Curious Voices UCA Farnham Illustration
2016-17
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The Illustration graduate show this year features work that reflects the growing diversity of the subject, created using a diversity of platforms and processes, from drawing to digital, printmaking to 3D, animation to ceramics. What connects the work and the underlying strength and philosophy of the course is visual narrative, social documentary and storytelling. It is the diverse messages and ideas that the work communicates, reflecting contemporary society and culture, that are important. The work helps to frame our understanding of the world. Good illustration is defined by its message, as well as its medium. The title of the publication this year, reflects the strength and diversity of ideas of the individual, their personal narratives, interests, obsessions, cultures, backgrounds and visions. But what lies ahead for them in their continuing creative journey? They will need to be determined, but never has the range of opportunities and contexts for production of Illustration been as wide and exciting as in recent years.
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Tuesday Logan
The successful illustrator needs to be adaptable, flexible and entrepreneurial in order to respond to the rapidly changing nature and opportunities, which our visual culture demands, but also to explore and create new contexts for illustration in the future. As illustrators they have developed many transferrable skills, which are in demand with employers everywhere. They are excellent researchers, entrepreneurs, communicators, team players, problem solvers, project managers, visual and critical thinkers as well as being sensitive to their surroundings and those they work with. But above all, to be an illustrator is to be curious. These are exciting and challenging times for our graduates to be launching their careers. We would like to congratulate them on their success on the course and wish them luck in their future creative careers. Be proud to be an illustrator and remember its about the message, not the medium! Jane Cradock-Watson Course Leader BA & MA Illustration
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Nayuma Rai
Nayuma Rai
BA Overview 2017
UCA’s renowned and long established specialist Illustration course, based at the Farnham campus, has a strong reputation for visual narrative and storytelling, underpinned by an understanding that the best of illustration is based on exciting, original ideas. The emphasis of the course is on visual experimentation, investigation and innovation, supported by the development of strong ideas, drawing and storytelling skills. Based in spacious, purpose built well lit studios, students have access to an extensive range of facilities on campus including printmaking, risograph printing, book production, animation, ceramics, Mac suites, digital printing, 3D workshops, textiles, photography and moving image. The course is ideally suited to students who want to develop a strong, individual style and explore the relationship between illustration and
the wider socio-political and cultural contexts of contemporary life. Illustrators have a unique way of seeing the world, then interpreting and communicating this visually to a wider audience - harnessing both the traditional techniques of drawing, printmaking, animation and bookmaking, as well as new processes and media, such as digital illustration, digital photography, online publishing and interactive illustration. Students investigate ideas through drawing, text, sequential design, book production, moving image, printmaking, three dimensions and creative writing. They have the opportunity to explore a diverse range of media, processes and techniques that reflects the evolving nature of contemporary illustration. The delivery of the course curriculum reflects contemporary working patterns in the creative industries; collaborative and flexible, challenging and experimental, initiating new opportunities for shared and individual work. The studio community is central to student experience, supportive and friendly. They are taught largely through studiobased projects and workshops, supported by regular tutorials and group reviews - there’s a lively programme of visiting speakers, practical skills-based workshops, pop up exhibitions, live projects and external visits.
Students 2016/17
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Elouise Donnelly I find inspiration for my work from films, music, books and things I see in everyday life, other artists work and from visiting inspiring historical places and museums. I like to experiment with different materials including, ink, pro-markers, watercolour and printing.
elfinit1994@gmail.com https://elsartblog. wordpress.com/ Facebook: https://www.facebook. com/Elsillustrations/ Instagram: @el_donnelly Email: Web:
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Tuesday Logan
Tuesday is an illustrator from Hastings. Whether it’s animation, comics, or print, she draws inspiration from the people around her and aims to explore the subtle silliness of everyday moments.
Email:
tuesdaylogan@outlook.com @tuesdaylogan
Instagram:
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Daniel Redhead
redheadillustration @gmail.com
Email:
@danielredhead_ 07804826007
Instagram:
Phone:
My work is inspired by music, animation, films and television. I love to draw the obscure and often overlooked aspects of life, using a variety of mediums.
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Catherine Paiano My work is inspired by narratives, whether that is from historical events, literature or current social affairs. Telling stories that engages the viewer is fundamental to my work. My printmaking focuses on combining rich textures, intricate details and bold colours.
hello@catherinepaiano.com @catherinepaiano Twitter: @catherinepaiano Web: www.catherinepaiano.com Email:
Instagram:
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Sophie Minter Sophie is an illustrator who is inspired by film, mystery, nature, space, and travel in the development of her work. She uses uses different creative mediums in which to explore and connect with the world.
Email:
Instagram: Facebook:
sophie.minter@yahoo.co.uk @s.h.m.illustration @sophieminterillustration
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Emily Yendle Emily Yendle is an illustrator based in the south of England. Inspired by her childhood growing up in the rugged landscape of Cornwall, her work embodies an organic subtlety tempered by a bold narrative style. With mark making playing a key role within her practice, she uses complex textures to create elegant illustrative work.
emilyyendle.com emilyyendle@outlook.com Instagram: @emily_yendle Website:
Email:
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Lucy Waldman
07584251074 lucywaldman@outlook.com Instagram: @lucywaldman Facebook: lucy waldman illustration Website: www.lucywaldman.format.com Phone: Email:
My work is inspired by landscapes, both natural and man made. I love architecture, it is a constant influence in the things I choose to create. I use charcoal in my drawings, which are cut and folded to create threedimensional structures.Â
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Sagar Gurung An avid lover of art, music, food, travelling and creativity, Sagar is inspired by the world around him. He primarily works traditionally to make his marks and loves to use a bright, bold colour palette.
Instagram:
Website:
www.instagram.com /s.gurung www.cigargurung. wordpress.com
Pauline Kate Baluyut Pauline Is a London based illustrator. Whose’s work draws inspiration from nature and fashion. My work combines traditional processes and digital techniques with a focus on vivid colours.
