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“I lost all ability to fly the plane”: Pilot's shock claim after plane drops mid-flight

<p>At least 50 passengers have been injured with a dozen hospitalised after a Boeing 787 Dreamliner suddenly plunged about two hours into the flight from Sydney to Auckland on Monday. </p> <p>LATAM Airlines said that the plane experienced an unspecified "technical event during the flight which caused a strong movement." </p> <p>Passengers on board the flight have recalled the terrifying moment the plane took a nose-dive mid-flight. </p> <p>"The plane dipped so dramatically into a nose dive for a couple of seconds and around 30 people hit the ceiling hard," Daniel, who was travelling from London, told the <em>NZ Herald</em>. </p> <p>“None of us knew what had happened until after the flight, I was just trying to keep everyone calm. We never heard any announcement from the captain." </p> <p>He added that passengers were screaming and it was hard to tell whether blood or red wine was splattered through the cabin. </p> <p>Another passenger, Brian Jokat, told broadcaster <em>RNZ t</em>hat the incident took place in "split seconds". </p> <p>"There was no pre-turbulence, we were just sailing smoothly the whole way,” he said. </p> <p>“I had just dozed off and I luckily had my seatbelt on, and all of a sudden the plane just dropped. It wasn’t one of those things where you hit turbulence and you drop a few times … we just dropped.”</p> <p>He added that a passenger two seats away from him, who was not wearing his seatbelt, flew up into the ceiling and was suspended mid-air before he fell and broke his ribs. </p> <p>“I thought I was dreaming,” he said. “I opened my eyes and he was on the roof of the plane on his back, looking down on me. It was like <em>The Exorcist</em>.”</p> <p>Paramedics and more than 10 emergency vehicles were waiting for passengers when the plane landed in Auckland. </p> <p>Around 50 patients were treated, with 12 of them hospitalised and one in serious condition. </p> <p>At least three of those treated were cabin crew. </p> <p>Jokat told <em>RNZ </em>that after the plane landed, the pilot came to the back and explained what had happened. </p> <p>"He said to me, ‘I lost my instrumentation briefly and then it just came back all of a sudden,’” Jokat said.</p> <p>In another interview with <em>Stuff.co.nz</em>, Jokat recalled the pilot also saying: “My gauges just blanked out, I lost all of my ability to fly the plane.” </p> <p>The airline's final destination was Santiago, Chile, but it was landing at Auckland Airport in accordance with its normal flight path, according to <em>Reuters</em>. </p> <p>"LATAM regrets the inconvenience and injury this situation may have caused its passengers, and reiterates its commitment to safety as a priority within the framework of its operational standards," the airline said. </p> <p><em>Images: Brian Jokat/ News.com.au</em></p>

Travel Trouble

The art of ‘getting lost’: how re-discovering your city can be an antidote to capitalism

<p><em><a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/stephen-dobson-1093706">Stephen Dobson</a>, <a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/cquniversity-australia-2140">CQUniversity Australia</a></em></p> <p>Do you remember what it was like to discover the magic of a city for the first time? Do you remember the noises, smells, flashing lights and pulsating crowds? Or do you mostly remember cities through the screen of your phone?</p> <p>In 1967, French philosopher and filmmaker Guy Debord <a href="https://files.libcom.org/files/The%20Society%20of%20the%20Spectacle%20Annotated%20Edition.pdf">publicised the need</a> to move away from living our lives as bystanders continually tempted by the power of images. Today, we might see this in a young person flicking from one TikTok to the next – echoing the hold images have on us. But adults aren’t adverse to this window-shopping experience, either.</p> <p>Debord notes we have a tendency to observe rather than engage. And this is to our detriment. Continually topping-up our image consumption leaves no space for the unplanned – the reveries to break the pattern of an ordered life.</p> <p>Debord was a member of a group called the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Situationist-International">Situationist International</a>, dedicated to new ways we could reflect upon and experience our cities. Active for about 15 years, they believed we should experience our cities as an act of resistance, in direct opposition to the (profit-motivated) capitalistic structures that demand our attention and productivity every waking hour.</p> <p>More than 50 years since the group dissolved, the Situationists’ philosophy points us to a continued need to attune ourselves – through our thoughts and senses – to the world we live in. We might consider them as early eco-warriors. And through better understanding their philosophy, we can develop a new relationship with our cities today.</p> <h2>Understanding the ‘situation’</h2> <p>The Situationist International movement was <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt183p61x">formed</a> in 1957 in Cosio di Arroscia, Italy, and became active in several European countries. It brought together radical artists inspired by spontaneity, experimentalism, intellectualism, protest and hedonism. Central figures included Danish artist <a href="https://museumjorn.dk/en/">Asger Jorn</a>, French novelist <a href="https://mitpress.mit.edu/author/michele-bernstein-10219/">Michèle Bernstein</a> and Italian musician and composer <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walter_Olmo">Walter Olmo</a>.</p> <p>The Situationists were driven by a <a href="https://encyclopedia.pub/entry/34141">libertarian form of Marxism</a> that resisted mass consumerism. One of the group’s early terms was “unitary urbanism”, which sought to join avant-garde art with the critique of mass production and technology. They rejected “urbanism’s” conventional emphasis on function, and instead thought about art and the environment as inexorably interrelated.</p> <p>By rebelling against the invasiveness of consumption, the Situationists proposed a turn towards artistically-inspired individuality and creativity.</p> <h2>Think on your own two feet</h2> <p>According to the 1960 <a href="https://hts3.files.wordpress.com/2010/12/situationist-international-manifesto.pdf">Situationist Manifesto</a> we are all to be artists of our own “situations”, crafting independent identities as we stand on our own two feet. They believed this could be achieved, in part, through “<a href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/art-terms/p/psychogeography#:%7E:text=Psychogeography%20describes%20the%20effect%20of,emotions%20and%20behaviour%20of%20individuals">psychogeography</a>”: the idea that geographical locations exert a unique psychological effect on us.</p> <p>For instance, when you walk down a street, the architecture around you may be deliberately designed to encourage a certain kind of experience. Crossing a vibrant city square on a sunny morning evokes joy and a feeling of connection with others. There’s also usually a public event taking place.</p> <p>The Situationists valued drift, or <em>dérive</em> in French. This alludes to unplanned movement through a landscape during journeys on foot. By drifting aimlessly, we unintentionally redefine the traditional rules imposed by private or public land owners and property developers. We make ourselves open to the new unexpected and, in doing so, are liberated from the shackles of everyday routine.</p> <p>In <a href="https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-981-10-8100-2">our research</a>, my colleagues and I consider cities as places in which “getting lost” means exposing yourself to discovering the new and taken-for-granted.</p> <h2>Forge your own path</h2> <p>By understanding the Situationists – by looking away from our phones and allowing ourselves to get lost – we can rediscover our cities. We can see them for what they are beneath the blankets of posters, billboards and advertisements. How might we take back the image and make it work for us?</p> <p>The practise of geo-tagging images on social media, and sharing our location with others, could be considered close to the spirit of the Situationists. Although it’s often met with claims of <a href="https://www.nationalgeographic.com/travel/article/when-why-not-to-use-geotagging-overtourism-security">over-fuelling tourism</a> (especially regarding idyllic or otherwise protected sites), geo-tagging could <a href="https://www.melaninbasecamp.com/trip-reports/2019/5/1/five-reasons-why-you-should-keep-geotagging">inspire us</a> to actively seek out new places through visiting the source of an image.</p> <p>This could lead to culturally respectful engagement, and new-found respect for the rights of traditional custodians as we experience their lands in real life, rather than just through images on our phones.</p> <p>Then there are uniquely personal and anarchistic forms of resistance, wherein we can learn about the world around us by interweaving ourselves with our histories. In doing so we offer a new meaning to a historical message, and a new purpose. The Situationists called this process <em><a href="https://www.theartstory.org/movement/situationist-international/">détournement</a></em>, or hijacking.</p> <p>For instance, from my grandfather I inherited a biscuit tin of black and white photographs I believe were taken in the 1960s. They showed images of parks and wildlife, perhaps even of the same park, and cityscapes of London with people, streets and buildings.</p> <p>I have spent many hours wandering the London streets tracking down the exact places these images were snapped. I was juxtaposing past with present, and experiencing both continuity and change in the dialogues I had with my grandfather. In this way, I used images to augment (rather than replace) my lived experience of the material world.</p> <p>Urban art installations can also be examples of detournment as they make us re-think everyday conceptions. <a href="https://www.cityartsydney.com.au/artwork/forgotten-songs/">Forgotten Songs</a> by Michael Hill is one such example. A canopy of empty birdcages commemorates the songs of 50 different birds once heard in central Sydney, but which are now lost due to habitat removal as a result of urban development.</p> <p>There are also a number of groups, often with a strong environmental or civic rights focus, that partake in detournment. <a href="https://popularresistance.org/dancing-revolution-how-90s-protests-used-rave-culture-to-reclaim-the-streets/">Reclaim the Streets</a> is a movement with a long history in Australia. The group advocates for communities having ownership of and agency within public spaces. They may, for instance, “invade” a highway to throw a “<a href="https://pasttenseblog.files.wordpress.com/2022/02/road-rave.pdf">road rave</a>” as an act of reclamation.</p> <figure><iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/bUL0C_T-Sqk?wmode=transparent&start=999" width="440" height="260" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe></figure> <p>As French avant-garde philosopher <a href="https://www.themarginalian.org/2014/07/24/the-poetics-of-reverie-gaston-bachelard/">Gaston Bachelard</a> might have put it, when we’re bombarded by images there is no space left to daydream. We lose the opportunity to explore and question the world capitalism serves us through images.</p> <p>Perhaps now is a good time to set down the phone and follow in the Situationists’ footsteps. <img style="border: none !important; box-shadow: none !important; margin: 0 !important; max-height: 1px !important; max-width: 1px !important; min-height: 1px !important; min-width: 1px !important; opacity: 0 !important; outline: none !important; padding: 0 !important;" src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/221606/count.gif?distributor=republish-lightbox-basic" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" /></p> <p><a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/stephen-dobson-1093706"><em>Stephen Dobson</em></a><em>, Professor and Dean of Education and the Arts, <a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/cquniversity-australia-2140">CQUniversity Australia</a></em></p> <p><em>Image credits: Getty Images </em></p> <p><em>This article is republished from <a href="https://theconversation.com">The Conversation</a> under a Creative Commons license. Read the <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-art-of-getting-lost-how-re-discovering-your-city-can-be-an-antidote-to-capitalism-221606">original article</a>.</em></p>

Travel Tips

"They lost it": Margot Robbie's surprise encounter with Barbie fans

<p>Margot Robbie has recalled a sweet story about when she overheard a group of men talking about the <em>Barbie</em> movie, before giving them the surprise of their life. </p> <p>At a screening of the <em>Barbie</em> movie in Los Angeles, the Aussie actress told the audience of the heartwarming moment she encountered in Scotland, shortly after the film's release last July. </p> <p>At the SAG-AFTRA screening of the blockbuster movie, Robbie began, “I had this brilliant experience.”</p> <p>“I was in a pub in the middle of nowhere in Scotland and I listened for about 30 minutes to a group of guys on a bachelor party discussing the <em>Barbie</em> movie, not knowing that I was sitting two or three feet away from them.”</p> <p>Robbie continued, “It was just truly fascinating. There were people at the table who refused to see the <em>Barbie</em> movie."</p> <p>“One guy was like, ‘Dude, it is a cultural moment, don’t you want to be a part of culture?’ And the other guy was like, ‘I’ll never see it,’ and by the end he did want to see it. It was a whole thing."</p> <p>“I wasn’t going to go up to them, but then I did.”</p> <p>Before leaving the pub, Robbie casually waltzed up to the group of men who “lost it” when they discovered Barbie herself had overheard their conversation.</p> <p>“At the last minute as I was walking out I went to their table and I went ‘Thank you for seeing the <em>Barbie</em> movie’,” she added.</p> <p>“It was very funny, they lost it. It took a full minute for them to realise and I was practically out the door and they went ‘Ohhhh’.</p> <p>“People’s reactions to the movie have been the biggest reward of this entire experience.”</p> <p>The heartwarming story comes fresh on the heels of Margot being <a href="https://oversixty.com.au/entertainment/movies/margot-robbie-snubbed-as-oscar-nominations-announced" target="_blank" rel="noopener">snubbed</a> for a Best Actress nomination at this year's Oscars for the <em>Barbie</em> movie, which caused an uproar on social media. </p> <p>Margot addressed the snub at the LA screening, saying there's “no way to feel sad when you’re this blessed.”</p> <p>“Obviously, I think Greta should be nominated as a director,” she added.</p> <p>“What she did is a once-in-a-career, once-in-a-lifetime thing. What she pulled off, it really is."</p> <p>“We set out to do something that would shift culture, affect culture, just make some sort of impact. And it’s already done that and some, way more than we ever dreamt it would. And that is truly the biggest reward that could come out of all of this.”</p> <p><em>Image credits: Getty Images </em></p>

