Machines, appliances, gizmos, and contraptions have always been a part of
illustration, enabling illustrators to transform their thoughts into real-life forms. The machine’s abilities, aesthetics, and impacts on humanity have always been a source of inspiration and concern. With the discussion raging around artificial intelligence as a game-changing technology, and when computers seem to inextricably serve as parts of creation and of our lives, perhaps it is time to take stock and consider the long-established but fluctuating relationship between illustration and the machine.

From the industrial printing press, the camera lucida, to the modern digital devices like drawing tablets and smartphones, — machines have played a critical role not only in the creation of illustrations but also in their reproduction and distribution. Throughout time, analogue and multimedia devices have offered new image–text relationships, bringing new modalities to illustration such as movement, touch and sound.

The digital has offered data visualisation; detailed, calculated modulation; and
access to nano and macro worlds, expanding the illustrator’s visual language and
scope. Self-made contraptions, and emergent technologies such as digital lenses
and wearables open new avenues for innovative visual experiences. By engaging
with these innovations, illustrators have pushed the boundaries of what machines
can achieve, expanding both the artistic and technical dimensions of their craft. The long history of illustrating machines reflects our fascination with both the technical and aesthetic aspects of machinery.

On the other hand, the technological drive towards progress has also created wasteful obsolescence and loss of knowledge and traditions. The potential for overtaking human creation, alongside the restricting impact of machine technology, should not be overlooked, especially when considered in relation to the authority held by creative-technology developers. Who controls who, the illustrator or the apparatus, particularly in this era of boundless growth of new technologies.

This evokes questions such as: What is the relationship that illustration has with the machine? How have machines and their technologies empowered or undermined the illustrator? How have machines enabled, defined or restricted new and exploratory creative processes and ways of thinking, in the past, present and future? Can a machine actually make illustrations? What can we take away from machine-made illustrations? Can a machine be an illustration? Can illustration be a machine?

We invite papers that expand upon, and discuss the relationship between illustration and technology, within topic areas such as creative Technologies and Production, Practice and discipline, Ethics, philosophy and politics, Iconography, Creativity, Representation, Communication and Narrative.