Art Philosophy: Why do humans make art? — Transcript

Full transcript

1. 0:00If humans don't need art anymore, why
2. 0:02are we still doing it? Hi, I'm Amy and I
3. 0:05have no business talking about
4. 0:06philosophy, but I am here to talk about
5. 0:09it with you. I think right now we are in
6. 0:11a time in our lives where we need a
7. 0:13little more intellectualism. Um, because
8. 0:16there is a lot going on in the world
9. 0:18that is hard to discuss and tolerate and
10. 0:22find words for. I'm feeling strongly
11. 0:24that my community may be found on the
12. 0:26internet. So, let's talk about art
13. 0:28philosophy. I had a beloved professor
14. 0:30and he used to say that in his time this
15. 0:33all started with a glass of beer.
16. 0:36Meaning that good conversation starts
17. 0:38with friends. Let's pretend that we're
18. 0:42at a pub together and have a
19. 0:44conversation on why humans make art. If
20. 0:48you asked anybody today why they think
21. 0:51that humans make art, they would
22. 0:54probably say, "Well, it's because we
23. 0:56need to express ourselves. and we just
24. 0:58have this innate feeling. But I don't
25. 1:01really think that's just it. I honestly
26. 1:04don't think that people in pre
27. 1:07prehistoric times understood the idea of
28. 1:10selfidentity enough to want to express
29. 1:13that.
30. 1:15It's easy to look back with a modern
31. 1:17lens and think
32. 1:19this is probably why they did it. But I
33. 1:21think in a lot of cases we're wrong.
34. 1:24I think that's why a lot of art gets
35. 1:26misinterpreted because when we look at
36. 1:30something, we can only see with our own
37. 1:33eyes. And so to understand the
38. 1:36importance of art is to know the time
39. 1:38period. So I'm not going to try to guess
40. 1:40at what prehistoric man was thinking
41. 1:42when they put their hand upon a wall.
42. 1:45But I can tell you that I am sure that
43. 1:48even though the media is not the same,
44. 1:51that is still what we're doing. Well,
45. 1:54before that, there was verbal
46. 1:55communication. Knowing that someone out
47. 1:58there painted some antelope or painted
48. 2:02some lion to warn you from dying, they
49. 2:05were cognizant enough
50. 2:08that we understood that there might be
51. 2:10others like us
52. 2:12and they might appreciate the heads up.
53. 2:15Seems kind of silly to say it that way,
54. 2:16but it probably is that simple. Having
55. 2:20icons is incredibly helpful. We know
56. 2:23this even in today's society. If you go
57. 2:26to a country that you don't speak the
58. 2:27language, you can probably still find
59. 2:29your way around the airport because of
60. 2:31the symbols of a plane or the bathroom
61. 2:35symbol is pretty much the same in every
62. 2:37country. We use symbolism to help us
63. 2:40with directions. And that is as old as
64. 2:43we can possibly go back. So, let's start
65. 2:46with the survivor argument. People
66. 2:49created art to warn people of dangers.
67. 2:53People created art to tell them that
68. 2:55there was game to be found, to make sure
69. 2:57that they could be fed. Could have been
70. 2:59anything. To chalk art up to only
71. 3:04utilitarian need as it started out, I
72. 3:07think would be a fallacy. Art wasn't
73. 3:10just utilitarian. It was also
74. 3:12ornamental. And there's a couple of
75. 3:14reasons for that. We know that
76. 3:16archaeologists have found decorated
77. 3:19knives and other weapons. More
78. 3:22importantly, we know that they found
79. 3:23rudimentary jewelry like shell
80. 3:25necklaces, bracelets, adorned clothing.
81. 3:28Making this assumption based on clothing
82. 3:32of all things. If we think about
83. 3:33Scottish clans and them having
84. 3:35individual tartans to signify a specific
85. 3:39family from a really young age, children
86. 3:41in parts of Peru learn how to weave
87. 3:45these complicated patterns. They start
88. 3:46with cords and belts are just memorized.
89. 3:50But each pattern is unique to each area
90. 3:53and those are passed down and they
91. 3:55signify where you came from and not just
92. 3:58your family name but like where on the
93. 4:00mountain did you live and where did your
94. 4:02father's family come from and where did
95. 4:03your mother hail from. Textiles can
96. 4:06carry a extreme amount of information
97. 4:09and the way that people identified
98. 4:12whether that person might be safe
99. 4:14because they're from their own family or
100. 4:16that person might not be safe because
101. 4:18they don't recognize the textiles.
