Negotiated Projects: Jewellery Conversations by Chelsea Kemp

55-

702803AF-20178 NEGOTIATED PROJECTS: 'BUS STOP JEWELLERY'

CHELSEA KEMP

CONTENTS THE BRIEF... 5 CONTEMPORARY JEWELLERY THE EXPERIENCE... 7 THE ROLE OF THE COMMUNICATOR... 11 APPROPRIATE PLACES TO HAVE A CONVERSATION... 13 THE ROLE OF THE MANAGER... 17 COMMUNICATION SPACE... 19 CLIENT MEETING AND REFLECTION... 21 TRIAL EXHIBITION... 25 PREPARATION FOR FINAL EXHIBITION... 28 FINAL EXHIBITION AND REFLECTION... 32 CONCLUDING THOUGHTS... 40 WORKS CITED... 41 IMAGE ACCREDITATION... 41

THE BRIEF

CONVERSATIONS THROUGH JEWELLERY The client; Corienne Julius and Maria Hanson have a combined background of research, curating, critiquing and jewellery making. Brief background; Titled ‘Jewellery Conversations’, contemporary jewellery is described as being one of the most powerful communication devices by allowing individuals, societies and cultures to share their stories. The wearable artefact has been explored and pushed through the boundaries of what a piece of jewellery should be and continues to push the boundaries and explore. Jewellery has notably been received as personal but the brief asks us; does contemporary jewellery have the ability to reach a larger audience and create ‘conversations’? The original suggested title ‘Bus Stop Conversations’ was a clever metaphor for how strangers can start unpredictable conversations within public space and the project aims are to create contemporary jewellery and communicate this to an audience within a public space.

Make Stories. Wear Stories. Collect Stories. Brief requirements; Working individually and part of a collective, the wearable artefact must communicate stories via themes and aim to also gain stories as part of the audience’s reactions and communication. My role; As communicator, my role aims are to communicate the process of the wearable artefact manufacturing, the themes and the collected stories from the audience and/or exhibition. Alongside this, assistance with the exhibition and trialling, location spotting, graphics and email communications fell into my role. Audience Aim; Trialling in a controlled space within the university, students and staff alongside a limited number of the public would be involved. The official exhibit will be within a public space, so the public can interact with the contemporary jewellery and interact with other people by conversing.

Graphic of jewellery stories idea logo.

CONTEMPORARY JEWELLERY THE EXPERIENCE

This project revolves around contemporary jewellery and unlike my fellow designers my background contained zero experience around jewellery, the making process or experience from the jewellery. The key starting point became the question; what is contemporary jewellery? The practice of contemporary jewellery was described by (Wallace, Dearden, & Fisher, 2007) as “a rich craft discipline that seeks to extend concepts of jewellery by embracing new, and reinterpreting old, materials, processes and perspectives, whilst challenging preconceptions of jewellery and its role in society.” Within the 1960’s (Wallace, Dearden, & Fisher, 2007) makers such as Gijs Bakker and Emmy Van Leersum challenged the potential of contemporary jewellery during the era considered the ‘new jewellery movement’, this included experimenting with the placement on the body (see figure 1) and the relationship with the body i.e. the materials and what the jewellery represented. Makers such as these; Gijs Bakker and Emmy Van Leersum, opened up the opportunities for other jewellers to explore the boundaries of contemporary jewellery and conceptual jewellery. The experience with the jewellery started to change and the relationship of where it could or could not be placed on the body was challenged alongside the materials used, they didn’t have to be expensive or precious metals, the piece itself could translate something other than its value.

Figure 1 - Gijs Bakker, Scholderpiece, 1967 (Wilkes, 2014).

