Multimodal communication/PhD studies
Darcy Tamayose is a PhD Candidate in Cultural, Social, and Political Thought (CSPT) examining the Okinawan Canadian diaspora. Her MA (History) thesis explored the kika nisei journey of Naoko Shimabukuro—spanning from southern Alberta to Hamahiga Island with focus on the Okinawan Canadian civilian frontline experience during the Second World War Battle of Okinawa. Tamayose’s PhD study expands upon the MA work and continues with the oral history-scaffolded investigation of the 1907 wave of issei immigrants that came from various Ryukyu island districts to settle on the southern Alberta prairies. She is currently a research assistant with the Nikkei Memory Capture Project.
Supervisory committee: Drs. Carly Adams (University of Lethbridge, CA), Gideon Fujiwara (UofL), Darren Aoki (Plymouth University, UK), Gregory Smits (Pennsylvania State University, US), and committee chair, Kristine Alexander (UofL).
Current read: City of Glass by Paul Auster, graphic novel adaptation by Paul Karasik and David Mazzucchelli; The Song of the Cell: An Exploration of Medicine and the New Human by Siddhartha Mukherjee; Doppelganger by Naomi Klein. Current listen: Marcel Proust’s Time Regained (In Search of Lost Time #6): Books of Some Substance on Spotify; Aleksandar Hemon Reads Vladimir Nabokov’s Pnin “… a brief sunny escape from Lolita’s intolerable spell …”: New Yorker Fiction on Spotify; Talking Heads Fear of Music which led to The Road to Punk Rock playlist on Spotify (KM and SA suggestions on Music (mostly), Art, and Literature). Current watch: The Taste of Things directed by Trần Anh Hùng.
Critical analysis of Feminism, Gender, and Sovereignty readings sometimes include meta-study excavation of the invisible and hidden through interrogation of words as well as spending time with the pencil in the drawing process. The final panel: white space as metaphor for invisible and hidden, Tamayose, 2022.
“Multimodal Variables of Invisible and Hidden: Theorizing Okinawan Canadian Diaspora” CSPT 7201 Feminism, Gender, and Sovereignty with Dr. Carol Williams, Lethbridge, AB: University of Lethbridge, 2022.
IN POETRY FORMAT OF communicating the feminist voice, there may be power in the written word that is invisible and hidden. In these particular texts consider the underlying capacity of individual words delivered literally or metaphorically in the cultural context inside and outside of the western theoretical sphere. There is a sense of word economy—whether in poetry or through textual integration of English/Spanish[1]—look carefully for it may be pre-packaged with knowledge and cultural history. The poems of Akiko Yosano and Cherríe Moraga may possess invisible and hidden in a powerful way rather than conceptualized in terms of marginal as the western lens may assign. Ibid., 4.
[1] AnaLouise Keating, “‘I’m a Citizen of the Universe’ Gloria Anzaldúa’s Spiritual Activism as Catalyst for Social Change,” in Feminist Theory Reader: Local and Global Perspectives, edited by Carole R. McCann, Seung-Kyung Kim, and Emek Ergun (5th ed., 2021), New York: Routledge, 427.
Tools/purpose: Staedtler Mars pencil (2H/3B), sharpener and eraser; Canon 5D Mark III wi long lens; iPhone; Photoshop; for academic essay.
The Autoethnographic Hand, Tamayose, 2021.
IN THE SUMMER OF 2021 I explored drawing as part of an Independent Study course in autoethnographic practice. I argue that the form of writing—a traditional way to conduct academic research and delivery—is only one way to share knowledge.
“A PhD Student’s First Look at Autoethnography: Connecting with Audience Through Multimodal Methodology (the written or spoken word is not the only way to present oneself in a vulnerable light)”, CSPT 7990 Autoethnography Independent Study with Dr. Jason Laurendeau, Lethbridge, AB: University of Lethbridge, 2021.
Can a drawing or visual be used as a way to explore anecdotally and to reflect upon cultural, social, and political thought? The use of drawing and the multimodal practice can enrich in the ways of process, communication, and help grasp concepts in a more transparent and universally understood way. Ibid., 20.
Minimalist art: I’ve sketched my hand many times. Why? Simplicity. Pencil, paper, and some light. All the elements needed to study the art of sketch at hand.
Tools/purpose: Blackwing pencil, Staedtler sharpener, iPhone photo, journal paper, Photoshop, academic essay.
The Red Coat, Tamayose, 2021. Multimodal process: surrounded by articles, textbooks, journal, devices, and sketches from my forthcoming short story collection Ezra’s Ghosts, NeWest Press, 2022.
More Than a Gate, Tamayose, 2021.
MY PARENTS WERE ALWAYS WONDERING what was happening with my PhD studies. I reviewed an earlier draft of a Discourse Analysis paper with them. It was the drawings (and less the formal academic writing) that evoked memories, engagement, and stimulated hearty discussion and laughter. It was the drawings that connected us—and that’s what mattered most.
Ibid., 7.
Tools/purpose: Blackwing, Sharpie, Copic markers, iPhone photos, vellum, books, various technologies that bridge analogue/digital, academic essay.
MORE THAN A GATE. Like a poem or abstract painting the graphic panel is not a full sentence. Rather, the viewer/reader interprets images separately, in groups, and as a whole. The different illustrative styles are given freedom because of the common visual classifications such as: san serif typography, counter-chaos intimacy of my father’s quiet and slow world, the red tones that draw from the coat that my grandfather gave me, and the alignment and orderliness of the black frames. There is also reference to Du Bois’ “measuring one’s soul by the tape of the world” and my “measuring one’s soul by the tape of the heart.”
Ibid., 14.
Meta-multimodal: typography, lines, colours/shades collaborate in overarching panel storytelling within an academic essay that is 30% graphic novelization and 70% formal academic writing.
Tools/purpose: Blackwing, Sharpie, iPhone photos, vellum, Photoshop, academic essay.