This is a cute optical illusion which is doing rounds on optical illusion. In this picture, there are three cats hidden among the group of tigers.The image shared by an Instagram user "thedudolf" has seen a good participation among social media users."Found all took time to find the 4th orange cat," one user wrote; "Found them all! So cute and tricky!," wrote another."Found 'em all less than 1 minute 3 orange cats, 1 white cat," another user has dropped the biggest hint on the optical illusion.

"This might be the easiest so far. I found them within 30 seconds. Thani you for creating and sharing!," wrote another.

The picture has a group of tigers with their characteristic stripes and since cats have similar stripes it is difficult to tell them apart from the bigger cats.

Optical illusions as such test the general knowledge of the user. It would assess the user's knowledge about cats and their behaviour.

Link:
Can you spot FOUR cats hidden among the tigers? - Times of India

Start-stop or Edging is the technique of preventing orgasm when you're on the verge of experiencing it. You reverse yourself from the proverbial "edge" just before you plunge headfirst into sexual pleasure. However, this method necessitates a hands-off pause. Once the sensation is gone, you'll stop all sexual activity before starting it up again. Until you're ready to experience an orgasm, you can continue this procedure a few times.This procedure, which has gained popularity in sexual health discourse as a way to get "better orgasms," has actually been used for treating premature ejaculation for more than 50 years.Start the sexual action with your partner, whether it be oral, anal, vaginal, or another type of stimulation. Attempt oral sex, activating their G-spot, licking, flicking, sucking, or doing anything else that gets them in the mood. Make sure they are outspoken or give indications of when they will arrive.After the climax is reached, stop pushing or stroking, and step back. Pause for a few moments or seconds.Once the sensation has passed and you no longer feel as though you are about to reach climax, you can resume sexual activity.Stop-squeeze technique:The stop-squeeze method is an ejaculatory control technique just like edging. By holding the penis' tip until the sensation passes, you can get close to the climax and then abruptly back off. You have the option of performing the stop-squeeze repeatedly or just once. You can postpone a climax in the middle of sexual play by using this technique.If your partner is unaware of your plans, edging will delay your orgasm and may even intensify it, but it can be a laborious or time-consuming procedure. Talk about it before you start edging during sex.

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Start stop technique: An interesting way to last longer in bed - Times of India

Dr. Erika Kube| Special to The Columbus Dispatch USA TODAY NETWORK

Amber came to the emergency department via ambulance with complaints of a severe headache that started the day before.

She wasn't sleeping much because she recently had a baby and was waking up numerous times each night to feed her son. She also cut back on caffeine because she was breast feeding.

Her headache worsened significantly in the early morning, when her husband ended up calling 911 to bring her to the emergency department.

Her husband started getting worried about Amber earlier that day because she never complained about anything and was generally never sick. She also wasn't herself. He figured her lack of sleep was the main issue. He told her he would get up with the baby, feed him and get him back to sleep. She woke up at 2 a.m. with her headache worsening and started to feel nauseated. She took some ibuprofen but vomited shortly afterward, which made her headache even more intense.

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When the paramedics arrived, they hooked Amber up to a monitor to check her vital signs. Her heart rate was normal, but her blood pressure was high. The paramedic repositioned the cuff, presuming it was a bad reading. Ambers husband was rocking their baby in his arms and looked over at the monitor with concern. Her repeat blood pressure was still high even higher than the first. Amber did not have a history of high blood pressure, so this was concerning.

The paramedics put Amber on their cot and placed an IV in her arm. They gave her nausea medications through the IV as well as pain medications. Ambers husband put the baby in his car seat, packed his diaper bag and loaded him into the car to follow behind the ambulance.

Amber arrived in the ED a few minutes later and said her nausea was better, but she was still feeling terrible. The paramedics alerted us on the radio of their concerns that Amber may be experiencing a condition called preeclampsia, given her elevated blood pressure, headache and that she had a baby two weeks prior. I was concerned about this diagnosis as well. I started Amber on magnesium to prevent her from having a seizure and medications to quickly lower her blood pressure. I called our on-call OB physician to help manage Ambers care.

Preeclampsia refers to the onset of high blood pressure (hypertension) with signs of injury to other organs in the body such as the kidney and liver in a pregnant or postpartum woman who has previously not had hypertension. Preeclampsia usually begins after the 20th week of pregnancy but can occur any time, including up to six weeks after delivery.

