Prehistoric artists hid their painting deep inside their caves as if they were meant to be kept secret. These painting were so well hidden, in fact they were found in an unexpected discovery in Altamira in 1879 and another discovery was found in the Lascaux in Dordogne France, when two boys followed their lost dog into a hole that opened into a prehistoric cave. A lot of other caves were found in the Franco Cantabrian region, this is situated in northern Spain and southern France. They are natural caves but when entering, one will notice the mural paintings done by these people. Only the artist can tell what the painting is really representing. All the studies that archaeologists and art historians do is to try and reveal the messages hidden in these painting. This assignment is going to be answered by asking these questions. • What does neuroscience says on art and why is it created? • Why did humans find a need to paint on the walls of a cave? (Theories put forth) WHAT DOES NEUROSCIENCE SAYS ON ART AND WHY IS IT CREATED? V.S. Ramachandran, director of the centre for Brain and Congition and professor of neurosciences and psychology at the University of California, San Diego, made a research to find out if artistic universal laws really exists. Ramachandran asks,’ Are there laws or principles that transcend cultural boundaries and styles?’ Despite the diversity in styles and artistic schools, he speculates that artistic universals do exist and explains them from a neuroscientist’s point of view. Ramachandran divide Artistic Universals in culture which is mainly philosophy, humanities and history of art, and in universal laws (science) these are common to all brains. He dives in the universal laws by mentioning ten laws.... ... middle of paper ... ...he availability of games. Other scholars followed particularly Begouen who saw evidence for ritual and magic in almost every aspect. There are shapes marked on some animal bodies which probably represented wounds or missiles which makes a sense of a ritual going on. Fertility magic and sex. According to Paul Bahn in his book Journey through the Ice age, most of the fertility magic and sex theories were adopted almost from all those who invented the hunting magic theories. This was inspired by an early study of Arunta of Australia, they drew animals in order to multiply as to provide more food. Scholars think that they painted what they wanted to see: animals mating and even humans in sexual activities. Some of the animals can be sexed if it is a male or a female but mostly are listed as asexual because there are no evidences to show what the animals’ sexes are.
The paper talked about the new mud glyph cave art site the was discovered in northern Alabama. It is believe that the artifacts and the images that is located in the cave linked back to the Early and Middle Woodland periods. The cave was named “19th Unnamed Cave” by a naming system that was used be University of Tennessee. Other main points in this paper include the 19th Unnamed Cave, the mud glyph art that it contains, and how the mud glyph contributes to the understanding of mud glyph assemblage preservation, and it helps illuminates the chronological placement of the art form. The cave is located in northern Alabama with a cave mouth of 25 m in diameter and with more than 5 km of underground passageways. The article hypothesized that since the entrance of the cave had some fluvial action, there would no archaeological material that would have been preserved.
Unlike science, art is subjective. The artist leaves behind a part of himself in his work. Therefore, each piece has its own distinct perspective. Frida Kahlo’s self-portraits show her view on her life, on how she has faced so many struggles, yet managed to be a strong person. When we see or hear or read an artistic creation, it produces a mood such as calm or loud, fear or safety. For example, the Eiffel Tower gives Paris a majestic awe; everyone who passes by feels the strength of the 113-year-old grand structure. Art also has a texture. Photographs reveal much through their textures; grainy surfaces often make the picture more realistic while smooth ones seem softer. When we hear a piece of music or see a film, a rhythm carries us from one part to another. Not just true for these two genres, rhythm is present in any artistic work. These few properties are characteristic of everything we encounter in the world of art, the world of human expression. Most have other special features also. Most of the time, though, we do not think about these characteristics because we do not have enough time to pay attention to anything for more than a few seconds.
6) Artistic Inspiration and the Brain , Another response to Dr. Bruce Miller study - FTD & creativity
AA theory by Clive Bell suggests the pinpoints the exact characteristic which makes a work true art. According to Bell, an artwork must produce “aesthetic emotion” (365). This aesthetic emotion is drawn from the form and formality of an artwork rather than whether or not it is aesthetically pleasing or how well it imitates what it is trying to depict. The relation of objects to each other, the colors used, and the qualities of the lines are seemingly more important than what emotion or idea the artwork is trying to provoke. Regardless of whether or not the artwork is a true imitation of certain emotions, ideals, or images, it cannot be true art unless it conjures this aesthetic emotion related to formality (367).
The Lascaux Cave in Dordogne, France is important to scientists because it explains the civilization’s culture and history in painting and the people’s artistic talents and use of paints. Further, the quality and bright paintings show animals, bison, deer, bears [Fig.1-4] and large mammoth animals. The cave and the paintings are significant because there are generations of paintings amongst one another. For instance [Fig.5] shows a horse that was painted over of the bull and then some smaller horses that were painted over that. Therefore, the paintings were done over a long period of time with many different painters and represents different time periods; archeologists saw that the people lived in a cave beside this one, so this cave could have been more spiritual and if there was many animals painted in the cave the people would believe that there would be enough food for them in the forests (Bolman, n.d.) It also supports animism, which is the belief that natural objects, natural phenomena, and the universe itself possess souls (Animism, 2014). The paintings reflect the development...
