Comic character and communication of public interest

• Grant number: 16/24486-8
• Support Opportunities: Regular Research Grants
• Duration: December 01, 2017 - November 30, 2019
• Field of knowledge: Applied Social Sciences - Communications
• Principal Investigator: João Batista Freitas Cardoso
• Grantee: João Batista Freitas Cardoso
• Host Institution: Pró-Reitoria de Pós-Graduação e Pesquisa. Universidade Municipal de São Caetano do Sul (USCS). São Caetano do Sul , SP, Brazil
• Associated scholarship(s): 18/04710-6 - Comics character and public communication interest, BP.TT; 18/00709-3 - Comics character and public communication interest, BP.TT

Abstract

This project is a continuation of the research "Characters in tattoos: transposition from comic book pages to the human body", started in February 2015 supported by FAPESP (number 2014/21537-5), which has as principal aim to study the innovational aspects that appear with the transposition of comic characters'figures to the human body as tattoo. While working on this research, through bibliographic review and field survey, it was possible to identify some kinds of appropriation of this type of images in other cultural practices such as in artistic interventions, political manifestations or in fashion. Such images, which are originated within the productive sector and are protected by copyright, when going through empowerment and resignification processes, serve for the diffusion of discourses of political and public interest in the urban environment. Having that in mind, the interest of this research is to understand the types of appropriation of this kind of sign, which are related to subversive practices - reproduction, change and misuse of copyrighted images -, and the meaning exchanges between characters, narratives and public interest discourses. Despite having a subversive character, these practices reveal creative ways of talking about the city and the citizen. Assuming that the signification potential of these manifestations is the result of the symbolic exchange that takes place between the meanings originated in serial narratives (comics, animations, cinema, games), consolidated in licensed products, and the meanings conveyed by the discourses of the people who appropriate themselves of these figures, the research intends to answer this question: How are comic characters' images appropriated to spread public interest ideas in urban environments? Considering that these signs carry in themselves meanings derived from serial narratives and the appropriations are often presented as open texts, our intention is to answer a new question: What is the signification potential of theses texts in the public environment? (AU)