2 thoughts on “Laurie Anderson on “Performance Art””

  1. Manwei Huang

    Hello Professor Eversley,

    Watching this piece about Laurie Anderson’s performance art gave me more insight into that area of art. The music in the beginning of the video reminded me of the themes of minimalism, where music is made through repeating and looping sound bites to create rhythm. The sound “ha” was utilized in this way to create a base for the other layers of music, showing the influence that minimalism has on performance art. I also thought that the “numbers runners” performance was unique in that it added an element of audience participation to the art. The artist spoke directly to the audience, adding more resonance to the message behind the art piece, which creates an experience that is vastly different from passive viewing that the audience is accustomed to.

    Joanna Huang

  2. Alex

    Hi Professor Eversley,

    This video interview of Laurie Anderson and her performances gave me more insight on what performance art is and how artists create them. Anderson claims that most things have a language at its core and a spoken language. She uses music, decorations, and other art forms to tell the story of something because everything has a story. Her telephone piece where she was basically talking to herself (or no one) only used the sound of her voice and the decor was a telephone booth. What was the story behind this? The last performance is great example for using voice, music, and visual art for a performance. It was a story telling piece and gave the book (I believe to be Moby Dick) a mood and tone that could be heard. It wasn’t too difficult that her performances tell a story (although what the story actually is may be a little more abstract).

    It’s interesting how Laurie creates these performances. She sometimes knows what she is doing and is in control of the creative process after turning off all the lights and turning on all her equipment. However, other times, she is innocent and just happens to experiment. Sometimes this leads to her dumbest, yet her best pieces.

    Thanks for sharing the video,
    Alex

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