MESSAGE FROM SPACE

Languages have always been the most widely used means of exchanging information. Some cultures did not necessarily have an alphabet and a written language. The Australian Aboriginal culture did not have a written language, they used, and still use today, to communicate through specific symbols and icons in order to convey the important Aboriginal cultural stories through generations. These symbols are shown in a specific indigenous form of art, used as a chronicle to convey knowledge of the land, representing beliefs of the Aboriginal people and as a mapping system, showing campsites, hunting spots, fields, communities, and water sources. Some of the Aboriginal symbols can be identified and understood thanks to some background knowledge but often most of them are hidden in the paintings, as secrets that only indigenous people can understand, excluding all other individuals.

In the future, many new languages will exist and communication between planets will become a serious issue because of misunderstandings and misinterpretations. The leaders of all planets will decide that a new communicative and urban system to orientate in space will be needed.

The project’s aim is to implement a new universal system to simplify communication in the whole universe. This new system wants to be simple, comprehensible, and effective, composed of simple shapes. All these characteristics lead to the iconographic symbols used in the ancient Aboriginal culture. Some of their symbols will be studied and analyzed. They will be at the base of new urban planning systems and will enable communication between planets. Although, these symbols will be needed on a bigger scale than how they were represented in the aboriginal paintings since spaceships must be able to see them from far to orient themselves in space.