>Redman quoted <a href="https://committees.parliament.uk/oralevidence/13147/html/">the words of Noah</a>, a 15-year-old boy who spoke to ministers at the House of Lords: “Drama holds a mirror up to life” and in doing so, it makes us “think, explore, communicate, challenge and even change things for the better”. </p>
<p>The Young Company at the Almeida do exactly that. The crisis point of their play arrives with the results of their auditions for the final show. Malicious comments about race-led affirmative casting made by Zara (Eleonora*) when Kelly secures the leading role prompt “circle time” to talk it through.</p>
<p>Racism and discrimination is another key area of complexity for young people to navigate and this scene plays out clumsiness and inefficacy in the handling of racist speech that reflects the young actors own fraught experiences in the rehearsal room and beyond. </p>
<p>In this youth theatre production, drama creates an environment for young people to collaboratively play out the things that matter to them, the things that are hurting them and the things that are “not okay”. </p>
<p><em>*Only first names have been given for safeguarding reasons.</em> </p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/536131/original/file-20230706-17-460x2d.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/536131/original/file-20230706-17-460x2d.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536131/original/file-20230706-17-460x2d.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536131/original/file-20230706-17-460x2d.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536131/original/file-20230706-17-460x2d.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536131/original/file-20230706-17-460x2d.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536131/original/file-20230706-17-460x2d.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Penelope Woods does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Youth theatre encourages actors to connect with characters of canonical plays, but the trajectories of young women within them can make it hard to find redemptive or empowering touch points.Penelope Woods, Research assistant, Empire, Migration and Belonging, University of OxfordLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/478072015-12-16T16:13:19Z2015-12-16T16:13:19ZWe asked young people about their depression – here’s what they said<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/95397/original/image-20150918-17701-k6ky09.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">New study looks into depression in adolescence and getting help.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.shutterstock.com/pic-272174177/stock-photo-student-suffering-for-depression-in-young-age.html?src=csl_recent_image-1">www.shutterstock.com</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Depression affects <a href="http://www.youngminds.org.uk/training_services/policy/mental_health_statistics">over 80,000</a> young people in the UK every year. It can have a devastating impact on their daily lives, social and academic functioning, and family. As one young person <a href="http://www.annafreud.org/training-research/research/testing-what-treatment-works-best/improving-mood-with-psychoanalytic-and-cognitive-therapies-my-experience-impact-me/">in our research project</a> put it: “I felt like I was missing out on being a teenager”.</p>
<p>A team of researchers at the <a href="http://www.annafreud.org/">Anna Freud Centre</a> and <a href="http://www.ucl.ac.uk/">University College London</a>, led by Nick Midgley and Mary Target, have been <a href="http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0140197115001980">exploring young people’s experiences</a> of having depression and receiving therapy.</p>
<p>We recently came together with a group of professional filmmakers, seven young people, and three parents, to create two short films about the experience of having depression in adolescence and getting help. </p>
<h2>Varied experiences</h2>
<p>The first, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LdmRPKUhNEY">Facing Shadows</a>, is a short animated film about the young people’s experiences, while the second, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IuU81p-lVe4">Journey Through the Shadows</a>, is told from the parents’ perspectives.</p>
<p>In Facing Shadows, the young people describe their experiences of depression, symptoms of which can include feelings of irritability and anger; sadness and tearfulness; emotional numbness; a loss of interest in doing things previously enjoyed, and suicidal thoughts. </p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">Facing Shadows.</span></figcaption>
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<p>But, ultimately, depression is experienced by young people in many different ways. As one young person put it:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Depression is a range of different things, a range of different feelings, and it’s important for people to understand that. </p>
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<p>Another young person alluded to how difficult it was to describe what depression is: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>If I was trying to describe depression to someone who has never experienced it ever, it’s like trying to explain a colour that they can’t see.</p>
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<p>It is also difficult to pinpoint the factors that cause depression in young people – there may be no single identifiable cause or there may be several potentially contributing factors acting at the same time.</p>
<p>From <a href="http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs10826-015-0237-0">a parent’s perspective</a>, the onset of depression in their teenage child can be a bewildering experience and may be particularly confusing given the emotional and behavioural changes that are associated with general adolescence. </p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">Journey Through the Shadows.</span></figcaption>
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<p>The impact on their families is often significant, too. As one parent put it: “You want your children just to lead normal teenage lives and when they can’t, it hurts”. It can also be difficult for parents to know how to respond to what their child is going through and to know where to seek relevant help. </p>
