Teaching Beyond the Curriculum

Abstract

This paper explores worldbuilding or subcreation, particularly within visual narrative, as a means for facilitating rites of passage for readers. The paper examines the process of worldbuilding for wordless, visual narratives by considering the picture book and exhibition; between worlds. The book is essentially a picture book which consists of four wordless narratives and the stories respond to transitional experiences such as coming of age, religious trauma, finding community and queer identity. This paper is especially concerned with the process of making the book and presents a framework for visualising fictitious spaces and stories in illustration, that relies heavily on experimentation and intuitive play without set clear intentions. Visual narrative has the potential to aid readers make sense of their own experiences, but the world which houses the narrative must be constructed effectively; allowing readers to make sense of the narrative contained in the sequence of images, while leaving some parts open to interpretation.