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Can other animals make art? (theconversation.com)

submitted 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Man, I fully expected this article to be the equivalent of "Was historic person gay? Here's loads of examples of them being very gay. I guess, we don't know, if they were more than good friends after all.".

But then while reading, I got convinced they were listing so many cool examples of art, because they wanted to argue that yes, it is art. Only for them to jump back in the conclusion to the ol' animals might just be good friends.

Can you look into the heads of other humans? No, you cannot. What if evolution caused them to say that they make art, because that turns on the ladies? I guess, we'll never know, whether humans make art.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 days ago (2 children)

The lack of conclusion is kinda why it's interesting, right :)

Animals certainly make things that to us as humans appear, visually, as if they could be art, like the bower bird pictured. They certainly have aesthetic qualities that are compatible with being art.

But the wider question is, what is art anyway? If we do it as a consequence of some innate biological purpose, is it still art? Or does art require intent, an expression of that which is within?

And as for not knowing whether even humans make art, I suppose there is at least one human that each of us knows quite well and indeed can look into the head of; ourselves.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 days ago

Disclosure: I went to art school.

The talk was, art is about exploring ideas and generating thought. Art doesn't serve a purpose aside from creating new ideas. This is different from something like pottery, where the goal is to have a really pretty mug or ashtray. This is the "art and craft dichotomy". Craft is about making functional items in a beautiful or interesting way. Textiles, jewelry, furniture, pottery. It's about skilled people creating items for the betterment of daily life. A mug, beautifully made as it may be, won't ever be art unless you drill holes in it, put it on a plith and title it "My Meaningless Existence" or something. Art won't help you about your day except giving you fresh viewpoints on the workaday world.

Viewed from this lens, the bower birds are building these things to get laid. They are craftsmen.

For my part as a textile major I thought this was all bullshit, although now that I'm old I understand what they were getting at.

The next part of my lecture we will look at the differences between art and design. Reply "STOP" to unsubscribe from Memories of Art School.

[–] RamblingPanda 1 points 2 days ago

what is art anyway?

And I think it boils down to this. Art is different for every viewer, and I would argue that most of what we humans achieved, we did so because we wanted to procreate, and making beautiful things helped us convince the ladies. I think what we now understand is art resulted from this. So a bird singing a beautiful song or a fish arranging pebbles on the sea floor might be the same precursor of art than what our ancestors scratched into a stone some million years ago.