Knotledge by Nicolás Lamas is one of two BIG ART Kunst & Bau (Art & Architecture) commissions for the Graz Center of Physics, one of Austria’s largest university construction projects and currently under development.
Lamas’s sculpture bridges two radically different systems of storing data: the modern computer keyboard (as a gateway to our digital world) and the khipu, the Inca’s system of using knotted cords to encode numbers and information. This large-format wall sculpture is arranged to resemble a computer keyboard circuit, with each key represented as a knot. The knots are based on the different types found in khipus. Through a deceptively simple formal vocabulary, Lamas creates a poetic meta level for today’s complex landscape of communication and information technology, also establishing a connection with the research pursued at the Graz Center of Physics. His project merges two different realities, both of which ultimately rely on the same (binary) code.
The entire sculpture is formed from the same type of steel reinforcement rods that are used to strengthen concrete structures in buildings. This choice of material adds another conceptual layer to the work by referencing the hidden structure within the new architecture.