<h2>A taboo topic</h2>
<p>As the young people describe in Facing Shadows, therapy for depression can involve speaking to a professionally trained therapist. This enables them to get things off their chest and helps them deal with their feelings. “You’ve got to take the risk and tell someone”, and “remember that you’re not alone”.</p>
<p>In addition, as one of the parents in Journey Through the Shadows indicates, parents often want and can benefit from being given support from a mental health professional, to help them to understand what their child is going through and how to help them. “It was a good time for me to explore what was going on because it affects the whole family and people don’t realise that.” </p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/95514/original/image-20150921-31513-x5dfw5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/95514/original/image-20150921-31513-x5dfw5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/95514/original/image-20150921-31513-x5dfw5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/95514/original/image-20150921-31513-x5dfw5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/95514/original/image-20150921-31513-x5dfw5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/95514/original/image-20150921-31513-x5dfw5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/95514/original/image-20150921-31513-x5dfw5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Does therapy help eradicate adolescent depression?</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.shutterstock.com/pic-174163136/stock-photo-child-psychology.html?src=v35gAv4Lx0wIa6l9Np3RuA-1-87">www.shutterstock.com</a></span>
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<p>So why is it important to hear these accounts? One of the young people, who also spoke about her reasons for getting involved in the film project, said: </p>
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<p>I want to get awareness of depression out there, because of what I went through. I know so many people going through the same thing and they don’t get help or recognise it or they think their parents and teachers won’t understand. Depression needs to stop being a taboo subject. People don’t realise they’re whispering when they talk about it. People need to be educated so that it is not something hidden behind closed doors.</p>
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<p>Bringing the topic of youth depression out of the shadows will help other young people and families to seek help and communicate their difficulties.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/47807/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Emily Stapley and the IMPACT-ME study received funding from the Monument Trust. Emily is a PhD student at UCL, based at the Anna Freud Centre.</span></em></p>Depression can have a devastating impact when you’re young, so what do teenagers think about their experience?Emily Stapley, PhD Candidate, UCLLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/483082015-09-30T19:41:55Z2015-09-30T19:41:55ZStorytelling with a wink and a smile: the arrival of the Emoji-pocalypse<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/96709/original/image-20150930-19539-utv161.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Emoji wave scene. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Alexandra Neill</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Whether you view them as a scourge or a convenience, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emoji">emoji</a> are ubiquitous in online communication. In celebration of the power of the emoji, the National Young Writers’ Festival is <a href="http://www.youngwritersfestival.org/emoji-pocalypse/">soliciting submissions</a> for emoji stories for this year’s festival. </p>
<p>Dubbed the “Emoji-pocalypse”, the category is “tongue-in-cheek, but it’s also an exploration of different ways to use emojis to communicate,” says festival co-director Alexandra Neill.</p>
<p>The emoji stories must be fewer than 140 characters (the same length as a tweet), and will be physically handed out as “capsule stories” throughout the festival. </p>
<p>The submissions fit into three categories. The first are straight narratives, using faces and strategic line breaks to create a story. Others, like the main article image, use emoji to draw a scene. Finally, some emoji stories are abstract and lyrical. </p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/96708/original/image-20150930-19548-nl4m9r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/96708/original/image-20150930-19548-nl4m9r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/96708/original/image-20150930-19548-nl4m9r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/96708/original/image-20150930-19548-nl4m9r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/96708/original/image-20150930-19548-nl4m9r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/96708/original/image-20150930-19548-nl4m9r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=533&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/96708/original/image-20150930-19548-nl4m9r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=533&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/96708/original/image-20150930-19548-nl4m9r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=533&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Click to view larger image.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">National Young Writers' Festival</span></span>
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<p>Neill acknowledges submissions may take a couple of read-throughs to understand, but a narrative is certainly present in the sequence of icons. Some of the emoji carry the stance or the emotion of the scene, while others visually depict the action or characters of the story. </p>
<h2>A quick background on emoji</h2>
