issue#02 Copro[Reality]

In this issue is bout the body in contemporary jewellery practice in HCI. Re-visiting the work of contemporary jeweller , I suggest ways on looking on examples that could potentially inform the field of digital jewellery.

When body is seen as a canvas or an input of data, it limits the design possibilities of digital Jewellery.

The focus is on the experiential body. Its physicality, sensuality and social aspects are prominent in the explorations of the body from an experiential perspective.

Can we understand digital worn objects as sensation?

What about objects with different layer of meaning?

A piece digitally co-created with a significant other?

CORPO[REALITY] issue#2

This issue is about the body and jewellery

AN INTRODUCTION

jewellery and the self Jewellery serves as one of the oldest forms of bodily adornment, a cultural and historical relic (Goffman 1959). Jewellery plays an significant role in personal level to relate to one’s own personal experiences (Rana 2014; Urger 2013; Ahde-Deal 2013). Inherently intimate, personal, jewellery is concerned with someone’s identity and sense of self. Additionally, the fact that jewellery is worn close to the body, within the wearer’s personal space, gives it a particular intimacy and personal character (Wallace, 2005). By wearing, possessing and interacting with a piece of jewellery, people give it meaning and attach values to it. Either worn or not, hidden or visible jewellery objects offer the potential to explore and construct identity and meaning (Broadhead 2005, Potter 2007).

Jewellery is objects in dialogue between the wearer, the maker and the viewer. Jewellery is considered to be a form of communication, a sign that can be understood as an expression of someone’s identity (Besten 2011; Cheung 2006) demostrating a continual two-way process of expression by one person and the impression it makes upon others (Broadhead, 2005). Jewellery is not just about the self, it exists in the dialogue between the self and others in a social context. This dialogue has been highly explored in the contemporary jewellery practice to express and question notions of value and identity and investigate materials and forms. Contemporary jewellery contributed to the notions of what jewellery is and pushed the boundaries of what is accepted as jewellery in general. Contemporary jeweller’s main objective has been to create relationships between self and object, self - self, self -others, self - environment.

Therefore, contemporary jewellery goes far beyond the world of accessories, and fashion, as jewellers aim to provoke and stimulate emotive reactions and responses from the wearer and viewer.

Since notions of identity and personal significance are the basis of most contemporary jewellery thinking since the 1950s onwards (Dormer et al, 1994; Cheung 2006) it provides the broader context in which this research is placed. According to Wallace (2005) this understanding of jewellery can be related to designing for rich experiences to reveal the real potential of a jewellery piece in peoples’ lives. These are the jewellery objects that this research is referring to.

By Nantia Koulidou

THE BODY Jewellery is objects that relates to wearer’s body as it is placed within the wearer’s personal space. This gives a particular intimacy to the jewellery object that may be absent from other objects in arts and crafts or devices that we encounter.

Wearing something close the body offers the circumstances and the territory to explore issues of identity and declare relationships with others (Broadhead, 2005).

We do not just wear a piece of jewellery, we are telling something about ourselves in a social context (eg. a wedding ring). Far from acting as a social signifier and status symbol jewellery often holds a narrative with a personal significance.

In this issue, I will start an investigation on the role of body in the contemporary jewellery design practice and the field of wearables to unfold existing limitations and reveal some interesting insights for my further design practice. Examples of the field of contemporary jewellery will be examined in order to the experiential body; its sensuality and its physicality. This examination will potentially reveal approaches of designing digitally worn objects that understand the person holistically with fears, sensitivities, worries and emotions. (Wright, 2008).

Examples will be gather both from the contemporary jewellery practice and the new field of digital jewellery.

The emphasis is on the role of body.

JEWELLERY GAINS INTIMACY AS OBJECTS RELATED TO OUR PERSONAL NARRATIVES AND AS OBJECTS PLACED WITHIN THE INTIMATE SPACE OF WEARER’S BODY.

Body as canvas People have been wearing jewellery for ages.

Attaching stones and metals to the ears, and hanging necklaces around the throat and wrist, using a variety of materials ranging from bones to diamonds, developed into a set of cultural and behavioural patterns that have barely changed in thousands of years (Goffman,1958). The boundaries of what can be considered as jewellery started to blur recently, in the 60s and 70s, with The New Jewellery Movement.

