Introduction:
For this assignment, we were asked to curate the record Golden Record, a physical record created in 1977 by a team of experts in their respective fields to show through sound (and a few visual etchings) the vast experience of life on earth. Two copies of the record were launched into space on the Nasa Voyager flights. For this, I took the 27 pieces and cut them down to 10.
Here are my 10 choices:
- “Greeting from Kurt Waldheim, Secretary-General of the United Nations”
- “Greetings in 55 Languages” (by Various Artists)
- “The Sounds of Earth” (by Various Artists)
- “Navajo Night Chant, Yeibichai Dance” (Ambrose Roan Horse, Chester Roan, and Tom Roan) [Navajo Nation North America]
- “Muğam” (by Kamil Jalilov) [Azerbijan]
- “Symphony No. 5 in C Minor, Opus 67: I. Allegro Con Brio” (by Philharmonia Orchestra/Otto Klemperer) [Germany/Europe]
- “Naranaratana Kookokoo (The Cry of the Megapode Bird)” (by Maniasinimae and Taumaetarau Chieftain Tribe of Oloha and Palasu’u Village Community) [South Pacific]
- “Liu Shui (Flowing Streams)” (by Guan Pinghu) [China]
- “Wedding Song” (by young girl from Huancavelica, recorded by John Cohen[48]) [Peru/ South America]
- “Bhairavi: Jaat Kahan Ho” Kesarbai Kerkar [India /South Asia]
My criteria
I used the following 3 points of criteria:
- Pertinence to the human experience
- Wealth of information
- Decipher-ability
Justification
To ensure the pertinence to the human experience I wanted to cast a wide net, including a sampling of music from diverse geographical locations and cultures with variation in instruments and presence of lyrics and emotional values. The original curation had a larger representation of western music and languages so I wanted to create a ratio that was more representative of humanity.
I evaluated tracks also based on their wealth of information. For instance, Kurt Walheim’s introduction (if it is able to be deciphered) provides the essential information as to WHY this record exists. Then, the track of greetings in many languages conveys a lot of necessary information about the language of earth and the variety of culture.
Finally, I wanted to prioritize the decipher-ability of the content – while some of the songs and music are quite beautiful, to a non human being, the information we hope to convey may be lost. While this factored in mostly in the way that I cut pieces out, it was important to balance the risk of a lack of decipher-ability with the pertinence or amount of information contained in the piece – for instance, the “Sounds of earth” piece would be extremely difficult to decipher without context, however, the amount of information housed within makes it an essential addition.