Lightscape

Lightscape is an innovative multimedia artwork created by the artist Doug Aitken in collaboration with the Los Angeles Master Chorale and the Los Angeles Philharmonic. At the core of the work is a feature-length film, a multi-screen fine art installation, and a series of live musical performances. Lightscape creates a modern mythology asking the questions, “where are we now?” and “where are we going?”. Lightscape is a captivating, hallucinatory portrait of the contemporary world, addressing a future hovering on the horizon. Accelerating through the diverse landscapes of the American West Coast like a sinuous, lucid dream the narrative seamlessly flows from character to character almost entirely without language or conventional dramatic structure. Instead, we move through an unpredictable series of interconnected encounters always driven by sound and music. The characters of Lightscape are in constant motion, navigating a wild, beautiful and at times, haunting modern world. Music is at the core of Lightscape. The soundtrack weaves together original compositions created by Doug Aitken with Kiki & David Gindler Artistic Director of the Master Chorale, Grant Gershon, and the Los Angeles Master Chorale and orchestral pieces performed by the Los Angeles Philharmonic with LA Phil Music & Artistic Director, Gustavo Dudamel. The vocal music uses reductive language, words and phrases that repeat and overlap into abstraction. Like a musical kaleidoscope, the film sonically shifts gears between these original vocal pieces to works by iconic minimalists such as Philip Glass, Steve Reich and Meredith Monk. The core soundtrack is augmented with ambient soundscapes composed for the film by Doug Aitken, Beck, and others.