Beautiful Autistic Minds

[Rrose Selavy]

Wiltshire is no "trick" and he is well and genuinely documented over the years since he was a child.

He undoubtedly has a startling ability due somehow to the (re)wiring of his brain and/or autism- but his style hasn't really changed or developed much over the years. He draws from different aspects and locations but like a computer - mapping the world in an almost indifferent yet obsessively detailed manner.
The feat of memory that is involved in reproducing the details seen after a flight etc is truly incredible but as drawings they often leave me a bit cold if you didn't know the manner of their production.
But he certainly seems to enjoy drawing.

 

[Damien Evans]

I know a woman with a daughter who has aspergers disease. This is a milder form of autism. Correct me if I'm wrong. She makes great china and shes a good china painter. I've heard that shes very good at what she does and is vry professional. She knows every aspect of making china. All the way from making molds to kilning to forming the plates, urns or whatever.

Us Aspergians tend to be very good at our chosen field of endeavour.

 

[Olowkow]

Wiltshire is no "trick" and he is well and genuinely documented over the years since he was a child.

.......but as drawings they often leave me a bit cold if you didn't know the manner of their production.
But he certainly seems to enjoy drawing.

I find the Rome drawing very compelling art just on its own merits, since I see a certain impressionistic quality, not so much in the NYC one. But I see what you mean. Sort of like the savants that play piano, good technically, but the interpretation is not outstanding.

 

[JoeTheJuggler]

While I don't rule out trickery (or bad reporting), eidetic memory is a real and sometimes very impressive thing.

Some people can use conscious techniques to do similar feats of memory, but for other people it comes effortlessly.

 

[Earthborn]

What makes more sense, he can memorize a landscape in a very short amount of time and replicate it perfectly. Or Someone taught him the repetitive task of drawing this map over and over again , in order to get some fame?

The former makes more sense. There is no reason to suspect he draws the same map over and over. He has been drawing a lot of different things over the years, and on his site you can find older pictures that show his skill has progressed over the years.

His style seems to me consistent with the associative nature of human memory. Prominent buildings and prominent features of buildings seem somewhat cartoonishly out of proportion, as if he draws a caricature of a city instead of the actual city. Some drawings look more like drawings of miniatures than of cities. He probably remembers striking landmarks and what connects them, and uses association to fill in the rest.

 

[Rrose Selavy]

Seems like him being trained to do this for publicity is the most logical option in this case.

What makes more sense, he can memorize a landscape in a very short amount of time and replicate it perfectly. Or Someone taught him the repetitive task of drawing this map over and over again , in order to get some fame?

As I said. There is no "trick". The skeptics obviously don't seem to know the extensive background to his case that some of us in the Uk are familiar with.
There's been numerous documentaries etc since he was a teenager. Whether he is being perhaps somehow unknowlngly "exploited" by others (he has an agent ) is another matter.

Teachers at this specialist school in Fulham fostered Stephen's flair for drawing and by briefly removing his art materials, got him to say his first word: “Paper.” They used his love of buildings to teach him the alphabet: A for Albert Hall, B for Buckingham Palace, and so on. He learned to speak fluently aged nine, and his tendency — as he puts it — to “have tantrums and throw drawings away if I made a mistake” began to abate. In his teens, Stephen came to wider attention through a TV programme about gifted autistic people, and through friendships with Sir Hugh Casson, the psychologist Oliver Sacks and agent Margaret Hewson, who secured a deal for his first book of artworks.
After leaving school in 1990, he took a foundation course at the Architectural Association, then an art degree at City and Guilds. By this stage he had learned to negotiate public transport on his own. Demand for his works grew after he produced a detailed panorama, covering four square miles including the City of London, after a single 15-minute helicopter flight in 2001. He has since drawn panoramas of Rome, Hong Kong, Dubai and New York among others, and a 10-metre long canvas of Tokyo, but drew his last in Sydney last year: “It's very labour-intensive: my arms get quite tired.”

http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/lifestyle/article-23856368-views-of-stephen-wiltshires-london.do
.

 

[TobiasTheViking]

He probably remembers striking landmarks and what connects them, and uses association to fill in the rest.

That would surprise me very much. Again, why? Why not just find someone who doesn't need to use association instead of using someone that does need to use association? I believe he is the real deal.

 

[Earthborn]

Again, why? Why not just find someone who doesn't need to use association instead of using someone that does need to use association?

I don't think such a person exists. It would require a brain that works completely differently than a human brain which uses associations for its memory.

I believe he is the real deal.

Of course he is.

 

[Nursefoxfire]

His artwork looks like some of the stuff from one of my favorite little computer games: Machinarium^WP

 

[GenghisKhan]

His artwork looks like some of the stuff from one of my favorite little computer games: Machinarium^WP

I loved that game!

And I have seen this guy before. His website is outstanding and I'd be very impressed even if he did it using repetition and references. Knowing that he did it with only one look makes it even more spectacular.

That being said, I wonder if he is obsessive about it? I read and article about a man who had brain trauma and all of a sudden he started painting obsessively. This guy seems similar, but I don't know if it is the same person:

http://women.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/women/body_and_soul/article2070025.ece

 

[quarky]

That would surprise me very much. Again, why? Why not just find someone who doesn't need to use association instead of using someone that does need to use association? I believe he is the real deal.

This 'real dealness' you mention, which I don't dispute, is the very line worth drawing in the woo/mdc zone.

Some people can do things in their brain that are way beyond the weirdness of an athlete that can jump twice as high as you and me.

I've witnessed the jumping and the autistic-savant stuff.

