Political and Technological Tensions in Comics

Hi everyone, welcome to the Comic Art Working Group! In this section we can discuss the main topics of the panel, make suggestions, or share ideas. All kinds of contributions are well received!

We also have the possibility to comment on a particular paper, as we informed you in the email on Monday. We have a wide range of articles with different approaches, objects, methodologies, and contexts; we kindly encourage you to read them.

Remember that next week we are going to have the live interactive session.

We are looking forward to reading you! Best wishes!

Excellent day, I greet you with great pleasure in this space for dialogue.
I would like to know your opinion on the guiding theme of our panel. How do you think that comics are influenced by technology and politics?

In my opinion, the comic is a very precise thermometer on technological advances, an example are the stories that are being created with artificial intelligence, such as the case of the Spanish comic Gatas (vid. https://www.cyw.es/gatas).
In turn, the comic has had a notable role in exposing worldwide, situations related to the political sphere. An example is the political caricature, which since the 17th century has allowed, through humor and graphic expression, denunciation and social reflection, as was the work of William Hogarth in England. (vid. https://www.lambiek.net/artists/h/hogarth_william.htm)

I hope you can share your opinion about this topics, it will be great to read them.

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Excelente día, los saludo con mucho gusto en este espacio de diálogo.
Me gustaría saber su opinión sobre el tema guía de nuestro panel. ¿Cómo crees que los cómics están influenciados por la tecnología y la política?

En mi opinión, el cómic es un termómetro muy preciso sobre los avances tecnológicos, un ejemplo son las historias que se están creando con inteligencia artificial, como es el caso del cómic español Gatas (vid. https://www.cyw.es/gatas).
A su vez, el cómic ha tenido un papel destacado en la exposición, a nivel mundial, de situaciones relacionadas con el ámbito político. Un ejemplo es la caricatura política, que desde el siglo XVII ha permitido, a través del humor y la expresión gráfica, la denuncia y la reflexión social, como fue la obra de William Hogarth en Inglaterra. (vid. https://www.lambiek.net/artists/h/hogarth_william.htm)

Espero que puedas compartir tu opinión sobre estos temas, será genial leerlos.

Dear all,
In relation to what Citlaly said, I agree that comics have a great capacity of exposing situations of inequalities and make them visible to people around the world due to their visual language and the possibilities of technology. I also may add that this characteristic of comics makes them a powerful tool in social and political struggles.
As some of you pointed out in your papers, comics and cartoons can tackle several problems of our contemporary society: they can fight disinformation in an era characterized by the so-called fake news, but they can also spark nationalism in the context of emerging alt-rights movements or xenophobia in mostly every continent. They can issue some old problems regarding the relation between technology improvement and the status quo of inequalities, the urgent need of tackling environmental problems, or fighting against discrimination. And of course, comics also play a core role in political elections and the decision tacking regarding public politics.
For those reasons, I think that comics are even more than a vehicle for representing our world and problems. In fact, they are part of the symbolic struggles through which we frame it. And technology (for example, the power of AI or the new social media) can enable the spread of progressist, human rights-based comics, or the opposite: comics that serves nationalism, xenophobic movements, alt-rights parties, etc. I dare say that the papers in this section issue these problems and point out the different possibilities of comics in this political and social tensions.
I would love to read what the other authors think about it,

Dear all,

We hope you will continue to participate with your comments on the platform. Remember that in the online interactive session on July 5 at 14:00 UTC, we will award the Best Paper of the OCP [more information at https://iamcr.org/lyon2023/online/s-wg-sessions]. The prize is the publication in the International Journal of Comic Art, books, and a recognition made by a comic author. This year is the Argentinian artist Lauri Fernández https://www.instagram.com/fernandez.lauri/

If you are not going to Lyon, you can present your work (15 minutes, Spanish or English). If you want to participate, please send an email to the heads of the group. nallelyhn@gmail.com, irubinstein@politicas.unam.mx, citlaestrella@hotmail.com as soon as possible.

We are looking forward to reading you!

Best wishes!

14:00 – 15:30 UTC | Comic Art Working Group (COA) – Online Interactive Session
Meeting ID: 826 8181 7661
Access code: 713168 https://cuaieed-unam.zoom.us/j/82681817661?pwd=ODVaYWpPOTIyNFNUM1RkVHRi…

Policy and artificial intelligence in cartoons
I think comic has great potential, not only in the politic criticism, is an artistic expression with big communication capacity. A lot of caricaturists use image and speech, but some of them only use image. They deal with topics of philosophy, history, sociology, lifestyle, fashion, biology, mathematic, genetic, ecology, human rights. Moreover, their role in the scientific discourse includes fields from all kinds of disciplines. But the oldest antecedents may be the relationships with the critic to the establishment or religion, and their rigid morality, some kind of funny little drawings that appear on the medieval manuscript’s margins. Now, comic continues being exploited by the political and social critique, and their potential is limitless.
Regarding technology, for instance the artificial intelligence, it can’t do a lot about criticism, because to be able to criticize its necessary to do reasoning with humor. It’s very difficult for this kind of system to be, by itself, sarcastic, ironic, exaggerated, or extreme naivete about an event or character. It’s necessary to tell it how, to introduce the instructions or to search the steps you need to follow, and maybe even then, it doesn´t give you back exactly what you want.
But if we talk about the drawing, it seems like it’s easier, because the cartoonist (or specifically the manga artist) asks the artificial intelligence for a style, hair color, skin color, maybe even an academic or bum look, etc. and as a consequence the artificial intelligence looks for all those characteristics and throws a product like the user asked it, but it can never be exactly what they wants or images. However, it’s very practical to make products in a series or in a sequence, cheaper and faster.
Talking about the process or creations, if we put in action all our cognitive possibilities through all our senses, using our hands and eyes, and we include in the drawing the information that our memory, with my olfactory and auditory imagination provides me, the result should be with a very important charge of emotion, one of the principal elements to communicate and make art.