How Art Made the World More Than Human In class we watched a video called More Than Human,

which is part one of a five part series, about how art came to be since hundreds of thousands of years ago to present day. The video is narrated by Dr. Nigel Spivey and is produced through PBS. Although history and in our case art history is full of wonderful and interesting artifacts and events, the video highlights and goes into great detail of mainly three examples that explain the videos message. These examples for the first video are The Venus of Willendorf, The Egyptians, and the Greeks. Together these topics will tell us why for thousands of years, people have been drawn to images of the human body and form. Over all much of the information presented in the video, More Than Human, was completely new to me, other than seeing and hearing about some events and artifacts while reading the textbook in previous class periods. Many concepts and ideas were explained in ways I have never seen before. One example of this was at the beginning of the video. The statement, The human body- No other image dominates our lives, made me realize how unnoticed I was to images of the human form in the media and society. I guess being of the male gender I dont really worry about my appearance as much as the female gender, but I never really thought about how much the human image has played in history and in todays world. Take the The Venus of Willendorf for an example. Most people think that most of the first human beings on earth were cavemen, who were primitive. Archeologist found in Europe statues with over proportioned bodies. This was the first example in history for why most images of the human body dont resemble a real human form. Throughout the video its explain that the human brain is wired to like images with parts that interest us the most. The Venus of Willendorf had wide hips and exaggerated breast. The people who carved this piece were interested in these attributes because their lively hood depended on it. An artist would incorporate these desires to their art form. I think that the example that the video showed the audience about sea gull chicks was very interesting. The chicks were attracted to more and more red stripes. This sort of emphasizes society's rule Bigger is Better and More Bang for Your Buck. But the same art that was associated with prehistoric people changed by the time Egyptians started creating their own art. Nomadic living was not necessary as agriculture allowed people to live in one area. Abundance in food for both humans and animals enabled more art forms to be created larger in size. The Egyptians attributed their art and monuments to their gods. To have the appearance of being like god, Pharaohs wanted their image to be as accurate as possible. Wanting every possible body part showing in its clearest position, these unrealistic renderings were carved into rock. This way of creating images was used for thousands of years unchanged. Egyptians did not like much change and they perfected ways to quarry rock and mason techniques in carving. Instead of their art being exaggerated like prehistoric people,

Egyptians wanted everything in order. As a society everyone had their place, common people had to look alike and Pharaoh was larger than life. The last topic discussed in the video was the difference in the style of art the Greeks did compared to the Egyptians. Learning techniques from the Egyptians, the Greeks took the human body to a new level. Incorporating a more realistic sense of moving, Greeks were looking for something new and bigger than what the Egyptians offered. In doing so though, the Greeks too exaggerated the human body. They wanted to show the human body in its anatomically peak perfection. Out of all the three discussion topics, I feel the Greeks technique is most visible in todays culture. The media and those influencing fashion are still taking the human image to the next level through manipulated images and in motion pictures. From the slightest change by using lipstick to more serious actions such as surgery, tattoos and body building and toning we change our bodies sometimes without knowing it. At one time in history the human form was accepted and desired to be pudgy and full figured. Today there is two perspectives on how the human body should be depicted. The first view is mostly slim and as little fat possible, but there is a growing opinion that our bodies should be viewed as naturally as possible. Who you are and how your body is constructed is what many people are looking to. But when applied to art, I believe images of bodies in a unrealistic appearance will always be there. As humans we like strange things and get tired of seeing our normal selves.