Preeclampsia, left untreated, can progress to eclampsia, a rare but serious complication of preeclampsia, when the woman develops seizures. Eclampsia can be dangerous, both for the mother and the fetus, and often requires immediate delivery of the baby, even if the baby is premature.

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Preeclampsia during pregnancy is treated with oral blood pressure medications and close monitoring. The best treatment for preeclampsia is giving birth, but the OB physician must decide when the fetus is developed enough to induce delivery and balance that with the severity of the mothers symptoms from preeclampsia. The OB physician may give the mother steroids to help develop and strengthen the fetuss lungs to minimize their complications at birth if they need to be delivered early.

There are several risk factors for the development of preeclampsia: a history of preeclampsia in a previous pregnancy, being pregnant with more than one baby, a prior history of high blood pressure, diabetes or kidney disease and a history of autoimmune disorders. It is believed that preeclampsia is caused by the placenta not developing properly due to a problem with the blood vessels that supply its blood.

Postpartum preeclampsia is most common within the first seven days after delivery but can occur as late as six weeks after delivery. It is estimated that preeclampsia complicates about 5% of pregnancies, and postpartum preeclampsia complicates even fewer. Many women who experience postpartum preeclampsia do not show any symptoms during their pregnancy and have normal blood pressures until after delivery. It can be very hard to diagnose because the woman is recovering from childbirth and focusing on taking care of their newborn. It is important for women to closely monitor their health and follow up with their OB-GYN physician as recommended. Health care providers need to remain vigilant and consider this diagnosis.

Ambers headache, a result of her postpartum preeclampsia and very high blood pressures, was severe enough that she had to seek emergent medical attention. Her blood pressure came down quickly with the medications I gave her in the ED, and thankfully she did not develop seizures. She was admitted to the hospital and spent the next several days being closely monitored. She was able to continue breast feeding and was finally able to get some sleep as her headache subsided.

When Amber went home from the hospital, she was wearing a blue bracelet to indicate her risk of preeclampsia. Our hospital system recently started a Blue Band Initiative to have women at risk for preeclampsia/eclampsia wear a blue bracelet to help medical workers consider this diagnosis in women to quickly identify these patients so we can initiate treatment.

The United States has the highest maternal death rates among developed countries and unfortunately there was significant increase in maternal mortality rates over the past couple of years. While this is a complex problem with numerous factors, this spectrum of disease is important to be aware of as we need to be vigilant about caring for pregnant women, new moms and their babies and we must reverse these tragic trends.

Dr. Erika Kube is an emergency physician who works for Mid-Ohio Emergency Services and OhioHealth.drerikakubemd@gmail.com

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Preeclampsia dangers don't end with delivery for some new moms - The Columbus Dispatch

In a case of cryptic pregnancy, Brianna Blanton, an 18-year-old South Carolina woman who was admitted to the hospital due to concerns about kidney stones, gave birth to a baby girl.More astonishingly, she continued to show off her bikini body throughout, had normal monthly periods, and no baby bump. She also took a pregnancy test, which was negative, after experiencing nausea from meals. Even after her water broke, she thought she was bedwetting and mistook the agony of labour for kidney stones. Doctors informed her that she was in labour while she was still hospitalised. After that, Brianna gave birth to a 7 lb 4 oz. baby girl.The youngster thought she had kidney stones when she began to feel agonising pain in her ribs, so she went to the ER.

But the youngster discovered that she was actually already in labour, totally unaware of it.

"My mouth fell to the floor. I couldnt even cry. I was in a total state of shock, she said.

Blanton claimed she took numerous pregnancy tests, all of which came back negative, but she didn't experience any of the traditional pregnant symptoms.

She added, "I was in crop tops and bikinis, but I never gained any weight or had any other symptoms.

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Woman thought she had kidney stones but she was delivering a baby - Indiatimes.com

Set aside a time to check your messages, then block your apps

In 1974, the average person was completing about 20 tasks a day; now, that has risen to 33. Instead of getting into a race with yourself to do as much as you can in a minimal amount of time, write down a to-do list, accept that you are unlikely to complete the least important, then take the rest one by one with a break in between. Keep your concentration high with an app like Pomodoro and allow yourself a half-hour break at lunch to look at social media the rest of the time, use an app blocker, says Tang. At work, try not to start the day by answering emails but by doing your biggest task of the day; then set aside an hour later to plough through your inbox (and try to break the habit of checking your email while working on something else as it ruins any chance of getting into what youre doing properly).

