Jayne Wallace
Sheffield Hallam University, UK

Sometimes I forget to remember

Gadgets have little lasting meaning for us and aren’t designed to be lasting – they are about newness and novelty. Neither of which are a bad thing in themselves but as a jeweller it goes against my grain. My craft education has given me a desire to make jewellery which has a lasting value, objects which explore our relationships with the world and each other. Ones based on personal significance which highlight and amplify elements of our lives that are important to us.

Two interactive projects that have been inspirational to me are ‘Kiss Communicator’ by Heather Martin and ‘For Two Rings’ by Nicole Gratiot Stöber.

'Kiss Communicator' is a way of digitally blowing someone a kiss over distance. When you blow a kiss into the mouth of the device a sensor picks this up, translates it into a series of pulses of light and sends them to the other pod, which glows in length and strength according to the kiss you blew. There is an importance for me here in the way digital technology can relate to a human element of communication, there is also openness to the interaction; a personal language of lights can be built up between people.

‘For Two Rings’ by jeweller Nicole Gratiot Stöber is motivated again by human centred concerns; the jewellery is physically activated and visually changes in response to interaction between people. Sensors detect the interaction and light sources illuminate when the forms are touched. Human interaction and relationships are central to the pieces. The private gesture of holding hands is amplified by the jewellery thus making a private gesture very public. The pieces highlight the thrill of a touch and also the potential embarrassment of the public display.

Both of these pieces are important because there is an emotional function to them, they are about human relationships and use technology as a kind of magic, something playful, something not strictly necessary in terms of usefulness or utility, but I would argue that they are completely necessary in the development of what technology can bring to jewellery and how interactive jewellery can contribute to our lives and relationships.

As practitioners we often explore our own personal criteria for significance. For me fundamental challenges to this have arisen from firstly working with wearable digital technologies, which often brings with it the assumption of mass production, task orientation, speed, ubiquity and repeatability. I have chosen to challenge many of these assumptions by approaching the technologies as I would any other material, tool or process at my disposal, not to be beguiled or seduced by the gimmicks of new technologies but to see them as an extension to my palette. The second challenge has arisen through my extended role of researcher along with practitioner. This brings with it the dynamic of an internal relationship between these roles; the need for an internal form of communication, an understanding of how the decisions made within the research are communicated and rendered transparent to others and also how to communicate across disciplines.