Finding something meaningful
This week I was looking for items that made sense to me, as I had just finished my self-imposed isolation and everything around me was new to me. In fact, this made it more difficult to find meaningful items. I eventually focused on the 22 plastic water bottles on my windowsill. These 22 plastic water bottles were a change of routine for me and represented my life for some days. For example, the colour and shape of the bottles represent my choice of brand, the number of bottles represents the amount of drinking water I consume. So I decided to use used plastic bottles as one of my materials, but I needed to make them more meaningful.
Inspiration
Through a walk through the museum, I discovered the visual appeal of the ancient texts. Some of the ancient texts are visually stunning, but these were used to record some business activities and calculations.
Quipu & Mouse Code
I was reminded of a similar ancient form of notation - Quipu - and a modern, simplified encryption language - Morse code. Because this simplified language is a binary-like code of 0s and 1s made up of simple dots and dashes, I thought it was a minimalist language but powerful and easy to add to plastic materials.
"A quipu (khipu) was a method used by the Incas and other ancient Andean cultures to keep records and communicate information using string and knots. In the absence of an alphabetic writing system, this simple and highly portable device achieved a surprising degree of precision and flexibility. Quipu could record dates, statistics, accounts, and even abstract ideas. Quipu are still used today across South America. (Mark. C, 2004) "
