Konstantia Koulidou
Why should Jewellers Care About the Digital
2018
Output: Journal Article
In the journal paper Why Should Jewellers care about the Digital? Koulidou provides a discussion on digital jewellery practice from a jeweller’s perspective. The paper presents a critical overview in relation to both jewellery practice and material culture through the lens of the digital. More specifically, this paper questions what it means to be human when our bodies are extended through augmented means.
The paper starts by analysing existing conceptions of digital jewellery as part of wearable technology and wearable heath technology and moves on to position digital jewellery as part of contemporary art jewellery practice through selected pieces of jewellery. In so doing, Koulidou highlights an extended palette of materiality through digital technologies and is cautious to consider this from a stance of a jeweller in relation to sensibilities towards the body, how we use artefacts to communicate with self and others and how we make things that are personally meaningful.
Most of the digital devices in the market come with a set of expectations such as: What does it do? How long does the battery last? How cutting edge is the technology? By contrast, this research offers a focus on atypical personal interactions with digital technology in order to address a different range of questions and potentially open up our expectations of what digital jewellery can be. This critical review of digital jewellery defines a need for a better understanding of the digital experiences with contemporary art jewellery and reveals a rich conceptual design space. To this end, a framework for understanding and conceptualising digital jewellery is presented. The framework explores the more poetic qualities of interaction with digital technologies and the self. This output contributes to discussions around how jewellery practices that may enrich perspectives on designing wearables, marrying craft with technology, and personalisation of experiences.
Research Output
This collection of images displays the outputs from this project. Find out more details in the full case study below.
Research Method
The questions that the research aims to answer are: How can the digital help us understand the self? What is the value of a new way of imaging the body through the digital? Can jewellers add value to this process?
Key Methodologies:
