Desdemona McCannon

Principal Lecturer in Illustration

School of Arts

Art & Design Communication

Institute of Arts and Humanities

Art and Design Communication

Contact Details

email: d.mccannon@worc.ac.uk
tel: 07791757689

Desdemona writes about illustration, teaches illustration, organises conferences and exhibitions about illustration, and is a practising illustrator.

Illustration is part of our everyday lives, and the images illustrators make enhance our understanding of any field of knowledge or aspect of life that you can think of. Illustrators are translators, illuminators, storytellers.

Illustration practice is a visualised form of writing, and students of illustration are in the process of creating their own visual language with which to communicate stories, ideas and emotions.

Illustration is a way of thinking alongside words but also beyond words. Illustrators are amphibious - able to swim in the unconscious world of dreamlike imagery but also exist in the arid worlds of rational and scientific thought.

Qualification

MA Sequential Illustration University of Brighton 1997

BA Illustration, Liverpool John Moore’s University 1993

BA English Literature, Bristol University 1991

Research Interests

Print culture,

Printmaking and self - publishing,

Street literature,

Illustration as a relational and participatory practice,

Learning through illustration,

Visual literacy,

‘Folk’ arts, Craft and amateur making practices,

Illustration and wellbeing,

Histories of Illustration,

Mid twentieth century women designers.

Radical and DIY pedagogies,

Witchcraft and folklore,

Intergenerational learning,

Play and creativity,

Feminist histories of art and design.

External Responsibilities

Chief External Examiner Falmouth School of Art Falmouth University

External Examiner BA Illustration , Falmouth University

External Examiner MA Illustration (online) Falmouth University

External Examiner MA Children’s Book Illustration, Anglia Ruskin University

Principal Editor of the Journal of Illustration (Intellect Books) ISSN: 20520204

Professional Bodies

Invited keynote speaker at CONFIA in Portugal, the illustration and animation conference 2018.

Member of the Scientific Committee for CONFIA 2019

Illustration Research

Desdemona is on the steering committee of this international network of academics involved in promoting the study and cultural relevance of Illustration.

Publications

McCannon, D. (2019) Pattern and Pedagogy in Print: Art and Craft Education in the mid twentieth-century classroom, Journal of Illustration, 6 (2). pp. 241-263. ISSN Print: 2052-0204, Online: 2052-0212

Davies, A, McCannon, D. (2019) Contemporary Illustrative Responses to the European Refugee Crisis, Confia Conference proceedings, Portugal.

McCannon, D. (2018) The Time Travelling Antiquarian : Illustrated Guide Books to North Wales from Pennant to Piper Journal of Illustration, 5:1, pp. 47–67, doi: 10.1386/jill.5.1.47_1

McCannon D. (2017) A History of Everyday Things in England: Illustrators of mid 20thc social history books, Journal of Illustration, Volume 4, Number 1, 1 April 2017, pp. 97-119 ISSN 2052-0204

McCannon, D. (2015), ‘The jobbing artist as an ethnographer: Documenting “lore”’, Journal of Illustration, 2: 2, pp. 173–195, doi: 10.1386/pop.2.2.173_1

McCannon D., (2012) A Brief History of Street Literature, Varoom Magazine, London,

McCannon D., (2011) Lacking Vision, Varoom Magazine, London

McCannon D., (2011) Children’s Book Award Introduction, AOI Images Annual

McCannon, D. (2011), ‘Towards the hybrid essay: The ‘Visual Essay Project’’, Journal of Writing in

Creative Practice 4: 2, pp. 131–140, doi: 10.1386/jwcp.4.2.131_1

McCannon, D. , Glynn, G., (2011), ‘To Artacademics: A Manifesto’’, Journal of Writing in Creative Practice 4: 2, pp. 261-272, doi: 10.1386/jwcp.4.2.261_2

McCannon D. (2009) The Private Life of the Doodle Varoom Magazine,London
McCannon D., (2009) Folk Art and Illustration Varoom Magazine , London
McCannon, D., Thornton, S., Williams, Y. (2008) Writing and Illustrat- ing Children’s Books, Bloomsbury Publishing, London

Selected Exhibitions and Events

ENCHANTED ENVIRONMENTS : eco-criticism and folklore studies (2020)

University of Worcester Art House

Part of a group exhibition

ILLUSTRATING MENTAL HEALTH (2019)
University of Worcester Art House

Part of a group exhibition, showing images and artefacts from the ‘Ashridge Field School’

THE ART OF MAGIC (2018)

Various venues, Museum of Witchcraft and Magic, Boscastle.

Part of a group exhibition and publication curated by the Folklore Tapes in association with the Museum of Witchcraft and Magic http://www.folkloretapes.co.uk

MADE IN TRANSLATION : PORTICO LIBRARY, MANCHESTER 2017

Part of a group exhibition, showing work produced during a collaboration with the animator Eleanor Mulhearn.

https://theforesttheclearingthething.wordpress.com/

http://www.art.mmu.ac.uk/events/2017/made-in-translation/

IMAGINED LANDSCAPES 2017 RCA Conway, Wales.

Part of a group show curated by Clive Hicks Jenkins

SHAPING THE VIEW : LANDSCAPE AND ILLUSTRATION, Edinburgh 2016

Part of the group exhibition accompanying the symposium

Study Days, Symposia, Conferences

WOMEN IN PRINT: MARIE NEURATH AND HER CONTEMPORARIES

A study day alongside the Marie Neurath exhibition at the House of Illustration, September 2019, organizer and speaker

DECRIMINILISING ORNAMENT: THE PLEASURES OF PATTERN

Illustration Research Symposium, Anglia Ruskin University, Cambridge, November 2018, co- organiser and speaker

WOMEN IN PRINT: ENID MARX AND HER CONTEMPORARIES

A study day alongside the Enid Marx exhibition at the House of Illustration, September 2018, organiser and speaker

WOMEN IN PRINT: WITCHCRAFT AND THE POPULAR PRESS

A study day organised with the Museum of Witchcraft and Magic in Boscastle 2015, organiser and speaker

ENID MARX AND HER CONTEMPORARIES: WOMEN DESIGNERS AND THE POPULARISATION OF FOLK ARTS 1920- 1960, 2013, co-organiser, a collaboration between Compton Verney and Manchester School of Art.