Graphism is the expression of thought in material symbols.
/ref> Graphism began some 30,000 years BC, not as a photographic representation of reality but as an abstraction that was geared toward magical-religious matters. Early graphism then was a form of

writing Writing is a medium of human communication which involves the representation of a language through a system of physically Epigraphy, inscribed, Printing press, mechanically transferred, or Word processor, digitally represented Symbols (semiot ...

that constitutes a 'symbolic transposition, not copying of

reality Reality is the sum or aggregate of all that is real or existent within a system, as opposed to that which is only imaginary. The term is also used to refer to the ontological status of things, indicating their existence. In physical terms, r ...

'.Riding the Meridian: Domestic Ambient Noise/Moise
/ref>

The birth of graphism

The earliest traces of graphism date back to 30,000 years BC at the end of the

Mousterian The Mousterian (or Mode III) is an archaeological industry of stone tools, associated primarily with the Neanderthals in Europe, and to the earliest anatomically modern humans in North Africa and West Asia. The Mousterian largely defines the ...

period and the Chatelperronian period toward 35,000 BC{{Citation needed, reason=A credible source can probably handle "BC"., date=September 2010. While it can be claimed that language merely represents a logical development of the vocal signals of the animal world, nothing comparable to the writing and reading of symbols existed before the dawn of

homo sapiens Humans (''Homo sapiens'') are the most abundant and widespread species of primate, characterized by bipedalism and exceptional cognitive skills due to a large and complex brain. This has enabled the development of advanced tools, culture, ...

. While

motor function Motor control is the regulation of movement in organisms that possess a nervous system. Motor control includes reflexes as well as directed movement. To control movement, the nervous system must integrate multimodal sensory information (both ...

determines expression in the techniques and language of all

anthropoids The simians, anthropoids, or higher primates are an infraorder (Simiiformes ) of primates containing all animals traditionally called monkeys and apes. More precisely, they consist of the parvorders New World monkeys (Platyrrhini) and Catarrh ...

, reflection determines graphism in the figurative language of the most recent anthropoids. It has been hypothesized that graphism first appeared in the form of tight curves or series of lines engraved in bone or stone. However, there has been no substantial proof to support this

hypothesis A hypothesis (plural hypotheses) is a proposed explanation for a phenomenon. For a hypothesis to be a scientific hypothesis, the scientific method requires that one can testable, test it. Scientists generally base scientific hypotheses on prev ...

, with the only comparison being the Australian

tjurunga A Tjurunga, also spelt Churinga and Tjuringa, is an object considered to be of religious significance by Central Australian Aboriginal people of the Arrernte (Aranda, Arunta) groups. Tjurunga often had a wide and indeterminate native significan ...

, stone or wood tablets engraved with abstract designs (spirals, straight lines, and clusters of dots) that represented objects of religious significance. The first forms of graphism that allow one to hazardly identify an animal, did not appear until around 30,000 B.C. Prehistoric art records are very numerous, and statistical processing has allowed us to unravel the general meaning of what they represented. The earliest known paintings do not represent a hunt or a family scene, but are graphic building blocks without any associated description. All these early forms therefore suggests that figurative art was directly linked with language and was, in the broadest sense, much closer to writing than to what we understand by a

work of art A work of art, artwork, art piece, piece of art or art object is an artistic creation of aesthetic value. Except for "work of art", which may be used of any work regarded as art in its widest sense, including works from literature ...

. It was symbolic transposition, not copying of reality, that is to say that graphism did not begin start by reproducing reality in a slavishly photographic manner, but with abstraction. The discovery of

prehistoric art In the history of art, prehistoric art is all art produced in preliterate, prehistorical cultures beginning somewhere in very late geological history, and generally continuing until that culture either develops writing or other methods of rec ...

in the late 19th century raised the issue of a "naive" state, an art by which humans supposedly represented what they saw as a result of an aesthetic triggering effect. It was soon realized near the beginning of the 20th century that this view was mistaken, and that magical-religious concerns were responsible for the figurative art of the

Cenozoic Era The Cenozoic ( ; ) is Earth's current geological era, representing the last 66million years of Earth's history. It is characterised by the dominance of mammals, birds and flowering plants, a cooling and drying climate, and the current configu ...

, as indeed for almost all art except in a few rare "hunting tallies" etched on bone during the

Paleolithic The Paleolithic or Palaeolithic (), also called the Old Stone Age (from Greek: παλαιός '' palaios'', "old" and λίθος ''lithos'', "stone"), is a period in human prehistory that is distinguished by the original development of stone to ...

period.

References

Writing Mousterian

The birth of graphism

See also

References