An introduction

I’ll introduce myself. I’m James, I am currently in my third year studying (and thoroughly enjoying) a masters in Physics at the University of Southampton and I am one of three new writers for the Life at Southampton blog, taking over the reins from the wonderful Flo, Joanne and Rohit.

‘Who am I?’ It seems like such a simple question, yet it’s surprisingly hard to answer. After all, it’s not that often that you have to divulge such a large amount of information about yourself in one sitting. However, as a blogger, it is a necessary thing to do.

I guess that’s the first part of who I am; a writer. I have always enjoyed writing creatively, yet up until recently I have never been able to really find an outlet that worked for me. However, around Easter last year, I decided to follow the growing trend of starting my own blog. The only question was, what should I write about?

I turned to what I loved the most for subject matter: music. Music is more than a love, more than a passion; it’s an obsession.

It began as a child, listening to my Dad playing Queen songs and asking to have my own copies. He copied the CDs onto cassettes (remember those?) for me to listen to and I would sing along, thinking I, one day, could become the new Freddie Mercury.

Although my singing career never took off (some would say thank goodness!), I did pick up the guitar ten years ago and have kept going ever since. Through this time I took part in a few jams and gigs, taking up the bass and the odd pattering of drums along the way, but it wasn’t until this summer that I joined a band with fellow University of Southampton students.

That is one thing Southampton is great for – immersing yourself in music. Whether it’s joining the music societies such as RockSoc (which I am a member of), performing and jamming in a session by LiveSoc, or going out to one of the many, many music venues in the city to see an array of acts from local hopefuls to your favourite band, there is a whole culture of music and entertainment to enjoy.

Australian metal band Circles playing at their intimate album launch gig at Southampton’s Avondale House in October 2013

Not content with just satisfying my creative side, I also try to squeeze as many hours of sport and exercise into my life as I can. This is one aspect of my life that university has completely changed. Since arriving as a fresher in late September 2011, I have tried dodgeball, taken up the mysterious sport of tchoukball, played badminton recreationally and also competitively for the Physics society, joined the handball team and managed to find time to swim nearly every week.

Nothing can quite prepare you for the number of societies at the university before you arrive, with the sports clubs only being a small handful of the full variety. I am heavily involved with one of the more bizarre and unique societies: Southampton’s very own Fancy Dress Soc. I am on the committee as the group’s treasurer and one of the original twenty-five members which were needed for the university to affiliate us as an official society last year.

Fancy Dress Society’s first ever social

The society’s premise is simple: to host the best fancy dress themed socials. The image above is from our first ever social with the theme of dress being someone, or something, with a name that begins with the same letter as your own name starts with (I went as The Joker). The night spawned some great and imaginative costumes, including an iPhone (which had shed all its apps by the end of the night), Gandalf and Jake the Dog.

Regardless of who you ask, I’m sure everyone will agree that the key to getting the most out of your university life is to keep yourself busy; take up a new sport, pop along to a talk by a guest speaker and go along to a social or two. Whilst I certainly haven’t touched upon everything I do and love, I hope I have given you a glimpse of what to expect from my posts in the future (lots of fancy dress for sure!) and how I live my life at Southampton.

James

And so it begins…

Hello everyone! My name is Tayler and I’m in my fourth and final year as a Modern History and Politics undergraduate here at Southampton. I’m one of the three new writers on the Life at Southampton blog, and I’m extremely excited to be taking over the mantle from Florence, Jo and Rohit. Here’s hoping I can live up to their high standards!

When I first came to university, I expected to be here for three years, live with the people I met in first year, and maybe take up a new sport. In actual fact, it didn’t happen that way at all. I’ve stayed an extra year, visited and lived in seven different countries, learnt a new language, lived with different people every year and got involved in three different societies. I’m commuting from home this year too – I live in Bournemouth, which is around a 40 minute drive away – which has added a whole new dimension. While my university experience hasn’t exactly been conventional, I wouldn’t change any of it for the world.

