Arrival! PW Podcast - NEW site

While I've moved my updates, archives, comics, and comics and education resources over to their new home, www.spinweaveandcut.com, I know people are still showing up here - so I'm posting a little update and asking visitors to migrate over to www.spinweaveandcut.com. (A longer version of this post is here.)

My copy of Unflattening arrived! Nearly a year ago, I defended the dissertation, just after we welcomed our daughter into the world, and as she turns one and is starting to get up on her feet, it seems fitting that this too is launching. Calvin Reed of Publishers Weekly interviewed me about Unflattening for their More to Come audio podcast. It's a long conversation on comics, scholarship, and my process - online here. (PW also reviewed Unflattening here and I did an interview with Inside Higher Education here. I've devoted a page to compiling all news about the book, and you can see more info on Harvard UP's site as well.) 

As part of a series of essays on alt-scholarship (of which the entire collection is available here), I  contributed a piece reflecting on my experience doing the dissertation in comics, online here, Also this week, I did an interview with Anne Brackenbury for the series Graphic Adventures in Anthropology - in which we discussed my process, the intersection of scholarship and art, future possibilities for ethnography in comics, and collaboration. Have a look here. Finally, while it's only been out a few days, Unflattening has already been used in Professor Steven L. Berg of Schoolcraft College composition courses! They already took up the concept of Parallax and Dr. Berg is planning to use the book in his courses in the fall.

Thanks for the support - please join me at www.spinweaveandcut.com! - N

New site, PW Review!

As mentioned in the previous post, I've moved this blog to a proper site www.spinweaveandcut.com. I kept all the old archives, plus added resources on comics and education and more. Please join me there! Also - this week, Unflattening got its first review on Publishers Weekly - and it's fantastic. Check it out here and come on over to the new site! See you there, thanks! - Nick

New Site!

With the imminent arrival of Unflattening, I have a proper site now in place at www.spinweaveandcut.com. I've been giving out that address all along, but it's been bouncing to this blog. Going forward, I'll be posting all content on the new site. I brought over all the existing archives of my work and added the former wiki I had of resources related to my course on comics and education as well. Hope you'll join me there!

Also, just in, a nice feature on the work at Inside Higher Ed. See you at www.spinweaveandcut.com. - Nick

Final Page and International Talks

As we continue to get settled in Calgary, I ended up drawing one final page for my book Unflattening (formerly-known-as-my-dissertation) due out from Harvard University Press in March of 2015. While with the exception of the cover, some additional title images, and cleanup, the drawing has been done since i defended in the spring, circumstances required a last minute additional page to solve a pagination issue with how I intended the other pages to be laid out. I share the thumbnails i made for the layout and a vine video of my process here. The finished piece along with all the rest of the work will be out in just three short months (and already available for preorder)! Excited to be able to share it in one whole piece and see it that way for myself! (See more info on Unflattening on HUP's site.)

Days after arriving in Calgary, I had the opportunity to make a quick trip to Umeå, Sweden, and present on my work at the conference on Genres of Scholarly Knowledge Production organized by Patrik Svensson. It was a thought-provoking event all around, and I had the privilege of being one of the first to present on their new 3 screens on the wall and one on the floor presentation space. It was a fun challenge to think through presentation as more than one slide at a time and particularly interesting for me to consider in terms of making comics and how one could use that spatial dimension to engage with the audience in different fashion. I'm sharing two virtual images from how I prepared the talk beforehand and one live image where i got to stand on all the feet that I'd gathered with the put your foot in my dissertation contest. Thanks to Patrik and all who gathered there for such a stimulating adventure and warm reception! 

Finally, back in November I gave a keynote address at the International Visual Literacy Association's conference held at the Toledo Museum of Art. It was a terrific gathering and I got to present in the grand venue that hosts the Toledo Symphony. The museum has just made videos from the conference available - you can see mine and others on YouTube here or embedded below. Note, should you wish to watch it but find yourself intimidated by the video's length - I speak only for about the first 20 minutes or so, and then lead participants in a comics-making exercise, which takes up most of the rest of the video until a final Q&A.

Wishing you well as we approach the shortest day of the year and the approach of the days getting longer again. (My two days in Sweden were nearly sunless - with the sunset that far north happening around 1:30!) Best to all over the holidays and in the new year. - Nick