Andrew Carnegie Lecture Series - Brian Eno

The third annual Andrew Carnegie Lecture at Edinburgh College of Art was delivered by influential musician and producer Brian Eno.
The celebrated artist discussed his life and career during a public lecture and at the University of Edinburgh’s George Square Lecture Theatre on 10th May 2016.
Along with his public lecture, the renowned artist also took part in a number of workshops and seminars with students and staff from a variety of programmes at ECA.

[@alessandrapalanca3034]

What a lovely thing he is.

[@chuffpup]

I love his athiest observations on gospel music. It's fascinating how much insight and genuine empathy he manages convey in his public speaking. His understanding of the processes of the mind, and human instincts in general, are really useful. He's a good teacher, and very funny guy. Easy to like him (his public persona, at least), though through his art, I already did.

[@orionfranklin2636]

You all prolly dont care at all but does any of you know of a method to log back into an instagram account..? I was stupid forgot the account password. I love any assistance you can offer me

[@genesisdavis9111]

@Orion Franklin Instablaster ;)

[@orionfranklin2636]

@Genesis Davis thanks so much for your reply. I found the site on google and Im trying it out atm. Takes quite some time so I will get back to you later with my results.

[@orionfranklin2636]

@Genesis Davis DAMN IT ACTUALLY WORKED :O Literally hacked my Instagram password within about 40 minutes of using the site. I had to pay 15$ but for sure worth the price =) Thanks so much you saved my account :D

[@genesisdavis9111]

@Orion Franklin glad I could help xD

[@passionparade]

Wow. I am quite surprised by the comments on here. There is no pretentiousness here. He makes extremely valid points that will only increase as time moves on.

[@lewiscurry562]

What an incredible mind - imagine what the world would be like if we could all see this way

[@kirkegodfrey414]

Thank you for this.

[@BernardColdwell]

Interesting lecture, learned a lot from this, thanks for sharing

[@robertkahn9151]

I've worked with Brian in the 90s. Sometimes he talks a lot of sense. Sometimes he's away with the fairies.

[@dominicjordan7503]

interesting insight. what's an example of being away with the fairies?

[@sophiafakevirus-ro8cc]

He likes the sound of his own mind.

[@glassiomusic]

Anyone else come here for ASMR purposes? I love everything about what Brian says in this video, but it’s also helped me calm down/and fall asleep

[@kickblue22]

So they have an introducer. Who introduces another introducer. Who then introduces the guest. Seven minutes drift past...a tumbleweed bumps it way silently across the stage...in the distance, a dog barks. In the words of my great great great grandfather (who I never actually met): GET ON WITH IT !

[@Vingul]

Skip ahead.

[@christys5857]

Although it didn't really bother me, I really love the way you worded this.

[@DJSTOEK]

Thank you

[@imslicc]

great lecture. reminds of a lecture by Jacque Fresco called "What the Future Holds". also multidisciplinary and trying to find the root causes of things.

[@ThisTrainIsLost]

Yes!! For a couple of decades now I have been trying to spread my belief that the worst "invention" of the 20th century is specialisation. Specialisation puts blinkers on our ability to observe, carry some knowledge from a variety of areas and to then think up concepts that are rooted in two or more (no real upper limit here) different areas of inquiry. I propose a return to generalisation. There will always be those who wish to dive deep into a particular discipline but, that should not be the focus of our systems of education. I spent 3yrs at a university and left without a diploma and yet, those three years are amongst the most valuable of my life. I never could settle on a major so I spent my time taking courses in a wide variety of subjects. That proved to be an excellent decision, at least for myself. A university should live up to its description and provide a universal education. After all, the whole point of the exercise is to become educated (notice the lack of "in what") and not engage in a race for a piece of paper that you could print out at home.

[@benonaru]

you cannot print a diploma

[@benonaru]

its LAMINATED

[@benonaru]

😡😡⚠️⚠️⚠️👆👆👆👆

[@vambo13257]

ENO always makes me think of the movie Being There!

[@juliankeller5030]

Pulled from a 1996 interview in his London Studio "...'a drifting clarifier'. what is that?" Brian Eno: That was Steart Brand's description... he meant to describe me as someone who generally helps out in thinking situations, but is not stuck to one in particular. It's flattering but I hope it's true.

[@MichaelFlynn0]

Big brain Brian.

[@jude999]

Date?

[@mahmoudramdane2848]

This lan reminds me of one book from Herman Hesse. Narcissius and Goldblum, the eternal fight between thought and image.

[@materialistadialectico4884]

7:30

[@johanneskingma]

thanks @gonscla92

[@bruceh92]

Add great motivational speaker to his repertoire.

