Cave Art and More

                                                               Functions of Early Art

•  I don't think there was a specific message they were trying to send or say but that the art in the Lascaux Caves was most likely a combination of a nice way to pass the time for early humans as well as a way to record information. Some of the paintings could also be warnings such as the depiction of what looks like a man either getting ran over or attacked in some way by a bison. 
• I think there might be more animals then people in the cave paintings because the people might have  just recorded depictions of the wildlife in the area as a way to keep track of the various species in the different places they were travelling. Knowing what wildlife was around might have been more important then knowing what people were around at the time and given that it was hard work to make these art work they most likely chose to depict the most important things. 
• The cave paintings can tell us that the people in Lascaux Caves valued nature and took the time to make the animals very detailed to the point they used varying techniques and tools in order to create these cave paintings. There was also evidence of shells that were used as jewelry and were most likely an item used for trade.
• Some of the difficulties the cave painters faced were the differences in the wall textures, because the walls were different textures they had to come up with different tools and ways to paint the walls such as five grinding stones, three mortars, twenty-three limestone and schist plates, sixteen shells, flint tools for engraving and wood work, and bone tools such as assegais, eyed needles, awl, spall, a modified reindeer antler beam, and brushes. All of these items had to be used in order to make the amazing cave paintings not one item could be used throughout the cave.
• I think one possible function of the art for early humans, as stated above, could possibly be for a pass time, the paintings themselves are nice to look at and could've been nice decoration for the caves they stayed in, and they could also be used to help tell a story. Another use could have been for recording information about important or dangerous plants and animals in the area. The pictures could also been used as a sort of land marker showing they had passed through for other groups of early humans as well as for themselves to remind themselves where they had been.

                                                          Commonalities in Functions

• There are many commonalities we can see in the Lascaux Cave paintings and within modern art works such as having an appreciations and love for wildlife which is depicted in many modern pieces especially by famous artist John Banovich. We see the commonalities as well in art work depicting danger or battles like the man and the bison and art work of  our own battles and wars. We also have art work today of important landmarks and places as well as specially decorating important places and land markers which could have been a function of the cave paintings. Modern at serves many functions from self expression, a message, or just sharing some beauty which I believe is the same reasons for the cave paintings.

                                                       Introduce Us to Your Favorite Art

• My favorite type of art would have to be music, I can find a song I like in just about every genre of music. My top favorite genres would have to be rock and rap/ r&b.  The functions of music is to express yourself by telling a story, the story can be about your own life experiences, the experiences of those around you or completely made up. There is a lot people say with their music, music can be about falling in love or out of it, social and political issues, crimes, parties/celebrations, life changing events such as having a child or getting married, it can be about death and all of the up, downs and in-betweens of life. Music is so powerful that there doesn't even need to be words for it to send a powerful message. Different types of music definitely have their own culture. When you think of rock you tend to think or dark clothing maybe some scary imagery, loud, leather, studded belts and a disgruntled attitude towards the  establishment and conforming to societies rules. Within rap you get a similar dislike of "the man" and the powers that be as well, attire can be much different rap and hip-hop tend to use really bright colors and have cloths that are baggy opposed to tighter like in some genres of rock, big flashy jewelry and cars. Pop culture is known for sparkles, pastel colors and flashy costumes, a carefree attitude. All music has it's own culture as well as the actual different cultures from around the world that influence and create different types of music rap from around the world sounds different as well as rock, pop, country, and so many more. Going back to my two favorite music genres rock and rap I'd say the positive impact rock has on society is that there are many songs celebrating the under dog and songs about perseverance there is also many anti self harm and suicide songs within rock, some of the more negative influences of rock are the glorification of objectifying women and drug use one of the most synonymous sayings is sex, drugs and rock n roll which has a negative impact on the youth. There is also racial tensions at times caused by the constant argument and prejudices that rock is solely for white people and the counter argument that black people invented rock n roll. The positives of rap/ R&B is that it allowed the black community to speak and tell the world about the injustices that were going on as well as the up and downs of everyday life. The negatives of specifically rap come with the era of gangster rap and never really ceased, this type of rap changed the narrative to let me tell you the bad things that are going on, into do bad things and be a bad person. It helped perpetuate a negative depiction of the young black man and caused the rise of gang and drug violence within the black community.

