Brian Eno's BBC John Peel Lecture

This blogpost outlines an influential lecture discovered via youtube

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Throughout Brian's lecture he made us aware about the stigma that follows a life within design, suggesting that others presume art is a luxury economic entity. Within the program he discusses that art is demonstrated globally, in all cultures and social classes, although art is less predominate in societies which contain famine. This is an obvious conclusion, as art is not necessary to survive whereas food is, therefore the people must prioritise what they need the most.

He goes on to suggest that children learn through play and that adults play through art. He references Morse Peckham in his book, Man's Rage For Chaos- Biology Behavior in the Arts, which states "Art is the exposure to the tensions and problems of the world in order that man may endure the tensions and problems of the real world". This therefore suggesting that art gives us a safe place to demonstrate extreme and dangerous feelings without reproductive conclusions. When you go into an gallery you might see an shocking image, but if the emotional strain becomes too difficult you can always leave the gallery, and switch off from the situation. Also, art gives a chance for escapism whereby you are able to immerse yourself into another world which does not contain your life strains.

Other large scale topics were mentioned within Brian's lecture, such as the amount of art being produced changing over time, and how technology has influenced it. I personally believe within the last 50 years the amount of artists within the world has rapidly increased. As someone who produces graphic design, I believe that without the introduction of new technology there would be a lot less people creating art, especially art surrounding advertisement and product design. Specifically over the last 30 years product design has become an major aspect within marketing, as before this period packaging was unrecognizable as it is today, and local food shopping would consist of visiting a farmers market rather than supermarket. In contrast, nowadays you can visit your local Tesco's and be immersed with thousands of different artists work. Therefore, concluding to the question 'has the amount of people developing art increased over time?' yes; undoubtedly.

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I found Brian's lecture highly fascinating as it opened my mind to the extent to which art creates me as a being and allows the world to be as insightful as it currently stands. I also found many of my own feelings towards art represented by what he was saying, this then embedding my feelings surrounding art further. In the future I will definitely listen to Brian's lectures again as I found it highly informative