Origins of Pictures

Anyone talking about pictures by necessity refers to those using pictures. It is therefore essentially the competence of using pictures that has to be considered. Such competence is not common among higher developed mammals, at least as far as we know today. This fact raises the question whether and to what extent that ability has to be conceived as a strictly anthropological one. In an interdisciplinary approach, the first international conference of the Society for Interdisciplinary Image Science (GiB) titled ›Origins of Pictures‹ has taken a closer look at the role of pictures for the conditio humana.The primary goal of the conference was to present empirical findings of the origins of picture uses, considering in particular research in paleo-anthropology, archeology, cultural anthropology, and developmental psychology. Furthermore, those findings were to be related to philosophical considerations concerning the conditions of the conceptual formation of picture competence.

Klaus Sachs-Hombach / Jörg R. J. SchirraIntroductionI.Methodological Aspects of Picture AnthropologyIain DavidsonOrigins of Pictures: An Argument for Transformation of SignsJean ClottesConsequences of the Discovery and Study of the Chauvet CaveLambros MalafourisLearning to See: Enactive Discovery and the Prehistory of Pictorial SkillChrista SütterlinEarly Face Representation as Proto- or Archetype of Generalized Human Face PerceptionII.Relation between Empirical Anthropological Investigations and Synthetic Philosophical InvestigationsSøren KjørupResemblance Reconsidered: Confessions and Concessions of a ConventionalistJörg R. J. Schirra; Klaus Sachs-HombachThe Anthropological Function of PicturesIII.Archeological and Paleoanthropological Perspectives on the »First« PicturesChristian ZüchnerSymbols and Signs of the Earliest Art of Ancient EuropeNicholas J. Conard; Harald FlossEarly Figurative Art and Musical Instruments From the Swabian Jura of Southwestern Germany and Their Implications for Human EvolutionEkkehart MalotkiThe Road to Iconicity in the Paleoart of the American WestEllen DissanayakeBorn to Artify: The Universal Origin of PicturingTilman Lenssen-ErzThe Dark Ages of Picturing: Does Art Originate from Caves? A SynopsisIV.Picture Competence in Developmental Psychology and the Role of Gestures and Facial ExpressionsGöran SonessonThe Picture Between Mirror and Mind: From Phenomenology to Empirical Studies in Pictorial SemioticsJohn MatthewsSeven Spots and a Squiggle: The Prehistory of PicturesDieter MaurerEarly Pictures in Ontogeny and Phylogeny: Preliminaries to a ComparisonSabine Völkel; Peter OhlerUnderstanding Pictures in Early ChildhoodV.Cultural Anthropology: On the Origins of Pictures and Picture-free SocietiesDerek HodgsonAmbiguity, Perception, and the First RepresentationsJoachim KnapeImage Textuality, Narrativity, and Pathos Formula: Reflections on the Rhetoric of the ImagePhilipp StoellgerThe Image – As Strong as Death? On Death as the Origin of the ImageHelge GerndtWhen Do Images Emerge? Religious Image Practices in the Late Middle AgesHans Dieter HuberImages of the DeadEkkehard JürgensPictures ­– What For? Seven Hypotheses on the Origin of ArtThe Authors