Brian Eno:
Quote
This quote can easily be meant for a visual artist or a musical artist:
"Attention is what creates value. Artworks are made as well by how people interact with them — and therefore by what quality of interaction they can inspire. So how do we assess an artist who we suspect is dreadful but who manages to inspire the right storm of attention, and whose audience seems to swoon in the appropriate way? We say, ‘Well done.’ The question is: ‘Is the act of getting attention a sufficient act for an artist? Or is that in fact the job description?’ "
- Brian Eno
Introduction
The Great Gallery
Brian Eno:
The Art & The Music
Red Bull Music Academy
Presents Brian Eno
In 2012, Eno was commissioned to create a musical soundtrack for the Great Gallery in Italy. The idea - to create a piece of music that would influence passersby to slow down and fully appreciate the architecture of the gallery. After creating the soundtrack at his home studio and bringing it to the gallery, he found it didn't fit the architecture and feel of the space and decided to recompose the piece of music.
He spent a few days with a portable studio in the gallery and created a new composition that reflected the ambiance of the gallery.
Much like a painter or other artist, by directly referencing his "subject" (in this case the gallery he was hired to create music for) he was able to produce an accurate adaptation of the ambiance created by the gallery and put it in music form.
“I classify 55 Million Crystals somewhere between a painting that never changes its position and music, whose characteristic is constant regeneration. I would like to describe my work as music for the eyes, as painting in time, as an experience of the fourth dimension.” - Brian Eno
Brian Eno had planned on a career as a painter. With his first passion being art-related, his record sleeve designs have always reflected his interest in visual art and he made it a point to be heavily involved in the creation of them.
The Marriage
“Crystals"
Cologne, West Germany
1985
The Great Gallery
Audio-Visual Installation
Photo credit: Roland Lambrette
77 Million Paintings
Brian Eno has definitely made it a point to combine and interchange art and music, even if music isn't present. The way he describes and practices the creative thought process behind his visual art installments is both inspiring and clever.
"Then I started looking into slide projectors. I was using between 5 and 10, all projecting on the same surface, so they were all overlaying, in much the same way as different instruments in a piece of music would overlay each other. I’d been making music that was intended to be like painting, in the sense that it’s environmental, without the customary narrative and episodic quality that music normally has. I called this ambient music. But at the same time I was trying to make visual art become more like music, in that it changed the way that music changes. I think that’s what my installations are, really. They’re what the title says — visual music."
50 Million Crystals
Ashlock, Jesse. "Q. & A. | Brian Eno on the Best Use of a Television, Why Art Students Make Good Pop Stars and the Meaning of ‘Visual Music’." The New York Times Style Magazine. The New York Times, 1 Nov 2013. Web. 13 Mar 2014. <http://tmagazine.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/11/01/q-a-brian-eno-on-the-best-use-of-a-television-why-art-students-make-good-pop-stars-and-the-meaning-of-visual-music/?_php=true&_type=blogs&_r=0>.
Brian Eno's audio/visual installation-in-progress (see second circle of this presentation), 77 Million Paintings is a prime example of how he continues to blur the line between audio and visual art.
The exhibit is an constantly changing light painting of Eno's artwork. Throughout the showing, random combinations are created, generating a brand-new piece of art. The audio component is his creation as well - an ambient-style soundtrack which emphasizes his desire to create a space where viewers can relax and relinquish control.
For Educational Purposes Only
Locker, Melissa. "Brian Eno On Art, Music And Inspiration." TIME Entertainment. TIME Magazine, 9 May 2013. Web. 13 Mar 2014. <http://entertainment.time.com/2013/05/09/brian-eno-on-art-music-and-inspiration/>.