Famous UK-based music creator and visual designer

Brian Eno

He is returning to the realm of literature. His eagerly awaited work, “What Art Does: An Unending Theory,” written alongside Dutch creator and author Bette Adriaanse, encourages readers to reflect on inquiries that have defined Eno’s journey: What role does art play? And why is it essential for us?

This week, Faber released “What Art Does,” which serves not only as an essay but also as an invitation to examine how art influences our lives, our societies, and our future prospects.

Centering on humanity’s drive for creative expression and the way art unites individuals, this book explores the motivations behind artistic creation and examines how it reshapes our lives.

“It serves as an uplifting invitation to envision a distinctively different tomorrow,” states the book’s back cover, characterizing its content as a “visually enriched, whimsical, and inquisitive” journey.

For many years, Eno—a significant contributor to music, art, and activism—has embraced the concept of art serving as an agent of transformation. He has had a long-standing career encompassing everything from his revolutionary contributions with Roxy Music and his innovative approach to ambient music to producing records for musicians such as U2.

David Bowie

, and Coldplay. During this period, however, he has simultaneously pursued a concurrent career in the visual arts, with a particular emphasis on light-based creations.

Eno, as the co-founder of Earth Percent and the HardArt collective, has consistently championed cultural shifts aimed at fostering social and environmental activism. In their work “What Art Does,” Eno collaborates with Adriaanse to introduce an expanded theory of art that builds upon his earlier ideas about creative expression.

After co-founding the TRQSE network—a collaborative group involving both artists and scientists focused on societal initiatives—Adriaanse initially encountered Eno. Driven by a mutual dedication to understanding art’s impact on social transformation, they delved deeply into discussions regarding the essence of creative expression. These dialogues laid the foundation for their partnership. “What Art Does” compiles the concepts Eno has cultivated over his career, urging readers to reconsider the potential ways in which art can benefit everyone collectively.

The book delves into more than just conventional art forms such as music and

visual art

, yet it also highlights the cultural importance of commonplace items such as soap operas or the vocabulary associated with hairdressing. In “What Art Does,” these “imagined realms” are considered crucial elements of our communal human existence. Eno and Adriaanse propose that art, in every form, plays a critical role in enhancing individual and societal health.

Eno’s methodology towards his artwork has consistently been exploratory and pioneering, which is mirrored in how the book is being introduced to the world. The launch began with an exclusive run of merely 777 autographed editions made available on December 3, 2024, each housed within a customarily painted sleeve crafted by the creators themselves. Additionally, a monochrome PDF copy could be accessed over the subsequent seven days post-launch. It wasn’t until January 16th that both tangible and digital formats became accessible to everyone else publicly.

The revenue generated from the book will be directed towards two significant initiatives: Earth Percent, an environmental effort established by Eno, and The Heroines! Movement, a worldwide nonprofit organization focused on empowerment.

female empowerment

.

For Eno, this book isn’t just an intellectual exercise; it’s another way of using art to spark positive change, and serves as a bridge between his eclectic body of work and his lifelong dedication to the idea that creativity can be a powerful force for social transformation.