102. 4:20That's incredibly powerful and we can
103. 4:24see that all throughout history. If you
104. 4:26look at the way armor is made, the
105. 4:30different hairstyles that we have, the
106. 4:33fact that we can sit here in modern day
107. 4:35and look at a vase, whether that vase
108. 4:38came from ancient Greece or from China
109. 4:44and the specific time period and which
110. 4:48dynasty in China it came from. There's
111. 4:50also marks that we put on our skin. We
112. 4:54tattoo ourselves in symbolism that only
113. 4:57means something to us. But sometimes it
114. 5:00is a greater discussion of culture and
115. 5:03family. And tattoos in themselves are a
116. 5:07way to signal to other people. Tattoos
117. 5:09have been used in many different ways
118. 5:13over eons to say, "Hey, I belong to this
119. 5:16group." And it's also to like beautify
120. 5:18the body. Body modification has been
121. 5:21around for centuries, millennia. We've
122. 5:23been doing that forever because how do
123. 5:26you make your body different and
124. 5:30beautiful and what does it signal to
125. 5:33other people? There's family crests
126. 5:36and emblems and flags. They're all
127. 5:39visual ways of saying this is who we
128. 5:41are.
129. 5:43We want you to know and you we want us
130. 5:46to not be forgotten.
131. 5:48It's pretty incredible because it's not
132. 5:50just me and it's probably not just you.
133. 5:54It's a lot of the world that can look at
134. 5:56a pattern and know where it came from.
135. 5:58And those patterns have exist for as
136. 6:01long as we have existed. It's a pretty
137. 6:03powerful thing. My first topic ever in
138. 6:05art history, the Venus of Willindorf. So
139. 6:08if you're not familiar with what the
140. 6:10Venus of Willindorf is, it was a
141. 6:12prehistoric sculpture that was found, I
142. 6:15think, around Austria. And when they
143. 6:17carbon dated it, it was somewhere
144. 6:20between 25 and 30,000 years old. We
145. 6:23presume is something to do with
146. 6:25ceremonial fertility, fertility charm,
147. 6:28something like that. They also had the
148. 6:30ability to paint it. It was made out of
149. 6:32a limestone that doesn't exist anywhere
150. 6:34near Austria. They sourced the materials
151. 6:37from a place that wouldn't have been
152. 6:39very easy to obtain or it traveled for a
153. 6:42really long time. And it was small. It
154. 6:44fit in the palm of your hand. um it's a
155. 6:46faceless woman. There's also a theory
156. 6:48that her figure may have been based on a
157. 6:51pregnant woman who was already carving
158. 6:54it because of the perspective and you're
159. 6:56pregnant and the way that your body
160. 6:58looked would have been the closest
161. 6:59representation that they had to that.
162. 7:01But of course, none of that we can
163. 7:03prove. We can just prove that someone
164. 7:05carved it and someone brought it around
165. 7:07with them. So these necklaces and these
166. 7:09engraved tools and these fertility
167. 7:12statues or so we think they can't easily
168. 7:14be explained away as utilitarian. Just
169. 7:17because we need something doesn't mean
170. 7:19that we need it to be pretty uniquely
171. 7:22human feeling. There's repeated
172. 7:25religious imagery that we can see as the
173. 7:28religions changed across the world and
174. 7:30not just the beautiful stained glass
175. 7:32that are in churches but the Arabesque
176. 7:36writing and carvings at the Alhamra for
177. 7:39example.
178. 7:41Um the we decorated things to exalt them
179. 7:47because they were precious to us and we
180. 7:50treated them more preciously in some
181. 7:53cases than family. There's lots of
182. 7:56traditions across the world that would
183. 7:59provide food offerings to religious
184. 8:01sites. And can you imagine
185. 8:04one of the only things that you have of
186. 8:07wealth is also the way that you sustain
187. 8:09yourself and you still left a part of
188. 8:14what would feed you at the altar in
189. 8:17praise. Leaving an orange is just as
190. 8:19valuable to someone as a gold goblet
191. 8:22depending on how much you had. We know
192. 8:24that communication is important because
193. 8:26it's something that's resonated with us
194. 8:28through eons. That we don't make it
195. 8:31simply because we need to express oursel
196. 8:34because that's a modern feeling. And we
197. 8:36know that we don't just make it for
198. 8:38utilitarian reasons. And what is it?
199. 8:40It's more community and belonging and
200. 8:45feeling like you're a part of. And that
201. 8:48meaning that we look for
202. 8:52is not just meaning in life. It's
203. 8:56meaning within ourselves,
204. 8:59meaning within our families,
205. 9:02meaning within a tribe of people. So
206. 9:04let's make that our new hypothesis.
207. 9:07From music to patterned clothing
208. 9:11to fragrances and makeup,
209. 9:15food, everything is kind of art. And if
210. 9:19it's not, we don't value it as much.
211. 9:21Think about your favorite bowl or cup.
