The Most
Realistic Alien

The Earth now: day over Australia, the Pacific and Antarctica; sunrise over Asia and the Indian Ocean; sunset over North America; night over Europe, Africa, South America and the Atlantic. The Sun stands overhead at 7° S, 163° E.

A hundred-year call-out from planet Earth

Draw an alien.
Make it realistic.

The Most
Realistic Alienby an unidentified artist

For 100 years, everyone on Earth is invited to draw how they imagine an alien, and every answer is kept.

See the aliensHost a table

Host a table: run one where you are, with paper, pencils and the two instructions.

The ideaA hundred yearsTake part

Earth: NASA Earth Observatory, Blue Marble: Next Generation (NASA image courtesy Reto Stöckli and Robert Simmon) · Space: Hubble Ultra Deep Field, NASA, ESA, and S. Beckwith (STScI) and the HUDF Team (CC BY 4.0)

Down to Earth
A girl looking up and smiling while she draws her alien, Rishikesh
Rishikesh, 2012

To them, we're the aliens.

The idea

A few of the aliens

See the aliens

A hundred years

One book a year, for 100 years.

The Most Realistic Alien, Vol. 1: a white cloth book with saffron edges and a saffron ribbon; on its cover drawing No. 2, Kodai N., 11, Tokyo 2012
Vol. 1 · planned for 31 December 2027
The whole wall of framed alien drawings, a stepladder in front of it, Thaillywood
Thaillywood, Chonburi, Thailand, 2012
Vol. 1 open at its title spread
Vol. 1 open at drawing No. 2: the child holding it up beside, the drawing whole on the right page
Vol. 1 open at a spread of the white cube

240 × 300 mm. Each drawing on its A5 sheet, printed 1:1.

Vol. 1 · 2027 → Vol. 100 · 2126

One book a year. 2027–2126.

Planned for a hundred years. Built to last a thousand.

A hundred years

How it goes

  1. A host says the two instructions, twice. Nothing else.

  2. Everyone draws, the host too.

  3. Then the wall: every alien whole, side by side.

No alien is ever graded.

Tables around the world

  • The whole group with their drawings, Tokyo
    Tokyo, 2012 · Tokyo, April 2012
  • Two children laughing at a white table, one holding up a colourful alien, the wall of drawings behind, Thaillywood
    Thaillywood, Chonburi, Thailand, 2012 · Cre8’s Latest Works Exhibited in Thailand
  • Grown-ups drawing at tables on a lawn, Rishikesh
    Rishikesh, 2012 · Rishikesh, February and March 2012
  • Two girls holding their aliens against a blue wall, Barú
    Barú, 2011 · Barú, December 2011
  • Two boys laughing with their drawings, Udaipur
    Udaipur, 2010 · The workshop
  • Drawings pegged on a line, a girl hanging one up, Indonesia
    Indonesia, 2011 · The workshop
  • A girl holding up her blue alien, Rishikesh
    Rishikesh, 2012 · Rishikesh, February and March 2012
  • Children drawing at a long table in a gallery, Berlin
    Berlin, 2010 · The workshop

Read the hosting guide

A white cube, done by everyone

A man on a ladder hanging framed drawings on a white wall covered with aliens, Thaillywood
Thaillywood, Chonburi, Thailand, 2012 · A wall of over 300 aliens. · Cre8’s Latest Works Exhibited in Thailand
The installation with no one in it: a photo wall, the wall of aliens at the back, a free-standing white wall and a plinth, Thaillywood
Thaillywood, Chonburi, Thailand, 2012 · Cre8’s Latest Works Exhibited in Thailand
Children in school uniform drawing at low white tables in the gallery, the wall of aliens behind, Thaillywood
Thaillywood, Chonburi, Thailand, 2012 · Cre8’s Latest Works Exhibited in Thailand
Imagined: A white gallery with one row of sixteen framed drawings
Imagined One row, sixteen drawings from the Collection.

Press & art world

Where it could hang next.

  • Imagined: A large hall hung with drawings
    Imagined A large hall, 372 frames
  • Imagined: A hall by the water hung with drawings
    Imagined A hall by the water, 46 frames
  • Imagined: An old storehouse hung with drawings
    Imagined An old storehouse, 22 frames
  • Imagined: A classroom wall with ten framed drawings
    Imagined A classroom wall, 10 frames
  • Imagined: A drawing table on a street, with the easel and its sign
    Imagined A street table, the easel

Take part

From the journal

  • The drawings on the classroom wall, Tokyo

    Tokyo, April 2012

    Ten days in Japan. Tables, sketchbooks, a classroom wall, and No. D002.

  • A group of children cheering under a big tree, Barú

    Barú, December 2011

    Drawing on the ground in the shade, then everyone under the big tree.

  • Drawings pegged on a line, a girl drawing below them, Rishikesh

    Rishikesh, February and March 2012

    Grown-ups on a lawn, then children on the ground, and a line of drawings in the wind.

Journal

Drawings pegged on a line outside a window, Rishikesh
Rishikesh, 2012

Who makes it? All of us.

You. We. Why? Because we can.

A hundred-year artwork, drawn by our whole species.

CRE8 Foundation holds the structure: the register, the books, the rules.

CRE8 Foundation

Your turn

Take a sheet of paper.

Host a tableTake part