Laurie Anderson facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Laurie Anderson
Anderson in 2020
Background information
Birth name	Laura Phillips Anderson
Born	(1947-06-05) June 5, 1947 (age 78) Chicago, Illinois, U.S.
Genres	Art pop electronic avant-garde spoken word
Occupations	Musician composer performance artist electronic literature writer
Instruments	Violin keyboards percussion vocals
Years active	1969–present
Labels	Warner Bros. Nonesuch Elektra

Laura Phillips "Laurie" Anderson (born June 5, 1947) is an American artist, musician, and filmmaker. She is known for her unique and experimental work. This includes performance art, pop music, and projects that use many different types of media.

Laurie started by studying violin and sculpting. In the 1970s, she created many performance art pieces in New York City. She often focused on language, technology, and visual art. She became famous in 1981 when her song "O Superman" became a big hit in the UK.

Her first studio album, Big Science, came out in 1982. She has released many more albums since then. Laurie also directed and starred in the 1986 concert film Home of the Brave. Her work also includes plays, documentaries, voice acting, and art shows. She is a leader in electronic music and has even invented her own musical tools.

Early Life and Education

Laura Phillips Anderson was born in Chicago on June 5, 1947. She grew up in a town nearby called Glen Ellyn, Illinois. She was one of eight children.

When she was young, Laurie spent weekends studying painting. She went to the Art Institute of Chicago. She also played violin with the Chicago Youth Symphony.

After high school, she studied art history at Barnard College. She later earned a master's degree in sculpture from Columbia University in 1972.

In 1969, she created her first performance art piece. It was a symphony played using car horns! In the early 1970s, she taught art and wrote about art for magazines. She also drew pictures for children's books. One of her first books was a mystery story told only through pictures.

Career Highlights

Early Performances: 1970s

Photograph of Anderson in the Library of Congress

Laurie Anderson performed a lot in New York during the 1970s. One of her most famous shows was Duets on Ice. For this, she played the violin while wearing ice skates. The blades of her skates were frozen into a block of ice. The show would only end when the ice had completely melted.

Many of her first recordings were not widely released. Some were part of art shows. For example, her first single, "It's Not the Bullet that Kills You (It's the Hole)", was for a special jukebox art installation.

In the late 1970s, she made more recordings. These were often on albums with other experimental artists. She also performed at a big event called the Nova Convention. Many famous counter-culture figures were there, like William S. Burroughs and Frank Zappa. She even worked with comedian Andy Kaufman.

Breaking Through: 1980s

In 1981, Laurie became very well known outside the art world. Her song "O Superman" became a huge hit in the UK, reaching number two on the music charts. This led to her signing a big record deal with Warner Bros. Records.

"O Superman" was part of a larger stage show called United States. It was also on her album Big Science. She then released other albums like Mister Heartbreak and United States Live. The United States Live album was a recording of her long stage show. She also appeared in a TV special called "Good Morning, Mr. Orwell".

Anderson at De Vereeniging in Nijmegen, 1986

In 1986, she directed and starred in the concert film Home of the Brave. She also created music for other films. Laurie hosted the PBS TV series Alive from Off Center in 1987. For this show, she created a new character called "The Clone". This was a digitally changed male version of herself. She also worked with musician Peter Gabriel on his album So.

Her album Strange Angels came out in 1989. She even took singing lessons for this album because it had more singing than her earlier work.

New Directions: 1990s

In 1991, Laurie was a judge at the 41st Berlin International Film Festival. She also appeared in a documentary called The Human Face. In this film, her face was changed with special effects as she talked about art and science.

She also did voice acting in the animated movie The Rugrats Movie in 1998. In 1994, she made a CD-ROM called Puppet Motel. This was a computer program where you could explore her art. She also released the albums Bright Red and The Ugly One with the Jewels.

Laurie started working with musician Lou Reed in the 1990s. They met in 1992 and worked on many songs together. A main idea in Laurie's work is how technology affects human relationships.

