Week 07 13/04/16 Wednesday

Today we were given examples of a tutor's methodological frameworks he employed in his studies. The overview clarified my understanding concerning the assignment a bit more. I went on to research about methodologies and interactive comics. I found a useful paper regarding Practice-Based Research and Practice-Led Research. Practice-based research will ultimately produce a creative artefact, along with documentation of the practice. The documentation serves to situate the artefact within a wider context, and justify its reason being. Practice-led research is concerned with the workflow; the documentation or thesis of this kind of research may stand alone without the final artefact. For now I believe that my project is practice-based. I am aiming to create a material by the end of this research that can be published or exhibited. The "Practice Based Research: A Guide" paper by Linda Candy explains that practice-based research requires a large amount of contextual material in order to determine the creative work's location, and whether or not it is able to advance the knowledge of the respected field in a scholarly and academic way.

Following that, I did some light research around interactive comics, and I managed to find some interesting things. Without using any databases for academic results, there are many different kinds of interactive comics. Most are original webcomics created by everyday people; the interaction occurs between the creator and the reader, where the reader is able to comment and suggest what decisions or which path the named protagonist should make or take. There are also websites dedicated to one comic, and it integrates limited animation into its pages, allowing small interactions when the reader clicks on an icon. These comics also have very specialized styles that fit the comics' themes, and the reader usually clicks on speech bubbles or arrow icons to "turn" the pages. This is also an interesting path I could take. But I assume if I were to experiment with all of these possibilities, then my project would be practice-led, as there is no fixed destination where the practice would go. I may need to discuss this further with my supervisor. I also need to continue with my contextual review. For now I have moved away from comics and on to interactive comics. When contemplating about producing my project, I get rather excited. I love the process of comic making and I love to receive feedback from readers. But the impediment which is the writing aspect of my degree frustrates me, I hope to complete the contextual review and research methodology as swiftly and as competently as possible, so I can implement the creative aspect of my project.

Seven Deadly Sins - Envy