Shaping Humanity: How Science, Art, and Imagination Help Us Understand Our Origins
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | 4.37 (570 Votes) |
| Asin | : | 0300182023 |
| Format Type | : | paperback |
| Number of Pages | : | 368 Pages |
| Publish Date | : | 2017-07-06 |
| Language | : | English |
DESCRIPTION:
"John Gurche brilliantly brings the long human past alive with his powerful reconstructions of our extinct precursors, and skillfully explains just where the boundaries lie between art and science in his demanding profession."—Ian Tattersall, author of Masters of the Planet: The Search for Our Human Origins
Science and Art interact for an informative and entertaining read. Carolynn Neal The book explains the science used in the identification of the physical markers left by muscles on the skulls and the proportions of the limbs and body,, the same techniques that make his forensic reconstructions likely as accurate as forensic reconstructions used by police in an effort to identify unknown victims of crime. Part science, part art, I found the proce. "Wow! Just Wow!" according to D.Birk. A history of human development and evolution by an incredible artist who reconstructs the faces and bodies of ancient Man from their skeletons. When the faces look out at you from the pages, you swear that the faces are alive! If you're interested in the evolution of humans, this is a wonderful book. If you're interested in an unusually intimate view of early Man, a. Nobody does it better Gurche is the master. He explains in detail why he did what he did, why the evidence supports his facial reconstructions. He knows anatomy and how to translate that into our ancestors.
His artworks appear in world-class museums and publications ranging from National Geographic to the journal Science, and he is widely known for his contributions to Steven Spielberg’s Jurassic Park and a number of acclaimed television specials. In Shaping Humanity he relates how he worked with a team of scientists to depict human evolution in sculpture for the new hall. What did earlier humans really look like? What was life like for them, millions of years ago? How do we know? In this book, internationally renowned paleoartist John Gurche describes the extraordinary process by which he creates forensically accurate and hauntingly realistic representations of our ancient human ancestors. Inspired by a lifelong fascination with all things prehistoric, and gifted with a unique artistic vision, Gurche has studied fossil remains, comparative ape and human anatomy, and forensic reconstruction for over three decades. For the Smithsonian Institution’s groundbreaking David H. Koch Hall of Human Origins, opened in 2010, Gurche created fifteen sculptures representing six million years of human history. He reveals the debates and brainstorming that surround these often controversial depictions, and along the way he enriches our awareness of the various paths of human evolution and humanity’s stunning uniqueness in the histo