Thinking Hurts Too Much is a slowly scrolling video that incorporates found and manipulated internet footage, creating a panoramic collage of gyrating, pulsing, and writhing characters to expose America’s—and the world’s—desire for the sensational. Cameron Gray pieces together thousands of pop culture images to offer a provocative and poignant depiction of excess and the constant urge to seek new and more extreme visual stimulation.

The video is an immersive experience that is constantly changing, as your eye moves from one area to the next, dancing across a screen that never stops moving. In doing so, Gray makes us aware of the passage of time as we witness the reactions of other viewers standing next to us—reminding us of the separation that results from unshared memory.

Image: Cameron Gray, Swiss, b. 1980. Thinking Hurts Too Much (detail), 2013. Video, monitor and media player. Museum purchase with funds from the Collection Endowment, 2013.63