Contemporary jewellery practices change our expectations and the way we interpret jewellery.

Contemporary jewellery goes far beyond its traditional forms and materials and becomes the medium for artistic expression and they were often presented in galleries or artistic publications and exhibition catalogue.

“Jewellery is quite open about itself, it has been a widespread liberation of jewellery; its definition is widening. It is no longer subservient to the law of the highest price nor to that of being used in only one way such as for a party or sacred occasion: Jewellery has become democratic”. Barthes, 2013 During the last 20 years sculptural shapes and the most unconventional materials have been used to create contemporary jewellery, conveying the wearable object to the extreme. Pushing the boundaries of what jewellery can be, jewellers started creating pieces that could barely considered as pieces of jewellery; Caroline Broadhead’s Veil 1983 (on the right up) or Lauren Kalman’s HardWear Oral Rims (on the right down) is just two examples. Therefore, jewellers broaden the field to that extend that jewellery could be anything as soon as it is driven from an artistic expression. The craft theorist Adamson (2013) stated “Jewellery is now a body cage and a mind expander.” “if everything can be jewellery, how can we define what jewellery is?“ “Who is the wearer of these objects, if we can call him like that ? How much are the jewellers thinking about the wearer of their creations?”

Although these pieces might have challenged our minds and ways of thinking around issues of wearability and beauty, in my point of view these examples can be seen as “parasites” on the body, because they lack its richer understanding with a focus on the experiential.

(Body) areas of investigation

“JEWELLERY IS IN ORBIT AROUND THE BODY, A GALAXY OF PLANETS WHIRLING ON THEIR DERVISHES”.

(ROSA SLIVKA, 1983) THE BODY BECOMES A STAGE FOR CONTEMPORARY JEWELLERY

THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN THE BODY AND THE PIECE OF JEWELLERY BECOMES MULTIFACETED AND AMBIGUOUS IN THE FIELD OF CONTEMPORARY JEWELLERY AND TO A LESSER EXTENT IN INTERACTION DESIGN AND HUMAN-COMPUTER INTERACTION (HCI) (WHICH ARE ADDITIONAL FIELDS IN WHICH DIGITAL JEWELLERY HAS BEEN DEVELOPED).

Body as data In the field of HCI, Examples of digital jewellery designed by Industrial Companies (IDEO, Philips, Apple, Nike) think about the human body as a convenient location for wearable and ubiquitous computing (as asserted by Wallace, 2008) and jewellery objects solve problems of wearability (as argued by White 2008). According to the critical voice of Elisabeth Ryan (2014), wearable research takes a diagnostic approach just as sensing and displaying wearers’ emotions (ex digital jewellery by Philips) and view the body as readable and manipulable text and data, a site of externally conditioned subjectivities. In other research WT functions as spectacle and confronts with the trend towards high-tech special effects in the catwalk.

The expressions of the body is in the core of many research projects in the field of fashion. Computationally controlled garments and accessories could detect changes of temperatures, moisture and transmit messages in the form of light, visual graphics, movement.

Bodily states became visible and role of body on the design process transform of that of stage to the performer. Vein2, Anemone and Aliform (Fusakul 2002) and Skin-Bone (Ugur 2013) are examples of digital worn objects that detect changes on emotional status of the wearer and act accordingly with movement or light.

Anemone and Aliform, (Fusakul 2002)

Skin-Bone, (Ugur, 2013)

Fractal Jewellery (Philips,2008) - Probe

TO WHAT EXTEND AND IN WHICH SETTING DO WE WANT TO VISUALISE OUR EMOTIONS?

HOW DO I UNDERSTAND/ DECODE BODY? IS THE BODY JUST DATA, COMING FROM SENSORS?

“Finger Gloves,” (1972) “You Might Not Hear Rebecca Horn Me” (2014), Catherine Chandler

Interconnection(2013) Kopfschmuck,Profilschmuck “Terrifying Beauty #2” Sun Kyoung Kim (1974), Emmy van Leersum (2009), Burcu Buyukunal

WHAT ABOUT THE SOCIAL BODY? THE ACT OF BREATHING, BLINKING THE EYES THE UNCONSCIOUS BODILY ACTIONS? ARE PARTS OF THE BODY? WHAT ABOUT BODY’S SENSUAL SENSIBILITIES?

