Off: the critic

[Paul Mather]

On Fri, Aug 29, 2003 at 09:35:26AM +0000, PETER WILKINSON wrote:

=> interesting conversation....both of you are neither right or wrong..e.g.
=> drider quote 'experienced person by definition is more credible......' not
=> quite so. An illustration might be that of a few years ago when researchers
=> got a group of monkeys to splash paint all over canvasses. these were then
=> proudly shown at a private viewing to our leading art 'folk' and critics who
=> eulagised over them!!!

This reminds me of a segment I saw on (I think) _60 Minutes_ where two
Russian satirical artists were selling paintings to the modern art
world done by Thai elephants.  What was really neat was that these
elephants were retired work elephants, and the Russians had set up a
foundation to direct the money raised from the sales to pay for their
upkeep (and the upkeep of their handler).  So, in effect, the
elephants were "working" for themselves. :-)  (They would likely
otherwise die from neglect.)  The Russians said it did not take very
long to re-train each elephant to paint, and that each had its own
individual style.

As with the monkeys, the art world raved over the paintings.  To be
fair, folks still raved even after being told the artist was an
elephant, which I guess is fine.  After all, where is it written that
expressive and emotive brush strokes are the sole domain of human
artists?... :-)

Cheers,

Paul.

e-mail: paul at gromit.dlib.vt.edu

"Without music to decorate it, time is just a bunch of boring production
 deadlines or dates by which bills must be paid."
        --- Frank Vincent Zappa