Prelude - A game of discovery and learning.

The Doodle Revolution

June 22, 2010

Thanks to easy-to-use, inexpensive technologies, we can communicate visually like never before. Last year alone, over 1 billion camera phones were sold. However taking a digital photo or even altering it using software like Photoshop is not the same as actually creating an image from scratch on a blank page.

The image below was drawn on the wall of a cave in Lascaux 17,000 years ago. How easily we ‘read’ it today. Great graphic skill was needed to capture the visual essence of the horse. We remain awed by this ability to draw a ‘realistic’ representation. This has led to a popular but erroneous belief that such skill alone denotes creativity. As a result, when presented with a crayon and blank paper all too many people profess a lack of creativity because they can’t draw ‘realistically’.

Watch any child to see how much fun crayoning can be. This innate capacity to express our selves visually doesn’t completely disappear into adulthood. Doodling is something that many people do naturally and unconsciously while in a meeting, a class, or on the phone.

There’s a growing body of research and practical evidence that this innate mark-making capacity is worth cultivating as a skill. This is not about taking art classes, although learning about aesthetic and design principals is always worthwhile. Sunni Brown, a graphic facilitator, has written a manifesto called the Doodle Revolution. Her focus is on the effectiveness of visual note taking over written note taking. In essence, “visuals are powerful, memorable, efficient due to their information density”. This part of “a highly pervasive phenomenon called the Picture Superiority Effect, or the PSE. Simply stated, the more visual the sensory input is the more likely it is to be recognized and recalled.”’

She also discusses Dual Code Theory. “Visual and verbal information are processed along different channels in the brain. So you have one highway for verbal content (including text and auditory content) and you have another highway for visual input.” The visual highway is much faster, more efficient, and greatly underused.

It’s worth noting that slightly over half of all early school leavers have a visual spatial orientation.  In her groundbreaking work, Dr. Linda Kreger Silverman makes a powerful case that these young people could be and should be taught to their strengths. This is particularly relevant when on considers the number of community agencies working with youth at risk that use mural making in their programs. For example, Philadelphia’s Mural Arts Program over two decades has produced more than 2,700 murals throughout the city and hosts five youth programs.

All of us can and should become more comfortable with visual communication. It’s a natural part of our make up as humans. It’s also as easy and as simple as doodling.