THE EXPERIENTIAL BODY There is a number of jewellers and examples that focuses on the experiential qualities of the body and its interaction with the piece of jewellery. Finger Gloves (1972) from Rebecca Horn explores ways to extend the bodies physical capabilities, “You Might Not Hear Me” (2014) from Catherina Chandler is a piece that restricts the body to a sertain postures and thus restrains the physicality of the body. Exploring the uniqueness of the human form and by framing the contours of the body is a piece from Emmy van Leersum Kopfschumuck (1974). What fits one’s body shape might does not fit somebody else’s figure.

Dealing with conventions of beauty and challenging the function of jewellery as adornment the work Terrifying Beauty (2009) from Burcu Buyukunal distords the body with a piece of wire. Interconnection (2013)

from Sun Kyoung Kim is a series of pieces of jewellery that invites the wearer in social interaction and the touch of other bodies.

Different in purpose and the artist statement , these examples reveal the potential of jewellery to explore different dimensions of the human body. The focus is on the experiential qualities of the interaction.

The body and its physicality, sensuality and social aspects are prominent in the explorations of the body from an experiential perspective.

Body as participant I WILL EXAMINE CONTEMPORARY JEWELLERY PRACTICES THAT EXPLORE THE BODY IN A EMOTIONAL, SENSUAL AND SENSATITIONAL WAY, AS WELL AS EXAMPLES FROM THE RECENT FIELD OF DIGITAL JEWELLERY.

Examples of transformative forms in contemporary jewellery practice used the body as an activator of the interaction. The physicality of the body, its movement in space change the piece during the interaction. The importance of the piece has nothing to do with its physicality, but with the moment of the interaction and the experiential qualities of the piece.

Jewellery as Sensation

Outside the contemporary jewellery realm, a group of designer (Warsaw collective) with their project Pangenerator, 2013 proposes projection-based jewellery pieces. Working with digital as a design material, four dynamic options respond to different inputs measured by the phone’s built-in features and gyroscope. Only thinking that bodily’s movements will potentially change the form of the objects acertain a ceratin ephimerallity that gives a magical and experiential aspect to the interaction with the piece

The transiency of these pieces of jewellery challenge the wearer and the viewer to think about the object as a temporary effect with a certain durability and challenge the role of body in the interaction as participant that can transform the piece. The work of contemporary jeweller Naomi Filmer is concerned with the sensation of the objects, either the relation to the material sensation or also the physical sensation according to how you wear the object, or the object wears you. (from a lecture in Kolding, Denmark 2014) In the work of Millie Cullivan, Lace Collar (2004) an image is traced onto the bare skin with white dust.

What is left behind is a memory of touch, evidence of contact with the skin. On the body, there is an illusion of substance, a sensation “something“ on the body.

“A PIECE OF JEWELLERY IS ABOUT THE EXPERIENCE AND THE SENSATION. WHEN YOU EXPERIENCE SOMETHING TEMPORARY IT LEAVES AN EXPRESSION, A MEMORY” (NAOMI FILMER, 2014)

Ice (1999), Naomi Filmer

Breathing and moving might slighlty change the piece . The person wearing the piece recognise its ephemerality, by holding of one’s breath so as not to disturb the image.

Swarm (2008) is a project from Hazel White’s exploration on digital jewelery. The piece is a silver chain with a digital life. As the wearer moves the chain, which acts on the computer code in the application, the application causes on screen activity and create animations that trigger wearers imagination. Although the participants of the study couldn’t relate to the interaction with the necklace they were wearing, its extended “life” on the screen was a playful interaction.

The ephemeral character of a piece and the physicality of the body to change its form lead in these examples into rich experiences. The pieces might not always being limited in its physical form, rather it can be also an exploration of light in relation to the body.

Light Projections (1994), Susanna Heron

Susan Heron’s experiments with light projected on the body (1994) explores the sensation of light on the body. Her most famous piece was a series of images showing her wearing large-scale neckpiece, with projected light lines shined on her.

