Exploring multiculturalism through illustration
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School of Arts, Design and Architecture |
Master's thesis
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Date
2021
Department
Major/Subject
Mcode
Degree programme
Master’s Programme in Visual Communication Design
Language
en
Pages
101
Series
Abstract
This thesis explores the concept of multiculturalism from an illustrator’s perspective in the context of adapting children’s picture books for a multicultural audience. It explores the role of the ethnicity of a fictional character, especially in illustrations related to children’s literature and uses Alice in Wonderland as a running example to do this. The thesis includes a quantitative analysis that involved conducting interviews with illustrators and visual designers. The interviewees were encouraged to venture into the pros and cons of using culture and ethnicity as a tool to adapt illustrations of a narrative. The initial hypothesis was that ethnicity or cultural diversity is not a topic that illustrators keep in mind while illustrating. However, through the interviews, it can be concluded that ethnicity is a factor that an illustrator considers but it also highlights the increased complexity added with regards to the research of a culture for the purpose of the illustration. Alongside the interviews, I also critically analysed my own work as well as illustration process. The thesis includes an artistic component which is inspired from the interviews as well as previous research. The artistic component involves the creation of a zine that visually interprets the tea cultures of 7 different countries while staying culturally relevant. The zine offers a new perspective to approaching illustrations by leveraging research in multiculturalism and studying the works of popular illustrators whose work focussed on multicultural children’s illustrations. The process of creating the zine has been documented and it offers a way to observe subconscious biases. This thesis also includes an initial exploration of a new medium to interact with the zine through the creation of an Augmented Reality based tea party experience.Description
Supervisor
Karhumaa, ArjaThesis advisor
Kauppinen, TomiKeywords
Alice in Wonderland, multiculturalism, illustration, tea, zine, picture book, ethnicity