Hi Ken,
Nick Sousanis’s own abstract which you helpfully forwarded helps to clarify key issues which I feel your previous message on the subject demonstrated some misunderstanding of.
You say:
“What made it unusual was the form it took — but the form includes the key element that we examine in all theses, words.”
“Most dissertations or theses include both words and images — in some cases, the images involve figures or diagrams, in other cases, they involve illustrations, charts, chemicals, other ways to show the processes and objects under consideration.”
This is misleading. The key issue here is not the fact that this thesis includes words or that other theses include images and diagrams. It is the relationship between them that is crucial. The use of ‘illustrations’ and diagrams within a word-based scientific thesis is a world away from a piece of creative ‘writing’ (for want of a better term- in picturebooks we speak of ‘picturebook-making) such as this. Sousanis’s outcome expresses itself through a synthesis of word and image. The images are not saying, “Here’s a picture to help you understand”. Often, they are saying something different from the words. The meaning emerges from the counterpoint between the two. As in a picturebook, neither of these modes would make sense individually, seen in isolation from the other. This is a creative, expressive outcome, speaking to us in multi modal form.
A graphic novel (or ‘comic’ – since Sousanis prefers the term) can exhibit multiple variations of word to image ratio/ proportion. And of course the boundaries are being pushed at all the time. Brian Selznick’s 'The Invention of Huge Cabret' delivers its narrative in the form of lengthy passages of words, interspersed seamlessly with passages expressed entirely through wordless visual sequence.
You seem to be at pains to point out, Ken, that (forgive me) ‘there are words here, so it’s OK’. But it is important to understand that, in the case of this thesis, they will have little meaning on their own and are certainly not the key to understanding.
Many graphic novels are ‘silent’, i.e. wordless. This then begs the question, can we envisage a wordless graphic sequence as a PhD thesis? If not, why not? And if not, how would we determine what the appropriate word-image balance is?
I would be fascinated to hear your views.
Best wishes,
Martin
PS I feel this issue relates closely to the 'Fresh approach/ Professional vs Research Experience' thread as its subject is such a good example of a combination of the two.
Professor Martin Salisbury
Course Leader, MA Children's Book Illustration
Director, The Centre for Children's Book Studies
Cambridge School of Art
0845 196 2351
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http://www.cambridgemashow.com
http://www.anglia.ac.uk/ruskin/en/home/microsites/ccbs.html
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