IMAGE CREDIT: ROBERT BRINKERHOFF
‘The Illustrator as Public Intellectual’
RHODE ISLAND SCHOOL of ART and DESIGN (RISD)
5-7 November 2015
This event was organised by Dr. Susan Doyle, Rob Brinkerhoff, (RISD) and Dr. Jaleen Grove (Illustration Research)
Selected papers are currently being edited for Volume 4 issue 1 of the Journal of Illustration by Dr Jaleen Grove and James Walker for publication in 2017
Rick Poynor, who gave a keynote address, writes about the event for the online journal Printmag
A blog wirite up of the event by RISD alumnus Jamie Hogan can be found here
CALL FOR PAPERS (Archived)
Illustrators and all who study their work have long understood the importance of pictures to communicate ideas and shape opinion, and to possibly provoke the viewer in unpredictable ways. What should illustrators say in the public sphere? What forces limit the illustrator’s expression of thought? What are the key issues and debates around the communication of ideas through illustration?
Organized and hosted by the Illustration Research Network and RISD Illustration, the 6th annual International Illustration Research Symposium invites proposals for papers, panels, round tables, and visual presentations on the theme of the illustrator as not only conveyor of established intellectual thought in the public sphere, but also as a vital, potent voice in public discourse and the author of content through independent provocation, seduction and persuasion.
The Illustrator as Public Intellectual questions the common misconceptions that the illustrator’s mind and hand are wholly guided by editors, art directors, and clients; and that their work is subordinate to the texts they illustrate. This symposium proposes that illustrators are empowered as originators and purveyors of unique thought.
The visual languages of the illustrator not only translate content, they transform it, indelibly inscribing ideas with force and conviction at the intersection of visual and verbal thinking. And yet, public exposition is dogged by inevitable challenges, including balancing profundity and accessibility, intention and misinterpretation. Papers may embrace or reject the concept of the public intellectual, while addressing relationships between communicative intention and audience reception.
The definition of illustration is open to wide interpretation by participants, but as a general guideline illustration may be provisionally defined as fabricated images primarily created to elucidate and communicate an idea, narrative, mood, information, and/or opinion through publication. Studies on the illustration of any era or place are welcome.
300-word proposals for 20-minute academic papers and practice-based presentations are invited, and may address the following questions, or others that the presenter feels are warranted:
Studio Practices
• How do different forms, techniques, and materials affect attitudes, feelings, ideas and the legitimacy of messages?
• How is “thought” manifested in an illustration—how do creative and visual thinking processes comprise unique forms of cognition?
• What is the relationship between the canon of intellectual thought and illustrators’ methodologies?
• In what ways does an image embody a philosophy?
• What emerging technologies might further or hamper the intellectual reach of illustration?
Public Sphere
• How do ethics and social responsibility impinge upon illustrators?
• If an audience misinterprets an illustrator’s intentions, is the audience’s reading valid?
• What happens when the interests of the intended audience are at odds with the interests of a wider audience?
• What is the impact of technologies of dissemination, old and new, on audiences, creators, and messages?
Creative and Intellectual Communities
• When, where, and how do illustrators participate in important political, social, and intellectual debates?
• What is the intellectual community of illustrators and what challenges do they face, particularly in educating illustration students?
• Can intellectual partnerships between illustrator, designer, author, and/or publisher exist?
• What is the appropriate balance between an illustrator’s personal satisfaction and the client’s wishes, and what is at stake when a clash occurs?
• What are future directions for the field of practice as a forum for public intellectual discourse?
KEYNOTE SPEAKER: Rick Poynor
Visiting Professor in Critical Writing in Art & Design at the Royal College of Art London
PRESENTATION & ROUNDTABLE DISCUSSION:
D. B. Dowd Washington University in St. Louis
Seymour Chwast Alliance Graphique Internationale, Co-Founder Push Pin Studio
Nora Krug Parsons School of Design
Anita Kunz Anita Kunz Ltd
FULL PROGRAMME:(ARCHIVED)
Thursday, November 5, 2015
6:00 - 7:30pm
Reception and Opening of Conference Exhibition
Little Pieces, Big Ideas ISB Gallery
Friday, November 6, 2015 CHACE AUDITORIUM
9:30 - 10:30am
Welcome and Introduction
10:30am - 12:00pm
PANEL:Challenging Professional Identities and Roles
New Yorker Cartoons and Invention
Mary Catharine Johnsen Carnegie Mellon University
Inside the Outsiders: Intellectual Creativity and Social Concerns
Gary Powell University of Brighton
“Clinging to the Masthead:" Illustrator/Author John McDermott's Intellectual Look in the Professional Mirror
Roger Reed Illustration House, Inc. NY
Illustration: Towards an Understanding of Expertise in Practice
David Blaiklock University of South Australia
1:30 - 2:30pm
PANEL:Visual Satirist as Public Intellectual
Picturing the Perils of Finance Capitalism: German Illustrators and the 1873 Crash
Marsha Morton Pratt Institute
Thomas Nast’s “Appropriations”: Agency and the Mechanically-Produced Image in Nineteenth-Century America
Stephanie Delamaire Winterthur Museum
Illustrating The Vacuum
Duncan Ross Ulster University
3:00 - 4:00pm
PRESENTATION & ROUNDTABLE DISCUSSION: Cartooning & Illustration as Modes of Authorship: Cousins, Siblings or Twins?
