Past event
CLOAK brings together LGBTQIA+ folk working in science, technology, engineering, mathematics, and medicine with emerging fashion designers to reinvent the lab coat as a symbol of queer pride.
We all know the stereotype of the scientist in a white lab coat, but how do queer scientists see themselves? Shot by award-winning photo-artist Cherine Fahd, this cross-disciplinary exhibition spotlights diversity in science through fashion.
In a field in which recent research reveals many professionals remain closeted, we asked a dozen LGBTQIA+ scientists to share their stories with fashion designers working under the direction of Todd Robinson, a designer and artist specialising in the relationship between fashion, embodiment and ethics. The designers then transformed discarded lab coats into new garments that capture the scientists’ queer histories. Filmed against the backdrops of the UTS Fashion Lab and the University of Sydney’s School of Chemistry, the results of this sustainable co-design experiment can be seen across the festival on the Broadway Screen at UTS Central, where the bespoke lab coats will also be displayed.
Join us underneath the UTS Broadway Screen at 5:30pm on Thursday 16th February for the formal launch of CLOAK with Alice Motion (2020 Eureka Prize for Promoting Understanding of Science) and other queer scientists and fashionistas. Proudly supported by UTS Gallery & Art Collection and the Sydney Social Sciences and Advanced Research Centre (SSSHARC), University of Sydney.
This is a FREE, drop-in event!