Research: The Future

The notion of research and illustration has been a perplexing issue for many over the last couple of decades, particularly for those who work as tutors of illustration in the Higher Education sector. It need not be. If the culture of research is embraced it is possible to achieve rewarding outcomes that refresh ambitions, facilitate wider connections and help one’s own practice to broaden and acquire greater recognition. 

Background
How has this conundrum come about? It has always been an expectation that art school staff carried on with their own practice alongside their academic duties. In days gone by, the teachers of illustration, graphic design, fine art and others, were afforded a day off a week to do their own thing, particularly if they worked in the older more traditional art schools.

But, our activities were rarely reviewed, measured or evaluated.

Then, in the 1990s, the sphere of Higher Education in the UK began incorporating the former polytechnics as New Universities, including many art schools and Faculties of Art and Design. No longer the exclusive domain of the traditional university sector, research became a recurrent and constant challenge for the more vocational-leaning and practice-based disciplines including art and design. It is now incumbent upon as many as possible to deliver meaningful research outputs, essential to secure funding and provide the necessary esteem, status and prestige required in order for higher education institutions to stay viable and competitive, particularly in today’s volatile, economic climate.

What is Research?
Research in itself is a distinct academic discipline. It can and should be applied to any subject taught in Higher Education. Broadly speaking, research constitutes the application of some or all of the following three elements:
1.	To find out what, why or how something works or what something is by experimentation, testing or evaluation
2.	To describe phenomena
3.	To apply a ‘blue sky’ approach and investigate from a speculative standpoint

The basic precept and starting place for all research is to develop new methods and theories.

Research and Illustration Practice
So how might research and illustration come together? I worked on this question for my book Illustration: A Theoretical and Contextual Perspective. Initially, I broke illustration down to its basic elements and examined the essential processes that practitioners must engage with in order to connect effectively with context and content:

Indentification of Needs. The brief, where does it go, what is its media placement, who is the client?
Contextual Analysis. What does it do, what is its context and who is the audience?
Information Gathering and Research Strategies. What is the subject matter, theme or content?
Conceptualisation of Ideas Generation. What has to be said, and how, and what will it look like, what visual language will be employed and what design or image construction strategies need to be employed?
Realisation Through Completion. How will it be made?

From this I developed the notion of Theorist- Practitioner and the principles of this are that the practice of illustration is not judged purely by visual literacy and technical qualities, but is a discipline that is firmly established as one that engenders the best intellectual engagement with subject matter, problem solving, visual connectivity and divulgence, the practitioner disclosing and interpreting content with authority and ambiguity; the pursuit of knowledge and information is a prerequisite to eminent, professional illustration practice. 

Now a universal idea, particularly where research is embedded within visual work, this was already common practice as far back as the Renaissance. Observe the way Leonardo integrated his scientific investigations with what can easily be classified as illustration.

This approach can be described as applied research by practice; it is a systematic enquiry directed towards the acquisition, conversion, or extension of existing knowledge for use in particular applications. Examples might be the provision of material to be written about and illustrated by way of a published book, editorial article or research paper. It may be to do with the experimentation, analysis and dissemination of practical processes and visual language development and how that might facilitate new knowledge related to any range of subjects.

And this approach can go even further addressing the parameters of illustration, including contemporary practice in the context of the subject’s diversity. This can foster practice-led, scholarly, and theoretical enquiry into the discipline and the contexts that it operates within. It includes: research into the investigative and generative languages of illustration; the material procedures of illustration as a tool for the realisation of ideas; the presentation of new knowledge and the critical and conceptual apparatus of illustration.

It is widely accepted that presenting original knowledge through research can be given by way of the written word and illustration: writing and illustration are more than just contiguous; they are one and the same, and the link is intrinsic across all contexts of communication. Because of this far reaching symbiosis with other disciplines illustration can determine possibilities for extensive collaboration. Examples include; writers and authors, scientists, historians, journalists and commentators, academics, copywriters, media consultants and other creative practitioners. The discipline therefore presents wide-ranging opportunities. By conducting an enquiry through illustration thus providing elucidation and clarity, or by investigating original paradigms into the applications and processes of the discipline itself.

To conclude, a simplified précis of the above suggests that research can be based on applied, professional and creative practice, experimental work, and historical and theoretical analyses.

Applications
The following generic themes are examples that might facilitate focussed aspects of enquiry;

Through illustration
•	Application
Contexts, audience, communication, semiotics, discrimination and appropriation
•	Content
Culture, the contemporary world, society, science and technology
Into illustration
•	Process
Message conversion, constraints and considerations, drawing, visual construction and dissemination, media, conceptualisation
•	Genre
Visual language and visual literacy, allegory and metaphor, sequence, illumination
•	Philosophy
Theories and definitions, ethics, traditions and contemporary trends
•	History
Prehistory, illustration and society, technological advancements

Strategies
As tutors of illustration in Higher Education we are no longer just practitioners. We are also academics. This means that the parameters of our remit, extends beyond just that of ‘doing illustration’ and showing students ‘how to do it’.

Higher Education is evaluative and enquiring. It is therefore important to ‘have a voice’. Engage in dialogue and debate nationally and internationally. Seek a relevant forum and commentate. Professional exposure and acknowledgement of one’s national and international standing are paramount – so is ambition. There is a tremendous diversity of opportunity. Outputs can manifest in a variety of ways: book authorship, research papers and conferences, journal and magazine articles, exhibitions, broadcast and online media, consultancy and professional practice.

Research and practice underpins our teaching and we should strive to present where possible, original knowledge, or original perspectives on the discipline as a whole, or our own practice.

As educators we need to adopt a holistic and non-discriminatory overview of the whole discipline and develop a deep understanding and appreciation of all its contexts and cultural applications. That cannot be achieved by ‘performing by rote’; undertaking straight commissions without presenting a deeper evaluation of one’s work and that of others, past and present. We need to transcend a ‘surface’ engagement with ‘trend’ and make one’s practice say something mature and relevant.

Professor Alan Male
Falmouth University
Illustration: A Theoretical and Contextual Perspective, Bloomsbury (2007)
Illustration: Meeting the Brief, Bloomsbury (2014)