Slashdot Mirror
Man Becomes Artist When He Sleeps
During the day 37-year-old Lee Hadwin is a nurse with no particular love or talent for art, but when he sleeps it's a different story. Lee has been sleep-drawing since he was 4 and is now quite good. Some of his pieces have sold for six figures. Despite numerous tests, doctors can't explain how he's able to draw and paint while he's not conscious, or even what stage of sleep he's in while he works. From the article: "Still, the North Wales native doesn't want to make art his career. He never studied art, and is lousy at drawing when awake. 'Art has never interested me at all,' says Hadwin, as quoted by the BBC. But just in case, he now prepares by leaving a sketchpad, brushes, and other art supplies in his bedroom."
The video is blocked.
I am in Norway.
Somebody post a mirror please.
..And a fantastic painter named Ardois-Bonnot hangs a blasphemous Dream Landscape in the Paris spring salon of 1926. And so numerous are the recorded troubles in insane asylums that only a miracle can have stopped the medical fraternity from noting strange parallelisms and drawing mystified conclusions. A weird bunch of cuttings, all told; and I can at this date scarcely envisage the callous rationalism with which I set them aside...
that is some serious shit that involves conscious, subconscious and alternative personalities.
I was thinking something like that myself. This is far more mysterious than the way it is being presented. We don't even know what "everyday" consciousness is let alone how to explain something like this.
It is a miracle that curiosity survives formal education. - Einstein
WTF - I'd have a great time pursuing my fun time hobbies all day if I could "work" while asleep at night and pull down six figures.
I'm pretty skeptical, it says he's been doing this since he was four and has some funny stories of such but do we have any actual proof that this is true? Are we sure he's not an artist with a gimmick to get his stuff sold? He wouldn't be the first.
For those who can't view the video, use www.vivalaproxy.com, fast and easy.
Sounds sketchy...
http://www.hulu.com/watch/14755/the-dick-van-dyke-show-i-am-my-brothers-keeper springs to mind, not to mention a fair number of other sitcoms and cartoons.
(Hulu, sorry for those outside the US).
How can I believe you when you tell me what I don't want to hear?
This. This isn't Idle, even if it doesn't really have much in terms of very specific facts from it. (as far as we know since it seems have the damn planet is blocked from viewing the video. And who the hell is 5min when we are at it? Getting a bit sick of region locking bullshit)
This is more newsowrthy than, say, Steve Jobs stepping down.
That thing happens all the damn time, yeah we get it, this one was reallllly influential, blah blah blah and so on. Every damn CEO that steps down was influential these days.
I prefer to think of news on here as something good. Steve stepping down is far from good. Steve essentially made Apple what it is simply from being a good speaker. He spoke to the people. He convinced idiots around the world that it was fine to buy overpriced and pretty weak hardware + software, he taught the world to "think differently." Now the only Steve they have is Wozniak.
Yet Steve stepping down got a whole "real" article all to itself.
And this was thrown in to the crapbasket, pretty much.
Reminds me of the excellent art book "Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain" - which talks about how we have to turn off some of the analytical features of our mind to become better artists. For example, when you look at a wheel and try to draw it, you don't want to think "wheel" and start drawing what your mind knows of a wheel: depending on the angle it may be oval instead of circle, shadows and other objects may obscure the circular shape. Instead you want to draw what your eyes see "raw", whether those shapes and shades make sense or not.
The book goes a lot further down this path, but it is fascinating to think that our brains can have power that is hindered by other parts of the brain. This guy seems to support that. I imagine there's significant talents and skills we have within us that simply don't know how to access.
Smells like a hoax to generate interest in otherwise unremarkable artwork to me.
- Holy crap, I've got MOD points! Who thought that was a good idea.
Looks like he finally got his dream job!
Hahahahaha! Ahh... sorry.
How do they know he's asleep?
Them's what done it.
I think this is a sign that Cthulhu is coming. maybe the Mayans were right about 2012.
He is not the only guy I know who sleeps at work....
--
Jokes aside, wouldn't it be great to be able to do useful stuff while asleep? Oohhh, how much sleep could be had....
You can't handle the truth.
Have a look at the BBC article (with video, including a selection of artwork) http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-14706864
Sounds like it involves Hastur to me...
"He who can destroy a thing, controls a thing." --Paul Atreides, Dune
Let's just hope he doesn't try to paint the future!
-l
/Heroes
//Season 1 FTW
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I am a sleep physician and highly complex behaviors are commonly seen in NREM parasomnias (i.e. sleep walking). The idea in the article about "doctors are mystified" and "don't know what sleep stage this is occuring" seems highly suspect. With common place polysomnogram testing, sleep staging can be easily captured. I do believe that he may be having complex NREM parasomnias, but highly doubt that this is any sort of medical mystery, and does lend some credence that this is a "gimmick" for this artist.
Tell me I'm not the first to figure out the obvious headline "Dream Job" anywhere this story is posted or shared?
I8-D
Tell me I'm not the first to figure out the obvious headline "Dream Job" anywhere this story is posted or shared?
My mistake, Cerium... I bow to you sir! http://idle.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=2410312&cid=37288504
I8-D
That Art Is Dead.
