Bridging Virtual and Physical Realms: Pamela Golbin’s Vision for the Future of Design

The world of design is rapidly evolving, blurring the boundaries between the virtual and the physical. At the forefront of this revolution is the GEMINI Laboratory Global Design Awards, an innovative competition that challenges creators to explore new worldviews and concepts that seamlessly integrate digital and tangible elements. Pamela Golbin, a prominent cultural leader, international curator, and best-selling author, shares her insights on this exciting frontier and what she hopes to see from the participants.

Golbin has an impressive background in the world of fashion and design. She served as the Chief Curator of Fashion and Textiles at the Musée des Arts Décoratifs in Paris for 25 years, where she curated numerous exhibitions featuring renowned designers such as Dries Van Noten, Louis Vuitton, Valentino, and Balenciaga. Recently, Golbin collaborated with Google on their first “Artist-in-Residence” project, exploring the synergy between technology and fashion using Google’s smart textile, “Project Jacquard.” Her diverse experience and expertise make her an ideal judge for the GEMINI awards, bringing a unique perspective on the intersection of tradition and innovation.

Tradition Meets Modernity

As someone deeply involved in projects that merge tradition with modernity, Golbin understands the power of combining fashion and technology. “Fashion and the decorative arts have been very much part of what defines my curatorship,” she explains. Her current endeavors exemplify this fusion, such as curating an exhibition in Shanghai to celebrate 60 years of Franco-Chinese relations, featuring the renowned collection of the Mobilier National, France’s national decorative arts collection of tens of thousands of pieces of furniture and objects intended for the furnishing and decoration of public buildings in France and abroad.

Golbin’s passion lies in inspiring others, and she sees the GEMINI awards as a platform to do just that. “What’s incredible about the technology that you have and what you’re providing is that there’s no up, there’s no down, there’s no inside, there’s no outside. The only limitation is your imagination” she says. “Everything is up to you or to the person who’s going to be working on this.”

Unleashing Imagination

For Golbin, the true potential of the GEMINI awards lies in unleashing the boundless creativity of the participants. “It’s not about restraining from a projection point of view. From a retail point of view,” she asserts. “It really is about just opening up your mind and letting you express the wildest ideas that come to you.”

In the virtual realm, designers are liberated from the constraints of gravity and production limitations that exist in the physical world. “What’s exciting about the virtual world today is that you really can create things that don’t yet exist in the real world,” Golbin says. “And so you have to let your imagination free of any of those constraints.”

This freedom to imagine the impossible is what excites Golbin the most. “You don’t have to care if it can live in the real world,” she encourages. “It’s about creating a world that we don’t know.”

When asked about what kind of virtual exhibition or experience she would like to create for a brand or to showcase 3D clothing, Golbin emphasizes that technology should be a tool to express something that has yet to be done. “Virtually, I would say that the most successful exhibition experience using technology is when technology is not the final product, but on the contrary, is a tool to express something that has yet to be done,” she explains. “And so if technology can help the designer or the creative express himself or herself fully, that’s when it’s best used.”

Blending Senses and Dimensions

Golbin’s vision for the future of design transcends the visual, incorporating a multisensory experience that engages all the senses. She draws inspiration from her previous collaborations, such as the DRIES VAN NOTEN exhibition, where she worked with a scent designer to recreate the aroma of a garden after rain, allowing visitors to immerse themselves in the designer’s world through smell.

“What’s incredible about the virtual world today is that our senses can be expanded, not only with visual input, but also with our feelings,” Golbin explains. “And with this project, it’s something that can be done.”

Golbin envisions a design experience that is not linear but multi-dimensional, challenging the traditional boundaries of how we perceive and interact with art and fashion.

Inspiring Through Collaboration

While Golbin is not a hands-on designer herself, her strength lies in curating and inspiring others. “It is not about my own design quality,,” she admits. “But about how I can inspire others and push them to work even more creatively than they actually do.”

