4
GIJS BAKKER
(1942)
halssieraad / neck ornament, 1967
aluminium / aluminum
verworven / acquired in 1990
The few words that can be found on a white rectangle, the reference, all that I have in this temple of modern and contemporary art and design. It’s better to think about objects with my own perception. Too many precision in the vocabulary and words prevents me from really seeing, feeling an object. The few words on the white rectangle : the starting point of my research. The few words on the white rectangle that I type in the Google search bar. It’s not easy to immediately get Gijs Bakker’s necklace as a result. I can criticize the few words on this white rectangle because it has a lack of detail from the museum. But maybe it’s up to Google to be more selective? Google Image, Pinterest : websites that look like Ali Baba’s cave, or the attic of my grandparents. There are pages and pages that distract from the intended goal. I can’t stop looking, scrolling.
It’s curious. It looks like there is no end. The time looking seems unending. There is a lifetime of content. More than a million years to see everything. I can research for hours on end to no satisfying avail. The task at hand is a prevalent one, the thought of finishing an essay is an up hill battle that seems to push you back down with distractions.
It’s just a matter of distractions. I click, I slide with my computer mouse. I like to let myself go with the waves. Four words typed can generate a profusion of images for a research module. This often feels like my mind has traveled great distances.
I easily loose the landmarks of my departure, as soon as I see a flashy thing go by. I think, I’m inspired by the recommendations. I dive into a sea of images. But fishing can be a test of luck. I swim between DIY and designer pieces. That way I learn the names of small and big jewelry designs. When I come to the realization I have departed from my initial topic, I cry trying to get back into the flow of things. The information is incomplete, unnecessary. Too much advertising also.
However, I sink deeper into the internet. Social networks. Instagram, Facebook. The draw of familiarity and humor. Gijs Bakker on his feed invites us into his daily life. It’s a good way to capture the universe of the designer, I try to catch images of his insight to understand his inspirations, or how he integrates his creations into reality. I like to see photos taken on the spot, not made for respectable publications. These forms of publication bring a different way of sharing creations.
It’s hard for me to let go of my digital research, maybe laziness … but we always must look for more precise information with sources we can trust. So I take refuge on the designer’s website. Not surprisingly there are details on all his projects there, it is organized and clear. Also, I can find a list of publications in which Gijs Bakker appears in. On the other hand, there is no more information about the necklace than the few words that were on the white rectangle.
I continue on the website of the Gerrit Rietveld Academie, after all, he studied there. Yet nothingness, nothing about the old students. Shame. I feel that I will have to get going on the paper reading. It’s time.
But it is true that I, a person who has become accustomed to the simplicity of a Google search, I also likes to rid themselves of the inanimate screen. So I open books but soon I starts to get bored. I use the Rietveld library. There are many books about jewelry. Most of them are focus on eras, styles of creations, parts of the world, techniques or materials. The depiction of his exact item is very scarce, even in very specific books.
It’s finally the same as a Pinterest search, or almost. There is of course the pleasure of the paper’s touch and the smell of a book. There is also the promise of more dedicated information base. Why is it that we always believe what is written on paper? In the publications I’ve been flipping through, the designer is never represented alone. Always a name of book that creates a topic, it can be the use of certain materials, an era or a style of creation … I see that Gijs Bakker is a small part in a much larger book. It’s finally for me as another form of tab “recommendations”.
I also found Gijs Bakker’s portfolio. What I think is interesting is that the design of the website is the copy of the book, or the opposite. Who knows ? I’m not sure that the same design on screen and on paper really change something…
It is clear that the book searches are much more accurate and reliable, it is not the new of the century. However I appreciate internet research more because of it’s sprawling nature. I have the feeling that with a few words typed in the Google search bar, it’s a small fire that starts, just a click to take off, I like to lose myself in the web, whirl and lose myself completely in what I’m doing. It’s a way to have fun, to escape rigor, solidity and this kind of traditional and logical way to make research with books.