The First Image

Prerequisite: maybe psychology. Actually nah, you are too smart for psychology.

A big question in Art History class came about: how did the first drawn image come to be? How did it occur to the first human, to join some lines on a surface, and make believe that it is a "thing"? I have an idea. Just an idea.

Gestalt Psychology explains (partially) how humans interpret the light signals from our eyes as images. Here are some principles:

Similarity: similar things are the same "thing"

Proximity: close things are "together"

Continuity: let us pretend that the dots are connected

Closure: let us pretend that the shapes are bound

These are instincts that we take for granted. And since these psychological reactions are built into our brains, it probably is not so weird after all for the first drawn image to come about. See this:

Do not deny it.. I know you see it! You see a face on the surface on Mars. You know very well it is not a real face, but you applied similarity (the whole bump is one rocky material), proximity (the surrounding craters are too far to take into account), continuity (the features align to express a face), and closure (despite the shadow, you assume that the face is bound). We have such strong Gestalt instincts.

Going back to how the first drawn image came about, a possible answer occurred to me one night. Humans loved naming constellations. This art is in most cultures I can think of, even if their star-object associations are not the same (almost like a Rorschach test). Without light pollution, ancient night skies were full of stars and planets, and according to Gestalt Theory.. humans cannot help but connect the dots! Say, you cannot possibly not see an image in this randomness:

And with so many dots.. someone put some order to this madness! First apply similarity (brightly glowing dots appear to be the same thing, and indeed they are stars), proximity (close stars are one group), continuity (chains of stars make lines), and closure (connect star chains to make shapes). Then name it something that it resembles.

(By the way, I had some fun with Planetarium. I knew when to see Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn over my suburban house. Stellarium goes even further with more deep space features and cultural perspective. That might be another story to post if I get myself to understand those technical terms and figures).

Before every artwork comes inspiration, and the night sky could have been the first canvas which inspired humans to connect some lines or objects. Or perhaps humans first observed the clouds, or some bumpy rock surface, then sought to sift some sand or chip some rocks. One way or another, nature was the vey first inspiration, and humans learned from this master creation.

Art is probably unavoidable. Even if you do not draw your idea, you still think it. It is there.