Sejal Kapadia

I am The Culturist.

2011-08-23T13:39:00.004+01:00

In the midst of completing the mass of work that my final university year demanded (see below), my goal to create a culture blog was delayed. Nonetheless, here it finally is: covering arts, culture, entertainment and lifestyle stories and reviews.

http://the-culturist.tumblr.com/

Window Magazine

2011-08-08T08:54:00.002+01:00

View my most recent articles at www.windowmagazine.co.uk. A news feature magazine for driven young adults that I created as part of my final major project on my journalism degree.

Here is London College of Communication's coverage of this venture.

Oxjam fashion show and music night feature published in the Kilburn Times

2010-10-13T17:16:00.003+01:00

Click here to find out how an Oxfam charity night of music and fashion was the renaissance of an extraordinary overlooked art-deco theatre in Kilburn.

The JL effect - fully researched feature for a retail and fashion trade magazine by LCF students, June 2010

2010-09-21T12:28:00.004+01:00

They are one of Britain’s most haloed retailers. Their service credentials, compassionate campaigns, and business structure, of which even political councils are following suit, have made them untouchable. As a tough first half trading year draws to a close, Sejal Kapadia questions: Do we all need to be a bit more John Lewis?

Customer attention spans are prone to popping just like an economic bubble. Last week I browsed a number of stores. Some involved digging through leg length rails to find my size, making rounds in hope of finding an assistant to help, following the assistant to be told to wait where I was, getting a lack of response when a blouse was stained in fake tan. Within a second of posting a curious question on shopping experiences on the internet, floods of bad retail memoirs came rushing back.

One consumer wrote this: “After saving 3 months of salary for a pair of designer shoes, my imagined retail experience was dwarfed. The assistants were reluctant to get my size, had little knowledge of the stock and were generally snooty. This was years ago and I still remember the experience. I always wish I hadn't handed over my money.”

Customer service was once what crème brûlée is to a meal of burger and chips. It was the pinnacle of a good shopping experience. But after bargain stores and high street mass markets became the norm, this was slowly transformed to a fitting room service and refund policy. And now in the midst of surviving the recession, with merchandising planning and sophisticated forecasting solutions, old fashion customer relations have been minimized.

Mary Portas, in an article for the Telelgraph, wrote, “In retail in this country, the service is terrible, generally. I find myself thinking, “Please someone serve me!” The one place that is absolutely brilliant is John Lewis. I actually like the shopping experience there because, quite simply, they know their stuff.”

Their retail theory isn’t new – it initiated in the early 1900’s but there is a sudden surge of people queuing up to praise John Lewis.

Consumer expert, Phillip Graves explains, “People are conditioned to enjoy certain types of consumer activity and they will still seek out the emotional pleasure they derive from shopping. However, in order to off-set their anxiety about the future, customers are looking to be persuaded to make a purchase now. They need a reason why buying now is less of a risk than the potential loss in income that could lie ahead (or may have already occurred) as the result of pay freezes, pay drops, redundancy, negative equity or bad debts.”

Some retail giants will throw extravagant parties in the run up to their new store, such as the Louis Vuitton Maison opening, in hope that customers will want a piece of such decadence. Other high street stores will plaster their windows in red, in hope to reel in customers looking for bargains. But the John Lewis customer service mantra seems to be an avid lifeline in maintaining consistent sales.

Last year, John Lewis’s operating profit before property gains, was 22.2 per cent up on the previous year, with gross sales of over £7.4 billion. For a department store chain renowned for its household goods, fashion outperformed every other department last month, and the first week of this month alone, John Lewis Oxford street were 20 per cent up on their week targets, with almost 100 per cent increases in Sports, Furniture and Outdoor Living garden furniture.

They may not necessarily have the most eclectic, innovative or exciting products, but it is the service that gets customers to spend a fair share. The flagship Oxford Street store’s Womenswear manager, Angela Li said, “We always approach the customer and ask if they need help,” and such situations are used in the recruitment process to pick the most hospitable applicants.

“But we don’t just stop there. The sales assistants offer alternatives, advice, find sizes, and if we don’t stock it we source other stores in the partnership for stock. And if that fails, we can offer an online transaction, which they can collect at their local store or have delivered.”

John Lewis’s passion, commitment and loyalty, is what is winning the heart of consumers across Britain.

Their latest advertising campaign has been a greater catalyst to this feat. The 1 minute 30 second advert, branded as the first ‘TV moment’ in 2010 by the Telegraph’s media Assistant Editor Neil Midgley, may have cost over £6 million, but it’s the charming message and sentimental triggers that have heralded it a success. As Grave’s theories suggest - that targeting the customer’s subconscious is more affective than reading their conscious choices – the advert hits a common nerve, which is the changing and emotional realities of life.

