Cara Duerden

Adam Neumann and Miguel McKelvey- WeWork and WeLive- 2016

‘I think we will see people focus more on what’s meaningful, like relationships and experiences. I think folks may become less fixed, borders will come to mean less and will have less impact as people travel more and have more fluid lives with no permanent abode’

Creating a service/application for jewellery, which is influenced by the access economy- the business model where goods are traded on the basis of access rather than ownership. The model reflects the current landscape where by the portability of our digital devices and the Internet means we are no longer tied to place. This has resulted in the traditional notion of the ownership of personal items being questioned, as many of us are opting for the freedom to experience rather than the pressures of permanent ownership; contributing to a culture that’s becoming more of an assert free society. Also, our relationship to satisfying what we want is becoming far less tangible than previous generations. For example, we no longer want the CD itself only the music it contains- the experience and needs the ‘stuff’ fulfils is becoming more valuable than the ‘stuff’ itself.

Project LO_ is a service, which enables people to borrow jewellery via the website.  The website also allows the costumer to add and store digital records of the memories associated with when the piece was worn in the form of photos, location tags, videos, text, and reviews. When someone else borrows the piece they are able to trace the history of the jewellery and add their own digital records to the piece. Once new digital content is added to the jewellery, email notifications are sent through the site to previous borrowers so they are also able to comment on, like, and interact with this new content. The jewellery becomes a social pinboard, with the aim of encouraging interaction, further connection and more meaningful transactions. The jewellery is the agent.