70 Books & arts The EconomistJanuary 30th 2021
I
n the cascade mountains of northern
California, a cluster of 42 radio tele-
scopes points towards the stars, scanning
for signs of life. The Search for Extraterres-
trial Intelligence (seti) Institute has been
listening for a signal here and elsewhere
since it was founded in 1984. In that time it
has scoured only a minuscule fraction of
space, equivalent to a glass of water in all
the world’s oceans. But Jill Tarter, its co-
founder, is undaunted. A renowned astro-
phyisicst—and the model for Jodie Foster’s
character in the alien-encounter film “Con-
tact”—Ms Tarter says the programme’s aim
is not just to communicate with remote
civilisations. It is also to remind humanity
of its own modest, fragile place in the cos-
mos. Which is why, for the first time, setiis
cocking its ear towards Earth.
It is looking for the same thing on this
planet that it routinely seeks from others: a
signal that can be beamed into space to rep-
resent the species. Felipe Pérez Santiago, a
Mexican musician and composer—and art-
ist in residence at the institute—has an
idea of what might work. Since song, like
the human voice, is common to all lan-
guages and nations, he and Ms Tarter have
devised the “Earthling Project”: a call to
people everywhere to upload snippets of
song that he plans to meld into a collective
human chorus. An initial composition will
be launched into space this summer, in-
scribed on a virtually indestructible disk
alongside Wikipedia and the Rosetta Pro-
ject, a sampling of 1,500 human languages.
Future plans and dreams include an even-
tual dispatch to Mars.
Some composers, most famously Gus-
tav Holst, have tried to capture the gran-
deur of space in sound. And human music
has been sent to the heavens, notably on
two Voyager probes that were launched in
1977 and are now more than 11bn miles from
Earth. Distant beings can in theory already
enjoy Peruvian panpipes, a Navajo chant,
Bach, Beethoven and more. But no previ-
ous offering, and perhaps no composition
undertaken anywhere, has tried to encom-
pass the entire variety of human song.
If anyone is equipped for this galactic
challenge, it is Mr Santiago. He wrote his
first ditty at the age of four, trained in Mexi-
co City and then studied for five years at
Rotterdam’s conservatory. There he was ex-
posed to “Turkish, Indian, Caribbean mu-
sic, everything from tango to gamelan to
flamenco”. The maestro has since workedin Paris, Munich, Barcelona and Amster-
dam, composing for choirs, films and en-
sembles of all kinds, including the Kronos
Quartet and Harlem Dance Theatre. His
back catalogue is exuberant, combining
the clarity of classical technique with an
energy he attributes to the rock bands he
enjoyed in his youth.
The first piece he produces forsetiwill
probably resemble a “wall of sound”, the
composer says, incorporating as many as
10,000 unaccompanied voices. But later he
proposes to craft an “earthling symphony”,
a piece that will doubtless reflect his peri-
patetic background and eclectic passions.
As thrilling as it may seem to send his work
into space, Mr Santiago says he is just as ex-
cited about bringing together contributors
from around the globe.
For the music is intended to be not just a
message to the universe, but a mirror—a
chance, as Ms Tarter has put it, to say “See,
we’re all the same.” Mr Santiago raises his
hands and his eyebrows as he summarises
the goal: “Can we unite humanity with 30
seconds of singing?”Greetings, earthlings
Some elemental melodies endure for cen-
turies: lullabies, mourning chants, songs
of love or celebration, age-old tunes that
lighten toil or praise a god. Like those giant
Californian dishes, the project’s app stands
ready to receive all these, and whatever elseearthlings anywhere choose to contribute.
Unlike other recordings sent into space,
says Mr Santiago, “everyone’s invited. You
don’t have to be one of the main composers
of our history like Beethoven, just some-
one singing in their shower.” Download the
app, warble up to three songs of 30 seconds
each, and your voice will be dispatched
into the firmament.
Mr Santiago pledges to use every sub-
mission. The ultimate plan is to throw
open the whole database for musicians
anywhere to sample. Understanding that
all earthlings share a common planet “is
crucial for our long future,” Ms Tarter says.
“We face challenges that have to be solved
by co-operating across the globe.” In a
small but symbolic way, the Earthling Pro-
ject is meant to set an example.
It is helping to build bridges in another
way, too. Astronomers and biologists, like
artists, use imagination to conceive of new
things, formulating questions, taking
risks, experimenting and collaborating
across borders. But often the worlds of art
and science seem disconnected. The art-
ists’ programme at setiencourages co-op-
eration between disciplines—resulting in
artwork that gives tangible shape to ab-
stract data. The first participant, Charles
Lindsay, investigated interspecies commu-
nication through the song of humpback
whales; another, Scott Kildall, created a vir-
tual-reality tour of all the known exopla-
nets. Rachel Sussman presented an image
of the cosmic background radiation gener-
ated by the Big Bang—“the baby picture of
the universe”—as a sand mandala.
As Mr Santiago notes, “nothing has un-
ited humanity like this pandemic.” At a
dark time, he and the institute aim to foster
a more uplifting sense of communion. “If
we can send this unified message,” he says,
“our mission is accomplished.” 7SAN FRANCISCO
A project aims to beam a musical message to other planets—and back to this oneMusic in spaceWe are the world
The music of the spheres