RCA and sociology

I've been trawling the web recently for appearances of jewellery in literature and instead ended up at the RCA website, looking at research projects.

Antje Illner is interesting from the point of view of ensemble, in that she is exploring unusual materials and processes, and has collaborated with product designers to develop surfaces for mobile phones. She has also created interactive installations for Swatch.

The research strategy for the goldsmithing, silversmithing, metalwork and jewelley department states that its Sociological Issues strand is so far less focused than other areas, and that despite becoming 'central in much contemporary debate', remains a more difficult one to approach. Perhaps this is because we take for granted the meanings of jewellery in everyday life, negotiating them on a daily basis; if so, current everyday western jewellery offers the social anthropologist a rich ground for 'making the familiar strange'.