Greta Oto

Greta Oto was developed in collaboration with the fashion studio threeAsfour for Stratasys 2019 Chro-Morpho collection, now on display at the Philadelphia Museum of Art’s exhibition Design for Different Futures. The project explores the microscopic play of light and color that occurs in butterfly wings, using new fabrication processes to synthesize naturally occurring optical effects. By 3D printing scale-sized lenses directly onto polyester fabric, we’ve developed a unique approach to producing flexible, lenticular textiles. The dress is an assembly of 27 “prints” composed of thousands of individual, transparent spherical cells. Depending on the angle of view, each cell refracts one of two underlying strips of color to create an iridescent and dynamic gradient of gold and blue. The final construction hybridizes traditional and digital craft processes to demonstrate how, through the study of biological systems, we can develop novel and innovative approaches to what a textile can do.