James Walker teaches visual theory on the illustration and animation courses at the University for the Creative Arts at Maidstone. Following a degree in the applied arts he studied at the University of Wales, Lampeter on the MA Word and Visual Imagination. His research interest includes areas of propaganda, visual culture, terror and trauma, visual narrative and animation.

Abstract: The Autographic Impulse: Illustrative Dislocations and Dissolutions in Contemporary Illustration

The paper proposes that the work of Graham Rawle and Matthew Richardson represents a contemporary autographic palimpsest in which the ur-text of the source material is dissolved in the fluidly of the word and image relationship. In particular that such artefact, constructed illustrations are a form of autographic (Goodman 1980) communication. In which traces of its archival form are constantly present and as Walter Benjamin notes “storytelling that thrives for a long time…is itself an artisan form of communication” that “does not aim to convey the pure essence of the thing, like information or a report. It sinks the thing into the life of the storyteller, in order to bring it out of him again. Thus traces of the storyteller cling to the story.” (Benjamin 1973 rp 1992:91) As such the reader/viewer is engaged in an immersive experience that provokes a spatial and temporal dislocation in which autographic traces of both the illustrator and authors narrative text are equally present. It is therefore argued that artefact/archival formed illustrations signify their elemental archaeological origins and the shadow sign of the authors biographic, archival impulse (Foster 2004).

Goodman, Nelson (1980) The Language of Art Cambridge; Massachusetts: Hackett Pub Co Inc
Benjamin, Walter (1973, rp.1992) Illuminations London: Fontana Press pp.83-107
Foster, Hal (2004) “The Archival Impluse” In October 114 (3) pp.3-22