The Picasso Effect

Exercise

Show a number of pictures or slides of photos from nature. Use clouds, waves, driftwood, seaweed, the human body, sand dunes etc. Ask students to write down what shapes they can see in these images. Ask them to explain what they see. Students could demonstrate the shapes by placing a blank overhead transparency over the printed one and with a marker indicate the shape they see.

Reading

"It seems strange to me that someone thought of making marble statues. I understand how you could see something in the root of a tree, a crack in the wall, in an eroded stone or pebble. But marble? It comes off in blocks and doesn't evoke any image. It does not inspire. How could Michelangelo have seen his David in a block of marble? Man began to make images only because he discovered them nearly formed around him, already within reach. He saw them in a bone, in the bumps of a cave, in a piece of wood. One form suggested a woman to him, another a buffalo, still another the head of a monster."

(An excerpt from Conversations with Picasso by Brassaï, Wednesday 20 October 1943)


The artist, according to Picasso, is able to see or project himself and his world in or onto Nature. This ability is the stimulation to draw for Picasso. Edward Wilson argues that this is an innate behaviour in humans and he classes it as an epigenetic rule (See Ariadne's Thread: Epigenetic rules - some clarification).

We could be so bold as to extend drawing to cover all forms of artistic representation including literature, as we have done with sympathetic magic and totemism of prehistoric cave drawings (see Primitive Art). Occasionally, as was found in the case of Chauvet, Upper paleolithic humans used and/or were inspired by the texture of the cave wall to paint and draw wild animals. That is, the natural marking on the walls reminded them of the bodies of animals; the drawings completed the images that they had formed in their minds. In other words the natural markings and what the artist sees in them could be regarded as a projection of an abstraction of the animal formed in the artist's mind (see The Law of Abstraction).

In analysing art we may be able to see the abstractions that inspired them, and dissect them out. In the next post we will study a scene from Shakespeare's Romeo & Juliet : Act I Sc.5 The Sonnet

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Nature, Art & Language

Answers - Super-normal stimuli

Super-normal stimuli are frequent in many species. The silver-washed fritillary butterfly males are sexually attracted to rotating brown striped cylinders more so than the fluttering wings of their own females. The oystercatcher will abandon its own egg for a supernormal dummy, and the herring gull chicks prefer a red pencil to their own mother’s beak. In humans caucasian and Japanese men are attracted to female faces that are extremely delicate and rare.

The reason for these behaviours is unclear, but it is generally thought that super-normal stimuli indicate a direction in which evolution could proceed. For example a large egg may suggest health and it is better for the oystercatcher to invest energy in incubating it rather than a smaller one that is less likely to hatch. Without such behavioural tendencies evolution would be influenced only by environmental changes, but this shows that animals are ready to select for themselves genetic variation within their own species.

Why then is delicacy such a compelling feature in women? According to Wilson it is likely to be associated with a signal that suggests youth and virginity, both of which are important consideration in selecting a mate for the production of offspring.

Nature, Art & Language

Super-normal stimuli

Work in groups. Each group will consider one of the descriptions of animal and human behavior presented below. Your task is to try to explain them as best you can. Once you have done this conduct a class seminar in which you summarize your group's findings and try to answer the discussion question below.


1) The oystercatcher will abandon its own egg when presented with a super-normal plastic model many times the natural size, an egg it could not possibly have laid.


2) The silver-washed fritillary butterfly males are more sexually attracted to rotating brown and black striped cylinders than the fluttering wings of their own females.

3) Herring gull chicks instinctively peck at the red spot located at the base of their parent's beak. This stimulates the adult bird to regurgitate partially digested food into the mouths of their chicks. However, if the young are presented with a red pencil and a model of its parent's head and beak, it will prefer the pencil.

4) Composite photos of the faces of women of a similar age blended together produces a face that most men find attractive. This has led to the conclusion that what we consider to be a beautiful face is an average of many faces. Research on Japanese and Caucasian women in the last decade has revealed that these composite faces can be enhanced to make them even more attractive. This is accomplished by increasing the size of the lips and eyes, raising the cheeks and narrowing the chin, and finally by reducing the distance between the mouth and the chin, and the chin and the nose. The proportion of young women who have these very delicate features are extremely rare (Wilson, 1997 p. 256).


Question for discussion

Why are animals and humans attracted to models that do not exist in reality or that are very infrequent?

Answers

Answers to E.O.Wilson's 'Creation'

Reading 1

1) According to Wilson human nature is "...the heritary rules of mental development...manifested as biases in the way our senses perceive the world."
These are also referred to by the author in other writings (see Wilson, 1997) as 'epigenetic rules'.

