Multimodal Duck-Rabbitry: Multistable Perception and the Narrative Potential of Fold-Ins

Multistable perception describes the trick of visual perception where one image is perceived to transition into another. This process is both cognitive and perceptual, which means the image itself does not change, it is the viewer's perception that changes via our ‘subjective filtering mind’ (Horstkotte and Pedri 2011: 332). Karin Kukkonen calls this kind of visual paradox ‘duck-rabbitry’ after the 1892 illustration of a duck that can also be perceived as a rabbit (Kukkonen 2017: 137). This chapter examines multistable perception in the context of multimodal theory by exploring the meaning-making potential of narrative fold-ins – that is, comics and ergodic, analogue visual narratives that exploit the folding potential of the page for narrative ends. The chapter is structured in three parts: first, we define multistable perception in relation to multimodality more broadly, and then in relation to specific forms of multistable images; second, we discuss how multistable perception is made more complex when considering the influence of metaphor, materiality, and temporal affordances; third, we explore the narrative potential of multistable perception across a range of exemplar comics specifically in relation to these multimodal affordances in works by Gaëlle Lalonde, Andy Poyiadgi, Joe Sacco, Carmine Iannaccone, and James Jean. These analyses provide insight into comics which use the multimodal structure of the book-as-object to encourage play, contribute to narrative, disrupt time, and undermine the assumptions of linear storytelling. Despite shifting paradigms in comics studies, the tensions between the page and the panel are often resolved in favour of sequential narrative. By introducing multistable elements that emerge via the manipulation of the book itself, narrative fold-ins promote non-linear reading, creative engagement, and interactivity.