67 – Notes x Love After Dark

For the pieces in this issue, the Fitzwilliam Museum acts as locus, as site of creation. Beyond this, it is a cypher for all the museums and galleries in which the contributors have felt that strange mix of nostalgia and novelty so particular to the museum as institution.

In this issue, many facets of the interactions we have within museums are explored. The colonial histories and presents of exhibiting, and the very act of exhibiting them; the age-old dynamic of artist and muse; the Titian’s and El Greco’s and Millais’, the canon of the greats, and the disciples who buy 50p postcards of them all; the shape of a crowd gathered to witness art, so amorphous it becomes art itself; and the traces left by a handprint on the glass case. Putting together this issue—an act of curation and exhibition—we have found a collection of works that discuss collection, collation, display, intertextual discussion, and posterity. 

We are lucky enough, courtesy of the Fitzwilliam Museum Society, to be able to launch this issue in the place that has inspired it, before the paintings referenced in these pages. With thanks to the FMS, and to all our contributors, we hope you enjoy the issue. – Archie Hamerton

C: Bronwyn Hansen

Footnotes 2021

Notes’ footnotes issue comes around only once a year, and it’s a pretty momentary appearance since no submission is longer than two hundred words. Each piece is a little sliver of ephemera, scarcely taking up a page – they flit and fleet like a weeklong heatwave, forgotten in the rain of the week after. In fact, this blurb is longer than some of the pieces in this issue, each concerned with the minute and the miniscule. So if exams have left you a little queasy at the prospect of poring over protracted pieces of pages-long prose, then ready your reading glasses to narrow in on some nanoscopic fragments. We have hydrangeas in the rain, and museum gift shop forgeries; a study of things that crack, and second class stamps; we have ducks, and geese, and pissing policemen, and all manner of curios under two hundred words – can Nabokov’s footnotes boast the same? I think not. – Archie Hamerton

C: Verity Ali

64 – Notes at Dusk

Notes at Dusk– our second issue of the academic year and last of 2020 – is a collection of shadows and outlines, flickers and whisperings: the half-lit moments of stillness and strangeness that line the edges of the everyday. As the year closes up and the days draw in, we often find ourselves paying more attention than usual to diurnal rhythms, seasonal change, and subtleties of light. However, these daily cadences have seemed even more prominent during this particular shift from
autumn to winter, which has been accompanied by a lockdown that has disrupted old routines and created new temporalities. Many of the pieces in Issue 64 evoke the quiet wistfulness brought about by this time of year, but they also remind us that endings are not always
melancholy, drawing our attention to, for instance, the beauty of a vivid sunset, the delight of sending a letter out into the future, or the apple-skin crispness of a cold winter’s day. – Georgie Newson Erry

C: Verity Ali

62 – Notes on Ripples

Plastic cups in the sea; stone cottages by the water; a bubbling pot on the stove… This issue of Notes is marked by ripples, both literal and figurative, watery and historic. From the rhythm of a long drive in Isaac Zamet’s ‘Life Doesn’t Turn on Bridges’ to Joseph Krol’s musings on the cyclical conditions of artistic production, join us and watch as memory fades in the aftermath of a broken wave. At once signifying an ephemeral intervention made in water, a ripple can also refer to a strand of difference within a wider surface, like a vein of raspberry bleeding through a pale ice cream cone. Do keep this double meaning in mind as you read. And, as Spring floats ever nearer, this issue is best consumed alongside a coffee and a daffodil. – Ashley Saville

C: Lydia Wilford

60 – Notes on November

Shadows, foxgloves, egg yolk, pea soup –this issue of Notes focuses on absences and ephemera, uncovering intimacy and intensity within the quotidian. From Elias Mendel’s delicate pinhole photography, to Sam Harding’s funny but ambiguous ‘Realist Poem’, the pieces within draw our attention to spaces and subtleties that are all too often overlooked. We have chosen to title this issue ‘Notes on November’ because it is suffused with an autumnal wistfulness – the tranquillity and nostalgia that precede a process of renewal. So whip up a bowl of soup, put on a few extra pairs of socks, cocoon yourself in blankets, and make your way through this wonderful new issue. – Georgie Newson-Erry

c: Celine Clark

Footnotes 2019

Welcome to footnotes [2019], Notes
Magazine’s annual micro-issue. This
journal celebrates the brevity in wit,
the wit in brevity – moments caught and
captured in threads of one-hundred
words of prose or less, or six lines of
poetry or fewer. The pieces in this issue
show us new angles on the world – we
sincerely hope that you enjoy them all.

