Robinson in Cardiff: 'Sleepwalkers' by Doug Aitken

An installation feature that has inspired me over the past few years of my university degree - Sleepwalkers by Dog Aitken, 2007.

I first read about this installation in my first year of uni. It has cropped up in every sketch book I have written since 2007. The installation took place in New York at the Museum of Modern Art. Seven screens comprised the piece, each shown on the exterior walls of the MOMA building. For passes by on the busy New York sidewalks the art work was made available to those who may not have even been visiting the museum or exhibition. Times Square bombards the pedestrians of New York with advertisements that are displayed in the way Sleepwalkers was presented, offering a view of life through new media. The moving images Aitken presented on the screens involved seven different lives that, through his editing, shared everyday actions that were similar. From waking in the morning and turning on lights to the universal rise and set of the sun, Aitken presents the idea that although each of us are isolated in our everyday actions, we are still part of a larger crowd, whose decisions and actions are what define us as individuals. To view these seven screens through the flaneuristic view of how the camera has presented them we are each able to make connections to the everyday actions that are usually overlooked in their reality. The simplicity of what has been filmed clearly helps us to relate to the actors presented to us but it is the experience of the passes by (who perhaps originally had no intention of viewing Aitken's installation) that, I believe, this piece was intentionally presented for. For the passes by who can be seen in Karl Kels Sidewalk (see Sidewalk by Karl Kels blog), to put their lives on hold for even a second to look up at the images presented on the side of the MOMA and realise they are not just advertisements of an artists work but that they are the highlights of actions of their own lives. To look at their own simple actions brings psychogeography to the streets of New York in a subtle yet understated way that gives the pedestrian the chance to realise (if just for that moment) the wonderment of their actions as less banal everyday occurrences.