Enriching Tactile Communication
Touch the imagination!
In our overwhelmingly visual world sight dominates all other senses. Imagine how challenging this must be for children and adults with a visual impairment who rely on other senses to experience the world. My research focusses on a world in which people read with their fingertips, not their eyes. In collaboration with experts and creatives, both visually impaired and sighted, I have researched the boundaries of braille, imagery and tactility in combination with the expressive qualities of materials and techniques. In the context of my research, enhancing means going beyond functionality and maximizing the tactile reading experience as a whole.
Dissolve the purely descriptive registering of the world and liberate the analogical imagination.
Jan Švankmajer
For my final design I have developed a framework for a tactile-centred approach to design, including tools and a library of tangible studies and designs, positioning tactile graphic design as a new creative field within graphic design.