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!!1974 — AS : IF, performance, Artists Space, NYC ---- \|t \|t \|t \|t \|t \|t \|t \|t \|t \|t \|t \|t \|t \|t \|t \|t \|t \|t \|t \|t \|t \|t \|t \|t \|t \|t \|t \|t ''— — April 23 – 26, 1974 — [PersonA, collective exhibition, A video and performance series focusing on autobiography, Curated by Edit DeAk, editor of Art-Rite\|http://artistsspace.org/programs/personapersona-video-and-performance-series-focusing-on-autobiography].{br}Encouraged by Vito Acconci, Laurie Anderson attempted to structurally blend different personal stories with oversized projections of words in ''As:If'' (subtitled Tales from the Vienna Wood ?).{br}{br}Anderson’s performance ''As:If'' (1974) explores the body of the voice from the image of the voice by combining visual projections, audiotape, autobiographical storytelling, and the playing of a water-filled violin. Anderson, dressed in white and wearing ice skates embedded in blocks of ice and a sponge cross around her neck, sits in front of a large slide projection screen onto which images of sets of words appear. Speaking of family, religion, memory, and language, Anderson’s monologue accompanies slide images of words, sounds of phrases from a prerecorded tape and of her altered violin — {small}(In Johanna Frank (University of Windsor), [Exposed Ventriloquism: Performance, Voice, and the Rupture of the Visible\|http://hdl.handle.net/2027/spo.ark5583.0019.001], Ann Arbor, MI: MPublishing, University of Michigan Library, vol. 19, Fall 2005-Spring 2006, Issue title: Bodies: Physical and Abstract — — See also : Jean-François Caro & Camille Pageard, [«Welcome to PAP, Public Access Poetry»\|http://f-u-t-u-r-e.org/r/26_Jean-Francois-Caro-et-Camille-Pageard_Welcome_to_PAP_FR.md]){/small}.{br} On one side of the screen was a word concerned with language, and on the other, separated by a colon, was a word related to water (for example : SOUND : DROWN). In the performance, Laurie Anderson undertakes a de-construction of the feeling of a present self through the launching of a technological device. In a similar way to the development of a minimal music process, Anderson superimposes with a slight lag a sentence pronounced by a live performer with the same sentence registered and reproduced by a recording tape. “The real” time and the time of the record are overlapped, leading to a dislocation of the present time through its echo and, consequently, to a de-centering of the meaning of the sentence.'' — {small}(In Ainhoa Kaiero Claver, [Technological fiction, recorded time and 'replicants' in the concerts of Laurie Anderson\|http://www.sibetrans.com/trans/articulo/10/technological-fiction-recorded-time-and-replicants-in-the-concerts-of-laurie-anderson], TRANS, nr14, Revista Transcultural de Mùsica, 2010){/small}{br}{br}\| \|t ---- {small}{cap}PERFORMER SPEAKS OUT OF SYNCH WITH PRE-RECORDED VOICE.{br}— We talked about simultaneously. He said, now{br}— — Tape: ''We talked about simultaneously. He said, now''{br}— think about what you’re saying and just{br}— — ''think about what you’re saying and just''{br}— say it. But I always seemed to be a little{br}— — ''say it. But I always seemed to be a little''{br}— in front of or behind the words. It was{br}— — ''in front of or behind the words. It was''{br}— hard to synchronize. Words would surface,{br}— — ''hard to synchronize. Words would surface,''{br}— the flow would go on, then other words would{br}— — ''the flow would go on, then other words would''{br}— surface.{br}— — ''surface.''{br}— My violin teacher told me the same thing.{br}— — ''My violin teacher told me the same thing.''{br}— Concentrate on the sound, hear it, play it,{br}— — ''Concentrate on the sound, hear it, play it,''{br}— all at once.{br}— — '' all at once.''{/cap}{/small}{br}{br} ---- \|t \|t \|t \|t \|t \|t \|t \|t [../files/articles/anderson/1974_asif_4_500.jpg\|../files/articles/anderson/1974_asif_4_1000.jpg]{br}{small}(In booklet Artists Space, 25 years, Number 1, Volume 5, Laurie Anderson "Whirlwind", Sept-Nov 1998, page 2){/small}\| \|t \|t \|t \|t \|t \|t \|t \|t \|t \|t \|t \|t \|t \|t \|t \|t \|t \|t \|t \|t \|t \|t \|t \|t \|t \|t \|t \|t [../files/articles/anderson/1974_asif_3.jpg]{br}{small}As If, A performance by Laurie Anderson, April 25, 1974 - Exhibition PersonA, organized by Edit DeAk, Artists Space, NYC{/small}{br}{br}\| \|t \|t \|t \|t \|t \|t \|t \|t \|t \|t \|t \|t \|t \|t \|t \|t \|t \|t \|t \|t \|t \|t \|t \|t \|t \|t \|t \|t [../files/articles/anderson/1974_asif_1_500.jpg]{br}{small}Sketches for ''As : If'' performance{/small}{br}{br}{br}{br} [../files/articles/anderson/1974_asif_2_500.jpg]{small}Re-enactment of the ''As : If'' performance{/small}\|t \|t \|t \|t \|t {small}{cap}Clear plastic tubing{br}Glass of Water{br}Bauhaus bath mat from Hotel Bauhaus{br}{br}Violin and bow{br}Pine box covered with white sheet{br}Microphone{br}Bronzed baby shoes on white marble slab{br}{br}The gallery is dark except for one area - against a wall - lit with a spotlight.