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Sasha's picture

from memory to meaning?

One question that really intrigued me last week was whether or not after going on a helicopter ride or drawing his panorama's, if Stephen Wiltshire could actively find his way around the cities he drew with such detail from memory. After searching the internets for a while i couldn't really find an answer to this question so I'm still very curious. I guess this relates to my question of how "valuable" is it to have such an incredible memory? In Wiltshire's case, is he able to interpret what he is seeing and drawing and is there any meaning to him? After drawing a panorama of Rome can Wiltshire think to himself, 'if i want to go from the St. Peter's Basilica to the Pantheon I have to travel south east, cross over the tiber river and then walk down via dei coronari and then turn right at corso del rinasciemento and then after a block take another right and walk straight and i'll be there. Step by step directions may be asking too much- but the ability to have a general idea of how to get from point A to point B is what I'm looking for. Still, Wiltshire is able to label the small streets and alleys, so if he can memorize that much detail it would be interesting to see how well he could use it by means of recalling and interpreting his surroundings as opposed to drawing an aerial view panorama. I personally think that memory is mostly valuable in so far as you can gain meaning from your memories, you can use your memories to learn something, to do something. Memory is an important part of the learning process, but if you aren't capable of deriving anything more than the superficial from your memories then there's a limit as to how much you can really learn and grow. While I am certainly incredibly impressed by Stephen Wiltshire's ability to draw these incredible panoramas of cities from memory, what I would really like to know is what he does with those memories after he finishes his panorama.

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