Millie Cullivan, lace collar, 2004

Swarms, on screen animation (2008), Hazel White

Light Jewellery (2014), Pangenerator

Traces of Jewellery

The Extraneous Body

(How does the presence/absense of a piece influence our relationship with it?)

Wearing jewellery changes the body, but at the same time, the body changes the piece, by leaving traces on the material. In the normal course of events, everything tends to change through wearing and tearing. Moreover, different materials age in different ways (Manheim, 2009: 88). For example, the skin’s acids can cause steel to tarnish and at the same time wearing a ring for years can leave a mark on the body. This transformation opens the dialogue between the object and the wearer and the role that each plays in the life of the other. Cheung et al (2003) comment on the importance of the relationship between the object and the imprint it leaves on the body.

(Body parts apart from the body)

us that something was once there and this trace or a memory now preserved in a new form. In his work the negative cast was the method to create the new form as a reminder/representation of the original piece. Can we think of it as a new object or a second life of the former piece? Both examples deal with the imprint of a worn piece, the first directly on the body and the latter on another material. The trace left by the bracelet is temporary where the negative space created by the ring and earrings are permanent. Is the qualities of the imprints and their duration influence the wearer relationship with the piece, which created it? Who was the wearer of the ring and earrings of Buck’s work?

“I have made a discovery that I think comes much closer to my true feeling about the ring. After taking the band off, there is a very distinct ridge left in my finger. I find this more intimate and meaningful and closer to the real meaning of our union than that of the object that created it. But this impression would not appear without first the existence of the ring and the time it has taken to create it physically in the first place.” (Cheung and Potter 2003: 6).

The relationship between object, traces, and the body is an interesting angle on meaningful relationships between the object and the wearer, and seeks for further explorations. Research has already been carried out in this area, including Bakker’s project Shadow Jewellery (1973). The project was an arresting work, in which the effect left by wearing the object is the purpose, rather than the object itself. A constrictive metal ligature was placed around the circumference of an arm, a leg or a torso, which, upon removal, reveals its imprint on the wearer’s skin. With his Shadow jewellery project Bakker (Manheim, 2009: 45) with his Shadow jewellery he reduces jewellery presence to the temporary impact of the gold wire that had been fixed to the body for a period of time. Kim Buck brooches (2003) is series of brooches consisting of negative casts of classic jewellery designs ranging from pearl earring to a solitaire ring tell

Shadow Jewellery (1973), Bakker

From the Victorian times on 18th and 19th century body parts have long being used in pieces of jewellery to commemorate beloved ones, or were given as token for affection (Luthi, 1998). Mostly hair, but also photographs, and painted body parts (eg.eyes) have been part of a piece of jewellery, either hidden in a locket or on the back side of the piece or the main idea for its creation. Although the realization that the origin of the piece is part of another’s body might offset the aesthetic appeal of the piece, it indicates its sentimental value for the wearer and its intimate connection via the body. Recent work from contemporary jewellery artists like Mona Hatoum with the “Hair Necklace” (1995) or Nanna Melland with “Decadance” (2003) re-assemble and re-contextualise familiar parts of their body. In their exploration body parts has not seen as a medium to connection with the “other”, but a way of exploring aspects of self in respect to waste and personal care.

Nails and Hair separated from the body are seen to be “other“.

Other examples use bodily parts in a more metaphorically way to bring a significant other closer to the wearer’s body. Gerd Rothmann is one of these examples. In the piece “Family necklace for the Schobinger family" (1998) he keeps close the fingerprints of parents or beloved ones to the wearer as negative imprints. The fingertips prints are a personal touch the jewellery piece which encapsulates the presence of the whole family. His creations are very personal jewellery, they are pieces that can evoke very strong emotional responses and become inextricably bonded to the wearer.

From the field of biotechnologies, a captivating example is the Biojewellery (2006) - rings designed by bio-engineered bone tissue. The ring is created to create intimate connections between lovers. Designed in the lab from the bone tissue of each partner, the piece suggest new ways of intimacy. The couple, who took place in the experiment, documented that wearing them feels like sharing a part of their own body with their partner.

