Beginning Tuesday, May 15, and continuing through Thursday, May 17, join FIT for three days of discussion surrounding jewelry design and manufacturing at the international symposium titled Digital Meets Handmade: Jewelry in the 21st Century. There has been a seismic shift in jewelry design and manufacturing in recent years. As digital design and model making have speeded up the process, they have proven themselves invaluable as tools of the trade. But every tool, hand-held or digital—leaves its mark.
This symposium will provide an arena for debate on how digital technology and making by hand duel for influence in the aesthetics, the use, and the cultural contexts of jewelry as both a manufactured product and as an applied art form.
Over the course of the three days, you will:
- See how digital technologies give us the opportunity to explore aspects of being human.
- See how digital design and 3D printing combine with currents in the craft traditions and “the maker movement” to propose new potential for jewelry—in its human contexts, and its visual language.
- See how the digital tool is harnessed to expedite classic handcraft, bending it to conform to the
best practices of the bench jeweler’s art. - Hear and participate in the discussion of how efficiency can detract and even reduce some of traditionally held values connected with jewelry and art.
- Learn how to find the sensuous in digital processes.
- See how the integration of digital technology in jewelry affects sustainability in manufacturing and the perceived monetary and artistic value of jewelry.
- See how new technologies integrate with handcrafted practices of a heritage American jewelry house.
- See how digital technology and making by hand duel for influence in the aesthetics, use, and cultural contexts of jewelry.
- Learn the implications of digital vs. handmade in a social context.
- See examples of what digital and handmade can do together, that neither of them can do alone.
Visit fitnyc.edu/jewelry-design/symposium for registration information, a schedule of events, and a list of speakers.