Brendan Dawes
The Art of Form and Code

Nothing Can Ever Be The Same

A 168-hour-long, real-time generative video installation featuring the work of Brian Eno presented at the Venice Biennale.

    2023
  • Real-time generative software
  • 3840 x 2160 pixels UHD (colour, sound, 60fps)
  • Duration variable

Commissioned for the Biennale Musica 2023 and created in collaboration with documentary filmmaker Gary Hustwit, Nothing Can Ever Be The Same is a 168-hour-long real-time generative work, re-imagining the visual archive and music of Brian Eno.

It is a work of aleatoric cinema, a revolutionary durational film that is always completely different every time it is shown. Nothing Can Ever Be the Same uses a bespoke generative system developed by Dawes and Hustwit to create an ever-changing visual artwork that is unpredictable and defies categorization. It is a convergence between artistic creation and digital experimentation, a visual and sonic playground where Dawes and Hustwit are experimenting with some of the generative video technology they've created for Eno the documentary which was premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in 2024

The work made its worldwide premiere at the Biennale Musica 2023, with that version never being seen again anywhere in the world.