[@rozanneke]

Inelligent stuff

[@magnusloven2041]

DALEEEEEEEEEEEE

[@subtitledEN]

Does he always travel with a collection of screwdrivers with him? This is the second talk I watch where he says the same exact thing about screwdrivers.

[@Vingul]

«NNNOOOO he used the same example twice!!»

[@AliciaB.]

I'm surprised no one commented on what he said about autistic people, which was desperately incorrect

[@kai326]

Sadly that’s true, he’s a very smart man but he’s not neurodivergent, at least not in the sense that he’s on the spectrum. He shouldn’t be trying to explain what autism is if he isn’t experiencing it

[@AliciaB.]

@@kai326 not the point. it doesn't matter whether he is autistic or not. The issue here is ignorance.

[@brianharris7243]

Later that year the fearful folk voted...

[@alessandrapalanca3034]

Che bella testolina :-)

[@chuffpup]

I want a black shirt with white (ish) (mother of pearl/plastic) buttons, now... Eno's style is infectious. (Mother of plastic? 😏).

[@anekouzad4493]

do not be jealous little Joe that you are not the one invited to talk!

[@subtitledEN]

Strange how he, when asked about 'scenius', he mentions a Genius! (Picasso). That wasn't a very smart choice, I'd say.

[@Vingul]

I would assume he misheard the questioner. Never happened to you?

[@subtitledEN]

@@Vingul He didn't mishear anything. He chose Picasso as an example for 'scenius'. This has nothing to do with hearing. I guess you 'misread' my comment.

[@Vingul]

@@subtitledEN I hadn’t listened to the talk yet, to be fair. Apparently, Eno coined the term «scenius», but, granted, you’re free to disagree with Picasso fitting that term. I’d argue that he doesn’t fit the label of «genius».

[@subtitledEN]

@@Vingul Well, there is no one who wasn't influenced by other artists, civilizations, etc and no one starts from scratch. We all build on what we inherit. This is how it has always been and always will be with human civilization. But if anyone carries the label of 'genius' in modern (art) history, it's Picasso.

[@Vingul]

@@subtitledEN I’m sure my propensity toward enjoying beautiful art clouds my judgment of his genius. I like his early, more classical paintings a lot more than the intentionally «childish» and ugly work he did later. But, of course, his later works were certainly pushing boundaries - and that may more easily be taken as genius than merely creating something beautiful.

[@BetterTimers]

Have to agree with the sentiment that brains are getting smaller but it seems like the trend started not 20K years about but perhaps just a little over a 100 years ago... it is extremely difficult to find a renaissance men these days... Brian Eno might be one of them

[@joebloggsgogglebox]

I like Brian Eno's music, but I feel that like so many other intellectual celebrities, his voice is given too much weight in matters outside his domain of expertise. He seems to have completely missed the point about brain size at the beginning of his talk. Sure his argument about specialisation, and therefore less need for brain power in modern societies, makes complete sense and it is a hypothesis that I agree with. However, that on its own does not explain why brains would get smaller, it only explains why they might not get larger or more intelligent. They could stay the same size. They would only get smaller if there was a cost to them being large. What is that cost? Perhaps the same costs that designers of computer chips have to think about, i.e. energy usage and heat, precisely the two reasons that he dismisses at the beginning of his talk. Furthermore his remarks about the feeling of wanting to belong may hold true for the majority most of the time, but I think that most people have also felt the need to be alone, and there are plenty of people that prefer it that way.

[@davidhollyfield5148]

I disagree completely. His position is very considered and nothing less than I would expect from an artist of his magnitude...

[@joebloggsgogglebox]

david hollyfield "artist" not "scientist". His speculations are no more original or enlightening than those you would obtain from a conversation with a competant undergrad biologist or philosopher in the student bar over a pint.

[@franc9498]

TBH it's probably because having a big head isn't physically attractive and thus bigger heads get bread out the gene pool

[@TonyMacFarlane]

This argument has swirled around Brian Eno since the Eighties at least. He's always been the E.F. Hutton of the music world.

[@comprehensiveboycomprehens8786]

joebloggsgogglebox Is it necessarily true that higher intelligence (equated to brain size) is the deciding trait selected for in nature?

[@pazelyacobcaplin2193]

In my 50 odd years in Art I thought that I'd heard every possible excuse for talentless post modernist opportunism but the crass use of business and populist manipulative devices by Eno in this, one of the most prestigious lectures on the circuit is an indication of the hopeless state of Art in the UK.

[@BrandonKraemerbk]

I think you should expound on your opinion. What specifically can you point to that supports this opinion?

