Research: Theme Research
I would like to start by researching cavemen and the flintstones and finding out some facts about them. This will help me start going more in-depth about the theme and start envisioning different product outcomes.
Before looking into cavemen/ the flint stones in more depth, I wanted to add a definition of the word ‘Primitivism’.
Primitivism:
a recurrent theory or belief, as in philosophy or art, that the qualities of primitive or chronologically early cultures are superior to those of contemporary civilization.
I am planning on researching this definition in more depth in a future blog post
Cavemen:
Cavemen were early humans that existed in the Stone Age that was almost 2 million years ago, which ended around 3300BC. They lived in caves for shelter and perhaps to protect them from dangerous animals. During the stone era, people started using stone like flint to make tools and weapons. They also used stone to light fires.
The stone era was divided into three main eras:
The Mesolithic period (middle Stone Age)
The Neolithic period (late Stone Age)
The stone age had four different kind of humans:
Tool-makers (called homo habilis)
Fire-makers (called homo erectus)
Neanderthals (called homo neanderthalensis)
Modern humans (called homo sapiens), us!
During that era, the main concern for people was food and shelter. They were hunters and used to hunt down prey to eat. Most likely, cavemen ate their meat raw as there was no form of cooking introduced back then. They would also eat from trees and plants and they were the first farmers. By the end of the stone Era, humans learned how to properly farm in order to grow trees and plants and increase their food sources.
Even though they lived in caves, they would never have a permanent residence. They would move from place to place depending on the food and shelter available.
Their shelters would be made of rock, wooden frames, animal bones and covered with animal hides. They would also use animal skin to keep themselves warm. They also used animal skin for their clothes. I could potentially research the animal print and include it in my own designs.
In their caves, there would be paintings made of charcoal, dirt, juice of fruit or berries, animal blood or animal fat. These would depict other animals, fingerprints or symbols. I am definitely interested in analysing all these prints in more depth in a different blog post.
One theory says that the animal paintings on caves were used to indicate which animals are good and safe to hunt. They suggest that this was a form of communication between them.
They were usually created using these pigments, (minerals limonite and hematite, red ochre, yellow ochre and umber ), charcoal from the fire (carbon black), burnt bones (bone black) and white from grounded calcite (lime white).
After learning a bit about the cavemen, I wanted to do some initial research on the TV show, the Flintstones as I will use that as an inspiration too.
It is important to note that this is a brief starting point. I will add way more in-depth research in the next posts.
The Flintstones:
The Flintstones is a TV show that consists of 166 episodes in the time period of 1960-1966. It shows a comical version of a family living in the Stone Era. Dinosaurs are also present in the cartoon. The furniture designed in the TV show hints towards that era. An example of this is their famous car which was created using bones, wood and rocks. The car is powered by someone running inside them as seen above.
Even though I looked at the background briefly, I will definitely be elaborating on this in the future blog posts. Some of the things I can potentially research separately and more in depth for inspiration include:
1. The symbols they used
2. Cave drawings
3. The tools they used
4. Fingerprints inside the cave
5. Colour scheme and materials
6. Light
7. Food sources
8. Relative animals
9. More in depth research on Flintstones characters and their objects
10. How did they communicate
11. What kind of animal skin did they use to keep warm. Can I get inspiration for a texture?
12. More in-depth definition of Primitivism
It is important to note that this is not a checklist of the things I will be including. However, I thought about some potential subjects at the top of my head and wrote them down. I will be further expanding and elaborating on each one in future blog posts.
Obviously, there is much more to learn about cavemen. I cannot wait to start researching more about them and try to understand their way of living. I looked very briefly at the Flintstones as I want to dedicate specific blog posts to talk about it.
Conclusion: I am glad that I completed this research. It helped me gather some background information on the subject matter that I will be intensely researching the next two months. I have mentioned that this was a very brief research, however, it was still very beneficial and definitely a starting point.
Referencing:
Grabianowski, E. (n.d.) How cave dwellers work. Available at: https://history.howstuffworks.com/historical-figures/cave-dweller1.htm (Access
Cranham, B. (2019) Stone age facts for teachers and children. Available at: https://planbee.com/blogs/news/stone-age-facts-for-children-and-teachers (Accessed: 14/04/21)
Top 10 facts about the stone age! (n.d) Available at: https://www.funkidslive.com/learn/top-10-facts/top-10-facts-about-the-stone-age/ (Accessed: 14/04/21)
Painting techniques (n.d) Available at: http://www.webexhibits.org/pigments/intro/early.html#:~:text=The%20first%20paintings%20were%20cave,with%20spit%20or%20animal%20fat.&text=Paint%20spraying%2C%20accomplished%20by%20blowing,pigment%2C%20similar%20to%20an%20airbrush. (Accessed: 14/04/21)
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In a way, a strange combination of inspiration - on the one hand you have some in-depth research into the stone-age era coupled with the Flintstones - there is nothing wrong with that, just fascinated to see what you make of such diverse elements and how you knit them together.
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