After New Year, Times Square goes to dogs

The occasion was the January edition of Midnight Moment, a series in which many Times Square billboards become a digital art gallery, if only for three minutes.

The free event in Times Square was set up in tribute to 9/11 first responder dogs, with electronic sounds played to the animals over low-decibel speakers.

All those who attended were given headphones to enhance the sound so that after the concert, we remained entranced by an excerpt of Laurie’s film, “Heart of a Dog” which was projected on several billboards surrounding us.

The concert ties in with Heart Of A Dog, the new 75-minute documentary that Anderson made.

Fusing her own insightful, inquisitive narration with original violin compositions, hand-drawn animation, 8mm home movies and artwork culled from exhibitions past and present, Anderson creates a hypnotic, collage-like visual language out of the raw materials of her life and art, examining how stories are constructed and told.

When the clock neared midnight and the day January 5, a freezing but still chipper Anderson advised her audience, “You can keep barking!”

Anderson is known for pushing the envelope as a composer, filmmaker, performance artist and musical inventor – but a silent concert for dogs is digging into new creative territory.

Dogs are often characterised as being beautifully wild compared to their more respectable counterparts: cats.

But Daum said that Phoebe seemed relaxed and “didn’t get too freaked out”. “I think everyone had a good sense of humor about it”, she said, while adding: “I don’t think it’s the right time of year for it”. The film’s closing song, “Turning Time Around”, was written and performed by Anderson’s late husband, Lou Reed, and the soundtrack, including all music and spoken text, is available from Nonesuch Records.

Schrager saw the concert as another victory for dog-lovers, after NY recently ended a ban on taking dogs to outdoor restaurants.