The press release is available here.
Andrews and Verdugo have been engaged in
work on the Voyager space probe since 2010. Kevin Andrews an Artist and
Economist from London, UK says:
“As would be expected when the official
announcement is made there is a lot of publicity about the craft at its amazing
achievements, but it will take some time for the cultural significance of the
Voyager to filter through.”
Two key cultural aspects are firstly what
Voyager means in terms of a commemorative memory of life on Earth and secondly
the perspective it gives on migration and border crossing on Earth. These are the two themes addressed in the
Migration and Memory project: From the Island.
As Andrews says: “Voyager’s Golden Record is a very imperfect memory of life on
Earth. Given Voyager will outlive us and
the solar system because of the preservative nature of deep space, the memory
on the Golden Record is set to last a very long time indeed: billions of
years. Its architect, the visionary Carl
Sagan in putting together the Golden Record as a remembrance also undertook an
act of forgetting – everything not on the Record itself. That’s what interests
me.”
The contents of the Golden Record include
music and images. Given the time
available to Carl Sagan and his team, however, this collection is highly
idiosyncratic and personal: including as it does a record of the brain waves of
Ann Druyan – later to become Sagan’s wife – as she thought about the object of
her love – Sagan himself.
According to Andrews: “What’s as significant to me as the Golden Record itself is what it
says about the species that created it. I think it’s a very poor record of life
on Earth. It is not an objective
portrait. There is for example no
reference to war on the record; neither does popular 20th century
culture get a mention (aside from a Chuck Berry record).”
Andrews continues: “I think this means the Golden Record is ripe for a re-imagining by
artists, musicians, photographers and if that is a consequence of the publicity
regarding the departure of Voyager then that would be fantastic.”
The second theme is that of migration.
Enrique Verdugo a Chilean Photographer and
film maker working in London notes: “Voyager
represents the ultimate in border crossing for humans. As a migrant myself I was very interested in
this aspect. We travelled to the Canary
Islands to take a picture of the region of Space where Voyager is from the
Nordic Optical Telescope in 2012, as Voyager was leaving the solar system.”
The Canary Islands represent a very
significant location in the landscape of migration – being the point of first
arrival for many migrants from Africa who make an arduous sea journey to the
Islands before trying to get into mainland Europe.
As Verdugo notes: “The juxtaposition of these ideas about migration are very interesting. I hope it helps us reflect on the fact that
while we celebrate the movement of Voyager beyond the solar system, we are much
more ambiguous about the movement of people – particularly those from low
income countries.”
Verdugo continues: “Money moves around the globe, goods move around the globe, even ideas
move around and if you are someone from a middle or high income country you
move around too. But if you are born in
a low income country, almost regardless of your ability to contribute to life
on Earth, you have less ability to move around than a can of coca-cola”.
NOTES TO EDITORS:
Kevin Andrews (46, UK/CANADA) and Enrique
Verdugo (44, CHILE/UK) began to collaborate in 2010 when they realised that the
projects they were working on (Voyager and migration) were actually very interrelated. Since starting to collaborate they have
produced a number of outputs including films, photographs and installations:
Between Islands – a film made following the visit to the Nordic Optical Telescope
reflecting on the location and its significance for the themes of migration and
memory. Between Islands was recently shown at Kinston University as part of an
installation at the degree show.
Black is the colour of memory – a film of an
impromptu performance at an installation at the Ars Electronica festival reflecting on the Voyager’s intergalactic greetings.
HM’s Dream – a film made in response
to the theme of this year’s Ars Electronica festival: Total Recall: The Evolution of Memory. This film combines the Golden Record and
ideas about memory from the patient Henry Molaison – the most famous patient in
Neuroscience who led to the development of new theories about memory formation.
Migration and Memory Diptych – a photograph taken
of voyager in October 2012 as it crossed in to inter-stellar space merged with
a picture taken by the Suomi NPP satellite of North Africa showing the routes
of migration at night.
Memory and Migration Triptych – a composite
photograph which inserts an image from a man and an observatory between the
Voyager and migration route pictures.