2) These rules "...generate options....". This means that we are not compelled to select one or the other. The choice may be determined rationally by the situation in which it occurs, even though that there may be an irrational or emotional bias towards one option.

3) An example of a bias could be a reponse to a certain graphic design. We will all respond , though the responses will be individual.


4) An aversion is triggered by a negative experience. The aversion could not have been formed without an innate predisposition for it; that is, an epigenetic rule or bias.

5) Even though Wilson is an entomologist he has an irrational fear of spiders.

6) People haven't developed ‘aversions’ to knives and guns according to Wilson because there has been sufficient time for us develop one. Aversions require, it seems, the presence of an epigenetic rule which are derived through the processes of natural selection.

7) ‘Hardwiring’ is when behaviour is written into genes; that is it is innate and instinctive.


Reading 2

Pre-reading task -Landscape description and drawing

This lesson was carried out on two classes of approximately twenty students in each. All students produced very similar results and very consistent with the savanna hypothesis. The seven drawing presented above were chosen for their aesthetic appeal and their representativeness.

Notice that Zaharina's drawing (bottom) includes dophins -indicating that the sea, which her house overlooks, is 'fruitful' or productive. Sheryne's drawing (second from the bottom) is very close to the predicted landscape, notably the view from her terrace. Jules' drawing (third from the top) though very elegant shows less of the characteristics of the others; his house is rather exposed but surrounded by farmland and includes copses.

Gist Questions

The ‘savanna hypothesis’ claims that people prefer and create savanna like landscapes because they have a mental template for it. That is, we are predisposed to produce this landscape because it, in a sense, reminds us of the African landscape in which we evolved.

In the extract from Lawrence of Arabia, Prince Feisel suggests Lawrence is somewhat abnormal for loving the desert, as even the people that live there do not. For this reason Feisel is suspicious of both the Lawrence and the English.

Comprehension Questions

1. In choosing a place to locate a home, what three environmental characteristics do people most prefer? (paragraph 1)
a) To live on a site from which we can look down and out.
b) To have a parkland with scattered individual and groups of trees..
c)To be close to a body of water.

2. What should be behind the house? (paragraph 2)
The habitation should be a "retreat", having a solid structure at the back such as a cliff.

3. What kinds of trees and animals do people like to see as they overlook the landscape in front of their house? (paragraph 2)
To have a view of "fruitful terrain" that includes domestic and wild animals

4. Why did our ancestors like small isolated clusters of trees? (paragraph 3)
The trees would be a place to hide from enemies and or to be a place conceal hunters when hunting.


5. What kind of trees are most often preferred by people and the author of the text?
People prefer trees with "...low horizontal branches with divided leaves...". The Japanese maple has these characteristics. The text does not explain why these characteristics are preferred, though it is probably connected to the 'savanna hypothesis'. We could surmise that they have quality of allowing one to climb into them easily due to their low branches and conceal oneself, while permitting the individual to see through the foliage owing to their open leaves.


6.. What was the function of a river or lake for our forebears from Africa? (paragraph 3)
The water body would serve as a demarcation of territory.

7. What do you think ‘genetic human nature’ is? (paragraph 4)
This is human behavior that is determined by genes.

8. Was Gerard Piel a supporter of this notion? Explain your answer.
No he was 'disinclined' to accept it, which means he did not favor the hypothesis.

9. What did E.O.Wilson do on the balcony of Piel’s apartment?

He looked down for an extended moment (he gazed) at the view.

10.. Why did he especially enjoy his little walk onto the balcony?
Because the setting of Piel's apartment had all the characteristics of the ideal human habitation consistent with the savanna hypothesis.

11. Do you agree with the savanna hypothesis? Explain.



Summary: Epigenetic Rules & Human Nature

Innate tendencies described as bias, predispositions are collectively referred to as 'epigenetic rules'. A full collections of these would constitute a description of human nature. The savanna hypothesis, the predisposition to develop aversions to snakes and spiders, as well as biases towards certain shapes or colours are just some examples. In the next lesson we will explore others. Click on the link below to find out more:

Supernormal stimuli and the Picasso Effect (in preparation)



References

Wilson, E.O.(1997) Consilience: The unity of knowledge. Abacus. UK.
________ (2006) The Creation: An appeal to save life on earth. Norton. NY

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An Introduction to Epigenetic Rules - The Savanah Hypothesis

Nature, Art & Language

Human Nature and The Savanna Hypothesis

Introduction

In this lesson we will look at human nature using the writings of ecologist Edward O. Wilson. You will read two extracts from his book The Creation: An Appeal to Save Life on Earth.
 

