Mapping Seth

Intro 1Our paper is about our construction of a web archive out of Canadian comic book artist Seth's imaginary Canadian town Dominion City.

We wanted to take advantage of the form of Seth's comics and their theme--the decay and loss of buildings and urban spaces--to create a virtual heritage site that would have some advantages over real heritage sites.

These advantages reveal themselves as we contrast Seth's comics with his cardboard model version of Dominion, which ends up being a fixed empty shell that lacks the temporal dimension of the comics.

Intro 2Seth's decision to "build" DC out of cardboard models, shows the problem of fixing structures in space, which is that the anxiety over material preservation leads to stasis and death.

We think the problem with cardboard Dominion is similar to that of many "real" heritage sites: they try to materialize and make permanent something that was never so in the first place: the spirit(s) of the past inhabiting the spaces.

Meanwhile, the comic book version and our web archive of it allow what architect Michael McClelland calls the "ghost functions of the past" to circulate in the present.

Archives and ArchitectureBecause of the way they use space (the grid of panels and drawings) and time (the variable sequence of panels and drawings) comics provide an ideal structure for multiple iterations of buildings and spaces.

The structure of the comics page is like a grid of compartments to store images: like these perfume bottles. But also a grid of rooms or windows stacked on top of each other like floors.

This structural affinity between comics and both storage containers and buildings perhaps explains why urban preservation is such a popular theme of comics artists like Seth.

Archives and Architecture 2But because comics are generally disposable artifacts, printed on cheap paper, their ability to preserve buildings and urban spaces can only be ironic: comics are ephemeral, they don't last.

So there's something odd about trying to preserve something more permanent (buildings and streets) with something less permanent (drawings on paper). But this oddness resolves when we consider that comics artists like Seth are in fact demonstrating the ephemerality of the buildings and spaces themselves: they don't last either.

Icon and Caricature(Paint Shop) 1In the drawings within the grid, comics represent by a combination of icon (general outlines) and caricature (immediately identifying details).

Take for example this out of business paint shop in Toronto from Seth's It's a Good Life if You Don't Weaken. We see the outline of the paint shop and a few identifying features. These features help evoke others that Seth mentions but doesn't depict visually: wood shelves, tile floors, tin ceilings. This is a bit of a trick. If we recognize the iconic and caricaturistic features of the building, we fill in the features with our minds' eye.

Icon and Caricature 2With this trick, Seth shows that the cartoon image cannot physically capture architectural details; it can only trigger them through mnemonic clues: we are always only getting the tip of the iceberg

Clearly, comics cannot "preserve" the materiality of what they represent, but they can evoke that materiality through associative triggers, like a map evokes the territory it represents.

When we combine the grid of the comic book page with drawings within that grid, we have an architectural archive of mnemonic triggers that can sustain heritage through the engagement of its viewers.

George Sprott 1We applied web technology to notions of the grid and the cartoon in Dominion City as Seth represents it in his story George Sprott, which is as much about the buildings of the city as it is about the title character, a radio host who grows increasingly out of touch with the present.

The stories of the buildings show their multiple iterations, their narratives that resist being frozen at any particular point. For example, the Melody Grill begins as Der Hirschsprung, German restaurant in the 1930s, becomes a local celebrity hotspot in the 1950s and dies as a cheap lunch spot in the 1980s.

George Sprott 2Seth tells similar stories of the Radio Hotel and Coronet Lecture Theatre, and they all have similar trajectories: an origin, a vibrant heyday, and decay.

We believe these trajectories lead Seth to "build" Dominion out of cardboard because the narratives of buildings have a fatalistic entropic pattern: Seth only sees buildings declining and failing, never being revived or replaced by something new and exciting.

Seth would like to preserve these buildings at their peak rather than show their decline over and over. We think that this desire in Seth mirrors that of heritage preservationists

Dominion CitySeth originally build the models to get a better idea of how to situate his stories, but the stories never came. Instead he became obsessed with collecting buildings, putting them in amber and saving them from the wrecking ball.

While our first impulse was to celebrate cardboard Dominion as the ultimate iteration of the imaginary town, We ultimately found the loss of temporality and the loss of narrative that accompanies it, kills the past in order to preserve it.

The 3D materialization of Dominion turns out to be an inadequate container for the ghosts of the past.

Return to ComicsOur web project re-introduces time and narrative while "preserving," albeit virtually, the various iterations of buildings and urban spaces. We take the panels of the comics grid and stack them in virtual space so viewers can move up and down from past to present, while also moving across and around the city.

Consequently, we hope that it provides model for a vibrant, interactive archive that shows the full range of history rather than an empty shell that freezes structures in a particular historical moment.

DAVE - The WebsiteThe website allows the audience to think through and play with Seth's comic. Taking the layering possibilities of a web-based platform as its starting point, the interactive archive of Seth's numerous iterations of Dominion City becomes something that users can manipulate. We think this concept should be extended into the heritage site.

Website 2The interactive space of the web is a great platform for engaging users by allowing them to build their own narratives by manipulating the objects of Seth's Dominion City, and by extension, the heritage site it represents. Dominion City can be reimagined and reinterpreted across all its iterations, allowing the reader to create a topographical history of Dominion City.

