laurie_anderson [Experimental Musical Instruments]

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Laurie Anderson is a musical instrument maker, sculptor, and musician working out of Los Angeles, California. 


===Instruments===

==Self Playing Violin==

The Self Playing Violin is a violin that has been modified to have a speaker inside. The goal of the instrument was to make a violin able to play duets with itself. This instrument is often paired with a pair of ice skates in works called Duets on Ice where the ice skates  were frozen into a block of ice that was allowed to melt marking the end of the piece. 

==Water Filled Violin==

A metal violin that was used in the performance series As If, where a violin was filled with water and played, allowing the water to spill out across performing, causing unusual distortions in its sound as the interior cavity of the instrument changed. 

==Tape Bow Violin==
1977
This violin features a bow with audiotape instead of horsehair and a magnetic tape head from a Revox tape machine located at the bowing position instead of strings and a bridge. The instrument had several bows with different prerecorded audio on the tapes. The action of bowing would play the audio at various speeds backwards and forwards with each bow stroke. The instrument was co-designed by Bob Bielecki. About 50 of the Tap Bow Violins were used in a series of works called It's Cold Outside. 

==Viophonograph==
1978 
The body of this violin has a spinning record in the place of the strings and bridge and the bow contains a phonograph needle located at the end of the bow that can be placed against the record at various locations to play the ridges of the record. The records contained recordings of various sustained tones separated musically into 5ths. The Viophonograph was used in the performances of NOVA Convention 

==Dummy Suzuki==
An amplified 1/16th size violin attached to a ventriloquist dummy. The instrument would be played using the dummy's hands and a 1/16th size violin bow. There were various replaceable hands that held plap items and the bow in different positions for playing. 

==Neon Violin==
An electrified violin with a glass neon bulb as a its body. The instrument glows a bright off white-yellow color and the sound of the instrument was significantly effected my the electrical interference of the neon tube. 

==Neon Bow==
Similar in concept to the neon violin, a neon bow was also made (and used independently) that glowed brightly and also caused electrical interference with the sound of the electroacoustic violin it was used with. 

==Shoulder Violin==
an electroacoustic 5 string violin designed by Ned Steinberger. This instrument has a saddle shoulder rest that allowed the instrument to hang freely off the solder when now being played. This instrument functions as a amplified violin. 

==Synclavier Violin==
A digital violin that was hooked up to a Synclavier Synthesizer and used as a type of controller for the synthesizer. The instrument was designed by Max Mathews. The instrument was used in Home of the Brave. 

==Hologram Bow==
A violin bow painted a stark white that was used both in violin playing as well as waved rapidly in front of a projectors beam in order to capture the image that the projector was displaying.
Used in Transportation as part United States Live. 

==Video Bow==
A violin bow with a small lipstick style camera embedded at the end that would record into a live video displaying anything the bow is pointing at during the period of a performance. 

==Talking Stick==
A long harpoon shaped digital sampler that had various inconspicuous buttons with prerecorded audio set to them as well as a long sliding sleeve that slows down and speeds up the playback of the audio. The instruments were used in Moby Dick to give more physical activity to performance of the largely digital music of the opera. 

==Tilt==
A carpenters level made into a music box. The instrument does not play if left level and plays one side of a a his and hers duet when tilted in on direction and the other side of the duet when tilted in the other. 

==Hearing==
A small digital device that is attached to the ear that says various things and yells instructions. It was designed for Parkette magazine 

==The sweetness of Music==
Made from the ashes of Laurie's dog Lullabell mixed with clay, this is a non playing sculpture of a violin. 

==Handphone Table==
1978
The instrument was co-designed by Bob Bielecki.

===NOTES===
The vast majority of the instruments and information about them is from the demonstrational video from the show Laurie Anderson: The Weather at the Hirshhorn museum ((https://vimeo.com/589418427/bcaf06cd4b))