<p>Emoji are an evolution of the emoticon, a sequence of punctuation marks intended to represent a face. An early example of emoticons comes from 1881, when cartoonist <a href="http://www.britannica.com/biography/Joseph-Keppler">Joseph Keppler</a> published a range of emoticons in his satirical newspaper <a href="http://www.britannica.com/topic/Puck-American-periodical">Puck</a>.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/96743/original/image-20150930-19556-vlpwm9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/96743/original/image-20150930-19556-vlpwm9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/96743/original/image-20150930-19556-vlpwm9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=437&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/96743/original/image-20150930-19556-vlpwm9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=437&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/96743/original/image-20150930-19556-vlpwm9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=437&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/96743/original/image-20150930-19556-vlpwm9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=550&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/96743/original/image-20150930-19556-vlpwm9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=550&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/96743/original/image-20150930-19556-vlpwm9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=550&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Early emoticons.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Joseph Keppler/Puck</span></span>
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<p>Modern electronic emoticons date to <a href="http://mashable.com/2011/09/20/emoticon-history/#6GJzpxIKTqqM">a 1982 e-mail</a> from <a href="https://www.cs.cmu.edu/%7Esef/sefSmiley.htm">Scott Fahlman</a>, a computer scientist who proposed using the sequence of characters :-) as a “joke marker” to help his colleagues decipher jokes written in e-mails. </p>
<p>Emoticons were quickly adopted by many online communities, and many different variations were created. These sequences of symbols were recognized by programmers and turned into “graphical smileys”, and then eventually into the emoji that are found on mobile phone keyboards and messaging programs. </p>
<p>Emoji and emoticons have developed to mean much more in language than the faces they represent. Folklorist <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/enhanced/doi/10.1111/j.1083-6101.1995.tb00324.x/">Lee-Ellen Marvin</a> described them as:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>[The] paralanguage of the internet, the winks which signal the playfulness of a statement over the seriousness it might denote. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>According to behavioural scientist <a href="http://online.liebertpub.com/doi/abs/10.1089/cpb.2007.0132">Shao-Kang Lo</a>, emoji are “quasi non-verbal cues”, presented as verbal cues but communicating non-verbal information.</p>
<p>They can also indicate characteristics of their users, such as linguist Tyler Schnoebelen’s <a href="http://repository.upenn.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1242&context=pwpl">observation</a> that people who put noses in their emoticons tend to be older than those who use noseless emoticons.</p>
<p>Schnoebelen has another observation about emoji: <a href="http://time.com/2993508/emoji-rules-tweets/">they have grammar</a>. Presumably, then, one could communicate a complete thought using only emoji. </p>
<h2>Emoji as stories</h2>
<p>There is a lot of controversy over whether emoji can tell a story on their own. While emoji can convey mood or tone, they have some drawbacks. In an interview for the <a href="http://www.newrepublic.com/article/118562/emoticons-effect-way-we-communicate-linguists-study-effects">New Republic</a>, American linguist John McWhorter argued:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>You couldn’t communicate only with emoticons. You have to know what you’re talking about, what happened, when, and so on. Emoticons don’t do that.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Yet many submissions to the festival have taken up the challenge, creating clear, if simple, narratives.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/96746/original/image-20150930-19522-hgoqd1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/96746/original/image-20150930-19522-hgoqd1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/96746/original/image-20150930-19522-hgoqd1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=253&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/96746/original/image-20150930-19522-hgoqd1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=253&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/96746/original/image-20150930-19522-hgoqd1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=253&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/96746/original/image-20150930-19522-hgoqd1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=318&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/96746/original/image-20150930-19522-hgoqd1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=318&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/96746/original/image-20150930-19522-hgoqd1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=318&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Click to view larger image.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">National Young Writers' Festival</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Australian comic <a href="http://twitter.com/emojicartoons">Laura Davis</a>, whose work will feature at the festival, pairs emoji with text to tell tiny stories.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/96751/original/image-20150930-19561-1c6ztof.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/96751/original/image-20150930-19561-1c6ztof.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/96751/original/image-20150930-19561-1c6ztof.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=289&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/96751/original/image-20150930-19561-1c6ztof.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=289&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/96751/original/image-20150930-19561-1c6ztof.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=289&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/96751/original/image-20150930-19561-1c6ztof.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=364&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/96751/original/image-20150930-19561-1c6ztof.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=364&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/96751/original/image-20150930-19561-1c6ztof.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=364&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Laura Davis/@emojicomics.</span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Emoji stories rely on the <a href="http://time.com/2993508/emoji-rules-tweets/">grammar of emoji</a>, investigated by Tyler Schnoebelen. Some of the grammatical rules for emoji stories are represented in the stories shown above. </p>