Tagging / TopographyAdding interactivity to Seth's representation of Dominion City allows the user to build a topography, or graphic representation of surface features and something that shows the relationship between these features.

Interactivity also means taking advantage of the "web's web"; tagging, organizing, and marking up objects becomes a central mode of presenting and archiving materials.

Tagging 2 - No Walk ThruThe website links the structure of the comic's panels and the narrative's numerous entry points to allow the user to manipulate the objects of Dominion City. Rather than emphasize the virtual reconstruction of an architectural space, as most virtual heritage sites do, this website encourages the user to manipulate those objects to explore new narrative linkages.

No Walk Thru, BabyIn other virtual heritage sites, the user is locked within the prescriptive organization of an archive that reveals objects one at a time in a sequence. Doing so de-emphasizes the connectedness that gives those objects meaning. Comics and the website allow for some alternatives for the combining, layering and juxtaposing of archival materials, or objects.

The ConnectionsWithin comics and the website, there can be multiple paths through sequences. Connections turn back on one another, criss-cross different objects, and resist a linear path. By making Dominion City into an archive of objects, a virtual storehouse of ephemera, files, and media, the website encourages the kind of user / site exchange we think enriches an encounter with historical buildings, districts and narratives.

Connections 2The user can link together or "tag" in a variety of ways:1) showing the links between different iterations of the melody grill and the individuals connected to it: (missing note above door shows time passing / George Sprott young & old / Sir Grisly Gruesome's pic on the wall / Otto Klug's opening night)

Connections 3These connections transcend the original organization of the comic, emphasizing other temporal dimensions and iconic connections.2) Linkages within the website also encourage connections between the world of the fiction--Seth's comic about George Sprott--and the material representation of it:showing the different iterations of the Melody Grill or The Radio Hotel.

Connections 4While still locked within the static mode of pictures and cardboard, the linkages here nonetheless give some purpose to Seth's cardboard city. 3) Taken a step further, the user can link the two previous "tagging sessions" together: showing both the relationships in the comic and also the character's direct relationship to an object whose materiality exists outside the bounds of the story.

Connections 54) Where the website accels however is in fostering connections between different media and the different modes for understanding the comic:

showing how an author contextualizes his project in an audio interview, featuring the ephemera of its creation (drafting), and its numerous iterations. In this case, cardboard and paper / 2D and 3D.

The Connections 6A user's encounter with Seth's George Sprott through the website is enriched not simply by the juxtaposition of images and virtual architecture. Instead, the website leverages its architecture of connectivity and interactivity to facilitate the user's reconstruction of Dominion City and emphasize the relationships between the ephemeral objects within it.

Connections 7The user's engagement with Dominion City is not governed by a linear sequence, a virtual tour, 360 degree view, or vignette. Instead, it is governed by how the user chooses to engage with the objects, or ephemera, that make up Dominion City's architectural spaces and its larger role in shaping the narrative connections in Seth's comics.

Connections 81) The user can seek out different perspectives on a static map, exploring the different connections or paths through Dominion City.2) The connections and paths can then in turn be "tagged" with relevant contextual information, data, and explanation.3) Connections and paths offer different perspectives, set off sets of images or direct users to other spaces in the archive.

The FacebookishnessThe user then makes the heritage site mean something rather than engage with a pre-existing expository narrative about it. What makes the website for Dominion City even more interactive is its foregrounding of exchange. Users are given spaces to "tag," "comment" and record data about their experience with Dominion City as virtual heritage site.

The TwitterishnessThe user can present their record of discovery by tagging the objects according to their sequential desires. Or, they can contribute to an ongoing dialogue about the materials in the archive by commenting. Or, they can add their own relevant media. The result is a record of the uniquely personal encounter with the ephemera of Dominion City.

Heritage Site as Comics MakersThrough their engagement with this virtual archive, users participate in the same kind fictional heritage reconstruction that drives Seth to represent Dominion City in different media. The website however emphasizes the layering of icon and caricature that is the domain of comics, encouraging objects to coalesce into a unified narrative.

The Open BoxIndividual objects become part of the heritage district archive as Dominion City takes shape for the user through their manipulation of the objects in its archive.Allowing users to engage with these objects is key to conveying a sense of a lost past and allowing the user to animate the "ghost function" and give Dominion City meaning beyond the empty materialism of a three dimensional cardboard model.

The Empty BoxIf we take the user's ability to manipulate the archival objects or disallow their personal engagement with them, we leave only buildings as cold and empty as the cardboard box from which Seth builds his material Dominion City.

Conclusion - ObscuredWhat a virtual heritage site built around a fictional city represented in a comic shows us is that how the individual engages with the ephemera of the site perhaps has more resonance than the physical existence of the site. The ability to manipulate the archive's ephemera, the bits and pieces inside buildings, is perhaps more important than the architectural spaces themselves.

Conclusion - ClearThinking of the virtual heritage site as having the structure common to comics suggests that heritage sites might emphasize the user's attachment to the ephemera of the past rather than its strictly its physical architecture.

The architecture worth preserving is ultimately a narrative one, a creative one, and a deeply individual one.