Hi Sonia,
I chose to respond to your post because I chose 6 of the same songs as you. I was curious to see what led you to those choices and see if it reflects similarities to my process. I appreciate that you brought up the section in the Twenty Thousand Hertz podcast that talks about the intention of the committee to include a diversity of recordings. Without this component in the forefront the selections would not have had the depth that was required for a record that was meant to encompass our geographic globe at large.
I hadn’t considered putting my selections in an order, but I appreciate that you did this and chose to put the Navajo Night Chant first to honour Indigenous ways of knowing. Similar to you, I would agree that I chose based on my interests and what spoke to me. Trying to narrow the large selection down to 10 was too difficult if one were to base criteria again on diversity or global location. Even if the original list could be double or even triple the number or beyond, it would likely never be able to embody all the music of the world.
Sonia, one aspect that I noticed when I was researching the selection committee was that the diversity of the members appeared relatively homogenous. I’m not using any concrete data on this, but it’s an observation I had when I looked at each person’s bio. As well, I wondered how the committee landed on the specific pieces they did from the various regions. Did they survey or consult with other people in the region? How did this narrowing-down process occur for each region? Could there have been more input from groups, individuals, communities/tribes to ensure authentic representation?
All that being said, I think it’s a fascinating project completed and launched by NASA.
Reference:
Taylor, D. (Host). (2019, April). Voyager golden record. [Audio podcast episode]. In Twenty thousand hertz. Defacto Sound.