Aziz-Zadeh, L., Liew, S.-L., & Dandekar, F. (2013). Exploring the neural correlates of visual creativity. Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience, 8(4), 475–480. doi:10.1093/scan/nss021
Paintings, like many forms of art, are very subjective—what one may find intriguing another may completely disagree. “Art is physical material that affects a physical eye and conscious brain” (Solso, 13). To glance at art, we must go through a process of interpretation in order to understand what it is we are looking at. Solso describes the neurological, perceptual, and cognitive sequence that occurs when we view art, and the often inexpressible effect that a work of art has on us. He shows that there are two aspects to viewing art: nativistic perception—the synchronicity of eye and brain that transforms electromagnetic energy into neuro-chemical codes—which is "hard-wired" into the sensory-cognitive system; and directed perception, which incorporates personal history—the entire set of our expectations and past experiences—and knowledge (Solso, preface)
middle of paper ... ... Although subject to change in different cultures, the societal norm of placing an ethical code helps us to set the “right” amount of boundaries in areas of knowledge, including the arts and the natural sciences. Like I said before, there are many complications to this as both scientists and artists are put in situations where they must face the fine line between having a scientific/artistic role or ethical role in creating opportunities for knowledge. Works Cited McKie, Robin.
Art has had its roots, one may argue, when civilization was born. With each respective civilization and time periods from the past, humans have formed a diverse and unique society, a group of people with their own individual characteristics, cultures, as well as philosophies within which all kinds of differing ideas, thoughts and opinions are always brought upon for challenge and evaluation. These distinct aspects of a culture and/or time period may be recorded by people in varying forms of expression we all know as art. Directly from where culture had originated, events and/or emotions from that time period have been reflected or directly recorded in the arrangement of pictures i.e. paintings from the past which inform us about the people’s experiences and events in the past historical periods. Ultimately, History is the record of the development and how we have evolved as humans together in a society. History can be expressed and reflected in different kinds of music, sculptures, as well as paintings. There are several different periods of Art, each has contributed and reflected to how a society was. Art has been usually used by historians as one of the vehicles of history to illustrate and illuminate it as they are able to recognize that some types of art may be able to help them identify and explain the nature of societies and periods in history. Art and society have counteracted with each different type bringing forth new arts and new societies for many generations to come. Ideas have caused responses by citizens and therefore bring forth several different types of influences on a period’s background, heredity, and environments. These influences are then translated into new a idea, which then triggers the circle to repeat it...
However, one must remember that art is by no means the same as mathematics. “It employs virtually none of the resources implicit in the term pure mathematics.” Many people object that art has nothing to do with mathematics; that mathematics is unemotional and injurious to art, which is purely a matter of feeling. In The Introduction to the Visual Mind: Art and Mathematics, Max Bill refutes this argument by stati...
In the case of most prehistoric art, it is difficult to know the purpose for sure since there is no written record of its use. Many of these pieces are also quite ambiguous in meaning and even imagery, for example the woman from Willendorf and other early human figurines, and the cave paintings that ranged from Europe to Africa. Perhaps because of this, and because of the apparent predominance of religion and magic in these cultures, they are often ascribed a ceremonial purpose, such as bringing fertility or good hunting. Indeed, in these cases it seems to be a reasonable assumption, supported by the exaggerated female aspects of the women, and the healthy, abundant appearance of the animals depicted in cave paintings. The rationale behind this theory is that in early agricultural societies people had to work hard to survive, leaving little ti...
Man has long created art, this much is certain. However, man has never ultimately defined art. There are so many things which qualify as art and as many qualities to each piece that trying to find answers only seems result in more questions. The formalist theory of art, as present by Clive Bell, makes an attempt at defining art and answering many of these questions. Below is a discussion of the formalist theory; its definition, its strengths, and its weaknesses as evidenced by the work of Clive Bell.
Ethics is the study of moral values and the principles we use to evaluate actions. Ethical concerns can sometimes stand as a barrier to the development of the arts and the natural sciences. They hinder the process of scientific research and the production of art, preventing us from arriving at knowledge. This raises the knowledge issues of: To what extent do moral values confine the production of knowledge in the arts, and to what extent are the ways of achieving scientific development limited due to ethical concerns? The two main ways of knowing used to produce ethical judgements are reason, the power of the mind to form judgements logically , and emotion, our instinctive feelings . I will explore their applications in various ethical controversies in science and arts as well as the implications of morals in these two areas of knowledge.
Art was the first written language and to study the history of art is to study the history of civilizations and humankind. The Paleolithic cave paintings in France, when viewed in the modern western perspective can only be speculated at as to the intent and/or purpose of the original artisans. Perhaps the paintings of animals were the focal point of a religious ceremony or ritual, surveyed before the hunt, to bring success or perhaps part of a celebration or documentation after the successful hunt. It appears that art from the earliest history into the Renaissance focuses around religious ceremonies of some type.
The mind creates the emotions and ideals responsible for art. The brain is capable of imagining glorious things, and art is the physical manifestation of these ideals. These ideals are usually intense emotions with aesthetic power (Wilson, 220). Art organizes these emotions in a matter that can easily express the ideals to...