this post was submitted on 03 Sep 2024
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Was wondering this in celebration of the fact dolphins have officially been confirmed to have their own translatable proto-language, a longtime speculation we kind of already knew and which fulfills a friend's prophecy. It's common to train animals to perceive and perform art, and/or for them to already have a sense of what it is. Give an elephant a brush and a canvas and they'll paint glyphs of other elephants, chimps can draw avant-garde "masterpieces", and pigeons can even be trained to recognize the difference between good and bad art.

Dolphins surpass all of these animals in intelligence. But there's just one problem, they live underwater. And water tends to destroy most art mediums. Paper canvases shrivel, residue washes and floats away, hammers made for sculpting tend to strike softer, sculpting ice floats, fashion requires sources of fabric you can't get underwater, you get the idea. A dolphin's life is Murphy's Law for an artist. But for an artist, if there's a will, there's a way, and humans are known to challenge what we expect to be ways in which art can be created, such as with crop circles, Nazca lines, shadow art, and soap sculptures made from microwaving soap into molds. What improvised method/means of artform would you coach dolphins to do who want to be artists if you had to do so in some way?

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[โ€“] [email protected] 14 points 2 months ago (1 children)

I know what I wouldn't do.

I wouldn't give a human woman and dolphin man LSD in a shallow pool meant to look like an apartment while having the human give the dolphin hand jobs.

[โ€“] [email protected] 8 points 2 months ago

You'd be correct in your caution, as it just so happens that was all tried, to disastrous results.

[โ€“] [email protected] 5 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (1 children)

Dance!

It doesn't create a permanent product like the things you mentioned, but it's definitely a method of artistic expression =)

[โ€“] [email protected] 2 points 2 months ago (1 children)

But that's kind of what I'm looking for, permanent products.

[โ€“] [email protected] 2 points 2 months ago

Are you planning to build an aquarium by any chance?

[โ€“] [email protected] 4 points 2 months ago (1 children)

id teach them how to jump super high over humans heads and shit on them like a bird. Let them express their distaste for people they dont like.

[โ€“] [email protected] 2 points 2 months ago (1 children)

That's nice but that's a performance art, the "arts" as opposed to a work of art.

[โ€“] [email protected] 1 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

the shit is their paint and we are their canvass

[โ€“] [email protected] 4 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (1 children)
[โ€“] [email protected] 1 points 2 months ago

Yeah, but they teach them to do that outside the water, in environments specially made so they have no issue with it. I mean modes of expressive artistry that can be done while under the water, in their natural niche. Think, what can you teach a dolphin that they can take with them back to the wild and maybe teach to younger dolphins?

I'm sure, for example, if there were crops that grew underwater, they could make their own crop circles.

[โ€“] [email protected] 4 points 2 months ago (1 children)

What about interpretive dance? Or synchronized water ballet?

[โ€“] [email protected] 2 points 2 months ago

That's art but not the same kind I was asking/wondering about. That's more performative art, or "the arts", than the kind of thing you'd learn to form in an art class.

[โ€“] [email protected] 2 points 2 months ago

I think a synchronized dance where they swim in cool patterns and interesting movements would be a good form of expression. They can flex their z axis movements.

[โ€“] [email protected] 2 points 2 months ago (1 children)

They could stack rocks to create a mosaic.

[โ€“] [email protected] 3 points 2 months ago

Wikipedia says that they "lack short wavelength sensitive visual pigments in their cone cells", so they don't see blue as well as we do... Which isn't surprising really.

[โ€“] [email protected] 2 points 2 months ago

Rainbow Nose Condoms. I'm sure they will express themselves, especially if they have the microsoft logo.

[โ€“] [email protected] 2 points 2 months ago

I'd introduce the concept to them of making sculptures from the remains of other creatures by snagging the bones together.

[โ€“] [email protected] 1 points 2 months ago (1 children)
[โ€“] [email protected] 1 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (1 children)

Wouldn't the paint particles float/wash away?

[โ€“] [email protected] 1 points 2 months ago

And the real reason why the ocean is blue is revealed.

[โ€“] [email protected] 1 points 2 months ago

Ah, I understand