Identity, Graphic Narrative and the Past – my poster for the American Anthropological Association session on graphic medicine. Click for larger version (warning: it’s a big file)
Thanks to everyone who came by the AAA Graphic Medicine poster session this morning. Some really interesting discussion and comments on all the posters. Nice to hear from some people that the session has inspired them to think of applications for comics in their own areas of expertise! There’s more on the One of Those People project here, and more blog posts on comics and archaeology generally here.
There were a number of times during the conference that the subject of comics came up. First, they came up in conversations about accessibility of information; second, they came up in conversations about representations of anthropology (and anthropologists) in the media and the public arena more generally; and third, they came up in specific conversations about ways to capture and present narratives of experience to a peer audience.
I couldn’t help thinking that the same arguments I have been making over the past four years about the use of comics in archaeology are entirely applicable to anthropology. Indeed, one of the points I have made consistently is that my arguments for using comics in archaeology are derived from the same arguments being made in medicine and, indeed, in science communication as a whole.
As graphic communication – including comics and graphic novels – becomes more mainstream, scientists and researchers who embrace the medium now will find themselves at the leading edge of a what could be described as a paradigm shift in communication habits. The written word alone – as beautiful as that might be – is not going to be the dominant information medium of the rest of the 21st century. Science – in all its aspects – needs to understand that and make graphic formats part of its core communication toolset.
