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.
Origin	Glen Ellyn, 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 experimental artist, musician, and filmmaker. She creates many kinds of art, including performance art, pop music, and projects that use different types of media. Laurie first studied violin and sculpting. In the 1970s, she worked on various performance art projects in New York City. She focused on language, technology, and visual art.

Laurie Anderson became surprisingly famous in 1981 when her song "O Superman" was a huge hit in the UK, reaching number two on the music charts. Her first studio album, Big Science, came out in 1982. She has released many other albums since then. In 1986, she starred in and directed the concert film Home of the Brave. Laurie Anderson has also created plays, documentaries, and art installations. She is a leader in electronic music and has invented several musical devices for her shows.

Early Life and Education

Laura Phillips Anderson was born in Chicago on June 5, 1947. She grew up in Glen Ellyn, Illinois, a nearby town, with her seven brothers and sisters. As a child, she spent weekends studying painting at the Art Institute of Chicago. She also played with the Chicago Youth Symphony.

After graduating from Glenbard West High School, she went to Mills College in California. In 1966, she moved to New York. She graduated from Barnard College in 1969 with high honors in art history. In 1972, she earned a master's degree in sculpture from Columbia University.

Her very first performance art piece happened in 1969. It was a symphony played using car horns. In 1970, she drew a comic book called Baloney Moccasins. In the early 1970s, she worked as an art teacher and wrote about art for magazines. She also illustrated children's books, like The Package (1971), a mystery told only with pictures.

Creative Career

1970s Art Projects

Photograph of Anderson in the Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.

Laurie Anderson performed in New York throughout the 1970s. One of her most famous performances was Duets on Ice. In this piece, she played the violin along with a recording. She wore ice skates with the blades frozen into a block of ice. The performance would only end when the ice had completely melted.

Some of her early recordings were released on special music collections. Many of her first songs were made for an art installation. This was a jukebox at the Holly Solomon Gallery in New York City that played her different songs.

In the late 1970s, Anderson made more recordings. Some were released privately, and others were part of collections of experimental music. She also performed at the Nova Convention in 1978. This was a big event with many famous artists and musicians.

1980s Breakthrough

In 1980, Laurie Anderson received an honorary doctorate degree from the San Francisco Art Institute. She also received a special award called a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1982 for her film work. In 1987, she got another honorary doctorate from the University of the Arts in Philadelphia.

Anderson became very well-known in 1981 with her song "O Superman". It was first released in a small amount, but it became a huge hit in the UK, reaching number two on the music charts. Because of this, she signed a contract with Warner Bros. Records to release seven albums.

"O Superman" was part of a bigger stage show called United States Live (1984). It was also on her first studio album, Big Science (1982). She released other albums like Mister Heartbreak and United States Live in 1984. The United States Live album was a very long recording of her two-night stage show.

Anderson performing at De Vereeniging in Nijmegen, Netherlands, 1986

She then starred in and directed the 1986 concert film Home of the Brave. She also created music for the films Swimming to Cambodia (1987) and Monster in a Box (1992). In 1987, she hosted the PBS TV series Alive from Off Center. For this show, she created a short film called What You Mean We? which introduced a new character: "The Clone." This was a digitally changed male version of Anderson.

Her album Strange Angels came out in 1989. Its release was delayed because Anderson took singing lessons to improve her vocals for the album. The song "Babydoll" was a popular hit on the Modern Rock Tracks chart that year.

1990s Projects

In 1991, Anderson was a judge at the 41st Berlin International Film Festival. She also appeared in a documentary called The Human Face, where she talked about the history of faces in art and science. Her face was changed using special effects in the film.

In the early 1990s, she also did voice-acting for the animated film The Rugrats Movie (1998). In 1994, she created a CD-ROM called Puppet Motel. This was followed by her album Bright Red, which was co-produced by Brian Eno. She also released a spoken-word album, The Ugly One with the Jewels (1995).

In 1996, Anderson performed with other musicians for an AIDS benefit album. For more than five years, she did not release a new album. During this time, she wrote an article about New York City for the Encyclopædia Britannica. She also created multimedia shows, including one inspired by Moby-Dick. A main idea in Anderson's work is how technology affects human relationships and communication.

Starting in the 1990s, Anderson and Lou Reed, whom she met in 1992, worked together on recordings. They appeared on each other's albums many times.

2000s and Beyond

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 Don DeLillo's book The Body Artist. She also went on tour in 2001, performing her most famous songs. One of these concerts was recorded in New York City a week after the September 11 attacks. This concert was released as the double CD Live in New York in 2002.

In 2003, Anderson became NASA's first artist-in-residence. This experience inspired her performance piece The End of the Moon. In May 2004, she received another honorary doctorate from Columbia University. She helped create the opening ceremony for the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens. She also worked on a multimedia project for the Paris Opera Ballet. In 2005, Anderson visited Russia's space program.

Anderson performing Homeland in Milan, Italy, 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 narrated a documentary about Andy Warhol. She also published a book of drawings based on her dreams, called Night Life.

From 2007 to 2008, Anderson performed her show Homeland in New York and on a European tour. Her husband, Lou Reed, sometimes joined her on stage.

2010s and Recent Works

Anderson with the Kronos Quartet, after performing Landfall at the Harris Theater in Chicago, 2015

In February 2010, Anderson presented a new play called Delusion at the 2010 Winter Olympics in Canada. Her new studio album Homeland was released in June 2010. She also appeared as a guest musician on jazz musician Colin Stetson's album New History Warfare Vol. 2: Judges (2011).

