Animal Behavior and Creativity

0 CommentsFriday • November 26, 2010 • by Imei

While humans may believe we are superior to animals because of our ability to use higher reasoning and logic and our use of opposable thumbs, we shouldn’t be surprised how much animals remind us of human behavior. There is a lot of creativity we can pull from observing animal behavior, but you don’t need to travel to the jungle to watch it. A look outside your window might give you enough insight to just how similar we really are:

HT to Kristin Marshall, who sent the Youtube link via Twitter. I took a look at this video, and I immediately got pulled into the unfolding drama. At first, you see two cats and two birds, and already, the viewer is doing what we expect ourselves to do: guess the outcome, based on size, prowess, brut strength, and experience. I thought the cats would immediately go for the birds! Instead, the cats fight each other, and the birds begin picking on the weaker of the two cats, as if they weaker enemies egging on a fight that they would lose if they were the in it.

What makes this video “work?” I think it is the music. Some of you may know that a film clip feels more action-packed or tense when scary-sounding music is added, or more comedic when light-hearted music or annotations are superimposed on the clip. It’s all how we spin it, isn’t it?

In a few days, I’ll be belly dancing in a local show called Skinny Dip. Many of the dancers are people I know, and it is always a delight to see what each act will do with the same theme to work with and communicate to an audience. This show’s theme is Hypothermia. I won’t reveal what music I’m dancing to, but you’d have to be brain-dead and heartless to miss the emotional intent of the piece. Without a word, you will know exactly how I am feeling and what I want YOU to feel. Just like the music in the video clip, the viewer is encouraged to enter specific emotions, and the music drives that emotion because at it’s essence, music IS pure emotion.

As an artist, do you use the power of all the tools of creativity you possess to help your audience be moved from one emotion or state to another? If you are a comedian, you time the laughs. If a dancer, you involve them in emotion and motion; if a musician, you call them to your story; if a magician, you envelope them in the world of fantasy and illusion.

I can't look, I just can't.

You can apply this principle to any creative act, and in many cases, to the world of business and transactions involving ideas and creation. If you were wondering, the answer is yes: we are talking about manipulation. But as I try to tell most people who wonder if manipulation is wrong, manipulation is a neutral word. It’s usually the end result that determines whether it was a good manipulation or a bad one. I could easily apply that same definition to the word seduction.

We are, after all, simply warm, fuzzy animals at heart, with wildness left untamed if we didn’t allow our souls to be completely crushed by the machinery of public education or the existential starkness of modern living. By watching animals, we learn more about ourselves: what makes us cry, what we find cute and lovable, what we’re willing to forgive, and what we can’t let go. It’s not a surprise how many artists report close connections with pets, and how our lives revolve around them as much, if not more, than theirs around us.

Do you own a pet? What does your pet teach you about creativity and survival? Ever thought your pet was better at practicing zen than most people? Share your stories here. And don’t forget to give your pet a little more attention for being animals to their core for the sake of your personal growth and self-awareness.