17 May 2009
Hero or Hoax?
“Look, mommy, look at what I did at school!” With a smile, your mother congratulates you and then hangs it on the refrigerator where your lovely drawing will be forever admired. Do you remember those times? Yes, it was very nostalgic. What about Esref Armagan? Well, his drawings received some smiles from his mother, too. But instead of being on the fridge, his is framed and then mounted on the wall. What did you say? How is this possible?
Simple, Esref Armagan is blind. He has been blind from birth, and yet he is a very famous painter. Esref does not see colors; he does not witness beautiful sunsets or glorious fields of flowers. Then how is he able to do this? When Mr. Armagan draws portraits requested by people, he asks for their photo that has impressions. This way, when he paints he feels the picture with his left hand while he paints with his right hand. For other paintings, he uses his ‘imagination’. At a quick glance, Esref Armagan seems as a hero. Everyone applauds his ability, but after second thoughts, they begin questioning themselves. How can a blind person paint realistic paintings if he has never seen the world?
So Mr. Armagan lost his entire sight. A sight is a sense, therefore he lost one sense. In kindergarten we learned the five senses were: touch (hands), see (eyes), smell (nose), hear (ear), and taste (tongue). A very small minority of the people have mixed up senses. This neurological phenomenon is known as Synaesthesia. Some people can see letters/numbers (graphemes) as a certain color. Another group of people can hear colors. For example, a door bell could flicker a shade of orange. Some people can hear sounds (phonemes) which invokes their taste sense. Synaesthesia does NOT defect a person’s life. There are many people who are diagnosed with synaesthesia and are very successful; for example, Richard Feynman (Nobel laureate in physics), Duke Ellington (a jazz musician), and Leonardo Bernstein (a composer and conductor).
Johnson's Blog Related Links:
1. synaesthesia article
2. color association
3. video
4. Esref Armagan’s gallery
The Objectives:
1. Look at Esref Armagan's gallery. Is this man the real deal? Do you believe he was blessed or is this some scam he devised with his family/friend? Support your response in a minimum of 3 sentences.
2. Do you think synaesthesia is a gift or a curse? For studying purposes, do you think having synaesthesia would be better than be a "normal" kid? Why? Support your answer with a minimum of 3 sentences.
3. Name the colors that you associate with your favorite number and the letters that make up your initials.
# posted by RCK Green Works! Program @ 2:00 PM 
