Narrowing down the 27 tracks on the Golden Record to 10 was challenging yet enjoyable. Since I wasn’t familiar with much of the music, I didn’t have strong emotional ties to any particular piece. As such, my decisions were primarily based on criteria other than personal preference. My goal was to create a collection that represented music from around the world and include a wide variety of genres. Keeping in mind that we don’t know how aliens might perceive or interpret music (as discussed in the Taylor (2019) podcast) helped me temper the tendency to select pieces I liked most.

My approach involved grouping tracks by genre, such as classical and folk, and considering their country of origin to ensure diversity. Much of the process involved deciding what to exclude rather than include, very similar to the question Smith Rumsey (1999) raised of “What can we afford to lose?” Like crafting a well-rounded mixed tape, the final selection aimed for variety in tempo, genre, and other characteristics to make for an overall enjoyable listening experience. 

As I made this list, it became evident that my decisions were entirely subjective and could be justified in a variety of ways. The process really highlighted the complete arbitrariness of my choices, which were also solely within my control. It also underscored the power one person holds in curating such a selection, and how easily it could go wrong if not taken responsibly. As noted by Smith Rumsey (1999), the risk of favoring certain types of music while neglecting others is a pathway to intellectual monoculture.  This emphasizes the importance of inclusivity and the need to consider works we are not familiar with. I think what became obvious to me in curating this list was that I’m probably not aware of what I don’t see, and my list is likely biased in some way that I am oblivious to. I’m not sure how to correct that other than to make this more of a collaborative experience, running through choices and rationales with people with different perspectives and context.

For better or worse, here are my choices for golden record: https://create.piktochart.com/output/64528012-golden-record-curation

References:

Chakrulo. (2024, May 8).  In Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chakrulo

Smith Rumsey, A. (1999, February). Why digitize? Council on Library and Information Resources. Retrieved August 12, 2022.

Taylor, D. (Host). (2019, April). Voyager golden recordLinks to an external site. [Audio podcast episode]. In Twenty thousand hertz. Defacto Sound.