Download or read book The Artful Species written by Stephen Davies and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2012-11-29 with total page 310 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Explores the idea that our aesthetic responses and art behaviors are connected to our evolved human nature reaching back hundreds of thousands of years to our humanoid ancestors. Examines human aesthetic interest in animals, decouples human beauty from mate selection, and weighs the arts as biological, social, or mixed adaptations.
Download or read book Beyond the Creative Species written by Oliver Bown and published by MIT Press. This book was released on 2021-02-23 with total page 417 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A multidisciplinary introduction to the field of computational creativity, analyzing the impact of advanced generative technologies on art and music. As algorithms get smarter, what role will computers play in the creation of music, art, and other cultural artifacts? Will they be able to create such things from the ground up, and will such creations be meaningful? In Beyond the Creative Species, Oliver Bown offers a multidisciplinary examination of computational creativity, analyzing the impact of advanced generative technologies on art and music. Drawing on a wide range of disciplines, including artificial intelligence and machine learning, design, social theory, the psychology of creativity, and creative practice research, Bown argues that to understand computational creativity, we must not only consider what computationally creative algorithms actually do, but also examine creative artistic activity itself.
Download or read book The Runaway Species written by David Eagleman and published by Catapult. This book was released on 2017-10-10 with total page 404 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This enlightening examination of creativity looks “at art and science together to examine how innovations . . . build on what already exists and rely on three brain operations: bending, breaking and blending” (The Wall Street Journal) The Runaway Species is a deep dive into the creative mind, a celebration of the human spirit, and a vision of how we can improve our future by understanding and embracing our ability to innovate. David Eagleman and Anthony Brandt seek to answer the question: what lies at the heart of humanity’s ability—and drive—to create? Our ability to remake our world is unique among all living things. But where does our creativity come from, how does it work, and how can we harness it to improve our lives, schools, businesses, and institutions? Eagleman and Brandt examine hundreds of examples of human creativity through dramatic storytelling and stunning images in this beautiful, full–color volume. By drawing out what creative acts have in common and viewing them through the lens of cutting–edge neuroscience, they uncover the essential elements of this critical human ability, and encourage a more creative future for all of us. “The Runaway Species approach[es] creativity scientifically but sensitively, feeling its roots without pulling them out.” —The Economist
Download or read book Animals Plants and Afterimages written by Valérie Bienvenue and published by Berghahn Books. This book was released on 2022-03-11 with total page 460 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The sixth mass extinction or Anthropocene extinction is one of the most pervasive issues of our time. Animals, Plants and Afterimages brings together leading scholars in the humanities and life sciences to explore how extinct species are represented in art and visual culture, with a special emphasis on museums. Engaging with celebrated cases of vanished species such as the quagga and the thylacine as well as less well-known examples of animals and plants, these essays explore how representations of recent and ancient extinctions help advance scientific understanding and speak to contemporary ecological and environmental concerns.
Download or read book Ghost Species written by James Bradley and published by Hachette UK. This book was released on 2020-10-15 with total page 317 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In an intimate portrayal of high-concept big ideas, can we engineer ourselves out of a problem of our own making? Set against the backdrop of rapidly escalating climate catastrophe, scientists Kate Larkin and Jay Gunesekera are recruited by tech billionaire and mogul Davis Hucken to the forests of Tasmania, Australia. His Foundation's mission is not only to halt the effects of climate change, but to re-engineer and reverse the damage through the ambitious process of reviving species lost to the earth over time, including a clandestine ambition to resurrect the Neanderthals. When Eve, the first child, is born and grows up in a world crumbling around her, questions arise that she and Kate must face. Is she human or not, real or unnatural, and is she the ghost species or are we? As more and more of us are waking up to the truth about our climate, and our need to reverse the damage we have caused, Ghost Species is timely, poignant and reflective on what it means to be human on a personal and a global scale.
