Laurie Anderson is one of America’s most renowned—and daring—creative pioneers. Recognized worldwide as a leader in the use of technology in the arts, Anderson is known widely for her multimedia presentations, casting herself in roles as varied as visual artist, composer, poet, photographer, filmmaker, electronics whiz, vocalist, and instrumentalist. In her new work, Delusion, which will debut at the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Winter Games and be presented by Stanford Lively Arts on May 5, Anderson explores sound and stories in a series of short plays. Using her inventions in vocal processing, signature violin pieces and lush sonic landscapes Anderson creates and inhabits imaginary worlds that become mental movies. Conceived as a ninety-minute technodrama, the new work combines technology, mystery and contemporary short stories in a unique new art form. Related Themes: art, creativity, performance

Dancer and choreographer Ann Carlson and video artist Mary Ellen Strom have brought together social, political, historical and formal concerns. These collaborations are notable for their community engagement, experimental form, technological experimentation, and cultural activism. Related Themes: choreography, creativity, video

From his early taped speech pieces It's Gonna Rain (1965) and Come Out (1966) to his and video artist Beryl Korot's digital video opera Three Tales (2002), composer Steve Reich's path has embraced not only aspects of Western classical music, but the structures, harmonies, and rhythms of non-Western and American vernacular music, particularly jazz. Beryl Korot is a pioneer of video installation art and has exhibited works in museums in Europe, the U.S. and Japan since 1974. Her recent collaborations with her husband, Steve Reich, have brought video installation art into the context of contemporary music theater. In this second conversation in our Art + Invention series, we will explore two works produced by this creative husband and wife couple: The Cave (1990-93), a music theater video piece exploring the Biblical story of Abraham, Sarah, Hagar, Ishmael and Isaac and Three Tales, which presents three parables of technology run amok: the crash of the German airship Hindenburg, the testing of atomic bombs on Bikini Atoll, and a preview of a catastrophe to come in the birth of artificial intelligence and cloning.

Presented with the Taube Center for Jewish Studies.

Related Themes: creativity, music, video

Ralph Lemon, choreographer and cross-disciplinary performer and artist, inaugurates the Art + Invention Speaker Series, which engages iconic artists in thought-provoking conversations about creativity, innovation and discovery across the disciplines. This conversation will introduce Lemon’s rich portfolio and focus on his Geography Trilogy, the fruit of a 9-year investigation through travel that followed the artist’s decision to disband his postmodern dance company and search for a new relationship to his work. Lemon is the fall artist-in-residence at the Stanford Institute for Diversity in the Arts.

Presented in collaboration with the Institute for Diversity in the Arts (IDA), SiCa,
and the Dance Division, Department of Drama.

Related Themes: art, creativity, Dance

Tuesday, 27 January, 2009
Creative Couples
When we think of creative couples, we may remember Marie and Pierre Curie, Sylvia Plath and Ted Hughes, Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas, Edward and Charis Weston, Lou Harrison and Bill Colvig, John Lennon and Yoko Ono, Laurie Anderson and Lou Reed, Paul Auster and Siri Hustvedt. Of course there are countless other, less celebrated couples whose names also stimulate thinking about ways in which partnership may influence human flourishing and creative work. In this series, we are interested in better understanding how creative insights arise from risk taking and the open-ended possibilities that are nurtured by intimacy. The series begins on January 29 with Irvin and Marilyn Yalom.

In the course of over fifty years of married life and raising four children, Irvin and Marilyn Yalom have made marks in their respective fields of psychotherapy and women’s studies with contributions through teaching and research leading to the publication of academic papers and popular books. Last year, they each presented their own research into death: Irv’s Staring at the Sun: Overcoming the Terror of Death and Marilyn’s The American Resting Place: Four Hundred Years of History Through our Cemeteries and Burial Grounds. Our conversation will begin with the Yaloms’ poignant explorations of human finitude and then turn to the story of their time together as a dual-career academic couple. Related Themes: books, couples, creativity, death