Just as having a tan once denoted status as it meant you could afford foreign holidays, now being overwhelmed is a badge of honour for middle-class professionals. But ask yourself whether you enjoy living in a debilitating whirlwind of activity. If you dont, then say no to the extra task youve been asked to do at work, to the neighbourhood drinks that mean youll be out three nights in a row and the exercise class you dont really need. As for housework, research seems to say that doing just enough makes us happier and more content than having a spotless house.

Treadwell says that after spending months researching this paper, she realised that the solution to feeling happier and healthier was quite simple: dont carry your phone with you all the time. The key difference between the 1970s and now is that mobile phones didnt exist they have massively changed things and put so much pressure on us, she says. While its all but impossible to live a smartphone-free life, on weekends go for a walk or run or to the shops without any technology and try, where possible, to leave your phone in another room when youre not using it at home.

I honestly believe that a huge factor in why people have burnout is that they bring work into the bedroom the most intimate place in the house, says Tang. I work with a lot of very stressed students and I know part of the problem is that they work in their rooms and associate their bed with high stress and adrenaline. The Onward study also highlighted how using a phone in the hour before bed leads to disrupted sleep, which in turn leaves us feeling more frazzled the next day. Its such an easy fix but it makes such a big difference, says Tang.

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Why you're constantly burnt out and what to do about it - The Telegraph

Almost everyone is aware about the various hair and skin benefits of consuming or applying curry leaves. However, today we are going to know about the various health benefits of curry leaves like treating mouth ulcers, getting rid of bad breath, and others.

Updated Apr 3, 2023 | 08:38 AM IST

Curry Leaves Benefits For Health (Image credit - Unsplash)

Curry Leaves Benefits

Dr Dixa Bhavsar Savaliya took to her social media recently and shared the various health benefits of consuming curry leaves. She wrote while sharing, I add curry leaves in my morning herbal tea Ghat I drink daily for my hair, thyroid, skin & gut care.

Curry Leaves Benefits For Health

Nausea: Fry them (6 fresh curry leaves, washed, dried and then fried with teaspoon ghee), cooled and eat (chew them).

Bad breath: Fresh curry leaves (5 curry leaves), Chew for 5 minutes, then rinse mouth with water.

Diarrhoea: Curry-leaf paste (30 leaves- grind into a paste), mix in buttermilk & have it.

Diabetes: Make a Chutney from curry leaves, which can be eaten with food, in a roti roll or mixed in anything.

Mouth Ulcers: Curry leaf powder is mixed with honey and applied over the mouth ulcer. 2-3 days medication relieves stomatitis.

Curry Leaves Benefits For Hair

Curry leaves help in reducing hair fall, prevents grey hair & improves hair growth. It helps in relieving migraine headache, lowers blood sugar levels, promotes weight loss and even balances hormones.

How to consume: You could either chew a few leaves and then drink some water or just boil the leaves in a cup of water for 5-7 mins, strain and drink while its luke warm.

Curry leaves for Grey Hair, Hair-loss Treatment: Curry leaves help with dandruff, hairfall, alopecia, reverse pre-mature greying and improve hair-growth.

Curry leaves for head lice: Fine paste of curry leaves is made, and it is mixed with sour buttermilk. This is applied to the scalp and retained till it dries up. Later this is washed thoroughly. Doing it twice or thrice a week with a gap of 1-2 days in between gives good relief.

Disclaimer: Tips and suggestions mentioned in the article are for general information purposes only and should not be construed as professional medical advice. Always consult your doctor or a dietician before starting any fitness programme or making any changes to your diet or lifestyle.

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Get Rid Of Bad Breath, Mouth Ulcers And Other Health Issues With Curry Leaves - Zoom TV

32

Tuition at the University of Indianapolis has risen over $9,000 over the past decade. There are various reasons for tuition increases at colleges and universities. An article written by University of Massachusetts Global said that residency status may have a part in tuition increases at universities. Additionally, UIndys enrollment has been slowly declining since 2019, according to an article written by College Tuition Compare.

