Duration: 24:38 minutes. Stereo sound system, headphones.

Voices in Spanish: Sara, Claudia, Malen, Elissa y Valentina

Narrator: Valentina G

Voice making the translation into English: Hannah Lowitz

Mastering: Miguel Chaparro.

You can listen to it here:

This audio essay focuses on the investigation process behind the sound installation The knots that we untie together (Los nudos que desarmamos juntas) which condensed 2 two years of research, personal reflections and material experimentation to take shape through this final project.

Through the connection to the Andean khipu and the concept of emotional knots, this audio begins with the author’s voice, sharing her artistic statement on why emotions are central to her work. From this starting point, the narrative deepens, exploring the importance of having begun working with khipu, and then goes into the personal interpretation of the knots, while moving parallel to the voices of the installation participants to further illustrate this journey.

The knots that we untie together (2024)

The knots that we untie together (2024)

The project aims to highlight the transformative potential of collective support and the redefinition of self that emerges from these shared spaces, while poetically materializing the often invisible struggles that accompany migratory journeys. Through these narratives and the positing of the emotional knots that need to be untied, The knots that we untie together, seeks to reflect on the complexities of migration and the importance of healing and reclaiming identity in these displacements.

Many thanks to Sara, Claudia, Malen, Elissa and Valentina who participated and trusted me in this project…. For participating in the women’s circle, for opening up to the others, for sharing their experiences and feelings, for letting me record their voices and then putting them into my sound installation.

The sound installation was finalized on May 2024 in the Master Project class of the Digital Media Master’s program at the University of Arts Bremen. The audio essay started in the summer semmester 2022 under the course Sound and Research-Creation with the Prof.Dr. Petra Klusmeyer.

Pictures by Hsun-Hsiang Hsu

Images related to audio piece:

Drawings about Khipucamayos reading Khipus in times of the Inca Empire.

Talking knots (2023) by Valentina Gaete Urrutia made for the class Introduction to Creative Coding with P5js.

General set up for the women’s circle made in Circa106 during March 2024.