Movies

Climate activists throw soup at Mona Lisa

<p>Two climate change activists have hurled soup at the bullet-proof glass protecting Leonardo da Vinci’s iconic painting, the Mona Lisa, at the Louvre Museum in Paris. </p> <p>On Sunday morning, local time, a video posted on social media showed two women throwing red and orange soup onto the glass protecting the painting to the shock of bystanders. </p> <p>The incident came amid days of protests by French farmers across the country demanding better pay, taxes, and regulations.</p> <p>The two women, with the words "FOOD RIPOSTE" or "Food Counterattack" written on their T-shirts, managed to pass under the security barrier and stood in front of the painting, while shouting slogans for a sustainable food system.</p> <p>“What is more important? Art or the right to healthy and sustainable food?” they asked. </p> <p>“Your agricultural system is sick. Our farmers are dying at work,” they added, before the security put black panels in front of the painting, and asked visitors to evacuate the space. </p> <blockquote class="twitter-tweet"> <p dir="ltr" lang="fr">ALERTE - Des militantes pour le climat jettent de la soupe sur le tableau de La Joconde au musée du Louvre. <a href="https://twitter.com/CLPRESSFR?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@CLPRESSFR</a> <a href="https://t.co/Aa7gavRRc4">pic.twitter.com/Aa7gavRRc4</a></p> <p>— CLPRESS / Agence de presse (@CLPRESSFR) <a href="https://twitter.com/CLPRESSFR/status/1751538762687893894?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 28, 2024</a></p></blockquote> <p>On its website, the "Food Riposte" group said that the French government is breaking its climate commitments, and they demanded a state-sponsored health care system to be put in to give people better access to healthy food, while providing farmers with a decent income. </p> <p>The protests comes after the French government announced a series of measures for agricultural workers on Friday, which they believe do not fully address their demands. </p> <p><em>Image: Twitter</em><span style="font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, 'Segoe UI', Roboto, Oxygen, Ubuntu, Cantarell, 'Open Sans', 'Helvetica Neue', sans-serif;"> </span></p>

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Embracing the art of beauty without compromise

<p dir="ltr">When it comes to trying out the latest makeup products, people with sensitivities are often left behind. </p> <p dir="ltr">Whether it’s sensitive skin or allergies, makeup users can often find products that work for them and their limitations. </p> <p dir="ltr">But when it comes to having sensitive eyes, there are very few options for those who still want to partake in applying makeup. </p> <p dir="ltr">In answer to this gap in the market, an Australian ophthalmologist has developed a game-changing product that can give everyone the long lashes they deserve, even if they suffer from eye sensitivities. </p> <p dir="ltr">Enter: OKKIYO. </p> <blockquote class="instagram-media" style="background: #FFF; border: 0; border-radius: 3px; box-shadow: 0 0 1px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.5),0 1px 10px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.15); margin: 1px; max-width: 540px; min-width: 326px; padding: 0; width: calc(100% - 2px);" data-instgrm-permalink="https://www.instagram.com/reel/C0xoSFPvHhl/?utm_source=ig_embed&utm_campaign=loading" data-instgrm-version="14"> <div style="padding: 16px;"> <div style="display: flex; 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border-radius: 50%; height: 12.5px; width: 12.5px; transform: translateX(0px) translateY(7px);"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; height: 12.5px; transform: rotate(-45deg) translateX(3px) translateY(1px); width: 12.5px; flex-grow: 0; margin-right: 14px; margin-left: 2px;"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; height: 12.5px; width: 12.5px; transform: translateX(9px) translateY(-18px);"> </div> </div> <div style="margin-left: 8px;"> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; flex-grow: 0; height: 20px; width: 20px;"> </div> <div style="width: 0; height: 0; border-top: 2px solid transparent; border-left: 6px solid #f4f4f4; border-bottom: 2px solid transparent; transform: translateX(16px) translateY(-4px) rotate(30deg);"> </div> </div> <div style="margin-left: auto;"> <div style="width: 0px; border-top: 8px solid #F4F4F4; border-right: 8px solid transparent; transform: translateY(16px);"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; flex-grow: 0; height: 12px; width: 16px; transform: translateY(-4px);"> </div> <div style="width: 0; height: 0; border-top: 8px solid #F4F4F4; border-left: 8px solid transparent; transform: translateY(-4px) translateX(8px);"> </div> </div> </div> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: column; flex-grow: 1; justify-content: center; margin-bottom: 24px;"> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; margin-bottom: 6px; width: 224px;"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; width: 144px;"> </div> </div> <p style="color: #c9c8cd; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 0; margin-top: 8px; overflow: hidden; padding: 8px 0 7px; text-align: center; text-overflow: ellipsis; white-space: nowrap;"><a style="color: #c9c8cd; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 17px; text-decoration: none;" href="https://www.instagram.com/reel/C0xoSFPvHhl/?utm_source=ig_embed&utm_campaign=loading" target="_blank" rel="noopener">A post shared by Beauty + Makeup for Sensitive Eyes - OKKIYO™️ (@okkiyoeyes)</a></p> </div> </blockquote> <p dir="ltr">The OKKIYO Eye-Care collection was crafted with expertise by Dr. Jacqueline Beltz, with each product being the perfect blend of aesthetics and eye health. </p> <p dir="ltr">The range offers meticulously formulated products to beautify sensitive eyes, ensuring you don't just look good but also feel great.</p> <p dir="ltr">From the transformative PRIORITEYES Mascara to the gentle Sensiteyes Cleansing System, every item is a promise of quality, safety, and confidence.</p> <blockquote class="instagram-media" style="background: #FFF; 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font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-weight: 550; line-height: 18px;">View this post on Instagram</div> </div> <div style="padding: 12.5% 0;"> </div> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: row; margin-bottom: 14px; align-items: center;"> <div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; height: 12.5px; width: 12.5px; transform: translateX(0px) translateY(7px);"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; height: 12.5px; transform: rotate(-45deg) translateX(3px) translateY(1px); width: 12.5px; flex-grow: 0; margin-right: 14px; margin-left: 2px;"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; height: 12.5px; width: 12.5px; transform: translateX(9px) translateY(-18px);"> </div> </div> <div style="margin-left: 8px;"> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; flex-grow: 0; height: 20px; width: 20px;"> </div> <div style="width: 0; height: 0; border-top: 2px solid transparent; border-left: 6px solid #f4f4f4; border-bottom: 2px solid transparent; transform: translateX(16px) translateY(-4px) rotate(30deg);"> </div> </div> <div style="margin-left: auto;"> <div style="width: 0px; border-top: 8px solid #F4F4F4; border-right: 8px solid transparent; transform: translateY(16px);"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; flex-grow: 0; height: 12px; width: 16px; transform: translateY(-4px);"> </div> <div style="width: 0; height: 0; border-top: 8px solid #F4F4F4; border-left: 8px solid transparent; transform: translateY(-4px) translateX(8px);"> </div> </div> </div> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: column; flex-grow: 1; justify-content: center; margin-bottom: 24px;"> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; margin-bottom: 6px; width: 224px;"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; width: 144px;"> </div> </div> <p style="color: #c9c8cd; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 0; margin-top: 8px; overflow: hidden; padding: 8px 0 7px; text-align: center; text-overflow: ellipsis; white-space: nowrap;"><a style="color: #c9c8cd; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 17px; text-decoration: none;" href="https://www.instagram.com/p/Cvd68g8tBWE/?utm_source=ig_embed&utm_campaign=loading" target="_blank" rel="noopener">A post shared by Beauty + Makeup for Sensitive Eyes - OKKIYO™️ (@okkiyoeyes)</a></p> </div> </blockquote> <p dir="ltr">The <a href="https://www.okkiyo.com/products/protect-and-preserve-mascara">PRIORITEYES Mascara</a> is crafted with natural ingredients that will protect your eyes, while still doing all the things you want a mascara to do. </p> <p dir="ltr">The mascara is tailored for those with sensitive eyes, ensuring a comfortable, irritation-free experience, making it the perfect blend of medical-grade care and cosmetic elegance.</p> <p dir="ltr">Its clean formula boasts over 90% natural ingredients, including nourishing Australian Manuka honey and rejuvenating citrus extracts, while also promising no smudging, lasting through watery eyes and eye drops, all while being a breeze to remove.</p> <p dir="ltr">Another feature of the OKKIYO mascara is its accessible packaging, as the square tube prevents the product from rolling away and out of sight, with the tube also featuring braille, so those with low vision can identify the product. </p> <p dir="ltr">When it comes to removing eye makeup, cleansing the eyelid margins is one of the most important steps in looking after the delicate eye area, especially if you have sensitive eyes. </p> <p dir="ltr">Thankfully, <a href="https://www.okkiyo.com/products/okkiyo-cleansing-cloth">OKKIYO cleansing cloths</a> effectively remove all traces of eye make-up as well as any dried oil, bacteria and skin cells from the lashes and lids, all while being good for the environment. </p> <blockquote class="instagram-media" style="background: #FFF; border: 0; border-radius: 3px; box-shadow: 0 0 1px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.5),0 1px 10px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.15); margin: 1px; max-width: 540px; min-width: 326px; padding: 0; width: calc(100% - 2px);" data-instgrm-permalink="https://www.instagram.com/reel/C14D7OrvSYd/?utm_source=ig_embed&utm_campaign=loading" data-instgrm-version="14"> <div style="padding: 16px;"> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: row; align-items: center;"> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; flex-grow: 0; height: 40px; margin-right: 14px; width: 40px;"> </div> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: column; flex-grow: 1; justify-content: center;"> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; margin-bottom: 6px; width: 100px;"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; width: 60px;"> </div> </div> </div> <div style="padding: 19% 0;"> </div> <div style="display: block; height: 50px; margin: 0 auto 12px; width: 50px;"> </div> <div style="padding-top: 8px;"> <div style="color: #3897f0; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-weight: 550; line-height: 18px;">View this post on Instagram</div> </div> <div style="padding: 12.5% 0;"> </div> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: row; margin-bottom: 14px; align-items: center;"> <div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; height: 12.5px; width: 12.5px; transform: translateX(0px) translateY(7px);"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; height: 12.5px; transform: rotate(-45deg) translateX(3px) translateY(1px); width: 12.5px; flex-grow: 0; margin-right: 14px; margin-left: 2px;"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; height: 12.5px; width: 12.5px; transform: translateX(9px) translateY(-18px);"> </div> </div> <div style="margin-left: 8px;"> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; flex-grow: 0; height: 20px; width: 20px;"> </div> <div style="width: 0; height: 0; border-top: 2px solid transparent; border-left: 6px solid #f4f4f4; border-bottom: 2px solid transparent; transform: translateX(16px) translateY(-4px) rotate(30deg);"> </div> </div> <div style="margin-left: auto;"> <div style="width: 0px; border-top: 8px solid #F4F4F4; border-right: 8px solid transparent; transform: translateY(16px);"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; flex-grow: 0; height: 12px; width: 16px; transform: translateY(-4px);"> </div> <div style="width: 0; height: 0; border-top: 8px solid #F4F4F4; border-left: 8px solid transparent; transform: translateY(-4px) translateX(8px);"> </div> </div> </div> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: column; flex-grow: 1; justify-content: center; margin-bottom: 24px;"> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; margin-bottom: 6px; width: 224px;"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; width: 144px;"> </div> </div> <p style="color: #c9c8cd; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 0; margin-top: 8px; overflow: hidden; padding: 8px 0 7px; text-align: center; text-overflow: ellipsis; white-space: nowrap;"><a style="color: #c9c8cd; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 17px; text-decoration: none;" href="https://www.instagram.com/reel/C14D7OrvSYd/?utm_source=ig_embed&utm_campaign=loading" target="_blank" rel="noopener">A post shared by Beauty + Makeup for Sensitive Eyes - OKKIYO™️ (@okkiyoeyes)</a></p> </div> </blockquote> <p dir="ltr">The reusable muslin cloths cleanse the lid margins allowing the oil glands to function properly, producing tears that naturally desensitise the eyes. </p> <p dir="ltr">OKKIYO is the first Australian beauty brand to cater to the over 2.2 billion people in the world with low vision, and now, after three years in the making, the OKKIYO range is available exclusively at <a href="http://www.okkiyo.com.au/">www.okkiyo.com.au</a>.</p> <p dir="ltr">A proportion of profits from each OKKIYO sale will go to supporting Aboriginal Eye Health, improvements for people with low vision and general eye health research.</p> <p dir="ltr">Given the ophthalmologist-created and tested formula, those with eye sensitivities no longer have to choose between protecting their vision and looking fabulous thanks to the revolutionary OKKIYO system. </p> <p dir="ltr"><em>Image credits: Getty Images</em></p> <p><span id="docs-internal-guid-5dc0b4d6-7fff-4672-607b-3530170c75c6"></span></p>