The perspective that jewellery was to be worn on the body is still very much alive today but was this all it was supposed to be? What was the intimacy between the body and the jewellery, according to anthropologist Daniel Miller the closer the relationship with objects, the closer the relationship with others (Miller, 2008). As suggested by Miller, that people have a close relationship with their jewellery, it could also be suggested that jewellery itself is quite a personal artefact that the wearer has a greater connection with i.e. an emotional connection. Jewellery stories were the vital part of this brief and the most important area for the client was getting the public to speak about the contemporary jewellery and gather stories. So, the idea was that the contemporary jewellery created or started conversations and how this was approached depended on the jewellery, the environment and the people. Whilst researching, a similar style of ‘project’ was created by Mah Rana in 2002 named Meanings and Attachments which engaged people to create a written and photographic record of their personal connections to their jewellery. Meanings and Attachments didn’t contain much contemporary jewellery but the thought behind the project seemed an inspiration for the client brief and how we, as a group should approach the people. Jewellery is personal to the individual and in order for us, as a group to engage the public with the contemporary jewellery created it is important to speak to them about their own connections with their jewellery (see figure 2 as an example). Figure 2 shows one of the people who participated in Mah Rana’s public participatory project Meanings & Attachments (Svedestedt, 2014), alongside the photo, the personal connection between the wearer and the jewellery was recorded - “St. Christopher gold medallion – protection for Travellers, a birthday gift from my wife. Stainless steel necklace & pendants. Universal allergy symbol to protect the Traveller from incorrect diagnosis. Two gold bracelets- presents from my wife. All the above are always worn as a constant reminder of what they mean.” The project and the publics willing participation displayed and enlightened myself from a research perspective of the personal connections people have with their own jewellery and how it isn’t about just how it is worn, jewellery has a much deeper relationship with the wearer. This project and the stories that the group aim to gain could reinforce Daniel Miller’s suggestion of how being close with objects results in creating closer relationships with people. The hopes and aims from interacting with strangers in a public space is that the artefact; jewellery enables the group to create a bond with the stranger which allows a natural conversation to flow without either party feeling uncomfortable. In a worst-case scenario, the participants feel uncomfortable and no stories can be collected which could mean that the contemporary jewellery and conversation isn’t generating enough of an experience or bond for the public to engage with.

Figure 2 - Trevor, Blackpool 2004 (Meanings & Attachments) (Svedestedt, 2014).

THE ROLE OF THE COMMUNICATOR Within this brief each individual discovered their role and place within the group, the position within the group depended on the individuals discipline. The majority of the groups discipline was jewellery and metalwork leaving myself and another as the other disciplines; interior design and fashion management and communication. Since everyone had assigned roles I began to feel lost within this brief as I wasn’t considered a ‘maker’ which seemed predominantly one of the most important roles within this brief although I needed to find my place as the communicator and what it was. What was a communicator? Professional communicators named infelicitously by (Carey, 1965) such as journalists were said to be an example of having “a distinct social role”. It is understandable why journalists were said to have a social role similarly to most communicators, their roles and outcomes are socially dominated. My role as the communicator could be considered as quite a socially orientated role within that my actions and outcomes would affect the proposed audience. As a communicator the aims of this position were to successfully promote and communicate the jewellery stories process and outcomes via a trial and final exhibition, graphics and posters, photographs and possibly film. The communicators role is important in that they engage the audience and portray the client, the project and the work of other individuals yet the role is not limited to just graphics, writing and display. In order to display and communicate work, the communicator needs to gain permissions of other individuals such as gallery managers, technicians, health and safety etc. in order to provide an exhibition space. This suggests that the communicator needs to have a varied skill set alongside social skills and likeability; a study was done within a university and the outcome stated that the likeable communicators were more persuasive in “video and audiotape” (things that enable them to speak face to face) as opposed to being persuasive in writing (Chaiken & Eagly, 1983). Likeability enables communicators to engage with people, gain trust and create relationships which helps them co-ordinate and facilitate, their roles sometimes cross into manage ment which will be elaborated later within this report Although the supposed outcomes ranged from an array of things, I worried that in comparison to my peers my submission wouldn’t be of something physical and that this would be a problem that needed a solution further down the line. Speaking to the client, I felt that the stories and conversations that came about from the artefacts needed to be communicated yet worried due to minimal time that this would be difficult to physically communicate as a full outcome. If time became an issue, then this would be an additional aspect of my role or the communicators role if the project was taken further in the future.

