Tuesday, March 14, 2017

Fat, feminism and fear of Instagram: Sofia Hydman’s superb gifs



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Work / Illustration

Fat, feminism and fear of Instagram: Sofia Hydman’s superb gifs

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“Chubby, confident girls are my favourite thing to draw. There’s too many skinny bitches out there already,” says Sofia Hydman. Well, her passion for the curvaceous is certainly clear in her work: gifs that delight in the lines and bulges of a larger woman’s form.
By day, Sofia works as an art director at New York ad agency Anomaly. However, she felt that outside of the nine-to-five she needed another outlet for her creativity. “I needed a project where I could call all the shots, so I created one for myself,” she explains. “I work with my gifs at home, late nights after work or during the weekends. I sit on my bed, crooked like a cheese doodle, with my Wacom and Mac. Preferably my girls are nude. I also have a thing for sad boys. I don’t know why I like it when guys cry, I just do, so I make them. Literally.”
Sofia draws her inspiration from Instagram, but while this feeds her creativity, she also finds it a worrying spiral. “I do spend time thinking about what will gain most likes on Instagram. I haven’t cracked the code yet so until I do I will continue to draw whatever I feel like in the moment of inspiration. I try to stay away from using too much black though, in my case it gains less likes,” she says. “I follow a bunch of super talented people and my biggest drive is jealousy.”
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Sofia Hydman: gif
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Sofia Hydman: gif
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Sofia Hydman: gif
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Sofia Hydman: gif

A Canadian co-working space transports Roaring Twenties decadence into the here and now


A Canadian co-working space transports Roaring Twenties decadence into the here and now

MONTREAL – An abandoned bank may not be the obvious choice for a trendy co-working space. For Canadian outfit Crew, however, the peculiar location gave the young collective an opportunity to establish itself among Montreal’s growing start-up scene. Situated on Saint Jacques Street in Old Montreal, the city’s historical district, the former Royal Bank of Canada vacated its headquarters in 2010, after nearly a century of occupancy. At a height of 119 m, the office tower was the tallest building in the British Empire when it was erected in the 1920s. Nearly six years after falling into disuse, the heritage building reopened its doors this year to welcome Crew Collective 360.


The project combines private Crew offices with members-only workspaces and a cafĂ© – in new digs that are anything but understated. Standing catty-cornered from Montreal’s Notre-Dame Basilica, whose Gothic Revival architecture refers to that of the famous grande dame in Paris, the communal enterprise is a feast for the eye. Its extravagant 1,115-sqm interior features a marble inlay floor, ornate mouldings and vaulted ceilings that soar to a height of 15 m. Shimmering crystal chandeliers and decadent gold and bronze detailing add to the dazzling spectacle.


The building’s listed status meant that local architect Henri Cleinge had to leave the original elements intact. The aim, he says, was ‘a contemporary project that would create a kind of identity for the Crew offices, while preserving the character of the neoclassical shell’. To do so, he used existing elements to his advantage. In the cafĂ©, erstwhile teller counters separate the eat-and-drink area from private offices for permanent employees, where rows of minimalist workstations and cubicles share the space with gleaming brass-clad conference rooms that allude to the opulent surroundings. ‘We didn’t want to overpower the existing building,’ says Cleinge, ‘but to highlight its remarkable craft with a discreet design intervention.’ 

Deskopolitan by MoreySmith is a work-life environment

Deskopolitan by MoreySmith is a work-life environment


PARIS – A new co-working space has landed in the 10th arrondissement. Designed by MoreySmith, Deskopolitan is located in a former factory building and spans 1350-sq-m over four floors at Rue du Château d’Eau. 
Currently being let in its entirety to French presidential candidate BenoĂ®t Hamon to be his campaign headquarters, Deskopolitan was designed with start-ups and entrepreneurs in mind – professionals who want a space to socialize, interact and collaborate with like-minded people, says Linda Morey-Burrows, founder and principal director of MoreySmith. Challenging the traditional office concept with collaborative and social spaces, Deskopolitan offers assigned workspaces and flexible work settings, as well as artist studios, health and beauty suites, and spaces for networking events.
‘It was important to make a difference and provide people with a complete lifestyle alternative,’ says Morey-Burrows. After all, in today’s era of digital nomads, freelance armies, and remote-working opportunities, people can work quite comfortably from any cafĂ© on any corner. There are also more and more co-working spaces opening up in cities around the world, many of which come equipped with leisure and dining areas. But it’s not enough to have somewhere to sit with a coffee and your laptop, Morey-Burrows insists.
‘We are providing services such as beauty rooms, nap rooms, barber shops and yoga studios to bring these lifestyle choices to the doorstep of work. We have increasingly busy lives and time is precious, so why not get your hair cut and have a place to do yoga at lunch time?’

The space echoes this fluidity, with bright, open interiors that flow into one another. The factory building’s heritage is preserved through the use of exposed concrete, burnished brass and copper mesh and glazed brick tiles, while a fresh, bright palette and ample plant life juxtapose the industrial aesthetic.
But the question remains whether having everything under one roof makes for a better or worse work-life balance. For Morey-Burrows, Deskopolitan at least improves existing conditions. ‘Although we are spending more and more time at work, workspace providers and top brand employers are realising that this can be a lifestyle choice as well as a requirement,’ explains Morey-Burrows.
‘Wellness, innovation and productivity are heavily linked to the spaces we interact with – reinventing the typical office and extending the facilities available on-site creates a unique working environment for clients and workforce alike.’

