“Why doesn’t designing feel like dancing?” I used to ask Photoshop teammates. Then they’d stare back blankly and I’d say, “Yeah yeah—crack don’t smoke itself…”

But here’s to the crazy ones, and Erik Natzke’s work has long inspired me. Seeing a talk of his years ago, in which he showed how he’d build custom interfaces in Flash that let other artists customize images & animation, sent me on a years-long inquiry into what could happen if Flash or HTML were a layer type in Adobe apps. The point is, he tends to open eyes & get juices flowing.

Thus I’m excited to see Erik & co. working on “Project Dali”:

Erik writes,

I don’t think of Project Dali as digital or analog. It’s something that mixes the two and comes out completely unique. It could incorporate texture (think of the exquisite feel of graphite) and time (your paint is drying) with the unending flexibility of digital. It takes art that used to feel static and lets us manipulate it in three-dimensional space. In the process, the art becomes different, magical.

I’m starting to think about it like a musical instrument: If you are a musician, your instrument enables your creativity; it doesn’t stand between you and the idea in your head. And just like with VR, you learn by playing.

I can’t wait to take it for a spin & see how it evolves.

[YouTube]