Language Experiment

15 Minutes No Symbolic Language

1. I personally really enjoyed this experiment it was very interesting and amusing and frustrating at times. It was difficult when I had questions about something during the conversations but I couldn't figure out how to properly convey the proper message. My partner struggled with trying to figure out how to engage and start the conversation, they initially started out basically talking at me like telling a story opposed to conversating. When I tried to engage in conversation by making confused gestures when they got to a point when I needed more clarification they struggled to figure out exactly what I needed clarification about causing the conversation to turn into a guessing game.
2. In my experience I felt that the speaker had the power, they were able to choose the conversation and the direction of the conversation. As the non- speaker you can't explain which parts of the conversation you agree or disagree with and why you can only give signs that you object or agree to something but very non specific. One benefit about spoken language is that you have the ability to voice your opinions at any time and make choices, as well as properly convey any message you may have.
3. If me and my partner were two different cultures meeting for the first  I would definitely say my partner had the advantage. They were able to properly convey their ideas and messages smoothly without a problem, where-as I was unable to properly express what I needed to say leaving them confused. The speaking culture may experience feelings of frustration or annoyance with the other culture. They may also make assumptions about the others cultures intelligence leading to negative stereotypes. People within our culture that struggle with spoken communication are babies/young children, non-verbal persons on the spectrum, deaf people, and people who have had damage to their throats and vocal cords. I feel like this experiment can mirror their own experiences in life because I am sure there are plenty of times in their lives where they have struggled to convey a non-verbal message even with the use of sign language. Especially babies and young children who not only lack the ability to speak but also lack the intelligence in most cases to figure out another way such as writing to convey the message.

No physical embellishments

1.  I wasn't able to last the full 15 minutes with this one, surprisingly it was harder then I had anticipated. I never realized how much I use my body to communicate, I use a lot of hand movements and really full body movements at times to fully express thoughts, emotions, and information. The other thing that made it challenging was trying to be monotone on purpose, it felt so unnatural that it made it really hard not to laugh every time I would try to speak.
2. My partner expressed that the second conversation was definitely more awkward than the first one. They said that this version of the experiment made them feel as if they were talking to some one who was bored or slightly irritated opposed to speaking to someone who might have a disability. They also said while the first experience was a bit more frustrating at times this conversation felt colder.
3. This experiment says a lot about body and non speech language in the sense that it seems to go hand in hand with speech, it gives us the ability to fully express our meanings we are trying to convey. Voice fluctuations and facial expressions help to tell what emotions some one is feeling, as well as body movement. We can also use non-verbal signs and movements to discreetly send information or for those who are speech impaired. Body language is so important we often use it during conversations in everyday life to determine whether the information being to told to us by some one is truthful. We look for signs like nail biting, excessive sweeting, fidgeting are all signs that some one is nervous and may be lying. Signs such as stick your chin or chest out when you talk, putting your hands on your hips. wagging a finger van all be signs of irritations or frustration.
4. Some people do struggle with reading body language, I think this happens because of a mixture of poor observation as well as a mixture of a lot of possible other things. An environmental condition where it might not be a good idea to read body language would be at a boring job meeting. You would not want to show signs of being bored or uninterested in front of your boss or important people within your work space.

Part 3

1. Part one would have been significantly easier if I could have written out or even drew what I was trying to explain. Writing or drawing would have given a visual representation of the message even if I wasn't able to say it. The advantage written language gives to the culture that develops and uses it first is that they get to decide what everything means and how it's used. Written language has given us the ability to see the thoughts and ideas of ancient cultures. It has also given us the ability to send any kind of message to any one any where around the world especially thanks to inventions like the mail services, the printing press, and the email.