Shapereader is a community-specific tactile conlang (constructed language). It was initially designed for the purposes of visually impaired subjects in regards to tactile textual production. It consists of an expanding repertoire of free-floating tactile ideograms (tactigrams) intended to provide haptic equivalents for all the semantic features, the conceptual functions and textual attributes of a story. Its design prioritizes simplicity and ease of memorization and addresses all users regardless of their nationality, language, educational level, or subsistence under any visual handicap. By circumventing the verbo-voco-visual apparatus, it transposes semantic and syntactical structure cognizance to the reader’s fingertips. Shapereader promotes an embodied textual experience. Shapereader was generously funded by Koneen Säätiö in 2013 and was conceptualized and designed by Ilan Manouach.

The Frankfurt Book Fair is a major international event in the publishing industry. For this year’s edition, France, the guest of honour, partners with Belgium, Switzerland, Luxembourg and the International Organisation of la Francophonie in this celebration of writing, innovation and promotion of the French language.

Opening October 11th
11 - 15 October 2017
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