What if text could be sculpted and refined like clay -- or cultivated and pruned like a plant? Texterial reimagines text as a material that users can grow, sculpt, and transform. Current generative-AI models enable rich text operations, yet rigid, linear interfaces often mask such capabilities. We explore how the text-as-material metaphor can reveal AI-enabled operations, reshape the writing process, and foster compelling user experiences. A formative study shows that users readily reason with text-as-material, informing a conceptual framework that explains how material metaphors shift mental models and bridge gulfs of envisioning, execution, and evaluation in LLM-mediated writing. We present the design and evaluation of two technical probes: Text as Clay, where users refine text through gestural sculpting, and Text as Plants, where ideas grow serendipitously over time. This work expands the design space of writing tools by treating text as a living, malleable medium.

翻译：倘若文本能如黏土般塑形打磨，或如植物般培育修剪，将会如何？Texterial 将文本重新构想为用户可培育、塑形与转化的材料。当前生成式人工智能模型已支持丰富的文本操作，但僵化的线性界面往往掩盖了这些能力。本文探讨文本即材料的隐喻如何揭示人工智能赋能的操作、重塑写作过程并促成引人入胜的用户体验。一项形成性研究表明，用户能自然地运用文本即材料进行推演，由此构建的概念框架阐释了材料隐喻如何转变心智模型，并弥合大语言模型辅助写作中构想、执行与评估之间的认知鸿沟。我们提出并评估了两项技术原型的设计：将文本视为黏土——用户通过手势塑形精炼文本；将文本视为植物——思想随时间推移自发生长。本研究通过将文本视为具有生命力的可塑媒介，拓展了写作工具的设计空间。