Seattle, WA
Maggie Orth, a graduate of the Media Lab at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, creates smart textiles, a combination of textiles and computers. A pioneer of electronic textiles, interactive fashions, wearable computing, and interface design, Orth considers her work a feminist practice that merges the feminine-gendered medium of textiles with the male-gendered world of computers. She creates two-dimensional fabric works that hang on the wall like paintings and change color when prompted by a viewer’s touch.
Running Plaid, 2007, handwoven cotton, rayon, conductive yarns, silver ink, hand-printed water-based thermochromic ink, custom drive electronics and expressive software; photo courtesy David Clugston