VASE LECTURES

Film and Q&A
Wednesday, October 28, 2026, 6:30 pm
Marroney Theatre

VASE Lecture
Thursday, October 29, 2026, 5:30 pm
Center for Creative Photography

Ancient Beacons Long for Notice

Houston-based artist, filmmaker and writer Dario Robleto will present his interdisciplinary approach to crafting and conveying messages of emotion and identity into the cosmos — a kind of “humanities off-planet” — to kick off the 2026-27 VASE series.

He will present his film “Ancient Beacons Long for Notice,” the third in a trilogy, exploring the history and legacy of the Golden Record, a cosmic time capsule attached to NASA’s Voyager I and II space probes. The free screening and Q&A will be followed by a free lecture the next night that asks what should we communicate about ourselves to beings we may never meet? How might we be remembered even after our last breath?

“The film is full of cross-disciplinary possibilities, and I love bringing many departments across campus together,” Robleto said. “I’m currently working with the Space Institutes and various Humanities Initiatives at Harvard, Duke and Rice University on the film. This includes scientists as well as philosophers, religious studies scholars, historians, linguists and creative writing programs. Next year marks the 50th anniversary of the launch of the Voyagers, and many science and astronomy departments will celebrate this achievement.”

For Robleto, the Golden Record raises questions that extend well beyond its scientific and technological achievement. What does it mean to represent an entire planet? Which voices, sounds and experiences should stand for humanity? And how might art help us imagine the ethical responsibilities that come with reaching into the cosmos?

Those questions are also at the heart of Robleto’s ongoing collaboration with Harvard art historian Jennifer Roberts. Their forthcoming book, The Heartbeat at the Edge of the Solar System: Science, Emotion, and the Golden Record, which will be published by Scribner in 2027, explores the relationship between science, art and the human impulse to communicate across vast distances.

Launched in 1977, the Golden Record is attached to NASA’s Voyager I and II space probes, which were designed to explore the outer Solar System.

The gold discs contain images, languages, music, and sounds representing the diversity of life and cultures on Earth. Created by a team of scientists led by Carl Sagan, the Golden Record was a hopeful gesture, carefully curated to present humanity’s “best face forward” in a first-contact scenario with other intelligent life forms; any traces of war, injustice, famine, or environmental decay were intentionally omitted.

The film examines the implications of this ethos across time and space through new research on a forgotten document: the earliest audio recording of warfare, made in 1918 on the Western Front of WWI. Robleto’s film asks: “What is our moral obligation to fully account for our actions—the good and the bad—in perpetuity, off-planet, and to beings we have yet to confirm exist?”

About the artist

Dario Robleto is an American artist, writer, and filmmaker based in Houston, Texas. His work has been exhibited widely and is held in prominent collections, including the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Menil Collection, and the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. His work has been profiled in numerous publications and media outlets, including Radiolab, Krista Tippett’s On Being, and the New York Times. Robleto has served as a visiting artist, researcher, and lecturer at various cultural and scientific institutions, including the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard University, MIT, and the Center for the Advancement and Study of Visual Art at the National Gallery.

From 2018 to 2023, he was Artist-at-Large at Northwestern University’s McCormick School of Engineering and the Block Museum of Art. His awards include the Joan Mitchell Foundation Grant, the USA Rasmuson Fellowship, and an Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Grant. In 2016, Robleto was appointed Texas State 3-D Visual Artist, and in 2025, he was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters from Middlebury College. He is currently working on his first book, The Heartbeat at the Edge of the Solar System: Science, Emotion, and the Golden Record, co-authored with Harvard art historian Jennifer Roberts, which will be published by Scribner in 2027.

• Artist’s website: dariorobleto.com
• Film review of “Ancient Beacons Long for Notice”

About the artist

Dario Robleto is an American artist, writer, and filmmaker based in Houston, Texas. His work has been exhibited widely and is held in prominent collections, including the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Menil Collection, and the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. His work has been profiled in numerous publications and media outlets, including Radiolab, Krista Tippett’s On Being, and the New York Times. Robleto has served as a visiting artist, researcher, and lecturer at various cultural and scientific institutions, including the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard University, MIT, and the Center for the Advancement and Study of Visual Art at the National Gallery.

From 2018 to 2023, he was Artist-at-Large at Northwestern University’s McCormick School of Engineering and the Block Museum of Art. His awards include the Joan Mitchell Foundation Grant, the USA Rasmuson Fellowship, and an Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Grant. In 2016, Robleto was appointed Texas State 3-D Visual Artist, and in 2025, he was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters from Middlebury College. 

• Artist’s website: dariorobleto.com
• Film review of “Ancient Beacons Long for Notice”

About the artist

Dario Robleto is an American artist, writer, and filmmaker based in Houston, Texas. His work has been exhibited widely and is held in prominent collections, including the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Menil Collection, and the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. His work has been profiled in numerous publications and media outlets, including Radiolab, Krista Tippett’s On Being, and the New York Times. Robleto has served as a visiting artist, researcher, and lecturer at various cultural and scientific institutions, including the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard University, MIT, and the Center for the Advancement and Study of Visual Art at the National Gallery.

From 2018 to 2023, he was Artist-at-Large at Northwestern University’s McCormick School of Engineering and the Block Museum of Art. His awards include the Joan Mitchell Foundation Grant, the USA Rasmuson Fellowship, and an Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Grant. In 2016, Robleto was appointed Texas State 3-D Visual Artist, and in 2025, he was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters from Middlebury College. He is currently working on his first book, The Heartbeat at the Edge of the Solar System: Science, Emotion, and the Golden Record, co-authored with Harvard art historian Jennifer Roberts, which will be published by Scribner in 2027.

• Artist’s website: dariorobleto.com
• Film review of “Ancient Beacons Long for Notice”

2026-2027 Visiting Artists