Un-Owned Territory The New Jewellery X Clothing Nexus : A Democratic Partnership

Abstract

Design has few catalysts to match the Dutch artistic collective De Stijl, which was founded in 1917, by four like-minded creative people who contributed to the radical journal, all eventually becoming a pivotal force in the creation of the modern movement. The collective instigated mass manufacturing methods and foreshadowing the democratisation of design as it is experienced today; paradoxically for this thesis the collective ventured into neither clothing nor jewellery. Addressing such an omission, this research employs aspects of De Stijl as the catalyst to investigate new egalitarian ways to cause jewellery and clothing to work collaboratively, by way of emancipating both and creating each as equals. The study is predominantly about first world societies, and covers a time span from 1917-2016, a context within which I have interrogated commonly held notions about jewellery and fashion clothing . Importantly the manner in which we use each, to identify and /or adorn the body, together with an overriding sense of hierarchy that one usually holds over the other, a hierarchy that varies in differing circumstances. Key expressions guiding this research are aspects of Piet Mondrian s neoplastic abstract theory, and the enduring intention of the De Stijl collective to take good design to the masses. The modern movement s philosophy of minimalism and reduction was also an important factor influencing the research. Additional study was undertaken, included researching systems within collective thinking, with the intention to grasp how an offered design moves from being possibly only a speculative idea, to being an innovation collectively embraced by a mainstream audience. The effective dissemination of a concept to a mass market has been an important factor at the studio practice nexus of this study, where advanced manufacturing laser sintering has enabled the study to employ semi mass manufacturing techniques to simulate a mass-market product. Other elements of the collectives design investigations have filtered ...