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David Bridburg

2 Years Ago

Cave Art Was It Ancient Cinema?

https://news.artnet.com/art-world/prehistoric-cave-art-proto-cinema-1994505

Just came in from the beach. Going through my email I knew this needed posting.

Dave Bridburg
Bridburg.com
Post Modern Gallery

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Ronald Walker

2 Years Ago

Thanks Dave that is a very interesting theory!

 

David Bridburg

2 Years Ago

Ron,

It is a nice read. I had to just get around to it.

Dave Bridburg
Bridburg.com
Post Modern Gallery

 

Ronald Walker

2 Years Ago

I read once about the way they are carved using the natural contours and cracks seemed to create the illusion of movement but had never heard it referred to as theatre .

 

David Bridburg

2 Years Ago

Humans seem to naturally think on several levels.

It is interesting. And interesting how far that may date back.

Dave Bridburg
Bridburg.com
Post Modern Gallery

 

Doug Swanson

2 Years Ago

Interesting idea, but I almost think that cave art and fire are opposites from movies as we know them. That sort of dramatic, dimly lit experience, in a cave, elicits a response from a seer, drawing on their own idea of what's in the image. Nothing is very specific and none of it moves or speaks. It's a lot like a Rorschach ink blot, where there is no explicit content, only what the person who sees it supplies.

On the other hand, movie makers spend millions of dollars on images, music and sounds that tell you exactly not just what to see, but what to hear and how to feel too. If the image isn't dramatic enough by itself, the musical soundtrack steps in to inform you about the emotional content of the scene. You know that the perpetrator drove a '58 Lincoln and that the victim wore a red dress. There's very little psychological projection in the movie, a lot in the cave drama while there's a lot of specific information in the movie and only suggestions in the cave drama.

 

David Bridburg

2 Years Ago

Doug,

At best we need to take it as building blocks.

Dave Bridburg
Bridburg.com
Post Modern Gallery

 

James Brunker

2 Years Ago

Interesting article, thanks for posting! It would certainly be worth looking at cave and other rock art by firelight rather than the modern uniform lighting that tends to be used these days. It's how they would have been viewed when they were created, I can well imagine seeing them with a flickering light and shadows would create a feeling of movement and other interesting effects. A lot of the sites and figures had some ceremonial significance and this would probably have added to the experience. Some South American civilizations (especially in Amazon regions) have long used hallucinogenic plants and substances for rituals which would also have enhanced the effects, I'm sure they weren't the only ancient peoples to do so.

 

Ed Taylor

2 Years Ago

Story telling was probably just about the only entertainment in the cave living days. I'd imagine drawings on the wall, along with a story, can act as theater and since fire was the only source of light (at night) they might all go together. Not sure I'd call it theater though.

 

David King Studio

2 Years Ago

I was thinking exactly what Ed said, the art is probably just a visual aid to story telling. Given the fact they had very limited or no vocabulary I can imagine the story teller acting out the story while pointing to the art on the wall.

 

David Bridburg

2 Years Ago

Building blocks...

Cinema is story telling.

Dave Bridburg
Bridburg.com
Post Modern Gallery

 

Ed Taylor

2 Years Ago

In that case David when a cave man jumped in the air was that prelude to space travel? lol (just trying to be humorous)

 

Doug Swanson

2 Years Ago

Definitely building blocks but further advances took away from the unstructured stimuli of the cave drawing, added more specific content. Drama, as in stage shows, added backdrops and scripts that were static, but once we had "big" movies, the ability to have many sets and even digitally rendered sets and characters made a very qualitative change in the process.

There's very little psychological projection on the part of viewers in a movie since it's all pretty well set out there in sound and words. The cave relies completely on the imagination of the viewer since, after all, it's a stone wall with charcoal, not a detailed rendering of Hogwarts or a recreated version of D Day.

 

David Bridburg

2 Years Ago

Doug,

Less further advance or more further advances, we just do not live in caves.

Most of us.

Some can be accused of it figuratively.

Ed, we are space travelers literally if we are sitting still.

Dave Bridburg
Bridburg.com
Post Modern Gallery

 

Ronald Walker

2 Years Ago

Ed Taylor, the cow was the first one to leave our planet.

 

Doug Swanson

2 Years Ago

The psychologist in me is curious about the mindset of the cave painter VS the mindset of the movie director.

My speculation is that the cave painter is pretty much the same as the individual artist in today's world, making art that's static and individual, a personal expression that fits within the world view of the tribe (or doesn't). The cave painter probably needs advice from the seer or mystic of the tribal grouping.

The movie director, however, faces a massive organizational task, wrangling cast, crew, script writers, producers and equipment. It's not an individual piece of art at all but a huge collaboration, involving investors who pay the tab.

I'm thinking that, in the ancient world context, the movie director has more in common with whatever you called the person that led cave people to fight other cave people or whoever organized the Mastodon hunt.

 

This discussion is closed.