Art and Adaptation Presentation

We all enjoy viewing and talking about art. Our fascination with art is so intense that we study art history in school. Why do we make art in the first place? According to evolutionary thinking, our behaviors are the result of adaptations that have helped us survive and reproduce. Is that true of art? Is art simply a byproduct of other adaptations? How far back in our hominin prehistory, even before the rock art we find in caves, does this behavior go? Is there some type of biological function in a comprehensive sense, like cooperation or neural development, to art making behavior?

I’ve been working in the area of evolutionary studies for quite some time, and I have put together a presentation that addresses and attempts to answer these questions. I like to think of myself as a conduit of evolutionary ideas to help dispel the notion that art derives solely from high European culture. I’m also the author of a monograph on this subject. I’ve conducted this presentation in venues as varied as a wine bar, a church, St. Francis College, and The Pratt Institute.

The presentation consists of about 70 slides and takes approximately 40 minutes. That allows for a conversation period afterwards. The only equipment I need is a Windows-based PC with Microsoft Power Point connected to an overhead projector with a screen. I’ll bring my presentation on a flash drive. I’d also need some light near the PC since I read from notes. Alternatively, I can access the presentation from my Google drive.

For details, contact Prof. Tague at gtague AT sfc.edu OR ebibliotekos AT gmail.com

Here's the page for my book, Art and Adaptability. The presentation is a simplified version of the book.

ART AND ADAPTATION – PRESENTATION & DISCUSSION

▪       Why do we make art?

▪       Is art an adaptive behavior?

▪       How distant in prehistory is art?

▪       Is art a biological function?

Gregory F. Tague, Ph.D. is a professor of English and Interdisciplinary Studies at St. Francis College, Brooklyn, N.Y. His work for over the past decade has put him squarely in a special area: examining the arts and humanities in light of evolution. He is the founder of the Evolutionary Studies Collaborative, the Moral Sense Colloquium, and founding editor of the ASEBL Journal, which covers ethics/arts/evolution. In this field Prof. Tague has published Making Mind: Moral Sense and Consciousness (Rodopi 2014), Evolution and Human Culture (Brill 2016), Art and Adaptability: Consciousness and Cognitive Culture (Brill 2018), and An Ape Ethic and the Question of Personhood (Lexington Books 2020). 

To contact Professor Tague please email him, with a clear subject line: gtague AT sfc.edu OR ebibliotekos AT gmail.com