‘We want to democratise the universe’: Artists plan to send your tweets into space
(…but will E.T. care about your musings?)
Eddie Wren for the Mail online

Twitter is a force for both the good and the mundane.

For every useful piece of information, witty statement, or earnest communication, there are a dozen tweets revealing such insights as ‘Fell over in the shower today LOLZ’.

Now, in a bid to democratise the universe, two multimedia artists plan to send out all and any tweets into the cosmos, sharing everything with any lurking aliens with an ISP.

All anyone has to do is add the hashtag #tweetsinspace to their message, and artists Scott Kildall and Nathaniel Stern will collect them and forward them on to E.T.

Tweets in Space: The campaign hopes to raise $8,500 in order to share humanity’s thoughts with the universe

The duo are collecting donations via RocketHub, a creative funding website, to fund the project.
Their aim is to ‘build or borrow a high tech communications system that will beam your real time text messages to a planet that can support extraterrestrial life.’

The pair are aiming to raise $8,500 – a surprisingly small amount for such a long-distance, 22 light-year phonecall – and so far have received more than $2,500. When they have their equipment, the pair will be ready to ‘inform extraterrestrial beings of our culture and society’ – both the good and the bad.

Asking for pledges, the pair say: ‘We will beam Twitter discussions from participants worldwide towards GJ667Cc – an exoplanet 22 light years away that might support earth-like biological life.

‘Anyone with an Internet connection can participate during two performance events, which will simultaneously take place online, at the International Symposium on Electronic Art (ISEA2012, New Mexico), and in the stars.

‘By engaging the millions of voices in the Twitterverse and dispatching them into the larger Universe, Tweets in Space activates a potent discussion about communication and life that traverses beyond our borders or understanding. It is not just a public performance; it performs a public.’

Earth’s ambassador: Scott Kildall appeals through RocketHub for funding to get our messages out there

Beam it up: The duo hope to buy or hire powerful transmitting equipment to send our earth-bound messages off to the universe

The pair added: ‘We will collect all Twitter messages tagged #tweetsinspace and transmit them into the cosmos via either a home-built or borrowed communication system.

‘Our soon-to-be alien friends will receive scores of unmediated thoughts and feedback about politics, philosophy, pop culture, dinner, dancing cats and everything in between.

‘All tweets will also be streamed to a live public website, where they’ll be permanently archived, as well as projected – as animated twitter spaceships towing messages – at the Balloon Museum and planetarium-like digital dome (IAIA), in Albuquerque and Santa Fe.

‘Tweets in Space asks us to take a closer look at our spectacular need to connect, perform and network with others. It creates a tension between the depth and shallowness of sharing 140 characters at a time with the entire Internet world, in all its complexity, richness and absurdity, by transmitting our passing thoughts and responses to everywhere and nowhere.

‘These “twitters” will be stretched across all time and space as a reflection on the contemporary phenomenon of the “status” updates we broadcast, both literal and metaphoric.’

Kildall stated his reasons for the campaign in a video on RocketHub.

He said: ‘Previously only elite institutions or rich and powerful individuals could transmit to our alien friends.

‘We want to democratise the universe.’

On The Daily Mail