A COSMIC BUM TRIP
The first thing to consider was the medium - even the best of all possible mixtapes can't save humanity if the aliens can't play it back. I assumed they wouldn't have CD players or turntables, but if they've mastered space travel, they must have at least mastered binary, and if they've mastered binary then they've most likely mastered some form of binary encoding that could at least be converted from an .mp3. So I chose to send them my mix as binary images of the files.
Included on the first page are simple pictorial instructions for decoding the images. A colored dot represents a 1; a white or black dot represents a 0. I chose small .mp3s - 128k - so the aliens won't have much to decode. Track one, for example, is four minutes and 38 seconds. 128 kbs * 276 seconds = 35,328,000 bytes of audio, or 282,624,000 bits. At 32 bits per pixel (a nice color-space) we get a 2972x2972 image.
I tried to make the mix as much of a bummer as I could, in the hopes that by the end of the mix they'll be too bummed out to blow us up or whatever. I have been listening to it a lot since putting it together, and it would be hard to get in a xenocidal mood.
1. Grouper - "Come Softly"
2. Brian Eno - "By This River"
3. Desire - "Colorless Sky"
4. Julee Cruise - "I Remember"
5. Gigi Masin - "Call Me"
6. Hatchback - "Orinoco Waltz"
7. Roger - "Emotions (OPN RMX)"
Matt,
ReplyDeleteI love the absolute nerdi-ness of your binary missive. When I received it in the mail, I mean, er, via transmission to our lead spacecraft, I at first thought it was one of those super annoying 3-D image things where you have to unfocus your eyes and see some shitty dolphin or some such crap. So for a moment, I was about to destroy your miserable planet on principle (and also because I could never get those things to work for me - I always thought it was a worldwide conspiracy). Then, looking at your diagram, I figured that the songs (if that was what they were) were encoded somehow. Then I was going to destroy your planet just for the sheer abstractness by which you approached this 129M round. But perhaps that was just jealousy on my part. I think it was.
In any case, I think I will spare your Urth, or whatever you call it, because I imagine that it took you a really really long time to hand translate all of those songs into zeros and ones. I have to admit, I have not listened to the songs yet, because maybe you didn't notice, but I'M NOT A FREAKING VACCUUUMMM CLEANER! What you perceived as a flotilla of advanced robotic Von Neumann death machines, are actually just different aspects of me - a singular fungus-based hive creature, who doesn't read freaking Binary - if you want to grok with me, it's all about pheromones and glandular secretions, baby. How I'm even writing this comment on this blog, I don't even freaking know!
A+++++++++++++++++ for effort and concept!
Matt this looks so rad i want to hide myself in shameeee.
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