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A Navajo weaving of an integrated circuit: the 555 timer

357 points by defrost

by ellingsworth

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Thanks for sharing.
Similarly, Margo Selby crafted a very large, vibrant 16m textile installation titled ‘moon landing’ based on the work of Navajo women who wove the integrated computer circuits and memory cores that enabled the 1969 moon landing. Until recently it was on display at Canterbury Cathedral. It is accompanied by a musical composition for strings by Helen Caddick.
https://www.margoselby.com/pages/moon-landing

by segfault99

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Back in the 1980s2H there was a brief fashion trend of woollen knit sweaters with IC mask type patterns. Guessing related to designers playing around with design software and knitting tech made possible by microprocessor revolution.

by djmips

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This is how we pass our chip designs to our descendents so they may rebuild civlization.

by jacquesm

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What fascinating glimpse at a part of history that I had no clue about. The main reason Navajo (and other nations) native Americans figured in my 'history of the world' so far was the WWII era communications saga.
https://www.nationalww2museum.org/war/articles/american-indi...

by kens

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Author here if anyone has questions...

by mkl

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Fascinating related article about a weaving of a Pentium (linked near the bottom): https://www.righto.com/2024/08/pentium-navajo-fairchild-ship..., discussion a year ago: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41418301 (84 comments)

by RobertEva

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Delightful crossover: silicon layout turned into textile logic. The 555 is perfect for this—bold pinout, big blocks (comparators + RS latch), and routing that reads from a distance. Add a tiny legend and it’s a great teaching piece.

by crucialfelix

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I saw her work at MoMA, loved it. She's 70? That's even more awesome.

by johnklos

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This is beautiful. Thank you, Ken, and thank you, Marilou, for sharing :)

by drob518

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The 555 timer is iconic. Just iconic. I wonder how many billions of them have been shipped over the years?

by robertlutece

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Reminded me of this “Navajo weaver inspired by video games”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TrDZIyYSMfI

by IIAOPSW

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This is so cool. So if they used twists of steel wires or similar as string for the white parts, they could have a functional circuit.

by subharmonicon

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Saw an exhibit with some of her work, I think in Albuquerque. Was surprised/delighted to see weavings of circuits.

by kogasa240p

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Very cool art piece!

by zem

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alan dean foster's "cyber way" is a somewhat thematic sf novel

by charcircuit

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The continued popularity of this chip confuses me. I don't understand why it didn't get forgotten decades ago as microcontrollers became common place. Though compared to the Pentium talking on older designs is likely faster to make, so I wonder if he markets himself to an older audience who is nostalgic for these ancient chips.

by manoDev

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This is the kind of thing that can start conspiracy theories of time travelers :)

by fnord77

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be cool if the creator used semi-conducting threads and it actually worked

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by swayvil

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That's a pretty darn cool looking thing.
Funny how, guided by pure mechanical necessity, pretty stuff can arise.
I've always thought that clockwork, chips and other machines were pretty.
And fractals. ( https://fleen.org/i40.png ) And plants and animals too. And weathered rock.
Which leads me to consider what isn't pretty. Naivety?

by curtisszmania

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[dead]

by Pocomon

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