An Experiment To Make Pigeons Into Art Critics Doesn’t Go Far Enough

If you ’ve spent your week wonder if pigeons can separate Picasso from Monet , get ready to have your query answered . But the answer just realize us want more .

In 1995 , scientists take away “ by experimentation unenlightened ” pigeon , and put them in their own personal enclosures in a lab . The pigeon ’ naivete would n’t last for long . They need to learn in edict to use up . ( Well , kind of . The scientist maintained them at 80 percent of their costless eating weight . ) Soon they were put in cell , and shown nontextual matter . Specifically they were designate slides of Picasso paintings and Monet painting . If they wangle to know apart between the work of the two creative person , they got more nutrient .

I wo n’t keep you in suspense . The pigeons were able to secern an impressionist from a cubist , but the ogre is in the details . They put Cezanne and Renoir in with Monet . But they were n’t able to tell a Monet painting that was upside down . They were able to spot a Picasso if it was upside down , and they managed to put Braque , Picasso , and Matisse together . But the researcher did n’t even essay to show them “ untypical ” Picasso paintings , like those from his Blue Period . I inquire you , what happened to courage in the experimental scientific discipline ?

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I do n’t want a pigeon school to distinguish cubists from impressionist , I want a pigeon groom to discern good nontextual matter from bad art . Surely , with enough meter and collaboration between art expert and scientific experts , that should be possible . And then I need that pigeon released into a museum . If artists want immortality , allow them fade the pigeon test .

And if it turns out that pigeon do n’t have the power to appreciate art , what about corvids ? These famously smart as a whip bird could be trained to appreciate art , and then loose back into the state of nature . Let ’s face up it , every city — and college campus — is burdened by public art that must have seemed like a good idea at the meter , but is awful and ca n’t be ask down because it ’s “ art . ” What better way to last put that fine art out of its wretchedness ( and ours ) by having it crapped into oblivion by trained art ravens ?

[ ViaPigeons ’ Discrimination of Paintings By Monet and Picasso . ]

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