According to an article by former Reflector Editor-in-Chief James Figy, for the 2014-2015 academic year, tuition rose 3%, making the total cost $25,155. For this year, room and board also increased 2.5% making the total $9,010, according to the article. The reason for the increase was due to the higher costs for maintenance, heating and cooling and healthcare for the staff and faculty. According to former President Robert Manuel in the article, the tuition needed to rise in order to keep the university competitive. Financial aid was funded by the $2 million generated by the increase.

For the 2015-2016 academic year, tuition rose another 3%, making the total $25,910, according to an article by former Reflector Editorial Assistant Emanuel Cela. For a standard room, the price rose from $4,570 to $4,730 and the 14-meal plan ros from $4,440 to $4,594. The reason for the increase was maintenance, heating and cooling and salary price increases, according to the article. Another $2 million was added to financial aid.

In an article by former Reflector Editor-in-Chief Kylee Crane, tuition for the 2016-2017 academic year increased 3.9%, making the total $26,920. The price of a standard room rose from $4,730 to $4,928 and the 14-meal plan rose from $4,594 to $4,720, the article said. According to former Executive Vice President for Campus Affairs and Enrollment Services Mark Weigand, the main reason for the increase was faculty and staff salaries. UIndy had a 11:1 student-faculty ratio and needed to raise salaries in order to keep faculty, Weigand said.

Tuition for the 2018-2019 academic year had a 3.5% increase, making the total $28,836, according to an article by former Reflector Editor-in-Chief Zo Berg. A standard double room rose from $4,928 to $5,280 and the 14-meal plan rose from $4,720 to $5,008. These funds were meant to be allocated to electricity, heating and cooling, snow removal, bandwidth and insurance price increases, the article said. Additionally, there was a $4 million increase for financial aid. At this time, UIndy was still the third-lowest priced private university in Indiana.

For the 2019-2020 academic year, tuition rose 3.5%, making the total $29,844, according to an article by former Reflector Managing Editor Maia Gibson. The standard room rate rose from $5,280 to $5,464 and the 14-meal plan rose from $5,008 to $5,136, the article said This was due to increased salaries, electricity, heating and cooling and other maintenance costs, according to the article. A $3 million increase was allocated for financial aid. According to the article, UIndy was the sixth-lowest costing private university in Indiana at the time.

In the 2020-21 academic year, UIndy surpassed $30,000 for tuition, making the total $30,888, according to an article by former Reflector Editor-in-Chief Noah Crenshaw. The standard room rate rose from $5,464 to $5,656, and the 14-meal plan rose from $5,136 to $5,316. According to the article, UIndy was ranked 18th in Indiana, second-lowest, right above Huntington University. Many of these funds went to improving technology capabilities for UIndys network and classes, enhancing academic programs, creating a new student recreation center in Schwitzer Student Center and more.

According to an article by former Reflector Editor-in-Chief Jacob Walton, tuition rose to $33,252 for the 2022-2023 academic year, marking the largest tuition increase over the past four years. Manuel said that the conversations for this increase were difficult because of the COVID-19 pandemic but needed to be done in order to provide the desired level of education. The article said that overall student fees, meal plans and room and board increased $600. The reasons for the increase, according to the article, were COVID-19 responses, security expansion and more. Tuition will be $34,416 for the 2023-24 academic year, according to an article written by current Reflector Editor-in-Chief Kassandra Darnell. For a standard room there will be an increase of $304 and for the 14-meal plan there will be an increase of $284, according to the article. Funds from the increase will go toward payroll expenses, utilities, vendors, updates to the Cory Bretz residence hall, initiatives to improve safety on campus and looking into dining experience, the article said. This is the highest tuition has ever been, with an almost $10 thousand increase in less than a decade.

Originally posted here:
Consistent tuition rise at the University of Indianapolis - The Reflector - The Reflector Online

12

Stepping up to the podium at the NCAA DII National Championships, the University of Indianapolis mens swimming and diving team claimed first as champions and the womens team took runner-up, according to UIndy Athletics. UIndy Mens and Womens Swimming and Diving Head Coach Brent Noble said he was pleased with the teams success this season.

