pauln Posted June 1, 2008 Share Posted June 1, 2008 Linky Of all the elephants that have taken up the art of painting, most have adopted the abstract expressionist school; but one has learned to do something amazing.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BLSamuel Posted June 1, 2008 Share Posted June 1, 2008 Wow. That is cool. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderators dtel Posted June 1, 2008 Moderators Share Posted June 1, 2008 Wow, makes you wonder what else they are capable of if they had a way to show it, so we could understand ? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jay481985 Posted June 2, 2008 Share Posted June 2, 2008 pretty impressive Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pauln Posted June 2, 2008 Author Share Posted June 2, 2008 There are those that think the elephant has only been trained to paint and that he does not know what he is really doing... the addition of the flower seems to support that. There are those that say the sign languaging apes and the texting dolphins are also just acting out of carefully constructed behavior modification training. The thing I noticed right off was that the elephant pauses for what seems like a moment of reflection before his first stroke of the brush - longer than before any of the other stokes of the painting. I suppose they taught him that, too? What's going on in the mind of the elephant? How young a child could be taught the same thing? What would that child's idea be of what was going on? At what point does a behavior become complex enough that it is attributed to the actor and not the trainer? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jacksonbart Posted June 2, 2008 Share Posted June 2, 2008 I heard if he does not paint it well enough, he gets a 1200 volts. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeff Matthews Posted June 3, 2008 Share Posted June 3, 2008 What I think is the more basic question of interest is whether the elephant recognizes the painting as that of an elephant. Even if it couldn't paint a bird, or otherwise have enough creativity to express abstract thoughts, does it at least see an elephant in the picture? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jacksonbart Posted June 3, 2008 Share Posted June 3, 2008 I am not sure that I saw the elephant in that picture. That said I have seen nature films of wild Elephants tenderly touching and handling Elephant bones in an Elephant grave yard. There is intelligence in the wild, we are just to dumb to see it in many cases. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fini Posted June 3, 2008 Share Posted June 3, 2008 Linky Of all the elephants that have taken up the art of painting, most have adopted the abstract expressionist school; but one has learned to do something amazing.... I prefer the abstract expressionism, actually. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fini Posted June 3, 2008 Share Posted June 3, 2008 How young a child could be taught the same thing? Oh, God no! All children are "artists," until someone tries to teach them ART. Then it's the struggle to unlearn what's been taught. I'd prefer an approach where they're given access to materials, and see what comes. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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