If you think humans have a monopoly on creativity, this compelling audiobook will make you think again. Sheri Saginor narrates with clarity and intonations befitting the amazing animal behaviors she describes. Saginor also conveys the significance of perceiving and understanding animals’ creative expressions—such as how a beaver or octopus’s tool use and construction of their homes reveal future-oriented cognition. This awareness could impact how we perceive the animals themselves and change our views about conservation and our place in the animal world. Birds and beavers and octopi—oh my! This thought-provoking look at animals' enormous creativity and its impact on our evolution is a treat for nature lovers. M.F. © AudioFile 2023, Portland, Maine
The Creative Lives of Animals
Narrated by Sheri Saginor
Carol GigliottiUnabridged — 10 hours, 14 minutes
The Creative Lives of Animals
Narrated by Sheri Saginor
Carol GigliottiUnabridged — 10 hours, 14 minutes
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Overview
The Creative Lives of Animals offers listeners intimate glimpses of creativity in the lives of animals, from elephants to alligators to ants. Drawing on a growing body of scientific research, Carol Gigliotti unpacks examples of creativity demonstrated by animals through the lens of the creative process, an important component of creative behavior, and offers new thinking on animal intelligence, emotion, and self-awareness. With examples of the elaborate dams built by beavers or the lavishly decorated bowers of bowerbirds, Gigliotti provides a new perspective on animals as agents in their own lives, as valuable contributors to their world and ours, and as guides in understanding how creativity may contribute to conserving the natural world. Presenting a powerful argument for the importance of recognizing animals as individuals and as creators of a healthy, biodiverse world, this book offers insights into both the established and emerging questions about the creativity of animals.
Editorial Reviews
★ 09/12/2022
Artist and scholar Gigliotti (Leonardo’s Choice) provides an illuminating account of creativity in the wild. Defining creativity as “a dynamic process in which novel and meaningful behaviors are generated by individuals with the possibility of affecting others at cultural, species, and evolutionary levels,” Gigliotti posits that while “most of us view animals through a very narrow lens” and see them as “mostly peripheral to our lives,” they exhibit extensively creative behaviors. One such activity, she writes, is play, which scientists have observed in octopuses, rays, turtles, and paper wasps. Humpback whale researchers, for example, believe that the phenomenon of bubbling, in which whales create nets of bubbles to trap schools of fish, may be learned from playing rather than from observed behavior. Each case study is surprising: in one, a chicken displays empathy for a woman who is unable to save another chicken from a fatal injury, while elsewhere crocodiles surf waves and cuttlefish use creative deceptions for reproductive advantages. By the end, Gigliotti makes a solid case that humans have a lot to learn about the creatures that they share the planet with, and that much of what scientists previously thought was uniquely human isn’t. Fans of Jane Goodall and Frans de Waal will be pleased. (Nov.)
"The Creative Lives of Animals not only fills the reader with wonder at the richness of animal creative practices that are only beginning to be acknowledged, but cites scientific proof for what so many animal aficionados have always known and celebrated."
"Many songbirds are born without the ability to sing. So should those that learn — and other animals — be called creative? Carol Gigliotti interviews scientists who think they should be, and agrees with them. An animal activist, author and artist who has taught design and dynamic media, she defines creativity as a 'dynamic process' in which individuals generate 'novel and meaningful behavior' that might affect others at cultural, species and evolutionary levels."
"Carol Gigliotti’s The Creative Lives of Animals deconstructs our conceit that humans alone are capable of emotion, creativity and synthetic thinking. The author joyfully perforates the rigid tenets of behavioral science with vivid stories from the fresh edge of research. It is good to live in a time when human self-reference is finally yielding to the undeniable evidence of magnificent animal minds."
"This broad survey of creative animal behaviour makes a compelling case that animals of all types (from insects to mammals) are capable of behavioural innovation and provides artists insight into their own creativity."
"The Creative Lives of Animals makes its strongest case when advocating a revision of how to think about, and act towards, animals. Ms. Gigliotti points out that humans are only one of millions of species on Earth. She suggests a retreat from anthropocentrism in favor of recognition that animals are individuals with complicated, powerful, creative lives of their own."
"Gigliotti's palpable love of the animal world is expressed in graceful and affecting prose… the author deserves praise for creating this beautiful prose paean to the other animals who inhabit our shared world."
"The Creative Lives of Animals is smart, original, and well-written. Gigliotti topples one of the last remaining conceits about what distinguishes humans from nonhuman animals: the aptitude for creative expression and aesthetic appreciation. The Creative Lives of Animals is masterfully researched, and will surely make vital contributions to debates not only in animal studies but also in the philosophy of mind and even performance studies. At the same time, the writing sparkles, and the book overflows with stories so accessible and well-crafted that the book deserves wide readership. This is a work that has the potential to fundamentally change the way we think about animals—and ourselves."