Graves says, “People find themselves caught up in the ad, imagining themselves in the place of the characters on the screen and indulging the feelings being felt by those people. There is a theory of advertising that it is a form of projected learning: we acquire ‘knowledge’ by watching without actually having to experience an event firsthand.”

What’s more is that it is selling aspiration: the women’s quality clothing continually in a lavish red, her beautifully furnished home, her poise and grace, her family and life. Often adverts such as Marks and Spencer’s celebrity endorsed numbers, sell through desire driving tactics. But if you sell sentimentality and aspiration it is almost irresistible.

Their profit sharing business model has also played a key part in making them a humane and trusting company, something that has gained increased publicity this year with a three part BBC documentary featuring the Partnership, and with Press branding new council schemes where locals help run services, a ‘John Lewis Council’. A company made up of partners is culturally warming because the consumer knows the fairness, which will result from their chosen purchase.

“People need a stronger incentive to make a purchase post recession, because they are more inclined to defer it and see how things turn out. So retailers who devalue the customer experience may find it hard to improve margins when the economic outlook improves,” explains Graves.

The positive elements of consumerism are still in customers’ minds. People may be trading down, but they still want to feel the excitement, pleasure and thrill of buying and owning a product. This, however, no longer means just selling a product. We all need to start being a bit more ‘John Lewis’, because a customer needs to feel happy when they hand over their money. They even need to look back on that past experience, and want to come rushing back.

Features for Less Common More Sense (University of the Arts London student magazine and website)

Can Women Succeed in Fashion?

Click here to view article.

Upcoming event highlights for those in post fashion week blues.

Click here to view article.

Ballroom Dancing Feature published in the Kilburn Times

2010-04-27T12:10:00.001+01:00

Please click here to find out how I was convinced into a dynamic Bachata, in the unlikeliest of places.

(Click the link a few times if page fails to open)

An almost forgotten road trip is the locus of a new motoring book - published in the North West London Times series

2010-04-27T11:40:00.008+01:00

“IT WAS like driving from here to Edinburgh and half way back on a mountain road, in the Andes with an oxygen mask.”

This was forty years ago when one of the most ambitious motor rally races ever seen, set off from Wembley Stadium, to ride an incredible feat of 16,000 miles to Mexico City, in celebration of the FIFA World Cup in Mexico.

In the run up to its anniversary on April 19, Graham Robson, a travelling controller at the time, suddenly realised there was never going to be an event quite like The Daily Mirror World Cup Rally again. So he kicked back into gear, hunted down his old colleagues and compiled an archive of images, to publish ‘The "Daily Mirror" World Cup Rally 40: The World's Toughest Rally in Retrospect’.

The new book was launched at Dagenham Motors, Ealing Road in Wembley on April 20, and despite being tucked in the side of the giant motor house, the sheer presence of these original race participants amongst the 1970s winning car, was pretty glorious.

“No one had actually captured the magnificence until now. There’s not only the distance; the sheer speed and competition of it was so intense”, said Brian Culcheth who came second out of the 23 cars that reached the finishing line in a race that started with 96 cars.

Mr Culchetch lived on Turner Road, Queensbury at the time. “The reception was fantastic and I had a street party. At Wembley thousands of people came, we all had a little dance on Wembley turf, and we had footballers Bobby Moore and Geoff Hurst waving the cars off.”

Across six weeks they drove through 26 countries, first heading to Lisbon, then sailing to Rio, and finally propelling across South America to Mexico City.

“The most difficult section of the whole rally was from Santiago in Chile to Le Paz in Bolivia. I drove for 41 hours without rest, and by the end of it I was so exhausted the mechanics had to carry me out the car,” said Mr Culchetch.

“The Ford team was going like hell and the British Leyland team was going like hell. You weren’t driving to conserve the car we were just going to try and win. But unfortunately there was one man an hour in front of me.”

On the other side Mr Graham took 20 flights, to organise the controls and make sure the racers were fluent and on time. He originally started writing a book during the event, noting a chapter a week. When asked why he decided to write the book now, he said: “I’ve just brought back to life something that took over my life in 1970.”

To purchase the book call Veloce Publishing on 01305 260068 or visit http://www.veloce.co.uk.

Lourdes Film Review - published in the North West London Times series

2010-04-27T11:30:00.006+01:00

Something of a miracle

MIRACLES are things of ambivalent speculation and liturgical myths for a group of pilgrims in Lourdes, and as its wheelchair bound protagonist finds solace, you will be left both illuminated and lost, writes Sejal Kapadia.

When clusters of elderly, disabled and pious individuals slowly fill an empty dining room, there is nothing out of the ordinary. Daily, the group follows their tour guides on spiritual excursions and sacred activities in the infamous French village where Bernadette Soubirous is said to have seen visions of the Virgin Mary.

