A Billion Solitary Universes
In 1977, the Voyager spacecraft carried the Golden Record into space, the contents of which were envisioned as a message representing humanity as a whole to be sent to a possible unknown civilization. My work “A Billion Solitary Universes” was inspired by it but invites us to listen to a different reality: even while sharing the same planet, each person inhabits a condition that remains largely unreachable to others.
The work constructs a sonic trajectory from the personal to the cosmic. This expanding scale maps how individuals are embedded within larger structures. Through sonic montage, private fragments collide with public and historical narratives, creating both resonance and rupture.
At a cosmic scale, human mortality becomes a shared condition—our coexistence based not on unity, but on finite, dissolving forms. Sound acts as a mirror here: it reflects the fractures within our reality, as well as the momentary resonance of our shared humanity within vaster scales of time and space.
A Billion Solitary Universes
2026
Sound piece (metal vinyl)
256mm x 256mm x 5mm
Aluminium, nickel, zircons
Photography/Video: Chen Tao