A&O Class Notes for March 12, 2019
ART & ORGANISM
Tuesday, March 12, 2019
Class Notes[i]
Prof Jan Simek will present and discuss his findings in European and American Southeast cave art[ii]
AMONGST the DEEP[iii] streams of knowledge that intersect at any behavioral pattern CAVE ART helps us focus on the EVOLUTION of CULTURE and may inform our inferences about the evolution of various COGNITIVE COMPETENCIES—the states of mind of the creators of ancient artifacts?
CONNECTIONS: Theory of Mind: is Paleolithic art evidence for specific theories of the ancient mind? More recent cave art, objets trouvé, and works of art by otherwise dysfunctional individuals, spontaneous and outsider art, all seem to provide evidence …
REVIEW
· COGNITIVE FUNCTIONS. The DEEP ethology of cognition took the operating position that the central phenomena of art and science are essentially communicative (involve a “sender” and a ”receiver”) and that “art” is accessible to our study as a behavioral pattern (action by “sender”) the result of which is an artifact (and perception by “receiver”).
· ART and ARTIFACT. Is a found object (say a pebble that resembles a human body) art? Are scholar stones “art?” Is a stimulus received “art” if no other human had any part in it? Can a sunset or landscape or loved one’s face be “art?” Can art exist without the sender’s intention?
· OBJETS TROUVÉ AND OUTSIDER ART. We might ask NOT “what is art?” but “what isn’t art?” (or works of art) We identified Emerson as a prophet of gorgeous garbage ( READ the excerpt from “Fragments on Nature and Life”). Found objects are regarded as art when they are treated as art by the “sender” or the “receiver.” Place a scrap of garbage on a pillar in a museum and our inner Emerson or Whitman might wake up.
· “TRUTH IS BEAUTY.” Really? Are ugly things beautiful because they are true? We are in deep water here: the criteria for art, truth, and beauty are variable.
· DEEP. We continue to explore manner in which development, ecology, evolution, and physiology intersect at the moments of perception and at the moments of action.iii
· FRAGMENTS and FILLING-IN. The best story (“most satisfying”)[iv] you can tell is necessarily composed of fragments: That is, it is the nature of mind that FRAGMENTS are ALL WE can EVER KNOW OF REALITY, but our brains “fill in the gaps” at many levels of organization (interpolation) or extend likely trends (extrapolation), correcting wherever possible after “error detection” (another brain function)
· PALEOPSYCHOLOGY. Review A&O READING ON PALEOLITHIC ART. This topic is also much in the news recently since the last AAAS meetings in Austin and The SCIENCE cover article (23 February) suggesting Neandertal cognitive competence for symbolic behavior. (see Tim Appenzeller’s “In Depth” article with highlights of the research and continuing controversy).
[i] up until class time, look for up-to-date information at A&O Class Notes online. You can expect notes for any given week to change slightly up until class-time as your questions are answered and connecting ideas are linked in.
[ii] WBIR: UT Professor and Grad Students’ Work Catches Attention of National Geographic (2017). UT anthropology professor Jan Simek and UT grad student Beau Carroll were recently featured on National Geographic, as reported by local NBC-affiliate WBIR.
Simek Appeared in Nat Geo’s ‘The Story of God with Morgan Freeman’ (2017) (season 2:episode 2) was Monday, January 23. In the episode, Simek and Beau Carroll, a UT anthropology graduate student and member of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians, talk…
Joint Prehistoric Rock Art Restoration Project Receives National Award (2016). A partnership between UT, federal and state agencies, Indian tribes, and other stakeholders to save a set of centuries-old Native American petroglyphs, pictographs … brought together researchers and local volunteers to camouflage and remove graffiti that had impacted the images
Professor Awarded for Prehistoric Rock Art Research (2014). Jan Simek has spent decades trekking for miles in complete darkness, contorting his body to fit around rocks, and navigating down muddy and stony slopes. The UT anthropology professor’s work has paid off in the form of big discoveries—and now a big award.
[iii] DEEP ETHOLOGY: The INTEGRATIVE BIOLOGY of BEHAVIOR involves the coordinated activities of four broad areas (as biologists study them): DEVELOPMENT, ECOLOGY, EVOLUTION, and PHYSIOLOGY and how they are brought to bear on BEHAVIOR.
[iv] Here is where the aesthetics of scientific theories is really relevant. (Einstein’s highest praise for a theory was not that it was good, but that it was beautiful.)
