u n. £aRth_^
by Maggie Hazen & Chris Papa
5 minutes, 26 seconds
2018
A solitary being tries to regain contact with something it has lost; either of this world or another. In its search, this being discovers a Golden Record containing sounds of a planet unknown to it. This Golden Record was found on a spacecraft—The Voyager 1, launched from a planet called Earth in 1977. In an attempt to understand the other, to relate, and to find a source of life outside itself, this being uses its own specialized technology to find that source.
“As I was working on this film I began to think about a fundamental human urge—the desire to connect. This being wearing a detritus suit, either on this future planet or some far-off world, desires to make contact with another. Perhaps this being might help our world, conquer it, study it, or ignore it altogether. As I make this work, I ask myself, what would an outsider say about Earth? Does this Golden Record it discovers really convey what Earth is, or is it just galactic propaganda?” —Maggie Hazen
“So I made this suit out of garbage and one day Maggie came by my studio, looked at it, and said, “We should make a video.” The suit of armor is made of material collected from roadsides near my home in NY state over a period of several months: various containers, pieces of car bodies, building materials…etc. Garbage, in a word. Each fragment is hand-stitched to its neighbor with electrical wire. It is not just a costume though. The suit is a character through which I can explore a range of subjects such as isolation, escapism, and resistance.” —Chris Papa