Using Photoshop to Highlight Gender Disparity: Alex Holder, executive creative director at Anomaly London, and Alyssa Boni, director of RSA films, have collaborated to produce striking visuals of the lack of women in positions of power around the globe. Using photoshop, the two women took photographic images of major historical moments and erased all of the men in the pictures. The result? Hauntingly empty conference rooms, meeting halls, and rows of chairs. Their project, #MoreWomen, is the most recent iteration of the ELLE UK annual feminism campaign and aims to bring awareness to the dire need for continued progress on gender equality fronts. Holder and Boni’s edited photographs reveal not only the isolation of women in these authority positions but also hint at the fierce competition among women to win one of these few available positions. Instead of forcing such competition among women, Holder argues, we should strive for societies in which “one woman’s success makes every other woman stronger.” Ultimately, the edited photographs bring much-needed attention to the persistent inequality along gender lines in politics using a creative (and incredibly effective) method.

Reimagining a Classic Medium: Italian artist Daniele Papuli creates mesmerizing 3D installations using a medium typically used in two-dimensional work: paper. Recent years have seen artists increasingly experimenting with paper’s 3D potential, perhaps most clearly seen in the recent resurgence in the popularity of paper quilling (originally dating back to the Renaissance era). Papuli’s stunning installations fill entire rooms, sprawling across floors and dangling from ceilings. He reflects on being captivated by the medium, saying: “I was fascinated by light and thick textures, by the structural potentialities of surfaces, by this matter–alive, vibrating, changeable. A matter characterized by a physical tactile pleasure apparently hidden in its more usual shape, flat and bidimensional.” His work is a stunning example of the limitless creative potential inherent in artistic media!

A Step in the Right Direction with Inclusive “Flesh-Colored” Tights: From Crayola crayon colors to clothing, “flesh-colored” has long referred exclusively to a peach or beige tone matching the skin of Caucasian individuals. In the dance world, this has presented a particular problem for dancers of other ethnicities attempting to find shoes and tights matching the hue of their own skin. This past week in The Washington Post, Garlia Cornelia Jones-Ly described the importance of being able to find a variety of “flesh-colored” tights when shopping for her young daughter. She reflects on seeing her daughter and other young girls at the Dance Theatre of Harlem in their “caramel” or “mocha” tights: “But it was more than a look. These young girls, from a multitude of ethnicities, were embracing at such a young age the color of their skin and celebrating their differences and similarities, something not focused on by most in the classical world of ballet.” Hopefully Jones-Ly’s positive experience becomes the norm among dance parents as tights and shoes are increasingly offered in a variety of flesh tones and young dancers of all backgrounds feel welcomed into the studio and onto the stage.

Pulling out Your Phone at a Performance? Prepare to be Hit by a Laser Beam: Theaters and other performance venues in China have adopted policies that allow ushers to target cell phone users with laser beams during performances. The ushers are usually stationed around the top perimeter of seating sections and equipped with red or green laser pointers. An employee at the Shanghai Grand Theater indicated that the laser punishment was rarely called for: “It’s usually only a small fraction of the audience that we have to deal with…They can’t help themselves. So we try to give them a gentle reminder…” There has been some backlash against the measure since the red dots produced by the laser pointers can resemble the targeting beam of a firearm. Performers themselves report the measure being less distracting than typical usher interventions in which they walk through the audience to reach specific patrons. Though ushers are trained for accuracy, error can be disastrous, as when one usher unwittingly hit members of a Beijing dance troupe with red beams during a performance last year. Whether or not the laser beam measures will last or spread outside of China remains to be seen, but it is certainly an innovative approach to quelling audience distraction!