An elephant paints an elephant

[Drewcifer]

Apparently an art teacher has taught an elephant in Thailand to do non-abstract representative painting.

Here is a sample of the work, not sure if it is really a self portrait:

Here is the youtube video of it painting:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=He7G...ww.skyscrapercity.com/showthread.php?t=768548

 

[Phlegmak]

The elephants learns by rote and paint the same thing over and over.

 

[Bigfoot3814]

Well that's nice. The flower is especially impressive. I don't think it was a self portrait though. Probably one of his friends.

 

[emzie]

Apparently an art teacher has taught an elephant in Thailand to do non-abstract representative painting.

Or... an elephant was taught how to reproduce lines in an effort to raise publicity for the place in which it lives and thus encourage donations?

I absolutely adore elephants and think they're amazing animals, but I'd need to see evidence of an elephant painting a specific and recognizable image without coaching.

 

[Julian Delphiki]

Elephant Paints Another Elephant

 

[Luckymoose]

I believe the elephant knows what it is drawing, but without human intervention would never have figured out how to draw.

 

[Bugfatty300]

The proportions are all wrong, the legs look really weird and the ear is not right at all.

 

[Bigfoot3814]

The proportions are all wrong, the legs look really weird and the ear is not right at all.

Well he did basically draw it with his nose.

 

[emzie]

Well he did basically draw it with his nose.

With an elephant, that's like saying you draw with a limb.

 

[Bigfoot3814]

Still has no fingers and stuff on it.

 

[emzie]

Still has no fingers and stuff on it.

We find our hands really useful because we build things in scale to them.

 

[Mise]

If I wasn't taught how to write I wouldn't be able to write. I don't accept comments that this is insignificant, just because someone taught him how to do it. I learn PLENTY of things by rote.

 

[Bigfoot3814]

If I wasn't taught how to write I wouldn't be able to write. I don't accept comments that this is insignificant, just because someone taught him how to do it. I learn PLENTY of things by rote.

Sure but for some people the marvel here is that this elephant had artistic thought and used creative expression.

 

[emzie]

If I wasn't taught how to write I wouldn't be able to write. I don't accept comments that this is insignificant, just because someone taught him how to do it. I learn PLENTY of things by rote.

I can make a bunch of pretty Mandarin characters, but I have no idea what I'm writing. If all you're doing is repeating lines you were taught to draw, it means nothing. Only because you're able to understand what those lines mean (word and syntax and context and other words with x in them) does what you write matter.

I don't believe the elephant understands it painted an elephant. Elephants are very smart animals, they recognize themselves and others, mourn the deaths of others, they have an amazing ability to emphasize with not only other elephants but other species. That doesn't mean they recognize an abstract rendition of their species in 2-D without any other cues like smell and sound.

 

[Mise]

Well, you might be right. But tbh it wouldn't surprise me if they did. It really does look like an Elephant... (way better than I can draw anyway).

 

[emzie]

Well, you might be right. But tbh it wouldn't surprise me if they did. It really does look like an Elephant... (way better than I can draw anyway).

It should. The handlers / keepers of those elephants are counting on the public's lack of knowledge and general tendency to empathise with something unfamiliar to keep these animals safe / healthy-- all things considered a rather tolerable scam in my book.

Non-predatory animals tend to have crud for sight compared to us, elephants being no exception. So while it looks like an elephant to you, you have to consider that the elephant is seeing something abstract in a format that's unusual (2D) without any other sensory cues.

 

[theskald]

I remember this video, and I think augurey is right. The elephant's gotten very good with those fine muscle movements (and that it was taught to do something like this at all is remarkable to me), but humans do this sort of thing just because they feel like it, and without being told or taught to.

Maybe elephants have the ability but lack our fascination with abstraction. Or maybe not.

 

[Earthling]

I would also be skeptical of how much the elephant "knows" what it is doing, but this is still cool. At any rate awareness for conservation efforts could use a lot of boosts and elephants are one animal in need protection. The thread title make me think of something like "MC Escher the Elephant" except you'd need one more level of recursion: "an elephant paints an elephant painting an elephant". Now THAT would be something.

 

[West 36]

Good job, let's put it on the fridge!

 

[Winner]

Well, elephant are among the most intelligent mammals, so everything is possible.