Beauty & Style

The enduring appeal of Friends, and why so many of us feel we’ve lost a personal friend in Matthew Perry

<p><em><a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/adam-gerace-325968">Adam Gerace</a>, <a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/cquniversity-australia-2140">CQUniversity Australia</a></em></p> <p>The <a href="https://www.9news.com.au/videos/world/friends-star-matthew-perry-dies-aged-54/cloatn0ae00ea0jqbpdz0h8td">death of Matthew Perry</a>, best known for his role as Chandler Bing in the television series Friends, has seen an outpouring of grief from fans and the Hollywood community.</p> <p>His passing at age 54 has shocked both those who admired his acting work, as well as those who followed his efforts to bring awareness to <a href="https://people.com/tv/matthew-perry-opens-up-about-addiction-new-memoir/">the pains of addiction</a>.</p> <p>Tributes to Perry have understandably focused on his star-making turn on the incredibly popular television sitcom. Scenes, catchphrases, and his character’s lines have been lovingly repurposed across the internet to memorialise the gifted actor.</p> <p>Meanwhile, many viewers have situated their <a href="https://variety.com/2023/tv/news/friends-fans-mourn-matthew-perry-new-york-apartment-1235772520/">recollections</a> of Perry and the series within the context of their own experiences.</p> <p>Viewers who came of age, or were the characters’ ages during the show’s original run, have reminisced about what the work of Perry and his co-stars meant to them at formative times in their lives. Newer viewers have similarly shared how important the series has been to them – their relationship with the show often beginning long after production ended.</p> <p>For many, Friends was the television equivalent of the soundtrack to their lives.</p> <p>To appreciate the staying power of the series for original and <a href="https://www.etonline.com/streaming-friends-how-a-90s-sitcom-became-gen-zs-new-favorite-show-132624">newer viewers alike</a> almost 30 years since it debuted, we need to consider what functions television viewing serves and the bonds we form with its characters.</p> <h2>Enduring appeal</h2> <p>Part of Friends’ popularity lies in its timing. The show premiered in 1994, a period when network television was still dominant. By its end a decade later, while the power of the big television networks had <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/08838150701820924">eroded</a>, the series had maintained <a href="https://www.ratingsryan.com/2022/09/friends-nbc-ratings-recap.html">an average</a> of more than 20 million viewers each season.</p> <p>The 2004 finale brought in a <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2004/05/08/arts/friends-finale-s-audience-is-the-fourth-biggest-ever.html">record-breaking</a> 52.5 million viewers in the United States. The series then entered repeats around the world. It hasn’t left our screens since.</p> <p>The late 90s and early 2000s have sometimes been referred to as the end of monoculture. While a <a href="https://www.vox.com/the-goods/2019/12/17/21024439/monoculture-algorithm-netflix-spotify">contested and controversial idea</a> because of, among other concerns, who was included and excluded on our screens, monoculture meant we watched <a href="https://www.npr.org/sections/bestmusic2012/2012/12/21/167836852/the-year-in-pop-charts-return-of-the-monoculture">many of the same things</a>.</p> <p>One of the most popular shows of its era, Friends brought people together. It was a show we watched with our families or friends, spoke about the next day with colleagues, and it provided a common connection. It allowed bonding with real friends as much as fictional ones.</p> <p>Friends did not only reflect style of the time; it also frequently created it. Jennifer Aniston’s haircut, coined “<a href="https://www.bustle.com/style/the-rachel-haircut">The Rachel</a>”, or Perry’s lovable smart-alecky cadence, typified with Chandler’s catchphrase of “Could I <em>be</em> any more…”, were endlessly imitated. I know I attempted to replicate Chandler’s <a href="https://www.gq.com.au/style/celebrity/unexpectedly-great-fashion-inspiration-courtesy-of-friends/image-gallery/f55ac75cc180e31c462525da961295fc">sweater vests</a> and light blue denim look. Participation provided viewers <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1540-5931.2011.00866.x">a sense</a> of identity.</p> <p>As people enter their 30s and 40s, they often <a href="https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0208595">gravitate</a> towards the memories made during their formative adolescent and young adult years. So perhaps it’s no surprise Friends endures for original viewers as it represents – and was a part of – their lives at this important time.</p> <h2>Likeable characters</h2> <p>Television and other fictional media meet our needs for <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-2958.2009.01368.x">both</a> pleasure and extracting meaning. We get excited, entertained and moved by television.</p> <p>As part of this, we bond with fictional characters. We cannot help but <a href="https://doi.org/10.1207/S15327825MCS0403_01">empathise</a> with them. A series like Friends with its characters and their combinations of breakups, makeups and other mishaps allowed us to safely use our empathy muscles to cheer on and sometimes commiserate with the group of six. It helped that each character was flawed but inherently likeable.</p> <p>Fictional characters also allow us to <a href="https://theconversation.com/neighbours-vs-friends-we-found-out-which-beloved-show-fans-mourned-more-when-it-ended-212843">experience lifestyles</a> we might not otherwise. In the case of Friends, who didn’t want to live in a rent-controlled apartment like Monica’s, or regularly meet their supportive and funny pals for coffee at Central Perk? As a teen, I imagined such a world for myself in the not-too-distant future.</p> <p>Younger generations might be more aware of how out-of-reach that lifestyle was, or find the show’s <a href="https://ew.com/tv/jennifer-aniston-friends-offensive-new-generation/">humour sometimes dated</a>. But the idea of what the friends’ lifestyle represented – possibility, freedom, a chosen family – evidently still holds appeal.</p> <h2>Fictional relationships, but real sadness</h2> <p>In forming relationships with fictional characters, we form bonds with the performers who bring them to life. The lines between character and creator become blurry, both because of the knowledge about actors’ lives celebrity culture affords us, but also because their characters seem so real. When the actors pass away, we <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2016.06.042">feel real grief</a>.</p> <p>It’s important for fans of Matthew Perry to <a href="https://womensagenda.com.au/latest/why-with-all-the-sht-happening-in-the-world-its-still-okay-to-grieve-a-celebritys-death/">acknowledge</a> their loss. Even though his character is fictional, and you didn’t know him personally, you can still feel sad. Watching the series may be difficult right now. With time, it will become easier.</p> <p>Matthew Perry wanted <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/matthew-perry-death-addiction-alcoholism-drugs-b2437980.html">his legacy</a> to be awareness of addiction and the help he provided to people struggling with this disorder. Hopefully what will be felt now, alongside collective sadness, is an empathy for those facing addiction. That may be the power of television, and of a character named Chandler, and the actor who brought him to life, who many considered their friend.<img style="border: none !important; box-shadow: none !important; margin: 0 !important; max-height: 1px !important; max-width: 1px !important; min-height: 1px !important; min-width: 1px !important; opacity: 0 !important; outline: none !important; padding: 0 !important;" src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/216626/count.gif?distributor=republish-lightbox-basic" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" /></p> <p><a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/adam-gerace-325968"><em>Adam Gerace</em></a><em>, Senior Lecturer and Head of Course - Positive Psychology, <a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/cquniversity-australia-2140">CQUniversity Australia</a></em></p> <p><em>Image credits: Getty Images</em></p> <p><em>This article is republished from <a href="https://theconversation.com">The Conversation</a> under a Creative Commons license. Read the <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-enduring-appeal-of-friends-and-why-so-many-of-us-feel-weve-lost-a-personal-friend-in-matthew-perry-216626">original article</a>.</em></p>

2023 Drone Photo Awards fly high as winners are revealed

<p dir="ltr">The winners of the 2023 Drone Photo Awards have been announced, with photographers all around the world recognised for their commitment to aerial photography in the fierce international competition.</p> <p dir="ltr">Thousands of submissions were received for the annual contest across nine different categories: photo of the year, urban, wildlife, sport, people, nature, abstract, wedding, series, and video. </p> <p dir="ltr">The Drone Photo Awards are open to both aerial photography and video, with platforms including “fixed-wing aircraft, helicopters, unmanned aerial vehicles, balloons, blimps and dirigibles, rockets, kites, and parachutes.”</p> <p dir="ltr">The competition’s top award, Photo of the Year, went to a shot by Israeli photographer Or Adar. </p> <p dir="ltr">His submission, ‘Must resist’, presents the image of “protesters holding banners during a demonstration again Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s judicial overhaul plans” from an aerial perspective, capturing the moment in Tel Aviv when “tens of thousands of protesters took to the streets of Israeli cities for the ninth straight week, on Saturday March 4th, to fight a government plan to overhaul the country's court system.” </p> <blockquote class="twitter-tweet"> <p dir="ltr" lang="en">🏆“𝐃𝐫𝐨𝐧𝐞 𝐏𝐡𝐨𝐭𝐨 𝐀𝐰𝐚𝐫𝐝𝐬 𝟐𝟎𝟐𝟑” 𝐏𝐡𝐨𝐭𝐨 𝐨𝐟 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐘𝐞𝐚𝐫 🏆</p> <p>Congrats to Or Adar for his stunning image “Must resist”. 👏👏👏<a href="https://t.co/leaZw2sazu">https://t.co/leaZw2sazu</a><a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/sienawards?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#sienawards</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/dronephotoawards?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#dronephotoawards</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/photocontest?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#photocontest</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/dronephotography?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#dronephotography</a> <a href="https://t.co/pyReGOTMC9">pic.twitter.com/pyReGOTMC9</a></p> <p>— Siena Awards (@SIPAContest) <a href="https://twitter.com/SIPAContest/status/1671458317472866313?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 21, 2023</a></p></blockquote> <p dir="ltr">Polish photographer Sebastian Piórek took home the win in the Urban category for his shot of Chorzów in southern Poland, which was described by The Siena Awards as a photo that “beautifully juxtaposes the colourful ambiance and harmony of the playground against the backdrop of the city.”</p> <p dir="ltr">Indian photographer Danu Paran won the Wildlife category with his shot of a napping elephant, where “the elephant’s grey and wrinkled skin perfectly merges with the natural landscape, creating a harmonious composition that showcases the beauty of wildlife.”</p> <p dir="ltr">French photographer David Machet won for Sport with his photo of tightrope walker Nathan Paulin in the French Alps, as Paulin traversed a ‘highline’ almost 2.5 km in the air. </p> <p dir="ltr">The People category went to British photographer Simon Heather’s picture of people in Portugal enjoying a sunny day by the sea, while the Series award went to American photographer George Steinmetz for his photo series of farmland.</p> <p dir="ltr">Indian photographer Thomas Vijayan took home the Nature award for his photo of Svalbard, with Vijayan sharing that “it was surprisingly sad to see that the ice had already melted in June, and we were able to reach the ice cap with our ship.”</p> <p dir="ltr">The Abstract winner was Spanish photographer Ignacio Medem for a shot demonstrating how drought and poor water resource management has impacted a river in the American West.</p> <p dir="ltr">Polish photographer Krzysztof Krawczyk found success in the Wedding category, with his snap of newlyweds on a boat in the middle of a lake, while “they are enveloped by voluminous clouds and surrounded by thousands of dry leaves, resembling stars and creating gentle waves.”</p> <p dir="ltr">And last but not least, Bashir Abu won the Video category with “Why I Travel the World Alone”.</p> <p><iframe title="YouTube video player" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Z6t4y3A28uA" width="560" height="315" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe></p> <p dir="ltr">And for anyone hoping to check the winners out for themselves, Adar’s image - as well as the top photographs from the other winning categories - will be available for viewing in the Above Us Only Sky exhibition set to take place for the first time at Italy’s San Galgano Abbey from July 8 to November 19. </p> <p dir="ltr"><em>Images: Drone Photo Awards</em></p>

