Abstract
This paper explores how mechanical jewellery can serve as an Epimethean design practice that rethinks human–machine relationships through care, hesitation, and affective engagement. Drawing from post-anthropocentric design discourse and new materialist theory, the research investigates how low-tech, playful, and speculative prototypes can undo conventional narratives of technological progress. Through a practice-based workshop conducted at Fringe Arts Bath 2025, the study examines how wearable artefacts exhibiting unpredictable motion provoke emotional response and relational awareness in participants. The findings suggest that mechanical jewellery can operate as a modest yet generative medium for staying with the trouble of human–machine entanglement, foregrounding absurd materiality, multispecies sympoiesis, and embodied reflection as critical modes of post-anthropocentric design.
Keywords
epimethean design practice;post-anthropocentric design; mechanical jewellery; sympoiesis
DOI
https://doi.org/10.21606/drs.2026.2172
Citation
Ding, Z., Dai, G., Hood, B., and Kettley, S. (2026) Mechanical Jewellery as Epimethean Practice: Staying with the Trouble of Human–Machine Entanglement, in Simeone, L., Gray, C. M., Verhoeven, A., de Götzen, A., Bakırlıoğlu, Y., Zohar, H., Stead, M., and Buwert, P. (eds.), DRS2026: Edinburgh, 8–12 June, Edinburgh, United Kingdom. https://doi.org/10.21606/drs.2026.2172
Creative Commons License
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Included in
Mechanical Jewellery as Epimethean Practice: Staying with the Trouble of Human–Machine Entanglement
This paper explores how mechanical jewellery can serve as an Epimethean design practice that rethinks human–machine relationships through care, hesitation, and affective engagement. Drawing from post-anthropocentric design discourse and new materialist theory, the research investigates how low-tech, playful, and speculative prototypes can undo conventional narratives of technological progress. Through a practice-based workshop conducted at Fringe Arts Bath 2025, the study examines how wearable artefacts exhibiting unpredictable motion provoke emotional response and relational awareness in participants. The findings suggest that mechanical jewellery can operate as a modest yet generative medium for staying with the trouble of human–machine entanglement, foregrounding absurd materiality, multispecies sympoiesis, and embodied reflection as critical modes of post-anthropocentric design.