The Gallery

Embodied Type is a series of typographic explorations translating sense of touch into visceral visual languages. The piece invites viewers to experience type in multiple sensory dimensions through looking, touching, and interacting. The project reflects research about phenomenology and multisensory design. 

In the thesis project, I selected ten tactile sensory words including fluffy, stuffy, airy, mushy, silky, gritty, crumbly, prickly and tingly to prove they are not neutral but physically and emotionally expressive. I explored using visual analogy to represent each word, building sculptural forms to convey the words in another dimension, working with coding language to create interactive experiences for the audience.

I created individual forms to represent each word from my list to build typographic forms that can be “touched.” 

Based on the static typographic forms, I constructed the forms through programming language in Processing and made them interactive for the audience. As a camera detects the path of the observer’s eyes when traveling on screen, changes happen during a specific part of the word. I intend to use the digital environment to visualize “touch with the eyes.”

The third part of my project led me to explore building letterforms in physical environment by using objects and materials, incorporating light and shadow to create a physical reading experience that my audience can interact from different positions in space.