Designing a virtual gallery of contemporary jewellery: the realities of the virtual

Abstract

The Virtual gallery of contemporary jewellery CD-Rom (VGCJ) is a series of curated exhibitions, contributing to, and arising from academic papers on key themes about cutting-edge design, trends, and innovations in jewellery. This paper records the development of the conceptual design of the gallery. It tells the story, not of the design process, but of the key design decisions, and the theoretical and practical considerations behind them, that transformed the initial concept into the reality of a final product. The project looked at the potential of new technology to approximate presentation and display, and one of the driving issues in the design was the primacy and authenticity of the object. By focussing on the issues relating to museums and museum display theory the project arrived at a solution that was shaped by these issues, rather than being driven by the technology. The final design represents a synergy between the salient features of a museum and gallery visit, an academic print publication, and a museum catalogue.