DeScience, Bringing Together Scientific Discovery and Fashion Inspiration

In my travels at Mass Art, I met a few choice people that I sparked up a friendship with, some because we had multiple classes together and others because we just clicked. No matter who they are, I was always likely to learn something or be in awe of other's creativity. One special lady that I got to know over the course of a few semesters was my friend Claire. It was last Fall that Claire let me in on a new project that she was working on with a team of others... this project is called DeScience. Imagine fashion designers and scientists coming together to collaborate on a design representing scientific research. It sounded pretty awesome to me.

"DeScience emerged with the vision of fostering collaborations between two creative worlds and creating a new one that provides science with a new language and gives fashion a new source of inspiration. It’s about bringing together distinct perspectives, ideas, and developing a new mindset that has never been explored before, where designers find inspiration in science from around the world and the outcome is the DeScience Fashion Show."

A fashion show? Where do I sign up? Such a phenomenal idea. Not only is it a great idea but they have formed a contest to showcase and reward teams of designers and scientists.

 HOW IT WORKS

*Scientists provide inspirational images and concepts; designers choose their inspiration and collaborator.

*Teams of one scientist and one designer are formed.

*Teams collaborate to come up with a concept that expresses the science.

*The designer executes the design; additional collaboration is encouraged.

*Chosen looks are featured at Descience Runway 2014 at MIT Media Lab in Boston.

*Each member of the winning team receives $1,500

SHOPPING FOR INSPIRATION

Designers can now find their inspiration at www.fashiondescience.com and download the Scientist Catalog.

Scientists will provide inspirational material and designers will create garments that explore and showcase scientific research. Designers are encouraged to involve their collaborators in the process in order to ensure that the final result is as strong as possible. Teams should also be mindful that their submissions will be judged by authorities from both fields. 

Designers still have time to register their submissions to show a scientist that they are interested in their ideas. (Registration ends on January 29th) The whole point is to collaborate to bring the science to the runway. Here, let's look at some of the scientists and their ideas. Just looking at the pictures that they have included, already gets my mind whirling with ideas of all the possibilities.

Georgia Charkoftaki- Kidneylicious Research

Are you an emerging designer? Do you think you have what it takes to take a scientific idea and bring it to the runway? Visit DeScience and get to it!

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