Sophie Dimitrijevic

https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2021/09/twenty-years-gone-911-bobby-mcilvaine/619490/

This article won the Pulitzer Prize in 2022, an award that is considered as ‘the highest national honour in print journalism’. It was nominated for the Feature Writing awards, and it is no surprise to see why. Successful feature articles go beyond just the facts available to us and include a story-telling narrative that takes an in-depth look into the subject/ article. Senior manages to capture the story of one of the thousands of lives lost in the 9/11 terrorist attack, Bobby Mcilvaine, 20 years after the tragedy by including personal accounts of his life from the people who knew and loved him best. She also tells the stories of how they’ve moved forward since the day, and what has become of their lives since, with an investigative style at the end as we find out about his last moments. The article is accessible to audio listeners too, allowing readers to listen to an hour’s reading of the article if desired. The beginning of the article delves into a parents’ harrowing account of grief, sharing details of what personable memorabilia was left behind, such as his diaries, which is the item that links us to the rest of the story told in the article. Facts and opinions are present, with facts about the 9/11 attack alongside Senior’s own account of Mcilvaine from when she knew him. The topic she wrote about coincides with the 20th anniversary of the attack, showing relevance to the time of the publication. Pictures are also included in the article, ranging from pictures of Bob, and a picture of his wallet last found on the day of his death. The article ends with a final message confirming the way we are constantly reinventing stories of the dead, and how we try to make sense of their loss through the final fragments left behind them; leaving the readers with a sense of conclusion to Bobby’s story as told through his closest friends and family.

An investigation is underway after a plane crash landed today in the Thames after a suspected drone collision left one person in hospital.

U.S. Airways Flight US132 was en route from London City Airport to Amsterdam Schiphol when it experienced unexpected engine failure and lost radar contact at 2:31pm, leading the pilot to land in the river. Flight US132 had to land almost immediately after takeoff, and emergency river services were quick to respond to the scene. Passengers were left to shelter on the plane wing whilst waiting for rescue services to arrive.

Units from both Kent and Essex were sent to the incident, including the Thames River Police and the Royal National Lifeboat Institution from both Southend and Gravesend. 

The aircraft landed approximately 100 meters offshore at the Purfleet RSPB Reserve, a local nature reserve, before life rafts arrived to assist those stranded. Almost an hour after the crash, the first passengers and crew were towed ashore before health checks were carried out by Essex ambulance crews. Local Purfleet Heritage and Military Centre offered passengers aid by providing food and drinks as well as phones to contact loved ones and relatives. 

All 42 passengers and 6 crew members were accounted for, with one passenger taken to Queen’s Hospital, Romford with a suspected heart attack. Arrangements have now since been made to get passengers home or back to London City Airport for onward journey.

Passenger Nadine Johnson found light in the situation, quoting “Did not expect to spend my birthday standing on the wing of a plane in the middle of the Thames. The pilot is a total legend for getting us down in one piece.”

Initial reports suspected engine failure to be the fault of bird strikes, but examination of the engines has led to the discovery of drone debris. An investigation is now being carried out by the Air Accident Investigation Branch to recover the aircraft to find out more about the cause of the accident.

Inspired by the audio video synthesisers designed in the 70s, Damien Looney tells us his journey of creating artwork through sound frequencies and old TV screens.

Damien Looney has nothing to say. These are the words listed under his About Me page on his arts design site https://www.ruttetra.com, yet it was anything but.  Next to a trio of vintage TVs located under the main student stairs in London College of Communication is where you’ll find him – with screens of abstract colours and gentle hums of sound waves leading you to his artwork. His works imitates the Rutt/Etra video synthesiser created by Steve Rutt and Bill Etra in the early 70s, and follows a delicate process that started off as a year of experimentation before being turned into ‘a body of work now firmly rooted in video art and abstract imagery’.

The Rutt Etra Video Synthesizer was ‘an attempt to begin manipulating video in the same manner as sound was being manipulated in the 1970s’, and was one of the most influential works that changed our relationship to graphic video art. It follows mathematical practices and equations, and one of its most well-known factors was the Z displacement and ‘the change of the depth of an image based on its luminance’. 

“I could never sit down and do maths equations or complicated formulas, so with this I was working with very basic information and allowing myself to take it bit by bit”.

