may 30th, 2022
“World events have the purpose of stabilizing humankind” wrote Hannah Arendt in “The Human Condition” in 1958.
Yet, with the digital revolution, we’ve become addicted consumers of information. Automation in production isn’t limited to objects but to data too. The information that targets us, all we load onto our lives every second without a precise logic, often meets no resistance. The evanescent nature of this information seems to distance us from whatever has three dimensions, occupying our vital spaces, our homes, filling the limited space of our minds and lives.
Somehow infosphere has substituted what’s real.
Detaching from the material makes us avoid objects intended as memory vessels and building blocks of our history, of our own identity, markers of our individual vicissitudes. Because every bond is considered a burden, denying these ties fools our social self into a belief of freedom.
At the same time we have a tendency for acquiring more and more objects, emptied of their intrinsic values, no longer bearers of meanings but sources of instant emotions, merely basic consumerist experiences that will be swiftly forgotten, put aside, substituted and abandoned.
Speed, intense emotions and sudden impulses are the symbol of these times, in sharp contrast with commitment, time and perseverance, essential for stabilising our lives and emotions.
How could we then regain contact with what’s real, how do we get closer to the fundamental meaning of our everyday life without giving into the charms of the apparent freedom of choice to consume within pre-packaged confines? To regain the narrative powers of objects and oppose the degeneration of the binds and memories that make us, one will need to disengage from the social surveillance mechanisms and consumerists conditioning that encroach onto our existence.
We have to relearn and go beyond the “simply aesthetic content” of the object and establish a relationship with it, to own it and utilise it, thus endowing it with a journey and a history.
“In love, as in art” remembered Ennio Morricone, “dedication is of the essence. I don’t know of the existence of ephemeral things as supernatural intuition or love at first sight. I know instead things that are real: form, dedication, reliability, durability”.
Jewellery may represent the objects that for their “form, dedication and durability” anchor us to what’s real and have the ability of speaking to us individually and like nothing else can about personal belonging.
To choose a specific piece of jewellery and to wear it is a private gesture, powerfully self-determining. A jewel may appear in public as a sign of devotion, protection, protest; it may transmit an ethical message, even symbolise a political stance. A constant expression in all of mankind, adhering to an universal code: there have never been any times when people haven’t bejewelled their bodies.
To quote Serge Tisseron in “Nos Objets Quotidiens”: “Our everyday objects are used to absorb the world around us, mediating between subjectivity and socialisation; tools that help us connect to others and to ourselves”.
Jewellery consists of special objects that must be chosen with care: not just dictated by fashion or by the desire to reach a certain status quo. When these items partner with us, they tell of our self and our relationship with others, making us unique as unique as everyone’s individual history.
The “digital twin” that goes together with MANUGANDA creations, encapsulates its digital information in the form of an imperishable DIGITAL PASSPORT, born out of a need to return to the meaning of what we consciously decide to buy and wear, so nothing is lost and immaterial values can find a space among real things.
MICRO-ARTICOLI IN FIBRA | pillole in fibra di logos | #13 – Manuela Gandini
You can read more about MANUGANDA Digital Passport in this article on WIRED Italia.
