Maggie Orth
Running Plaid, 2007
35”h x 70”w
Hand woven cotton, rayon, conductive yarns, silver ink, hand printed thermochromic ink, custom drive electronics (version 2) and expressive software. 8 eight-pixel units. With IFM Design Studio.

By integrating electronics directly into hand woven fabric, Running Plaid explores the perceptual, material and expressive possibilities of animating a traditionally static media, textiles. Viewers push a button located on the frame piece to start a sequence of color change events and patterns on the surface of the textile.

Running Plaid is a large woven circuit, which combines electrodes woven with conductive yarn, thermochromic ink, drive electronics, and expressive software. Textile electrodes are woven with highly conductive yarns in the warp (on the selvedges), and resistive yarns in the weft. Plain weave connects these yarns together electrically. Selvedges are cut to create individual color-change areas, and connected to drive electronics. The weaving is printed with a thermochromic ink formula, which changes color when heated. Drive electronics send current to the individual pixels, heating the resistive yarns and changing the color of the ink. Expressive software controls the patterns and sequences of the color-change events.

Maggie Orth is an artist, technologist, and entrepreneur who creates and invents interactive and electronic textiles in Seattle, Washington. Orth is considered a pioneer in the emerging field of electronic textiles, interactive fashions, wearable computing, and interface design. Her groundbreaking work in electronic textiles has been published and exhibited in a range of venues worldwide. Recently, she and her work have been featured in Time Magazine, I.D. Magazine, Future Materials, Wired Magazine, and the 2007 International Design Yearbook. Her work has been widely exhibited. Venues include the Wexner Center for the Arts, Ohio; The Cooper Hewitt Extreme Textiles; NTT ICC, InterCommunication Center, Tokyo, Japan; The National Textile Museum, Washington, DC; The San Francisco Museum of Craft and Design, CA; The Stedelijk Museum, The Netherlands; The DeCordova Museum, MA; SIGGRAPH, and Ars Electronica, Austria.

More Information on Maggie Orth

Maggie Orth’s Resume

Maggie Orth’s Statement

Available Work