More on Stick Doc

Innovators in the stick form (narrative/humorous)- www.xkcd.com

XKCD was started when Randall Munroe began to scan his nervous notebook doodles, and has now evolved into somewhat of an internet sensation. A master of the stick form, Munroe is able to articulate complex comic ideas, using uncluttered but wholly recognizable line forms.

The difficult transition of stick from a childish form of fantasy, to a means of documentary takes a leap of faith. It isn't a new leap. When anthropologists view cave paintings that utilize the stick form, they are willing to read these forms as true documentary of pre-history. Now that there are so many truer techniques available to the documenter, why choose stick? My short list includes: its instantness, its expressiveness, its recognizability, and it's simplicity. The best part about not including, some of the distracting points of light that are included in the photograph, is that you distill an image down to its journalistic truths. Who was there? What were they doing? Why were they there? When did it happen? How did it happen?

Stick documentary is my attempt to subvert a new media fallacy: Higher fidelity creates truer documentary. The truth about high-fi is that it creates a potentially dangerous verisimilitude. Digital media's ability to be manipulated while still remaining life-like (and the rise of multi-sensoral media) delutes the sense of frame to the media conusmer.