APPROPRIATE PLACES TO HAVE A CONVERSATION

Conversations and contemporary jewellery are the two most important areas of this project, but from the role of the communicator, the conversation was the area to focus upon. One of the focal points to look at was where it was considered appropriate to have a conversation? Communal shopping places where there is a lot of people and a lot of people have access too seemed like a starting point of gathering ideas. One of the agendas for a meeting discussed different types of communication and communication space. Some of the suggested areas amongst the team were communal areas such as community centres, city centres or even youth centres. One of the other options was to have a mobile exhibition space that could be easily moved from place to place for different people and cultures to interact with. A theory that cropped up was of the idea that different places have different characteristics but also have the same things i.e. a bus stop or shelter which reverted back to taking the title of the brief literally. Amongst the where of the exhibition or display, the how it would be conducted needed to be considered as well as when it would take place and how to document and approach the conversations.

Graphic created by myself of the original Bus Stop Conversations logo upon a bus stop.

As part of the initial research conducted, I created a survey which asked anonymously some questions about where people felt it was most appropriate to have a conversation with a stranger and why. A survey seemed one of the quickest and most reasonable data collection methods for this project and was conducted via the site SurveyMonkey. Some of the questions asked were to do with a stranger’s appearance, the places it seemed suitable or even if there was a suitable place to have a conversation with someone outside of someone’s social circle. From the survey’s results, the most appropriate place agreed on for a conversation to take place with strangers was a café but why was this? Was there a linked comfort in a coffee shop environment, where people can eat and drink within a homely surrounding and could the appearance of this environment have enabled people to feel less vulnerable? These were the things that as a group, we needed to take note of. Psychologists have claimed that an individual’s thinking is influenced by a process known as socially shared cognition, the theory of shared cognition relates to a group and the knowledge that is built and results from this shared cognition is only possible because of the human interaction (IGI-Global, 2018). Socially shared cognition or socially shared learning can contain something called a communication model which includes a perspective on socially shared cognition which is called ‘grounding in communication’ (Clark & Brennan, 1991). Grounding in communication elaborates on how in order to succeed, two or more people have to “co-ordinate both the content and process of what they are doing” (Clark & Brennan, 1991). It is suggested that there are two processes in order to communicate or converse successfully; grounding and contributing. Communication is known as a collective activity, the process of grounding is to establish a common ground between both people i.e. in this project, the common ground should be jewellery. Grounding is making sure that the participants understand what has been said, establishing that it is understood or ground down what has been said enables this to become common ground. Next is the contribution to the conversation, the contributor presents an utterance to the participant and then this is heard, registered and hopefully understood, finally the participant gives evidence that they have understood either through dialogue or gesture. The contribution to the conversation must run through two phases; the presentation phase which presents the utterance and the acceptance phase which displays understanding, both phases ensure that a contribution is complete and successful (Clark & Brennan, 1991). The reason why I introduced the views on shared cognition/socially shared cognition is that the theory a group i.e. the shared cognition, can gain different results from human interaction than if the task was completed by an individual is vital to this project. As a large group of eleven, there are two ways of approaching the public in a group which is as a full group or splitting into smaller groups to see which would gain more response. Although it may seem obvious that a group of eleven diverse individuals may seem intimidating, it is important for the group to trial ways of interacting with the public in order to communicate the jewellery, create a bond and collect the stories. In the sense of having successful conversations, the process of grounding would be useful in maintaining the conversations about jewellery and using this as a possible common ground as jewellery is universal.

Survey Monkey response dates.

Survey Monkey responses to the question asked where it was appropriate to have a conversation with a stranger.

