*Hardest-working man in conceptual art. Or, the kind of conceptual art that we like here on the blog, anyhow.
For Immediate Release
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INTERNATIONAL ASTRONAUTICAL CONGRESS PREPARES TO GREET ALIEN GUESTS WITH WORLD'S FIRST COSMIC WELCOME MAT
Universal Doormat Designed By Experimental Philosopher Jonathon Keats... Extraterrestrial Interactions Will Be Monitored By Space Archaeologist Alice Gorman... Message Of Welcomeness Intended Also To Reach Alienated Populations On Earth
September 22, 2017 – As leading space scientists gather for the 68th International Astronautical Congress in late September, the search for extraterrestrial intelligence will undergo a reboot following more than a century of failure. The campus of Flinders University in South Australia – neighboring the Adelaide Convention Centre where IAC delegates will meet – will feature our planet's first cosmic welcome mat.
The university-sponsored program was inspired by the Nobel Prize-winning physicist Enrico Fermi. "Years ago, Fermi famously questioned the existence of intelligent life throughout the universe," says experimental philosopher Jonathon Keats. "Fermi asked, 'Where is everybody?' Maybe the reason we've never encountered aliens is that they never felt invited. From an outsider's perspective, human behavior can appear pretty unfriendly, and that impression has some truth to it."
To counter the hostility of his species, and to communicate hospitality to aliens, Mr. Keats enlisted the most welcoming of human inventions. His cosmic welcome mat, developed in consultation with Flinders space archaeologist Alice Gorman, translates the concept of welcomeness into a visual language that all sentient beings can potentially comprehend.
"In fact, the mat comes in four different versions," says Dr. Gorman. "Since we can't make any assumptions about beings we've never encountered, and certainly can't assume that they're versed in human culture, it's important to present them with different options built on different premises." For instance, one version of the mat expresses welcomeness in terms of geometric fit, while another does so by biological analogy, evoking room for growth.
Dr. Gorman and a team of Flinders students will rigorously monitor use of the intergalactic doormats, employing standard archaeological sampling techniques. The carpeting will be regularly vacuumed for sediment. Comparison of sedimentary deposits can provide important data about how effectively welcomeness has been communicated by each design. These data will inform future iterations of the mat, slated for distribution worldwide, and potential future deployment on the International Space Station.
Effective communication is paramount, according to Mr. Keats, who considers the research valuable whether or not extraterrestrials arrive in Adelaide. "Our welcome mats are not visible from other galaxies, so a rendezvous is really a matter of chance," he says. "But even if space aliens don't happen to pass our way, alienation is also a local phenomenon. Plenty of people and groups are disenfranchised here on Earth, and the cosmic welcome mat is intended also to be inviting to them.
"One measure of our success will be extraterrestrial contact," asserts Mr. Keats. "Another will be that the cosmic welcome mat becomes a fixture on every terrestrial doorstep."
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About Jonathon Keats
Acclaimed as a "poet of ideas" by The New Yorker and a "multimedia philosopher-prophet" by The Atlantic, Jonathon Keats is an experimental philosopher, artist, and writer based in San Francisco and Northern Italy. His conceptually-driven interdisciplinary art projects, which explore all aspects of society through science and technology, have been presented at institutions ranging from Arizona State University to the Los Angeles County Museum of Art to ZKM Karlsruhe. He is the author of six books, most recently You Belong to the Universe: Buckminster Fuller and the Future, published by Oxford University Press.
About Alice Gorman
Dr. Alice Gorman is an internationally-recognized leader in the emerging field of space archaeology. She is a Senior Lecturer in archaeology at Flinders University and a faculty member of the International Space University's Southern Hemisphere Space Program in Adelaide. She is also a member of the Executive Council of the Space Industry Association of Australia, the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies, and a Councillor of the Anthropological Society of South Australia. Her research on space exploration has been featured in National Geographic, The New Yorker, and Archaeology magazine.
