The research reflects on the creation of autobiographical visual narratives about difficult childhood and its use as a way to engage with critical theory and art education. Our project examines how comic-making about memories of the artist allows us to rethink normative ideas about childhood, which always begin from assumptions about what children are not (yet) or must be.

For this experiment, we look specifically at the childhood war memories of an artist. The traditional image of childhood in war opposes 'normal childhood' expectations and, as a result, presents a limited narrative of the lives of war-affected children, often portraying them as individuals who had their childhoods interrupted or taken away. These limited narratives pose the risk of spreading a "single story"  (Adichie, 2009), a story that makes it difficult to see these experiences as anything other than "lost," "stolen," or "pitiful." A repeated single story leaves no room for these childhoods to be similar to other childhoods, no room to react to these stories differently, or to feel emotions more complex than pity for these stories. However, as Nikolajeva (2009) suggests, radical themes, such as the artist's childhood war experiences, can create important conditions for questioning adult-child power relationships and presenting what is frequently left out of the dominant discourse on childhood. This work explores the creation of the artist's protocol to suspend her own normative gaze on childhood and to look again. It focuses on the initial stage of graphic narrative making and compares the conventional manuscript-driven approach to narrative creation with the proposed visual mapping approach. It shows how this stage of comic-making about childhood war experiences aids in envisioning childhood outside of the dominant aetonormative dichotomy. Finally, we propose using comics as a tool for non-linear thinking that allow us to perceive our experiences in a new light and make us more aware of the normative beliefs we adopt due to living in specific surroundings. This work presents how academic theory can be integrated into art education as a reflexive practice that facilitates seeing what has been neglected or eliminated within normative constructs of childhood.

We use drawing as a way of analysis in and of itself to foster non-linear thinking (Kuttner, Sousanis, & Weaver-Hightower, 2017). This approach allowed perceptual interactions between the author and her drawings, which encouraged shifts in attention and allowed for more profound thought about the topics under consideration (Suwa & Tversky, 1997). Drawing became a tool for thinking. We explored elements from the artist's memory through visual maps/dialogues from two aspects. First, we examined events from recollections that involve that element while keeping in mind the normative viewpoints that may arise. Secondly, we investigated how the concepts around this element may be used within the formal elements of comics, such as line, panel, or layout. The created maps would function as a non-linear visual/textual interaction that challenges the author's views on childhood. The project continued with a Childhood sketchbook, in which the artist started drawing patterns and clustered concepts extracted from the memory and progressed to visual comparisons and noting the relationships between the elements. The mapping assisted in creating a relational data chain focused on conceptual/theoretical coherence. Created maps were visual attempts to overlay various qualitative models with symbolic interaction theory (see Dewey (1930), Cooley (1902), Parks (1915), Mead (1934,1938)). Frequently references were made to particular objects and places. Therefore we wanted to explore what happens in these places and with these artefacts. We were looking for prevailing storylines and prominent features in these visual maps. 'Comics afford-perhaps even demand-a certain cognitive framework for reader and creator alike. They provide a frame through which to think, and think differently, about the objects or findings of research.' — (Kuttner, Sousanis, & Weaver-Hightower, 2017, p. 398) Regarding using comics in research, Kuttner et al. emphasise that comics help frame a researcher's thinking, stimulate lateral thinking, expose new connections, and focus a researcher's attention to the topic's physical, spatial, chronal, and visual elements (2017). Our methodology is strongly dependent on the affordances/medium-specific properties of comics and visual storytelling utilised in media specific-ways (see (Lefèvre, 2011), (Kuttner, Weaver-Hightower, & Sousanis, 2020)). We employed in-depth three medium-specific affordances: sequentiality/simultaneity, multimodality, and inhabitation, which allowed for the simultaneous presentation of multiple viewpoints, shifts across contexts, or analytical levels, which would be much more challenging in the purely textual form.

Our practice-based experiments reflect how drawing (more specifically comic-making) as a method of engagement with critical theory can create space for narrating in a non-linear fashion and enable tools for seeing what was previously invisible. The visual mapping strategy allowed us to find connections that would otherwise remain hidden or unavailable, as drawing was employed as a real aesthetic device. The attempt was to draw from what the author sees and what the maps make visible, rather than what the author already knows or wants to look for. A will-less aesthetic attitude enabled us a desire-free peek into the essences of emerged connections between the elements of the memory. With the affordances of comics, the artist could make visible her own normative views on childhood. It was then much easier to deconstruct and challenge these normative beliefs.

Adichie, C. N. (2009). The danger of a single story. The danger of a single story. TED Talk. Kuttner, P. J., Sousanis, N., & Weaver-Hightower, M. B. (2017). How to draw comics the scholarly way. Handbook of arts-based research, 396–422. Kuttner, P. J., Weaver-Hightower, M. B., & Sousanis, N. (2020). Comics-based research: The affordances of comics for research across disciplines. Qualitative Research, 1468794120918845. Lefèvre, P. (2011). Some medium-specific qualities of graphic sequences. SubStance, 40, 14–33. Nikolajeva, M. (2009). Power, voice and subjectivity in literature for young readers. Routledge. Suwa, M., & Tversky, B. (1997). What do architects and students perceive in their design sketches? A protocol analysis. Design studies, 18, 385–403.