In 1977, a NASA team set out to create a record that would accompany the voyager launch. This record was to be representative of humankind for potential alien audiences, lasting billions of years out-there in space. The record contains mostly musical tracks from around the world.
The task this week asks us to select 10 of the original 27 tracks. I found this activity very challenging for several reasons. First, after listening to all of the tracks, I felt that it was an incredibly biased collection. Western classical music traditions are over-represented and lack variance–do we really need that much Bach, Beethoven, and Mozart? Asian musical traditions were underrepresented given their historical and representational significance. Gender balance also seemed not to be a consideration, as many of the songs were male-driven (eg. drinking songs), yet also transferring conventional ideas of gender norms (eg. women vocals in wedding song). The collection also seemed historically biased, as there were folk/indigenous songs, classical, then it’s like all musical development stops with Chuck Berry. By 1977, there were several burgeoning and developed musical genres that combine classical genres and could be viewed as more inclusive–Hip Hop, Disco, Motown, Salsa just to name a few within the Western context. While I understand that creating a record to represent humankind will always present challenges, my modern ear took offence to Tim Ferris’s description of trying to make the record as inclusive as possible (TwentyThousand Hertz, Episode 65).
Another difficulty I had with the Golden Record project is not knowing the extent to which they involved Intellectual Property holders. Did they ask indigenous groups whether they could use their intellectual property for this purpose? From the sounds of it, it appears that most of the selection was performed by historical, cultural, and other ‘experts’ with an assumption that folk music etc… is public property. Again, this is problematic to my modern ears that recognizes the importance and significance of indigenous sovereignty over their intellectual property.
As this record is likely to outlive humankind and could represent us for billions of years, it seems to me that there may be many people who do not see themselves represented in this project. That means we will be lost once humankind ceases to exist, but this bias collection will continue to live on and represent us. As Smith (1999) outlines, this is one of the challenges of digitizing. What has current value and is cost-effective are often the works that get digitized, but if the value is not seen or digitization is extremely costly, the works are less likely to be digitized. In relation to the Golden Record, the team that assembled the collection by virtue of the task selected what is valued and representative of humankind.
And now it is my turn! In selecting 10 tracks from the original 27, I tried to be as inclusive as possible to select a collection of tracks that is representative of the variety of cultures and people throughout the world. Of course, my list is limited by the biases of the original list. However, I tried my best to correct some of the over and underrepresentation.
- Australia, Aborigine songs, “Morning Star” and “Devil Bird,” recorded by Sandra LeBrun Holmes. 1:26
- Mozart, The Magic Flute, Queen of the Night aria, no. 14. Edda Moser, soprano. Bavarian State Opera, Munich, Wolfgang Sawallisch, conductor. 2:55
- Stravinsky, Rite of Spring, Sacrificial Dance, Columbia Symphony Orchestra, Igor Stravinsky, conductor. 4:35
- China, ch’in, “Flowing Streams,” performed by Kuan P’ing-hu. 7:37
- India, raga, “Jaat Kahan Ho,” sung by Surshri Kesar Bai Kerkar. 3:30
- Peru, panpipes and drum, collected by Casa de la Cultura, Lima. 0:52
- Japan, shakuhachi, “Tsuru No Sugomori” (“Crane’s Nest,”) performed by Goro Yamaguchi. 4:51
- Senegal, percussion, recorded by Charles Duvelle. 2:08
- Navajo Indians, Night Chant, recorded by Willard Rhodes. 0:57
- Bulgaria, “Izlel je Delyo Hagdutin,” sung by Valya Balkanska. 4:59