GIADA PETERLE, Università di Padova

What are the peculiar im/mobilities of comics? Like in other cultural representations, in comics mobility is both experienced and thought, it is not simply represented but also necessarily practiced and embodied. Proposing an interdisciplinary perspective on ‘graphic im/mobilities’, this presentation explores the entanglements between mobility studies and comics, bringing together theoretical and methodological reflections coming from the social sciences, comics studies, narrative geographies, and creative approaches in the geohumanities.
Starting from the perspective of a geographer-cartoonist, the presentation considers the use of comics as a research practice in mobility studies. Bringing a series of original examples and of graphic fieldwork experiences in European cities, it will discuss the use of creative and narrative mobile methods to draw mobile subjects, practices, and infrastructures in urban contexts. Finally, the presentation reflects on how comics allow us to explore multi-layered perceptions of time-space, and to access mundane, intimate, affective, and emotional aspects connected to everyday mobilities. 

Discutants / Adrien Frenay, Lucia Quaquarelli