She is a woman very much in the middle of technology – as perhaps female musicians have always been. Laurie Anderson is not a woman performing femininity or seemingly constrained by it and she just loves a gadget, having invented several devices for her recordings and shows, like the tape-bow violin using magnetic tape and the talking stick MIDI controller.
Laurie Anderson reminds me of Ada Lovelace, a woman of technology in a world of art. One of Ada Lovelace’s great gifts was being the first articulate visionary of the computer. One of the central themes in Anderson's work is exploring the effects of technology on humanity. I remember hearing Anderson’s first album, Big Science, way back in 1982 - music for geeks!
She inspired me to reclaim my identity as a technological woman, in spite of ... just pick any objections to being female/technical here!.. As the only artist in a family of scientists, I felt that I had surrendered my spanner privileges, by not fighting for a career in science or engineering. This is what I love about Laurie Anderson. She is a woman with a spanner and her gender never seems to be the agenda. One day I want to live in that world.
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