Art

Artist creates amazing images of celebrities with their younger selves

<p>A talented artist has taken a step back in time by capturing photos of older celebrities with their younger selves.</p> <p>Dutch designer Ard Gelinck has helped fans envision what their favourite A-listers looked like when reunited with their past selves by cleverly photoshopping images together. </p> <p>The photos, which depict stars embracing their younger selves in different settings, show how these celebs have aged throughout the years while their careers have skyrocketed. </p> <p>The digital creator combines existing photos of famous faces into one seamless “then and now” shot, revealing how they’ve aged over time.</p> <p>The series of photos showcase celebrities such as Bruce Springsteen, Boy George, Madonna, Harrison Ford, Sylvester Stallone and many more. </p> <p>The artist also featured celebrities that have died, including Robin Williams, George Michael and Tony Bennett, giving fans a trip down memory lane. </p> <p><em>Image credits: Instagram</em></p>

Art

The art of meditation

<p>Meditation is essentially relaxation time and is based on the art of focusing 100 per cent of your attention on one thing. The practice comes with many health benefits including increased concentration, decreased anxiety and improved mental and physical health.</p> <p>While it can be challenge to set aside regular meditation time, the benefits you gain in as little as five minutes will soon have you looking forward to your “me” time.</p> <p>Here are some tips to help you get the most out of it.</p> <p><strong>Choose a convenient time.</strong> You can meditate any time, whether you’re already feeling relaxed or need to de-stress. The best time is when you’re not likely to be disturbed and are free to relax. Sunrise and sunset are ideal, particularly first thing in the morning – it is quieter, your mind isn’t filled with the usual clutter, and there’s less chance you’ll be disturbed.</p> <p><strong>Choose a quiet place.</strong> Quiet, peaceful surroundings can make meditation more enjoyable and relaxing. But the good news is that as you progress, you’ll learn to ignore any interruptions that arise – sirens, phones and the hustle and bustle of the world around you.</p> <p><strong>Meditate with purpose.</strong> If you’re a beginner, keep in mind that meditation is an active process. The art of focusing your attention on a single point is hard work, and you have to be purposefully engaged!</p> <p><strong>Establish a regular practice.</strong> The idea “practice makes perfect” definitely applies to meditation and as per the point above, if you‘re going to get positive benefits, you need to stay committed.</p> <p><strong>Sit comfortably.</strong> Make sure you’re relaxed and comfortable. Sit up straight, keep your shoulders and neck relaxed, and eyes closed. Luckily, there’s no need to sit in the lotus position!</p> <p><strong>Don’t meditate on a full stomach.</strong> It’s best to meditate before a meal so you don’t feel too full or doze off while meditating. However, don’t meditate when you’re hungry. You‘ll find it tricky if you keep thinking about food the whole time! </p> <p><strong>Choose a meditation practice.</strong> There are a range of different meditation techniques to explore. The most popular include:</p> <p>1. Observing your breathing – without altering the rhythm of your breathing, simply notice every inhalation and exhalation. If your mind wanders, gently bring it back to the breath.</p> <p>2. Repeating a mantra – saying a sound, word or phrase in your mind over and over can lead you into a state of deep relaxation. You can learn transcendental meditation from a trained teacher who will give you a mantra, or you can try the word “om” or other words like “peace”.</p> <p>3. Practicing visualisation – taking your mind to a safe, calm place can be a pleasant way to meditate. Imagine you are on a beach or in a garden and picture every detail of your surroundings.</p> <p>4. Progressively relaxing the body – while sitting or lying down, try moving your awareness slowly through your body from your head to your toes. Relaxing each part of your body is an effective way to achieve a wonderful state of calm.</p> <p><em>Image credits: Getty Images</em></p>

Mind

Are the Oscars going to take animated films more seriously?

<p><a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/robert-boucaut-1215760">Robert Boucaut</a>, <em><a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/university-of-adelaide-1119">University of Adelaide</a></em></p> <p>“Animation is cinema. Animation is not a genre. And, animation is ready to be taken to the next step – we are all ready for it, please help us, keep animation in the conversation.”</p> <p>This was Guillermo del Toro’s testament accepting the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature Film in 2023 for <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1488589/">Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio</a>, released by Netflix. As one of the most acclaimed modern auteurs – and one who has <a href="https://www.avclub.com/guillermo-del-toro-is-going-all-in-on-animation-1850539253">announced his intention to stick with animation</a> as his preferred medium – his acceptance speech reads like a plea directly to the academy.</p> <figure><iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/shW9i6k8cB0?wmode=transparent&start=0" width="440" height="260" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe></figure> <h2>Animated films at the Oscars</h2> <p>The Oscars have had a storied history of engaging with animated cinema. Since 2002, they have awarded a Best Animated Feature award, first won by Shrek. This was a time of technological innovations for 3D animation (think Toy Story or A Bug’s Life), and of standout A-list voice performances (Robin Williams in Aladdin, or Shrek’s star-studded cast).</p> <p>By including animated films as a standalone category, the Oscars ended up segregating them: animation was treated as its own thing. Beauty and the Beast broke ground as the first-ever animated nominee for the Best Picture Oscar in 1992, but only two films have achieved such a feat since.</p> <figure><iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/iurbZwxKFUE?wmode=transparent&start=0" width="440" height="260" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe></figure> <p>Up (2009) and Toy Story 3 (2010) were Best Picture Oscar nominees (and Best Animated Feature winners) of their respective years. However, such recognition only came after the academy expanded its Best Picture category from five nominees to up to 10. This was a concerted effort to include more popular films in the Oscars due to waning audience interest, after Best Picture snubs of The Dark Knight and WALL-E.</p> <p>If animated films have had difficulty breaking into the Oscars’ vision of a Best Picture, then voice talent has been outright bypassed for consideration in acting categories. Since Shrek, stars have increasingly taken on voice work for animated projects in ways that elevates them from a side-hustle to key parts of their CVs.</p> <p>For instance, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5L1iX5JiuwI">Chris Pratt</a> and <a href="https://www.vogue.com/article/anya-taylor-joy-princess-peach-super-mario-premiere">Anya Taylor-Joy</a>’s promotional duties for The Super Mario Bros. Movie represent significant time and stardom investments for the sake of animated intellectual property.</p> <p>Yet without the physical body to observe, the Oscars have ignored voice work in animated films. The most meaningful push to have a voice performance nominated was for Scarlett Johansson’s in Her where she played a computer operating system. Johansson’s performance was nuanced, played with chemistry against her co-stars, and, ironically, Her was not an animated film.</p> <figure><iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/dJTU48_yghs?wmode=transparent&start=0" width="440" height="260" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe></figure> <h2>Are things changing?</h2> <p>The <a href="https://theconversation.com/winning-everything-everywhere-all-at-once-5-experts-on-the-big-moments-at-the-oscars-2023-201661">Oscars this year</a> shifted their brand of “prestige” to value the “cinematic experience” (and box office money) in the age of streaming.</p> <p>The sweep of Everything Everywhere All at Once and Best Picture nominations for Top Gun: Maverick and Avatar: The Way of Water in 2023 signal the academy conspicuously praising populist fare for bringing audiences into the physical cinema. This then hopefully attracts <a href="https://variety.com/2023/tv/news/2023-oscar-ratings-academy-awards-audience-1235550070/">more audience eyeballs to an Oscars telecast</a> where they are likely to have actually seen some of the nominees.</p> <p>Popular film’s infiltration of the Oscars even seeped into the acting categories. Everything Everywhere All At Once’s indie cred made nominations (and three eventual wins) for its stars logical and welcome, but even Black Panther: Wakanda Forever’s Angela Bassett scored a Best Supporting Actress nomination, the first acting recognition for the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Its online fandom was instrumental here, having opined the academy’s biases against their beloved franchise.</p> <p>Now, Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse has arrived ahead of the 2024 Oscars race. The animated film boasts a star-studded cast, including past Oscar nominees and winners like Daniel Kaluuya and Hailee Steinfeld in key supporting roles. Shameik Moore’s lead vocal performance as Miles Morales is also exceptional. Still figuring out what it means to balance being Spider-Man with a complicated home and social life, he sounds remarkably recognisable as a modern teenager.</p> <figure><iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/cqGjhVJWtEg?wmode=transparent&start=0" width="440" height="260" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe></figure> <p>Credit for this extends to a snappy script and intricate editing that bounces through its complex multiverse setting and superhero super-stakes to focus on moving character development. Thematically, it reflects on the artistic value of the superhero genre, unpacking the Spider-Man lore across its many iterations. And, of course, the visual artistry on display is mind-blowing, truly pushing cinematic excess in ways that only animation (currently) can.</p> <p>Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse is the kind of popular cinema that the academy is currently primed to take more seriously. It’s on track to become one of the year’s box office successes, serves a dedicated fandom, showcases a stacked cast and dynamically plays with genre and narrative conventions.</p> <p>As part two of a trilogy, it is unlikely to take out the Best Picture race altogether (Beyond the Spider-Verse, coming in 2024, is the more likely candidate if it sticks the landing). But it is still well-positioned to break through the confines of the Best Animated Feature category.<img style="border: none !important; box-shadow: none !important; margin: 0 !important; max-height: 1px !important; max-width: 1px !important; min-height: 1px !important; min-width: 1px !important; opacity: 0 !important; outline: none !important; padding: 0 !important;" src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/207716/count.gif?distributor=republish-lightbox-basic" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" /></p> <p><a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/robert-boucaut-1215760">Robert Boucaut</a>, PhD Candidate & Tutor, Media Department, <em><a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/university-of-adelaide-1119">University of Adelaide</a></em></p> <p><em>This article is republished from <a href="https://theconversation.com">The Conversation</a> under a Creative Commons license. Read the <a href="https://theconversation.com/are-the-oscars-going-to-take-animated-films-more-seriously-207716">original article</a>.</em></p> <p><em>Images: Sony Pictures Animation</em></p>

Movies

Transgress to impress: why do people tag buildings – and are there any solutions?

