Message to the Extraterrestials
2007 - Installation (Installation)
Christoph Keller
Message to the Extraterrestrials consists of a slide projector beaming images into the side of the telescope. These are then reflected down to a mirror at the bottom of the telescope and from there to a mirror on the ceiling. From the ceiling the images bounce down to a mirror at floor level which projects the images through an open window to the world outside. The function of the telescope has been inverted and transformed from a receiver to a broadcaster of light. The images it projects are selected from the ‘Golden Record’ produced for the Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 missions. These were intended to inform any extraterrestrials of life and culture on earth. Described by Ann Druyan, author and science media producer, as ‘a classic message in a bottle’ there was never any knowing whether, if viewed by an extraterrestrial, they would be able to decode the visual signals or not. The projection of these images by the Voyager spacecraft was at once an informative and a futile gesture. Ed Stone, Voyager’s project scientist, stated that “In a sense it is a unifying message. It’s a message from Earth. It contains greetings in many languages, music from many cultures and images that portray our home planet.”
Christoph Keller’s works function between science and art and have a practical as well as an aesthetic application. They are interventions into reality as well as inventions. Keller is fascinated by previous scientific undertakings such as Wilhelm Reich’s Cloudbuster project that Keller re-enacted from the roof of PS1 in an attempt to make rain over New York in the Spring and Summer of 2003 using orgone and nuclear energy. Keller’s stance is at once social political and artistic. He is engaged in debates around existence and the human condition. His project Helioflex is an attempt, using mirrors, to ‘bypass the social gradient of access to sunlight in urban habitations’, in other words to bring sunlight to areas normally in shadow at an affordable price. According to Keller the density of building generates a social gradient of sunlight in urban areas. The top floors bathe in light that is missing in the bottom floors. The device bypasses this gradient and creates a connection to the outside world by reflecting natural light to spaces that have never seen the sun before.’ Keller’s political engagement is in the tradition of Josef Beuys, who taught at the Free University in Berlin where Keller began to study physics in 1988. Christoph Keller is a German artist who studied math, physics and hydrology before studying liberal arts in Berlin. Christoph Keller was born in Fribourg, Germany, in 1967. He lives and works in Berlin.
Colors:
Related works sharing similar palette
© » ARTS EQUATOR
Migrant Ecologies Project: A Grain of Wheat Inside a Salt Water Crocodile | ArtsEquator Thinking and Talking about Arts and Culture in Southeast Asia Grain of Wheat July 8, 2019 For the benefit of the possible intelligences that may find these treasures after humans have long gone, we have translated one of the photographs of our wheat gleaning ceremony in Singapore into binary code...
© » SLASH PARIS
Natalia Jaime-Cortez — Hier j’ai vu une baleine dans la Seine — Espace d’art contemporain Camille Lambert — Exposition — Slash Paris Connexion Newsletter Twitter Facebook Natalia Jaime-Cortez — Hier j’ai vu une baleine dans la Seine — Espace d’art contemporain Camille Lambert — Exposition — Slash Paris Français English Accueil Événements Artistes Lieux Magazine Vidéos Retour Précédent Suivant Natalia Jaime-Cortez — Hier j’ai vu une baleine dans la Seine Exposition Dessin, installations, techniques mixtes Hier j’ai vu une baleine dans la Seine 2023 Natalia Jaime-Cortez Natalia Jaime-Cortez Hier j’ai vu une baleine dans la Seine Encore environ 2 mois : 3 février → 30 mars 2024 Le travail de Natalia Jaime-Cortez se déploie, ou plutôt se déplie, et relève d’un engagement corporel de l’artiste dont les papiers suspendus viennent dessiner des lignes dans l’espace...
© » THEARTNEWSPER
Review into British Museum thefts calls for fundamental reforms Art market Museums & heritage Exhibitions Books Podcasts Columns Technology Adventures with Van Gogh Search Search British Museum thefts news Review into British Museum thefts calls for fundamental reforms The Independent Collection Security Review urges the museum to take urgent action, including fully recording the collection and tough management changes Martin Bailey 13 December 2023 Share The report has been heavily criticised by Ittai Gradel, the Danish gems specialist who privately warned the British Museum about the theft in 2020 Photo: Jeff Whyte The independent review into thefts at the British Museum reveals serious problems with the institution’s governance...
© » KADIST
Sarah Lai Cheuk Wah
2015Back images is a series of six photographs by Sarah Lei Cheuk Wah that explore the semiotics of power and their intersection with representations of masculinity...
© » KADIST
Naoya Hatakeyama
Naoya Hatakeyama’s series Rikuzentakata (2011) documents the devastating aftermath of the 2011 Tohoku earthquake and tsunami in Japan...
© » LENS CULTURE
Days of Future Passed - Photographs by Florence Iff | Text by Marigold Warner | LensCulture Feature Days of Future Passed Collecting photos from her daily life, the Internet, newspapers, and free image libraries, Swiss photographer Florence Iff amalgamates vast webs of organisms, structures, and scenes into a portrait of a planet in crisis...
© » KADIST
Bady Dalloul
2022With Inner Child , Bady Dalloul continues his ongoing reflection on migration and belonging, putting in balance levantine and Japanese histories...
© » SOUTH CHINA MORNING POST
TeamLab Borderless, Tokyo interactive digital art museum, makes a comeback with boundary-breaking installations | South China Morning Post Advertisement Advertisement Asia travel + FOLLOW Get more with my NEWS A personalised news feed of stories that matter to you Learn more TeamLab co-founder Toshiyuki Inoko stands inside the “Bubble Universe” installation at the new teamLab Borderless, an interactive digital art museum in Tokyo’s Azabudai Hills development in Japan...
© » ARTS EQUATOR
The brutal examinations of "Constellation of Violence" | ArtsEquator Thinking and Talking about Arts and Culture in Southeast Asia Articles Hideto Maezawa October 8, 2019 By Patricia Tobin (561 words, 4-minute read) Constellation of Violence consists of a very simple setup: a giant screen on stage, a historian, two artists and a group of individuals...
