A brave new world? This thought-provoking event explores the transformative impact of artificial intelligence and augmented reality on the art of jewellery manufacture, design and retail, investigating the possibilities available to each of us as members of the jewellery industry. Hear from the original pioneer of Augmented Reality try-on services in the jewellery industry, a tech-driven jewellery designer, a specialist in creative AI and a developer of software used by small jewellery brands about how they’re incorporating AI into their day-to-day practices and their visions of AI’s role in our industry moving forwards. To explore both sides of the argument, we’ll also put questions to our panel about the importance of maintaining cultural heritage by championing traditional tools and techniques. Seek your answer to the question: Are we losing touch with the romance of jewellery, or is it time to stop fearing the new?
What’s more, this inspiring knowledge-sharing event will involve a mixer session; an opportunity for you to forge meaningful new connections with other jewellery professionals and enthusiasts in Edinburgh.
To Jewellery Collective members: Please contact us on hello@thejewellerycollective.com for access to your 50% ticket discount. Thank you!
Please contact us with a minimum of 72 hours’ notice if you wish to cancel your ticket; we are unable to issue refunds beyond this point. Thank you.
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The Panel
Lynne Craig (the moderator)
Lynne Craig designs the conditions to spark change. Her practice connects education, design, technology and business development exploring the frontiers of emergent technologies and cultural change. Describing her practice as, ‘Computational Adornment’ her work has pioneered Virtual Try On environments for retail worldwide, translating between the physical object of high craft and the virtual experience of material.
Playing with fashion, technology and craft in an era of AI, design and complexity, her work has been featured in the New York Times, Financial Times, BBC World Service, Business of Fashion, Telegraph, Dezeen, and Forbes. Current work focuses on, ‘Dressing Robots.’
Lynne works as an academic at the University of Edinburgh’s department of Design Informatics, leads Innovation for Edinburgh Futures Institute and is Co-Founder and Non-Executive Director of Holition Augmented Retail where she pioneered Augmented Reality for the jewellery industry from 2008, working with Boucheron, De Beers, Garrard, Forevermark, Taqori, amongst others. Current work examines AI in the context of fashion and robotics, and the algorithmic turn afforded by emergent technologies in the production and ideation of tools, technologies and surfaces to adorn the body.
Maeve Gillies
Maeve is a multi-disciplinary designer craftswoman, jewellery pioneer, educator, global entrepreneur and Founder of MaeVona in New York City, North America’s most prolific Scottish-themed bridal brand since 2005. Maeve’s designs embed the resonance and joy of traditional metalsmithing at the forefront of new manufacturing technologies, utilising local heritage materials and storytelling of deep cultural significance to create new global horizons of accessible, valuable treasures. Collaborating with leading brands to pioneer precious metal design and technology beyond wearables, Maeve has worked with The Macallan, Lalique, Ardbeg and Highland Park, winning ‘World’s Best Design’ & ‘Best Limited Edition’ World Whiskies Awards. Maeve’s jewels have won multiple RSA Awards, JCK USA Awards, and the COUTURE Las Vegas ‘Best Bridal’ Award. Her Scottish Gold work with Hamilton & Inches is in the Permanent Collection of the National Museum of Scotland, and her latest collection is a collaboration with Platinum Guild International – the world’s First 3D-Printed Platinum & Titanium jewel collection.
Caterina Moruzzi, PhD (she/her)
Caterina Moruzzi is a Chancellor’s fellow in Design Informatics, University of Edinburgh. Her research spans the fields of human and artificial creativity, philosophy of art, and the philosophy of Artificial Intelligence. As BRAID Research Fellow, she leads a collaboration with Adobe to promote the responsible integration of Artificial Intelligence tools into creative practices. She frequently engages in discussions and events that convene stakeholders from academia, industry, and policy-making spheres to discuss the impact of emerging technological innovations on the creative sector. To promote interdisciplinary and intersectoral collaborations on the topic, in 2024 she started the research cluster “Creativity, AI, and the Human” at the Edinburgh Futures Institute.
David Wood
David is CTO and co-founder of Moonsift, a venture-backed startup working to transform how people make taste-driven purchases online. His background is in Physics and he holds a doctorate in Applied Machine Learning in Computational Neuroscience from the University of Edinburgh where he researched algorithms for identifying and discovering cell types in the brains of fruit flies. At Moonsift he is applying similar algorithms to enable online shoppers to discover items and brands through AI-native tools that transcend the fragmented fashion and homeware marketplaces. Moonsift aims to reduce waste through enabling more considerate and less sub-optimal purchases as well as helping small businesses compete with large retailers. David lives in Edinburgh and enjoys hiking in the highlands of Scotland.