<p><em><a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/flavia-marcello-403040">Flavia Marcello</a>, <a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/swinburne-university-of-technology-767">Swinburne University of Technology</a></em></p> <p>In 1985 photographer Rennie Ellis <a href="https://trove.nla.gov.au/work/8707788">defined graffiti</a> as “the result of someone’s urge to say something – to comment, inform, entertain, persuade, offend or simply to confirm his or her own existence here on earth”. Since the mid-1980s, graffiti has crossed from vandalism to an accepted form of art practice through large murals or “pieces” and stencil art aimed at informing, entertaining and persuading us.</p> <p>But these are outnumbered by the tags you see everywhere. These stylised icon-type signatures define a hand style and confirm their author’s existence on Earth. These, for many of us, remain an eyesore. If you walk through an urban environment filled with tags, you may feel less safe. Heavily tagged areas can suggest the area is not cared for or surveilled.</p> <p>So why are Australian cities so full of tags? The problem is, the main solution proven to work is expensive. When tags go up, paint over them – and keep doing it. While anti-graffiti paint exists, it’s not widely used at present.</p> <h2>Why do people tag?</h2> <p>Graffiti in urban centres is often tied to the world-wide proliferation of hip-hop culture. Along with DJing, rapping and breakdancing, “Graf” or “writing” is considered one of its <a href="https://www.britannica.com/art/hip-hop">four pillars</a>.</p> <p>Posturing (or showing off) is a big part of tagging. When you see a tag on a freeway overpass or seemingly inaccessible building parapet, it’s not only confirming the tagger’s existence, it’s bragging. See how high I climbed! See what crazy risks I took!</p> <p>As one tagger in Sydney’s outer south-western suburb of Campbelltown <a href="https://www.aic.gov.au/sites/default/files/2020-05/vandalism-graffiti-state-rail-authority-nsw.pdf">told researchers</a> in the 1980s:</p> <blockquote> <p>If you get on a train and see your name and know you’ve been here before that’s real good. Like, I was here. Or you see your mate’s name and you can say, hey, I know him […] It’s really good if you can get your name up in a difficult place where nobody else has. Other kids look at that and think, great!</p> </blockquote> <p>So why do people tag?</p> <ul> <li> <p>it boosts self-esteem and a sense of belonging to a social network, particularly for teens experiencing alienation at school</p> </li> <li> <p>it demonstrates bravado. Risky places have the added advantages of being both highly visible and harder to remove</p> </li> <li> <p>it gives graf artists practice for bigger pieces. You have to work quickly and accurately, especially in precarious positions where you could get caught at any moment.</p> </li> </ul> <p>While cities like Melbourne <a href="https://www.timeout.com/melbourne/art/where-to-find-the-best-street-art-in-melbourne">have embraced</a> larger murals and pieces as street art – even making them a tourist attraction – tagging isn’t regarded the same way.</p> <p>So why do non-taggers hate it? On a broader level, tagging can signify a sense of social degradation which makes people feel less safe.</p> <p>There’s no clear link between <a href="https://www.aic.gov.au/publications/rip/rip6">more graffiti and more crime</a>. Even so, the public perception is that tagging is a sign warning of the presence of <a href="https://www.aic.gov.au/sites/default/files/2020-05/vandalism-graffiti-state-rail-authority-nsw.pdf">disaffected and potentially violent</a> people in gangs.</p> <p>Asked to picture a tagger and you will most likely come up with a stock photo stereotype: a male teenager in a hoodie from a seedy area. But you would not be completely right. It is true just under half (46%) of graffiti damage and related offences are committed by 14 to 16 year old males, but the largest percentage of offenders actually come from <a href="https://www.goodbyegraffiti.wa.gov.au/Schools/Facts-for-Students/Who-are-the-most-likely-offenders-of-graffiti">middle- to high-income families</a>.</p> <p>So what tools do we have to manage it?</p> <h2>Punishment</h2> <p>It’s perfectly legal to commission a graf artist to paint a wall of a building you own. Many people do this to avoid a street-facing wall being tagged. For it to be illegal, tagging or graffiti has to be done without the owner’s permission.</p> <p>Since the majority of taggers are under 18, if they’re caught, punishment will usually include a caution, fines (presumably paid by bemused but cashed up parents) and cleaning off tags.</p> <p>But punitive measures only go so far because the appeal of graffiti is the transgression. Other measures include keeping spray paint locked away or not for sale to under 18s as well as zero-tolerance rapid removal. This can work for a while, but taggers know their tags are temporary. It’s a constant game of cat and mouse a committed tagger will eventually win.</p> <h2>Technical solutions</h2> <p>If you’ve walked past workers scrubbing or pressure washing tags off walls, you may have wondered why there are no coatings which don’t let paint stick.</p> <p>These actually <a href="https://www.ipcm.it/en/article/anti-graffiti-paints-what-are-they-and-how-they-work.aspx">do exist</a>, and can work well. When in place, you can remove graffiti with a solvent rather than having to repaint. But they’re not widely used.</p> <p>Unless paints such as <a href="https://interestingengineering.com/innovation/7-inventions-from-mexico-that-would-go-on-to-change-the-world">Deletum 3000</a> are used everywhere this approach is unlikely to be effective.</p> <h2>Prevention</h2> <p>The problem with punitive and technical measures is the limited reach. The vast majority of unwanted graffiti <a href="https://www.aic.gov.au/publications/rip/rip6">goes unreported</a>. That’s why prevention is becoming more popular.</p> <p>How do you prevent tagging? By making it easier to report. By setting aside areas for taggers and graf artists. By commissioning pieces to deter graffers from illegal modes. And by talking directly to taggers about strategies. But these behaviour change efforts take time.</p> <p>People who hate tagging often believe taggers are motivated by negative emotions such as <a href="https://www.aic.gov.au/publications/rip/rip6">boredom and rebelliousness</a>. For them it’s vandalism, a criminal act associated with gangs, petty crime, broken windows and a less attractive environment to live in.</p> <p>But the truth is, taggers are often motivated by positive emotions. Tagging, for them, brings pride, pleasure, enjoyment and community. That’s why behaviour change approaches can be hard.</p> <h2>So what’s the best way forward?</h2> <p>In the 1990s, many cities declared war on skateboarders, using punishment and installing metal stoppers on well-skated urban areas. But the real solution was simpler: create skate parks.</p> <p>For taggers, the answer may be similar. Give them spaces such as little-used alleyways to practise their art. And for the rest of us, the solution may be to look at tags with different eyes. Not as a sign of crime and the collapse of civilisation, but as a need for validation, for transgression, for community and all the other things you probably wanted when you were a teenager.<img style="border: none !important; box-shadow: none !important; margin: 0 !important; max-height: 1px !important; max-width: 1px !important; min-height: 1px !important; min-width: 1px !important; opacity: 0 !important; outline: none !important; padding: 0 !important;" src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/205492/count.gif?distributor=republish-lightbox-basic" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" /></p> <p><em><a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/flavia-marcello-403040">Flavia Marcello</a>, Professor of Design History, <a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/swinburne-university-of-technology-767">Swinburne University of Technology</a></em></p> <p><em>Image credits: Getty Images</em></p> <p><em>This article is republished from <a href="https://theconversation.com">The Conversation</a> under a Creative Commons license. Read the <a href="https://theconversation.com/transgress-to-impress-why-do-people-tag-buildings-and-are-there-any-solutions-205492">original article</a>.</em></p>

Art

How traditional Indigenous education helped four lost children survive 40 days in the Amazon jungle

<p><a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/eliran-arazi-1447346">Eliran Arazi</a>, <em><a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/hebrew-university-of-jerusalem-855">Hebrew University of Jerusalem</a></em></p> <p>The discovery and rescue of <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/four-missing-colombian-children-found-alive-jungle-sources-2023-06-10/">four young Indigenous children</a>, 40 days after the aircraft they were travelling in crashed in the remote Colombian rainforest, was hailed in the international press as a “<a href="https://www.lemonde.fr/en/international/article/2023/06/11/miracle-in-the-jungle-colombia-celebrates-rescue-of-children-lost-in-amazon-rainforest_6030840_4.html">miracle in the jungle</a>”. But as an anthropologist who has spent more than a year living among the Andoque people in the region, <a href="https://www.academia.edu/100474974/Amazonian_visions_of_Visi%C3%B3n_Amazon%C3%ADa_Indigenous_Peoples_perspectives_on_a_forest_conservation_and_climate_programme_in_the_Colombian_Amazon">conducting ethnographic fieldwork</a>, I cannot simply label this as a miraculous event.</p> <p>At least, not a miracle in the conventional sense of the word. Rather, the survival and discovery of these children can be attributed to the profound knowledge of the intricate forest and the adaptive skills passed down through generations by Indigenous people.</p> <p>During the search for the children, I was in contact with Raquel Andoque, an elder <em>maloquera</em> (owner of a ceremonial longhouse), the sister of the children’s great-grandmother. She repeatedly expressed her unwavering belief the children would be found alive, citing the autonomy, astuteness and physical resilience of children in the region.</p> <p>Even before starting elementary school, children in this area accompany their parents and elder relatives in various activities such as gardening, fishing, navigating rivers, hunting and gathering honey and wild fruits. In this way the children acquire practical skills and knowledge, such as those demonstrated by Lesly, Soleiny, Tien and Cristin during their 40-day ordeal.</p> <p>Indigenous children typically learn from an early age how to open paths through dense vegetation, how to tell edible from non-edible fruits. They know how to find potable water, build rain shelters and set animal traps. They can identify animal footprints and scents – and avoid predators such as jaguars and snakes lurking in the woods.</p> <p>Amazonian children typically lack access to the sort of commercialised toys and games that children in the cities grow up with. So they become adept tree climbers and engage in play that teaches them about adult tools made from natural materials, such as oars or axes. This nurtures their understanding of physical activities and helps them learn which plants serve specific purposes.</p> <figure class="align-center "><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/532019/original/file-20230614-31-hrdd5z.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/532019/original/file-20230614-31-hrdd5z.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/532019/original/file-20230614-31-hrdd5z.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/532019/original/file-20230614-31-hrdd5z.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/532019/original/file-20230614-31-hrdd5z.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/532019/original/file-20230614-31-hrdd5z.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/532019/original/file-20230614-31-hrdd5z.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" alt="A youg girl holding up an insect as her family works alongside" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A local Indigenous girl on an excursion to gather edible larvae.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Image courtesy of Eliran Arazi</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span></figcaption></figure> <p>Activities that most western children would be shielded from – handling, skinning and butchering game animals, for example – provide invaluable zoology lessons and arguably foster emotional resilience.</p> <h2>Survival skills</h2> <p>When they accompany their parents and relatives on excursions in the jungle, Indigenous children learn how to navigate a forest’s dense vegetation by following the location of the sun in the sky.</p> <figure class="align-left zoomable"><a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/532012/original/file-20230614-29-ii5s0u.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/532012/original/file-20230614-29-ii5s0u.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/532012/original/file-20230614-29-ii5s0u.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=551&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/532012/original/file-20230614-29-ii5s0u.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=551&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/532012/original/file-20230614-29-ii5s0u.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=551&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/532012/original/file-20230614-29-ii5s0u.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=692&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/532012/original/file-20230614-29-ii5s0u.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=692&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/532012/original/file-20230614-29-ii5s0u.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=692&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" alt="Map of the Middle Caqueta region of Colombia." /></a><figcaption><span class="caption">Map showing where in Colombia the four lost children are from.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source"> Gadiel Levi</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span></figcaption></figure> <p>Since the large rivers in most parts of the Amazon flow in a direction opposite to that of the sun, people can orient themselves towards those main rivers.</p> <p>The trail of footprints and objects left by the four children revealed their general progression towards the Apaporis River, where they may have hoped to be spotted.</p> <p>The children would also have learned from their parents and elders about edible plans and flowers – where they can be found. And also the interrelationship between plants, so that where a certain tree is, you can find mushrooms, or small animals that can be trapped and eaten.</p> <h2>Stories, songs and myths</h2> <p>Knowledge embedded in mythic stories passed down by parents and grandparents is another invaluable resource for navigating the forest. These stories depict animals as fully sentient beings, engaging in seduction, mischief, providing sustenance, or even saving each other’s lives.</p> <p>While these episodes may seem incomprehensible to non-Indigenous audiences, they actually encapsulate the intricate interrelations among the forest’s countless non-human inhabitants. Indigenous knowledge focuses on the interrelationships between humans, plants and animals and how they can come together to preserve the environment and prevent irreversible ecological harm.</p> <p>This sophisticated knowledge has been developed over millennia during which Indigenous people not only adapted to their forest territories but actively shaped them. It is deeply ingrained knowledge that local indigenous people are taught from early childhood so that it becomes second nature to them.</p> <p>It has become part of the culture of cultivating and harvesting crops, something infants and children are introduced to, as well as knowledge of all sort of different food sources and types of bush meat.</p> <h2>Looking after each other</h2> <p>One of the aspects of this “miraculous” story that people in the west have marvelled over is how, after the death of the children’s mother, the 13-year-old Lesly managed to take care of her younger siblings, including Cristin, who was only 11 months old at the time the aircraft went down.</p> <figure class="align-center "><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/532007/original/file-20230614-19-7q92j0.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/532007/original/file-20230614-19-7q92j0.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/532007/original/file-20230614-19-7q92j0.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/532007/original/file-20230614-19-7q92j0.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/532007/original/file-20230614-19-7q92j0.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/532007/original/file-20230614-19-7q92j0.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/532007/original/file-20230614-19-7q92j0.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" alt="Three Indigenous people in western clothes stood under trees in front of a wide building." /><figcaption><span class="caption">Iris Andoque Macuna with her brother Nestor Andoque and brother-in-law Faustino Fiagama after the two men returned from the search team.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Iris Andoque Macuna.</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span></figcaption></figure> <p>But in Indigenous families, elder sisters are expected to act as surrogate mothers to their younger relatives from an early age. Iris Andoke Macuna, a distant relative of the family, told me:</p> <blockquote> <p>To some whites [non-Indigenous people], it seems like a bad thing that we take our children to work in the garden, and that we let girls carry their brothers and take care of them. But for us, it’s a good thing, our children are independent, this is why Lesly could take care of her brothers during all this time. It toughened her, and she learned what her brothers need.</p> </blockquote> <h2>The spiritual side</h2> <p>For 40 days and nights, while the four children were lost, elders and shamans performed rituals based on traditional beliefs that involve human relationships with entities known as <em>dueños</em> (owners) in Spanish and by various names in native languages (such as <em>i'bo ño̰e</em>, meaning “persons of there” in Andoque).</p> <p>These owners are believed to be the protective spirits of the plants and animals that live in the forests. Children are introduced to these powerful owners in name-giving ceremonies, which ensure that these spirits recognise and acknowledge relationship to the territory and their entitlement to prosper on it.</p> <figure class="align-center "><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/531997/original/file-20230614-15389-7c6oly.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/531997/original/file-20230614-15389-7c6oly.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/531997/original/file-20230614-15389-7c6oly.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/531997/original/file-20230614-15389-7c6oly.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/531997/original/file-20230614-15389-7c6oly.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/531997/original/file-20230614-15389-7c6oly.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/531997/original/file-20230614-15389-7c6oly.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" alt="Woman in pink t-shirt sat on chair inside." /><figcaption><span class="caption">Raquel Andoke, a relative of the missing children and friend of the author.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Image courtesy of Eliran Arazi</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span></figcaption></figure> <p>During the search for the missing children, elders conducted dialogues and negotiations with these entities in their ceremonial houses (<em>malocas</em>) throughout the <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Middle-and-Lower-Caqueta-River-region-State-of-Amazonas-Colombia-Map-from_fig1_255580310">Middle Caquetá</a> and in other Indigenous communities that consider the crash site part of their ancestral territory. Raquel explained to me:</p> <blockquote> <p>The shamans communicate with the sacred sites. They offer coca and tobacco to the spirits and say: “Take this and give me my grandchildren back. They are mine, not yours.”</p> </blockquote> <p>These beliefs and practices hold significant meaning for my friends in the Middle Caquetá, who firmly attribute the children’s survival to these spiritual processes rather than the technological means employed by the Colombian army rescue teams.</p> <p>It may be challenging for non-Indigenous people to embrace these traditional ideas. But these beliefs would have instilled in the children the faith and emotional fortitude crucial for persevering in the struggle for survival. And it would have encouraged the Indigenous people searching for them not to give up hope.</p> <p>The children knew that their fate did not lie in dying in the forest, and that their grandparents and shamans would move heaven and earth to bring them back home alive.</p> <p>Regrettably, this traditional knowledge that has enabled Indigenous people to not only survive but thrive in the Amazon for millennia is under threat. Increasing land encroachment for agribusiness, mining, and illicit activities as well as state neglect and interventions without Indigenous consent have left these peoples vulnerable.</p> <p>It is jeopardising the very foundations of life where this knowledge is embedded, the territories that serve as its bedrock, and the people themselves who preserve, develop, and transmit this knowledge.</p> <p>Preserving this invaluable knowledge and the skills that bring miracles to life is imperative. We must not allow them to wither away.<img style="border: none !important; box-shadow: none !important; margin: 0 !important; max-height: 1px !important; max-width: 1px !important; min-height: 1px !important; min-width: 1px !important; opacity: 0 !important; outline: none !important; padding: 0 !important;" src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/207762/count.gif?distributor=republish-lightbox-basic" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" /></p> <p><a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/eliran-arazi-1447346">Eliran Arazi</a>, PhD researcher in Anthropology, Hebrew University of Jerusalem and the School for Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences (Paris)., <em><a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/hebrew-university-of-jerusalem-855">Hebrew University of Jerusalem</a></em></p> <p><em>This article is republished from <a href="https://theconversation.com">The Conversation</a> under a Creative Commons license. Read the <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-traditional-indigenous-education-helped-four-lost-children-survive-40-days-in-the-amazon-jungle-207762">original article</a>.</em></p> <p><em>Images: Getty</em></p>