@paulinekate. illustratesÂ
Instagram:
paulinekateillustrates @yahoo.com
Email:
paulinekateillustrates. wordpress.com/
Website:
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Caroline Eden
Caroline is an illustrator based in the South West of England. She uses a variety of materials such as ink and watercolour. Her passion for narrative storytelling, mythology and history informs the her work.
carolineeden95@gmil.com @carolineeden24 Facebook: /carolineeden illustrations/ Email:
Instagram:
Adrianne Watkins I enjoy creating work that is appealing, lighthearted and brightens up our world. I am inspired by the natural world and botanical art.
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Email: Instagram:
adrianne.w30@gmail.com @adrianne_illustration
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Harriet Cheshire Harriet is an illustrator from Portland Oregon who loves working with printmaking, specifically lino prints and rubber stamps. She loves the quality of the printed image and plans to develop her illustrative work in this direction in the future.
Email:
Instagram:
harriet@cheshirefamily.com harriet_cheshire_creative
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Jade French
I am an illustrator based in London, who enjoys experimenting with the creative potential of charcoal and chalk. My work focuses on drawing out the eerie and abnormal in the everyday. And is influenced by H. P Lovecraft, Alfred Hitchcock and fim noir.
jadefrench17@gmail.com @jadefrenchillustration Website: www.missfrenchsite. wordpress.com Email:
Instagram:
Students 2017
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Stephanie Antoniades Steph is a mixed media illustrator who is inspired by everyday lifes. She combines digital media with more traditional processes such as painting and collage, as well as hands on techniques such as ceramics.
steph_antoniades /stephantoniades illustration/ stephiantoniades @gmail.com
Instagram: Facebook:
Email:
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Elise Gannon e.gannon94 @hotmail.co.uk
Email:
elise_gannon @e_gannon94
Instagram: Twitter:
I am an illustrator, printmaker drawn to editorial and visual narratives, with a fondness for silkscreen, etching, lino block and rubber stamping. Inspired by the natural environment and enjoys experimenting with textures to create a tactile experience for the viewer.
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Allison Inwards Alli works as an artist and illustrator with a variety of mediums: digital, printmaking, hand drawn and painting, with a particular interest in reportage and documentary concerning contemporary social issues.
issu.com/allichristie71 allichristie71 Instagram: allichristie71 Email: allichristie@icloud.com Phone: 07860 387188 Issu:
Facebook:
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Siobhan Forde London based illustrator and storyteller with a passion for creating quirky and endearing visual narratives. I use different mediums including print making, painting, and collage.
https://siobhanforde. wixsite.com/illustration
Website:
E mail:
siobhan13@msn.com
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Romany Wixon-Gibbs Website:
Tumblr: Email:
runningwildstudio. wordpress.com romany-wolf.tumblr.com romany@wixongibbs.com
Romany is an illustrator interested in comics and graphic novels as well developing the narrative/storytelling element in her work. She also enjoys illustrating animals, mythical creatures and amongst other things that take her eye.
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Nayuma Rai Nayu’s work primarily uses inks, watercolour and digital media, her work is a mixture of the exploration of human emotion, location drawings and folk stories. She strives to capture the unique expressive, gestures, and qualities of people in her illustrations.
Email:
nayurai09@gmail.com @tama.rai
Instagram:
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Jessica Hyde I am passionate about drawing, it enables me to make sense of the world. My work is inspired by personal experiences, dreams, comic books, cartoons and other art. I enjoy adding a dark or emotional twist to my work.
www.jessicahyde.net /artofjessicahyde Instagram: @jessrosehyde Website:
Facebook:
Katarzyna Sadowska 07711775310 kasia.s.illustration @gmail.com
Phone: Email:
Kat is an illustrator, but she is also a tattoo artist and nail technician. She is passionate about different art and exploring new styles. Her motto is ‘never give up and always move forward!�
kasiasillustration. wixsite.com/mysite
Website:
 kasia.s.illustration
instagram:
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Irwin Suporco I am passionate about illustration and drawing. I tend to use a variety of approaches to respond to briefs, whether that’s using multiple mediums to produce a children’s book or to produce commercial illustrations.
Email:
Phone: Instagram:
irwinsuporco @hotmail.com 07880345699 irwins_illustration
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Phillip Dowler Phill is a Welsh Illustrator in the South East of the UK. His work is inspired by popular culture and society using drawing, collage, 3D and printing processes.
Email: Instagram: Website:
pad2009.pd@gmail.com @phillipdowler http://phillipdowler. wixsite.com/ illustration
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Ben Simons I enjoy illustrating fiction for younger children. I like the challenge of creating narrative illustrations that evoke and enhance dramatic perspectives of the story and draws the reader to key points in the story.
contact@bensimons illustration.co.uk
Email:
www.bensimons illustration.co.uk
Website:
@bensimons.illustration
Instagram:
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Maxene Brown
Maxene is an illustrator based in Birmingham. Inspired by her surroundings she likes to make illustrations that attempt to translate complex narratives into lighthearted comics with a sense of humour. Website: Email:
Instagram:
www.maxenebrown.com maxene.j.b @hotmail.co.uk @maxene_brown
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HaiQin Zhang HaiQin is an illustrator from China, who loves travelling with her sketchbook. Her inspiration comes from real life, and she loves to create her own stories and characters.
Email:
Instagram:
zhanghaiqin117 @outlook.com Haiqinzhang
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Ellis Wixon-Gibbs Ellis is interested in storytelling and creating visual narratives through the juxtaposing of sequential images. His stories often interweave the mundane with aspects of personal life.
Email:
Website:
elliswixongibbs @yahoo.com ellisillustration. wordpress.com
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Students 2017
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Jermaine Igor Jermaine is an illustrator from London who has a passion for creating stories and characters based on people and places he interacts with.
Email: Phone:
jermaine.igor@gmail.com 07913392131
From the
B I G A P P L E TO T H E B I G S M O K E J A M E S “ J I M M Y ” B E AU M O N T
Hotelier
welcomes you
TO THE WEST END
N I G HT & DAY at
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D I C K’S BAR
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Vicky Dickson
-B ER
C H AU F F E U RDRIVEN OF COURSE
I am drawn to travel which combine with my love of drawing, painting, writing. By literally drawing on experience (location), I aim to scratch the surface and illustrate interesting stories found in unexpected places.
