Several years ago I saw a show on TV about savants, people with extraordinary abilities in different areas. The one that caught my attention especially in that show was a guy that drew a London building exactly how it looked like after just passing through it on the way from the airport to the studio where they were going to interview him. The only thing was that he drew entirely mirrored. As the camera crew checked out the drawing more closely after the show was over it turned out that the guy who drew it hadn’t missed one single detail.
Many people have suggested that this guy, drawing the building in London, was fake and that it was all staged and that the drawing when finished was just a copy of the actual blueprint but mirrored. However, researchers have found that he exhibits a stunning form of photographic memory and that he can even recollect any amount of phone numbers in the London Telephone Catalogue.
Recently Stephen Wiltshire, an autistic artist with an extraordinary photographic memory, attempted the feat of trying to draw New York City after having flown over it on his way into New York. The detail is staggering and as I looked at I must say that I was in awe after seeing that London building being drawn I am at a lack of words after seeing this. Every tree, every building, every street, and all in accurate scale.
My only question is how many marker pens did it take to draw this whole curved city and how long did it take for him to draw it? Do you dare to pick up the challenge?
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