Naomi Filmer’s work Lenticular Series (2007) engage the viewer in an embodied experience with recordings of breathing, the stroking of hair and clearing the throat. Through a multi-sensorial experience of impersonal bodily actions, she presents bodily actions that stays on the background of our everyday experiences. Out of the ordinary...what is more ordinary than being in your own skin, being in your own body, the sound of your own breath? But as soon as you take it out of context of inside your head or standing next to someone... you’ve removed it from the context, it becomes quite incredible, it comes quite surreal (Filmer 2007).

Body is re-assembled and re-contextualised to explore ways of connection self and significant other and create the environment for bodily awareness. From a site for wearing a piece of jewellery, jewellers have taken alternative ways to explore the role of body in intimate relationships and understanding of self. Body parts become parts of the piece known as mourning or sentimental jewellery, fingerprints traced a family story, even they become the raw material for a piece of jewellery in Biojewellery project.

WHAT IS THE IMPRINT FOR THE WEARER? THE SECOND LIFE OF THE PIECE, AN EXTENTION OF IT, A NEW PIECE?

Brooches (2003), K.Buck

Eyes, 18th century.

Biojewellery (2006), Research Project

“Hair Necklace”, (1995), Mona Hatoum

“Decadence”(2003), Nanna Melland

Lenticular Series (2007), Naomi Filmer

Family Necklace for the Schobinger Family (1998), Gerd Rothman

Chamfor, Shinichiro Kobayashi

Chilli Whistle (2003), Nana Akashi

Skin stamps, Blister Ring (2005), Tiffany Parbs

String of pearls, Maron van Kouswijk

Sediment Necklace (1995), Ruudt Peters

Swarms, on screen animation (2008), Hazel White

Activating Senses Contemporary jewellers explored pieces that could potentially activate the wearer’s senses. Either in a positive or negative experience the pieces triggered sensual experiences. Akashi’s jewellery, with its fragile appearence and unexpected transformations the natural forms they are based on, is an example that echoes the wearer’s senses of touch, sound and sight.

“Chilli Whistle”(2003) is being both a notice and a musical instrument. When the chilli is a pretty charm, which is then brought to life when raised to the lips.

Skin Stamps and Blister Ring (2005) from Tiffany Parbs is piece that activate the sense of pain. Inventive

Layers of Meaning and conceptual, she sees her ephemeral jewellery as an ongoing investigation into the residue left by the jewellery, the way that the marks or the sensations resonate on the skin ling after the piece has been removed.

Camphor from Shinichiro Kobayashi uses the material of camphor. Camphor is an unusual material to work with if you can withstand its strong smell and numbing anesthetic properties. Japanese jeweller, has used the white , crystalline resin, which comes from Asia and Australia laurel, to make a necklace which melts and reshapes itself during wearing.

A bar of soup gradually dissolving each time you wash might yield a hidden piece of jewellery, as in Maron van Kouswijk’s string of pearls, which lies trapped in a bar of amber-coloured transparent soap, much as an insect can be seen bought in a real piece of amber. “This genre of jewellery begs to be worn.

The warmth of the body could turn a chocolate into a ring, or a diamond made of ice into a drop of water” Ruudt Peters Pieces of jewellery such as “The Sentiment Necklace (1995) from Ruudt Peters, The Siberian Necklace (2006) from Ted Noten or the “String of pearls”from Maron Van Kouswijk reveal another piece during the interaction with the wearer. Taking one form to

start of with, another is revealed as the object come into contact with the bodily movements or the reaction with other materials. Soup gradually dissolves when washed, ice melts at room temperature, the black paint gradually rubbed off from Sediment Necklace and an on screen animation is activated on Swarms. The pieces are gradually transformed, either reversible or not and reform the relationship with the wearer.

Although there is not extended research on how people responded to these pieces of jewellery, they invite us to think pf the multiple layers of an interaction between the piece and the body and the meaning that this interaction might convey for the wearer.

(Body) areas of investigation

Jewellery as dialogue

Jewellers’ reflections

(Jewellery as responses to feelings and emotions of the jeweller)

Although contemporary jewellery practice seems to keep a distance from the physicality of the human body, to a great extent it implies the body metaphorically and raises questions around its emotional significance for the maker or the viewer.

