BA Design Third year. A documentation of my research.

Monday, 17 November 2008

Jayne Wallace


"Jayne is a practice-based researcher, with a craft and design background, w
hose work explores the potential of digital jewellery within personal
 experience and human relationships. She is currently a research associate in Culture Lab at Newcastle University
 and produces work as part of Patrick Olivier’s team.
Jayne invokes the intensely intimate human-relational context of jewellery to meaningfully interrogate a
nd address salient qualities of our experience of digital technologies. Key themes in this pursuit are: the notion of
 personal emotional significance, the relatio
nship between enchantment and the uncanny, and the interconnected qualities of beauty and enchantment. 

Her work seeks to unpick
 collective assumptions of digital technologies, as these affect the pace and texture of our experiences with all things digital, by employing creative
 methods stemming from design and art practice to produce digital artefacts that rethink current assumptions as to the nature of the digital and embody counter
 characteristics."


She gave a talk today about her practice. I found it very interesting but I think there was a little confusion for the audience as to where these items are placed.

Notes from lecture:

Digital arts, technology and jewellery. Newcastle University culture lab. Bringing scientists and artists together. Giving a texture, what objects can be. Define what it could be without resting on our current assumptions of them. In Wallace's MA she was interested in communication, relationships and difficulties. How we communicate with technology everyday. Traces that we leave behind. The consequences of what we do. The object that we leave behind. 

Wallace designed items such as an eyelash made of steal and silver which was too heavy to wear. Creating a space through the piece. 

The influence of technology. Some people have worn pieces of technology to see how do you feel if when wearing them. 

A film to watch; Fritz Lang, Metropolis, 1925. It is still very influential.

All about the dominance of technology. Wearable computer research; Steve Mann, Sutherland, 1966. Wearing computers on objects, see how it affects you. Wear things in spite of bulk to explore how life would be by wearing the piece.

Isao Shimosa

Digital jewellery;
-Philips design
-IBM
-IDEO- techno jewellery; breaking down mobile phone into objects such as a ring.

I like the idea of gesturing in the body to create forms items. Such as the mobile phone gesture that actually acts as a mobile phone with finger rings attached.

Talking pedometer
Fingerbeatz
Tokima
Samsung digital keyboard

Nicole Gratiot Staber; For two.
Holding someones hand with an object.

Heather Martin; Kiss communicator. Blow into the form which will send to other ball. Create a kind of signal system and meaning.

Treasure;
Personal treasure
-are not aesthetically pleasing
-All about stories that came into her mind
-Make objects that ask questions, start a conversation through objects.

Anthony Dunne- Bill Gaver et al
Cultural domestic probes.

Probes/ stimuli
Wallace made objects that encourage the consumer to tell her something about themselves.
-A throwaway camera
-A pot with clay in
-An award that is blank; as a way of asking what they would like to achieve.
-Where jewellery is worn
-Encourage a story about losing something
-A blank set of top trumps
About experimenting and playing with an object
Participants have the object for a month.

Results;
-One lady pushed her daughters lock of hair into clay. 
-Described a story with a pastry cutter
- Objects finding the person instead of the person finding the object.
As a result of the particular lady she designed an item called sometimes that echoed aspects of these stories.

The jewellery she designed would connect you to a particular space. There is a bleeding of fantasy with reality.
Another item Wallace produced was for a woman that doesn't wear jewellery unless it is meaningful to her. Velvet and porcelain are the closest to the feeling of flesh.

Old versus new, its not about cutting edge technology.
Capture once, only on chance to do it. Much about mediacy, which feels more natural and human.

Blossom; Objects and work inspired by different people. Absorbed ability to transcend spaces that are nourishing. Franked stamps and memory metal that is formed as an object. This item sends signals from somewhere in the world to understand what is going on in that country the item moves in different ways.

Making technology for different generations; Inter generation project. At allows you to feel the presence of different objects. Stroking the object can make it tremble. Bespoke electronics.

Creating little playgrounds on objects to investigate how people can respond. Person hood is the recognition of who you are. Make something to preserve person hood

Make objects that can be appropriated to the person. A porcelien hand mirror, whoever looks into can see something different. The mirror has a different kind of purpose or role.

Creating narratives to try to make sense of things. Preservation of person hood- dementure care; the lockets have things that can create the forgotton

Giving people objects to manipulate to answer a question.
Unpicking the digital. Making things that don't have deterministic functions. Have a kind of span that we need to be patient with, ubiquity and boundlessness. Putting boundaries in can create meaningless objects. Relationships within an intimate story.
-qualities particular to jewellery
-process that reflect private idiosyncrasies or personal significance.
-craft practice
-Enchantment- uncanny

Something starts to behave or do something which we don't know how or why.

Q&A

Q: A new type of jewellery? Doesn't jewellery do it as a non digital form?

A: Its about expanding means of jewellery (any object with the digital?) It's not about replacing its about extending a different kind of material in another kind of way. Tactility and relationships with the objects. 

Experiences of the uncanny; getting to grips with something unfamiliar. Sonic phenomena; voices, sound, recording processes.

There is a book mentioned by a tutor to do with ventiulicism about the disembodied person, a rich area for exploration.

A: There is a huge gap within the digital world. Design possibility. You can make things that are different. We have assumptions of what it is and so there are limitations. Creating a conversation within a space. Seeing the digital world in a materialistic way. Digital has changed all of us in the way that we work. Make something that fits in with existing meanings. Open enough for it to grow. Exploration to see if it can happen, employing sensority

Can objects such as jewellery help medicine.
How craft can communicate through many disciplines. Right kind of feel and aesthetic. 

Motes are tony computers that get added to circuit boards, like WIFI but you have more control. 

Overall, it was a very interesting lecture despite the confusing aspects of what Wallace is trying to get at with all the research. As a result I have highlighted elements that interested me in connection to my project. 

I have often thought about the way we perceive and think about objects.  I am interested in altering the way we perceive objects to create advantages. Such as encouraging a cultural shift.


Below is Jayne Wallace's website;

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