ADA LEARNING DIARY

Day 5

Bachelor Of fashion Technology (Apparel Production)

Department of Fashion Technology National Institute of Fashion Technology,
Gandhinagar, 2020

Under the Guidance of Submitted by:

Mr. Ravi Joshi DALJIT SINGH

(Assistant Professor
NIFT Gandhinagar)
 ADA LEARNING DIARY DAY 4
Aspects of Aesthetics
How human observe and understand the aesthetics of something (or someone) is not same
like they used to approx. 350,000 years ago. We did not have a big pallet of colors and shapes
in those times. The way how human looks at something and interpret its aesthetics, has
evolved in these hundreds of thousands of years. We came to know about we got to know
about different shapes of different objects, their colours and creating new colours from
those, new materials and textures of different surfaces and many more things.
The very first object used by human as a tool is from a set of stones found at Lake Turkana in
Kenya, are dated to be 3.3 million years old. Given that first ever wheel was used in 3500 B.C.
and it took us more than 300 thousand years to get there and we had steam engine in next
5260 years. So graph of evolution of aesthetics cannot be any further from uniformity.
Evolution of Aesthetics (or technology) can be divided into three archaeological periods:
1. Stone Age
2. Bronze Age
3. Iron Age
I) Stone Age: Divided into three periods:
• Paleolithic (or Old Stone Age)
• Mesolithic (or Middle Stone Age)
• Neolithic (or New Stone Age)
• Chalcolithic (or Copper Age)
In this era use of tools was started by our early human ancestors (who evolved around
300,000 B.C.) and the eventual transformation from a culture of hunting and gathering to
farming and food production. During this era, a number of now-extinct hominin relatives,
including Neanderthals and Denisovans.
A) Paleolithic Stone age
Early humans in this age lived in caves or basic huts and hunted for food. They used stones
only for completion of their necessities. They used basic stone and bone tools for hunting
birds and wild animals. They cooked their prey, including woolly mammoths, deer and bison,
using controlled fire. They also fished and collected berries, fruit and nuts.
Ancient humans in the Paleolithic period were also the first to leave behind art. They used
combinations of minerals, ochres, burnt bone meal and charcoal mixed into water, blood,
animal fats and tree saps to draw humans, animals and signs. They also carved small figurines
from stones, clay, bones and antlers.
This period ended with the last Ice age, during which lots of animals went extinct, sea amils
rose and humans had to migrate.
 B) Mesolithic Sone Age
Humans used small stone tools, now also polished and sometimes crafted with points and
attached to antlers, bone or wood to serve as spears and arrows. They often lived
nomadically in camps near rivers and other bodies of water. The idea of agriculture and
possibility of growing food rather than hunting was partially introduced in this Age, although
some scholars say that even idea of agriculture was introduced in Neolithic age.

C) Neolithic Stone Age

Ancient humans switched from hunter/gatherer mode to agriculture and food production.
They idea of permanent shelter was partially introduced in this time and started to settle in
the plains. They domesticated animals and cultivated cereal grains. They were perfecting
shapes of stones. They used polished hand axes, adzes for ploughing and tilling the land.
Advancements were made not only in tools but also in farming, home construction and art,
including pottery, sewing and weaving.
D) Chalcolithic Stone Age
The term Chalcolithic is a combination of two words- Chalco+ Lithic was derived from the
Greek words "khalkos" + "líthos" which means "copper" and "stone" or Copper Age.
The Chalcolithic or Copper Age is the transitional period between the Neolithic and the
Bronze Age. It ends with the beginning of the Bronze Age proper, in the late 4th to 3rd
millennium BC, depending on the region (In India, it span 0n
850`ed around 2000 BC to 700 B.C.).
Very first permanent land settlements State Societies like Mesopotamian Civilization in
Sumer, predynastic Egypt, Protominoan Crete), with late Neolithic societies of comparable
complexity emerging in the Indus Valley (Mehrgarh) and in China.
Copper begins to be worked, farming becomes more established, and new types of pottery
are produced. Chalcolithic people were experimenting with copper.
II) Bronze Age
Metalworking advances were made, as bronze, a copper and tin alloy, was discovered. Now
used for weapons and tools helped spark innovations including the ox-drawn plow and the
wheel.
This time period also brought advances in architecture and art, including the invention of the
potter’s wheel, and textiles—clothing consisted of mostly wool items such as skirts, kilts,
tunics and cloaks. Roundhouses, consisting of a circular stone wall with a thatched or turf
roof, complete with a fireplace or hearth, and more villages and cities began to form.
Government, law and warfare, as well as beginnings of religion, also came into play during
the Bronze Age. Ancient Egyptians built the pyramids during this time. The earliest written
accounts, including Egyptian hieroglyphs and petroglyphs (rock engravings), are also dated to
this era.
III) Iron Age
The discovery of ways to heat and forge iron kick started the Iron Age (roughly 1,300 B.C. to
900 B.C.). At the time, the metal was more precious than gold, and wrought iron was easier
to manufacture than bronze.
Steel was invented when Humans figured a way to smelt the iron and the whole iron was
replaced with Steel because of its own benefits.
Along with mass production of steel tools and weapons, there were further advances in
architecture, with four-room homes, some complete with stables for animals, joining more
rudimentary hill forts, as well as royal palaces, temples and other religious structures. Early
city planning also took place, with blocks of homes being erected along paved or cobblestone
streets and water systems put into place.
Agriculture, art and religion all became more sophisticated, and writing systems and written
documentation, including alphabets, began to emerge.
IV) Steel age
Although steel has been known to civilizations globally for up to 4,000 years, it wasn’t until
the arrival of the Bessemer process in the mid-19th century that it could be mass-produced
in industrial quantities.
Steel was first considered a semi-precious metal often produced in a haphazard way in
bloomeries, a type of smelting furnace. But by the Iron Age it was an established alternative
to copper alloys. Because of its hardness, along with its ability to produce long-lasting sharp
edges, it was vital to the arms industry. In prehistoric times, when steel was very rare, such
was its value that when Alexander the Great defeated the ancient Indian king Porus he was
rewarded not with gold, but steel.
Now, we are in Industrial Revolution 4.0 which is based on Physical-Cyber Technologies like
AI, Cloud etc. we were able to reach this point only because of the very first Industrial
Revolution which started with Invention of Steam Engine which literally changed the world. It
gave us energy, the way to produce it, ways to store it which ultimately lead to Industrial
Revolution 2.0 which was based on Invention of Electricity.
Whatever technology we have is only because of concept of mass production on Industrial
level was introduced in Steel Age which lead to technological advancements like AI.
Civilizations
Human started living in a civilized life around 4,000 BC – 6,000 BC. They started living in a
society a little before but that doesn’t count as civilization. The first ever flourished
‘’civilization’’ that we know of, flourished in southern part of Mesopotamia around 5,000
years ago; is Sumerian Civilization (also known as Mesopotamian Civilization). All the
locations of this civilization was spread over a large area. Its present day Iran and Iraq.
Assyria/ the Assyrian Empire, was a Mesopotamian kingdom and empire of the ancient Near
East who lived in the Levant that existed as a state from perhaps as early as the 25th century
BC until its collapse between 612 BC and 609 BC.