57 – Notes on Margins

Notes returns for our 57th issue. This week we are collaborating with
the Fitzwilliam Museum Society for their annual Love Art After Dark
event. With the theme this year being LGBT+ History we named our
issue ‘on margins’. From Harry Armstrong’s wonderful confessional
pieces, to Ruari Paterson-Achenbach’s beautiful and heartwarming
photographs of his mothers. From Lucy Tiller’s domestic scene of a cat on the edge of the family breakfast table, to Bella Biddle’s aptly named ‘Marginalia’. We hope this issue brings the margins into the centre of the page.

C: Celine Clark

55 – Notes on [W]holes

From Ben Vince’s erotic ‘Moon Dance’, to Bella Biddle’s
haunting collage, this January issue of Notes considers our
partiality, our relationships to our surroundings and how these
make us whole, or not whole. Eve Oostendorp’s ‘H u g’ beautifully
combines the textual and and the visual, illustrating our need to
find solace in one another, to ‘lose / myself in hair and / skin and
cotton’. We hope the art of this issue helps to lift you out of the cold
winter hole of January and tide you over until the warmth of Spring.

c: Celine Clark

53 – Notes on Structure

Opening with Emily Swettenham’s playfully hybrid ‘Manifesting’, much of this issue of Notes works with and against the grain of structures. From Lucy Tiller’s use of the villanelle in ‘As it stands to Hope’ Whitehead’s bullet point punctuated meditation on poetry, Shopping List, and Francesca Weekes’ evocative prose poem, ‘After noon’, this issue showcases the invigorating potential of formal innovation. This extends to the art and photography included, with the photos of Romana Pilepich and Shang-Dat Tang defamiliarising quotidian architecture. We hope you are as excited by this issue as we are and find your horizons restructured after reading it!

C: Celine Clark

51 – Notes on Angles

This issue looks at the world from new angles. From Jennifer K’s corporeal ‘Fillet’, to Jack Cooper’s intimate insight into a relationship, from Anna Sanders’ satirical new take on a nursery
rhyme, to Cecily Fasham’s reworking of fairytale.

We hope this issue brings new things into perspective and encourages you all to look at the world a little differently under the waning light of October.

c: Celine Clark

49 – Notes on Noticing

This issue, in collaboration with the Fitzwilliam Museum Society, foregrounds the often-overlooked details, the hidden allusions and the unexpected; this edition is on the art of noticing. To notice is to pay particular attention, to derive value or to perceive in a new way. Art in all its forms, is an exercise in noticing. In this issue our contributors play upon this, from focusing in on the fractal detail of a microscopic snowflake in Helen Grant’s piece “Snowflakes”, to the subtle intertextuality of Antonia Cundy’s “I think”, or even simply an observation of the everyday, as in Anju Gaston’s “November at 37 degrees Celsius”. This is an issue that celebrates detail and encourages the reader – or viewer – to seek out that which is not immediately obvious, and notice.

c: Holly Hollis

48 – Notes on Precipitation

This issue focuses on the sudden and the unexpected – the same cannot be said of English rain. Nell Whittaker’s “Brick” and Joe Court’s “Stop” feature variations on the poetic pause, while Damian Walsh’s “Glossolalia” and Tanvi Roberts’s “My Grandmother’s Email” take us on different paths towards a similar conversation on language and understanding. As winter slowly inches its way towards spring, we hope this issue brings you a little lyrical joy.