Website: Email:
www.vickydickson.com vickydickson @outlook.com
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Zoe Simpson Zoe’s drawings and abstract expressions illustrate moments in time, inspired by personal experiences/ biographical narratives and religious and cultural values.
zoee.simpson.creative @hotmail.com
Email:
@zoee.simpson.creative
Instagram:
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Tuesday Logan
Diverse Voices
Stephanie Antoniades
Illustration helps frame our understanding of the world. It constructs and engages with a point of view that opens access into other communities, groups and societies. This is evident in the work of Tara Books which repositions and transposes vernacular visual languages and traditions into new forms. While this work could be considered a hybrid of anthropological and ethnographic practices, at its heart it embodies an innovative approach that straddles different illustrative domains. This is evident in Nurturing Walls: Animal Paintings by Meena Women (2009) which adapts traditions of wall painting, offering the reader/viewer access and understanding of a different illustrative voices. Bhajju Shyam’s The
London Jungle Book (2004) offers a visually dynamic navigation of London that presents alternative views and cultural understanding of the sites of London. Bhajju Shyam’s visual language explicitly acknowledges the material processes that enlivens the viewer to the expansive possibilities of illustration to counter dominate Western traditions. These works highlight a significant point within the development of illustration in particular challenging a singular aesthetic, compositional, structural visual language. As Promina Shrestha study of children’s book illustration in Nepal notes, in order to reflect and engage with the diverse communities and traditions of the country a singular form is not effective. Rather Shrestha suggests
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Tuesday Logan
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that Nepali illustrators need to create “their own individual identities as well as multi-visual national identities, by borrowing from cultural, traditional, social and art aesthetics.” (2016:298) Shrestha’s argument offers a more critical tone and connection to W.T.J. Mitchell’s theory of the ‘pictorial turn’ within contemporary visual culture. This ‘pictorial turn’ is embodied in the function and consumption of illustration, one that is interwoven with our ever expanding visual and consumer culture has left us numb to the significance of the illustrator’s voice. The consistent presence of the visual perhaps leads us to become less
concerned about the authorial voice and vision of the illustrator. This draws the viewer/spectator into a dialogue that engages with diverse authorial voices. Roland Barthes (1977) suggests that meaning does not reside within the text but in the reader/viewer and that the biography of the author is not important to our understanding of the visual/verbal/textual text. This raises questions regarding the functionality of illustration regarding how the illustrator guides, directs, informs the reader/viewer. While it is perhaps easy to define the limits of illustration to being an
Lucy Waldman
adjunct of design communication, consumerism and literary texts. This is not the case, in particular the illustrated image and the diverse forms and contexts in which illustration is embodied, offer the viewer/spectator access into different and often opposing world views. As such the field of illustration embodies the hegemony of contemporary society in such a way as to negate those that do not fit in with hegemonic norms. However, within the wider field of visual culture there has been a consistent progression to challenge and question perceived norms. Evident in Linda Nochlin’s critical essay on
women artists, the seemly invisibility of women illustrators within the disciplines history is in part due to the lack their work being credited. The launch of Women Who Draw (http:// www.womenwhodraw.com/) in late 2016 is a significant step towards acknowledging the diverse creative and visual language of contemporary women illustrators. To the extent that the presence of women illustrators and artists have come to the foreground and in doing so offer us a much richer insight into the world around us. James Walker Senior Lecturer
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MA Illustration
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The MA Illustration course offers students the chance to challenge the boundaries of illustration, both in its practice and its context. Contemporary Illustration practice has grown to encompass a broad range of ambitions and opportunities for the image makers and story tellers. The growth of online digital cultures and the impact of digital image making on traditional image making requires flexible and adaptable practitioners as well as providing unique opportunities for the entrepreneurial illustrator. This
course is primarily concerned with the illustrated narrative and offers a creative and intellectual environment in which you can rigorously pursue a project of self-directed study. It also promotes in-depth rigorously conducted research to ensure that students are able to contextualise their own work in relation to the leading edge practice in Illustration. To support this emphasis on research into contemporary practice, this year all MA students attended the Illustration Research
Mike Halliwell Zhuyi Li
Symposium ‘ Shaping the Landscape’ at Edinburgh College of Art. In recent years Illustration is increasingly seen in many different contexts in contemporary visual culture, including Illustration for publishing, book illustration, book arts, comic strip, graphic novels and moving image. This diversity of practice in illustration can be seen in the variety of work, which the students have produced this year, which has included photography, book works, letterpress, 3D models and installation pieces. Illustration at UCA has a long tradition of original narrative and storytelling through images, reflecting staff expertise and practice in these areas. Students will explore narrative storytelling, authorship, self publishing, book production and visual narratives through the development of a personal project. The MA course supports students to develop their own independent voice and are encouraged to take a self directed entrepreneurial approach, to develop and explore creative opportunities and options for their work. This entrepreneurial emphasis is supported by access to specialist facilities such as digital media suites, photography, printmaking and bookmaking. Collaborating with others is a distinctive feature of the course. This year in addition to their individual collaborative projects, they have been involved in three exiting external collaborative projects as a group. Producing a collaborative publication and managing the Illustration departments table at the Leeds International and Contemporary Book Fair at the Tetley Brewery in Leeds, producing work for a project
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run in collaboration with UCLs Grant Museum, as well as working with a local surgeon and his colleagues on an external research project. The MA Illustration course provides students with the opportunity for extended critical debate, a high degree of critical reflection and integration of theoretical and practical concerns as part of the realisation of an ambitious body of work.
