Poetic Computation: Reader by Taeyoon Choi
Poetic Computation: Reader is an online-book by Taeyoon Choi that discusses code as a form of poetry and aesthetic while raising ethical questions associated with it. The book is based on Choi’s lectures at the School for Poetic Computation, an independent school he co-founded in New York City. The first two chapters will be published in September 2017, with the following chapters to be published over the year.
Designed by HAWRAF, Poetic Computation: Reader presents new possibilities for enhanced accessibility and legibility in web browsers. Readers can change the design elements and format parameters to create their ideal reading experience. Poetic Computation: Reader is edited by Hannah Son and includes interviews with a select group of scholars and practitioners.
The default typeface is Baskerville MT, accompanied by San Francisco Display for UI elements. Via a typeface menu, the reader can switch to Helvetica, Gill Sans, Merriweather, or Cutive Mono. A “Dyslexica Mode” additionally features OpenDyslexic (not pictured).
Contrary to the assumption that dragging the slider turns book pages, here dragging the slider changes the type size, which can be later changed in the reader's slide-out.
Within the same chapter, scrolling down would trigger a horizontal reveal, presumably to provide anchoring points for the reader.
2 Comments on “Poetic Computation: Reader by Taeyoon Choi”
The typography seems unpolished often and mediocre at best, although the consideration for fully-customizable leading / type sizes would potentially have hindered attempts of finessing. The side note is so small as to lead one to believe it was a simple oversight in CSS instead of an intentional decision. There is also a serious usability issue: upon clicking and expanding the side note, there is also no immediate indication of how to go back to the main reader.
MT Baskerville, which is loaded as external web font, is too feeble and spaced too loose for comfortable reading even on a Retina iMac. The decision to offer Gill Sans for running text is from the start a less-prudent decision, let alone to use only the medium weight. Switching to Cutive Mono leads to disastrous results, as the letterspacing is so wide and leading so tight, the entire web book dissolves into an all-too-uniform gray. All in all, this entry demonstrates that intentionally provocative “crude type” goes against the needs of reading comfort and basic legibility in a longform context.
The decision to put those tiny references in Baskerville in particular made my brain hurt. Were you even intended to be able to read them?