{/cap}{/small}{br}{br}{br}{br}{br}{br}{br}{br}{small}{cap}Performer slides in, wearing ice skates (their blades frozen into blocks of ice), white clothes, and a paper - thin sponge around the neck.{br}{br}As performer talks, slides of words are projected on the wall behind. This continues throughout. Each slide is a set of two words separated (or connected) by a colon.{/cap}{/small}{br}{br}{br}{br}{br}{br}---- ''I first performed as Artists Space in 1974, a few months after my exhibition. In the performance, called ''As : If'', I wore all white. The dress functioned as a kind of film screen, upon which images were projected. In early performances like that one, I was interested in the use of one basic form — in ''As : If'' it was an arc. Most of the basic shapes are derived from forms near where I live. ^[…^] On the evening I performed ''As : If'', I was nervous about whether the microphone I had strapped under my right underarm with an improvised mike-clip would fall out. It really looked ridiculous but I gave it a try. I wanted to have my hands free to do other things. This was before reliable remote wireless microphones. At that time, I did a multimedia show, which meant I used slide projectors, Super-8 film, big cables, and microphones strapped with a belt to my chest. I wasn’t that nervous at Artists Space, probably because I’d done so much public performing when I was younger. As a kid, I used to perform in front of people for the Talented Teens, USA group. I was a dorky American teenager from Illinois, but here I was doing shows for people like the mayor of Brighton, England, or for U.S. sailors on a ship in Nice, France. I would give chalk talks which meant I’d draw really fast on huge pieces of paper on a specific topic, such as American life. Because I was at cartoons, I would ask someone from the audience to come up and I would do caricatures of them while we talked. That was the entertainment - and it was really fun. So, during the Artists Space show in 1974, I felt more vulnerable than nervous. I kept asking myself, why am I saying all these things about my life and my grandmother ! It was a very unusual thing to do then. There was no such thing as autobiographical art, which is what it was called a few years later.'' —{small}(Laurie Anderson, Whirlwind, conversations with Laurie Anderson by Claudia Gould){/small}\| \|t \|t \|t ''{cap}William Duckworth{/cap} : When did you open the violin case again ?{br}—— {cap}Laurie Anderson{/cap} : 1974{br}{cap}William Duckworth{/cap} : What kinds of things did you do with it ?{br}— — {cap}Laurie Anderson{/cap} : Anything but play it. I filled it with water and tried to play it. I didn't use it as an actual instrument. It may have been 1976 that I started recording with it. ^[...^] ''As : If'' was a series of stories, and the metaphor was always water-frozen or in liquid form. The stories were very personal, about my own memories. I was working with tape for the first time, and with cheap equipment I would find on Canal Street. So that was the origin of it. The first time I did this, I used a small speaker that I put in my loft and changed the volume and pitch of things. That was the first time I used film, slides, tape, action, and stories. And I realized that that was what I really wanted to do.'' — {small}(Laurie Anderson, [interviewed by William Duckworth\|http://www.csuchico.edu/~jalexander/Sound_Vision/Reading/LAnderson]){/small}\|t \|t \|t \|t \|t \|t \|t \|t \|t \|t \|t \|t \|t \|t \|t \|t \|t \|t \|t \|t \|t \|t \|t \|t \|t \|t \|t \|t \| {br}{br} \|t \|t \|t \|t \|t \|t \|t \|t \|t \|t \|t \|t \|t \|t \|t \|t \|t \|t \|t \|t \|t \|t \|t \|t \|t \|t \|t \|t [../files/articles/anderson/1974_asif_5_800.jpg]{br}{small}(Claudia Gould, Whirlwind : Conversations with Laurie Anderson, In booklet Artists Space, 25 years,{br} Number 1, Volume 5, Laurie Anderson "Whirlwind", Sept-Nov 1998, page 3){/small}\| {br}{br} \|t \|t \|t \|t \|t \|t \|t \|t \|t \|t \|t \|t \|t \|t \|t \|t \|t \|t \|t \|t \|t \|t \|t \|t \|t \|t \|t \|t ''— — ^[My first performance^] was called ''As: if''. It was pretty strange. It was the first time I began using a violin in a performance. I mean I used it totally as a prop; it wasn’t really for its musical possibilities. Anyway, in this first performance, I was for some reason wearing these ice-skates with their blades frozen into these blocks of ice which I did again in a street thing…a series of street concerts. But this ''As: if'' thing was based on audiotape more than anything actually.{br} The only thing that was visual were words, very large words on slides. They were sets of words with colons. I was really interested in the “is like” sort of syndrome. I was very depressed at the time about most of my thoughts being based on that premise, that something is like something else. Is like is like unto infinity. They’re parallel sets of…equations, and there weren’t really any conclusions. As far as I could see, that was the basis of most art at the time, you know: one thing was like another. {br}So it was interesting to me. It was just doubling up on things. I was trying to work with that, I mean, just the whole system of metaphors. So there were things like different audio layers of sound, that was another part of this thing. The piece was sort of broken down into stories, sort of personal stories that served as examples for these parallel sets of information.