Sustainability of the Illustrator: The students perspective
Maxene Brown
The contexts for illustration have changed, moving beyond its traditional commissioning context, with increasing diversity of sources of work and opportunities to be made and found for illustration. Its hard for students to know where to start when they leave. Sounds like a hard luck story, but these are very real concerns, which students have whilst on their course. Being an illustrator these days is as much about being an opportunist and entrepreneur as it is about producing creative visual solutions. Experience tells us that its not necessarily the ‘most talented’ students who are the most likely to succeed, but those who can network, stay positive, create opportunities and build networks as well as be flexible in their approach to their work. As educators we can prepare our students, to be more prepared, by establishing and encouraging strategies whilst on the course, which mirror many of those which successful practicing illustrators adopt, in order to sustain their own practice. We all need networks, no one works alone, so building communities of practice, which have longevity beyond the lifespan of the course, both creatively and socially are fundamental to student and professional success. By enabling shared working spaces, setting collaborative projects both within and outside of the university helps to establish course communities and develop communication, networking and teamwork skills, as well as establ ishing a dynamic and creative environment for ideas. Fostering a course community, by managing spaces and establishing on course mentor systems can provide an unofficial support network and ultimately longer lasting networks beyond the lifespan of the course. Mentors have a part to play, both on course as peer support but also beyond the course, from successful alumni who can bridge that gap between student and professional. By introducing them to a variety of contemporary examples of illustration practitioners, and plenty of them, helps to widen their perception of different ways of sustaining practice as well as offering different contexts for illustration. Jane Cradock-Watson Adapted from an article written for Varoom Magazine in Sept 2016
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James Rooney
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Maxene Brown
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Emily Yendle
Lucy Waldman
The Illustration team at Shaping the View symposium at Edinburgh College of Art
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In November 2016 the Illustration team travelled to Edinburgh to deliver a set of selected papers and practiceled presentations at the Shaping the View symposium organised by the Illustration Research Network. Illustration Research is a network of academics and practitioners that engage with annual symposia and exhibitions with the purpose of promoting the cultural significance of illustration. Through these events, participants can share their research and can have critical discussions with an audience and with each other. In tandem with the event, selected presentations and papers are included in the peer reviewed Journal of Illustration, published by Intellect Books. This year’s symposium and exhibition, which took place at Edinburgh college of art, invited Illustrators, Mapmakers, Ethnographers, Archaeologists, Travellers and tourists to share their journeys and research under the theme Shaping the View: Understanding Landscape through Illustration. Three members of the studio staff presented their areas of research and work in progress, whilst the visual theory tutor Jim Walker presented
a paper on the interplay between visual and textual landscapes, as a creative platform for transgressive visualization and readings. One in which the function of metaphor and analogy breaks away from traditional Western concepts of landscape as genre, to one that is multisensory, multi-visionary (Tilley 1999). Jane Cradock-Watson presented the audience with a visual and sensual journey along the Hogsmill River, exploring the beauty and fragility of nature within a suburban environment. The Hogsmill River is known to have been used by Sir John Everett Millais as the background for his painting of the dying Ophelia. Today it is a green finger of land in a suburban sprawl. This body of work engages with themes of death and decay and explores the tensions between nature and the impact of man’s presence.
Jane Cradock-Watson
Iro Tsavala
Iro Tsavala presented a conversation with author and collaborator Henry Martin on the process of jointly creating a narrative interplay between words and images. They explored a non-hierarchical relationship between the two forms of expression and assessed the values and challenges of working collaboratively. Their work together makes reference to journeys and chance encounters and to the philosophical reflections that become part of this process. This work is leading towards the publication of a book and an exhibition at the Poetry Society in London. Mireille Fauchon’s presentation was concerned with Lowestoft’s Narrative Landscape, a remote coastal town and ancient settlement situated on the most easterly point of the British Isles. The location
embodies much historical, cultural conflict, erosion, trauma and decay and is a place where darker social narratives have unfolded, such as trials and executions related to witchcraft. The symposium was attended by the MA illustrations students, who reflected on the presentations, and the questions posed at the event. These kinds of meetings between researchers, practitioners, students and audiences can help open up critical debates on the role and function of illustration. They give the opportunity to challenge the perception that Illustration is purely decorative and encourage a more open and inclusive interpretation of what the discipline is and can be. Article written by Senior Lecturer Iro Tsavala
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Student Berlin Study trip “All free men, wherever they may live, are citizens of Berlin. And therefore, as a free man, I take pride in the words, ‘Ich bin ein Berliner!’” John F. Kennedy U.S. President, l963
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John F Kennedy on visiting Berlin in 1963, spoken as a beacon of freedom, not realising that the word “berliner” means a donut filled with jam. We had no problems getting to Berlin, although getting back was another story. The Berlin Meininger Hotel in the area of Mitte was easily the best we’ve stayed in on our course trips. As new hostels are built they are attracting hotel customers and standards are higher from both customer service to design. No more “can you guard the bathroom while I take a shower?” as last year in Lisbon. En-suite all the way! The hostel staff did everything they could do help and breakfast was huge with plenty of choice. It’s impossible to escape recent history in this city, you shouldn’t try,
as this is its personality. Checkpoint Charlie still exists as a parody of the original, giving actors jobs, posing with tourists for ten euros a time. There’s an abundance of museums and galleries, including a museum island (Bodestrasse Mitte). Most impressive there, is Pergamon, which features a stunning collection of ancient history and reconstructions. Its epic grandeur can be quite overwhelming. The legacy of both the second world war and the Wall means Berlin has modern history and re-purposed buildings in abundance. Our trek to the East Side Gallery, part of the wall turned over to street artists, which I apparently walked too fast along, (it had something to do with the pouring rain) also took in a couple of incredible art and graphic novel
Monica Jatautaite
Nic Harper
Robin Chevalier