Central to the plot is Christine, a multiple sclerosis sufferer restricted solely to the movement of her head. Christine, played by highly acclaimed French actress Sylvie Testud, is unlike the rest and does not show much piety. She prefers the tour in Rome for its “culture”. But ultimately, like all the other visitors, she seeks a miracle from the holy water baths to cure her from her trapped and lonesome life.

Director Jessica Hausner skillfully plays out the verities of faith through immature youths, religion testers and the truly faithful. When the priest explains an importance of curing ones sole, everyone really just wants to witness physically healing - a real miracle. Thus it often moves from compassion to satire, and this is powerful.

There is very little dialogue, and its Christine’s telling smiles and watchful eye that keep you gripped to the subtle changes in the plot. When myths finally become reality, there is an unsettling and threatening air that keeps you hoping it all doesn’t crumble apart.

It has won various awards at film festivals in Venice, Vienna, Warsaw and London, and was beautifully fitting for an Easter screening at the Tricycle theatre, Kilburn High Road.

It isn’t obvious what you are meant to take away from Hausner’s story, and you will be a little bemused. But much like Christine’s transformation, your reaction will surely be deep and unfathomable.

Rhythm Of London - researched and written news feature for the North West London Times series

2010-04-27T11:05:00.001+01:00

NORTH West London got buzzing to the beat last week as the Rhythm of London festival enthused youngsters, children and even tiny tots, writes Sejal Kapadia.

It started on Saturday 17, where the Mayor of London's week long celebration, saw schools, organisations and institutions from Brent to Fulham revelling in musical workshops and activities.

The Institute of Contemporary Music Performance's (ICMP) top Bass tutor Dave Marks said: "Music is one of those things that bring people together, especially for young people who are going through something particularly hard. When you play, everything else disappears out of the picture. It can give young people a sense of worth and purpose."

He was half of the accomplished duo (with drum tutor Darren Ashford) to inspire and teach at ICMP's Bass and Drums masterclass on Dyne Road in Kilburn, on April 19. They experimented with different music time frames called bars from waltz percussions to the music of rock bands in the 1970s. Dave added: "Because we were dealing with time, anyone who played an instrument could join in. This aspect in music is universal."

Meanwhile, toddlers and babies at The Music House for Children's workshops showed you can never be too young to strike a chord.
Here mothers and children attended special London themed music and dance interaction workshops at Bush Hall on Uxbridge Road in Shepherd's Bush, St Stephen's Church on Westbourne Park Road in Notting Hill and St Anne & St Andrew's Church on Salisbury Road in Queens Park.

Kath Borer, Senior Manager at The Music House for Children said: "It gave attendants the opportunity to listen and sing to old fashion London themed songs that you donít tend to hear in recent times."

Pope John RC Primary school on Commonwealth Avenue in Shepherd's Bush, was one of the 50 schools to take part in the festival, with various singing classes for children in Reception to Year 6. Their 'School of Rock' band got kids amplifying the sounds of electric guitars and drums. Music teacher, Joca Dalledone explained that, "The more music the better. It can affect mathematical skills, creativity and self confidence, and so the younger they start the better."

Mr Marks decided his career after viewing a live performance for the first time at his school. He said: "If I hadn't experienced this, I don't know where I would be right now. That's why a festival like this is important, because it encourages these opportunities and gets people involved with music."

Trees and Tribes (Written for SCOPE magazine-an industry university project magazine for cosmetics giant Procter & Gamble)

2009-12-08T23:51:00.011Z

In the past 5 years technology and social networking sites have redefined the word ‘friend'. Social circles have transformed as people rekindled with old friends and met new ones, creating a mass of loose ties. But these next 5 years will see close relationships and family become the focus of communication technology.

Some things remain the same and that one thing is human nature. We need relationships.
Internet technology has been the base for many ‘loose’ friendships and wide social circles through social networking sites. But as communication technology develops, new kinds of relationships will emerge, which will be more significant and shape whom we are - relationships that surpass barriers of space and time.

Shel Israel, author of social media books ‘Naked Conversations’ and ‘Twitterville’, suggests, “The online tools we use today have allowed us to scale out conversations and eliminate many barriers such as geography, allowing us to build global neighborhoods whose members sometimes reside thousands of miles apart. The relevance of social media is that it allows us to interact in the world increasingly more like we behave in our own physical neighborhoods."

On the one hand this is the creation of online digital tribes. “The topic can be the devastation in Haiti or an interest in products from a tech company; perhaps the tribe is formed for a shared love of hummingbirds, or baseball or dating,” says Israel. “What's important is that there are other people who share your interests and you can find them online where you can share information and ideas”.

KPMG and marketing consultant The Digital Tribe have clocked onto this tribal culture as a new kind of audience to understand and target.

“But these spaces on the Internet where we meet others like ourselves are powerful. And people are connecting with each other in unprecedented ways,” says Israel.

Online charity YouthNet published a report which stated 38% of young people “have good friends online who they have never met in real life” and “treat them the same as offline friends”. Editor Hannah Joliffe says, “Technology enables people to meet, get support and advice that they might not get from their family and immediate friends.”

