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Branislava Vičar The Emotionality of Multimodal Discourse:
University of Maribor, Slovenia The Perception of Otherness in the Animated
branislava.vicar@um.si
Katja Plemenitaš
University of Maribor, Slovenia This presentation examines the animated dystopian series Autodale (2017–2021),
katja.plemenitas@um.si
Maja Nemec
University of Maribor, Slovenia
maja.nemec@student.um.si
© 2026 Branislava Vičar, Katja
Plemenitaš, and Maja Nemec
Meaning-Making, Multiliteracies
and Multimodality
Abstracts of the International
Symposium
Koper, 19–20 March 2026
Dystopian Anthology Autodale
created by the independent animator David Armsby. The city of Autodale, which
connects all episodes of the anthology, emerges as a dystopian space shaped by
the algorithmisation of life and a techno-epistemological infrastructure. The in-
habitants are subjected to new forms of power grounded in surveillance and the
regulation of behaviour. This order is visually realised at the level of iconography
(uniform facial masks), composition (centre-periphery relations and symmetrical
spatial organization), framing (clear visual demarcations of spaces and bodies, for
example through walls and fences), and movement (repetitive, rhythmically or-
ganized patterns of bodily movement) (Kress & van Leeuwen 2020, van Leeuwen
2021).
A central relation structuring this order is that between the so-called ‘model cit-
izens,’ embedded in systems of normativity, and the ‘freaks,’ who seek ways of
acting outside normative frameworks. Following Ahmed, such figures may be un-
derstood as willful subjects – subjects who do not follow socially prescribed paths
and who, in seeking other positions, create new paths and traces (Ahmed 2014b).
The analysis foregrounds a multimodal narrative of danger that reveals how the
‘freaks’ are recognized as a threat to the Autodale community, insofar as they
embody the possibility of destabilizing social norms. Within this narrative, emo-
tions – especially fear – play a crucial role in producing the effect of boundaries
between the ‘freaks’ and the community. In contrast to the ‘model citizens,’ the
‘freaks’ are positioned at the margins of the city, outside its walls or beyond its last
houses. Visually, they are represented as monsters; however, the analysis shows
that monstrosity is not a property of their bodies but is linked to the social per-
ception of danger. In the process that Ahmed describes as ‘affective economies’
(Ahmed 2014a), collective fear becomes attached to the bodies of the ‘freaks,’
thereby producing the perception of otherness. The visual representation thus
does not present their actual corporeality but rather the social perception of their
bodies. Fear, in turn, aligns conforming subjects to the imagined community of
Autodale.
Ahmed, S. (2014a). The cultural politics of emotion (2nd ed.). Edinburgh University
Press.
Ahmed, S. (2014b). Wilful subjects. Duke Univerity Press.
Armsby,D. J.(Creator). (2017–2021). Autodale [Animated web series]. Dead Sound.
YouTube.
Kress, G., in van Leeuwen, T. (2020). Reading images: The grammar of visual design
(3th ed.). Routledge.
Van Leeuwen, T. (2021). The semiotics of movement and mobility. Multimodality &
Society 1(1), 97–118.
https://doi.org/10.26493/978-961-293-565-8.36 39