Everything I Learned From Eno

This week I’m writing to you from sunny (hot) Austin (so hot). I’m here for the week doing some shoots, and as always it’s a delight to get to drink up all the time I get to spend with friends, the Texas heat, and the feeling of being at home in a place I’ve loved for a long time. The photo work I’ve been making has been really rewarding, and the food has been sensational. Today’s letter is about something I’ve scooted down the editorial line several times because I wanted to write it perfectly. As you may know if you pursue creative work of any kind, that time may never come. Instead, I’m giving it to you today. I’m timing this writing session, and when the timer goes off I will do my two editing passes and send.

I imagine this will not be the only time I write about Brian Eno. 

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A few weeks ago I saddled up with my popcorn and Sprite for a screening of Eno by Gary Hustwit at The Belcourt in Nashville. The documentary, if you’re unfamiliar, is completely generative which means every screening of the movie is different. You read that right– Eno is generated through an algorithm for each individual screening from 30 hours of interviews and 500 hours of archival footage of Brian Eno throughout his career as a musician, songwriter, record producer and visual artist. To namedrop, he’s worked with the likes of David Bowie, U2, The Talking Heads, and Fred again… to name a few. You don’t have to be a huge fan of his to enjoy this film. If you are someone who creates in any capacity, I think you might find it impactful.

If you are an Eno fan, it’s the kind of thing you won’t want to miss. The film is a mixed bag in a literal sense, I can’t tell you what to expect from it because my screening was very different from the film you will view. Mine felt like magic, in particular my showing had the story of the creation of Ambient 1: Music for Airports, one of my favorite albums of all time, and something I listen to weekly at least.

Here are some big takeaways from my version of the doc:

Journaling Sideways

In my showing, there was a scene where Eno takes out all his journals, maybe hundreds of them, and when he’s looking through them I noticed that in some of them he turns his journal horizontally and writes in it that way. I don’t know why this was so impactful to me, but it was. I went out the next day and bought a new journal and started a day log system journaling sideways. I feel like I can fill up the whole page, which is helpful on a technical level. On a more abstract level, this challenged me to look at the methodologies and processes in my life that feel fixed. Are they really? 

Output Before Input

In another clip, he talks about how he’s begun to shift his schedule around. He noticed that in the morning before work he would eat breakfast, drink coffee, read the news, and check email, and only then would he’d be task himself with creating. More often than not he found he was taking something from all that input into his work. In an effort to adjust, now he creates first. He works before doing anything else, no coffee, no breakfast, no distractions. Output before input. I have begun implementing this a couple of days a week, working within the first few hours of the day, and then breaking for reading and a late breakfast. This has been really helpful in resisting the temptation to scroll through social media apps, which I know are detrimental to my creative output. It has also caused me to recommit to intentionally taking a moment to decide where my time will go during the day, and what my focus is going to be on for a committed period of time– a tried and true staple of my best work practices. 

What Do You Do?

I have spent more minutes than I’d like admit fretting over the fact that I feel like what I do professionally is complicated. I am a photographer, yes, but I am also a creative consultant for small businesses. In addition to both of those things I am a writer (as you well know) and my newsletter is my favorite space in my creative practice. I’ve spent hours upon hours bemoaning the fact that I wasn’t a person who had interest in choosing a lane. I like all my lanes. I want to do all of the things I do professionally. 

In my version of the Eno doc, there was an interview with David Bowie where he said that he doesn't know what Brian does, really… he just knows that better work is made when he’s in the room. Eno has never been just one thing, he is equal parts songwriter, producer, and visual artist, and still those descriptions fall short in describing the level of skill and understanding that he actually brings with him into the studio. At the end of the day he is only himself, doing the work that he finds worth doing. I find comfort in this. It feels almost like a benediction to continue being myself, and trusting my work. 

Oblique Strategies

Brian Eno has an uncanny way of seeing things differently, he even has a game called Oblique Strategies dedicated to that very idea. Overall, this is something I am consciously aiming for in my own life. If I experience friction with an idea, project, or in any part of life, how can I adjust my perspective? How can I generate differently? How can I look at this in a new way? How can I dedicate myself to my own process in a new light?

If you haven’t yet, I’d recommend seeing Eno by Gary Hustwit in a theater near you.

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