Participants:
University of Arts London - Elisa Palomino
The report addresses the objective of innovating (traditional) creative and cultural industries and empowering cross-sectoral collaboration. The report, initiated by the Northern Dimension Partnership on Culture Strategy (NDPC) describes our project:
"FISHSkin (2019–2023) is a project that aims to increase the market take-up of fish leather to an industrial scale. It seeks to do this by integrating knowledge from different disciplines, Fashion Design, Material Science and Marine Biology, to form a new collective knowledge through which academic and industrial experts will strive to develop new techniques and methodologies."
Link to the Report
Link to FISHSkin contribution by our researcher Elisa Palomino of UAL. Pages 27, 34
Location: Milano, Italy
Lineapelle is a renowned international leather expo, the biggest annual industry showcase. The array of products, materials, and accessories were impressively diverse, and in 2020 many were designed with sustainability in mind. Seeing others thinking creatively about meeting current challenges of sustainability was inspiring and we hope to be able to present our FISHSkin project in a future Lineapelle event.
Location: Viljandi, Estonia
Participants:
University of Arts London - Elisa Palomino
In collaboration with traditional tanning specialist Lotta Rahme, Elisa presented on Studying Traditional Crafts: Goals and Methods in Higher Education.
The delivery was a material-based exploration looking at the role of fish skin in sustainable design practice, developing models of socially responsive design innovation and knowledge transfer. The research looked at the geographical use of fish skin material in circumpolar cultures. The aim is to explore how fish skin artisanship through participatory design practices can explore fashion for social cohesion through the partnership of tradition with contemporary design from higher education students. There is also a desire for reviving technologies of the past as well as for securing the transfer of indigenous knowledge systems related to fish skin processing.
The presentation described the workshops developing methods of tanning fish skin and producing fish skin material samples in areas where traditionally fish skin was developed, where experienced fish skin craftspeople have passed down the endangered Arctic fish skin craft to the next generation of students from universities in the circumpolar area (Iceland, Denmark, Sweden, Finland, Hokkaido, Japan, northeast China and Alaska) as part of the sustainable fashion higher education program. The methods of sustainable material engagement and the full immersive experience through a teaching-in-the field approach are recommended as transferable skills for educational models. The workshops demonstrate how relevant the Indigenous fish skin knowledge - in partnership with sustainable design strategies - can connect people to their culture, communities and the environment.