«On the world itself: It’s not just one world. There are many worlds, different realities, different people, the center is not the human. There are spirits involved, different ways of thinking about what human itself is. We are not one. We are not the same.» Chiara Garbellotto
Apart from Ben Stiller, there is actually one other person who is allowed to stay in the museum at night and experience crazy things: our guest Chiara Garbellotto. Together with her, we fantasize our way through that peculiar «Theatre of Death» that she deals with as part of her research.
With a background in cultural anthropology, her current work focuses on ecologies of public engagement and collaborative practices between science and art. Drawing on Feminist Science and Technology Studies, she explores worlds beyond the human.
She also elaborates on the principle of the Pluriverse: The fact that a single WE has launched a record into space is just the best occasion for new WEs to send their complementary records after it. Let’s do it!
The conversation took place in English & German.
Further links to topics of the dialogue
Donna Haraway (Wiki)
USA For Africa – We Are The World (Video)
Links to streaming platforms
Welcome to THE GOLDEN RECORD STUDIOS – It’s high time for a new world selfie! 45 years ago, NASA sent its «Golden Records» into the depths of space in the hope that distant intelligences would be able to get an idea of humanity this way. Back then, a small group of Americans curated an embellished selfie for the entire Earth: Photos as if with a retro filter, music between European classical music and Azerbaijani bagpipes, as well as nature sounds in poor sound quality – our as yet unknown alien friends will get a pretty weird impression of us. Fortunately, since the 1970s, not only the view of the world, but also the view out of the world has changed significantly.
In our podcast series THE GOLDEN RECORD STUDIOS, exosociologists, anthropologists and other alien artists put their heads together with us for this experiment to produce new recordings: How do we want to be remembered? How do we welcome alien intelligences? Which colonial structures do we have to say goodbye to in order to secure the existence of the human species? And is freezing after death really the smartest way to travel into the future? THE GOLDEN RECORD STUDIOS are an open invitation to listen in and think along, infused with sounds and music. On the first level, we deal with various questions arising from the Golden Records project. But you soon realise that we are dealing with very contemporary and local issues via the figure of the alien or the message to space.
Hosts: Alexandra Lauck und Lukas Matthaei
Creative Producer: Fabian Kuehlein
Music: Chris Umney
Produced by matthaei&konsorten 2023