The phenomenology of creativity in the graphic novel: A practical investigation of intermedial visual storytelling.

点击翻译按钮获取中文摘要

research project will investigate, through practice, how the formal properties of the graphic novelcan shed light on the epistemological and phenomenological processes that underpin the creative act.The project will contribute to our understanding of the graphic novel as an emerging and under-studiedmedium whose intersecting relationship with existing mediums (e.g. literary fiction, poetry, fine art, film,narrative illustration, theatre) means that it has uniquely intermedial properties. It will also contribute aunique series of original creative artefacts to the field with formally and thematically innovativeproperties (these will include, but may not be restricted to, an extended graphic novel (c. 200 pp.),development work/passes, and process books).My project will explore and exploit the medium's capacity for formal hybridity in order to create a body ofwork that serves as an extended visual meta-narrative, commenting on ways of knowing and on theexperience of creativity. The specific areas that will structure the project are as follows: consciousness,intentionality, and the first-person perspective, each of which will be explored in relation to the creativeact.The project consists of 50% practical work and 50% theory/commentary (approximately 45,000 words),which will run alongside each other (see timetable below). The practical and theoretical elements willinform each other, through a methodology of formal experimentation (using a range of techniques andmedia such as paper engineering, use of fly-outs, digital technologies such as QR codes). Iterative testingwill also be used to develop the practical work, working with key target audiences including a generaladult readership and industry experts (designers, publishers, librarians, booksellers), both online andwhere possible, in person, through annual exhibitions and feedback.I am well-placed to undertake this work on the basis of my work for the MA in Illustration at NottinghamTrent University (2019-2020), in which I created a meta-fictional graphic novel called FL_W (114pp.).FL_W was written from the first-person perspective of an artist who reflects on creativity. The reader seesher thought processes, her visual imaginings, and the products of her labour. Thematically, FL_Wcommented on the experience of the passage of time and our sense of self. Formally, FL_W was a hybridnarrative, combining original prose, dialogue, lyrics, poetry and play scripts, and visually referencingfamous works of fine art. My exploration of intermediality and the relationship between artistic processand product, will be the foundation for my research-by-practice project.