Breaking the frame: unbinding the language of wordless visual narratives

This paper presents material taken from ongoing doctoral research which seeks to develop and analyse experimental forms of wordless narrative illustration. This practice-based research challenges the format of the wordless picturebook repositioning illustration into immersive spatial contexts. By relocating drawing as a method of narrative production, a discussion emerges which seeks to comprehend the language of the form articulated through the panel and the framing device and arranged as a complex network of sequenced images. Through deconstructing the bound book, and by removing a dependence on the written word, opportunities for non-linear storytelling arise which confront new ways in which narrative experiences might be designed and understood. Several practical examples are presented across the paper leading to a larger body of work which was exhibited at the Discover Children’s Story Centre, London, 2022. The reception of this remediation was examined through fieldwork and interview studies, situating the reader within the experience as a co-narrator. Qualitative data was gathered from dialogic group readings, seeking to better understand how the manifestation of an emerging theoretical framework is navigated and understood by a pre-teenage audience. This research examines the possibilities for the design of narrative material that is unrestrained by commercial necessity. In this context, the role of the authorial illustrator becomes central to the investigation, seeking the boundaries between complexities of narrative design, form and content. Whilst the author acknowledges that this research forecasts the transposition of material into digital contexts, including augmented reality and virtual reality, the material presented here is grounded in tangible experiences. The author’s positionality within this research is both as practising illustrator and as a teacher within the context of a formal education system. This research was conducted between the years of 2021 and 2023 with the support of Loughborough University.