Pre-reading task
 
Phobias

• Read the following extract from the Peanuts comic strip where Lucy is trying to analyze Charlie Brown. The cartoon version of the extract can also be found online at this link from min 0:48-1:25: A Charlie Brown Christmas - Clip

Lucy Van Pelt: Are you afraid of responsibility? If you are, then you have hypengyophobia.
Charlie Brown: I don’t think that’s quite it.
Lucy Van Pelt: How about cats? If you’re afraid of cats, you have ailurophasia.
Charlie Brown: Well, sort of, but I’m not sure.
Lucy Van Pelt: Are you afraid of staircases? If you are, then you have climacaphobia. Maybe you have thalassophobia. This is fear of the ocean, or gephyrobia, which is the fear of crossing bridges. Or maybe you have pantophobia. Do you think you have pantophobia?
Charlie Brown: What’s pantophobia?
Lucy Van Pelt: The fear of everything.
Charlie Brown: THAT’S IT!

from A Charlie Brown Christmas by Charles M. Shultz

Now, tell your partner what kind of irrational fears or phobias you have.

Once you have done that say where you think they come from.

Do you think there are phobias that all people share? Explain your answer.

Reading 1.
Before you start reading the extract below, go through the Gist and Comprehension Questions first; this will give you an idea of what answers to look for.
Gist Question
How does E.O.Wilson define human nature?

Comprehension Questions

Paragraph 1

The ‘developmental rules’ of human nature are not absolute – explain.

Paragraph 2

3) Give one an example of a ‘bias’.

Paragraph 3

4) What triggers aversions?
5) Wilson has an irrational fear of ____________.

Paragraph 4

6) Why haven’t people developed 'aversions' to knives and guns?
7) What is ‘hard-wiring' in this context?

***

What is Human Nature?

What precisely, then, is human nature? That is one of the great questions of both science and philosophy. It is not the cultural universals, such as incest taboos, rites of passage, and creqation myths. Those are the products of human nature. Rather, human nature is the hereditary rules of mental development. The rules are expressed in molecular pathways that create cells and tissue, particularly those of the sensory nervous system. The rules are also prescribed in the cells and tissue that generate mind and behvavior. They are manifested as biases in the way our senses perceive the world. They appear as the properties of language and symbolic coding by which we represent the world. The developmental rules are not absolute. Instead, they generate the options we open to ourselves. They render some choices more pleasing than others: music yes, the crying of a baby no.

The developmental rules are in an early stage of exploration by psychologists and biologists. Even so, the few that are known range over diverse categories of behavior and culture. They affect how we clarify colors in accordance with the innate of cell reception and transmission within the retina. They bias our aesthetic response to visual design according elementary abstract shape and degree of complexity.

In a wholly different realm, developmental rules determine the readiness by which we acquire aversions and phobias. People come most quickly to fear objects that were dangerous to prehistoric people, including snakes, spiders, heights, closed space, and other ancient perils of humankind. The trigger that creates one of deep aversions is often a single frightening experience. To be startled by a sudden writhing of an object on the ground can imprint the mind against snakes. I escaped that phobia somehow. In fact, I have always enjoyed catching and handling snakes, a taste learned as a boy naturalist. On the other hand, I have a mild and unshakable arachnophobia, acquired during an accidental entanglement with the web of a large orb-weaving spider when I was a boy of eight years old. I enjoy exploring caves - no claustrophobia there – but because of a clumsy anesthesia during an operation when I was a small boy, I cringe at even the thought of my face being covered while my arms are pinned. In general terms, I'm typical. Every person has his own imprinting experience and profile of such archaic aversions. Only a lucky few lack them completely.

In sharp contrast to their inborn sensitivity to ancient perils people are far less prone to acquire fear of knives, guns, automobiles, electric outlets, and other dangerous objects of everyday modern life. The reason for the difference, scientists believe, is insufficient time for the evolving species to hard wire reactions in the brain to these newer threats.

Wilson, E.O.(2006) The Creation: An Appeal to Save Life on Earth pp. 65-66

***

Reading 2.

Pre-reading task

1a. Without talking to your classmates think about what your ideal landscape is. The place where you would feel most content. In that area where would you place your most preferred type of habitation. Think about what is in front of it and what is behind it?

