http://www.berkshiresweek.com/090904/default.asp?id=article05 Laurie Anderson touches down at MoCA By Bess Hochstein When I reach Laurie Anderson by phone inhattan studio, she immediately apologizes for the background noise. It's not some high-tech gizmo she has rigged up to incorporate into her distinctive music; it?s helicopters circling above the building. She also tells me there are 15 police cars outside the building every day and an FBI headquarters down the block No, the government is not staking out one of the world's leading avant-garde multimedia artists. It?s the weekend before the start of the Republican Convention in New York City and her studio, near the entrance of the Holland Tunnel, has witnessed heightened security over and above the antiterrorism initiatives in place since the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center. "We?re just like an armed fort here," son says of her neighborhood. While Anderson was looking forward to heading to the Berkshires for a week-and-a-half-long residency at Mass MoCA starting on Sept. 8, she first intended to protest the Bush administration's policies by joining the massive march before the convention?s start and participating in a reading of the U.S. Constitution by artists. "I think he's a real disaster," she says of Bush. "I?m a Democrat so I think cans are disasters. But there are degrees of disaster and we have a way that we can balance things out ... But when you look at the $7 trillion he just spent it?s really scary. And he?s put us all in debt. For what? I mean look at the shreds that the art world is in. And I really resent that because I?m an artist, and it?s been decimated ... I?m so resentful of having the world that I?m interested in be just destroyed ... We?re not in good shape. "I wasn't going to plan to be very political in this new work. I was trying to do a dream about how we see the world and particularly how beauty influences what we look at and how we see things. And it?s still largely about that but it?s getting more political by the hour, I have to say. And I?m still writing this thing and I probably will be for another couple of weeks, probably on the road as well." While politics are very much on her mind these days, she has no intention of imbuing her work with overt political directives. "I don't think art is a very appropriate way ... I wouldn?t try to convince anybody of anything. That would never, ever, ever be my goal. Never. I mean I can?t keep my opinions out of things, but they don?t have such a direct, you know, way of being. Probably what I think is very political someone else would just miss completely. And part of the reason for that is I really cannot bear it when people tell me what to do. And I think 'You don?t know me. Why are you telling me what to do and think?? So I?m trying to not do that myself." Premier of work-in-progress The new work will be the culmination of Anderson's "MASS Manufacturing" residency at Mass MoCA. It?s a solo performance called "The End of the Moon" and it will premier in the museum?s Hunter Center as a work-in-progress on Sept. 13 and 14. This residency marks Anderson's second stint at Mass MoCA. She premiered her previous solo performance, "Happiness," there as a work-in-progress in late 2001, in the wake of September 11. Jonathan Secor, Mass MoCA?s director of performing arts, believes the attacks had a profound impact on her work, and that MoCA provided an ideal environment for her to develop and present a more personal form of her signature musical storytelling. "What she was looking at for that piece was an out-of-town try-out, a place to put it in front of an audience and see what worked and what didn't work, and a chance to adjust it," explains Secor. "She was taking some chances she hadn?t taken before. She was much more open about her own life. And I think she really wanted to get a feel for what it was like before people were paying tons of money and before The New York Times was sitting in the front row.? Her new work is similarly intimate, and is in a similar stage of development. "The End of the Moon" is heavily influenced by her experiences as NASA's first artist-in-residence. "They just called me out of the blue and asked me to do it," she says. ?Of course I was completely thrilled and wanted to know if I could go up. That hope was pretty quickly squashed.? She did however, get to try out some simulators and toured many NASA facilities, which she?ll talk about in performance. "I'm going to be using a lot of the material from NASA as part of this. I guess that fear has played a big part in what I found out along the way," explains Anderson. "A lot of the commercialization of space is frightening to me because it has to do with the military as well. As it always has. It?s nothing new. The Wild West had the military out in front. They go hand in hand. These days to me that has a darker meaning. That?s probably the worst thing I can think of, the militarization of the moon. That?s about the worst thing I could conjure up. " 'The End of the Moon' is not so much that as way to bring that into stories and narrative ...What do ends mean, and beginnings? What it means to start