Nothing in My Pockets

Nothing in My Pockets, An Audio Diary by Laurie Anderson
by Paul Snelson II on Friday, October 8, 2010 at 5:57pm
UNIVERSTIY OF TEXAS AT DALLAS
Nothing in My Pockets
An Audio Diary by Laurie Anderson
Paul L. Snelson, II 10/8/2010

This paper is a critical analysis of a sonic work of art, an audio diary created by seminal performance artist and author, photographer and musician, Laurie Anderson. In 2003, as a project for French Radio, Laurie Anderson created a sonic, audio diary that she entitled: 'Nothing in My Pockets'. She extracts selected moments that she captured on a small digital recording device, a tiny microphone, like a spy and then organized them chronologically and later, in post production, digitally edited and at some points, manipulated them and added her own narration and effects, like an echo for emphasis for example, or an audio enhanced sound of a hall at another point. She then frames these moments with personal narration and her original 'music' and as a kind of audio architecture.

After the initial experience of listening to this audio book, I thought that the 'music' was a kind of segue material to act as a backdrop or soundtrack to the cinematic quality of the sonic documentation that is at the same time personal and mythological, like a movie without the visual component, a radio play but after listening several times I realized as a kind of epiphany that the musical architecture and mixing and processing of this very epic ‘Warholian’ documentation project, (as her partner Lou Reed, refers to it while traveling in a car in Italy) is another means of commentary and that this 'music' is her way not only of 'framing' the moments recorded over several months in 2003 but also a communication device, an abstract method of sharing her thoughts behind the scenes, a point of view about the events captured in sound. She then neatly packaged this project on two compact discs with a slim complementary book complete with personal documentary photos in a product for sale to the world at large.

The project includes revelatory moments over the span of several months and begins with an explanation in retrospect, of the project beginning with a lunch at the Royal College of Art in London. The people at the table are discussing how long it would take to walk from London to Dublin. A man at the table says that he “hates having anything in his pockets”. As a clue into her creative process, Anderson then discloses that she “really liked this way of traveling, this way of being”. And therefore, decides to name the project “Nothing in My Pockets”.

Later in this two hour audio diary Anderson goes to Houston, Texas as the first 'Artist in Residence' for NASA. The moments range from the banal to the serendipitous. At another instance she records her own voice on the radio, an interview she gave to WNYC on a show called 'Survival Kit' where curiously she edited out most of the things she would bring with her to a desert island leaving in only a select few items. She mentions a cell phone with unlimited talking time and a violin. The interviewer at the end asks if she learned anything about herself from this process. The intriguing thing is that at the same time the recording is taking place at her home on Canal Street the broadcast is captured while she is ironing her clothes and we are given a look at the daily life and events through the filtered lens of a very expressive and a powerfully creative artist's point of view. The entire book lasts over two hours and is a type of self portrait and sonic scrapbook. After listening to this diary I felt that I learned more about Laurie Anderson and felt a more personal connection after she delicately shared this time of her life with me as a member of the vast public audience for whom this project was created. It ends with a trip to Athens, Greece where she was asked to be a contributor to the 2004 Olympic Games. In preparation for the games, all the street dogs in Athens are rounded up and killed. The final moments are a recording of outdoor sounds of sheep going out into the valley. This choice of a final conclusion featuring sheep to me means that she may see herself as a kind of sonic shepherd and that all of us listening and watching as audience members 'follow' as a type of flock but this interpretation is never confirmed or denied by the artist herself rather only vaguely described in her own words and her voice as a narrator of this incredibly rich, generous piece that is both a ‘time capsule’ and timeless work of art.

