Electronic Khipu : Thinking in Experimental Sound from an Ancestral Andean Interface Laddy Patricia Cadavid Hinojosa Interface Culture Kunstuniversit ¨ at Linz Domgasse 1, 4020 Linz, Austria lpcadavid@gmail.com Abstract: A khipu is an artifact used in the ancient Inca Empire and previous Andean societies to process and transmit statistical and narrative information. It is known as one of the first textile computers, a tangible interface encrypted in knots and strings made of cotton and wool. This system was widely used until the Spanish colonization that banned and destroyed many of the existing khipus. This article presents the creation process of the Electronic Khipu , a new interface for musical expression. It takes the form of a MIDI controller, inspired by the original Incan device. The Khipu has been converted into an instrument for interaction and experimental sound generation by weaving knots with conductive rubber cords, thereby encoding musical compositions. The article goes on to document the implementation of the electronic instrument and evaluate its use in live performances. The research also explores the work of significant artists in this conceptual line who, from a decolonial perspective, have transformed and incorporated the khipu into different contemporary expressions of electronic sound art. These works, along with the practical example cited with the Electronic Khipu , suggest alternative practices of tangible live coding, computer music, and data sonification. Creative work with sound continues a legacy, almost lost in colonization, of the ancestral practice of weaving knots as code. In addition, some ideas will be presented to enhance the instrument’s performance in the future. The khipu is an information processing and trans- mission device used by the Incas and previous Andean societies. The word comes from the Quechua word khipu or quipu, which means knot. With this system, the data was knotted in wool or cotton strings and encoded different types of information. A khipu consists of a central cord to which secondary strings are attached with knots of different shapes, colors, and sizes. This device constituted a set of signs that could be used to make numerical records or account for important facts or events, as shown in the example of a traditional Andean khipu in Figure 1. The khipu has been known for its statistical and accounting capabilities. Still, it has been discovered more recently that khipus also contained not only arithmetic data but also economic, social, biological, historical, astronomical, linguistic, and literary records (Creischer, Hinderer, and Siekmann 2010, p. 135; Urton 2003). According to information obtained from the Lima Art Museum (MALI 2020) from its most recent exhibition, Khipus: Our History in Knots, the Inca Empire developed a system of knotting with Computer Music Journal, 44:2/3, pp. 39–54, Summer/Fall 2020 doi:10.1162/COMJ a 00561 c  2021 Massachusetts Institute of Technology. decimal positioning in which the knots represented numerical values according to the position they occupied on the ropes. These khipus are the most studied and currently represent 85 percent of khipus known to date. It has been discovered that this kind of khipu contained information associated with censuses, tax payments, accounting of resources, and other administrative matters. The code that could not be deciphered from the remaining percentage of extant khipus is thought, however, to record a nonnumeric type of information. The exhibition indicates that these khipus could have been used in performative activities or for spreading information, including the narration or recording of historical memories, songs, or poems. Regarding the interpretation of khipus, Silvia Rivera Cusicansqui (2018, p. 60) argues that, al- though the most common explanation given to these artifacts is that they were the accounting system of the Incas, but this is not entirely true. Khipus were certainly also a type of propitiatory accounting, a countable translation of desire where promises and commitments, as well as many other activities, were fixed as knots. There are currently many kinds of research in archaeology, anthropology, and ethnology, most of which strive to decipher the code of the khipus. Cadavid Hinojosa 39 Downloaded from http://direct.mit.edu/comj/article-pdf/44/2-3/39/1962009/comj_a_00561.pdf by guest on 10 September 2021