and what it means to end, on many levels, in terms of how we see our lives, in terms of how we?re looking at the world today. It?s through stories." Anderson will also explore the evocative power of the moon. "The moon is a very mythic sort of thing and always has been for human beings. Even now, in the so-called space age, the moon still has something mythic about it. There are still people who go, 'I don't believe we actually did land there.? This is the 21st century and we?re not really sure we were there. It?s a little odd." While the idea of the NASA residency brings to mind the title of her first album, "Big Science" (1982), and the technologinovations of her multimedia performances, Anderson has strived to pare down the production of "The End of the Moon." ?It's a very simple show,? she explains. ?I?ve been trying to miniaturize it ... It?s all running through my computer now, which is really thrilling because things that would take me two giant trucks to do I can now do in a brief case. That?s what I?m grateful to technology for. Also, what would take me a big recording studio to do I can do on my laptop. So I?m loving that, it?s really so great to be free of all that equipment.? The appeal of MoCA The downtown diva is also excited about the idea of refining the piece at Mass MoCA. "I find it a very good place write. I write and rewrite a lot. To be away from the city is not something I do very often because usually when I go away, I go away to work, and I go away to other cities. And also I don't often feel like the country is a great place for me to think. But there?s something about Mass MoCA and being there that?s really stimulating. It?s really beautiful but there?s also a lot of people to talk to ... It?s a really interesting community." The draw of this community on Anderson opeal of MoCA's high-tech facilities. "I do like the equipment," she notes, "but the main attraction to me is the people. And second would be it?s a beautiful spot. I had a good time before because I felt that I could just revise away and I wasn?t being judged in this way that was like, 'OK, come on, let?s see your stuff.? Because starting out something new ... you?re very vulnerable and you just wonder if it?s going to work." Perhaps the vulnerability arises from the artistic chances she is taking with "The End of the Moon." "It's a very new way for me to structure stories, this one. I?m just kind of learning about it as I do it. It feels kind of dangerous at the moment because they don?t have the same story shape that they?ve had before. They go off in much weirder tangents." That?s somewhat hard to imagine if you?re at all familiar with Anderson?s quirky work. Which many people are not. While she is a giant among artists, Anderson's work has not brought her broad, popular recognition. And that?s just fine with her. "I don?t have that much interest or respect for pop culture in this country and so in that sense I don?t want to join the fray, like 'Look at me! Wow!? ... That?s not my life?s goal. My life?s goal is to understand the world better and to try to make some beautiful things, that?s it ... It?s not to say that I don?t feel really happy and privileged to be able to get to this stuff. I do. But I?m not working on this level of, you know, ?I have to weasel my way into everybody?s house.? I really don?t care." A Melville connection Being in the Berkshipeals to Anderson because of her fascination with Herman Melville. At the time of her 2001 residency, she had recently finished touring a large-scale multimedia work called "Songs and Stories from Moby Dick." She was able take a short break to visit Arrowhead, field farmstead where Melville wrote his masterpiece. This time she intends to return. "I've got to make another little pilgrimage there again because I was there a little too quickly." Urban diehard Anderson also hopes to find the time to do a bit of hiking on Mount Greylock; it?s believed that a view of the mountain from his Arrowhead study inspired Melville to create the white whale. This would be consistent with another one her other goals. "I've made a lot of effort in the last couple of years to spend time outside. Most of my recent projects revolve around that. They?re kind of meant to run away from technology." But while one of those projects entails a series of 10-day walks, don't expect to catch Anderson hiking the Appalachian trail or trekking from North Adams to South County anytime soon. She has a lot of projects beckoning her back to Manhattan, including a film for the 2005 World Expo in Japan as well as music for Japanese gardens, plus a mix of music to accompany a new dance by choreographer Trisha Brown. And, of course, she expects "The End of the Moon" to keep her busy. "I?ve been trying to walk everywhere I go. I don?t know while I?m tech-ing the show if I can do that 'cause I?m often lugging stuff. We?ll see." Laurie Anderson appears at Mass MoCA's Hunter Center, with the world premier of her work-in-progress, "The End of the Moon," on Monday, Sept. 13, and Tuesday, Sept. 14, at 7:30. Tickets are $15 for adults, $10 for students; open seating. Call the box office (c) 2006 New England Newspapers, Inc.