Works Cited
Gordon, Mel. "Laurie Anderson: Performance Artist." Drama Review 24.2 (1980): 51. Periodicals Index Online. Web. 10/6/2010. Mel Gordon writes about the early performance art of Laurie Anderson in "Laurie Anderson: Performance Artist". In the opening of this article he quotes Laurie Anderson as refuting the category of an autobiographical artist. Instead she refers to her work as a kind of 'stereo' or 'pairing' of various dualities, male and female, real and imaginary, sound and language, live and filmic. She cites her childhood as the inspiration of the storytelling aspect of her performances. One of eight children, she discovered at an early age the method of making stories interesting lied in inventing and commenting and framing them in mythic dimensions. Often her siblings would use other voices and spin wild yarns at the dinner table where all the family would give their own personal take on the events of the day. This then lead circuitously to her role as a kind of artist and character in her own performances. Her stories seem at once factual yet dreamy and surreal at the same time resonating with a kind of echoing timeless meaning that lurks in the memory as the best performances often do. Her roots as an Art History Instructor at New York City College were a point of departure for her as a performance artist and in a way her performances are still rooted in a kind of instructional rubric but with bizarre fictional twists. At the end of the article Gordon quotes Anderson again with an account historically speaking of how New York City is actually the Garden of Eden with supporting scientific and historical yet ultimately fictitious 'evidence'.

Gordon, Mel. "Laurie Anderson's "United States Part II"." Drama Review 24.4 (1980): 112. Periodicals Index Online. Web. 10/6/2010.
In "Laurie Anderson's "United States Part II", Mel Gordon describes the second of a four part performance. This strange synthesis of the punk rock set and the intellectual avant-garde art crowd catapulted Laurie Anderson into the role of New York’s most famous performance artist. The description of the sequence is in a kind of documentary style. Describing each sequence as it was observed by Gordon himself. The text is riveting as a document since it is from a critical point of view and dates back to time of 1980 capturing the performance in words as it was observed. In the archival "United States Part I-VI" four CD set the visuals are missing and there has never been a publication of a film version of the performance so Gordon's description of it is a real treat. Laurie Anderson uses a toy plastic gavel throughout many of the sets and bangs it on a brightly lit wrist watch. At one point texts are projected on the back drop in alphabetical order: ‘A-Frame’, ‘B-side’, ‘C-note’ until finally ‘ZZZ’ ends the sequence. O Superman is described in rich detail and the text of 'When force is gone there's always Mom' is mentioned and is still even thirty years later a credit to Anderson's originality as a writer and creator. The article would be a useful archival source in the research and development of Anderson's work retrospectively as it is an objective and fresh account of one of the most original American voices of the late twentieth century.

McClary, Susan. "This is Not a Story My People Tell: Musical Time and Space According to Laurie Anderson." Discourse 12.1 (1989): 104. Periodicals Archive Online. Web. 10/6/2010.
Susan McClary in her article "This is Not a Story My People Tell: Musical Time and Space According to Laurie Anderson" explores the originality of Anderson's music as an original female composer and how through minimalism and a thorough knowledge of literary and musical history she is able to deconstruct and originally challenge the history of music as an art form heretofore created mainly by men. She describes in great detail the song "La Langue D'Amour" where Anderson proceeds to reinvent the story of Adam and Eve and shift our gaze to the talking snake and his relationship with the women whom she describes is superior in intellect to the mere man who was, as Anderson puts it "Was always as happy as a clam". McClary commits quite a lot of rhetoric on the structure of Anderson's music which has been marginalized or ignored by musicians as something between accompaniment and mere noise. As it turns out McClary asserts that Anderson's music is a new original and feminine way to structure time. Anderson's lyrics too often speak to the members of the audience involved with 'high art' and make references to sometimes obscure Opera and then shift to a common phrase like 'hot head' or hold me in your 'arms' described as petrochemical arms or military arms. I found this article to be quite helpful in dissecting the harmonic, temporal and structural components of Anderson's music which has always captivated my imagination and intrigued me, as both a listener and a composer of sonic art myself.

Mowitt, John. "Performance Theory as the Work of Laurie Anderson." Discourse 12.2 (1990): 48. Periodicals Archive Online. Web. 10/6/2010.
In "Performance Theory as the Work of Laurie Anderson" John Mowitt illuminates the historical concepts of what he describes as 'performance theory' and the uncanny ability of Laurie Anderson's alleged 'performances' where one cannot always discern as he puts it "What is live and what is Memorex". He describes her performances as postmodern and made up as they go along and in doing so, they play with the boundaries of 'framing' in the theatrical and poetic sense while never violating them yet making the audience aware of them often only on a subliminal level. At certain times a 'prop' and an 'instrument' and 'lighting' are all merged into one gestural neon bow of a violin. At other points Mowitt describes the language of the opening scene in Anderson's 'United States' as one of displacement of unknown origin and of being 'lost' and of never being able to go home. The tight thin line that Anderson precariously balances between what is live and what is recorded is the very basis of "Nothing in My Pockets" and it is a relevant theme that she has always seemed to travel between these two realms gracefully and cleverly. This gift of creation and then 'recreation' in meaning both to create again and to have fun is what makes Anderson and her work so riveting, intriguing and timeless.

