I'll Be Your Mirror / In Conversation with Laurie Anderson (Adelaide Festival)

The distinguished American composer, performer, writer, film maker – and much more – Laurie Anderson, described by the New York Times as one of the world's most influential artists, was the focus of two events in the Adelaide Festival. An exhibition in the State Library of South Australia, entitled I'll Be Your Mirror, focussed on her recent work, which has included the use of Artificial Intelligence. Associated with the exhibition was the live event In Conversation with Laurie Anderson in Bonython Hall on Wednesday 6 March. This session was chaired by Stephen Whittington from the Elder Conservatorium, who was joined by Prof. Tom Hajdu (also from the Elder Conservatorium), Prof. Anton Van Hengel (Director for the Centre of Augmented Reasoning, part of the Australian Institute of Machine Learning at the University of Adelaide), and Laurie Anderson, who was live-streamed from her apartment in New York City. This well-attended event featured a wide-ranging discussion about the impact of AI on music, art and society, and in particular on the way in which Laurie Anderson has used it. In the course of the conversation, Ms Anderson played examples of texts written by AI in the style of, and read in the voice of her late husband, the influential rock musician Lou Reed. Although the discussion probably raised more questions than it answered, audience feedback was extremely positive and provided much food for thought.