Exploring New Ideas: 2000s

Anderson at a 2007 benefit concert

Her album Life on a String was released in 2001. This album included new songs and pieces from her Moby Dick show. In 2001, she recorded the audiobook for a novel by Don DeLillo. She also went on tour and performed her well-known songs. One of these concerts was recorded in New York City after the September 11, 2001 attacks.

In 2003, Laurie became NASA's first artist-in-residence. This means she spent time at NASA and created art inspired by her experience. This led to her performance piece The End of the Moon. She also helped create the opening ceremony for the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens.

Anderson performing Homeland in 2007

In 2005, her art show The Waters Reglitterized opened in New York City. This show was like a diary of her dreams, recreated as art. In 2006, she published a book of drawings based on her dreams called Night Life.

She performed parts of her show Homeland in New York and on a European tour in 2007. Her husband, Lou Reed, sometimes joined her on stage for this show.

Awards and Virtual Reality: 2010s

In 2015 with Kronos Quartet, after performing Landfall in Chicago's Harris Theater

In 2010, Laurie premiered a new play called Delusion at the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver. Her album Homeland was released in June 2010. She also appeared on the Late Show with David Letterman.

In 2013, an exhibition of her work called Laurie Anderson: Language of the Future was held in Australia. She even performed her Duets on Ice show outside the museum on opening night.

In 2019, Laurie Anderson and the Kronos Quartet won a Grammy Award for their album Landfall. This album was inspired by her experience during Hurricane Sandy. It mixes electronic sounds with traditional strings and Laurie's stories about loss.

Anderson playing outside at a Times Square performance in 2016

Laurie also created virtual reality (VR) artworks. Chalkroom is a VR piece where you fly through a huge structure made of words and drawings. To the Moon, another VR project, lets people explore a moon with donkey rides and trash from Earth.

Recent Work: 2020s

Anderson performing with Doug Wieselman at the Hirshhorn Museum in 2023

In 2021, Laurie Anderson was a special professor at Harvard University. She gave a series of six lectures called Spending the War Without You: Virtual Backgrounds.

She also created an art show called "The Weather" at the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden in Washington, D.C. This show looked back at her many different art styles.

In 2023, Laurie opened her biggest solo art show in Europe. It was called "Looking into a Mirror Sideways" and showed off her various art techniques. While in Europe, she toured with the jazz band Sexmob. They performed new versions of her songs together.

Inventions

Laurie Anderson has invented several experimental musical instruments. She uses these unique tools in her recordings and live shows.

Tape-bow Violin

The tape-bow violin was created by Laurie in 1977. Instead of horsehair, the bow uses recorded magnetic tape. The bridge of the violin has a magnetic tape head that plays the sounds from the tape. She has updated this instrument over the years. You can see her use a version of it in her film Home of the Brave.

Talking Stick

The talking stick is a six-foot-long (1.8 m) stick that works like a musical controller. She used it during her Moby-Dick tour in 1999–2000. Laurie described it as a tool that can create and repeat any sound. It works by breaking sounds into tiny pieces, called "grains," and then playing them back in different ways. This creates new and interesting sound textures.

Voice Filters

Laurie often uses an electronic voice filter that makes her voice sound much deeper, like a man's voice. She calls this "audio drag". She uses this deep voice as a "voice of authority" or a "conscience" in her work. It often provides comments on history or society. For a long time, this voice didn't have a name. But her husband, Lou Reed, suggested calling it Fenway Bergamot. On her album Homeland, Laurie even dressed up as Fenway Bergamot for the cover.

In one of her pieces, "The Cultural Ambassador", Laurie explained why she uses this voice. She talked about how she would have to explain her electronic equipment to security agents. She would then use the voice filter and say it was "the voice of authority". She would then ask them why they thought she would want to talk like that, pointing out the police and war news around them.

Personal Life

Laurie Anderson moved to New York City in 1966. She now lives in the Tribeca area. She met the famous singer-songwriter Lou Reed in 1992. They were married in April 2008 and stayed together until his death in 2013.

