Comic Lab #1: Learning to see, Take 1,567,892 (course content)
Introduction:
The exercises described on this page should take no longer than 40 minutes, combined. The resources we will consider this week (several comics, an audio-visual, and a text) will come after you finish the exercises.
Hypothesis:
(I can’t tell you, because I don’t want to bias your playing along below, but remember that one of our key tenets in this course is “learning to see.” We will come back to my hypotheses later.)
Materials:
1. Pen or something similar with which you can write
2. At least 4 sheets of paper
Procedure:
PART 1: WRITING THE UNTHINKABLE (adapted and sometimes plagiarized from Lynda Barry (Links to an external site.))
Step 1: Pen in hand, first sheet of paper before you, set a timer on your computer or phone to 1 minute.
Step 2: Using exactly one minute (so as soon as you finish reading this step, you will hit “start” on your timer), make a list of all of the images that come into your head when you hear the prompt “Being an artist in 2019.” Again, focus on images. What do you SEE in your mind when you hear “Being an artist in 2019.” Go.
Step 3: Choose any one image from your list. If you cannot decide, go with the third item. Set the first sheet of paper aside.
Step 4: Take a second sheet of paper; draw a line from the top left hand corner to the bottom right hand corner; now draw a line from the top right hand corner to the bottom left hand corner. Do you see a giant X? Is your paper divided into 4 segments? Perfect. Write the image you chose from your list of images into the top segment as if it is the page’s title.
Step 5: Now, picture a scene that includes the image you have chosen. Hold this picture in your head. In just a minute, I am going to read you a list of questions. Write your answers, into any of the four segments on the page before you, as quickly as you can (yes, you will have to be brief; also, if you do not know the answer to a question, go ahead and invent an answer, and again, keep picturing the scene that includes your image):
Step 6: Set the second sheet of paper (the one with the X and your new notes) aside. Take a third, clean sheet of paper — on this sheet of paper you will be “writing the story up.” At the top of this page, write the words, “I am…”
You are going to begin with these words, and you are going to be writing in the first person present (as if whatever you are telling is happening to you right now — in the present).
Example: “I am in a concrete apartment with whitewashed walls and polished floors. I am sitting at my laptop, but really I am waiting for the garbage collector to ring my doorbell — and thus, I am avoiding my laptop…”
Step 7: Set your timer to 7 minutes. Here is where Lynda Barry says, “If you get stuck, if the story stops, just rest for a moment. Instead of reading things over, or like, struggling about how you should do this, just write the words tick tick tick tick … until the story starts up again. If you keep your hand in motion, the story will start up again.”
Step 8: Take a deep breathe. Click “start” on your timer. Begin.
Step 9: After seven minutes, take a photo or photos of your story. (You will be posting these below, but not quite yet.) Set your writing aside.
PART 2: DOING ARTS-BASED RESEARCH (ABR) (also: borrowing an exercise from Ivan Brunetti (Links to an external site.) that many will already know)
Step 1: Taking a clean sheet of paper, fold it in half, and then in half again. Open it, and number the newly created segments (okay, let’s call them panels, shall we?) from 1 to 4.
Step 2: Set your timer for four minutes. In panel one, and without including any words, draw whatever it is that comes into your head when you hear the phrase, “Being an artist in 2019.” (You might see images that fit into a single scene, or you might see many disconnected images. There is no right or wrong way to do this.) Ready? Go.
Step 3: Repeat the above, giving yourself two minutes and filling panel 2 on your paper. Again: “Being an artist in 2019.” Go.
Step 4: Repeat the above, giving yourself one minute and filling panel 3 on your paper. And again: “Being an artist in 2019.” Go.
Step 5: Repeat the above, giving yourself 30 seconds and filling panel 4 on your paper. Last time: “Being an artist in 2019.” Go.
Step 6: Take a photo of each of your panels (4 photos for 4 panels).
When you have completed parts 1 and 2, click “Reply” below, and embed your photos (of the story you wrote in 7 minutes + the photos of your panels) into a discussion post.
Once you have posted, you will be able to see your peers’ posts (unless, of course, you are first). After you have saved your post, click continue for this week’s resources.
