Will Douglas Heaven's Cultural Picks: Drummers, CGI, and Dingo

Will Douglas Heaven has identified three specific cultural touchpoints currently holding his interest. These range from a viral internet musician to a contemporary art exhibition and a specific literary work. The selections highlight a fascination with human skill, digital representation, and speculative fiction.

The first interest focuses on the Spanish drummer Jorge Garrido, who performs under the moniker El Estepario Siberiano. The second centers on the work of British artist Ed Atkins, known for his unsettling computer-generated imagery. The third is the debut novel The Animals in That Country by Australian author Laura Jean McKay.

The first item of interest is the YouTube channel El Estepario Siberiano. The channel features Spanish drummer Jorge Garrido performing supercharged cover versions of popular tracks. Garrido is noted for his jaw-dropping speed and technique, which has reportedly left other professional drummers in disbelief.

Reaction videos from other musicians regarding Garrido's performances are described as a joy to watch. Garrido is transparent about the immense effort required to achieve this level of skill. He reportedly sat behind his drum kit almost all day, every day for years to master his craft.

At a time when machines often appear to handle creative tasks, this level of human effort is seen as a form of defiance. This is particularly evident in Garrido's covers of electronic music, where he effectively out-drums drum machines. His cover of Skrillex and Missy Elliot's "Ra Ta Ta" is highlighted as a specific example that brings happiness to the viewer.

The second interest draws a parallel between modern AI-generated videos and the work of British artist Ed Atkins. Atkins is described as one of the most influential and unsettling artists of his generation. He is best known for hyper-detailed CG animations of himself that play with the virtual representation of human emotions.

These animations feature pore-perfect skin but janky movements, creating a sense of unease. One specific work, The Worm, features a CGI version of Atkins making a long-distance call to his mother during a covid lockdown. The audio is taken from a recording of an actual conversation, blurring the line between reality and animation.

Atkins has stated a desire for his work to "corpse," a term used when an actor breaks character. In comparison to Atkins's work, current generative videos are viewed as looking like cardboard cutouts—lifelike but not truly alive. The exhibition of his work was noted at the Tate Britain and Cabinet Gallery in London, as well as Dépendance in Brussels.

The third interest is the debut novel The Animals in That Country by Australian author Laura Jean McKay. The premise of the book involves a flu-like pandemic that grants people the ability to hear what animals are saying. While this concept may initially seem whimsical, the narrative takes a darker turn.

The animals in the story are described as weird and nasty, often making no sense to the human characters. The book serves as a reset to the anthropomorphic trap often found in literature. It provides a brilliant evocation of what a nonhuman mind might contain.

Ultimately, the novel acts as a meditation on the hard limits of communication between species. It challenges the reader to consider the complexities of understanding a mind entirely different from one's own.

These three interests—the drumming of Jorge Garrido, the CGI art of Ed Atkins, and the novel by Laura Jean McKay—offer a diverse look at current cultural outputs. They range from the visceral skill of a drummer to the unsettling nature of digital art and the speculative boundaries of literature.

Together, they highlight a fascination with the intersection of human effort and digital reality. Whether through the physical exertion of drumming or the virtual representation of emotion, these works challenge perceptions of what is real and what is artificial.