A letter

Brian Eno to Michael Morris
16 April 1995

Dear Michael,

Thanks again, a thousand times, for all your help in getting this project towards a successful conclusion.

It's odd now, in the end, it did turn out to be about quite a few of the things we talked about all those months and even years ago. It was 'song-storage', it was something new in London's cultural landscape, it was a new kind of collaborative work - though I think a lot of the significant collaboration was between the two of us.

I really enjoyed that part of it. You're a great person for ideas, and a great midwife for the ideas of others not least because you're unafraid to kill off the weaklings at birth as well as wholeheartedly encourage and nurture the strong. I really hope we get a chance to work together further on some future adventure, and if you think I could be a helpful voice on anything you're working on, please do ask.

Personally I was pleased about two things: first, generally, that I can make installations without many of the things I had previously thought essential (including various bits of technology and total darkness), and secondly, in particular, Plato's Cave. For me that piece has real quality and confidence. I like the fact that it's made from near-junk, and I love its relationship to the voice.

This idea of narrative installations is really strong and I hope to develop it further. Since the show I've been flooded with cheap, low-tech, site-specific ideas ....

Of course, and as always, I wish I'd had time to develop a few of the other things in the show a bit more, and that I hadn't got so bogged down in making tapes.

I dream at night of what could have happened in that wedge room. There was a brief 15 minutes on Sunday morning when I knew I had something great going on in there, but I just didn't have the composure to ignore all the other bits and pieces that still needed doing and carry it through. I will one day. I dream also of what else could have happened in the Ballroom, how that could have been a story room too (but it would have required making a whole new sound-piece - at least a day's work and would have used several bloody machines).

Oh well, oh well .... But on the whole, it felt really convincing as a show. I got very good reactions - ones that seemed genuine - from the people I spoke to.

I haven't of course seen any reviews or suchlike, but no doubt I will.

Please give my thanks and best regards to the other Artangels and to Sko. They were bricks.

Brian Eno