1b. Now sketch your ideal landscape with your ideal habitation. Once you have done that take an overhead projector transparency and pen and trace the essential lines of your drawing onto it. Label all the land forms and features you have included. Make sure your picture is enclosed in a frame and it has a key which will serve as a vocabulary list. When you have finished give a 1 minute presentation to the class describing it.

Before you start reading the extract below, go through the Gist and Comprehension Questions first, this will give you an idea of what answers to look for.

Gist Question

Read the following quote from the film Lawrence of Arabia and say what it has got to do with the ‘savanna hypothesis’.

PRINCE FEISAL:You are an Englishman. Are you not loyal to England?

LAWRENCE: To England and to other things.
PRINCE FEISAL: To England and Arabia both? And is that possible? I think you are another of these desert-Ioving English. .. Doughty, Stanhope...Gordon of Khartoum. No Arab loves the desert. We love water and green trees. There is nothing in the desert. And no man needs nothing.
Lawrence of Arabia (1962)- directed by David Lean
You can watch this scene on Youtube, click on the following link:
No Arab Loves the Desert



Comprehension Questions

1. In choosing a place to locate a home, what three environmental characteristics do people most prefer? (paragraph 1)
2. What should be behind the house? (paragraph 2)
3. What kinds of trees and animals do people like to see as they overlook the landscape in front of their house? (paragraph 2)
4. Why did our ancestors like small isolated clusters of trees? (paragraph 3)
5. What kind of trees are most often preferred by people and the author of the text?
6. What was the function of a river or lake for our forebears from Africa? (paragraph 3)
7. What do you think ‘genetic human nature is? (paragraph 4)
8. Was Gerard Piel a supporter of this notion? Explain your answer.
9. What did E.O.Wilson do on the balcony of Piel’s apartment?
10. Why did he especially enjoy his little walk onto the balcony?
11. Do you agree with the savanna hypothesis? Explain.

2. The Savanna Hypothesis

…Researchers have found that when people of different cultures, including those of North America, Europe, Asia and Africa, are given freedom to select the setting of their homes and work places, they prefer an environment that combines three features. They wish to live on a height looking down and out, to scan a parkland with scattered trees and copses spread before them, closer in appearance to a savanna than either a grassland or a closed forest, and to be near a body of water, such as a lake, river, or sea. Even if all these elements are purely aesthetic and not functional, as in vacation homes, people who have the means will pay a very high price to obtain them.
There is more. Subjects in choice tests prefer their habitation to be a retreat, with a wall, cliff, or something else solid to the rear. They want a view of fruitful terrain in front of the retreat. They like large animals scattered thereabout, either wild or domestic. Finally, they favor trees with low horizontal branches and divided leaves. It is probably not a coincidence that some people, I among them, consider the Japanese Maple the world’s most beautiful tree.
These quirks of human nature do not prove but are at least consistent with the savanna hypothesis of human evolution. Supported by considerable evidence from fossil record, this interpretation holds that human beings today still choose the habitats resembling those in which our species evolved in Africa during millions of years of prehistory. The distant forebears wished to be hidden in copses looking out over a savanna or transitional woodland, scanning the terrain for prey to stalk, fallen animals to scavenge, edible plants to gather, and enemies to avoid. A body of water nearby served as a territorial boundary and an added source of food.
By and large, people are keenly aware of their own innate preferences but have given little or no thought to why they and others feel the same way. I once dined at the house of the late Gerard Piel, a distinguished writer, publisher, and the founder of Scientific American. He was, I knew, disinclined to accept the idea of a genetic human nature. So it gave me considerable pleasure to stroll out with him on to the balcony of his penthouse apartment, which was lined with potted shrubs, and gaze down with him more than a dozen stories to the woodland, savanna, and reservoir lake of Central park. I can only imagine how much that view added to the commercial value of the apartment – thanks to choices made by our long-ago African ancestors.
Wilson, E.O.(2006) The Creation: An Appeal to Save Life on Earth pp. 66-67

***

Answers

• Listening follow-up

To hear Edward Wilson talking about about Biophilia and the Savanna Hypothesis go to the link below and listen from minute 32 to 35:4
Edward Wilson discussing biophilia and the savanna hypothesis. .




Further reading

Dutton, Denis (2009) The Art Instinct:Beauty, Pleasure, and Human Evolution. Chapter 1 Landscape and Longing, pp 13-28. Bloomsberry Press. New York. 282 p.

Nature, Art & Language

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© All Copyright, 2007, (revised 2019) Ray Genet