Graphic for Laurie Anderson's performance of For Instants – Part 5," May 21-22, 1977, de Appel, Amsterdam.
"The performances I do also involve language talking rhythms and short stories. The stories focus on spoken word attitudes (for example, the attitude of someone who is listening to you tell a story, you have told the same story to this person before, and this person cannot decide whether to stop you or not. This sense of repetition is incorporated into the audio sections of the performance. I will be using the electronic cross bow for one series of songs. The electronic cross bow can be used on any bowed instrument. A tape head is soldered to the body of an electronic metal violin. Instead of horsehair the bow has a strip of audio tape [words on the tape are in Dutch when the bow is drawn in one direction; when the bow is drawn in the opposite direction, the same sounds become English words]."
The show was described by the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, where she performed it in April 1977 as "A performance with film-quadrophonic sound-songs for the electronic crossbow-talking rhythms four-track overdub blues band."