THE ROLE OF THE MANAGER Within this project the role of communicator for myself merged with a role of management which coincidentally fell into my specific discipline; Fashion Management and Communications. Each Thursday the group had a meeting at 10am to reflect on individuals work and opinions of the project, my managerial role consisted of things such as: • Creating a group WhatsApp • Creating a meeting agenda • Notes of the meeting • Follow ups of the notes within the group WhatsApp • Awareness of attendance • Making a schedule/timeline • Risk Assessment forms, exhibition space application forms etc. One of the continuing issues I found within the roles of communication and management was that I felt that I would have no physical submission, nothing to show of how I contributed or what I had done which could seem minimal in comparison to what the jewellers had to create. Struggling with these roles that within this particular brief felt inferior by comparison to the designers, I spoke to the client and my assigned discipline lecturer. Areas that needed to be contemplated were; what does the role of the manager and the role of the communicator contribute? Are there any issues within these roles and if so what are they? And lastly, how do these roles overcome the issues? The first of the questions were ‘what does the role of the manager and the role of the communicator contribute?’, previously in this report I had spoken about the role of the communicator and what that meant. Both roles have self-explanatory titles, the roles require the person to communicate through visuals, writing and speech and also require the person to manage whether that be manage themselves or a team. By definition a manager is “a person responsible for controlling or administering an organization or group of staff.” (Oxford Dictionary , 2018), this described the role and I felt that this described exactly what I had been doing within the management and organisation of the exhibitions. The contributions towards this project I feel have been vital and not exhaustive to just creating communication content and managing the group. These roles have been incredibly challenging in response to co-ordinating my first official exhibitions in that I have had no prior background and it has opened me up to the difficulties and tasks that Management and Communication employees may face. Some of the difficulties have included group disagreements, attendance lacking, non-responses or non-availability and ensuring to fully follow procedures in response to risk assessments, health and safety and ethics.

Photo by myself of Winter Gardens, outside.

Photo by myself of inside the Moor Market in Demo Area 3.

COMMUNICATION SPACE As previously mentioned, areas of communal gathering had been discussed amongst the team as a starting point for the communication space or ‘exhibition’. The client wanted real responses and stories from members of the public and Sheffield City Centre seemed like a great open area to engage with a diverse array of people. Unaware of how to go about the permissions of standing on the streets or in a public space, the group considered more of a confined public space where people may gather such as Winter Gardens or the Moor Market. As part of my communication and managerial role, I researched into the people I would need to contact to be able to gain one of the spaces within the Winter Gardens or the Moor Market. The contacts needed were available online via the websites and both spaces offered opportunities for pop-up shops or exhibits but as a group something we hadn’t considered was budget, so alongside the space availability, the cost was important if there was one. In response to arranging a communication space, I emailed both parties with an explanation of who I was, what the project was and when the exhibition would hopefully take place in consideration of the deadline and final client meeting, see figure 3 and figure 4 for an example of the emails. Figure 3 is one of the first emails sent, it is apparent from this email that the group hadn’t decided on an official date for the exhibit which displays some uncertainty. Whereas figure 4 includes a specified date in which the group had agreed to hold the exhibit if it was an attainable date. Both emails were sent within a month of each other which shows the progress the group had made within defining their ideas and setting a reasonable date in order for the contemporary jewellery to be made and to hit the deadline.

Figure 3 - Example of email sent to Winter Gardens.

Figure 4 - Example of email sent to Moor Market.

In light of what the client mentioned about the project progressing into the public if the brief was successful, as a group we were careful to consider creating an exhibition or display within a controlled space such as on the university grounds i.e. within the Owen building or Head Post Office. The exhibit that would be held on would be a trial, which is something that had been debated over in previous meetings and it would demonstrate what would or wouldnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t be successful and what would need to be modified. Holding the exhibit/display within the university had pros such as being able to promote it within the university and having access to free exhibition space alongside the constant moving traffic from students. The cons were that the organising of the exhibition involved multiple parties such as gallery managers, health and safety and project officers alongside that the participants would only be students and faculty which could limit the responses.

