All Doors Open - by Doug Aitken

After recently coming across a fascinating and thought-provoking piece of art that centred around technology, I went on a search for similar pieces, because I found it interesting how artists can use technology to accentuate the meaning of their art, or sometimes create art that wouldn’t be possible otherwise.

The art piece I want to talk about here is called “All Doors Open” by Doug Aitken, which was part of his ‘Return to the Real’ exhibition that was on show in London in 2019.

Doug Aitken created this exhibition to explore the “rapidly changing relationships to one another and the world around us in an age dominated by technology” (Victoria Miro). The pieces within this exhibition incorporated light, sound and movements. I wouldn’t be able to dive too deeply into the artist’s intentions for these pieces, as there weren’t many videos I found that showed these pieces clearly (many are simply edited videos to showcase a little bit about the art pieces). What I can talk about, however, is the general idea of the art piece “All Doors Open”, and how technology was used, or could have been used (as I said, I can’t find clear videos), to support the meaning of this piece.

The piece, as pictured above, is of a woman slumped over a table reaching for her phone. There is a bawl of fruit on the table, and a bag of grocery shopping on the floor next to her.

From what Doug Aitken said (here), the idea for this piece was to capture a ‘moment of silence’ while she was in ‘anticipation for information’.

Now, I would like to break down what I personally understood from this piece, and how I think light might’ve played a role in this. I can’t comment on the sound and movements of this piece, if there are any, but I did see a short clip of the lighting which gave me an idea of what the artist might have done with it.

First and foremost, I will mention that there were two light ‘settings’ that I could see clearly from the video that I found (below): At the very beginning of the video, we can see the piece ‘come to life’, and what was interesting to me was that the mobile phone and fruit bawl were the first things that lit up, which then flowed into the woman...almost as if the mobile phone has become sustenance (like the bawl of fruit). That does convey a very deep message… actually, it would be more accurate to say that it highlights a fact of modern day; almost all of us, if we are honest about ourselves, reach out for the phone as the very first thing we do when we wake up. Whether it is because we use it as an alarm (which could be the meaning of this particular lighting in this piece), or simply because we are engrossed into the digital life, which the phone happens to be the gate to.

That is a very short moment in this piece, but it carries tremendous meaning. The mobile phone has indeed become the centre of our lives, and the very first thing we are concerned about when we wake up in the morning.

The second light ‘setting’ (not sure what else to call it), was where colourful light was flickering in all objects, including the woman. I have read in an article (I can’t remember where it was, nor could I find it again, so couldn’t share the link) that this was symbolising constant flux that the world was in. This was yet again a powerful statement, as we as species seem to always be in constant change because of technology. Technology has provided new avenues to explore the human condition, and an example of that is simply the internet; we got closer to each other through the internet, but I can also argue that the internet has also pushed us apart.

The internet has provided many ways to communicate with others, even if they are situated physically far away, which is an amazing achievement. However, the internet is often used as a shield for those who want to harm others, and you only need to search ‘cyber bullying’ to have one example of this. So, technology has indeed provided us with positives, and negatives… our thoughts on technology are constantly in flux.

Now let’s dip into my speculation into how the artist might have used light in this piece:

• Light could have pulsated between the phone and the slumped woman. This would have showed a connection between the two… a dependency between the two. The artist might have actually done this, as it is similar to the light flowing from the phone to the woman at the beginning of the video.

• Light from the phone might have been brighter than the other objects in the piece (like the fruit bawl and the shopping bag). This could have shown that the woman was prioritising the phone over other things, including sustenance. This would have been another powerful point conveyed in this art piece that strived to show our dependency on our mobile phones, and technology in general.

• Light could have flickered between the object in order of priority. This would have conveyed the same point as above, by showing that the woman prioritised the phone over food. It is worthy to note that there were other objects around this piece, like a bed and other screens/distractions (I simply didn’t want to get into that as the points I mentioned were plenty I believe). In this instance, it could have showed how the priorities of the woman (analogue to humanity) were in disarray, as she prioritised technology over survival and healthy living.

This seemingly simple art piece was a treasure trove of philosophical insight into humanity and technology, and simply by adding lighting in the way the artist did, it added another level of depth that would have been impossible otherwise. I do understand that this art piece is almost a contradiction, as it relies on technology to warn about technology, but isn’t everything about the human experience a contradiction?

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If you would like to read another article revolving around technology and art, check out this article I wrote about an interesting art piece called "Can't help Myself"