The Voyager Golden Record
Bringing the interstellar message to Earth for the first time and sparking global enthusiasm for the endeavor. Creating the Grammy award winning Best Boxed or Special Limited Edition Package now included in the permanent collection of the V&A Museum and the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum.
Design
Science
Inventing new means to bring to Earth the legendary album that's been called a gift from humanity to the cosmos. The Voyager Golden Record is a phonograph that was sent into space on the Voyager I and Voyager II spacecraft in 1977 with the intention to share our human story. The story of humanity, culture, the story of life on earth without using a single word. A story of presenting the best version of ourselves, seeing hope, wonder and possibility. Without any copies for the public, this story of humanity was only to be listened to by extraterrestrials. Currently at 15 and 13 billion miles away respectively, both spacecraft are the only human made objects to ever leave our Solar System, thus the farthest archive of humanity from the place we can home.
Never released on Earth, Macroscopic leadership partnered with Ozma Records and worked with original members of the original Voyager Golden Record team as well as The Sagan Institute at Cornell University, and NASA’s archive at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in bringing the contents of the record to humanity here on Earth for the first time. Through thorough excavation of the original images encoded on the album, remastering from archive the music and spoken word on the album and carefully pairing the contents of the record with the images of our solar system sent back to us by Voyager - we curated a bespoke comprehensive boxed set which included a hardbound book a three LP triptych and a gold foil print. The project broke Kickstarter’s record for largest grossing music release in the history of the platform - $1.4 million backed, nearly 7 times the original goal and won a Grammy in 2018 for Best Boxed or Special Limited Edition Package.
The Voyager Interstellar Record is a reminder of what we can achieve when we are at our best—and that our future really is up to all of us.
Approach
To design a deeply covetable compendium that opens minds to possibilities, reminding us of what can be achieved when we’re at our best - that the future is up to us. We saw the original artifact through three different lenses. As an exquisitely curated music compilation, the Voyager record is an inviting port of entry to unfamiliar yet entrancing sounds from other cultures and other times. As an objet d’art and design, it represents deep insights about communication, and the power of appealing to our best selves. In the realm of science, it raises fundamental questions about who we are and our place in the universe. We were driven to have the project serve as a reminder of our potential to ignite curiosity and wonder through the intersection of science and art.
