Tag: Quipu

2600 BC – Quipus

Quipus were complex assemblies of knotted ropes that were used in South America as a data storage device and played an important role in the Inca administration. Only a handful of specialists could use and decipher them. Their meaning mostly remains a mystery but it seems that color, relative position of knots, knot types and rope length were used to encode categorical and quantitative variables. The oldest known Quipu is 4600 years old. In the late 16th century quipus were still being used by […]

Added by: Pierre Dragicevic. Category: Passive physical visualization  Tags: anthropology, incas, knots, peru, quipu


2010 – Quipu of the Periodic Table

As a result of bringing together each pair of periods in a single function or binod, the author has found a new regular on the subject, which has been defined as a new quantum number, since the number of orders or regulations binod growth elements in the table, under the appearance of pairs of new types of quantum structures or periods whose organization responds to a simple mathematical function: a parable of the type Y = 4 X ^ 2 - In this case report: a) That the strings correspond to pairs […]

Added by: Fanny Chevalier. Category: Passive physical visualization  Tags: chemistry, periodic table, quipu


2015 – Inequalities Quipu

This project is about the revival of the ancient Incan Quipu. This project is about a comparison of well-being in Latin America and top leading countries in Scandinavia as assessed by the OECD Better Life Index. It shows the inequalities between those two cultures as well as between men and women visualised with the help of the Incan recording devise - the quipu. Source: Ewa Tuteja, http://tuteja.info/inequalities-quipu/

Added by: Ewa Tuteja. Category: Passive physical visualization  Tags: hand-made, quipu, knots


2018 – Anthropocene Footprints

Handmade physicalizations of Canada's greenhouse gas emissions, by Mieka West and Sheelagh Carpendale. Each object represents data from a specific year (1990, 2010, and projections to 2030). Initially meant to be smog masks, the designs evolved into strange and beautiful objects evoking indigeneous artefacts such as Native American dreamcatchers, Inca quipus and Polynesian genealogical instruments, and whose visual and material complexity is reminiscent of Nathalie Miebach’s Woven Sculptures. […]

Added by: Pierre Dragicevic. Category: Passive physical visualization  Tags: textile, greenhouse gas, hand-made, pollution, quipu


2022 – Codes in Knots: Sensing Digital Memories

The artifacts consist of three-dimensional knots based on the analysis on the physical structure of Khipu knots. By using digital tools and analog methods to encrypt information, knots and knotted surfaces are created for the archiving and transmission of different forms of text such as poems or stories. Nayeli Vega’s project “Codes in Knots” revisits the ancient Andean information recording system of Khipus with modern technologies, to encode texts into series of textured, […]

Added by: Anne-Laure Fréant. Category: Passive physical visualization  Tags: quipu, knots, code