DEBODY
M.A. THESIS BY YALING WANG
In our contemporary society, digital have become an integral part of our existence, serving as virtual extensions of our physical bodies that permeate every aspect of our lives. Jewelry, as an artifact intricately linked to the human body, similarly extends with the physical presence into the virtual realm.
This project seeks to explore the interplay between moving images and jewelry's representation of the body, examining their commonalities and boundaries. By delving into this relationship, I aim to uncover new insights into the role of visual culture in shaping our understanding of the body and its adornments in the digital age.
CREDIT
Director
Editor
Professor Supervisor
Jiani Deng
Shaohong Yu
Jiayi Wang
Yueyue Zhang
Special Thanks to
Yaling Wang
Lingxuan Zhang
Jay Song
Ziyou Wu
Mengtong Yu
Jiashi Ying
Qiuwan Wang
De-define Jewelry
"Whoever lives by meaning dies by meaning"
——Jean Baudrillard
The term "jewelry”, as well as “contemporary jewelry”, operates primarily as a linguistic instrument, facilitating the construction of a consistent empirical framework rather than functioning as a comprehensive portrayal of reality.[1] Referred to as "jewelry," it embodies collective experiences that constantly oscillate and fluctuate, revolving around concepts such as "craft," "status," "body," and "wealth".[2]
Efforts to define the parameters of jewelry are not only superfluous but also fundamentally flawed. Attempts to redefine jewelry and broaden its conceptual boundaries do not represent innovative challenges, but rather, they signify individual breakout entrenched within personal, predetermined, intrinsic, and inflexible frameworks. The prevailing historical narrative of redefining jewelry is a collective memory, reflecting fragmented personal strife.
[1] “An epistemic interpretation, on the contrary, holds that such entities or processes do not necessarily exist in any literal sense but are simply useful for organizing human experience and the results of scientific experiments–the point of an explanation is only to facilitate the construction of a consistent empirical model, not to furnish a literal description of reality.” https://iep.utm.edu/explanat/
[2] Skinner, D. (2013). Contemporary jewelry in perspective.
