ART CITIES:N.York-Doug Aitken
Beginning in the 1990s, artist and filmmaker Doug Aitken has developed a boundary-defying multimedia oeuvre that both studies and leads into new art forms. Integrating film, sound, photography, sculpture, performance, happenings, and site-specific installations, Aitken’s immersive multimedia landscapes disrupt the conventions of the contemporary art world.
By Efi Michalarou
Photo: The Sed Archive
“Lightscape”, a new film-based installation by artist and produced with the LA Phil and LA Master Chorale, considers our landscape of diversity, creating a vulnerable and humanistic portrait that chronicles the search to find one’s individuality in a world of continuous transformation. In this work, Aitken creates a modern mythology propelled by music, film, and architecture. It follows multiple characters in a Robert Altman–esque structure, taking us on a journey that explores a landscape in the midst of extreme change—from the deep ecology of vast deserts and desolate mountainscapes to futuristic robotics factories and the digital realm.
The diverse cast of “Lightscape” mirrors the landscapes its characters occupy. Natasha Lyonne is seen in a nocturnal high-rise in an existential sequence. Urban crump dancers move through automated factories, their bodies driving and twitching in response to their mechanized surroundings. A migrant worker speeds through the desert at escape velocity. We are thrust into seemingly disparate worlds, with each character on a different journey, but as the narrative progresses, the stories interconnect.
“Lightscape” is a visual poem. Music lies at the core of the film, featuring a unique collaboration with the LA Master Chorale and the LA Phil. It includes original recordings—conducted by Gustavo Dudamel—of iconic minimalist composers and artists such as Philip Glass, Steve Reich, Meredith Monk and original scores by Beck & LA LOM and Doug Aitken with Grant Gershon. The visual and sonic landscapes shift gears as the characters’ narratives develop, ranging from hardcore techno to haunting compositions.
At The Shed, “Lightscape” evolves into an immersive installation designed as a seven-screen artwork. Implementing an ever-shifting mix of sight and sound, “Lightscape” functions as a living project. During its run at The Shed, a series of ongoing live musical performances will activate the space, blending the “Lightscape” installation with live improvisations. Incorporating performance and the musical culture of New York, the artwork itself becomes a hub for collaboration, turning The Shed into a site for active artistic experimentation.
“Lightscape” is an artwork for our times and about our times. Like a fragmented mirror, the film is immersive—we fall into it, and follow the different characters who gradually converge to create a larger worldview: one of connectivity, struggle, hope, and embracing what our new horizon may bring.
Photo: Doug Aitken, Lighstcape (2024) (still). Video. © Doug Aitken Workshop
Info: The Sed, 545 West 30th Street, New York, NY, USA, Duration: 25/6-13/9/2026, www.theshed.org/
