Pi Landscape , by Daniel Tammet



Daniel Tammet shot to fame when he set a European record for the number of digits of pi he recited from memory (22,514). He has also learned Icelandic in a week and made up his own language. How does he do it?



He attributes his ability to remember numbers to his mixture of autism and synaesthesia. The autism focused his mind on numbers at a very young age, while the synaesthesia allows him to visualise each number as having a particular shape, colour and texture.



This leads him to a number landscape that is easier to remember than a simple string of numbers.



See Inside the mind of an autistic savant



(Image: Daniel Tammet)

Megalopolis 22 , by George Widener



Rather than prime numbers, this picture of an imaginary future city shines light on another common savant fascination: calendars.



The artist George Widener is both a calendrical and artistic savant.



He says that the numbers in this painting reflect numerical patterns that emerge when he plays with dates. “I find many strange things happening,” he says.



Although his pictures are almost impenetrable to the viewer, Widener is convinced that thinking machines of the future will at least appreciate them:



“I really do believe that superintelligent machines will explore my pics, with thousands of dates with thousands of connections and patterns in them, someday, for relaxation.”



(Image: Courtesy of George Widener and Henry Boxer Gallery)

The Great World Crows , by Gregory Blackstock



Diagnosed with autism, Gregory Blackstock has prodigious powers of memory and an obsessive interest in inventories and taxonomies.



According to Roger Cardinal, an expert in “outsider art” based in Kent, UK, Blackstock is a great reader of encyclopaedias. He also visits hardware shops to do sketches of utensils and tools.



“Here we confront the reproduction of objects that bear witness, not so much to the proliferation of things in the actual world, as to the artist’s alertness in noticing and documenting all the aspects of difference that distinguish them,” says Cardinal.



Blackstock’s need to document differences and similarities may reflect the “eye for detail” often observed in savants, and thought by some scientists to be the “starting engine” for talent.



(Image: Blackstock's Collections: The Drawings of an Artistic Savant by Gregory L. Blackstock, Princeton Architectural Press, 2006) Advertisement

Fighting Stallions , by Alonzo Clemons



(28" long x 21" high x 10" deep)



Savant sculptor Alonzo Clemons has a passion for animals.



He can see a fleeting image on a television screen of any animal, and in less than 20 minutes sculpt a perfect replica of that animal with three-dimensional accuracy.



In contrast with some of the other savant art, this image portrays life and interaction.



Clemons suffered a head injury in an accident as a toddler, giving him a mental disability.



He lives in his own home in Boulder, Colorado, with some assistance.



(Image: Alonzo Clemons and Art Sales)

Drawing by E.C. (an unnamed western savant)



This drawing and the one that follows were chosen by Ellen Winner and Jennifer Drake of Boston College, in order to compare and contrast the work of eastern and western savants.



They are interested in the extent to which savants are influenced by culture.



This picture illustrates the extreme realism and precision often shown by savant artists.



The artist has Asperger’s syndrome, but has an outstanding ability to draw inanimate objects in three dimensions accurately.



(Image: Mottron and Belleville, 1993 / Brain and Cognition)