interspecies / interstellar signal design

At the 2026 Leonardo@Djerassi Art+Science+Technology Residency, I explored whether a universal communication code might emerge from patterns shared across biological, technological, and potentially extraterrestrial intelligences. Drawing on humpback whale bioacoustics, music, information theory, and SETI/METI research, the project investigated how structured signals are generated, recognized, and interpreted across radically different forms of intelligence. Inspired by Dr. Roger Payne's observations of parallels between whale song and human music, the research traced rhythmic organization to deep evolutionary roots, examining vertebrate neural architectures, entrainment, and Euclidean rhythms as possible foundations for a universal syntax. In collaboration with media artist Harpreet Sareen, an interactive light-and-sound communication system was developed to translate mathematical and musical structures into dynamic signals, creating a testbed for first-contact scenarios and interspecies communication. Through rhythmic pattern generation, call-and-response interaction, live performance, and signal experimentation, the project explored how sentience might be recognized through temporal structure. 

 A Universal Communication Code is a shared framework built on patterns that any intelligent observer could potentially recognize, whether they evolved in Earth's oceans, forests, deserts, distant exoplanets, or entirely different physical environments.

Designed around six universal concepts:

•  Conscious awareness and perception.
• Communication across distance.
• Progression through time.
• Multiple species, civilizations, and perspectives.
• Logic, balance, and verifiability.
• Information carried through any medium: sound, light,      radio, vibration, chemistry, or unknown future channels.