Swaantje GüntzelThings the Golden Records (<a href="https://pixelfed.social/discover/tags/Voyager?src=hash" class="u-url hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#Voyager</a>) don´t show - or how I transmitted a sanitation truck into space long before ESAs Blue Danube Waltz<br>
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Golden Record / image No. 117<br>
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When I was an Artist-in-Science at the European Space Agency - ESA / ESOC in <a href="https://pixelfed.social/discover/tags/Darmstadt?src=hash" class="u-url hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#Darmstadt</a> in 2022 I mainly focussed on our waste culture and how we brought this culture into space (<a href="https://pixelfed.social/discover/tags/orbitaldebris?src=hash" class="u-url hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#orbitaldebris</a>). At the same time, I also looked at how we have been turning a blind eye to the waste we produce for decades and continue to do so today. I found it extremely revealing to see that back in 1977, when <a href="https://pixelfed.social/discover/tags/NASA?src=hash" class="u-url hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#NASA</a> made a selection of images to supply the data collection stored on the <a href="https://pixelfed.social/discover/tags/GoldenRecords?src=hash" class="u-url hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#GoldenRecords</a> which were designed to inform possible <a href="https://pixelfed.social/discover/tags/extraterrestials?src=hash" class="u-url hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#extraterrestials</a> about the existence of the earth and its inhabitants, the images described many aspects of human existence, but left the reality of our modern life, such as the production of waste in large parts unnoticed.<br>
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Which is why I decided to change that and send an extra image into space to be understood as addition to the collection of the 116 diagrams and pictures generated by NASA in 1977 : On October 20th, 2022 the image of a sanitation truck (<a href="https://pixelfed.social/discover/tags/JamaicaBay?src=hash" class="u-url hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#JamaicaBay</a>, <a href="https://pixelfed.social/discover/tags/NY?src=hash" class="u-url hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#NY</a>) from the year 1973 was uplinked through the tracking network of European Space Agency (<a href="https://pixelfed.social/discover/tags/ESA?src=hash" class="u-url hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#ESA</a>) in the direction where the “Golden Records” attached to the NASA Voyager space probes are currently traveling in interstellar space. <br>
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We will now see what the extraterrestials will make of it. A sanitation truck floating through space to the beat of the Blue Danube Waltz.<br>
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ESA / <a href="https://pixelfed.social/discover/tags/BlueDanubeWaltz?src=hash" class="u-url hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#BlueDanubeWaltz</a>: <a href="https://www.esa.int/Enabling_Support/Operations/ESA_transmits_the_Blue_Danube_Waltz_into_deep_space" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">https://www.esa.int/Enabling_Support/Operations/ESA_transmits_the_Blue_Danube_Waltz_into_deep_space</a><br>
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[Swaantje Güntzel, Golden Record / image No. 117, color photograph, 29.5 x 23 cm]<br>
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Installation view "Swaantje Güntzel INSTANT PARADISE" 25.5. - 13.8.2023, Villa Dessauer. Fotos: Tobias Hübel<br>
Image sanitation truck: EPA / Alamy Stock Foto<br>
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