Electrotextile prehispanic computer
The Inca khipu are textile devices for recording information, made of cotton or camelid fiber strings that store data coded as knots. This piece is an open-source textile computer based on the manufacture of astronomical khipu, the cords of which were hand-spun with alpaca wool and copper wire. It functions as an antenna for electromagnetic fields that is connected to an amplifier circuit. The encoded data in it corresponds to: a spectral classification of the stars in the Boötes constellation; a lunar calendar; a solar eclipse; two earthquakes, and the elliptic position of the sun and moon at the time of our births.
KHIPU / Constanza Piña (CL), Credit: vog.photo
KHIPU / Constanza Piña (CL), Credit: vog.photo
KHIPU / Constanza Piña (CL), Credit: Jürgen Grünwald
KHIPU / Constanza Piña (CL), Credit: Jürgen Grünwald
This project is a sound and arts interpretation of the technology, wisdom and history of our ancestors, meant to express how the universe is governed by harmonious numerical proportions. What we are hearing now is thus the amplification of inaudible Space, the voices of specters visiting the void, a celestial score, the music of the spheres: the voice of silence.
Project Credits:
- Direction and Concept: Constanza Piña
- Realization: Melissa Aguilar, Ana Cervantes, Ana Ortiz,
- Daniela Sofia Main Reyes, Constanza Piña
- Electronics: Constanza Piña
- Graphic and editorial design: Melissa Aguilar
- Technical assistance: Alexandre Castonguay
- Made in MedialabMX (Mexico City) and Perte de Signal
- (Montreal).
- Supported by Ministerio de las Culturas, las Artes y el
- Patrimonio and the Ministerio de Relaciones Exteriores |
- Gobierno de Chile
Biography:
Constanza Piña (CL) is a visual artist, dancer and researcher, focused on electronic experimentation, open-source technologies and social practices. Her work reflects on the role of machines in our culture and on human-technological units, questioning education, capitalism and techno-centrist patriarchy with open- knowledge, autonomy and the enhancement of technical manual work. http://corazonderobota.wordpress.com
