Unanticipated Journeys: Comics as Arts-Based Research

• In Event: 32.051 - Novel Approaches to Arts-Based Educational Research

Abstract

This presentation will center on the author’s research in comics form, which began as a means of making difficult concepts accessible and ultimately led to the emergence of a new way of working altogether.

By drawing on the range of affordances comics offer, I sought to make difficult ideas accessible to reach people left out of scholarly conversations. Comics are characterized by Hatfield (2009) as an “art of tensions,” in which multiple modes are brought together in a single form yet resist merging – more like collage than paint mixing. This is so of image and text – where they anchor one another’s meaning (Barthes, 1977), resonating (Sousanis, 2012) together to produce what neither can alone (Harvey, 1979). This dynamic tension extends even to how they are read. McCloud (1993) defines comics as a sequential art, where meaning arises from the juxtaposition of successive images and other elements. Yet since we can view the entire page and individual elements all at once, the linear hierarchy of reading is fractured, as readers (and authors) make connections in all directions across the page (Groensteen, 2007) in more rhizomatic fashion (Sousanis, 2015).

The ability to construct layered, multifaceted narratives, made them well-suited for presenting research in sophisticated ways. But I found that working visually from the outset opened new approaches for my thinking. Consider drawing as externalizing thought – both in terms of the gestural activity of our hand (Wilson, 1999) and an interactive conversation with our own drawings (Suwa & Tversky, 1997). Drawing in comics extends this to incorporate images and words, as well as the meta-drawing of the composition. In my experience, my sketching frequently facilitated making connections and generated research directions I wouldn’t have anticipated. This has meant a profound change in my own way of working and something I observe regularly in my students as well (most who enter my classes describing themselves as non-drawers).

For the presentation, extensive visual examples from the author and other comics makers will be shared to guide a discussion of theory, practical working methods, and process from initial sketches to the emergence of the finished page.

References

Barthes, Roland (1977): Image-Music-Text. London: Fontana
Groensteen, T. (2007). The system of comics (B. Beaty & N. Nguyen, Trans.). Jackson:
University Press of Mississippi.
Harvey, R.C. (1979). The aesthetics of the comic strip. The Journal of Popular Culture, XII, 640-
652.
Hatfield, C. (2009). An art of tensions. In J. Heer & K. Worcester (Eds.), A comics studies
reader (pp. 132-148). Jackson, MS: University of Mississippi Press.
McCloud, S. (1993). Understanding comics. Northampton, MA: Kitchen Sink Press.
Sousanis, N. (2012). The shape of our thoughts: A meditation on and in comics. Visual Arts
Research, 38(1), Issue 74, 1-10.
Sousanis, N. (2015). Unflattening. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Suwa, M., & Tversky, B. (1997). What architects and students perceive in their sketches: A
protocol analysis. Design Studies, 18, 385-403.
Wilson, F.R. (1999). The hand. New York, NY: Vintage Books.

Author

• Nick Sousanis, San Francisco State University