bookshops and a steam punk record and t-shirt shop. This stocked nearly every album I had when I was at university. I spent too long waving records in the air saying “I used to have this” or “I saw them live”. We finished at the Museum of Everything which lived up to it’s name. A wallet was mislaid here but thankfully didn’t end up in the exhibits. The students, as ever made the best of their trip, exploring swathes of this sprawling city, even venturing out to the Sachsenhausen concentration camp, just outside Berlin. Architect Daniel Libeskind is responsible for a stunning building, housing the Jewish Museum. At times oppressive and disorientating inside, reflecting its subject matter. We ate well, German specialities
of course, more delicious than I expected, drew a lot, recorded, walked and explored. However, a 48 hour strike by Berlin airport workers made itself known the night before leaving. We finally made it back to Heathrow after relocating to another hostel for an extra night, on the metro and walking. Where would we be without the i-phone and a three hour, 5.30 am coach journey to Hanover airport. Notwithstanding, in the words of David Bowie “Berlin, the greatest cultural extravaganza that one could imagine.” Article written by Senior Lecturer Robin Chevalier
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Nic Harper
Ambit Magazine: A Collaboration AMBIT’s origins as described on the website couldn’t be more accurate; In 1959 a London Paediatrician, Dr Martin Bax, diagnosed Angst and Ennui as the prevailing mood. He prescribed Ambit Magazine: poetry, fiction and art – sometimes shocking, sometimes experimental, sometimes comic, always compelling. However, whenever I am trying to articulate the character of the magazine, often to students, the analogy I always offer is “it’s a bit like a magazine you’d set up with your arty mates, but if your mates were JG Ballard and Eduardo Paolozzi but literally.” I was invited to contribute to Ambit by Michael Foreman, the original art editor, following his visit to my graduation show at the Royal College of Art. I later became an intern editorial assistant, spending each Thursday in the front room of the Bax family house and AMBIT HQ. Thursdays became a loose routine of reading submissions, preparing the next issue, including cataloguing the traces of JG Ballard contributions that runs through the history of Ambit. I used any excuse to spend time upstairs in Martin’s office where back issues were stored; floor to ceiling awash with bold graphic covers and the iconic typographic identity. Flicking through was a journey through four decades of experimental poetry, prose and artworks; gems included William Burroughs cuts ups, Ballad’s pseudo commercials, snippets of Sir Peters Blake’s response to Under Milk Wood, familiar names such as Ralph Steadman, Helen Chadwick amongst my former tutors Anne Howeson, Andrjez Klimowski and so so much Paolozzi. , When Martin turned 80 he passed the baton on to a new team, a combination of Ambit regulars and new blood, including Olivia Bax and Jean-Philippe Dordolo at the helm as art editors. I was invited on board as illustrator editor, a role I absolutely relish. When asking people to collaborate, for that it what it is collaboration, it is because of how they work; their own distinctive approach to making mean-
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ingful visuals, I never lead or dictate a response. The illustration in Ambit works alongside the writing, both text and image are at once independent, complimentary (sometimes even contradictory) and mutually supportive. While I occupy this privileged role I will endeavour to ensure there is no visual house style only a signature ethos – for illustration to stand in equality with the written word. Nick Harper is the first undergraduate student I asked aboard the Ambit wagon. I knew the sensitive compositional approach and playfulness of his mix media collages would work well with Karl Riordan’s short story Whiter-Whites. The results delighting the Ambit editorial team. The work of student illustrators will continue to be a mainstay of the publication, because it is where the most risk-taking, experimental and dynamic work within the discipline can be found. Mireille Fauchon Lecturer BA Illustration
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I was surprised and delighted when Mireille asked if I wanted to be involved with the next Ambit issue and of course, jumped at the opportunity. After reading the short story I felt a strong sense of responsibility for the outcome because although having a comedic ending, it was about race struggles in the mid part of the last century. I began researching imagery related to these issues and tried linking them with the narrative in the story, trying to find a balance that wasn’t extremely political, but also not a whimsical account of events from the written piece. My process when making collage is to gather my images first and then without sticking them down, playing with the composition, focusing on the atmosphere it creates. The story is set in a laundrette, so I chose the washing machine as a symbol that evokes the location of the narrative and also signifies the struggle and turmoil that unfoldes in the story. With all my work, I focus on the senses, thinking of the emotional connection between the viewer and piece because recalling emotion enables us to remember our relationship with a narrative. Working with Mireille was great, she gave me complete and total control and when I sent her pictures of my experiments and she instantly chose one. I was shocked because they were just ideas I had been playing with but it taught me that the simplest images, closest to the original idea, can often communicate the strongest message. Nic Harper Year 2 BA Illustration
Eduardo Paolozzi
at the Whitechapel Gallery
James Rooney
A Review by Elise Gannon BA Illustration year 3
The Whitechapel Gallery’s Eduardo Paolozzi exhibition brings to light the significance of his work on British Art. Of particular note is his innovative engagement with printmaking and print ephemera. Paolozzi’s abstract images and patterns played a significant part in shaping what we think of ‘Pop Art’, blurring the lines between high and low culture, often referencing elements of contemporary society. Creatively juxtaposing and overlapping layers of various elements Paolozzi created print constructs that obscured and blurred the constructional element of the print. These uniquely
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rendered prints reflect a recurring theme and objective within Paolozzi’s practice that questions, challenges the legibility and the originality of the artwork/print. In contemporary printmaking, there has been a growing detachment and distancing from Benjamin’s assertions on printmaking and the aura. Printmaking over time, has reconstructed its own classification and repositioned itself in the art world as “works which are multiple by nature” (Humphries, 2014:2). Benjamin’s theory of the aura however references the reproduction of original works of art which “lacks the history of ownership” (Humphries, 2014:3). Through Paolozzis’ recycling of his own work, he simultaneously questions the syntax of imagery and authorship and stamps his own sense of ownership on each copy. “Printmaking enables both the creation of art and the reproduction of it” (Michalek, 1997:187) It seems meaningless to even try and distinguish the original from the copy, especially in Paolozzis’ work. “Not only do prints show us that uniqueness is not necessary for works to have authenticity or aura, it is generating a tension between multiple and original that the print produces the conditions for aura to arise” (Humphries, 2014:5). Why try to differentiate the ‘authentic’ print from an edition, when by its very nature print exists as a multiple whose aura is of a different kind to that of which Benjamin discusses.
