In 1977, NASA launched its “Golden Records” into the dark depths of space aboard the Voyager 1 and 2 spacecraft. Designed to last 500 million years, these records are supposed to provide information about life on Earth. The grooves contain, among other things, images of Jane Goodall with chimpanzees, Javanese temple dancers, and Dutch cyclists in front of satellite dishes. As well as greetings in 55 languages and musical pieces ranging from European Baroque to Azerbaijani bagpipes, from initiation songs sung by Pygmy girls to American rock ’n’ roll.
While billionaires prepare to conquer our neighboring planet, GOLDEN RECORD STUDIOS has nothing less in mind than to counter NASA’s outdated self-portrayal with a more representative “world selfie” for as-yet-unknown alien friends.
Clearly, we no longer share the pop-technological optimism of the Western 1970s, given the constant din of crisis discourse and the anxious pride we take in the upheavals of the Anthropocene. Yet in light of this, it is all the more vital to celebrate the human imagination, our joy in inventing solutions and narratives—the inexhaustible diversity of our cultural practices.
The absurd notion of presenting the self-incomprehensible long-term project “Humanity” to an unknown species offers an excellent opportunity to experience ourselves as grotesque, loving, brutal, and surprising—just as we must appear to the gaze of imagined extraterrestrials.
We thus alchemically transmute NASA’s pseudo-global gold standard into our GOLDEN REMASTER: a subjective compilation of diverse real and imaginary objects—linguistic, visual, and performative. It takes on a different form in every location where we set up our recording studio: a morphing seed bank, a mash-up of highly individual fantasies and assignations of value.
GOLDEN RECORD STUDIOS has so far collected recordings at Europe’s largest animal shelter, in the satellite lab, and at the digital hippie commune in the attic. On Saturday evening, on the campus of Pakistan’s elite university, they worked with students of all faiths to craft their own messages before the party, and in Karachi, they gathered contributions from up-and-coming female artists. In the valley near Davos, they worked with world saviors caught between hope and fear of the future at the World Ethics Forum, as well as in theaters with children and academics on a composition from Belarus and the “Choir for People Who Can’t Sing.” In short: The STUDIOS pop up wherever we earthlings are shaping our beautiful, terrifying, diverse present.
Partners of the Studios to date have included the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy, the Satellite Laboratory at TU Berlin, the Institute for Language Art at the University of Applied Arts in Vienna, the Mannheim & Augsburg City Archives, the Käte Hamburger College for Apocalyptic and Post-Apocalyptic Studies in Heidelberg, and many others.
Stakeholders & Musicians in Berlin:
Judith Albrecht (visual anthropologist), David Bloom (dancer, choreographer, body worker), Dirk Dresselhaus (music), Daniel Falb (philosopher & author), Cedrik Fermont (music), Chiara Garbellotto (ethnologist), Isabella Hermann (political scientist & sci-fi curator), Irene Hilden, Hendrik Jackson (author), Eric Macedo, Wenzel Mehnert (speculative futurology), Detlev Möller (Federal Office for the Safety of Nuclear Waste Management), Judith Nika Pfeifer (author), Nuno Marques Pinto (musician), Salome Rodeck (cultural scientist), the Charlottenburg Electronic Orchestra
Student Union Lahore University of Management Sciences
VASL Artists’ Association Karachi
World Ethic Forum, CH
National Theater Mannheim // bermuda.funk mannheim/heidelberg // MARCHIVUM of the City of Mannheim (Harald Stockert & Thomas Throckmorton), Max Planck Institute for Astronomy, Heidelberg (Klaus Jäger), Käte Hamburger College for Apocalyptic and Post-Apocalyptic Studies, Heidelberg (Eduardo Altheman, Bruna Dellatorre, Michael Dunn, Robert Folger), Central Research Network for Extraordinary Celestial Phenomena (Hansjürgen Köhler), Choir for People Who Can’t Sing (Julia Alicka), Young Ensemble of the Mannheim Liedertafel, Oriental Music Academy Mannheim (Tayfun Ates, Nawar Habil), Mannheim Children’s Academy (mats, paula, pina, sophia)
375 Years of the Augsburg Peace Festival: Augsburg City Archives, Augsburg Textile and Industry Museum, Association for the Promotion of Probation Services in Swabia, Music Therapy Department of the Leopold Mozart College of Music at the University of Augsburg, Traditionsbus Augsburg, stayfm, International School Augsburg, Augsburg Housing Cooperative, Augsburg Counseling Center for Ex-Convicts, Bayern 2 Zündfunk, Duophonic, Munich Kammerspiele, Raketenmodellbau Klima, and other stakeholders from the city’s civil society.
by & with:
Andreas Baudisch (Coding), Miles Chalcraft (Artistic Engineering), Michael Graessner (Scenography), Holger Heißmeyer (Coding), Sebastian König (Technical Director), Pablo Lapettina (Set Design & Interaction Tools), Alexandra Lauck (Public Relations & Social Media), Jörg Lukas Matthaei (Artistic Director), Fabienne Müller (Set Design), Federico Neri (Video), Michael Rudolph (Graphic Design), Frederyke Sauerbrey (Research & Communication), Sarah Stührenberg (Production Manager), Svenja Wolff (Research & Communication)
& many more
°°°
With support from:
Performing Arts Fund, financed by the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media as part of NEUSTART KULTUR // Goethe-Institut Pakistan // World Ethic Forum, Switzerland // National Theater Mannheim // 375th Anniversary of the Peace of Augsburg
