Investigation of a possible proto-graphic behaviour and a correspondent self-motivation of chimpanzees.
The "painting Ape" is a figure known already in the 17th century and represented in paintings such as The Monkey Painter (David Teniers the Younger). At that time, this figure was used to critically parody the artist’s position in society.
But it was only at the beginning of the 20th century that attention was given to the apes themselves and their actual abilities to act with brushes and pencils on a flat surface: researchers such as Nadeschda Kohts began to cross-foster human and ape children and to study common abilities of these evolutionarily close beings. These and similar investigations have been conducted up to now. Thereby, whether or not–and if, under what conditions–apes do act graphically is still a matter of debate, and the frontier between us creatures shifts permanently according to the stand taken.
Today, we have several comprehensive studies and treatises on the subject at our disposal (see, e.g., the works of Desmond Morris, Paul Schiller, D. A. Smith, Sarah Boysen, Gary Berntson, James Prentice, Thierry Lenain, and John Matthews). However, these works do not allow for a derivation of a reliable understanding regarding the question of graphic and pictorial expressions of apes.
It is against such a background that we–a research team of the Institute of Contemporary Art Research at the Zurich University of Arts, of the Walter Zoo Gossau, and of the Anthropological Institute and Museum of the Zurich University–question a possible "pre-graphic" or even early graphic acting and a possible related self-motivation of chimpanzees: if instructed how to use colours, brushes and papers, but if not further trained and not rewarded with food, do (some individual) chimpanzees develop a "self-motivated" attention and intention which lead to a differentiation of graphic-like manifestations in terms of relating the application of colours on a flat ground to visual observation and inspection?
In this study, however, our interest and investigation is not limited only to recording and interpreting the traces of colouring. In reference to the works of Karen Barad, Lynda Birke, Mette Bryld, and Nina Lyke, we further include the processual and performative aspects of the ape’s acting as well as the entire setting of investigation and the corresponding influence and impact on the apes–and on us–in our evaluation and interpretation.
The processual character of the brushes’ use and its relation with the observing eye of the ape, up to leading the brush and its colouring, to repeat a model colouring or, on the contrary, to vary and differentiate different models, is of primary importance for the matter in question. However, an equivalent influence may have to be attributed to the social environment, in which the acting ape is embedded, and which, above all, allows for–or hinders–the concentration needed for acting with colours and colouring instruments on a flat ground.