CLIENT MEETING AND REFLECTION

In preparation for the client meeting, I had created a presentation template style that the rest of the group could add in their text and images and send back to me in order for me to piece it all together. The decision to create a template meant that the presentation would flow as a cohesive design and wouldnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t look patchwork, messy or unprofessional. My concern for the presentation is that as a group we would look unprepared and by my creating a template and running order, this would be primarily avoided. Myself and a student from interior design led the presentation discussion by introducing the project and speaking about how we felt we could impact the project coming from alternative disciplines. Areas of focus for myself were what I felt my role was within the team, the things I had done so far i.e. the graphics, logos, conducting the meetings, the presentation etc. and how the project was to be documented. Moving onto the exhibition itself, the structure idea created by interior design for the jewellery was spoke about and explained. As a pair, myself and the interior design student; Maryam, were to set up a structure for the exhibition which would display the jewellery. She was the primary role in creating and piecing together the structure, I was to assist on the day of structure alongside with graphics and scripture. The point of the scripture was to direct people in how they were supposed to act and what they were supposed to do around or with the jewellery â&#x20AC;&#x201C; much like instructions. These instructions would be short and direct e.g. hold me, feel me and wear me which could be placed as sign posts around the space or in speech bubbles which could seem more playful and less serious especially if there were uses of bright complimentary colours. Complimentary colours do just that, they complement each other and are usually bright and engaging whilst looking physically appealing, so I created some mock up graphics using complimentary colours and speech bubbles.

Example of one of the mock up graphics, created by myself upon Canva.

One of the issues that cropped up at the client meeting seemed to insinuate the groups fixation on taking the briefs title ‘bus stop conversations’ too literally. Losing track of the contemporary jewellery had made the brief harder and as a team, we needed to bring it back to jewellery once again as this was a huge concern for the client. For example, changing the title and the logo that I had created which revolved around the briefs initial name, see figure 5. The name and logo needed to reinstate that it was about contemporary jewellery because ultimately, that is what will start and continue the conversations. Keeping the logo graphic simple and effective when remodelling was important, so that the project had some ambiguity about it and that would peak peoples interest. An area of interest for the client in particular to do with my role as communications was the documentation of the project. I’d considered creating a photobook of the photos from the exhibition and some filming if enough content was taken for a film to be created, if there was an issue with time then a photobook of the graphics and communications throughout the project would suffice. With any photography or filming, I needed to create a disclaimer poster that explained that it may take place and if any persons didn’t want to be a part of it then they just need to make us aware. Other areas that needed confirming were risk assessment forms and release forms for the public if films or photography was taken, just to make sure legally we were ticking all the correct boxes and procedures. After the presentation, the client seemed to enjoy our group idea of having a trial before the actual exhibition/display and although we had decided to conduct the trial within the university, the clients agreed that it was important to get the project out into the public. As a group, we seemed adamant that branching an exhibition/display within a public space would be achievable even though I was still waiting on responses from the emails I had previously sent. Hoping to achieve one of those places (Winter Gardens or the Moor Market) as the final exhibit area would enable us to invite the client to come and see our work out in the field alongside giving us the opportunity to learn from the trial exhibition about what works and what things we should work on.

Figure 5 - Bus Stop Conversations original logo.

TRIAL EXHIBITION Ensuring the team had a set timeline for the trial exhibition and the final exhibition meant that the group kept on track with how much work was getting done and what needed to be achieved by what date. The trial exhibition date had been set for the 12th April, which was the Thursday of the week after Easter and the official exhibit had been set for the 27th April which gave the team a two week gap to reflect and make improvements or finish pieces. It had been decided by the group that the trial would take place within the university, so the exhibition was to be internal and generally within a controlled environment. In preparation for the exhibition, the structure needed scripture and assembling alongside some safety posters being made. In the midst of the actual exhibition structure, the exhibition itself needed planning, co-ordinating and signing off via the university. Emails were sent back and forth to the gallery manager, project manager and health and safety team alongside some technicians. The actual co-ordination of the exhibit itself I think was underestimated as even I didn’t realise how time consuming it would be and the areas that needed to be looked into and assessments that needed to be completed in order to proceed with what was initially thought of as a simple exhibition. Managing and planning the actual exhibition became one of my primary tasks, the task involved numerous emailing, meetings and risk assessments alongside trying to communicate the overall idea of what the group was trying to achieve. Looking back, I’d consider my role more of a multi-tasker. One of the flaws in the exhibition was not being properly advertised, although it was displayed within a public space, the actual exhibition wasn’t advertised online or around the university. It seemed the MA floor were aware of what was going on due to the construction being up there but the rest of the university had no clue. The conclusion of this was that the structure became the main focus and as a result of this the group ignored actually gaining a participatory audience via advertisements of the exhibit. As a learning curve, the group decided to not involve a structure within the final exhibit as it would deter away from the jewellery and the interactions. Instead, the jewellery would be worn on the individuals in the group and the public invited to try on the pieces, by wearing the jewellery this would give the group an opening into a common ground conversation about jewellery.