Were really happy with the way the season went for both the men and for the women, Noble said. We came into the year knowing that we were capable of a lot; we just had to stay the course. Its definitely a season where we grew and did some things that we hadnt done before. But ultimately, we had built a team with really capable people. And they worked pretty hard to accomplish their goals individually, and got closer and closer to their potential.

Noble said that at the start of the season they knew that both teams had the potential to impress this season. According to UIndy Athletics, the mens national championship win is the first in the programs history. Sophomore diver Julio Osuna said that the moment of holding the trophy was an amazing feeling.

We went to the podiumthey gave the trophies and everything and I was in the middle, and they handed me a trophy, Osuna said. I dont think I [was] the right person to hold this trophy because Im a sophomore and a senior would typically hold the trophy. I do want to have a responsibility to hold the trophy. But at the same time, I dont, but it felt amazing to have it in my hand for a couple of seconds It was just really cool. It was one of the best moments of my life.

In addition to winning the team championship, Osuna won multiple individual championships such as the three-meter dive and the one-meter dive, according to UIndy Athletics. In the 1-meter dive, the Greyhounds finished first, second and third for this event. Additionally, sophomore swimmer Cedric Buessing claimed multiple school records while winning the 1000-meter freestyle national championship. The mens team also had a relay team take home a national championship, according to UIndy Athletics.

I wanted to do my part to help the members of either team experience something like that, obviously being on a team that wins the national championship [along with] winning the first national championship, Noble said. Thats something pretty special to be a part of. And so knowing going into the season that we had the opportunity to do that definitely was a big responsibilityI wanted those men to just have that experience.

The womens team added to their trophy case this season after winning the GLVC they came in as runner-up for the second year in a row in the national championship, according to UIndy Athletics. Fifth-year swimmer Kaitlyn McCoy said that even though the team came up short in nationals, they made improvements from last year.

We knew that Nova Southeastern [University] was going to be a bit of a struggle, but we also knew that we were better than we were last year, McCoy said. We had high hopes. And so even though we just came up short, we did better this year than we did last year. And the gap between the teams was closer.

McCoy was also an individual national champion winning the 100-meter backstroke to add to her other individual national championship, according to UIndy Athletics. Along with McCoys individual championship, graduate student swimmer Johanna Buys broke the DII National record for the 50-meter freestyle, claiming an individual national championship. Noble said the mens and womens teams standards have continued to grow every year they step into the pool.

We have a really big team, and so I think that lends itself to us [that], its really important that everyone plays their role, whether theyre in the pool at nationals or not, Noble said. Its important that everyone on our team has a positive impact towards the greater good. But at the meet, we had the most people scoring points, the most people getting second swims and the most people kind of pushing the needle compared to the rest. That has become our calling card is that were deep. And we have people winning events, but we also have a lot of people in all of the events and so thats a big deal for us.

Osuna said that his teammates played a large role in his success this season, and he said he was pushed when practicing, especially by his teammate senior diver Jason Lenzo.

[Lenzo] is the one that keeps me in my zone the most, Osuna said. He knows how to talk to me and approaches me when Im stressed or not having a good day. And thanks to him I can say I won my two national championships. He was the one that helped me [keep] going through the whole year.

McCoy said that her teammates all played a vital role in their success. She said she wouldnt change anything about the season.

Its been a fantastic ride, and I wouldnt change it for anything, McCoy said. And I am so proud of the people next to me and the rest of my team too.

Excerpt from:
UIndy men's and women's swimming and diving compete at NCAA ... - The Reflector Online

22

University of Indianapolis mens lacrosse senior attacker Drew Billig is now the leader in points for a career in program history as a Greyhound, according to UIndy Athletics. Having the opportunity to break this record, he credits his teammates and support system at UIndy.

Right away when I was a freshman, the older guys were telling me some of the things that they thought I could do. At the time, I was like, Yeah, right. No way I can be an All-American, Billig said. But I think honestly, the seniors my freshman year, some of the older guys, put into my eyes about what I could accomplish. Obviously, my teammates over the years have driven me to be where I am today. A lot of the credit goes to them.

According to Head Coach Greg Stocks, the team had high hopes for Billig from the beginning of his career. Billig can into the team and made an instant impact, Stocks said.

