Phenomenon ... da, da, da, da, da

Last year it was all embroidery, crochet, and felt, now its all objectivity, empiricism and phenomenology.  Isn't post graduate study great!   

Empiricism has been cropping up a lot in my jewellery research.  Simply, empiricsm can be thought of as knowledge derived from experience.  This is particularly relevant to jewellery, in that the act of wearing jewellery (feeling it, seeing it, hearing it) in some ways impacts on the wearer's notion of self.  The physical interaction with the jewellery is key, and if an item of jewellery is worn that can be neither felt, nor seen, nor heard (by the wearer) then the implication is that wearing it has no impact on the wearer's notion of self, and it ceases to be relevant.  Instead, the jewellery becomes jewellery for the viewer only.

Further reading of philosophical concepts has led to another strand of thought, phenomonology.  I'm still trying to get my head around this one, but a strand of thinking which I suspect may have relevance to my practice, are the notions of thesis, antethesis and synthesis.  Not strictly phenomenology, but an offshoot of the philosophy, and found in the associated reading.  In simple terms, you take one idea (thesis), find an opposing idea (antethesis) and bring them together to come up with a third idea (synthesis).

This three staged process resonates with my approach to recent work, in which I have taken a found object (thesis), dipped it in plastic to abstract the form (antethesis) and then made a response to each piece (synthesis).  Further reading into the subject will hopefully provide a greater understanding of this triad, and may offer some different ways of making responses, and developing my practice.

Thesis, Found object, 2011 © Vanda Campbell

Antithesis, Found object, plastic, 2011 © Vanda Campbell

Synthesis, Acrylic, glass, 2011 © Vanda Campbell