During my trip to Indonesia in Second Year

I spent the last year studying abroad at Doshisha University, in Kyoto, Japan – a once in a lifetime experience that I never even knew would be possible until I arrived at university, and one which has enriched both my academic and personal development more than I had ever anticipated. Studying in Asia allowed me to gain an entirely new perspective, and the sense of achievement was incredible – I had to overcome so many challenges, not least the fact that I spoke no Japanese when I arrived! And, in between eating sushi, singing karaoke and, of course, studying (which, contrary to popular belief, does occasionally happen during study abroad!), I managed to travel around Japan – trips to Tokyo, Hiroshima, Sapporo and all the way down to the southern islands of Okinawa. It truly is an incredible country, and I would recommend the experience to anyone.

Origami in Japan

Now I’m back at Southampton for my final year. Things are very different from when I left – the majority of my friends have just graduated so the amount of people I know on campus has decreased by about ninety per cent! As I said before, I’m commuting this year, which can make nights out somewhat of a logistical nightmare, although I can’t help but feel this is a blessing in disguise. It is third year after all – things are getting serious! I can say with some certainty that this year is going to be less exciting than the last, and I’m gearing up for some long shifts in the library as my dissertation deadline looms. But I’m determined to enjoy it to the full, as everyone tells me I’ll miss it when I’m gone!

Although sometimes it seems a little strange that only a few of the friends who I started university with are still here, I tend to try and focus on the positive – it’s forced me to get out there, join some new societies, and get involved with things that I never thought I would. I’m the Travel Editor for the university’s official magazine, the Wessex Scene, and I’ve also joined the Athletics and Cross Country Club. I started running whilst I was in Japan and am now a complete addict – a year ago I couldn’t even run for ten minutes, and I just ran my first half marathon last month, proving that anything really is possible when you put your mind to it!

Before and after the Bournemouth Half Marathon!

It’s easy to become comfortable at university – hanging out with the same friends, frequenting the same clubs and bars. Sticking to what you know, rather than branching out. But sometimes, when you put yourself out there and try something new, amazing things can happen. So my advice to you, if I may be so bold as to give it, is to mix it up a little. Join a new society every year; get involved in something you’ve never tried before, something random, ridiculous and maybe even a little bit daunting. Meet some new people, because – let’s face it – you can never have too many friends, and those you meet in your final year could turn out to be just as great as the ones you made in Freshers’. Try out a new club night, or restaurant, by yourself, with a friend or as a house. But whatever you do, keep things new and exciting. After all, life begins at the end of your comfort zone.

Tayler

Back to reality

And there it goes!

With the ever-present curse of the post-show blues now well and truly kicking in following two months’ worth of hard work on last week’s production of Equus with the Students’ Union Theatre Group, things are slowly starting to sink back into the realms of reality – and nothing is better at forcing me to do so than the looming assignment deadlines just around the corner which I’ve been putting off for directing’s sake!

Following an awesome couple of final shows, during which the cast of the show reached heights we could never have foreseen at the start of the process, and then a couple of hours spent helping the staging society, StageSoc, take down the huge set we’d requested and seen built for us (at the time it seemed right, but having to deconstruct it we regretted it!), we headed on over to the traditional after-show party at one of the cast’s house to finally unwind, sit back and reflect on what we’d accomplished or otherwise.

Needless to say plenty of emotional speeches were given (mostly by a choked-up production team – this one’s going to be tough to let go of!), presents and awards were handed out to everyone who made it happen (cast, crew and techies!), and a great time was had by all – well, up until the point we woke up next morning to the glaring knowledge the show’s all over!

I was lucky enough to be given refreshments and a signed photo frame with pictures of the show by the brilliant and generous cast; thanks guys!

Putting on the play has been a massive team effort from the beginning, so it was great to celebrate with the people who made it happen!

It always initially feels strange (and fairly deflating!) knowing that so much time and effort (I counted up the rehearsal hours we’d undergone over the seven weeks: 136, ahh!) has gone into something so fleeting, but as with much of the time you spend at University I guess, it’s all about the journey you go on (particularly the case in finding your feet in first year) and how that morphs the end result.

I’m delighted to say that, with Equus, we’re hugely proud of the show and we feel we’ve done pretty well on both fronts, having had a brilliant run with a truly remarkable set of people who made the rehearsal process of a dark text enjoyable and very gratifying indeed, ending up (somehow!) with some quality theatre at the end of it all, as testified by some glowing reviews from both local and student press. Discussing if we’d make any changes to it all in retrospect, my team and I concluded that if we could do undergo the process again, we wouldn’t change a thing!

