Professor Alan Male leads the field in international Illustration research

Professor Alan Male, Course Leader of BA(Hons) Illustration and University College Falmouth's resident Professor of Illustration has been at the forefront of establishing a unique international forum and research cluster entitled Illustration, Culture, Society.

Initiated by the British based Association of Illustrators, Professor Male has been named the principal conduit and formal Research Co-ordinator for an exclusive partnership of national and international institutions working within the remit of discussion, dissemination and critique. The first forum of its kind for illustration, members will be invited to submit papers and other research material for peer review and subsequent publication in the award-winning international illustration magazine, Varoom.

Partner institutions include University College Falmouth; the School of the Visual Arts New York; Parsons New School for Design New York; Art Center College of Design Pasadena California; Savanna College of Art and Design, Atlanta; Manchester Metropolitan University, Anglia Ruskin University, Cambridge and the University of Plymouth.

Professor Male has also written a major article for the next edition of Varoom entitled Research: The Future. Essentially a rallying cry, the essence of this commentary outlines the rationale behind practice-based research and presents a generic roster of appropriate applications, themes and strategies.

"If the culture of research is embraced, it is possible to achieve rewarding outcomes that refresh ambitions, facilitate wider connections and help one's own practice to broaden and acquire greater recognition," writes Professor Alan Male in a recent edition of Varoom.

Professor Male is also a senior consultant for a major initiative named House of Illustration. Essentially a flagship centre championing the art of illustration and the first of its kind in the UK, the House is due to open in central London in autumn 2012 and will be the place to see past and present illustration, from Britain and across the globe.

House of Illustration will be a society that will comprise a national archive, a research centre and a gallery. Trustees include Children's Laureate, Anthony Browne; bestselling author, Philip Pullman; renowned children's book illustrator, Quentin Blake; and broadcaster, writer and arts commentator, Professor Sir Christopher Frayling.

The work of Professor Male has also been awarded another major international illustration prize; a Jury Award from Focus on Nature VI at the New York State Museum. A bi-annual exhibition of contemporary illustration, it specialises in scientific, environmental and cultural subject matter. This is the fifth time that Professor Male's work has been included and the third occasion on which he has been presented with this internationally prestigious accolade.

Open from April to September, the exhibition comprises 93 works by 73 illustrators from 13 countries. The award is juried by eminent academics, scientists and creative practitioners and work is judged by its technical quality, scientific accuracy, aesthetic achievement and educational value.

One of Professor Male's award-winning illustrations is a commission borne out of extensive research related to an ongoing project, Evolution and the Origins of Life: a New Perspective in Visual Representation.

The illustration is the visualisation and interpretation of new knowledge related to palaeoecology and depicts an environmental overview of a specific marine habitat from the Ordovician Period, about 450 million years ago. The overriding feature is a school of Astraspis desiterata, regarded as one of the earlier fish forms to appear on earth and the work marks a unique stage in evolutionary development between invertebrate and vertebrate. The image has been reproduced widely and Professor Male's original artwork is displayed within the Museum of American Illustration in New York City.

These recent examples of Professor Males' work demonstrate his expertise as a social, cultural and scientific communicator and his ongoing dedication to pursuing and encouraging knowledge, information and academic research as a route to eminent professional illustration practice for design students.

For further information about BA(Hons) Illustration at University College Falmouth, visit www.falmouth.ac.uk/illustration, email admissions@falmouth.ac.uk or telephone Admissions on 01326 214369.

University College Falmouth is the only independent Higher Education institution in Cornwall with the powers to award degrees in its own name. It has two campuses in Cornwall - at Woodlane in Falmouth and Tremough in Penryn (which it owns, and jointly manages with the University of Exeter) - and a third campus at Totnes in Devon, following its merger with Dartington College of Arts in 2008.

This merger created a new institution focusing on the expansion of Falmouth's expertise in Art, Design and Media and Dartington's expertise in Choreography, Music, Theatre, Art and Writing. The Devon-based courses will relocate to a new, high-specification Performance Centre at Tremough in 2010, paving the way for a new specialist Arts University in Cornwall by 2013/2014 that will be unique to the South West.

The University College is a founding partner in the Combined Universities in Cornwall (CUC), a unique initiative to promote regional economic regeneration through Higher Education, funded mainly by the European Union (Objective One and Convergence), the South West Regional Development Agency, and the Higher Education Funding Council for England, with support from Cornwall Council.

Ends

For further information about University College Falmouth, please contact Jilly Easterby Dip CIPR MCIPR, Head of Public Affairs, Telephone: 01326 213792, or email:  jilly.easterby@falmouth.ac.uk 

Professor Alan Male, Course Leader of BA(Hons) Illustration and University College Falmouth's resident Professor of Illustration has been at the forefront of establishing a unique international forum and research cluster entitled Illustration, Culture, Society.

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