Month: January 2023

By Cosmo Adair.

It’s 3PM Eastern European Standard Time and the team at SHRINK SCOOTERS are meeting a potential investor on Zoom. Having miscalculated the time difference, they close their laptops and log out. But once the meeting actually starts, Ed realises he’s seeing double. This isn’t a medical condition; rather, he has accidentally opened the meeting in two separate tabs. Panicking, he muted his screen and texted the team group chat. Is it just me, or are there two of me on the screen? When the others replied, Yes, he started laughing out of awkwardness. But he was only muted on one of the tabs. ‘What’s the joke, Ed?’ the potential investor asked. ‘I just went white, panicked, shut my laptop.’ Young and learning on the job, such are the challenges. But such challenges are surmountable. ‘Ultimately,’ Jack pipes up, ‘the meeting was a success.’ He laughs. ‘Maybe we should just get rid of Ed!’ Zac adds. It must be hard work founding a start-up, especially as a university student: but, crucially, Jack, Ed and Zac manage to make it look like a hell of a lot of fun. 

SHRINK SCOOTERS is the UK’s first student-run e-scooter start-up—an achievement they take lightly, self-deprecatingly comparing themselves to some of Durham’s student-led events companies. They’re aiming to have a fleet of thirty Okai ES400As navigating the streets of this historic metropolis by the start of the next academic year (September 2023). In response to the myriad challenges of student mobility in Durham—especially given the recent housing crisis, and the University’s continual expansion up the hill—they came up with a solution: e-scooters. They’re everywhere else in the world, so, why not Durham? As a first year student in Hild-Bede—notoriously detached from the rest of the University by an accident of geography—the idea first presented itself to Jack. Now, one year on, it’s fair to say Shrink has come a long way. 

Once they’re rolled out, SHRINK SCOOTERS will initially only be available to those with an ‘@durham.ac.uk’ email address; it is, after all, a University-based scheme, with five of its six proposed sites situated on University property. Although, if—and arguably, now, it’s more a question of ‘when’—SHRINK’s first year is a success, they hope to expand into the wider public. 

Jack, Ed and Zac (respectively, the CEO, CMO, and CFO) met each other in a 1st year Geography lecture. Arguably, it’s this shared passion which has defined SHRINK’s trajectory. Whether it be Jack’s nerdy obsession with Geofencing (the technology which will prevent rogues from driving their scooters off to Newcastle); Ed’s insistence that I write about their ‘bespoke data set … which looks at the topographies of Durham, the paving surfaces, bike routes, and the socio-economic data of all of County Durham’; or Zac’s visible excitement when discussing SHRINK’s collaborative work with 6 Degrees, a consultancy firm focussed on sustainability, it’s quite clear that Geography is their guiding star. In fact, it’s their commitment to sustainability which has got Durham Council and the University excited: because, as Jack says, ‘when people talk of a bottom-up approach to solving climate change, it’s the smaller projects like this which actually create that kind of change.’ 

One initiative which they’re particularly excited about is ‘SHRINK SAFE’, a response to several reports on Overheard at Durham and Durfess about people’s discomfort at walking back from the library late in the evening. According to ‘SHRINK SAFE’, travel to any of the proposed ‘home stations’ (Hild-Bede, Hill Colleges, Viaduct, and Gilesgate) between nine and ten PM will be free. To ensure the success of this initiative, they’re currently looking at ‘partnering up with a Durham street-safe charity.’

Prior to the interview, one of my big questions was how they’d handle drink-driving: obviously a considerable challenge, given that these e-scooters are targeted at Durham students and Durham students love fun. But as Ed reminded me, all e-scooter drivers are liable to standard Road Traffic Laws. What’s more, they’re exploring the possibilities of using a CAPTCHA-esque system to test drivers on their phones (spelling challenges, identify the boxes containing traffic lights etc.) and have also committed to a 10PM to 7AM curfew, a safety measure offered by few other e-scooter companies. It seems that—as much as is feasibly possible—they’ve got this sorted. 

It seems clear that there’s a gap in the market, one that SHRINK SCOOTERS could very feasibly fill. As Jack himself put it, ‘this isn’t about what people desire, but what they require,’ before succumbing to a fit of embarrassment at having spurted out such a corporate catchphrase. But there’s a truth in it: obviously, for those in Gilesgate and Langley Moor, there are bus routes—but for the mid-length, 25-30 minute commute from the Viaduct to the Billy-B, or from the Hill down to the Half Moon, an e-scooter seems quite a pleasant idea. 

Now, I must shut my laptop. I must walk thirty minutes in the cold, late November rain. As I’m sprayed by passing cars, and my airpods run out of battery, and I remember that I still need to make a trip to Tesco’s, one thought strikes me: wouldn’t it be nice to shrink this journey and arrive home more quickly. Get it? 

@shrinkscooters

By Sophie Hogan.

The Guardian announced last week that Roxana Silbert had resigned from her position as Artistic director of Hampstead theatre after they suffered a 100% funding cut. Arts Council England withdrew the annual grant of £766,455 that the North London-based theatre had been receiving in an attempt to relocate funding away from the capital. Other institutions that were affected by these drastic changes include the Barbican Centre and the English National Opera. As a result, Silbert decided to step down from her role, and the theatre has highlighted the need for a ‘’change of direction’’, as it will no longer be able to ‘’exist solely as a new writing theatre’’ without the grant. 

The loss of government support for these theatres has been part of a larger scheme of ‘levelling up’ the artistic and cultural aspects of Britain, shifting these creative hubs to more Northern parts of the country. The allocation of funding has and will always continue to be a challenging process for all involved, and there is no doubt that redistributing funding away from the capital city will facilitate the growth of more diverse and accessible theatre. However, it does appear that some venues such as Hampstead theatre have been ‘’devastated’’ by the news. 

Perhaps, then, these funding cuts might push theatres to look towards new, innovative ways of producing plays. Director Simon Goodwin’s 2021 version of Romeo and Juliet embraced the pandemic conditions, creating a play geared specifically towards a television audience. Productions such as these saw huge success during lockdown, with National Theatre streams reaching staggering viewing figures of 15 million, both in and outside of Britain. These methods could continue to be instrumental for theatres in a post-pandemic world, providing greater accessibility at a lower cost for the keen theatregoer. 

It has typically been the responsibility of the productions themselves to shoulder the hefty filming expenses, meaning the theatre for home consumption has mainly been put out by larger-scale shows. However, according to Rupert Goold, artistic director of London’s Almeida theatre, this past summer has seen an increased number of screen versions produced in partnership with companies such as the BBC. He imagines a future which sees digital platforms collaborating with theatres that may be in a similar position to the Hampstead venue, envisioning the industry shifting away from the scarce government funds. He has hope that this could be done but emphasises that it would require ‘’very joined up thinking’’. Could an alliance between local theatres and streaming services solve the problems faced by Hampstead theatre and many others?

Many remain sceptical of theatre-from-home, pointing out the loss of an all-consuming experience that some feel theatre alone provides. There continues to be fiercely polarised debates between theatre purists and those excited by the prospect of streaming, but maybe this is up to you, reader, to decide for yourself. 
I will finish by urging you to watch some of the National Theatre streamed productions, of which a large portion are made available to students through your Durham login. Some personal highlights include: A Streetcar Named Desire, featuring Gillian Anderson and Vanessa Kirby, (2014), Barber Shop Chronicles (2017), and Chewing Gum Dreams, the play that inspired Michaela Coel’s hit TV series, Chewing Gum (also 2014)