Luise Vormittag

Central Saints Martins

I am a London based artist, designer and illustrator working across multiple disciplines. I practiced under the name Container in various collaborative constellations from 2002-2014. I trained as an illustrator, graphic designer, photographer, fine artist and theorist and my creative practice reflects this eclectic education. I often work collaboratively. While maintaining a commercial output of commissions I am also engaged in research, investigating notions of conversation, exchange and participation. I worked as an associate lecturer at Camberwell College of Arts from 2007 to 2014 and am currently employed at Central Saint Martins (2013 - ongoing).

Abstract:
Rumour, Legend, Tradition, Fact

In their forthcoming book on the contemporary design industry Derek Yates and Jessie Price pinpoint key trends that current
practice is clustered around. ‘Heritage’ and ‘participation’ are amongst the re-occurring themes Yates and Price have identified in their wide-ranging survey of design, branding and advertising agencies; a trend mirrored in many forms of cultural production.

I would like to propose a critical reading of these practices via a project I am currently working on (completion due summer 2014). ‘Our Heritage’ is a commission for the Oxfordshire NHS trust. The aim is for the work to embed a newly built hospital in the local community. One of the conditions outlined in my brief is that I generate at least part of the content through a participatory engagement phase.

In this paper I would like to discuss how I am attempting to produce a piece of work that serves the local community while
simultaneously drawing attention to the inherent complexities of the brief. I am keen to highlight what I see as the problematic nature of the concepts of heritage and participation. As an illustrator I wish to emphasise the process of reinterpretation, mystification and manipulation intrinsic to our discipline as well as highlighting the problematic premise of working with the past of a local culture.

Heritage differs significantly from the discipline of history: while history seeks to address the nuances and complexities of the past, heritage has a pacifying function, catering to a particular present need. Participation has become a tool for political currency. The phrase is often used as a ‘veneer of worthiness’ without there being the will or resource for meaningful engagement beyond the tokenistic.

By tagging the content generated for my commission as either ‘rumour’, ‘legend’, ‘tradition’ or ‘fact’ I wish to foreground the problematic nature of the terms discussed above, as well as generate a debate about the way illustration could be both
cooperative and critical in the task of interpreting local culture.