#Unflattening
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eireannmor.bsky.social
thanks! you as well. I recommended UNFLATTENING to a student this semester and she was really into it
December 26, 2025 at 5:57 AM
nsousanis.bsky.social
Thank you! That’s a perfect word for it! You can see a fly through of the first chapter here and I post teases at #Nostos #Unflattening 2 bsky.app/profile/nsou...
nsousanis.bsky.social Nick Sousanis @nsousanis.bsky.social · Jul 12
Nonscientific poll: would folks be interested in the opening chapter to #Nostos in standalone accordion format, w/bonus behind the scenes, process stuff included before the book is finished (it’d be printed there as well in standard book format)? Hoping to finally make this happen! #Unflattening 2
December 25, 2025 at 9:36 PM
samuraisk8r.bsky.social
Comics & Culture/HUM 325–the best! F-2020. You were kind enuf to allow an audit (was concurrently HUM MA student): Hint: I Zoomed mostly from my car that term lol!

Later transferred to SSU’s Eng MA & ref’d “Unflattening” in seminar paper on Butler’s (+Duffy/Jennings) “Parable of the Sower” 🙌
December 24, 2025 at 10:01 AM
laurawatts.wandering.shop.ap.brid.gy
Come and get it! 'From Flatlands to Livable Futures: Unflattening carbon metrics in the energy and data industries' out now in #bigdataandsociety.

#juliavelkova and I pack insights about the carbon intensity of electricity in the data industry: how it shapes the electricity grid and data […]
Original post on wandering.shop
wandering.shop
December 19, 2025 at 8:54 AM
nsousanis.bsky.social
There's no place like home... (even if it is a few billion years before it'll look familiar).
Almost done with this chapter.
#Nostos #Unflattening 2
a snippet from a comics page - bottom left, the earth, well - a planet with rock, water, and clouds that may look like early earth and in the distance upper right, the sun. Text says: "AMONGST ALL THE LIGHTS ACROSS THE UNIVERSE," "HOW DID IT HAPPEN THAT THIS ONE BECAME THE PLACE WE'LL CALL HOME?"
December 19, 2025 at 8:15 AM
aroddick.bsky.social
My first TAG uk done @tag2025york.bsky.social. Met lots of digital space friends. Great talks, chats, and parties. Hope that @pennybickle.bsky.social @evamol.bsky.social and @clmorgan.bsky.social get a well deserved break. (A screen grab from the talk @kjkillackey.bsky.social and I gave)
Talk title by Andy Roddick and Kathryn Killackey from TAG 2025 conference “unflattening Late Formative Tiwanaku: Time, uncertainty, and diverse publics in an Ancient Andean city”. The project logo of a staircase and painted wall is shown.
December 17, 2025 at 11:41 PM
nsousanis.bsky.social
This comic reworks a bit of unflattening and some of what I did with Flatland there… bsky.app/profile/nsou...
nsousanis.bsky.social Nick Sousanis @nsousanis.bsky.social · Nov 18
Thinking about perspectives, limited points of view for something small I have in mind - & revisiting this comic I made for the Boston globe in 2015 (which reworks elements from Unflattening - on the importance of putting disparate views in relationship to expand understanding…
A single page comic in black and white - about the limitations of our sight, touching on flatland and how seeing from multiple viewpoints changes what we can know. Also gets at how Copernicus’ revolution changed our understanding by shifting our perspective. It’s a complex page in its composition that needs lengthier description…
December 17, 2025 at 10:58 PM
aspatriarca.bsky.social
Reading list for spring (in no particular order):

Understanding Comics
Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow
Artificial: A Love Story
More Weight
Assassination Classroom
AD: New Orleans After the Deluge
Unflattening
Here