But, at the same time, the first show of my third year here (one of a smaller number than last time round hopefully; I’m trying to moderate it a little more this year!) has been and gone, a striking reminder for me that I don’t have as much time left studying in Southampton as I might like. As if seeing a second batch of freshers into the uni didn’t make me feel old enough!

In many ways I’m quite lucky to have a fourth year of study here lined up, being on a Software Engineering Masters course, but it’s going to be quite an eerie experience watching many of my friends – and all of my housemates – graduate at the end of the year and depart for distant climes, and it’ll be weird not having them around all the time to pester or procrastinate doing far more productive activities with!

On the flip side, because life at University is as fluid as it is, I’ve found that I’ve positively racked up opportunities, experiences and friendships just through saying ‘yes’ every so often – there’s always a deluge of things to do, despite never having seemingly enough time in which to do them! Just reflecting on how much has been achieved in the calendar year of 2013 alone from a personal standpoint, it’s implicative of how easy it is to flesh out your life and come away from University with more than a couple of stories to tell the next time you find yourself in both an informal context and an interview room – and luckily, I’m only just over halfway through my University career!

It was a privilege to direct such a truly talented and fun group!

So although I jest that I’m going back to a life of deadlines and constant wishing I was back in the director’s chair of my favourite play (well, I will miss it!), I know that something new, fresh and exciting is awaiting me around the corner, a new challenge or chance to step out of the comfort zone, which means life will continue to go onwards and upwards!

And just as plays, groups and assignments come and go, so do blog writers! You may have noticed that I’ve recently been joined by a fresh set of faces on here, and soon you’ll be hearing from new writers for Life at Southampton in the form of James, Tayler and Kristin, all of whom I greatly enjoyed meeting the other week. I can’t wait to find out what they’ve been up to during their time in Southampton so far, and indeed hear about their experiences in the months to come – after all, it’s difficult to live here without picking up a few stories along the way, such is the amount that goes on!

Now, back to reality – in the shape of those looming deadlines...!

Robin

Equus

Writing this while riding on the crest of the wave of a couple of truly incredible opening nights, it’s strange to think that it was only six months ago it all began – typically, of course, in a pub!

When I, the show’s Producer Jed, and my co-director Mike, sat down to discuss our favourite theatrical shows and the kind of things we’d be interested in bringing to the University of Southampton’s very own Annex Theatre, we ended up chatting about our ambitions within the theatrical world and, coincidentally, all found that we wanted to move away from the comedies we’d put on in the past and tackle something a little meatier, a text we could all sink our metaphorical teeth into, so to speak!

And what could be more challenging, and ultimately more rewarding, than a psychological thriller with hints of horror (particularly apt at Halloween!) and tragedy about it that caused huge ripples in its time? So without further ado, I’m very proud indeed to be co-directing the team performing Peter Shaffer’s challenging and controversial play, Equus, at the University this very week – if you’ve not already seen our trailer, check it out below!

It’s been quite an experience preparing for it as, having only just got over the Edinburgh (ahh, sorry!) post-show Blues at the beginning of September, Mike and I were immediately confronted by the pressing need to undergo groundwork for Equus – rehearsals started only two and half weeks after we’d got back!

Since then I’ve been a minor part of an absolutely brilliant team networking, promoting, scheduling, budgeting, blocking, managing, applying, scoring, sourcing, conveying information to and from parties, balancing it all with a degree and struggling in general conversation to think of anything other than the play to talk about – just ask my housemates who, whenever they try to drum up a conversation with me at the moment, are usually supplied with horse-related ravings!

Equus follows the investigation of a middle-aged Hampshire based psychiatrist, Martin Dysart, into the case of 17 year old Alan Strang who, in an inexplicable fit of rage, blinded five horses at a nearby stable. It falls on Dysart to find out what led the boy to this horrific act, and in doing so he begins to question the validity of his own practice and indeed his own state of mind.

Suitably atmospheric for the time of the year, then!

We wanted audience members to leave Equus chilled by a good scare or two – it is Halloween, after all!

When we set out, we had no idea just how much talent there really was on offer at the University!

