Packaged Narrative Project - "Memento Vivere"

Following the idea of bringing back my childhood, the packaging (the box) was built in wood using the design of The Little Prince’s imaginary box. I chose this reference because I used to have this book when I was a child and I strongly feel attached with its message. The concept of the box containing a sheep that you can’t see extremely relies to the way that I perceive my childhood. (“L’essentiel est invisible pour le youx”) I see my childhood as that part of me that I find more pure and essential in every aspect. It is that period in everybody’s life where we are extremely naive and without fear show the essence of our soul. 

During the process of the box I found important to show a floor plan of my house in Cuba, so I could bring the viewer closer to my memories and the place where most of the experience happened. I also wanted to create a surprise effect by having two compartments inside the box, where in the first one you could only see the zin, and in the second one you would encounter the floor plan with the objects. I see my box, objects, and zin as a journey back to the beginning. The objects were crayons, africanas (a type of cookie that was part of my childhood), and stamps. The zin (postcards) doesn’t have stamps on it, so I was wisely advised to use stamps as one of my objects. I really liked this idea and made ten Cuban stamps and ten American stamps to represent the­ two homes in my life.  

After so much thinking of a title, I chose to name it “Memento Vivre” because my box represents memories of a lifetime that, although sometimes was hard, it was full of joy and life. I think it functions as a way of reminding us how easy life can turn out to be if we just take things like kids do. It is way to push everybody to meditate about their childhood and make up with that kid inside you. It is a way to look at things in another perspective and encourage yourself to embrace life and its essence. 

Zin Project - "Memento Vivere"

Process of the Zin 

The main idea or concept behind my zin was to create a collection of memories of my childhood. In my case, the zin is build up by twenty postcards with printed pictures of drawings that I made when I was a child. The drawings are a reflection of my psyche back then, and along with the writing illustrate the narrative. The writings on the back of the postcards are passages of things that my mind has kept of my childhood in Cuba. It is a way to talk to myself and remember the person that I was when I was a kid. The things that I experienced and the way that I received them, the bad, the good, everything becomes a conversation with my other I. The postcards show both sides in one, the person that I was in the past and the person that I am in the present. Since I’m Cuban, of course, the writing had to be in Spanish, it couldn’t have been written in a better way. This project has awakened things that I thought I had forgotten, but that instead remain in my subconscious. It’s bizarre the way that the mind works sometimes. 

Narrative: Destination Comic #2

The second lecture/reading was at 2:30, and this one was titled “Play to Win: Graphic Novel Games”. In this case the comics had a particular relation with the world of video games. I have to say that I am not a big fan of video games, but I did find this lecture/reading surprisingly appealing because is another approach to make comics that I never thought of. The concept here was to make interactive comics either solving a problem or figuring out the way to get to the end of it. I think that these types of comics are fun in design and in some way instructive, and can definitively have an interesting narrative.

The first author was the charismatic Gene Luen Yang, who presented his book “Secret Coders: Paths and Portals”. I have to say that this is a really smart book, which is totally instructional because it introduces you to the field of coding. As he said, the book was thought to be in a series of thin books because in that way the reader will have time to code that is written at the end of every chapter. In this way the book becomes totally interactive and instructive at the same time. The second author was Ryan North, who was presenting the book “Romeo and or Juliet”. This book functions as a choice story, where that the reader can pick the direction of the narrative; guiding the same to different or same outcomes. The beauty of these books is that they work as puzzles to be solved.

Narrative: Destination Comics #1

Since on weekends I normally work, I decided to go to the early lecture/readings on Saturday. The first lecture/reading that I went to, which happened at 1:30 pm, was called Teenage Riot: YA Reality with a Comics Kick. This one in particular was really interesting because since the authors were females, it had that feminine perspective about comics. I liked that each of them shared their different styles, experiences, work process, and points of view as comics makers. They were an amazing example of the empowerment of woman in the society with an accentuated heroism.

The first author was Margaret Stohl, who was presenting the book “Black Widow: Red Vengeance”. She has always worked in coordination with Marvel and, as she repeated saying, is a great fanatic of super-heroes. I enjoyed how she shared things about her childhood and the great connection that she felt with Batman’s story. The second author was Jessica Abel, who was presenting the book “Trish Trash: Rollergirl of Mars”. It was stimulating to hear her work processing using In Design program as her rough draft without images, since everybody has so many different approaches. Last but not least, was the third author Maggie Thrash, who was presenting her recent book “We Know It Was You”. Thrash is better known by her graphic memoir “Honor Girl”, where she reveals her first lesbian experience during the summer at Camp Bellflower. I found really interesting her different concepts about writing and drawing, which sees writing as an easier way to lie and drawing as a better way to be truthful with yourself and others.  

Action/Mood-emotion/Topic

Narrative: Comics/Poetry

What is Comics Poetry: An Essay by Alexander Rothman

I have always found incredibly intelligent how comics have the power of telling stories through image and text with a fragmented narrative. I think that this fragmented narrative is the relationship between comics and poetry that Alexander Rothman was talking about. In the same way that we semiotically try to convey images in a comic book, we semantically try to link words or phrases in a poem. They both have in common the capacity of leaving that space of imagination for you to knit the puzzle. I think that although they are different of expressions Alexander explains very well the place where he sees that they relate to.

I have to say that I have never thought about comics and poetry to have a connection until now. I really like how Alexander generates questions in the essay making the reader analyze things from another perspective and look for an answer. I love the concept behind comics poetry because is one of the many ways to approach to art. Also just like Alexander says at the end of the essay, comics poetry is not something, like many things nowadays, that you quick consume and is totally meaningless.  Its complexity and subjectivity forces the consumer to think and figure out how the reading travels.