2020
Created during the lockdown periods during COVID-19 in Melbourne, Australia, the Pixel Locket is a timely critical design wearable that appeals to our sense of belonging and the tenuous relationship we have with social media. It posits an alternative way of 'consuming' digital media–instead of the shortened attention span we often perceive through our interactions with smartphone applications, the Pixel Locket connects to an Instagram account, downloading an image only to break it down into the constituent pixels, to be emanated from its lighting unit.
In that sense, one can never see the entire image while wearing the Pixel Locket, unless you pull up the Instagram app, transforming the way we consider each new image as a precious gesture that takes time to animate, over the course of a day. In collaboration with a jewelry maker and design researcher (Emma), the nuances of what makes an object precious was explored through form and gesture. An embedded non-contact temperature sensor detected the warmth of clasped hands around the locket, and uses that to enhance the glow of the coloured light emanating from the lighting unit.
A modular design was developed, using magnetic clasps and electronic pogo pins to 'pair' potentially different light units to the main body.
