Thursday, May 16, 2013

"Evolution of Man" by Octavio Ocampo

This is a cool painting by Mexican artist Octavio Ocampo.

It contains hidden imagery & optical effects to illustrate man's progress from bipedal monkey... to machine-using inventor... to our future incarnation, which may transcend Einstein's conception of spacetime to become a non-localized quantum being.


click to enlarge

Update 2/20/2017
I was contacted by a student asking where to find in-depth analysis of this painting. I couldn't find any, so I wrote one myself:

'Evolution of Man' represents a 4-dimensional understanding of the human being and species. It is like stepping ‘outside’ of time, to see humanity as a continuous timeline of morphing forms.

It shows the progression as a classic triptych.

• The 1st part is our primitive hominid past, where we literally outrun our monkey body. Long-distance running is one of the unique evolutionary traits of humans. The large, superimposed face is that of an ape ancestor.

• The 2nd part is the material age of industrialization and the physical sciences. This is the stage when people are occupied with mechanical technology. The large superimposed image is the face of a modern person.

• The 3rd part is the cosmic/energetic future of humankind. After transitioning from physical technologies, the forms are breaking down into elementary particles and energies. Consciousness transcends the physical body & the light of the mind explodes into & throughout the Universe. The face superimposed over this area is that Albert Einstein, representing the inclusion of mind into science- through relativity theory and the emphasis on the experience of the observer. Also, his introduction of mass/energy equivalence through E=Mc^2 opened new horizons for the future of science, and therefore the human species.

Overall, this is a type of multi-dimensional roadmap for the progression of humanity as a collective phenomenon. It shows our past, present, and future, with an optical superimposition of a face for each stage of the “”Evolution of Man”.

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