Israel has “often said that social media is the next best thing to a face-to-face meeting. When people who connect in social media, connect in real life, it is like meeting an old friend for the first time. They often hug. They often begin a conversation as if it were in the middle. They understand each other's values.”

Traditional family trees will almost become irrelevant, as an individual will find - in its widest possible sense - new ‘family’ like bonds. Thus an individual will not be constricted to isolated spheres of their homes, but will have a spectrum of close relationships beyond boundaries. “It is now possible, to see, know, share, care about and perhaps even love people we have not encountered in the tertiary world.”

Together Anywhere Together Anytime (TA2) is dedicated to forwarding such relationships. It is a 7^th Framework European research project, which believes a key function of the future networked home must be to facilitate connections between people.

“Social networking sites like the Facebook’s and Bebo’s are very successful and appealing,” says Doug Williams technical project manager for TA2, “but I do think there is a kind of missed opportunity around supporting the strong ties. It is these strong ties we - as a group of differently skilled people - have tried to focus on as a common goal.”

“We are trying to get the kind of systems which will enable more groups of people to get together and all share the same space.” Using the basis of video conferencing on televisions, they are exploring ways people can see, hear, and interact with each other through user-generated file sharing, game playing and other “natural” activities you would experience face-to-face.

The device will be built into high fidelity television systems, with low delays in image and audio to “get as close as possible to the feeling you get when you are in the same room together.” Real time videos will echo dynamic renderings of television and film videos to be more compelling. Multiple camera’s behind the television bevel will allow for multiple viewpoints of the room, and Data Analysis technology will recognise a particular face, force, voice and pattern, so that images on screen can tailor to the changes in conversation and movement.

“I don’t think I am trying to make people do something, that they weren’t doing anyway. A lot of our stories and the way we have envisioned all this is about building natural strong ties.”

Futurologist Ian Pearson agrees that, “video communication will be quite the norm and perfectly natural.” He says that with the development of 3-D technology a “person will be larger than life sitting right in front of you. That may be quite significant to young people but I think that very old people will also benefit from it. I think it is much more important for them because as a form of companionship, seeing a 15 inch screen on a mobile phone or computer allows them to have a cup of coffee with the little old lady who lives on the other side of town.”

“A lot of people who cannot get out, don’t have a lot of social contact and it gets very lonely. That kind of communication can be very valuable to them in maintaining close bonds.”

Israel believes “this phenomenon will stop being such a novelty and just start becoming part of the usual sphere of human interactivity.”

But on an anthropological level there are rituals like acknowledging people, shaking hands, and asking somebody if they are going for lunch, which help define regular relationships in day-to-day lives. William agrees that, “some things become meaningless if you’re a long way from somebody. But if you could have a ‘why don’t we play a game’ and those games became a frequent thing, it becomes a ritual which enables you to spend time with one another. The game is ultimately incidental. It’s about the eyeball contact and the chat; it’s just hearing each other laugh, and perhaps doing some catching up on what people have done. That is entirely plausible to me. There are also things you can’t replace, like a hug. You can’t really replace being in the same room either, but you can definitely go some place towards it.”

Generation 2010 - Investigative feature fully researched with primary interviews and sources.

2009-12-08T23:48:00.011Z

Generation 2010

They will grow up in an age of proliferating technology. Their means of communication will be expansive and concealed. They will become the most technological savvy generation yet. Sejal Kapadia investigates life for the next digital generation.

Technology has been growing like a massive snowball for the last decade, rolling over the earth’s surface and encompassing millions with it. Last month, a report on 16-24 year olds discovered that three-quarters of young people cannot live without the internet and almost half were happiest online. The distinction between online and offline worlds is dissolving and futurologist Ian Pearson says, “There will be a very big difference between the current generation and the one coming afterwards”. Their’s will be a world apart from ours.

This is predominantly due to the exponential rate at which technology is developing. Ray Hammond, Europe’s most experienced futurologist has written, “There will be more technological change in the next twenty-five years than occurred throughout the whole of the last century. And that was the century that produced aeroplanes, cars, plastics, nuclear power, television, the computer, the internet and mobile phones”. At today’s rate we will experience 20,000 years of progress in the next century, and this is why the next decade’s generation are going to grow up in different ways.

From the start, they will grow up learning to use the greatest technologies of the last decade. Hannah Joliffe, editorial manager for YouthNet – the online charity that produced the report on 16-24 year-olds – says, “My daughter is 18 months old and she works the TV, plays with a mobile phone, holds a mouse and knows what a computer is. She is really aware of these things already”. Research now shows that using technology from a young age can cause people to develop greater speeds of communication, which Anita Abrams, clinical and educational psychologist believes, “will reduce their tolerance span”.

