Evolution and the Origins of Visual Art: An Archaeological Perspective

Straffon, Larissa Mendoza

doi:10.1007/978-3-030-11117-5_20

Cited by 9 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 122 publications

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“…The fact that active art behaviors, such as singing, dancing, or drawing, evolve spontaneously in the development of almost every individual supports this view. This pattern is characteristic of innate propensities, like language, that are regarded as forms of adaptation [121].…”

Section: The Mode Of Experiencing Art From An Evolutionary Perspectivementioning

confidence: 99%

The Art of Experiencing Art: On the Nature and the Origins of the Mode of Art eXperience (MAX)

Goetz,

Carbon

2023

jpi

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Experiencing art calls for a unique processing mode -this premise has been repeatedly debated during the last 300 years. Despite that, we still lack a theoretical and empirical basis for understanding this mode essential to understanding experiencing of art. We begin this position paper by reviewing the literature related to this mode and revealing a wide diversity and hardly commensurable theoretical approaches. This might be an important reason for the thin empirical data regarding this theme, especially when looking for ecologically valid experimental studies. We propose the Mode of Art eXperience (MAX) concept to establish a coherent theoretical framework. We argue that even very established works often overlook the essence of more profound and so to say "true" art experience. We discuss MAX in relation to evolutionary psychology, art history, and other cognitive modes (play, religion, and the Everyday). We also propose that MAX is not the only extraordinary mode to process information specifically, but that for experiencing art, we evidently need a frame that enables MAX to unfold the full range of art-related phenomena which make art so culturally particular and essential for humankind.

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Section: The Mode Of Experiencing Art From An Evolutionary Perspectivementioning

confidence: 99%

The Art of Experiencing Art: On the Nature and the Origins of the Mode of Art eXperience (MAX)

Goetz,

Carbon

2023

jpi

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“…The previous examples invite revising Morin's vision of the adaptive landscape of graphic codes: Not as towered by the isolated peak of writing, but occupied by multiple peaks of adequate solutions made up by a diversity of visual art and notation systems. Visual narratives were long used across the globe to encode and share complex information asynchronously prior to, or in the absence of literacy (Cohn, 2016;Straffon, 2019). Some properties of visual narratives, such as sequential comprehension, may in fact have been coopted in writing .…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The puzzle of ideography

Morin

2022

Behav Brain Sci

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An ideography is a general-purpose code made of pictures that do not encode language, which can be used autonomously – not just as a mnemonic prop – to encode information on a broad range of topics. Why are viable ideographies so hard to find? I contend that self-sufficient graphic codes need to be narrowly specialized. Writing systems are only an apparent exception: at their core, they are notations of a spoken language. Even if they also encode non-linguistic information, they are useless to someone who lacks linguistic competence in the encoded language or a related one. The versatility of writing is thus vicarious: writing borrows it from spoken language. Why is it so difficult to build a fully generalist graphic code? The most widespread answer points to a learnability problem. We possess specialized cognitive resources for learning spoken language, but lack them for graphic codes. I argue in favor of a different account: what is difficult about graphic codes is not so much learning or teaching them as getting every user to learn and teach the same code. This standardization problem does not affect spoken or signed languages as much. Those are based on cheap and transient signals, allowing for easy online repairing of miscommunication, and require face-to-face interactions where the advantages of common ground are maximized. Graphic codes lack these advantages, which makes them smaller in size and more specialized.

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“…It has been frequently reproduced and applied to various human cultural behaviors, from music ( Bolt, 2008 ) to literature ( Gottschall et al, 2004 ; Gottschall, 2008 ), to visual art ( Dutton, 2009 ). Similarly, it has been criticized for being too broad and oversimplistic, and for lacking empirical support ( Brown, 2000 ; Carroll, 2004 ; Fitch, 2005 ; Dissanayake, 2007 ; Boyd, 2009 ; Straffon, 2019 ). Such critiques, however, have often been limited to the implications of the model for art studies, but have not dealt with the underlying arguments.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Peacock Fallacy: Art as a Veblenian Signal

Straffon

2021

Front. Psychol.

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The fact that world-over people seem inexplicably motivated to allocate time and effort to apparently useless cultural practices, like the arts, has led several evolutionary scholars to suggest that these might be costly Zahavian signals correlated with genetic fitness, such as the infamous peacock’s tail. In this paper, I review the fundamental arguments of the hypothesis that art evolved and serves as a costly Zahavian signal. First, I look into the hypothesis that humans exert mate choice for indirect benefits and argue that the data supports mate choice for direct benefits instead. Second, I argue that art practice may well be a costly signal, however not necessarily related to good genes. Third, I suggest that Thorstein Veblen’s original concept of conspicuous signals as social tools to obtain and convey prestige provides a better account than the Zahavian model for the evolution and function of art in society. As a Veblenian signal, art could still have many of the effects suggested for visual art as a Zahavian signal, except not for the indirect benefits of optimal offspring, but for the direct benefits of acquiring and conveying social status.

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Evolution and the Origins of Visual Art: An Archaeological Perspective

Cited by 9 publications

References 122 publications

The Art of Experiencing Art: On the Nature and the Origins of the Mode of Art eXperience (MAX)

The Art of Experiencing Art: On the Nature and the Origins of the Mode of Art eXperience (MAX)

The puzzle of ideography

The Peacock Fallacy: Art as a Veblenian Signal

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