Abstract
This paper addresses the question of the nature of art, how it came to be, how it fits with other communications revolutions, and the implications of the emergence of art as a means of visual communication. How did iconic imagery emerge from other mark-making among humans and their ancestors and what has been its significance? I situate visual communication as the second revolution of the six communication revolutions during human evolution: the emergence of language, iconic imagery, writing, printing, various means of communication at a distance, and the digital electronic revolution. I begin by discussing the context of deliberate production of marks in the environment, with emphasis on the relations between (1) the producer of the mark and the mark, (2) the producer of the mark and an informed observer at the time, (3) the mark and the informed observer in the absence of the producer and (4) the uninformed observer and the mark. It is fundamental that at some stage the producer intended the mark to represent something, a subject in the real or imagined world. I emphasize the importance of telling stories and singing songs in secular and ritual contexts. Out of this framework, I discuss some of the earliest objects called art in relation to their semiotic elements. I outline my arguments about how these semiotic categories were transformed in the emergence of pictures during archaeohistory. I go on to discuss how all these examples of image production connect to that which is called art in western society. I conclude by reflecting on the impact of these changes of means of communication on human cognition. Each of the revolutions involved changes in the relationships among the communicative act (sensu lato), the agent and receivers of the communication, the perception and interpretation of the communication and the persistence of it through time and ultimately across space.
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Notes
One answer to the question lies in the question of copyright. Banksy is notoriously reclusive, so getting his copyright permission for this image seemed implausible. Before Banksy gave his permission, therefore, I obtained permission from the photographer to use his image on Flickr (https://www.flickr.com/photos/greenwood100/2461402455/). But in the case of the archaic faces mentioned later, one photograph of such an image in Murujuga was published in a paper by me and two Aboriginal Traditional Owners, who gave their permission for my photograph to be published. But I am not now in contact with those men, so I am not in a position to seek their permission anew. The issue is complicated. Seeking permission to use one other image prompted the suggestion that the copyright should be that of the photographer not of the museum where the object is held.
At the conference, John Robb discussed the many different understandings of art in early Holocene Italy by considering not what art is but what people do with art.
This manner of distinguishing such similar but crucially different concepts is deliberately modelled on Popper’s (1972) nomenclature for three different ways of looking at reality in World 1 (the material world), World 2 (the mental world), and World 3 (objective knowledge).
In the 2013 paper, I said that the bulges were natural. I have subsequently learned that the tree is registered as a modified tree and learning place with the local Wanaruah community. Alerted to this by the community, I inspected my photo of the tree and it is indeed very clear that the narrow parts have been bound. This reinforces the notion of enhancement for cultural purposes. In seeking a substitute for this example, I found that many around the world had been recognized and given significance by indigenous communities.
The Golan Heights were first occupied by Israel in 1967.
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Acknowledgments
This paper has been improved by my selective use of the generous comments of Helen Arthurson, Danae Fiore, Ramona Koval and June Ross; the support of Oscar Mora Abadía and Manuel Gonzalez Morales; help from Jean Clottes, António Batarda Fernandes, John Robb, Robert Watson, John Maynard and Noel Downs; permissions from Banksy, Ken Williams, Bernard Zipfel and Jim Good; and the kind and unkind comments of three anonymous reviewers.
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