Shoes for Industry. Shoes for the Dead.
At least he's productive -- http://www.yourlawyer.com/articles/read/14344
I remember a movie about an alien spaceship that is forced to land in a small town and gets the populous to repair it in their sleep. They were all very productive, much more than in their day jobs. One person couldn't be used because he had a metal plate in his head. Anyone remember the name of it?
Perhaps he is in fact drawing while awake and we are all a dream he experiences when he is asleep.
(Queue eerie music and scary flying door.)
Ceci n'est pas une signature.
Is he enjoying the benefits of sleep as well, although he remains productive during the sleep period? Presumably he doesn't spend the entire time drawing, but how restful is his sleep exactly, and how long does he feel he needs to sleep to remain productive during the day?
Twinstiq, game news
Substitute "blackout" for "sleeping" and "fighting" for "painting" and he and I are totally in the same shoes.
SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
Hmm...it all makes sense now. When I look at some code that I know I had to have written and say, 'What was I thinking?'. Now I know it must have been sleep-coding and my alter ego must have taken the reigns.
And don't just say you'll tell me later -- you always say that, and then never do.
"What in the name of Fats Waller is that?"
"A four-foot prune."
that is some serious shit that involves conscious, subconscious and alternative personalities.
Either that or he's faking it...
No sig today...
The only thing I do in my sleep usually wakes up my wife and leaves the sheets a mess.
I too have been many times amazed how detailed and realistic dream stories the brain can generate from scratch. One helluva piece of hardware.
This guy can post marvelous Slashdot comments while sleeping, but when he's awake, it becomes like that.
I would be surprised if they didn't have a sleep study with an EEG on this guy which would have shown if he was awake or not.
I'd for damn sure want to have a letter from a licensed physician trained and practicing in sleep medicine attesting that the man was NOT identifyably awake by an EEG monitor at the very least
Electro Encephalogram (EEG) Might not be that easy to perform:
EEG measures electrical currents in the brain (Duh, hence the name).
If the guy is painting while sleeping:
- He would be moving. A lot. Really a lot. That means that the muscle motion is going to make a lot of parasites on the signal. Also because the guy would be moving around, the doctors might have a few problems keeping the measuring electrodes in place. Basically, you'd have the same difficulties as when trying to EEG someone with sleep walking. (Or atypical forms of epilepsy associated with automatic behaviours instead of convulsion).
- The guy *is painting* while sleeping. That is a rather complex action. That means that, even if he's sleeping - i.e.: most of the other brain function are shut down - there's quite some activity going on inside the brain (lots of region have to be kept active even during sleep) and thus, the EEG signal would probably rather complicated to interpret.
"Sufficiently advanced satire is indistinguishable from reality." - [Tips: 1DrYakQDKCQ6y52z6QbnkxHXAocMZJE61o ]
That's funny. I become a Fartiste when I sleeps.
I can see the fnords!
I saw this episode of Heroes, where the psychic painter transfers his dream state painting skills to the other guy.......hey ...wait a minute....!
This sounds familiar. Let's just hope he doesn't fall asleep and paint the world ending.
I would be less skeptical if he was also an artist while awake, or at least HAD BEEN at some time in his life. If he has never had any interest in art and doesn't study it, how did he develop the techniques of perspective and shading? Innate skill? Sounds like bullshit.
I suppose people can be great artists if they find the correct "brain connection" for it. I feel that I can visualize marvelous drawings inside my head but translating it to a piece of paper is another story.
It looks as though he's done this while being monitored. Truly bizarre.
"Despite numerous tests, doctors can't explain ... even what stage of sleep he's in while he works."
This rings all sorts of alarm bells.
This is more newsowrthy than, say, Steve Jobs stepping down.
Yet Steve stepping down got a whole "real" article all to itself.
And here you are, spending the majority of your post talking about that other thing in this thing's article.
Your brain is not a computer.
No "scientific investigator" has ever been fooled by a faker, right?
Uri Geller springs to mind.
No sig today...
Dolphins swim in a circle clockwise while one side of their brain sleeps and then counterclockwise while the other half sleeps.
Welcome to the Wonderful World of Intellectual Property (tm).
I'm not saying it souldn't be done. I'm simply saying that investigating this won't be as simple as investigating other sleep disorders.
Even if he doesn't care if i was him I'd still want to know wtf was going on, one morning he might wake up in a pool of blood and have no clue what happened.
And that is indeed a problem with sleep-walking.
(There have been quite a few crimes reported to be done by sleep-walkers. Stabbing or fucking aren't such complicated motions and can be done buy only a small fraction of neurons firing up while the rest of the brain is sleeping).
Luckily, unlocking a door with a key is a complex procedure which requires an almost fully functional brain (no surprise that awake but completely drunken people can't manage it neither).
So to avoid hurting themselves or others, sleep-walking people who don't want to take medication are advised to remove any dangerous objects from their bedrooms, secure the windows to avoid falling through them, and lock themselves in. No bad surprise in the morning except maybe some mess in the bedroom. But no surprise blood baths.
"Sufficiently advanced satire is indistinguishable from reality." - [Tips: 1DrYakQDKCQ6y52z6QbnkxHXAocMZJE61o ]