He came in and started immediately as a freshman on the team that went to the [NCAA] Final Four. It was pretty baffling, he was the second leading scorer as a freshman, Stocks said. He scored an overtime winner in the NCAA tournament as a freshman. So, the trajectory of him being able to do this was definitely there.

According to Billig, he was in a game when they announced he had broken the points record, but he knew he was close to breaking it. Billig said the team was looking to mount a comeback when it was announced.

I knew I was close. But then I scored against Lemoine [University], and they said it over the [public address] system. The crowd cheered, and [I] got a couple fist bumps from my teammates, which is really awesome, Billig said. It was kind of bittersweet, because we were down big in the game and we were trying to make a comeback.

According to Stocks, Billig is a quiet leader for his team. Stocks said that up until his senior year he was more of the quiet one of the group, but as captain he took on a more vocal role.

Hes one of those guys that does everything right, Stocks said. He kind of leads by his actions with the effort that he puts in and always doing the right thing. The rest of the guys fall in line and follow his leadership.

Billig said that growing up and throughout his career playing lacrosse, he never thought he would be in the record books in college. He said he was just hoping to see the field.

[Breaking a record] did not really cross my mind growing up, I wanted to go somewhere and play college lacrosse where I thought I had a chance of playing right away, Billig said. My big motivator has just been always hopefully seeing the field and contributing wherever I can whether its on the field or whether Im on the end of the bench rooting on the guys. I did not see this coming at all.

According to UIndy Athletics, Billig has other accomplishments to his name, such as two time All-GLVC first team, three time Academic All-GLVC and 2022 United States Intercollegiate Lacrosse Association (USILA)/Nike All-America Third Team. According to Billig, this record shows that all the hard work has paid off for him and his teammates.

Over the years doing extra practice outside of just our scheduled time, extra film with the coaches or with the older guys, whatever it may be, its really cool to see it all pay off, Billig said. I dont think I deserve all the credit because a lot of it is my teammates doing the dirty work behind the scenes during games getting ground balls, finishing off goals, setting me up for goals. I get the spotlight, which Im not always comfortable with, but a lot of the credit does go to my teammates and my coaches as well.

According to Stocks, it has been a pleasure to coach Billig, and he expects a successful season and future for him. Stocks said that Billig is a great person on and off-the-field, he works hard and he has earned it. Billig said that what he has most enjoyed during his time here at UIndy is his teammates.

Just being around all the guys, this is cliche, but these guys are my brothers, Billig said. I love these guys to death. I would do anything for them. And they would do anything for me and I know that.

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UIndy men's lacrosse player Drew Billig breaks career points record ... - The Reflector Online

Reviewed hereCollective Wisdom: Co-creating Media for Equity and Justice

by Katerina Cizek and William Urrichio (32)

In 1913, Robert Joseph Flaherty was a prospector in northern Canada, searching for iron ore on behalf of his employer, the railroad baron William Mackenzie. Flahertys expeditions to northwest Quebec were made possible by Inuit guides, and, over the course of his voyages, Flaherty became interested in documenting the Inuit way of life, which he saw as rapidly disappearing. He took a three-week camera-operating course from Eastman Kodak in Rochester, New York, and set off for the Hudson Bay with an early motion picture camera.

Four years, four expeditions and 30,000 feet of film later, Flaherty was assembling the footage from his journeys into a full-length film when stray cigarette ash ignited and destroyed his footage. No matter, Flaherty noted: The editing print was not burned and was shown several times just long enough to make me realize it was no good. He wanted better. So Flaherty spent more than a year on the Ungava Peninsula in northern Quebec with members of an Inuit community, creating a coherent cinematic narrative centred on a single figure, the brave hunter Nanook.

The resulting film, Nanook of the North, was released to acclaim in 1922, and is widely seen as the primogenitor of the contemporary documentary film. But the story of Nanook is complex, and the controversies it raises around authorship, representation, respect and ownership anticipate a modern set of questions associated with documentary filmand, indeed, with many types of creation.

The featured hunter was not named Nanook, but Allakariallak, which Flaherty feared audiences would not be able to pronounce. The women and children playing Nanooks family were not actually his family, while everyone in the film wears traditional costumes that had long gone out of common usage. Allakariallak was an accomplished hunter, but generally hunted with a rifle, rather than the harpoon he uses in the film. Scenes within the film were clearly staged, particularly a memorable sequence about building an igloo, where Nanook and his family build a structure almost twice as large as usual, so that Flaherty and his camera could fit inside.

