Metadata merged with duplicate record (http://hdl.handle.net/10026.1/351) on 20.12.2016 by CS (TIS).This is a digitised version of a thesis that was deposited in the University Library. If you are the author please contact PEARL Admin ([email protected]) to discuss options.This thesis documents and describes a research project driven by the creative practice of an
illustrator. It examines the proposition that the visual mark can act as a register of experience.
The research comprises three bodies of work each of which address a specific issue within the
broader context of the research proposition. Knowledge gained through practical exploration is
discussed in the context of illustration as well as contemporary systems and models of
aesthetic representation.
Overview
Chapter one discusses the origins of this research project and charts the establishment of a
methodology. Working under the preliminary title The Illustration of Conversational Time and Space, the practice explores how human conversation and physical interaction can be recorded and illustrated. This research results in the title being changed to The Illustration of
Experience in order to reflect a significant transition in thinking and approach.
Chapter two addresses the question how can experience be illustrated? Experiences are first
identified and then recorded using an established vocabulary of reflexive gestural marks.
These marks are in turn subject to further investigation through a more considered system of
reproduction and replication. This pursuit of a mimetic representation, I argue, creates a direct
access to the actualities of the experience, as interpreted by the unconscious, and reveals a
fundamental connection between phenomenological sensation and learnt aesthetic reasoning.
The research proposes that the appearance of an illustration of experience is not directed by
the phenomenological interpretation of an event but by the representation process itself.
Chapter three challenges the conclusions of chapter two by asking how the unconscious
transformation of source into experience can be illustrated? This is achieved by symbolically
aligning this metaphysical transformation with the physical movement of an object through
space. In doing so, the research attempts to move beyond the conventional codes of aesthetic
understanding and questions illustration's traditional associations with referentiality and
elucidation. The research concludes that an illustration of experience's epistemological value
is heavily dependent upon the interpretation of the viewer.
Chapter four expands upon the hypotheses formulated in chapter three by constructing an
illustration of experience that is devoid of all mimetic reference. The research confirms the
earlier understanding that mimesis is not an inherent quality in all representational art forms,
but is in fact determined by the viewer's independent knowledge and understanding of the
subject matter presented. It is concluded that while an illustration of experience's
epistemological value is dependent upon the viewer's interpretation, interpretation is not itself
contingent upon the presence of an explicit mimetic (visual) vocabulary.
It has been the intention of the research to challenge existing models of illustrative
communication by devising original creative structures that support the illustration of
experience. Although this research identifies with a range of contemporary and historical
models of enquiry, thorough searches have revealed no previous research in this area. It is
therefore hoped that this research will provide a solid base from which future investigations
can develop. This research project would serve as an introduction to other researchers trained
as illustrators to deeply investigate the meaning and functions of their creative processes in
order to reflect back on the discipline of illustration and how it might register experience