Robotics Institute. “The End of the Moon, an Interview with Laurie Anderson.” Carnegie Mellon U, n.d. Web. 10/6/2010.
“Q: You also have two projects in France - one for French radio and the other for the Opera Garnier. How did these happen? LA: The French Radio project started out when they asked me to do a project for their culture show. So I decided to do a diary, an audio diary. So I got this simple set-up of a minidisk player and tiny microphone like a spy microphone, and I carried it around with me everywhere and recorded things every day for several months. Just everyday things - people talking, atmospheres, taking my dog to the spa. Sound is such a powerful way to make a diary. Anyway it's sort of out of hand now, very long, like a miniseries. It's called "Nothing in my Pockets". The producers were just here, and we were trying to edit it but it seems like it's turning into a kind of - I think it will air this spring.” This was the only bit of published information I could uncover about the allusive and intriguing project that Laurie Anderson created called ‘Nothing in My Pockets’. In the interview she describes a desire to create an epic poem and how seductive and yet pretentious that aspiration might be. She also describes a new resolution to be a little ‘lighter’ and more direct rather than always hiding behind a ‘simile’. Also to remove herself a new point of view without the first person, not saying and framing things in terms of ‘I’ so much. The interview ends with Laurie Anderson’s favorite way of getting feedback from the audience. She says, “Well, I like it when we fall into that communal dream”.

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Brent Reese Ps2,
The term “audio architecture” you mention creates mental images of building, construction, style, manner, planning, and design. The architecture or structure in this case, starts out as metaphorical rather than tangible (for me). However, both metaphorical and tangible structures require time and space- our personal time and space being the tangible structure.

The genesis of her ideas initiates the need for observing surroundings and social behaviors, gathering and organizing and translating the seemingly unrelated chaos, and recording and transcribing the material into a performance for others to experience. Rather than dwelling or living in a new building, the listener becomes part of the larger picture by “living the change” he or she experiences throughout the performance and hopefully, going forward.

Her “abstract method of sharing her thoughts behind the scenes, a point of view about the events captured in sound” is captivating. Her interpretation of and response to the events are very interesting to say the least. Her commentary throughout her works provokes critical thinking, personal evaluation and further discussion on contemporary topics; a valuable exercise in learning, making meaning of experiences, and personal growth. Her creative implementation of the photographic/audio journal makes this “self-portrait and sonic scrapbook” engaging for the listener/observer. (“Sound is such a powerful way to make a diary.”) Because it involves multiple media (sounds and pictures), the listener/observer connects more easily with the unseen reality, and hopefully remembers and is inspired by the message long enough to be the change he/she wants to see in the world (Gandhi).

I’ve been to several performances and listened to hours of her music, so I am familiar with her message. As with most of LA’s work, I feel that her performances are not necessarily designed for entertainment purposes. Her “instructional rubric with bizarre fictional twists” carry and deliver a message to the listener/observer in an almost secular/evangelical sort of way. It appears to me that her gospel is one of exposing political vagaries and societal inequities. I do believe changes are necessary and LA’s strong voice is one among many who echo the need to wake up and make a difference in your corner of the world. And I do buy-in to the idea that LA, along with others like David Byrne, Cyndi Lauper, the Dalai Lama, Mahatma Gandhi, Maya Angelou, Corrie ten Boom, Elie Wiesel, Nelson Mandela, Viktor Frankl, etc., promote the idea that (personal and social) change begins within; exposing truths and lies, and speaking up should not be considered optional.

Your conclusion: “This gift of creation and then 'recreation' in meaning both to create again and to have fun is what makes Anderson and her work so riveting, intriguing and timeless” hits the mark. As always, great job! You consistently provide an explanation and a previously unexamined perspective beneath the surface of artists and their work. Oftentimes, your message sheds light on and reveals new meaning to misunderstood artists, their work, and above all their contribution to the world where we live.