Do We Need to Give Up Alcohol to Lose Weight? Not Necessarily

Photo
CreditPaul Rogers
People trying to lose weight — or not gain weight — are frequently advised to “lay off the booze.” Although organizations like Weight Watchers offer ways to drink wisely within their plans, alcohol, with seven calories a gram and no compensating nutrients, is commonly thought to derail most efforts at weight control.
After the winter holidays, I often hear people blame alcohol for added pounds, not just from its caloric contribution but also because it can undermine self-control and stimulate the appetite and desire for fattening foods.
Yet you probably know people who routinely drink wine with dinner, or a cocktail before it, and never put on an unwanted pound. Given that moderate drinkers tend to live longer than teetotalers, I’d love a glass of wine or a beer with dinner if I could do so without gaining, so I looked into what science has to say about alcohol’s influence on weight.
Despite thousands of studies spanning decades, I discovered that alcohol remains one of the most controversial and confusing topics for people concerned about controlling their weight.
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I plowed through more than two dozen research reports, many with conflicting findings on the relationship between alcohol and weight, and finally found a thorough review of the science that can help people determine whether drinking might be compatible with effective weight management.
The review, published in 2015 in Current Obesity Reports, was prepared by Gregory Traversy and Jean-Philippe Chaput of the Healthy Active Living and Obesity Research Group at the Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario Research Institute in Ottawa, Ontario.
The reviewers first examined so-called cross-sectional studies, studies that assessed links between alcohol intake and body mass index among large groups of people at a given moment in time. The most common finding was that, in men on average, drinking was “not associated” with weight, whereas among women, drinking either did not affect weight or was actually associated with a lower body weight than among nondrinkers.
Their summary of the findings: Most such studies showed that “frequent light to moderate alcohol intake” — at most two drinks a day for men, one for women — “does not seem to be associated with obesity risk.” However, binge drinking (consuming five or more drinks on an occasion) and heavy drinking (more than four drinks in a day for men, or more than three for women) were linked to an increased risk of obesity and an expanding waistline. And in a departure from most of the other findings, some of the research indicated that for adolescents and (alas) older adults, alcohol in any amount may “promote overweight and a higher body fat percentage.”
Prospective studies, which are generally considered to be more rigorous than cross-sectional studies and which follow groups of people over time, in this case from several months to 20 years, had varied results and produced “no clear picture” of the relationship between alcohol and weight. Several found either no relationship or a negative relationship, at least in women, while others found that men who drank tended to risk becoming obese, especially if they were beer drinkers.
The conclusion from the most recent such studies: While heavy drinkers risked gaining weight, “light to moderate alcohol intake is not associated with weight gain or changes in waist circumference.”
The studies Dr. Chaput ranked as “most reliable” and “providing the strongest evidence” were controlled experiments in which people were randomly assigned to consume given amounts of alcohol under monitored conditions. One such study found that drinking two glasses of red wine with dinner daily for six weeks did not result in weight gain or a greater percentage of body fat in 14 men, when compared with the same diet and exercise regimen without alcohol. A similar study among 20 overweight, sedentary women found no meaningful change in weight after 10 weeks of consuming a glass of wine five times a week.
However, the experimental studies were small and the “intervention periods” were short. Dr. Chaput noted that even a very small weight gain over the course of 10 weeks can add up to a lot of extra pounds in five years unless there is a compensating reduction in food intake or increase in physical activity.
Unlike protein, fats and carbohydrates, alcohol is a toxic substance that is not stored in the body. Alcohol calories are used for fuel, thus decreasing the body’s use of other sources of calories. That means people who drink must eat less or exercise more to maintain their weight.
Dr. Chaput said he is able to keep from gaining weight and body fat despite consuming “about 15 drinks a week” by eating a healthy diet, exercising daily and monitoring his weight regularly.
Big differences in drinking patterns between men and women influence the findings of alcohol’s effects on weight, he said. “Men are more likely to binge drink and to drink beer and spirits, whereas women mostly drink wine and are more likely than men to compensate for extra calories consumed as alcohol.”
Genetics are also a factor, Dr. Chaput said, suggesting that alcohol can be more of a problem among people genetically prone to excessive weight gain. “People who are overweight to begin with are more likely to gain weight if they increase their alcohol intake,” he said.
Furthermore, as I and countless others have found, alcohol has a “disinhibiting” effect and can stimulate people to eat more when food is readily available. “The extra calories taken in with alcohol are stored as fat,” he reminded drinkers.
Here’s the bottom line: Everyone is different. The studies cited above average the results among groups of people and thus gloss over individual differences. Even when two people start out weighing the same and eat, drink and exercise the same amount, adding alcohol to the mix can have different consequences.
The critical ingredient is self-monitoring: weighing yourself regularly, even daily, at the same time of day and under the same circumstances. If you’re a moderate drinker and find yourself gradually putting on weight, try cutting down on, or cutting out, alcohol for a few months to see if you lose, gain or stay the same.
Or, if you’re holding off on drinking but gradually gaining weight and have no medical or personal reason to abstain from alcohol, you might try having a glass of wine on most days to see if your weight stabilizes or even drops slightly over the coming months.
You might also consult a reliable source on the sometimes surprising differences in calorie content among similar alcoholic drinks. The Center for Science in the Public Interest recently published such a list, available at www.nutritionaction.com. Search for “Which alcoholic beverages have the most calories?” While you’ll find no difference in calories between white and red wines, depending on the brand, 12 ounces of beer can range from 55 to 320 calories.