Have you ever asked yourself what is the purpose of art and creativity in our lives? Dutch artist, novelist, and activist Adriaanse (Bette A.) has spent her career asking exactly that question — and living the answers both in her day-to-day life as well as in the book that she collaborated with Brian Eno on, \"What Art Does: An Unfinished Theory.\"
Born in Amsterdam and trained at the Rietveld Art Academy, Bette studied Image and Language before going on to earn a Master's in Creative Writing at Oxford, writing and publishing novels in both English and Dutch. Her work spans fiction, visual art, creative systems and teaching about the poetic possibilities of process itself. Her thinking is united by a idea that creativity belongs to everyone, and that you do not have to be an \"artist\" to live a creative life. In other words, Bette believes there is no meaningful difference between a grandmother deliberating over which colors of wool to pick for a knitting project and a professional artist showing work in a museum.
Her recent short story collection Slow Stories (written and rewritten pieces that were plucked from over two decades of her creativity) were the basis for TWO SLOW STORIES: A Collaboration of Storytelling, Music, and Art, a record featuring the music of Brian Eno and two re-imagined stories from that book narrated by Bette herself.
Eno and Adriaanse's shared creative approach is deeply process-oriented rather than goal-oriented — spontaneous, present, and unafraid of not knowing where things are heading. In this episode, Bette reflects on both collaborations, what she and Eno discovered about each other's artistic instincts, and why she believes that attuning yourself to something slow and non-urgent is, in today's world, a radical act.
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