Jewellery for Life and its Impacts on People
30th November - 8th December 2022
Dr Roberta Bernabei fostered notable events in Craft Research, promoting jewellery research through an international and interdisciplinary approach. In 2022, an international event was held at Loughborough University, The event included a Symposium, Exhibition, Workshops and Docufilm.
Jewellery is not only an engagement ring! Jewellery is known to us with its multifaceted roles and values in our life but its implications in the complexities of our society mostly went unnoticed. Although jewellery is widespread in our collective imaginary, it is connected too often with pure embellishment of the human body, and surprisingly rarely reflected upon in design.
To reflect on jewellery often involved thinking about luxury jewellery or their mass-produced copies. Jewellery research is crucial in how jewellery in action in our lives was understood, designed, and researched. In these times of urgent re-considerations and reflections on our actions, researchers are encouraged to reflect upon the impact of their artefacts in society. Jewellery for Life provided opportunities to reflect on various possibilities of creating meaningful jewellery.
It offered a chance to explore multiple roles of jewellery across all areas of design, art and craft and their research. It instigated a discourse on jewellery as an aid for well-being, and as a cultural and participative design where the act of making became fundamental to bring participants’ knowledge expertise and experience to the fore front. It challenged preconceived ideas that jewellery was relegated to decorate the ‘female’ body as a trophy for the ‘male’ affirmation of his powerful status. Instead, Jewellery for Life showed this medium as a form of art that, for example, manifested political dissent.
Inevitably as jewellery has numerous roles in our lives, it brings joy, but it could also bring sadness as it was also associated to crime, and law. The so called ‘Jewellery law’ was an example of traumatic violence when the Danish authorities had the power to confiscate jewellery to arriving asylum seekers.
International Selection Panel for Symposium: Prof. Cees De Bont, Dr Seçil Ugur Yavuz, Dr Roberta Bernabei, and Erinn M. Cox
The symposium and exhibition was delivered in partnership with the Goldsmiths’ Centre. Including support from Loughborough University SDCA, JJR Journal of Jewellery Research and AGC Associazione Gioiello Contemporaneo, Italy.
Banner image credits: Images 1. Yajie Hu, 2. Carrie Dickens & Lau Photography, 3. Helen Sutherland.