Meet Daniel Watkins | Artist & Filmmaker

We had the good fortune of connecting with Daniel Watkins and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Daniel, is there something you believe many others might not?
I don’t know if it’s a piece of actual quotable advice, but the whole idea of “paying one’s dues” has always bothered me. It’s always deployed in the context of some necessary drudgery that one must endure in order to obtain the thing that they want. In the creative space it’s the concept that someone must work their way up until one day power will grant them the ability to make the thing they really want to make. It’s a bullshit fallacy, because power and those in it will continue to move the goalposts. I’ve seen a lot of very talented people wait around for someone to give them permission to make their art. My advice is to just make it, regardless of if you have the buy-in from power. If the thing you want to make is too pricey then make something else. Adjust your scale, embrace lofi technology – often it’s these type of restrictions that lead to new ways of seeing.

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
I usually say that I am an audio/visual artist and filmmaker interested in crypto-geography, useless machines, lofi technology, and noise. My work, regardless of medium usually falls into one or more of these themes. Though to get medium specific I work primarily in sound art, film, and kinetic sculpture. I’ve also dabbled in a bit of web art as well.

I don’t get to talk about those things very often so I’ll go through each, and give a little bit of explanation. Beginning with crypto-geography – by which I simply mean hidden geography. The plotting of spaces, that though seemingly innocuous, hold secret – or rather, forgotten – pasts. Those pasts are often sinister and the residual trauma that lingers in these locations is incredibly interesting to me. This also bleeds into an interest in criminality. (see works: Cursed Objects and Last Known Whereabouts)

Useless machines is a bit more playful. It’s a subversion that imagines an alternate reality in which utility and efficiency weren’t the endgame of techno-innovation. They are my subversion of futurism in which I build a machine to attempt and fail at an impossible task (see works: Water Printer)

LoFi tech and noise are kind of the glue that hold the other two themes together. I work in LoFi tech because, not only is it cheap, but it also challenges the notions of resolution fetishism that are especially strong in the film world, but exist all across the fine art as well. And noise, to me is a flip-side to the way we typically live our lives from moment to moment. It’s dissonance, and dissonance runs counter to our resting state. Dissonance represents the tension between our logical understanding of the world, and the anomalies that emerge to thwart that understanding. Criminality and useless machines are both dissonant artifacts in that respect.

I try to keep a wide practice for a couple reasons. One, is that the variety keeps the work interesting for me. But the bigger reason is that I don’t think that any artist emerging at this stage of the 21st century can afford to be just one thing.

I feel that too many people make work that is either conceptually light, or utterly joyless and without self-awareness. I have tried in my way to make serious work that doesn’t take itself too seriously. I’ve definitely failed at trying a few times. But I still try.

In regards to challenges, everybody has them and I don’t know that it would do anybody any good to read mine. I’ve talked about some of those things in greater detail in the past – it’s all searchable.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
We’d start the day at the Museum of Death. Their new location on Selma hasn’t opened yet so the trip will have to be postponed until then. Since we’d already be in Hollywood we should grab some food at Delicious Pizza, and then walk across the street to the Psychiatry: An Industry of Death exhibit which is run by this organization called Citizens Commission on Human Rights which is a Scientology front group. The exhibit is free, but be cautious about giving out too much personal information. It’s a wild experience.

After two pretty intense museums we should walk off that pizza with either a stroll around the abandoned Zoo or if we feel like driving, the Devil’s Gate Dam in Pasadena (to soak in all that residual Jack Parson’s energy). If we are already in Pasadena then I would recommend taking in a show at Republic of Lucha. They put on seasonal wrestling shows, and in the downtime they show old Santo films on the roof. Can’t go wrong with either.

We’d probably wrap up the day in the valley with dinner at Casa Vega, and a tiki nightcap at Tonga Hut.

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
My wife and fellow artist Christina Santa Cruz has been my closest collaborator for well over a decade. We’ve written and recorded music together, and had a hand in assisting one another’s work in pretty much every medium in which we’ve practiced – to the point where our domestic life and our creative lives are inextricably linked. Christina gives the best notes. Trust me – show her your film and she will show you how to make it better. Her work inspires me to try harder – not in a competitive way or anything, but just so I can feel we are even in the same league.

Website: https://noiseandart.com/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/epcot_fitzgerald/