<p>For example, emoji stories represent linear time and action - but also have spatial considerations based on the emoji themselves. The emoji of a gun has the barrel pointing to a the left, so the person being shot at must go to the left of the emoji. </p>
<p>Another example of the grammar of emoji include the observation that the <em>stance</em>, or the attitude that one has about something, comes first in an emoji sequence. In the bank robbing emoji story above, the most of the emotional faces are at the start of each sequence. </p>
<h2>A writing apocalypse?</h2>
<p>Does the emoji story spell the end for written narratives? Probably not.</p>
<p>Emoji represent another tool in our linguistic toolbox, and these creative artists and authors have used the tools available to make whimsical, clever narratives out of symbols.</p>
<p>Such efforts are now being recognized by outlets such as the National Young Writers’ Festival, even if they make some people:</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/96794/original/image-20150930-5819-y2kbeq.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/96794/original/image-20150930-5819-y2kbeq.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/96794/original/image-20150930-5819-y2kbeq.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=233&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/96794/original/image-20150930-5819-y2kbeq.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=233&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/96794/original/image-20150930-5819-y2kbeq.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=233&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/96794/original/image-20150930-5819-y2kbeq.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=292&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/96794/original/image-20150930-5819-y2kbeq.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=292&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/96794/original/image-20150930-5819-y2kbeq.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=292&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Cry and throw their phone into the toilet.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Lauren B. Collister</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p><em>The National Young Writers’ Festival opens today. Submit your emoji story <a href="http://www.youngwritersfestival.org/emoji-pocalypse/">here</a></em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/48308/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Lauren B. Collister does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Can emojis be used to tell stories, and if so what kinds of stories can we use them to tell? The National Young Writer’s Festival, which opens today, aims to find out.Lauren B. Collister, Electronics Publications Associate, University of PittsburghLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/306612014-08-27T20:53:08Z2014-08-27T20:53:08ZThe Boys Home: making art in a juvenile detention centre<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/57429/original/4v7knxj6-1409098303.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">In The Boys Home, artist Zanny Begg worked with boys in juvenile detention. This image is from a project titled Rooms. Photo documentation by Alex Wisser.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">The Boys Home</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>I entered the secretive world of a maximum-security prison for children in Sydney’s Western suburbs for four months earlier this year. My passport into this highly restrictive world was <a href="http://www.zannybegg.com/boyshome.htm">an artist residency</a> organised by Campbelltown Arts Centre. </p>
<p>Reiby Juvenile Detention Centre caters for kids between 10 and 18 years of age at high risk and on long-term sentences. After discussions with the education team at the centre I was allocated a group of about 20 14-year-old boys to work with, seven of whom chose to join the project. </p>
<p>Upon entering the jail, all identifying possessions, keys, wallets, phones, were locked away in a tiny locker at reception. Materials bought into the project were itemised and counted on the way in and out. These lists became a daily ritual – three pens, a pad of paper, a thumb-drive with images (thumb-drives are contraband in jail but an exception was made for me), a battery, a camera cord and so on … </p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/57431/original/vq7nsx4w-1409098464.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/57431/original/vq7nsx4w-1409098464.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/57431/original/vq7nsx4w-1409098464.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/57431/original/vq7nsx4w-1409098464.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/57431/original/vq7nsx4w-1409098464.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/57431/original/vq7nsx4w-1409098464.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/57431/original/vq7nsx4w-1409098464.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/57431/original/vq7nsx4w-1409098464.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Still from Doing Time.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">The Boys Home</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Attention to detail wavered but invariably the larger and more materials you needed to bring in, the closer the scrutiny. </p>
<p>Once inside I was usually given about an hour with the boys in a small classroom watched by several minders.</p>
