During the Information Age we have seen many things - such as writing a body text - turn into digital abstractions. As virtualized users, we are extracted from our physical realities. The screens that surround us are an extension of our brain and replace our bodies. The body, which still served as a tool in the 19th century, is now being neglected. We live in a disembodied society.
Technology is currently being innovated into a more portable and collaborative tool. Contemporary technologies, such as augmented reality (AR), merge the physical and digital world and make it possible to reintroduce the human body into the digital. AR takes our current reality and adds elements to it. Frames, such as a sheet or screen, are absent in this environment. The body text always exists around a body and is driven by it. The reader is therefore the new carrier of the body text. Adapted to the proportions of the human body and subject to our interactions, the body text becomes anthropometric.
These new digital experiences do not only require a new reader but also a new designer. Designing for the embodied user calls for a shift in perspective, one that differs from traditional design thinking. The research project 'Your Body Text’ takes this shift as a starting point and explores - with the use of modern technology - the possibilities to (re)embody the body text.
