Port Magazine Port Magazine

Beginning with a speculative letter written aged 12 to actress Lillian Gish for a school project – the star of The Wind (1928) and frequent muse of controversial film director D.B.Griffith – Austin and Howard Mutti-Mewse embarked on a stream of correspondence with Hollywood’s vanguard that would continue for the next 30 years.

Here they share the story of how two boys from Surrey ended up befriending Hollywood's elite, and embarking on a journey that would taking them to LA...

28 May 2014

For many of us, gender is something that we think of in black and white terms, a binary of male and female. In the womb, we are prescribed gender identities, before the nucleus of our personalities are even formed. But gender is something more than anatomy: it is something more than physicality. It is beyond the simple, limited terms of 'male' and 'female'.

What happens when we challenge these judgements placed upon us? What happens when we take a journey into gender, of our own accord, discovering along the way who we really are, rather than who we are told we should be?

In this podcast, we meet Jake, Felix and Matt, three trans-people who are undertaking this very journey.

We also talk with activity and professor of equality law, Stephen Whittle OBE, about his experience overcoming the UK's discriminatory laws.

Produced by Barney Rowntree
Production assistance Betty Wood

Music
Antony & The Johnsons

Special thanks to Professor Stephen Whittle OBE, Jake, Matt, Felix and Jay.

27 February 2014

In his hometown, author Nathaniel Rich takes a murder mystery tour where the cops are the bad guys...


Written and read by Nathaniel Rich
Edited & produced by Barney Rowntree

What's the best thing about Louisiana's finest city? The jazz? Nope. It's the bread made with love, care and a whole lot of contamination. Nathaniel Rich reveals the secret of sandwiches in our second 'Letter from New Orleans' by the celebrated author.

Read by Nathaniel Rich
Edited & produced by Barney Rowntree

Port regular Nathaniel Rich introduces the first of his Letters From New Orleans collection, serialised in Port. In this first letter, written for our inaugural issue, Nathaniel takes us to post-Katrina New Orleans where life may have changed, but the attitude towards it remains resolute…

The last issue of Port considered the future of the printed magazine, talking to the editors of longstanding publications like the New York Times Magazine and Vanity Fair. Magazines are coming to terms today with how print and digital complement each other, but in the online world, is the role of the editor under threat? Do we now live in an algo-world shaped by the intelligence of anonymous processes rather than the emotional decisions of humans? Will algorithms play a role in how we write and consume news?

Part One: Kevin Slavin, Assistant Professor and founder of Playful Systems Group at MIT explains how, increasingly, modern life is affected by algorithms and computations that leave no signature on our conscious, and why, some writers are no longer writing with a human reader in mind…

Part two: Frederick Fischer, CEO of Tame explains that social media has managed to separate content from the news brands, and how the power has shifted from editors to the developers, changing the role of the modern journalist completely.

Part three: Luke Lewis, editor of Buzzfeed UK explains how the website 'predicts' what content will be popular with readers...

Produced by Phil Smith

Music:

Artist: Jamieo Brown
Track: I Said
Label: Motema
year: 2013

Artist: Gabriel Prokofiev & Peter Gregson
Track: Tuff Strum (Louis D'Heudieres Remix)
Label: Nonclassical
Year: 2012

Artist: New Musik
Track: Warp
Label: Epic
year: 1982

Artist: Hello Skinny
Track: Remember
Year: 2012

Artist: Thundercat
Track: The Life Aquatic
Label: Brainfeeder
Year: 2013

Artist: Metro Area
Track: Machine Vibes
Label: Environ
Year: 2002

Artist: Suzanne Vega
Track: Tom's Diner
Label: A&M
Year: 1987

Artist: Laurel Halo
Track: Hour Logic
Label: Hippos In Tanks
Year: 2011