Photo by Jenny, the trial exhbition within HPO cafe.

Photo by Jenny, some of the contemporary jewellery.

Photo by Jenny, people engaging with the feedback sheets.

Photo by Jenny, the trial exhbition within HPO cafe.

PREPARATION FOR FINAL EXHIBITION The final exhibition had to be co-ordinated for the date commencing 26th or 27th April, which allowed the team enough time to write about it within the reports. After communications, follow ups and no response from certain people, it seemed the Moor Market was the teamâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s most promising offer. One of the women from the Moor got in touch with me and we conversed over the details of the proposed exhibit, this offered me the chance to suggest a meeting in order to explain more thoroughly the aims of what the group was trying to achieve. A meeting was set up for the 17th April at 11am, in preparation for the meeting I asked the group if there was anything specific that needed mentioning and made a note of the advice and comments regarding the trial exhibition and the changes we needed to make for the final exhibit. I felt this was the best way to ensure we seemed professional, aware and sure of what we were displaying and what we wanted. As a collective it was decided to keep the costs minimal and if there were any costs to spread them out equally amongst the group. The idea behind the display was explained and how the project was based primarily around displaying the jewellery and the conversations with participating public. The conversation with Jo-Anne (the woman from the Moor Market) covered the options of where in the market it was appropriate to do the display and decided that demo area 3 which was situated near one of the doors in an open space near the cafĂŠ tables would be the best area and it was free. The demo area incurred no costs and it was available for both of the dates the group had chosen so it made sense to display the event on a Friday as collectively it was agreed there would be more footfall. After the date was agreed, my role continued as it was time for more forms, risk assessments and communicating/advertising the display. The next step was filling out the application form for the Moor Market space, the form included a risk assessment and also mentioned public liability insurance which is something I hadnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t even considered. After chasing a few people via email to try and find the correct contact I managed to gain a copy of the universities public liability insurance and attached it to the form. I ensured that the form was checked over by a lecturer as any mistakes could delay in the process of gaining the exhibition space and time was quickly running out, once everything was checked, the form was sent over and the date confirmed. This role has opened me up to numerous areas and details that need to be thought over in order to co-ordinate an exhibit which I think will be useful if I chose a career in events or management within the future.

Poster for the final exhibit, the image of the jewellery is not that of the MA design, it is a piece from Gijs Bakker and Emmy Van Leersum.

Although the space was free, we needed to advertise the display within the university and online i.e. social media platforms to re-establish that it was a university based project. Creating a poster that was ambiguous and interesting was the first thing to achieve, unfortunately I had no images of the jewellers finished jewellery so I used a photo from a Gijs Bakker and Emmy Van Leersumâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s jewellery exhibit. Two posters were created, one of which was simple and ambiguous about the event which hopefully would gain some curiosity about the display and the other contained more information about what was happening and about what who we were. Moor Market happily promoted us and the event within the market and upon their website which gave us some publicity and could increase the traffic at the event, see figure 6 and 7.

Figure 6 - Example of the Moor Markets publicity for the event.

Figure 7 - Example of the Moor Markets publicity for the event.

