Jayne Wallace
Sheffield Hallam University, UK

Sometimes I forget to remember

There are many challenges facing us as practitioners, researchers and commentators of craft, as discussed and expressed here over the past few days. If we are to assert the relevance of our discipline within our current culture and that of the future we need to engage with the challenge that lies centrally to this question: that of communication.

How do we communicate that craft is a valuable, relevant, unique force within our fast changing world? Or communicate the value of knowledge within craft practice and the value of craft as a form of exploration involving human meaning and significance?

The theme of communication is one that has arisen within my current doctoral research into the integration of digital technologies within Contemporary Jewellery. Within this area of investigation the core of my work is to explore how jewellery can act to express and play a role within what we each consider to be meaningful for us in our lives and how the expression of fragments of this can be expanded through the integration of digital technologies.

Many of the key issues for me within this research pivot on the relationship between craft and digital technology. Sensitivities such as beauty & personal meaning have helped me to gain an understanding of this relationship and I am going to focus on how communication is a vital aspect of this.

So what is digital jewellery?

As computing and technology become more ubiquitous in their conception ideas are growing of how the body can be used as a location for digital devices. Corporate examples include Philips, IDEO and IBM amongst many others.

Almost all of these devices are products from designers and not jewellers however.

The motivations in making objects to be worn on the body are different to those of contemporary jewellers.

Some approaches show an openness to form and modes of interaction, some have playful elements, but I would argue that most if not all are driven by an opportunistic approach to using jewellery and the body as their stage. The body is used for convenience, to be able to access your technology whenever and where ever you want. That’s fine, but these concepts miss many of the subtleties and meanings possible in creating interactive jewellery objects. The thrust is the technology, not the jewellery or the person.

There are other forms of current digital devices, which relate to the body where the attention to user aspirations and needs are less rigorous. Here are some examples A talking Pedometer, 'FingerBeatz', a hand operational drum machine, The 'Tokima', a watch which transforms into a robot and emits random Zen like messages and the Samsung virtual keyboard.

Most if not all electronic, or digital appliances have a lifespan, governed not by a technological defect of the appliance necessarily, but by its function or usefulness becoming usurped by another, newer, faster, 'better' one. Such appliances are often referred to as gadgets.