Futurologist Dr James Bellini, who has presented for the BBC and Sky News, suggests that unlike “the first generation of digital natives, who were educated with books and other tools,” they will experience education through digital means, suggesting that even the classroom will be “eclipsed by digital possibilities” such as virtual classes, lectures, and absorbing information solely from the internet.

But a school experience is a dear one to lose. In Hammond’s book ‘Life in 2030’, he explains that dynamic relationships between pupils, peers and teachers is a “vital part to learning” where it “cannot be replaced wholly by virtual communications”.

Joliffe thinks, “There will a big change in literacy requirements. For my generation reading and writing literacy was completely expected. The current generation are expected to have both that and computer literacy whereas, I think the future generation will be expected to be very high in computer literacy”.

“One third of teenage girls have never written a letter, but then they have never needed to operate this way. They apply literacy and formality into email. It is about adapting times and not losing those important things.”

In twenty years however, when the Twenty Tens generation (or should it be called the Tennies?) enter their peak adolescent years of 16-24, technology is predicted to escalate to great heights.

The internet will have developed into a form now being referred to as ‘super-web’, which in comparison dwarfs and dates any wi-fi connection of today. An extra 2 million households gained internet access this year, according to the Office for National Stastistics, equaling 70% of households in the UK. But in twenty years time this will not be necessary. Super-web “will be available as freely, if not quite as cheaply as oxygen” writes Hammond, creating entirely new possibilities for technology.

Mobile phones and cameras will be miniaturized right down to the size of earrings. Hammond has written that they will be woven into clothes or worn as accessories to constantly record all of our surroundings. These images will be sent back to databases wirelessly via super-web to be stored. “We will only ever review this date-and-time-stamped imagery if there is an incident (and every potential criminal will know that every citizen is constantly capturing and transmitting events in their immediate surroundings).”

Bellini believes that these “nano-sized sensors” will eventually monitor health, activities and location. Every child will be given “devices with GPS navigation systems, mobile phones and video cameras,” devices that haven’t been given a name yet, but exist in some mobile phones, explains Hammond. They will track the individual’s whereabouts; something that he believes will “remove much anxiety from working parents’ lives”.

However Abrams explains, “Overprotective parents will have more methods to restrict their childrens' independence but will not necessarily use better discretion. Children will learn to avoid the technology, where possible, by switching it off, as with mobiles, at present. The more intrusive methods of technology may produce an outcry from society, if children's rights are abused”.

Some predictions of technologies are completely perplexing to life today, but will define the next generation, as mobile and internet technology has defined the first decade. By 2030, everything will be connected to everything else through the “super connected (virtual) world” - including the human body.

Using microphones and mini-projectors, individuals’ senses will connect to the super-web, giving rise to instant blogging or on demand interaction. It is also predicted that some daring individuals will have direct nerve connections between their brain and the “global brain” creating a convergence of man and machine.

Hammond told Sky News, “We are going to take technology into ourselves first. We’re already taking pacemakers or heart valves. This is just the beginning…in twenty years, the future of mobile phones is inside ourselves”.

Pearson’s understanding of this generation’s future is even more revolutionary. He believes people will be wearing visors enabling them to experience 3-D on the move. “So you can watch 3-D TV of course, but also have an augmented reality where you are walking around in a virtual world superimposed on the real world." By 2030 it will become a part of their lives as email and text messaging is today.

This will transform the way this generation interacts with each other. The creation of avatars, which are graphic representations of your chosen personality, will mean that, “If someone is looking at you through the video visor they don’t need to see you as you are, they can see your avatar. There might be a range of different avatars for different people, superimposed with the different interests and hobbies you have”.

Psychologist Dr Larry Rosen, author of upcoming book Rewired: Understanding the iGeneration and the Way they Learn, suggests that realistic avatars will encourage more signals and response, which is normally only highest through face to face communication. “(It) can only make communication more successful.”

In this light, the new generation will be living hybrid lives with alter egos. Author of YouthNet’s report and professor at Lancaster University, Michael Hulme argues, “It is really wrong to separate” digital and face-to-face communication; this generation should be considered with two joint worlds.

In other areas communication will become more complex with 3-D video communication and instant voice messaging regardless of where you are. Dr Bellini believes new generation communities will become “even more invisible than before” and “face-to-face will decline for a few years before being rediscovered”. People may never meet long-term friends and be far more influenced by individuals they have, in reality, never met.

“I think that we are learning a new definition of 'friend' which does and will continue to include virtual friends,” says Dr Rosen. “Heck, 'unfriend' is now a word in the Oxford English Dictionary referring to removing someone as a friend on a social network.”

“I think you can get all the support you need, all of the psychological growth that comes from friendship, etc. from a virtual friend. Face to face contact is one of the traditional ways of considering friendship but that is no longer valid with fragmented and mobile societies.”
Current online dating services are a good example of this. Hannah Joliffe met her partner through an online dating site and feels that though it is an extremely successful hope for the future it is still considered taboo. She says, “This will change a lot in the future and become just another method”.

The anonymous nature of internet interaction will also be a crucial part for the next generation, says Joliffe. “For people who are worried about coming out or who are depressed, they can talk to someone who they might not meet in their local community. So for the future it will help better relationships.”

Yet the fact that there is no control over internet interaction or the way it is being used, can suggest cynical impacts for the future. Pearson believes, “People will form a different kind of social structure, that will bypass all sorts of normal regulations”. His research shows that real world rules and regulations do not apply online, leaving the possibility for anybody to do anything. The “consequences of really natural ways of communicating is that people will reinvent various forms of tribalism” in the virtual world.

“It isn’t necessarily going to be based on wealth or religion or skin colour or anything like that. It doesn’t have to do with any kind of ideology at all or indifference,” but the significant thing is that it will be outside the control of regulators. Pearson theorises the potential for secret societies, like the freemasons, and virtual terrorism.

There is also the potential of software personalities to evolve and influence this generation, which Hammond believes will become our “personal assistants, our companions and our intimates”.

“I am not so sure that these virtual assistants will be companions in the true sense of a human companion,” says Dr Rosen. “I just don’t see that fulfilling human needs. If someone does have a virtual assistant become a confidant that is something akin to writing in a diary where the diary writes back. It just doesn’t seem psychologically possible or healthy.”

And health is a crucial question. “There is research that indicates that the sub-20’s have experienced changes to their neural pathways because it adapts to stimulus and environment,” explains Hulme. People now have the ability to absorb rapid information from many data sources, as opposed to more linear forms of learning, indicating a change in thinking patterns.

“Personally, the downside of increasing technology is the dangers of them always being ‘on’”, says Joliffe. "With applications on your mobile it is easier and easier to be contactable. The rush of always checking it, could lead to people having fragmented attention spans. Young people need to switch off and cut back from now.”

However, the real threat to health is still indistinguishable. Hulme says, “The changes this group will experience are so profound it is difficult to comment. For sure older commentators will find it difficult not to see many of the developments as ‘dangerous’ precisely because they are different”.

The virtual epidemic will inevitably shift society and the ways we live. The next generation of digital natives will live a world much different from today. Futurologists believe they cannot see past 2040 because the world will be so drastically changed. Which is why life for the next generation will be the most revolutionary yet.

Film at large -feature written and researched. Intended for timesonline.co.uk

2009-12-08T23:43:00.003Z

November 20, 2009

Film at large

As Avatar kicks off a line-up of 3-D film releases next year, filmgoers are tipping it as the next stage after sound and colour.

Avatar. Alice in Wonderland. Toy Story 1,2 and 3. These are some of the biggest upcoming film releases, and they are all on a long list of films being produced in 3-D.

“3-D images present a heightened realism – a visual allure so powerful that they can easily overwhelm the story and subvert the narrative,” says Ray Zone in his book Stereoscopic cinema and the origins of 3-D film.

3-D films have been developing for over a century. As early as 1836, scientist Charles Wheatstone invented stereoscopic imaging, however up until the 1950s it was still considered a novelty. IMAX film technology developed in the 1970s, which predominates in recent years due to a growth in digital 3-D cinema screens.

Avatar however is a breakthrough in film technology using a lightweight digital 3-D camera system. James Cameron wrote about his vision in 1995, and since worked to build the tools he needed for this mega film.

The effect? A realistic vision of the Pandora world, which will enthrall towards more realistic viewing than ever before.

Cameron has vouched that every film he plans to make will be in 3-D, and a lot of film producers are following cue, making the medium the next stage in film evolution.

Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland will be one of the first non-animated films to release in full digital 3-D. Steven Spielberg is producing the new Adventures of Tintin entirely in 3-D, and Disney are hoping to remake classics like Beauty and the Beast in the same form.

Whilst viewing is limited to digital 3-D screens, this is fast becoming a small problem. 3-D television is already going mainstream with Channel 4’s 3-D week programming and news of 3-D technology for mobile phones, shows the stereoscopic medium of film has an even larger future.

Futurologist Ian Pearson believes that “ In the next few years we are going to be moving more towards visa’s being worn by people. With a different display for each eye you could do 3-D on the move, so you can watch TV of course but also augmented reality where you are walking around in a virtual world superimposed on the real world.”

Augmented experiences is what 3-D is all about, and as 2010 becomes the year for 3-D, filmgoers can look to a film future much larger than life.

Avatar releases on December 18^th Worldwide.

Bitter tweet power - feature intended for guardian.co.uk

2009-12-08T23:39:00.000Z

Bitter tweet power

Why social networking sites are here to stay, and becoming profounder by the day.

