Question 1

From the DVD, More Human than Human, what did the seagull chicks get so excited about?

This question is incomplete, here's the complete question.

Watch the first episode of How Art Made The World: More Human Than Human.

What did the seagull chicks get so excited about?

Answer:

The baby seagull chicks get excited, not by their mother, but by the red stripe on their mother's beak. And they get even more attracted to a yellow stick with not only one, but three red stripes.

Explanation:

Professor V. S. Ramachandran describes Niko Tinbergen's Herring Gull Test to explain the neurological principle of peak shift. The brain is wired to concentrate on elements of objects that are considered most important, such as the Herring gull chicks concentrate on the red stripe on their mother's beack to get her to feed them.

This example is used to explain why past artists created exaggerated versions of the human body, concentrating on elements such as women's breasts and abdomen.