212. 9:26It generally is not a mass prodduced
213. 9:29item. It could be, and that's fine, but
214. 9:32there's usually something about it that
215. 9:34you connect with. And it might be the
216. 9:36pattern. It might be the weight, might
217. 9:37be the way that it's shaped, but someone
218. 9:40out there thought about that design and
219. 9:44that resonated with you. The end of the
220. 9:46day,
221. 9:48I just want people to acknowledge that
222. 9:51their life would be a lot shittier.
223. 9:55At the end of the day, I would love
224. 9:57people to acknowledge just how different
225. 10:00the world would be without art and
226. 10:04artists. So today, while we might not
227. 10:07paint in caves anymore, we're still
228. 10:09leaving messages for people everywhere
229. 10:12through our music, our writing or
230. 10:15painting or drawing. And it might be
231. 10:17something that you're sitting with right
232. 10:19now and you're thinking, Amy, I just do
233. 10:22this cuz I like it. Or I just do this
234. 10:25because I don't want to be stressed out
235. 10:26and this bring me brings me joy. Or it
236. 10:29could even be like this is my job. This
237. 10:32is why I draw this. and all of those are
238. 10:35valid. I'd like to think that on some
239. 10:37level it's you trying to reach out with
240. 10:40just a little bit of yourself to other
241. 10:42people and innately in a very human and
242. 10:46personal way I think that it's because
243. 10:49we don't want to be forgotten. We want
244. 10:51to leave things behind and if we're
245. 10:53going to leave something behind then let
246. 10:55it be beautiful. Let it be valued. let
247. 10:57it be passed down to your children and
248. 11:00your children's children and your
249. 11:01children's ch or their children's
250. 11:03children. But in a modern context, even
251. 11:06for people that don't think that they're
252. 11:08creative or don't aspire to be an artist
253. 11:12in any level, they still customize their
254. 11:15phones and backgrounds.
255. 11:18They still like pictures of themselves
256. 11:20and their family and hang up portraits.
257. 11:23They still monogram their towels and
258. 11:27still make quilts and knit and crochet
259. 11:29for the younger generations and pass
260. 11:31those down. They wear band t-shirts.
261. 11:34Even if you don't do any of those, do
262. 11:37you decorate your house and make things
263. 11:41more appealing with throws and cushions
264. 11:45and art on the wall, even if you bought
265. 11:47it from Walmart? Is it belonging?
266. 11:51Is it momentos? Is it just because we're
267. 11:54bored and we need something to do?
268. 11:55Because that seems very shallow. So
269. 11:58survival, utilitarianism,
270. 12:01beauty, expressing ourselves, belonging,
271. 12:06communication,
272. 12:08all of those could be the answer. I
273. 12:11would say that they probably live
274. 12:13amongst the trees. We're putting our
275. 12:15hands on the wall metaphorically
276. 12:19to connect with people and to
277. 12:21communicate with people. And the best
278. 12:25art for each person
279. 12:28is art that has some sort of emotional
280. 12:31context and it's usually that connection
281. 12:34with the artist. So, my closing thoughts
282. 12:38for you, maybe we don't make art because
283. 12:43we're artists at heart. Maybe being
284. 12:47human is what it means to make art. So,
285. 12:51we may not paint on caves anymore.
286. 12:53Medium has changed, but the impulse
287. 12:56to surround yourself with beautiful
288. 12:58things that remind you of your family or
289. 13:02specific time periods or your emotions
290. 13:04has not. So, if you have a minute today,
291. 13:07just look around you at all of the
292. 13:09things that aren't utilitarian
293. 13:13in your life. All of the things that
294. 13:16maybe you walk by every day, but at some
295. 13:18point you were really excited to buy
296. 13:21that or receive that or create it
297. 13:24because it's something ancient in us
298. 13:25that we still don't have a concrete
299. 13:28answer for. We can only think through
300. 13:31our own lens at what that might actually
301. 13:33be.
302. 13:35And I know for a fact that everything
303. 13:38that I own that is beautiful.
304. 13:42Most of it is not needed.
305. 13:46Most of its only purpose is for me to
306. 13:49look at it and it be beautiful. And
307. 13:51maybe that will be another conversation
308. 13:53about art and beauty and if it has to be
309. 13:55that way. So I'll leave it to you now.
310. 13:58If this has resonated with you in any
311. 14:01way, I would love your feedback.
312. 14:04But what I hope is that if anybody sees
313. 14:06this that they'll have something to take
314. 14:09away to think about. That's what good
315. 14:12conversation does.
316. 14:14Time evaporates while you're with that
317. 14:17person,
318. 14:19but it stays with you for the rest of
319. 14:21your life because you're thinking about
320. 14:25what kind of impact this Yes.