Download or read book Art Is an Endangered Species I written by Margaret Ann Zaho and published by . This book was released on 2022-08-19 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book The Art of Naming written by Michael Ohl and published by MIT Press. This book was released on 2018-03-30 with total page 312 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From Tyrannosaurus rex to Heteropoda davidbowie: scientific naming as a joyful and creative act. Tyrannosaurus rex. Homo sapiens. Heteropoda davidbowie. Behind each act of scientific naming is a story. In this entertaining and illuminating book, Michael Ohl considers scientific naming as a joyful and creative act. There are about 1.8 million discovered and named plant and animal species, and millions more still to be discovered. Naming is the necessary next step after discovery; it is through the naming of species that we perceive and understand nature. Ohl explains the process, with examples, anecdotes, and a wildly varied cast of characters. He describes the rules for scientific naming; the vernacular isn't adequate. These rules—in standard binomial nomenclature, the generic name followed by specific name—go back to Linnaeus; but they are open to idiosyncrasy and individual expression. A lizard is designated Barbaturex morrisoni (in honor of the Doors' Jim Morrison, the Lizard King); a member of the horsefly family Scaptia beyonceae. Ohl, a specialist in “winged things that sting,” confesses that among the many wasp species he has named is Ampulex dementor, after the dementors in the Harry Potter novels. Scientific names have also been deployed by scientists to insult other scientists, to make political statements, and as expressions of romantic love: “I shall name this beetle after my beloved wife.” The Art of Naming takes us on a surprising and fascinating journey, in the footsteps of the discoverers of species and the authors of names, into the nooks and crannies and drawers and cabinets of museums, and through the natural world of named and not-yet-named species.
Download or read book Species of Mind written by Colin Allen and published by MIT Press. This book was released on 1999-07-26 with total page 236 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The heart of this book is the reciprocal relationship between philosophical theories of mind and empirical studies of animal cognition. Colin Allen (a philosopher) and Marc Bekoff (a cognitive ethologist) approach their work from a perspective that considers arguments about evolutionary continuity to be as applicable to the study of animal minds and brains as they are to comparative studies of kidneys, stomachs, and hearts. Cognitive ethologists study the comparative, evolutionary, and ecological aspects of the mental phenomena of animals. Philosophy can provide cognitive ethology with an analytical basis for attributing cognition to nonhuman animals and for studying it, and cognitive ethology can help philosophy to explain mentality in naturalistic terms by providing data on the evolution of cognition. This interdiscipinary approach reveals flaws in common objections to the view that animals have minds. The heart of the book is this reciprocal relationship between philosophical theories of mind and empirical studies of animal cognition. All theoretical discussion is carefully tied to case studies, particularly in the areas of antipredatory vigilance and social play, where there are many points of contact with philosophical discussions of intentionality and representation. Allen and Bekoff make specific suggestions about how to use philosophical theories of intentionality as starting points for empirical investigation of animal minds, and they stress the importance of studying animals other than nonhuman primates.
Download or read book The Abolition of Species written by Dietmar Dath and published by . This book was released on 2018 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: After mankind's near-extermination, a kingdom of animals harnessing biotechnology wages a multi-planetary war against a new form of artificial intelligence.
Download or read book Species written by Robert Andrew Wilson and published by Bradford Books. This book was released on 1999 with total page 325 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Drawing on the perspectives of prominent researchers from anthropology, botany, develop- mental psychology, the philosophy of biology and science, protoevolutionary biology and the philosophy of biology and science, protozoology, and zoology, provides some focus on general claims about and views of species. DLC: Species--Philosophy.
Download or read book All Things Paper written by Ann Martin and published by Tuttle Publishing. This book was released on 2013-05-21 with total page 437 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Make decorative, simple do-it-yourself projects with this friendly guide to paper crafting. You and your family will love to spend hours making beautiful paper art, jewelry, and decorations with All Things Paper. This easy paper crafts book comes with simple-to-follow instructions and detailed photos that show you how to create colorful and impressive art objects to display at home--many of which have practical uses. It is a great book for experienced paper craft hobbyists looking for new ideas or for new folders who want to learn paper crafts from experts. Projects in this papercrafting book include: Candle Luminaries Citrus Slice Coasters Mysterious Stationery Box Everyday Tote Bag Silver Orb Pendant Fine Paper Yarn Necklace Wedding Cake Card Perfect Journey Journal And many more… All the projects in this book are designed by noted paper crafters like Benjamin John Coleman, Patricia Zapata, and Richela Fabian Morgan. They have all been creating amazing objects with paper for many years. Whether you're a beginner or have been paper crafting for many years, you're bound to find something you'll love in All Things Paper. Soon you will be on your way to creating your own designs and paper art.
