Task 8: Golden Record Curation Assignment

The Voyager Golden Record was most fascinating to listen to.  The idea that a space probe is in the interstellar for billions of years with a time capsule of sounds, language and music is remarkable.

When creating a curation of only 10 pieces from the list of 27, I had to think about what songs would make sense, as a way of communicating a story of our Earth’s world to extraterrestrials (Ferriss) compared to just choosing pieces of my musical preference.

It was interesting to know that the producer of the Voyage Golden Record, Timothy Ferriss was very confident in saying that in today’s technology he would still use the same materials, such as copper and gold to send this sound voyager into space, as he felt confident that it would last for billions of years (Ferriss). So the pieces I chose were based on:

 

–Purpose of the Voyager being sent out to space, communicate with other life forms

–Variety of sounds, instruments and voices that depict Earth

-Languages spoken on Earth, Cultures, Diversity

-representation of humanity: emotions, environment

 

Here are my 10 curated pieces (in no particular order):

• Peru, wedding song, recorded by John Cohen. 0:38
• China, ch’in, “Flowing Streams,” performed by Kuan P’ing-hu. 7:37
• Bach, Brandenburg Concerto No. 2 in F. First Movement, Munich Bach Orchestra, Karl Richter, conductor. 4:40
• “Melancholy Blues,” performed by Louis Armstrong and his Hot Seven. 3:05
• “Johnny B. Goode,” written and performed by Chuck Berry. 2:38
• India, raga, “Jaat Kahan Ho,” sung by Surshri Kesar Bai Kerkar. 3:30
• Tchenhoukoumen Senegal, percussion, recorded by Charles Duvelle. 2:08
• Beethoven, Fifth Symphony, First Movement, the Philharmonia Orchestra, Otto Klemperer, conductor. 7:20
• Greetings from Earth
• Japan, shakuhachi, “Tsuru No Sugomori” (“Crane’s Nest,”) performed by Goro Yamaguchi. 4:51

 

The songs I chose are based on a variety of cultures in order to portray humanity and what we value as being human. Therefore I chose songs from different cultures which also showed difference expressions in emotions such as the Louis Armstrong, blues style piece and the Chuck Berry piece which gave a tone of rock. The environmental elements of Earth, such as the song from China about the flow of water.  And also one track where are the producer mentioned music from Bach is very much a mathematical and so perhaps with extraterrestrials, they’re able to interpret calculations from songs as sound.

The purpose and intention of this Voyager is to express the values of humanity and to communicate with life beyond earth and so it was important to choose tracks that give a brief explanation of cultural diversity and variation of what earth and humanity truly is. It reminded me, especially during this time of COVID, what the most important qualities in humanity truly are.

References

MacDonald, L. (Executive Producer). (present). Voyager Golden Record [Audio podcast]. Twent Thousand Hertz. https://www.20k.org/episodes/voyagergoldenrecord

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

This is a really interesting video on how we communicate with the Voyager space Probes: