Archive

OUSA Electoral System Referendum

Posted 1:47pm Sunday 22nd September 2013 by Staff Reporter

An upcoming OUSA referendum, tabled by our illustrious leader Francisco Hernandez, is seeking the change the voting system for OUSA’s future elections. The question is “Should the Otago University Students’ Association (OUSA) adopt a Single Transferable Voting (STV) system for its elections?” Read more...

Hungry For Change

Posted 2:39pm Sunday 15th September 2013 by Brittany Mann

In the wake of Live Below the Line (last seen taking over Facebook), Brittany Mann takes a look at the impact that Western aid is having on impoverished societies. Are campaigns like Live Below the Line helpful, or do they stand in the way of development? What Is LBL?Beginning in Australia in Read more...

Disumbrationism: A Beautifully Executed Hoax

Posted 2:39pm Sunday 15th September 2013 by Ines Shennan

What follows is a tale by someone who loves art galleries but has an elementary understanding of art. Someone who can say “I like that” but has no clue why. Ines Shennan unravels the disumbrationist movement, and is almost fooled by the beauty of banana skins and bears drooling rainbow saliva. Read more...

Contemporary New Zealand Artists to Know and Watch

Posted 2:39pm Sunday 15th September 2013 by Zane Pocock

As an art lover, it comes as a constant disappointment that the names of New Zealand’s greatest and, for those who follow the art scene, most renowned contemporary artists don’t even ring a bell in the minds of most people I talk to. To be fair, some older (i.e. not contemporary) examples, such as Read more...

The Emperor's New Art

Posted 2:39pm Sunday 15th September 2013 by Loulou Callister-Baker

“What does it mean?” is a common refrain when it comes to contemporary art, not to mention the classic “my kid could have drawn that.” Loulou Callister-Baker explores the modernist and postmodern turns in the art world, and debunks the idea that contemporary art is merely lazy and pretentious. Read more...

Profile: Sir Geoffrey Cox (1910-2008)

Posted 2:39pm Sunday 15th September 2013 by Thomas Raethel

When Geoffrey Cox first attended Otago University, foreign periodicals took over a month to reach New Zealand, travelling by sea through the Panama Canal. Amateur radio broadcasting had only existed for five years and was seldom heard by everyday New Zealanders, who still often referred to Great Read more...

The Mysterious World of Bronies

Posted 1:51pm Sunday 8th September 2013 by Thomas Raethel

In recent years, a bizarre new subculture has sprung up, based on fandom of the television series My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic. Its predominantly male, adult membership call themselves bronies. But what do we really know about this group? Thomas Raethel investigated the subculture, and found Read more...

Monopoly: The Poor Man's Arsenic

Posted 1:51pm Sunday 8th September 2013 by Tristan Keillor

Nerds like video games, everybody likes drinking games, and nobody likes board games. I wish that sentence had come naturally, but it’s taken a week of Facebook rejections, face-to-face rejections and people “losing their phone” to teach me that no matter how much beer is on offer, it’s not worth Read more...

When Duty Calls: A Noob's Journey

Posted 1:51pm Sunday 8th September 2013 by Josie Adams

Every epic journey has a beginning. Every great champion was once a noob. But how would Josie Adams, Critic’s resident gaming ignoramus, fare in Call of Duty’s brutal domain, let alone the cutthroat environs of World of Warcraft? With a knowledgeable guide by her side, Critic pitched Josie headfirst Read more...

The Great Debate: Do Video Games Make Us Violent?

Posted 1:51pm Sunday 8th September 2013 by Baz Macdonald

The latest instalment of the controversial video game series Grand Theft Auto is to be released on 17 September. Critic’s Gaming Editor Baz Macdonald tackled the question of whether GTA and other video games are making us violent. On 8 December 1980, a 22-year-old Texan man finally succumbed Read more...