"The Creative Lives of Animals is a game-changer. Carol Gigliotti shows how important creativity –improvisation and invention–is in a wide variety of contexts including expressing different emotions, playing, socially communicating with others, courting, mating, and raising children, and designing and engineering animals' homes. Easy-to-read and science-based, The Creative Lives of Animals will be of interest to a broad audience including researchers and non-researchers alike, and surely will change the ways in which humans view and treat the fascinating animals with whom we share our magnificent planet."
"From playfully bowing puppies to seductively singing alligators, Carol Gigliotti combines examples from interviews with scientists and excerpts of previously published books in this delightful index of animal inventiveness."
"Finely written. Gigliotti, tuned into nature and the lives of animals, offers a good model for the rest of us to follow, helping us see the world not from myopic humanism but from the perspective of animals. Implicitly, Gigliotti asks everyone and not just scientists to learn about the lives of animals in our shared ecosphere to which we are all tied with an equal fate."
"If you doubt that other beings can create, prepare to be convinced otherwise. With a delightful combination of science and anecdote, Gigliotti explores a neglected facet of the inner lives of our fellow denizens of planet Earth. The result is a highly readable and accessible foray into the creative lives of animals."
"If you’ve ever purchased one of the many different types of ‘squirrel proof’ bird feeders, you can attest to the resourcefulness of animals. In this intriguing investigation of animal ingenuity, Gigliotti contemplates the novelty and meaning of creativity along with some essential elements, such as curiosity, flexibility, and persistence."
"So many people are reluctant to admit that the species we share this planet with are also creative. Perhaps this book will change their minds. Eye-opening and fascinating."
"In her marvelous book, Gigliotti reveals the astonishing depth and genius of animal creativity, demolishing a common view of animals as little more than robots mindlessly enacting the scripts given to them by Nature. Drawing on a century of ethological findings, the author shows how animals bring deep intelligence, emotions, and even an aesthetic sensibility to bear on their daily challenges. Animals are shown to be not mere ‘types,’ but creative individuals and artists of their own lives. This is the rare work that opens our eyes to worlds of experience and being that would otherwise remain hidden from us."
If you think humans have a monopoly on creativity, this compelling audiobook will make you think again. Sheri Saginor narrates with clarity and intonations befitting the amazing animal behaviors she describes.
"In her marvelous book, Carol Gigliotti reveals the astonishing depth and genius of animal creativity, demolishing a common view of animals as little more than robots mindlessly enacting the scripts given to them by Nature. Drawing on a century of ethological findings, the author shows how animals bring deep intelligence, emotions, and even an aesthetic sensibility to bear on their daily challenges. Animals are shown to be not mere "types," but creative individuals and artists of their own lives. This is the rare work that opens our eyes to worlds of experience and being that would otherwise remain hidden from us."
08/01/2022
Gigliotti (emerita, design, Emily Carr Univ.; Leonardo's Choice) examines whether the current definitions of creativity include animal behaviors, and what this reevaluation would mean for the value of animals and the understanding of the creative process. The author defines creativity as the process in which individuals invent new and meaningful behaviors that have the possibility of affecting others at multiple levels. In practice, this means innovative solutions to technical, social, or artistic problems. She builds the case that animals of all types—from elephants to ants—are intelligent, albeit in ways that may manifest differently than humans, and they can communicate nuance, allowing individual behavioral innovation to spread through a community. Creativity may be expressed or nurtured in play, construction, and tool use. In what feels like a bit of a divergence, the final chapters investigate whether emotion, culture, and morality are intrinsically tied to creativity. Ultimately, Gigliotti's agenda is to seek greater empathy, value, and protection for animals by including them into a global creative force. VERDICT This broad survey of creative animal behavior will appeal to artists of all types and to animal lovers.—Wade Lee-Smith
If you think humans have a monopoly on creativity, this compelling audiobook will make you think again. Sheri Saginor narrates with clarity and intonations befitting the amazing animal behaviors she describes. Saginor also conveys the significance of perceiving and understanding animals’ creative expressions—such as how a beaver or octopus’s tool use and construction of their homes reveal future-oriented cognition. This awareness could impact how we perceive the animals themselves and change our views about conservation and our place in the animal world. Birds and beavers and octopi—oh my! This thought-provoking look at animals' enormous creativity and its impact on our evolution is a treat for nature lovers. M.F. © AudioFile 2023, Portland, Maine
Product Details
| BN ID: | 2940175027847 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Tantor Audio |
| Publication date: | 11/22/2022 |
| Edition description: | Unabridged |
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