Who is the Genius — the Artist or the Observer?
“All human creativity is a desperate attempt to occupy the brief space or endless gap between birth and death.”
What’s the difference between good and bad art?
I’m reading A Year with Swollen Appendices, Brian Eno’s 1997 memoir. (In February, a 25-year anniversary edition is being re-published.)
It contains a terrific essay about placebo cures. Eno explains how though there are believers and critics, the fact remains — placebos cure about 30% of patients scientifically administered the false cures.
He then recounts the story of Melody Maker music critic Richard Williams, who in the 1970s was sent a John Lennon + Yoko Ono record to review. The first side was normal enough — five traditionally arranged songs. The other side was more unusual — 20 minutes of a pure sine wave. Just a long, unwavering, unaccompanied tone.
Williams wrote his review, concentrating the bulk of it on side B, noting how bold Lennon and Ono were for putting out such brashly stark, minimal music. He later learned the second side was a test tone, used to calibrate and detect abnormalities in record players.
Was Williams’ experience with the test tone any diminished, knowing the sound over which he rhapsodized was unintentional?
What composes a satisfactory art experience? What makes it good for some observers and poor for others? I’ve explored this topic before.
Thinking about the believer and the critic, it becomes clear — it’s less about the stimuli and more about the experience going on inside the patient/observer.
“We can say that there is nothing absolute about the aesthetic value of a Rembrandt or a Mozart or a Basquiat,” Eno writes, just as there’s nothing special about the sugar pill the doctor gives the anxiety-ridden office worker. In the end, anyone who can convince you by any means, including outrageous fakery, that what you are about to experience is THE CURE to your issues can be called a healer. Anyone who can convince you that this thing in front of you IS art is by definition an artist.
Art says as much about us as it does about the artist. We as observers believe the myth. We drink the Kool-Aid. We willingly give the art its power and we’re under its spell. It’s a dance between the artist and the lovers, the creators and the observers.
“Is the act of getting attention a sufficient act for an artist, or is that a job description?” — Brian Eno
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