Illustrated Reportage of Environmental Disasters
- Submitting institution
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University of Gloucestershire
- Unit of assessment
- 32 - Art and Design: History, Practice and Theory
- Output identifier
- 27
- Type
- T - Other
- DOI
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- Location
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- Brief description of type
- A short spin-off of the exhibition "On the Palm of the Uknown" at the Lakes International Comic Arts Festival 2017
- Open access status
- Out of scope for open access requirements
- Month
- October
- Year
- 2017
- URL
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- Supplementary information
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- Request cross-referral to
- -
- Output has been delayed by COVID-19
- No
- COVID-19 affected output statement
- -
- Forensic science
- No
- Criminology
- No
- Interdisciplinary
- No
- Number of additional authors
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- Research group(s)
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- Proposed double-weighted
- No
- Reserve for an output with double weighting
- Yes
- Additional information
- This submission is part of a longstanding and ongoing project developed in response to the Fukushima nuclear disaster of 2011, with a portfolio that includes the following:
• Five illustrated reports of the disaster and its aftermath for ‘Internazionale magazine’ (Italy, 2014 –2018)
• ‘On the Palm of the Unknown’, an exhibition of 20 drawings for The Lakes International Comic Art Festival in Kendall, Cumbria, and also at the Beacon in Whitehaven near Sellafield, Cumbria (UK, October 2017–February 2018)
• ‘See it, Hear it, and Speak with thoughts’ – an illustrated publication to accompany ‘On the Palm of the Unknown’ (UK, 2017)
• ‘Les Yokai de Fukushima’, an extended version of the UK exhibition at Maison Fumetti, Nantes, as part of the Fumetti Comic Art Festival (France, 2019)
• Two contributions to graphic reportage magazine, ‘Save Our Souls’ (2015 and 2017)
This research demonstrated that comic art is an effective way to offer insight into human experience in the aftermath of environmental disasters and to highlight the social and economic factors that contribute to them. In this project, Obata developed a way of reporting a catastrophe that is subtle and led by illustration but that also takes readers into psychological depth by demonstrating the interpersonal and relational impacts. This approach allowed Obata to reinvigorate debate about specific disasters beyond the impact of the immediate aftermath, and bridge the gap between survivor as subject and the bystander as interpreter of survivors’ experiences.
- Author contribution statement
- -
- Non-English
- No
- English abstract
- -
