Apr 172013
Eno, heal thyself!
Only in the cruise-control world of Brian Eno can this become a reality!
The £35 million hospital is the first to incorporate Eno’s installations, which aim to evoke a “serene atmosphere” and enhance the hospital’s “three dimensional, all-embracing means of treating patients”, in its architectural design.
This is kind of cool on many levels, but at the same time I can’t help but crack up at the notion of “regular people” with tubes shoved in their orifices being force-fed Eno’s highbrow Muzak and light show. And will this stuff be heard over all the machines buzzing and beeping and hospital staff coming in and out of rooms?
Hmmmm, this doesn’t seem that far fetched.
Did anyone else hear that NPR program about some dude who is trying to find a way to treat insomnia by programming a series of tones that stimulate your brain to produce the different brain wave sequences found in a good night’s sleep? (Geez, what a sentence! But you get the idea) Anyways, some of the tones and pulses do sound somewhat Eno-like. It’s sort of like that joke that you go to a classical music concert to get a good night’s sleep.
I wonder if there’s a pediatric ward for babies on fire.
I might cause physical harm to get out of there…
Har har!
When they were inducing labor in my wife for our first child, I brought along all my Eno ambient discs to play in the background during it. My wife who always thought that stuff sounded like the hum of our refrigerator really thought it helped, and the nurses all thought it was a fantastic idea. I for one think Eno might be on to something here.
It does make sense in a “coming full circle” way. Eno’s story about his development of ambient music involves being laid up in a hospital bed after getting hit by a car and trying to listen to a classical record on a portable record player, right?
I’ve enjoyed spinning Discreet Music when I’ve felt like crap. Most of Eno’s ambient records are better than generic New Age music, like the stuff I just had to listen to while having a very sensitive, unmanly procedure done to me earlier this afternoon. I just wish more of his ambient album gave me enough of a “hook” to settle into them as he would like me to settle in. Those sounds on Discreet Music are like sounds I naturally hear in my head. Ambient 4, on the other hand, gets into territory that sounds too much like nature, like I’m on a camping trip. I never did much camping.
He did compose his album “Neroli” to be played in birthing rooms.
This may encourage wellness in the population
aloha
LD