British artist Stephen Wiltshire is currently attempting to draw the Manhattan skyline from memory. since Monday October 26th. Wiltshire began filling in an 18 foot canvas at the Pratt institute, Brooklyn. The drawing is expected to be complete by Friday. You can follow his progress through the live webcam here.
Wiltshire diagnosed with autism at the age of three displays an unusually powerful photographic memory that he has applied to rendering city scapes. He can look at the subject of his drawing once and reproduce it accurately with photographic detail, down to the exact number of columns or windows on a building. He memorizes their shapes, locations and the architecture.
This is absolutely incredible. Autism seems to be somewhat of a mystery as far as why so much detailed information is able to be retained. In the view of artistic endeavors, it blows the normal brain away. Here’s a video of Stephen taking a flight over rome and redrawing it from memory
