Event Blog #1: Pigeon Art Studio

 Event Blog #1: Pigeon Art

April 25, 2024

For my first event, I attended the pigeon art studio event. 

Professor Aaron Blaisdell explained that he trained pigeons to peck a computer as if they were pecking for food. Depending on the programming of the computer, the pecks resulted in various lines, colors, thickness of lines, and intersections. I will be focusing on the stained glass collection because I found that the most intriguing. In this collection, any two consecutive pecks caused a line to be drawn. Blaisdell explained that a physics student ran a script in which anytime there was an intersection of three or more lines it would fill in a color. 

Examples of pigeon art (all photos are my own)

The creation of this pigeon art truly reflects the combination of art and science that we have learned throughout the course. The pigeon’s creation is the art, and this art was able to be formed because of the understanding that we have of science. First of all, the physics student had to use formulas and algorithms in order to program the computer to be able to create lines and fill in the intersections based on the pigeons’ pecks. Additionally, the understanding that we have of psychology and animal brains allowed Professor Blaisdell to train the pigeons to peck the computer. He used Skinner’s principle of reinforcement to train the pigeons. Therefore, science was clearly necessary in order for the pigeons to create art. 

Pigeon creating art (photo is my own)

As I was watching the videos of the pigeons pecking, I wondered whether their creations were truly art. I figured that the pigeons could simply be pecking randomly without much intention because that is what they were trained to do. However, Professor Blaisdell informed us that certain technologies were programmed to identify different types of pigeon art, and this technology can classify arts of different pigeons with about 60% accuracy. This demonstrates that different pigeons have different styles and that the pigeons do possess some level of artisticness. Therefore, technology and science were not only used to help create art, but they were also used to identify what is truly art. Therefore, art and science are very useful when used together.

Work Cited

Blaisdell, Aaron. “Pigeons make Stained Glass Art.” Medium, 9 November 2017, https://medium.com/@aaronblaisdell/pigeons-make-stained-glass-art-3b7db588dfd9. Accessed 26 April 2024.

Blaisdell, Aaron. “The Creative Pigeon.” Medium, 9 November 2017, https://medium.com/@aaronblaisdell/the-creative-pigeon-c2dc25853734. Accessed 26 April 2024.

Snow, CP. “The Two Cultures and the Scientific Revolution.” Center for Science and Technology Policy Research, https://sciencepolicy.colorado.edu/students/envs_5110/snow_1959.pdf. Accessed 4 April 2024.

Vesna, Victoria. “TwoCultures part1.” YouTube, 30 March 2012, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VNI7dF3DIAM. Accessed 4 April 2024.

Vesna, Victoria. “Two Cultures, Part II.” YouTube, 31 March 2012, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GUr4xxZ_0gw. Accessed 4 April 2024.

Vesna, Victoria. “Two Cultures, Part III.” YouTube, 2 April 2012, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4FOEuxrwxd0. Accessed 4 April 2024.