And with two nights down and two to go, we’ve been absolutely blown over by the audience response we’ve had so far, including an extremely flattering five-star review, the first of any show I’ve been involved with, from the student publication The Edge, which you can give a glance here. We don’t want to blow our own trumpets, but the reception the production team have experienced has been overwhelmingly positive and exciting, and has really made all those late nights spent planning, designing, redrafting and generally selling our souls to the show all the more worth it!

But the achievement ultimately isn’t ours. Equus is such a highly demanding text, such a controversial and gruesome yet highly engaging and intense play, that for it to be performed, it requires absolute and total commitment on behalf of its actors, and we’ve been truly privileged to receive just that from the members of SUSU Theatre Group. In every single rehearsal our cast have constructed beautifully detailed characters and completely gone for it, not once losing energy or focus, in turn demonstrating levels of talent and willingness we never expected to witness in the University’s theatre, let alone in a play I’m part of the team for – trying to find things to constructively criticise in the final few rehearsals has been challenging to say the least!

And such professionalism has been more than matched by that exhibited in the work of the staging society, StageSoc, whose implementation and execution of our vision for the show has been nothing short of stunning. Seeing it come to life for the first time on stage was one of the most exciting experiences of my life to date, and it’s all down to the conscientious work of the people behind the scenes, with a particularly grateful mention for our enigmatic and imaginative technical director Dan Barr, to make our heavy technical requirements and vague descriptions a reality, so we can’t thank them enough.

We were also delighted to welcome a nationally recognised director from the National Student Drama Festival (NSDF) to see the opening show, and her presence in the audience inspired us all, as well as providing us with feedback afterwards which should prove invaluable in helping us to refine the show in its final runs. After all, just seeing it being performed with an audience in tow on the night was surreal enough!

However, the best aspect of being part of Equus from the beginning has been just how much fun I’ve had doing it. From the early meetings in cafes and pubs, where most of our ideas bloomed as we just chatted about the play itself, to the lengthy audition sessions (where most of the inter-team disagreements took place – ultimately for the show’s benefit though!), the plotting and execution of a dense rehearsal schedule to the nights spent listening to multitudes of royalty-free music selections, from the technical meetings where reality began to sink in, to the actual performances themselves, every step of the way I’ve enjoyed myself (despite the ever-growing fatigue throughout!), surrounded by incredibly creative, inspirational and personable fellow students who, despite the dark thematic elements of the show, have been an absolute joy to work with from day one, and given me a great buzz of anticipation and excitement ever since the idea was first mooted.

It’s been a pleasure to work with such an awesome group of people from the beginning – ‘proud’ doesn’t begin to cover it!

And despite the dark nature of the show, we made sure to enjoy it along the way!

I know I say it before (and after!) every show on here, but when and where else could I have been part of something as special as this? It seems remarkable that, entering my third year now, life at Southampton can continue to be quite so fulfilling: Equus most certainly has been.

SUSU Theatre Group’s Equus is showing on Friday 1 and Saturday 2 November 2013 at the Annex Theatre, Highfield Campus, with both performances beginning at 7.30pm. Tickets are £9 for Adults, £6 for Students and Concessions, and £5 for Performing Arts Members, and can be purchased via the SUSU Box Office or online at www.annextheatre.co.uk – with demand high, advance purchase is highly recommended! We hope to see you there!

Robin

Your Union

Phew! As I mentioned last time, things really are starting to heat up in my course as I delve into third year and assignment deadlines, not to mention project milestones, continue to pile up. This, combined with the arrival next week of a show I’ve been co-directing for the past few months, Equus (more on this in my next post!), at the Annex Theatre, means it’s all systems go at present, with breaks few and far between!

These days seem to routinely consist of getting up, scampering my way to morning lectures (I like my sleep!), filling in any gaps in my timetable with researching topics, undertaking coursework assignments, attending group meetings or tackling other commitments (which, by hook or by crook, I’m somehow still adhering to!), before heading on over to rehearsals or production meetings in the evenings – and then the cycle repeats. There’s definitely no rest for the wicked at the moment!

So any downtime I come across is greatly appreciated, and usually permits me to indulge in a spot of power-napping (a skill I’d never previously practised before coming to University, but one which I now couldn’t do without!) at home or to take the rare opportunity to blow off some steam by chilling out with friends and housemates.

