Where art, design, history and science collide - to build a pathway for curiosity
Ever noticed how the most groundbreaking ideas often come from the edges - where disciplines collide, rules are rewritten, and curiosity leads the way? This month, we’re diving into these intersections: where art meets science, where exhibits become playgrounds for the mind, and where design doesn’t just inform but disrupts.
From Darwin’s legacy to the power of nature-based immersive storytelling, these projects challenge the way we think about learning, experience, and change. Are we designing for passive observation or sparking active curiosity? Are we simply absorbing information, or are we stepping inside it? Are we just conveying information, or are we changing people’s mindsets and behaviour?
Read on. You might just see the world differently by the end of it.
We’ve been trained to think of education as neatly divided – science goes into one box, art into another, but where does design go? But what if we stopped seeing these as separate subjects and instead recognised them as different ways of looking at the same world? The best ideas – the ones that challenge, inspire, and break boundaries – rarely come from a single discipline. They come from the spaces in between.
We all know the difference between an invention (a new product or service that is useful to society) and a discovery (revealing a truth that was always there), but into which box do we place music, language and art? We need to learn to think outside the box, to realize the importance of ‘things in the wings’.
This article explores how blending art, design, and science in education can create more than just well-rounded students, it can create daring thinkers. When you teach science like an artist, design like a scientist, and think like an engineer, learning stops being about rote memorisation and trends towards curiosity-driven exploration. Isn’t that the point of creative education?
Charles Darwin didn’t just shake up science, he cracked the foundation of how we see ourselves in the world. But beyond the theory of evolution, his real legacy is in the way he thought - relentless curiosity, a willingness to be wrong, and an obsession with observing and interpreting the world in fine detail.
On 12th February formula D_, together with the global scientific community and informal science educators, celebrated International Darwin Day.
To celebrate Darwin’s legacy, formula D_ contributed directly to two projects in Cape Town in April 2025 - the Darwin200 project and the Darwin Bust Campaign.
Read more: Celebrating Darwin
There are places so extreme, so unreachable, so dangerous, that most of us will never set foot there. The deepest oceans, the highest peaks, the farthest planets; these landscapes exist on the edges of human experience. But what if you could go there without ever leaving the ground?
Let’s explore how immersive storytelling is taking us where our bodies can’t. Through immersive technology, design, and narrative, we can experience the crushing pressure of the deep sea, the icy silence of Antarctica, or the vast loneliness of Mars. And more than that, we can feel what it means to be there.
It’s not just about cool visuals. It’s about shifting perspectives. Because when you stand at the edge of the world, even virtually – you start seeing your own place in it a little differently. As Terry Pratchett wrote in his book, ’A Hat Full of Sky’ “Coming back to where you started is not the same as never leaving.”
For many people living in a vast urban environment - Nature has become something that is admired from a distance, something only seen on screens, or read about in a book. But what if urban design could bridge that gap, pulling us into Nature in ways that make us feel part of it again?
Experiential design is reconnecting people with the natural world – all within major cities. Whether it’s through sensory experiences, interactive installations, role playing games, or spaces that dissolve the boundaries between humans and environment, the goal is the same: to make Nature feel immediate, close, urgent, and personal.
Because if we don’t understand Nature, we’ll never truly fight for it.
What if we stopped treating knowledge as something to be memorised and started treating it like an adventure? What if museums weren’t places to pass through but spaces to interact, disrupt, and re-imagine? What if the best way to learn wasn’t through lectures but through experience? What if we realized that science isn’t about unquestioned, top-down authority but is always work in progress?
The real question: Are we designing for the past, or are we daring to create the future?