77 Million Paintings

2006 video by Brian Eno

77 Million Paintings

Video by

Brian Eno

Released| 2006
Genre| Ambient
Label| All Saints

77 Million Paintings is a digital art software/DVD combination by British musician Brian Eno, released in 2006.

The release consists of two discs, one containing the software that creates the randomized music and images that emulate a single screen of one of Eno's video installation pieces. The other is a DVD containing interviews with the artist.

The title is derived from the possible number of combinations of video and music which can be generated by the software, effectively ensuring that the same image/soundscape is never played twice.

An accompanying booklet includes a piece by Nick Robertson describing the intention behind the software, and an article by Brian Eno ("My Light Years") describing his experiments with light and music.

The software was developed by Jake Dowie for both Windows and Macintosh operating systems.

## First Edition

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Far from containing 77 million paintings, the software consists of 296 original works which are overlaid and combined up to four at a time in a simulation of simultaneous projection onto a common screen. The various images are slowly faded in and out asynchronously before being replaced by another random element. Also, the music that accompanies the paintings, if played on a Mac G5 or a Windows PC, is randomly generated in a similar way, so the selection of elements and their duration in the piece are arbitrarily chosen, forming a virtually infinite number of variations.

In conjunction with this, Annabeth Robinson (AngryBeth Shortbread) recreated the performance in Second Life by building the performance in a multi-user virtual environment (MUVE).[1]

## Second Edition

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A second edition of "77 Million Paintings", featuring improved morphing and a further two layers of sound, was released on 14 January 2008.[2]

## Installation CD

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Released in a numbered edition of 1000, only on the Japanese label Beat Records in 2006 via license from Opal, 77 Million contains 9 audio tracks generated at the March 2006 Laforet, Tokyo installation of 77 Million Paintings.

## Project evolution

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77 Million Paintings projected onto the Sydney Opera House in 2009

77 Million Paintings has evolved beyond the domestic environment. It continues to be shown in multiple-monitor configurations in art galleries and is projected onto iconic buildings around the world. In 2009, Eno was invited to project 77 Million Paintings onto the sails of the Sydney Opera House.[3][4][5][6]

## See also

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* Generative art
* Procedural generation

## References

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1. ^ "77-million-paintings-brian-eno". 77 Million Paintings. The Long Now Foundation. Archived from the original on 10 January 2011. Retrieved 1 November 2011.
2. ^ Dunne, Aidan. "Art in Focus: Brian Eno – 77 Million Paintings". The Irish Times. Retrieved 2021-02-01.
3. ^ "77 Million Paintings – Art & Electronic Media". Retrieved 2021-02-01.
4. ^ O’Riordan, Alan (2019-01-26). "Art review: Brian Eno at the RHA, Dublin". Irish Examiner. Retrieved 2021-02-01.
5. ^ Kuang, Cliff (2009-04-15). "Brian Eno Paints in Light Using Sydney's Opera House as a Canvas". Fast Company. Retrieved 2021-02-01.
6. ^ "Brian Eno on immersive installations using video game technology: 'In terms of our understanding of what it is, we're right at the beginning'". The Independent. 2018-03-22. Retrieved 2021-02-01.

## External links

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* Official site
* Gallery by the Long Now Foundation
* Profile

* v
* t
* e

Brian Eno

* Discography

Solo studio albums|

* Here Come the Warm Jets
* Taking Tiger Mountain (By Strategy)
* Another Green World
* Discreet Music
* Before and After Science
* Ambient 1: Music for Airports
* Music for Films
* Ambient 4: On Land
* Apollo: Atmospheres and Soundtracks
* Thursday Afternoon
* Textures
* Nerve Net
* The Shutov Assembly
* Neroli
* The Drop
* Extracts from Music for White Cube
* Lightness: Music for the Marble Palace
* I Dormienti
* Kite Stories
* Music for Civic Recovery Centre
* Compact Forest Proposal
* January 07003-Bell Studies
* Another Day on Earth
* Lux
* The Ship
* Reflection
* ForeverAndEverNoMore

Collaborative studio albums|

* (No Pussyfooting)
* Evening Star
* Cluster & Eno
* After the Heat
* Ambient 2: The Plateaux of Mirror
* Fourth World, Vol. 1: Possible Musics
* My Life in the Bush of Ghosts
* The Pearl
* Hybrid
* Wrong Way Up
* Wah Wah
* Original Soundtracks 1
* Music for Onmyo-Ji
* Drawn from Life
* The Equatorial Stars
* Beyond Even (The Cotswold Gnomes)
* Everything That Happens Will Happen Today
* Someday World
* High Life
* Mixing Colours
* Secret Life

Compilation albums|

* More Blank Than Frank/Desert Island Selection
* More Music for Films
* Curiosities Volume 1

Songs|

* "Baby's on Fire"
* "The Jezebel Spirit"
* "King's Lead Hat"
* "Strange Overtones"
* "Third Uncle"

Software|

* 77 Million Paintings
* Bloom

Tours|

* Songs of David Byrne and Brian Eno Tour

Publications|

* More Dark Than Shark
* A Year with Swollen Appendices
* I Dormienti

Related articles|

* Ambient music
* Roxy Music
* Fripp & Eno
* 801
* Berlin Trilogy
* Obscure Records
* Oblique Strategies
* No New York
* Begegnungen
* Begegnungen II
* Old Land
* Music for Films III
* Generative music
* Koan
* Long Now Foundation
* Neverwhere
* Eno (1973)
* Eno (2024)

* v
* t
* e

Other production (by artist)

John Cale|

* Fear
* Words for the Dying

Robert Calvert|

* Lucky Leif and the Longships

Gavin Bryars|

* The Sinking of the Titanic

Ultravox!|

* Ultravox!

David Bowie|

* Low
* "Heroes"
* Lodger
* Outside

Talking Heads|

* More Songs About Buildings and Food
* Fear of Music
* Remain in Light

Gavin Bryars & John White|

* Machine Music

Harold Budd|

* The Pavilion of Dreams

Devo|

* Q. Are We Not Men? A: We Are Devo!

Laraaji|

* Ambient 3: Day of Radiance

Jon Hassell|

* Dream Theory in Malaya: Fourth World Volume Two

U2|

* The Unforgettable Fire
* The Joshua Tree
* Achtung Baby
* Zooropa
* Original Soundtracks 1
* No Line on the Horizon

James|

* Laid
* Wah Wah
* Millionaires
* Pleased to Meet You

Laurie Anderson|

* Bright Red

Sinéad O'Connor|

* Faith and Courage

Sikter|

* Now, Always, Never

Coldplay|

* Viva la Vida or Death and All His Friends
* Mylo Xyloto

Grace Jones|

* Hurricane

Other collaborations|

* June 1, 1974
* Lady June's Linguistic Leprosy
* Spinner
* Tracks and Traces
* Small Craft on a Milk Sea
* Drums Between the Bells

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