superodalisque
Well-Known Member
i was watching an old episode of "How Art Made the World" and there was an interesting discussion about why human beings tend to like to distort the human body as evidenced in the arts. among the types of "distortion" discussed is the Venus of Willendorf and why fat was such a valued feature when she was created:
The question is why were prehistoric humans stimulated by an exaggerated image such as this? The answer, according to neuroscientist V.S. Ramachandran and others, lies in the workings of the human brain, in a neurological principle known as the "peak shift."
The people who made this statue lived in a harsh ice-age environment where features of fatness and fertility would have been highly desirable. In neurological terms, these features amounted to hyper-normal stimuli that activate neuron responses in the brain. So in Paleolithic people terms, the parts that mattered most had to do with successful reproduction - the breasts and pelvic girdle. Therefore, these parts were isolated and amplified by the artist's brain.
there was also a discussion about the improbably athletic forms in greek sculpture. my question is why do you think the distortion of the body regarding admiration is popular today? after all morphing is very popular etc... and we definitely don't live in a period of want. so why is fat in particular still found to be so desirable in the eyes of so many without the scarcity driver? whats your theory?
The question is why were prehistoric humans stimulated by an exaggerated image such as this? The answer, according to neuroscientist V.S. Ramachandran and others, lies in the workings of the human brain, in a neurological principle known as the "peak shift."
The people who made this statue lived in a harsh ice-age environment where features of fatness and fertility would have been highly desirable. In neurological terms, these features amounted to hyper-normal stimuli that activate neuron responses in the brain. So in Paleolithic people terms, the parts that mattered most had to do with successful reproduction - the breasts and pelvic girdle. Therefore, these parts were isolated and amplified by the artist's brain.
there was also a discussion about the improbably athletic forms in greek sculpture. my question is why do you think the distortion of the body regarding admiration is popular today? after all morphing is very popular etc... and we definitely don't live in a period of want. so why is fat in particular still found to be so desirable in the eyes of so many without the scarcity driver? whats your theory?