Through his screen prints, Paolozzi revolutionised the way the masses consumed printmaking. Bringing everyday mass culture into his work and combining it with industrial design and science fiction, his work dissipates the idea of the original and it became more about the notion of the copy and the authority of the process over the final product. Provoked by an article ‘Minting Prints’ in 1967, Eduardo Paolozzi states: “ ‘by implying engineering methods the iconography of the sculptor can be extended far beyond the normal range of the traditionally trained studio-bound artist and the high technical standards of industrial commercial processes, including screen printing, can provide a complexity and range of possibility impossible by normal art-craft methods. To-day, a superior technology always out-dates older methods. This is irrefutable. Art now is not free from this historical situation.’ ” (Paolozzi, 1967, cited in Newton, 1979:6) It has only been over the last five decades that the distinction between traditional and photographic printmaking in art works have become blurred. The artist/printmaker is entitled to use whatever methods and processes they choose, to create the final desired print.
References
Jule, W. (ed.). (1997) Sightlines: Printmaking and image culture: A collection of essays and images. Edmonton: University of Alberta Press.
Humphries, C. (2014) Aura and the dialectics of printmaking 14 [online] At:http://acuads.com.au/wpcontent/ uploads/2014/12/humphries_paper.pdf
Newton, C. (1979) Photography in printmaking [Exhibition, Victoria and Albert Museum]. London: The Compton Press & Pitman Publishing.
Adventures in Nepal
Our original idea was to take a LONG break after graduation, feeling we deserved it after 3 years of university. Nepal was the ideal choice, partly because it is part of our childhood and offered a chance to reconnect with the country as we trekked through it. We loved being back, the chaotic traffic, roadside food stalls and the laid back lifestyle. Everybody seems to have time to talk to each other, using body gestures and head movement to communicate. Our foreign friends were both amused and confused by it all. We were relieved to see the country getting back on track after the devastating earthquake that hit the country in 2016. The plan led us to consider how the trip could relate to our post-graduation careers. We had previously
identified possibilities through our Professional Practice unit in year three. We were interested in the work that Chris Haughton does at Kumbeshwar Technical School (KTS), in Kathmandu, Nepal. The school is also an orphanage that provides community education, training and employment for the disadvantaged and women. By offering secure jobs and fair wages it enriches the community, with money generated supporting the school and orphanage. It was a pleasure to be able to volunteer at KTS it was welcoming, challenging and pushed us to question how we see ourselves as illustrators/artists. Nepal has a very literal and a traditional point of view towards art. We wanted to breakdown the perceived barriers around art and to
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enable the children and adults see the importance of art. We both feel that art is often overlooked, underappreciated, rejected or dismissed as having no practical use. Our objective was to encourage the children to express themselves through observing their surroundings from different perspectives. Hoping that this would make them consider art as not just a product but also a way of life. We were new to teaching and of course, were anxious about how it might go. But we felt that the worst that could happen was that the children to disliked us. So we ended every one of our sessions by handing out free sweets….it worked. Some of our workshops were adapted from the talks, studio sessions and lectures we received at UCA. Others were developed from similar workshops we ran with Okido magazine in 2016. We were fortunate to be able to do some collaborative workshops with the French performance artists duo “Chan Chan” who were also volunteering at KTS. This pushes us out of our comfort zone. Following our work at KTS we were invited to run creative workshops at a local community school
in the village of Urbang. Although it is just outside Kathmandu, it’s not easily accessible as it lies at the top of a mountain that takes a three-hour hike to reach. The remoteness of the village means it has a limited access to educational material and barely has contact with the outside world, including no Internet or TV. We were advised beforehand that the children’s educational level at the community school was very low. Following conversations with the head teacher we designed a workshop that combined drawing and visualization to help the children to construct basic English sentences. As soon as the session started, we were stunned to discover that the children had no concept of drawing. The sole purpose of the school is to provide a basic education to read, write and count. Almost everyone had never drawn before, we had to explain and show it to them. As a result, we improvised and changed the activity to match their abilities. We realize now that sometimes a key skill for a teacher is the ability to innovative and improvise. This experience sadly opened our eyes to how isolated many places are in Nepal.
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Our next objective is a collaborative project with KTS student. We want to tell their stories, showcasing their work, while simultaneously making people aware of this amazing school. We also hope to raise enough money, in order to make a donation to provide much needed school equipment. To say this experience was life changing is an understatement. The trekking was an uplifting part of our
adventure and offered the change we were longing for. We were blessed to share the experience with our close friends and for KTS giving us the opportunity to work with their students. It was challenging, rewarding, ultimately it enriched us creatively, and we sure as hell had fun doing it. Samyang Chemjong Naba Rai
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Article written by Daniel Redhead (Year 3)
Illustration Society The Illustration Society is a collaborative creative group of UCA students, coming from a variety of subject courses and across all levels including BA and MA. We pride ourselves on being open minded, original and supportive of one another’s work, and each year we go from strength to strength.
‘The Grand Budapest Cardboard Hotel’ workshop 19th October 2016 This year the illustration Society has not only provided a new platform for passionate students to pursue their interests in the subject, but also to create a positive and inclusive environment for all of the members. We hosted another successful Drink and Draw event in which we ran collaborative drawing sessions and rubber stamp stations for guests to come in and experiment with. Sketchbook meet and greets have also been a great relaxing outlet for all involved, utilising the most of the lovely space on offer in Farnham, we can sit in a quiet area and draw the afternoon away.
Sketchbook meet and greet 21st September 2016 The linocut workshops follow on from monoprint workshops we experimented with in our first year as a society. Our aim, as a collective is to produce a publication inspired by the outcomes of the workshop, which was given the theme spectrum. Everyone has been given their own colour and has been asked to create an original lino print for the task. Spectrum lino cut workshop 13th February 2017 We also hosted a Grand Budapest Cardboard Hotel workshop! While we enjoyed the unique humour of Wes Andersons 2014 classic, we set about creating cardboard houses, hotels and other buildings inspired by the film. The outcomes were quirky, original and true to the vision of the film. Small successes along the way have really helped us to be established as a respectable and important Society for the students, in our first year we won Best New Society Award at the UCASU Awards in London. This year we have just been nominated for Society of the Year, as has our Co – Chairperson Steph Antoniades, from year 3, for Volunteer of the Year. We are all very proud of our accomplishments this year and collectively look forward to what else can be possible for the group. For the committee this year, we have had the added challenge of negotiating the 3rd year, which has resulted in a strong sense of togetherness and understanding when it comes to planning and preparing for events and workshops in the future.
