Wear Your Thesis: Project Ideas
Sewing + Science = Awesome
My Side Project Challenge
My initial idea for this side project challenge was to create science inspired fabric patterns and sew things with them! Now I’m thinking it would be awesome (and feasible) to recruit other graduate students to also turn their theses into wearable works of art. Let me tell you more about the ideas, inspiration, and vision for this project.
The Idea: Sewing + Science = Awesome
I’ve been sewing since January 2011 when I got my first sewing machine. It’s fun to find “must have” fabrics or patterns and then spend the afternoon turning them into a fun dress, skirt, or costume.
What I love the most about sewing is that it creates balance in my life by complementing the science projects I work on. Sewing projects can be completed in a weekend or two, but my science projects take years!
I don’t always talk about my science with strangers, friends, family, or colleagues because sometimes I’m not sure I can describe it without boring or confusing the listener. Wouldn’t it be cool if I could wear a dress and say “this is what my transcriptomic data looks like” or “this is some code I wrote” when someone asked? I think so!
The Inspiration: Other Creative People and Projects
- The Art Science Gallery: This gallery in Austin Texas supports a diverse group of artists that create science inspired art.
- The Dance you Ph.D. Contest: There are hundreds of YouTube videos out there made by students who creatively represented their research in the form of dance.
- That Other Shirt: An amazing story about how a T-shirt design posted on Twitter became a reality through a Kick Starter Campaign
- Spoonflower: A place where submit images for custom-designed fabric
- Show Your Work: This really fun easy-to-ready book by Austin Kleon describes fun ways to harness your creativity and share it with the world.
To me, these five other projects demonstrate the interest in and opportunity to express one’s own creativity. More importantly, that there is community interest in supporting, harnessing, and sharing creative projects.
So, this led me to think that maybe I’m not the only one who is interested in using my own thesis data to create articles of clothing.
The Vision: Personal and Community Projects
My initial and personal vision for this One Project Challenge design patterns based on my thesis data, use Spoonflower to print them on fabric, then spend a weekend in my room making clothes with it. I think I’d also like to make a lab coat with data-inspired fabric, because would this be more awesome in color?! I have some ideas, but I’ll save those for my next post.
My community vision will be to partner with an organization(s) to create a “Wear Your Thesis” campaign where students can submit their thesis-inspired creations and share them with the world. I have a few ideas for organizations that might be able to pull this off, but I haven’t contacted any of them yet. Like I said, I think this is something I will focus on in the later part of 2016.
I would love to see photos of people in the lab wearing clothes/coats they made with data generated in the lab!
Why this matters
Science communication and data visualization are a big deal. The easier it is for people to show their work, the better. I hope that projects like these help the public better understand the types of research that graduate students do, and that the creative outlet will inspire more creativity in the laboratory and classroom.
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