Visiting lecture: Fashion's Micro Utopias byTimo Rissanen

Welcome to open lecture by Timo Rissanen, Professor of Fashion Design & Sustainability at Parsons New School, USA.

The lecture "Fashion's micro utopias" is part of the Critical Design Practices lectures series, hosted by MA Contemporary Design & MA Fashion, Clothing and Textile Design and Department of Design at Aalto University.

The lectures will be in English and they are open for everyone. Location: Otakaari 1, Lecture theatre Y20 3A

See all lectures:

13.9. FASHION'S MICRO UTOPIAS
9–11 Open lecture with Timo Rissanen
Professor of Fashion Design & Sustainability at Parsons New School, USA

20.9. BROKEN NATURE
9–11 Open lecture with curator Paola Antonelli
Senior Curator at MoMA and Curator of the XXII Triennale di Milano

27.9. BIO MATERIALS AND SYSTEM CHANGE
9–11 Open lecture: Carmen Hijosa
Doctor, Inventor of Piñatex and Founder of Ananas Anam

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The first lecture presents Dr. Rissanen's current research and teaching in sustainability in fashion, focusing on design for micro-utopias in a fashion systems context. A new economic context for fashion is proposed, building on economists Manfred Max-Neef and Kate Raworth: fashion is reimagined boldly within a just society on a flourishing planet. Rissanen asks: what would fashion be like as a system if its underlying rationale were the fulfillment of fundamental human needs? Given the urgent need for profound systems change, this talk has a bold goal: to empower and enable the audience to imagine unthinkable yet actionable futures, as creators, as fashion users and as citizens.

Bio

Dr. Timo Rissanen is an artist, designer and educator, and since 2010 he has been the Assistant Professor of Fashion Design and Sustainability at Parsons School of Design in New York. He also serves as the Associate Dean of the School of Constructed Environments at Parsons, and he is one of the Associate Directors of the Tishman Environment and Design Center at The New School. He was born in Finland and trained as a fashion designer at the University of Technology, Sydney (UTS) in Australia. As an artist Rissanen focuses on labour, politics and love through installation, performance and cross-stitched poetry. He has co-published two books on fashion and sustainability, Shaping Sustainable Fashion with Alison Gwilt in 2011 and Zero Waste Fashion Design with Holly McQuillan in 2016.