ISSN 2052-1820

VaroomLab Journal 4 Visionaries 1 VaroomLab Editorial Jo Davies

How can illustration be defined? Specifically its evolution as a How Professionals Think in Action Illustration is a noun and a verb. It heightened cultural force legiti- (1983) who suggests, “when we is a constantly evolving concept mised the emergence of Varoom- reject the traditional view of profes- evidenced in an ever- expanding Lab from the Association of Illustra- sional knowledge, recognising that range of practices and influenced tors in 2011. Over the course of the practitioners may become reflective by a broad context of changing ide- past 5 years of conferences, and 10 researchers in situations of uncertain- ologies, forms of production, eco- years of Varoom publications this ty, instability, uniqueness, and con- nomic and cultural trends. For many project has contributed to a cultural flict, we have recast the relationship people it is a profession. shift by providing an arena for re- between research and practice.” search in an area under-represent- To understand the parameters of ed in the field of art and design. It VaroomLab has provided an in- the definition parallels can be drawn has begun to address a lack of clear tense period of discovery, discourse

Jo Davies from Penny Sparke’s eloquent connection between the creative and dissemination witnessed in reflections on the shifting territory activity evidenced in real world sce- the activity of illustrators employ- Academic input coordinator for VaroomLab occupied by design. She posits in An narios and the intellectual life of its ing methodologies that have lo- Journal and Editor-in-Chief of VaroomLab- Journal. She is Associate Professor in Illustra- introduction to Design and Culture counterparts, a gap that meant the cated such reflective practice at tion at Plymouth University, and Programme that its transition in status is borne subject was hitherto poorly under- the nucleus of their own industry. Leader at the University College Mann. She is from a series of global crisis leading stood, and undervalued. Participants have been practitioners co-author of Becoming A Successful Illustrator, Making Great Illustration and Understanding to design becoming, “a facilitator identifying eclectic questions and Illustration, all published by Bloomsbury and for innovation, creation and change This research in illustration is sit- diverse issues emerging from their continues to practice as an illustrator. across a range of contexts - com- uated within models of practice own work, focused within the con- mercial, social and cultural”. This is based research described by Donald texts of interpretation, boundaries, resonant for illustration. Schön in The Reflective Practitioner: place, and the notion of visionaries.

2 Jo Davies VaroomLab Editorial

Those who have joined forces in have included processes of film, continue to situate research within time to operate this field. Building a generating discourse have brought image-making, animation, curation, the professional domain. framework for inquiry to interrogate relativism, pragmatism and contex- interview and case studies investi- and inform practice, acknowledging tualization firmly to the table of this gating and analysing complex ideas, VaroomLab has been a creative hub the distinct knowledge of the illus- professional activity. The resultant philosophies and histories. for both academics and practition- trator as maker and the confluence papers and conferences are a tribu- ers. Given the incumbency on those of reflection and doing. tary from healthy stream of activity, Some may criticise and contest in education to offer provision that internationally, that has seen around that research in illustration is an reflects agenda including profession- VaroomLab has been visionary in 150 abstracts considered for inclu- exercise in academic indulgence, alism, sustainability and employabil- these regards. It seems appropriate sion and publication by represent- removed from the reality of briefs ity it is vital that the evolving nature to end optimistically with Christo- ative academics from the Varoom- and working in real world commer- and transient cultural position of il- pher Frayling, “Once we get used Lab partners internationally. cial contexts. Certainly the intel- lustration continues to be examined. to the idea that we don’t need to lectual and academic approaches Opportunities for research must be be scared of ‘research’ - or in some Given the relative infancy of the to the subject that have tested the embraced to enhance learning and way protected from it - the debate research area Varoomlab partners boundaries of intellectual rigour teaching and strengthen the devel- can really begin.”(Research in Art and contributors have been vi- and the practical relevance to illus- opment and advancement of un- and Design, 1993) sionary in these pioneering inves- tration as a profession deserves fu- derstanding and knowledge around tigations, concurrently posing and ture consideration. VaroomLab has communication and expression that answering an ontological question begun to demonstrate the dynamic is evidenced in the curriculum. – What can research in illustration relationship between research and be? This fundamental questioning practice and the feasibility of this Much of the research territory of of assumptions about research has as a professional ambition and the illustration is unchartered making documented methodologies that hope is for ongoing activities to this an opportune but challenging

3 Contents

5 Keynote Speeches 56 Presentations 118 A new breed: How should we champion the mavericks and pioneers of the illustration industry? 6 Paul Slater 57 Paradise Lost: Documenting Birmingham’s Central Alice Moloney Library 9 Graham Elliott Gareth Proskourine-Barnett 124 Self-Reflexivity and Contemporary Illustrated Stephanie Black Children's Books 68 Immaterial Boundary (Film) Aidan Winterburn Rachel Gannon and Darryl Clifton 16 Peer Reviewed Papers 73 Illustrator as Detective: Discovery through Drawing 17 Myths of the near Future: Ballard, Crusoe and Google Chloe Regan 132 Further Information Matthew Richardson 85 ‘The in-betweener’ 25 Illustration; Education; Revolution Jo Berry Richard Miles 101 Performing in a do-It-yourself nudie suit 40 Visualising Spaces: The Illustrated Map as a mode of Christian Lloyd communicating Fact, Fiction and Feeling. 106 Off her hostess-trolley: Telling it a different way Andy Davies Jo Hassall

4 Keynote Speeches

5 Paul Slater

Illustrator and artist, Paul Slater, always considered myself a dope, discussed the approach to his sur- but I do all my paintings in a day”. real and humourous image making Slater made a good start to the and his key interests, showing and day, grounding the visionary in the telling stories around the narratives creations of the working illustrator, and production of his illustration all with amusing anecdotes and and personal paintings. He has a pertinent insights. constant drive to keep producing work: “As soon as I stop doing com- centralillustration.com/illustrators/ missions, I start painting”. Paul-Slater

He covered his sketchbook art- work, emphasising their difference from commissioned images, “When you’re doing finished work, it’s nice to then do rough drawings”, and talked about the way he paints, saying he rarely works from life (“I love drawing from my head – a fanciful thing”), but works fast: “I’ve

6 Keynote speech Paul Slater

Figure 1: Paul Slater, Washing Machine Figure 2: Paul Slater, Camp site cavalcade

7 Keynote speech Paul Slater

Figure 3: Paul Slater, Postmodern Figure 4: Paul Slater, Spot the ball boys

8 Graham Elliott written by Stephanie Black

After successfully completing pilot Currently, with his New York com- training with the RAF, Graham pany Fovea Films, he is directing Elliott decided his career lay in art and producing commercials, music rather than in the air. videos and documentaries. He has been teaching motion graphics He graduated with an Illustration and music video classes, at the masters, from the Royal College of School of Visual Arts, New York, for Art and went on to design some of the last 10 years. His sketchbooks the first motion graphics for MTV. are included in Sketchbooks of the He illustrated for many publica- World’s Great Graphic Designers by tions notably The New York Times Steven Heller. and The Sunday Times magazine. Designing record sleeves for rock His feature documentary New York Interview with Graham Elliott band Living Colour, which went in Motion was selected for over a platinum, he also directed their dozen film festivals worldwide. He Dr. Stephanie Black [email protected], Glamour Boys music video and is working on a new film, World in www.stephanieblack.co.uk produced the stage design for the Motion, exploring the influence of tour with the Rolling Stones. He cultural background on creative has worked as a creative director at expression. Elliott was keynote Saatchi and Saatchi, directed com- speaker at the International Motion mercials for Coca-Cola and music Festival, Cyprus in 2012 and 2015. videos for Puffy, in Tokyo, as well as projects in twenty plus countries.

9 Keynote speech Graham Elliott

The following article is a report on an interview to be playful, thus thwarting his ambitions for conducted with Graham Elliott in response to the course to be fun: “we just let rip, it was his keynote speech at the Varoomlab sympo- about being at art school… when else are you sium in Birmingham. The conversation was going to do this?!” Whereas the institution semi-structured and wide-ranging, taking in favoured a serious approach to the business of Elliott’s current documentary project World in studying and repaying its cost. Elliott acknowl- Motion, a drinking competition with Japanese edges that “you come out with $150,000 of printmakers, and formative experiences. Our debt from the school that I was teaching in, conversation for this article revealed Elliott to and that’s a massive thing to have over you. be a generous interviewee with many en- So you gravitate towards having to get a job”. tertaining anecdotes, some of which will be But his advice is to work almost counterintu- repeated here. itively: “you’ve got to show your playfulness and people will give you work, because you’re The conversation begins with a recap of the an individual and you’re playful and you have Varoomlab conference and how welcome the talent and you’ve experimented. If you look like discussion of key issues within the field was, everyone else it’s going to be harder.” Within amongst academics, students, professional the world of advertising where a culture of fear illustrators and everything in between. This (of speaking up, of being “off-strategy” in the is the legacy of the Varoomlab conferences; face of shifting goalposts) crushes creativi- addressing what Roderick Mills identified as ty, resilient playfulness is a serious business the slow development of critical discourse attribute. surrounding the subject (Mills, 2014), which Fig 1. Sketchbook covers will reverberate long after the conference and Such students were vacuumed up by advertis- journal go into hibernation. ing clients for their creative thinking skills. Neil Thomas defines the creative thinker as one SERIOUS FUN who is able to “think ‘outside of the box’. Be open to new observations and thoughts, how- We move on to discussing the changing ever ridiculous they may seem at first” stating academic situation in the UK, in comparison that “approaching the problem from a different to the US where Elliott recently emerged from angle can encourage new ideas” (Thomas, 10 years of lecturing. He suspects the pressure 2004:9). Elliott emphasises the importance brought by fees of stifling his students’ ability of a solid development process in achieving

10 Keynote speech Graham Elliott

this, stating “I think that the process is such a IDEATION, NOTATION, AND big part of the final thing. I always like to look ORGANISATION behind the scenes”. This curiosity towards the creative process informs and inspired the mak- Elliott identifies the sketchbook or notebook ing of his film exploring the motion graphics as the vehicle he uses to kickstart the crea- industry New York in Motion, and its successor tive process, using brainstorming: “instead World in Motion (a co-production with Roswi- of one idea I try to think of ten ideas and tha Rodrigues). distil it down”. The sketchbook proved to be a recurrent theme within the making of New To explore the practicalities of how to develop York in Motion: “I interviewed 52 people and playfulness I propose that learning to make companies for this film, ranging from MTV, mistakes is valuable, which Elliott summarises Comedy Central, to independent studios and much more neatly: “make mistakes, take criti- freelancers and it was really interesting to look cism, and be open to ideas”. After all, he says, behind the scenes and see how people were if you want to simply get something right “you thinking in notebooks”. For Elliott, these are can watch a tutorial on Lynda.com, you don’t live documents; old notebooks are constant need to go to art school.” Instead, Elliott would companions to dip into in the present. Of revis- urge his students to think through practice: iting these Elliott says “it’s like opening up your “don’t be too precious about it. Just go and do brain, walking into this archive of stuff.” it, and while you’re doing it things will come Notebooks also occupy an organisational role, out of that. While you’re making something, and Elliott emphasises the visual way in which Fig 2. Sketchbook NY in Motion even if it’s not the right thing that you’re going he thinks on paper to plan the logistics of a to be using in the end, you’re going to come to project. another thing”. Messing about might therefore be a way of harnessing the logic of practice “I was in a bar the other night working on and materials in the service of Thomas’s crea- one of my sketchbooks and a guy leans over tivity, and circumventing the creative blockage and asks ‘are you some kind of magician? Are induced by looming fees and employment anx- you doing spells or something?’” The answer iety. As Elliott concludes: “the important thing wasn’t too out of keeping with this suggestion; is to keep doing stuff and making stuff, and not he was drawing a reminder to pack the appro- agonising over stuff.” priate amount of underwear for a forthcoming filming trip to Bangkok. He uses the effective-

11 Keynote speech Graham Elliott

ness of iconic representation where lists aren’t take the sting out of some and reconfigure oth- as effective (“it would take longer to read”). ers as positive factors. For example, in shifting This is alchemy of a sort, conjuring clarity from from illustration to film the scale of task, team, the complexity of an international shooting budget, risk and responsibility all increase, but schedule. the resulting rise in pressures is transformed into a benefit. Assistant directors and pro- This approach to organisation has been with ducers form a marvellous buffer zone around Elliott since childhood, when he drew on Elliott, which is impenetrable to clients. index cards to catalogue his Action Men and their associated equipment. More recently It is his meticulous approach to planning and these have evolved into a bespoke system for the production of rigid schedules that allow plotting shooting itineraries. These are visually Elliott to negotiate a path between pressures dense colour-coded spatial and temporal and play; the more effectively the work can be plans, which are meticulous, articulate, and completed the more time is left at the end for also enable internationally effective communi- playing. As he says, “once you have a roadmap cation: “I can get a tour guide and point at stuff you can go off on adventures, because you to say ‘I’m looking for this’”. Following the day’s know that certain things have been done and work the cards also serve to bolster morale as it gives you more freedom”. I offer my suspi- they are crossed off and hung on the wall; a cions that he has developed extraordinary slightly less bloody shooting trophy. creative coping strategies to survive this level of pressure. In response Elliott recommends UNDER PRESSURE pockets of quiet thinking time in the Museum Fig 3. Sketchbook Animation Ideas of Modern Art (New York). He recalls heading Although he has moved away from drawing as to the MOMA to wrestle with particularly tricky an outcome, Elliott states that “it’s fundamen- creative challenges, causing much alarm to tal within everything I do”, and helps him to his producer in the process. “She’d say: ‘we’ve negotiate the pressures of the motion graphics got all this work to do and you’re going to the industry. These include restrictions on time, MOMA?!’ She didn’t quite understand it, and resources and budgets, which are all pressures thought I was just playing hooky by going to identified by Mark Runco as factors that inhibit the art gallery!” creativity (Runco 2004:662). However, Elliot’s visual thinking methods seem to enable him to

12 Keynote speech Graham Elliott

Fig 4. World In Motion Brazil Shooting Card

13 Keynote speech Graham Elliott

MASTERING TIME explain to a film editor, “so now I do stuff and I’m thinking ‘I know that if I were in an edit Balance also surfaces in our discussion of mo- room I would not be able to do this, because tion graphics, in particular Elliott’s enthusiasm it would sound so ridiculous’”. Now the whole for the digital timeline introduced to him by process can take place without the words that way of Adobe AfterEffects. This digital revela- Elizabeth Price (2006:131) found always more tion allows Elliott to unravel his intense visuals plausible but never as sharp as her practice, so into a more approachable, carefully-paced there is no loss between modes. Furthermore, form of communication. “One of the reasons mastering the editing process has fed back why I didn’t stick with illustration in my career into planning and shooting, with Elliott select- was because I find it hard to do just one image. ing music first and “shooting for the edit”. I put too much into it and mess it up.” He notes that his art school classmates would remind The hands-on approach to editing allowed him that, in contrast, “Picasso knew when to by AfterEffects returned Elliott to the initial stop!” Elliott uses the analogy of a changing wonderment at mixing images, time and cast of characters on a stage to describe how performance of his art school days. He recalls he now wheels out the actors one at a time, the particular combination of project, tutor, Fig 5. Bad Romance: music video still rather than flashmobbing his project and cre- technology and truffle as contributory factors ating a sensory overload: “because you’ve got in fostering his interest in motion graphics. the luxury of time you can put a load of stuff in The brief (set by Pam Schenk) was to “bring there and it's not going to get too crowded.” it back alive”, and found Elliott using his new Polaroid home film-making equipment to Elliott explains that the timeline enables him to make a promotional advert for a Viennese doing this at three o’clock in the morning RESTRICTIONS combine all of his creative skills (photography, truffle. “So I found this Viennese Waltz, and and playing this music, and the landlord animation, illustration, graphic design), using my friend Mark was a woman sipping tea and knocked on the door. I opened the door... My We pursue this discussion of restrictions, a method that isn’t all that far removed from eating the truffle, and we turned my wardrobe friend was dressed as a woman and I was beginning with the excruciating cost of film at collage, or pasting pictures into scrapbooks as into a cuckoo clock. I had a toucan outfit dressed as a toucan. He just shook his head.” the time of the cuckoo clock incident requiring a child. The fact that one programme allows from a fancy dress party and wore my Gran’s The project presentation went well, and the careful planning. Resources in general are Elliott to do all of the editing himself leads wig, and popped my head out in time to the process helped to define Elliott’s approach dealt with on a Ready-Steady-Cook basis (“It’s us on to an interesting reflection upon the music.” There was no possibility of editing the to limitations: “it was about resources; what I like cooking; I don’t want to go shopping, so relationship of words to his work. Elliott found film so the three-minute music video was all had, what was available, and what we could what’s in the fridge?”); with Elliott outlining his that words limited his work to what he could shot in-camera, a lengthy process. “We were do in the time.” approach: “knowing the availability of what’s

14 Keynote speech Graham Elliott

around and what your resources are, knowing Elliott’s perspective on the world, introducing necessity) before ‘portfolio careers’ were even outcomes for all parties. We conclude our your capabilities, and pushing it as far as you him to a much more diverse range of peo- invented, and created a nurturing environment conversation with a compelling example in can. That’s been a mantra for how I work”. He ple. His subsequent international career and with time dedicated to drawing together. Also which he demonstrates an extraordinary feat considers the surfeit of these things as having current project shooting World in Motion have namechecked is partner-in-crime John Eng- of strategic planning for a thirteen-year-old. El- the potential to swamp him, and gives the ex- given him an insight into the creative meth- land, who influenced Elliott’s early career. “He liott recounts his opportunistic years attending ample of his work for Nickelodeon and Kia-Ora ods and aesthetic sensibilities of the global taught me a lot about self-confidence… people the Air Cadets in order to access a scholarship to show how two round-the-world adventures motion graphics community. He speaks of the feed off that.” Although he adds the disclaimer to learn to fly, gaining a pilot’s licence before and high production values could be wrung colour palettes unique to places, informed by that perhaps, straight out of the Royal College going to art school. Thereafter, his career has from a budget by opting for super-8 film and their urban environment. It’s a co-production of Art and full of swagger, “we were probably a been based on asking “how can I make this a giant orange ball. As Runco states: “creative with designer and branding expert, Roswitha bit asshole-ish”. happen, how can I do this?”, which makes for a insights may sometimes absolutely require Rodrigues, self-funded by her studio Magical persuasive modus operandi. Or perhaps, as he resources, but sometimes result from paucity” Monkey, in New York. “Working alongside Ros- Elliott emphasises the role played by others in puts it elsewhere: “Just go and ask!” (Runco 2004:662). ie has helped me focus on the overall structure the quest to fulfil your ambitions, “If you have a of the film and not get too distracted my the dream of getting somewhere you need people REFERENCES This theme emerges again in relation to a book sheer mechanics of such an ambitious project. to help you get there.” He goes on to outline on illustration published by Edward Booth My intuitive approach is also complemented the bartering of creative capital underlying his Mills, R. (2014) ‘Interpretation: Andrew Kul- Clibborn and destined to be printed in Japan. by her branding and strategic background.” It and England’s first job in advertising: “people man & Roderick Mills’ Varoom http://www. Elliott diverted the copy-setting budget for the could take years to complete, but these find- are not just going to give you stuff, for charity, varoom-mag.com/?p=8145 [Accessed 04 book towards air travel and instead handwrote ings secure its longevity even if the technology you’ve got to find a reason for them to give January 2016] the publication in three languages with the featured becomes outdated. you stuff”. They had recently been featured by assistance of multilingual interns. The wager Creative Review, and this would bring press Price, E. (2006) 'Sidekick'. In: MacLeod, K. was a success by all accounts; the book won STRATEGY AND THE LONG-HAUL attention to the agency; “there’s always a & Holdridge, L. (eds) Thinking Through Art: a D&AD yellow pencil for its sympathetic use trade-off, it’s problem-solving.” And in return Reflections on Art as Research. Abingdon: of text to complement illustration, Elliott went Limitations resurface in Elliott’s closing you help other creatives in the form of swap- Routledge, pp122-132 to Japan, and Booth Clibborn had someone to remarks, in that he chose art school and sub- ping skills in a reciprocal fashion. It’s important oversee the printing process. Further ‘nego- sequent career moves without the burden of to note that Elliott’s examples are based on Runco, Mark A. (2004) ‘Creativity’ Annual tiations’ were undertaken with the printers in expectations limiting him: “the lack of pressure mutual leverage, and not the hollow promise review of psychology, Vol.55, pp.657-87 the form of a most scurrilously rigged drinking to do any one thing allowed me to dive in there that “it will be good for your portfolio”. competition resulting in a run of copies with and try things out”. Instead I hear an account Thomas, N. (2004). The Concise Adair on gilt edges at no extra cost. These are the of an inspiring mother encouraging him in Elliott seems to have mastered long-term Creativity and Innovation. London: Thoro- things they don’t teach you in art school. this regard. A textile-designer by training, planning and transforming different forms of good Publishing. On the other hand, art school broadened she retrained herself several times (through capital to enable him to negotiate successful

15 Peer Reviewed Papers

16 Myths of the near Future: Ballard, Crusoe and Google Matthew Richardson

Matthew Richardson’s research art colleges across the UK and cur- and practice exploits found images rently teaches part-time at Norwich and framing devices to explore the University of the Arts. slippages between fact and fiction, space and time. His work utilises In 2014, Matthew illustrated In photography, sound, text, assem- Praise of Folly by the 15th century blage and digital media to inves- humanist, Erasmus, for Folio and tigate how narratives shift in their presented a paper titled In Praise of re-telling and through changes in Folly: a Palimpsest of Foolery at The context. Itinerant Illustrator hosted by Srishti College of Art and Design, Banga- Matthew originally studied Graphic lore, which talked about the pro- Design (BA) at Middlesex Universi- cess. He completed a project titled Contact Information ty, followed by postgraduate study Am I the Island, an exploration of in Illustration at Central St. Martins, the narrative space in JG Ballard’s Illustrator and part-time lecturer, Norwich University of the Arts, BA hons Illustration and Fine Art (MA) at UWIC, Cardiff. novel Concrete Island, in 2016 and He has created work over widely it was shown at Transition Gallery, matthewxrichardson.com differing contexts, including com- London in that year. halfhidden.com missioned work for The Guardian, V&A, WPP, English National Opera, BBC, Penguin and Folio. He has taught and been a guest speaker at

17 Matthew Richardson Myths of the near Future: Ballard, Crusoe and Google

This article traces the research and devel- What contemporary visual story form might be opment of an exploratory illustration project appropriate to re-tell a Ballardian narrative? that visually adapts JG. Ballard’s 1974 novel, Concrete Island. The work aims to function Patterson (2016) neatly sets out some of the somewhere between book, film, online explo- challenges of illustrating and adapting Ballard’s ration and gaming experience. I am interested fiction: in illustration’s intrinsic narrative purpose - its connection to word and story form - and I have “Ballard’s work defiantly resists adaptation. He been thinking about how the written word (as is an obsessive and an imagist. He doesn’t do both script and story) can provide very precise plot, he just examines his nightmarish scenar- information, while allowing imaginative space ios and mentally collapsing protagonists from for a reader to inhabit. I have been considering every conceivable angle, rather than offering how this ambiguous imaginative space can be neatly structured climaxes. His dialogue is maintained, as a written story is transposed functional. In conventional outer space sci-fi into a visual one. you can have fun with spaceships, ray-guns and special effects, but Ballard’s “inner space” JG. Ballard’s fiction seems to remain prophetic is far harder to capture.” of a future, even as we re-read novels written Fig 1. Still from ‘Am I The Island’ Matthew Richardson, 2015 in the 60s, 70s and 80s. Much of his fiction has This is an extract from Patterson’s review turned to fact; the forecasting of global warm- of the recent film made by Ben Wheatley ing, urban dereliction and concerns with the of Ballard’s 1973 dystopian novel High Rise. ation of what ‘Ballardian’ signifies will always Ballard’s Concrete Island begins: psychological effects of media and technology Wheatley sets the film in the 1970s (when the be the only ‘Ballardian’ form - even as we have on the individual. How then, might a visionary book was written) – and so connects Ballard moved from an analogue world to a digital one. “Soon after 3 o’clock on the afternoon of April narrative written 40 years ago, be re-imagined, with a specific time period and visual culture. Ballard’s fiction certainly still has contemporary 22, 1973, a 35-year-old architect named Robert re-cast and illustrated today? This is a specific The beginning of my project involved thinking relevance – so perhaps ‘Ballardian’ as meta- Maitland was driving down the high-speed exit narrative and the question, as questions often again about ‘classic Ballardian’ images and phor shifts over time, and the term ‘Ballardian’ lane of the Westway inter-change in central do, raises further questions: tropes - brutalist architecture, underpasses, is as much an ‘idea’ as a ‘style’. In thinking London. Six hundred yards from the junction overpasses, motorways — and trying to see if about how we use digital technology now and with the newly built spur of the M4 motorway What does the term ‘Ballardian’ mean, and I could find contemporary alternatives to the in consideration of Ballard’s view of technology (when the Jaguar had already passed the 70 how might it be visualised or conceptualised? physical metaphors of the pre-digital era that as an individually isolating force, my project mph speed limit) a blow-out collapsed the How do developments in technology affect the Ballard inhabited. I wondered whether the proposes Google Street View as the contem- front near-side tyre”. (Ballard, 1974) individual? classic (and increasingly nostalgic) visualis- porary ‘Ballardian’ metaphor, image and form.

