Music and Media: Laurie Anderson, Michel Gondry, and Brian EnoSeptember 23, September 30, and October 7, 2004
7:00 p.m.
City University of New York Graduate Center, Proshansky Auditorium
365 Fifth Avenue at 34 Street
The mixing of media took off in the late 1960s, as the barriers between artistic disciplines broke down and artists began moving freely between painting, sculpture, photography, film, and video. Today, many artists simply choose one medium or over another to suit the idea of a specific work.
Music is at the forefront of this interdisciplinary experimentation.
Musicians led the way in developing new working methods—they
were interdisciplinary from the start. The work of Laurie Anderson,
Brian Eno, and Michel Gondry evinces their backgrounds in music;
Anderson was a teenage violin soloist, Gondry played drums in a
rock band, and Eno is a well-known pioneer of electronic music.
Music is infused with a wild, innovative energy that has proven especially invigorating to media art, an art form that thrives on trampling conventional restrictions. The development of media art over the recent decades paralleled the transformation of our musical environment. For Anderson, Eno, and Gondry, music and art are not separate forms. In their art and in their careers, these artists merge the two forms seamlessly. Installations, feature films, performance pieces, and other hybrid projects are imbued with a sensibility that owes much to the artists’ musical background.
Each evening, the program will pair an artist with a commentator who finds the artist’s work exhilarating. The dialogue between the artist and the interviewer will be rounded out with screenings, sounds, and other media works.
E-mail your questions to the participating artists. Selected questions will be answered during the respective artists' evenings.
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September 23
Laurie Anderson flourishes in the disparate worlds of music, the avant-garde, and mainstream art, comprising a "technology" style that she has honed over a decades-long career.
Respondent Greil Marcus has been a columnist for Rolling Stone, Artforum, Salon, and The New York Times. Best known as a pop music critic, his books include Mystery Train (1975), Lipstick Traces (1989), Double Trouble (2000), and the forthcoming Once Upon a Time: Bob Dylan's "Like a Rolling Stone". |
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September 30
Formerly a member of the French rock band Oui Oui, Michel Gondry is best known for his off-kilter music videos with Björk, Beck, and the Chemical Brothers. He recently directed the feature film Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, written by Charlie Kaufman.
Respondent Ed Halter is a film critic with the Village Voice. He is director and guiding light of the New York Underground Film Festival. |
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October 7
Installation artist, producer, and rock and electronic musician Brian Eno has worked with media for many years. In addition to his years as a member of the 1970s rock band Roxy Music, collaborations with Robert Fripp and David Byrne, and a reputation as a perennial trendsetter of "new music," he is also an accomplished painter.
Respondent Todd Haynes began making independent films in the 1980s and has written and directed the feature films Safe (1995), Velvet Goldmine (1998), and Far from Heaven (2002). |
All events take place at CUNY Proshansky Auditorium (365 Fifth Avenue at 34 Street). Tickets are $15, $10 members, $8 students with current ID, and can be purchased in person at the Visitor Center (open daily 10:00 a.m.–2:00 p.m. and 3:00–5:30 p.m.) at the MoMA Design Store, 44 West 53 Street, and at the box office at the Graduate Center, 365 Fifth Avenue. Remaining tickets will be available at the door on the evening of the program. To purchase or reserve tickets through the box office at the Graduate Center, please call (212) 817-8215 or e-mail continuinged@gc.cuny.edu.
Music and Media is organized by The Museum of Modern Art, New
York, in association with Science and the Arts at the City University
of New York Graduate Center, with funding from the Rockefeller Foundation.
Pictured above:
Laurie Anderson. Photo: Peter Ross
Michel Gondry. Photo: Michel Gondry
Brian Eno. Photo: Christine Alicino
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