I'm excited to get to discuss these works with students soon!
December 12, 2025 at 3:06 PM
nsousanis.bsky.social
I don't usually work in color, but when I do, it's to figure out something difficult... Final pg of chapter in progress (all braiding borders are panels! plus references I'm using to figure this out - braiding 3 & 4s, plus braiding from an earlier comic & one of my syllabi! #Nostos #Unflattening 2
A page in progress - single image splash page (or so it seems) - a question mark made of four strands that loop around each other to form a braid that tapes - and then the earth makes the dot references for how to braid three and four strands, plus two of my drawings that have very complicated braiding in them...
December 12, 2025 at 8:09 AM
keeganlannon.bsky.social
The students read a chapter from Unflattening, so you are frequently referenced in the comics.
December 10, 2025 at 11:59 PM
kathylark.bsky.social
Can't wait to see where you are taking us on this journey. I just reread Unflattening yesterday and was freshly moved by the way your pictures and words unfold truths and wisdom, Nick.
December 9, 2025 at 1:01 PM
eggsticker.bsky.social
Oh yeah by the way, humans do exist in Rachel's world, they're just a minority, and the reason why Rachel has trouble unflattening herself is because she's half toon and half human, any other character can easily fix themselves up like what Elena did after being stepped on.
December 8, 2025 at 5:47 AM
robsalk.bsky.social
If you're looking for both narrative complexity and elevated use of the comics medium, Fate of the Artist is definitely the pick IMO. Also, using those criteria, Nick Sousanis's nonfiction "Unflattening" is definitely up there.
December 8, 2025 at 12:26 AM
nsousanis.bsky.social
The birth of our solar system - at last, closing up the penultimate page of this mammoth chapter exploring the origin of the universe in all its swirls of different sorts... It's been a long trip. And there is, to be sure, a lot going on on this page :)
Onward!
#Nostos #Unflattening 2
A comics page in 30 (ok, technically 33) panels - arranged five wide by six tall. We see the birth of the solar system unfold - beginning with a gas cloud in space, which is then shocked into collapse by a supernova explosion far off. The gas collapses on itself and begins to swirl. We see it gather material into its center, which heats up - and a thin disk spreading outward - with rock close to it and ice and gas and rock spread farther out. (this was the first two tiers of panels). Third tier - we see bits of dust and rock and ice stick together, then get to bigger pieces and collide, and eventually turn into planetesimals. Next row, a bigger one of these collects tons of gas and ice to itself and becomes the first planet (Jupiter) and we see the others (and some that are no longer around) form. Fifth row - these planets clear remaining dust and rock from their orbital lanes, but still pretty chaotic. a panel split into four - showing in half the collision that turned Uranus on its side, and the other showing the collision that stripped Mercury of its outer layer. We also see diagrammatically how Jupiter and Saturn moved in closer to sun at some point and then moved back outward - which among other things caused Neptune and Uranus to switch orbits, and then for row 6 - trigged the late heavy bombardment where rocks and ice and gas are flung inward at the inner planets - devastating them - but also bringing gases included water. Finally, the planets reach the more or less current configuration. I drew Saturn with a ring, which it probably didn't have - but only so people knew what it was. I drew earth with one giant continent as it might've been - but you can't really tell anyhow, the drawing is too tiny. I would've put water on Mars but I felt that would confuse everyone.
December 6, 2025 at 8:14 PM
nsousanis.bsky.social
Late night ? As I finally wrap this - I want to show solar system reaching its final configuration. But Saturn wouldn't have a ring, Earth would look different, etc. But if you don't draw it like that - confusing. Here, I went w/the Saturn as is & Earth as it was. Thoughts? #nostos #Unflattening 2
an image of the orbits of the planets (nowhere near to scale) with sun upper right, giant planets to the left more towards the viewer. Saturn has a ring, earth has continents, but not ones we recognize. And plenty of clouds...
December 6, 2025 at 8:14 AM
theonewithoutalent.bsky.social
Great seeing you here! Brazilian and Unflattening changed the trajectory of my life. Will start my masters next year and it's all because a professor tagged me 9 years ago "about this one academic comic book"... The fact you're working on another one (and maybe an educational guide) is thrilling
December 5, 2025 at 6:07 PM
nsousanis.bsky.social
My ongoing effort to repopularize Carmine Infantino caption-hands continues... (and yes, I now know that there is an older term for them "manicules"). A teeny bit of this page to go & I think I'll share in full tomorrow...
#Nostos #Unflattening 2
A small caption from a comics page. We see formless gas cloud in space. Caption - with a hand and finger pointing from it in the midst of the gas. Reads: LET'S TURN OUR ATTENTION TO ONE SUCH PLACE, Second caption at bottom of box overlapping into part of second box that we can see: FORMLESS, AS ALL BEGIN.
December 4, 2025 at 11:00 PM
noethematt.bsky.social
Comics suggested in the most recent Neurohumanities Network Newsletter