18 Matthew Richardson Myths of the near Future: Ballard, Crusoe and Google

This is the moment before Maitland crashes technology to build and assert their idea of off the motorway, unseen by other motorists, ‘civilization’. A Robinsonade is as an allegory into no-mans land and hidden from view. I was of individual survival against the odds; dysto- immediately drawn in by the precise descrip- pian in terms of unforgiving nature (exposure tion of person, place, time and speed - and an to danger, the elements) and utopian in terms early impulse was to use Google Street View of the individual overcoming adversity. The to locate the site of the crash. In trying to combination of specific, yet limited elements connect this fictional moment with a virtual- provides for infinite variations that can be ly real space, I wondered what this strange re-cast for different narrative purposes within space was, in a crossover somewhere between different historic and cultural periods. fiction and reality, past and present. As I re- traced Maitland’s journey along the A40 using Ballard’s Robinsonade, Concrete Island is one Street View, I realised that the first person of a quartet of 1970s novels — the others being perspective of Street View could be cast as The Atrocity Exhibition (1970), Crash (1973) Maitland’s, with the computer display screen, and High-Rise (1975) — that spoke about and already a window between the physical world warned against the increasing alienation and and an imaginary space, a windscreen - and I isolation of the individual through the bom- was curious to see how this logic and meta- Fig 2. Still from ‘Am I The Island’ Matthew Richardson, 2015 bardment and seduction of technology and phor might play out as a visual narrative device commercialisation of experience. In the narra- for illustrating Concrete Island. tive, Architect, Robert Maitland is marooned on a traffic island, a triangle of space that is an At the time that Ballard wrote Concrete Island, front, distracted by conversation on a hands- its own genre. Well known examples include overlooked, bi-product of the megalithic 1960- he saw the car as the dominant icon and form free mobile device. The Swiss Family Robinson (1812), The Island of 70s road building programme. Wire fencing, of modernity. Forty years later, the car has Dr. Moreau (1896), Lord of the Flies (1954) and steep embankments and the relentless flow of arguably been replaced by the smartphone Concrete Island is rare in Ballard’s writing in Castaway (2000). The archetypical structure traffic repel his attempts to escape. As Mait- as prime object (and status) for navigating as much as it uses a pre-existing allegorical involves an individual — marooned from civi- land’s strength diminishes, and as he slips in society - practically and metaphorically. Now, form. The form of Concrete Island belongs to a lization, surviving by his or her own wits. The and out of delirium, he encounters two inhab- Maitland would as likely be lost due to the sub genre of fiction known as a ‘robinsonade’. plot is often theorized as a myth of colonization itants of the island, a young female runaway absence of a Wi-Fi signal, and congestion or This is an allegorical story-form that origi- (with Crusoe as Capitalist pioneer or exploiter, and, an elderly vagrant. Maitland uses his wits road works would have him crawling along at nated with Daniel Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe depending on point of view). The story form to survive; drinking rainwater, setting fire to his under 15mph, so if he did crash, he would as (1719). The original spawned and still spawns includes encounters with ‘indigenous’ people, car to attract attention, and manipulating the likely crash by drifting into the rear of the car in so many copies and versions that it defines with the marooned individual using tools and two inhabitants to help him survive.

19 Matthew Richardson Myths of the near Future: Ballard, Crusoe and Google

The location and setting of the narrative prem- specific visual tropes and motifs – motorway a traffic island, we can tyrannize ourselves, test and by extension, ‘Ballardian Space’? ise is hugely significant and is a good place to flyovers, multi-storey car parks, abandoned our strengths and weaknesses, and perhaps start to think about the term ‘Ballardian’. What modernist buildings, empty swimming pools. come to terms with aspects of our characters While Google Earth and Google Street View and where is this island? This in-between Ballard talks about the use of these urban lim- to which we have always closed our eyes.” creates and provides ‘place’ and the navigation space beside the A40, this space between inal spaces as metaphor - metaphors for the (Ballard, 1974) So this island, as much as a of space in a virtual sense, Ballard (working motorways, arrived at via a car crash – appear subconscious – what he called ‘inner space’ specifically described location (off the A40) pre-digital), uses (and needs to use) analogue to be classic ‘Ballardian’ elements. A Dictionary (as opposed to Sci-Fi’s ‘outer space’). So for is as importantly a metaphor of the individual metaphors and analogies to interrogate the definition of ‘Ballardian’ cites bleak, dystopian Ballard, these physical structures and forms psyche. Ballardian space then - this visual conditions and effects of modern life. For man-made landscapes and the psycholog- and indeterminate spaces represent, feelings rendering of “inner space” - isn’t only locked to example, Ballard described society as one ical effects brought about by developments and urges that we supress and are hidden. a specific geographic location or visual trope, it enormous novel. This metaphor represented in technology as key conditions of the term. Ballard describes his purpose in using the is also a less easily visible idea – the landscape the media and consumer landscape of the These ‘conditions’ are often attached to ‘Robinsonade’ as story form: “Marooned (…) on of human subconscious and human behaviour. mid-1970s – a metaphor for the convergence Ballard conflates ‘inner’ and ‘outer’ space in of fact and fiction in advertising, film and ‘Concrete Island’ and consciously draws atten- television. The French theorist, Jean Baudrillard Fig 3. Still from ‘Am I The Island’ Matthew Richardson, 2015 tion to the relationship: (1994) has used Ballard’s fiction to illustrate his idea of ‘simulation’ - an experience of the “He surveyed the green triangle which had world that is neither fiction nor reality, caused been his home for the past five days. It’s dips by an overload of information through print, and hollows, rises and hillocks he knew as TV and electronic media, where individuals intimately as his own body. Moving across it, are lost in a depthless technological system, he seemed to be following a contour line inside detached from empathy - a ‘death of affect’. his head.” (Ballard, 1974, p.131) In a digitally networked world, the media and consumer landscape has shifted massively in If we think about Ballard’s notion of ‘inner the last 40 years. Perhaps most significant is space’ today - it is certainly changed by our how virtual and real spaces have merged and habituated use and connection to the Internet been claimed (and in many cases bought and – where do we ‘live’ now? and what motivates controlled) by social networks, online com- us? In this context, the 1973 motorway system munication, information access, shopping and – a 1974 ‘Ballardian’ metaphor of space is gaming. nearer today to the techno-capitalist structure of the Internet. So isn’t then, the internet a con- Ballard predicted something of this: “Electronic tender as metaphor for Ballard’s ‘Inner space’ aids, particularly domestic computers, will help

20 Matthew Richardson Myths of the near Future: Ballard, Crusoe and Google

the inner migration, the opting out of reality. psychosexuality, the death drive, the uncon- Reality is no longer going to be the stuff out scious. Tom Gunning (1998) uses the term there, but the stuff inside your head. It’s going ‘technological uncanny’ to describe the way to be commercial and nasty at the same time.” new technology is first experienced as magical (Ballard, 1971) Ballard’s metaphor of the ‘enor- or ‘other’, before it disappears into habit and mous novel’ and Buadrillard’s ideas of ‘simula- routine, and this is how I am considering the tion’ are the Internet, and perhaps a ‘death of experience of Google Street View. Gunning affect’, is the cause of Maitland’s (or a modern argues that although familiarity of a technol- day Crusoe’s) detached isolation. In thinking ogy, through everyday use, masks the original about Ballard’s descriptions of our relationship sense of magic and surprise, an ‘uncanny’ as- to technology, and in thinking about Ballard pect (or a kind of magical awe) does not totally writing in a different time period, I considered disappear, but continues to erupt in unforeseen how technology compels us to experience time ways and places. The Freudian term ‘uncanny’ and ‘live’ differently in different eras. These as- is a mixture of the familiar and unfamiliar that pects are pertinent in thinking about how the is experienced as odd - a feeling that caus- text of the narrative might be made visual and es a double take, a feeling of discomfort in what considerations might be significant now. something that was felt to be to be known and understood. So, as an example of this as it ap- Fig 4. Still from ‘Am I The Island’ Matthew Richardson, 2015 The landscape of Concrete Island, which is first plies to technology, we might take for granted understood as a ‘non-space’, slowly reveals phones and voicemail, yet if we heard the voice the ruined sites of past technologies beneath of someone that had died via voicemail, we as concept, untethered to a specific period an entirely new experience of time-space the undergrowth - a derelict printing works, might be as unsettled at hearing the voice as in time, but connected to ever-changing travel, the effect produced by a combination the cellar of a cinema. Technology has always the first person in 1875 to hear a disembodied technological change and development. If we of the film-making (where by a camera was changed how time (and place) is experienced voice coming from a phone receiver. go back to the origins of film, before editing mounted on the front of a train) and the sub- - from sea travel, to railways and roads and was commonplace and film was still mostly sequent projection of the film in a specially air flight to the Internet. The way we adapt to This idea of the ‘technological uncanny’– and continuous footage, pioneers (as entertainers designed space. The viewers occupied the shifting and overlapping media technologies the fact that Street View might be subject to and entrepreneurs) enhanced the ‘lived’ and position of the camera and travelled through - books, phones, film, radio, television, comput- ‘technological uncanniness’, underpins my embodied experience of film through what a landscape in a monochrome dream. Even ers – also effects what it feels (and means) to project and research. It is the ‘technological were called ‘Phantom Rides’. Phantom Rides though the rides pre-date Freud by a few be human. Ballard famously championed sur- uncanny’ I’m suggesting, that can give us a were unsettling (and exciting) ‘travel’ experi- decades, the experience can certainly be de- realism and his narratives play with and unpick different way to think about ‘Ballardian’, and ences – with movement appearing to come scribed as ‘uncanny’. A continuum of uncanny many Freudian ideas and tropes - repression, importantly, something that is ‘Ballardian’ from an invisible force. The viewer was given and virtual time-space travel might be traced

21 Matthew Richardson Myths of the near Future: Ballard, Crusoe and Google

from here, via theme park rides and gaming to the mismatched seams acting in the same way — the Google compass signifying a control narration), creates space for the reader/viewer the experience of Street View today. to the gutters and frames in a graphic novel. of orientation and navigation. Then the world to add and make meaning. In thinking about This narrative structure provided the space turns grey, people disappear, to be replaced by the visual narrative form, I was interested that Significantly for my project however, Street and form for my adaptation of the novel. isolated objects, ambiguous in their scale and Ballard talked about his writing in cinematic View isn’t used and experienced as enter- placement, that float somewhere between the terms: tainment, fiction or ‘other’, but as a utilitarian The project needed more obvious shifts from 3-Dimentional space of street view and screen ‘reality’ – a reliable, everyday form of travel and the ‘familiarity’ of Google Street View, shifts surface. These objects, often tools and weap- “I wanted to suggest a sort of mythological navigation. If we examine this familiar space that activated Street View as a ‘Ballardian’ ons, relate sometimes specifically, sometimes stratum… it’s rather like a film, (…), where the more closely however, ‘Street View’ as a mirror narrative space and that pushed the famili- obliquely to the plot, their use oscillating be- action is suddenly overlaid by another image, of reality it is actually quite strange. Street arity of Street View to something less known tween survival & attack and bribe & exchange. just briefly, and one’s conscious of a different View World is always daytime and the weather and trusted. In my recalibrating, Street View The slippage in the reading of these signs system of time, perhaps a more dream-like is fine. We accept as normal a mode of travel, retains its familiar, individualised journey space (and how they relate to one another and to the atmosphere, something that touches another in which we lurch in 10 metre jumps, from one level of the mind.” fixed place to another. We don’t walk, we hover (Burns & Sugnet, 1981) just above ground level, our journey soundless, and any people encountered are ghostly, their ‘Ballardian time’ has a particular quality — a features and faces blurred. kind of moving stillness. Ballard’s narrative time doesn’t really describe past events, or This fabricated ‘reality’ we take for granted use flash backs, or conversely look towards a — and the ‘constructedness’ of this space – distant future. Ballardian time exists in the con- nearer to a kind of fiction is easily overlooked. tinuous present, or as Ballard puts it himself, However, if we look closely the digital fabric somewhere in “the next five minutes”. We are is often exposed by visual misconnections, always moving towards a moment, yet there glitches in coding, and the blurs and shadows is no narrative anticipation of this moment ap- of this data-mapped and data-created space. proaching. My use of ‘stilled’ scenes, captured In thinking about Street View as ‘Ballardian’, it from Street View, moving in slow rhythmic dis- is these glitches that I’m suggesting have the solves, are a kind of visual equivalence to this. capacity to act as double metaphor. This is The time-rhythm also relates back to the Street landscape as psychological map, with the gaps View experience — of fixed view places linked and ruptures, as hinges between the conscious by short, equal movements. Slowly changing and unconscious — and simultaneously a land- frozen moments, focus attention on the pres- scape of indeterminate and delayed time, with Fig 5. Still from ‘Am I The Island’ Matthew Richardson, 2015 ent, where we consciously and simultaneously

22 Matthew Richardson Myths of the near Future: Ballard, Crusoe and Google

alter ego the narration is able to both ques- system that follows and tracks every move, tion Maitland’s motivation and critique it. The purchase, like, opinion, choice and journey is narration instructs the reader/viewer/driver (as ever increasingly conditioning what it means to Maitland) how and why they are feeling and be ‘individual’. behaving, with uncanny effect caused by the gap between a mechanistic delivery and the There are escapes though. As a Google car emotionally charged description of unfolding reaches a no entry sign and turns around, we events happening in the present tense. So, in can step off onto a foot path and slip away. my adaptation, a 1973 narrative and metaphor Google might have colonized much of the of individual isolation is transposed from the planet, but there are still places that a modern physical gap of a motorway system to the gaps day Crusoe can be lost. Concrete Island ends in digital mapping and navigation technology with a cautionary reminder about our relation- today. ship with technology. Technology seduces, isolates, and motivates us, yet this isolation is Technology continues to evolve, mutate and addictive. At the very end of Concrete Island, shift. Even since beginning this project, the Maitland, now sole inhabitant of the island Street View interface has updated. Before long, appears to accept the island as his ‘home’: Fig 6. Still from ‘Am I The Island’ Matthew Richardson, 2015 Street View will be seamless - ruptures sewn “A police car moved along the motorway, the up and the fabric ever more ‘real’. However, co-driver watching the deep grass. Secure hold one image (of the past) as we perceive script for narration. The idea and choice of the as I have tried to show, although technology in his pavilion, Maitland waited for it to pass. the future. This deliberated ‘presentness’, is narrator’s voice developed from trying to find alters how we negotiate the world, by its na- When it had gone, he stood up and gazed con- an attempt at a spatial and visual equivalent of an appropriate method to illustrate Ballard’s ture, technology is often separated from lived fidently across the island.” (Ballard, 1974) Ballard’s ‘very near future’ as well as an illustra- notion of ‘inner space’, and isolation caused experience, and perceptual gaps - gaps that tion of the enervated space-time of the novel. through technology. The premise of my adap- remind us of being human - will always occur. Am I The Island, a short film made by Mat- tation is that in 2016, the only voice Maitland Concrete Island remains worth re-telling and thew Richardson as a part of this project The perception of time is also extended hears as he travels in air-conditioned silence, re-visualising. The techno-capitalist structure can be viewed online at: https://vimeo. through narration. Plot and events as they are his inner thoughts, spoken by his Sat Nav. of the Internet replacing 1970s urban plan- com/142654869 happen are described through Maitland’s A central question of the novel is Maitland’s ning as ‘Ballardian’ metaphor says something (often self-critical) inner monologue, togeth- motivation. Is his self-destruction (and crash) different about technology and its affects on er with a detached description of action and chosen? Does he want to return to civiliza- the individual. The ‘Googlisation’ of the planet motivation. At an early stage of the project, tion? So in using a Satnav as both narrator multiplies continuously, and the sense of de- the text of the book was transcribed into a of action and as Maitland’s conscience and lirious solation that adheres to a Global digital

23 Matthew Richardson Myths of the near Future: Ballard, Crusoe and Google

REFERENCES Patterson, J. (2016) High Rise, The Guardian, Guardian News and Media, 14.03.16 https:// Ballard, J.G. (1971) Interview in Heavy Metal. www.theguardian.com/film/2016/mar/14/ben- Reprinted in Re/Search No. 8/9 (1984) wheatley-jg-ballard-high-rise

Ballard, J.G. (1974) Concrete Island, 4th Estate, London

Ballard, J.G. (2006) A Handful of Dust, The Guardian. Guardian News and Media, 20.3.2006. https://www.theguardian.com/ artanddesign/2006/mar/20/architecture. communities (link to article)

Baudrillard, J. (1994) Simulacra and Simulation University of Michigan Press

Burns, A. & Sugnet, C. (1981) The Imagination On Trial, Allison & Busby, London

Gasiorek, A (2005) J. G. Ballard. Manchester University Press, Manchester

Groppo, P (2013) Gothic space and the Technological Uncanny in J.G. Ballard, Revista ContraPonto, Belo Horizonte, Brazil

Gunning, T. (2004) Rethinking Media Change: The Aesthetics of Transition MIT Press, Cam- bridge, MA

24 Illustration; Education; Revolution Richard Hudson-Miles

Richard Hudson Miles is an aca- demic and political activist, working at Leeds College of Art, as Princi- pal Lecturer (BA Hons Illustration and Graphic Design) at time of writing this paper. His research in- terests include deconstruction and the philosophy of Jacques Derrida, the history and visual culture of the British Labour movement, C19th Print Culture, Frankfurt School critical theory, critical pedagogy and continental philosophy more Contact Information generally. More importantly, he is interested in the relation of any or Subject Leader, Contextual Studies all of the above to contemporary [email protected] visual communication. Prior to his leeds-art.ac.uk recent marriage, he shared a name with a TV historian from whom he wishes to be distinguished.

25 Richard Miles Illustration; Education; Revolution

‘The exclusive concentration of artistic talent Introduction sensible’, suggesting ways in which it man- in particular individuals, and its suppres- ifests itself in the culture and discourses of sion in the broad mass which is bound up This paper draws upon the thought of the the arts and arts education. Secondly, I take with this, is a consequence of the division philosopher Jacques Rancière to point to a a reading of Rancière’s The Ignorant School- of labour. […] In any case, with a communist particular ‘distribution of the sensible’ cur- master (1991) to demonstrate its relevance for organisation of society, there disappears the rently in operation within the field of visual contemporary arts education. Thirdly, I turn to subordination of the artist to local and nation- arts practice, institutionally and culturally. my case study of the radical, autonomous, UK al narrowness, which arises entirely from the For Rancière, the ‘distribution of the sensible’, art school, The School of the Damned, before division of labour, and also the subordination refers to implicit conventions, laws, regulations, moving to a speculative conclusion from which of the artist to some definite art, thanks to social structures, behaviours, and modes of I hope, in keeping with the theme of this jour- which he is exclusively a painter, sculptor, consciousness, which separate individuals or nal, the reader can begin to envisage a future etc., the very name of his activity adequately social spheres from each other, preventing for arts education that transcends institutional expressing the narrowness of his professional participation in the creation of a common and disciplinary limitations and, indeed, capi- development and his dependence on division world (Rancière 2004: 85). It creates certain talist societal relations themselves. of labour. In a communist society there are no subjectivities and assigns proper identities, painters but at most people who engage in which are distinct from, and often artificially The Distribution of the Sensible painting amongst other activities’ (Marx 1970 opposed to, one another. My paper seeks to [1845]: 109). understand how this distribution affects the Following a raft of translations of his works arts and arts education, particularly in their in- into English over the last two decades, Jacques ‘It is true that we don’t know that all men stitutional setting. It also attempts to describe Rancière has gained much reverence as the are equal. We are saying that they might be. the debilitating effects of this system on the latest ‘Philosophe du jour’ of the critical hu- This is our opinion, and we are trying, along student-subject caught in its web. As such, Fig 1: Kerry Campbell (School of the Damned) (2015) ‘Cava’. manities (Bowman and Stamp 2011; xi). He has with those who think as we do, to verify. But this paper aims to be far reaching, speculative, an exemplary pedigree, having been taught by we know that this might is the very thing and a provocation for further discussion. It the French Structural Marxist Louis Althusser, that makes a society of humans possible does not seek to be an exhaustive history of tivities which transcend limiting and essential and contributing in the seminars that led to his (Rancière 1991: 73). the art school, in either conservative or radical designations such as ‘student’, ‘artist’, ‘teacher’, book Reading Capital (1970). His intellectual formation. Instead, by forwarding a case study ‘illustrator’, ‘worker’ and so forth (Rancière in oeuvre is wide ranging and deliberately unclas- of one recent radical art school, which is read Dasgupta 2008: 71; Highmore 2011). sifiable, encompassing aesthetic and cultural via Rancière as both social form and dissen- theory, philosophy, politics, pedagogy, art, the sual strategy, it aims to suggest how collective I propose to undertake this analysis in working class, the police, and the histories and creative activity can challenge the ‘distribution four movements. Firstly, I briefly introduce intersections of all of the above. For Rancière, of the sensible’, generating alternative subjec- Rancière’s concept of the ‘distribution of the this interdisciplinarity, or ‘indisciplinarity’, is a

26 Richard Miles Illustration; Education; Revolution

deliberate methodological manoeuvre which Though difficult to define with any concision, the An example of the ‘distribution of the sensible’ guards against co-option by a certain division ‘distribution of the sensible’ refers to the separa- at work could be found in his doctoral thesis, of labour within the humanities (disciplinary tion of socio-cultural space, and lived existence La Nuit des proletaires, published originally in specialism, segregation, hierarchy) whilst si- into strict a priori strata, which condition and English in 1981, as Nights of Labor: The Work- multaneously highlighting that same structural limit every individual’s capacity to think, act, and ers Dream in Nineteenth Century France, later division and its implicit power relations. Like most importantly speak and be heard. This is retranslated as simply Proletarian Nights (2012 many French philosophers, his writing style is the field for political, social and cultural action, or [1981]). This work undertakes a historical analy- idiosyncratic, which is either exasperating or perhaps inaction. This distribution or segregation, sis of the activities of the forgotten worker-po- exhilarating depending on your particular taste negotiated socially, and more importantly lived ets and worker-philosophers of C19th French or academic allegiance. Similarly, like many ideologically, is formalised and made concrete industrial capitalism who ‘refused to simply recent French philosophers, Rancière could be by what Rancière refers to as the Police. His take themselves as workers’ (Larson 2013: 1). understood as a philosopher trying to reckon deployment of this particular term here needs In this act of refusal these workers not only with ideological defeat of the May ’68 moment to be understood in a much broader sense than mount a destabilising challenge to the prevail- and explain the absence of any successful that of common usage, referring not simply ing social hierarchy but also to its temporal revolutionary project in the ‘Age of No Alterna- to one specific ‘Repressive State Apparatus’ logic. The work-sleep-work-sleep pattern, and tives’ to Neo-Liberal hegemony. (Althusser 1971) but any ‘organisational system of the appropriate behaviours expected of work- coordinates that establishes a distribution of the ers in each phase, is completely disrupted. This Reductively perhaps, one could summarise sensible or a law that divides the community into ‘distribution of the sensible’, where workers are Rancière’s work as an analysis of what happens groups, social positions, and functions’ (Rockhill expected to use their free time to recuperate when one refuses one’s designated and proper in Rancière 2004: 3). The ‘distribution of the sen- for another hard and productive day on the place in this prevailing social order, and why such sible’ therefore is a self-regulating and complex factory floor, is substituted for a ‘redistribution a symbolic refusal or dissensus is necessary institutional and ideological field where human of the possible’ where - Fig 2: Alfie Strong (School of the Damned) (2015) ‘Je M’appelle and vital. The central concept, circumscribing agency is alternatively repressed or allowed to Mother Fucker’. all of the above, and driving much of Rancière’s flourish under strictly monitored institutional con- ‘the possible is the workers’ dream deemed analysis, is le Partage du Sensible, which is ditions. For Rancière then, questions concerning as impossible by a temporal ordering that most commonly translated as the ‘distribution the logic of this system are ultimately questions would give workers no time and no dreams. It of the sensible’, though the alternate possible concerning democracy itself, which is to be real- is only by behaving improperly, of disrespect- translations of ‘sharing’, ‘division’ and ‘partition’ ised, not simply in the recognition of social strati- ing propriety, that a new distribution of the are useful and relevant. This concept is explic- fication, but through the revolutionary rejection of sensible is possible’ (Highmore 2011: 98-9). itly interrogated in the later work The Politics that system via a human praxis centred around of Aesthetics (2004), but operates implicitly or the logic of equality and the common. By using their spare time for creative acts, explicitly throughout most of Rancière’s work. these worker-poets transform the socially

27 Richard Miles Illustration; Education; Revolution

expected ‘work (productive) / free time (docile, Industries’ and indeed culture more broadly. passive)’ pattern into ‘work (productive) / free Many readers practicing within this field will time (active, dynamic). The dynamism of the recognise this ‘distribution’ immediately. Writ- latter formulation therefore starts to threaten ing recently, the illustrator and author Marshall the security of the former. The questions un- Arisman (2010) has sarcastically, but also with derlying such a redistribution would of course a degree of resignation, described a particular be “Who dictates that a worker can not be hierarchical logic within the disciplinary subdi- a poet?”; “Why would not all workers aspire vision of visual arts within the academy. I refer to transcend the drudgery of daily labour?” to his taxonomy verbatim: Perhaps most importantly, “Why has the art of these workers been forgotten by, or excluded ‘1. Fine Arts is pure. from, history?”. 2. Illustration is the beginning of selling out. 3. Graphic Design is commercial art. Probably because of their regular focus on 4. Advertising is selling... period.’ (Arisman, the emancipatory potential of artistic prax- 2010:3). is, Rancière’s works have gained particular popularity in the fields of Fine Art, Art History Arisman suggests that this ‘distribution of the and Cultural Studies. You will find a copy of sensible’ has been evident since the 1960s. I one of Rancière’s texts in the shop of any would go further. In the UK, such a system has contemporary art gallery or biennale worth been evident, and robustly ‘policed’ by culture its salt. The Tate Modern recently hosted Fig 3: Phillip Coyne (School of the Damned) (2015) ‘Monti Mori, My First SOTD Session Presenting The Similarities Between My Head Won’t and its stewards, at least since the mid C19th Rancière ‘in conversation’ with author and Stop Talking For 87 Years After It Is Removed And The Corpse Of Bernie Lomax’. emergence of Print Culture (The Illustrated curator Claire Bishop in one of its auditori- News, the Penny Dreadful etc.) as the popular ums. This is not to suggest (purely at least) other to the traditional Fine Arts, and arguably that there is a populist element to Rancière’s tally un-Rancièrian about Rancière’s current vant factors in my selection. More pressingly, nascent from the invention of the Gutenberg work but certainly, there is a fully developed quasi-celebrity status. for the purposes of an argument presented Press c.1450 (see Miles 2015: 13-14; Edwards publicity machine surrounding his work, within an illustration journal, through Rancière and Wood 2012). The institutionalisation of perhaps producing accidental socio-cultural For now, I wish to simply point out that I turn I wish to point to a particular ‘distribution of applied art and design education in the UK, effects that jar with the central content of his to Rancière’s work here not simply for its the sensible’ concerning visual arts practice, from 1837 onwards, certainly played a part work. I refer the reader to an amusing essay revolutionary and emancipatory content, its both institutionally, within the university and in cementing this system in the social con- by McQuillan (2010b), which politely suggests pedagogical relevance, or for its contempo- its apparatus, and societally, evident in what sciousness. The Government School of Design, that there is perhaps something fundamen- rary voguishness, though these are all rele- is referred to oxymoronically as the ‘Creative first established in Somerset House, London