<h2>Getting started</h2>
<p>Our first meetings were awkward. I had been briefed that these boys “loved art” but it quickly became apparent their experiences of art were relatively narrow and had focused on carefully defined tasks such as the decoration of images. My first attempts at an open drawing task ended in disaster with most boys calling for “time-out” and leaving the room. </p>
<p>After a few false starts we slowly began a dialogue.</p>
<p>Through the residency I hoped to challenge the institutional disempowerment these young men face. In our first project, Rooms, the boys “curated” their own living environment by producing oversize drawings to wallpaper the small beige and grey rooms they spent most of their time in. Completing this project was a long and complex process – the images had to pass several levels of bureaucracy (references to Tupac for instance were banned because they were seen to promote gangster culture) before we were eventually able to install them. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/57432/original/5359y587-1409098610.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/57432/original/5359y587-1409098610.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/57432/original/5359y587-1409098610.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/57432/original/5359y587-1409098610.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/57432/original/5359y587-1409098610.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/57432/original/5359y587-1409098610.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/57432/original/5359y587-1409098610.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/57432/original/5359y587-1409098610.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">An image from Rooms. Photo documentation by Alex Wisser.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">The Boys Home</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>These boys are not allowed on the internet – let alone the social media sites that predominate in teenage culture. Researching ideas was difficult. Strangely we met almost half way – the boys’ idea of youth culture was several years out of kilter and it caught my fading connection with the world of teens. The day of installation was a minor victory with the boys hanging out in each other’s rooms (a rare social experience) and working together to wallpaper images on each other’s walls.</p>
<p>Our next project was working on a collaborative video project <a href="http://www.zannybegg.com/doing%20time.htm">Doing Time</a>. The video was shot inside the courtyard of the detention centre and is an exploration of the experience of time through the eyes of four young people who have been prematurely forced to confront its gravity. </p>
<p>One of the challenges for this film was that we were not able to show the boys’ faces. A key part of the project, then, was developing costumes that shielded the boy’s identities at the same time as revealing things that were important to them. </p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/57433/original/hh8dj5f4-1409098706.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/57433/original/hh8dj5f4-1409098706.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/57433/original/hh8dj5f4-1409098706.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=160&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/57433/original/hh8dj5f4-1409098706.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=160&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/57433/original/hh8dj5f4-1409098706.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=160&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/57433/original/hh8dj5f4-1409098706.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=201&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/57433/original/hh8dj5f4-1409098706.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=201&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/57433/original/hh8dj5f4-1409098706.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=201&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Shields developed for the project.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">The Boys Home</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Through a series of drawing workshops we created logos for their jackets that incorporated things they felt could act as a “shield” for their identity, including the Aboriginal flag, logos for major fashion and sports labels, symbols of their cultural heritage and other personal colours and drawings.</p>
<p>The film shoots were again a minor victory. We were allowed a few hours where the boys could escape the daily routine by mucking around with bikes and scooters and hanging around the courtyard like a regular bunch of kids. </p>
<p>The film had its first screening inside the jail on July 22. The release of the film was a complex and difficult process – it only just made it through various levels of bureaucratic mediation to be screened to an external audience. The sticking point was the masks covering the boy’s faces which, though necessary to protect their identity, raised further concerns that they promoted gangster culture. </p>
<p>Doing Time was first exhibited publicly in August at <a href="http://www.campbelltown.nsw.gov.au/CurrentExhibition">The List</a>, an exhibition at Campbelltown Arts Centre curated by Megan Monte. The List is a multidisciplinary arts project involving twelve newly commissioned artworks that reveal the collaborative experiences shared between contemporary artists and young people in Campbelltown.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/57428/original/tqm5gn8b-1409098126.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/57428/original/tqm5gn8b-1409098126.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/57428/original/tqm5gn8b-1409098126.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/57428/original/tqm5gn8b-1409098126.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/57428/original/tqm5gn8b-1409098126.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/57428/original/tqm5gn8b-1409098126.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/57428/original/tqm5gn8b-1409098126.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/57428/original/tqm5gn8b-1409098126.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Still from Doing Time.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">The Boys Home</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Aboriginal kids inside</h2>
