The very first piece of representative images sent into Interstellar Space was the Pionner Plaque. Placed on-board the Pioneer 10 and 11 spacecraft during 1972, these plaques were intended to indicate what Humans look like, and our position in the Milky Way galaxy.

The Golden Record

The Golden Record is an extensive collection of Human art and culture from all around the globe. The Record itself was intended as a memorandum for the existence of Humanity: if hypothetical extraterrestrial life were to ever recover the message, they could then learn about our lives and culture by decoding it's contents. Due to the fact the Record itself is currently on a trajectory outside of out own Solar System, and into interstellar space, It's likely that the art and forms of expression within the record will be preserved for hundred of thousands (or perhaps millions) of years, perhaps far outlasting human life on Earth itself.

The Sounds

The record containts a multitude of audio samples. It contains the spoken greetings, beginning with Akkadian, which was spoken in Sumer about six thousand years ago, and ending with Wu, a modern Chinese dialect. Following the section on the sounds of Earth, there is an eclectic 90-minute selection of music, including both Eastern and Western classics and a variety of ethnic music.

One of the included pieces of music is Dark was the Night, Cold was the Ground, by Blind Willie Johnson:

Born in the winter of 1897, Johnson was born into a difficult and harsh life, losing his mother at a young age, as well as being deliberately blinded by his step-mother at the age of seven. Johnson was an evangelist, performing religious songs on street corners, a brand of gospel blues, heavily influenced by his Baptist upbringing. Johnson played music throughout much of his life, and died in 1945 after a fire destroyed his home. With nowhere else to go, he slept amid the ruins with his partner Angeline. The bed was open to the elements. He lay in soaking bedclothes, and contracted a fever. The hospital would not treat him, and he died at home.

The Images

The images stored on the Voyager records were intended to show as broad a view of human life as was possible with the limited scope of the information that could be conveyed. The images shown here depict various examples of dwellings and houses that were included among the images: from simple huts to towering skyscrapers, the individuals that composed the contents of the record wanted to highlight the extremities and capabilities of human beings on Earth.