Definition of 'context'

June 5, 2021

The more I read about Illustration and its use, the more the word context crops up. Whilst I am familiar with it and have probably even used it at times, I don't actually fully understand its meaning or usage so I am going to find out more.

I first checked the only two Illustration books I own, The Education of an Illustrator ( Heller and Arisman, 2000) and Thinking Visually for Illustrators (Wigan, 2018)

The Education of an Illustrator provided nothing but their was a definition in Thinking Visually for Illustrators

Context

The setting or circumstances of an event, an idea or statement. Awareness of context is fundamental to successful visual communication. ( p. 161)

That helps me to understand the way it was previously used in the same book when discussing portraiture.

The representation of a person's character and personality involves the artist's interpretation and point of view. When researching portraiture, ask what impression the sitter wants to project and to what extent has the artist enhanced or undermined this. It is also necessary to question the function of the portrait. Why was it commissioned and who was it intended for? Is it a form, for example, of self-promotion or possibly a comment or religious belief?

As representations of people portraits cannot be removed from their social, political, historical and cultural contexts.

In a project addressing the construction of images, some illustration students were set a project on self-portraiture. Visual research for this project included historically contextualising this genre by analysing notions of status, self-worth, psyche, gender, wealth, vanity and identity. Exploring the visual construction of self-portraits and the manipulation of pictorial properties in relation to the portrait's historical context deepens your understanding of its intended meaning. (p.37)

So now to see the official definition provided by Google

context

/ˈkɒntɛkst/ noun

the circumstances that form the setting for an event, statement, or idea, and in terms of which it can be fully understood."the proposals need to be considered in the context of new European directives"

Similar:circumstances, conditions, surroundings, factors, state of affairs, situation, environment, milieu, setting, background, backdrop, scene, climate, atmosphere, ambience, mood, feel, frame of reference, contextual relationship.

I think the words cited as similar help as much as the definition.

I think I now have a better understanding but feel for the immediate future this will be a post I will need to come back to again to help me when deconstructing images or creating new briefs.

References

WIGAN, M (2014) Thinking visually for illustrators, London: Bloomsbury Publishing Plc

HELLER, S and ARISMAN (2000) The education of an illustrator, New York: Allworth Press