The later has me in complete awe and en-bafflement.

I can accept that super jocks can jump twice as high as I can.
What boggles my little mind is the notion that there are people out there who can remember 50,000 digits, in order. I can do 10 or twelve, maybe.

I can learn a 3 chord song in a few days, but to recall a Mozart piece, on first hearing, and repeat it, note for note...well...

Its paranormal. Or amazing news for the rest of us: We too can do these things. The human brain is ready for work we can't imagine.
odd that its often autistics that show such extreme abilities.

I suspect its related to the fact that they have other programs shut down; they have rooms available.

The MDC should be won by one of these freaks.
They have paranormal abilities.

Donate the $
whatever.

they win

 

[CelticRose]

I don't think such a person exists. It would require a brain that works completely differently than a human brain which uses associations for its memory.

I don't understand what you mean by this. How would someone remember part of an image and then fill in the rest by "association".

For example, if I had the drawing ability and tried to reproduce, say, the parking lot and buildings as seen from my apartment window, I would "look" at an image of the scene with my "mind's eye" and draw from that. My memory of the parking lot, etc., is an actual image. I can "see" it, and there are no gaps. (I don't have an eidetic memory, so the details aren't clear and the only reason I have the scene memorized is that I've seen it often -- I'm no savant.)

I've read that autistic people often "think in pictures". Why wouldn't this guy be doing the same thing, only with much greater detail? It seems to me that he takes a mental photograph and then draws the scene from that mental image.

I suspect its related to the fact that they have other programs shut down; they have rooms available.

You may have something there.

Also, they have fewer distractions than the rest of us do, being "in their own little world". And with their tendency to obsess over their "special interest", they simply don't get bored as quickly as a "normal" person would.

 

[Maia]

I don't know if this is relevant or not, but I was once talking to a neuropsychologist who was interested in exactly how I was able to read so quickly... we figured out that it's because unless the writing is extremely technical and/or I need to memorize everything, I don't read words or sentences, but entire paragraphs or pages at a time.

 

[Ron Swanson]

I agree no tricks there at all ..

.. my son has a form of mild Autism, and he (since the age of 4 or 5) has the ability to watch any TV show or you tube video and repeat every line of dialog and every actors body position and actions (including the extras in the back ground) .. months or even years later.

He can also acurateloy reproduce you tube videos in a manual "stick man animation" program (one frame at a time) only referring to the original video a few times.

He drives us crazy too as he will NOT save his computer work :0) ... some of it is amazing .... after he finishes it he work ... he watches it a few times, acts it out, then deletes it and starts a new one.

 

[CelticRose]

I agree no tricks there at all ..

.. my son has a form of mild Autism, and he (since the age of 4 or 5) has the ability to watch any TV show or you tube video and repeat every line of dialog and every actors body position and actions (including the extras in the back ground) .. months or even years later.

He can also acurateloy reproduce you tube videos in a manual "stick man animation" program (one frame at a time) only referring to the original video a few times.

He drives us crazy too as he will NOT save his computer work :0) ... some of it is amazing .... after he finishes it he work ... he watches it a few times, acts it out, then deletes it and starts a new one.

He may not understand why you want him to save it. After all, he has a permanent memory of it that he can replay whenever he wants, so why would he want to take up disk space with it?

You might try explaining to him that your memory isn't as good as his and that you think his work is something that you might want to see again.

 

[quarky]

One of the autistic guys I worked with, in a group home, had a phonograph in his room.
He would play records backwards on it, supplying the turning himself; long before hip hoppity stuff...and then he would come out of his room and sing a song backwards to me.

His favorite was "Wichita Lineman" by Glenn Cambell.

I wish that I had recorded it, yet, that would have been uncool.
So you have to take my word for it.
He nailed this stuff backwards; in key, even.
No one put him up to it.
It was something he did in private, and occasionally would grace me with a live demo.

 

[Ron Swanson]

He may not understand why you want him to save it. After all, he has a permanent memory of it that he can replay whenever he wants, so why would he want to take up disk space with it?

You might try explaining to him that your memory isn't as good as his and that you think his work is something that you might want to see again.

Oh yes .. we tried that .. he knows we want to be able to see it later

.. but he dosen;t WANT us to see it ... the only way is if we burn it to a CD .. if it's on harddrive he finds it and deletes it (he's 8 now)

It might be simple as he dosen;t think it's good enough to keep? he doesn't discuss things like that though so there's some guess work on our part.

 

[RenaissanceBiker]

I don't think such a person exists. It would require a brain that works completely differently than a human brain which uses associations for its memory.

A "brain that works differently" is pretty much the definition of autism.

The MDC should be won by one of these freaks.
They have paranormal abilities.

Their unusual skills are not paranormal. There's nothing supernatural about it. I'm pretty sure my daughter would not like to be called a freak. I'm very sure how I feel about it.

 

[TubbaBlubba]

Their unusual skills are not paranormal. There's nothing supernatural about it. I'm pretty sure my daughter would not like to be called a freak. I'm very sure how I feel about it.

Aah, what's wrong with the word "freak"? I mean, I'm pretty much a circus freak, I can twist my hips and shoulders and such into ridiculous positions.

 

[quarky]

A "brain that works differently" is pretty much the definition of autism.



Their unusual skills are not paranormal. There's nothing supernatural about it. I'm pretty sure my daughter would not like to be called a freak. I'm very sure how I feel about it.

Meant no disrespect. freak was a compliment. Sorry.

I know its not paranormal, but if a person described some of the abilities of a savant, most would assume it was impossible, and bet against it.