<p>Before entering the jail I knew that Aboriginal kids would be over represented in the young people I met inside. </p>
<p>According to the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare the national rate of Aboriginal juvenile incarceration is <a href="http://www.aihw.gov.au/access/201305/juvenile-detention.html">31 times</a> that of non-Indigenous young people. Indigenous young people aged 10–17 were up to six times as likely as non-Indigenous young people to be proceeded against by police and up to 11 times as likely to be proven guilty in the Children’s Court. </p>
<p>According to Padriac Gibson, Senior Researcher at the Jumbunna House of Learning UTS, <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/jun/12/stolen-generation-aboriginal-children">more Aboriginal children are being taken from their families</a> into institutional care today then during the era when the removal of Aboriginal children was official government policy (roughly 1906-1969). </p>
<p>It was devastating once inside the jail to hear the Assistant Principal explain that almost 100% of the kids inside were Indigenous. Except for a boy from the South Pacific Islands, all the kids I worked with were Aboriginal. </p>
<p>Before the process began I asked that I not be told what crime any of the boys had committed. I felt they had been judged enough and I didn’t want to add my voice to this. I do not intend to diminish the hurt that some people must be feeling because of these boys – I can only imagine they must have gotten up to something bad to end up in a maximum security prison when they were 14 years old. My time with these boys, however, convinced me a greater crime was being perpetrated by locking them up.</p>
<p>Most of the boys described jail as a stabilising factor in their lives, somewhere they actually got to go to school, be fed, have a place to sleep. </p>
<p>Yet all were emphatic that “you don’t want to be here”, it was a place of loneliness, isolation, crushing boredom and anxiety. As one boy explained “you always have to watch your back in here”.</p>
<p>The time I spent inside showed me that a generation of Indigenous young people are growing up in jail, without access to the outside world, their families and their freedom: I can only imagine the consequences of this will be as dire as those of the Stolen Generation. </p>
<p>In a few years these boys will leave jail as young men and I will understand if they are filled with rage for a system that stole their childhood.</p>
<p><br>
<em>Doing Time was created as part of a four-month residency at Reiby Juvenile Detention Centre and was exhibited as part of an installation <a href="http://www.zannybegg.com/boyshome.htm">The Boys Home</a>, with photo documentation of the residency, for the exhibition The List, Campbeltown Arts Centre. Details <a href="http://www.campbelltown.nsw.gov.au/CurrentExhibition">here</a>.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/30661/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Zanny Begg does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>I entered the secretive world of a maximum-security prison for children in Sydney’s Western suburbs for four months earlier this year. My passport into this highly restrictive world was an artist residency…Zanny Begg, Lecturer in Art and Design, UNSW SydneyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/224362014-01-25T23:18:31Z2014-01-25T23:18:31ZEye on the prize<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/39940/original/jqtytmfs-1390867529.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The Young Archie is a new category in the annual Archibald Prize. But should it be abandoned?</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">AAP Image/Paul Miller</span></span></figcaption></figure><figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/39940/original/jqtytmfs-1390867529.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/39940/original/jqtytmfs-1390867529.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/39940/original/jqtytmfs-1390867529.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/39940/original/jqtytmfs-1390867529.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/39940/original/jqtytmfs-1390867529.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/39940/original/jqtytmfs-1390867529.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/39940/original/jqtytmfs-1390867529.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/39940/original/jqtytmfs-1390867529.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">The Young Archie is a new category in the annual Archibald Prize. But should cultural prizes be abandoned?</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">AAP Image/Paul Miller</span></span>
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<p>Prizes are a common feature on the cultural economy landscape. In Australia there is the famous <a href="http://www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au/prizes/archibald/">Archibald Prize</a> for portraiture, there are numerous prizes for <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Australian_literary_awards#Poetry">literature and poetry</a>, the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Australian_Film_Institute_Awards">AFI Awards</a> in film and television, the <a href="http://www.walkleys.com/walkley-awards">Walkley Awards</a> for journalism, and so on.</p>
<p>Prizes can be entertaining spectacle; they can guide consumers to what is new and best; they make a fine vehicle for a generous benefactor; and they surely nudge cultural producers, whether they will admit it or not, closer to excellence. Yet a case can be made that, due to the interaction of three emergent effects, we’d actually be better off without them.</p>