[@pazelyacobcaplin2193]

I'd have thought that any justification of the above opinion is entirely unnecessary since many and prolonged examples are given by Eno himself during the lecture, it is therefore an opinion based upon the given facts and as such renders any further explanation superfluous.

[@jpedroteodosio]

You're an idiot. No further superfluous explanation required.

[@pazelyacobcaplin2193]

I take such an insult more as an aphorism in the Foucauldian sense, although it has to be said that such a lack of intellect is cause for much pity in your case.

[@TonyMacFarlane]

You've just got to imagine pazel in a cardigan with leather elbows, harrumphing around the pipe he clenches, in a tenor very much like the closing of the Beatle's "You Know My Name". Then his logic is revealed in all its bloviating pomposity.

[@mmess8401]

This is very disappointing, for one can see that the show begins, where he is getting repetitious in different lectures. Isn't it a sign of living too long repeating yourself with your stories? In addition, like in other lectures too, there's very few to learn about music syntax.

[@jmdavison62]

He also took over an hour to make a set of points that could have been made in ten minutes or less.

[@TomiTapio]

"bombs fell on London". By themselves? I wouldn't say that Eno has insights.

[@gooberdoober6780]

He dismissed the theories on why our brains are getting smaller. While that's understandable, it's bullshit to for him to claim what he thinks is happening without a solid explanation and reason.

[@stevecox7075]

Skip to 7:28 in order to avoid the waffling old bag and the dithery featherhead.

[@FrankieParadiso4evah]

Andrew Carnegie was born in the 1830s...why not look it up and say 1835?

[@kenmurphy6792]

Haircuts?!? I get the gist of what he's saying about the "first" haircut and the connection between style and function BUT, the entire subject is extremely BORING !!! Sorry Mr. ENO but it's a fact . I really tried to get into the lecture but ... this video just couldn't get me interested . I'm a little bit dissapointed!

[@maxjorgy4693]

Ken Murphy your brain extra small

[@ahartify]

One day there will be a new Rite of Spring and a new artist to surprise everyone, despite Eno's wish otherwise, but it won't be a pop musician, and the work won"t be created by a committee or groupthink. Beethoven, Verdi, Pavarotti or Picasso weren't the naive idiots he would like them to be. They were singular 'geniuses.' Unfortunately Eno is no genius and at least he knows that. Talented, yes. He writes music for people who don't like music - music for office workers and shops selling new age books and trinkets. He is one of the 'new puritans.' Very English in that sense. Almost a philistine.

[@mitchellschmidt6893]

Well, though. . . . Much of his pop music is, in my opinion, the most addictive songs to sing to oneself.

[@MrGenedancingmachine]

"Swamped by immigrants....I can't think of anything better" Eno won't live long enough to rue those words but goddamn it really worked out great for the million british white girls raped by pakistani muslims over the course of 30 years, didn't it? But that audience of Guardian readers wouldn't know anything about that... I can take airhead celebrities like Lily Allen being that insular, ignorant and oblivious but it really annoys me when it's someone I respect greatly like Brian Eno

[@ryanstark2350]

Unfortunately Eno is promoting a kind of collectivist agenda here. Only an individual can think. Bach may have drawn from numerous influences but his compositions were beyond what came before and afterwards as well to be honest because he was probably the greatest composer of all time. Bach was a great genius. However, most people do have the potential for genius even if on a small scale but this is always from the mind of the individual. Our civilisation has been built on that foundation. Eno is too much of a virtue signaller. He's way out of his depth in these talks.

[@christopherfreud5894]

Ryan Stark if you consider that Bach is a genius, as a consequence you stop playing and composing !

[@Vingul]

You speak of the foundation or our civilisation. Do you think it was founded on individualism? Do you think that Bach, an individual, could have come up with what he did were it not for the collective? Civilisation did not spring from the individual, all the time, space and protection necessary for the individual artist to flourish is created and upheld by the collective.

[@ndf3]

Viewing things in context isn't a dangerous idea. This is just tacking an "-ism" on something so don't have to think about it. People have this weird insecurity, this hypervigilance against seeing things in a larger social context. As if personal greatness can't exist alongside the context that made it possible. I don't think you have a lot of respect for the individual if you're uninterested in what made them who they are. If Bach is truly great, this conversation is nothing to be afraid of.

[@MM1717mm]

lots of white guilt to be endured here 🙄

[@johnfrench7452]

Very disappointed to see such talent wasted on childish comments and generalizations about the US electorate. You are right Brian, maybe your brain is getting smaller.

[@ketaminemoose6680]

John French Fuck off.

[@TonyMacFarlane]

^ Triggered

[@pylgrym]

I kinda thought this guy a joke. One he opened his mouth, my suspicions were confirmed.