FROM WASTE TO ART: THE NEW AESTHETICS OF THE FUTURE
On Friday, September 25, 2026, the European Researchers’ Night 2026 was held simultaneously in Shtip, Skopje, Bitola and several European cities. “Goce Delcev” University – Stip, as a partner in the project “Choose Science! Building Society through Research and Innovation”, organized numerous activities and events for this event that celebrates science.
The main event, accompanied by a rich cultural and artistic program, was held in the evening at the “Jordan Mijalkov” Sports Hall. One of the most significant points of the evening was the fashion performance by students of the Faculty of Technology and Engineering, realized together with high school students from high schools, under the mentorship of Prof. Dr. Sanja Risteski. The fashion show featured the “Sci-Waste: FUTURE-FORM” collection, which unites fashion, technology and sustainability, transforming textile waste into an avant-garde visual form.
The resources of the UGD Makerspace laboratory were also used in the creation of the collection and the realization of the performance. One of the main attractions was the robot dog, which performed together with the other participants in the show, including high school students who wore the new clothing designs. Some of the fashion elements and accessories were made using 3D printing, and the performance was accompanied by contemporary music and a special video made by colleagues from the UGD Makerspace laboratory. Such collaborations confirm the importance of connecting art with technology, with the creative idea gaining new opportunities for realization through modern digital tools and technological equipment. The interdisciplinary approach creates space for experimentation, innovation and knowledge exchange, enabling young people to develop their creativity in step with technological progress.
About the fashion show and the collection, Prof. Dr. Sanja Risteski said the following:
“Sci-Waste: FUTURE-FORM” starts from the question: what if textile waste is, in fact, the code for a new aesthetic? The collection is an experimental dialogue between the chaos of waste and the precision of engineering, exploring how technology, construction and 3D structures can give new life to what the system has already declared surplus.
Visually, the collection takes us back to the late 90s and the beginning of the new millennium, when we imagined the future as a radically different world. Chromed silver, metal corsets, mirrored glasses, cables and the black-silver contrast revive the fantasy of the meeting between man and machine. Today, when that imagined future meets the reality of artificial intelligence, man still remains the creator of the idea, and technology only pushes the boundaries for its realization.
Sci-Waste does not seek luxury in expensive materials, but in imagination and the ability to create new value from existing resources. The collection does not hide waste, on the contrary, it serves it to us transformed, structured and placed in an unexpected fashion context, to encourage us to reconsider our own perception of it.
This is not just an artistic display of the work, but an alarm about the amount of textile waste we create while constantly living with the feeling that something is missing. The goal is to entice us, to provoke us, to inspire us and, perhaps most importantly, to make us initiate change.
