Intermedial Strategies in Multimedia Art

Abstract

Laurie Anderson’s multimedia performance White Lily openswitha computer-animated projection of a figure running in slow motion. Anderson then enters into view backwards against the animated runner who disappears to the left, while Anderson moves across to centre stage to electronic music punctuated by clock chimes. Dressed in a white suit and accompanied by her silhouette shadow generated by a strong circular projection, Anderson has her movements doubled by the shadow, as she presents a short text about her memory of a brief conversation in Rainer Werner Fassbinder’s¹ film Berlin Alexanderplatz.² This short sequence is reshaped into a poem recited by Anderson, at the same time as she makes punctuating gestures with her right arm, ending by making a backwards sign. The performance concludes with the projection of the central symbol, the white lily, held by the hand of a white silhouette in a still that is left standing against the dark, as Anderson moves out of the centre and disappears to the right. The animated figure then reappears and fades out, with only the music playing in the dark.