Download or read book Arts of Living on a Damaged Planet written by Anna Lowenhaupt Tsing and published by U of Minnesota Press. This book was released on 2017-05-30 with total page 734 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Living on a damaged planet challenges who we are and where we live. This timely anthology calls on twenty eminent humanists and scientists to revitalize curiosity, observation, and transdisciplinary conversation about life on earth. As human-induced environmental change threatens multispecies livability, Arts of Living on a Damaged Planet puts forward a bold proposal: entangled histories, situated narratives, and thick descriptions offer urgent “arts of living.” Included are essays by scholars in anthropology, ecology, science studies, art, literature, and bioinformatics who posit critical and creative tools for collaborative survival in a more-than-human Anthropocene. The essays are organized around two key figures that also serve as the publication’s two openings: Ghosts, or landscapes haunted by the violences of modernity; and Monsters, or interspecies and intraspecies sociality. Ghosts and Monsters are tentacular, windy, and arboreal arts that invite readers to encounter ants, lichen, rocks, electrons, flying foxes, salmon, chestnut trees, mud volcanoes, border zones, graves, radioactive waste—in short, the wonders and terrors of an unintended epoch. Contributors: Karen Barad, U of California, Santa Cruz; Kate Brown, U of Maryland, Baltimore; Carla Freccero, U of California, Santa Cruz; Peter Funch, Aarhus U; Scott F. Gilbert, Swarthmore College; Deborah M. Gordon, Stanford U; Donna J. Haraway, U of California, Santa Cruz; Andreas Hejnol, U of Bergen, Norway; Ursula K. Le Guin; Marianne Elisabeth Lien, U of Oslo; Andrew Mathews, U of California, Santa Cruz; Margaret McFall-Ngai, U of Hawaii, Manoa; Ingrid M. Parker, U of California, Santa Cruz; Mary Louise Pratt, NYU; Anne Pringle, U of Wisconsin, Madison; Deborah Bird Rose, U of New South Wales, Sydney; Dorion Sagan; Lesley Stern, U of California, San Diego; Jens-Christian Svenning, Aarhus U.
Download or read book Fragile Species written by Lewis Thomas and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 1996-11 with total page 212 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The author's insights about a variety of natural phenomena contribute to our understanding of some of the great medical puzzles of the era. -- Back cover.
Download or read book The Art of Keeping Snakes written by Philippe de Vosjoil and published by Fox Chapel Publishing. This book was released on 2015-04-14 with total page 233 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: For author Philippe de Vosjoli, “art is the actualization of a personal vision or message,” and de Vosjoli’s passion is snakes, which he believes are among the most beautiful animals on earth. Incorporating snakes into a naturalistic vivarium, the way lizards and amphibians usually are, adds a new element to snake keeping, elevating the hobby to a true art form. In The Art of Keeping Snakes, de Vosjoli pursues this concept and provides advice for snake keepers who wish to create beautiful displays for their snakes, putting the animals’ welfare and quality of life above all else and simultaneously enhancing their own enjoyment in observing their beautiful snakes in naturalistic environments. Beautifully photographed, inspiring, and informative, The Art of Keeping Snakes is divided into two parts, the first “A New Way to Keep Snakes,” discusses design planning, enclosures and background possibilities, substrates, landscaping, plants, heating/lighting, quarantine and introducing the snakes to the vivarium. This part also includes chapters on feeding, handling, health care, and general maintenance and husbandry. The second part, “Best Display Snakes,” presents over thirty different snakes, including photographs, physical descriptions, and tips for selection, handling, vivarium design tips, feeding, and breeding. The snakes in this part are divided into chapters, categorized by pythons, boas, water and garter snakes, hognose snakes, rat snakes, kingsnakes and milksnakes, and others. Resources and index included.