<p>First, prizes function for consumers as what sociologists call “judgement devices”. An overarching feature of the cultural economy is the continuous production of novel products that are of uncertain quality: they are pure <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Experience_good">experience goods</a>. In most markets, such as for furnishings, shoes or cars, the price of a product is a reliable guide to quality. But an awful movie has much the same ticket price as something brilliant. A few years ago some colleagues and I looked at the role of the choices of other consumers as a judgement device in what we called <a href="http://www.paulormerod.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/social-network-markets.pdf">social network markets</a>. Prizes also fulfil this role, but through the mechanism of an expert panel rather than wisdom-of-crowd effects.</p>
<p>Second, prizes introduce a discontinuity between winners and other nominees (also-rans) that distorts perceptions of underlying differences in quality: consecrating a select few, and throwing the near winners back into the vast pools of mediocrity.</p>
<p>Third, because prizes are awarded by juries of experts – usually with different tastes and preferences than mass audiences (preferring stories about righteous courage in overcoming historical injustice, say, than street-racing robot fighting aliens) – prizes are costly to go after in terms of market risk. If you try and fail, you end up with not only no prize, but also with something without much market appeal.</p>
<p>When we think about the effect of prizes, we usually have in mind a single-valued reward structure – that is, simply rewarding excellence that has already happened. But as Gabriel Rossman and Oliver Schilke in a paper just published in the <a href="http://asr.sagepub.com/content/early/2013/12/30/0003122413516342.abstract">American Sociology Review</a> (an ungated version of the paper is available <a href="http://papers.ccpr.ucla.edu/papers/PWP-CCPR-2012-019/PWP-CCPR-2012-019.pdf">here</a>) explain the problem is that prizes are actually <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bimodal_distribution">bimodal</a> in their reward structure because of what economists (following the work of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gordon_Tullock">Gordon Tullock</a>) call an <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/All-pay_auction">all-pay auction</a>.</p>
<p>In an <a href="https://theconversation.com/youve-got-7-billion-so-how-will-you-fund-the-arts-18839">earlier piece</a> I was bullish on prizes, but the issue is complex. The thing about prizes is that we need to consider not only the benefits to those who win, but also the costs to the losers. Everyone pays to enter, in sacrificing market appeal, but only a few take the prize, and receive the consumer pay-off; for the rest, they’re now in a worse position than if they had never sought the prize.</p>
<p>Fittingly for this time of year Rossman and Schilke’s research focuses on Oscar nominated Hollywood films. Their method is to identify films that are seeking prizes by constructing and estimating an index they call “Oscar appeal” (which correlates well with actual Oscar nominations). They then study the correlation between that index and a film’s financial returns (box office revenues divided by production cost).</p>
<p>They find that Oscar appeal splits into two categories: those that do receive nominations (and that tend to make money) and those that don’t receive nominations (and that tend to lose money). But the interesting thing is that “taken together these two types of movies are no more or less profitable than movies with low Oscar appeal.” In econ-speak, this means that “the Oscars follow the structure of a Tullock lottery and seem to exhibit rent dissipation.”</p>
<p>Economists tend to be sceptical of the value of artificially created rents by government, such as exclusive licensing, or preferential purchasing provisions, because of rent-dissipation in all-pay bidding to obtain these benefits. But what is significant about this research is that it extends this <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rent-seeking">economic critique</a> to the domain of prizes, which are a prominent mechanism in the cultural economy (and also in the academic research economy: a research grant is also a prize!).</p>
<p>Should we abandon prizes? The counter-factual world without prizes would mean fewer prize worthy films, which means less breadth in the field, but this only occurs if prize-seeking is actually costly in terms of market risk. The take-away is simply that nothing is for free, including prizes; or more specifically at the industry level that prize seeking strategies do not produce above-market returns.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/22436/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
Prizes are a common feature on the cultural economy landscape. In Australia there is the famous Archibald Prize for portraiture, there are numerous prizes for literature and poetry, the AFI Awards in film…Jason Potts, Professor of Economics, RMIT UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/220032014-01-21T01:00:03Z2014-01-21T01:00:03ZShows for little people: why seeing live music early matters<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/39457/original/7hbvg7b6-1390257399.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Artists such as The Wiggles help kids learn how to listen to live music.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">AAP Image/Tracey Nearmy</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The mass media invented the teenager during the 1950s and 60s – and thus emerged a whole new audience for popular culture. What we’re seeing now is the recognition of children as an ever more important audience. Musicians and performers, including many <a href="http://www.sydneyfestival.org.au/2014/Family/">on the program</a> at the Sydney Festival, are tailoring their shows to meet the needs of their young fans.</p>
<p>Of course adolescence was nothing new back in the 1950s – but teenagers became an identifiable group who were targeted by people selling music, advertising and live performance in a way that they never had been during this time. </p>
<p>The follow-on effect has been quite remarkable, with 50s and 60s teenagers – AKA babyboomers – continuing their teenage patterns of music and media consumption. </p>
