Leonardo_37-1_001-092 1/13/04 12:22 PM Page 32 Downloaded from http://direct.mit.edu/leon/article-pdf/37/1/32/1572158/002409404772828021.pdf by guest on 28 September 2021 Leonardo_37-1_001-092 1/13/04 12:22 PM Page 33 S C E O T N I S SPECIAL SECTION INTRODUCTION T M R E U S C S T A I G O E N The Art and Science of Interstellar Message Composition Framing interstellar messages as art projects is a recent development. The Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence, or SETI, has largely been conducted by scientists and engineers, with minimal input from the artistic community. With advances in search technol- ogy, the chances of detecting extraterrestrial intelligence are improving rapidly, as Dan Werthimer and Mary Kate Morris discuss in their extended abstract, “Are We Alone? The Search for Extraterrestrial Civilizations.” In recognition of these increasing prospects of suc- cess, the SETI Institute and Leonardo have initiated a series of workshops to encourage dis- cussion among artists, scientists and technologists about interstellar message composition. In the event of a signal detection, this advance preparation will be especially useful as humankind decides whether to reply and, if so, what to say. This special section of Leonardo features extended abstracts of six of the 18 presentations given at the first workshop devoted specifically to the interface of art, science and technology in interstellar message design, held in Paris on 18 March 2002. Interstellar messages have not typically been construed as works of art in themselves, but art and music have played a minor role in the theory and practice of interstellar message con- struction. For example, German astronomer Sebastian von Hoerner has suggested that some aspects of music may be universal [1], and two Voyager spacecraft carried samples of Earth’s music [2]. Indeed, the intrinsic temporality of radio transmissions lends itself particularly well to messages that share some of the structural characteristics of music. This approach to mes- sage design, based on semiotic analyses, suggests that the form of the transmission can help convey a message’s content [3]. Such a strategy stands in contrast to traditional methods of constructing interstellar messages based on classical information theory, in which there need not be a close connection between the form and the content of a message. Although the 2002 Paris workshop was the first meeting to focus on the interface of art, science and technology, the Toulouse Workshop on Interstellar Message Composition, held 30 September–2 October 2001, also included artists’ perspectives to a limited extent. At the Toulouse meeting, which covered interstellar message design more broadly, French artist Jean-Marc Philippe reviewed his project of transmitting an archive of messages from the Nançay radio telescope in 1987, and American artist Richard Clar examined the value of am- biguity and absence in interstellar messages. Clar’s presentation at the Paris workshop, “The Process of Art in Interstellar Message Construction,” included in this section, addresses re- lated issues. Several papers presented at the workshop in Paris examined whether there might be aes- thetic principles that are either universal or, short of that, possibly explicable across interstel- lar space, even if these principles are culturally contingent. Several presenters suggested mathematics and physics as possible bridges between worlds, with interstellar languages based on these disciplines potentially also capable of expressing aesthetic sensibilities across inter- stellar space. For example, physicist Lui Lam, in his presentation “A Science-and-Art Interstel- lar Message: The Self-Similar Sierpinski Gasket,” suggested sending messages incorporating a Facing page: The 140-ft. telescope of the National Radio Astronomy Observatory in Green Bank, West Virginia, was used by the SETI Institute’s Project Phoenix from September 1996 through April 1998. (Photo © Seth Shostak) © 2004 ISAST LEONARDO, Vol. 37, No. 1, pp. 33–34, 2004 33 Downloaded from http://direct.mit.edu/leon/article-pdf/37/1/32/1572158/002409404772828021.pdf by guest on 28 September 2021 Leonardo_37-1_001-092 1/13/04 12:22 PM Page 34 S C E O T N simple fractal based upon a never-ending series of triangles within triangles, specifiable with a I S T few lines of computer code and manifest in a range of terrestrial cultures. This general ap- M R E U proach of tapping into potentially universal aspects of mathematics and physics was suggested S C S T for messages inspired both by the visual arts, such as proposed by Steve Diehl in his paper, A I G O “Constants of Art and Nature: The Rainbow Project,” and by music, as in Andrew Kaiser’s pre- E N sentation, “Sound as Intercultural Communication: A Meta-Analysis of Music with Implica- tions for SETI.” Conversely, Dutch astronomer and theoretical computer scientist Alexander Ollongren proposed using music to help clarify an interstellar language based on principles of logic in his paper “Large-Size Message Construction for ETI: Music in Lingua Cosmica.” (The above-mentioned presentations are all reproduced in this section.) Also at the Paris workshop, Swiss artist Arthur Woods suggested that humankind may have an ethical imperative to expand its presence into space, possibly through interstellar transmis- sions. A handful of interstellar messages have already been broadcast, such as Russian astronomer Alexander Zaitsev’s transmission of pictorial and musical messages from the Evpa- toria radio telescope in the Ukraine, described in his presentation at the workshop. The con- sensus of all major SETI research groups, however, as reported by American space lawyer Patricia Sterns at the Paris workshop, is to follow policy guidelines developed by the SETI Committee of the International Academy of Astronautics and the International Institute of Space Law [4]. These protocols discourage intentional transmissions targeted at extraterres- trials unless preceded by broad-based international discussion. The following extended abstracts of representative papers will give a sense of the workshop. More detailed discussions of some of the contributions to this workshop will also be included in a forthcoming volume [5]. DOUGLAS A. VAKOCH Leonardo Editorial Advisor Interstellar Message Group Leader SETI Institute 2035 Landings Drive Mountain View, CA 94043 U.S.A. E-mail: Ͻ[email protected]Ͼ References 1. S. von Hoerner, “Universal Music?” Psychology of Music 2 (1974) pp. 18–28. 2. C. Sagan, ed., Murmurs of Earth: The Voyager Interstellar Record (New York: Random House, 1978). 3. D.A. Vakoch, “Signs of Life beyond Earth: A Semiotic Analysis of Interstellar Messages,” Leonardo 31, No. 4, 313–319 (1998). 4. Web: Ͻhttp://www.iaanet.org/p_papers/seti.htmlϾ. 5. D.A. Vakoch, ed., Between Worlds: The Art and Science of Interstellar Message Composition (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2004). 34 Special Section Introduction Downloaded from http://direct.mit.edu/leon/article-pdf/37/1/32/1572158/002409404772828021.pdf by guest on 28 September 2021.