Lascaux cave painting, courtesy of Smithsonian

The killer app of the PC era was the spreadsheet. VisiCalc was the first spreadsheet for PCs originally released for the Apple II. “It is often considered the application that turned the microcomputer from a hobby for computer enthusiasts into a serious business tool”

The defining characteristic of a spreadsheet of course is the grid of cells — the two dimensional representation that takes advantage of a human instinct to organize related items into rows and columns. Which at the launch of VisiCalc was a relatively new possibility on computer monitors, thanks to the 2D GUI (Graphical User Interface).

Now, imagine translating the workings of a spreadsheet to the text based interface of the prior era. Imagine the mental gymnastics required to connect related numbers that no longer bear any relation to each other visually but are instead spread and wrapped around the screen in apparently random order. The cognitive load is on a wildly different scale to a 2D grid. If your first exposure to a spreadsheet was this hypothetical jumble of alphanumerics you certainly wouldn’t recognize it as a killer app, stripped of all context in the transmogrification.

And that’s analogous to seeing the the killer app of Virtual Reality in a 2D GUI — the screen you’re reading these words on right now. Regardless of how cleverly shot a demo video might be, in an effort to convey something of VR’s immersion, you might as well be looking at the data from a spreadsheet as a disarrayed mishmash of symbols. All context is lost in the flatness. So there’s no way you could recognize its killer app credentials.

Therefore it might not be such a surprise to realize that many of you reading this have already seen the killer app for VR. In fact, more than 1 million people have seen it. But the light-bulb didn’t flash because you didn’t see it in VR. Never mind actually do it in VR. What I’m referring is in general a category of applications that amount to freehand doodling, sketching, painting or sculpting in immersive, spatial 3D. Or more specifically to the best example so far which is Tilt Brush, the VR sketching app so memorably demonstrated by Disney animation legend Glen Keane last year —

Keane says —

“I can put goggles on and I just step into the paper and now I’m drawing in it. Today, all the rules have changed. This is not a flat drawing — this is sculptural drawing.”

Sculptural drawing. Take a moment to absorb that. This is a brand new capability in a brand new medium. A hugely empowering capability. After-all human beings are hard-wired to doodle —

“Almost from the moment we can pick up a crayon, we are drawn to scribbling and doodling — and that urge never stops. Whether we’re absent-mindedly sketching on the back of an envelope or drawing full-blown cartoons, we humans just can’t help but express ourselves through pictures. Far from being a distraction, doodling can prevent our minds from wandering into daydreams about the past or future, boosting concentration and memory. Some researchers have argued that drawing can be thought of as a more innate trait: a form of language.”

And just in case you thought white-boarding was new —

“I scoff at any notion of the lone artist sitting in a cave drawing,” says Cohn. “These things should be seen as communication from an individual who is speaking and drawing in real time — whether it was a ritual, or just a guy trying to keep the kids entertained by drawing on the wall and telling a story.”

Of course we’re also hard-wired to build.

“Psychologists suggest the idea of a Lego ‘cult’ is in no way exaggerated. These small colourful blocks appeal to almost every individual, of any age, attracted by the idea of building things. And the appeal lies partly in the fact that the potential to build something is never-ending. Lego is a lot more than a toy — it’s a creative expression.”

And it’s not just for individuals, as demonstrated bythe rise of Team Building Activities with Lego Bricks — “Lego isn’t just about fun and games. For team building exercises, working with Lego helps enhance creative and critical thinking skills”.

There’s even such a thing as Lego Serious Play with certified facilitators where the “goal is fostering creative thinking through team building metaphors of their organizational identities and experiences using Lego bricks. Participants work through imaginary scenarios using visual three-dimensional Lego constructions”.

So, we’re hard-wired to build in 3D and to draw in 2D. Do you suppose we might also hard-wired to draw in 3D, if such a thing were possible and accessible. Perhaps the popularity of Minecraft offers a hint?

White-spacing

What’s the one tool you see in every office besides the computer (and coffee machine)? The whiteboard. We can’t contain the caveman instinct to doodle to an audience. To convey ideas and tell stories. We gather around whiteboards like hunters ‘round a campfire.

Now imagine if the scene really was more like a campfire — a circular formation around the hypnotic centre of attention. Wired said Tilt Brush is a “3D painting experience, like Paper by FiftyThree in space — you use wand-like controllers to splatter the air with oils, rainbows or pure light in real space”. You might call it white-spacing. Or light painting. Or 3D drawing.

But whatever you call it, it will liberate us from the tyranny of flatland. In 2007 when Google still owned the 3D modelling software called SketchUp they ran a project named Spectrum that was designed to give kids on the autism spectrum the opportunity to express their creativity. The video documents the frustration these kids, who tend to be visually and spatially gifted, have with expressing themselves on paper. And how liberating it is to articulate themselves in 3D.

But you don’t have to be on the the autism spectrum to feel that paper is an impediment to expression. When Glen Keane is drawing with traditional tools there’s a frustration he has “wishing that the flatness of paper would go away and I could actually dive in”. However when he draws in VR “all directions are open now, just immersing myself in space is more like a dance. What is this amazing new world I just stepped into?”

By 2017 many of us will be able to step into that same world, together. And like hunters dancing around a campfire we’ll tell stories with light. Not with fire at the end of a stick but the persistent digital trail traced out by a VR wand. And it will completely change how we share ideas with each other.

As Keane says, “Even if you take the goggles off, I’m still remembering. The doorway to the imagination is open a little wider.”