Thursday, February 8, 2018
Other People, Other Lives
Enterprise Reporting from The Outsider Art Fair
An Extensive Series of Miniature Sculptures Explores the Dramas of Quasi-Alternate Realities
by John Otrompke
“What would it be like if all of us lost our housing all once? I mean everybody- what would that look like?”
A sculpture series by self-taught Toronto-based artist Jordan Maclachlan tries to answer that question, mixing horrifying scenes like a man being attached by a pack of domesticated-breed dogs with scenes of survivors who have no choice but to become stronger by the experience.
“But there are also just normal moments, too, like somebody reading a book,
getting a haircut, or somebody knitting,” said Maclachlan, who was interviewed by phone for this article.
The series of miniatures, called “Unexpected Subway Living,” currently numbers about 100 sculptures, 80 of which were on display at last month’s Outside Art Fair in New York.
“Then there are moments where people are needing privacy, but not getting privacy, and it’s just all right there. Like there’s a woman giving birth leaning against a subway chair, and she’s got a raccoon walking across the back of the chair,” said Maclachlan. “And I have a small surgery area in my series, where a girl is getting heart surgery, and a guy is getting brain surgery.”
However, while many of the scenes in the series are set in subway cars, the trains don’t move. “They’re all ruined. They’re all just sitting there,” explained Maclachlan, who began the series some seven years ago.
Alternatives and Antecedents
Maclachlan never attended art school, but has also loved dioramas. “Since I was a little kid, I was fascinated with them, such as French terra cotta models from the 16th and 17th century at the New York Met.
“None of them are fired, and sometimes they are really engaging, sometimes horrifying, and sometimes not. Sometimes a bar scene, or a husband and wife fighting over a baby,” she explained.
The artist also has other installations in progress, including a series called ‘Condo Living’ and another called ‘Zoo Living.’
“They’re all about how to live, and living in different ways. ‘Condo Living’ is much more civilized. There’s a party in a living room, where people are playing cards, and people are drinking champagne. The condo also has some things that are not so civilized going on behind closed doors, and private moments we get to peek at. There are balconies where people can jump off them, or throw garbage off of them and spy from them.
“And in ‘Zoo Living,’ I wonder what it would be like living in a zoo. There are a
lot of human-animal interactions. Then we get into circuses, and there’s a bearded lady. Baby elephants are taken and wrapped in ropes and chains, and some of them break their legs. There are animals in cages that are depressed. Then they have these huge cryobanks, so they can revive a species that might be endangered,” MacLachlan added.
“I’m a news junkie, more of an observer and reporter than a participant,” she explained. “I like unaffected art that comes from a really sweet place.”
The series is curated by Marion Harris in New York.
Wednesday, February 7, 2018
Interest in Safaris Growing Amidst Environmental Concerns, Adventure Trade Group Says
Enterprise Reporting from the New York Times Travel Show
by John Otrompke
by John Otrompke
Interest in safaris by “adventure travelers” is growing by double digits amidst concerns about over-tourism(1), according to speakers at last month’s New York Time’s Travel Show.
According to a 2016 survey(2), only 13% of respondents had gone on a “safari,” but 44% planned to do one in the future, according to Casey Hanisko, president for business services and events at the Adventure Travel Trade Association (ATTA), a Seattle-based membership organization of tour operators.
The ATTA has more than 1,300 members in 100 countries, said Hanisko, who spoke at a forum called “Focus on Adventure Tourism” on Friday, January 26.
But the organization doesn’t vet the tour operators individually for participation in canned hunts or hunting safaris. “We don’t screen them because of the time it would take, but we do have all of our members sign a value statement,” Hanisko explained. The association is also part of the US Wildlife Trafficking Alliance, she noted.
Money Spent on Travel Growing at Double Digit Rates
The growing interest in ‘safaris’ is accompanied by other measures indicating increased growth in adventure travel. The same study predicted that the “adventure travel” industry is growing at the rate of 17% per year, and would be worth $674 billion by 2017. “We think that’s a conservative estimate, compared to the figure of $953 billion reached by Euromonitor,” Hanisko said.
In some quarters, the economic sector is growing even more rapidly. “REI Adventures’ growth rate is in excess of 20% per year, and growth for 2018 for safari is definitely in excess of 30%,” said Justin Wood, manager of program development and operations at REI Adventures. The company, a member of the ATTA with over 100 retail outlets, began offering trips in 1987, he added.
REI’s safaris are an educational experience, and no aspect of them involves hunting animals, explained Wood, unlike other tour operators.
“We just sent out the survey for our 2018 snapshot, and we fully expect it to trend positively,” noted Hanisko, who said that large members of the association are expanding women-focused trips and conservation elements, such as the elimination of plastic water bottles.
