a lot of graphic design outcomes — for me — remain trapped in power structures between the designer & the viewer. for example, the same 16-point sized paragraph is offered to people viewing the text from different distances, which may result in varying experiences. go too far or too near, and the paragraph will cease to be legible.

in a world where experiences are increasingly attempting to become more responsive¹, i wondered whether typography on a digital screen could do the same.

many factors influence the perception of text on a screen. however, i restricted myself to play with the simplest one — (linear) distance. webcams typically are unable to assess depth; so, i chose to persistently track the distance between the pupils of a viewer's eye, to ascertain whether they were further (smaller distances between pupils), or closer (larger distances between pupils) to the screen (camera).

code for this can be found here (written in p5.js).

footnotes:

1. the responsive environments group at the mit media lab has produced several experiments to make components of buildings react to the way they are being perceived.