Watch this elephant DRAW a picture

[LiveMusic]

Tell me, friends, is this trick photography? How can this be?

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_LHoyB81LnE

[ermghoti II]

It is being very closely coached by its handler, there are vids demonstrating this. An impressive display of dextrerity, though.

[blue2blue]

Not unlike kids in art class.

 

 

There's an elephant refuge in SE Asia (IIRC) where elephants are encouraged to paint (they seem to be drawn more to impressionism than this kind of highly abstracted realism -- it's kind of hard for me to imagine that an elephant looks at such a painting and 'sees' the image of an elephant -- but elephants are quite possibly smart enough to begin to understand that it symbolically might represent an elephant.)

 

Did you notice the tentativeness the elephant had in getting the distance to the canvas rigth? This would suggest that their eyes are not really 'designed' for this kind of close-up work and that depth perception at that distance is difficult.

 

Which also should remind us that different animals have very different visual perception and abilities. For instance, many folks know that dogs and cats (as well as many other small mammals) have 'stationery' eyes while humans have eyes that are in constant motion. (If our eyes didn't move all the time, we would not be able to see stationery objects well when were weren't, ourselves, moving -- because of the way the optic nerve works.)

 

In practical terms, that means that a dog or cat must be moving its eyes in relation to what it is looking at in order to see it in proper detail. That's why a dog will keep moving its head when it's looking at something in puzzlement, turning this way and that, in order to keep the flow of visual information coming.

 

A cat uses this 'limitation' when hunting. It remains stationery, all but immobile and it's field of vision (we think) sort of 'glosses out' -- but if something moves in that field of vision, that moving object is detailed and easy to see because its image on the back of the cat's eye is moving across multiple pixels and firing off neural messages to the brain.

 

 

Anyhow, that digression serves to highlight the notion that we can delight in the skill and learning ability of the elephant and even ponder the pleasure or pride that the elephant takes in his 'creative work' -- and elephants are smart and adaptive enough that it might well be possible that the elephant can be made to understand that there is some form of relationship between he representation he's created and himself or other elephants -- but it's a real leap to think that he might look at the product of his work and think, hmm, I think the trunk should be longer.

 

When elephants are encouraged to make their own paintings as well as music -- the seem drawn to impressionism... much like first graders will take to fingerpainting naturally but then in comes the "art teacher" to teach them (typically by rote) how to symbolicially represent different images. (Here's how you draw a little boy. Here's how you draw a little girl. Here's how you draw mommy and daddy. Etc.)

 

Elephants are extraordinarily intelligent animals. Sometimes I used to sit at my old piano (made in 1895, IIRC) and just sort of meditate on the tragedy of such a magnificent and intelligent animal slaughtered just for the ivory in its tusks. I love my piano and I honor the memory of the animal(s) killed for the ivory on the keys... but if I could go back in time with a pack Uzis and a few good men, you can bet there would have been a lot less ivory traders and elephant poachers. Hell... I guess that stuff is still going on. Maybe that's the next evil that the eco hard core should tackle. Although... at this point on our sad and pretty little planet -- it's hard to know where to start stopping the utter madness we find ourselves in.

 

 

All that said -- this is really a fun vid.

[Hard Truth]

Elephants are cool.

 

Apparently there is an elephant unemployment problem in Thailand and other areas of SE Asia. The elephant's paintings are sold to subsidize their care.

 

Frankly the elephant paintings I have seen aren't that good, but its a good cause.

 

The conceptual artists who came up with this scheme also did a great recording called "the most wanted song."They surveyed people on what they like in a song. Then they recorded a song with all of those elements. on the flip side they recorded a song with all the elements people didn't like.

[rasputin1963]

That's pretty amazing. Bless that poor creature's heart. I don't imagine he understands SYMBOLICALLY what he has painted... but he obvious understands concepts such as stroke, sequentiality, curve, etc.

 

I think elephant's brains are massive, aren't they? Like dolphins and whales?

[rasputin1963]

 

Elephants are cool. Apparently there is an elephant unemployment problem in Thailand and other areas of SE Asia. The elephant's paintings are sold to subsidize their care. Frankly the elephant paintings I have seen aren't that good, but its a good cause. The conceptual artists who came up with this scheme also did a great recording called "the most wanted song." They surveyed people on what they like in a song. Then they recorded a song with all of those elements. on the flip side they recorded a song with all the elements people didn't like.

 

 

LOL, I see Komar and Melamid have struck again. I own their book THE MOST WANTED PAINTINGS here... they basically polled people all over the world to specify what they would--- and wouldn't--- want to see in a painting... Then they painted it. Some very bizarre results--- on both sides of the fence.

[blue2blue]

 

Elephants are cool. Apparently there is an elephant unemployment problem in Thailand and other areas of SE Asia. The elephant's paintings are sold to subsidize their care. Frankly the elephant paintings I have seen aren't that good, but its a good cause. The conceptual artists who came up with this scheme also did a great recording called "the most wanted song." They surveyed people on what they like in a song. Then they recorded a song with all of those elements. on the flip side they recorded a song with all the elements people didn't like.

 

 

 

I'd say I must be among the 200:

 

 

The most unwanted music is over 25 minutes long, veers wildly between loud and quiet sections, between fast and slow tempos, and features timbres of extremely high and low pitch, with each dichotomy presented in abrupt transition. The most unwanted orchestra was determined to be large, and features the accordion and bagpipe (which tie at 13% as the most unwanted instrument), banjo, flute, tuba, harp, organ, synthesizer (the only instrument that appears in both the most wanted and most unwanted ensembles). An operatic soprano raps and sings atonal music, advertising jingles, political slogans, and