Her role as a curator is to provide a platform for creative minds to shine, drawing inspiration from the works of others while guiding them to explore new realms of expression. “And so if I became a curator, it’s because I want to use my platform so that people who have that creative spirit can actually shine and design themselves,” she explains.

Technological Marvels

Reflecting on history, there have been instances where technological innovations have led to changes in creative approaches. In the modern era, where people exist in digital and virtual realms in addition to the physical, Golbin believes that designers who embrace technological advances in fabrics and virtual technologies will shape the future of the fashion industry. “Today, we don’t even need the body because it can be reproduced virtually, but without the actual technical advances, we’re limited by the physical,” she says. “And so the virtual technology will allow us to open up that horizon of physical boundaries and think very differently and openly about those limitations and hopefully overcome them to create something completely new.”

Golbin’s exhibitions have seamlessly integrated technology to enhance the visitor experience and offer new perspectives on design. For the Madeleine Vionnet show, she collaborated with architects to create 3D visualizations of the designer’s intricate patterns, allowing viewers to understand the revolutionary nature of her designs in a way that would not have been possible with static displays.

In another project with Google, Golbin worked as the artistic director on a groundbreaking concept that integrated technology directly into fabric. Using a special thread woven in Japan, the fabric could be programmed through touch, transforming it into an interactive surface capable of controlling lights, music, and even making phone calls.

“It’s always about the human,” Golbin emphasizes. “We need to keep that magic touch that humans bring to technology.”

Movements in Virtual and Physical Fashion

As the fashion industry continues to evolve, Golbin has observed exciting developments that blur the lines between virtual and physical realms. Designers like Iris van Herpen have embraced 3D printing, offering new perspectives on silhouettes and challenging traditional notions of how garments can be constructed.

In Paris and beyond, Golbin sees a growing trend of virtual elements being integrated into physical fashion experiences. From augmented reality try-on experiences to digital twins of clothing items, the boundaries between the two worlds are rapidly dissolving.

A Call to Creators

For those aspiring to participate in the GEMINI Laboratory Global Design Awards, Golbin offers a simple yet profound piece of advice: “Let go of what you already know and try something new. Make people dream!”

While it’s often said that one should start from a blank slate when trying something new, Golbin acknowledges that we are not truly blank slates. “We carry with us our personal history and the cultural history that we’ve been accessing all of our life,” she explains. “So, yes, you can put aside what you’ve been taught, but it’s always within us.”

However, Golbin has seen many designers use their past experiences and knowledge to create something innovative. She cites examples such as Madeleine Vionnet, who revolutionized the use of the bias cut, Martin Margiela, who challenged the role of the designer’s signature, and Alexander McQueen, who used his rigorous training in cutting and pattern making to push technical and aesthetic boundaries. “Each time there is a step forward with techniques and components that already existed in the past. And so it’s a kind of new puzzle,” Golbin says. “And that puzzle comes around when the designer uses his very personal and individual experiences to integrate them with cultural norms. It is how the way these puzzle pieces come together that really changes and creates a whole new vocabulary, whether it be stylistic, conceptual or physical.”

She encourages creators to embrace the unknown, to challenge their preconceptions, and to approach their designs with a sense of curiosity and wonder. “It’s scary, but that’s the path that you need to take to break down what you already have in mind,” she says.

Golbin’s vision for the future of design is one that transcends boundaries, blending the virtual and the physical into a cohesive, multisensory experience. She calls upon creators to let their imaginations run wild, to explore the limitless possibilities that technology affords, and to surprise and inspire the world with their creations.

“This program that you’re creating is really about letting go of what you know, to create something totally new,” she concludes. “And that’s what I think is so exciting about this project.”

As the GEMINI Laboratory Global Design Awards approaches, the world eagerly awaits the innovative and boundary-pushing designs that will emerge, shaping the future of how we experience and interact with the world around us.