Education
CALL FOR APPLICATIONS: Design+Science Summer School 2026 – “WET DREAMS: Sea in us”
PiNA, in collaboration with the University of Ljubljana, the University of Split, and FH Joanneum, announces the sixth edition of the international Design+Science Summer School. This year, the program heads to the coast, taking place from July 6th to 10th, 2026, in Piran and Portorož, Slovenia.
Under the title “WET DREAMS: Sea in us,” the summer school challenges the common misconception that we are separate from the ocean. In reality, we are all made of the sea—our blood runs salty, and our cells are suspended in fluid. Although we left the water in our deep evolutionary past, the sea never left us; we carry a private ocean beneath our skin.
Instead of treating the sea merely as a resource, a dump, or a postcard, this edition approaches the ocean as a thinking partner—a 3.8-billion-year-old, self-regulating system that has outlasted every model humanity has ever built.
2026 Key Topics:
- Invasion Below the Surface: Exploring a shifting biosphere where species, bacteria, and human influence collide.
- Life in Warming Seas: Designing for a future where loss and instability define life both below and above the surface.
- Who Owns the Ocean? Uncovering the hidden maps of trade, cables, and conflicts that shape global power.
- Paradise For Rent: A critical look at how tourism packages nature into consumable images at the cost of local ecosystems and cultures.
Why Join Us?
Design+Science is a multidisciplinary laboratory where marine science measures change, while design, art, and the humanities shift the imagination behind it.
- Location: Faculty of Maritime Studies and Transport (Portorož) and various historic venues in Piran.
- Multidisciplinary Work: Open to Master’s and PhD students, as well as young professionals from design, architecture, art, computer sciences, social sciences, and natural sciences.
- Expert Mentorship: Work in groups led by renowned mentors: Ivica Mitrović, Birgit Bachler, Dorijan Šiško, and Emil Kozole.
- ECTS Credits: Successful participants are eligible for 3 ECTS credits.
Essential Information:
- Dates: July 6th – 10th, 2026
- Participation Fee: €300 (includes the full program, hostel accommodation, all meals, materials, and excursions).
- Application Deadline: May 29th, 2026
- Language: English
Join us for a week of exploration where we don’t just aim to “solve” the sea, but to learn from it.
Register here, and find more information at www.designscience.school.
Contact: design.science@pina.si.
