I just caught a short documentary on Stephen Wiltshire, one of a very short list of prodigious savants who possesses the extraordinary ability of being able to study urban landscapes and sketch them from memory in great, almost Where's Waldo detail. For the show, Stephen was invited to Tokyo and spent 30 minutes taking in 360 degrees of Tokyo skyline from the roof top (270 meters up) of Roppongi Hills. He was then provided a 360 degree 10 meter wide canvas, a box of pencils and pens, and in seven days had completed what was a remarkably accurate panorama of the Tokyo skyline. His longest ever panoramic drawing, and guaranteed to have given him a pretty bad case of writers cramp many times over. Absolutely Incredible. Understand this is coming from someone who couldn't win a game of memory against his daughter even if I cheated (and often), but most should really be able to appreciate Stephen's gift on both mental and artistic levels.

Check out Stephen's website for more info on himself and his art. His site is also hosting clips of the show narrated in English, as well as a few photographs. Here's a video (1 MB) of the completed panorama.

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