Here they are.
and I found this picture on my computer.
And it reminded me of an article I read about Elephants that can draw pictures.
The elephants seem to paint pictures of specific things like flowers in the example above and some can actually clearly paint elephants (implying that elephants are consious of their own and others bodies and shapes and can replicate them on paper in an artistic manner) like this example below:
The article was related to whether or not the animal can actually paint the picture which of course it can as you can see in the video. However, it is not so much the elephant that paints the picture as the Mahut (trainer) who guides the elephant.
Renowned biologist professor Richard Dawkins travelled to Thailand to witness the act itself and found that the Mahut uses a series of tugs on the ear of the animal to direct the strokes.
As an example, pulling the ear left would mean paint towards the left of the page and pulling up would mean to paint upwards on the page (Those probably aren't the real commands but its the general idea).
You'll notice that in the above video the Mahut stands on our blind side of the animal to force the crowd to concentrate on the animal and not on him.
Each elephant also paints the same picture over and over again and does it every day so it learns the picture over time as well.
Even though the elephant recieves help in painting the picture and is handed the brush as it cannot pick it up, it is still a really impressive skill and shows the accurate prehensibility of the elephants trunk.
I guess the important thing to note here is that the elphant is not showing any artistic talent or flare, it is just reproducing something that it does not understand.
The article went on to explain that although the elephant shows no real artistic imagination or creativity, there was an example of a Chimpanzee which did.
I can't remember the story exactly and can't find the article again but I think that the chimp was taught to use a paintbrush (If not then it was crayons or something) and was gradually taught to draw or paint simple shapes.
This seems obvious enough, but after a while the chimp was actually able to create its own patterns and shapes and genuinely seemed to be capable of creativity and imagination when it came to art.
Which of course links back to the picture of the little monkey with a pencil.
But it also reminds me of a short bit that I read in this book.
Its one of those strange books that is barely a book. It had some really interesting points to make but it was all a bit too 'self help' and a couple of the things that it said were a bit stupid.
One thing that did stick was about knowledge.
I can't remember it exactly, but it was basically making a note of the fact that we are an intelligent race of people and there is a lot of potential knowledge out there in the world and that as a whole we generally strive for knowledge and actively seek to gain more.
The problem is that knowing why and how isn't always a good thing. In fact sometimes it kind of ruins our innocence or removes the mysticism.
Like when you see a magic trick and you are amazed and impressed.
If you find out how the trick is done, then you aren't amazed or impressed any more.
The magic is gone.
Another good example is watching a football match.
If you knew the score when it started then you probably wouldn't watch it.
It isn't knowing how it will end that makes it entertaining, it is not knowing.
The fact that I know that the elephant can't really recognise itself and paint a self portrait is kind of like finding out how a magic trick is done.
I think I would probably be happier if I just took it for granted and thought that the elephants were really clever and talented.
I guess ignorance can be bliss.
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