Laurie Anderson's "Homeland" / LJWorld.com

Details

Categories: Performance art, Experimental music
Event posted: July 25, 2008
Last updated: Feb. 19, 2009

Event details

Friday, Sept. 12, 2008, 7:30 p.m.
Lied Center, 1600 Stewart Drive, KU campus, Lawrence
Cost: $13 - $35
Age limit: All ages

From the Lied Center: The Lied Center of Kansas, 1320 KLWN and LAZER 105.9 present legendary performance artist Laurie Anderson in her newest work, HOMELAND, a mixed musical response to post-Sept. 11 New York City.One of the seminal minds of our time, the critically acclaimed Anderson uses the synthetic language of technology and the sensuous language of songwriting and poetry to capture her compound and complex reactions.Known for her visually stunning performances, Anderson's HOMELAND is a musical portrait of contemporary America combining a four-piece band, computer-altered voices and experiments with electronics to touch on the current state of fear in this country, the obsession with security, increasinglevels of loneliness and isolation, the power of technology and the gradual loss of freedom.Anderson describes HOMELAND as an addendum; a 25 year-later full-circle finale of her 1983 influential performance work, United States, which depicted a technological society and its people constantly changing or on the move. United States includes Anderson's mainstream crossover music hit, O Superman.Among other influences, HOMELAND is inspired by the ancient Greek comic dramatist Aristophanes' The Birds, a play that explores themes surrounding groundlessness and memory. HOMELAND examines, amongst additional topics, American-style totalitarianism, shifting images of empire and reality shows. At the Lied Center, HOMELAND will be staged seven years and one day after the life-changing events of Sept. 11.Laurie Anderson is a pioneer in the discipline of performance art. She has invented several devices she has used in her recordings and performances. In 1977, she created a "tape-bow violin" that uses recordedmagnetic tape on the bow instead of the traditional hair, and a magnetic tape head in the bridge. In the late 1990s, Anderson developed a "talking stick," a six-foot long, baton-like MIDI controller that can access and replicate any sound using the principle of granular synthesis.Tickets are on sale at the Lied Center Ticket Office (785-864-2787 voice or 785-864-2777/TDD), the University Theatre Ticket OfficeMurphy Hall (785-864-3982), SUA OfficeKansas Union (785-864-SHOW), and online at www.lied.ku.edu. All seats are reserved. Ticket prices are: adult $35/25; KU, Haskell students/children (child: 0-18 years of age) $18/13.