Nobel Textiles: Science and Design Exhibition Proposal

Pioneered by Professor Amanda Fisher (MRC Clinical Sciences Centre, London) and Carole Collet (Central Saint Martins College of Art & Design), the Nobel Textiles project marries Nobel laureates to leading Textiles and Fashion designers.

The project:

Design Fellows from Central Saint Martins College of Art & Design are liaising with Nobel prize-winning scientists to develop textiles that respond to scientific discovery. The proposed outcome will be a public exhibition and catalogue designed to celebrate and communicate the interaction between Science and Design.

In addition to the exhibition, The "Fabric of Life" film is a proposed 45 minute long documentary on the collaboration between designers and scientists.

2D-3D: Higher Order Structure:

Philippa Brock meets Aaron Klug

Philippa is a Textile Designer and Researcher who utilises CAD/CAM Woven jacquard technologies. Her work involves a variety of approaches, including designing textiles for international clients. Her research work involves developing innovative woven textile fabrics which explore the industrial power loom manufacturing method, developing 'on loom' finishing processes through yarn and structure interaction, requiring minimal 'off loom' finishing. Her current research is in the smart textile field, producing a range of aesthetic and functioning woven conductive fabrics which act as actuators and switches, including touch, mechanical stretch and galvanic skin response sensors. She also runs the Woven Textiles Department at Central Saint Martins

Aaron is a pioneer in the field of molecular structure elucidation, for which he was awarded a Nobel prize in 1982 for describing the crystal structures of protein-nucleic acid complexes. In addition to chromatin - the hereditary complex of DNA and protein in our chromosomes – he also determined the structure of tobacco mosaic viruses and zinc-finger proteins, important genetic regulators. Aaron is based at the MRC Laboratory for Molecular Biology in Cambridge, UK.

Proposed Design Outcomes A collection of large jacquard woven textile pieces illustrating various self-folding approaches and higher order structure.

The Fat Map Collection:

Shelley Fox meets Sir Peter Mansfield

Shelley questions both technical and conceptual conventions in a bid to redefine how clothes are worn. Her use of unorthodox pattern cuts and materials such as scorched felted wool, using Braille markings and Morse code, have earned her a string of illustrious prizes. Motivated by an interest in humanity and social interactions, her distinctive style results from a training in both fashion and textiles. (www.shelleyfox.com)

Sir Peter has made an enormous contribution to medicine through his work on medical resonance imaging (MRI) techniques, for which he won a Nobel Prize in 2003. MRI has replaced many invasive diagnostic methods. Drawn to science by an interest in rocketry, he later built a portable spectrometer to measure the Earth’s magnetic field. Upon realising the potential for analysing the human body, he sought MRC support to build a whole-body MRI machine (Nottingham University)

Proposed Design Outcome A clothing collection.

Nothing Ever Changes

Rachel Kelly meets Tim Hunt

Rachel designs interactive wallpaper. The resurgence in popularity of statement wallpaper has transformed it from unwanted woodchip to a piece of art in its own right. Her vision of interactivity involves customers in the design process to create innovative bespoke wall coverings from silk screen prints and colourful stickers. Rachel is a Key Associate Lecturer at Central Saint Martins College (www.interactivewallpaper.co.uk).

Tim’s journey into the secret life of sea urchin eggs revealed a host of suddenly-disappearing proteins. Later found in many other organisms, so-called cyclins control whether and when cells divide, their malfunction posing a risk of cancer. For this research he was awarded a Nobel prize in 2001. Tim continues his work at the Cell Cycle Control Laboratory in London.

Proposed Designed Outcome A collection of innovative wallpaper and lighting design.

Metabolic Media:

Rachel Wingfield meets John E. Walker

Rachel designs, researches and fabricates environmentally responsive textiles like luminous bedding, light reactive window blinds and electronic wallpaper. Her textiles articulate a natural ecology, evoking a living botanical material. The premise of her work is to provide a more intuitive understanding of our natural environment - mediating between craft, technology and nature. (www.loop.ph, www.textilefutures.co.uk)

John has been instrumental in improving our understanding of biological energy conversion in living cells. Awarded a Nobel Prize in 1997 for his work describing how enzymes make ATP (the Molecule adenosine triphosphate), he has outlined one of the most important biological systems known to man. Every day we convert around one-half our body weight in ATP. The constant cycling of this molecule drives everything from decomposition to muscle contraction in anything from bacteria to crocodiles.

Proposed Design Outcome Architectural textiles for localised urban food production and environmental monitoring.

Garden Textiles:

Carole Collet meets Sir John Sulston

Carole is pioneering textile inventions for the domestic market. As Course Director of the MA in Textile Futures at Central Saint Martins, she inspires future generations of designers by mapping out ways to redefine our intimate and emotional relationships within ‘smart homes’ using intelligent textiles and sustainable design. As a designer and consultant, she specialises in textile print, R&D, sustainable and smart textiles (www.textilefutures.co.uk , www.carolecollet.com).

John identified the first mutation in a gene that participates in the deliberate suicide of unwanted cells in multi-cellular animals, for which he was awarded a Nobel Prize in 2002 (with Sydney Brenner). Both scientists worked on the roundworm, C.elegans. Programmed cell death plays an important role in development and protection from diseases like cancer.

Proposed Design Outcomes A collection of sustainable garden textiles and outdoor textile furniture inspired by C.Elegans. The final products will be a range of printed canopy and parasols, lounge chair, garden rugs. throws and cushions.

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This project has been kindly sponsored by the Medical Research Council and the Epigenome Network of Excellence