Shapereader, User Diversity in Contemporary Comics

Shapereader is a community-specific tactile language, initially designed for the purposes of visually impaired users in regards to the production of tactile comics. It consists of an expanding repertoire of free-floating tactile ideograms (tactigrams) intended to provide haptic equivalents for all the semantic features, the conceptual functions and textual attributes of a comics narrative. Shapereader is unbound by the particularities of ethnic and native alphabets and Braille code. Its design, based on criteria of simplicity, easiness of memorization and distinguishability, addresses all users, regardless of their nationality, language, educational level, or subsistence under any visual handicap. Shapereader transposes semantic and syntactical structure cognizance to the reader’s fingertips and promotes an embodied textual experience. The related artistic research follows an experimental/observational methodology based on workshops, exhibitions, artist talks and conferences and has been presented and discussed in a variety of contexts, both artistic, academic, literary and regarding disabilities. This research is invested in a historical consideration of the materiality of the text, from concrete poetry's textualities, to the community-specific modes of address in contemporary comics. The dissertation explores the conditions for user diversity in comics and examines the formal, syntactical and material properties, and technologies that contribute into forging communities of users/readers. By synthesizing the very same genetic material for an expanded, more inclusive graphic storytelling, I argue that ‘Shapereader’ demonstrates that comics can address a diverse readership, and situates touch in the general sensibility as a conduit for vibrant artistic exploration.