Ornamutations (ongoing since 2021)

Abstract

In 2021, as Artificial Intelligems, we launched a call for jewellery makers to share images of their works to create a dataset. We received applications from 124 artists and designers worldwide, who together submitted nearly 1,000 photographs. We turned these images into a dataset to train a machine learning algorithm which "learned" from that 'input’ and generated new images, which we call Ornamutations’ These images could be envisioned as individual pieces. Another way of looking at it, is to consider the model itself as a jewel or an act of adornment, generating a transforming digital piece. To envision adornment as continuously meta-morphing and multidimensional, seemingly fluid, solid and gaseous at once, sparks the imagination. Considering or naming these liquid images as adornment shifts perspectives on materiality, tactility, wearability, and other traits of jewellery. How might this impact, and broaden, understandings of jewellery, and more specifically its connections to humans and their bodies?