1 “Coping with Success: Managing overcrowding in tourism destinations.” World Travel and Tourism Council and McKinsey & Co. Dec. 2017.https://www.wttc.org/research/policy-research/managing-overcrowding-in-tourism-destinations/
2 “North American Adventure Travelers: Seeking Personal Growth, New Destinations, and Immersive Culture: October 2017 Update,” Viren P, Murray A, Brown T. (research director, Outside Magazine), Beckmann C. (ATTA).
Saturday, February 3, 2018
Prevailing Nosology Insufficient to Identify Violent Children for Whom Psychiatric Medication Might be Considered, according to AACAP Presentation
(Enterprise Reporting from the AACAP Institute)
by John Otrompke
Current categories used to describe children who engage in dysfunctional aggression are insufficiently precise to determine when they should be treated with psychiatric medication, according to a presentation at last week’s Pediatric Psychopharmacology Update Institute in New York.
“Historically, we’d put them under the rubric of child-onset conduct disorder,” said Robert Findling, MD, MBA, vice president of psychiatric services and research at the Kennedy Krieger Institute at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore.
Findling noted that oppositional defiance disorder is also sometimes used to characterize pediatric patients.
“But I want to make clear that while these diagnoses are suitable for many youngsters, the presence for either of these diagnoses should never be a reason for necessarily prescribing a medicine,” said Findling, who gave the presentation, entitled “Disruptive Behavior Disorders and Dysfunctional Aggression: When Might Pharmacotherapy be Considered?” at the AACAP event on Friday, January 26. “We’d like to be find a means by which to characterize these youngsters more efficiently,” he added, during an exclusive phone interview for this blog.
Analyze Violent Children as Individuals, Expert Says
Aggression is either predatory (in other words, goal-directed) or affective (or impulsive), according to the presentation. “There is no pharmacological approach for the treatment of predatory aggression,” noted Findling, who pointed out that all of the research discussed in his presentation was off-label. (Findling also disclosed a number of commercial relationships between himself or his institution and ventures such as pharmaceutical companies).
The problem is that some children diagnosed with either disorder are impulsively aggressive, while others are predatory.
“We don’t have a good label for this group of kids who often have bad outcomes,” said Findling.
Some of the characteristic acts of children who engage in dysfunctional aggression include physical cruelty to animals or people, forced sex, and possessing weapons.
Conduct disorder, which has been validated in children four or five years old, is present in 2.5% of children, and half of children w ADHD. Twenty-five percent of those with ADHD remain impulsively aggressive even if their pharmacological therapy is optimized, according to the presentation.
“We know what happens with these kids long-term: substance abuse, jail, depression, and premature death. It’s heart-breaking to see them as they get older, start scarring over and get tougher. The take-home message is that every youngster needs to be considered as an individual,” added Findling, who recommended that researchers review the CERT guidelines for thoughts on alternative nosology.(1)
Updated Results from TOSCA Study Analyzed
Findling recently co-authored an extended follow-up analysis from the TOSCA (Treatment of Severe Childhood Aggression) study.(2)
TOSCA, as originally described in a 2014 article in JAACAP(3), randomized 168 children between six and 12 years old into two arms: one group received a stimulant plus parental training along with a placebo, while the second group received the same, but with risperidone added.
In the follow-up, Findling and colleagues analyzed data from 103 of the 168 subjects in the original 9-week trial for an additional 12 weeks, using a ‘last analysis carried forward’ technique, in which researchers took the last observations from subjects who did not complete the entire study, and “simply extended them for the rest of the study,” according to Findling.
“What got you better kept you better,” he added, noting that the participants were never re-randomized.
Both groups in the initial TOSCA trial experienced improvements. “Parent ratings of problem behavior showed minimal worsening of behavior from the end of the 9-week acute trial,” however, according to the abstract.
“We found in our extension study that those who did well, stayed well, regardless of what their initial treatment was,” Findling explained.
In addition, when those who did not respond were included in the intent-to-treat analysis, subjects who received risperidone showed more improvement than those who did not, according to certain measures, such as the Antisocial Behavior Scale Reactive Aggression subscale (p = 0.03).
1 Rosato N, Correll C, Pappadopulos E, et al. Treatment of Maladaptive Aggression in Youth: CERT Guidelines II. Treatments and Ongoing Management. Pediatrics, May 2012.
2 Findling R, Townsend L, Brown N, et al. “The Treatment of Severe Childhood Aggression Study: 12 Weeks of Extended, Blinded Treatment in Clinical Responders.” Journal of Child and Adolescent Psychopharmacology. February 2017, 27(1): 52-65. https://doi.org/10.1089/cap.2016.0081
3 Aman MG, Bukstein OG, Gadow KD, et al. What does risperidone add to parent training and stimulant for severe aggression in child attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder? J Am Acad Child Adolesc Psychiatry. 2014;53:47-60.
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