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August 08, 2005

Shared Mental Conditions

I have always been arcanely fascinated with autism and all that the condition entails. The movie Rainman made a very solid impression on me with the toothpick counting scene now permanently etched into my memory.

Part of autism's intrigue lies in its occupants inability to express themselves in regards to the disorder. Their communicative attempts are either simple distant displays of discomfort or a meditative rocking motion indicating contentment. It is needless to say that when I read this I was instantly smitten with the implications.

I have always considered myself somewhat of a mild-autistic citing my fascination with numbers, patterns, repetitive music and single minded concentration of the task set in front of me as solid, though vague, indicators. Have you seen my senior project from college? You can browse to it at respondcreate by following portfolio>multimedia>Senior Show or you could just click here to see the video and here to read my artist statement. I constantly find myself consciously hallucinating by imagining the world around me in swirling patterns with different shapes interacting with one another to create vivid parallel universes. These imagined reconstructions kept me sane in high school classrooms and paved the way for my passion to create; pure and lucid empowerment flows over me when I can make these abstract ideas take physical form.

After reading the aforementioned article I wanted to sit down with Mr.Tammet and pick his brain for hours about the places he has been and what sort of images all those numbers in his head create. If the hypotheses are correct and there are areas of our brain that we can unlock I'll be the first on the list to get the alterations necessary to see as Daniel does. It seems like a worthwhile trade to forfeit social graces in order to experience the lush complexities that he describes take place in his mind. Though if through my metamorphosis I found the beach to become a place of overwhelming stress that might prove to be the ultimate deal breaker.

Speaking of autistic, single-minded fascination this game has become an absolute obsession. It's the sort of electronic entertainment that could be grouped in the category of Wario-Ware-esque-mini-game-haberdashery. All that is required of you, the player, is a simple click of the mouse which will dictate to that lovable hamster that you want him to turn to the left. Stay within the course and try to beat my high score of 1746, I dare you. Mr. T has become my mortal enemy and we have moved to exorbitant lengths to best each other in this competition to outweigh our inadequacies as men. If any of you ovary wielding readers out there want to emasculate me please take a crack at that high score. It goes without saying that I'll need to see screenshots as credentials for your validity in this arena. I am also well aware that anyone with a passing knowledge of Photoshop could easily forge a score of fantastic proportions so I implore you all to act as upstanding gentlemen and ladies.

Though it has been already linked I should mention that Matty has recently plunged himself simultaneously into both the world of LiveJournal and webcomics concentrating both pursuits into one potent stop on the interweb. Both his insights and his creations are worth your time and I encourage you to check it out.

Posted by Jon at August 8, 2005 08:05 PM

Comments

Posted by: keaf at August 9, 2005 01:01 PM

Posted by: Murph at August 9, 2005 05:28 PM

Posted by: MarthVader at August 14, 2005 08:38 PM