Haptic tactility : how design processes can remediate identities past and present

Abstract

There is little known of the prehistory of the Caribbean and the Taino people – the first inhabitants of the region. From the island of Jamaica, significant Taino artefacts are currently held in storage in the British Museum. This project explores how one ‘brings to life’ their identities, and how this may engage with contemporary jewellery and object making practices. The project has wider implications for minority communities – particularly for those subjugated by western imperialism from the end of the fifteenth Century to the late nineteenth century and, arguably, for many up to and including the various independence movements following World War Two. This period has contributed to the many factors that create an invisibility of black artists and their contributions to a wider art history. In addressing the significant problem of ‘invisibility’, the aim of this thesis is to investigate how contemporary jewellery and object making processes, methods and outcomes can act as catalysts for re-integrating fragmented and dispersed relationships. In addition, the thesis aims to examine and challenge the invisibility referred to above, by refusing historically entrenched hegemony and Euro-centricity, while foregrounding the early history of the Caribbean and its artefacts and what relationship they may have to contemporary practice.