Extra Terrestrial Transmission (ETx) 2015

This broadcast is an alien artefact, a time capsule for a future civilisation. ETx has been transmitted into deep space by the Outer Space Messaging Service’s laser. It is the first video communication sent into deep space. Directed into the Hubble Deep Field, one of the darkest points in the northern hemisphere, the message will propagate through space for millions of years. Passing through space at the speed of light, this signal is an immaterial archive. Most of the content used to make the message has been sourced from paid user contributions on Amazon’s online labour market, Mechanical Turk. We invited participants to send us videos that they felt best represented life on Earth in 2014 and to narrate what their life is like to a potential alien listener millions of years hence. We also produced a radiophonic version for broadcast on Resonance FM, alongside a video version for transmission into space.