The success of Nanook at the box office brought Flaherty to Hollywood, where he and his wife, Frances Hubbard, received a contract from Paramount to produce Moana, a story of a young boys journey into manhood in Samoa. Flaherty ultimately produced six full-length films, all ethnographic studies of geographically isolated people.

Allakariallaks cinematic career was much briefer. Two years after the film was released, he died of tuberculosis. The promoters of the film claimed that Allakariallak had died of starvation during a deer hunt, emphasising the dangers that Nanook and his family routinely braved. The organisation founded in Flahertys memory, the Flaherty Film Seminar, now describes Nanook of the North as a work that history has recognized as the first documentary film, a cornerstone of ethnographic cinema, a modern art masterpiece, a racist fantasy, and an indefensible work of indigenous appropriation.

However, theres another way to tell the story of Allakariallak and Nanook; one that emphasises an important aspect of Flahertys process. During filming, Flaherty brought not only cameras, but also developing equipment and a projector. Each day, he shared the footage with his Inuit cast and crew, who made suggestions to increase the authenticity of film, many of which were included in the finished process. The methods that allowed Flaherty to produce a film in the high Arctic were the same that he used in later worka collaboration with his subjects and his crew to co-create documentary narratives of everyday life, made primarily by an indigenous crew, but with an outside director.

Flaherty and Nanook are mentioned only once in Collective Wisdom, an exploration of co-creation primarily authored by filmmaker Katerina Cizek and media scholar William Uricchio. (In the spirit of co-creation, 11 individuals and the media collective Detroit Narrative Agency are also credited as authors.) But the questions raised by NanookWho has the right to tell someones story? How can we create narratives that are collaborative rather than exploitative?run through this book and prove as challenging to consider in relation to contemporary creations as they are when analysing Flahertys work.

Is co-creation too unwieldy to be practical for most creators? Or is it actually so commonplace that its not worth special notice?

Cizek is an acclaimed documentarian whose best-known works have been created in cooperation with their subjects. Highrise, an examination of vertical living in cities around the world, is credited in part to the residents of the high-rises at 2667 and 2677 Kipling Avenue in Toronto, Canada (who are thanked, along with many others, in the acknowledgements of Collective Wisdom). Uricchio is a media scholar at MIT and Utrecht University, author of books on the history of media technologies and the evolution of cultural figures in cinema and entertainment. Along with MIT scholar Sara Wolozin, Cizek and Uricchio are founders of MITs Co-Creation Studio, which researches and incubates collective creation as alternatives to singular authorship. Wolozins contributions permeate Collective Wisdom to the extent that perhaps the studio itself should be considered the author here.

Co-creation is a conscious rejection of the myth of the author as creative genius. The authors trace that myth back to Romantic-era artists such as Rembrandt, Rubens and Rodin, whose output was the result of teams of unnamed assistants, as well as to businessmen such as Steve Jobs and Thomas Edison, whose genius similarly overshadowed those who did most of the work beneath them. In its place, Collective Wisdom seeks a new set of exemplars, from the collectively produced quilts of Gees Bend, Alabama, to the international collaboration that helped bring about vaccines and other public health solutions in response to Covid-19.

Perhaps the clearest definition of the term co-creation comes near the end of the book, in an interview with Cara Mertes, a funder at the Ford Foundation of co-creation projects: Co-creation is a concept that covers a broad set of practices, which revolve around equity, dignity and justice. If that definition seems broad or vague, it is intentionally so. Co-creation is an emerging practice, and the authors are less concerned with enforcing a strict definition of its boundaries than exploring the possibilities of a co-creative approach in a range of fields.

The book is richif occasionally overfullwith examples, including an index of works that help illustrate the principles of co-creation. Nanook is listed here as an early, influential and problematic example, alongside more than a hundred other entries; from journalistic collaborations such as the Panama Papers to virtual reality installations; from web-based projects of community self-documentation to an MIT hackathon dedicated to reinventing the breast pump. Theres so much here that you, as reader, feel a need for some canonical texts to help anchor the concept of co-creationand a canon of sorts does indeed emerge in Collective Wisdom through the repetition of key examples.

