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

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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.

Hardback ISBN: 9781789389494
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Multimodal Duck-Rabbitry: Multistable Perception and the Narrative Potential of Fold-Ins
Intellect , 211 (2024); https://doi.org/10.1386/9781789389494_13
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References

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  36. Slattery, T. (2020), ‘Why they work: James Jean’, Notes on Design, https://www.sessions.edu/notes-on-design/why-they-work-james-jean/. Accessed 30 September 2020.
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References

  1. Aarseth, E. (1997), Cybertext: Perspectives on Ergodic Literature, Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.
     [Google Scholar]
  2. Behrens, R. R. (2004), ‘Art, design and gestalt theory’, Leonardo On-Line, https://www.leonardo.info/isast/articles/behrens.html. Accessed 30 March 2020.
     [Google Scholar]
  3. Bezemer, J. (ed.) (2020), ‘Social semiotics’, Multimodality Glossary, https://multimodalityglossary.wordpress.com/semiotic-resources/. Accessed 25 April 2020.
  4. Cohn, N. (2010), ‘The limits of time and transitions: Challenges to theories of sequential image comprehension’, Studies in Comics, 1:1, pp. 127–47, https://doi.org/10.1386/stic.1.1.127/1.231
     [Google Scholar]
  5. Cowan, A. L. (2010), ‘New sketch of a madcap's mad life’, The New York Times, New York, 18 July, https://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/02/books/02jaffee.html. Accessed 14 September 2023.
     [Google Scholar]
  6. Drucker, J. (2008), ‘Graphic devices: Narration and navigation’, Narrative, 16:2, pp. 121–39, http://www.jstor.org/stable/30219279. Accessed 19 July 2023.
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  7. Forceville, C. (2007), ‘A course in pictorial and multimodal metaphor’, Semiotics Institute, https://semioticon.com/sio/courses/pictorial-multimodal-metaphor/. Accessed 15 September 2020.
     [Google Scholar]
  8. Gibbons, A. (2012), ‘Multimodality, cognition, and experimental literature’, London and New York: Routledge.
     [Google Scholar]
  9. Gombrich, E. ([1960] 1977), Art and Illusion: A Study in the Psychology of Pictorial Representation, 5th ed., London: Phaidon Press.
     [Google Scholar]
  10. Grant, P. (2014), ‘Bodies on the boards: Materiality and movement in the production of comic books and graphic novels’, doctoral thesis, Department of Media, Music, Communication and Cultural Studies, Sydney: Macquarie University.
     [Google Scholar]
  11. Hague, I. (2014a), ‘Comics and the senses: A multisensory approach to comics and graphic novels’, in Routledge Research in Cultural and Media Studies, vol. 57, New York: Routledge.
     [Google Scholar]
  12. Hatfield, C. (2005), Alternative Comics: An Emerging Literature, Jackson: University Press of Mississippi.
     [Google Scholar]
  13. Hill, W. E. (1915), My Wife and My Mother-in-Law, London: Puck.
     [Google Scholar]
  14. Horgen, T. (2020), ‘The Great War by Joe Sacco’, Military, https://www.military.com/off-duty/books/2013/12/09/the-great-war-by-joe-sacco-review.html. Accessed 15 March 2020.
     [Google Scholar]
  15. Horstkotte, S. and Pedri, N. (2011), ‘Focalization in graphic narrative’, Narrative, 19:3, pp. 330–57, http://www.jstor.org/stable/41289308. Accessed 30 July 2020.
     [Google Scholar]
  16. Iannaccone, C. (2012), Accordion Fold, self-published.
  17. Jaffe, A. (1978), ‘Al Jaffe's fold in’, MAD Comics, September ed., New York.
     [Google Scholar]
  18. Jean, J. (2009), Rift, San Francisco: Chronicle Books.
  19. Kress, G. (2010), Multimodality: A Social Semiotic Approach to Contemporary Communication, New York: Routledge.
     [Google Scholar]
  20. Kukkonen, K. (2017), ‘Adventures in duck-rabbitry: Multistable elements of graphic narrative’, Narrative, 25:3, pp. 137–55.
     [Google Scholar]
  21. Kümmerling-Meibauer, B. and Meibauer, J. (2018), Picturebooks as Objects, Croatia: Libri & Liberi.
     [Google Scholar]
  22. Kunze, D. (2013), ‘Metalepsis of the site of exception’, Boundary Language, http://art3idea.psu.edu/AAPP/AAPP.pdf. Accessed 14 September 2020.
     [Google Scholar]
  23. Labarre, N. (2012), ‘Art and illusion in Blutch's Mitchum’, The Comics Grid: Year One, The Comics Grid Digital First Editions, pp. 248–51, http://www.comicsgrid.com/. Accessed 19 July 2023.
     [Google Scholar]
  24. Lalonde, G. (2011), The Crowd in My Head, self-published.
  25. Liesh, R. P. (2014), ‘Disrupted meaning: A study of subverting logic through artists’ books’, dissertation, Toowoomba: University of Southern Queensland.232
  26. Mambrol, N. (2016), ‘Gerard Genette and structural narratology’, Literary Theory and Criticism, https://literariness.org/2016/12/03/gerard-genette-and-structural-narratology/. Accessed 21 July 2021.
  27. Menegazzo R. (2018), Kuniyoshi, Visionary of the Floating World, Milan: Skira editore.
     [Google Scholar]
  28. Moon, B. (1992), Literary Terms: A Practical Guide, Perth: Chalkface Press.
     [Google Scholar]
  29. Oliver, M. (2005), ‘The problem with affordance’, E-learning and Digital Media, 2:4, pp. 402–13, https://doi.org/10.2304/elea.2005.2.4.402.
     [Google Scholar]
  30. Peltz, A. (2013), ‘A visual turn: Comics and art after the graphic novel’, Art in Print, 2:6, pp. 8–14, www.jstor.org/stable/43045499. Accessed 14 September 2020.
     [Google Scholar]
  31. Poyiadgi, A. (2013), On Reflection, self-published.
  32. Rodriguez-Martínez, G. A. and Castillo-Parra, H. (2018), ‘Bistable perception: Neural bases and usefulness’, International Journal of Psychological Research, 11:2, pp. 63–76, https://doi.org/10.21500/20112084.3375.
     [Google Scholar]
  33. Rogers-Ramachandran, D. and Ramachandran, V. (2008), ‘Paradoxical perceptions: How does the brain sort out contradictory images?’ Scientific American, https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/paradoxical-perceptions-2008-05/. Accessed 24 February 2021.
  34. Sacco, J. (2013), The Great War, New York: W.W. Norton & Company.
     [Google Scholar]
  35. Scott, R. (2017), ‘Material form as a structural force in Nicki Greenberg's The Great Gatsby and Hamlet’, Media International Australia, 164, pp. 139–50, https://doi.org/10.1177/1329878X17693098.
     [Google Scholar]
  36. Slattery, T. (2020), ‘Why they work: James Jean’, Notes on Design, https://www.sessions.edu/notes-on-design/why-they-work-james-jean/. Accessed 30 September 2020.
  37. van Leeuwen, T. (2005), Introducing Social Semiotics, London: Routledge.
     [Google Scholar]
  38. Wood, J. (2018), ‘What makes a joke funny?’ Psychology Central, https://psychcentral.com/news/2015/11/29/what-makes-a-joke-funny/95470.html. Accessed 18 July 2020.

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