D. B. Dowd Washington University in St. Louis
Seymour Chwast Alliance Graphique Internationale, Co-Founder Push Pin Studio
Nora Krug Parsons School of Design
Anita Kunz Anita Kunz Ltd
4:10 - 5:10pm
Multi-Option Presentations (select one)
Chris Glynn and Richard Parry: ‘In And Out Of The Margins: Affirming The Illustrator As Philosopher and Boundary Catalyst in the Public Realm’
Library Special Collections
RISD Museum
Edna Lawrence Nature Lab
5:10 - 6:10pm
Reception in Chace Center Lobby
6:15 - 7:15pm
Keynote: Rick Poynor
Saturday, November 7, 2015 CHACE AUDITORIUM
Note: Panels run concurrently in Chace Auditorium and ISB Gallery, see below.
9:30 - 10:45am
PANEL:Image Reference and Authorship
Metapictures: Signposts to an Illustrated Public Space
Stuart Medley Edith Cowan University
The Impact of Data Collection Technology on the Sophistication of Visual Thinking
Lisa French New England School of Art & Design; Suffolk University
Evidence and Illumination
Catrin Morgan Falmouth University
The Forgetful Act: Erasure and Forgetfulness in Illustrative Reportage
James Walker University for the Creative Arts
11:00am - 12:45pm
PANEL: Illustrators Usurping Writers
Shifting Authorship - Defining the illustrator’s Role in Illustrated Adult Fiction
Franziska Walther Illustrator, Weimar & Hamburg, Germany
Subverting Authority in Illustrations of Dante’s Divine Comedy
Matthew Collins Harvard University
Illustration as Theory: Finnegan’s Wake and the Illustration of Ideas
Stephen Crowe Illustrator, Seattle
2:00 - 3:15pm
PANEL:Practitioners in Collaboration With Clients & Audiences
Urban Dissection
Nayana Gupta Srishti Institute Of Art
Scientific Illustration as a Specific Kind of Research
Kathrin Amelung Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin
The Art of Conservation
Chloe Bulpin Creature Conserve
You Look Like The Right Type
Mark Smith The City College of New York
3:30 - 5:30pm
PANEL:Education
Confidence, Conviction & Depth: Emboldening Illustration Students
Luise Vormittag Central Saint Martins, University of the Arts London
The Power of Forms: Abstraction and Imagination, Representationalism and Power
Dushan Milic The Ontario College of Art and Design
Stereotypes and Paradigms: Revolutionizing Archetypes in Illustration
Robert Brinkerhoff Rhode Island School of Design
5:45 - 6:15pm
Closing remarks in Chace Auditorium
6:30 - 7:30pm
RISD LIBRARY Closing Reception
Saturday, November 7, 2015 (cont.) ISB GALLERY
Note: Panels run concurrently in ISB Gallery and Chace Auditorium; see above
9:30 - 10:45am
PANEL:Public Intellectuals of the Past
Beyond Pure Illustration: An Analysis of Reza Abbasi’s Works
Mina Rouhanian Illustrator, Designer; Tehran, Iran
Illustrating the Empire: The Making of a Modern Technocratic Intellectual in 19th Century China
Kaijun Chen Max Planck Institute for the History of Science
The Illustrator as Biographer / The Illustrator as Archivist: The Dalziel Family, 1839-1893
Bethan Stevens University of Sussex
A History of Everyday Things in England: Illustrators of Social History in mid 20th Century Britain
Desdemona McCannon Manchester School of Art, Manchester Metropolitan University
11:00am - 12:45pm
PANEL:Cultural representation and intervention in the USA
Looking the Other Way: David Hunter Strother, Race, and The Rise of Mass Visual Culture
Christopher Lukasik Purdue University
Diversity, Perception, and Responsibility in Illustration
Robyn Pendleton University of Delaware
Drawing The Other: Illustration and Representation
Sabrina Scott Illustrator, Designer; Toronto
2:00 - 3:15pm
PANEL:Cultural representation and intervention outside the USA
Rabbi Jesus: Social Harmony in Oscar Cahén’s Illustrations for Magazine Digest, 1944-1946
Jaleen Grove Wilfred Laurier University
Hilmi al-Tuni, Evoking Popular Arab Culture
Yasmine Taan Lebanese American University
The Illustrator As Political Author
Jana Traboulsi American University of Beirut
My English Textbook
Harini Kannan Illustrator, Chennai,India
3:30 - 5:30pm
PANEL:New Markets, New Media, and the Fine Art Arena
Illustrations: Second Class Citizens or Grassroot Workers?
Priyanka Jain Visual Art, Stuttgart
Move over Darling; the Reader as the Ideal Illustrator
Nanette Hoogslag Anglia Ruskin University
The New Middle: Has the Internet Helped Shorten the Void Between Illustration and Fine Art?
Jay Taylor Coventry University
5:45 - 6:15pm
Closing remarks in Chace Auditorium
6:30 - 7:30pm
RISD LIBRARY Closing Reception