<p>As Andy Bennett and his colleagues have noted of the emerging era of <a href="http://www.bloomsbury.com/au/ageing-and-youth-cultures-9781847888358/">Aging and Popular Music Studies</a>, “in the early 21st century, the concept of ‘youth culture’ appears increasingly ambiguous and open to interpretation”. Audiences don’t grow out of mass media consumption, live music, and arts performance – rather, they take those habits with them as they grow up and on.</p>
<h2>Step aside, teens, the kids are in town</h2>
<p>If the teenager was invented in the 50s and 60s, the pre-teenager, the “tween” (in between child and teenager) and even the toddler, have been created by changes in the late 1990s and into the 2000s. </p>
<p>The rise of Australian children’s entertainers <a href="http://www.thewiggles.com/">The Wiggles</a> as all-round performers, composers, merchandisers and popular music innovators has proven that an audience once considered too young for “youth music” is, in fact, a group to be considered. </p>
<p>Not only have The Wiggles had <a href="http://www.brw.com.au/p/brw-lounge/the_biggest_earners_in_show_business_pL28d9FkZRUrlqqg0LoCmJ">the type of financial success</a> most musicians can only dream of, theirs is a unique position in terms of influencing the next generation of music makers. </p>
<p>This was demonstrated by <a href="https://shop.abc.net.au/products/rewiggled-a-tribute-to-the-wiggles">Re-Wiggled</a>, a covers album released for The Wiggles’ 20th anniversary, in which “grown-up” musicians gave the pre-school fodder serious treatment. Particularly impressive are offerings by bands with members in their twenties. Their first experiences of The Wiggles come full circle with the new recordings.</p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">Re-Wiggled: the Wiggles for the ages.</span></figcaption>
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<h2>Live music for young audiences</h2>
<p>Listening to recorded music at home with your family is such an important thing for kids, and it can unquestionably set off a lifelong love of music. But seeing music live with a group of strangers is something else again.</p>
<p>Live music remains an important part of a working musician’s life and a music fan’s experience, with a <a href="http://www.apra-amcos.com.au/news/allnews/LiveMusicfuelsAustralianeconomytothetuneof$12billion.aspx">2011 study</a> finding that live music in Australia is an industry worth over a billion dollars. Once that light has been fired up, it seems, it’s hard to extinguish. </p>
<p>It makes sense then that live music and performance generally for young audiences being increasingly incorporated into community festivals and live performance events. </p>
<p>Dedicated kids performances and experiences, such as Ali McGregor’s <a href="http://www.sydneyfestival.org.au/2014/Family/Jazzamatazz!/">Jazzamattazz! At The Spiegeltent</a> for the current Sydney Festival, a show she previously <a href="https://www.edfringe.com/whats-on/childrens-shows/ali-mcgregor-s-jazzamatazz">toured</a> at other large cultural events such as the Edinburgh Fringe. It’s not unlike other successful shows, such as Holly Throsby’s program, in previous years. </p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">Holly Throsby’s Fish and Mice, a song for kids.</span></figcaption>
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<p>These aim to acknowledge the special needs of young fans with early starting times and encouraged interaction. At these events kids learn how to be audiences in person rather than consumers at home. </p>
<p>We’re also seeing children’s events at key venues, such as the <a href="http://www.sydneyoperahouse.com/about/program_kids_at_the_house.aspx">Kids at the House</a> programs at the Sydney Opera House. It would be great to see more opportunities set regionally, and perhaps even staged for free or at discounted rates. </p>
<p>Tailoring live music to young audiences helps provide a more rounded musical experience generally, but can also build up lifelong music and arts-going habits. By tying these shows to a broader experience – of going to the annual festival, say, or to a particular venue – the hope is that audiences may continue to visit those places/ events in years to come.</p>
<h2>An intimate and a social experience</h2>
<p>In a recent book, <a href="http://au.wiley.com/WileyCDA/WileyTitle/productCd-1405192410.html">Why Music Matters</a>, music academic and fan David Hesmondhalgh tackles the puzzle of music’s appeal. </p>
<p>Exploring music across a range of different types of artistic expressions and audience experiences, he argues that “the fact that music matters so much to so many people may derive from two contrasting yet complementary dimensions of modern societies” – that is, “the intimate and the social, the private and the public”.</p>
<p>Similarly, the British <a href="http://livemusicexchange.org/">Live Music Exchange</a>, headed up by iconic industry and academic commentators Martin Cloonan and Simon Frith, also makes the case for the importance of both private and public music engagement. </p>
<p>Locally, initiatives such as <a href="http://slamrally.org/">Save Live Music Australia</a> actively put their weight behind the maintenance of a sustainable live music culture in Australia. The grassroots organisation is backed as much by those onstage and in the audience – a love for the live experience is something shared across the barriers as well as during all stages of life. </p>
<p>Being able to access mediated music whenever we want – either via broadcasting, digital delivery or personal recorded music collections – is something that many young listeners get attached to at a very young age. But experiencing music live, as often and as young as we can, provides something special again. </p>
<p>It gives a type of context for where sounds are coming from, and the first steps into learning how we socially experience something that matters so much to so many. </p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/22003/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Liz Giuffre does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The mass media invented the teenager during the 1950s and 60s – and thus emerged a whole new audience for popular culture. What we’re seeing now is the recognition of children as an ever more important…Liz Giuffre, Lecturer of Media, Music and Cultural Studies, Macquarie UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.