Wednesday 18 November 2009 12.29 GMT

There is a lot happening with social networking sites, but not to do with the plethora of daily habits and statuses posted on them. Last month Facebook announced goals to achieve world peace through inter-boundary relationships. This week a victim of anti-social behaviour was announced to have tracked down her attacker via Facebook. This is the new power of social networking sites.

After a 22-year-old was left with an inch long scar from being stabbed with a pint glass in her face, she spent two days searching for the assailant on Facebook before informing police, who then used the site to find our where she worked.

“Social Networking sites are becoming incredibly powerful,” says Hannah Joliffe an editorial manager for online charity Youthnet. “They don’t seem to be just about meeting friends and posting comments. They are having a greater influence on society.”

This was apparent last month when events involving Stephen Fry, Jan Moir, AA Gill and a baboon caused an outbreak on twitter. Just as people were abandoning the leading site, a mass rebuke on twitter publicised Moir’s prejudices and AA Gill’s hunting hunger resulting in full media coverage. It seems voracious followers are using the site as a tool to show opinion more than their daily habits.

Recent tweets include: “hoping that Forces families will leave Downing Street with morale boosted” by Sarah Brown and “So far has managed unlikely feat of making me feel v sorry for Katie Price” by India Knight. Even opinion posts on tween vampire film New Moon was up within an hour of its first showing.

In an interview for school library journal, Harvard professor John Palfrey said, “Online grown-ups in particular seem to be taking to Twitter very quickly. It’s taken on an important cultural place.”

This power goes back to last year when Barack Obama’s presidential campaign took enterprise in social networking sites. They developed a huge online presence and raised youth credentials with it. It proved that these sites have a wide spread appeal and further depth than original purposes outlined.

“We have certainly seen…a real enthusiasm for this idea that young people will get more involved in politics because of technology” says Palfrey.

When Fry threatened his “retirement” from Twitter, the most viewed articles on guardian.co.uk were in context to this, showing just how prevalent the site has become in the eye of the general public.

“Twitter is becoming more popular among internet users of all ages,” wrote Mercedes Bunz for the Guardian blog. “19% of internet users now say they use Twitter or another service to share updates about themselves or see updates about others.”

The Facebook goal to “play a part in promoting peace” has already had positive affects as graphs on the website show. In the past 24 hours there is a 4,775 increase in Israel - Palestine connections, 57,937 increase in Muslim-Christian connections and 20,808 increase in US Conservative and Liberal connections.

There is an obvious expansive nature to social networking sites, yet the influence it takes on society is changing rapidly.

The Great Escape - feature written and photography and layout produced for a luxury based webzine

2009-12-08T23:18:00.003Z

Please click on each image to enlarge and read text.

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Apologies for the green tinted images. I seem to be experiencing a technical glitch, but hopefully will solve it soon.

Trend feature aimed at young mothers in Fulham for Pumpkin Magazine (Coming soon). I have written, researched and produced the images.

2009-10-07T18:22:00.004+01:00

Where’er you walk

Walking is becoming increasingly popular in Fulham. Sejal Kapadia discovers three ways you and your child can enjoy the trend.

1) Walking is seemingly an automatic and simple thing, almost like chewing or breathing. But all mothers look forward to the milestone day when their child takes its first steps. Babies will move and meander with eagerness for it is that time of discovering things they never had access to before. In adult life we forget this elation, but some places can only be appreciated on foot – and Fulham is one of them.

Home to a palace, a river shaped like a moat, and with parks bursting in every mile, Fulham is a kind of wonderland, and can be a treasure trove for mothers just as much as it is for children. Walking can be about discovering and embracing surroundings that you miss out on, on mobile forms of transport. Take the latest Google maps update, ‘Street View’. The feature may give sight to your house, but many routes and pathways in Fulham are left unexposed, because they are only accessible by foot.

Starting at the Putney Bridge Approach, on entering Bishop’s park there are benches amidst a large rose garden, which is regularly kept and admired. Further in, the River embankment path looks onto the Putney Skyline, with boats to view by day and lights by night; and when the sun is high, you may catch a fresh sea like breeze. Deeper into the park however there is a change of scene. Just beyond Fulham Palace, in a small hideaway stands a wooden stature looking down on three thrones carved into a large tree. Adjacent to this lies a sleeping figure carved into a log. The area gives the feel of a child’s secret garden, completed with a Hansel and Gretel style cottage, where your child can play and excite their imaginations. And if you are still keen to explore, walk further eastwards to a riverside beach, where you can get close to the water, a rarity for city escapes.

2) When toddlers get used to walking, they will run, and that is how they gather their active spirits and strong bones. Yet this slows down and we reach a point of lacking exercise. With this common thought, walking is increasingly becoming a fitness activity.

