Characters in Search of Science

incubator

Our next exhibition at the incubator will be some artwork produced during an investigative project undertaken by Desdemona McCannon(our current exhibitor until 22nd of April) with primary school children from North Wales in 2007.

Des' work as a designer and illustrator is all about communicating ideas , and trying to use visual language that is easy for all to understand.

Her artistic background is both wide and varied. She has written and illustrated several children’s books, worked on editorial commissions , and produced many book jackets and packaging solutions for clients. In her employment at Glyndwr University (since 2003) she has focused on academic and theoretical aspects of design thinking, and has gained many skills in presenting and teaching to groups of people from diverse backgrounds and with diverse ages and skills.

As a lecturer in Illustration at North Wales School of Art, she instigated an action research project called ‘Characters in Search of Science’ in 2007. This explored the use of drawing in facilitating conceptual thinking in 6-7 year old children at Rhosddu school in Wrexham. Her project was well received by policy makers, educators and academics when she presented a paper based on the findings at an international conference on ‘Visual Literacy’ at Mansfield College, Oxford (summer 2007).

She has designed and illustrated several pictographic representations of conceptual narratives to demonstrate this hypothesis. One was based on the ideas in Shakespeare’s ‘The Tempest’, in another she collaborated with a biochemist on an explanation of the Periodic table, called ‘The Atom Family’.

She is interested in facilitating ‘visual thinking’ and the empowerment that comes from realising intelligence is not always expressed verbally, that ideas are not always located in words.

We are delighted to have a second opportunity to show work from this talented artist.