Laurie Anderson presents Spending the War Without You: Virtual Backgrounds. The third in a series of six lectures, this talk will consider language, lyrics and the narrator.

About the Speakers

Presented by Laurie Anderson, one of America’s most renowned – and daring – creative pioneers. Known primarily for her multimedia presentations, she has cast herself in roles as varied as visual artist, composer, poet, photographer, filmmaker, electronics whiz, vocalist, and instrumentalist.

Introduced by Suzannah Clark, Director of the Mahindra Humanities Center and Morton B. Knafel Professor of Music at Harvard University, and Matt Saunders, Harris K. Weston Associate Professor of the Humanities in the department of Art, Film, and Visual Studies at Harvard University.

Modertated by Salman Rushdie, the author of fourteen novels, including Quichotte, Midnight’s Children, and The Satanic Verses.

About the Norton Lectures

The Charles Eliot Norton Professorship in Poetry was endowed in 1925. Harvard’s preeminent lecture series in the arts and humanities, the Norton Lectures recognize individuals of extraordinary talent who, in addition to their particular expertise, have the gift of wide dissemination and wise expression. The term “poetry” is interpreted in the broadest sense to encompass all poetic expression in language, music, or the fine arts.

More From Laurie Anderson

WESU Middletown 88.1FM is rebroadcasting all episodes of Laurie Anderson's show "Party in the Bardo."

“Since the early ‘80s, I’ve dreamed of...having a radio show in the middle of the night” said Laurie Anderson. “When time slows down, where the lines between sleeping and waking, between dreams and reality, are getting blurred, and when people’s defenses drop away, and logic just seems to be very limiting.”