Research Seminar: ‘Comics, Embodied Trace and Haptic Encounter, from Artifact of Reproduction to Algorithmic Outcome’

An exploration of the role of materials in the embodied reading and making practices of graphic narratives, and how technological reproduction affects these performances

Location: LT G.12, Clothworkers Building North

Comics involve the body in performances that are simultaneously haptic and tactile, imaginative and material. This seminar considers how indexes of materials and embodiment are translated through photographic, digital and machine learning technologies into embodied encounters sited on the surfaces of visual narratives.

Through a consideration of a variety of comics, including examples from my practice in which I utilise materials such as crayons, embroidery and pyrography, I will argue that imaginative tactile engagement with material surface represents an under-considered register through which comics communicate. I will consider the future of this register at a moment when AI image generation technology renders these indexical encounters ontologically ambiguous.

Gareth Brookes is a PhD candidate at UAL who has recently submitted a thesis exploring the role of materiality in the embodied experience of making and reading comics. He is a practicing graphic novelist whose published work includes The Dancing Plague (2021, SelfMadeHero).