c: Holly Hollis

47 – Notes on Observation

Our first issue of Lent term explores ideas of perception. From Grayson Elorreaga’s reflections on the process of moving in, to Peter Hartwig’s portrait of a train journey from London to Cambridge; from Nol Swaddiwudhipong’s landscape of a ‘White Night’, to Lucy Tiller’s intertwinement of the domestic and the celestial, these pieces explore how we observe ourselves in relation to our surroundings as we return back to Cambridge for the new year.

c: Holly Hollis

44 – Notes on Definition

This issue of Notes converges on the idea of definition, as inspired by Jade Cuttle’s “Nostalgia”. From Michelle Angwenyi’s exploration of the complexity of human relationships to Emily Robb’s reflection on the strange timeliness of grief, from Reuben Andrews’s comparison of a full English to a break-up to Katherine Whitfield’s archaeological conceit, every contributor traverses the terrain of the undefinable in creating something new. 

c: Evelyn Whorrall-Campbell

43 – Notes on Elsewhere

Welcome to another year of Notes! From Leo Reich’s poignant observations of fleeting passers-by to Marina Scott’s evocative line portrait, from Eliza Bacon’s experimental autumnal vignettes to Angelica van Clarke’s confessional explorations of the places we come – by fate or coincidence– to call home, we hope this issue satisfies that start-of-term
longing to be somewhere else.

c: Evelyn Whorrall-Campbell

41 – Notes on Home

This week’s issue of Notes explores the fragmentary experience of home – the associations and disassociations that come with the idea that we can belong to both places and people. The tenderness of Georgina Baker’s portrait of her “Great Uncle Steve” complements the quiet conversational intimacy of Tom Bailey’s ‘Home Comforts’; the artistic self-awareness of Charlie Thorpe’s ‘Artiste en Résidence’ finds a serendipitous counterpart in Niamh Ryle’s ‘click click click’;
the wry humour of Mike Reiners’s ‘Cook for somebody else’ echoes Joy Hunter’s witty ‘Dromaeosaurid Theropod’. We hope you enjoy the way these pieces find their own home alongside one another in the issue.

c: Oliver Canessa

40 – Notes x Love After Dark

Launching at Love Art After Dark, this issue, from Paphavee Sakdanaraseth’s boldly colourful cover to the deconstructed grandeur of Matthew Seccombe’s sketches, has more than enough personality to live up to the auspicious surrounds of the Fitzwilliam Museum. Megha Harish in “Muse” and Havannah Adeniyan in “Slow Things” are concerned in their own ways with the passion and feeling in colour. The rolling subject of Ella Morris is a beautifully understated study while Tom Bailey’s “Poem” is acutely self-aware and deconstructive. We hope this shows art as an opening for diverse exploration.

c: Paphavee Sakdanaraseth

39 -Notes on Proximity

This week’s submissions consider many degrees of separation, from the uncomfortable closeness of the political and the personal in Jacqueline Krass’ 8 November 2016 to Finty Hunter’s haunting description of a body’s proximity to fragility: ‘Muscle turned skeletal’. Chance encounters abound: James Roberts’ glimpse of an echo; Rosie McKeown’s meeting of two old companions; Alice Hughes’ reflection on a ‘bad start’. We hope it reminds you of everyday connections in a world preoccupied by differences.

c: Vera Kleinken

38 – Notes on Travel

We are particularly grateful to PhoCus (the Cambridge University
Photographic Society), and to Compass, for collaborating with us
on this special issue on Travel. This issue explores ‘travel’ across a
broad range of its connotations and associations. Gabriella Craft
questions the culturally-isolating linguistic binaries of Cambridge
student life, while Meggie Longgren’s ethereal shot of windmills
places emphasis on the dislocatory power of the travel photograph.
Megha Harish ruminates on the relationship between borders and
identity while Loke Jia Yuan’s market shot highlights with a quiet
intensity our codependent relationship with everyday consumer
products. In the darkest times, we hope that this issue sparks for
you a sense of hope and wonder about the world we live in.