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The Lion & Lamb Press This year has so far seen the production of ‘Picnic’ another collaborative publication by the MA students, as well as participation in two international book fairs.
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This year, Emily Yendle, Tuesday Logan and Elise Gannon, BA third year students presented the Lion & Lamb Press for the first time at the Bristol Artists Book Event – BABE at the renowned Arnolfini Gallery in Bristol. The fair was a huge success for the Press, selling out of many student books. It was an exhausting couple of days, but a great experience in talking about their work, selling to collectors and networking with professionals. They also participated in the rubber stamp passport scheme at the fair, adding the Lion & Lamb stamp to many passports! Following the success of last year, the Lion & Lamb Press made its second appearance at an international book fair, “PAGES’ the Leeds International Contemporary Artists Book Fair at the Tetley in Leeds. The MA students were tasked with organising and managing the stand at the fair, promoting the work of illustration at UCA Farnham. They sold many of their recent collaborative print editions ‘Picnic’. In addition, Yen Min Hsu also sold copies of his tunnel book ‘Memory’ to national book art collectors and the MMU Book Arts collection. Showing at the fair was a challenging and exiting experience for the group, especially for our international students. Needless to say they made the most of a visit to Leeds, visiting galleries and museums as well as talking to visitors and buyers about their work and selling books and prints.
Yen Min Hsu
The Lion & Lamb Press was launched by the Illustration course in 2012, as a publishing venture to support interesting projects from current students, recent graduates and staff alike. The press encourages experimentation as well as collaboration between individuals, other courses and small presses in the UK and abroad.
Pages Leeds
Nic Harper
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Maxene Brown
Harriet Cheshire
The Poundshop Brief: Sara Melin talks about the £5 product challenge
The Poundshop is run by George Wu and Sara Melin. Founded in April 2010 together with Sarah Gottlieb, the idea was born during a discussion about love for design shops. Not having the capital to set one up ourselves, a friend jokingly suggested we should set up a poundshop. What started as a joke, turned into a real exhibition as we set ourselves the challenge to create the first design poundshop. The aim of The Poundshop is to spread design to a wider audience by making it accessible through price and engagement. The products are to be sold within the affordable price bands £1, £3, £5 and £10. Working with a wide range of designers, most of whom are new to making products, The Poundshop is the perfect testing ground for them to experiment with new and interesting products. With low overheads and the minimal risk of small-scale production, participants can experience the market’s reaction to their wares first hand. Many of our participating designers have gone on to sell their products in places such as Conran shop, MoMa, V&A, Selfridges and many more. A few years ago, we noticed a massive growth in the market of designers making and selling their own products and outlets for these.
With the competition becoming higher it became obvious how important it was to come up with new and interesting products to stand out. This made us think about how we could help, and The Poundshop brief was born. With our brief we wanted to challenge the students to think of other uses their practice can have when they leave university. We challenged them to think about audience, marketing and production costs. We asked for all products to have a maximum retail price of £5, to have a purpose and to represent their style. To go alongside the brief, we also run a workshop where the students were asked to come up with ideas for products that can solve little, common problems in daily life. They were asked to create ten products, using only a restricted range of materials that we gave them. The students were surprised with how much they could come up with minimal use of materials and time and the responses were humorous, playful and original. During the prototype reviews with the students I was very happy with the confident way they pitched their ideas and was very pleased to see so many products with the potential to hit the shop floor in near future!
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Introducing collaborative and live briefs Iro Tsavala, Year 3 Lead Tutor
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During the first term of their third year in Illustration, the students are introduced to working with external partners, commissioners and organisations through a dedicated collaborative unit. Now in its second year, this scheme of work has allowed the course to familiarize the students with some of the creative opportunities they can hope for, as well as initiate in the future. A key intention with this unit is to present the students with a range of opportunities that reflect the directions that an illustrator can take, at a time when Illustration is becoming an increasingly expanded practice. The creative possibilities for illustrators are exciting and we are hoping to challenge our students by encouraging them to create individual projects within the parameters of a brief. We hope that their responses can surprise our external partners and perhaps even change some of their expectations. We have been very lucky to work with some fantastic people who have offered their expertise to help us develop an exciting range of options for the students. The dialogues that
have taken place between students and external collaborators have been very constructive, allowing an equal exchange of ideas from both sides. It’s been a rewarding experience, where individuality and risk-taking can flourish and can help push the creative industry forward. It’s been a pleasure to see our students’ work featured in beautifully considered publications such as The Philosophers’ magazine or published by children’s book publisher Far Far Away books and included in UCL’s Galton collection. We hope that this has been a friendly and nurturing way of working with their first commissioners and an opportunity to test different avenues and working methods before launching themselves as creative practitioners.
Working with The Philosophers’ Magazine The live briefs explored a new kind of relationship and working process where images were commissioned, developed, discussed and printed in a much more open and active way than standard illustration commissions. The creative developments that were enabled by this discussion were really exciting, and our individual roles became rather fluid - students/illustrators and tutors/ art directors were able to work together in a supportive process, with time dedicated to discussing work in progress and the technical specifications of the images. While this was a live brief, producing professional and published work, it was a space where industry standards could be introduced and discussed, and students had an opportunity to experience professional practices before embarking on their future careers. The magazine has been radically altered by this process, and we now strive for a more collaborative relationship with our illustrators doubtlessly leading to a more creative and interesting publication. I’d like to thank Iro, the leading Year 3 tutor and all of the students who worked on the live brief with me - not just for their hard work and imaginative interpretations of the content, but for really enhancing the magazine and making us realise the potential that visual content can have within it.
