The Golden Records were LPs sent into space on the Voyager aircraft in 1977 (incidentally the year that I was born). The LP would have been the medium of choice in that era for music. It made me wonder a) if any other life forms that found them would have the technology medium available to play them b) will that technology medium still exist (i.e. a record player) if they are found hundreds of years from now? If we were to launch a 2021 version of the Golden record into space today, what pieces would be included, and what medium would we send? An iPod? A Spotify playlist? A flashdrive with mp3s on it?

Smith (1999) reminds us that ‘all recorded information, from the paintings on the walls of caves and drawings in the sand, to clay tablets and videotaped speeches, has value, even if temporary, or it would not have been recorded to begin with. That which the creator or transcriber deems to be of enduring value is written on a more or less durable medium and entrusted to the care of responsible custodians.’ This certainly reflects this idea, and on a fairly large scale, as this Golden Record was designed to be reflective of Earth, an entire planet. It does raise the question of value though. So while the included tracks would have had value to those who were involved in curating it, does it reflect the value of humankind as a whole? And would whatever out there that found this record value the information contained on it?

I really enjoyed this task. I love music and I believe peoples’ musical choices can reveal much about them as a person. It was tough (choosing 15 would have been easier), but here are my 10 curated choices from the Golden Record:

1. Azerbaijan S.S.R., bagpipes, recorded by Radio Moscow
2. Bach, The Well Tempered Clavier, Book 2, Prelude and Fugue in C, No. 1, Glenn Gould
3. Georgian S.S.R., chorus, “Tchakrulo”, collected by Radio Moscow
4. Australia, Aborigine songs “Morning Star” and “Devil Bird” recorded by Sandra LeBrun Holmes
5. India, raga, “Jaat Kahan Ho” sung by Surshri Kesar Bai Kerkar
6. China, ch’in, “Flowering Streams” performed by Kuan P’ing-hu
7. Peru, panpipes and drum, collected by Casa de la Cultura
8. Java, court gamelan, “Kinds of Flowers” recorded by Robert Brown
9. Stravinsky, Rite of Spring, Sacrificial Dance, Columbia Symphony Orchestra
10. “Melancholy Blues” performed by Louis Armstrong and his Hot Seven

While curating, I tried to keep in mind the following: Are these pieces reflective of humanity (Earth) as a whole? What makes us human? I tried to ensure I had elements of joy, sadness, hope and fear. I aimed for variety culturally and stylistically, to reflect the varied nature of humanness. I found I tended towards pieces with no or limited voices. Aren’t there almost 7000 languages on Earth? If voices are being used, they are being used more as vocalization, rather than singing words. Many of the these pieces I listened to come from cultures I have limited knowledge about, however, I believe music can convey feeling, and these feelings are what connect us as humans, regardless of culture and location.

Reference

Smith, A. (1999). Why digitize? Retrieved June 15, 2019, from Council on Library and Information Resources website: https://www.clir.org/pubs/reports/pub80-smith/pub80-2/