Trinity Arts Workshop Ceramics Workshops
Paul Behan | Societies Editor
So it began with a wander through the corridors of Goldsmith Hall and my awkwardly stumbling into a real life artist’s studio. I was somewhat nervous about taking the plunge into artistry since my previous forays into art have taught me that I’m a more capable at appreciating art than creating it. Luckily, I was warmly welcomed as I slid into the room with an air like the nervous fresher I’m not.
Patrick, our friendly guide for the evening, put us straight to work after a simple demonstration. We built up little by little. My little ambition was a ceramic sea-shell that I designed in my head as I went on. We were too fofmative to be put on the wheel but we got a chance to see some advanced sculptors doing their work. The room was beautifully decorated with the piecemeal work of the students going before us and it gives you a sense of what you might be able to make if you keep going back.
There was something wonderfully therapeutic of just working away, having a chill little chat with the other people and making something. The entire affair was remarkably chill and it seemed like no time at all had passed when it was over. Overall the event was really quite surprisingly wonderful. I didn’t expect it to be so accessible and actually being able to “do art” felt excellent (even if my art isn’t exactly excellent itself). I’m definitely going back to finish my seashell, pictures to follow, and I’ve been inspired to go to more TAW stuff. I didn’t realise the sheer wealth of classes they put on, including screen priniting and still life drawing. My only criticism is one of myself, in that I didn’t think to bring a camera to capture the pieces on display.
TAW offers an excellent facility to work at your own level and I couldn’t recommend it more.
Fashion Soc Swap Shop
Lorna Staines | Contributing Writer
Swap shop is the idea that a group of people meet up to swap unwanted clothes with friends in a fun, eco-friendly and importantly, cheap way of getting new clothes. It’s an idea that magazines have been cheering about for years but that realistically doesn’t work well in a small group of friends. Here is where Fashion Soc is perfect to step in and do swap shop right. On Monday and Tuesday of the week Fashion Soc collected unwanted clothes off people planning on going and on Wednesday everyone who gave clothes were given vouchers worth the value of the clothes they had handed in to spend on other items at the swap shop. If you were forgetful though (or just too fond of your whole wardrobe) you could also just buy the super cheap clothes.
The swap shop took place in the parlor of the JCR Café and for a bit of showmanship they let the excited group gather around waiting for the doors to be flung open at five. Inside the parlour, there were railings and pool tables covered in clothes, and a sort of polite bedlam ensued. All was calm at first but when people started to pick up clothes from the table, a policy of “grab any clothes you might possibly like and decide later” began. Thankfully half the room had been left bare for this exact idea and a fun game started of spying on other peoples hastily grabbed clothes to see which ones they were going to put back.
Because of the grabbing policy, shopping didn’t end after the first search either. Every time you returned, some new items had appeared and even those who did not arrive exactly on time found stuff they loved.
The one drawback of the event was no make-shift changing areas and a very large wall of glass looking straight out onto Pearse Street, making trying on clothes to see if they fit an awkward affair.
However people made do and many happy swappers left with black plastic sacks full of new clothes, while one luminous yellow dress was left on its own, hanging from a rack.
TES Talks with Mark Little
Ludivine Rebet | Contributing Writer
“Hi. My name is Stephen Flynn and I’m looking for a mentor. Can I buy you a pint?”
This is the question that won one self-assured student a free ticket to the WebSummit at last Monday’s TES Talk and Q&A with Mark Little.
Mark is one of Ireland’s leading journalists. He left his post in RTÉ in 2009 to found his own social media news startup, Storyful, which was set to become the premier news agency of the social media age.
“When I became a reporter, almost 20 years ago, my job was to dig up scarce, precious facts and deliver them to a passive audience. Today, scarcity has been replaced by an unimaginable surplus and that audience is actively building its own newsroom. That’s the insight that drove me to create Storyful, the first news agency for the social media age.”
The former Trinity student then became a self-made millionaire when he sold his start-up business for $25m (that’s €18m) to Rupert Murdoch and News Corp last year.
The talk was marked by a light-hearted atmosphere and humour, which juxtaposed interestingly with a striking honesty and openness on behalf of Mark when he shared his experiences, failures, successes and advice with us. He had a lot to teach about entrepreneurship. First of all, entrepreneurship is about more than business. He pointed to his involvement in societies and the students’ union when he was a Trinity student as his first, and most formative, work experience as an entrepreneur. Secondly, entrepreneurs aren’t “just lucky”. They don’t just stumble across amazing ideas and lay back, watching the millions roll in. Rather, they work extremely hard. He also tells us to “Forget about technology!”. According to Mark, “you need to know the human behaviour that drives the change”. He drew an analogy with the Heisenburg principle and argued that “it’s not about the object – it’s about the momentum of the object and where it’s going”. He doesn’t feel that the business opportunity that he identified was a technological one, but rather it spawned from cultural change.
The talk was laden with stories, life advice and refreshing honesty about the dark side of entrepreneurship. Little cautioned that with the highs come some extremely low lows. Furthermore, when asked about ethics in business, he had no qualms in saying that integrity sometimes needs to be compromised. He unashamedly stated that money was the end goal and that your principles don’t always come for free in the big bad business world. On a more positive note he discussed his excitement about Dublin as a vibrant and growing start-up capital. His take is that we have been freed by the Celtic Tiger and are now taking risks and thinking about failure in a much healthier way. Indeed, failure, in his eyes is the most important ingredient of entrepreneurship and we must be willing to embrace it. He gave more insights and advice on a broad range of topics, from journalism to tech, and human resource management to friendship.
I certainly got a lot more from this talk than I expected when told by my lecturer for an ‘innovation, entrepreneurship and new venture development’ module that we’d have a guest speaker in instead of our usual lecture. Incidentally, Mark Little’s own business mentor will be speaking to TES this Monday at 3pm in the Robert Emmet Theatre. If last week’s event was anything to go off of, I’d definitely recommend the next one.
Photo by Trinity Entrepreneurial Society (TES)