Laurie is also a long-time student of Buddhism and meditation. She first learned meditation in 1977. She has since studied with a Tibetan Buddhist teacher named Mingyur Rinpoche.

Discography

Studio Albums

Spoken Word Albums

• The Ugly One with the Jewels (1995)
• Heart of a Dog (Soundtrack) (2015)

Live Albums

• United States Live (boxed set) (1984)
• Live in New York (2002)

Compilation Albums

• Talk Normal: The Laurie Anderson Anthology (2000)

Audio Book

• The Body Artist by Don DeLillo (2001)

Collaborations

Laurie Anderson has worked with many other artists on their music.

• "This Is the Picture (Excellent Birds)" with Peter Gabriel (1986)
• "Diva" from Zoolook by Jean Michel Jarre (1984)
• "Speak My Language" (1993; Faraway, So Close! Soundtrack)
• "Una hoja, una raiz (One Leaf, One Root)" with Diego Frenkel and Aterciopelados (1996)
• "Je me souviens" by Jean Michel Jarre (2000)
• "Gentle Breeze" with Lou Reed (2004)
• The Stone: Issue Three with John Zorn and Lou Reed (2008)
• New History Warfare Vol. 2: Judges by Colin Stetson (2011)
• "Rely on Me" with Jean Michel Jarre (2015)
• Landfall (2018) (with Kronos Quartet)
• Songs from the Bardo (2019) (with Tenzin Choegyal and Jesse Paris Smith)

Singles

• "O Superman" (1981)
• "Big Science" (1981)
• "Sharkey's Day" (1984)
• "Language Is a Virus" (1986)
• "Strange Angels" (1989)
• "Babydoll" (1989)
• "Beautiful Red Dress" (1990)
• "In Our Sleep" (1994)
• "Big Science 2" (2007)
• "Mambo and Bling" (2008)
• "Only an Expert" (2010)

"Sharkey's Day" was the theme song for Lifetime Television for many years. Laurie has also performed on recordings by other musicians like Peter Gabriel and Lou Reed.

Music Videos

Anderson at a 2012 show

Here are some of the official music videos for her songs:

• "O Superman"
• "Sharkey's Day"
• "This Is the Picture (Excellent Birds)"
• "Language Is a Virus" (from Home of the Brave)
• "Beautiful Red Dress"

Instead of making another music video for her Strange Angels album, Laurie made short "Personal Service Announcements". These were one to two minutes long. In them, she talked about topics like the U.S. national debt and the art world.

Films

Digital Media

• Puppet Motel (Macintosh CD-ROM, 1995) - a project with Hsin-Chien Huang.

Awards and Nominations

Laurie Anderson has won many awards for her work.

Television Appearances

• Bei Bio – musical guest on German TV show, 1984
• The New Show – musical guest, 1984
• Saturday Night Live – musical guest, 1986
• Alive from Off Center – host, 1987
• Space Ghost Coast to Coast – guest 1996
• Late Show with David Letterman – guest 2010
• PBS Newshour —guest October 4, 2024

Audiobooks Narrated

• The Path to Tranquility by His Holiness the Dalai Lama – co-narrator, 1999
• The Body Artist by Don DeLillo – sole narrator, 2001
• Nothing in My Pockets – a two-part sound diary recorded in 2003.

Images for kids

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  Anderson in 2020

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  Photograph of Anderson in the Library of Congress

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  Anderson at De Vereeniging in Nijmegen, 1986

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  Anderson at a 2007 benefit concert

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  Anderson performing Homeland in 2007

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  In 2015 with Kronos Quartet, after performing Landfall in Chicago's Harris Theater

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  Anderson playing outside at a Times Square performance in 2016

• 

  Anderson performing with Doug Wieselman at the Hirshhorn Museum in 2023

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  Anderson at a 2012 show

See Also

In Spanish: Laurie Anderson para niños