c: Leo Monahan

37 – Notes on Foundations

This issue is all about constructing the beautiful from simple foundations. Our centre spread reflects the stark art in architecture. A driver’s early morning bus route provides Verity Josh Hewitt with a perfect starting point for marvelling at the everyday. Benjamin Dobson has subtly subverted the
classical form of romance in his Shakespearean sonnet while
Fairground of Stars and The Night is a Long Time take a look
at the alchemy present in the blooming of new love. We hope
it helps you find inspiration in the unlikely.

c: Mark Donnelly

35 – Notes on Affection and Disaffection

This collection of reflections on affection and disaffection showcases work from faces new and old. From Matt Weinberger’s poignant musings on love to Molly Moss’ sincere meditation on mothers, this issue captures connection in its myriad and sometimes absent forms.

c: Gabriella Morris

34 – Notes on Ekphrasis

In the final issue of this academic year, developed in collaboration with the Fitzwilliam Museum Society and The Heong Gallery at Downing College, our contributors have been making art about art. For several writers, including Ruby Reding, Jerry Cummins, and Victoria Ibbett, ekphrasis offers an opportunity to rewrite traditions and open up new possibilities. For others, such as Jess Bullock and Nora Rosenberg, writing about art has personal and memorial resonances.
However, as Valerie Bence’s response to Rembrandt’s etchings suggest,
art – whether visual art, prose, or poetry – is both technical and textural,
and it is this that emerges from the range of pieces in this issue.
We hope it inspires discussion and future creative work.

c: Kate Schneider

32 – Eco

From Tanmay Dixit’s haunting eulogy to a dying world to the sheer vibrance of Tessa Callendar’s hummingbird image, this issue explores the relationship between humans and nature through a careful consideration of our actions within the world.

Much thanks to Cambridge Zero Carbon Society and Cambridge University Wildlife Society, who
collaborated with us to make this issue.

c: Sophie Buck

30- Notes on Collision

This issue features notes loosely based around the theme of collision. From the melancholy juxtaposition of hopeful
expectation and reality in Ronan Marron’s ‘The Snow Will Not Stick’ to the familial discord evident in the extract from Charlotte Cromie’s novel, ‘Limelight’, many of the pieces in this collection revolve around the interaction of oppositional forces.

C: G. Dupré and J. Munro

29 – Notes on Transference

The pieces collected within this issue are loosely themed around transference. From the whirling narrative of Asier Calbet’s ‘Hands off the Handlebars’ to the evocative imagery of Elena Violaris’ ‘Giselle’, writing in Notes 29 captures with precision the highs and lows of change and
transition.

C: Catherine Fleming

28 – Notes on Nostalgia

This issue contains Notes loosely themed around the concept of nostalgia. From the kaleidoscope of recollections in Mathilde Sergent’s ‘Firework ditty’ to the memory of touch in Joanna Kozlowska’s ‘rio de janeiro’, many of the poems and short stories in this collection evoke the sacred thoughts and feelings of the past.

C: Sophie Buck

Notes Annual 2

At three years old, Notes magazine will soon be leaving its toddler years behind. The momentum it has gained during this time has been phenomenal, and for this we must thank the entire Notes community; from those who bought copies at their faculty libraries to read furtively between lectures, to those who came to every poetry reading, and to our faithful subscribers. But most of all we thank the contributors who have filled the Notes inbox once a fortnight with the fruits of their labour.

This. our second annual, contains in some of the best pieces from the last year of fortnightly issues. The work is split into four sections: land, identity, presumption and renewal. Though thematically connected, each section contains a wide range of pieces and styles, from the light-hearted and humorous to the contemplative and weighty. We hope they reflect the full range of talents and styles in the Oxford and Cambridge writing communities.

Accompanying this annual is the first issue of the micro-jounral Footnotes. It contains thoughts, aphorisms, poetry, flash fiction and mini-essays: the pieces are concise but by no means lacking in thought or inspiration. We’re also pleased that it features some established writers as guest contributors, alongside the work of students (some of whom, we hope, will make their own careers out of writing).

The First Notes Annual

Where it all began…