28 Richard Miles Illustration; Education; Revolution

became the model that was quickly rolled and Germany in the eighteenth century, in the particular commercial interests, entrenched My purpose here is not to dwell on the out to the provinces and, as such, represents discourses of art and art education. Concepts the disciplinary boundaries between art forms historical determinants, or mythology, of this the birth of the modern art school. From their such as art, creativity, genius, expression (this in the pursuit of cultural capital and profit. ‘modern system of arts’ at any length, though inception, these schools were quite different list could be continued almost indefinitely) all The emergence of a fully developed bour- doubtless this paper needs to be written. As institutions, pedagogically and ideologically, sit on the privileged side of what Derrida would geois public sphere, analysed in depth by I mentioned above, its reflexes will, for better from the aristocratic Royal Academy, to which call a logocentric conceptual system, and have Habermas (1989), in the new lending libraries, or worse, be hopefully apparent for anyone they stood immediately as radical other. Quinn become as closely associated with the fine coffee houses, exhibitions, salons, concerts, practicing within the field. For now, hopefully (2012) has written extensively about how the arts as their binary opposites are unfairly as- and periodicals further drove a line between it is enough to suggest that illustrators (or direction of these schools was gestated in the sociated with the applied arts. These concepts the culture of the aristocracy and the culture designers, animators etc.) come off worse utilitarianism of a British Parliament dominated and their connotations still stubbornly haunt of the entrepreneurial middle classes. Dave from the logic of this system than fine artists, by a newly empowered bourgeois class. The art and design curricula as undeconstructed Beech (2014) has read the formation of the who are unfairly and incorrectly celebrated focus of these early schools on developing baggage. nineteenth century Schools of Design as a as creatively and intellectually superior, and design skills applicable to industry stood in bourgeois radical act – no less than an act that this has consequences for art and design stark contrast to the culture and pedagogy of Shiner (2001), Eagleton (1990) and Kristeller of class war against the aristocratic stran- education generally. And though I personally the Royal Academy. They were also integral (1951; 1952), in different ways, demonstrate glehold on culture, and its institutional form believe the reality to be much more complex in producing and reproducing a culture of that the modern, hierarchical system of art, in the Royal Academy of Arts. On the issue and layered than Arisman’s taxonomy, I would disciplinary specialisation, necessary for the valorising fine art above all other creative dis- of the stubborn persistence of metaphysics suggest at least that this mythic hierarchy is division of labour in industrial manufacture, ciplines, is not timeless and quite specifically in art and design discourses, Barnard (2005: both widely believed and socially invested in. which became rehearsed and cemented as emerges in the mid eighteenth century. Prior 162-78) has written an excellent and very It is the logic of this system that causes some a pedagogic art school mode. MacDonald to this time, artistic practice was significantly readable chapter, in a book aimed at design illustration students to retreat from engaging in (1970) remains an important source on this more ambiguous and interdisciplinary activity students, debunking the conceptualisation of theoretical and philosophical forms of practice, matter. However, to suggest that the ‘distribu- common. In actuality, it was the shifting class artists as innately more creative, expressive, which is incorrectly considered the preserve tion of the sensible’, to which Arisman alludes, composition of eighteenth century society original, individual, or culturally significant of fine art practice. It is also the logic of this begins with the formation of the Schools of that completed the separation between ar- than designers. In contrast, both Wood (2008) system that allows certain aspects of the fine Design is perhaps too neat an explanation, tistic disciplines, rather than anything innate and Rifkin (1988) have written acerbically art world to disguise the shortcomings of quite and indeed reductive. This separation was or essential to those disciplines. For example, about the absolute pedagogical bankruptcy mediocre work with obfuscatory jargon and almost certainly born out of, and reproduced, the development of new bourgeois social and repetitiveness of these early art school pseudo-philosophy. It is the system that pro- issues of class that predated the art school in and artistic institutions, such as the secular curricula, which sits uncomfortably next to duces and reproduces limiting ‘house styles’ its modern form. It also has something to do concert, the reading library, literary criticism, notions of creativity, individuality, expressive- and disciplinary antagonisms. The ‘Creative with the centrality of properly metaphysical and the art museum (Shiner 2001: 88), each ness, or even the myth of the art school as an Industries’ feed off and reproduce this status concepts, inherited from the development of employing the discourse of aesthetic the- emancipatory institution. quo, and also its expected behaviours and aesthetics by the bourgeois classes of England ory to celebrate the distinctiveness of their subjectivities. Certain avant-garde galleries, it

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appears, would rather go bankrupt than exhibit in education, but also for those interested could have done!’ (Ratier in Rancière 1991: 2). five conclusions or Lessons. Collectively, these commercially driven visual communication. in how social inequalities are produced and The results of this pedagogico-philosophical amount to a tremendous shattering of a long Or, some illustrators sneer at the scandalous reproduced. The book revolves around a close experiment, this accident of circumstance, led unchallenged pedagogical myth and, taken to and incomprehensible extravagancies of Fine reading of the texts produced by Joseph Jaco- Jacotot to the conclusion that the teacher, or their furthest conclusions, envision a revolu- Art practices, whilst being secretly jealous of tot, an exiled schoolteacher from early C19th ‘explicator’ to use his specific terminology, as tionary restructuring of the prevailing social the institutional and cultural support given to post-revolutionary France, taking sanctuary traditionally understood, is far from a neces- order. I will move through these five lessons them. This ‘distribution of the sensible’ actively in the Netherlands and making ends meet sity in the pedagogical scene. In actuality, the in turn, though this is difficult due to the way produces disciplinary rivalry and reductive on with a job on half-pay (Rancière 1991: 1-4). primary function of a teacher-centred ‘expli- Rancière’s argument bleeds between chapters, stereotypes - nobody really comes out of it Jacotot found amongst his student cohort a cation’, for Rancière, is to inculcate a growing hopefully underlining points of contemporary unscathed. As students, educators, or profes- keen desire to learn French from their new dependence on that teacher-led ‘explication’ in relevance for art and design pedagogy as I do. sionals working within this field, if we can at master; the problem being that both school- the minds of the student. This mode of delivery, least acknowledge that this system exists, then teacher and student were entirely ignorant though ineffective in many ways, stubbornly Firstly, out of the Intellectual Adventure perhaps we can begin the task of participating of one another’s native tongues. To move persists due to the fact that it is an exercise in (Rancière 1991:1-19) taken by Jacotot, Rancière in the creation of a common, creative world. past this pedagogical impasse Jacotot had to the ‘explicators’ self-validation, par excellence. discovers the insidious function of ‘explication’, rely upon a newly translated Flemish copy of As such, it reproduces teacher-taught relations or what we would now call teacher-centred To develop this argument further, I wish to turn Fénelon’s Télémaque (1699) - a gargantuan of dominance and, more importantly, acts as a delivery (4-8), I mentioned above. The tradi- to one particular text by Rancière, The Igno- twenty-four volume Greek mythological novel, barrier to students reaching their full potential. tional pedagogical scene involves setting up rant Schoolmaster (1991), from which I hope chronicling Telemachus’s attempts to find his a master / apprentice dyad, justified by the to reveal something of the stultifying logic of father, Odysseus. Jacotot ordered a copy for From the epiphany above, Jacotot would draw defence of prior knowledge, which seems to be prevailing pedagogical method and, finally, each of his students, whom he instructed to together the rudiments of what he would call based in common sense, but actually ‘divides suggest a ‘re-distribution of the possible’ for initially read, recite, and memorise sections ‘Universal Education’ (Enseignement universel), intelligence in two’ (7) and ultimately the world both arts educators and art students. before reading alongside the original French, a method that made him quite famous for a also. Negative consequences are created on figuring out continuities, patterns, grammatical time, before it became lost in history. His meth- both sides of this apparently common sense The Ignorant Schoolmaster structure and cadence for themselves. At the od, to summarise, revolved around four princi- assumption, as parties attempt (consciously or culmination of the course Jacotot, preparing ples - all men have equal intelligence (45-50); not) to play to type. Read in this way, tradi- The Ignorant Schoolmaster (1991) is one of himself for the worst, set his students the everyone has the capacity to teach themselves tional pedagogy cements the ideology that Rancière’s most celebrated works, encom- task of writing a report, in French, about what anything; it is possible to teach what you don’t there are superior and inferior intelligences in passing a detailed critique of the ‘distribu- they had learned. Despite the lack of input know (31); and finally that ‘everything is in this world, and therefore the process is less tion of the sensible’ proper to the system of from himself, this was far from a pedagogical everything’ (41). Through a close reading of the about educational emancipation than ‘enforced education and its surrounding discourses disaster, and ‘he was surprised to discover various treatises Jacotot published on Univer- stultification’ (7). As Jacotot had proved, but and pedagogies. As such it has a far-reach- that the students, left to themselves, man- sal Education, at times his authorial voice in- also what everyone in the world also knows ing influence, not simply for those interested aged this difficult step as well as many French tertwining with that of Jacotot, Rancière draws from their intuitive self-learning of their native

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tongue, anyone can learn anything themselves in such a scenario, perhaps even exceeding it. and ‘doesn’t lie to himself about it’ (57). I ask ardised modular learning outcomes is not in and, at least institutionally, ‘it is the explicator The sketchbook is the tool through which the the reader here to reflect on his or her own any way benevolent, but an act of contempt for that needs the incapable and not the other way art student, particularly the illustration student, experiences of art school, or any equivalent their idiosyncrasies, desires and individuality. round’ (6). makes sense of the world and their relation to institutional scenario, and draw comparison. On the other side, the disengaged student who it. As such, it is the site from which student and I am sure we could all recollect demotivating uses the faux-modest excuse of ignorance or Secondly, in Jacotot’s experiment, and indeed tutor can exist in common. teacher centred crits; master-teachers pa- lack of understanding is, in the final analysis, all methods of Universal Education, it is the trolling the studios, correcting or admonishing doing so also from a position of contempt; book, not the ‘explicator’, which assumes Thirdly, the presumption of universal teach- any small mistake of technique or application; contempt for both the learning process and centrality in the learning process, therefore ing is that it is a process of ‘reason between being summonsed to an individual audience the other (in this case fellow students and becoming the ultimate leveller. It equals’ (46), rather than beginning from, or with said master-teacher, where one would teachers). The conclusion of this desperately reproducing the myth, that the students start receive explicatory wisdom and instruction reactionary, but familiar line of thinking, leads ‘is a totality: a center to which one can attach from a position of lack, be this in respect of in how to correct one’s failings; institutional to the student accepting inequality, hierarchy, everything one learns; a circle to which one intelligence, motivation, capabilities or other- disciplinary letters for failing to engage with convention and subservience by ultimately can understand each of these new things, wise. We could debate the correctness of this the bankruptcy of the above. arguing for their own ignorance - a socially find the ways to say it, what one thinks about assumption, possibly citing all sorts of empir- produced form of self-contempt. it, what one makes of it’ (20). ical evidence from lesson evaluations etc., ad Returning to Rancière, the fourth conclusion nauseum. Inconclusive debates that continue drawn is that the logic of educational explica- The final lesson drawn by Rancière is that ‘The book’ becomes the site of evidence from about the relative successes or failings of A.S. tion is synonymous with a ‘society of contempt’ ‘universal teaching will not take, it will not be which the teacher can assess the student’s Neill’s Summerhill School would be a case in (75). This ‘contempt’, which is ultimately, as established in society. But it will not perish, learning but, more importantly, the basis from point. For Rancière, such debates miss the Marx would point out, a product of the social because it is the natural method of the human which the student can counter-interrogate the point. The ‘problem isn’t proving that all intel- division of labour in the capitalist ordering of mind’ (105). Ideology is so strong, capitalist so- teacher’s supposed expertise. For Jacotot, the ligence is equal. It’s seeing what can be done society, which alienates and atomises indi- cietal relations so entrenched, and institutional choice of central text was entirely arbitrary, ‘the under that supposition’ (46). All manner of viduals into distinct groups or social strata, power so absolute, that such experiments will book could have been Télémaque or any other’ progressive pedagogical innovations proceed is ‘inequality’s passion’ (80). In macro-social only ever be marginalised to the periphery of (Ross in Rancière 1991: 2). One could select from this this basic but radical assumption — terms this is reflected in the general contempt educational method. However, such methods any text, in a similarly arbitrary fashion, to the acceptance that the student’s own path in for anything that is irrational, divergent, or sim- ‘must be announced to everyone’ (106) – to the begin one’s own version of ‘universal teach- inherently right and emancipating (no matter ply different, held by mainstream society. It is poor, on whom all of this weighs most heavily; ing’ in the contemporary illustration studio how incorrect it may seem); the understand- why one race / class / gender / culture sneers to republicans, or those interested in a free (in the university or outside). However, at this ing that mistakes are not just acceptable but at the other. In education specifically, the des- and democratic society; to the progressive, point, I wish to forward the suggestion, which I lead to innovation; the belief and trust that perate attempt by the tutor to sculpt, mould, or or visionary, who imagines a society different believe is much more exciting, that the artist’s an ‘individual can do anything he wants’ (56) shape their students, as objects not subjects of from the status quo (107-130). With the urgency sketchbook could play the role of Télémaque if he embraces knowledge of his own power the learning process, into the limits of stand- of Rancière’s call in mind, I turn now, finally, to

31 Richard Miles Illustration; Education; Revolution

school was created in the wake of the rec- dominated by an ideal of education not as a ommendations of the Browne Review (2010), social good, worth supporting by public funds, which trebled undergraduate tuition fees to but as a purely individual benefit, akin to a £9k per annum and caused the near complete human capital investment in oneself. For him, removal of state funding from universities, the engines of this system are the twin princi- including a 100% removal of funding from arts ples of ‘commodification’ and ‘financialisation’. and humanities courses. As McQuillan (2010a) Commodification, in the sense that a degree is has pointed out, this immediately caused the now widely considered as a consumer good, effective privatisation of art schools, which solely benefitting the individual, who chooses are now solely reliant on student fees for their product from a supposedly free market income. The students themselves are expected of competitor-providers, who compete for to finance their education not through state market share in increasingly spectacular ways. subsidised grants, but through individual stu- Financialisation, in the sense that universities dent loans, fronted by the state, but repayable are increasingly measured by their ability to against future earnings. This has created a maximise future returns on the investment laid system where student debt on graduation is down by individual student-consumers, and an average of £44k (Bolton 2015: 14), before that governmental decisions on the policy and any consideration has been given to further shape of the Higher Education system are now postgraduate study. Therefore, The School of guided, not by some lofty educational idea, but Fig 4: Jake Kent (School of the Damned) (2015) ‘Class of ‘16’. the specific context of UK Higher Education The Damned exists partly out of necessity; a by the risks associated with managing a long (HE), and a case study of an art school that response to ‘the increasingly precarious work- term, multi-billion-dollar loan book (McGetti- attempts, in many ways, to respond to this ing-living situation’ of aspiring graduate artists gan 2013: 173-84). exact call. and partly as symbolic protest; a ‘subversion of the current monetary corruption of the Althusser (1971) famously pointed out that, The School of the Damned educational system’ (theschoolofthedamned. for self-preservation and self-perpetuation, com 2014). capitalism needs not only to increase produc- The School of Damned, currently based in tion, but also reproduce the desirable con- London, is an independently organised pro- Much recent work has been done on the ditions for production. This involves not only gramme of entirely free, Fine Art, postgraduate socio-cultural effects of this refigured HE constantly reproducing the skills necessary education coordinated, strategised, and run landscape. Andrew McGettigan (2013), in to maintain production, but also inculcating a collectively by its students. It is now taking particular, has done extensive and convinc- certain atomised, pliant and docile subjectivity, applications for its fourth academic year. The ing research revealing this system to be one necessary for an obedient and controllable

32 Richard Miles Illustration; Education; Revolution

workforce. This is achieved, famously, through knowledge etc. This is manifestly a product of, various ‘Ideological State Apparatus’, the most and description of, a 'society of contempt’ - the dominant, for him, in developed Capitalist states contempt for its citizens who are simply societies being the school. cogs in the machine; the university's contempt for its student-customers who are cash cows More recently, Jeffrey Williams (in Edu-Factory for the business; the student’s contempt for Collective 2008: 89-97) has made a similar certain subjects that have no immediate finan- argument, suggesting that a debt-driven cial reward. educational system carries with them a hidden curriculum that he labels the ‘pedagogy of These are indeed convincing, if depressing debt’. This hidden curriculum teaches that HE arguments. However, it is too easy to fall into is a consumer service, not a human right; it sociological pessimism following this path. In refigures the teacher / student relationship as the case of art schools, which are distinct from customer / service provider; it fosters instru- universities (if not physically then definitely mentalism, which effects the course choices mythically and ideologically), the charge of ‘art of students, particularly those from working schools as I.S.A.’ would fundamentally ignore class backgrounds (especially with regards the challenge of art (Beech 2014:55-6). Indeed, to arts courses that have no tangible finan- this was the major criticism that Rancière cial dividend). It also teaches that there is no levelled at Althusser, his former tutor (2011 aspect of life anterior to the market, and that it [1974]). Even within Althusser’s analysis, there is the individual’s duty, and the university’s, to was an admission that there are many heroic augment neoliberal capitalism; it teaches that teachers working within, and against, the logic a person’s worth is measured not by character, of this system, and as such are to be regard- cultivation or taste, but by financial poten- ed as beacons of hope. To return to my case tial; it limits any risk-taking, independence or study, The School of the Damned, I believe that opposition, through the burden of an acute there is the possibility of intervening into the sense of the financial consequences of failure logic of such a system, and that this particular (95-6). To reintroduce Rancièreian terminology institution at least suggests that an alternative here, there is a ‘distribution of the sensible’ is possible. in play here - only certain people can access Fig 5: Matt Welch (School of the Damned) (2015) ‘Free Education Banner’. education; only certain disciplines are worth Firstly, it is autonomous. By this I mean that it funding or pursuing; there is a hierarchy of is entirely run and organised by the students

33 Richard Miles Illustration; Education; Revolution

that make up its cohort in any given year. It is Exchange. Effectively the school operates as not run in collaboration with, or validated by, a kind of ‘gift economy’ (Mauss 2002 [1954]; any other institution, educational or otherwise, Hyde 2012 [1983]), where the time spent by and because of that it is entirely and ferocious- tutors organising and facilitating the monthly ly independent. This autonomy is explicitly seminar or crit is repaid by the students of the a political position, which all students are school in kind, under the logic of ‘time spent = expected to understand and uphold. There are time repaid’. This social or human repayment no fees charged for study, at any time, which takes place through a variety of negotiated ac- maximises the possibilities for participation tivities for the tutors. For example, the student and immediately neutralises the hidden curric- cohort helps to install and invigilate exhibitions, ulum described above. However, this is not a collaborate on projects and, in this case, sup- hobbyist project, as the students are at pains ply illustrations for academic papers (Fig.1 - 7). to point out, and aspires to have the same More convivially, students have even cooked structure, ‘rigour and commitment similar to dinner for visiting lecturers in one instance! that of an accredited MA’ (schoolofthedamned. The venue for the school is secured via the com 2012). This desire for institutional equiv- same logic. Time spent in the School's original alence, it must be said, is neither revolution- home, The Horse Hospital gallery in Blooms- ary nor Rancièrian. Neither is the way that bury, was repaid by students installing and those involved still refer to themselves by the supervising exhibitions. To retain use of the hierarchical designations ‘tutor’ and ‘student’. current venue, the function room of the some- This is, however, a perfectly understandable what salubrious Cock Tavern in Somers Town, reflex of the school and university system that Camden, the students put in shifts behind the has conditioned all of these co-collaborators. bar while its largely Irish clientele watch Celtic Hearteningly, the students don’t conform to on the TV. Just like the worker-poets of C19th other socially expected roles as readily (see France, this act redefines that nature of work, Fig.1 and Fig.2). transforming it from mere labour into the con- struction of a common educational project. What is revolutionary, and Rancièrian, is the organisational structure of the school, through As anthropological studies have proved which students collectively propose and invite (Mauss 2002 [1954]; Hyde 2012 [1983]), in a gift suitable tutors, who give their time freely via a economy such as this, individualism withers, system of reciprocity that they call the Labour and the participants are much more bonded, Fig 6: Jack Fisher (School of the Damned) (2015) ‘Untitled’.

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Conclusions: The Ignorant One’s Lesson

How is one to make sense of all of this, from the position of an art student or educator? How can we produce the utopian society of equals suggested by Rancière’s work? Law- rence Zeegen (2012) recently wrote a contro- versial article decrying the two divergent paths that the disciplines of Fine Art and Illustration have recently followed. For him, the former is frequently engaged in social critique and socially engaged practice whereas the latter retreats into disciplinary ‘navel gazing’ and superficial stylistic formalism. Though being somewhat unfair on illustrators this observa- tion contains, without doubt, a kernel of truth. However, it is in itself a hostage to the ‘distri- bution of the sensible’ that I have been trying to outline above and, as such, needs to be Fig 7: School of the Damned Class of ‘15. Fig 8: School of the Damned Class of ‘16. reframed and pushed much further. I hope that this essay will be the start of that discussion. on the deepest human and psycho-social comparable to other institutions. Perhaps agenda, over to the following cohort on grad- The vital question that needs addressing is level. Gifts require reciprocity, and therefore it even exceeds these, given the united and uation, who take it in whichever direction they why a disciplinary segregation exists between concrete human relations. The Schools struc- interconnected vision for the future of arts want, wherever they want, with whichever tu- Illustrators and Fine Artists in the first place. ture is therefore a social form, explicitly critical education, and perhaps society itself, shared tors they want, towards whatever agenda. The What is preventing visual communicators of alienated capitalist societal relations, and by all participants. institution is therefore permanently nomadic, understanding themselves as a community suggesting a neutralisation of the ‘society of spatially and ideologically (discussions are of equals, engaged in a common project to contempt’. Contrary to what one might expect, Most importantly, a specific mechanism, already taking place to expand the school to understand and make sense of society, and the lack of remuneration has not hindered unique to this institution in my understanding, other cities) and never didactic or dogmatic. It their place within it, through visual praxis? The the School's visiting lecturer programme in ensures that it can never become program- is a ‘Temporary Autonomous Zone’ (Bey 1991), School of the Damned Illustrators may not exist any way. In fact, from their website, one can matic, co-opted or institutionalised. The cohort constantly reinvented and renewed. as yet, and it may not ever need to exist as a see immediately that it is buoyant and easily hands control of the school, it curricula, its specialist entity. One of the central points of

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this paper is of course that we need to move (www.openschooleast.org) and Salford’s past limiting disciplinary designations, which I Islington Mill Art Academy (islingtonmillart- why I use the term ‘illustrator’ in the title under academy.blogspot.com) both are exciting erasure. What is at least a possibility though, if examples of free arts education projects. the price of undergraduate education contin- However, both of these rely on a permanent ues to accelerate at its current trajectory, the steering committee of professional educa- most political generation of students in recent tor-theorists, which is fundamentally different memory will surely turn away from the massive to The School of the Damned model of revolv- financial investment of mainstream education ing, student controlled autonomy. In 2012, a and towards models of self-education — leav- group of activists set up the Radical Design ing us as the ‘Knowing Schoolmasters’ without School (http://www.radicaldesignschool.net) any students. in York, though this appears to have failed to gain any momentum beyond its initial I have written this essay from the position eight-week programme. The Free University of of someone trained in philosophy and art Liverpool (https://thefreeuniversityofliverpool. history, with an interest in education gained wordpress.com) offered an interdisciplinary from a career working in UK art schools, and BA in ‘Cultural Praxis’ but that has closed acknowledge my lack of practical subject ex- too. The Copenhagen Free University’(http:// pertise. I don’t wish to suggest that Rancière’s www.copenhagenfreeuniversity.dk), run work is beyond criticism either (see McQuillan out of a bedsit, was an important artist run, (2010b) which questions Rancière’s dialectical radical educational project until it ceased binarisations; Iles and Roberts (2012) critique activities in 2007, but remains influential due the ‘Cult of Rancière’). I hope that this paper to the extensive archive of activities. Trade will be read as a call to arms (I believe Zee- School (tradeschool.coop), in Amsterdam is gen’s misunderstood paper should be read in another example of a self-organised learning the same way) and not as an attempt to cause space. Again, this project has now finished. offence to any student, educator, or specific The harsh lesson here concerns the difficulty institution. I certainly don’t imagine this to be of maintaining free educational spaces in an the final word on the subject, and neither do increasingly unequal capitalist economy but, I pretend that The School of the Damned is importantly, that a desire and need for them Fig 9: Amber Kaplan (Leeds College of Art) (2015) 1968 the only radical model of education worthy exists. Rather than turning away from such of attention. East London’s Open School East projects in resignation or cynicism, those of

36 Richard Miles Illustration; Education; Revolution

us working in mainstream Higher Education ilege of awards that they have won on their should be exploring ways to collaborate. own merit? (Amado 2015). The School of the These projects have much to teach us about Damned model proves that a creative net- pedagogy. Student-centred education (which work, based on a shared vision, collectivity, everyone, save the most reactionary universi- mutual aid, and reciprocity is not just utopian ty lecturers, now practices) is not the same as but realisable and sustainable. That it remains student-controlled education, but this is not segregated solely within the discipline of to suggest the two are mutually exclusive. Fine Art, at the moment, is testament to the fact that it remains shackled to the ‘distribu- Joseph Beuys famously once remarked that tion of the sensible’, that Rancière attacks, ‘every man is an artist’ but, of course, the and Marx, under the term ‘division of labour’ contemporary reality is such that, increas- before him. However, the recent year includes ingly, one is only an artist (and I use the term students from backgrounds as diverse as in its broadest possible sense) if one has acting and creative writing which suggests the relevant degree from the appropriately the possibility of expanding the model across prestigious institution. The universities and every discipline. I reintroduce Rancière’s use the art world, not to mention their protection- of the term ‘indisciplinarity’ here to suggest ist apparatus, perpetuate this system. More that collaboration is both possible and the importantly, so do its student-subjects who necessary characteristic of a truly egalitarian equate institutional approval with success democracy. The defence of disciplinary or and self-validation. As I have outlined above, professionalism specialism is but another way this validation comes with a hefty price tag of defending the structural inequality of the and a lifetime of debt. Given the precarity of system. Instead of a ‘Creative Industry’, try to Fig 10: Thomas O'Connor (Leeds College of Art) (2015) 'Student Debt' working life, following graduation, for an arts imagine a creative community which starts student, the obvious question, that hardly from the assumption that every participant anyone seems to be asking, is why should we has an equal amount to contribute; where in- accept such a system at all? I would go even dividual creative development is formed, and where there is no distinction between fine art, place and supersede, the contemporary Higher further — why should we accept, participate skills accrued, through dialogue, sharing and design, illustration; where creative labour is not Education arts system, and the ‘Creative in, and perpetuate, a ‘Creative Industries’ reciprocity; where the experienced help the traded but given as gift; where a pedagogy of Industries’ themselves. You would be imagin- system that routinely presents exploitative inexperienced under the understanding that debt is replaced by a pedagogy of collectivism ing Rancière’s revolutionary ‘society of equals’ unpaid labour as the route to success? (Elvin they have as much to gain as to give; where and hope. You would be imagining a communi- and a ‘redistribution of the possible’. 2014); that makes designers pay for the priv- impropriety is valued more than conformity; ty that could complement, but if necessary re-

