[Commlist] Call for papers and contributions: Failure & Resistance-16th International Illustration Research Symposium

Call for Conference papers and contributions

Failure & Resistance

16th International Illustration Research Symposium

November 13th-14th, Arts University Plymouth, United Kingdom

  Submission deadline:  Friday 28th February 2026.



/Under certain circumstances failing, losing, forgetting, unmaking, 
undoing, unbecoming, not knowing may in fact offer more creative, more 
cooperative, more surprising ways of being in the world. /(Jack Halberstam)


The 16th International Illustration Research Symposium provides space to 
discuss the often hidden (but ever present) topic of failure in the 
context of illustration. This symposium is jointly organised by 
independent practitioners and academics from the University of Exeter, 
Arts University Plymouth, and Parsons School of Design in New York. 
Hosted in Devon by Arts University Plymouth.

In illustration, we are used to the idea that as successful 
practitioners, failure to communicate effectively is something to be 
avoided. As professional illustrators, many of us feel that we know what 
success looks like, either in our careers or in terms of the creation of 
‘good’ or excellent images. We do not often talk about unsuccessful 
illustrations or their attributes. This tendency towards success over 
failure may be preventing us from seeing the radical potential of 
working against the grain, and may be stopping us from recognising what 
other forms of practice could look like.

In illustration education, it is common that students deemed successful 
are celebrated and made visible while unsuccessful peers are forgotten. 
In his seminal 2011 book The Queer Art of Failure, Jack Halberstam 
outlines the ways in which our conceptions of success might be failing 
us and our students. True failure can be a painful subject – but to 
avoid it may also reinforce the notions of success which cause that 
discomfort. By embracing failure and redefining success, could we 
discover new and alternative forms of knowledge production?

Beyond this, we might consider the potential of ‘failing’ as an active 
form of resistance to normative modes of making, capitalist frameworks, 
and conventions that uplift certain voices or stories while silencing 
others. What might it mean to engage with the idea of failure as a 
creative force that challenges these conventions? We might ask this 
question against the backdrop of the climate crisis and other contextual 
conditions, such as the changing landscape of arts education, or the 
emergence of AI technologies within and beyond the creative industries. 
What happens when we look failure in the eye?

In this symposium, we hope to consider the topic of failure from many 
angles, to understand how it can help us reimagine trajectories of 
illustration research, education and practice.

Possible topics may include, but are not limited to the following:

•               Failed illustrations:

o               What are the characteristics of a failed illustration, 
and what does this tell us about the discipline as a whole?

o               What are the things that illustration fails to depict?

o               How do bad illustrations find success through camp or 
unintended humour?

•               Mis-translation:

o               Illustration as an act of translation: what happens when 
there are translation issues or misregistrations?

o               How do normative models of representation within 
illustration fail marginalised audiences?

o               Reading against; how might illustrations help failed 
texts find their audience?

•               Failure as a mode of knowledge production:

o               The value of unseeing,  unknowing, or unlearning

o               Unconventional forms of knowledge-sharing or storytelling

•               Failure as a mode of practice:

o               The value of failing at your craft or what does it mean 
to fail at your craft?

o               Failed, impotent, or unrealised gestures within images

o               The failed copy: how can subtle changes alter the 
meaning (intended or unintended) of illustrations?

o               Intentional glitches (building failure in by design)

•               Failure as subject matter:

o               Illustrating narratives of failure.

o               Illustrating collapse

•               Professional success and failure:

o               What are the matrices of professional success? How did 
they emerge?

o               What are career pathways for illustrators that fall 
outside of our usual expectations?

o               What are the hidden burdens of illustration work - is it 
sustainable, and at what cost?

•               Failure within creative education:

o               What happens to students who fail?

o               How is the education system broken, and how might we 
work with the breaks?

o               What happens to the learning environment when you 
encourage students to make their worst picture?

•               Contextualising practice:

o               How are we failing to see legacies of colonialism and 
imperialist histories? How might we make these traces legible?

o               How does the presence of these sometimes hidden 
histories cause us to fail students?

o               How might we use illustration to  imagine a future in 
which colonialism and imperialism were failed enterprises?


The call for papers and poster proposals is now open:

please submit your interest by Friday 28th February 2026.


All submissions should be in .pdf format and emailed to 
(failureandresistance /at/ gmail.com) (subject line: 16th International 
Research Symposium)

To submit a paper proposal, include:

•               Working paper title

•               A 300-word written proposal detailing how the paper 
relates to the symposium themes

•               3 images maximum

•               100-word biography and affiliation

To submit a poster proposal, include:

•               Working poster title

•               150-word written proposal detailing how the visual work 
relates to the symposium themes

•               5 images maximum (from your own practice and/or research)

•               100-word biography and affiliation

Posters will be exhibited alongside the symposium. Format specifications 
and practicalities for poster printing and display will be shared after 
the submission deadline has passed.

You can also submit proposals that challenge the traditional 
understanding of academic presentation and discourse. We welcome 
proposals for workshops, alternative presentations or visual 
representations.  Do note that the possibilities are restricted and the 
costs of execution and installation cannot be covered. Feel free to 
contact us for more details.


For more information, please contact the conference team at 
(failureandresistance /at/ gmail.com)

Weblink: link out to a specific website of this symposium

https://www.intellectbooks.com/journal-of-illustration

https://www.illustrationresearch.org/



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