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Messages to deep space address an audience far in the future, perhaps after the demise of humanity. Can heritage think that far?

For decades we have been sending out probes to travel to deep space. These probes carry no crew but are packed with recording equipment to send messages back to earth so that we can remotely explore the solar system and beyond. But we have also sent messages with those probes. Messages for beings we know nothing about, who may not receive them till long after the human race is extinct. The most famous of these is the message aboard Voyager, ‘Sounds of Earth’ also known as ‘the golden record’. It was designed by Carl Sagan with our partner Jon Lomberg, who now works on the One Earth Message. These messages help us think about communication and representation.

Interventions

Talk

Afterlives Salon

02/03/2017

This salon to accompany the current Octagon exhibition Cabinets of Consequence will explore how heritage and other related forms of conservation practices (including nuclear waste management) make futures.  How do we use material culture to stitch futures from pasts? What do we conserve? What do we get rid of? What do we allow to change? This Salon will be staged as a series of conversations across various themes currently being explored within the Heritage Futures research programme,Event held at Haldane Room, Wilkins Building , Gower Street WC1

Rodney Harrison
Cornelius Holtorf
Caitlin DeSilvey
Sefryn Penrose
Sarah May
Jennie Morgan
Nadia Bartolini
Antony Lyons
Kyle Lee Crossett

Uncertainty
Transformation
Profusion
Diversity

Nuclear Waste Management
Deep Space Messaging
World Heritage Site Management
Natural Heritage Management
Built Heritage Management
Homes
Museums
Biodiversity
Cultural Diversity