FINAL EXHIBITION AND REFLECTION

In comparison to the exhibit displayed within the university cafĂŠ, the public seemed more willing to participate in conversation with us due to the display peaking their interests and curiosity. The stand involved a table which had paper, pens and sticky notes upon and there were posters, a large mirror and of course, some jewellery which was worn by the group and also situated upon the table. As well as this, there were release forms for photography and cameras alongside a polaroid printer which we could utilise if people wanted to wear the jewellery. Rather than a huge group of people stood in the same area, it was advised by myself to spread out around the space as to not seem intimidating. The Moor Market displayed an array of people and attracts numerous different nationalities possibly due to its varied cuisine options. On this particular day, early on the market seemed to pick up footfall, around 11:30am-12:30pm and once again this could be due to the food options around lunchtime. In response to our vast amount of international students that were involved, the public participated with them and vice versa considering one of the fears involved a lack of confidence and possible language barrier. Also due to the international students, it gave them the opportunity to speak in their mother tongue when other international students came and looked at the display, which reinforced their confidence in their artefacts as a group. Originally for me, the idea of generating the conversations was the theory of grounding i.e. finding a common ground between the conversationalists, but it became dependant on the individual. This doesnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t disprove the theory of grounding, but from my observations some people who were on their own would ask us about what we were doing and then continued to have a conversation with us whether it was about the jewellery or not. These people were not always consistent of any age group although it seemed more common with the older generation; this could be due to circumstances of loneliness etc. An example would be the first man who interacted with the display: he asked me why we were there and I briefly explained and then he began to tell me about why he was in the area and that he collected old rock and roll memorabilia. This led on to him showing me what he had collected and that he plays the piano three times a week at the station, and as irrelevant as that was to the jewellery, it was the display that initially got him to speak to me.

Photo by myself, the Moor Market had displayed our poster within their windows.

This particular display I’d consider to be a success as being in a new and public environment gained more curiosity around the project plus with the added advertisement from the Moor and the posters around the university. I’d made sure that this display was well advertised and communicated in comparison to the trial, so it was displayed on Instagram (personal and the university Fashion Management and Communication one), sent around the faculty, upon the Moor Market website and around the university itself. This went to show that communication cannot go well without being planned which also reinforced the work of John Adair in The Effective Communicator and how communication should not be chaotic and the priorities have to be decided (Adair, 1988), which as a team, they were. Although some of the contemporary jewellery was controversial and emotive i.e. Jenny’s breast brooches and Bev’s ‘How Are You’ necklace, people didn’t seem as willing to have and engage in open conversations about the areas, especially the breasts. Cards were used by Bev in order to get the public to write down their real thoughts and this seemed to work more than having the personal conversations with people which was interesting. Some of the cards revealed incredibly personal and emotional feelings yet the people speaking seemed to engage in only one layer of conversation which showed a huge comparison in how people act around people, to how people act when they are left alone with their thoughts. These pieces of jewellery were successful in gaining the public’s attention but Bev’s seemed to gain the most stories by having a quite literal piece asking the question for her. One of the biggest observations on the day was when an individual was asked if they knew anything about contemporary jewellery they replied with the fact they didn’t know what contemporary jewellery was. Possibly the term itself was confusing or that it wasn’t used often enough in everyday society and why would it be? People knew what jewellery was, did they need to know whether it was contemporary or not? Was that the point of the display or was it the stories generated through the explanations of the jewellery and the reactions from this. In my opinion it was the stories generated through the explanation of the individual jewellery which came first and then that it was actually contemporary jewellery that came second on the list of importance. Generally it was nice to see the public engage with a bunch of international students and the pieces they had created alongside them participating in writing their thoughts down.

Photo by myself of the Moor Market display, taken 27/04/18.

Photo by myself of people engaging with the display, taken 27/04/18.

Photo by myself of the Moor Market display, taken 27/04/18.

Photo by myself of people engaging with the display, taken 27/04/18.

Engagement with the discipline lecturer and the team, taken by Zhu 27/04/18.

Photo by myself, of the polaroids gained from the display, taken 27/04/18.

Photo by myself, some of the feedback notes back from the public.

