Exploring aesthetics through digital jewellery

Abstract

We are on the verge of a digital era that needs an alternative for cultural standardization and the postmodern hype of styles, subcultures and social status. [7]. Several theorists have emphasized the importance of social-cultural context, sensorial perception [9,10], materiality and the mediating potential of products [13]. We adopted a research through design approach to explore these aspects [16]. We developed digital jewelry-concepts to support individuals who life in another country and culture than the one they grew up in [12]. From that we extract lessons for the future development of wearables and make the case for a next aesthetics that pairs digital technology to ancient rituals, material qualities to sensorial abilities, practical function to intrinsic value.