37 Richard Miles Illustration; Education; Revolution

Bibliography rorism. Autonomedia Anti-copyright [internet] Eagleton, T., (1990) The Ideology of the Aes- Stamp, B. eds. (2011) Reading Rancière: Critical Available < http://hermetic.com/bey/taz_cont. thetic. Oxford, Blackwell Publishing. Dissensus. London and New York, Continuum, Althusser, L. (1971) Lenin and Philosophy and html> [Accessed 15/7/15]. pp. 163-85. Other Essays. trans. Ben Brewster, London, Edu-Factory Collective, (2009) Toward a Glob- New Left Books. Birrell, R., (2008) ‘Jacques Rancière and The al Autonomous University: Cognitive Labor, the Hyde, L., (2012 [1983]) The Gift: How the (Re)Distribution of the Sensible: Five Lessons Production of Knowledge, and Exodus from Creative Spirit Transforms the World. London, Althusser, L. and Balibar, E. (1970) Reading in Artistic Research’, Art & Research. Vol. 2 the Education Factory. New York, Autonome- Canongate Canons. Capital. trans. Ben Brewster, London, New Left No.1 Summer 2008 [online] Available http:// dia. Books. www.artandresearch.org.uk/v2n1/v2n1editorial. Iles, A. and Roberts, T., (2012) ‘From the Cult html [Accessed 12/7/15]. Edwards, S. and Wood, P., eds. (2012) Art & of the People to the Cult of Rancière’, Mute. Amado, B. (2015) ‘You aren’t a winner of design Visual Culture 1850 – 2010: Modernity to Glo- Vol.3. No.3 [internet] Available < http://www. awards unless you pay” – is it worth it?’. It’s Bolton, P. (2015) Student Loan Statistics. balisation. London, Tate Publishing. metamute.org/editorial/articles/cult-people-to- Nice That, 9 June 2015 [internet] Available < House of Commons Briefing paper, No. 1079, 6 cult-ranci%C3%A8re> [accessed 29/9/15]. http://www.itsnicethat.com/articles/enter- July 2015. Elvin, S. ‘Company Under Fire After Offer- ing-design-awards-expense> [Accessed ing Six Month Unpaid Internships Totalling Kristeller, P. O., (1951) ‘The Modern System of 15/7/15]. Bowman, R. and Stamp, B., eds. (2011) Reading Nearly 5,500 Hours Of Work’. Huffington Post. the Arts: A Study into the History of Aesthetics Rancière: Critical Dissensus. London and New 10/09/2014 [internet] Available http://www. (I)’, Journal of the History of Ideas. Vol 12, No. 4, Arisman, M. (2000) ‘Is There A Fine Art To York, Continuum. huffingtonpost.co.uk/2014/09/10/unpaid-in- 1951, pp. 496-527. Illustration’. In Arisman, M. and Heller, S. eds. ternship-35-hour-working-week_n_5796032. (2000) The Education of an Illustrator. New Browne, J., (2010) Securing a Sustainable Fu- html [Accessed 15/7/15]. Kristeller, P. O., (1952) ‘The Modern System of York, Allworth, pp. 3-5. ture for Higher Education. Report of the Inde- the Arts: A Study into the History of Aesthetics pendent Review of Higher Education Funding Foucault, M. (1977) Discipline and Punish. (II)’, Journal of the History of Ideas. Vol 13. No. 1. Barnard, M (2005) Graphic Design As Commu- and Student Finance, London, Department for Harmondsworth, Penguin. 1952. pp. 17-46. nication. Routledge, London and New York. Business, Innovation and Skills. Habermas, J., (1989), The Structural Transfor- Larson, M. (2013) ‘Review: Proletarian Nights: Beech, D., (2014) ‘Book review: Utilitarianism Dasgupta, S. (2008) ‘Art is going elsewhere. mation of the Public Sphere: An Inquiry into The Workers’ Dream in Nineteenth-Century and the Art School in Nineteenth-Century And politics has to catch it’, Krisis. 2008 a Category of Bourgeois Society. Cambridge, France by Jacques Rancière’. Interstitial Jour- Britain, written by Malcolm Quinn’, Historical Vol 1. [internet] Available < www.krisis.eu/ Massachusetts, MIT Press. nal, March 2013 [online] Available http://inter- Materialism. Volume 22, Issue 2, pp. 237-56. content/2008-1/2008-1-09-dasgupta.pdf> stitialjournal.com/reviews/ [Accessed 12/7/15]. [Accessed 29/9/15]. Highmore, B., ‘Out of Place: Unprofessional Bey, H. (1991) T. A. Z.. The Temporary Autono- Painting, Jacques Rancière and the Distri- Marx, K., (1970 [1845]) The German Ideology. mous Zone, Ontological Anarchy, Poetic Ter- bution of the Sensible’. In Bowman, R. and London, Lawrence and Wishart.

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MacDonald, S. (1970) The History and Phi- Quinn, M., (2012) Utilitarianism and the Art Shiner, L., (2001) The Invention of Art. Chicago, losophy of Art Education. London, London School in Nineteenth-Century Britain. Picker- Chicago UP. University Press. ing and Chatto, London. The School of The Damned (2014) Manifesto McGettigan, A. (2013) The Great University Rancière, J., (2011 [1974]) Althusser’s Lesson. 2015. [internet] Available < theschooloft- Gamble: Money, Markets and the Future of London and New York, Continuum. hedamned.com/content/2015-sotd-interim. Higher Education. London, Pluto Press. pdf> [Accessed 10/7/15]. (2012 [1981]) Proletarian nights: the workers’ McQuillan, M., (2010a) ‘If you tolerate this… dream in nineteenth century France. New York Lord Browne and the Privatisation of the Hu- and London, Verso Books. Zeegen, L. (2012) ‘Where is the Content? manities’. London Graduate School [internet] Where is the Comment?’. Creative Review, available < http://www.thelondongraduate- (1991). The Ignorant Schoolmaster: Five March 2012 [internet] Available < http://www. school.co.uk/thoughtpiece/if-you-tolerate- Lessons in Intellectual Emancipation. Stanford, creativereview.co.uk/cr-blog/2012/february/ this%E2%80%A6-lord-browne-and-the-pri- Stanford University Press. where-is-the-content> [Accessed 14/7/15]. vatisation-of-the-humanities/> [accessed 20/4/15]. (2003) The Philosopher and His Poor. Durham (2014) ‘Opinion: Lawrence Zeegen is left and London, Duke University Press. unmoved by this year’s Pick Me Up’, It’s Nice (2010b) ‘Paul de Man and Art History 1: Mo- That, 30 April 2014 [internet] Available http:// dernity, Aesthetics and Community in Jacques - (2004) The Politics of Aesthetics: The Distri- www.itsnicethat.com/articles/opinion-law- Rancière’. In Bowman, R. and Stamp, B. eds. bution of the Sensible. London and New York, rence-zeegen-pick-me-up [21/12/15]. (2011) Reading Rancière: Critical Dissensus. Continuum. London and New York, Continuum, pp. 163-85. Wood, P., (2008). ‘Between God and the (2006) ‘Thinking Between Disciplines: an Saucepan: some aspects of art education in Mauss, M., (2002 [1954]) The Gift: Forms and aesthetics of knowledge’. Parrhesia, Number 1, England from the mid-nineteenth century until functions of exchange in archaic societies. 2006, pp. 1-12. today’. In: Stephens, C. ed. History of British London, Routledge. Art: 1870 - now, Volume 3. London, Tate Pub- Rifkin, A., (1988) ‘Success Disavowed: the lishing, pp. 162–187. Miles, R., (2015) ‘Benjamin, Googlization, and School of Design in Mid-nineteenth Century the Withered Typographic Auratic’. In Message. Britain’, Journal of Design History. Vol. 1, No. 2, Vol 2 pp. 11-20. 1988, pp. 89-102.

39 Visualising Spaces: The Illustrated Map as a mode of communicating Fact, Fiction and Feeling. Andy Davies

Andy Davies is a Lecturer on the Andy’s work has been included BA (Hons) Illustration programme in peer-reviewed journals such as at the University of Worcester and Creative Quarterly, 3x3 magazine Visiting Lecturer at Loughborough and the Association of Illustrators University. He graduated with a Images Annuals. He has twice been first class degree in Illustration from short-listed for the Serco LTM Prize Loughborough University in 2004, for Illustration and was shortlisted and then completed a MA Art and for the Tapirulan Illustrators Contest Design in 2008 at the same institu- in 2014. He has exhibited in Britain tion. He has a successful freelance and Italy. His research interests practice, and works for clients include picture books aimed at around the world. His work has inclusitivity, teaching and learning been used in an editorial context within the field of art and design Contact Information by the Independent on Sunday and and the history and current role Guardian newspapers and in viral of the illustrated map. Illustrator and Lecturer at University of Worcester and Loughborough University marketing campaigns for Vodafone. He has illustrated several success- [email protected] ful picture books and adult non-fic- www.ardillustration.com tion titles, published in Britain, Italy, Belgium, Netherlands, the USA and South Korea.

40 Andy Davies Visualising Spaces: The Illustrated Map as a mode of communicating fact, fiction and feeling.

Introduction these separations often merge into each other depending on the objective of the map creator. An ‘illustrated map’. What do you imagine? You are perhaps looking at a large shape of green Fact surrounded by blue or turquoise. The green shape is populated with sporadic text including Within his comprehensive book, Great Maps, place names and the occasional image of a published by DK Books, Jerry Brotton (2014: building, animal or human. There are maybe p.7) describes what most scholars now broadly references to the country’s nature, cuisine agree to be the most useful definition of a map, and climate. Palm trees or penguins, maybe a “a graphic representation that presents a spa- happy tourist with a huge suitcase, stepping off tial understanding of things, concepts, or even a plane. These maps can usually be found in events in the human world.” Atlases (produced magazines, or in children’s atlases; of the latter for children) are an inviting format to present there have recently been several beautiful pro- the vastness and diversity of our planet, to a duced books (Maps by Aleksandra Mizielińska younger mind. An illustration is an opportuni- and Daniel Mizieliński, published by Big Pic- ty to embellish cultural identities (which can ture Press, 2013 being a fine example). These often employ stereotypes, for good or bad) and maps are often designed with a positive and make an informative image. An aerial photo- inviting atmosphere. The context of their pro- graphic map does not necessarily describe duction determines the design, as these maps anything other than the geographic properties Figure 1. Shackleton’s Journey by William Grill, commissioned by Flying Eye Books. (if not situated in a book) often accompany an of the country, which is where an illustrated article within a magazine that is describing the map can be very useful to an art director. The country, often listing the ‘things to do’ for the arrangement of happy characters and objects constrained by perspective and scale. Salva- graphic shapes were first carved into rocks would-be traveller. dotted around the page involved in personal tore Rubbino’s A Walk in London, published by in order for people to understand their place narratives is a device employed to obtain this Walker, 2012, includes informative map designs within their environment. (Brotton, 2014: p.7) Maps that have an illustrated element such positive atmosphere. that also apply these design ideas. This ap- as a drawn character, playful typography or proach to the abstraction of reality in terms of Winner of the 2015 Katie Greenaway Award, patterns that have been designed to some- This aesthetic possibly owes much to the art- scale of individual elements and the intentional William Grill, explores the use of the map as a how communicate an aspect of a location are work of artists such as M. Sasek in his This is… editing of the image (to focus on the most story telling device within his book, Shackle- varied in both subject and appearance. Placing series of world guides published by Universe important buildings and characters) can be ton’s Journey, published by Flying Eye books them into the categories ‘Fact’, ‘Feeling’ and Publishing. His visual language often simpli- traced back to the earliest maps such as the (fig. 1). Including a map gives a certain authen- ‘Fiction’ is a useful device that could be seen fied recognizable buildings and figures, and Mappa Mundi in Hereford cathedral and back ticity to this story, as the reader must navigate as rather rigid separations, whereas in fact allowed an abstracted arrangement not always even further (almost 40,000 years ago) when this vast land just like the expedition. It is

41 Andy Davies Visualising Spaces: The Illustrated Map as a mode of communicating fact, fiction and feeling.

perhaps this form of map and usage that we twisted, subverted and experimented with to are most familiar. Having a visual representa- communicate fact and fiction in order to create tion to refer to helps the reader to empathise an observation or feeling about a certain place with the scale of the undertaking, the dangers and its inhabitants. encountered and the drama of the landscape. The whole book is fastidious in the level of Italy looks like a boot (apparently) and New detail and information, and is presented in an York…well, according to Veit Schuetz, looks extremely orderly manner, featuring the tradi- like another male body part. The New York tional traits of a usable map, as summarised by Subway Penis Map (fig. 2) is a poster by the Brotton. Grill’s use of scale and composition Berlin-based Illustrator created in 2000 for within the more representational page spreads a Cosmic Art Enterprises art show. Borders sit alongside the map, giving us the intimate have defined countries and cities into various realities on a human level and also a more shapes, with some having a direct or indirect removed overview of the whole adventure. resemblance to animals and objects. Perhaps it is something within the human mind to find a Saul Steinberg’s iconic cover for The New character within these shapes. Yorker offers something a little different. The intended naivety of A New Yorker’s View of the The shape of the country itself is perhaps as World is reminiscent of early world maps that memorable and representative of the nation as implied the presence of a far off ‘foreign’ land, the flag. This has been used to great satirical without much knowledge and understanding effect by Peter Brooks The( Times political of the geography or inhabitants. He produced cartoonist). He uses maps in the same way this sarcastic image in 1976, and the simplified as the father of the satirical cartoon James appearance of the world outside of Manhattan Gillray (1756-1815). A fine example of Gillray’s does perhaps indicate the rather introverted use of maps is The French Invasion or John Bull nature of New Yorkers at that time? Here he is (George III) bombarding the Bum Boats (1793). being intentionally naïve with the design of the England and Wales take on a human form that rest of the world, New York, full of details, road is excreting ships towards the French coast. names, people, cars, with the rest of the world being reduced to simple featureless shapes. In his cover for Spectator Magazine, Brooks manages to use the map of Britain as a rather Steinberg’s work is an example of how the odious character for his piece A Yob Kicking an Figure 2. New York Subway Penis Map by Veit Schuetz commissioned by the CAE Gallery New York. Prints map and our understanding of the map can be Old Lady. Instantly recognizable to the viewer available © www.veitschuetz.com.

42 Andy Davies Visualising Spaces: The Illustrated Map as a mode of communicating fact, fiction and feeling.

(a mainly British readership), it gives a sense the map is part of the image rather than the of place and makes a depressing statement entire context. The alettering in this image is about the inhabitants. Brooks also cites Fred extremely important, as possibly without it the W Rose (1849-1915) as another key influence in identification of this unusual shape may not his work. His Serio-Comic War Map for the year be apparent to all and therefore the impact of 1877, skilfully captured the fear across Europe this editorial image could be compromised. and the sabre-rattling of that era. Russia is The scale of the ‘China’ text also helps convey depicted as a sinister Octopus with tentacles the geographic and political strength of this infiltrating neighbouring territories. In 2008, character, especially when compared to the Graeme MacKay, a cartoonist for the Hamilton tiny ‘South Korea’, identified with much more Spectator in Canada parodied Rose’s work to slender writing. The relationship between depict Vladimir Putin stretching his tentacles image and text within this image and maps in across the map of Europe (fig. 3). “By adapting general is as important in conveying meaning, a cartographic cartoon with a pedigree of over as it is within a picture book. a century, MacKay proved the viability and adaptability of the Cartographic Land Octopus, Providing anthropomorphic qualities to a coun- which continues to stretch its tentacles across try, taking the borders to be the limits of its the globe to this very day.” (Jacobs, 2014) body and giving it a personality seems to be a natural process for an illustrator. The desire Providing anthropomorphic qualities to a coun- to tell stories and devising characters to tell try, taking the borders to be the limits of its the tale, no matter how short that tale may body and giving it a personality seems to be be, sometimes within a single image. Martin a natural process for an illustrator. The desire Haake’s work is a sensitive arrangement of to tell stories and devising characters to tell found and drawn shapes, colours and textures. Figure 3. Russia in 2008 by Graeme MacKay, commissioned by the Hamilton Spectator. the tale, no matter how short that tale may For a commission illustrating an article about be, sometimes within a single image. Martin cyber-attacks and their origins within Asia, Haake’s work is a sensitive arrangement of he was able to take a graphic representation found and drawn shapes, colours and textures. of China and convert it into a rather sinister For a commission illustrating an article about character (fig. 4). This is an illustrated map, but cyber-attacks and their origins within Asia, the map is part of the image rather than the he was able to take a graphic representation entire context. The lettering in this image is of China and convert it into a rather sinister extremely important, as possibly without it the character (fig. 4). This is an illustrated map, but identification of this unusual shape may not

43 Andy Davies Visualising Spaces: The Illustrated Map as a mode of communicating fact, fiction and feeling.

be apparent to all and therefore the impact of looking at it, the eye seems to naturally follow this editorial image could be compromised. the nearest path until it becomes obscured The scale of the ‘China’ text also helps convey by another path that cuts across or it simply the geographic and political strength of this disappears under the numerous branches that character, especially when compared to the almost look like veins or pipes within a gigantic tiny ‘South Korea’, identified with much more organism. Possibly, he is mapping the human slender writing. The relationship between brain, his own brain, a myriad of organic wires image and text within this image and maps in that to those of us who are not neuroscientists, general is as important in conveying meaning, seems to be as un-navigable as any far off, as it is within a picture book. unknown land may be.

Fiction Comparisons could be made with the work of Adolf Wölfli (1864-1930), the creator of an Drawing is for some a cathartic act. The pro- imaginary autobiography (estimated to be over cess may offer a sort of meditative experience 8,000 pages long). Within intricate repeating for the artist while the final image and its clari- patterns, he created and visualized his im- ty of communication with the audience may be agined world and his personal journey through a secondary consideration. In 2013 images of a multi-dimensional landscape. His mix of text, an incredibly intricate ‘map’ (fig. 5 and 6) were image, pattern, idiosyncratic use of musical posted onto social media websites. The artist notes and viewpoint result in many images is alleged to be a Japanese man who is not a that resemble maps. He allows us to navigate professional artist, and the work was produced through a representation of his worldview. The some thirty years ago and subsequently stored resulting artwork is beguiling not only in its in an attic. It seems that (according to his visual qualities and craftsmanship but in the daughter who discovered the work) that the complexity and intensity of the world Wölfli maze-like map was not produced for display created. The term ‘visionary’ seems to be or for the eyes of anyone other than the artist appropriate here as his work was admired by himself. The image (33 x 23 inches) took seven his contemporaries such as Jean Dubuffet and Figure 4. Hack Pack by Martin Haake, 2001, commissioned by E-Volve. years to complete, a timescale that may be André Breton. Wölfli’s ability to give a two-di- unfathomable to the contemporary illustrator mensional form to his perceived world through where deadlines can often be hours and days the forms of maps, collages and drawings, rather than months and years. But this is an could be attributed to his schizophrenia. illustration of a man’s contemplation. When

44 Andy Davies Visualising Spaces: The Illustrated Map as a mode of communicating fact, fiction and feeling.

The work is comparable to the Jain Cosmo- logical Map (c.1822-1830), found in the British library in London. Jainism (which originated in India) divides the ‘cosmic space’ into separate worlds. The resulting maps are full of eso- teric symbols, overlapping pattern, text and wondrous creatures, much like the universe that Wölfli depicts within his work. Perhaps his mental condition enabled him to see and express another world and to travel through- out this land, producing an astounding body of work. But does this type of work adhere to the definition laid out by Brotton? Is this the ‘human world’? The more permissive response would be, yes, as the human mind and our perception of the world is of as much impor- tance as the tangible. What Wölfli created, was to him, ‘Fact’.

Are all maps intended to help the viewer or is their very complexity intended to confuse, to disorientate and therefore to make the viewer consider the subject matter in a less literal manner? A number of maps such as the thirteenth-century Psalter World Map, Ebstorf Mappa Mundi, and Hereford Mappa Mundi, are filled with images of strange beings, often located in remote and mysterious countries. These ‘monsters’ may indeed illustrate a vile demon roaming the land or it could be a Figure 5 & 6. Untitled by an anonymous artist. particular group of violent people, an area that doesn’t seem to support life or a complicated mix of all these elements. These maps that ask

45 Andy Davies Visualising Spaces: The Illustrated Map as a mode of communicating fact, fiction and feeling.

for a degree of imaginative engagement could what we can about this place that is called, be a result of the creator’s lack of knowledge ‘Grayson Perry’. but their purpose could also be to serve as a warning of the unknown. When discussing his 1971 film, A Walk Through H: The Reincarnation of a Ornithologist, Peter Belief and certainty are investigated within Greenaway (2011) refers to the map as, “an Grayson Perry’s Map of Nowhere (fig. 7) where extraordinary palimpsest to tell you where he is “Parodying the intellectual constructs of you have been, where you are at this present religion.” (Bell, 2008). He maps the personal moment, and where you could be, and even in and tangible experiences of his life as well as subjective tenses, where you might have been, thoughts, social pressure, expectations, work where you could have been.” He produced and so on. The whole piece is part homage, ninety-two paintings of maps that formed part parody of the Mappa Mundi; which like the spine of the story where an ornithologist many early maps included a great deal of reli- uses these visual clues in a complex journey gious imagery. Perry’s depiction of the ethereal towards the unknown. The maps themselves sunbeam of heavenly light, coming out of his are a mix of painting and drawings on a variety bottom, helps to give this piece the desired of paper scraps, which add texture, multiple sarcasm and there are elements of satire visual layers and a sense of the ‘artifact’, much throughout. like the work of Wölfli.

Why select this composition, this format, this Stephen Walter’s Nova Utopia (fig. 8) is an genre within which to work? The synergy of exciting example of a map that offers a fictional text and image arranged in the main body of narrative whilst containing political commen- the piece without being restricted by scale tary about the world we live in today. Using and proportion is the graphic language of Thomas Moore’s 1516 book Utopia as a guide maps with which we, as observers, are famil- for this work, Walter has created a large black iar. The black and white diamond patterned and white map that has a coded story as ring around circular elements (often a com- complex as any story penned by Tolkien (who pass) and dashed or wavy lines to denote wa- was also partial to including maps as a visual ter, are all signifiers of a map that have been guide to his intricate worlds). The story runs used in countless designs. We therefore know over centuries and charts the rise and fall of Figure 7. Map of Nowhere, 2008 by Grayson Perry. Courtesy the Artist, Paragon Press and Victoria Miro, that this artwork is meant to be explored. We ‘Utopia’, the increase in trade and competition London © Grayson Perry. trace our finger over the image and discover between the inhabitants, which ultimately

46 Andy Davies Visualising Spaces: The Illustrated Map as a mode of communicating fact, fiction and feeling.

results in the segregation of the land after a civil war. This end view of Utopia (renamed ‘Nova Utopia’ after the revolution) is very much at odds with the idea of the egalitarian society that was the starting point in the story.

Wordplay and pictograms indicate different people, locations and geographic features, a ‘key’ is embedded into a border of the map and is reminiscent of the cartouches utilised within the work of map pioneers Willem and Joan Bleau (1571-1638 and 1596-1673). Much like the place names of villages, towns and cities around our world, the names shown on Nova Utopia give a clue to their inhabitants and sub- sequent history. ‘Stannah Bay’ is Nova Utopia’s Eastbourne. ‘Prora’ is the name of one of the coastal towns, and it shares its name with an unfinished Nazi project on the Baltic coast. This was to be the place where the Aryan race would spend its holidays. ‘Ray Mears Tours’, and ‘Giftshops’ are clearly defined in one area as examples of the commercialization of the island. Walter states, “Nova Utopia sits some- where between the wonderful, the beautiful, the entertaining, the rich, the sublime, and the ridiculous.” (Brotton, 2014: p.241)

This artwork challenges the viewer’s level of visual literacy, cultural and historical knowl- edge and the experience of reading this map is something that takes time, patience and Figure 8. Nova Utopia by Stephen Walter, © Stephen Walter. probably several visits, much like a novel.

47 Andy Davies Visualising Spaces: The Illustrated Map as a mode of communicating fact, fiction and feeling.

Phrenology—an idea developed by Franz trators to great effect in their efforts to give a Joseph Gall in the early 19th century. By visual appearance to feelings and emotions. mapping the different parts of the brain, an Column Five’s portrait of Kanye West, com- assumption of the mental characteristics of a missioned by Myspace (fig. 10) is a caricature subject could be made. The side profile of a that satirises this flamboyant celebrity without human head with a dotted line indicating the resorting to the usual facial distortion, seen in different areas/personal qualities is a visually many other caricatures. It instead displays his intelligent idea in terms of trying to explain the thoughts and emotions that he so often verbal- inner workings of the brain. This approach, ises in public and on social media. albeit flawed, was an attempt at depicting fact. However, this rather contrived idea of assign- Jeff Fisher, also makes use of the phrenological ing personality traits based purely of physical map within his illustration Known Unknowns form does result in some unsavoury exam- produced for Time Magazine (fig. 11). The com- ples of map-making from this era. The Open plexities of memory are presented to us in an Country of a Woman’s Heart by D. W. Kellogg intricate arrangement of segmented locations (c.1833-1843) (fig. 9) is an incredibly misogynis- that seem similar to the roads and lanes on a tic explanation of a woman’s way of thinking. busy and slightly confusing city map. The image of a heart is divided into different lands, each assigned with a euphemistic name. Why draw a map? Slovenian Illustrator Rado- The ‘Sea of Wealth’ enters the heart through van Jenko’s map of Ljubljana, Slovenia (a place ‘Jewellery Inlet’, where you make landing in an he has lived all his life), is an amalgamation area called ‘Love of Dress’, before heading over of photography, pre-existing maps, scribbled to ‘Sentimentality and ‘Coquetry’. The more ap- comments, patterns and imagined characters pealing land of ‘Good Sense’ and the ‘Region that inhabit, his Ljubljana (fig. 12). Exposure of Platonic Affection’ are unfortunately rather at different times to different experiences, to small tracts of the island in comparison, which different people, to different stories results in would indicate they don’t really dominate this our personal response to the specific area we world. inhabit. Jenko’s map is one of 31 European cities featured in Graphic Europe, published by Feeling Cicada. It is as informative as any Lonely Planet or Rough Guide travellers’ guide book (some The phrenological map has entered our visual of the maps give a rough geographical guide, Figure 9. The Open Country of a Woman’s Heart by D. W. Kellogg (c.1833-1843). Courtesy, American vocabulary and has been used by many illus- some do not) but they also offer the personal Antiquarian Society.

48 Andy Davies Visualising Spaces: The Illustrated Map as a mode of communicating fact, fiction and feeling.

(left) Figure 10. Kanye West by Column Five, commissioned by Myspace. (right) Figure 11. Known Unknowns by Jeff Fisher, commissioned by Time Magazine.

