Des 22: World Building

The information in the upper right-hand portion of the cover is designed to show how pictures are to be constructed from the recorded signals. The top drawing shows the typical signal that occurs at the start of a picture. The picture is made from this signal, which traces the picture as a series of vertical lines, similar to ordinary television (in which the picture is a series of horizontal lines). Picture lines 1, 2 and 3 are noted in binary numbers, and the duration of one of the “picture lines,” about 8 milliseconds, is noted. The drawing immediately below shows how these lines are to be drawn vertically, with staggered “interlace” to give the correct picture rendition. Immediately below this is a drawing of an entire picture raster, showing that there are 512 vertical lines in a complete picture. Immediately below this is a replica of the first picture on the record to permit the recipients to verify that they are decoding the signals correctly. A circle was used in this picture to ensure that the recipients use the correct ratio of horizontal to vertical height in picture reconstruction. The drawing in the lower left-hand corner of the cover is the pulsar map previously sent as part of the plaques on Pioneers 10 and 11. It shows the location of the solar system with respect to 14 pulsars, whose precise periods are given. The drawing containing two circles in the lower right-hand corner is a drawing of the hydrogen atom in its two lowest states, with a connecting line and digit 1 to indicate that the time interval associated with the transition from one state to the other is to be used as the fundamental time scale, both for the time given on the cover and in the decoded pictures.

The Golden Record Cover, Nasa Jet Propulsion Laboratory

Carl Sagan, astrophysicist and media figure, oversaw the committee at NASA that created The Golden Record. The Golden Record was meant to be a time capsule for all humanity, communicating the story of Earth and its inhabitants to extraterrestrial life forms, who might find it when launched into space. Launched into orbit via the Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 spacecrafts in 1977, each sound and image on the record was meticulously chosen to best represent humankind – with special care taken to the records notation to explain its function without a need for written language. Like the authors of the Golden Record, in this project you encapsulate a piece of our present reality, collecting an archive of materials to reinterpret via their presentation and arrangement.

Describing a world doesn’t mean you need to go into the realm of science fiction or fantasy. In fact, most science fiction and fantasy derive much from their basis in the “real” world – referencing and reinterpreting historical events, engaging mythical archetypes, and building on accepted theories, to create their universes. In this project you will take the first step in world building, and collect an archive of existing images/sounds/videos/objects to work with.

Drop City: A Total Living Environment

It's up to you what you research – examples may include: military insignias, gender-representation in media, typefaces made by minority designers, and so on. However, your archive should be fueled by a personal interest and desire for reimagination. This means you can collect items that envision the reality you’re hoping for – if you’d like to consider a more eco-sustainable future, what are examples of all the alternative fuels we may use? Perhaps you go as far as looking at the minerals and locations where resources are mined? Or, you could collect items from our present that you’d want to critique. If you’re dissatisfied with a lack of workers rights, what are some ways these abuses are apparent? For instance in time cards, uniforms, etc.

1882-1982-2019, by Chris Lee

What are the existing symbols, signs, graphics, writings, sounds, that could shape the world you would like to see? Like a conspiracy theorist you will seek out, and in some cases create/manipulate/or doctor, evidence of your hypothesis.

After collecting your archive you will communicate your argument through its presentation. For instance, if you collected publications about open source technology, you may upload them to the web for free download. Or, if you’re interested in the involvement of the military in the history of computing, you might make an illustrated timeline showing how military spending impacted computer development.

Conflicted Phonemes, by Lawrence Abu Hamdan

In summary:

• Construct an archive of existing signs and symbols that point to an alternative reading of their accepted definition.
  • Example: A collection of the sounds needed to train a computer to speak in all languages
• Present the archive to us in a navigable and interesting way
  • Examples: A website where these sounds can be played, reassembling them in random orders

Golden Record Exercise – 2 weeks
As a warm up to the project we’ll create our own Golden Records for Compact Disc. The goal of this exercise is to consider how we choose what to archive, and locate our interests around World Building.

Due: Sept 20

Subject Matter – 1 week
Choose your subject matter – create a 5 minute presentation describing the topic you’d like to explore through archiving/world-building. Your presentation should contain images related the subject matter, and provide context for the viewer to understand where your interest stems from.

Due: Sept 27

Archive Collection - 1 week
Collect your archive – gather items that will act as the material for your project. These can be physical, digital, or in-between(?), but should contain a minimum of:

1. 30 images
2. 5 videos
3. 3 sounds
4. 2 artifacts

Bring them to class in a way we can view them as a class (if they’re objects, bring in the objects if you can. If they’re digital images, have them viewable on your computer, etc.). In this stage don’t over-index on an imagined outcome, instead research the topic via design tactics.

Due: Oct 4

Archive Presentation - 2 weeks
Organize your archive – consider the contents of your archive, and organize them into a format that gives us new insights into your collection. This collection can take any shape you choose, but some to consider may be a timeline, interactive website, deck of cards, poster, etc.

Make your archive accessible to the class for review.

Due: Oct 18

• Worlding Raga: 2 – What is a World?, by Ian Cheng

• Symbology, by Trevor Paglen
• Five Classified Aircraft (Trevor Paglen) , by William Gibson
• Black Gooey Universe, American Artist
• ⚧ LIBRE FONTS BY WOMXN - design research
• Conflicted Phonemes, by Lawrence Abu Hamdan
• airpressure.info, by Lawrence Abu Hamdan