Download or read book Art and Intimacy written by Ellen Dissanayake and published by University of Washington Press. This book was released on 2015-08-03 with total page 284 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: To Ellen Dissanayake, the arts are biologically evolved propensities of human nature: their fundamental features helped early humans adapt to their environment and reproduce themselves successfully over generations. In Art and Intimacy she argues for the joint evolutionary origin of art and intimacy, what we commonly call love. It all begins with the human trait of birthing immature and helpless infants. To ensure that mothers find their demanding babies worth caring for, humans evolved to be lovable and to attune themselves to others from the moment of birth. The ways in which mother and infant respond to each other are rhythmically patterned vocalizations and exaggerated face and body movements that Dissanayake calls rhythms and sensory modes. Rhythms and modes also give rise to the arts. Because humans are born predisposed to respond to and use rhythmic-modal signals, societies everywhere have elaborated them further as music, mime, dance, and display, in rituals which instill and reinforce valued cultural beliefs. Just as rhythms and modes coordinate and unify the mother-infant pair, in ceremonies they coordinate and unify members of a group. Today we humans live in environments very different from those of our ancestors. They used ceremonies (the arts) to address matters of serious concern, such as health, prosperity, and fecundity, that affected their survival. Now we tend to dismiss the arts, to see them as superfluous, only for an elite. But if we are biologically predisposed to participate in artlike behavior, then we actually need the arts. Even -- or perhaps especially -- in our fast-paced, sophisticated modern lives, the arts encourage us to show that we care about important things.
Download or read book The Art Instinct written by Denis Dutton and published by Oxford University Press, USA. This book was released on 2009 with total page 289 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Dinka have a connoisseur's appreciation of the patterns and colours of the markings on their cattle. The Japanese tea ceremony is regarded as a performance art. Some cultures produce carving but no drawing; others specialize in poetry. Yet despite the rich variety of artistic expression to be found across many cultures, we all share a deep sense of aesthetic pleasure. The need to create art of some form is found in every human society.In The Art Instinct, Denis Dutton explores the idea that this need has an evolutionary basis: how the feelings that we all share when we see a wonderful landscape or a beautiful sunset evolved as a useful adaptation in our hunter-gather ancestors, and have been passed on to us today, manifest in our artistic natures. Why do people indulge in displaying their artistic skills? How can we understand artistic genius? Why do we value art, and what is it for? These questions have long been asked by scholars in the humanities and in literature, but this is the first book to consider the biological basis of this deep human need.This sparking and intelligent book looks at these deep and fundamental questions, and combines the science of evolutionary psychology with aesthetics, to shed new light on longstanding questions about the nature of art.
Download or read book When Species Meet written by Donna J. Haraway and published by U of Minnesota Press. This book was released on 2013-11-30 with total page 439 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In 2006, about 69 million U.S. households had pets, giving homes to around 73.9 million dogs, 90.5 million cats, and 16.6 million birds, and spending more than 38 billion dollars on companion animals. As never before in history, our pets are truly members of the family. But the notion of “companion species”—knotted from human beings, animals and other organisms, landscapes, and technologies—includes much more than “companion animals.” In When Species Meet, Donna J. Haraway digs into this larger phenomenon to contemplate the interactions of humans with many kinds of critters, especially with those called domestic. At the heart of the book are her experiences in agility training with her dogs Cayenne and Roland, but Haraway’s vision here also encompasses wolves, chickens, cats, baboons, sheep, microorganisms, and whales wearing video cameras. From designer pets to lab animals to trained therapy dogs, she deftly explores philosophical, cultural, and biological aspects of animal–human encounters. In this deeply personal yet intellectually groundbreaking work, Haraway develops the idea of companion species, those who meet and break bread together but not without some indigestion. “A great deal is at stake in such meetings,” she writes, “and outcomes are not guaranteed. There is no assured happy or unhappy ending-socially, ecologically, or scientifically. There is only the chance for getting on together with some grace.” Ultimately, she finds that respect, curiosity, and knowledge spring from animal–human associations and work powerfully against ideas about human exceptionalism.
