Not a Game

While I'm plugging away on Chapter Four (you can see the finale to Chapter Three here, and the opening excerpt from the current chapter here), current discussions around war got me thinking about the page from "Possibilities," my 2006 comic on games that takes up the subject. It's not an attempt to offer answers, but perhaps a pause for reflection.

I've only shared a few pages previously from this comic including the "Rabbit" page (and its key) here. It was originally created as the essay for the exhibition Game Show Detroit and rereleased for the follow up exhibition (and conference) Game Show NYC. Here, I've included two pages, the first on "rules" applied more broadly to culture and the second on war as a loss of possibilities.

I thought I'd partner these pages with a previously shared excerpt from Chapter Two of the dissertation, taking up the importance of multiple perspectives and Lakoff and Johnson's reframing of argument as dance rather than argument as war. Perhaps today, gulfs of mutual incomprehension will be bridged and new possibilities for going forward reached. - Nick

Labels...

My return to making comics was triggered by an invitation to participate in a political art show in Detroit on the eve of the 2004 election. That piece, "Security" was quickly followed up by with a second piece "A Show of Hands" immediately after the election. Much that emerged in that second piece shapes the way I've been working since. For the 2008 election, I made the piece "Seeing Red/Feeling Blue," which prompted me to launch this digital space. I took a quick break from the dissertation to continue this quadrennial tradition with the following piece on labels. In many ways it follows up on what I was dealing with in the Red/Blue piece, but it also plays on things I've been thinking about in the dissertation - specifically my intentionality in leaving specific words out of the work that might act to prevent readers from accessing the work. I see this in conversations on politics all the time - how people who otherwise get along quite swimmingly, are torn asunder by the introduction of a single label. In this heated, divisive time in this country, I felt compelled to make something that talks about our commonality and all that we share - which I suppose is what all my political comics have been about. Anyhow - enough words, here 'tis. More dissertation pages soon. - Nick

 

Arts & Humanities...

This past year I've served as a PAGE fellow (Publicly Active Graduate Education) within the Imagining America consortium. A little while back in the midst of presidential candidate debates, PAGE hosted a tele-conference to discuss the importance of the university experience and Arts & Humanities education to push back against some of the candidates' views. After the call, I sketched out a quick piece on the train and soon after transformed it into the short comic below (with text input from IA's communications manager Jamie Haft). While not a page from my dissertation - some of the themes and the tetrahedrons will be rearing their heads in chapters to come...  - Nick 

Hold Close (Tsunami Essay)

In the midst of the initial batch of headlines coming out of Japan, I found myself viscerally compelled to respond in some way. Perhaps on the second or third night after the tsunami hit, I had jotted down some notes about an initial idea for this piece, before going to sleep. I couldn't sleep, and got up to put sketches down - that ultimately are pretty much what I ended up doing in the final piece. The piece kept changing throughout the process before returning back to nearly what I'd come up with that first night. There are no neat answers in this situation and as further horrors stack up, I find myself coming back to that last line over and over again "hold close..." - Nick

Seeing Red, Feeling Blue

A comic about divisions and over-simplification in four pages. Created in October of 2008. - Nick 

(Click on individual images to view at full size - and to print.)  

Show of Hands

This was created for "Defending the Tree of Liberty" part two - which was post-Presidential Election 2004. Along with the piece for part one "Security", i credit these pieces as getting me back into making comics after a rather lengthy hiatus. - N

Security

This was created for an art show "Defending the Tree of Liberty" before the 2004 Presidential Election. Participating in this project (with short notice), helped get me back into making comics again. - N