Visionaries symposium: a student perspective

I made the last minute decision to attend the ‘Visionaries’ Varoom Lab Symposium organised by the Association of Illustrators and held at Birmingham City University. It proved to be thought provoking, funny, insightful and inspiring. It was also a great opportunity to debate and discuss with like-minded people who are passionate about visual arts and illustration.
The symposium ran over two days with the aim of investigating the way visionary approaches are able to expand the way we perceive the world.
The speakers that took the floor were all visionaries in their own right: Some thinkers and researchers; others idealists and creators who’s imagination enabled them to be particularly innovative in the artwork they produced and their means of communicating visually.
The symposium also summoned illustration/art educators to consider how courses are currently run and the influence the coursework has on enabling students to become visionaries in their own right. A presentation by Richard Miles, an Academic and political activist was particularly thought provoking with his discussion about the ‘School of the Damned’ and this alternative way of educating, especially at the current time where education is so expensive and our education system moves towards a commodification model in which one’s degree is an asset to be bought rather then a force empowering the visionaries of tomorrow.
The keynote speakers, Paul Slater and Graham Elliott presented a retrospect of their own work. They are both very successful image-makers and are vastly different in their approach to creating images and communicating with an audience through their illustrations and motion graphics. For me this highlights how each visionary has a unique message and a unique method of conveying this message to the viewer. The common thread between these two speakers for me was their irreverence for how things ‘should’ be done.
Paul is a highly skilled draughtsman who paints perfectly proportioned figures and characters from his own imagination, distorting them in a humorous way to convey his message. He describes his own artistic essence as “Sardonic Tomfoolery” mixing warmth and humanity with a little bit of darkness. One couldn’t help but chuckle at each image he showed, as he pokes fun at societal norms. He is an expert in the field of illustration and it was an honour to hear him speak.
Graham Elliott’s career trajectory was particularly inspiring. A trajectory usually describes the path of an object moving in air or space under the influence of such forces as thrust, wind resistance, and gravity. He, is an example of someone who saw the world differently and has never been afraid of challenging the accepted way of seeing things. With an inner confidence to be admired, he described how he went from graduating to approaching Saatchi & Saatchi in the 80’s dressed in drag with a goat, persuading them to take a risk with his work and was launched into the world of advertising and MTV music videos. His creativity has thrust him on a journey that has taken him around the world; to ‘near-death’ hip-hop incidences and to making an award winning film documentary about motion graphics in New York. He continues to produce and create music videos and is currently working on a second film about “The world in Motion’. I’m not sure he would have expected all that when he signed up to study illustration in the 80s.
The second group of speakers provided prudent perspectives on the visual world and how we interpret it, as they shared the research papers they were currently working on. This academic approach made me cognizant of the importance of debate and theory to all fields, including something as practical as illustration. With one researcher, Matthew Richardson, discussing how the visionary narrative written by J.G. Ballard 40 years ago could be re-imagined into 2015 using today’s technology, to Andy Davies and his research into visualizing spaces through the use of the illustrated map highlighting how a map doesn’t just chart but rather it unlocks and formulates meaning; forming disparate ideas that one did not know were previously connected.

Finally there were highly enjoyable Pecha kucha presentations.. Pecha what? Some would ask…as I did! These were basically strictly timed presentations of 20 seconds for 20 slides and had a diverse range of presenters and topics. OCA’s own Christian Lloyd and Leeds Beckett University’s Jo Hassall discussed their performance art with wonderful humour that made us laugh out loud, especially in their use of Nudie suits and hostess trolleys adapting these to be thought provoking works of art.
Finally there was a presentation and discussion about the Association of Illustrators: it’s history and role today. It was encouraging to here that there is a formal body that’s aim is to promote illustrators, represent illustration as a whole and protect the rights of illustrators, ensuring that things like copyrighting is as strong as it should be and advising illustrators on practical information like charging clients/commissioners.
All in all I was challenged on a theoretical level, inspired by the imaginative creativity of people working as illustrators and visual-communication educators, and I had my eyes opened to the obstacles and opportunities that the illustration world holds for those of us learning the ropes and eager to enter in.
Kat Jasven, OCA Illustration student

---