Events
Writing with Thread: Khipu, the Sacred Records of the Inkas
with Ashok Khosla, Saoirse Byrne
Wrapped around mummified Inka nobles, khipus are sacred textiles using cords and knots to express identity and accomplishment.
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How do you make records of an empire that stretches across the entire South American continent? The writing system has to be lightweight since it is carried across long distances by “chaskis”—trained “foot-runners”. It has to be resistant to forgery and malicious editing. It has to be made from locally available materials across the length and breadth of South America.
The Inkas adapted knots and textiles to administer an empire as large as Rome. Although we still can’t fully decipher khipus, statistical analyses are starting to reveal their secrets. Learn about the state of decipherment, how the Inkas made khipus, and how to make some yourself!
Ashok Khosla
Ashok Khosla is the creator and editor of the Khipu Field Guide (KFG). Using the KFG, khipu scholar Manuel Medrano and Ashok condensed their recent discoveries in the article “How Can Data Science Contribute to Understanding the Khipu Code?” published in Latin American Antiquity.
Spanning a background in both computer graphics and computational linguistics, Ashok has been awarded 13 patents in both fields. He spent 1985-2015 as a Silicon Valley software executive, building international high-tech companies. At Apple, he served as chief engineer for its graphics products, including MacPaint and MacDraw, and later led part of Apple’s international development as Managing Director of Apple India and General Manager of Apple China. His computational linguistic skills have been used to build products and companies that have successfully sold to the translation market, the telco anti-spam market, and the enterprise speech-recognition market. Ashok has working language skills in Mandarin Chinese, Spanish, and Quechua.
Much of his scientific and mathematical career has alternated with art, including as a practicing architect, sculptor, and photographer. An avid naturalist and birder, Ashok has taught wildlife photography, including at the University of Alaska, and was an Alaskan wildlife guide for a decade. He lives in a redwood forest in Mendocino, California, with his wife, Andean cinema scholar, Dr. Diana Coryat.
Saoirse Byrne
Saoirse Byrne is an artist, craftsperson and designer with a deep love and curiosity for the ancient process of cordage and its application across cultures and time. She trained as a fashion designer with a BFA from Rhode Island School of Design and graduated with an MBA in Sustainability from Presidio World College in San Francisco among the pioneering cohort.
Saoirse brings a maker’s perspective to the team. Her exploration of cordage began in 2012 with ancestral skills gatherings and learning to twist wild harvested plants with Tamara Wilder. She applied the process to the abundance of fabrics in her studio. In transforming her great grandmother’s threadbare handkerchief into cordage it became a necklace. Saoirse has since developed a practice of creating wearable art jewelry from fabric cordage and teaching others how to transform their sentimental fabrics into meaningful cordage. Her work can be seen at the Museum of Craft and Design in San Francisco.
