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In conjunction with the NIME conference, Virginia Tech Moss Arts Center is pleased to host “Invented Instruments” exhibit by Laurie Anderson featuring the famous Tape Bow Violin.

Laurie Anderson: Invented Instruments features a selection of the artist’s invented musical instruments, scores and installation drawings developed over a quarter century as key creative tools in the artist’s much-heralded career as a performance artist and musician. Widely acclaimed as one of the major performance artists of our time, Anderson achieved crossover status within the world of pop music with the release of the beautiful and quirky single—and stunning music video—in 1981, O Superman (for Massenet). The exhibition includes her Tape Bow Violin (1977), in which the horsehair of the bow is replaced with prerecorded magnetic tape, and a tape recorder playback head is mounted on the violin’s body, allowing the performer to “remix” human speech by selectively dragging the tape forward and backward over the playback head to create new phrases and languages—among many other instruments. Her performance scores—written for the invented instruments—will be featured as well in addition to drawings, photographs, and video clips of these remarkable machines in action. The exhibition will be open from April 26 – June 9, 2018 and will coincide with Virginia Tech’s presentation of the 2018 annual conference of the international organization, New Interfaces for Musical Expression (NIME).