Local Cultures – Global Spaces

Abstract

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Considering the critical need of unfolding practices to build respectful cross-cultural relationships within the design curriculum, this paper describes two ways of exploring the Khipu as a creative practice methodology for design research. Khipu methodology, is a knot-based analytical technology drawn from a precolonial Andean tool traditionally used for writing, accounting, and divination. During colonial times, the traditional Khipu-making was vanished and silenced. Current approaches to Khipu include: historical attempts to decipher the code for writing; education that promotes a sense of identity linked to the Andean culture; symbolism used in rural ceremonies. Khipu as a methodology derives from an artistic approach, which investigates the knotting language as a way of mapping erased ways of doing, thinking and seeing. The Khipu methodology allows the exploration of listening, assembling and embodying stories and histories by knotting, while repositioning relational epistemologies. This paper explores it in two ways: one is knotting from interactions with community participants, and the second one is knotting to analyse complex data. In both instances the Khipu revealed unique aspects that otherwise would not have been possible by using standard ‘community engagement’ or ‘literature review’ approaches. The Khipu’s materiality took shape depending on the data collected, showing the interrelatedness of key elements. In doing so, this also transformed the researcher’s perspective. By integrating the legacy of traditional knowledge technology, this paper contributes to a growing body of research that advocates for alternative creative methods to inform design pedagogies, practice and research.