Derwin Emerson's Book Review , 6-22-07 "How Art Made the World"

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REVIEW June 21, 2007


How Art Made The World – A Journey To The Origins of Human Creativity

Nigel Spivey
Basic Books – A Member of the Perseus Group
New York, NY 10016-8810
2005
ISBN -13:78-0-465-08181


Type: Educational Textbook / General Interest

Intended For: Art Instruction / Art / Topically Interested Public

Theme: Published in 2005 and made into a five part series on PBS, this book basically gives evidence of when and how humans “first acquired and then utilized symbolic representation.” The book also explores how art has been used throughout history as “a means of mass persuasion”. (Spivey,2005)

Major Subdivisions:
1. The Human Artist
2. The Birth of Imagination
3. More Human Than Human
4. Once Upon A Time
5. Second Nature
6. Art And Power
7. Seeing The Invisible
8. In The Face Of Death

Noteworthy for our Purposes: The book seems to be a nice blend of historical, cultural, scientific data. It can be applied to several aspects of the Creative Thinking Rubric in the areas of fluency, elaboration, curiosity, risk-taking, and complexity. Additionally, the information allows for various levels of difficulty. This is an interesting book that could be used to enrich or supplement other information presented for the student. This does not seem to be a book that a student would read for pleasure! Rather is would be better suited for teacher preparation and foundation.

Cogent Graphs, charts, visuals: It is seldom to have more than two pages of text in a row! The pages are filled with pictures of marble sculpture, cave drawings, bronze figurines and paintings in various media. From Roman Columns with the carved narrative frieze to a Spiral Jetty of Land Art, to Stonehenge, to the stupa at Borobudur, Java. There are many, many pieces of art displayed in the book from all around the world and all through time.

Lasting Value (my perspective):
It seems to me that the premise of the research illustrates that the development (evolution) of the hand with its bone structure, thumb and dexterity gave rise to the bipedal organism or was at least associated with the development. Once “available”, the biped no longer had to use the forelimbs for movement, defense, or attack. The proto-human known scientifically as (Australopithecines) was able to become erect, freeing the forelimbs to develop more strategic, precise motions involving the 27 bones of the carpals and digits. Yes, folks, this provided the ability for the hand to perform other tasks. This evolutionary trend along with the development of the brain allowed analytical thought to take place even at this early stage in time. Consider this thing called time as a continuum as humans learned to “record” pictures on caves, experiment with color, create likenesses to Gods and pharaohs, create larger than life figures, sculpt, carve, hammer, erect, and paint. Subconsciously and consciously art accepted and expected as representation of events, things, people, and enjoyments
More Human Than Human – “One image dominates our contemporary world: the human body.
The Day Pictures Were Born – Humans have been creating art for over 30,000 years. The images “may have triggered the greatest change in human history.
The Art of Persuasion – “Imagery became an indispensable weapon in every leader’s political armoury.”
Once Upon a Time – Billions of people annually go to a movie. These visual effects are now considered to be the most powerful storytelling ever created.
To Death and Back – the seemingly obsessive nature we have with images of death in modern times but in reality “humans have surrounded themselves with images of death for thousands of years.”



Other Comments: The PBS series, all five programs or episodes, are available on DVD at www. Amazon.com The text itself is also available at www.Amazon.com

Derwin Emerson
June 21, 2007