As illustration educators our role is to be at the forefront of championing the development and understanding of our subject. Born from teaching practice, conversations and research the Manifesto draws together voices from within our community with the intention of extending the remits of contemporary illustration whilst provoking debate as to what can be achieved at the very heights of ambition.

This talk explores how an Artist’s book and Zine fair in Scotland has been developed to explore new ways of teaching Professional Practice to students and in doing so encouraged autonomy, playfulness, risk taking and confidence in their illustration practice.

Illustration has a history of establishing and reinforcing stereotypes of marginalized communities. As emergent, online critical discourse confronts continued use of problematic historical tropes, educators should engage and challenge students to be more conscious makers of influential imagery

A design curriculum that has a rich image design and illustration component is more productive in developing the well-rounded designers needed for the future, providing a way for illustration skills to become a natural and important part of creating more relevant and powerful design.

The marks made on a sketchbook’s pages are unscripted with no safety net. The lines are applied immediately and instantly reflect what one experiences. This session will focus on the searching lines of the pen, the impressions of the brush, the discoveries made, and how it’s a means of communicating with oneself, the subject and those around them.

This paper will aim to locate ways in which illustration students can thrive by instigating accidents or disrupting the inhibitive characteristics of the technologies that surround us.

Within the applied arts practices, the majority of writing is about design with the primary authors of these writings considered authorities on design matters. This authority, at times, carries over into related fields such as illustration. By contrast, we do not see a writing practice on illustration by illustrator/writers with similar breadth and influence. Why is there less critical examination of illustration by those within our practice? What prevents writers from emerging from the ranks of practicing illustrators to craft a voice for the practice? Would students and practitioners benefit, as designers do, if they understood the academic underpinnings and significance of their work, and the connectivity of published imagery to other academic branches of study, both today and through time? Is illustration viewed as a highly influential art form that is integral to society, or is it all but invisible despite its visual prominence? How can we establish a context wherein illustration and its practice asserts a view that goes beyond its practical role and accepted status to one that puts the storytelling focus on itself?

How do educators identify and foster key tenants of innovation? If they focus on producing innovators, not subject-matter experts, how might they shift their teaching approach? This session provides practical examples for how educators can question, experiment, observe, associate and share in a curriculum.

The contemporary illustrator is a visual thinker, a content generator and an entrepreneurial opportunist. From the street to the screen to the artifact, they can embrace the practice as a fluid and malleable force negotiating multiple platforms across the breadth of visual culture.

How can educators use social media images, such as comics panels and strips, animated GIFs, and illustrated memes, as a point of engagement for students in an effort to approach long-form comics and graphic novel projects in the classroom?

MOKITA Future Shock aims to provoke discussions around the causal factors impacting illustration practice/education/lifestyle in the future. MOKITA are Camberwell, Brighton, Kingston universities from the UK.