49 Andy Davies Visualising Spaces: The Illustrated Map as a mode of communicating fact, fiction and feeling.

reflection of the illustrators who know the city, Steve Simpson’s Dublin map produced for its features and stories. The Editor of Graphic Jameson Whiskey (fig. 14) is a personal ge- Europe, Ziggy Hanoar (2009: p. 5) describes ographic map, displaying feelings and com- the ethos of the book as to “…Provide a more ments about the city, obtained from Dubliners informal, intimate insight into the cities. Kind of themselves. These personal descriptions are like a friend showing you how their city makes used instead of the usual street names to form them feel.” a heart-shaped Dublin. As a result the vibe and atmosphere of the city is communicated We are sentient creatures and this emotion- alongside tangible Dublin landmarks, such as al response is surely as important as street O’Connell Bridge and Trinity College. names and buildings, in terms of how we understand a city? Dublin is famed for its night life and for having numerous pubs, James Joyce’s character Maps can also have more of egalitarian agen- Leopold Bloom suggested in Ulysses that, “a da. The Homeless Map of London, (fig. 13) is good puzzle would be to cross Dublin with- one of many map projects by artist ‘Lovely Jojo’ out passing a pub.” (Kallwejt , 2015) This quip (real name Jojo Oldham). The map uses image from Joyce formed a brief given to Illustrator and text, often using a greater amount of the and Designer Jan Kallwejt by Huskies design latter to communicate stories and comments agency. Together they created an interactive from the people that live there. Cities such map (fig. 15) for the tee-total weekender trying as these are a spider’s web of interconnect- to avoid the ubiquitous stag and hen parties. ing stories that have direct or (often) indirect Kallwejt has been commissioned by many oth- influence on the development of that particular er clients (such as Honda) for his busy, some- place. “Cities have the capability of providing what diagrammatic map designs packed with something for everybody, only because, and icons and pictograms that are often repeated only when, they are created by everybody.” throughout the piece adding to the complexity. (Jacobs,1961: p238) By cataloguing how people have travelled to the city and how they have His maps seem to capture the noisy, chaotic, Figure 12. ended up without a home, educates the viewer and variety of a particular location. A skull here, Ljubljana by and seeks a compassionate response from a smiling face there, lightning bolts, an Elvis Radovan Jenko, them. Understanding the reality of sleep- impersonator, palm trees, eyes, and ambigu- commissioned by ing-rough and not being included within socie- ous dancing characters certainly pose a few Cicada. ty and how that feels, is the aim of this work. questions in the viewer’s mind when looking

50 Andy Davies Visualising Spaces: The Illustrated Map as a mode of communicating fact, fiction and feeling.

Figure 13. Homeless Map of London by Jojo Oldham. Figure 14. Dublin Map by Steve Simpson, commissioned by Jameson Whiskey.

51 Andy Davies Visualising Spaces: The Illustrated Map as a mode of communicating fact, fiction and feeling.

Figure 15. How to Cross Dublin without Passing a Pub by Jan Kallwejt, commissioned by Huskies design agency. Figure 16. Monarchs and Queens (butterflies and queer public spaces) by Mona Caron and Rebecca Solnit.

52 Andy Davies Visualising Spaces: The Illustrated Map as a mode of communicating fact, fiction and feeling.

at his map of Los Angeles. Showing the less “More people use more maps than at any Figures 17 & 18 picturesque aspects of a location can be done other time in human history, but we have not Map of Chicago’s Gangland with a smile. There is a similar theme within lost sight of their beauty, romance or inherent published by Bruce-Roberts, Rebecca Solnit’s Infinite City: A San Francisco usefulness.” (Garfield, 2013: p. 443) 1931 Courtesy The Newberry Atlas, published by UC Press, 2010. This diverse Library, Chicago collection of maps depicts different aspects of The map is often a single design containing a the city, from Monarchs and Queens (butterflies multitude of selected imagery that describes and queer public spaces), (fig. 16) illustrated by different stories, ideas and information about Mona Caron, to Poison/Palate (a map of toxic that certain place. It can be intentionally mines and factories). Solnit states, “It’s like that simplistic; communicating the facts that are re- old expression: A poem about something ugly quired by the intended viewer; the creator edits can still be beautiful. A map about murder or the reality and removes arbitrary elements. urban redevelopment can still be beautiful.” This is a highly visual way of communicating (Battilana, 2010) a sense of place. Other emotions can be stimu- lated through the complexity and ambiguity Comparisons can be made between Kallwe- of the map. Mapmakers can manipulate their jt’s and Caron’s work with a Map of Chicago’s viewer, placing them in the map and making Gangland (published by Bruce-Roberts, 1931) them feel the sense of confusion of being lost (fig. 17 and 18). The cheery colour palette, or found. It seems counter-intuitive that a map, intricate design, neat speech bubbles and a device many of us use as a way to give a humorous little characters in fedora hats sit at sense of two dimensional order to a multi-di- odds with the content, which slowly reveals mensional world, can intentionally get us lost, itself. Produced to, “…inculcate the most im- but as Peter Greenaway (2011) states, “That’s portant principles of piety and virtue in young part of the game because, in a sense, you persons, and graphically portray the evils and have to interpret a map and its full meaning is sin of large cities.” (University of Illinois, 2015), not always available because maps are about it aimed to counteract the public’s interest in codes.” characters such celebrity criminal Al Capone. Gun battles, explosions, murder, illegal drinking The book, Where You Are, published by Visual and arrests are among some of the scenarios Editions, 2013 is a project that’s intention is to that populate this map. It almost has a docu- explore the idea of getting lost. Sixteen artists mentary feel to it, lifting the veil to show the share their maps covering subjects such as real and less desirable side to this city. places they have almost been to, a landscape

53 Andy Davies Visualising Spaces: The Illustrated Map as a mode of communicating fact, fiction and feeling.

made up of literary features and the day-to- travel adventures (such as Shackleton’s) from Bibliography Websites day changing topography of the items placed the comfort of your own environment, and the on their work desk. The resulting maps are illustrated map is one visual form within which Books Battilana, J. (2010) Rebecca Solnit’s ‘Infinite intentionally confusing, and sometimes visually this can be achieved. City’ Maps SF in a Whole New Light. [Online] removed from the very thing they are mapping. Bruder, K. & Moore, B. (2002) Philosophy - The Available from: http://www.7x7.com/arts/rebec- It is up to the viewer to decode them. Fact, feeling and fiction can coexist within the Power of Ideas. 5th edition. ca-solnits-infinite-city-maps-sf-whole-new-light format of a map and the resulting imagery can Kenneth King. [Accessed 01 July 2015] As an illustrator it is the compositional design be both entertaining and provocative. The map attributes of a map that intrigues me; the am- can also be used and subverted within other Brotton, J. (2014) Great Maps, the world’s mas- A Map of Chicago’s gangland from authentic biguous shape that offers something different formats such as the satirical image. A map is terpieces explored and explained. Great Britain, sources. [Online] Available from: http://imag- to react to rather than the usual rectangle or a device that helps define groups of people Dorling Kindersley Limited. esearch.library.illinois.edu/cdm4/item_viewer. square of the paper. The opportunity to draw and their respective cultures within a tangible php?CISOROOT=/maps&CISOPTR=2339 architecture, flora and fauna that are different graphic shape. It helps communicate ideas and Garfield, S. (2013) On the Map, Why the World [Accessed 08 June 2015]. and varied, the chance to draw myths and leg- views about a particular group and location and Looks the Way it Does. Great Britain, Profile ends and depict them alongside these factual therefore enables a visual dialogue between the Books Ltd. Bell , H. (2008) The Beauty of Maps, Cartoon elements as if they co-exist in the make-up of commentator, illustrator and viewer. A map can Maps - Politics, Legacy of the Satire Map. [On- the city, the country. The past and the stories be employed to communicate the simplest and Hanaor (ed), Z. (2009) Graphic Europe, An line] Available from: http://www.bbc.co.uk/pro- of the place, are in fact as important as to what the most profound messages. It is not purely a Alternative Guide to 31 European Cities. London, grammes/p007hqys [Accessed 07 June 2015]. can be seen on the streets today. decorative image that has to sit alongside text, Cicada Books Limited. it can communicate facts, a sense of place and Bell , H. (2008) The Beauty of Maps, Grayson Within maps, feelings and opinions (both posi- understanding of geographical properties, in its Jane , J. (2002) The Death and Life of Great Perry’s Map of Nowhere. [Online] Available from: tive and negative) can be expressed, to inspire, own right. It can be used as a format for com- American Cities. Random House. http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p007hx1k to attract, to warn, to protest and to educate. municating stories, myths, legends and complex [Accessed 06 June 2015]. “Now that it is possible to travel right round narrative structures, and it can transfer a sense Schalansky, J. (2012) Pocket Atlas of Remote the globe, the real challenge lies in staying at of emotion to the viewer-how the illustrator felt/ Islands, Fifty Islands I have not visited and never Kallwejt, J. H. (2015) Dublin Map [Online] Avail- home and discovering the world from there.” feels when in the place they are drawing. Maybe will. London, England, Penguin books. able from: http://kallwejt.com/portfolio/dub- (Schalansky, 2012: p.9) The work of travel writer it is the map itself, the artwork being created, lin-map/ [Accessed 20 September 2015] Bill Bryson could be referred to as ‘armchair that is the place being ‘mapped’. The reader is, Walton (ed), R. (2004) The Big Book of Illustration tourism’, a description applicable to those of us in turn, creating their own mind-map of the lo- Ideas. New York, Harper Design International. Jacobs, F. (2014) Cartography’s Favour- who delight in discovering the world through cation through the process of interaction and it ite Map Monster: the Land Octopus. [On- text (from writers like Bryson) and through is this interaction between creator, created and line] Available from: http://bigthink.com/ image, rather than just personal experience. observer that makes the map such an intriguing strange-maps/521-cartographys-favour- There is something truly exhilarating about form for illustrators to investigate.

54 Andy Davies Visualising Spaces: The Illustrated Map as a mode of communicating fact, fiction and feeling.

ite-map-monster-the-land-octopus?page=all Popova, M. Inside the Mind of Kanye West: [Accessed 07 June 2015]. Typographic Phrenology. [Online] Available from: https://www.brainpickings.org/2011/02/22/ Jobson, C. (2013) Man Spends 7 Years Drawing typographic-phrenology-of-kanye-west/ [Ac- Incredibly Intricate Maze. [Online] Available cessed 20 September 2015] from: http://www.thisiscolossal.com/2013/01/ man-spends-7-years-drawing-incredibly-intri- The New Yorker. March 29, 1976 Issue. [On- cate-maze/ [Accessed 08 June 2015]. line] Available from: http://archives.newyorker. com/?i=1976-03-29#folio=CV1 [Accessed 20 Lovely Jojo’s. Homeless in London Map. [Online] January 2016] Available from: http://www.lovelyjojos .com/ product/homeless-in-london-map [Accessed Visual Editions. Where Are You. [Online] Availa- 08 June 2015]. ble from: http://where-you-are.com [Accessed 01 July 2015] Léopold, L. (2011) #Maps /// A Walk Through H: The Reincarnation of an Ornithologist by Peter Films Greenaway. [Online] Available from: http:// thefunambulist.net/2011/08/06/maps-a-walk- A Walk Through H: The Reincarnation of a Orni- through-h-the-reincarnation-of-an-ornithologist- thologist, 1971 [Film] Directed by Peter Greena- by-peter-greenaway/ [Accessed 22 June 2015]. way, UK: The British Film Institute

Popova, M. A Map of Woman’s Heart: Appalling Victorian Gender Stereotypes, in Illustrated Car- tography. [Online] Available from: https://www. brainpickings.org/2011/09/30/map-of-womans- heart/[Accessed 01 July 2015]

Popova, M. Where You Are: Cartography as Wayfinding for the Soul. [Online] Available from: http://www.brainpickings.org/index. php/2013/12/17/where-you-are-book-visual- editions/ [Accessed 01 July 2015].

55 Presentations

56 Paradise Lost: Documenting Birmingham’s Central Library Gareth Proskourine-Barnett

Gareth Proskourine-Barnett’s prac- ples of Brutalist architecture on the tice explores a sense of place, doc- internet. Alongside his personal umenting landscapes and environ- practice Gareth works as an Asso- ments (online & offline) altered by ciate Lecturer at Birmingham City human intervention. Since graduating University and Worcester University from Central Saint Martins (MA Com- where he teaches Illustration and munication Design) in 2011 he has Visual Communication. developed and exhibited work inter- nationally including projects for Som- erset House in London, The Moscow International Young Artist Biennale, Chulalongkorn University Museum in Bangkok and Srishti School of Art Contact Information and Design in Bangalore. [email protected] Gareth’s research is currently being developed through a PhD at the Royal College of Art in the school of Historical and Critical Studies where he is investigating exam-

57 Gareth Proskourine-Barnett Paradise Lost: Documenting Birmingham’s Central Library

When a building is demolished where does it go? Does its occupation of cyberspace point towards a territory in which the reportage illustrator can practice and does drawing still have any currency in this space?

“Facing the fine town hall and art gallery this have been outlawed and it is the duty of fire- was built, it’s the central library. But how can fighters to burn all literature. The people of this you tell? It looks like a place where books are future society get their information from wall- incinerated not kept. Because of such lack length television screens whilst being drugged of vision Birmingham city centre became into compliancy. The modernist architecture a monstrous concrete maze that only cars of the Alton Housing Estate in Roehamp- could find their way though. People didn’t ton, South London, designed by the London stand a chance. Cars were placed above County Council Architects (LCC), provides a people and people were placed one above backdrop for Truffaut’s oppressive future soci- the other on concrete shelves. Look at the ety. The Alton Estate is a combination of subtle Bullring, it has no charm no human scale no mixed-density Scandinavian inspired housing character accept arrogance. Its a planned in Alton East and the slab-block high-rises accident. Most of it is coming down thank in Alton West that referenced Le Corbusier’s goodness. So here is a second chance to Unite d’Habitation in Marseille. Alton West in put things right, but are we going to take it.” particular is an early example of what British (Prince Charles slams 80’s architecture in architectural critic Reyner Banham would term Figure 1: Birmingham Central Library in Google Maps 3-D, 2016 archive film, 2013.) New Brutalism. Despite falling out of favour in the 1980s there has been a recent resurgence Perhaps Prince Charles had recently watched in the appreciation of post-war buildings such the 1966 British science fiction film Fahrenheit as those at Alton West whose five Le Corbusier 451 directed by François Truffaut and based on inspired floating towers are now grade II listed. Ray Bradbury’s 1953 novel of the same name when he described Birmingham’s Central Li- So Brutalism is popular again. The Brutalist Ap- brary as “a place where books are incinerated, preciation Society on Facebook now has more not kept”. (Prince Charles slams 80’s architec- than 23,000 members and provides an active ture in archive film, 2013) The film takes place space in which to engage with what founder in a dystopian future where the government and administrator Mark John Lightness refers fears an independent-thinking public. Books to as a “much maligned architectural style.”

58 Gareth Proskourine-Barnett Paradise Lost: Documenting Birmingham’s Central Library

Figure 2: Alton Housing Estate in Roehampton, South London, designed by the London County Council Architects (LCC), Google Street View Figure 3: Screen Grab 31-10-2015, 2015

(Lightness, 2015) He describes Brutalism as 1. Rough unfinished surfaces to online magazines such as Dezeen which buildings now resonate in a way that they “…architecture in the raw, with an emphasis 2. Unusual shapes have had a Brutalism season. Even the Na- previously haven’t. The increasing globalisation on materials, textures and construction, pro- 3. Heavy-looking materials tional Trust has got on board having recently and financialization of society means that new ducing highly expressive forms…Scale was 4. Massive forms started offering guided tours of sites such as utopian visions of a socially progressive future important and the style is characterised by 5. Small windows in relation to the other the Queen Elizabeth Hall on the Southbank are needed now more than ever. Perhaps this massive concrete shapes colliding abruptly, parts” (Lightness, 2015) and the Park Hill estate in Sheffield. So why appreciation of Brutalism is a case of nostalgia while service ducts and ventilation towers are is Brutalism so popular now? Have we finally — a nostalgia for a different vision of the future overtly displayed. The Brutalist Appreciation Society isn’t an learnt to love these raw concrete un-orna- than the one that we find ourselves in. anomaly. The Internet is full of love for Brutal- mented surfaces or do the socialist principles What to look for in a Brutalist building: ism from blogs such as Fuck Yeah Brutalism imbued in the fabric of these once vilified A number of books on Brutalism and even

59 Gareth Proskourine-Barnett Paradise Lost: Documenting Birmingham’s Central Library

a BBC4 2-part television series by Jonathan opers. Social tenants have been relocated, so Meades have helped to ignite the debate refurbishment can begin and the building can around Brutalism once more. In Militant Mod- be sold off as luxury flats. The privatisation of ernism by Owen Hatherley the author inter- social housing removes the memory of an al- estingly puts forward a defence of Modernism ternative. These buildings serve as monuments against its own defenders. Hatherley attempts to another time and another way of thinking to reclaim brutalism not only from those that about housing, a way of thinking about hous- want to tear it down but more importantly from ing as a human right not a financial asset. It is those that want to gentrify it. Hatherley sees this sort of gentrification that Hatherley seeks Brutalism as an essential part of the Leftist to defend Brutalism from. political programme. For him these buildings symbolise a radical counter-culture and an The Central Library in Birmingham was opportunity to escape neoliberal capitalism. In completed in 1974 and designed by the Militant Modernism he writes: architect John Madin. Madin’s library was part of a historic period when Birmingham “Erase the traces. Destroy, in order to create. was undergoing a previous age of renewal. Build a new world on the ruins of the old. It embraced an urban ideology of a brave This, it is often thought, is the Modernist new world, one dominated by the car. At imperative, but what of it if the new society the time it resonated with the city’s legacy never emerged? We have been cheated out of progress, innovation and construction — of the future, yet the future’s ruins lie about Birmingham’s motto is Forward. The Central us, hidden or ostentatiously rotting. So what Library is considered an impressive example Figure 4: Architect John Madin with a model of Central Library, Birmingham Post, would it mean, then, to look for the future’s of Brutalist architecture and a centre point http://www.birminghampost.co.uk/news/local-news/brutal-end-vision-john-madin-8685822 remnants? To uncover clues about those who for this age of renewal forming part of a wanted, as Walter Benjamin put it, to “live post-war utopian redesign of the civic centre without traces”? Can we, should we, try and that was to remain only semi completed due excavate utopia?” (Hatherley, 2008) to imposed budget cuts. Madin’s brutalist ziggurat and its surrounding structures will Balfron Tower, designed by Ernő Goldfinger, soon be demolished in preparation for a new has recently been awarded a listed status after commercial development, expected to trans- years of petitions but this isn’t enough to pro- form the city centre towards a pedestrian tect the building from private property devel- focused public realm. The library is 41 years

60 Gareth Proskourine-Barnett Paradise Lost: Documenting Birmingham’s Central Library

old. It is not an old building, it is not in a state by the glorious 19th century architecture of disrepair and yet it is being demolished. and sculpture of our other civic buildings. In an unprecedented move the Secretary of Visitors to the city walking through Victoria State turned down the opportunity to grant Square and into Chamberlain Square from the building a listed status despite the advice New Street are confronted with this import of English Heritage in 2009. The new devel- from post-revolution Russia and forced to go opment is due to cost in the region of £450 through a tacky assortment of fast food out- million and will provide Birmingham with a lets en route to meetings or concerts in the mix of commercial, civic, retail, leisure and ICC and Symphony Hall.” (Browne, 2015) hotel space. Is this what Birmingham really needs? Are more shops the answer? Madin’s Guardian critic, Jonathan Glancey wrote that: library was not without faults and there is a danger of overly romanticising the building “this was not a cheap building: concrete slabs but its destruction points towards a rather were faced in Hopton Wood stone; ceilings depressing way of imagining the future of our were coffered in much the same way as the cities — as non-spaces constructed around great libraries of Ancient Rome would have the flow of global capital. The physical and been; furniture was custom-designed by the ideological destruction of buildings such as architects.” (Glancey, 2003) Madin’s Library continue to erase the notion of an alternative to neoliberalism from the And Matthew Goer of Associated Architects Fig 5: The Game (still), BBC TV series, 2015 collective memory - to quote Mark Fisher said: referencing Fredric Jameson - “it’s easier to imagine the end of the world than the end of “Madin’s Central Library was conceived as capitalism.” (Fisher, 2009) the centrepiece of what would become an ambitious civic centre – including an exhibi- Madin’s Library divides opinion. Obvious- tion space, lecture halls, drama centre and ly Prince Charles is not a fan. The chair of athletics institute, as well as a major transport Birmingham’s Civic Society Freddie Gick once hub. Due primarily to funding cuts, this vision said: was never fully realised.” (Browne, 2015)

“This monumental, brutalist incinerator has As the buildings physical destruction begins no place in the centre of our city, flanked the buildings occupation of cyberspace takes

61 Gareth Proskourine-Barnett Paradise Lost: Documenting Birmingham’s Central Library

on a greater significance - it has a virtual vided the setting for Michael Caine’s character afterlife, immortalised in pixels. The ghost of Jack Carter to throw Cliff Brumby to his death Brutalism wandering the wireless network and and in A Clockwork Orange Stanley Kubrick haunting us. Perhaps this virtual incarnation used the Thamesmead estate as well as the reveals another history? Perhaps it provides Lecture Centre at Brunel University to provide a new space in which to engage with our the dystopian backdrop to Anthony Burgess’ constructed environment and another way of novel about free will and control. Get Carter experiencing place? In amongst the digital de- couldn’t save the Gateshead Carpark and The bris and echoes of the past Prince Charles can Game will not be able to save the Birmingham be heard. He is saying that this is our chance library, but it does allow the building to live on to put things right, but are we going to take it… in an alternative or parallel universe. By com- mitting the building to film it enters an other The Central Library re-appeared during the space — a space where it is free to acquire a BBC mini series The Game, a cold-war espio- new history. nage thriller involving an internal mole within MI5 and a Soviet plan to overthrow the UK So Brutalist architecture is no longer limit- government. It was well received enough for ed to physical spaces. It now appears in our a second series to be commissioned but what screens as .mov, mp4 and avi files, available was particularly interesting about the show to download on various peer to peer networks Figure 6: Birmingham Central Library, Google Street View, 2015 was its use of Brutalist architecture. Madin’s or to be accessed via sites such as YouTube. Library was uprooted and transplanted into Brutalism has moved into and beyond the the heart of London where it served as the MI5 screen, as it becomes digitised it becomes headquarters. The Game is about the Cold War unstable, its permanence becomes vulnerable but this building is not the typical embodiment and it is susceptible to piracy. In Hito Steyerl’s of dystopia, the libraries exterior becomes a essay In Defense of the Poor Image (2009) she protective fortress. Internally, the beautifully discusses the movement of images through ribbed concrete walls provide spaces for secret computer networks, the loss of information interactions that are not sinister or brooding that occurs and the potential within this to with violence. The Game manages to humanise create new meanings. Steyerl argues that the Brutalist architecture. Brutalist architecture more an image is copied the more distorted has appeared in film before, The Gateshead it becomes and as such the further it moves multi-story carpark in Get Carter famously pro- from its original position. It moves into a space

62 Gareth Proskourine-Barnett Paradise Lost: Documenting Birmingham’s Central Library

free from past associations. It is free to acquire opher Michel Foucault put forward his notion space, the space between the geographical • Thirdly, a heterotopia can be a single real new meanings. In relation to the Poor Image of heterotopia and it can help to make sense of points, a mental space in which you reside. place that juxtaposes several other spaces, Steyerl says that “one could of course argue these digital spaces. ‘Heterotopias’ are spaces Within this mental space you use your imagi- an example would be a garden that uses that this is not the real thing, but then—please, and places that can exist in both physical and nation to construct images. These images are plants from a specific region or place in anybody—show me this real thing.” (Steyerl, mental states, they are spaces of otherness subjects of this other space. Foucault outlined another part of the world. Again this does not 2009) The real Brutalism or the portrait paint- that act as portals or voids, they are modes of 6 key principles of heterotopia and it is worth apply to us here. ing of Brutalism by the media is one of a failed transportation. Foucault’s heterotopia stems spending a little time thinking about how they social experiment that brought about a social from critical thinking surrounding notions of might apply to images of Brutalism in cyber- • Fourthly, ‘heterotopias of time’ are spaces degradation — it is one of sink estates and utopia and dystopia. Heterotopia combines space; such as museums that hold objects from violent crime. Is this the real version? When the prefix hetero meaning ‘other, another or all times and styles in a single place. They images of Brutalist architecture are transport- different’ with the Greek utopia which trans- • Firstly, a ‘crisis heterotopia’ is a space such exist both in time but also outside of time as ed into digital territories they can be stripped lates as ‘non-place’ — so in its simplest terms as a honeymoon suite in a hotel. It is a space they are built to preserve and protect their of their historical baggage — just like a reptile a heterotopia is ‘another-place’. It is a concept where a significant action takes place behind artefacts from the destructive nature of time. that sheds its skin, the building looses layers of of human geography that deals with the way closed doors such as the consummating of When we enter into Google Street view we data as it is compressed and re-opened time we interact with our constructed environ- the marriage. This doesn’t apply to us here as suspend time, we are looking at images taken and time again. Within these digital territories ments and our relationship to space and place. the spaces are available to access by anyone at a particular point in time that have been Brutalism is free to fulfil its utopian potential. It Foucault uses the term heterotopia to describe with a Wi-Fi connection. meshed together to form a complete picture. is free to fulfil its journey into a romantic ruin. spaces that have layers of meaning imbedded The time we are witnessing is not the time we It is free to discard its own real histories and within them or spaces that relationships to • Secondly, ‘heterotopias of deviation’ are insti- are in. Time is further distorted in this space start again. other places and that function outside of the tutions where we place individuals whose be- as it has no relation to distance - the time it normal conditions of control by the state or haviour is outside the norm, a good example takes to walk around a site physically is very The Internet provides an alternative platform governing body. These are spaces with more would be a prison. These are generally phys- different to the time it takes virtually. in which to occupy Brutalist architecture. Here to them than immediately meets the eye. He ical examples of space that function as an we enter a different sort of space - a meta- called for a society with many heterotopias as other. If we take Brutalist architecture as the • Fifthly, ‘Heterotopias of ritual or purification’ physical space that doesn’t subscribe to the a means to escape from authoritarianism and ‘individual’ then we can see how this principle are spaces such as a sauna or Turkish bath. same limitations of time and space that govern repression. might apply to us - the buildings socialist Whilst initially these spaces might not seem the world we physically occupy - perhaps this ideology and utopian ambitions sit outside of to be particularly relevant upon closer inves- is where the real Brutalism resides. In an arti- A phone call is a classic example of a hetropto- what we now perceive as the norm, the norm tigation they reveal themselves as a ritual of cle entitled Of Other Spaces and published by pia. The phone call roots you in a geographical being neoliberalism. The intention and ambi- sorts. A series of specific steps allow us to the French journal Architecture/Mouvement/ location whilst you enter into a communication tion of these Brutalist buildings is out of place access the internet - we turn the computer Continuite in October 1984 (although based channel with another party rooted in a different in todays political and economic climate. on; we enter a password; we access the on a lecture given in 1967) the French philos- geographic location. This creates an other network. We must go through these steps in

