RE: Durkheim redux

From: Vincent Campbell (VCampbell@dmu.ac.uk)
Date: Tue 19 Apr 2005 - 14:25:57 GMT

  • Next message: Kate Distin: "Re: Durkheim redux"

    Hi

    In an idle moment I checked Google/Amazon, for the book- to ensure I had remembered it properly, and for $11.53 you can own your very own copy of
    'Why Cats Paint: A Theory of Feline Aesthetics' by Heather Busch & Burton Silver. (And no, I don't think it's supposed to be a joke.)

    The mind boggles....

    Vincent

    > ----------
    > From: Vincent Campbell
    > Reply To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
    > Sent: Tuesday, April 19, 2005 1:59 PM
    > To: 'memetics@mmu.ac.uk'
    > Subject: RE: Durkheim redux
    >
    > Just dipping into the flow here and happened upon this comment about
    > animal
    > art.
    >
    > I saw a book once- in an otherwise reputable bookshop- that was entirely
    > about cat art, in other words art by cats...
    >
    > Can't remember the title though.
    >
    > Also saw a piece on the local TV news the other day about some kind of
    > primate (a monkey, not an ape) that appeared to like to draw on paper-
    > film
    > showed it making marks on the paper whilst others of it's group just tried
    > to eat the paper.
    >
    > A few years ago, I think I recall seeing a programme about those bonobos
    > they taught to sign, and some of them painted too- although i believe
    > their
    > painting was interpreted of being of the movement of objects, rather than
    > objects themselves (e.g. lots of zig zags for a ball bouncing) all a bit
    > dubious perhaps...
    >
    > Do any animals categorically make aesthetic representations, aside from
    > physical performances, like humans do? Bower birds perhaps?
    >
    > Is this a root to memes- the capacity to abstract an idea into a
    > representational form in another medium (cave art, stone tool, piece of
    > modern art, whatever...)?
    >
    > Off the topic a bit I'm sure.
    >
    > Vincent
    >
    > > ----------
    > > From: Derek Gatherer
    > > Reply To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
    > > Sent: Friday, April 15, 2005 8:54 AM
    > > To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
    > > Subject: Re: Durkheim redux
    > >
    > > At 02:47 15/04/2005, you wrote:
    > > > > IIRC, a painting by a mule won a prize in a modern
    > > > > art exhibition in
    > > > > Paris early in the 20th century. ;-)
    > >
    > > I think that's an urban myth.
    > >
    > >
    > > ===============================================================
    > > This was distributed via the memetics list associated with the
    > > Journal of Memetics - Evolutionary Models of Information Transmission
    > > For information about the journal and the list (e.g. unsubscribing)
    > > see: http://www.cpm.mmu.ac.uk/jom-emit
    > >
    > >
    >
    > ===============================================================
    > This was distributed via the memetics list associated with the
    > Journal of Memetics - Evolutionary Models of Information Transmission
    > For information about the journal and the list (e.g. unsubscribing)
    > see: http://www.cpm.mmu.ac.uk/jom-emit
    >
    >

    =============================================================== This was distributed via the memetics list associated with the Journal of Memetics - Evolutionary Models of Information Transmission For information about the journal and the list (e.g. unsubscribing) see: http://www.cpm.mmu.ac.uk/jom-emit

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