#GraphicMedicine
Graphic Novels: Neurocomics by Matteo Farinella My Degeneration: A Journey Through Parkinson's by Peter Dunlap-Shohl Epileptic by David B Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art by Scott McCloud Optic Nerve by Adrian Tomine Ain't Burned All The Bright by Jason Reynolds (artwork by Jason Griffin) Unflattening by Nick Sousanis Dwellings by Jay Stephens Mind MGMT by Matt Kindt Ice Cream Man by W. Maxwell Price, Martin Morazzo, Chris O'Halloran Step By Bloody Step by Si Spurrier, Matias Bergara, Matheus Lopes, Emma Price The Department of Truth by James Tynion IV, Martin Simmonds, Aditya Bidikar, Dylan Todd, Steve Fox Memetic by James Tynion IV, Eryk Donovan Doctors by Dash Shaw Why Don't You Love Me? by Paul B. Rainey
December 1, 2025 at 2:15 PM
nsousanis.bsky.social
Did I make crashing sounds to myself while drawing the Late Heavy Bombardment's impact on earth? Yes, I most certainly did...
#Nostos #Unflattening 2
two small comics panels in black and white. the one on the left, showing asteroids and comets sent towards the sun and inner planets by the movement of Jupiter. The one on the right shows these asteroids raining down on a rocky planet - also now with water brought in part by this bombardment - earth...
November 26, 2025 at 8:41 AM
nsousanis.bsky.social
Bonus 9/8 a still of the birth of Athena piece, the video is better but you can see it clearer here - a lot of looking at popup books to reverse engineer & figure out a functional card! This scene appears quite similarly in the opening to #Nostos #Unflattening 2 - a bit of a crossover there…
Popup card with Athena bursting forth from head of Zeus
November 25, 2025 at 6:19 AM
nsousanis.bsky.social
The tilting of Uranus, Mercury being cut down to size. Quark by Quark, planet by planet, panel by panel - I'm going to finish this damn chapter soon...
#Nostos #Unflattening 2
Two tiny panels from a comics page. The first is listed above - about planets clearing their lines of dust. The second is actually divided into four panels. Upper left and lower left depict the impact of a large body into Uranus - a glancing blow that will turn it on its side in its current orientation. The Upper right and lower right panels show Mercury also being struck by something that strips its outer layer, leaving only its current iron core as the remainder falls into the sun...
November 24, 2025 at 8:33 AM
nsousanis.bsky.social
A snipped from this page that's nearly done. the first planet forming and as planets form, clearing their lanes... Really eager to have time to put this one to bed!
#Nostos #Unflattening 2
a few tiny panels from a comics page. Upper two display the formation of Jupiter - gathering gas and ice to its early planetoid and growing massively in size. Below two panels showing planets in orbit through a field of dust, ice, and rocks. Making tiny grooves in it - but over time their lanes become much clearer. None of this is to scale
November 23, 2025 at 8:28 AM
finchtt.bsky.social
The unflattening of the bsky logo is unsettling to me actually
November 21, 2025 at 2:16 AM
nsousanis.bsky.social
And ha - an old friend on fb suggested some character named Lockerman… for those that don’t know, my pre-philosophical metaphorical comics making was this superhero/semi-parody character I made from 8th grade through end of high school. Yes, I’m sure he’ll make at least a cameo appearance in class…
The cover to lockerman 1 that I drew at 13 - armored hero in action stance in front of row of lockers. Second image my drawing of him from Unflattening some years later… A comics page where the superhero and villain jump out of the panels and keep fighting and then are yelled at by the author to get back in the panels, which they do… comics panel with lockerman emerging from institutionally-colored green lockers - he's in his metallic/silver armor with red goggles
November 19, 2025 at 3:39 AM
nsousanis.bsky.social
5/3 the initial inspiration for this activity was my comic bi(bli)ography- where I drew on all the things/people I had learned from & referenced their styles. Lockerman & “did it flow?” from Ulysses also show up in Unflattening. Can see all 8 pages here spinweaveandcut.com/bibliography...
A comics page in a bunch of panels - talking about my childhood and the people and things I read that inspired me - form my parents and my brother to Batman and Jesse Owens An open panel page - a lightning bolt as yellow brick road taking a trip through books about imagination, culminating in a view of my superhero lockerman A comics page on philosophy showing things I learned from as diverse as Calvin and Hobbes and zen and the art of motorcycle maintenance - and watchmen to Ulysses
November 18, 2025 at 3:05 AM