Thursday, July 09, 2009

Coop D'Etat

Pigeons Are Homing In On Art

Racing pigeons can be trained to study paintings and evaluate them like a critic, according to Japanese scientists who offered the birds food as an incentive to study the colour, pattern and texture of paintings. The birds were shown paintings diplayed on a computer monitor and consistently pecked at those that had been judged "good" by human critics.

FOOTNOTE: Pecking order.

10 comments:

Nessa said...

Ah, but can critics be taught to actually DO anything?

ArtistUnplugged said...

Talk about 'that's for the birds!'

The Quintessential Magpie said...

That's fascinating, David! I can't imagine how those birds would know which paintings are judged the best. I wonder if there is some sort of color or form that is more pleasing to the eye. Or is it the balance? Whatever, I'm fascinated. I wonder, however, if they like abstracts??? Picasso??? It would be interesting to see if they preferred Monet to him. I like Matisse best, so I wonder what they think of his work.

Sheila :-)

Anonymous said...

Coop D'Etat!!!! You are one funny fellow, Mrs.authorblog probably never stops smiling.

Ananda girl said...

That idea is absolutely bird-brained!

Elizabeth Bradley said...

Interesting, have you seen the elephants that can paint in Thailand, (I think it's Thailand) amazing.

Eddie Bluelights said...

I think pidgeon droppings aimed well might make much better art than some modern painters.
Pidgeons must therefore be much better judges of crap than critics.
As for me I have two highly intelligent Peacocks adorning our back garden - have not asked them whether they can paint yet.

Unknown said...

That's amazing.
My husband just died 2 weeks ago; he had a life-long hobby of breeding, training and racing homing pigeons. It was an intriguing hobby.

Sherry at EX Marks the Spot

Shadow said...

huh? do we now need pigeons to validate our decisions....

Tessa said...

Gosh, I do hope I get a pigeon peck sometime...somewhere....