G.E.N.E.R.A.T.I.V.E Art

Jonathan Shipper - Raining Blood (2006)

Jonathan Shipper translated Slayer's "Raining Blood" to a player piano reel and connected it to a kinetic sculpture so the form moves according to the song's musical structure [video available at his website]. The resulting flail lands somewhere between a piece of DNA encoding musical taste and a rave-induced seizure.

Brian Eno's name is irrevocably tied the grandeur of David Byrne, John Cale, and now Will Wright (creator of the upcoming interactive art videogame called Spore), but I've never much enjoyed his music. Conceptually, Brian Eno's generative art explores the very algorithims that create and underlie life itself, but often seems to get lost in life's inherent monotony. The music supposedly depends heavily on the observer, capitalizing on the the fact that the last few bites of your hamburger always look like the shape of Wisconsin.

"If you put something onto a CD people will tend to think it's probably music... If you put something in a frame and hang it in an art galler people will think it's a painting. And they will reserve a special type of attention for that which they don't give to their computer screens or their shoes." - Brian Eno

In a seminar for The Long Now Foundation, an organization devoted to long-term thinking (slower better vs. faster cheaper) that he co-founded, Brian Eno helps Will Wright give a preview of his revolutionarily generative computer game "Spore" inspired by Charles and Ray Eames' Powers of Ten. And the fact that Brian Eno will be writing the game's soundtrack is conceptually exciting.

Brian Eno & Will Wright - Long Now Foundation Seminar (mp3)

Brian Eno - Burning Airlines Give You So Much More (1974 mp3)

Brian Eno Music For Airports (1990 mp3)

Slayer - Raining Blood (mp3)

Melodie (Tammy Wynette cover) - D.I.V.O.R.C.E. (mp3)