Doug Aitken
Doug Aitken
Doug Aitken is an American multimedia artist...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionArtist
CountryUnited States of America
act change explore looking ourselves seeing self singular view whether
In our daily lives, we see ourselves often in very reductive ways. I want to explore motion, change and flux, whether we are looking in the mirror or seeing ourselves in our surroundings. The singular view of self contradicts the act of living.
entirely minutes
The 'Station to Station' film is made entirely out of one-minute films, and each of the 62 minutes is a completely different person, place or encounter.
buildings chaotic edited function instead left office process pull room sides solitary tranquil unfolding work
My office has two buildings that function like the right and left sides of the brain. There's a room where everything is being edited for an upcoming project, but you can pull out of that into a tranquil space to work in a different, more solitary medium. It's an architectural unfolding of the process instead of just one chaotic structure.
embracing friction seen
Our culture is not this thing to be seen from a distance. We need to be embracing the friction of it all - that is where the energy is.
burning falling feed life
I see life as a burning meteorite that you can climb all over, and feed off, as it is falling to earth.
amazing favorites flea markets paperback protest protests spot weak
I have a weak spot for late '60s-early '70s yippie paperbacks and protest manifestos. I find them at flea markets or online. One of my favorites is 'Right On,' a compendium of student protests made into this 95-cent paperback with the most amazing graphics.
experience viewer whatever
The idea of a 'happening' is that there is little distance between the viewer and it, whatever 'it' is. It's an experience that's on-going and evolving.
art engaging forms presented
We are engaging with so many art forms at once in the 21st century, but we're presented with them in a way that is so isolated.
ability class defy economic half minutes nature perfect pop song three travel
The perfect pop song is a 20th-century creation; it's not a sonnet, it's not an opera, it's something short - three and a half minutes by nature - and has this ability to travel and to defy class and economic structures.
affected based born course feeds interested religious rupture seen society time work
We are all affected by the time we are born into, and of course that feeds into your work. Society is based on storytelling - religious myths, opera, film - and 1968 was always seen as a time of rupture and fragmentation. I have always been interested in those words.
above changing constantly era exchange floating geographic physical
We're moving into an era when things are dematerialised and much more holographic. Floating above the physical world and the geographic map, there's another landscape that's constantly changing - something like a cloud - of communication, information, exchange and commerce.
choices bases mediums
When you make work, the concept is the basis for it; all choices of aesthetics or mediums come later.
interesting design sound
In sound design programs now, you can literally sculpt the sound on visual graphs. Sometimes the visual programs are even more interesting than the music that's making them
views indecisive moments
I am fascinated by the indecisive moment and the peripheral view.