Do Daleks have a concept of Art?

Despite their nature as hateful exterminators who (allegedly) lack all emotions except hate, the Daleks seem to be capable of creating a wide variety of different styles of artwork, both in their architecture and also in their ships and casing designs. In this video, we are going to explore the rarely-addressed and often-overlooked topic of Dalek art, and discuss the implications of such a thing.

All footage is the property of the BBC. Music by Marty O'Donnell

[scibus]

I'd imagine that it comes under the perview of a Dalek Scientist.

"Drones display 1.222564% more efficiency when surrounded by these shapes, and are 0.908% less likely to succumb to mental deterioration"

In other words the Daleks haven't truly been able to purge all emotion bar hate, but they think that they have.

[abravenewclockworkorange.]

Remember in the Chase when a group of Daleks get so riled up they sing together?
"Align and advance
Advance and attack
Attack and destroy
Destroy and rejoice"

[jesserizzo]

I like the idea of daleks having a rudimentary concept or art, architecture, and beauty because it makes them feel more believable as a society especially because daleks essentially have inverted sense of right and wrong to humans so they place value and see logic in things that we find evil making harder for us to see those qualities in them.

[IllusivePrime]

Also in Asylum of the Daleks, when the Doctor and the Dalek PM were talking, the Dalek PM said to the Doctor that "It is offensive to us to extinguish such define hatred."

[BPBludgeon]

Daleks must have a concept of art, given how decorated they like to make themselves. If Daleks were so cold and efficient, the Red Supreme or Gold Emperor wouldn't go out of their way to have casings that make them look good.
Even the Time Controller, who I think pragmatically should look more standard so not to draw attention to itself, stuck one of those plasma globes in its neck to look more important.

[nicktucker]

Maybe killing in creative ways could be considered art. A dalek might not describe it as art, but if they're doing something beyond function to express themselves or convey a message, that's a pretty good definition of art. For example, the metaltron killing many at once with electricity and turning on the cameras to show the 9th Doctor. It was intentionally showing off, it was saying "a dalek will always win against humans". That's performance art IMO.

Chants, too. They don't need to yell "Daleks are the masters of Earth" over and over to eachother, but they do because they have some emotional capacity, even if it's 100% hate. That's like a rudimentary national anthem.

I like when stories show that daleks aren't robots, and I think giving them a little art helps that. They're a warning against xenophobia that's applicable to us, the IRL human audience. Plus I think it's kind of funny if they hate themselves for accidentally doing art or being affected by art, like it's a vestige of their Kaled ancestry that they would erase if they could.

[Professor_Toothpaste]

I like to imagine like when they're not doing anything, they do things that humans do, like talk to each other, buy stuff, create art, kinda like in the comics.

[paladinboyd]

I do like the idea hinted at in the first Dalek story that there is more to them than what we see, the idea of them making art and other things in their own way. I think I remember them being said to have shops as well.

[Matthew-]

Well they see destruction as beautiful so in some twisted way I guess they see that as art right ?

[Squid]

I like to think that Daleks still do have a wider range of emotions, however their genetics and their conditioning just make these emotions so wildly different from ours that they may as well not have them. But because of this, the Daleks do still have the concept of art. It's just been so warped and twisted that it comes off as another form a narcissism for them. Constructing buildings and ships with hemi-spheres, elegantly curved doorways that only fit a Dalek, The sculptures of their eye-stalks and crude polygonal statues in the city. They all seem to scream "We are the Daleks. We are the greatest beings in all creation. Marvel at us before we destroy you"

[idontlikeitproductions]

There is a benefit to having an artistic sense, as you can inspire awe and fear in your enemies, and fear and awe are a very effective weapons. The SPAS-12 shotgun for example was designed specifically to look scary as much as be an effective weapon. I don't know if there's a dedicated class of Dalek but I do think there is an artistic flair to Dalek things, if they were truly pragmatic, their ships would be square steel corridors, many human ships look more pragmatic than Dalek ships.

[eepy_lb]

I’ve always felt the Daleks are very emotional creatures but hate was there strongest emotion because we’ve seen many time Daleks showing more than just hate but since they pride themselves on their hate they pretend they have no other emotions, I also feel like this nicely contrasts the Cybermen who truly are emotionless.

[akaakaakaak]

I think I'd argue that it's not for them, its for their enemies. A unified aesthetic to their architecture would instil fear to any that saw it, even if no daleks were around, which you could argue has tactical advantages

[engineerforthefuture]

I listened to Order of the Daleks based on your recommendation, and really enjoyed it!

[Stoatmaster]

I think the art that depicts parts of Daleks (Eyestalk carvings, the decorational bumps) are to remind enemies who they are up against, to make them fear everything that looks like a Dalek. Maybe that’s why the Doctor tells scared people that scared is a superpower (Listen)/scared keeps you fast (The Time Of Angels)-so they aren’t as scared of the Daleks.

[TelestoTheBesto]

I always figured Dalek art was a remnant of their Kaled genes. I see it as a bit of irony, no matter how much the Daleks obsess over purity, they'll never find it. Because once they're done killing everything else, they'll just start killing each other. And I also see it as a brief glimmer of hope for the Daleks, the potential for them becoming a peaceful species like Sec tried to make them into. Or the Human Factor Daleks from Evil. There is such thing as a good Dalek, but it's very rare.

[lewischerry]

he's only gone and cracked out the HALO soundtrack

[tommyfox]

As I think about it and read some of the comments here, Daleks do indeed seem to have some kind of sense of art in them. It's certainly not what we humans know it as, but I think that works best for them; it's something familiar, but not quite like we know.

An example I can think of for this is the bronze coloration of New-Who Daleks; I don't know if there's an in-universe explanation for the coloration, but if The Daleks turely were purely pragmatic and practical, then the Renegade Daleks coloration should be what they'll go for. . cold, emotionless, fairly able to blend in with a night time enemy town, and is not colorful in any way.

[GreaterGrievobeast]

We already know Daleks have a concept of beauty, even if they aren't usually open to admit it. I can recall the Dalek prime strategist's little chat on such with the mechanist scientist. Would the stained glass Dalek travel machines count? They were built due to necessity but it does seem like they had a sense of stylistic placement on where certain iconography would go.

[timecontroller]

Very good question and might be a good story to it, an interesting bit of law surrounding one of the statues in the daleks is in the lights of skaro a great audio where Bernice learns that is what made by a kaled artist during the end of the war who sadly was selected to become a dalek this story goes heavily into what originally motivated the first daleks and is kind of sad when u learn all they wanted was to be left alone in their city to invent things when a dalek meets a kaled it killed her because it was jealous of her maybe admitting there hipocracy as the supreme beings