Contemporary jewellers L.Cheung, I. Eisenberg, with their work driven from personal narratives, or O. Kunzli with his piece “Gold makes us Blind”, create objects that aim to provoke and stimulate emotive reactions and responses for the viewer. They raise a broad variety of issues concerned with preciousness, one’s identity, body, and relationships with others and open a dialogue between “bodies “. The object plays the role of a mediator of conversations around the body.

many copies of a form

The compotision of materials with emotional significance for the artists and its relation to the jeweller’s personal narratives can potentially provoke emotive responses from the viewer.

This approach is identical in the work of Lin Cheung. The repetition of a form in one of her piece “Memoria“ is in memory of her mother.

Whilst sorting out her things, she came across several ‘butterfly’ scrolls that neither belonged to an earring nor had any meaning or use on their own.

Breathe, (2006) L.Cheung

The reproduction of a form in the work Kate Maconie “Seven out of Fifteen Rings”, 2007 invite us to think of alternative ways of responding to a loss of a beloved one.

She made a cuttlefish casting of one of her late mother’s rings which had a particular emotional significance for her. It was cast using a process whereby the ring is pressed into the impressionable inside material of the cuttlefish, which has been split in half. Once the impression has been made, the ring is taken out of the molten metal is poured into the remaining cavity, so the original ring is not destroyed. A cuttlefish casting can be used only once, as the subsequent castings would not be sufficiently detailed. Maconie has worked with this knowledge and casted the ring over and over again.

“Memoria” (1999), Lin Cheng

reproduction of a form

Seven out of Fifteen Rings (2007), Kate Maconie.

20.12.53 - 10.08.04 (2005) from Moira Ricci is an intimate work where the artist manipulated old photographs of her mother, including her persona in the pictures. This work shows a strong desire to go back in time and stay with her mother.

Thinking of material that hold personal meaning for the wearer could be a design sensibility when we are designing for experiential pieces of digital jewellery.

Pink Years Later, (2009),I.Eichenberg

Gold mades us blind, (1980) O.Kunzli

20.12.53 - 10.08.04 (2005), Moira Ricci

Acts of Wearing Revisiting the relationship between the body and the piece of jewellery from the perspective of a rich emotional interaction between the wearer and the piece, the role of the body as an active participant can be identified. In the project Light Brooch (Stöber 1997) the body becomes a part of the interaction. Stöber‘s work encourages an interactivity at odds with much jewelery designed to be admired from a distance.

The body responds to the jewellery and the jewellery responds to the body. . Sensors detect the interaction between people and light sources illuminate when the shapes are touched and fades gradually when the contact is broken.

A ritual during the wedding ceremony, where both hands of bride and groom lovingly and cooperatively unfold and put on the rings is an exploration of the the choreographer Klooster (2010) with the piece Rings Rituals. This piece is about the interaction and more specific the interaction from the perspective of the richness of the moment of exchanging symbols of love and faith. The wedding rings are not part of the design , rather the design embody specific movements as variables for the choreography.

Both interaction are captured on snapshots (below) during the interaction on how the bodies of the loved ones touch each other

Rings ritual (Klooster, 2010)

Light Brooch (Stoeber, 1997)

DISCUSSION

desiging digital jewellery (on progress)

In our modern times, where the digital becomes prominent and acts as another material of designing wearable interactive objects, I reexamined the world of jewellery and the role of body to explore the experiential qualities of the interaction.

From my contextual review, we can design rich examples of digital jewellery only when we explore the experiential body. The act of wearing, holding, an object and its capacity to trigger meaning and activate personal connections. In this research, in order to design for the rich experiences for the wearer, the body is not seen as data or as a stage for artistic expression but as a wearer’s means of expressing feelings and emotions. Thinking of the experiential body is an approch that we can potentially design rich examples of digital jewellery from an experiential perspective.

The comtemporary jewellery I examined in this issue invite us to think that jewellery as triggers of people’s imagination and curiosity, as a sensation of the moment, as a piece with more than one layer of meaning.

I am interested in jewellery that goes far beyond the artistic expression to the meaning conveyed by its wearer and its experiential quality to connect individuals.