Leo Marcell C.

Yasay

How Art Made the World - More Human Than Human

Reflection Paper

Every so often I would perceive art as an avenue that many artists use to convey, express
and drive their creativity. Not having any ideas about what art actually mirrors about history,
about mankind, I was only fascinated by the idea that such wonderful works of art were created
throughout the ages. I would tend to not look at art from a different perspective, to look at what’s
common in the art works and to wonder why there are such similarities. This documentary was
able to satisfy my curious mind and suffice my urge to know more.

More Human Than Human is the first episode of a BBC One Documentary series entitled
How Art Made The World which aimed to provide the story of how humans made art and how art
made us human. The main theme of this particular episode is about how the images of the body
that were created by people are rarely realistic and in seeking to understand this, we would not
only have a deeper understanding about our bodies, but human nature in general.

Many of us would often view artworks, images and sculptures as just an expression or a
mere product of creativity not realizing that these actually reflect so much about our past, culture
and in this case, our human nature. As researchers find similarities that exists between works of
art, it keeps them puzzled as to why these similarities exist, it leaves an intriguing thought that
there should be some sort of connection that exists and existed within our nature through the
ages. What is this fragment of human nature that tends to encourage or keeps artists from
making a realistic representation of our bodies?

An example of these images would be the Venus of Willendorf which is a small figure that
has exaggerated hips, breasts, and sexual organs. What’s more interesting is how the creator or
the artist seemed to have ignored the other body parts such as the arms and the face. Similar
venus figures with quite similar characteristics of exaggerations of the mentioned features have
also been created in Russia and Europe in the following centuries. These exaggerated features
are clearly symbols of fertility which are seen as body parts with such importance.
 Scientists believed that essentially, our brain is built or hard-wired to focus mostly on parts
of an object which has pleasing associations. So the artists that made these images or figures of
the human body had the tendency of highlighting the parts that mattered to them the most.

Professor Ramachandran explained why such features were overemphasized. He

compared this to research done with Sea Gulls and how their chicks are stimulated by a red
stripe on the beaks of their parents. The chicks’ response to a stick with a red stripe is how they
would respond to the red stripe on their parents’ beaks and with additional stripes on a stick,
they were over stimulated. Ramachandran suggests that these neurological process are similar
to what stimulated early man and that they have exaggerated these features because of the
same way the Sea Gull chicks are overstimulated by more stripes.

Thousands of years later, the Egyptians mastered a human figure that is more stylized and
order-obsessed rather than preserving the exaggerations made by their ancestors. They wanted
to elaborate each part of the body from the clearest angle. The Greeks then wanted a figure that
is more realistic for their temples and in making Kritios Boy, they were able to make a figure to
the exact dimensions of the body. Later on however, they seem to have abandoned this ultra
realism way creating fantastically heroic yet totally unrealistic figures like the Riace Bronzes.

The idea that there is such an in-depth explanation as to why these similarities exist
between the different human figures and images in different ages has kept me interested all
through out the documentary. They have managed to point out how different the human figure or
image were in accordance to the culture and era it came from and how despite all these
differences, there always have been a distinct similarity among them.

In unraveling the truth behind this phenomenon or occurrence, I commend the thought of
the scientific approach on this. Neuroscientist Professor Ramachandran explained how there
are similar neurological processes in a Sea Gull chick and the man who would always be
overstimulated when parts of significance are exaggerated. The way it was explained with such
a simple comparison to an animal behavior is terrific since it became easy to understand.

The documentary also pointed out the journey that mankind has been through creating the
most distinct and most recognizable human figures. As human knowledge evolved, so did the
human figures created by artists, from the ones with only a few parts completely exaggerated, to
something almost real, to a surreal one with enhanced heroic features. It’s almost as if we never
get contented with what is done and being created, as per the artists of the past, they
continuously changed their approaches in creating a human representation.
 In the modern world, rarely would you encounter an image, a figure or an artwork
resembling the figure of a human that is realistic. Almost the same as the prehistoric ages,
today’s artists would also tend to deviate from the realistic approach of creating a human figure
yet they are everywhere and they are more appreciated. Somehow what we choose to change,
exaggerate or alter in the human body is a mere reflection of our values and this might be true
for the different human figures created over the centuries.

The documentary not only broadened my knowledge but opened my mind to have a
different perception in art, to have a different approach in understanding art. It made me realize
that art is an actual representation and reflection of human values. It makes us see what is and
was significant to the people and gives us an insight to what their beliefs, culture and lifestyles
were.

The one theme of this documentary which is how human figures or images are made
unrealistically opened up a highway of thoughts and questions from my curious mind. It made
me think profoundly about what their driving force was in creating such works of art. It makes
one wonder what their main reason was in creating these figures. What must be the purpose of
these very figures that they created?

Since this episode already talked about human images and figures what about the other
kinds of artworks? There must also be a certain difference and similarity in the different forms of
art such as drawings, paintings, and architecture and I wonder what it meant for them, how
significant it was for them to create art in these other forms too. They must also relate so much
or even became the foundations of what we have today.

What this documentary sought to answer was how related are we to the people in the past.
If you come to think of it, we are actually pretty much the same. We tend to use art as an escape
from reality. Reality has never been an objective of art for us. With art, we have created these
images and figures that we can never be; perfect, exaggerated. Art has always been our way to
show what’s important, to show what we could do more and not merely be contented with what
is actually real.

The way I see it, we humans aren’t mostly a fan of reality. Most of the artists would probably
think, what’s good with it anyway and why not do more or be more? Often we would prefer
exaggerated images and believe them to be more human than human. Somehow we share this
instinct and links us undoubtedly to our ancestors.
“More Human Than Human.” pbs.org, 22 June 2006,
www.pbs.org/howartmadetheworld/episodes/human/.

Milet, Jon. “Notes on How Art Made the World - More Human Than Human 1/5.”
Archive.jonmilet.com, 30 May 2011,
archive.jonmilet.com/2011/05/30/notes-on-how-art-made-the-world-more-human-than-hu
man/.