Breton Cassette // THE NEED TO TELL YOU (ARECIBO REVISITED) TAPE

1974年に宇宙に送信された、人類と環境に関する情報を含む地球からの最初の通信「アレシボ・メッセージ」（二進法）を16分音符の半音階に翻訳しピアノで演奏した作品。アウトリーチというよりは自己反省的なもので、いつの日か答えが返ってくるというよりも、人間のコミュニケーションの必要性、つまり自分たちが誰であるかわからない受信者にまで自分たちが何者であるかを伝えたいという欲求を表現しています。

The following sound piece contains a binary radio message, translated into a sixteen note chromatic scale and performed on a piano.
The message is an updated version of the so-called Arecibo Message, a radio signal sent into deep space in 1974, being the first interstellar transmission from Earth containing information about humanity and our environments. Although adventurous in spirit, the message is arguably more self-reflective than outreaching. More than the prospect of someday receiving an answer in return, it expresses the human need to communicate - the need to tell even to an unidentified receiver about who we are. The message thus reflects as much how we perceive ourselves, as how we would like to be perceived by the outer-worldly other.
The updated message addresses key issues in the original by including information largely left out that one might argue to be fundamental to the human condition on Earth. These include companion species, the process of evolution, human subjectivity and selected emotions, the ecological and atmospheric effects of climate change, our efforts to become a multi-planetary species by colonizing Mars, and so on.
It also reveals a fundamental linguistic problem. How can we really say or tell anything at all? Inherent in the message and the need to tell it lies a benign anthropocentric arrogance connected to our belief of making ourselves understood by using a specific and thus limited language system. Are there alternatives? Can sound function better as a Universal language?

​Performed by Eirin Øgård Kinn
Recorded at Skarmyra Allaktivitetshus Moss - October 13th 2019
Mastered by Adam Badí Donoval 

artist : Breton Cassette

label : Breton Cassette