Cizeks filmsnotably, Highrise and Filmmaker-in-Residence, a five-year partnership in which the filmmaker worked with doctors, nurses and other stakeholders at an inner-city Toronto hospitaloffer models for processes that can smooth the rough edges of co-creation. Collaborations between the hospital participants and filmmakers were passed through the hospitals ethics board before being carried out. Participants co-authored a manifesto about the goals of the project and created painstaking contracts recognising the complexities around consent from patients taking part in a documentary.

Films produced by indigenous Canadian communities offer another structure for community partnership. In contrast to Flahertys collaboration almost a century earlier, SGaaway Kunna (The Edge of the Knife), a 2018 feature film shot in the Haida language, was co-created by the Haida Nation, an Inuit film production company and a non-indigenous professor at the University of British Columbia. The intellectual property of the film is owned entirely by the Haida Nation, who had power to hire and fire anyone on the project.

While co-creation has significant roots within the documentary film community, and the issues raised around ownership and authorship in that space, the authors of Collective Wisdom want to extend the principles of co-creation into additional fields and practices. Some of these examples can feel like overreach. While journalism clearly involves telling other peoples stories, the often-confrontational nature of investigation has made co-creative approaches challenging. Worse still, the books ethical investigations into artists collaborating with termites to produce mounds of crystals and coloured sand threaten to stretch its conceptual frame to breaking point.

However, the authors discussions of AI as a process of co-creation are more promising. Conversational AIs, such as ChatGPT, and AI image generators, such as Stable Diffusion, create new works from millions of other works by thousands of unnamed, unknowing collaborators. Stephanie Dinkins, a New York artist, collaborates with a humanoid robot, Bina48, created in 2007 on the template of an African-American woman, Bina Aspen Rothblatt. The resultant Conversations with Bina48, presented as a set of videotaped interviews, intentionally complicate the idea that an AI can be trained on the memories and behaviours of a black woman without incorporating the assumptions of the white, male programmers. The co-creation Dinkins engages in is investigative, critical and adversarial, and suggests ways in which this method can be confrontational, not just kumbaya.

The tensions embodied in Collective Wisdom come to the surface in a series of interviews that are mostly transcribed from events convened by the MIT Co-Creation Studio. A conversation with five media-makers of colour includes pointed questions about whether co-creation isnt merely a traditional form of creativity, repackaged to seek grant funding. Is it simply a way to legitimize a space for dominant culture to continue to be involved in telling our stories, a way of keeping some White control and presence over narratives by and about communities of color? asks Haitian filmmaker Michle Stephenson.

Other debates focus on the practicality of co-creation as a working method. Is it too complex and unwieldy to be practical for most creators? Or is it actually so commonplace a working method that its not worth special notice?

The authors see co-creation as aspirational, a set of processes and principles that can be applied with different levels of intensity in different projects. In that spirit, Collective Wisdom tries to offer several roadmaps for implementing co-creation in your own projects, but these roadmaps can be hard to follow, in part due to the books unusual structure. Chapters are punctuated with case studies, interviews, photo essays, diagrams and illustrations. At best, these turn the book into a hypertext, where you can be drawn into chapters of artistic or activist history by following an intriguing caption. At worst, they lead to confusion, when an apparently straightforward set of lessons is interrupted by a long soliloquy on the founding of a particular media centre.

In the end, theres a strange sort of irony to the book. The case studies and interviews that break up the chapters allow Collective Wisdom to be the creation of a large team of co-authors, yet they also make it clear that a possible compromise in the co-creative process is trading a highly polished narrative for a fragmentary, sometimes confusing assemblage of multiple perspectives.

Where Collective Wisdom shines is in raisingand partially answeringsome of the most challenging questions of authorship, credit and shared creativity in film and other creative fields. Is there an ethical way for a non-indigenous filmmaker to make a documentary about the Inuit, as Flaherty tried in 1922? This book offers some models, from the Haida Nations partnership with Canadian academics to the West Baffin Co-op, which has produced and distributed Inuit art since 1959. More important, though, is the simple hope that it finds within co-creation: the idea that a better way to treat each other as collaborators is not only possible, but essential.

Originally posted here:
A new, old way of making things - Prospect Magazine