Message from Our Planet

This exhibit of new media works includes software and other digital technologies, video, and light-based works. In “Message from Our Planet,” visitors will see vintage examples of media devices from the 1960s to current models. Art is one of the ways we communicate with the future humans of this planet, the exhibit suggests, or even beings from other worlds. Curator Jason Foumberg was inspired by the cultural artifacts that were sent into space via Voyager 1 in 1977 that included music from Bach, Beethoven, Mozart and Chuck Berry.

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Claudia Hart/courtesy Chazen Museum of Art

A woman's body sprouting roses.

Still from "The Seasons," 2009, animated by Claudia Hart.

media release: Feb 19–Jun 2, 2024

The Carl & Marilynn Thoma Foundation announces Message from Our Planet, a new media exhibition that brings together 20 software, video, and light-technology artworks from 19 international artists and artist groups working at the forefront of digital and electronic art, opening October 1, 2022, at the Figge Art Museum in Davenport, Iowa, and travelling to the Chazen in 2024.

April 11  •  5:30–7:30 p.m.  •  Chazen Auditorium, Mead Witter Lobby

Meet the artists: a panel discussion on Message from Our Planet features  artists Jason Salavon and Claudia Hart with UW–Madison's Stephen Hilyard, followed by a reception with light refreshments. To attend the panel, register here.

Message from Our Planet is curated around the idea that media technologies―from vintage devices to cutting-edge digital algorithms―offer distinct ways for artists to communicate with future generations, encapsulating the artifacts and ambitions of contemporary society. Exhibiting artists include: Brian Bress, Lia Chaia, Sabrina Gschwandtner, Hong Hao, Matthew Angelo Harrison, Claudia Hart, Jenny Holzer, Eduardo Kac, Lee Nam Lee, Christian Marclay, Paul Pfeiffer, Tabita Rezaire, Michal Rovner, Jason Salavon, Elias Sime, Skawennati, Penelope Umbrico, United Visual Artists, and Robert Wilson. The exhibition tours to five venues over the next two years. A free, fully illustrated brochure designed to emulate a newspaper is available within the exhibition.

Says the exhibition’s curator Jason Foumberg, “Message from Our Planet was inspired by the interstellar time-capsule Voyager 1, a spacecraft containing a record of human culture launched into outer space by NASA in 1977. I wanted this group exhibition to evoke a similar multi-vocal message by artists who share a human desire to be understood across time and space.”

“The exhibition’s theme and international checklist touches on aspects of culture and human achievement that unite communities across the globe,” says the Thoma Foundation’s Director, Holly Harrison.

The exhibition was curated from the Thoma Foundation’s artwork loan program, which sends artworks to regional and public museums in the US. Comprising over 300 artworks from the 1960s to present, the Foundation’s collection is dedicated, in part, to supporting digital, video and new media art.