Pixel Locket

BACKGROUND A collaboration across digital jewellery, interaction design and microelectronics, Pixel Locket investigate ways to intervene in the explosion of digital content and diminishing attention span on social media platforms (Mylo, 2020; Ashley, N., & Carrie, S. 2017). CONTRIBUTION The Pixel Locket is a post-optimal digital object (Dunne, 2005, p. 20) that challenges the case for enduring enchantment in digital media. It extracts, deconstructs, and cycles through each pixel of an image from the owner’s Instagram account. The wearer’s body temperature and touch modulate the quality of this coloured light, each image taking a day to cycle through all pixels – a slow, enchanting interaction through the reflections of personal significance and fragmentary connections to familiarity. (Wright et. al 2006, p.15-16). This project was also the testbed for the mote mini, an IoT microcontroller platform designed to enable miniature embodied interaction design (Khoo, 2019). It speculates on the future of personal IoT devices and what it means for our sense of self and spiritual wellbeing, in the face of rapid technological advancement and digital shorter-ism. SIGNIFICANCE Pixel Locket was selected for exhibition as part of the Data Heirlooms exhibition, which was part of the 2021 Radiant Pavilion Contemporary Jewellery and Object Biennial – the largest of its kind in the Southern Hemisphere. The exhibition was also presented at the RMIT Design Archives, and garnered interest from media sources, including Digital Innovation Futures Victoria, Jobs for Youth and 3RRR.