Caring

The real reason your luggage is lost in transit

<p>There’s nothing worse than that moment of realisation you get when, standing at an empty luggage carousel, you realise your bags are anywhere in the world but here. </p> <p>SITA, a company specialising in air transport, has published a study revealing the most common reasons bags are misplaced in transit and tips on how to avoid it.</p> <p>2015 it turns out was a historically good year for luggage retention, with the total number of mishandled bags diminishing about 50 per cent from 2007 to 2015. Worldwide, out of every 1000 passengers only around six bags are being misplaced.</p> <p>But it still wasn’t perfect, and 23 million bags were still misplaced. </p> <p>SITA has outlined the top reasons luggage doesn’t make it to where it’s supposed to be, as well as some tips to help make sure your bags makes the trip safely.</p> <p><strong>Reasons for lost luggage:</strong></p> <ul> <li><strong>Lost during a transfer –</strong> This was the major reason for luggage being misplaced and the cause of over half the reported misplaced luggage occurrences.</li> <li><strong>Ticketing errors, bag switches or security issues –</strong> Around 19 per cent of lost bags fell into this category, suggesting that human error still plays a role.</li> <li><strong>Delayed due to airport, customs, and weather or space/weight restrictions –</strong> This broad category accounted for almost 16 per cent of the lost luggage.</li> <li><strong>Failure to load the bag or mishandling at arrival station –</strong> This was the reason behind four per cent of the bags that were mishandled.</li> <li><strong>Tagging Error –</strong> With significant advancements in bag handling technology tagging errors accounted for only four per cent of lost luggage.</li> </ul> <p>SITA also offered some advice for making sure your bag makes it all the way to the desired destination, suggesting air passengers take the following precautions:</p> <ul> <li>Avoid short connections.</li> <li>Put a form of identification on the bag.</li> <li>Double check the destination tag.</li> <li>Pack luggage carefully avoiding restricted items.</li> <li>Consider purchasing a personal luggage tracking device.</li> </ul> <p><em>Images: Getty</em></p>

Travel Trouble

How drag as an art form sashayed from the underground and strutted into the mainstream

<p><em><a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/jonathan-w-marshall-1195978">Jonathan W. Marshall</a>, <a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/edith-cowan-university-720">Edith Cowan University</a></em></p> <p>Recent protests against <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2022/aug/11/im-just-trying-to-make-the-world-a-little-brighter-how-the-culture-wars-hijacked-drag-queen-story-hour">drag queen story hours</a> are the latest in a series of actions targeting the increased prominence of displays of LGBTIQ+ culture in the public arena.</p> <p>But drag artists have been strutting their stuff in speakeasies, cabarets and films for a long time now.</p> <h2>The long history of cross-dressing</h2> <p>There is a long global history of cross-gendered performance. In the West, this included <a href="https://www.oxfordreference.com/display/10.1093/oi/authority.20110803105532521;jsessionid=B8A5B8C5FE0EBAEDAB763E0AC1405EEA">“travesty” roles</a>, “<a href="https://www.planethugill.com/2013/08/en-travestie-curious-tradition-of.html">breeches parts</a>”, pantomime dames and their cousins in <a href="https://digitalcommons.usu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1429&context=gradreports">blackface – “wench” – parts</a>, variety halls and Shakespearean performances.</p> <p>There’s also <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctvcwnjxz">Japanese kabuki (onnagata)</a>, Beijing opera, <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/1124189">Samoan fale aitu and fa’afafine performances</a> and more. All share something with drag – cross-dressing and various forms of gender play and/or reversal – but none is quite the same as what we know today.</p> <p>Legal restrictions on gendered clothing have existed in places like Europe, China and Japan through to modern times – though the focus was more on class than gender. The wearing of men’s pants by women was <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/at-last-women-of-paris-can-wear-the-trousers-legally-after-200yearold-law-is-declared-null-and-void-8480666.html">technically illegal in France</a> until 2013. Centuries earlier, it contributed to the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p-BYbasO034">prosecution of Joan of Arc by church courts</a>.</p> <figure><iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/p-BYbasO034?wmode=transparent&start=0" width="440" height="260" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe></figure> <h2>The emergence of drag</h2> <p>Something like contemporary drag <a href="https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/mono/10.4324/9780203411070/changing-room-laurence-senelick">appeared in the West from the late 18th century</a>, blending early burlesque (disrespectful comedy, not necessarily bawdy) with nascent queer culture (clubs, speakeasies and other semi-underground meeting places where same-sex-attracted individuals socialised).</p> <p>By the time the 20th century rolled around, drag artists, particularly in the US, offered beauty tips, attempted to engage in sponsorships or sold stylishly posed <a href="https://wislgbthistory.com/people/peo-l/leon_francis.htm">postcards</a> and <a href="https://ourcommunityroots.com/?p=13079">souvenirs</a>, closely recalling advertisements aimed at female consumers. Since much early drag made fun of women in general, and women of colour in particular, the form has hardly been a consistent force for good.</p> <p>Drawing on blackface minstrelsy, British panto and college revues, drag from the 1950s increasingly featured female impersonators offering hyperbolic, over-the-top and often disrespectful portraits of feminine characteristics.</p> <p>So called “glamour drag” was designed, in the words of artist Jimmy James, “to take people totally away from the ugly realities … and transport them to the realm of the magical” through fabulous dresses, hair and sequins. This became the dominant form of drag in the West, particularly in Australia – although there was also a vibrant counter-culture.</p> <p><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e9dOrfO2gVs">Danny La Rue</a> camped it up on the stages of Britain and the US, touring Australia in the late 1970s, while <a href="https://dangerousminds.net/comments/ridiculous_a_little-known_drag_tv_role_by_charles_ludlam_1983">Charles Ludlam</a> made the difficult transition from outrageous drag to main stage theatre and back, losing none of his style.</p> <figure><iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/e9dOrfO2gVs?wmode=transparent&start=0" width="440" height="260" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe></figure> <h2>From the queer underground to the straight mainstream</h2> <p>Key to the crossover of drag from an underground principally LGBTIQ+ phenomena to the cis mainstream was the increasingly flamboyant manifestation of popular music – such as glam, hair metal, disco and new wave.</p> <p>The exultant 1978 video for disco star Sylvester’s <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gD6cPE2BHic"><em>You Make Me Feel (Mighty Real</em>)</a>, for example, introduced audiences to the concept of “<a href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/tv/0/does-realness-actually-mean-surprising-heartbreaking-history/">realness</a>” as she inhabited different costumed personas. Sylvester was a former member of the avant-drag troupe the Cockettes and her clip was shot at London’s gay disco The Embassy.</p> <figure><iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/gD6cPE2BHic?wmode=transparent&start=0" width="440" height="260" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe></figure> <p>“Rock camp” performance found its perfect expression in <a href="https://youtu.be/4plqh6obZW4">The Rocky Horror Picture Show</a> stage show in 1973, directed by Australian queer theatre legend Jim Sharman. Its comedic celebration of gender fluid performance and sexuality helped make drag and related forms mainstream.</p> <p>Also crucial was Jennie Livingston’s 1990 film <em><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/film/2015/jun/24/burning-down-the-house-debate-paris-is-burning">Paris is Burning</a></em>, documenting the competitive balls (drag races) mounted by working class LGBTIQ+ African-Americans and Latinos in New York, some of whom (but not all) identified as trans. Performers at the balls competed to exhibit “realness” – not only in gender terms, but employment and social position: “executive realness”, “butch queer”, “banjee girl” and “military”.</p> <figure><iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/4plqh6obZW4?wmode=transparent&start=0" width="440" height="260" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe></figure> <p>Madonna famously recruited performers from Paris is Burning (Jose Gutierez and Luis Camacho from House Xtravaganza) to assist in the choreography for her video <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GuJQSAiODqI">Vogue</a> and then her Blond Ambition tour, skyrocketing the international renown of these practices.</p> <figure><iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/9SqvD1-0odY?wmode=transparent&start=0" width="440" height="260" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe></figure> <h2>Drag landmarks</h2> <p>Prior to The Rocky Horror Picture Show gracing the stages of London and Sydney, Kings Cross had seen the foundation of legendary drag revue <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0G6aDpxhWlg">Les Girls</a>, running from 1963-93. This show was led by Carlotta, who took her girls on tour, and became the inspiration for <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QgFDIinCeYI">Priscilla Queen of the Desert</a>.</p> <p>“Alternative cabaret” also thrived. Notables included Australia’s truly outrageous Reg Livermore, the bizarre fantasies of Lindsay Kemp or the incredible Moira Finucane. Finucane’s brilliant early “gender fuck” performance as <a href="https://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-765293824/view?sectionId=nla.obj-769278625&partId=nla.obj-765310182#page/n6/mode/1up">Romeo</a> involved an arrogant, moustachioed and convincingly male performer who undressed to reveal Finucane, who then pleasured herself with a feather boa.</p> <p>Australians might also remember the wonderful Pauline Pantsdown’s drag satire <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D4tZRZSGxcE">I Don’t Like It</a> in 1998.</p> <figure><iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/0G6aDpxhWlg?wmode=transparent&start=0" width="440" height="260" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe></figure> <p>Topping it off was the huge success of <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1353056/"><em>RuPaul’s Drag Race</em> reality TV show</a> in 2009. Producers were onto a winner: fabulous clothes, the highs and lows of competition and a scintillating array of would-be stars, presided over RuPaul, looking never less than fabulous.</p> <figure><iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/PDe8zJvyF54?wmode=transparent&start=0" width="440" height="260" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe></figure> <h2>Lessons from the history of drag</h2> <p>The glamorous, hyper-feminine artist remains the most popular model of drag. Perhaps unsurprisingly it was these paragons of camp femininity who were chosen to read to children in libraries, first in <a href="https://www.dragstoryhour.org/about">San Francisco in 2015</a> and then internationally. These glitter, glam and <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/340774905_Balirano_G_2020_Of_Rainbow_Unicorns_The_Role_of_Bonding_Queer_Icons_in_Contemporary_LGBTIQ_Re-Positionings">rainbow unicorns</a> seemingly conquered the globe.</p> <p>But more outré drag queens, drag kings and “genderfuck” performers never ceased toiling away in the underground. <a href="https://canadianart.ca/features/the-showstoppers/">Drag is changing</a>.</p> <p>If we are to look to history for lessons, I’d like to see story time presented by the successors to Divine (one of John Waters’ collaborators, whose <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yfirqQJC3I0">1984 appearance on <em>Countdown</em></a> marks one of the strangest moments in Australian television) or transgender superstar <a href="https://revolverwarholgallery.com/superstars/warhol-superstar-candy-darling/">Candy Darling</a>. Now that would be a story time education to remember.<img style="border: none !important; box-shadow: none !important; margin: 0 !important; max-height: 1px !important; max-width: 1px !important; min-height: 1px !important; min-width: 1px !important; opacity: 0 !important; outline: none !important; padding: 0 !important;" src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/205650/count.gif?distributor=republish-lightbox-basic" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" /></p> <p><em><a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/jonathan-w-marshall-1195978">Jonathan W. Marshall</a>, Associate Professor & Postgraduate Research Coordinator, Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts, <a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/edith-cowan-university-720">Edith Cowan University</a></em></p> <p><em>Image credits: Getty Images</em></p> <p><em>This article is republished from <a href="https://theconversation.com">The Conversation</a> under a Creative Commons license. Read the <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-drag-as-an-art-form-sashayed-from-the-underground-and-strutted-into-the-mainstream-205650">original article</a>.</em></p>

