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• 1 2016-12-05T15:26:37-08:00 A Phenomenal Reading 14 vispath 2016-12-12T06:40:06-08:00

  A path exploring the relationship between visual queues and the reader

  by Kate Aberman
  
  I appreciate you visiting this page , as I'M THRILLED TO SHARE THIS  WITH YOU
  
  Hopefully you understand my excitement from above – I aimed to put my voice in your head as you read that. Synesthesia may affect a small portion of the population, but almost all of us can be emotionally affected by visual queues found in our day-to-day lives. Let's call this emotional affectivity the phenomenal experience of reading – something beyond the literal.

  If you strip down a text to its minimum - with one, black font in a singular column - the page feels barren. This brings to mind the newspaper column, but even the structured periodicals have variation to catch our attention. It’s possible that a purely barren form might bring us to tears (I may be overdramatic). But writers, artists, and readers alike seem to fight against a minimalist presentation, often to fully involve the reader and create a secondary understanding to any text. Even the existence of this website, scalar, is a prime example of the visual aspect of reading and understanding. We incorporate media and text paths to create a fluid, mobile structure catered to the reader’s curiosity and choice.

  We are lucky to be able to read beyond words and because of this we can take multiple readings from one layout by considering new meanings from the emotional aspects of color, font, and shape. Varying each aspect of the visual path allows for differentiation. I can change mood by varying font and connect ideas with subtle similarities. One visual connection can contain different themes and keep them separate from another, yet still allow them to exist on the same page – manipulating the space beyond the physical relationship.
   
  The following paths explore how artists like Stephan Mallarme, Johanna Drucker, Graham Rawle and Jonathan Lethem utilize shape, color, and font to play with the interaction of words beyond their next-door neighbors.
  
  Let's begin by looking at shape.