63 Gareth Proskourine-Barnett Paradise Lost: Documenting Birmingham’s Central Library

order to enter the space, our journey into the environment, consciously organised or not, on space becomes a ritual. the emotions and behaviour of individuals.” He called for playful and inventive ways of navigat- • Finally, a heterotopia has one of two func- ing the urban environment in order to closely tions in relation to the remaining spaces. It is examine the architecture around us. He called either a space of compensation where its role for a revolutionary new approach to architec- is to create a physical space that is ‘other’ or ture, one that was less functional and more it is a space of illusion where its function is to open to exploration. As our cities becomes expose the real space. Cyberspace creates increasingly impenetrable perhaps it is within the illusion that exposes the real space. The the virtual landscape that Debord’s sense of computer screen becomes a void; it becomes play can be fully realised. The internet provides a portal. The screen is a real or physical ob- a ready-made aesthetic to visually articulate ject but it transports you into another space the distortion of time and history already and opens up an alternative way of experi- taking place in our physical world, it describes encing place. a world where ruins have become utopias and where archaeology and futurism merge. So, how might we interact and experience Bru- talist architecture within cyberspace? Google As part of a recent project in collaboration Street View provides a starting point; we enter with Birmingham City University I have been into the map, we occupy, we walk, we drift, we archiving the virtual traces of Brutalist sites Figure 7: Fractured Perspectives, Google Street View, 2015 become the cyber-flaneur or the cyber-psy- such as Madin’s Central Library, using portals chogeographer. It provides a territory in which such as Google Street View as a space in to explore and document. The walk becomes which to walk, to explore and to document. the means from which to interrogate the It is only as I navigate my way through these ideology imbued in the fabric of the architec- digital incarnations of Brutalism that I begin to ture, exploring the transitory and contradictory comprehend the unstable nature their exist- nature of our cities, of our world, of our time. ence. They are not static, stable or permanent Psychogeography is a practice that first orig- but instead they are constantly changing and inated in the 1950’s and is closely associated the only thing that is permanent is a constant with the Situationist International. Guy Debord state of flux. These digital images of Brutal- (1955) outlined it as “the study of the precise ism highlight the importance of movement laws and specific effects of the geographical within our constructed environment — in fact

64 Gareth Proskourine-Barnett Paradise Lost: Documenting Birmingham’s Central Library

movement lies at the heart of architecture. In government control. It is a utopian manifesto - order to interact with a building, we need to in it he says walk through it. It is only by traveling though the site that we experience the site. Far from “We are creating a world that all may enter being concrete they are intact anything but. without privilege or prejudice accorded by In Google Street View as we use the cursor race, economic power, military force, or sta- to progress in a given direction or to shift our tion of birth. We are creating a world where point of perspective, as we do the building’s anyone, anywhere may express his or her structure collapses and then reforms. For a beliefs, no matter how singular, without fear split second it is a void. It fragments and as of being coerced into silence or conformity. the image mutates information is lost and new Your legal concepts of property, expression, meanings begin to take shape. A new history is identity, movement, and context do not apply possible. The buildings seams are pulled apart, to us. They are all based on matter, and there its edges dissolve and it moves. It is a moving is no matter here.” (Barlow, 1996) building - just like the architecture collective Archigram proposed back in 1964. Archigram’s Hito Steyerl’s essay Too Much World: Is The walking building was a giant reptilian struc- Internet Dead? (2013) could be read as a ture that would freely roam the world, moving response to John Perry Barlow’s manifesto. In to wherever it was needed whilst being able light of the NSA revelations and with digital to connect to other walking buildings when space becoming increasingly privatised it required in order to form larger cities. Perhaps is a good question - is the idea of the Inter- that is what is happening in Google Street net dead? Is the idea of John Perry Barlow’s View. Perhaps Birmingham’s Central Library libertarian, matter-less world still relevant? could grow some legs, hoist itself up to stand- Is the Internet just another space in which Link to Film: Paradise Lost, HD Video, 2015, https://vimeo.com/153618149 ing and walk to London where it would decide to consume? Has it become an exaggerated to become the home of MI5. Stranger things shopping mall? Hito Steyerl’s argument is not have happened. that we have moved online but that the Inter- net has moved offline. We are in a Post-Internet In the middle of the nineties John Perry Barlow age. It is often thought that we have become published A Declaration of the Independence of immersed in the Internet, that we actively Cyberspace in which he puts forward an idea step into it, but Steyerl suggests that this is of the Internet as a libertarian space, free from not entirely accurate and that the Internet has

65 Gareth Proskourine-Barnett Paradise Lost: Documenting Birmingham’s Central Library

moved beyond our screens; it has infiltrated there is none of that - there is only movement. the drawing is pirated; the drawing is corrupt- all aspects of our existence. It provides the Our experiences slip between online and of- ed; the drawing is rebuilt; the drawing lives on. infrastructure for the world we live in - we can- fline modes, images ooze out from the screen not escape it - it is everywhere! Steyerl (2013) and infiltrate what John Perry Barlow (1996) The digital debris of Birmingham’s Central writes that “The all-out internet condition is not described as “the world of flesh”. Online or Library reveals an alternative history for the an interface but an environment.” She de- offline? It doesn’t really matter anymore. They condemned, marginalised and neglected ex- scribes a condition “partly created by humans are the same, both unstable and both suscep- amples of Brutalist architecture that haunt our but also only partly controlled by them”. Imag- tible to piracy. In this Post-Internet world, the cities. Explorations of the virtual manifestations es leave the confines of the screen and change digital or virtual landscapes provide another of the Central Library reveal and intertwine the world - they rewrite political systems, wipe territory in which to engage with a documen- collective history with fantasy. They provide the millions off stock markets, they shape the way tary practice, they reveal another layer to the opportunity to challenge the way histories and humans interact and the way relationships spaces that we inhabit and different way of narratives are constructed, recorded and retold are formed. Online images materialise and understanding a sense of place. But what does by exploring the different ways digital technol- then dematerialise, again and again and again this mean for reportage illustration? How can ogies can distort our understanding of time and again. Steyerl uses her essay to call for a the discipline respond to this new landscape, and history and by presenting fictional narra- global revolution, it is a call to arms reminis- this other space? Do the traditional tools of the tives as verifiable truths and vice versa. Google cent of A Declaration of the Independence of illustrator, the pencil and sketchbook, have any vice president Vint Cerf has recently warned of Cyberspace. By importing our online behaviour currency in this world? How can they convey the possibility of a “forgotten century” (Sample, into the offline world we can construct a new the complexities and multi-layered dimensions 2015) with email and photos at risk of being world - a world “without privilege or prejudice”. of our constructed environments? We need lost forever. Key historical documents could (Barlow, 1996) to find new ways in which to engage with the disappear, lost to the ravages of technological process of drawing; we need a new set of tools advancement. One only has to think of the Reportage and documentary illustration prac- to visually articulate the way we understand fates of the floppy disk or Betamax to get an tices have long concentrated on the explora- and experience place. By reclaiming the uto- idea of what might happen. Before we know tion of physical environments using traditional pian potential of digital technologies we can it we might find ourselves in a version of the approaches to drawing, it is an approach char- conjure alternative futures from the debris and Woody Allen film Sleeper - where Bela Lugosi acterised by the wandering line that maps out find new ways of addressing the present and a becomes the mayor of New York, Charles De its surroundings. It is an informal sketch; it is a sense of place through drawing. Gaulle is a famous French chef and where scribble performed in the moment out on loca- no-one knows what wind-up chattering teeth tion. It is a response to a moment in time and The drawing is a copy; the drawing is a were used for. It would appear that history is an attempt to capture some sort to truth. Only distortion; the drawing is a manipulation; the up for grabs but are we going to take it? there is no truth. Truth implies stability and drawing is a remix; the drawing is reframed;

66 Gareth Proskourine-Barnett Paradise Lost: Documenting Birmingham’s Central Library

Bibliography: Lightness, M, 2015, Facebook Group: The Brutalist Appreciation Society, Availa- Barlow, J, 1996, A Declaration of the Independ- ble from: [27 January 2016] www.eff.org/cyberspace-independence> [26 January 2016] Prince Charles slams 80s architecture in archive film, 2013, (video file), Available from: Browne, G, 2015, ‘Gallery: Goodbye to Birming- [20 January 2016] starts’ Birmingham Post 6th January, Available from: [28 Guardian 13th February, Available from: [27 January 2016] Urban Geography, Available from: < http:// www.cddc.vt.edu/sionline/presitu/geography. Steyerl, H, 2009, In Defense of The Poor Image, html> [25 January 2016] Available from: [27 Fisher, M, 2009, Capitalist Realist: Is There No January 2016] Alternative?, Zero Books, Winchester Steyerl, H, 2013, Too Much World: Is The Inter- Glances, J, 2003, ‘Shelf Life’, The Guardian 10 net Dead?, Available from: [27 January 2016] ture.artsfeatures> [27 January 2016]

Hatherley, O, 2008, Militant Modernism, Zero Books, Winchester

67 Immaterial Boundary (Film) Rachel Gannon Darryl Clifton

Rachel Gannon is an illustrator South East coast. Frontiers pays Darryl Clifton studied Visual Com- CCW, UAL. He holds positions on and educator who graduated from specific attention to the docks at munication at Kent Institute of Art the editorial boards of the Journal Royal College of Art in 2007. Her Tilbury and Dover both of which and Design and Illustration at the of Illustration and Varoom and is a practice is routed in drawing as have been documented heavily in Royal College of Art. He has broad board director of the Association of reportage, the reflective sketch and the news. This project aims to cast experience working in education Illustrators (AOI). the role of the sketch within con- a poetic eye over the structures at home and abroad and spent temporary illustrative practice. Ra- that exist in these spaces - How five years developing the educa- chel works from her London Stu- are these boarders constructed, tion profile at cutting edge moving dio on a variety of commissioned signposted, policed, managed and image events/production compa- and self-initiated projects includ- maintained? She is represented ny onedotzero, working with high ing editorial, publishing, curating, by Eye Candy Illustration Agency profile Institutions like the V&A community projects and installa- with clients such as The Guardian, Museum and Hayward Gallery. In tions. She has work on permanent The Natural History Museum, The 2010 he re-launched Camberwell display at the Victoria and Albert Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts, Press a designand held the role of Museum and the Royal London The Big Draw, Tate Modern, Vital Director until September 2014. In Hospital. She is part of reportage Arts and Condé Nast. 2011 Clifton co-founded Mokita, a illustration research group, Report- curated event platform for critical ager. In 2015 she was awarded the debate around the subject of Illus- Reportager Award with her work tration regularly hosting events at on Frontiers, documenting those Somerset House. Clifton is current- areas of the UK that we could ly Design Programme Director and classify as contemporary fron- Course Leader BA (Hons) Illustra- tiers; particularly the docks of the tion at Camberwell College of Arts,

68 Rachel Gannon and Darryl Clifton Immaterial Boundary (Film)

Figure 1, 2, 3: Immaterial Boundary [film stills], 2015 The impetus for the production of this short and what it could be. We therefore assumed focus on nascent visual language and style ‘talking heads’ film came from the provoca- a conflated definition of the term visionary, that, in our opinion, extends the bounda- tive nudge/poke to talk about the visionary one where the future facing ‘leader’ meets ries of the discipline, as well as notions of in Illustration. Our interest in exploring the the imaginative ‘seer’. thing-ness, materiality and immateriality. We visionary (this is a jointly authored package deliberately selected practitioners whose of film and text), lay in the manifestation of Our aim was to investigate visionary-ness work occupies a territory on the periphery of creative attributes that correlated with a in some of the new and emerging forms the mainstream. We hope that the title of the synthesized idea of what it (the visionary) is Illustration takes. We adopted a general film reflects some of the disciplinary stretch

69 Rachel Gannon and Darryl Clifton Immaterial Boundary (Film)

in the footnotes by way of expansion and On Style the conversation turned to frame- contextualization. works and languages, as mutually evolving components of a visual lingua franca. Of the The following summarily describes some of importance of surface and the electronic the thoughts and proposals that our inter- refractive index as an echo or tautology. Our viewees shared: interviewees described the inevitability of fashion and its relation to style – being a sort On Material, Materials, Materiality our of revisionism, amplified, short-lived, vital Figure 4: Immaterial Boundary [film still], 2015 and permeability described by the practices respondents talked about the significance and inevitable. featured. of pointlessness, it being a kind of trope, a component in the modern Illustration/Visual On Boundaries we discussed Marshall The film is divided in to four sections derived Communication lexicon. On how materiality Macluhan’s description of the effects of from the themes that emerged through con- is constituted through the power of prefer- ‘information rubbing up against information’ versation with the practitioners. They were: ences, that the overall ‘yield’ of likes, hits and how Illustration only truly becomes Material, Style, Boundaries and Craft. In a and retweets ascribed to the virtual image active when it is the hands of the user. Of recently published article in Varoom we have combines to propose new ‘substance’. And the permeability of roles and the application attempted to ‘poetically’ capture the essence of the interplay of works in and out of the of discipline. And of Illustrative process sup- of these themes as described by the practi- social realm, and that realm as a testing planting product, the birth of the verb and tioners. The more oblique ‘extractions’ in that ground, a means of developing neo-material the death of the noun and the authorless text are supported by additional commentary symbology. Illustration.

70 Rachel Gannon and Darryl Clifton Immaterial Boundary (Film)

Figure 5 & 6: Immaterial Boundary [film stills], 2015

And on Craft existing in the space between authorship, Illustrative auteurship and the image, type and ornament; as a celebration impossibility of an end point. of the vulgar and distasteful. Of corrupted collaborations and purgation and on being We are very grateful to Pablo Jones Soler, an Illustrator, Engineer, Manufacturer. The Anna Lomax, Peter Nencini and Jack Sachs craft of negotiation; with oneself and with for participating in the filming of Immaterial others, of the significance of interfaces and Boundary. the nuanced attempts to ‘get to zero’ with process and making. And finally back to

71 Rachel Gannon and Darryl Clifton Immaterial Boundary (Film)

Figure 7: Immaterial Boundary [film still], 2015

Link to Film https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f4ukvjhpAqQ

72 Illustrator as Detective: Discovery through Drawing Chloe Regan

Since graduating from the Royal Museum of East Asian Art, Bath, College of Art, Chloe has been a are being exhibited from 2015 — Senior Lecturer for the Arts Univer- 2017, and investigate the theme of sity Bournemouth. She also works drawing as visual thinking. She is a as a Visiting Lecturer in Illustration, member of the Reportager research Drawing and Graphic Design at group at the University of the West several other universities and insti- of England, Bristol. tutions, including the London Col- lege of Fashion. She is currently the Chloe also works collaboratively Foundation Art and Design Course with INK Illustration, which was Leader at the Bristol School of Art, co-founded with two other Royal Wise Campus, South Gloucester- College of Art graduates. Clients shire and Stroud College. of INK include: Topshop, Free Contact Information Word Centre, the Victoria & Albert Chloe applies her drawing and Museum and the Natural History [email protected] [email protected] reportage illustration to a range of Museum. commercial and academic projects. www.chloe-regan.com Her drawings, commissioned by the

73 Chloe Regan Illustrator as Detective: Discovery through Drawing

I am an illustrator currently producing an Drawing is applied as a process for looking innovative drawing project with the Museum of beyond the obvious and innovating new ways East Asian Art, Bath, that interrogates con- of looking at museum objects. Significantly, as cepts of illustration and illustrator as visionary. a visionary I will explore the idea of innovation, I proposed, developed and will produce and revolution and discovery; as I act as detective curate the project (2015—17). and interpret objects through the process of drawing. I will create all drawings on site, The majority of the museum’s collection examining the rare artefacts from multiple per- consists of small-scale objects and miniatures, spectives, in order to make loose, investigative showcasing centuries of traditional crafts- and accessible illustrations. I will also make manship and artistry. The museum holds a large-scale drawings, whilst making notes and collection of ceramics, jades, bronzes and closely examining the objects. other artefacts from China, Japan, Korea and Southeast Asia. It is the only museum in the The project explores ideas of future thinking in UK solely dedicated to arts and cultures of educational and professional developments, as East and Southeast Asia. the drawings will act as functional and dem- ocratic means to communicate my personal In producing this project, I act as a visionary, response to objects, and in turn challenge per- through exploring drawing as a tool for looking sonal and studied responses from the public. beyond the obvious, to truly study and discover Future thinking in educational and professional an object within a museum collection. developments is also explored through the showcase of work, as drawings will be dis- ‘For me, drawing is an enquiry, a way of find- played in cabinets in direct juxtaposition with ing out- the first thing that I discover is that I corresponding objects, and exhibited between do not know. Only experience reassures me different galleries. that this encounter with my own ignorance- with the unknown- is my chosen and particu- lar task, and provided I can make the required effort the rewards may reach the unimagina- Figure 1: 'The Museum,' Chloe Regan, Pencil, Museum of East Asian Art, Bath, 2015. ble.’ Bridget Riley Keywords Visual Thinking, Looking, Discovery, Communication, Educational/ Professional Developments

74 Chloe Regan Illustrator as Detective: Discovery through Drawing

Figure 2: (far left) 'Nephrite Jade Dancing Lady,' Museum of East Asian Art, Bath, 8th-11th Century.

Figure 3: (top centre) 'Water Pot,' Museum of East Asian Art, Bath, 18th Century.

Figure 4: (top right) 'Vessel,' Museum of East Asian Art, Bath, 18th Century.

Figure 5: (bottom left) 'Tortoise,' Museum of East Asian Art, Bath,

75 Chloe Regan Illustrator as Detective: Discovery through Drawing

‘While still in the army, Twombly recalls, he often drew at night, with lights out, perfecting a kind of meandering and imprecise graphology…’

‘Fearing slickness, he drew as if with his left hand. To avoid striking the surface straight-on, he drew in oblique and contorted angles, punitively disciplining his linear seductive- ness.’

Cy Twombly

Roscio, N. (2014) The Essential Cy Twombly. Distributed Art Publishers: London

Figure 6: (left) 'Gilt Copper Figure of Rubena,' Chloe Regan, Pencil, Museum of East Asian Art, Bath, 18th Century. Figure 7: (right) 'Yixing Tea Pot,' Chloe Regan, Pencil, Museum of East Asian Art, Bath, 1820-1850.

76 Chloe Regan Illustrator as Detective: Discovery through Drawing

‘For me, drawing is an enquiry, a way of finding out- the first thing that I discover is that I do not know. Only experience reassures me that this encounter with my own igno- rance- with the unknown- is my chosen and particular task, and provided I can make the required effort the rewards may reach the unimaginable.’

Bridget Riley

Bracewell, M. (2009) Flashback Bridget Riley. Hayward Gallery Publishing: London

Figure 8: (left) 'Nephrite Jade Garment Hook,' Chloe Regan, Pencil, Museum of East Asian Art, Bath, 18th Century.

Figure 9: (far left) 'Yixing Tea Pot,' Chloe Regan, Pencil, Museum of East Asian Art, Bath, 1820-1850.

77 Chloe Regan Illustrator as Detective: Discovery through Drawing

Figure 10: (top) 'Nephrite Jade Garment Hook,' Chloe Regan, Pencil, Museum of East Asian Figure 12: 'Alabaster Buddha,' Chloe Regan, Coloured Pencil, Museum of East Asian Art, Bath, Figure 13: 'Gilt Bronze Dhamata,' Chloe Regan, Coloured Pencil, Museum of East Asian Art, Art, Bath, 18th Century. 19th Century. Bath, 17th-18th Century. Figure 11: (bottom) 'Animal,' Museum of East Asian Art, Bath.

78 Chloe Regan Illustrator as Detective: Discovery through Drawing

‘What you call an open and fragile line is impor- tant when you want to keep something open,

keep it porous,

so that what develops comes through and lives in terms of your intention.’

Joseph Beuys

Petherbridge, D. (2010) Primacy of Drawing. Yale Books: London.

Figure 14: (far left) 'Gilt Bronze Dhamata,' Chloe Regan, Coloured Pencil, Museum of East Asian Art, Bath, 17th-18th Century.

Figure 15: (left) 'Brown lead glazed figure of a Bird,' Chloe Regan, Black Marker Pen, Museum of East Asian Art, Bath, 25-220.

79 Chloe Regan Illustrator as Detective: Discovery through Drawing

Figure 16:'Green lead glazed Oil Lamp,' Chloe Regan, Black Marker Pen, Museum of East Asian Art, Bath, 25-220. Figure 17: 'Detail,' Chloe Regan, Black Marker Pen, Museum of East Asian Art, Bath,

80 Chloe Regan Illustrator as Detective: Discovery through Drawing

Figure 18: (far left) 'Green lead glazed Oil Lamp,' Chloe Regan, Black Marker Pen, Museum of East Asian Art, Bath, 25-220.

Figure 19: (left) 'Green lead glazed Oil Lamp,' Chloe Regan, Black Marker Pen, Museum of East Asian Art, Bath, 25-220.

81 Chloe Regan Illustrator as Detective: Discovery through Drawing

Figure 20: (above) 'Set of Eight Immortals,' Chloe Regan, Black Marker Pen, Museum of East Asian Art, Bath, 1930.

82 Chloe Regan Illustrator as Detective: Discovery through Drawing

“It was showing me how I think – how I construct narratives.”

Eric Fischl’s ‘Glassine Drawings’

Belcove, J. (2014) ‘Eric Fischl Interview’ Finan- cial Times Visual Arts Online

Figure 21: 'Dish with brown rim and design of Dianthus flowers,' Chloe Regan, Blue Pen, Figure 22: 'Dish with brown rim and design of Dianthus flowers,' Chloe Regan, Pencil on Museum of East Asian Art, Bath, 1614-1868. Drafting Film and Blue Pen on Paper, Museum of East Asian Art, Bath.

83 Chloe Regan Illustrator as Detective: Discovery through Drawing

Figure 23: (left) 'Saucer with design of auspicious plants and flowers growing around a rock,' Chloe Regan, Pencil, Museum of East Asian Art, Bath.

Figure 24: (above) 'Gilt-bronze figure of a Buddhist attendant,' Chloe Regan, Pencil, Museum of East Asian Art, Bath, 618-907.

84 ‘The in-betweener’ Jo Berry

Originally from Lancashire, Jo has In 2005 she completed work at Container 2014, 2015; Hijacking Nat- studied Natural History Illustration, Loughborough University as an ural Systems 2011 and Bridging the Illustration, Graphic Design and Advanced Research Fellow where Gaps 2012, an ESPRC funded pro- Printmaking. Exhibiting regularly and she developed her interest in digital ject at Loughborough University. widely throughout the Country & drawing and technology and created Her research interests are multi - Internationally her work is highly re- light drawings using laser cutting, disciplinary, involving an interest in garded, with pieces in the Victoria & computer software, material explo- drawing, design, light, digital and Albert Museum (V&A), Arts Council ration and light. Since then, she has industrial technologies and collab- England (ACE) East Midland Collec- continued to develop and explore oration. In her latest project she tions and Zeiss, Munich. Her resi- her understanding of all these pro- collaborates with scientists who use dencies include the Florence Trust cesses in the design and production advanced imaging. Studios, London, the Natural History of artwork, light work and animation Museum, London and Lakeside Arts for exhibition, commission and for

Contact Information Centre, Nottingham University. Her public art commissions. public art commissions include Mill- [email protected] field Sculpture Commission, Derby- Over the last six years Jo has devel- www.joberry.co.uk shire Moorlands, Sheffield Galleries oped and contributed to a number and Museums Trust, New Shetland of Art and Science Collaborations Museum & Archives and Blackpool funded by Arts Council England and Illuminations. the Wellcome Trust. Including Brain

85 Jo Berry ‘The in-betweener’

Still and static digital representations of Visual Communication, where I work as rate with scientific specialists who use cut- Major Case Study 1: Experiencing made from scientific images a 0.5 lecturer in Illustration. Organisations ting-edge imaging techniques. The artwork internal structures using microscopy such as the Wellcome Trust, an independent created will be inspired by, and sourced from to create artwork based on different I am an ‘in-betweener’ it defines my practice charitable foundation (Accessed at http:// working directly with these scientists in their imaging technologies from primary which spans art, design and illustration. www.wellcome.ac.uk) show how art and sci- laboratories and observing how and why source material and observations in ence collaborations can engage and inform they conduct the research they do. the imaging laboratory. I am fascinated by how scientists use the public about science. They support “the imaging as an important visual tool, as part creation of new artistic work that critically For the scientists to fully engage in the crea- A collaboration with the University of Notting- of their scientific investigations. I am not a engages artists and audiences with biomed- tive design process and extract key informa- ham, School of Life Sciences and the Centre trained scientist, so the opportunity to gain ical science (Accessed: 19 January 2016). tion, co-creation design thinking strategies for Cellular Imaging at the University of Goth- first-hand experience of working with scien- The Wellcome Trust states that “artists have will be adopted (Sanders, Stappers 2007:5). enburg, Sweden. tists who use advanced imaging, offers a rich a distinct approach to understanding and The information gathered will be used to source of inspiration, to inform my visual art communicating ideas that can illuminate help communicate scientific research more In 2012, I worked on a project called Hijacking practice and feed my research interests. and challenge perceptions within society.” effectively. A multi-modal design approach Natural Systems funded by Arts Council Eng- They credit the arts as having an invalua- will be used to create new digital two and land and the Wellcome Trust for an exhibition As technologies become more sophisticated, ble role to play in engaging the public with three-dimensional artwork and moving in Derby City at the Derby Royal NHS Trust ways of viewing and seeing samples (static biomedical science, maintaining that this image outputs. Scientific imaging and and Derby Museum and Art Gallery. This work and live) are continually being developed. exchange “generates powerful, personal and scientific software will be combined with was then shown in numerous venues in the UK This opens up new opportunities to see visceral art and inspires interdisciplinary digital drawing to create distinctive graphic and at Zeiss Head-office in Munich, Germany. and experience internal structures from our research and practice that brings benefits to interpretations. The work created will be For this project I worked with the Cell Signal- bodies and from nature, so that we can gain artists and scientists alike.” Today scientists informed by direct observation of scientific ling Group at the University of Nottingham knowledge of how these systems work. The acknowledge that it is increasingly impor- processes, collection of images, data and investigating the hunger hormone ghrelin. super-machines scientists use to image tant to inform the general public about the information. (ghrelin resides in our gut and sends signals to samples are not normally accessible to work they do. This project aims to add to this our brain to alert us of hunger). non-scientific specialists yet imaging tech- knowledge from working directly with Sci- The research aims to use art as a vehicle to nologies present a rich under-explored area entists in their laboratories, by responding create a ‘space’ for new engagement and Accessed at: for artistic exploration. Advanced imaging to this experience and communicating it in a interaction with science. Detailed below are http://shura.shu.ac.uk/5218/Drawn in light: Jo techniques to be investigated will include new imaginative way. the case-studies. Explaining scientific pro- Berry’s ‘Hijacking Natural Systems’ microscopy and medical imaging. cesses and how these will facilitate artistic http://www.nottingham.ac.uk/life-sciences/ Two major case studies and three supple- interpretations is complex. The next section news/archive/archive.aspx I am currently studying for a part-time PhD mentary case studies have been selected. describes observations of research to date. http://www.joberry.co.uk at Birmingham City University in the School They offer unique opportunities to collabo-

86 Jo Berry ‘The in-betweener’

Figure 2: Ghrelin+-tet+transferrin-20-minsartworkforprint2

(Fig 1) An example of a design drawing based (Fig 2) The image is based on an assay to test on an imaging experiment devised by Dr. how successfully the fluorescent receptors Nicholas Holliday. HEK293 is a cell line used (SNAP labelling) could be removed from the Figure 1: HEK293ghrelin 100nM 15 min time series 5secs amalgamate. in the assay (experiment). In this assay a 100 cell membrane over a 20minute time-series. nanomolar (a scientific measurement of con- The drawing is made from stills of a stereo-im- centration) of the hunger hormone ghrelin was age movie made using Axio-Vision software. added to the live cells and imaged under the A four-layered design drawing was created microscope to see the fluorescent receptors and used as a template for the laser-cut image (SNAP labelling) removed from the cell mem- housed in a light-box and lit with LEDs. brane over a 15minute time-series.