And one of my favourite places to do just that is the Students’ Union (affectionately known as ‘SUSU’) and its buildings on Highfield Campus, where facilities and activities (and some might say distractions!) aplenty are on offer in many various forms, be they sports halls and courts, bars, the “Union Films” cinema (which also doubles as a nightclub on Fridays), cafes, a shop, the infamous “Stag’s Head” pub (many a happy hour spent there!), media (including radio and television) studios and countless underground networks of tunnels (always making for an entertaining wander when you’re lost!), making it the perfect site for some rest, relaxation and recreation.

There’s always something happening in and around the building to make your day a little more interesting, so I often find myself hanging about there just to see what’s new; for example, every Monday, you’ll find on the ‘redbrick’ area a wonderfully well-stocked and varied marketplace, packed full of stalls selling assortments of goods which are ideal for your fresh fruit and vegetable needs (or, indeed, those of baked goods!), and there’s seemingly always companies handing out freebies (buying a pen is somewhat of a rarity!) or great deals to passers-by, such as discounts on newspapers, stationery – and takeaways!

Indeed, just this past week I bumped into a promotional event I hadn’t quite expected to see on the ‘concourse’ (the area just inside the building) when, on one particularly busy morning, I popped into the building for a quick cup of coffee – scores of the latest games consoles with free playable demos, which kept me and some friends entertained for a fair while!

Needless to say, with the opportunity to try out one of the latest game consoles on offer, the need for coffee was quickly offset!

And it’s this constant buzz of positivity, this never-ending hive of activity, with its members at its heart, that makes SUSU such a great place to be around. You soon find that, regardless of what course you study or which societies you join, everybody seems to know everybody else at Uni, so you’re pretty much guaranteed to bump into several friends wherever you go there, be they studying in the pods, grabbing a bite to eat in the trendy Bridge Bar (recently renovated, and highly recommended by myself!), watching the footy in the Stag’s or relaxing with a film in the evening.

It’s all designed with the student body in mind, which means that, aside from offering cheap prices abound (a trip to Union Films is just like the real thing, only for a fraction of the cost), it’s always open for you to book out its services (often for free) for your own purposes, be it for something as grand as a whole society event, or just when you fancy a couple of games of squash with friends.

This definitely came in handy for a few of us the other night, when, needing to shoot a trailer for Equus to further our marketing push (which is also soon to take to Surge Radio, the Union’s own broadcasters), we were able to use the filming equipment and studio of the Union’s television station, SUSUtv, at no charge, and with the added bonus of having the extremely helpful assistance of one of its experienced committee members, Anjit, on side – thanks to him, the final product should be suitably atmospheric, and hopefully sell a few tickets too!

The availability of an underground TV studio allowed us to shoot a creepily eerie Equus trailer – soon to appear on SUSUtv!

So if you’ve not managed to make it in so far, I can only recommend visiting the Union as soon, and as often, as possible! Why not check out all the things on offer or, better still, get involved with the societies that run them? By allowing its members to assume positions of responsibility within the organisation that makes it up, SUSU not only grants us experience in roles of leadership (into which there are many people elected each year), but also gives the opportunity to influence changes, decisions and strategies for each other’s benefit and to reflect a common consensus, meaning more great perks to studying in Southampton for you, me and the rest of the student body, and for that reason alone it’s more than worth engaging with.

At the end of the day, it is YOUR Union, after all!

Robin

Making a home from home

It’s two weeks into the new term, and already the landmarks are flying in fast!

Aside from the looming prospect of getting into the real meat of a challenging Third Year Project, which I discussed in my last post, there’s also groups to be formed for term-long projects, schedules to be organised for meetings with supervisors and course committees, and assignments (or more intimidatingly their deadlines!) being thrown at us left, right and centre. Although we were, to an extent at least, protected from all of this by the way the course was structured in our first and second years, in third year there is no such alleviation – it’s very much sink or swim, with appropriate time management an absolute expectation of us (quite fairly at this point I guess!).

Add to that an extra-curricular activity which is almost single-handedly eating up any spare time I ever manage to get hold of, being a co-director of an ambitious production of Peter Shaffer’s classic play Equus (two weeks until opening night – ahhhhh!), and the occasional summons to events such as birthday parties, sound staging training sessions, committee meetings, academic talks and, rather inevitably, auditions for next term (I’ve managed to get into a musical somehow, and am now panicking that people are going to hear me outside of a shower!), and there’s ever aplenty to be getting on with each day!

