Projects

Mötesplats Serier (Comics Crossroads) 2017-2018
An initiative for comic artists, comics researchers, publishers and others working in the comics scene in Skåne, to develop and understand the comics as an art form, as well as access better resources, larger networks and more opportunities. The project was based at the School of Arts and Communication, K3, and was run by the Faculty of Culture and Society, Malmö University with support from Region Skåne.
Link: https://blogg.mah.se/motesplatsserier/

Presentation of Images and Comics for the Blind and Visually Impaired
Jakob Dittmar, Rainer F.V. Witte (prev.: blista, MR)
2013-01-01 – 2018-12-31
https://www.mah.se/Forskning/Sok-pagaende-forskning/Presentation-of-Images-and-Comics-for-the-Blind-and-Visually-Impaired-/

The project looks into the potential and the restrictions of sequential pictorial storytelling that is accessible for blind readers. Special attention is given to the elements of comics’ narratives and the technical background of tactile text and image representation. Basis for sequential pictorial information are in this case representations of images as tactile information.

Results so far suggest that due to the process of giving information in tactile comics, these present an extreme challenge for readers who have been born blind, while readers that have grown blind later in life seem able to refer the elements of spatially dispersed information (tactile images) to their memory of visual information. 

Storytelling in Comics
Jakob Dittmar & Gunnar Krantz
2011-06-01 – 2015-07-31
https://www.mah.se/Forskning/Inaktiva-forskningsprojekt/Storytelling-in-Comics/

Comics narrate visually: all information on situations and their aspects, on their development is communicated visually, including all those aspects of our environment which usually are invisible like sound, spoken words and often even thoughts.

Storytelling in comics looks at the possibilities that are given in the graphic elements of comics. The consequences of styling images and text and of choosing specific changes in time and perspective between juxtaposed images are crucial for each individual story and its tone, atmosphere etc.

The logic of visual narrations is fixed by specific relations to the textual layer of each comic. The textlayer enhances thus the references of the images. On the other hand, texts often lack details which are contained or referred to in the images. How this interaction works and how the pacing of the narration interrelate and establish comics-dramaturgies is researched in this project.