87 Jo Berry ‘The in-betweener’

Figure 3: (above) Working in the laboratory preparing cells to be imaged on the plate reader. Photography @Andrew Robinson

Figure 4: (right) Stills from animation test pieces

Figure 5: (far right) Light-boxes in the studio. Photography @Andrew Robinson

88 Jo Berry ‘The in-betweener’

This research laboratory is important because laboratories experiencing first-hand how these perimenting with Q-Capture Pro software. It it is a teaching laboratory that gives scientists scientists operate, how they collaborate, how was important to look at samples on a simple space, time and resources to gain knowledge they come up with concepts and how they use microscope system to learn to focus and find without direct commercial pressure. It is a this information to analyse their findings. out how it worked. forward-thinking work environment where new technologies are embraced alongside scientific The scientists I am working with are eager rigour. to find new ways of creating a dialogue with different audiences. This collaboration aims These scientists are trying to understand how to assist this process. The aim is to work with cell systems work right down to a molecular this research group over a prolonged period of level and are now able to look at how individu- time and use this information to create a visual al molecules move and interact in an individual and written dialogue about this experience. cell. A wide-range of microscopes are used to conduct these experiments and it is necessary This written and visual narrative will initially for the scientists’ to have a technical under- take the form of a blog and will include both standing of the different imaging machines mine and the participating scientists thoughts capabilities. and experiences. It will be updated monthly.

The School of Life Sciences Imaging (SLIM) Accessed at: encompasses 3 units, all under one consist- http://www. myjoanneberryartblog.tumblr.com/ ent structure; the Advanced Microscopy Unit Linked to http://www.joberry.co.uk and http:// (AMU), Cell Signalling Imaging (CSI) and www.nottingham.ac.uk/life-sciences/news/ Super Resolution Microscopy (SRM). This department houses some of the most sophis- Described below are some of the imaging ticated imaging technology available providing techniques I have experienced during this 2. I then gained knowledge of the Super-res- Figure 6: Cardiac muscle cutting-edge imaging facilities to researchers initial research period. The scientists I have olution microscope, which has recently been across the University and external collabora- observed are looking at systems that relate to set-up. Super-resolution microscopy is a form tors. the heart, circulation and blood cells. of light microscopy that captures images at a higher resolution than the diffraction The Cell Signalling research group are happy 1. I first worked in the Histology Department limit of light. Super-resolution microscopy to facilitate this new collaboration. During the looking at Static samples on a Leica DM is an extremely interesting imaging process. last three months I have been going into the 4000 B laboratory microscope using and ex- One Super-resolution technique breaks the

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Figure 7: SpinalChord63xW_7 seq STORM_PALM_MaxZoom. Image courtesy of Dr Robert Markus

diffraction of light limit by using mathematics light (i.e. number of photons) that is recorded to calculate the distances between individ- as a pixel. For Super resolution microscopy, ually blinking dyes attached to proteins to it is the number of individually located spots increase the resolution. This process needs (blinks). These are translated into individual the computing to be strong and fast enough pixels with the high sensitivity to grey scale to image a single molecule flashing. The built into the file, it is captured as a grey-scale position of each flash of light is recorded image. As part of this process everything as a pixel on a CCD camera (Accessed at is imaged, analysed and viewed via the http://www.specinst.com/What_Is_A_CCD. computer screen. Looking at these beautiful html). A map is created of their locations from coloured images it is difficult to comprehend which an image is derived. For standard that it is made from optical technology and Figure 8: Confocal SpinalChord2ch SeqFrame mode_z08.tif. confocal microscopy, it is the intensity of the mathematical strategies. Image courtesy of Dr Robert Markus

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3. I observed how a Post Doctoral Research 4. I observed a PhD student conduct an Scientist conducted an imaging experiment experiment using Fluorescence Correlation on the Confocal Microscope using Fluores- Spectroscopy (FCS) which uses a standard cence Microscopy as part of her research confocal microscope set-up, but in which the investigation. The scientist imaged cells on laser is not scanned across the sample, and an 8 multiwell plate. The multiwell plate is in which a single photon counter is attached. manufactured of polystyrene, polypropylene, The microscope light is focused in a very small cyclo-olefin or a combination of plastic with area called a detection volume that is fixed in a glass bottom to achieve excellent optical space. A fluorescent ligand is added to the quality. The plate has multi depressions or well and the speed of diffusion of the fluores- ‘wells’ which are used as small test tubes. cent ligand is measured and analysed. The raised well rims lower the risk of cross Other experiments I observed in the laboratory contamination. (Available at: http://www. are listed below: museion.ku.dk/2010/11/the-history-of-mi- croplate-technology/) • Bioluminescence Resonance Energy Trans- fer(BRET) The scientist selects five healthy cells in each • BiFC which detects when proteins in cells well and images them. The computer marks dimerise the position of each cell so that the scientist • Pressure myography can accurately capture an image of the same • Immunocytochemistry cell, after the drug has been added to see • Ion Optix microscopy which is designed to if the membrane receptor which they are study cardiomyocites. interested in has internalised and analyses the results.

Figure 9: Fixed human stem cell derived cardiomyocytes blue = nuclear stain red = alpha-actinin (antibody marker for cardiomyocytes) Images courtesy of Dr Joelle Golding

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Major Case Study 2: Experiencing Two different electron microscopes were used, • The specimens are fragile so tweezers are 4. Imaging: internal structures from nature and firstly the Zeiss Ultra Plus SEM and secondly, used to handle the stubs and gloves are • The image is focused using a large key- creating images and analysis as a the LEO 1455 VP SEM. used to handle microscope components, to board with dials and a joy-stick. three-dimensional sketch. The draw- prevent contamination. • Best practice when focusing is to move ings created will be used to inform SEM stands for scanning electron microscope. • A stable sample is required to create a from focus, to out of focus and back into the design and production of a series Electron microscopes use a beam of acceler- good image focus and work at a slow scan rate using of drawings and three dimensional ated electrons to produce strikingly detailed slow adjustments. printed prototype models based on the images at up to a 100, 000 times magnification 2. How the Electrons are captured in the • Maximum resolution is required to acquire visual theme of internal structure. of the sample. Electron microscopes are used Microscope: the best possible image. to investigate the fine structure of biological • An electron gun produces a beam of • Contrast is regulated by each pixel and its A collaboration with Dr Alex Ball, Head of and inorganic material rendering the invisible, electrons inside the microscope. This is fo- grey-scale value. Imaging and Analysis, Natural History Museum visible. This makes SEM one of the most useful cussed into a very small spot and scanned (NHM), London. instruments in research today. over the sample. New imaging and processing techniques • The electron beam interacts with the sam- are being used and developed by the NHM In November 2015, I spent three days work- Below are short extracts from notes about ple. Outer electrons get energized, some researchers. One of these processes is called ing at the Natural History Museums Core technical details that I found interesting while escape and the detector collects the elec- Photogrammetry. It involves creating a large Research Laboratories Imaging and Analysis being shown how the electron microscope trons and displays the signal as a pixel on series of images of a specimen. Images are Centre. Dr Alex Ball assisted in selecting worked and how the image is processed: the display screen. (If the detector “sees” a taken from the side, top and bottom over a 360 samples and showed me how to use the lot of electrons the pixel displayed is bright, degree rotation to build-up a wealth of visual electron microscopes to acquire images. 1. How the specimens are prepared for if few electrons are detected, then the pixel information to create a three-dimensional The specimens were chosen because they imaging: is dark.) As a result, the image is built up, digital representation, which can then be out- contain a lot of structural information and • Samples undergo complex preparation pixel by pixel, line by line. putted as a three dimensional print. are highly detailed. to help them withstand the environment inside the microscope. The preparation 3. What happens to Specimens inside the Unfortunately, most people don’t experience process fixes (kills) the tissue and can also Microscope: the wealth and variety of specimens and cause changes in the sample’s appearance. • Forceps are used to load the samples onto technologies available at the Natural History • Specimens are coated with a thin layer of a metal plate which is placed into an air- Museum. This is an opportunity to create new metal (usually gold or gold-palladium). The locked chamber. interest and communicate this to new audi- metal coating makes samples electrically • Inside the chamber specimens are moved, ences through creating a dialogue about this conductive. They are attached onto a small rotated and tilted by the stage mechanism. collaboration and the representations being metal stub approximately the size of a two- • An air suspension system is used to isolate produced. pound coin. the microscope from vibration.

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Figure 10: (above) Heliconius doris002 (butterfly wing) Figure 11: (top left) Radiolarian 005crop (The Radiolaria produce intricate mineral skeletons, typically with a central capsule dividing the cell into the inner and outer portions of endoplasm and ectoplasm.) Figure 12: (bottom left) Sea urchin spine stub 8007

Images taken on the Zeiss Ultra Plus SEM

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Figure 13: Sea urchin close-up 11thnov2015v2 a design drawing (in production) Image taken on the Zeiss Ultra Plus SEM

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Figure 14: Maim-section-008 Image taken using the Zeiss LEO 1455 VP SEM Microscope

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The three supplementary case studies A DNA Mapping Project by experienc- are detailed below: ing internal structures from our body. The visual theme will be mapping. Flower Bed to Bedside to Drug Discov- ery by experiencing internal structures A collaboration with Dr. Robert Neely, School from our body and from nature. The of Chemistry, University of Birmingham. visual theme for this project will be A project which will develop new ways to im- transformation. age single DNA molecules and the information that they encode. A Collaboration with the School of Chemistry, University of Birmingham, Botanists at Winter- This project will use a range of image technol- bourne Botanic Gardens and Cancer Sciences, ogies including: Birmingham Medical School. Coordinator: Dr. John S. Fossey, Royal Society Industry Fellow, A: optical detection of DNA in nanochannels Senior Lecturer in Synthetic Chemistry, Inter- or nanopores national representative for Chemistry. B: single-molecule detection This project offers new insight into how scientific disciplines can jointly investigate a C: super-resolution microscopy compound found in the plant Feverfew that is effective against Chronic Lymphatic Leukae- D: DNA barcoding mia (CCL). The outcome is expected to be With newly developed tools a library of compounds with their different Figure 15: DNA2. chemical properties determined to aid cancer E: microfluidic devices for cell sorting and research scientists. The research is important automated DNA extraction. because it is a project which will visually track and investigate the medical process of trans- formation from a natural product to a more effective compound to treat CCL.

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Tools for psychoses by experiencing tions. An interpretation panel and an illustrated internal structures from our body us- poem explained the research underpinning the ing medical imaging. The visual theme piece. is Pixilation. Accessed at: A collaboration with Dr Sarina Iwabuchi, Department of Translational Neuroimaging for http://www.joberry.co.uk/index.php/news/ Mental Health, the Institute of Mental Health, Nottingham University http://www.joberry.co.uk/index.php/current/ project/brain_illumination_workshops_in_not- In 2014, I produced Brain container a project tingham_at_the_lakeside_art_centre_unive/ funded by Arts Council England, Arts for http://www.joberry.co.uk/index.php/current/ Health and Blackpool Arts Service where I project/_Art_Brain_Mapping_Workshop_ worked with the Department of Translational held_at_Blackpool_Central_Library/ Neuroimaging Department. http://www.joberry.co.uk/index.php/current/ This project will offer new insight into the use project/interpretation_material_and_digital_ of machine learning methods on neuroimag- drawings_for_brain_container/ ing results, exploring how researchers can discriminate psychosis patients from healthy http://www.joberry.co.uk/index.php/moving_ controls, based on anatomical and functional image/mediaplayer/jo_berrys_brain_contain- neural patterns. Medical imaging is an essen- er_vignette_3/ tial tool used in this specialism to view and analyse results. Through this opportunity This research project is situated within new imaging technologies and software will be contemporary art and visual communication investigated. drawn upon by knowledge of the discipline as a practitioner, participant, audience member, Brain Container shown in 2014, 2015 includes educator and academic informed by historical sound, rotation and light. PhD composition and contemporary visual art centred around student, Angela Slater, from Nottingham science, new technology, digital drawing appli- University, produced the sound and it was lit cations and design. Figure 16: brain-scans-from-lena-29thv2altered5thjuly-013 and rotated by Lightworks’ Blackpool Illumina-

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Figure 17: (top left) adhd--frontothalmic- figures-2print

Figure 18: (bottom left) letspixelateFigures1and3v1with-more- layersprint copy

Figure 19, 20: (top & botom right) Brain Container (details), Blackpool Illuminations, 2014. Photography @ Alan Fletcher a shot in the dark

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As Priya Shetty (2004) states: “art and science puter laboratory I am exploring the imaging seek to explain the world in different ways, ten- data software to create still and moving sion when they interact causes creative energy image work. to flow” leading to significant developments. 4. Descriptive notes and details of observed I trained as an illustrator and I have always experiments in the laboratory and on the been interested in observing, collecting and microscope. reporting on what I see. This research project is in its early stages, yet it has already generat- The visual themes and elements to be explored ed imaginative discussions and lots of material will include sequential pattern, colour, move- through the exploration of internal structures ment, mapping, structure and pixilation. The from inside our bodies and from nature. The visual models undertaken will be speculative, material I have gathered includes: suggestive and responsive to test out these ideas. This project offers a credible way of 1. Film footage taken on a small hand held visually representing science in an original camera. manner.

2. A collection of digital images and data from The research process is not only helping me to working directly with scientists on a range gain a better understanding of what research of microscopes. For example, from working scientists do it is facilitating collaboration. at the Natural History Museum I have taken These collaborations are important as they a section from the Sea urchin spine and am generate a collective thinking approach which working laboriously and carefully on top of makes it easier to apply co-creation design the image to trace by hand each detail. I will thinking strategies in the formation of new dig- use this as a starting point for a series of ital artwork which critically engages audiences complex multi layered digital design draw- with science. ings. Opportunities for the exchange of information 3. Digital test outputs (moving and static) will be showcased and critically explored in the from using different microscopic software, production of pilot-studies and a large-scale which includes: Zen Blue, Zen Lite, Q-Cap- exhibition. A dialogue with different audiences Figure 21, 22: Brain Container, Blackpool Illuminations, 2014. Photography @ Alan Fletcher a shot in the dark ture Pro, Image J. In the cell signalling com- will be facilitated through exhibition, social

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media and the web. The written text will Bibliography provide a narrative, which documents this collaborative process in action. Arts awards | Wellcome trust (no date) Availa- ble at: http://www.wellcome.ac.uk/Funding/ Links will be established nationally and inter- Public-engagement/Funding-schemes/ nationally with a network of art and science Arts-Awards/index.htm (Accessed: 19 January organisations, funders, practitioners, academ- 2016). ics and the media. Sanders, E. B.-N. and Stappers, P. J. (2008) Contextualising the key areas of knowledge, ‘Co-creation and the new landscapes foundational theories and critically reviewing of design’, CoDesign, 4(1), pp. 5–18. doi: the discourse for national and international 10.1080/15710880701875068. networks can be accessed at: Söderqvist, T. (2010) The history of the mi- • http://www.BCU.ac.uk/ Art and Design croplate — a ubiquitous biomedical lab tech- nology. • http://www. University of Nottingham Life Available at: http://www.museion.

• Sciences/ Research Cell & Developmental ku.dk/2010/11/the-history-of-microplate-tech- Biology nology/ (Accessed: 19 January 2016).

• http://www.joberry.co.uk What is A CCD?- charge coupled device (no date) Available at: http://www.specinst.com/ What_Is_A_CCD.html (Accessed: 19 January 2016).

Shetty, Priya (2004) ‘Dissecting Room’, THE LANCET, Vol 363.

100 Performing in a do-It-yourself nudie suit Christian Lloyd

Christian Lloyd is programme leader for BA (Hons) Illustration at The Open College of the Arts. He maintains a diverse art and design practice that includes a collaborative arts project called Bristow & Lloyd that explores how we socially con- struct our everyday world, and a solo variety act that explores improvised craft skills and escapology. Common across his visual and live art practic- es is an interest in creating playful and provocative situations that invite Contact Information participation and prompt conversa- tions. www.oca.ac.uk https://bristowlloyd.wordpress.com https://bongoleeros.wordpress.com [email protected]

Portrait (above) by Glyn Wade

101 Christian Lloyd Performing in a do-It-yourself nudie suit

My Pecha Kucha presentation at the Vision- of Native American people and visual sym- aries symposium charted the re-interpretation bols. Initially created by the artists themselves, of the rhinestone cowboy suit by the perfor- these flamboyant outfits were developed by mance group The Bongoleeros. It aimed to American tailors in the late 1940s, such as Figure 1: (left) [Image, CC2.0 licence] connect the visual culture of hand-decorated Nathan Turk, Ukrainian born Nudie and Bobbie caption: Nudie Suit. Photo by Romana Klee jackets from cowboys, bikers to punks and to Cohn who created bespoke ‘Nudie’ suits for explore the crossovers between illustration Elvis Presley, Roy Rogers, Gene Autry and later Figure 2: (bottom left) [Image, CC2.0 music, and performance. Elton John, or the Polish tailor Rodeo Ben. The licence] caption: Roy Rogers and Dale Evans lineage of some of these tailors might sug- at the 61st Academy Awards, 1989. Photo Rex Allen along with fellow singing cowboys gest a visual connection to the folk and textile by Alan Light. Gene Autry and Roy Rogers presented a cultures of Eastern Europe. Equally, the history clean cut vision of American history through of the cowboy draws on Spanish, Mexican and Figure 3: (bottom right) [Image, CC2.0 1950’s popular culture. Featuring in numerous Hawaiian cultures before it was absorbed by licence] caption: Punk leather jackets, Hollywood western films and television series North America. Worn to be Wild exhibition at EMP Museum, they portrayed gun-slinging heroes saving 2013. Photo by Lisa Jeans their frontier communities from the bad guys, in the form of Native Americans, Mexicans or occasionally phantom stallions. Their cos- tumes, along with the historical accuracy of these films, were exaggerated to the point of caricature. Spin-off comic books, film posters, and record covers saw them sporting deco- rative shirts, jackets and trousers along with their obligatory cowboy hats. Established as the rhinestone cowboy look, this became the default country and western attire. These out- fits were embroidered, tasselled and brightly coloured and featured: floral designs, such as desert cacti, flowers and pine forests, cowboy motifs including boots, horses, rodeos, horse shoes, cattle, bull horns, branding marks, wagons, faithful dogs and guns, or portrayals

102 Christian Lloyd Performing in a do-It-yourself nudie suit

by these groups. The marginal identities of perform the song. Working in and around small these groups have parallels with the narrative venues and festivals, they involve the audience of the cowboy as maverick outsider. However, whether they like it or not, and often shift the the reality of the cowboy as poor, and more action onto the street, as in their recent march- likely African-American or Hispanic than white, ing band processions in Leeds, Bradford and was largely glossed over. The motifs of the Lausanne. Rhinestone cowboy are generally less outlaw and more Oklahoma, but wearing a hand decorated suit still retained some power to transgress the norm, through clan belonging or simply by showing off.

The Bongoleeros were formed in Leeds in 1999 and have played across the UK and Europe. Cited as a ‘Dadaist Rockabilly band’, their ‘less avant-garde, more ‘ava go’ approach to performances plays with frictions between comedy and physical threat, excitement and risk, and aims to uplift through forms of trans- gression. The band have developed a series of costumed personas and constructed narra- Figure 4: [Image] caption: The Bongoleeros Les Urbaines Festival, Lausanne, Switzerland, 2014. Photo by Greg Clement tives, often based around the fictional market town of Pitchley, West Yorkshire. They reduce the essential musical elements and gestures The punk leather jacket, decorated with studs orientated around motor bikes rather than of rock and roll to their most basic elements, and featuring a range of band names, often planes. All these jackets share a sense of both which are performed energetically using prim- hand rendered in black and white, can trace personal and collective identity – of belonging itive and often inappropriate equipment. The many visual qualities to biker leather jackets to a clan and expressing your identity with- performance of glam rock star Alvin Stardust’s Figure 5: [Image] caption: Bongoleeros jacket, 2015. from the late 1940s onwards. These in turn can in that group through your choice of motifs My Coo Ca Choo explored the relationship be traced to American WWII pilots who hand and decoration. Skulls feature heavily across between séance, ritual and the notion of cover decorated their bomber jackets. After the war, bomber, biker and punk jackets and chime with versions by attempting to summon Alvin from some of these pilots formed their own groups the sense of threat outwardly being projected the spirit world with a black magic glove to

103 Christian Lloyd Performing in a do-It-yourself nudie suit

Initially in response to a Hank Williams themed performance called Tonkin Honkin Hank, The Bongoleeros developed a number of hand-painted suits. These differed from the classic Rhinestone cowboy suits in that they were charity shop purchases, painted in household paints and crudely rendered. However, they did make reference through their interpretation of cacti, guitars and the spectral figure of Hank Williams, whose pres- ence the performance was aiming to conjure. A recurring bucket motif made reference to his lament ‘my bucket’s got a hole in it, I can’t buy no beer’.

Since then, the suits have gone through a se- ries of re-paintings with other items purchased and decorated. These continue to reflect a do-it-yourself aesthetic, referencing punk and rockabilly forms of decoration and illustration through the use of studs and chains, typogra- phy and illustration. Following the tradition of using a leather jacket as a collection of band names, a recent suit depicts musical and film portraits of Wanda Jackson, Tura Satana, Ray Pollard, Dock Boggs, Hasil Adkins, Johhny Kidd, Leadbelly and Poison Ivy, as Bongoleero influences. Skull motifs continue to be used as an overt reference to bomber, biker and punk jackets and as a semiotic way to create friction between the potency of the symbol and the Figure 6: [Image] caption: The Bongoleeros, 2014. Photo by Claire Wade ludicrousness of the materials.

104 Christian Lloyd Performing in a do-It-yourself nudie suit

Connecting to the visual culture of biker stone cowboy. Leyton: Gibbs Smith. jackets, the suits make reference to a sense Flower, M. (2005) The Bongoleeros – Fascina- of belonging, in this case with the fictional tion and fear. [Online]. [Accessed 16.12.2015]. Pitchley Town. Recurring performances play Available from: https://bongoleeros.wordpress. with the malevolent presence of the mythical com/ Pitchley Beast, which stands as a totem for dangerous and unknown forces. This myth has Fonarow, W. (2006) Empire of dirt: the aesthet- been illustrated on several suits, most recently ics and rituals of British indie music. Middle- depicting the intervention of Jerry Lee Lew- town: Wesleyan University Press. is, Little Richard and their magic blue suede shoes to fight off the beast. While the inclusion Foreman, K. (2014) Rebel rebel: the biker jacket. of horse brasses on both suits and instruments [Online]. [Accessed 16.12.2015]. Available from: act as signifiers of the Merry Olde England www.bbc.com/culture/story/20140424-re- aesthetics of 1970’s country pubs, suggesting a bel-rebel-the-biker-jacket completely different kind of country music. Gibson, C. (2015) How clothing design As a teenager, my first illustration commissions and cultural industries refashioned fron- were painting band names and record covers tier masculinities: a historical geography on punk leather jackets. Working on The Bon- of Western wear, Gender, Place & Culture: goleeros’ costumes has taken me full circle, 10.1080/0966369X.2015.1058758. [Accessed and in the process of exploring the relationship 16.12.2015] between hand decorated suits and music, has revealed a much richer tradition. Hix, L. (2012) WWII War Paint: How Bomb- er-Jacket Art Emboldened Our Boys. [Online]. References [Accessed 16.12.2015]. Available from: www. collectorsweekly.com The Bongoleeros. (2004) Tonkin Honkin Hank. [Live performance]. 14.11.2004, Leeds: Termite Stardust, A. (1973) My Coo Ca Choo. [7” single]. Festival. London: Magnet Records.

Cabrall, M. & Nudie, J. (2004) Nudie the rodeo Williams, H. (2004) Hank Williams: a Country tailor: the life and times of the original rhine- Legend. [CD]. Orpington: Delta Music.

105 Off her hostess-trolley: Telling it a different way Jo Hassall

Jo Hassall teaches Graphic Arts and Design at Leeds Beckett University where she is a research student and co-founder of F= fequals.co.uk, an interdisciplinary research group ex- amining the significance of feminism in creative practices, using spectacle as an invitation for collective action, as a provocative space for trans- formation across generations and histories.

Contact Information [email protected] www.leedsbeckett.ac.uk

106 Jo Hassall Off her hostess-trolley: Telling it a different way

The following images and text were presented for Off Her Hostess Trolley: Telling it a Different Way; a Petcha Kucha presentation at the Va- roomlab Visionaries Symposium in November 2015.

1 - Hostess narrator and trolley prop I am your hostess. This is my picture prop, the hostess-trolley. Already loaded with meaning; respectability, aspiration, domestic comedy all belong here. I can move, it has wheels. I am a mobile narrator of stories. Actor without the acting.

2 - Undercover In pictures and words I expose a record of a rummage or critical excavation. My method is visible - confession and speculation at once. I make sense from doing - visualizing, embody- ing. I have a lot invested in the still image.

Figure 1: Hostess narrator and trolley prop Figure 2: Undercover

107 Jo Hassall Off her hostess-trolley: Telling it a different way

Figure 3: (left) Abstraction Figure 4: (right) Drawing over print

3 - Abstraction 4 - Drawing over print I’m an illustrator of uncertainty; I have made Working it out, learning on the hoof. You may myself that way. Obscured illumination is have gathered that I go right ‘round the houses my thing. I removed myself from illustrating in the telling of this tale. Taking stock and re- in a more certain public way to give myself flecting on the significant moments in your own permission to revel in uncertainty. An uncom- making-history is always useful. Identifying the missioned play-out. strands that matter can never be overlooked.

108 Jo Hassall Off her hostess-trolley: Telling it a different way

5 - Bits and bobs I return to women in fragments. There are lots of them about. It’s the collage that is my mainstay, my approach in layers. It enables me to unstick, to flex and change. Change can be a challenge I think. Décollage means unsticking - which is handy.

6 - Trolleys for sale Some things demand to be dusted down and re-told a different way. Meanings can become too fixed and brittle. Stereotypes and visual cli- ché is friend and foe of the picture maker. Liza Goddard was married to Alvin Stardust. She had a well-stocked trolley and was the perfect hostess back then. She isn’t any more.

