The Unconventional B-Side

The B-Side

Phoebe Unwin

akdjhfkjahgkhg. (Am I the only one who pronounces keyboard spam differently depending on which letters it uses most? This would sound different if it had lots of Es and Hs.) The intro should be unconventional too, shouldn’t it? How do I do that? I was told, “Just don’t write an intro. That’s unconventional.” But that’s giving “this is daring” energy./ First of all: This may be my one opportunity to publish brackets. We should be allowed to use them more. In the name of unconventionality: [ ] / um. / Why did I decide to do this? / We are Arts writers. Art cannot escape convention. Every film, book, song and designer coat collection is built on the dictations of those before it. Even works that break conventions can only do so because those conventions exist. / … But also. / We cannot escape convention. It surrounds us. We form society and smaller cultural sects that, while created by and malleable to individuals, turn back to instruct and categorize us. We follow conventions to avoid conflict, because we don’t know how to exist outside of them, or because they are so inherent to our daily lives that they have become invisible. / I asked these writers to find conventions and point them out. Or to tell me about the times they broke conventions. Or tried to. Or thought we should get rid of a convention — even if it’s harmless, convention gets old. / And there’s one more part. My favorite part. / Language. / As writers, we are constrained to its conventions. These writers have taken language and moved it to other formats, molded it into fiction, paired different writing styles in a single piece, pulled it through their personal stories, used it to invite discourse from YOU, the reader, or looked a language convention in the eye. / Right, so here we examine and question the conventions of art, culture and language. / That’s it from me. Enjoy.

Senior Arts Editor Erin Evans