Art

Even after his death, Rolf Harris’ artwork will stand as reminders of his criminal acts

<p><em><a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/gregory-dale-1441894">Gregory Dale</a>, <a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/the-university-of-queensland-805">The University of Queensland</a></em></p> <p>Australian entertainer and artist Rolf Harris has died at the age of 93.</p> <p>After a prominent career as an artist, particularly in the UK, in 2014 <a href="https://theconversation.com/rolf-harris-guilty-but-what-has-operation-yewtree-really-taught-us-about-sexual-abuse-28282">Harris was convicted</a> of 12 counts of indecent assault.</p> <p>For his victims, his death might help to close a painful chapter of their lives.</p> <p>However, what will become of the prodigious output of the disgraced artist?</p> <h2>Jack of all trades, master of none</h2> <p>Harris developed an interest in art from a young age. At the age of 15, one of his portraits was <a href="https://www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au/prizes/archibald/1946/">selected for showing</a> in the 1946 Archibald Prize. Three years later, he won the Claude Hotchin prize.</p> <p>These would be among the few accolades he would collect in the art world. In truth, he was never really recognised by his peers.</p> <p>The Art Gallery of Western Australia in Perth, from where he hailed, never added any of his artworks to its collection.</p> <p>Harris rose to prominence primarily as a children’s entertainer and then later as an all-round television presenter. There is a generation of Australians and Britons who grew up transfixed to their TV sets as Harris transformed blank canvases into paintings and cartoons in the space of just 30 minutes.</p> <p>His creativity also extended to music. He played the didgeridoo and his own musical creation, “<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wobble_board">the wobble board</a>”. He topped the British charts in 1969 with the single Two Little Boys. However, he is probably more famous for the song Tie Me Kangaroo Down, Sport.</p> <p>Perhaps the ultimate recognition came in 2005, when he was invited to <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Her_Majesty_Queen_Elizabeth_II_%E2%80%93_An_80th_Birthday_Portrait">paint Queen Elizabeth II</a>. His audience with the queen was filmed for a BBC documentary starring Harris. His portrait of her majesty briefly adorned the walls of Buckingham Palace, before being displayed in prominent British and Australian galleries.</p> <h2>Criminal conviction and the quick retreat from his art</h2> <p>In 2014, Harris was found guilty of 12 counts of indecent assault against three complainants, aged 15, 16 and 19 years at the times of the crimes. These incidents occurred between 1978 and 1986.</p> <p>Before sentencing Harris to five years and nine months imprisonment, the sentencing judge <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/world/the-full-statement-from-the-judge-who-sentenced-rolf-harris-to-jail-20140704-3bee0.html">commented</a>:</p> <blockquote> <p>You took advantage of the trust placed in you, because of your celebrity status, to commit the offences […] Your reputation now lies in ruins.</p> </blockquote> <p>What followed was a public retreat from his artwork.</p> <p>It is worth asking why this was the public response, when the subject matter of his artwork was innocuous and unremarkable. Among his visual artworks were portraits and landscapes. None of them depicted anything particularly offensive or controversial.</p> <p>Nevertheless, many of those who owned his works felt the need to dissociate themselves with Harris. His portrait of the queen <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-28105318">seemed to vanish</a> into thin air. In the wake of his convictions, no one claimed to know of its whereabouts.</p> <p>Harris had also painted a number of permanent murals in Australia. Many these were <a href="https://www.theage.com.au/national/victoria/rolf-harris-mural-in-caulfield-to-be-painted-over-20140706-zsy3n.html">removed</a> or <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-03-06/rolf-harris-mural-on-theatre-survives-vote-for-destruction/9518358">permanently obscured</a>.</p> <h2>The roles of guilt and disgust</h2> <p>Guilt seems to play a <a href="https://espace.library.uq.edu.au/view/UQ:d3f7264">prominent role</a> in explaining why owners remove such artworks from display.</p> <p>Art is inherently subjective and so it necessarily forces the beholder to inquire into the artist’s meanings. When an artist is subsequently convicted of a crime, it is perhaps natural to wonder whether their art bore signs that there was something untoward about them.</p> <p>Some artists even promote this way of thinking. In fact, Harris authored a book entitled <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2883465-looking-at-pictures-with-rolf-harris">Looking at Pictures with Rolf Harris: A Children’s Introduction to Famous Paintings</a>.</p> <p>In it, he wrote:</p> <blockquote> <p>You can find out a lot about the way an artist sees things when you look at his paintings. In fact, he is telling us a lot about himself, whether he wants to or not.</p> </blockquote> <p>When facing the artwork of a convicted criminal, our subjective feelings of guilt persist because we have, in some tiny way, shared a role in their rise and stay as an artist. This makes it difficult to overcome the feeling that the artwork contains clues to the artist’s criminality. We can also feel guilty deriving pleasure from a piece of art whose maker caused others great pain.</p> <p>Disgust also plays a central role in our retreat from the criminal’s artwork.</p> <p>Disgust is a powerful emotion that demands we withdraw from an object whose mere presence threatens to infect or invade our bodily integrity.</p> <p>Related to disgust is a anthropological theory known as the “<a href="https://www.latimes.com/science/sciencenow/la-xpm-2014-feb-24-la-sci-sn-price-of-fame-celebrity-contact-boosts-value-of-objects-20140222-story.html">magical law of contagion</a>”. An offensive person leaves behind an offensive trace that continues to threaten us. It is not based on reason but instinct.</p> <p>In essence, the criminal has left their “negative” traces on their artwork.</p> <p>This explains why Harris’ paintings, although of innocuous images, suddenly became eyesores and their market value dropped. Owners of such artwork might also feel compelled to show their disgust openly, to publicly extricate themselves from the artist.</p> <p>No one wants to be seen to condone the behaviour of a sexual offender.</p> <p>Even after his death, Harris’ artwork will continue to stand as reminders of his criminal acts.</p> <p><em>If this article has raised issues for you, or if you’re concerned about someone you know, call <a href="https://www.1800respect.org.au">1800RESPECT</a> on 1800 737 732. In an emergency call 000.<img style="border: none !important; box-shadow: none !important; margin: 0 !important; max-height: 1px !important; max-width: 1px !important; min-height: 1px !important; min-width: 1px !important; opacity: 0 !important; outline: none !important; padding: 0 !important;" src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/206282/count.gif?distributor=republish-lightbox-basic" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" /></em></p> <p><em><a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/gregory-dale-1441894">Gregory Dale</a>, Lecturer, TC Beirne School of Law, <a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/the-university-of-queensland-805">The University of Queensland</a></em></p> <p><em>Image credits: Getty Images</em></p> <p><em>This article is republished from <a href="https://theconversation.com">The Conversation</a> under a Creative Commons license. Read the <a href="https://theconversation.com/even-after-his-death-rolf-harris-artwork-will-stand-as-reminders-of-his-criminal-acts-206282">original article</a>.</em></p>

Art

Woman finds piece of art history on sale for $8

<p dir="ltr">It’s every thrifter’s dream to find something in an op shop that is being sold for far less than it’s worth. </p> <p dir="ltr">Many frequent their local thrift shops to find hidden treasures from designer brands with a much more reasonable price tag, finally giving them the chance to own a piece of luxury. </p> <p dir="ltr">One experienced thrift shopper has taken this dream to the next level, after she found a series of ceramic dishes in her local Salvation Army store that are a piece of art history.</p> <p dir="ltr">Nancy Cavaliere, a native New Yorker, has shared the story of her ultimate thrifting experience, which began on her way home from work in the summer of 2017.</p> <p dir="ltr">Nancy recalled stopping by the store and browsing for a while before resigning herself to defeat after not snagging a bargain. </p> <p dir="ltr">“I see nothing. I almost leave,” she said in her now-viral TikTok.</p> <blockquote class="instagram-media" style="background: #FFF; border: 0; border-radius: 3px; box-shadow: 0 0 1px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.5),0 1px 10px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.15); margin: 1px; max-width: 540px; min-width: 326px; padding: 0; width: calc(100% - 2px);" data-instgrm-permalink="https://www.instagram.com/reel/CqTY-WXJ4DM/?utm_source=ig_embed&utm_campaign=loading" data-instgrm-version="14"> <div style="padding: 16px;"> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: row; align-items: center;"> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; flex-grow: 0; height: 40px; margin-right: 14px; width: 40px;"> </div> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: column; flex-grow: 1; justify-content: center;"> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; margin-bottom: 6px; width: 100px;"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; width: 60px;"> </div> </div> </div> <div style="padding: 19% 0;"> </div> <div style="display: block; height: 50px; margin: 0 auto 12px; width: 50px;"> </div> <div style="padding-top: 8px;"> <div style="color: #3897f0; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-weight: 550; line-height: 18px;">View this post on Instagram</div> </div> <div style="padding: 12.5% 0;"> </div> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: row; margin-bottom: 14px; align-items: center;"> <div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; height: 12.5px; width: 12.5px; transform: translateX(0px) translateY(7px);"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; height: 12.5px; transform: rotate(-45deg) translateX(3px) translateY(1px); width: 12.5px; flex-grow: 0; margin-right: 14px; margin-left: 2px;"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; height: 12.5px; width: 12.5px; transform: translateX(9px) translateY(-18px);"> </div> </div> <div style="margin-left: 8px;"> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; flex-grow: 0; height: 20px; width: 20px;"> </div> <div style="width: 0; height: 0; border-top: 2px solid transparent; border-left: 6px solid #f4f4f4; border-bottom: 2px solid transparent; transform: translateX(16px) translateY(-4px) rotate(30deg);"> </div> </div> <div style="margin-left: auto;"> <div style="width: 0px; border-top: 8px solid #F4F4F4; border-right: 8px solid transparent; transform: translateY(16px);"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; flex-grow: 0; height: 12px; width: 16px; transform: translateY(-4px);"> </div> <div style="width: 0; height: 0; border-top: 8px solid #F4F4F4; border-left: 8px solid transparent; transform: translateY(-4px) translateX(8px);"> </div> </div> </div> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: column; flex-grow: 1; justify-content: center; margin-bottom: 24px;"> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; margin-bottom: 6px; width: 224px;"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; width: 144px;"> </div> </div> <p style="color: #c9c8cd; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 0; margin-top: 8px; overflow: hidden; padding: 8px 0 7px; text-align: center; text-overflow: ellipsis; white-space: nowrap;"><a style="color: #c9c8cd; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 17px; text-decoration: none;" href="https://www.instagram.com/reel/CqTY-WXJ4DM/?utm_source=ig_embed&utm_campaign=loading" target="_blank" rel="noopener">A post shared by Nancy Cavaliere (@casacavaliere)</a></p> </div> </blockquote> <p dir="ltr">However, one more peruse past the china aisle was all Nancy needed for something to catch her eye, as she spied four unusual black plates with geometric faces hand-painted on them, with each plate marked with a $1.99 sticker. </p> <p dir="ltr">“I was going to buy them to make a tablescape,” Cavaliere said in the video. </p> <p dir="ltr">She bought the plates and left the store happy, and began to research her purchase once she got home. </p> <p dir="ltr">The plates, it turned out, belonged to Picasso’s “<em>Visage Noir</em>” series of hand-painted ceramics, produced in a pottery studio in the southern French town of Madoura in the 1940s. </p> <p dir="ltr">“When I tell you I googled this set… and saw how much they were worth and almost cried, passed out—I’m not lying,” Cavaliere said. </p> <p dir="ltr">Nancy then contacted several auction houses in New York, such as Sotheby’s and Christie’s, to have the plates appraised and authenticated. </p> <p dir="ltr">She was told they were each worth $3,000 to $5,000, and the following year, she sold three of her four plates at Sotheby’s for roughly $12,000, $13,000, and $16,000, respectively.</p> <p dir="ltr">“I was in my office at my lunch break watching this live auction go down, crying my eyes out,” she said. </p> <p dir="ltr">The fourth piece, which bears Picasso’s signature, Nancy decided to keep and store in a safe deposit box. </p> <p dir="ltr">Cavaliere plans to sell it in 20 years and give the money to her daughter, perhaps for a trip around Europe. </p> <p dir="ltr">“It’s crazy,” she said, “that I actually own something that Picasso signed for himself.” </p> <p dir="ltr"><em>Image credits: Instagram </em></p>

