Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item:
https://hdl.handle.net/1959.11/32540
Title: | Marks, Pictures and Art: Their Contribution to Revolutions in Communication | Contributor(s): | Davidson, Iain (author) | Publication Date: | 2020-09 | Early Online Version: | 2020-07-27 | DOI: | 10.1007/s10816-020-09472-9 | Handle Link: | https://hdl.handle.net/1959.11/32540 | Abstract: | This paper addresses the question of the nature of art, how it came to be, how it fits with other communications revolutions, and the implications of the emergence of art as a means of visual communication. How did iconic imagery emerge from other mark-making among humans and their ancestors and what has been its significance? I situate visual communication as the second revolution of the six communication revolutions during human evolution: the emergence of language, iconic imagery, writing, printing, various means of communication at a distance, and the digital electronic revolution. I begin by discussing the context of deliberate production of marks in the environment, with emphasis on the relations between (1) the producer of the mark and the mark, (2) the producer of the mark and an informed observer at the time, (3) the mark and the informed observer in the absence of the producer and (4) the uninformed observer and the mark. It is fundamental that at some stage the producer intended the mark to represent something, a subject in the real or imagined world. I emphasize the importance of telling stories and singing songs in secular and ritual contexts. Out of this framework, I discuss some of the earliest objects called art in relation to their semiotic elements. I outline my arguments about how these semiotic categories were transformed in the emergence of pictures during archaeohistory. I go on to discuss how all these examples of image production connect to that which is called art in western society. I conclude by reflecting on the impact of these changes of means of communication on human cognition. Each of the revolutions involved changes in the relationships among the communicative act (sensu lato), the agent and receivers of the communication, the perception and interpretation of the communication and the persistence of it through time and ultimately across space. | Publication Type: | Journal Article | Source of Publication: | Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory, 27(3), p. 745-770 | Publisher: | Springer New York LLC | Place of Publication: | United States of America | ISSN: | 1573-7764 1072-5369 |
Fields of Research (FoR) 2020: | 430199 Archaeology not elsewhere classified | Socio-Economic Objective (SEO) 2020: | 280113 Expanding knowledge in history, heritage and archaeology | Peer Reviewed: | Yes | HERDC Category Description: | C1 Refereed Article in a Scholarly Journal |
---|---|
Appears in Collections: | Journal Article School of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences |
Files in This Item:
File | Size | Format |
---|
SCOPUSTM
Citations
6
checked on Dec 14, 2024
Page view(s)
1,312
checked on Aug 11, 2024
Download(s)
4
checked on Aug 11, 2024
Items in Research UNE are protected by copyright, with all rights reserved, unless otherwise indicated.