Facilitating Artistic Expression in Captive Mammals: Implications for Art Therapy and Art Empathicism

Abstract

A two-year pilot study involving the pre-art and proto-artistic behavior of high functioning animals was conducted. Focusing upon apes, elephants and dolphins, art activities were facilitated by both the author or through trainers in various zoological institutions around the country. Through first-hand practice and field observation, the author attempted to gauge both therapeutic and aesthetic responses to art media, as well as study artistic development in these animals.

Transcultural Responses to Aesthetic and Therapeutic Experience: An Ethological Approach

“…As a "stimulus pattern," the two protruding elements were related to as focal points of orientation as well as centers of congregation in the rest of the space. This dynamic is consistent with other stimulus response investigations, such as those involving chimpanzees (Morris, 1962), gorillas (Reitz, 1992), and elephants (Henley, 1992), whereby pictorial fields that included preprinted circles always seemed to precipitate an interaction with these elements. They were often drawn upon, mirrored, or continued, much in the same way the patrons used the towers to dialogue with the rest of Dubuffet's sculpture.…”

“…I found that through facilitated play, ritual, and sensory stimulation, proto-artistic activity could develop (Henley, 1992). In this article the analogy will be reversed.…”

Relative response to digital tablet devices and painting as sensory enrichment in captive chimpanzees

“…Primate enrichment manuals cite painting as a popular enrichment activity (AZA Ape TAG, ; Kment, ), with some studies reporting high levels of motivation and attention to the task (Hediger, ; Henley, ; Morris, ). These studies suggest that drawing behavior in primates may reflect an inherent interest in explorative play (Boysen, Berntson, & Prentice, ; Kment, ; Kohts, ), but there currently is a lack of published research that has systematically quantified its enrichment benefits and behavioral effects.…”

Scientific Art Therapy: An Integrative and Research-based Approach

“…The former suggests that there is an inborn component to our esthetic responses, and the latter points out the healing potential of art for rehabilitative medicine. Finally, art therapists Henley (1992) and Kramer (1992) have ventured into ethology to explore the precursors of human symbolic expression. Their writings lend further support to the notion that artmaking serves biological in addition to psychological and cultural needs.…”