Creative Reading: Scaffolding Reading for Transformation
For researchers and designers of reading augmentation systems, this work offers a conceptual framework to shift from efficiency-oriented tools to those that value interpretive process and reader transformation.
The paper critiques current reading augmentation tools for framing reading as information transmission and proposes 'creative reading' as an alternative goal that supports readers in creating interpretations and transforming themselves, drawing on literary and narrative theories.
Reading augmentation systems increasingly help readers process text at scale. While these tools address real constraints of time and cognitive load, they often implicitly frame reading as information transmission, or "reading to discard," delegating interpretation and effort to the machine. Yet this delegation changes the outcome of reading. For example, in scholarly reading, deciding what a research text implies and why it matters is central to the work of scholarly production. We propose creative reading as an alternative goal: reading augmentation that supports readers in creating both readings and themselves as readers. By putting literary and narrative theories into conversation with scholarly sensemaking and creativity support, we present a provocation-oriented design space for valuing the process of reading as a way of preserving a plurality of readings and transforming readers over time.