Art

Fun ways to boost memory in seniors

<p dir="ltr">Memory issues can seriously deteriorate the quality of life for seniors. To reverse the typically progressive process of memory loss, many solutions have been put forward. These include creative leisure activities aimed to work on the senior’s brain while providing relaxation.</p> <p dir="ltr">To work on a senior’s memory, it’s optimal to have them work on a project, focusing and seeing the work being done. There are plenty of games and activities available to help memory.</p> <p dir="ltr"><strong>Paint by Numbers</strong></p> <p dir="ltr">Paint by Numbers is a creative art form that involves painting a pre-drawn sketch on a linen canvas with reference numbers. It helps stimulate the intellect and senses. They’re available in colour books as well, you can find them at your local Kmart and select supermarkets.</p> <p dir="ltr"><strong>Diamond painting</strong></p> <p dir="ltr">Diamond painting is a manual activity where the senior creates beautiful pictures using rhinestones to stick onto a self-adhesive canvas. It calls for concentration, reflection, memorisation, and patience from the practitioner, which is beneficial for working on memory.</p> <p dir="ltr"><strong>Scratch painting</strong></p> <p dir="ltr">Scratch painting is a fun activity that involves scratching a picture with a coin or stylus, like a lottery scratch-off. It requires interest and concentration from the individual, who will enjoy the final picture and benefit their memory.</p> <p dir="ltr"><strong>Music therapy</strong></p> <p dir="ltr">Music therapy is used to treat and alleviate disorders, such as relational, behavioural, and communication difficulties. It also has benefits for seniors with memory problems, as it allows them to mobilise concentration, emotions, and memory in a playful way.</p> <p><span id="docs-internal-guid-70e6c7d1-7fff-2c54-f0e3-9408829a216a"></span></p> <p dir="ltr"><em>Image credit: Shutterstock</em></p>

Mind

Italian historian makes major Mona Lisa breakthrough

<p dir="ltr">A small town in Tuscany is revelling in excitement after it was claimed that a bridge in the backdrop of the Mona Lisa belongs to the town. </p> <p dir="ltr">Italian historian Silvano Vinceti determined that the bridge in the background of the most famous portrait in the world is in fact the Romito di Laterina bridge in the province of Arezzo: about 80km southeast of Florence. </p> <p dir="ltr">Leonardo da Vinci painted the masterpiece in Florence in the early 16th century, and ever since, it has been subject to disputes over the inspiration for the portrait. </p> <p dir="ltr">The identity of the woman in the painting - who is widely believed to be Lisa del Giocondo – has triggered as much speculation as the distant backdrop.</p> <p dir="ltr">Past theories have identified the bridge as Ponte Buriano, close to Laterina, as well as Ponte Bobbio in the northern Italian city of Piacenza.</p> <p dir="ltr">Using historical documents and drone images, and by making comparisons between the painting and photographs of the area, Vinceti said he is confident it was “the Etruscan-Roman bridge, Romito”.</p> <p dir="ltr">Vinceti told reporters in Rome that the most telling detail of the bridge’s identity is the number of arches. </p> <p dir="ltr">The bridge in Leonardo’s painting had four arches, as did the Romito. Ponte Buriano, on the other hand, has six arches, while Ponte Bobbio has more than six.</p> <p dir="ltr">Another telltale sign, according to Vinceti, is the fact that the bridge was once a “very busy, functioning bridge”, that provided a shortcut between Florence and Arezzo.</p> <p dir="ltr">Simona Neri, the mayor of Laterina, said Vinceti’s theory had caused a lot of excitement in the town of just over 3,500 people. </p> <p dir="ltr">She said, “We need to try to protect what’s left of the bridge.”</p> <p dir="ltr"><em>Image credits: Getty Images</em></p>

Art

Artist keeps craft alive with beautifully bound books

<p>In a world taken over by digitised forms of just about everything, book artist Liz Constable says her beautifully bound bohemian journals, handmade envelopes and painstakingly stitched self-help books still inspire the biggest shrieks of delight from total strangers.</p> <p>Journaling in cafés, Constable often feels eyes shrouding over her diary. "They say, oh that looks like a very old book," Constable says. "Oh yes, it's two weeks old," she laughs. </p> <p>Type 'book art' into online creative depository, Pinterest, and it will come up with 636 ways of turning old, clunky books into works of art. Likewise, Google images paints a pretty picture of the ways you can up-cycle unwanted novels.</p> <p>But unlike the art we relegate to a shelf or a picture hook, Constable's creations are usable. They're designed to be drawn on, hauled around in a tote and pulled out to illustrate ideas, and are made with any material she can get her hands on. </p> <p>"It's that old worldy style," she says. "Everyone wants things to look old. You see people with laptops in bags that look like they're carrying old typewriters."</p> <p>What started off as a hobby 16 years ago turned into a full time business called Book Art Studios in 2007, when Constable, then a careers counsellor, says she counselled herself out of her former job and into where her heart truly lay- making books.</p> <p>It began with dying her journal papers with tea and coffee, then a friend introduced her to coloured dye. Now the "scavenger by nature" says her books are made with paper taken from the likes of old shipping maps, cloth and other recycled materials, before being stitched and bound in her own West Auckland studio.</p> <p>The UK migrant makes books for the likes of happy couples who need something special to keep track of wedding guests, to soda giant Coca Cola who commissioned Constable to make books for staff training, and Fonterra, whose Constable-made creations went all the way to a conference in China. </p> <p>Constable believes it's the nostalgia that inspires such gushing responses from people who frequently request to hug her when they see her creations. Not so long ago she hand delivered a job application written in a handmade book, nestled in a mail art envelope.</p> <p>She despairs walking into bookstores and seeing the rows and rows of identical book spines, prompting ever more thoughts about how she can make her work stand out.</p> <p>It's a thought at the forefront of her mind as Constable prepares to undertake something she's never done- producing her first book series en masse by enlisting the help of potential publishers at the Frankfurt Book Fair in October. After years of ensuring each of her works is unique, Constable said the decision to take hand made to mass made came after reading a theory that it takes 10,000 hours to perfect a skill.</p> <p>Constable realised she'd clocked up more than enough over time, and enjoyed 'the simple life' long enough to begin relishing the fruits of her labour.</p> <p>She wants to produce a series of semi-autobiographical self-help books, whose roots can be traced back to the death of Constable's aunt many years ago. "Oh, I see a door," were her finals words on her death bed, prompting Constable to wonder just what exactly was behind that door. </p> <p>"I was so curious," Constable says. The words kept coming and before she knew it, nine books were conceived. The Martha series, she calls it. Stories for adults grappling with bigger issues.</p> <p>In March she published and began selling another self-help book, One Small Drop, in order to help fundraise for Frankfurt. Unlike the text heavy self help books of yester-year, you can hold One Small Drop in one hand. The pages are laser cut with small drops that turn into hearts with every page turn, the colours gradually turning from dark to light.</p> <p>More than 7,000 authors and book makers at the book fair will be vying for the attention of publishers who scout the exhibits for "innovate business models".</p> <p>After attending the fair some years ago Constable walked around searching for fellow book artists, disheartened to find they were "miles away from anywhere." Her exhibit, she promises, will be like walking into one of her storybooks. </p> <p>"I came back and I said I'm not going to stand in a queue trying to get someone to read it. I said I don't care how it happens, I'm going to get someone to pick up the Martha series."</p> <p><em>Written by Kelly Dennett. First appeared on <a href="http://www.stuff.co.nz" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><strong><span>Stuff.co.nz</span></strong></a>. </em></p> <p><em>Image credit: Getty</em></p>

Books

A guide to affordable art

<p>The art world can seem intimidating from the outside, but buying striking pieces of art is one of life’s great pleasures and can transform a room instantly.</p> <p><strong>What’s your style?</strong></p> <p>Go and see as much art as you can to help determine the style you’re most drawn to. Look for student sales at art schools, auctions, antiques fairs and local galleries.</p> <p>Flick through art history books, go to museums and do some online research about any artists you like.</p> <p>Keep an open mind. When we think of art we tend to think of paintings, but look at photography and sculptures too. You might discover that’s where your art heart lies. </p> <p><strong>Prints vs originals</strong></p> <p>Many people write off prints as nothing more than posters, but a print is still an original work of art. The artist creates each print by hand, creating an original image on a surface such as wood, rubber, stone or metal, applies colour and then creates a print on paper. They make great entry-level art.</p> <p>Reproductions are more like inexpensive posters, and there’s nothing wrong with starting off with some posters you love, beautifully framed and well positioned.</p> <p>Original works are naturally the most expensive way to buy art as they are one of a kind. Imagine a best-selling author only allowing one person to own their book, or a director only letting one person see their movie. You are buying the art in its entirety: the idea, the craftmanship, the artists’ time, talent and the materials and any future gain in value. </p> <p><strong>How do I make a good investment?</strong></p> <p>Unless you’re planning to become a serious art collector, the most important two questions you should ask yourself when buying art are: do I love it? Can I afford it? Buying something in the hope its value might go up is risky. </p> <p>If there’s an emerging artist you like whose career trajectory seems to be on the up, then go for it and you might get lucky. But still don’t buy it unless you love it. </p> <p><strong>Should I buy online?</strong></p> <p>You’ll find an enormous choice online. Research the artist, try to see some of their work in the flesh before you take the plunge, and make sure you measure up so you know exactly the size of the artwork and whether it will look good in your space.</p> <p><strong>How do I display it?</strong></p> <p>If you buy from a gallery, ask them for framing advice or to frame it for you, or take it to a framer to make sure you’re making the most of it. Talk to them about whether UV glass would be suitable, to protect the art from sun damage. </p> <p>Always hang art at eye level and in a place where you will get the most enjoyment from it, and never in the bathroom where there’s too much moisture.</p> <p><em>Image credits: Getty Images</em></p>

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