Dopamine, 2020
Single-channel video
(4:20)

Dopamine was made shortly after the COVID-19 pandemic began, for Episode 3: DRUGS of Culture Hole TV (CHTV), the experimental art television project created by artists Jeff Gibbons and Gregory Ruppe. Culture Hole began as an underground room for sharing alternative art and, when the pandemic closed physical spaces, moved to online broadcasts organized as themed episodes.

Rather than depicting drugs directly, Brown turned to the brain’s own reward system. Shot almost entirely on his cell phone, the video gathers brief moments that give a small hit of joy, an immediate and involuntary sense of pleasure. Some are beautiful; others are funny, strange, or simply satisfying. The soundtrack is made only of each clip’s original ambient sound, keeping the moments as unpolished and immediate.

Together, these fragments hold onto the feeling of noticing something special just before it disappears. Made during a period of isolation and uncertainty, the work became a reminder for Brown that even in frightening times, little things could still feel magical.