Contemporary jewellery as affective experience : resisting biopolitics : an exegesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Fine Arts at Massey University, Wellington, New Zealand

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dc.confidentialEmbargo : No
dc.contributor.advisorBaird, Kingsley
dc.contributor.authorZellmer, Johanna
dc.date.accessioned2024-12-08T20:36:06Z
dc.date.available2024-12-08T20:36:06Z
dc.date.issued2024-11-05
dc.description.abstractThrough this creative, practice-led research I consider the affective aesthetic experience of contemporary jewellery as an interactive event of resistance. ‘Contemporary jewellery’ is a field of visual art practice distinct from commercial, fashion and costume jewellery. Its objects relate the body to the world through affective events, through which they may be considered as a mode of political intervention. As a jeweller, I am working in the space between craft and bioart, where materials are in a continuous visceral process of transformation. My project focusses on the making of collars and chokers out of used Illumina flow cells, waste products of the data collection technology known as DNA sequencing. Encircling and adorning a neck with these materials can create a significant affective experience. The human neck is a site of vulnerability and affect, where acts of power are displayed and experienced. Both jewellery and genomics are instruments of identity construction: the former a technology of the self and the latter a study of human bodies through scientific observation. Contemporary scholars such as Pravu Mazumdar, Elizabeth Povinelli, Stefan Muecke, and Thomas Lemke have undertaken extended research on such biopolitical conditioning. As an outcome of my craft training, my research inquiry is led by a creative, object-based practice. I have adopted the methodological framework known as speculative experimentation. This approach aligns with jewellery’s affective aesthetics through ‘critical hesitation, reflective questioning and thinking with unthinkable futures’. The experience of the resulting work can be destabilising and in turn creates hesitation, tension, and resistance. Artists and theorists Lauren Kalman, Tiffany Parbs, Agnieszka Wołodźko, and Renée Hoogland draw on these affective qualities of contemporary art and adornment. Informed by these key sources, this research project considers the agency of collars and chokers made from DNA sequencing tools as resistive ‘noise’ or irritants undermining the biopolitical standardisation of life and self. By fastening adornments firmly around the bare skin of a human neck, I am seeking to channel the haptic experience of these affective material objects into modes of resistance.
dc.identifier.urihttps://mro.massey.ac.nz/handle/10179/72224
dc.publisherMassey University
dc.publisherFigures are reused with permission.
dc.rights© The Author
dc.subjectJewelry making
dc.subjectUpcycling (Waste, etc.)
dc.subjectArt objects
dc.subjectWearable art
dc.subjectPolitical aspects
dc.subjectResistance (Philosophy) in art
dc.subjectAffect (Psychology)
dc.subjectcontemporary jewellery
dc.subjectfine arts biopolitics
dc.subjectresistance
dc.subjectaffective aesthetics
dc.subjectidentity
dc.subjectethics
dc.subjectapplication of DNA sequencing technology
dc.subject.anzsrc360602 Fine arts
dc.subject.anzsrc330310 Interaction and experience design
dc.titleContemporary jewellery as affective experience : resisting biopolitics : an exegesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Fine Arts at Massey University, Wellington, New Zealand
thesis.degree.disciplineFine Arts
thesis.degree.nameDoctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.)
thesis.description.doctoral-citation-abridgedMrs Zellmer posited the act of adornment as an affective experience, able to resist the biopolitical standardisation of life and self. Her research operates at the intersection of ethics, science, biopolitics, the application of technology and contemporary jewellery. Mrs Zellmer’s jewellery raises questions about standardised social and cultural practices and the resulting hierarchies, separations, and power relationships in Aotearoa and beyond.
thesis.description.doctoral-citation-long‘Contemporary jewellery’ objects relate the body to the world as a statement of politics, identity and humanity. In her doctorate, Mrs Zellmer posited the act of adornment as an affective experience, able to protest the biopolitical standardisation of life and self. Her series of collars and chokers were primarily made from flow cells, instruments of the data collection technology known as DNA sequencing. By engaging the bare skin of a human neck as a site of vulnerability, the tools used for the administrative enhancement of life were returned to a social existence, resisting the systems of biopolitics and capitalism.
thesis.description.name-pronounciationYO-HA-NA TSEL-MER
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