{br} One of them was that a year before that, I was in this situation of living in an apartment, and my roommate was going out with a person that I really liked a lot, and I wanted to try and take him away from her. So they would come in and go to her room and lock the door, and then I’d get the violin and just go into the living-room which was right next to their bedroom, and play Tchaikovsky next to the door… architecturally — the architectural thing seems to have been coming up in the work constantly — but in this particular story for instance there are things about sound and about sound sources.{br} For instance, the way you might imagine a Tchaikovsky violin concerto played by Oistrak in quad ; and second, the way that you happen to play it ; the third, the way it sounds coming though the door.{br}''Question : Where were you getting the sounds? Were you collecting them from the environment, or were you making them electronically ?''{br}— — I had a duck caller and also at that point I wasn’t real involved with audiotapes. It was mostly whatever sound I could make at the time. In the performance after that one I used a violin that I’d just taken apart and put a speaker inside, and so it was itself playing and also its strings went up to a little cassette recorder. {br}''Question : So the visual part of that was that it looked like you were playing the violin but the sound was coming from another source ?''{br}— — The sound was coming from inside the violin, but it was kind of ventriloquism, violin ventriloquism. There were duets, so that half the sound was on tape coming from the same source. I would take the bow off while it was still going, so in instruments like that there are series of different kinds of ways of changing voice. I work a lot with Bob Alecke who is an electronics designer.{br}''Question : The two of you worked together in the technical aspect of the performance ?''{br}— — Right, and he designs very incredible things. I just had wanted a piece of equipment so that I could use the sound of a violin instead of voice but still articulate words, which is actually…has a lot in common with wa-wa and rock music, too. In this case, it was a very powerful driver and the sound of the violin was coming through a tube that you put in your mouth, and then the phrasing and the pitch and everything else is violin but the articulation in the mouth is speech. I was interested in deafness at the time actually, and what happens with it… I think I had just heard about Milton going blind, and how his daughters read to him all his favorite things in Homer, but they didn’t know any Greek or Latin, so they read it completely phonetically. You could imagine what it sounded like, “ah uh ah,” all of Homer completely in a monotone. I was using the kind of flatness that he was already in and so a lot of the sound work that I did at the time involved the difference between speaking and sort of understanding phonetics.{br}''Question : Seeing where sound comes from, hearing where sound comes from.''{br}— — Yeah, right, and also the dynamics of learning about sound. I had been on an Indian reservation, at a place in Canada. There was a place called Corner Restaurant, and there were no corners on the reservation and no streets, you know. But it’s one of those adapted sort of things, and in the restaurant there was a jukebox and in the jukebox there was only one record which was one that was popular at the time, George McCrae’s “Rock Your Baby.” The Cree kids knew the song completely but with the weirdest kind of phrasing. They just learned it right off the record. I got real interested in that kind of tension between parodying something and swinging with it, so I made a film about that actually, about that jukebox, which is an animated crossword puzzle of various ways of spelling the lyrics to that song and the way they would leak into other meanings, like “Rock you, rock you”… so that the sound itself became very non-specific and it could be plugged into any number of meanings. The soundtrack for that was using this violin voice thing so that is was a kind of parallel situation of enunciated things with the tone coming from somewhere else. That particular way of using sound is a lot like the things I’ve been working with recently, the tape-bow violin, which is an instrument that has an audio head mounted on the body of the violin.'' — {small}(Laurie Anderson, [Interview by Kate Horsfield and Lyn Blumenthal, 1977\|http://www.fnewsmagazine.com/2006-apr/interview_1.html], published Apr. 2006, Fnews, The School of the Art Institute of Chicago){/small}\| {br}{br} {br}{br}
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