Join us for a post-screening discussion with artist Dario Robleto and writer Ann Druyan, in person. 

Ancient Beacons Long for Notice is the third film in Dario Robleto’s trilogy engaging the history and legacy of the Golden Record. Attached to the deep space probe Voyager upon its launch in 1977, the Golden Record was a gold disc carrying a selection of images, languages, music, and sound to represent the complexity of Earth’s lifeforms and cultures. Produced by a team of scientists led by Carl Sagan, the Golden Record was a hopeful gesture, purposefully edited to put humanity’s “best face forward” in a first-contact scenario with other forms of intelligent life; any trace of war, injustice, famine, or environmental decay was avoided. Ancient Beacons Long for Notice considers the implications of this ethos across time and space through new research about a forgotten document: the first audio recording of warfare, captured in 1918 at the Western Front of WWI. Robleto’s film posits: “What is our moral obligation to a full accounting of our actions—the good and bad—to not only our progeny but to the memory of humanity that is carried into an infinite cosmos and, potentially, shared with entirely different life forms?” (Dario Robleto, 2024, DCP, 72 minutes)

Enjoy the video installation of a new work by Dario Robleto commissioned by the National Gallery for this exhibition.