Moby Dick does not need to be a multimedia show. Her favorite compliment comes when satisfied spectators tell her that the show inspired them to go out and read the book again. Her audio-visual experiences are constructed by combining computerized, synthesized digital technology with backing vocalists, dancers and spoken and written text.
Emphasis is on the human dimension of technology.
She has complained about the ''rectangular tyranny of the computer screen.'' ''Songs and Stories'' debuted in San Francisco in October and was part of the Festival d'Automne in the Paris suburb Bobigny in November. Close up, Anderson is decidedly larger than life. And she was eager to spell out her specifications and discriminations even though it meant re-explaining what she has already explained many times recently. The book is so modern, it's insane. Melville uses all these voices - historian, naturalist, botanist, lawyer, dreamer, obsessive librarian.