For several years the Hammersmith & Fulham council has been encouraging walking schemes and routes to correlate with city plans. The ‘Walking the way to Health’ initiative looks to hearten people’s perception of walking and a group walk takes place every Monday from Bryony Road. ‘Walk Well’ which is a local programme for health exercise, has designed a number of local routes to encourage healthier living in an easy way. With this and significant improvements to pedestrian environments, walking is an ever-growing hobby in the borough, especially because it is the easiest and cheapest way to exercise. It can keep your heart strong, reduce blood pressure and help manage your weight. A brief 10 minute walk from Fulham Broadway to New King’s Road via Waltham Green park can burn more than 60 calories, whilst a 1 mile round walk from Putney Bridge through Bishops Park can burn up to 150 calories in 20 minutes. More instantly the burst of fresh air and outdoor interaction can make you feel good, just as a child does running in an open field.

3) They say children’s instincts are always best; so when they came back from school with green knees, who knew that they were right? If you are not green yet, walking is the perfect opportunity to become environmentally friendly.

Last month, the New York Times published an article about small Italian town Lecco. Almost 450 students walked along 17 bus route trails to reach their destination of 10 elementary schools. Parents and teachers in fluorescent jackets acted as lighthouse guide points for the sea of pupils who joyfully participated in the concept to tackle increasing greenhouse gas emissions. The article stated 18 percent of car trips by urban residents in Britain were school runs, and so a walk to school with your child could go a long way. The walk from Putney Bridge to Fulham Broadway Station would in theory release almost half a kilogram of carbon dioxide if you travelled by car. If this were multiplied by number of short journeys and cars driving that distance in a month, it would prove a considerable amount. There is something in every step you take.

Trend Feature - February 2009 researched, written and created on InDesign, intended for the Guardian Weekend magazine

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(Click to read article. Continues below)

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Interview feature - 10/11/2008

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Remember Remember the 11^th November

Tomorrow, a two minutes silence will take place in respect for those who fought for Britain in the war. Poppy flowers flourish on coats year after year, yet today there are few survivors of both the First and Second World War. Ninety-three year old Milly Jones tells Sejal Kapadia her story.

After politely ringing the doorbell twice, small concentrated footsteps sounded, before she pulled open the door. “I did hear you. I was just down in the garden”, she says with a surprisingly gleaming smile. Amelia Jones lives by herself in her suburban home. Her husband has passed away and she lost her only son to suicide. With her age and tragic circumstances, I imagined meeting a reserved fragile woman, but Milly- as she likes to be called- is strong and youthful.

“Well I was a baby when the first war began. All I remember is this man came and sat on the fence at the end of the path, and he gave me a biscuit. He was my father, and I was seeing him for the first time.” Amelia Jones grew up in the Norfolk countryside and moved to London in her early twenties, to search for better work and a new exciting life away from her provincial background. She was living in Brent when World War II was declared.

“We didn’t know whether it was going to happen or not. But this particular Sunday morning I was in the bath, and heard the siren. We knew we were going to war. So I went up to Winchester (Avenue) to find my man and got married. We wanted to get married before the war”. It is a clichéd story, but this was how it was for thousands of woman. “My Mother In-law, Father In-law and I went to Waterloo station to say goodbye to him. I felt terrible. It was really dreadful. Girls today would be screaming (if it were them)”. She did not see her husband until five years later.

“He went to Italy, Egypt. All around those countries, but not on the German side.” I tried to get an account of what her husband experienced whilst he was at war but she said, “He never talked about it. I don’t think many men did, and I didn’t want to ask him. It’s something they would rather forget I guess”.

I think Milly felt the same. In response to the bomb that hit her local area, she said “I just lost a few windows and the glass cut my wardrobe down”. She briefly remembered the severe fires by the Docklands in 1940, which were caused by mass bombings. “You could see the fire from here. The sky was lit up”. Her face then tenses. “I’ll have to think about this now”, but her memory is vague.

She remembers a lot about the work. Roles switched during this period as “the women did men’s work”. Milly took up a role in the local factory. “We had to make shelter signs and red lights for the roads, cut glass, drill and weld.”

“The streets couldn’t have any lights, which made it like hell in the fog. Everyone had to have black curtains behind their normal ones for the blackouts, and we had to take turns to do the fire watching. You know, make sure nobody had their lights on. It almost felt like I was back in the country. Us townies became so used to having the light.”

“The hours were long, and we only had Christmas day off”. It was a time for sacrifices. “They took all our railings, gates, aluminium pots and pans, because we (England) were getting very low on material”. From this moment, I got a sense of the pride this woman felt for her country. I imagined the idea of giving away my hard earned possessions and my stomach did a somersault. However, people wanted to help in any way they could and Milly is in no way resentful.

“There was a great comrade spirit here during the war. Yes there was hardship and the ration, but everyone was here to help you. This is what I liked about it. Ask anyone who is old.”

If you are not wearing your poppy, run out and get one before Remembrance Day on Tuesday. Consider the heroes, those who lost their lives and the generation that endured those hardships with smiles, for we could not keep up with this Jones, even if we tried.