Arts Thread

Rebel Tartan project, founded by Juliana Sissons came about through a chance meeting with Prof Giles Jackson of Liberation Kilt Co. A get-together at the V&A Museum in 2014, led to discussions about contemporary social movements and fashion design education today. Robin Kerr then joined the project, introducing an initial global element in 2019. This International collaboration between over twelve leading arts, textiles and fashion design programmes continues to grow and emerged as a result of a small pilot project in 2015, with students from two UK universities collaborating to confront social issues in highly creative ways.

2021 theme, Keeling tartan for Climate Change

See the Rebel Tartan Project Exhibition projects live at the Conference: Sustainable Leadership for a Sustainable Planet

Date: Tue, 9 November 2021

Time: 09:00 – 17:00 GMT

Royal Bank of Scotland Conference Centre, 175 Glasgow Road, Edinburgh, EH12 9SB

The Keeling tartan symbolises a wholesale shift in the energy basis of civilisation, from fossil fuels (grey and black track) to 100 per cent clean energy (green and yellow track). It is named in honour of the late Charles David Keeling of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, whose measurements from 1958 onwards supplied the first concrete evidence of rapidly increasing carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere, commonly known as the ‘Keeling Curve’.

Today, ninety-seven percent of actively publishing climate scientists agree that man-made climate change is for real. Permission to adopt the Keeling name was graciously granted by his son, Ralph Keeling, director of the Scripps CO2 Program that continues the vital measurement series to this day.

Scottish Tartan Register No. 10593; UK Patent Office No. 4022617

Collaboration and knowledge exchange are key practices explored; students use this platform to share ideas and let their voices be heard. Through teamwork they develop an extensive range of research sources to expand on their personal design process. A variety of media, from drawing and collage to photography and film is explored. Research is essentially the driving force behind this project and very important for the development of ideas to inform collections of textile samples, fashion designs and contextual illustrations of possible design solutions.