Sleeping Beauties: The 2024 Met Gala creates a Marriage of Science, Fashion, and History

This year’s Met Exhibition is titled Sleeping Beauties: Reawakening Fashion. The theme of this exhibition is to reawaken historical garments through the five senses so that attendees can be fully immersed. This exhibit was the product of many groups collaborating including technologists, researchers, preservationists, and the local community.

“In a way, it’s like marrying the poetics of fashion with the poetics of science.” — Andrew Bolton, Chief Curator, Interview with WWD

Prior to the exhibition opening, it was reported that various technological advances would be incorporated into exhibit such as augmented reality, artificial intelligence, and computer generated imagery to increase the accessibility of fragile historical garments to the public. In a recent interview with Vogue, Andrew Bolton, Chief Curator, described wanting to make garments accessible to a younger audience

“I heard a young girl probably 9 or 10 asking a security guard ‘Why can’t I touch this?’ which is a completely normal question… the young children try to deconstruct museum etiquette to make it more accessible to a younger audience.” — Andrew Bolton, Chief Curator, Interview with Vogue

This exhibit was created so that attendees can use all 5 senses to interact with these garments recreated with the help of science and technology all while maintaining preservation of the garments.

OpenAI is one of the collaborators in this exhibit tasked to create a bot to take on the persona of a New York Socialite, Natalie Potter. Natalie was the owner of a 1930s wedding gown on display. The public can “talk” to her by scanning a QR code and chat via text — similar to how users use ChatGPT, Siri, and Alexa. The bot is trained to respond like her based on letters she wrote, newspaper articles, and documents from that time period. This is the first time AI has been used to create an exhibit by the Met and opens up further opportunities for how AI can be used in this space. This is a a different response to the concern that AI is disrupting the creative industry by being able to produce content faster and more affordably than humans. By collaborating with OpenAI the Met is showing how developing technologies can be used cohesively in the arts.

Another way these garments are being brought to life is through computer generated images. Some of the garments featured in the exhibit are too fragile to be worn by humans or mannequins so a technique called “Pepper’s Ghost” is being used to create a “ghost” wearing the garments. This method was most recently used publicly in 2012 when Tupac Shakur’s likeness was recreated at Coachella and can be seen at Disney World’s Haunted Mansion ride. Using technology to recreate these fragile garments enhances the accessibility of them and presents an opportunity to bring these art pieces to other cities virtually.

“By using historic technology, the Met Gala not only connects us more directly to the time period of the clothing but also highlights the timeless influence that technology has had on fashion.” says Andrew Klock, a graduate student at University of Wisconsin in the Department of Computer Sciences.

An interesting way that this exhibit is engaging the public is through the power of scent. Sissel Tolaas, chemist and smell researcher, was engaged by the Met to recreate the smell of garments. For example, a gallery was created focused on socialist and heiress Millicent Rogers’ scent. Molecules from her garments were analyzed to discover everything from her fragrance to habits and lifestyle. The public can use plastic tubes to smell peak molecules from Millicent’s dress.

“You’re actually smelling Millicent Rogers,” Bolton said. “You’re smelling not only the fragrance she wore, but her natural body odors, what she ate, what she drank, what she smoked and where she lived.”

This year’s Met Gala exhibit is a product of science, fashion, and history that creates an engaging, accessible, and immersive experience for the public. This is the first time technology has been front and center in creating a Met exhibit and most likely won’t be the last. Through various collaborations the Met has shown how science and technology can be embraced in the arts and can enhance accessibility of pieces that are usually locked away from the public’s eye.

Engaging the public and creating an immersive experience was at the center of creating this exhibit. As Andrew Bolton said — reaching a younger audience required the Met to break down the traditional barriers that a museum presents. This would not have been possible without engaging scientists, technologists, and researchers. By involving groups that are not conventionally involved in creating exhibits like these the Met expanded the possibilities of types of art that could be created. Further, the collaboration of people in STEM, art, and history has created an exhibit that is more attainable to the public. Arguably, this is what should have been the highlight at the actual Met Gala event.

The exhibit is open until September 2nd and hopefully it is not the last time a collaborative experience like this happens. After seeing the success of this exhibit, this begs the question what else could be created with the collaboration of artist and scientists? How can this grand experience be recreated in local communities?

There is an opportunity for scientists, researchers, and technologists to use their work in unconventional ways to engage with the public. Traditionally, as a researcher it is difficult to share work with others that is not in the form of a journal or a presentation which has impact mostly only in the scientific community. But the Sleeping Beauties: Reawakening Fashion exhibit shows how scientific work can go beyond that. Universities are potentially a prime place for these collaborations to take place — they have the resources, the people, and connection to the local communities. Overall, this exhibit is an example of the success that scientists and researchers can have by 1) collaborating with other fields to 2) create an engaging product for the public to interact with their work.

Sleeping Beauties: Reawakening Fashion will be open from May 10 — Sept 2.

Read more on the Civic Science Times

Ariana DeCastro

I am a bioengineer and content creator. I have a B.S. in Biomedical Engineering from Virginia Commonwealth University and a Bioengineering PhD from the University of Maryland, College Park.

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