Rooting for the optimists and pessimists: Brian Eno's 'Empty Formalism'

Composer and visual artist Brian
Eno returned to Berlin this week for the opening
of his audio-visual installation, “Empty Formalism,” at
the Martin Gropius Bau. The
work is the first in a series of performances and installations
created by artists for the newly created ISM
Hexadome, a hexagonal structure featuring six
large screens and over 50 speakers in a 3D sound stage, creating
a spatial sensation coupling music with shifting
visuals. 


“One of the reasons for using music in a place like this is to
say: treat your sense of sight in the same way as you treat your
sense of hearing,'” says Eno. He describes his piece as featuring
“color combinations that are so seductively beautiful that you
can’t resist them, and then the idea of them disappearing and you
knowing that you will never see them again.”


The piece was specifically composed for the new sound technology
utilized by the ISM Hexadome and developed by The Institute of
Sound and Music in partnership with Pfadfinderei and ZKM | Center
for Art and Media with support from the Kultur Bundesstiftung.
Over the coming month at Martin-Gropius-Bau, the ISM Hexadome
will host an impressive range of established and emerging artists
including CAO and Radiohead’s Thom Yorke.

Produced by Marlene Melchior