CONCLUDING THOUGHTS In response to this project, the outcome was that of a participatory display which allowed a group of cross disciplinary students to engage in conversations based around contemporary jewellery or what derived from that. Other outcomes included contemporary jewellery from the jewellers, a structure from the interior design student and graphics, posters and social content from myself. Overall the final display was more successful than the first which reinforced how important the role of the communicator and the manager was within this project and team. Due to the lack of advertisement, management of the team and event on the day of the trial from myself, the display lacked communication structure and therefore was not informative and didn’t generate any stories or conversations. Referring back to the importance of the role of the communicator and the manager within this team, apart from the obvious importance of the jewellery itself, it became apparent that in order to succeed there needed to be someone behind the scenes with a structure. After initial thoughts taking on this project, it became apparent that it would be more difficult and detailed than it first-hand looked. Times of which I struggled with where I would be placed, what my role was and what my submission would be in response to the brief. The group, in my opinion has come a long way in regards to working and cooperating as a team considering in the beginning it was difficult to gain responses from some and now they seem to have gained their voice along the way. As the manager, the communicator and the all-round multi-tasker, I think that this project has allowed me to gain perspective on how important these roles are especially within a team based environment. Without these roles, important forms would not be filled in, areas would not be secured, people wouldn’t be aware of the event or it wouldn’t be communicated properly and the project would be missing some vital details or even people, if things weren’t kept track on.

“Communication, to be effective, cannot be a haphazard process.”

As stated by John Adair

(Adair, 1988)

WORKS CITED Adair, J. (1988). The Effective Communicator . London: The Industrial Society. Carey, J. W. (1965). The Communications Revolution and the Professional Communicator. The Sociological Review, 23. Chaiken, S., & Eagly, A. H. (1983). Communication modality as a determinant of persuasion: The role of communicator salience. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology , 241-256. Clark, H. H., & Brennan, E. S. (1991). Grounding in Communication. In B. L. Resnick, M. J. Levine, & D. S. Teasley, Perspectives on Socially Shared Cognition (pp. 127137). Pittsburgh : American Psychological Association, Washington DC. IGI-Global. (2018, April N/A). Shared Cognition. Retrieved from IGI-Global: https:// www.igi-global.com/dictionary/shared-cognition/26757 Miller, D. (2008). The Comfort of Things. London: Polity Press. Oxford Dictionary . (2018, April N/A). Manager. Retrieved from Oxford Dictionary : https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/manager Svedestedt, S. (2014, December 03). We are our stories - Mah Rana: Meanings and Attachments. Retrieved from Klimt 02: https://klimt02.net/forum/interviews/we-areour-stories-meanings-and-attachments-mah-rana Wallace, J., Dearden, A., & Fisher, T. (2007). The significant other: the value of jewellery in the conception, design and experience of body focused digital devices. Al & Society , 53-62.

IMAGE ACCREDITATION All images are taken by myself unless stated otherwise i.e. by group members such as Zhu and Jenny. Other images are screenshots of websites such as https://sheffieldmarkets.com/events/ moor-market/archive/2018-04 and https://www.surveymonkey.com/analyze/ML8S2AvMWCKnOZL1SLzw6fD_2FeWB_2Bi1xqiyRStWv7VfU_3D. Graphics are created by myself upon the website Canva. Svedestedt, S. (2014, December 03). We are our stories - Mah Rana: Meanings and Attachments. Retrieved from Klimt 02: https://klimt02.net/forum/interviews/we-are-our-stories-meanings-and-attachments-mah-rana Wilkes, R. (2014, January 28). Revisiting the ground-breaking 1967 fashion show from Gijs Bakker and Emmy van Leersem... Retrieved from We Heart It: https://www.we-heart. com/2014/01/28/the-gijs-emmy-spectacle-fashion-and-jewellery-design-by-gijs-bakkerand-emmy-van-leersum-1967-1972/ 41

Make Stories. Wear Stories. Collect Stories. The project 'Jewellery Stories' is created as part of the Masters course at SheďŹ&#x192;eld Hallam University. The work involves contemporary jewellery that has been created by the MA Jewellery and Metalwork students alongside the eďŹ&#x20AC;orts of MA Interior Design and MA Fashion Management & Communication. Think about your jewellery and what it means to you... now think about our jewellery and how it makes you feel, does your jewellery tell any story about you or a time in your life? Or does our jewellery remind you of a story?