Savants And Touch
Deepest Sense- Savants And Touch
After reading about the aesthetics of touch in the Deepest Sense, I was again
reminded by a few savants that I had heard about on the Internet. The first savant
was actually unable to speak until the age of two. Even when he began speaking, he
had severe trouble forming sentences and developing at the rate of normal children
his age. One night, however, his parents walked into his room and saw the most
magnificent painting they had ever seen. It was surreal that a child his age was able
to produce this type of work. His parents believed that he was able to portray the
experiences he couldn’t share through speech, through art. They would take him to
the beaches and he would draw incredible pictures in the sand in just seconds,
before they were washed away by the waves. He would repeat this process for
hours and express himself through his artwork. Another savant, named Steven
Wiltshire, was able to reproduce an 18-foot picture of the New York City Sky Line
that was almost perfectly proportionate to the real thing. He was able to do this
after flying over the city in a helicopter just one time. Attached is a link that both
displays and describes his masterpiece. By studying the brains of savants and the
way their senses interpret information, we may be to learn a lot more about the
underlying nature of consciousness.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1223790/Autistic-artist-draws-18ft-
picture-New-York-skyline-memory.html
After reading about the aesthetics of touch in the Deepest Sense, I was again
reminded by a few savants that I had heard about on the Internet. The first savant
was actually unable to speak until the age of two. Even when he began speaking, he
had severe trouble forming sentences and developing at the rate of normal children
his age. One night, however, his parents walked into his room and saw the most
magnificent painting they had ever seen. It was surreal that a child his age was able
to produce this type of work. His parents believed that he was able to portray the
experiences he couldn’t share through speech, through art. They would take him to
the beaches and he would draw incredible pictures in the sand in just seconds,
before they were washed away by the waves. He would repeat this process for
hours and express himself through his artwork. Another savant, named Steven
Wiltshire, was able to reproduce an 18-foot picture of the New York City Sky Line
that was almost perfectly proportionate to the real thing. He was able to do this
after flying over the city in a helicopter just one time. Attached is a link that both
displays and describes his masterpiece. By studying the brains of savants and the
way their senses interpret information, we may be to learn a lot more about the
underlying nature of consciousness.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1223790/Autistic-artist-draws-18ft-
picture-New-York-skyline-memory.html
Comments
Post a Comment