We are increasingly likely to find ourselves in places with background music. No composers have thought to write for these modern spaces, which represent 30% of our musical experience.
Brian EnoRead
You can't have a relationship with a device whose limits are unknown to you, because without limits, it keeps becoming something else.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Understanding the limitations of technology is crucial for meaningful interactions with it.
This quote by Brian Eno emphasizes the importance of knowing the boundaries and constraints of the devices we use. Without a clear understanding of these limits, our relationship with technology becomes unstable and ever-changing, leading to confusion and a lack of effective use.
Themes
TechnologyRelationshipsLimitsUnderstandingInteraction
In practice
Example use cases
In a seminar on technology and society, one might reference this quote to illustrate the implications of seamless technology on human interaction.
More from Brian Eno
All quotes →I think that technology is always invented for historical reasons, to solve a historical problem. But they very soon reveal themselves to be capable of doing things that aren't historical that nobody had ever thought of doing before.
Brian EnoRead
When I first started making ambient music, I was setting up systems using synthesizers that generated pulses more or less randomly. The end result is a kind of music that continuously changes. Of course, until computers came along, all I could actually present of that work was a piece of its output.
Brian EnoRead
People do dismiss ambient music, don't they? They call it 'easy listening,' as if to suggest that it should be hard to listen to.
Brian EnoRead
In the future, you won't buy artists' works; you'll buy software that makes original pieces of 'their' works, or that recreates their way of looking at things. You could buy a Shostakovich box, or you could buy a Brahms box. You might want some Shostakovich slow-movement-like music to be generated. So then you use that box.
Brian EnoRead
Ambient music must be as ignorable as it is interesting.
Brian EnoRead
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