2001, BOLTS AND NUTS CUFFLINKS
ORIGINAL ANTIQUITY
CONTEMPORARY
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DESCRIPTION
THE FIRST JEWELRY EVER DESIGNED BY AN ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE
TWO TITANIUM SCREWS FROM THE APOLLO 15 MISSION (1971 AD) · We have designed a set of three pairs of nuts for these unique pieces of space history. The inspiration is obvious.
PAIR 1 · 18k yellow gold thread with hand carved woolly mammoth tusk, finished with a cabochon sapphire.
PAIR 2 · 18k yellow gold thread with Muonionalusta meteorite, hand cut and etched to uncover its crystalline structure that can only be formed in space.
PAIR 3 · The first piece of jewelry ever designed by an Artificial Intelligence, in collaboration with a Russian lab specialized in geometrical AI. 18k gold thread, finished with brushed 18k white gold and red enamel.
This unique Oktaaf creation is composed of 2 bolts and 2x3 nuts.
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The 2 bolts are Titanium screws from the Apollo 15 mission. The Apollo 15 mission was the 4th moon landing after the Apollo 13 famously had to abort. The original purchase order will be included in the shipment.
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The 1st nut is hand cut from Siberian woolly mammoth tusk (mammuthus primigenius). This specific piece is over 10000 years old and was found in the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia).
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The 2nd nut is hand cut from Muonionalusta meteorite, and etched to uncover its typical crystalline structure. These pieces of meteorite are found in the Arctic circle, and have been used as design elements by luxury brands like Rolls Royce and Rolex.
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The 3rd nut was creatively developed in partnership with an academic AI lab in Russia. Both the silence of IBM when we reached out to them, as the red colour design, are a direct reference to HAL 9000.
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Arthur C. Clarke, 2001: A Space Odyssey
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Stanley Kubrick, 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968 movie)
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The 2 Titanium screws were acquired in the US from a specialized dealer in vintage parts of the space exploration era. We have the original purchase orders from 1971.
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The Siberian woolly mammoth tusk was purchased from a German dealer, and legally imported under German and European law. Mammoth tusk is not covered by the CITES treaty that protects endangered plants and animals.
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Sean is a meteorite hunter who frequently travels to the Arctic to find and excavate large pieces of Muonionalusta. He was so kind to send us pictures of himself, digging up the specific original our piece was extracted from.
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For the AI design we tried to work with established players like IBM, but it was not possible. Eventually we partnered with a Russian lab specialized in geometrical AI, the entire process is documented and took over 12 months.
2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY, A TRIBUTE IN BOLTS AND NUTS
EXPLORATION, 2 titanium screws from the Apollo 15 mission
“One small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.” The Sputnik, Saturn and Apollo programs can arguably be considered human’s greatest feat so far. Half a century later, Voyager 1 is leaving the solar system, and manned missions to Mars are just decades away.
EVOLUTION, prehistoric Siberian woolly mammoth bone
The Siberian woolly mammoth roamed the Eurasian steppes until its extinction around 10000 BC. Its disappearance coincides with the end of the last ice age, together with the rise of homo sapiens. Humans intensively hunted mammoths, bones and ivory were prime material for tools and weapons. Interestingly, in 2015 the mammoth genome was completely sequenced and the species is on the short list for de-extinction.
EXTRATERRESTRIAL, a meteorite monolith
The Gods reside in outer space nowadays. The Muonionalusta meteorite impacted the Arctic about a million years ago, it is as old as Earth itself. The material has been cut and etched, to uncover its resplendent crystalline structure. The Widmanstätten pattern takes a cooling time of millions of years to be formed, and is literally not from this world.
TECHNOLOGY, Artificial Intelligence
2001: A Space Odyssey was a forerunner of contemporary issues about Artificial Intelligence. AI is widely considered to be the next big technological revolution, and is just now breaking out of the confines of engineering, venturing into creativity and even art itself. Inspired by the connection between HAL 9000 and IBM, we contacted their Watson department to join us in developing the first piece of jewelry ever to be designed by an AI. Our “Hello HAL do you read me” remained unanswered. So we researched cloud based AI components we eventually used to design the last and final bolt. We defined a geometric framework, provided the software with creative inspiration based on the movie, and the jewelry piece was then creatively designed by a machine. “One small step for man…”