In 2012, Anderson became the first Distinguished Artist-In-Residence at the Experimental Media and Performing Arts Center (EMPAC) in New York. In March 2013, an exhibition of her work from 1971 to 2013 was held in Australia. Anderson even performed her Duets on Ice outside the museum on opening night.

In 2013, she received an honorary doctorate from the Aalto University School of Arts, Design and Architecture. In 2018, Anderson added vocals to a re-recorded song by David Bowie. She and Bowie had been friends.

On February 10, 2019, Laurie Anderson and the Kronos Quartet won a Grammy Award for Best Chamber Music/Small Ensemble Performance for their album Landfall. This was Anderson's first Grammy. The album was inspired by her experience during Hurricane Sandy.

Anderson performing outdoors at Times Square in New York City, 2016

Chalkroom is a virtual reality artwork by Anderson and Taiwanese artist Hsin-Chien Huang. In this work, you can fly through a huge structure made of words, drawings, and stories. To the Moon, another collaboration with Hsin-Chien Huang, premiered in July 2019. It is a 15-minute virtual reality artwork where people can explore a moon with donkey rides and trash from Earth.

2020s and Current Work

Anderson performing with Doug Wieselman at the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden in Washington, D.C., 2023

In 2021, Anderson was named the Charles Eliot Norton Professor of Poetry at Harvard University. She gave a series of six lectures there. Also in 2021, Anderson created a show called "The Weather" at the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden in Washington, D.C.

In mid-2023, Laurie Anderson created "Looking into a Mirror Sideways." This exhibit shows many different styles of her art. It opened at the Moderna Museet in Stockholm, Sweden, and is her biggest solo show in Europe. While in Europe, Anderson toured with Sexmob, a New York jazz band. They performed new versions of her songs.

In November 2024, Anderson presented United States V, a multimedia performance. It was a follow-up to her earlier work, United States. The show included video appearances from Ai Weiwei as God and Anohni as an angel.

She is also a foreign member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Music.

Inventions

Laurie Anderson has invented several experimental musical instruments for her music and performances.

Tape-Bow Violin

The tape-bow violin is an instrument Laurie Anderson created in 1977. Instead of horsehair, the bow uses recorded magnetic tape. The bridge of the violin has a magnetic tape head. Anderson has updated this instrument over the years. You can see her using a newer version of it in her film Home of the Brave. This version used digital sound samples, which were triggered when the bow touched the strings.

Talking Stick

The talking stick is a six-foot-long, baton-like MIDI controller. It was used during her Moby-Dick tour in 1999–2000. Anderson described it as a wireless instrument that can make and copy any sound. It works by breaking sounds into tiny pieces called "grains." These grains can then be played back in different ways to create new sounds and textures.

Voice Filters

A common feature in Anderson's work is an electric voice filter. This filter makes her voice much deeper, sounding like a man's voice. Anderson calls this "audio drag." She has often used this deep voice character in her art as a "voice of authority" or a "conscience." Later, she started using it to give historical or social comments, like in her song "Another Day in America" from her album Homeland (2010).

For a long time, this voice was nameless. But around 2009, Lou Reed suggested calling it Fenway Bergamot. The cover of her album Homeland shows Anderson dressed as Bergamot, with black makeup to look like she has a mustache and thick eyebrows.

In her live album The Ugly One with the Jewels (1995), Anderson explained why she uses this character. She talked about how she would have to explain her electronic equipment to security. She would show them the voice filter and say it was the "voice of authority." When asked why she would want to talk like that, she would look at the security teams and say, "take a wild guess."

Personal Life

Laurie Anderson moved to New York in 1966 and lives in Tribeca. She met musician and songwriter Lou Reed in 1992. They were married in April 2008 and remained together until his death in 2013.

In October 2012, Hurricane Sandy destroyed many of Anderson's creative works. This included photographs, props from her performances, musical instruments, and other important items. This loss inspired her book, All the Things I Lost in the Flood (2018). In the book, she thinks about her career and how art can be temporary. Her album Landfall was also inspired by Hurricane Sandy.

Anderson has studied Buddhism and meditation for a long time. She first learned meditation in 1977. She has since become a student of a Tibetan Nepali teacher.

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

• Airwaves (1977)
• You're the Guy I Want to Share My Money With with William S. Burroughs and John Giorno (1981)
• "This Is the Picture (Excellent Birds)" with Peter Gabriel (1986)
• "Design for Living", with Nona Hendryx (1983)
• "Diva" from Zoolook by Jean-Michel Jarre (1984)
• "Tightrope" and "Speak My Language" (1993)
• A Chance Operation: The John Cage Tribute with text by John Cage (1993)
• "Enquanto Isso" with Marisa Monte (1994)
• "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 Fifth Plague (the Death of Livestock)" (2006)
• The Stone: Issue Three with John Zorn and Lou Reed (2008)
• "The Electrician" (2009)
• Femina by John Zorn (2009)
• 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 the TV channel Lifetime for many years. Anderson has also worked with other musicians like Peter Gabriel, Lou Reed, and Jean-Michel Jarre.

Music Videos

Anderson performing at Donaufestival in Krems an der Donau, Austria, 2012

Music videos have been made for these 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, Anderson created short "Personal Service Announcements." In these, she talked about topics like government debt and the arts. These short videos were often shown on VH1 in the early 1990s.

Films

Digital Media

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

Awards and Recognition

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

• 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, first broadcast on French radio in 2006.

See also

In Spanish: Laurie Anderson para niños