HiTek Mosaic
This work focuses on blending traditional methods of adornment with computers and electronics as objects of art. The use of “found” objects worn as adornment is as old as the history of mankind. These objects were often attributed with talismanic and magical properties. Originally, found objects were interesting, naturally formed materials such as stone, bone, wood, and shell. Around the turn of the 19th century, artists began incorporating manmade “found” objects, byproducts of industrial manufacture, into their art and adornment. String, glass, keys, bottle caps, photographs, and buttons all became fair game for the jeweler’s art. In the highest expression of art, these found object pieces conveyed both narrative and talismanic power.
Computers and electronics were selected as a material because they literally define the 21st century and our technological society. The materials are at once precious and disposable, hidden yet everywhere, defiant of expectation and conforming to a relentless precision. The works of High Tech Fusion explore the relationship of computerization and the concepts of contradiction, tradition, expectation, conformity, and value in personal adornment.
In everyday function, computer circuitry and electronic components are typically hidden within a shell. As futurists and jewelers, John and Corliss wanted to acknowledge the high design aesthetic lavished on these normally invisible objects. Literally turning things inside out, High Tech Fusion celebrates the textures, colors, patterns, materials and mystery embodied within the objects that surround us all.