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| Brian Eno calls for rethink about meaning and value of culture | Brian Eno calls for rethink about meaning and value of culture |
| (35 minutes later) | |
| The musician and producer Brian Eno has called for a rethink of culture due to “complete confusion” around the subject. | |
| The former Roxy Music star said arts and culture were worth pursuing for reasons that were not just economic and should play a central role in people’s lives in a world of rapid change. | The former Roxy Music star said arts and culture were worth pursuing for reasons that were not just economic and should play a central role in people’s lives in a world of rapid change. |
| Delivering the annual BBC Music John Peel lecture, Eno said art and culture offered “a safe place for you to have quite extreme and rather dangerous feelings”. He said the reason people embraced it was because they knew they could “switch if off”, so art had a role as a “simulator” in people’s lives. | |
| Related: Iggy Pop criticises U2’s free album ploy | Related: Iggy Pop criticises U2’s free album ploy |
| Eno said: “I think we need to rethink how we talk about culture, rethink what we think it does for us, and what it actually is. We have a complete confusion about that. It’s very interesting.” | Eno said: “I think we need to rethink how we talk about culture, rethink what we think it does for us, and what it actually is. We have a complete confusion about that. It’s very interesting.” |
| He said that if 20 scientists were asked what they thought science did, they would mostly agree, but if 20 artists were asked what they believed art did, there would be about 15 different answers. Giving one definition, he said: “Art is everything that you don’t have to do.” | He said that if 20 scientists were asked what they thought science did, they would mostly agree, but if 20 artists were asked what they believed art did, there would be about 15 different answers. Giving one definition, he said: “Art is everything that you don’t have to do.” |
| Eno said it fell outside the activities people had to do to stay alive, such as eating, and he referred to people choosing specific hairstyles as an example. | Eno said it fell outside the activities people had to do to stay alive, such as eating, and he referred to people choosing specific hairstyles as an example. |
| Best known as a pioneer of ambient music, he said: “We live in a culture that is changing so incredibly quickly.” He said a month in the present day saw about the same amount of change as the whole of the 14th century. | |
| Due to nobody being an expert on everything, Eno said, we needed ways of “keeping in sync, of remaining coherent”, adding: “And I think that this is what culture is doing for us.” He said he saw culture as a “set of collective rituals” that everyone was engaged with. | Due to nobody being an expert on everything, Eno said, we needed ways of “keeping in sync, of remaining coherent”, adding: “And I think that this is what culture is doing for us.” He said he saw culture as a “set of collective rituals” that everyone was engaged with. |
| Eno said he had heard the education secretary, Nicky Morgan, claim it was a good idea for students not to go into arts and humanities because they did not offer job prospects as good as the “Stem” subjects. | Eno said he had heard the education secretary, Nicky Morgan, claim it was a good idea for students not to go into arts and humanities because they did not offer job prospects as good as the “Stem” subjects. |
| He said: “Now this word Stem is quite interesting. It stands for science, technology, engineering and mathematics – all things that I am very sympathetic to and interested in. But there’s an idea around that those are actually the important things, even the acronym gives it away – the idea of stem, the thing that’s at the centre, which everything else grows off from. | He said: “Now this word Stem is quite interesting. It stands for science, technology, engineering and mathematics – all things that I am very sympathetic to and interested in. But there’s an idea around that those are actually the important things, even the acronym gives it away – the idea of stem, the thing that’s at the centre, which everything else grows off from. |
| “So the idea is that those things are important. They’re part of the economic mill, and they’re part of what makes Britain great and increases our GNP and what have you. | “So the idea is that those things are important. They’re part of the economic mill, and they’re part of what makes Britain great and increases our GNP and what have you. |
| “And the arts, on the other hand, are sort of nice; they’re a bit of a luxury actually, something you might do when you’re relaxing after you come home from a hard day’s work at a proper job. | “And the arts, on the other hand, are sort of nice; they’re a bit of a luxury actually, something you might do when you’re relaxing after you come home from a hard day’s work at a proper job. |
| “So I thought that attitude was part of what this comes from – this new idea of the arts as a kind of economic entity.” | “So I thought that attitude was part of what this comes from – this new idea of the arts as a kind of economic entity.” |
| He added that he should not “crucify” Morgan for this, describing her comment as “off the cuff”. | He added that he should not “crucify” Morgan for this, describing her comment as “off the cuff”. |