Illuminating the Non-Representable by Hilde Kramer

Illustration as research from within the field is of relatively new practice. The illustrators discourse on representation (Yannicopoulou & Alaca, 2018 ), theory (Male, 2017), and critical writing on illustration practice was hardly found until The Journal of Illustration was first issued in 2014, followed by artistic research through illustration (Black, 2014; Rysjedal, 2019; Spicer, 2019). The History of Illustration was published recently (Doyle, Grove, & Sherman, 2018). The research topic developed as response to a rise in hate crime towards refugees and the targeting of European Jews in recent decade. A pilot project (This Is a Human Being 2016-2019) treated how narratives of the Holocaust may avoid contributing to overwriting of history or cultural appropriation. Asking how illustration in an expanded approach may communicate profound human issues typically considered unrepresentable, this new project hopes to explore representation and the narratives of “us” and “the others” in the contemporary world through illustration as starting-point for cross-disciplinary projects. The participants from different disciplines, will interact democratically on a common humanist themes in order to explore the transformative role of illustration in contemporary communication. Projects developed should afford contemplation of illustration as an enhanced, decelerated way of looking; and drawing as a process for understanding - a way of engaging in understanding the other, as much as expressing one’s own needs (McCartney, 2016). This AR project consists of three symposia and three work packages, and the artistic research unfolds in the symbiosis of these elements. The planned output is the investigation of illustration across media and materials.

What is a character? How do illustrators create their visual universes? Interviews with illustrators and mediation of the illustration research in the project. Listen here (in Norwegian): https://soundcloud.com/2021ipodden

CALL FOR PAPERS! Volume 10 Issue #2 of the Journal of Illustration will gather papers, visual essays, and other reports related to illustration research on profound human issues typically considered unrepresentable or non-representable, and explores representation and the narratives of “us” and “the others”. Submissions from those who already participated in any capacity and from those who are inspired by the themes are encouraged to submit. Read full call here https://www.illustrationresearch.org/booking-current-cfp

DEADLINES
12th of November 2023: initial manuscripts or expressions of interest (300 word abstract)
30th of January 2024: final submissions
September 2024: distribution to coincide with an event at Grafill in Oslo The Journal of Illustration. Read more here: https://www.illustrationresearch.org/booking-current-cfp

Sound installation at the Faculty of Fine Art,

Music and Design in Bergen 8th - 10th October

2020. Read more in Fredrik Rysjedal's exposition here

October 2020: The first IN-R symposium took place as a digital event with speakers from different fields of artistic practice. See the symposium her: DAY 1 and DAY 2

HVIS DETTE VAR ET MENNESKE (If this was a human being) is a didactic workshop method for teaching about antisemitism and racism. The research is developed in cooperation with Falstadsenteretet in Trøndelag. Continue reading

The B-O-O-K project explores performative aspects of artist books and illustration as tangible objects. Continue reading

Illustration performance on ethics in research.

Performed on September 30th 2021 in Tårnsalen, Univeristy of Bergen.

How may the contemporary illustrator address topics of shared memory and representation of

the Holocaust? Plenery speaker Hilde Kramer at Transitus, the 12th Illustration Research symposum at Falmouth July 2022 https://www.illustrationresearch.org/booking-current-cfp:

October 10th - 17th 2021 Our partner institution Koc University in Turkey organized the symposium and workshops info

CELEBRATION! Illuminating the Non-Representable is more or less a concluded project! Since our symposium in June, the project has been presented at Kingston University UK, Polín Museum in Warsaw, PL, in St. Louis US, and University of Minho, PT. We continue disseminating the project through exhibitions, publications and conference presentations throughout 2024 before moving on to new projects on i#inclusion #diversity #decolonialization.

Click on Santa (left image) to see him dance.! #christmas_in_uncanny_valley

ABOVE: Looking forward to present WPI IF THIS IS A BEING to DEMBRA/KKS network at the workshop Estetiske læringsprosesser mot fordommer og utenforskap in Bode 27.-28 November 2023.

LEFT: Thanks to our new partner,IDEGUI at University of Minho in Guimarães in Portugal for organizing the conference Designing with Communities 23rd of November 2023. Looking forward to the planned publicztion! i#inclusion #diversity #decolonialization. #tactile_illustrations #haptic_design

The WORK IN PROGRESS seminar took place 2in February / March at KMD, Bergen. Thoughts, suggestions, scketches, rejected ideas, tests and artistic works.

Book of Remembrance was performed at various locations in Bergen 5th-12th September 2020.

BLIND SPOTS: 13th ILLUSTRATION RESEARCH SYMPOSIUM NOVEMBER 3rd 2023

Panel 1: Illustration Practice Today Illustrations to be read with our Fingertips.

The category‚ ‘tactile books’ has developed significantly during the last decades as a result of the development of affordable technological inventions. The specific qualities of this genre opens the doors to a multisensory reflection-in-reading, through innovative ways of representing the world through designed storytelling, independently of capacity of vision. The shapes, materials and printing techniques are registered through the fingertips and further processed by our minds. Read more here https://sites.wustl.edu/blindspots/presentation-abstracts/

Using central topics in illustration such as 'character', SOUND AS ILLUSTRATION investigates WWII history from Momarken, Norway. Continue reading.

The final symposium of the artistic research project Illuminating the Non-Representable was called Illustration and the Non-Representable (IN-R) and took place on June 29th, 2023 at the Falstad Centre, a museum, memorial, and human rights center in Ekne in Levanger. Continue reading

This project combines illustration with didactic learning methods and drama pedagogy to encourage critical thinking about democracy and human rights. Work in progress.

PhD fellow Thilde Dalager researches how illustration can act on behalf of the underrepresented and disadvantaged social group such as people with Autism Spectrum Disorder(ASD). Continue reading

Return Ticket to Oslo is a sound narrative building on the biography of Ervin Løffler, a sculpturer who arrived to Momarekn in 1947 among other Jewish displaced persons. The project was exhibited the first time at Falstad during Symposium 3 June-July 2023

CONFERENCE JEWISH CULTURAL HERITAGE The conference is a celebration of education on diversity, and a platform for exchanging experiences, discussing new topics and interpreting the role of Jewish culture and history in contemporary Europe. See on Youtube here:https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=6&v=QXgVQjs0mIQ&embeds_referring_euri=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.polin.pl%2F&feature=emb_logo

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