But it’s one of those senses that, when I’m at my Northern home or any other break from life at Southampton, I miss at times; that feeling that there’s something important to do, somewhere vital to be, something significant you’ve forgotten to do (always the case with me – I find it worrying if I’m not worried about something!), that means that, no matter however fatigued or otherwise you may be, every day is full of purpose, goals and a good sense of achievement – in theory!

On the flip side, I wouldn’t say no to a more regular sleeping pattern from time to time!

The way I see it, however, is that I’ll probably never get too clear an opportunity to do much of this again after I’ve graduated in a couple of years (an occasion which seems far too close for comfort at this point!) because the focus will be on making my way up the ladder of employment, so while I can, why not?

And I reckon that it’s keeping myself so busy, immersing myself in all the fruitful opportunities that Southampton has to offer and, in turn, engaging with a broad variety of interesting and fun people wherever I go, that makes the city such a homely place for me. It’s been that way ever since Freshers’ week two years ago, when I attended five or six societies’ welcome meetings (a number which has since whittled down to one or two!), and I’ve just kept going along to things ever since, meeting more and more people and settling into the ranks of passionate folk that make up the Students’ Union, SUSU.

The people you meet can define your University experience – 

so try to get out there and meet them!

I can recall my first few weeks being full of unsure moments and frequent doubts; as one of my friends phrased it, moving away from home initially felt like an extended school trip, with the sense that we’d all be back in a classroom the following Monday. But being a relatively old hat at starting academic years now, and with a settled set of friends, contacts and societies (although it seems to ever be expanding, such is the fluid social nature of the Students’ Union!) to rely on, it’s sometimes easy to take for granted the most important factor in helping me adapt to independent life and study in the first place: my flatmates (and current housemates)!

Because (and I sincerely hope they’re not reading this) when you’re surrounded by such a welcoming, zany and hilarious bunch as I was in my Montefiore halls of residence, it begins to feel like a second family. After only three or four weeks of living with one another, we already had in-jokes aplenty (just ask them why they gave me the nickname “Mufasa” because I don’t know!), great rapport, loads of stories and, in a nice way, firm groundings and roles within the group; we knew who to go to for a moan when the chips were down, and who’d select the best film for picking ourselves back up again, or be aware of the cheapest place to go out that night for a celebration (although now we dispute this fervently!). I can’t thank them enough for the times they’ve supported me, and I can only hope I’ve returned the favour, or will do.

There’s nobody better to have a laugh with after a tricky day than your housemates.

And you’ll soon find there’s nothing better for getting to know somebody than living with them!

And it’s this curious feeling of place, of belonging, which I loved having amidst the adaptations I underwent during freshers’; my flatmates and I were ultimately a hugely diverse bunch with a range of personalities, hailing from vastly different backgrounds and areas of the country, but it just worked in halls, and it still does in our privately rented student house, as we enter a third year living together. This point was rammed home when we recently had a nostalgic viewing of all our first year photographs and videos, which started by reinforcing just how lucky we were to be put together in the first place, and ended in, typically, a house fight using foam dart guns and a bottle of somebody’s skin cream...

 ... which didn’t work out too well for me, as you can see!

Unfortunately, it doesn’t always turn out quite as conveniently for everybody, and if you find that, after trying to make it work with your current flat/housemates, things aren’t working as well as you’d hoped they might (sometimes they just don’t click, and it’s nobody’s fault), I’d recommend getting out there, joining plenty of societies and using them as a medium through which to meet people with more similar interests. They all tend to be incredibly welcoming, and it’s a great way to go into conversations with complete strangers knowing you’ve got at least one interest in common to talk about!

It doesn’t really matter where you find them because, for me at least, be they computer scientists, Performing Arts members or my housemates, it’s the people that I encounter in Southampton who make it my home from home.  

Robin

The long haul

I’m currently sitting at my desk, staring at a blinking cursor on a blank document, which currently represents the state of progress of my preparation of a project brief document for my Third Year Project, the year-long piece of work that I know will pose many conundrums to come.

Talk about standing at the foot of a mountain!

