Presentation Schedule
Beyond the Text: Multi-Sensory Reading and Visual Literacy in the Post-Textual Era (101833)
Session Chair: Frederick Inoncillo
This presentation will be live-streamed via Zoom (Online Access)
Monday, 20 April 2026 20:40
Session: Session 2
Room: Live-Stream Room 2
Presentation Type: Live-Stream Presentation
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This study introduces “post-textual reading”, a key concept that examines how reading in the digital age has shifted from a linear, text-decoding process to a non-linear, multi-sensory cultural practice. While traditional education emphasizes the “readability” and “legibility” of text as a neutral tool for information transfer, contemporary visual culture reveals its materiality, affective force, and semiotic agency.
Drawing on perspectives from New Materialism and Sensory Ethnography, the research argues that the visual form of text itself functions as a medium that activates bodily senses and affective experiences. Using New York’s 5 Pointz street art as a core case study, the paper illustrates how text in informal learning environments moves beyond its textual function to become a “sensory signifier” of social critique and cultural dialogue. The study further introduces the idea of “affective literacy”, showing how students and creators engage reading as a hybrid practice of sensory and aesthetic learning across cultural contexts.
The findings suggest that multi-sensory reading challenges the text-centered model of traditional education and expands the scope of visual literacy education. This paper argues that education should shift its focus from “how to read text” to “how to understand and create visual culture,” providing new directions for cultivating critical literacy and sensory awareness in a technology-driven era.
Authors:
Juiyi Yen, National Taiwan University of Arts, Taiwan
About the Presenter(s)
Juiyi Yen is currently an Assistant Professor investigating visual communication and post-textual practices, and a doctoral student at the National Taiwan University of Arts.
See this presentation on the full schedule – Monday Schedule
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