The Philosophers’ Magazine
Issue 76, 1st Quarter 2017 UK £6.99 US $8.99
Philosophers take on Trump Fake news Ethics and Cryogenics How to Betray your Android
Animal Minds
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Tuesday Logan
Esther McManus, Art Director
Illustrating Galton’s ‘missing’ objects A collaborative project between Galton Collection, UCL & BA (Hons) Illustration Farnham, UCA
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UCL Culture supports many external partners and higher education institutions in developing innovative learning, practice and research opportunities for their students. UCL Culture also supports the creation of OBL opportunities for external students through using the collections in more formal settings, such as providing input and support in the development of teaching and learning opportunities, ranging from one off visits to entire course units. A recent example of such a collaboration is the project written by Iro Tsavala, third year tutor in Illustration and Subhadra Das, Galton Collection Curator at UCL. For this collaboration third year Illustration students – already skilled illustrators – visited UCL’s Galton collection ( HYPERLINK “http://www.ucl.ac.uk/museums/galton” http://www.ucl.ac.uk/museums/ galton), which contains the personal effects and custom-made instruments owned and used by Victorian scientist Sir Francis Galton. While Galton’s work was far reaching with implications for contemporary meteorology,
biology and crime science, his legacy is problematic and he is nowadays primarily associated with his championing of eugenics (Challis 2013). Thus in turn his racist credentials also cast his collection of objects in a difficult light, which necessarily represents an important element of the educational uses of this material (see Kador et al. forthcoming; Nyhan et al. 2014). After receiving an introduction to Galton’s life and the background of the collection by its curator, Subhadra Das, and after having the opportunity to examine some of Galton’s objects close up, the students were presented with their brief. This was to either visually tell the story of (all or part of) Galton’s life or to provide illustrations of some of the more conceptual aspects of his work in statistics and psychology; in particular, focusing on twin studies, mental visualizations and anthropometry (Galton 1884; 1907). The latter are areas for which there are few (if any) physical objects in the collection, therefore the students’ illustrations of them were designed to help people grasp abstract concepts at the centre of Galton’s work, that may otherwise be difficult to understand. The final (assessable) output for the unit was an ambitious body of high quality work responding to the brief along with the preparatory work of the same, such as sketchbooks, drawings, drafts and mock-ups as well as a research file, personal reflection and reflective journal. To achieve
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Catherine Paiano
this, students had a follow up visit to the collection and could draw on its curator’s extensive knowledge of both the collection and Francis Galton’s biography. The ultimate objective of the brief was that the students’ work can be added to the suite of teaching tools for the Galton collection and its website. Along the lines of the UCL Connected Curriculum, this unit gave students the opportunity to discuss their projects with the curator and Galton specialist, Subhadra Das, to make con-
nections across the various subjects that combine Galton’s many interests and with their own field of illustration, to connect their learning with a professional brief, based closely on a workplace scenario and to producing an assessable output directly aimed at an audience (Fung and Carnell 2016). Dr Thomas Kador Teaching Fellow in Public and Cultural Engagement UCL Culture, University College London
A Collaboration with Dr Thomas Hampton This is the second year that MA students have collaborated on a project with a locally based Ear, Nose and Throat surgeon, Thomas Hampton and his colleagues, to produce visual work to support a specialist Ear Nose and Throat research project. 72
Idiopathic sudden sensorineural hearing loss (i.e. unexplained unilateral sensorineural hearing loss that came on in less than 72 hours) has an estimated incidence between 5 and 20 per 100,000 persons per year. Screening for loss by the nonspecialist doctor or nurse in the community can be complex without access to formal audiology testing. Identifying and communicatinga simple evaluation which can be made in local GP clinics, but also in far less accessible areas of the world, can be crucial to early identification and treatment. Students were asked to design an A4 poster/ instruction card, which would help the uninitiated health professional perform the aforementioned evaluation using a simple visual guide that could be understood globally. Working with Tom has been an interesting and thought provoking experience. It has introduced students to the ways in which illustration can communicate essential medical information in visually creative and empathetic ways, yet with the attention to accuracy that is required. Being clear, simple and accurate has been essential to both projects, and a challenge particularly for our international students. Jane Cradock-Watson
used in the Northwest/ Merseyside region currently as well as in a research project in Sierra Leone as part of the post Ebola health systems restructuring work. It has helped our surgical team open their minds to new ways of working. I can’t wait to collaborate next year!
It has once again been a privilege to collaborate with the dynamic Illustration department staff and students. For 2 years in a row, the MA students have contributed to surgical and medical research, patient safety and quality improvement projects that have been presented at National and international conferences. One project won a national medical prize and another is being
Dr Thomas Hampton Brighton and Sussex University Hospitals Trust
SU DDEN HEARING LOSS 1
Which is the Bad ear
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2
Hum test
Humming is louder on the bad ear
Humming is louder on the good ear
NO emergency
3 ENT
EMERGENCY !
Steroid treatment Discuss with ENT urgently
Kai-Lin Shih Kai-Lin Shih
Colophon Designed, Art Directed & Edited by: Sam Medway and Jane Cradock-Watson All Photography by teaching staff and students on BA Photography With thanks to all the Illustration Academic staff team, including: Jim Walker, Robin Chevalier, Iro Tsavala, Fiona White and Tom Dowse, as well as the students and alumni who contributed articles, Naba Kiran Rai, Sammy Chemjong, Elise Gannon, Daniel Redhead and Nic Harper. Cover Illustration by Stephanie Antoniades
External collaborators Esther McManus of Philosophy Magazine, Mireille Fauchon of Ambit Magazine, Sara Melin of The Pound Shop, Tom Hampton, Celia at Far Far Away Books and UCL. All Farnham support teams especially: Jonathan Jarvis, Tony Lee and Katie Prendergast. Printed by: PPG Print Services Limited Published by: The Lion and Lamb Press
Tuesday Logan