Laurie Anderson Plots Concert for Dogs in Times Square
Laurie Anderson is playing a concert intended only for dogs. The musician-performance artist is inviting canines and their owners to sit on the steps of Duffy Square in New York City as she performs low-frequency music at 11:30 p.m. on Monday, January 4th. Meanwhile, 350 wireless headphone sets will be available for human listeners, The New York Times reports.
The performance will kick off the January installment of the Midnight Moment series, which features numerous Times Square billboards transformed into digital art pieces. Anderson will screen a three-minute cut of her Oscar-shortlisted 2015 documentary, Heart of a Dog, a wide-ranging film centered around the bardo, the Tibetan concept of transitioning into the afterlife.
This won’t be Anderson’s first experience performing for dogs. In 2010, the innovative artist held a concert for hundreds of pooches outside the Sydney Opera House, with music also emitted at a low frequency. “It was a beautiful sound,” Anderson told the Times. “They barked for five minutes. That was one of the happiest moments of my life.”
Anderson is known for pushing the envelope as a composer, filmmaker, performance artist and musical inventor – but a silent concert for dogs is digging into new creative territory. Yoko Ono, speaking to the Times, described it as something “only Laurie can get away with.”
In 2016, Anderson is taking part in two of America’s most eclectic, cutting-edge music festivals: Knoxville, Tennessee’s Big Ears (March 31st to April 2nd) and Durham, North Carolina’s Moogfest (which runs May 19th to 22nd).