Johanna Seibert. Pforzheim University School of Design. New Talent Award Nominee 2021

Name of graduation student: Johanna Seibert
Name of guiding teachers: Prof. Christine Lüdeke, Prof. Isabel Zuber

Nominated by Pforzheim University School of Design, Pforzheim, Germany.

Johanna Seibert’s work has always manifested a strong intellectual abstractness coupled with sensitivity for form and material with a high level of craftsmanship. With her graduation work Homo Ornans, she asks herself why she makes jewelry, examining the relationship between jewelry maker and jewelry wearer. Investigating the bonds between meaning and form, tool and forming, she creates jewelry and objects that become jewelry in that they invite our playfulness in how we interact with them. By incorporating aspects of the tools she developed to shape the very light material, into the final pieces, they themselves become the "tools" through which the forms can be worn on the body. A sophisticated exploration that riffs on known jewelry typologies and creates new ones.
/ Prof. Christine Lüdeke


Summary of the Master Thesis:
Homo Ornans
Why do people wear jewellery? And why do I make jewellery? These questions led Johanna Seibert through her theoretical and practical graduation work. Jewellery can have a variety of functions for the wearer: either as a sign of social standing and wealth or as a connection to beloved people or places. But it is always a medium, a symbol for adornment and expressing one’s identity – a basic human need. "To be human is to make" - this statement by anthropologist Ellen Dissanayake shows that crafting and creating things is also a basic need. It not only creates a deep sense of satisfaction, but also lets us understand things on a physical level which then positively affects our abstract thinking. By making things, we get the chance to leave our mark in the world and get in contact with it. Being both communicative and symbolic actions, wearing and making jewellery are closely related. Jewellery as an ornament on the body is more than an added decoration. The origin of ornament lies in giving things meaning. Through jewellery, we shape our environment and give it and ourselves significance. We are all homo ornans.


More work and contacts:
Email: johanna-seibert@web.de
Website: johannaseibert.com

Find out more about the courses at Pforzheim University School of Design.