Every movement on the television screen is triggered by a sound, formatting extravagant patterns imitating a Matrix-like visionaire that you could easily get lost in. Famous artists who Loomey shares with inspired his work are among Ben Laposky, Bridget Riley and Norman McLaren, with the likes of Laposky and McLaren inspiring a generation of graphic designers and art theories, and being ‘pioneers of generative art’.

“It came from a lot of the audio video synthesisers that were designed in the 60s and 70s. They would be things that were designed to just manipulate imagery in real time, designing kind of like what would become things on television, like television graphics inspired in the 80s and 90s. It’s animated in real time, and animated via audio.” 

Looney works full-time as a technician at South Bank University, but was offered a once in a lifetime opportunity to study an MA photojournalism course at UAL fully funded by his profession and is showcasing his work at the annual showcase. “I went way off and did something completely different to what most people are showing today. People have done prints and interactive work but mine is just strictly video.” 

When asked about how he wanted people to perceive his work, he shared how he wanted people to look at it and create their own ideas on it. “I don’t go to galleries. I don’t do any reading. You just have to be superficial – there’s literally nothing behind it. It was experimentation with the process.”

To get a better sense of what Rutt Etra video edits look like, you can generate your own images and creations at https://airtightinteractive.com/demos/js/ruttetra/, so you can experience the manipulation of images and physics in the power of your own hands.

The British Fashion Council announces its annual scholarship fund to future 2023 BA and MA students, with previous recipients including Pablo Carzana, Matty Bovan and Patrick McDowell.

The British Fashion Council foundation announced the recipients of their new BA and MA Scholarship schemes. The scholarships were assessed on the applicants talent and financial need, and aim to ‘support the future growth and success of the British Fashion Industry’, and have been awarding students with these opportunities since 1998.

Applications opened this Summer, and this year’s selection introduced nine new MA students and fourteen new BA students who originally had an offer from or were currently studying an MA or BA at a BFC Colleges Council member college. Grantees came from fashion universities across the country, including Central Saint Martins, Manchester Fashion Institute, University of Westminster and the Royal College of Art, amongst many more.

Luxury brands like Chanel and Dior helped fund MA scholarships that included covering the costs of tuition fees, course costs and living costs at one of the BFC member colleges.

The shortlisted applications were judged by a panel of prestigious figures in fashion, including fashion and accessories editor for British Vogue Edward Crutchley, designer Grace Wales Bonner, fashion features editor of AnOther Alexander Fury and artist Yinka IIlori.

“All the candidates that came before the judging panel were compelling, intensely thoughtful with brilliant research and a thorough embrace of community, sustainability, social concern woven into collections of mind-altering newness,” says panelist Amanda Harlech.

For the 2022/2023 round, the BFC foundation made almost a quarter of a million pounds available to the thirty-one scholars, with panelist Yinka Illori praising the programme for allowing “young talents to access creative education.”

The BA scholarships have been awarded to Luke Hemingway, Manon Wilson, Roy Carmona, Sabreen Hassan, Alexander Dulic Mezak, Ayham Musleh, Alba Mas, Arielle Uno-Ekwang, Demetris Hadjimichail, Ilona Mandyradzhy, Malika Augustus, Serena Addington and TJ Finley, alongside the four current BA scholars Alonso Gaytan, Anne Heffren, James Rowland and Jeongmin Ji. 

I’m Sophie Dimitrijevic – current first year BA student studying journalism. This blog and portfolio will contain the start of my future career as a writer, something that I’ve been passionate about for as long as I could remember. I’ve had dreams of becoming a fashion journalist since I (beware: cliché ahead) fatefully watched The Devil Wear Prada and 13 going on 30, and have fond memories of collecting Vogue in hopes of one day working for them or companies alike.

Recently, I had one of the first opportunities to work my first big(ish) role within the industry with the Big Issue, and since completing my 6 month internship, I feel as if this role and opportunity made me become more open to political and lifestyle journalism, as I’ve seen and interacted first hand with news stories that made me feel ways that fashion journalism may not have been able to.

So, to simply speak, I’m now open to all aspects and subgroups of journalism, and am trying not to limit myself in one writing bracket and style. Laid forth in this blog I hope to tackle exactly this, and show my variety as a writer as I take my first step into the world that is writing.