Mesopotamia is known as cradle of civilization. Mesopotamia is geographically the area only

between the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers (in modern day Iraq) but the history of
Mesopotamian Civilization is tied to a large area including modern nations of Egypt, Iran,
Syria, Jordan, Israel, Lebanon, the Gulf states and Turkey.
It was always a very violent land. Mesopotamia has seen a large no. of invasions and
devastating wars. The core reason was the fertility of this particular region which was
because of the elixir ‘water’ was available in huge amount and it made the region most fertile
land in that region and all other societies/ neighbors wanted to conquer the land and settle
there.

Egyptian civilization is also one of the earliest civilizations that we know of. Egyptian
civilization is solely responsible for huge amount of information that we have now regarding
man and how it started to civilize themselves.
Egypt thrived only on floods of Nile river, which was the only reason of fertility in the region.
Most of the civilizations came into place only because of availability of water resources
around that area where they settled. Indus Valley civilization was on the banks of riven Indus,
so did Chinese civilization also known as Yellow River Civilization) which was on the banks of
Yellow River. Along with River water there were some other natural phenomena that helped
civilizations to thrive. They may include specific winds like monsoon and floods. Monsoon
winds is the main reason that some Northern parts of India is most fertile land in the world.
Egypt thrived on the floods of Nile river. These floods came at exactly those time when they
were required and these were very time persistent. So were the monsoon winds.

Having
Naïve art
Naïve art is usually defined as visual art that is created by a person who lacks the formal
education and training that a professional artist undergoes.
Art became a thing Seventeen Thousand Years ago when humans started making paintings if
bison, bulls, horses and stencils of their hands on walls of caves and Naïve art is the form they
did that in.
Naïve art can be easily recognized by its childlike simplicity and frankness. Paintings of this
kind typically have a flat rendering style with a rudimentary expression of perspective. It was
seen as an outsider artform because it was performed without formal training or degree (It
was before 19th century, now Naïve art is recognized and practiced as a genre of art.
Simplicity is prominent in Naïve art rather than subtlety. In Naïve artform, absence of
perspective is common which gives the idea/illusion that figures in the scenario are floating.

Paintings from Lascaux caves in southwestern France, are ones of World’s very first cave paintings

The paintings above are from a long series of paintings (continuous scenes) in Lascaux caves
in Southwestern France, these paintings are walls that at too far away from daylight. Which
clears that they were not to show the mass. Professionals believe that these paintings were
for worship purposes which states that not all the artworks are supposed to be aesthetically
pleasing

Cave art from Santa Cruz (Argentina), Kimberly (Australia), Bhimkita Caves (India) respectively
Pseudo-naïve art/Faux naïve art
When the aesthetic of naïve art is emulated by a trained artist, the result is sometimes
called Primitivism, another term for Pseudo-naïve art or Faux naïve art.
These Naïve works are often extremely detailed, and there is a tendency toward the use of
brilliant, saturated colours rather than more subtle mixtures and tones. Artists who
performed Naïve art initially did not get formal art education, did their work in a more self-
conscious way and their work is more imitative than original.
Henri Rousseau was a key figure in introduction of naïve art to the Mainstream art world. In
1885 term (naïve art) was originated when artist Paul Signac became aware of the talents of
Rousseau and set about organizing exhibitions of his work in a number of big galleries.

The Snake Charmer by Henri Rousseau

Scene in Bagneux on the Outskirts of Paris by

Henri Rousseau
Before him Naïve artists were considered as the people ‘who don’t know what to do’
Artists like Pablo Picasso were inspired from Rousseau. Other artists like Wassily Kandinsky,
August Macke, Max Beckmann, Franz Marc and many other performed the naïve art.

Four Girls by August Macke Little Walter's Toys by August Macke

Perseus triptych by Max Beckmann