Dr. Nigel Spivey's How Art Made The World

We live in a world where we are so digitally consumed and saturated with images from different mediums. These images we see have the power to educate, inform, entertain, and motivate us. Conversely, to also have the power to misinform, repulse, or scare us. The Day Pictures Were Born an episode from the BBC series How Art Made the World, with Dr. Nigel Spivey takes on his journey to examine prehistoric art with researchers and experts throughout the south of France, Spain, and Turkey. Not only does the episode discuss the significance of these famous cave paintings but also brings viewers’ attention to the fact that about 12,000 years ago, the reason we no longer see cave paintings because of the greatest transition in human history from hunting

I knew these prehistoric paintings existed within caves but I never knew where the caves were located or the true significance behind these paintings and how they play a role in modern art today. The existing knowledge I have came from art classes that were shortly touched upon throughout my art education. Furthermore, class notes, discussions, and the BBC series sharpened my existing knowledge with facts from experts and theories that helped expand my basic knowledge of cave paintings from prehistoric artists.

The information that challenged my existing theories of how these paintings were more than visuals of an altered state of consciousness are from the theories that were developed in the 20th century. First, the paintings were used as a “text” to teach their novice hunters about their prey. The paintings were intended for a privileged group which could explain why the paintings were deep in the caves or located on the ceilings of the significant European caves. Secondly, the paintings must do with Shamanism, the belief that certain people known as Shamans can travel outside of their bodies to connect to the spirit world. The Shamans would have participated in ceremonial activities that involved hallucinations from sensory deprivation. Undoubtedly, these theories expanded my knowledge to think past the idea that these cave paintings were created just from the theories based on an altered state of consciousness

The episode, touches upon the idea that prehistoric artists have experienced an altered state because the artists’ drawings all had similar mimics of visual hallucinations like geometric shapes, zigzags, and patterns. These images are to be believed that they share some type of metaphor that expresses feelings that describes the individuals experience or desires when in their altered state of consciousness. In my opinion, I think one should be open to the appeal of being in an altered state of consciousness for us as humans to be able to connect with our own spiritual being and allow us to be in tune with ourselves to have a greater creative outcome. Being, in an altered state of consciousness has led to many creative developments surrounding visual, performing and writing arts. Throughout our artistic history, cave paintings being one of the primary examples has evolved to using hallucinations to develop more than visual images. Famous author such as Terence McKenna, used psychedelics which caused complex thoughts and visuals and documented his experiences connecting with the spiritual world. Multi-Billionaire Steve Jobs, used psychedelics which helped contributed to his famous creation of the Macintosh. I can