Cross-disciplinary jewellery: boundary objects and cross-disciplinary knowledge in contemporary jewellery

Abstract

In European contexts, jewellery has evolved into a diverse and multifaceted art form that can be understood through a range of conceptual and material frameworks, including form, imagery, kinetics, and abstraction. Influenced by developments such as the 1960s studio movement and the rise of modernist studio jewellery, often referred to as contemporary jewellery, the field now includes various recognised categories such as architectonic, narrative, and transformational jewellery. One category that remains conceptually underdefined is that of cross-disciplinary jewellery.

Although more jewellers are developing with cross-disciplinary knowledge and skills in their practice, there has been little mention of cross-disciplinary research related to the jewellery field in existing academic literature. Therefore, this thesis presents a programme of practice research that goes some way to addressing this.

This research follows a craft-thinking methodology as an epistemological framework that structures the entire research process, characterised by a reflective, iterative and generative dynamic. Within this framework, exploratory creative practice is interwoven with moments of structured conceptual analysis and theoretical synthesis in three key phases. The first of these involves the generation of candidate criteria for a definition of cross-disciplinary jewellery through a series of case studies. This is followed by first-person practice research in the form of a distributed collaborative project, Data-Music-Jewellery, between myself (a jeweller) and a visual artist, providing an opportunity to reflect on and refine the criteria; and a final third phase, in which insights are synthesised, and a heuristic definition of cross-disciplinary jewellery practice is proposed.

Within the second phase, an additional analysis is undertaken to interrogate the dynamic processes of knowledge exchange, and of deconstruction, transformation, and reconstruction within the cross-disciplinary collaborative project. This is achieved through reflexive thematic analysis using a framework based on boundary objects and their derivative concepts.

The proposed definition of cross-disciplinary jewellery practice includes criteria related to the integration of knowledge, skills, materials, or concepts from other fields and innovative application or reinterpretation of external expertise within jewellery, whether through specific materials, techniques, or conceptual approaches. The cross-disciplinary creative process is driven by a dynamic flow of knowledge, in which ideas are deconstructed from their original fields and reconstructed within jewellery practice, resulting in new and transformative creative outcomes.

The main contributions of this research are twofold. Firstly, it proposes a heuristic definition of cross-disciplinary jewellery (as a category of objects that involves particular patterns of practice and knowledge), enriching the jewellery research literature. Secondly, the analysis identifies the ways in which boundary objects are generated, brought into play and are involved in cross-disciplinary collaboration, opening up the creative process and contributing to the craft and design thinking discourse, as well as deepening the understanding of the dynamic nature of boundary objects, contributing to the study of boundary objects.