The art and technology of electronic textiles

November 9, 2004
Maggie Orth | International Fashion Machines, Inc & University of Washington

The Art and Technology of Electronic Textiles
The Intersection of Material Making and Computation

What will a programmable painting or textile be like? How will it work? How can the physical material of paint, dye, textile and pigment interact with software and time? How will artists create these objects? What are there alternatives to monitors?

This talk will present the research and creative work of artist and inventor Maggie Orth, PhD. Orth will give an overview of her early creative and technical work in physical computation at the MIT Media Lab and then delve more deeply into her art and research in electronic textiles at her company International Fashion Machines, Inc. She will review early electronic fashions, various textile sensors and her computer controlled color-change fabric, Electric Plaid. She will look at the importance of fundamental design in the development and refinement of e-textiles, and the role that e-textiles can play in transforming technology. She will discuss her artistic and technical motivation for creating Electronic Textiles, her goals for Future Interactive Fashions. The talk will also look closely at the implication of software and time on traditionally static media, like textiles and painting. It will present electronic textiles as an aesthetic alternative to video rate, fully resolution, programmable visual media (the computer screen).

Speaker Details

Maggie Orth is an artist and technologist who creates interactive textile art, fashions, and research at her company and interactive textile studio, International Fashion Machines, Inc. in Cambridge MA. Her work at International Fashion Machines includes creating interactive textile art works, patents, fundamental electronic textile research, and electronic and interactive fashion product development, design and technology.Orth is considered a pioneer in electronic/interactive fashions, wearable computing, electronic textiles and the use of reactive and electronic materials in art and design. Works in these areas include Dynamic Double Weave, a handwoven artwork using her patent-pending electronic color-change fabric, Electric Plaid; fuzzy pom pom light switches; the IFM/E-ink Animated Fashion Module, designs for electronic shoes and hand bags; embroidered musical instruments with embroidered sensors, and electronic fashions including the Firefly Dress and Necklace and the Musical Jacket. Orth’s company also conducts private electronic textile research and research for the military.Orth has earned a Phd. in Media Arts and Sciences from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Media Lab, a BFA from the Rhode Island School of Design, and an MS from the Center for Advanced Visual Studies at MIT. Her PhD. Thesis, Sculpted Computational Objects, with Smart and Active Computing Materials, is one of the first written on electronic textiles. Her academic work at the Media Lab (1997-2001) included patents, research, publications and design in new physical interfaces, (Triangles) wearable computing, electronic textiles and fashions, and interactive textile musical instruments. Prior to her academic work at the Media Lab, she was the Production Director and Designer of Tod Machover’s massive, interactive musical production, Brain Opera (1996-7).Orth’s work has been widely exhibited. Venues include: the Cooper Hewitt Museum, New York, The E-Culture Fair, Amsterdam, Museum of Science, Boston, MA, NTT ICC, InterCommuncication Center, Japan, The National Textile Museum, Washington DC, The Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, The DeCordeva Museum, MA, SIGGRAPH, and Ars Electronica, Linz, Austria.