Figure 6: Trolleys for sale

Figure 5: Bits and bobs

109 Jo Hassall Off her hostess-trolley: Telling it a different way

Figure 7: (left) Beverley and Mrs. Overall. Figure 8: (right) Self portrait in the kitchen

7 - Beverley and Mrs. Overall 8 - Self portrait in the kitchen Images fix behaviours too; perpetual clichés When I became a mother my creative devel- that attach themselves to the actors and props. opment became suspended, probably for ten The absurdist tinkers with this well-trodden years. One day I realised that the ideal space meaning - upends, subverts and punctures for unfettered creativity wasn’t going to appear. hierarchies. Mrs. Overall becomes a kind of I lay down on my kitchen floor and recognised subversive caricature of a caricature. that this could be it. Already I am enlarged, see how big my head is?

110 Jo Hassall Off her hostess-trolley: Telling it a different way

Figure 9: Kitchen sinks

9 - Kitchen sinks 10 - Boden catalogue My kitchen sink became a thing of beauty The Boden clothes catalogue that drops though instead of drudgery a place for high drama. My my door offers up another construct of how to kitchen cupboards - stuffed full of potential. be. I take a brush to this, blot out the bits I don’t The everyday elevated. New possibility was want, dismantle and disrupt the easy flow of this revealed. (Da da da - the hands that do dishes material so that new stories might unfold. A kind can be soft as your skin, with mild green fairy of scab-picking exercise. liquid). Sing this bit. Figure 10: Boden catelogue

111 Jo Hassall Off her hostess-trolley: Telling it a different way

Figure 11: (above) Trolley with the dolls house furniture Figure 12: (right) Trolley up the hill with Ingrid

11 - Trolley with the dolls house furniture 12 - Trolley up the hill with Ingrid I’m back to the trolley - I was off it for a while. I push the trolley up a big hill and liberate it It’s a risky thing to turn your back on an au- from its familiar context. My daughter helps me dience, to overlook what’s on your trolley, to here, the trolley becomes a learning prop, ena- forget what they might want to consume. At the bles a different exchange to take place between same time, being too aware of your audience Mother and teenage daughter. She brings a toy can be crippling. The trolley helps to re-frame. dustpan and brush to sweep the rocks whilst we’re there.

112 Jo Hassall Off her hostess-trolley: Telling it a different way

13 - Marcel Breuer’s chuff twists Marcel Breuer designed this tasteful tea trolley in 1928. He believed in function and beauti- ful form. Once a week his housemaid would collect chuff twists off his bathroom floor - small twists of stained toilet paper created by vigorous arse wiping.

I’ve arranged some on Marcel’s trolley (this is not to scale).

14 - Trolley, student and me A student helps me with my photo shoot. She has quite nice blue nails. We talk about her work as she assists me. The trolley prop forms a bridge from her world to mine. Hierarchy is removed, Discussion feels more authentic here.

We talk about Meret Oppenheim’s furry cup.

Figure 13: Marcel Breuer's chuff twists Figure 14: Trolley, student and me

113 Jo Hassall Off her hostess-trolley: Telling it a different way

Figure 15: (left) Student assemblage Figure 16: (right) International Women's day

15 - Student assemblage Assemblage and collage offers up a chance for loose parts learning, a place to share, rearrange, re-imagine without fear. It’s non-precious material. The students reconfigure my material too. New things are revealed to me through this process. I am learner too.

16 - International Women’s Day In annual celebration of International Women’s Day, we take to the streets of Leeds with students and the wider public. We become visible beyond the comfort and structures of the institution. We take the module out to test our means of commu- nication, to engage, to learn in another way.

114 Jo Hassall Off her hostess-trolley: Telling it a different way

Figure 17: (left) Spectacle: returning to meaning. Figure 18: (above) Laughing activism

17 - Spectacle: returning to meaning 18 - Laughing activism Scaled up props offer spectacle and help to I visit my friend, Jacky Fleming, a political car- facilitate space for playful engagement across toonist. She tells me her ideas for the book she’s diverse participants. Symbols are reclaimed producing called ‘The Trouble with Women’. We and their meaning re-visited anew. Embodied make a cake for the trolley; only its ingredients experience becomes essential in understanding aren’t edible. It becomes a witch’s cake. We ourselves within the world. dress up and laugh at what crones we’d con- jured up. Laughing is the ultimate act.

115 Jo Hassall Off her hostess-trolley: Telling it a different way

Within this sequence of image and text I tell the story of looking, finding, changing and re-pre- senting – a critical enquiry made visible. This forms the basis of my practice-based research, looking at the potential of an expanded illustra- tion practice that activates a learning event.

The visual provides the site for a story to un- fold, a point of departure. In isolation they are incomplete for these purposes; it asks to be told. I start with a hostess-trolley.

The trolley is a visual cliché, familiar to us and peddled as a convenient motif, an icon that helps to form behaviours, of women and men past and present. It’s stuck in a way, a social imposition like many others - it impels me to dust it down, reclaim the prop and tell a different story. The prop helps to set the scene, Figure 19: (left) Back-to-black pictures Figure 20: (right) Unknowing and trusting the process create the space for action, for something to happen next.

This prop, comedic and absurd; the absurd 19 – Back-to-black pictures 20 - Unknowing and trusting the process acts as a critical tool and accessible means of I’m off my trolley once more. In the summer I made these staged photo- My excursions ‘round the houses count, those actions feed back into the opening up engagement with an audience. Its graphs, transforming or mobilising material found in my house into other pictorial and vise versa. The collaborations, the teaching and learning, the absurdity places it in the realm of disruption, worlds with other potential. mothering, the witch’s cake. It all counts here. irreverence, in protest of dominant structures. It is a symbolic device and an invitation for They may speak for themselves, I don’t know yet. These visuals are made up of my own artworks, documented performed other scenarios to be imagined. actions, participatory events and found images. (Squeak grunt) I have picked-up and expanded the scope of the themes presented in I become the narrator-hostess. I transform here for the purposes of this journal. myself visually. The mask of the narrator-host-

116 Jo Hassall Off her hostess-trolley: Telling it a different way

ess provides a persona, of speaking through reconsidered with this in mind too. Rather in their place, a disturbance of this formatting collect, discuss, reveal, assemble, arrange, another, making the performance explicit. The than these parts being in constant conflict and of the space.’ make. narrator-hostess becomes a facilitator of possi- perpetual tension, I felt the need to draw them bility. Failure is suspended through this guise. together, to enable a different approach to Here Atkinson refers to the relationship be- The initial imperative of this work is born out of Fear is removed from this scene. life/work and public/private to develop. I was tween learner/teacher – the willingness of the a compulsion for picture making and the desire compelled to critically reflect on the social and teacher to become undone, unknowing in the to speculate, to imagine other worlds; I may well The black backdrop, stage curtain, is removed cultural impact on myself as mother, teach- presence of the learner so as to elevate the be an illustrator after all. However, within this from the everyday and suspended in theatrical er, creative practitioner too so that broader potentiality of the space of learning. context, the pictorial is purposely released into a space, apart from the rules of convention. This themes could be considered beyond autobio- space that accommodates a learning encounter becomes a site of potential, a place that might graphical concerns and within the framework By furnishing this potential learning space with as a trigger for new stories to emerge. Stories permit a different kind of story to emerge. of a critical feminist art practice. the representation of the hostess and the trol- that do not start and end with me; that have po- ley I am consciously positioning the notional tential for life to be breathed into them beyond The visuals I show here are parts of an enquiry, In his book, Art, Equality and Learning: Peda- role of the housewife beyond the private con- the boundaries of my own comprehension. as a means of finding out. Documents that gogies Against the State, Dennis Atkinson ex- fines of the home and into a public pedagogic record the spaces of uncertainty within my own pands on Judith Butlers theories of ethics and place. The role of the visual encounter is to Ultimately, this is a picture-based provocation, learning. By revealing this, I open up the field of the process of becoming undone as a catalyst invite response. In the context of Atkinson’s in resistance to those narratives that are fixed its potential to become more. I permit myself to for meaningful learning space to be created. assertions, the visual prop becomes a facili- and concluded. Instead these prompts call declare my unknowingness in order to become. Atkinson refers to this ‘willingness to become tator for undoneness. The visual prop acts as upon us as learners to act together so that undone in relation to others’ as a notion that facilitator for the hostess to invite encounter we cease to consider ourselves as passive I had had a fairly lucrative commercial illustra- ‘crystallises for me something about the nature for an event to take place. In my example this consumers and actors (of existing stories) tion practice for almost twenty years before of a genuine pedagogical relation’ that the invitation is through the act of illustrating but as autonomous thinkers who are cable of I ended it. I had a growing unease with how vacating of the position of the “I” does not which is not concluded, the story isn’t defined, criticality and can shape meaning and re-write all parts of my life joined up, I was no longer a amount to taking up the position of the other but suggests a scenario for the story to be the stories for ourselves. carefree jobbing illustrator working to commis- but instead ‘suggests that we interrogate that disrupted and changed through interaction sion. I had children to care for - the domestic ‘which forms us’, the scene of recognition, in between learners. To be continued… sphere of my life had been amplified so that relation to others as to change the order of the I became less spatially mobile. I wished to space of engagement, the scene of address, The case studies with participants that I Bibliography: reframe my practice in a way that reflected to produce a more equitable distribution of include in this work demonstrate something and valued these circumstances, so that my the relations in this space. Put in other terms, of the potential of the changed scenario Atkinson, D. (2011). Art, Equality and Learning. experience of this could nourish and enrich this ethical risk-taking, this encounter with the or potential of an active play-out with the Rotterdam: Sense Publishers. 153 – 154 my public creative life rather than be at odds unknown, involves an interrogation of the logic representation. Here, actions are performed. with it. My role within teaching needed to be of place that keeps people (learners, teachers) We laugh, comment, critique, agitate, reflect,

117 A new breed: How should we champion the mavericks and pioneers of the illustration industry? Alice Moloney

Alice Moloney is a London-based Creative at INT Works, the sister agency of It's Nice That, where she combines drawing with research, art direction and strategy. Alongside this, she is a freelance illustrator for clients such as The Guardian and the Sunday Times Magazine.

Contact Information [email protected] alicemoloney.com

118 Alice Moloney A new breed: How should we champion the mavericks and pioneers of the illustration industry?

There is a new breed of illustrator emerging. A breed driven by ideas, problem solving, and working collaboratively. Who use drawing as a tool rather than as a way of visualising some- one else’s ideas or words. Who are shaping the future of what has previously been considered a fairly traditional, and at times restrictive, industry.

It is the perfect time for such a breed to emerge because right now brands and organisations are becoming increasingly aware of the im- portance of telling their stories in new ways to connect to audiences. As a result, there is a real need for creatives who approach storytelling differently, and I think these people are illustra- tors. Illustrators who want to be employed for the way they think as well as the way they make images.

I have personally found that the skills I have honed as an illustrator (such as narrative, draw- ing, problem solving, research, and communi- cating abstract or complex themes into concise images) have been transferable into the wider design industry. As a Creative at a well known London design agency, I am constantly using these skills. Every day I construct narratives and visually communicate to audiences and clients - but what I produce isn’t ever just an image. Instead I uncover insights through research, develop creative directions, construct brand Fig 1:

119 Alice Moloney A new breed: How should we champion the mavericks and pioneers of the illustration industry?

stories, and build content strategies, all with the mind of an illustrator.

Over the years, there are two key people who have motivated me to use my illustration skills in new ways; Alan Fletcher and Leanne Shap- ton. I would consider both of them masters of using drawing as a way of thinking, to the point where they sit on that exciting border between being a designer or illustrator. Alan Fletcher, for his ability to communicate so much with visually so little. Leanne Shapton, for the way she pushes our perceptions of what storytelling and image-making can achieve. More recently, I am looking to people like Rachel Lillie as an example of this ‘new breed’. The Impossibility of the Journey, a publication that Rachel made during her residency at the House of Illustration, explores the idea of drawing as a process rather than an outcome. What I love about Rachel’s work is that you can clearly see how she is problem-solving through her images, which are like sophisticated roughs rather than final artwork.

To make the most of this opportunity for the ‘new breed’ of illustrators, I think we just have to start with awareness. Help brands to under- stand how they can commission illustrators for their ideas as well as their image-making. Help illustrators to communicate to brands how they can offer research and design thinking all with Fig 2:

120 Alice Moloney A new breed: How should we champion the mavericks and pioneers of the illustration industry?

the rare skill of bringing stories to life through drawing.

We were taught to develop a “visual language” not a “style” on my illustration degree at King- ston University; we were encouraged to focus on what we want to say with our work, not just on how it would look. We honed a process that would allow us to transform an idea, a body of text, a song or a story into images that communicate. A process that involves hours of observation and finding the elements that will populate the image. Hours of connecting nu- anced dots and of constant re-working. We are trained to be expert communicators who see the world through a lens of intense detail.

Fig 3:

121 Alice Moloney A new breed: How should we champion the mavericks and pioneers of the illustration industry?

What if illustrators were employed for this usually unseen process and way of thinking, not just for their images? The time has defi- nitely come for the illustration industry to show everyone what it’s really capable of. Now more than ever ‘grey area’ creatives, i.e. people who sit in between disciplines, are being sought after. A designer can now do strategy, research and even dabble in a bit of illustration, all under one comfortable title. Why shouldn’t we do the same? Illustrators, let’s not get left behind.

Fig 4:

122 Alice Moloney A new breed: How should we champion the mavericks and pioneers of the illustration industry?

Let’s reveal what’s usually left in the sketch- books and in the plan chests and celebrate illustration beyond the end image.

Fig 5:

123 Self-Reflexivity and Contemporary Illustrated Children's Books Aidan Winterburn

Aidan Winterburn is Senior Lecturer at Leeds Beckett University teaching on BA [Hons] Graphic Arts and De- sign. He wrote Street Talk: the Rise and Fall of the Poster with Malcolm Frost and Angharad Lewis and es- says in Public Address System [both Images Publishing] as well as Grafik magazine.

Contact Information

[email protected]

124 Aidan Winterburn Self-Reflexivity and Contemporary Illustrated Children's Books

My three-year-old daughter is ‘suffused, like a as a form of conventional pattern-recognition. cloud’(1) with the picture books she has gath- She is gaining a newly found fascination with ered around her. stories, with the causal connective tissue of character-based narrative. Her powers of end- She is stood at a crossroads between this less repetition allow her to become involved kind of ‘optical suffusion’, between visceral with seeing the world through other fictional visual pleasure, the aesthetic experience of characters. She seems to shuttle effortlessly ‘significant form’ and her newly found powers between abstraction and its joyful, playful of pattern recognition, attachment to verisimil- articulation of process and a form of rep- itude and involvement in imaginary characters resentational and narrative coherence. When known as narrative. painting and drawing, she sees little distinction between the act of scribbling for the sake of I’m intrigued by my daughter’s understanding physical enjoyment and the act of figuration of the book – at three she is unable to read so that when I ask what something might rep- but has a palpable, almost visceral curiosity resent, she is equally adept at rolling her eyes and growing attachment to the combination of and saying ‘it’s a squiggle’ or ‘this is me and words and pictures presented in her panoply my best friend’. She is involved and absorbed of picturebooks. She seems vitally aware of in the very materiality of the picturebook she the tacit and secret code to be unlocked in holds in her hands – it is no neutral container Fig 1: Zoo by Flavia Ruotolo these forms. She asks constantly about the of information that asks her to translate the pictograms and informational graphics she literate sign back into mental images or con- sees in her environment [early on she was cepts, there is a directness, a lack of analogic attempting to decipher the pictogram of the translation. The book in her hands just is. dog shitting on park bins]. Her picturebooks seem to mirror this sense of a pre- or early A few years ago in Nantes in the art gallery graphic literacy that exists before and beyond shop, I found a selection of children’s picture speech but which also perhaps acts as training books I had not encountered before. These programme for true literacy. She is fascinated were seemingly modest and cheap, sad- by the abstraction of animations on TV like dle stitched with card covers and, I found, CBeebies’ DipDap right at the moment when published by a local imprint called Editions she is also starting to furiously attempt to un- MeMo. I bought Severin Millet’s Les Reves de derstand the cause and effect flow of narrative Milo, Flavia Ruotolo’s Zoo, Noemi Schipfer’s

125 Aidan Winterburn Self-Reflexivity and Contemporary Illustrated Children's Books

Fig 2: (left) Le Garcon by Noemi Schipfer | Fig 3: (above) Mercredi by Anne Bertrier

Le Garçon and Anne Bertrier’s Mercredi for an child to perhaps question the very acting of imaginary child [my daughter was not yet born] seeing, reducing the world to simple geomet- as I was struck by their formal risk-taking and rical building blocks in Zoo and Mercredi or invention. the Op Art-influenced enigmatic imagery of Le Garçon. These reminded me of early modernist They all played quite self-consciously with experiments in children’s books, particularly the form of the children’s book, not through those of the early Russian Constructivists, some clever mise-en-abyme postmodernist most notably El Lissitzky’s About Two Squares self-referentiality but in a way that asked the and made me reflect on early modernism’s in-

126 Aidan Winterburn Self-Reflexivity and Contemporary Illustrated Children's Books

Fig 4: the Red Balloon by Iela Mari Fig 5: the Dot and Line by Norton Juster

terest in the education and visual development from simple constituent geometric pieces. of children. From Froebel’s little ‘Gifts’ and Marcel Breuer called the child ‘a manager of Maria Montessori’s teaching materials that en- voids and spaces, priest of geometry’. These couraged children to play freely with geometric forms were expanded on in the children’s shapes in attempt to be able to modify their books of such as Paul Rand, Bruno Munari own worlds to the Bauhaus’ preoccupation [Circle Square Triangle] and Iela Mari [the Red with childish play in the work and teachings Balloon] in particular in the postwar period of Itten and Paul Klee, modernism saw in the and animated films like the Dot and The Line child’s eye a metonymy for a new hopeful view directed by Chuck Jones, itself based on the of the world, formed/constructed/ engineered book by Norton Juster.

127 Aidan Winterburn Self-Reflexivity and Contemporary Illustrated Children's Books

Fig 6: The Best Book in the World by Rilla Alexander

In two recent children’s picturebooks, Sans of the book. Marta Ignerska’s Die Ton Angeber Titre by Hervé Tullet and Rilla Alexander’s The is a beautiful German/Polish book about the Best Book in the World, published by Flying Eye make-up of the orchestra that mixes pure high- books, children are asked to self-consciously vis geometric colour fields with line drawings confront the notion of the book as a form. that look like they’ve been roughed up through a photocopier in such a way as to make the Both books are self-reflexive, using Brechtian images swim and boil, forcing a kind of retinal devices to at once distance and engage the animation to occur. viewer/ reader in a relationship with the form

128 Aidan Winterburn Self-Reflexivity and Contemporary Illustrated Children's Books

Fig 7: (left) die Ton Angeber by Marta Ignerska Fig 8: (above) Coming and Going by Isabel Minhos Martins and Bernardo Carvalho

Isabel Minhos Martins’ and Bernard Carvalho’s Indeed, Portuguese picturebook imprint Planet Coming and Going [republished in English Tangerina with books like I’ve Never Seen A recently by the Tate] makes explicit use of Bike and Ducks Never Let Go by Isabel Minhós archaic Letrafilm semi-opaque coloured sheets Martins & Madalena Matoso and Um Dia as cutouts to tell a poetic and important story Na Praia by Bernardo Carvalho with ‘its flat contrasting our involvement with the planet toneless colours and sophisticated handling of with the animal world’s. space’ (2) displays an abiding interest in pair-

129 Aidan Winterburn Self-Reflexivity and Contemporary Illustrated Children's Books

ing ambitious formal graphic concerns with so- ‘bring together, in the artifact produced in years encouraged this sense of interactivity gate the static qualities of the picturebook’ and phisticated interplay between word and image. play, materials of widely different kinds in a and playfulness but I feel that in these new therefore demand a ‘multi-constructed reading Similarly, Tullet’s The Game in the Dark uses new, intuitive relationship.’ In his later essay children’s books, there is perhaps something stance (that may) help to create a plasticity of fluorescent inks and broad gestural patterns in A Glimpse into the World of Children’s Books, more radical at heart. For Brecht this alienation mind that is honed on other textual forms’. So such a way as to self-consciously foreground Benjamin describes a child gazing and enter- effect was seen as revolutionary – as unmask- we see here that these books are perhaps a the act of seeing, particularly interesting in the ing into the imaginative space of the book rath- ing the machinery of cultural/ artistic produc- response to and a preparation for the world of context of a book you can read with the lights er than ‘taking the book as fixing or meeting tion. And perhaps this is even more important these more complex, multimodal forms of film out [or as many children do, under the bed the objects of the external world’. Here we see at a time when much cultural production [for and Internet. covers]. Benjamin equating the child with the notion children particularly] has slipped online, onto of the collage artist, mixing and matching, a screens, into pixels as both seamless media I think it is also interesting that many of the In these books there is a level of abstrac- bricoleur. Indeed, in his essay Old Forgotten productions that are difficult to conceive as examples I have noted here are from France, tion and articulation of process that seems Children’s Books, Benjamin writes that ‘children being made by anyone and as interactive Italy and Portugal, where I feel this interweav- to encourage the child reader/ viewer to are particularly fond of haunting any site where entertainments. How do these books compete ing between text and image is embraced as construct their own visual world, one that is things are being visibly worked on’ bringing with these? part of a graphic lineage or tradition that has animated by extreme visual effects or by the together notions of the child as aimlessly little to do with British class-bound notions of sophisticated use of gestalt to make the book fascinated, visually curious flâneurs, seeing Most successful picturebooks, as Martin Sal- real ‘literacy’ – words stacked up in lines, tiny seem to genuinely come alive. They seem to the book as a form of unfinished or unresolved ibury (2012) writes in Children’s Picturebooks, ant soldiers going off to fight the culture wars encourage a form of absorption that Walter interactive playground. ‘create a dynamic relationship between words – increasingly expounded by the likes of Gove Benjamin observed in his essay A Child’s View and pictures [where they] can appear to flirt and Morgan in the National Curriculum. of Colour. Written in 1915, at the moment that These self-reflexive devices and tropes are with and contradict each other.’ Alan Ahlberg, Picasso had turned towards a kind of ‘synthetic nothing new – they have often been used with- writer of many picturebooks, compares this My three-year-old daughter is already more cubism’ using papiers collés, Benjamin writes in what might be seen as predominantly chil- with music, talking of ‘interweaving’ text and versed in this slippery hieroglyphic language, a that the child possesses ‘the highest artistic dren’s forms, from the self-conscious alienation image so that the viewer/reader ‘can come out form of literacy she will be forced to gradually development of the sense of sight; it is sight effect of animations like Duck Amuck by Chuck of the words and into the pictures and you get put to bed as the word, now conjoined with the at its purest’. As Eric Tribunella observes in Jones to Ed Emberley’s Go Away Big Green this nice kind of antiphonal fugue effect.’ Mar- image, starts its slow and inexorable journey Benjamin, Children’s Literature, and the Child’s Monster through to Nick Sharratt’s Charlie garet Meek (1988), from a more educational away from the image. Perhaps instead of me Gaze; ‘For Benjamin, children’s ability to see Cook’s Favourite Books – children are encour- perspective in How Texts Teach What Learners reading her these picturebooks, she should be the world differently from adults allows them aged, often in a spirit of the carnivalesque Learn, talks about both words and pictures’ reading them as bedside stories to me? access to a unique form of imaginative play and vaudeville, to consider and challenge the ability to ‘interanimate one another ‘ so that ‘a in their perception and manipulation of the authority of the form. Pop-up and interac- text may amplify, distort, and even reverse the world.’ In this way he believes ‘they do not so tive books like Marion Bataille’s ABC 3D and meanings of the pictures it accompanies.’(3) much imitate the works of adults’ but instead Alphabet by Kvêta Pacovská, have for many Meek says that picturebooks routinely ‘interro-

130 Aidan Winterburn Self-Reflexivity and Contemporary Illustrated Children's Books

Bibliography

Benjamin, Walter. Walter Benjamin: Selected Writings. Cambridge, MA: Belknap, 2006. Print.

Kinchin, J., O’Connor, A., Harrod, T. and Hoch, M. (2012). Century of the child. New York: Mu- seum of Modern Art.

Lowenfeld, V. and Brittain, W. (1987). Creative and mental growth. New York: Macmillan.

Salisbury, M., Styles, M., Alemagna, B., Smy, P. and Riveros, I. (2012). Children’s picturebooks. London: Laurence King Pub.

Spencer, M. (1988). How texts teach what readers learn. Stroud, Glos.: Thimble Press.

Tribunella, E. L..”Children’s Literature and the Child Flâneur.” Children’s Literature 38.1 (2010): 64-91. Project MUSE. Web. Apr. 2016.

131 Further Information

132 Peer review panel:

Dr Leo De Freitas Professor Julie Lieberman Savannah College of Art & Design, USA Leo Duff formerly Kingston University Ian Massey University of Huddersfield Dr Sheena Calvert Desdemona McCannon Debbie Cook Manchester Metropolitan University Royal College of Art Professor Mario Minichiello Professor David Crowley University of Newcastle, Australia Royal College of Art Dr John O’Reilly Professor Steve Guarnaccia Varoom editor Parsons New School, USA Rick Poynor Andrew Hall Royal College of Art Central St Martins Professor Howard Riley PhD MA (RCA) Kirsten Hardie Swansea Metropolitan University Arts University Bournemouth Associate Professor Mark W John Hewitt Roxburgh University of Newcastle, Australia Manchester Metropolitan University Christopher Sharrock Professor Andrew Kulman University of the Arts Philadelphia, USA BIAD Birmingham Institute of Art & Design Jane Stanton MA (RCA) Dr Donna Leishman University of Derby Duncan of Jordanstone College

133 VaroomLab research network members:

The Arts University College in Central St Martins, University of the Arts University of Northampton Bournemouth London www.northampton.ac.uk www.aucb.ac.uk csm.arts.ac.uk

Faculty of Arts, Design & Media, University of Derby Plymouth University Birmingham City University www.derby.ac.uk plymouth.ac.uk www.bcu.ac.uk/arts-design-and-media

Camberwell College of Arts, University London College of Communication, University of Wales Trinity Saint David, of the Arts London University of the Arts London Swansea www.camberwell.arts.ac.uk lcc.arts.ac.uk www.uwtsd.ac.uk

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Editor in Chief and VaroomLab academic For more information on VaroomLab and sub- Credits; co-ordinator Jo Davies - Associate Professor in scriptions to Varoom magazine go to: Illustration Plymouth University. theaoi.com/varoom-mag Visionaries Brand and Visuals Design: Josh Patterson The Association of Illustrators (AOI) was Published by AOI 2016 www.joshpatterson.co.uk established in 1973 to advance and protect Association of Illustrators illustrators rights and encourage professional Somerset House VaroomLab Journal 4 Design: standards. It is a non-profit making trade asso- Strand, London, WC2R 1LA Wild Ilk Design Studio ciation dedicated to its members’ professional www.wildilk.com interests and the promotion of illustration. ISSN 2052-1820

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