visual design

Decriminalising Ornament: The Pleasures of Pattern

In November 2018 (18-19 November) I co-organised the conference Decriminalising Ornament: The Pleasures of Pattern and curated and organised the related research exhibition (Ruskin Gallery, 1-26 of November) of the 9th International Illustration Research Symposium, at the Anglia Ruskin University, Cambridge.

38 international (practice based) researchers and practitioners, including the keynote speakers Alice Twemlow and Allan Powers, , presenting over 2 days, and 13 practitioners explored the nature of pattern and ornament within the context of illustration, printing and publishing and explored ideas and asked questions around its current state of appreciation, meaning and usage.

These two events where framed by Adolf Loos’ declaration that ornament was seen to be ‘backward’ and ‘degenerate’ activity, counter to the utopian, ‘rationalist’ aims of the modernist movement, and called for it to be criminalised.

The Illustration Research Symposium and Exhibition sought to draw together a range of perspectives on ornament and ornamentation, and its close relatives pattern and the decorative, to explore the resilience, continued value, significance, application, and creation of these cultural forms; celebrating their centrality within human life and cultural production, both past and present, and (speculatively), the future .

Alongside the conference there was an Exhibition, featuring a collaborative installation by the graphic designer Hansje van Halem and printer/ publisher Jan de Jong, as well as the research practice related to pattern and ornament of 13 contributing artists.

The related two edition Journal (Intellect) is due to be published in September and December 2019