Demo Hour

DEMO HOUR: Poetic Interactions with Digital Jewelry

Digital jewelry is a form of object that combines jewelry with electronics and computing. Our understanding of digital jewelry practices is fragmented, however, as its creators draw upon different traditions from a diversity of artistic, fashion, engineering, and participatory design approaches. Microcosmos, Topoi, Togetherness, and Travelling with the Sea are digital jewelry pieces that offer opportunities for self-reflection and connectedness during the transition of traveling between two home countries. These examples are propositions that give us a particular window to think about digital technology in a different way and put new lenses on what digital jewelry can be.

Koulidou, N., Wallace, J., and Dylan, T. The materiality of digital jewellery from a jeweller's perspective. Proc. of the 4th Biennial Research Through Design Conference. 2019, Article 1, 1–16; https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.7855748.v1

Koulidou, N. Why should jewellers care about the digital? Journal of Jewellery Research 1 (Feb. 2018).

www.nantiakoulidou.com

Nantia Koulidou, Sheffield Hallam University
[email protected]

Left: Topoi containins tiny microfilm images from two countries that are significant to the owner. Right: Microcosmos contains a microfiche image that can be accessed only during an airplane flight.

Travelling with the Sea is a piece of digital jewelry connected to the geolocation data, enabling people to tap into data from places they are passing over during a flight.

Togetherness is made up of two brooches, meant for two wearers in two countries. Each brooch works as data logger. A new piece is created from the data collected.

Visitors can present an object to a tableau to provoke its character to respond.