Doug Aitken: 'I didn't start with characters, I started with topographies'

Doug Aitken's new work, Lightscape, presented at the Marciano Art Foundation, combines visuals and live minimalist piano music, immersing audiences in narratives that explore our modern relationship with nature and technology. The piece features recurring characters, including a couple, a gardener, and a dancer, threaded through striking imagery, highlighting themes of progress and displacement. Collaborating with the Los Angeles Master Chorale, Aitken built the performance from improvised songs, set against a backdrop that invites contemplation on contemporary issues in society and the environment.

The project started with words and music, intertwining visuals and sounds that explored the collision between technology and nature through various contemporary narratives.

In early conversations, Aitken and Gershon discussed the original American myth of westward progress and its complexity in the context of our modern relationship with nature.

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