╳ The concept of pairing a Nobel prize-winning Scientist with a Textile Designer is somewhat bizarre; however truth is often stranger than fiction! Nobel Textiles involves a journey into the interface between science and design, or you could say, a ‘dialogue’ between researchers in both fields. The languages of science and design may at first glance seem wildly different: textiles are made with warps and wefts whilst molecular research employs gels and arrays to probe genes, proteins and pathways. Yet closer inspection reveals many conceptual symbioses.
╳ The processes of science and design explore combinations of ‘old’ and ‘new’ technologies to create models and both require a technical appreciation of form and structure to test and manipulate function and reveal new meanings. Designers fundamentally shape the way we live whilst scientists pervade the very fabric of our lives, yet both domains play a role in redefining our relationships with each other and the world around us.
╳ Textile Design Fellows from the Textile Futures Research Centre (University of the Arts, London) embarked on a journey with Nobel prize-winning life scientists to develop textiles that respond to scientific discovery and celebrate and communicate the interaction between science and design.
╳ One of the five projects, ‘Suicidal Textiles’, based on the process of programmed cell death or ‘deliberate cell suicide’, which enables organs and limbs to develop, is a collection o¬f garden furniture and textiles that evolves with the passage of time. Using biodegradable (natural) and durable (synthetic) materials, portions of the furniture and textiles slowly (bio)degrade to reveal final forms; in addition the process of (bio)degradation also supports C. elegans, which feed on the bacteria that live in soil and compost. Whilst the resulting design is not ripe with poetry, it is reassuring that a dialogue of this kind can take place between science and design.
╳ On a final note, C. elegans are of particular interest to Thread Count Lab, since we conducted a series of experiments a while back, where we studied and recorded their movements under a microscope, in order to elicit the repetitious patterns made by their tracks. Our scientist collaborator Dr Liou was intrigued by our interest in this species and gave us a full-blown tutorial and upon departure offered us the gift of our own C. elegans (which we politely declined!) Interestingly though, watching the movements of these miniscule roundworms is curiously hypnotic, and not as repellent as one would imagine!
╳ The processes of science and design explore combinations of ‘old’ and ‘new’ technologies to create models and both require a technical appreciation of form and structure to test and manipulate function and reveal new meanings. Designers fundamentally shape the way we live whilst scientists pervade the very fabric of our lives, yet both domains play a role in redefining our relationships with each other and the world around us.
╳ Textile Design Fellows from the Textile Futures Research Centre (University of the Arts, London) embarked on a journey with Nobel prize-winning life scientists to develop textiles that respond to scientific discovery and celebrate and communicate the interaction between science and design.
╳ One of the five projects, ‘Suicidal Textiles’, based on the process of programmed cell death or ‘deliberate cell suicide’, which enables organs and limbs to develop, is a collection o¬f garden furniture and textiles that evolves with the passage of time. Using biodegradable (natural) and durable (synthetic) materials, portions of the furniture and textiles slowly (bio)degrade to reveal final forms; in addition the process of (bio)degradation also supports C. elegans, which feed on the bacteria that live in soil and compost. Whilst the resulting design is not ripe with poetry, it is reassuring that a dialogue of this kind can take place between science and design.
╳ On a final note, C. elegans are of particular interest to Thread Count Lab, since we conducted a series of experiments a while back, where we studied and recorded their movements under a microscope, in order to elicit the repetitious patterns made by their tracks. Our scientist collaborator Dr Liou was intrigued by our interest in this species and gave us a full-blown tutorial and upon departure offered us the gift of our own C. elegans (which we politely declined!) Interestingly though, watching the movements of these miniscule roundworms is curiously hypnotic, and not as repellent as one would imagine!