I’ve done something fairly similar before, for my A Level Computing coursework, where we had a nine-month stretch of time to develop a piece of software for a real-world application. Somehow, I managed to convince both my teachers and the exam board that programming a KenKen solving game (a kind of mathematical Sudoku) would be a good example of an educational utility (for improving arithmetic), and I was away staring at number grids for hours on end, but back then I had the firm guidance of a classroom teacher behind me on a daily basis, helping me overcome all the little errors and difficulties that such a large-scale project can throw up and forcing me to get down to the grit of what was a relatively simple task, at least technically, but was certainly tough at the time! And I ended up typing over 200 pages’ worth of report, which required a Herculean effort to print off and bind on submission day!

But the Third Year Project is a whole other kettle of fish, because although I have the firm support and help of weekly meetings with my personal supervisor, whose experience in and knowledge of the field I’ve already found invaluable in helping me to find areas in which to kick-start my project, the onus is very much on me to have the drive to drag myself out of bed (however comfortable it seems at the time – especially if it’s 8am!), get to the library to check out journals or labs to investigate topics, and stand on the shoulders of giants in applying my findings to the construction of an artefact, which I have to present for scrutiny at the end of the year in my project viva. And that’s while simultaneously writing 10,000 words on the experience!

So writing this blog at the very beginning of what seems like an ever-stretching path before me, having just been given a lecture on solid techniques for mapping out the time available in the months to follow, the prospect of taking on a Third Year Project is more than a little intimidating!

But already I’m finding that my previous experiences at the University of Southampton may well help me in tackling just that, both in terms of those gained from course modules (for example, over my first two years we’ve been introduced to a broad range of project management and design methodologies) and also those through my extra-curricular activities.

Because although it’s an activity which I participate in mostly because I enjoy it rather than because of any great benefit to my CV, learning how to direct a theatrical production through putting on my latest project with Theatre Group, Equus, has already seen us, as a production team, put a lot of management theory into action. For example, before the concept of the show was even formed, we established a core team for putting it on, who then branched outwards and delegated the responsibilities needed for building up a society show from scratch – and there’s a surprising number, as I’m finding out now while we all race around gathering props and costumes and sponsorship and such!

I’ve also had to learn how to schedule, particularly in piecing together a rehearsal schedule which defines the whole process of learning the play – although on one particular day I did cheekily take the liberty of making the rehearsal start and finish early enough for me to watch a Manchester United match! We’re now halfway through it, and things seem to be going very well indeed thanks to the commitment and talent of all involved (as well as their ability to make the whole thing a lot of fun!), although being on a short timescale it’s not always straightforward to tell; there may be some last minute line-learning or changing of scenes, as with any production, but fingers crossed we’ll avoid that scenario!

On top of that, we’ve been working closely as a production team to try and co-ordinate all of our activities to make sure everything comes together on time (helped again by everybody’s sheer enthusiasm and commitment to putting on a great show!), to market the show (you may see our poster on screens in and around the Students’ Union!) and to try and remain relatively within the budget we set out at the beginning – basically, many of the skills applied in a long-term project!

It sounds like a lot of work, and it’s not always easy as such, but it’s made all the better by being around such driven, personable and canny individuals as those which comprise Theatre Group.

In addition, taking on projects can give you great excuses to take much-needed breaks every now and then, which can be all the more satisfying for their timing! This previous weekend the cast and crew of Equus attended a riding school in Buckinghamshire, where we were given the opportunity to learn from, groom and ride horses, an awesome experience which made for a fun day out as a team. We’d like to thank Mrs Hart massively for making it all possible and lending us her time, knowledge and horses on the day!

 Some of us had ridden before and some hadn’t – with interesting results!

(Credit: Leo Darlington)

 We had a great time at the stables!

(Credit: Leo Darlington)

So it is with great optimism that I go into the new academic year, armed with an as-of-yet-unwritten proposition to take on the challenge of building an autonomous agent capable of live performance capture and editing, despite the numerous difficulties that are almost guaranteed to crop up because of it – and this time, I’m not sure turning it off and on again will solve very much!

Although it might mean fewer hours in bed (and those of you who know me well will know how much that promises to hurt!), this year I’ll be in it for the long haul, although given how I’ll be researching an area I’m interested in through a project I selected, I’m sure that this will just give me all the more time to relish my course during my penultimate year here.

And at the end of Equus, the Third Year Project and the rest of my degree, I’m sure I’ll have a complete product to look back on, to be proud of, and to savour.

Robin