From Stan Hayward
I am amazed that “for decades, archaeologists have assumed that cave artists
were intelligent and communicative” because they could create spectacular rock art
(This Week, 12 December, p 10).
For many years I have been teaching children with learning difficulties to
make animated movies. Though such children have problems expressing themselves
verbally or literally, almost without exception they can draw recognisable
images, and can do so without any training.
Drawing is basically mapping images, so it is an ability we need for finding
our way around. As humans are not helped by smell, this facility for visualising
space would need to be highly developed. Expressing ideas visually would be
useful for hunters or nomadic people, and simple signs would be an obvious
development.
There is no necessity at all for art to have evolved from an intelligent
culture. It certainly does not require the development of language, and there
are many cases of autistic and dyslexic children who are extremely talented
artists.
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I believe that drawing is as natural as speaking. On the other hand, reading
and writing are not natural, and words themselves impose constraints upon our
thoughts.
It is interesting that the British culture minister Janet Anderson has just
announced government funding to train people in visualising for the IT
industries. The general trend in IT is towards visual presentation. Perhaps
written language is just a blip in the communication process.
stan@hccat.demon.co.uk
