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Laurie Anderson
2026 Kyoto Prize Laureates
Music
/ Multimedia Artist
1947-
Laurie Anderson has demonstrated her interdisciplinary creativity beyond the boundaries of music, visual art, and film through her innovative use of technology, combining ingenuity and wit. She has established a uniquely experimental yet pop-infused form of multimedia performance by integrating her own narrative voice, body, and electronic media.
Laurie Anderson has demonstrated her interdisciplinary creativity beyond the boundaries of music, visual art, and film through her innovative use of technology. Utilizing inventive ideas, physicality, and wit, she has established a unique form of multimedia performance that incorporates a variety of electronic media.
Anderson found her voice as a performance artist in the 1970s, under the influence of New York City’s contemporary art and music scenes, as well as the punk and new wave movements. After the unexpected success of her 1981 single “O Superman,” which featured an extremely simple loop of her own voice processed into a synthetic sound, she released her major-label debut album, Big Science, in 1982, bringing her to the attention of the pop music market as well. In 1983, she premiered her monumental, eight-hour performance piece, United States I-IV. She became a key figure in the flourishing performance art scene of the 1980s, which blended physical expression with video, sound, and other elements. Anderson acted a mediator between avant-garde art and popular music, collaborating with beat writer William S. Burroughs, media artist Nam June Paik, composer Philip Glass, and her partner, musician Lou Reed.
Anderson’s performances integrate her own narrative voice, body, and electronic media, and her experimental yet pop-infused approach has influenced countless artists. Her work includes critical commentaries on media, science, and technology, as well as expressions that challenge existing notions of gender through the integration of androgynous costumes and technical manipulations, such as electronically altering her voice pitch to sound like a man’s. Furthermore, many of the instruments and devices used in her performances are her own inventions and creations that have played a pivotal role in redefining the relationship between the visual and the aural.
Anderson’s more recent work continues to engage with cutting-edge media. After being selected as the first Artist-in-Residence at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration in 2002, she drew on this experience to create the 2004 performance piece The End of the Moon. In 2019, she collaborated with new media creator Hsin-Chien Huang to present the virtual reality work To the Moon. Above all, she continues to inspire people globally with her uniquely narrative musical works, such as the 2018 album Landfall, created in collaboration with the Kronos Quartet and inspired by her experiences during Hurricane Sandy, and the 2024 album Amelia, which explores the final flight of aviator Amelia Earhart.
Profile is at the time of the award.