doug aitken continues his virtual road trip through the creative process in an exclusive, ongoing video series with designboom, shared during the unpredictable times that COVID-19 has provoked. each of the short films has been shot in a different location, and documents the artist’s diverse work — from a nomadic art installation that travelled across massachusetts by air, to series of sculptural bodies sited inside an abandoned storefront in los angeles. aitken’s visual sojourn invites viewers on a creative odyssey across landscape, artistic expression and societal currents — from wherever in the world they are experiencing this unprecedented moment in time.

 

in the third video of the series, aitken takes us to the far corners of the earth to visit inhotim, a contemporary art center, cultural foundation, and botanical garden in brazil. within this landscape of forest fragments and extensive jungle, aitken has sited a permanent architecture and sound installation, ‘sonic pavilion’, where visitors are invited to listen to the sounds of the earth turning.

 

 

 

 

visitors enter the site-specific ‘sonic pavilion’ to find a hole in its center, running 700 feet deep down below the earth. geologic microphones capture the live sounds of the earth turning and the tectonic plates shifting — ‘geology in motion,’ aitken describes. these impressions are played aloud in real time inside the empty space, forming a continuous and constantly-changing sequence of sounds rich in frequencies and textures. reverberating throughout the site, these sounds generate a sense of equivalence between the audio experience and visitors’ relationship to the surrounding landscape. the curved glass exterior of ‘sonic pavilion’ creates an optical distortion that visually blurs everything except what is directly in front of the viewer. within the context of the rainforest, the prism-like architecture of the installation synchronizes with the live audio to create a living artwork, and a place for introspection.

 

see more from doug aitken’s virtual road trip through the creative process, and stay tuned as designboom continues the series across our site, and on instagram. 

doug aitken inhotim
photo by doug aitken workshop
courtesy of the artist, 303 gallery, new york; galerie eva presenhuber, zürich; victoria miro gallery, london; and regen projects, los angeles

doug aitken inhotim
photo by doug aitken workshop
courtesy of the artist, 303 gallery, new york; galerie eva presenhuber, zürich; victoria miro gallery, london; and regen projects, los angeles

doug aitken inhotim
photo by AhRa joe for the book ‘arts in nature in the world’, published june, 2018 / (korean-language publication)

doug aitken inhotim
photo by doug aitken workshop
courtesy of the artist, 303 gallery, new york; galerie eva presenhuber, zürich; victoria miro gallery, london; and regen projects, los angeles

doug aitken inhotim
photo by doug aitken workshop
courtesy of the artist, 303 gallery, new york; galerie eva presenhuber, zürich; victoria miro gallery, london; and regen projects, los angeles

doug aitken inhotim
photo by doug aitken workshop
courtesy of the artist, 303 gallery, new york; galerie eva presenhuber, zürich; victoria miro gallery, london; and regen projects, los angeles