Tactile Readings: Eighteen Remarkable Applications

This selection of applications goes back over a decade of reading on tactile screens. Since the excitement generated by the launching of the iPad in 2010 and the development of mobile apps, each of the projects presented here have, in their own ways, upended the ways in which we read, beyond even the digital. Innovative interfaces, reinvented layouts, and mingling Media, the journey has been an intrepid and unique one, when put into perspective today. Nevertheless, while the oldest apps on this platform are barely ten years old, the access to and archiving of these objects is a complicated matter. One is obliged to conclude that, as we watch, powerless, many of these cultural objects are disappearing, victims of the updates of operating systems that are no longer backward compatible (the last to date being the passage to iOS 11 in 2017). Despite this fact, their transformation remains a constant: native, Web or mobile apps interact and explore new modes of narration, notably in the sphere of video games and virtual reality. Today, these new forms will dictate essential issues relating to design. Therefore, it is crucial to make them visible—even if they are no longer readable—through our curatorial efforts.