Illustrating loneliness
No Thumbnail Available
URL
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
School of Arts, Design and Architecture |
Master's thesis
Location:
Authors
Date
2022
Department
Major/Subject
Mcode
Degree programme
Master’s Programme in Visual Communication Design
Language
en
Pages
184
Series
Abstract
This thesis contemplates what loneliness looks like, through illustrations. On one hand, illustrating an emotion like loneliness may seem challenging because unlike happiness or sadness, loneliness does not have signifying qualities visible on the human face (Alberti, 2019). Yet, the upsurge of illustrations on loneliness in contemporary online publications may indicate otherwise. Routine images often featuring a lonely figure by the window or slightly turned away are staged in illustrations of loneliness—An experience which, is one of the most difficult things to talk about (Laing, 2016, ch. 1). Given that the experience of loneliness is subjective and invisible, and yet illustrated through recurring visual templates, this thesis sets out to investigate what aspects of an illustration qualify as representations of loneliness? For this inquiry, the thesis has three main goals: firstly to demonstrate and critique visual templates in contemporary editorial illustrations on loneliness, secondly, to explore fresh visual interpretations, thirdly to discuss visual language of loneliness through these new interpretation. I combine visual research methods (compositional and textual analysis) with practice-based research (artistic production and focus group/individual discussions) to analyze, illustrate and discuss contemporary representations of loneliness. To demonstrate the existing visual templates 6 selected articles (between 2018-2021) from 4 different online publications from India, UK and the US were analysed. There were following observations from the analysis: Firstly, the speculation that existing visual ‘templates’ of loneliness are inherited depictions of alienation from the paintings of Caspar David Friedrich (1818) and Edward Hopper (1952). Secondly there is unwitting gender stereotyping of loneliness in contemporary illustrations, probably due to this inheritance. Thirdly, while the illustrations inevitably show a solitary human figure, it often did not have any relevance to the age, gender, social class of the demographic discussed in the article. And fourthly, the illustrations offer limited perspective on the notion of feeling lonely in relationships also present in the analyzed texts, visually. Based on these limitations, a fresh visual language of loneliness was explored through illustrations in the artistic component of this thesis. The visuals eliminated the concerns of gender stereotyping of loneliness, and offer visually expanded on notions of isolation. The visuals eliminated the use of the solitary figure and explored geometric, abstract or partially figurative forms, and combining text in images to depict loneliness. These new illustrations were then used to further investigate for what loneliness looks like through focus group and individual discussions with other illustrators and practitioners. The discussion revealed limited but interesting insights into visual aspects of loneliness. Firstly that depicting passing of time was closely identifiable with loneliness. Secondly, the tension amongst the participants over whether the new illustrations depicted different kinds of loneliness or loneliness itself, was interesting. Images that somehow reflected empty place were identifiable. By combining analytical, practice-based methods, this thesis offers detailed insights into the contemporary visual language of loneliness in editorial illustrations. While it does not give an exhaustive or definitive answer to the question— What aspects of an illustration qualify as representations of loneliness?, it raises questions about the relevance of these visual templates in their current context. This thesis is therefore significant for the unique scrutiny of visual language of loneliness through illustrations. And conversation it opens up on illustrating overlooked aspects of loneliness in contemporary editorial practices.Description
Supervisor
Karhumaa, ArjaThesis advisor
Khanduri, RituKeywords
illustration, loneliness, editorial, practice-based, compositional, analytical, artistic, exploratory