On the way home I wondered aloud how well these theories that can work so well in visual art and music would work in long-form narrative. Again, this viewpoint should be expected from someone extolling the virtues of random, unemotionally generated, art. (This should be expected from an artist whose visual work is created largely from computer generation.) He started by reminding us of something we’ve known for 566 years, since Copernicus: that not only we are not at the center of the universe, we are off in a small corner, in one of a billion billion solar systems, and we exist as only one of innumerable species just on this one planet, where only an estimated 10% of species have been cataloged. I would characterize the first third of his lecture as an admonishment to let go. Eno proved to be thoughtful, puckish, droll, and concerned, in equal measures. After 30 years of following the man’s career in all its phases - rock star, record producer, artist, writer, thinker - this was our first chance to see him in the flesh. Later, we attended Eno’s lecture at the Carpenter Performing Arts Center (also part of Cal State Long Beach). I’ve had this feeling before with some art, in various disciplines, but only rarely. For one brief period, I felt detached from space and time. As my friend and I found, it was quite easy to get lost in the neverending self-generating inventions of the computers and the tape decks. The intention is to remove deliberation and intention from the artistic process the result is mesmerizing. #77 million paintings system requirements seriesIn short, a video mosaic of 12 individual screens pulls images randomly from grouped sets contained in databases held by three different computers, generating an ongoing series of freshly executed video “paintings,” which are sonically supported by a soundtrack of sound loops on six separate tape decks, resulting in randomized musical accompaniment. The genesis of the 77 million paintings enumerated in the title - which, Eno later said during his lecture, would actually be 77 million cubed - is described well in this piece by the LA Times’ Reed Johnson. Yesterday a friend and I went to Long Beach to see the Brian Eno installation, “77 Million Paintings,” at the University Art Museum of California State University Long Beach.
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