reach for the ceiling

Unless you have aphantasia and can’t visualize images, you’re able to close your eyes and imagine a friend’s face. Try it.Some people report the ability to do this so vividly that it’s like looking at a photograph. In my head, images are fuzzier. Dream-like—I know what I’m looking at but can’t necessarily zero in on the details. That said, the complete and accurate image must be in my brain. Why? Because I’d know in an instant if my friend’s forehead were half an inch longer one day. What happened to your head, Bill? How could I possibly spot small discrepancies so easily if the correct proportions and other details of that face weren’t stored somewhere in memory, even if I can’t call them to mind?Art is the translation layer. We excavate data hidden in the brain and make it concrete in images, words, sounds. Art comes from the Latin ars, meaning “skill,” which makes sense because images and ideas are useless without the skill to express them in a medium. In other words, having the…