Noelle Spillmann, Author at The Orbital

24Feb

By Noelle SpillmannNo Comments

Features

The Psychology of Sexual Assault

A year after the #MeToo movement the question, ‘Why do people sexually harass people?’ is still ever present and just as complex as when the stories first hit. The movement shed light on sexual harassment in Hollywood – a realm that was formerly perhaps less of a consideration when examining sexual harassment by virtue of being overshadowed by celebrity culture and the ‘open secret’ dimension - and thus provided insight into the abuse of positions of power to coerce sexual relations. As the movement demonstrated, the power dimension of sexual harassment is by no means as unidimensional as it may seem. The relationship between power and sexual harassment is multi-facetted: lack or absence of power can lead to individuals being sexually aggressive, as can being in a position of power or do...

Deepfakes

Deepfake is an image editing technique that uses artificial intelligence (specifically deep learning) to superimpose one (video) image onto another - akin to Photoshop for photos. What might sound boring in theory in practice has led to public outrage, debates about the nature of privacy, paranoia and some very funny compilations of Nicholas Cage starring in hollywood classics. Deepfake technology first garnered mainstream media attention in 2017 when a Reddit-User using the pseudonym ‘Deepfakes’ uploaded multiple adult videos featuring celebrities’ faces being superimposed upon adult-film actresses’ bodies (for example the adult actresses’ body with Gal Godot’s face and voice.) Despite having been created using a computer program, the results (so called deepfakes) looked surprisingly r...

Horses, Brains and Apples at Midnight

Having had mixed experiences with Midnight At The Boilerhouse in the past, I found myself feeling a cocktail of excitement and dread attending this term’s Student Workshop’s Original Theatre Night. Should you have never attended a MATB – as it is so lovingly called - it is in essence a night of original, student written theatre performed in the Boilerhouse theatre by students for students. Pieces range between five to ten minutes and cover a variety of genres - from conventional comedy to thought provoking physical theatre pieces. That being said, from my own experience there tends to be a slight focus on theatre of a certain nature every MATB. The last one I attended (which was not last term’s I must confess) heavily leaned towards physical theatre whilst this MATB seemed more inclined to...