ourselves.

"Changing ourselves. 

Surely that must be what we're after when we look at pictures and watch movies and listen to music.

It sounds more Californian than it really is. 

Changing ourselves includes switching on the raido when we're bored - to change from being someone who's bored to someone who's less bored, or bored in a different way. 

But of course, we would prefer to think that the art we venerate does more than feed us sensations to keep us from the gloom of everyday existence. 

(Why would I prefer that? What's wrong with the opposite? I remember someone saying that all human creativity is a desperate attempt to occupy the brief space or endless gap between birth and death). 

We would like to think that art remakes us in some way, deepens us, makes us "better people." 

- Brian Eno