caterwaul of unimportance

I wrote briefly about the visual artist Doug Aitken the other day, and I said I'd write more about him and share more of his work again soon, so here it goes...

Sometimes, one of your favorite visual artists has a website. Sometimes, because you can't be everywhere, that website is the only way to find, or engage with, works of theirs you haven't seen. There are too many exhibits listed on his website to talk about each one, so I will share some stills from two of them: HOWL (five-channel video installation, video, sound, 2023) and Lightscape (immersive multimedia artwork, 2025). The link to the full trailer for either artwork is in the caption beneath each photo. First up, Lightscape:

Now, HOWL:

The reason Doug's work inspires me are many. His visuals impress me, the cinematography. It draws me in, makes me want to look at things in my own cone of consciousness differently, closer, more intensely. The looping of dialogue and how it matches, or doesn't, with the images opens my ears to what people around me say. His edits, the mashups, can feel like a video collage at times, unlikely moving images juxtaposed against one another and set to intentional soundscapes.

Watching a trailer via a website isn't the same as stepping into a dark gallery, but sometimes that's our only option, and I'll take what I can get most days. And there are worse ways to spend ten minutes online. I mine this well, and other wells like it, for inspiration when I know I want to write but can't get the creative juices flowing.

During a recent search of Doug Aitken things online, I stumbled on an interview in Interview Magazine. It's more a conversation between the musician Beck and Doug than an interview, but still. They discuss a variety of things, but it focuses on viewing art and creating art in 2025, in the internet/social-media age, where things come and go so quickly – where even the best stuff has trouble rising out of the sea of mediocrity. As a creator, these are things I think about often. When I watch or view something, I think about what's being made, and why, and I ask myself if anything it says is worth being said. I feel vindicated, because in the interview, Doug asks for more active viewers and consumers as well. He says:

We really do live in a world where we’re asked to be passive and to consume. We need to flip the script, push that away, and create culture where there is atmosphere and ambiguity. We don’t need only black and white tones, or right or wrong. ~ Doug Aitken

Then, Beck replies with a line that became the title of this post:

It's a big ask to hope that people start to go out of their way to find quality content and art over the convenience of letting whatever they find wash over them. The algorithm claims to give each of us what we want, but it pushes what it wants at the same time. Do an individual and the algorithm (or those who make the algorithm) have the same objectives, wants, and needs? Does the algorithm have taste in the way that a curator has taste?

I think we, as viewers and consumers, can change this over time. I do. Let's turn the tide. Let's start small though. What if each of us guarded ten minutes a day for the consumption of art over content? Time and attention are the commodities we've been born with. They're important because we are important. Let's wield their power. Art turns into culture which improves all of our lives while content is what distracts us and tries to entertain us in moments when we want those things, but then vanishes forever. What we choose to look at becomes what we see more of.

In those moments when I have the energy to be an active viewer, I seek out creators like Doug Aitken – and Beck. Neither of them add to the growing "caterwaul of unimportance," which is pretty rad. Whether indoor animal adds to it or rises above it is another story. I think it, and I, aim to point out and recommend things that do rise above it. But, I'm biased. So, I can't be trusted...

indoor animal is curated by a human: Tim Papciak. On Mondays, he shares one link to one music video to help spark creativity in himself and in other creative types. On Thursdays, he recommends a book, movie, show, art piece, or link to some dusty corner of the internet that he believes either 1.) adds to the human experience, or 2.) serves as a coping mechanism in the year 2025. Note: this is not, and never will be, self-help content.