Perceptual Surfaces in Flux: Mirrors, Embodied Vision and Optical Fields in Contemporary Jewellery

Mirrors, reflective mediums and optical devices have long played a role in shaping artistic and intellectual traditions. In the last few decades, contemporary jewellery artists have harnessed their reflective qualities to explore themes of identity, perception, aesthetics, and embodiment. This article examines the ways that these reflective devices inspire contemporary jewellery, linking concepts from philosophy, psychology, cognitive theory, phenomenology and art to the work of influential jewellery artists.
By analysing how reflective materials act as sensorial instruments that materialise cognition through embodied seeing, this study highlights the ways in which contemporary jewellery artists push the boundaries of traditional adornment through reflection, interaction, and lived experience.