Task 8: Golden Record Curation

In 1977, a group of 6-9 individuals chaired by Carl Sagan of Cornell University selected the content for NASA’s “Golden Record” (NASA’s website lists 6 individuals, while Wikipedia lists 9.)  A time capsule designed to be shared with extraterrestrial life, the Golden Record included two 12-inch phonograph records that were etched in copper, plated with gold and sealed in aluminum cases.  Sagan’s group had less than 6 months to select the records’ contents (Ferris, 2017) which included 115 images, 90-minutes (27 songs) of music, natural sounds including surf, wind, thunder, birds and whales, and spoken greetings from 55 languages.  These selections were chosen to depict life on Earth.  The records were then launched along with the Voyager space probes.  Full-length recordings of the items included on the Golden Record can be heard here.

For Task 8, we were instructed to choose 10 songs from the list of 27 songs included  on the Golden Record.  We were also directed to provide the criteria used in making our sections.  This was no easy feat.

This is my Top 10 list.

Track 2: Kinds of Flowers

Track 4: Pygmy Girls’ Initiation Song

Track 7: Johnny B. Goode

Track 11: The Magic Flute (Queen of the Night aria)

Track 12: Tchakrulo

Track 14: Melancholy Blues

Track 16: Rite of Spring (Sacrificial Dance)

Track 18: Fifth Symphony (First Movement)

Track 23: Wedding Song

Track 24: Flowing Streams

Before I provide the parameters that resulted in my selection, I would like to offer a caveat via the words of Timothy Ferris, Producer of the Golden Record, as shared in this podcast:

“You have to consider the dynamic you’re in if you’re going to make a brief collection - 90 minutes - from all the music on earth, then you are automatically going to exclude almost all of the great music because there is so much of it.” 

To create my selection criteria, I began with a fervent focus on pure objectivity.  Could I use criteria such as equal gender representation?  Not really, as one cannot consistently and confidently discern the difference between female and male voices by sound alone.  How about age?  With the exception of one track for which we are told the vocalist is a young girl, I could not ensure representation from all age groups.

I submitted to subjectivity.

All things considered, my commitment to objectivity didn’t last long.  I submitted to subjectivity.  I am not going to beat myself up about this;  in the aforementioned podcast about the Golden Record, Producer Timothy Ferris noted that some tracks were chosen simply because they were “heartbreakingly beautiful.”  Smith (1999) supports this value of  subjectivity, noting that “…all recorded information…has value, even if temporary, or it would not have been recorded to begin with.”

“Don’t Be Evil.”

In choosing my criteria, I wanted to be fair and inclusive.  I didn’t want to fall prey to the “evils of exclusivity.”  I thought about Google.  When we Google something, most of us expect to be instantly rewarded with all available information on the topic.  Google’s former “Don’t Be Evil” credo could be considered as the overarching “selection criteria” behind the vast and supposed data “inclusivity” generated by its searches.  Yet, we know that Google can only extract from available data.  With technologies such as Google Earth, Google has gone to great lengths to obtain data for its search results.  But we know it doesn’t capture everything, and we know that its approach is flawed by bias; flawed to the extent that the “Don’t Be Evil” adage started to wane in its importance to Google’s operations in 2018.

How could I expect myself to create criteria that would ensure objective inclusiveness when forces such as NASA and Google fall short?

Carl Sagan’s group of 6-9 had already laboured over the choice of song tracks for the Golden Record.  No matter what criteria I chose, my decisions would result in greater exclusivity and greater data loss.

So, I decided just to make it up.

“...if you collect in what seems to you a full enough context, knowing it will never be totally full, and link and provide some network to something that supplements the context for that, that might help.” - Smith Rumsey, 2017 

I kept age and gender in mind, considered the song’s identified meaning, and assessed the emotional response(s) each song evoked in me (joy, sorrow, neutrality, intensity/dramatic quality.) I held an intention of selecting predominantly joyful tracks as that is what I would say is a preferred state in the world being conveyed by the Golden Record.  Finally, I considered two songs that were “shoulds;” songs that I believe to be ubiquitous with North American culture.

As you read the following sample of justifications, see if you can guess the song from my Top 10 list that connects with each rationale:

I chose one song because it purportedly linked specific types of flowers with spiritual or philosophical states.  A second song was included because it mimics a sound found in nature.  I value the connections between nature and states of being.

I chose two songs because they dealt with girls’ experiences, which are important to me, while also checking off other subjective boxes. One featured a young girl lamenting the pain of marrying young.  This track addressed my earlier intentions for age and gender representation, while eliciting a purely “sad” emotional response to balance out my “joyful” selections.  The other song was described as a song that accompanied a rite of passage for girls.  I liked this one because it sounded like a communal celebration of girlhood. It also included nature sounds from the rainforest that I thought should be shared with prospective alien listeners.  Moreover, it became an “ear worm” for me, echoing in my head over the past week.  I figured ear worms were worthy of consideration.

On the other side of gender, I included a song that was sung by male warriors as they prepared for battle.

Emotional evocation was a primary criterion for me, because I value opportunities for emotional expression and experience.  For these reasons, I allowed one song that I don’t particularly enjoy because it takes a listener through a full range of emotions.   Another song offered emotional intensity similar to that of a dramatic movie soundtrack, so it made the cut.

Finally, I included my two “should” songs as referenced above, and one song that was included simply because it connected me to my preferred genre of music.

A journey that started at objective inclusivity ended with subjective exclusivity.  I guess that’s one of many reasons I’ll never work at NASA.

References:

Ferris, T. (2017, August 20).  How the Voyager Golden Record Was Made.  New Yorker.

Oreskovic, A. (2018, May 18). Google Has Been Waiting for Years to Put ‘Don’t Be Evil’ Out of Its Misery. Business Insider.

McDonald, L. (Executive Producer). (2019-present). Voyager Golden Record [Audio podcast]. Defacto Sound. https://www.20k.org/episodes/voyagergoldenrecord

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/

Smith Rumsey, A. (2017, July 11). Abby Smith Rumsey: “Digital Memory: What Can We Afford to Lose?”. [Video] YouTube.

Voyager Golden Record. (2021, February 16). In Wikipedia.  Retrieved March 6, 2021, from https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Voyager_Golden_Record&oldid=1007130182