Throughout our DESMA class, we students have been introduced to many topics related to both art and science. Today (Wed.), an American artist Richard Clar presented his projects that take place in outer space. His projects are both fascinating and entertaining; however, I feel that these projects can be improved in many ways.

His first project Space Flight Dolphin consists of a dolphin shaped space craft that sends out signals into outer space. Clar hopes that any “extraterrestrial intelligence” would pick up this signal any trace them back to earth. This is a wonderful step in attempting to contact with other life forms; however, it contains many problems. The first problem is the signals. The signals sent are dolphin “voices” that are used by dolphins. Humans cannot understand them. Even if aliens hear Clar’s dolphin voices, it is unlikely that the aliens can understand them. Under rare possibility that aliens decipher the signals and send back their signals, we would not understand them. The second problem is the lack of receiver. If the aliens are able to respond to Clar’s signals, the Space Flight Dolphin lacks any receivers to capture the responds. In another word, Space Flight Dolphin would never let us know whether any one is out there or not. These errors can be easily fixed by changing the signal from “dolphin’s voice” to a radio signal and add a receiver on the Space Flight Dolphin. This way we can capture the other aliens’ response and easily understand what they think of earth.

His second project Collision II is a sculpture made from many orbital debris objects. This is an innovative and beautiful idea. This project contains no problems but can be enhanced by collecting more debris to form more complicated constellations.

His last project presented in class is New Butoh Space Dance. This project is a message for the aliens. This “message” is a composition of music, dances, and motion captures. Clar has shown an example of this message in class on Wednesday. For me, the video was poetic but ambiguous. Within the video, I heard a variety of music and see a variety of dance moves. Clar explained that the variety of dance moves and music show the combination of different cultures on earth and the ambiguity would cause the aliens to become curious to study earth. I disagree with this idea. The message for the alien should represent earth as it is. It is true that there are different cultures on earth; however, these cultures have never been officially combined. The Clar’s message would not represent earth but an idealized form of earth’s cultures. This problem can be fixed by separate the message into different parts. In each part, there would be a different culture. For example, in the first part there is Chinese dances and music. The second part is Russian dances and music. The rest would follow the same pattern.

The artist Richard Clar may not agree with these points; however, these changes may improve his project or at least make them practical and logical.