Khipu is an open-source electrotextile computer that, in addition to encoding the cosmos, conveys the idea that the universe is governed by harmonious numerical proportions and that celestial bodies emit vibrations through their circular movements in orbits.

The Khipu project by the collective around Chilean artist Constanza Piña Pardo combines technology and (speculative) cosmology to reinterpret pre-Columbian information systems. The starting point is the Andean khipu, a complex system of knots used to encode numbers, narratives, and rituals in threads of cotton, llama, or alpaca wool. Khipus were simultaneously storage devices, computing devices, and oracles—early data structures that sought to connect the knowledge of the indigenous peoples of the Andes with the order of the cosmos.

In the installation Khipu | Electrotextile Pre-Hispanic Computer, this principle is translated into an electromagnetic textile. 180 hand-spun ropes made of copper wire and alpaca wool (encoding the spectral class of the main stars in the constellation Bootes, which was at its zenith at the time of production) form a large antenna that reacts to the electromagnetic vibrations of its surroundings. Every change in the space—a movement, a touch, a breath—affects the field, which is sonified in real time. The khipu becomes a sounding computer made of organic material, which also expresses information as a physical, living process.