CORY REYNOLDS | DATE 5/15/2019

'Nature: Collaborations in Design' is the sophisticated companion publication to the Cooper-Hewitt Design Triennial

At last, the Cooper-Hewitt Design Triennial has opened in New York, and we are delighted to recommend the sophisticated companion publication, Nature: Collaborations in Design, featuring 65 international projects from the fields of architecture, product design, landscape design, fashion, interactive and communication design and material research. The "Tranceflora" Nishijin kimono and boots (2015–19), created by Sputniko! and Masaya Kushino of Another Farm in collaboration with Japan's National Agricultural and Research Organization and the 300 year old Hosoo textile manufactury, are made of transgenic glowing colored silk, which has been engineered by injecting silkworm eggs with the green fluorescent protein that makes jellyfish luminesce. According to essayist Andrea Lipps, "'Tranceflora 2.0,' the next in the series, will be made using silk engineered by NARO scientiests with coral DNA (to glow red) and oxytocin, a key hormone in human bonding."